AS TO SOUNDNESS. 103 



throws out a deposit that becomes roughened and spreads 

 over a large area, and is known by the elegant name of 

 " sore shin " when it attacks the front of the cannon 

 bone, as it is apt to do in race-horses from concussion ; 

 but retains the name of splint when situated at the back 

 of the bone where the periosteum is dragged upon and 

 irritated by the suspensary ligament. 



You will have all or most of these points to bear in 

 mind in judging of splints, for reasons I shall name, also 

 because while technically and in law splints are unsoioid- 

 ness, yet you will give great dissatisfaction by rejecting 

 every horse because he has a splint. I believe the law 

 to be quite right in regarding all splints as unsoundness, 

 because by doing so it puts a well-defined limit to what 

 would be a chaos of opinion. Seeing that you have a 

 far higher function to perform than merely to say whether 

 or not the horse you are examining is sound or unsound 

 in the eye of the law, we must dwell on the consideration 

 of splints awhile. 



Splints may be situated so high up as actually to inter- 

 fere with the lower bones of the knee. When so situated 

 they are, whether recent or old, of grave importance, and 

 render the horse unsound under any circumstances. It 

 is often a most difficult matter to detect them when so 

 situated. The late Professor Dick used to tell of such 

 a case in his lectures. He was sent for to examine a 

 lame horse which three or four veterinarians had seen, 

 and had failed to localize the lameness. The ill-defined 

 angle formed by the upper part of the cannon bone and 



