FALSE QUARTER. 
169 
have also been successfully tried, but they are too often 
found not to be sufficiently active. The remedy which 
has proved most successful, is the heated cautery carefully 
applied to the injured part. The edges of the horn on both 
sides of the crack should be thinned down, and a thick 
plastering of pitch spread over the parts so as to hold them 
closely together, as well as to support the hoofs. This 
plaster to be kept on undisturbed for at least fourteen days, 
and then the parts should be carefully examined, to ascertain 
the condition of the coronet, and whether union of the parts 
has taken place. Should adhesion not be begun, then it 
must again be covered up and not looked at for eight days, 
by which time it will have adhered. During this treatment 
it would be judicious to strengthen the hoof by the use of 
a bar-shoe, only great care must be taken that there is 
no bearing at, or immediately below, the separation of the 
horn. To secure this against such a result, if the crust be 
naturally thick, accompanied by strong quarters, then a 
little of the crust near the part should be pared off, to 
prevent it from resting on the shoe. On the other hand, 
if the hoof be weak, an indentation should be made in the 
shoe itself opposite the part, which will prevent any stress, 
as well as the danger consequent upon a sudden or violent 
concussion which might have the effect of again cracking 
the hoof before it had got firmly united. 
In this complaint the horn sometimes grows down entir 
but from an unhealthy action in the coronary ligame it, 
it secretes a narrow slip of horn, generally different in 
appearance from the other parts, usually of a lighter colour. 
Although this is the case, it may become perfectly strong, 
but it must always be considered as a defect, and clearly 
showing that the horse has had sand-crack, and of course 
predisposed to a return of it. The horse may be fit for all 
