OSSIFIED CAETILAGES. 317 



If the above is not successful, Point firing may be effective, and it has 

 the great advantage of not disfiguring the horse. 



632. After-effects. 



Ring-bone, when fully formed and consolidated, will produce lameness 

 or not according to the extent, and still more according to the position of 

 the exostosis. If it is so placed as to interfere with the action of the 

 joint, the horse will probably be incurably lame. In slight cases no 

 further mischief occurs than some diminution of the elasticity of the 

 tread. We must, however, warn the reader, that with the renewal of 

 severe work inflammation is apt to be again set up, accompanied with a 

 fresh deposition of bone. 



The formation of ring-bone, especially if it appears in more than one 

 fetlock, is generally a sign of constitutional tendency to throw out bony 

 enlargements or of defective formation ; and therefore an intending pur- 

 chaser will do well to think twice before he buys a horse so affected, if 

 he wants him for hard or fast work. But when the exostosis is found on 

 only one fetlock, there is a probability that the inflammation giving rise 

 to the ossific deposit may have originated in a blow or tread, or some 

 such accidental cause. 



OSSIFIED CARTILAGES. 



633. Nature and seat of Ossified Cartilages. 



This disease, otherwise known as Side-bones, consists in ossification of 

 the elastic lateral Cartilages, or wings of the bone of the foot. Nature 

 has substituted cartilage for bone in this part in order to give greater 

 elasticity towards the heels. Any alteration in this structure, such as its 

 conversion into bone, must interfere with the elasticity of the tread, 

 though it may not occasion positive lameness. The bony deposit may 

 however be so extensive, as to materially alter the shape of the coffin 

 bone ; and in such cases lameness will be the inevitable result. 



Heavy coarse cart-horses are most subject to this disease, and in them 

 the deposit is often very large. In light horses it seldom becomes so 

 large as to be visible to the eye. The change in structure, however, is 

 easily ascertained by feeling the wings of the bone of the foot. If they 

 are affected with ossification they will be hard and immoveable instead of 

 elastic. The lameness from side-bones is always more observable in the 

 lighter and better bred than in heavy horses, because the pace at which 

 they travel is faster. 



634. Causes. 



Side-bones are the result of inflammation set up in the lateral car- 

 tilages by excessive concussion or by an accidental blow, wound, or tread. 

 The tendency of cartilaginous structures under the influence of inflain- 



