252 SPLINT. 



such injury : it will also arise from the frequent recurrence of 

 bruising, whether fronn falling down without loss of continuity of 

 the integuments, or from blows against the manger, or against 

 timber in the hunting field. I have known instances to arise 

 from all these causes : in fact, any cause which may induce in- 

 flammatory action^ or a tendency thereto, may be a precursor to, if 

 not a cause, under certain conditions, of carpitis. 



" The Treatment is analogous to that for spavin ; blood-letting 

 from the foot or pastern, not the nominal bleeding which is gene- 

 rally adopted, but to the extent of two, three, or even four quarts — 

 rest — cold lotions — physic — blisters — actual cautery : to these I 

 have added of late years setons on each side of the joint, long and 

 efficient, so as to extend from the upper to quite the lower part of 

 the joint ; thisjs followed by blisters, or the actual cautery. This 

 severe mode of treatment I have found, in old chronic cases, of 

 great benefit, and to have succeeded in restoring the animal to 

 usefulness when all other means have failed." 



SPLINT. 



Hitherto we have been engaged in searching into the nature 

 of lameness resulting from disease of parts commonly known by 

 the name oi joints, and properly called so from their possessing 

 that structure and motion which we naturally associate with such 

 an appellation. Now, however, we have come to the consider- 

 ation of disease in a part which likewise by the anatomist is 

 regarded as a joint, although in structure it is totally different 

 from the afore-mentioned jproper joint, and is capable of so little 

 motion that such is rather to be inferred than demonstrated. The 

 sjdint hones are attached to the sides of the cannon hone, as well 

 in the hind as in the fore leg, by an elastic substance partaking of 

 the nature both of cartilage and ligament, called fihro-cartilage, 

 the fibres composing which decussate one another in passing from 

 one bone to the other after the manner of the letter X. There is 

 not here, as in the proper or perfect joint, either capsular ligament 

 or joint-oil. Still it is called a joint, and, by way of distinction, 

 a Jihro-cartilaginous joint. 



Comparatively incomplete and small in importance as joints of 

 this class appear to be, yet were they designed to answer a useful 



