SPLINTS. 455 
the sheath, which will generally go off after proper treatment and rest. 
These small bony growths are not very uncommonly met with in the 
hind legs, but they are not recognised there as splints. No constitutional 
symptoms are met with in these cases, and they must be ascertained by 
the local symptoms alone. Unless the splint is in the way of the action 
of the other foot, and the skin on its surface is bruised by repeated 
blows, there is seldom any swelling of the soft parts, but when this 
Fie. 1.—SPLINT ATTACHING INTERNAL SMALL Fic. 2. ENormous SPLINT, ATTACHING BOTH 
METACARPAL BONE, SMALL METACARPALS TO THE LArAn. 
3 Internal small metacarpal bone. 1. Large metacarpal bone. 
2. External small metacarpal. = 2. 3. Mass of exostosis connecting the threo 
3. Large metacarpal bone. : metacarpal bones together. 
4. 4. Bony growth constituting a large splint, and 
attaching the small to the large metacarpal 
bone. 
occurs, the skin and cellular membrane become puffed and hot, and 
extreme lameness is the result, temporarily aggravated by every blow. 
The treatment of @ splint will depend upon the state in which it exists, 
and upon the purpose to which the horse possessing it is destined. If no 
lameness exists, and the blemish is not objected to, it is far better not to 
meddle with it, for im the course of a few years it will disappear by 
absorption as a matter of course. Moreover it often happens that in 
attempting to remove a splint by some irritating application, extensive 
inflammation is set up in the fibrous structures attached to it, and lame- 
ness, which was not previously in existence, is thenceforth a most trouble- 
