DISEASES FROM FAULTY CONFORMATION 169 
The overlapping of the edges of the crack before referred 
to occasionally gives rise to the condition known as false 
quittor. A probe or a director passed beneath the over- 
hanging ledge of horn reveals sometimes a fissure of 1 inch 
or considerably more in depth, and quittor is diagnosed. 
A careful paring away of the overhanging horn, however, 
reveals the true state of affairs, and exposes to view the 
original cause of the mischief—a simple fissure in the 
wall. 
A serious complication—one fortunately met with but 
rarely—is that of keraphyllocele. This is a tumour-like 
growth of horn, varying in size from the thickness of an 
ordinary quill pen to that of one’s middle finger, growing 
down from the coronary cushion, and attached to the inner 
side of the wall of the hoof. With this lameness is always 
present, and more or less deformity of the hoof results. 
This condition will be found described at greater length in 
Chapter IX. 
Prognosis.—In the case of sand-crack this should always 
be guarded. It may be taken as a general rule that cracks 
commencing from the coronary margin are more trouble- 
some to deal with than those originating below. The 
reason is not far to seek. They here affect the wall just 
where the bevel in it for the accommodation of the coronary 
cushion has rendered it weakest. Not only is it weakest, 
but being more resilient than the portions below it, it 
suffers more from the alternate movements of expansion 
and contraction of the foot than does the horn below. 
Although in many cases a cure of the existing crack may 
be easily accomplished, regard should be paid to the possi- 
bility of its recurrence, either in the same position or else- 
where. Really, in offering an opinion as to the future use- 
fulness of an animal so affected, a greater attention should 
be directed to the animal’s conformation than to the crack 
itself. Where the vice of conformation giving rise to it 
(as, for example, contracted heels or upright hoof) gives 
hope of being remedied, then naturally it may be safely 
said that the liability to sand-crack goes with it. 
