-horny
quittor in at least two ways.

In the first place, it is often used--a blunt 'point-firing' iron being the
instrument--instead of the knife as a means of evacuating the contents of
the coronary abscess. Those who use it for this purpose are able to say
this in its favour: it brings about the opening of the abscess without the
unsightly haemorrhage attending the use of the knife, and at the same time
just as effectually empties it. The opening made is not nearly so likely
to close prematurely--that is, before a proper course of treatment of the
wound has been carried out--and so leave necrotic tissue at its bottom. The
intense tissue reaction it sets up is productive of a large slough, cast
off by highly active inflammatory phenomena, which means that the remaining
wound is one in which no dead tissue is left, and which is more amenable to
treatment.

We have also seen the actual cautery used in sub-horny quittor, where that
disease has reached a chronic fistulous stage, as a means of cauterizing
the whole length of the lining of each fistulous passage.

At the present day this method is regarded as barbarous, and savouring
too largely of the methods and practice of the old empirics. There is no
denying the fact, however, that it is at times followed by a speedy and
complete cure of what has for months been an intractable and apparently
incurable quittor; and, honestly speaking, we ourselves can see nothing
very greatly against the operation in certain cases save its appearance. In
that it is certainly rough, and is not calculated to favourably impress the
more critical of our clientele. With the animal chloroformed, however, much
of what can really be urged against it disappears, and on farms and other
places where a skilled and competent dressing of an operation wound cannot
be looked for, it is sometimes wise to advise this method of treatment in
preference to more advanced methods of operating. So far as we can judge,
the after-effects are very little worse than those following other
operative measures, more especially when a suitable case has been chosen.

This method of treatment is particularly applicable to cases of chronic
sub-horny quittor in the more posterior parts of the foot. Here, if one or
more fistulas exist, their openings are probed and the direction of the
sinuses determined. In all probability they are burrowing down along-side
the wall to the sole, where, for want of outlet, they are invadi