RING-BONE. 495 



terebinth : &c. &c. Those of later date bUster and fire. At 

 the Veterinary College setons are used, by nipping up the 

 integument and pushing a needle armed with tape through it, 

 so that the seton within the skin exactly opposes itself to the 

 spavin. If the skin be tender or tumefied, it is more proper 

 to make an opening above and below the exostosis, and to 

 push a blunt seton-needle, or eyed probe, from one opening 

 to the other, armed with a tape, smeared with mild blister- 

 ing ointment, or common turpentine. In this way, report 

 says, the College practice has proved very successful. Blis- 

 tering we have, however, found, when repeated over and over, 

 commonly proved equal to all the benefit these obstinate 

 cases can receive ; for when the bony deposit is fully formed, 

 it is in vain to expect its entire absorption : even its partial 

 absorption is often frustrated ; the removal of acute lame- 

 ness is generally the only benefit that can be anticipated. 

 Our principal hope lies in preventing the increase of the 

 bony deposit, and likewise in removing that inflammation 

 which is the existing cause of much of the pain, stiffness, and 

 tumefaction in the surrounding hgaments. Our hopes of 

 success must also greatly depend on the time the evil has 

 existed. When it is early attended to, that is, before the 

 bony deposit has gained its full solidity, stimulants act more 

 favourably, and lessen it more materially. It remains to 

 add, that, when repeated blistering fails, the firing-iron 

 generally concludes the business, but commonly answers no 

 further purpose than being a publication of the animal's in- 

 firmity, and a w^arning to practitioners as regards the pre- 

 vious treatment. 



RING-BONE. 



This is an exostosis surrounding the whole, or part, of 

 the circle of the coronet, or involving the junction of the 

 large and small pastern bones. But, although the situation 

 is no further varied than this in the different cases which 

 occur, yet the parts affected are very dissimilar, and the de- 

 gree of lameness greater in the lower disease. In upright 

 pasterns, either formed thus originally, or having grown thus 

 from ligamentary contractions, the articulary surfaces of the 

 bones become so opposed, that great jar is sustained during 



