242 
A. ZUNDEL. 
This being accomplished, the edges of the wound are care¬ 
fully examined ; any projections remaining are removed, and the 
blood is sponged off. The double sage knife is then carefully 
plunged, with the convexity turned upward, (that is, towards the 
skin) between the external surface of the cartilage and the inter¬ 
nal face of the skin, below the border of the coronary band, and 
then carried forward and backward, or as required, until the 
separation between the skin and the cartilage is completed, and 
the entire external surface of the cartilage is exposed. In mov¬ 
ing the instrument backwards, it is necessary to be very cautious, 
especially while carrying the sharp edges downwards and inwards, 
in order to avoid injury to the coronary band and the skin, of 
which, however, there can be but little danger, when the knife is 
carefully held and properly directed. The succeeding step is to 
separate the skin from the cartilage; it is to be carefully raised 
and separated from its attachments underneath, which is some¬ 
times a process quite difficult to accomplish, as the skin has 
always become more or less tumefied, and therefore has lost much 
of its natural flexibility and suppleness. Some operators, in 
order to avoid these difficulties, and overlooking the functions of 
the coronary band, cut it and remove it, with those portions of 
the skin which cover the cartilage. Others, more conservative, 
(Herting for example) cut it only through the middle, until they 
reach the superior border of the cartilage, and then, raising the 
two flaps of the skin, accomplish the same result with less cutting. 
The destruction of the principal organ of the secretions of 
the hoof having been involved in the first method, and having 
now taken place, it can never be restored to a healthy condition, 
and the animal continues to be exposed to the frequently serious 
complications of “ false quarter.” By the second method, the 
production of a new wall is nearly always accompanied with the 
formation of a “ quarter crack.” The recovery is slow in either 
case, and more or less deformity is likely to follow. It is, then, 
the better and wiser plan to employ the mode of separation of 
the skin from below, and to avoid the division of the coronary 
bands or of the teguments. 
The next step is the removal of the cartilage altogether. This 
