THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXIV, 
No. 286. 
OCTOBER 1851. 
Third Series, 
No. 46. 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
[ Continued from p. 493. ] 
SANDCRACK. 
The Name OF SANDCRACK seems of questionable appli- 
cation. It is evidently a compound of the words sand and 
crack , as though it denoted a crack with sand in it, or a crack 
occurring in a sandy country, or in a dry sandy season, which 
several derivations have been ascribed to the term. May not 
the word sand admit of resolution into its primitive signification, 
and mean in this, as in other instances, a sundered crack.* 
A SANDCRACK MAY BE DEFINED to be, a longitudinal 
division in the fibres of the wall of the hoof, amounting to a 
flaw simply, or else to a cleft or fissure through the substance of 
the horn. 
The Direction of the Crack is slanting, from above 
downward, and from behind forward, following the course of 
the fibres of the hoof. A sandcrack in the side of the wall 
slants more than one in front, owing to the greater obliquity of 
the course of the horny fibres as we proceed from the toe to the 
heel of the foot. 
There are two Kinds of Sandcrack, quarter sandcrack 
and toe sandcrack : the former occurring in the fore, the latter 
in the hind foot. At least this is generally the case. It is rare 
to find the reverse; though there are occasions on which we 
meet with sandcrack in the toe of the fore foot, and the quarter 
of the hind foot. It is possible for cracks to occur in other parts 
of the hoof ; but in these two situations it is that veritable sand- 
crack occurs, and there are here, as we shall find hereafter, 
special causes for their production. Let us first consider 
• The Anglo-Saxon Sundrian or Syndrian, to sunder, presents an obvious 
origin for sand, which is sundered or separated into the smallest particles.— 
Richardson' s Dictionary. 
VOL. XXIV. 4 E 
