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may show such tenderness, as to cause flinching. We have met with 

 instances, where no deposit was thrown out for some length of time after 

 lameness became manifest. Sometimes in splint lameness, there is 

 diminution of the proper amount of bending at the knee, as the horse 

 moves. Our readers will remember that we said that horses, suffering from 

 navicular disease, as a rule improved in their action during exercise. In 

 animals with splints, however, the lameness as a rule becomes more 

 marked during progression. This, we may remind our readers, is also the 

 case wdth horses having corns. When one wishes to examine a leg, with a 

 view to detecting the presence of a splint, one should grasp the limb in the 

 usual manner, wath the fingers upon one side, and the thumb upon the other, 

 and then should trace the splint bones from above downwards. Should 

 there be any growth, it will readily be felt. 



In those instances in which the splint does not cause lameness, it is 

 customary not to interfere with the disease. The animal should be put upon 

 a diminished diet scale, and his food should be of a laxative nature. It is 

 well to give an aperient, and afterwards enjoin that no exercise should be 

 given. These injunctions should be ordered to be carried out, until the 

 inflammation has ceased. In those cases where the lameness is not very 

 marked, it is best to rest the animal for a time, and blister the inflamed bone 

 with ointment of biniodide of mercury. A dose of aloes should also be given, 

 in order to lessen the inflammatory action. Should the blister not prove 

 curative, it will be necessary to fire the part with the prick-iron. When the 

 lameness produced by a splint is very severe, and the animal places but 

 little weight on the limb, Mr. Sewell's operation of periosteotomy is 

 sometimes performed. 



BONE SPAVINS. 



We may now turn our attention to the consideration of spavin. Few 

 diseases of the horse are so commonly before our notice as spavin, and few^ 

 cause so much litigation, and give rise to the expression of such diverse 

 professional opinions. Regarding the origin of the word spavin there is 

 also considerable doubt. The Latin word was employed by Jordanus Rufus, 

 in the thirteenth century ; but we cannot say whether he originated the 

 term, or not. Some waiters believe it is derived from the Italian spai-avano. 

 Others again derive it from the Greek word spasinos, a spasm or cramp. 

 Winter derives the term from the French csparvm, while others again believe 

 it to have its origin from the Latin sparsus^ on account of the straddling 

 gait, which often results in this disease of the hock. 



A spavin may be defined as a deposition of bone on the inner and lower 

 part of the hock, resulting from chronic inflammatory action of certain bones 

 composing this joint, and generally resulting in their cementing or 

 anchylosing together. Our readers will understand that the bones affected 

 by spavin are not those forming the true hock joint ; but are the canon 

 bone and the little bones situated just above it. Sometimes, w^e may add 



