444 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
If the lameness persists under this mild course of treatment, it must, of 
course, be attacked by other methods, and we must resort to the can- 
tharides ointment or Spanish-fly blister, as we have before recommended. 
Besides this, and producing an analogous effect, the compounds of bini- 
odide of mercury are favored by some. It is prepeared in the form of an 
ointment, consisting of 1 dram of the biniodide to 1 ounce of either lard 
or vaseline. It forms an excellent blistering and alternative application, 
and is of special advantage in newly formed or recently discovered exo- 
stosis. 
It remains a pertinent query, however, and one which seems to be 
easily answered, whether a tumor so diminutive in size that it can only 
be detected by diligent search, and which is neither a disfigurement nor 
an obstruction to the motion of the limb, need receive any recognition 
whatever. Other modes of treatment for splints are recommended and 
practiced which belong strictly to the domain of operative veterianry 
surgery. Among these are to be reckoned actual cauterization, or the 
application of the fire iron and the operation of periosteotomy. These 
are frequently indicated in the treatment of splints which have resisted 
milder means. 
The mode of the development of their growth; their intimacy, greater 
or less, with both the large and the small cannon bones; the possibility 
of their extending to the back of these bones under the suspensory liga- 
ment; the dangerous complications w^hich may follow the rough handling 
of the parts, with also a possibility, and indeed as probability, of their 
return after removal — these are the considerations which have influenced 
our judgment in discarding from our practice and our approval the 
method of removal by the saw or the chisel, as recommended by certain 
European veterinarians. 
RINGBONES. 
This term forms the designation of the exostosis which is found on 
the coronet and in the digital and phalangeal regions. The name is 
appropriate, because the growth extends quite around the coronet, which 
it encircles in the manner of a ring, or perhaps because it often forms 
upon the back of that bone a regular osseous arch, through which the 
back tendons obtain a passage. The places where these growths are usu- 
ally developed have caused their subdivision and classification into three 
varieties, with the designations of high, middle, and low, though much 
can not be said as to the importance of such distinction. It is true that 
the ringbone or phalangeal exostosis may be found at various points on 
the foot, in one case forming a large bunch on the upper part and quite 
close to the fetlock joint; in another around the upper border of the hoof, 
or perhaps on the extreme front or on the very back of the coronet. The 
shape in which they commonly appear is favorable to their easy dis- 
covery their form when near the fetlock usually varying too much from 
the natural outlines of the part when compared with those of the opposite 
side to admit of error in the matter. 
A ringbone when on the front of the foot, even when not very largely 
developed, assumes the form of a diffused convex swelling. If situated 
