574 
CORRESPONDENCE 
the animal goes lame, there is swelling over the affected quarter 
with pain on pressure; in time the swelling opens, pus and 
matter escapes, and a true quittor is established. 
An important matter to be determined seems to be whether 
the lesion is in the cartilage or in the coffin bone. If ampu¬ 
tation of the cartilage will accomplish a cure within six or 
eight weeks from the opening of the sinus or swelling, it would 
certainly go far towards proving the cartilage to be the ob¬ 
noxious element, and its condition the cause of the sinus and 
discharge. 
On examining authorities, it will be found that they differ as to 
what constitutes true quittor. 
Prof. Dick calls it “ whitlow, pipes or quittor, the result of 
pricks from nails, etc.” 
Prof. Williams calls it “ A fistulous wound on any part of 
the coronet , generally caused by treads, pricks in shoeing, suppur¬ 
ating corns or any other injury calculated to excite the suppura¬ 
tive action within the hoof or in the structure of the coronet.” 
Prof. Gamgee says “The accepted definition of quittor does not 
meet the case, according to our understanding of the matter, in so 
far as it is regarded and described as consisting of a discharge of 
matter from the coronet, which has been formed within the cavity 
of the hoof, caused by some injury, and which, so pent up and find¬ 
ing no means of exit below, burrows its way to the top, sinuses be¬ 
ing established for its passage.” “ The above, which gives the 
common acceptation of what a quittor is supposed to be, is, to say 
the least, a vague account, but it is more than that, it is incorrect.” 
“We may have any number of cases of matter escaping from 
the coronet without the semblance of quittor, according to our 
views and experience on the subject, and we think it impor¬ 
tant to be plain in the matter, because right and wrong no¬ 
tions lend to widely different courses of practice, not only 
when the existence of quittor is agreed on, but under less com¬ 
plicated diseased conditions of the foot.” He continues as fol¬ 
lows : “ The fact appears to us to be that quittor is a state con¬ 
sequent on a deep seated lesion of the foot, in which the cartilages 
or frequently even the coffin bone is affected at its posterior ex- 
