254 . SPLINT. 



but adheres to the bone of the leg, and doth not at all touch the 

 back sinew, and is also at a pretty distance from the knee. The 

 second is THE PEGGED or DOUBLE SPLINT {le sur-os double ou 

 cheville), which is when there are two splints, one upon the outer, 

 the other upon the inner side of the leg, directly opposite to one 

 another, as though they were pinned together through the leg, 

 from which they derive the denomination o{ pegged. The third is 

 the splint which ascendeth to the knee, and almost always maketh 

 a horse to halt. The fourth is the {la tumeur) FUSEE, which is 

 two splints joined at the ends, one above the other. The last 

 (the fifth) is the little bony excrescence, OSSELET, which is upon 

 the knee, and may be taken for the very substance of the knee 

 itself, unless a man have very great experience*." 



The ordinary Site of Splint is about the middle of the 

 leg, rather nearer to the knee than to the fetlock. A splint upon 

 or immediately under the knee-joint is an affair of complication 

 and danger compared to one in the ordinary situation, and so far 

 we would and ought to make distinctions between splints : further 

 than this, however, all specification appears groundless and useless. 



A Splint is detected by grasping with the hand the horse's 

 suspected leg in the ordinary manner in which we feel the leg, 

 and tracing, with the fingers upon one side and the thumb upon 

 the other, the inner and outer splint bones from their heads down- 

 wards to their tapering extremities. Any actual exostosis will at 

 once arrest the hand ; any rising or irregularity will create sus- 

 picion, and lead to closer examination. 



The Nature of Splint, from what has been already stated, 

 may be said to have been anticipated. Conversion of that which 

 originally was fibro-cartilage into bone, between the splint and 

 cannon bones, constitutes splint, be tumour or exostosis the con- 

 sequence, or be it not. Here, then, we have another kind of 

 splint, one that we may call insidious, invisible, or inseiLsible 

 splint. We are not certain that a splint of this latter description 

 ever gives rise to lameness ; but that, in essence, it is a splint as 

 much as the exostosis is which stands out an inch from the bone 

 of the leg, is most certain. But what is 



* Conipleat Horseman, Hope's Translation, 2d edit, part ii, sect. 6, p. 95. 



