TII1C MODERN HOUSE DOCTOR. 263 



becoming suddenly unable to move the limb, and when compelled 

 to step forward, drags the affected part after him. At other times 

 he is travelling on the road, and becomes, without any warning, 

 dead lame, limps or steps short, and after standing a few mo- 

 ments, regains the use of his limb, and proceeds onward to the 

 journey's end without a reattack. Horses that have once had an 

 attack of this sort are liable to relapses, unless the exciting causes 

 be removed. What are the causes ? Some physiological 

 considerations are necessary in order to understand the sub- 

 ject. Every movement of a muscle produces a corresponding 

 waste, and thus exhausts the vital principle : the waste must be 

 supplied by the blood, and the blood in its turn depends on nu- 

 trition. Hence it follows that when a horse is compelled to per- 

 form great muscular action, he requires an amount of blood 

 equal to the loss sustained ; and that blood has to be manufactured 

 in its chemico-vital laboratory, out of a corresponding increase 

 of food. But suppose nutrition is perverted, or that the food, 

 which in quantity seems sufficient, is deficient in nutrition ; then 

 we can perceive how spasmodic affections of the muscles may 

 arise, knowing, as we do, that spasm arises from mal-nutrition. 



The cure consists in restoring the tone of the digestive func- 

 tion, should it be impaired : a few doses of gentian, ginger, and 

 salt, equal parts, will generally answer the purpose. The limb 

 may then be rubbed daily with common hartshorn liniment, and 

 the cure is completed. 



SPLENT. 



Definition of Splent. — An exostosis — i. e., a callous or 

 osseous tumor — growing upon one, or contiguous to one, of the 

 splent bones. — Per civ all. 



A splent seldom occasions lameness, except in the primary 

 stage of inflammation of the fibro-cartilaginous substance which 

 unites the splent to the canon bone ; or, in cases when the splent 

 is high up, in close proximity with the carpal bone — (which 

 rests on the upper part of the inner small metacarpal) — splent 

 sometimes involving more than one of the carpal bones ; and 

 from the size of the tumor, it being large, having a very rough 



