86 



both the legs, he is conscious of essential and 

 marked difference between them, he may conclude 

 that the horse is unsound. 



Another defect of common occurrence in horses, 

 is splents. These are very often perceptible to the 

 eye, and almost always to the touch. Dealers 

 and every-day farriers call every indurated swell- 

 ing below the knee of a horse, a splent. I have 

 never been able to inform myself exactly what is 

 the true definition of a genuine splent. I have re- 

 ceived different explanations from almost every 

 veterinary surgeon that I have asked ; but Profes- 

 sor Sewell (whose name I do not like to mention, 

 without testifying to the courtesy and scientific 

 intelligence with which he has uniformly answered 

 every inquiry I have had occasion to make of him, 

 though I am scarcely entitled to call him an ac- 

 quaintance,) once showed me a specimen of a 

 double splent, from the collection of preparations 

 in the college. The bones of the leg had become 

 united by a secretion of ossified substance between 

 them ; if my recollection does not deceive me, for 

 it is some years since, he mentioned this as an ag- 

 gravated case. I believe, however, that in general 

 the splent is an enlargement of the bone, or at 

 least, an irregularity in the form of it, though un- 

 attended by pain or even inconvenience, unless its 



