286 



PARTICULAK LAMENESSES. 



more propriety to those which take the form of a ring round 

 the bone. 



]ting-bone is of two kinds, true and false. The false ring- 

 bone may be dismissed in a few w^ords ; it is an exostosis, 

 situated about the middle of the os suffragmis, due to an in- 

 creased development of one or both of the roughened ridges on 



this bone, which 

 give attachment to 

 the sesamoidean 

 ligaments. When 

 very large, it may 

 cause lameness; as 

 a rule, however, it 

 never gives incon- 

 venience to the 

 animal, and is not 

 always to be look- 

 ed upon as a cause 

 of unsoundness. It 

 may be compared 

 to a splint thrown 

 out for some bene- 

 ficial purpose. 



The true ring- 

 bone is quite an- 

 other matter, and 

 is an unsoundness 

 in every sense of 

 the word, involv- 

 ing important arti- 

 culations, and giv- 

 ^^ u W'm^^ - ¥^1 _ ing rise to obsti- 



— ^^"^ ^ JjX^^^ " ^ n^tQ, and often in- 



curable, lameness. 

 There are two 



kinds of true ring-bone, the high and the low ; it is called high 

 when it involves the proximal inter-phaJangeal articulation or 

 pastern joint ; and low, when it involves the distal inter-phalan- 

 geal articulation or coffin joint. In many instances both forms 

 exist at the same time. Photo-lithograph, Plate III., Fig- 5, is 

 a good illustration of tliis. 



Fig. 



-High ring-bone. 



