256 SPLINT. 



itself to the increased superficies it has to spread over, without 

 suffering any tension. And by the absence of inflammation and ten- 

 sion do we account for the generality of horses having splints 

 experiencing no manner of apparent inconvenience from them*. 



Splints belong to the fore, Spavins to the hind Legs. — 

 The late Professor Coleman used, in his " Lectures," to lay it 

 down as a principle, that " spavin and splint were in nature the 

 same ;" the only difference between them being that one was 

 " situated in the hind, the other in the fore leg." And scientific 

 investigation into the subject will shew that, in so far as regards one 

 description of spavin — the low spavin — the Professor was correct 

 in his classification. It can matter nothing in a pathological view 

 whether an exostosis existing between bones — correlative in site, 

 structure, and use — be in the hind or in the fore limb. What is purely 

 a splint in one case amounts to no more in the other, by which 

 we mean, so long as the exostosis is confined to the splint and 

 cannon bones. But, should the tumour be found placed against 

 or having any connexion with the knee or the hock, inasmuch as 

 those joints, though correspondent in respect to situation, differ 

 materially one from the other both in structure and function, such 

 an exostosis would have probably a different effect in the one joint 

 from what it would in the other, and might on that account have a 

 different importance attached to it, and a different name given to 

 it. Therefore, we have no right to find fault with calling a " bony 

 knot" upon or close under the hock a spavin instead of a splint; 

 but surely we have a right to urge objection against the appella- 

 tion of splint being still continued, when the *' knot," instead of 

 being in the ordinary site of splint, is upon or close under the knee. 

 Should we not be justified in giving to such a tumour some other 

 name 1 Mr. Cherry has given it the name of " spavin in the knee." 

 Solleysellt, whose name for it was osselet, was well acquainted with 

 this kind of splint. His description of such runs — " Simple splints," 

 through long and violent exercise, " mount (upwards) to the knee ;" 

 addino-, " some people maintain that a splint doth not mount 

 upwards, but only burthens and extends itself to the knee, so that 



* These remarks apply to ringbone, and to other exostoses as well. 

 t Op. cit. 



