other words, a
slipper shoe should be applied and the contraction given equally as much
attention as the sand-crack itself.

Where the crack is situated far back in the quarter, and easing of the
bearing cannot be accomplished without tending to spring the heels, then
the most suitable shoe is a bar shoe. With it the bearing may, of course,
be eased in exactly the position required, and the heels still allowed
to take their fair share in bearing the body-weight, and thus assist in
closing the crack. The bar shoe, if properly fitted, gives us also a
bearing on the frog, and aids greatly in counteracting contraction.

2. _Curative_.

_(a) The Application of Dressings to the Lesion_.--In the case of a recent
crack, deep, and attended with haemorrhage, the foot should be thoroughly
cleansed. Where possible, a constant flow of cold water from a hose-pipe
should be allowed to run over the foot. By this means the inflammatory
symptoms will be held in check and pain prevented. Later the shoe may be
eased at the required place, and a blister applied to the coronet. This,
with rest, will sometimes prove all that is needed.

Should a crack be of old standing, and complicated by the presence of pus,
a course of hot poulticing will often prove of benefit. The poultice should
be medicated with any reliable disinfectant, and should be renewed, or at
any rate reheated, two or three times daily. The crack itself should be
thoroughly cleaned after the removal of each poultice, and a concentrated
antiseptic solution--such as Tuson's spts. hydrarg. perchlor., carbolic
acid, and water, (1 in 10) or liquor zinci chlor.--poured into it. On
discontinuing the poulticing, the strength of the antiseptic solutions may
be decreased, the parts rested by correct shoeing, and a blister applied to
the coronet as before.

If these measures alone should prove insufficient, then the surgeon will
either fall back on those we have just related, or proceed to methods next
to be described.

_(b) Immobilizing the Crack by Means of grooving the Wall_.--To our
minds, this is as ready and withal as successful a method of dealing with
sand-crack as has yet been devised. It may be done in a variety of ways:
(1) By two grooves arranged about the crack in the form of a V, as Fig. 94;
(2) by a perpendicular groove on either side of the crack, about 1 inch in
distance from it, and parallel with the horn fibres, as Fig. 95; (3) by a
single horizontal groove at the