454 THE HORSE. 
no distinguishing name. The vitality of the new growth in exostosis is 
less than that of healthy bone, and as a consequence, when excessive 
inflammation is set up in the part, it will often die and be separated by 
absorption. 
CariEs (ulceration) occurs as a consequence of inflammation, and in the 
horse either results from external injury, as in poll evil and fistulous 
withers, or from mismanagement, as in navicular disease, which latter 
affection will be considered under the diseases of the foot. It is always 
attended with pain, and in severe cases with the formation of sufficient 
matter to require an outlet, but in very restricted ulcerations, such as 
occur in navicular disease, the pus passes into the joint, and is reabsorbed 
with the synovia. 
ANcHYLOSIS, when it is the result of caries in the two adjacent surfaces 
of a joint, produces union between them, but in the horse it is generally 
of a secondary kind, the result of bony growths (exostosis), thrown out 
from the surfaces of the two bones near the joint, which coalescing, unite 
into one mass, and thus destroy all motion. 
SPLINTS. 
THE STRICT DEFINITION of this disease is “an exostosis from the lower 
part of the small metacarpal bone, connecting it by bony union with the 
large metacarpal bone,” but among horsemen, any bony growth from the 
cannon bone is considered a splint, and the latter is almost as common 
as the former. The regular splint rarely attacks the outer small meta- 
carpal bone alone, but sometimes in very bad cases both are implicated in 
the disease, a specimen of which is given in fig. 2. It is difficult to give 
a valid reason for this greater frequency of splint on the inside than on 
the out, but it is commonly said that the inner splint bone receives more 
of the weight of the body than the outer one, and that it is more under 
the centre of gravity, but as it is merely suspended from the carpus, and 
is not supported from below (in any way, mediately or directly), this can 
produce no injurious effect upon it. The fact is so, however, whatever 
may be the cause. 
The symptoms of splint are generally a greater or less degree of lameness 
during its formation, but sometimes it may go on to attain a large size 
without any such result, especially if its growth is slow, and the horse is 
not severely worked. It is commonly remarked that a splint is of no con- 
sequence unless its situation is such as to interfere with the back sinews, 
or suspensory ligament, and although it is quite true, as has been asserted 
by learned veteriarians, that the splint is far removed from the former, 
and seldom interferes with the latter, yet it is almost always directly con- 
nected with the attachments of the sheath of the tendon, and this being 
stretched every time the leg is extended will occasion the pain which is 
expressed by the limp in the action. The size of the morbid growth has 
no relation with the amount, or even with the existence of lameness, for 
a very small splint will often be far more productive of this symptom than 
a very large one. In examining a leg it is often only after careful 
manipulation in the flexed condition that a small bony tumour (of the 
size perhaps only of a garden pea) can be detected, but when once the 
finger presses upon it, the horse will almost invariably be found to flinch, 
and usually it will be thrown out just where the sheath of the tendon is 
attached. Here there is no union between the small and large meta- 
earpal bones, and the injury is confined to the inflammation produced is 
