160 DISEASES OF THE BONES AND ARTICULATIONS. 



from the suddenness and violence of the pain, or to induce 

 inflammation in the splint, and very severe lameness. 



Splints in the hind legs seldom cause lameness; they are 

 usually upon the outer side of the metatarsal bone. There are 

 many examples of ostitis that will be described more appro- 

 priately under the head of lameness. Sore shins and splints 

 are perhaps the only ones, usually met with in practice, of in- 

 flammation of the compact shaft of the bone ; the other forms being 

 found attacking the cancellated structure composing the short 

 and irregular bones, and the extremities of the long ones. But 

 before passing on to these, I shall describe scrofulous inflamma- 

 tion of bones, caries, necrosis, and the non-inflammatory diseases. 



SCROFULOUS OSTITIS IN YOUNG ANIMALS. 



Scrofulous ostitis is found in very young animals, usually in 

 those of a few days or weeks old. I have seen it in foals, calves, 

 and lambs, and in older animals, as malignant " foul in the foot " 

 of horned cattle. Professor Dick taught that pigs were subject 

 to it. The following is the pathological anatomy of a case of 

 " foul in the foot " arising from scrofula, occurring in my own 

 practice. 



The animal was a two-year-old heifer, which had been sufl*er- 

 ing for about five months from foul of the foot ; having defied 

 all the ordinary remedies to effect a cure, and the fact that 

 several animals on the same farm, and of the same breed, were 

 similarly effected, induced the veterinary surgeon in attendance 

 to send one of the affected feet of this malignant case to the 

 Collecje for examination. 



The part sent was a fore foot, having been cut through about 

 the lower third of the metacarpus, showing the fetlock joint and 

 the two complete digits attached. — (See Photo-lithograph, Plate 

 II., Pigure 9.) 



In external appearance it was very much swollen, and studded 

 round with ulcers of various shapes and sizes, from that of a six- 

 pence to that of a halfpenny. The fetlock joint was completely 

 open on the right side, and deep ulcerations of the articular sur- 

 faces of the bones had taken place, more particularly of the 

 trochlea of the metacarpus. 



On attempting to remove the skin, it was found closely ad- 



