NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 441 
Symptoms. — In the earlier stages of the disease, if inflammation is 
present, the only evidence of the trouble to be detected is a little fever 
over the seat of the affected cartilage and a slight lameness. In the lame- 
ness of sidebones the toe of the foot first strikes the ground and the 
step is shorter than natural. The subject comes out of the stable stiff 
and sore, but the gait is more free after exercise. 
Since the deposit of bony matter begins in that part of the cartilage 
where it is attached to the coffin bone, the diseased process may exist 
for some time before the bony growth can be seen or felt. Later on, 
however, the cartilage can be felt to have lost its elastic character, and 
by standing in front of the animal a prominence of the coronary region 
at the quarters can be seen. Occasionally these bones become so large 
as to bulge the hoof outward, and by pressing on the joint they so inter- 
fere with locomotion that the animal becomes entirely useless. 
Treatment. — So soon as the disease can be diagnosed active treatment 
should be adopted. Cold water bandages are to be used for a few days to 
relieve the fever and soreness. 
The improvement consequent on the use of these simple measures often 
leads to the belief that the disease has recovered; but with a return to 
work the lameness, fever, etc., reappears. For this reason the use of 
blisters, or better still, the firing iron, should follow on the discontin- 
uance of the cold bandages. 
But in many instances no treatment will arrest the growth of these 
bony tumors, and as a paliative measure neurotomy must be resorted to. 
Generally this operation will so relieve the pain of locomotion that the 
patient may be used for slow work; but in animals used for fast driving 
or for saddle purposes, the operation is practically useless. Some years 
ago I unnerved a number of cavalry horses at Fort Leavenworth that 
were suffering from sidebones, and the records show that in less than 
seven months all were more lame than ever. Since a predisposition to 
develop sidebones may be inherited, animals suffering from this disease 
should not be used for breeding purposes, unless the trouble is known 
to have originated from an accident. 
SPLIXTS. 
We first turn our attention to the splint, as certain bony elargements 
which are developed on the cannon bone, between the knee or the hock 
and the fetlock jont, are called. They are found on the inside of the leg, 
from the knee, near to which they are frequently found, downward to 
about the lower third of the principal cannon bone. They are of various 
dimensions, and are readily perceptible both to the eye and to the touch. 
They vary considerably in size, ranging from that of a large nut down- 
ward to very small proportions. In searching for them they may be 
readily detected by the hand if they have attained sufficient development 
in their usual situation, but must be distinguished from a small bony 
enlargement which may be felt at the lower third of the cannon bone, 
which is neither a splint nor a pathological formation of any kind, but 
merely the buttonlike enlargement at the lower extremity of the small 
metacarpal or splint bone. 
