216 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



result is uniformly seen in the deposit of a bony growth, more or less 

 diffuse, sometimes of irregular outline, and at otners projecting dis- 

 tinctly from the surface from which it springs, as so commonly pre- 

 sentea in the ringbone and the spavin. 



Symptoms. This condition of periostitis is often difficult to 

 determine. The signs of inflammation are so obscure, the swelling 

 of the parts so insignificant, any increase of heat so imperceptible, 

 and the soreness so slight, that even the most acute observer may fail 

 to locate the point of its existence, and it is often long after the dis- 

 covery of the disease itself that its location is positively revealed by 

 the visible presence of the exostosis. Yet the first question had been 

 resolved, in discovering the fact of the lameness, while the second 

 and third remained unanswered, and the identification of the af- 

 fected limb and the point of origin of the trouble remained unknown 

 until their palpable revelation to the senses. 



Treatment. When, by careful scrutiny, the ailment has been 

 located, a resort to treatment must be had at once, in order to pre- 

 vent, if possible, any further deposit of the calcareous structure and 

 increase of the exostotic growth. With this view the application of 

 water, either warm or cold, rendered astringent by the addition of 

 alum or sugar of lead, will be beneficial. The tendency to the for- 

 mation of the bony growth, and the increase of its development after 

 its actual formation, may often be checked by the application of a 

 severe blister of Spanish fly. The failure of these means and the 

 establishment of the diseased process in the form of chronic perios- 

 titis cause various changes in the bone covered by the disordered 

 membrane, and the result may be softening, degeneration, or necro- 

 sis, but more usually it is followed by the formation of the bony 

 growths referred to, on the canon bone, the coronet, the hock, etc. 



SPLINTS. 



We first turn our attention to the splint, as certain bony en- 

 largements which are developed on the canon bone, between the 

 knee or the hock and the fetlock joint, are called. They are found 

 on the inside of the leg, from the knee, near to which they are fre- 

 quently found, downward to about the lower third of the principal 

 canon bone. They are of various dimensions and are readily per- 

 ceptible both to the eye and to the touch. They vary considerably 

 in size, ranging from that of a large nut downward to very small 

 proportions. In searching for them they may be readily detected by 

 the hand if they have attained sufficient development in their usual 

 situation, but must be distinguished from a small bony enlargement 

 which may be felt at the lower third of the canon bone, which is 

 neither a splint nor a pathological formation of any kind, but merely 

 the buttonlike enlargement at the lower extremity of the small 

 metacarpal or splint bone. 



We Jiave said that splints are to be found on the inside of the 

 leg. This is true as a general statement, but it is not invariably so, 

 and they occasionally appear on the outside. It is also true that 

 they appear most commonly on the fore legs, but this is not exclu- 

 sively the case, and they may at times be found on both the inside 



