DISEASES OF THE HOBSE. 287 



of no little importance, since its presence or absence has in many cases 

 formed the determining point in deciding- a question of difficult 

 diagnosis. 



Cause. — A splint being one of the results of periostitis, and the 

 latter one of the effects of external hurts, it naturallj^ follows that the 

 parts which are most exposed to blows and collisions will be those on 

 which the splint will most commonlj^ be found, and it may not bo 

 improper, therefore, to refer to hurts from without as among the 

 common causes of the lesion. But other causes may also be produc- 

 tive of the evil, and among these may be mentioned the overstraining 

 of an immature organism b}^ the imposition of excessive labor upon a 

 young animal at a too earlv period of his life. The bones which enter 

 into the formation of the cannon are three in number, one large and 

 two smaller, which, during the j^outh of the animal, are more or less 

 articulated, with a limited amount of mobility, but which become in 

 maturity firmly joined by a rigid uniou and ossification of their inter- 

 articular surface. If the immature animal is compelled, then, to per- 

 form exacting tasks bej'ond his strength, the inevitable result will 

 follow in the muscular straining, and perhaps tearing asunder of the 

 fibers which unite the bones at their points of juncture, and it is diffi- 

 cult to understand how inflammation or periostitis can fail to develop 

 as the natural consequence of such local irritation. If the result were 

 deiibcrateh' and intelligently designed, it could hardly be more effec- 

 tuallj' accomplished. 



The splint is an object of the commonest occurrence — so common, 

 indeed, that in large cities a horse which can not exhibit one or more 

 specimens upon some portion of his extremities is one of the rarest of 

 spectacles. Though it is in some instances a cause of lameness, and its 

 discoverj'^ and cure are sometimes beyond the ability of the shrewdest 

 and most experienced veterinarians, yet as a source of vital danger to 

 the general equine organization, or even of functional disturbance, or 

 of practical inconvenience, aside from the rare exceptional cases which 

 exist as mere samples of possibility, it can not be considered to belong 

 to the category of serious lesions. The worst stigma that attaches to 

 it is that in general estimation it is ranked among ej^esores and contin- 

 ues indeiinitel}" to be that and nothing different. The inflammation in 

 which they originated, acute at first, either subsides or assumes the 

 chronic form, and the bony growth becomes a permanence — more or 

 less established, it is true, but doing no positive harm and not hinder- 

 ing the animal from continuing his daily routine of labor. All this, 

 however, requires a proviso against the occurrence of a subsequent 

 acute attack, when, as with other exostoses, a fresh access of acute 

 sjmiptoms may be followed by a new pathological activity, which shall 

 again develop, as a natural result, a reappearance of the lameness. 



Treatment. — It is, of course, the consideration of the comparative 



