lameness: its causes axd treatment. 311 



Symptoms. — A splint may thus frequently hecouie :i eause of lame- 

 ness though not necessarily in every instance, but it is a lameness 

 possessing features peculiar to itself. It is not always continuous, 

 but at times assumes an intermittent character, and is more marked 

 when the animal is warm than when cool. If the lameness is near 

 the kneejoint. it is very liable to become aggravated when the animal 

 is put to work, aiul the gait a(<|uires then a jieculiar charactei', aris- 

 ing from the manner in which the limb is carried outward from tho 

 knees downward, which is done by a kind of abducti(m of the lower 

 part of the leg. Other symptoms, however, than the lameness and 

 the presence of the splint, which is its cause, ma}' be looked for in the 

 same connection as tho?;e which have been mentioned as ]>crtaining to 

 certain e^'iden(■es of periostitis, in the increase of the temperature of 

 the part, with swelling and probably pain on pressure. This last 

 symptom is of no little importance, since it« presence or absence has 

 in many cases formed the determining point in deciding a question 

 of difficult diagnosis. 



Cause. — A splint being one of the rcssults of periostitis, and the 

 latter one of the effects of external hurts, it naturally follows that 

 the i^arts which aie most exposed to lilows and collisions will be 

 those on which the splint will most commonly be found, and it may 

 not be improper, therefore, to refer to hurts from without as among 

 the common causes of the lesion. But other causes may also be pro- 

 ductive of the evil, and among these may l)e mentioned the over- 

 straining of an iinniatuie organism by the imposition of excessive 

 lal)or upon a young animal at a too early period of his life. The 

 bones whicli enter into the formation of the cannon are three in 

 numlxT, one large and two smaller, which, during the youth of tho 

 iinimal. are more or less articulated, with a limitiMl amount of mo- 

 bility, but which become in niatuiity firndy joined by a rigid union 

 and ossification of tlu'ir interarticular surface. If the immature 

 animal is comi>elled. then, to perform exacting tasks beyond liis 

 .strength, the inevit.d>le rcMilt will follow in the muscular straining, 

 and perhaps tearing astmder of the fibers which unite the bones at 

 their points of juncture, and it is diflicult to understand how inflam- 

 mation or periostitis can fail to develop as the natuial conse(]uence 

 of such local irritation. If the result were deliberately and intelli- 

 gently designed, it could hardly be more effectually accomplished. 



The s]dint is an object of the commonest occurrence — so counnon, 

 indeed, that in large cities a horse which can not exhibit one or more 

 specimens upon some portion of his extremities is one of the rarest of 

 .spectacles. Though it is in some in.stances a cause of lameness, and 

 its discovery and cure are sometimes beyond the ability of the 

 shrewdest and most exjierienced veterinarians, yet as a soiirce of 

 vital danger to the general equine organization, or even of functional 



