56 OSSIFIC DISEASE OF JOINTS. 



colts that have never had even bridles on : we find splents, and spa- 

 vins, and ringbones, &c. in subjects by whom no kind of work or ex- 

 ertion has ever been performed, and in places where inflammation, 

 in no palpable or detectible form at least, has ever made its ap- 

 pearance. The tissue that becomes in the generality of these 

 youthful subjects converted into bone, is that which constitutes 

 the uniting medium between the small and large metacarpals and 

 metatarsals, and between the ulna and fibula and the long bones to 

 which they are respectively attached. All these bones sustaining 

 whatever weight happens to be thrown upon them through the 

 strength of their attaching substances — they having no resting 

 points below — it appears to us like one of those beautiful pro- 

 visions of Nature we have so much reason to admire on other 

 occasions, to change this uniting tissue, whenever it is found 

 inadequate to the resistance required of it, into bone, and thus 

 enable the attached and now immovable bones to sustain additional 

 force or weight. Whether this be or be not the true interpre- 

 tation of Nature's proceedings, it is certain that, as adult age 

 approaches, all these epiphyses — as they may almost be looked 

 upon — become apophyses, or neither more nor less than so many 

 genuine processes or protuberances. 



If > Inflammation be not the proximate Cause, what 

 IS the cause of these conversions of soft tissues into bone 1 

 We have no right — as was said before — to argue the presence of 

 inflammation in the absence of every sign by which we are able to 

 recognise it. At the same time we can very well imagine — in 

 fact, we believe — that any undue stress upon the tissues in ques- 

 tion proves the occasion of augmenting their vascular action, and 

 that the effect of this is the commencement of a change of fibrous 

 or fibro-cartilaginous tissue into osseous substance. According to 

 Dr. Watts, it would appear that the ossific action had its com- 

 mencement in the periosteal covering of the part, and from that 

 extended inward : whether this be the case or no, it is notorious 

 enough that the ossific operation does not cease until, besides 

 uniting the branch to the trunk bone, it has produced a tumour — 

 an exostosis — to which we, in conformity with custom, give the 

 name of splent, spavin, ringhone, 8^c., according to the part upon 



