BONES 55 



SPECIAL DISEASES OF THE BONE. 



107. Splint is a bony enlargement, and is usually found on the 

 inside of the fore-leg, just below the knee, though occasionally seen 

 on the outside, and also, but rarely, on the hind shanks. It is due 

 to an injury or concussion, setting up inflammation of the bone and 

 periosteum, and resulting in the throwing out of bony matter forming 

 an exostosis, or bony tumour. Young horses of the light class 

 are most subject to it, chiefly through their being put to too fast and 



Fig, 2.— Fractured Long Pastern (Os Suffraginis) into 

 Thirty-Four Pieces {par. 106). 



heavy work on hard roads before their bones are properly set, some 

 breeds being more prone to it than others. When formed on the 

 large shank bone, and well forward towards the front of the bone, 

 although the splint may be of large size and unsightly, it seldom 

 causes any lameness, and is not nearly of so much consequence as 

 when inflammation takes place at certain points of attachment 

 between the large shank and inner small splint bone, along with the 

 exudation of bony material implicating the interosseous ligament, 



