548 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
will clearly appear to be — first, to place the hoof in such a con- 
dition as shall not render it liable to crack afresh ; secondly, to 
remove that state of it which, in the first instance, disposed it to 
crack, if it were not of itself the immediate cause of the crack- 
ing. The way in which the first object is to be effected has 
been already shewn ; and when this has become accomplished, 
past all risk of return, we may set about to bring into effect the 
second. A bar-shoe, from its taking the bearing off the quarters 
and placing it upon the frog, will in a measure give facility to 
what we now are desirous of promoting, viz., the expansion of 
the heels of the foot ; but a tip — providing it can be worn, 
which it frequently may with great advantage after a bar-shoe — 
will bring about greater reform still; will, in fact, by persist- 
ence in its use, bring about in time that improved form of hoof 
which will be no more liable to quarter sandcrack. 
The Treatment of Toe Sandcrack is in some respects 
a different affair from that of quarter sandcrack. This disease is 
not only different in its relative situation as regards other parts 
of tiie foot, but it arises, as we have seen, from a totally different 
causation. When once it has occurred, it becomes, compared 
with the other, a serious affair. The horse is lame, too lame to 
continue his work probably; and we have a penetrant crack to 
deal with, extending all or nearly all the way from the coronet 
to the toe ; discharging blood, or perhaps matter of some 
ichorous offensive description, plainly calling upon us for, not 
binding up, &c., as in the former case, but for 
Opening and cheansing and dressing. The shoe 
being taken off, let the crack be pared out and freed from all 
horny rags and asperities, and laid completely open to view, so 
that the bottom can be inspected and dressed with whatever 
may be deemed requisite. In fact, when once the fissure is 
dilated into a clean and open channel by the drawing knife, 
warm baths or poultices, or dressings of any kind, as may become 
necessary, are now applicable ; the case being in this stage no 
more than one of dilated sinus in the foot, similar to what 
might in another situation be called quittor. As with the 
quarter sandcrack, the cure will, of course, be tedious in its 
duration, since we know that all complete repair can come 
only from the coronet. The sensitive laminse having the 
power of secreting horny laminse, may, as in the quarter crack, 
issue a sort of horny covering-in of the bottom of the fissure ; 
but fissure or cleft will ever remain so long as an integral form- 
ation of horn does not grow down from the source of secretion. 
Whenever the Horse is in a Condition for Work 
a bar-shoe, so made that at the toe the sides of the shoe remain 
unjoined together, an interval being left of sufficient width to 
