QUITTOR. 
577 
Considering the fact that the lateral fibro-cartilage is the 
chief seat of trouble, that it is of low vitality and therefore (in 
case of inflammation ) slow to re-act; that from an anatomical 
point of view it is situated in a position most unfavorable to per¬ 
fect drainage, it is not to be wondered at that the remedies 
which are ordinarily effectual in the treatment of wounds and 
surgical conditions have but little effect on quittors. 
During the last twenty years a large number of cases of quit- 
tor have come under my care, and for about eighteen years un¬ 
der the conservative system of treatment as laid down in the 
older text books and practiced by most veterinarians to-day, the 
results were anything but satisfactory. 
Some two or three years ago the late Dr. D. T. Bell, of 
Brooklyn, who had been very successful in the treatment of 
quittor by operation, kindly operated upon a patient of mine at 
my infirmary, assisted by his business partner, Dr. W. F. Doyle. 
The operation was so neatly performed, and the termination of 
the case so satisfactory, that I at once adopted his method of 
treatment in all chronic cases, and since that time twelve ani¬ 
mals have been operated upon, all of which were cases of from 
two to five months standing; ten of the twelve made complete 
recoveries in from four to eight weeks, one was left with a false 
quarter, but shows no lameness and is working every day, and 
one operated on some three months ago healed up kindly, went 
to work for a week or two, when he again became very lame 
from an abscess which suppurated freely; he is now in a pasture 
field, the abscess nearly healed, and showing but little lameness. 
The operation consists in removing as far as possible all the 
diseased structures involved in true quittor without lacerating, 
• • • 9 
incising or m any way injuring the coronary band, nor the cap¬ 
sule of the coffin joint, which lies very close to the inner sur¬ 
face of the lateral cartilage. 
The parts that are always involved are the lateral fibro-car¬ 
tilage and the sub-coronary cellular connective tissue, which 
completely covers the cartilage. In rare cases the basilar and 
retrosal processes of the pedal bone are necrosed. 
