312 DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 



disturbance, or of practical inconAenience, aside from the rare ex- 

 ceptional cases Avhich exist as mere samples of possibility, it can not 

 be considered to belong to the category of serious lesions. The worst 

 stigma that attaches to it is that in general estimation it is ranked 

 among eyesores and continues indefinitely to be that and nothing dif- 

 ferent. The inflammation in M'hich they originated, acute at first, 

 either subsides or assumes the chronic form, and the bony growth 

 becomes a permanence — more or less established, it is true, but doing 

 no positive harm and not hindering the animal from continuing his 

 daily routine of labor. All this, however, requires a proviso against 

 the occurrence of a subsequent acute attack, when, as with other ex- 

 ostoses, a fresh access of acute symptoms may be followed by a new 

 pathological activity, which shall again develop, as a natural result, 

 a reappearance of the lameness. 



TreatTnent. — It is, of course, the consideration of the comparative 

 harmlessness of splints that suggests and justifies the policy of non- 

 interference, except as they become a positive cause of lameness. And 

 a more positive argument for such noninterference consists in the 

 fact that any active and irritating treatment may so excite the parts 

 as to bring about a renewed pathological activity, which may result 

 in a reduplication of the phenomena, with a second edition, if not a 

 second and enlarged volume, of the whole story. For our part, our 

 faith is firm in the impolicy of interference, and this faith is founded 

 on an experience of many years, during which our practice has been 

 that of abstention. 



Of course, there will be exceptional conditions which will at times 

 indicate a different course. These will become evident when the occa- 

 sions present themselves, and extraordinary forms and effects of 

 inflammation and growth in the tumors offer special indications. But 

 our conviction remains unshaken that surgical treatment of the oper- 

 ative kind is usually useless, if not dangerous. "We have little faith 

 in the method of extirpation except under very special conditions, 

 among Avhich that of diminutive size has been named ; this seems in 

 itself to constitute a sufficient negative argument. Even in such a 

 rase a resort to the knife or the gouge could scarcely find a justifi- 

 cation, since no operative procedure is ever without a degree of haz- 

 ard, to say nothing of the considerations which are always forcibly 

 negative in any question of the infliction of pain and the unnecessary 

 use of the knife. 



If an acute periostitis of the cannon bone has been readil}^ discov- 

 ered, the treatment we have already suggested for that ailment is 

 at once indicated, and the astringent lotions may be relied upon to 

 bring about beneficial results. Sometimes, however, preference may 

 be given to a lotion possessing a somewhat different quality, the alter- 

 ative consisting of tincture of iodin applied to the inflamed spot 



