356 QUITTOR. 
the hind shoes, which are universally worn by animals of heavy draught. 
Any one who has punctured or cut the coronet of a dead horse knows 
this structure is as difficult to penetrate and as hard to divide as carti- 
lage itself; the consequence of an injury to such a part is, the bruise 
produces death of some deep-seated portion of the compact coronet. 
Nature, after her own fashion, proceeds to cast off that which is with- 
out vitality, or, in other words, she divides the dead from the living tis- 
sues by a line of suppuration; but the matter thus located cannot 
readily escape through the harsh material of the horse’s coronet. It is 
confined and becomes corrupt, while the constant motion of the foot 
and the higher organization of the secreting membrane of the horn in- 
clines the pus to take a downward direction. However, it is more dif- 
ficult for pus to pierce the horny sole than to penetrate the coronet; so 
the effort is renewed above; numerous pipes or sinuses are thus formed 
upon the sensitive lamine; the fleshy sole is often under-run, and this 
mischief goes on until the coronet, which becomes of enormous size, at 
last yields to the increasing evil. 
Another cause is pricking the sensitive part of the foot with a nail 
during shoeing; the wound generates pus, the pus cannot penetrate the 
horn, and the motion of the coffin-bone causes it to absorb upward, 
until after some time it breaks forth at the coronet. 
DIAGRAM. DIAGRAM. 
Which supposed the outward covering of the The covering of the coronet and horny crust 
coronet and the horny wall of the hoof supposed to be absent, and exposing the 
removed, to expose the ravages of quittor, manner in which any suppurating injury 
when commencing in the coronet of a heavy to the sole of the foot ultimately causes a 
horse. wound above the hoof. 
Another cause is corn; the horse’s corn is nothing more than a bruise; 
the bruise, in some instances, is severe, and takes on the suppurative 
action. The pus, as before, is confined, and by the motion of the coffin- 
bone it is propelled upward till it breaks forth at the coronet, which, as 
before, enlarges to deformity; in short, any injury done to the sole of 
the foot or to the coronet above it may produce quittor. 
The leading sign of quittor, before it breaks, is a large swelling at 
the coronet, attended with heat and excessive lameness. In cart-horses, 
it is usually present in the hind feet; but in the lighter species it more 
frequently occurs in the fore feet. It generally appears upon the inner 
