A DISEASE OF THE HORSES OF INDIA. 429 
by him ; but at this stage I unhesitatingly affirm that what 
Mr. Hodgson designates the tuberculous state, and Captain 
Apperley u kunkur,”* never exists, but only at a later period, 
if the case has been unsuccessfully treated or neglected 
altogether. How, then, are the ulcers to be brought to a 
healthy state ? By a good cleansing with soap lather, and a 
bandage saturated with cold water, where such can be applied, 
the exhibition of a brisk purgative, and then the application 
of the actual cautery, only just sufficient to produce a slough 
and an ulcer of the surgeon’s own production, — a healthy 
surface over which he has immediate control, — the malignant 
nature of the disease is nipped in the bud, and all that is 
necessary is cleanliness, with common dressings topically ; 
good strong exercise to rouse the circulation in the extremities, 
and thus restore nature’s equilibrium ; good full feeding , to 
enable this to be effected; and the exhibition of tonics, vege- 
table, mineral, or both combined, to promote appetite, assist 
digestion, afford vigour to muscular fibre, and give Dame 
Nature a fillip. 
A word on Captain Apperley’s Not a Bene — “ Salivation as 
described above (in the recipe), and black wash applied with 
slight pressure to the coronets, is the best of all cures for 
that troublesome disease called 4 quittor/ if resorted to in the 
early stage of the complaint.” 
My definition of quittor is, a fistulous sinus running into 
the hoof from the coronet downwards, or from a corn, &c., 
upwards, sometimes extending over a large portion of the 
inside of this horny box, combined with caries of bone or 
cartilage, or both, or even open joint. For this formidable 
disease, which not unfrequently baffles the best of us, we are 
modestly told, and the head of the army in India believes, 
that the “best cure in the world ” is salivation and black 
wash, the latter being a drachm of calomel to a pint of lime 
water ! ! 
I must appeal to Mr. Hodgson’s kindness to excuse my 
advocacy of a practice which he so strongly condemns, viz., 
the use of the cautery. 
I write for information, and not for cavil; and, after all, 
our principles agree, although the means are opposed. 
Yours, faithfully. 
Bangalore ; April 20 , 1853 . 
P.S. I ought to add that, as a prudential measure, I was 
in the habit of giving all my last year’s patients a course of 
* Kunkur is gravel —neither this nor tubercle is correct ; it is literally osseous 
spiculi found there. 
