SPLINT. 259 



in mind the following narrative, published in THE VETERINA- 

 RIAN for 1829, in a paper on the subject of " Splint," read by Mr. 

 Henderson, during the same year, to the Veterinary Medical So- 

 ciety : — 



" Early in the spring of 1827, a Norfolk breeder brought seven 

 or eight horses to town for sale. I was requested by a gentleman 

 to inspect one of them, of which he had made choice. They were 

 a lot of very clever horses, and all got by old Pretender. There 

 was one rather remarkable circumstance, — they had all splents, 

 but situated on the shin bone, and, as far as regards lameness, they 

 were all perfectly sound. I mean to say, not one of them was 

 lame ; and, therefore, I considered them sound. I passed the one 

 in question (a mare), and she always remained sound, and gave 

 great satisfaction. 



" A few days after this, a gentleman called upon me to ask if I 

 could recommend a horse to carry a lady. Having seen one be- 

 longing to the breeder to whom I have just alluded, I took the 

 gentleman to the stable, accompanied by his friend and servant. 

 After they had all three ridden the horse and approved of him, not- 

 withstanding he had a splent on each leg of large dimensions, 

 which was pointed out to them, they bought him. On the third 

 day I found the whole party at my house, exceedingly angry : the 

 horse was lame, and it was insisted that the dealer should take him 

 back. It appeared that the horse was sent the day before to the 

 College : it had left the gentleman's stables sound, but on arriving 

 at the College he was discovered to be very lame. Mr. Sewell 

 examined him, and said he was lame in consequence of the splent, 

 and recommended the gentleman immediately to return him. 

 When I saw him on the following day, he was still lame ; but I 

 was soon satisfied the splents had nothing to do with the lameness. 

 1 had the shoe taken off, and could find nothing wrong in the foot ; 

 but, on pressing my thumb in the heel above the frog, the horse 

 felt so much pain that he plunged from me with violence. On 

 closer examination, I found it proceeded from a very trifling crack 

 in the heel. 



''After a great deal of angry contention between the dealer and 



