SPLINT. 253 



end in the animal economy, and are they fully adequate to the 

 purposes thereof, albeit they commonly are rendered, even at an 

 early age, of none effect by the conversion of the fibro-cartilage 

 composing them into osseous substance. So long as they retain 

 their pristine structure, through the elasticity of their uniting me- 

 dium are the splint bones capable, on the imposition of weight 

 upon them, of descending against the sides of the cannon bone, 

 and of springing up again into their places the instant such weight 

 ceases to operate : from the moment, however, that their uniting 

 material becomes osseous — inelastic, hard, brittle — all motion and 

 spring is destroyed. The splint bones are then rendered fixtures ; 

 and it is more than probable that, in their being so, the foundation 

 is laid for spavin in the hock, for osselet in the knee. These few 

 preliminary observations will, it is hoped, render the pathology of 

 splint not only more intelligible, but, in a practical point of view, 

 more serviceable. 



The Name of splint, or splent — derived from the Italian word 

 spinella, a splint — would seem first to have been used to denote 

 the bone in or upon which the disease so called is seated, and 

 afterwards the disease itself. The eight small bones, in our modern 

 nomenclature, called metacarpal and metatarsal, in their position 

 along the sides of the cannon hones, or great metacarpal and meta- 

 tarsal bones, have so much the aspect of splints (the old name for 

 which is splents), or splinters off the shaft of the large bones to which 

 they cling, that we can readily imagine how they came to be called 

 splint or splent bones, and as easily understand how the appella- 

 tion of the bone came to be transferred to the disease. 



The Definition of a Splint is simply this, — That it is an 

 exostosis — i. e. a callous or osseous tumour — growing upon one, 

 or contiguous to one, of the splint bones. Were the tumour not 

 of such nature, or being of such nature not so situated, we should 

 not call it a splint. 



Kinds or Qualities of Splints. — According to Solley- 

 SELL — who here, as on most other horse subjects, displays a prac- 

 tical knowledge that at times no less surprises than amuses us — 

 there are five kinds or qualities of splints. To give them (and 

 more for the sake of gratifying curiosity than of approving of them 

 all) in his own words — " The first is THE SIMPLE SPLINT, which 



