RING-BONE. 231 



ness, tenderness upon pressure, and disinclination to 

 bend the joint, will be present. The treatment should 

 consist in bleeding* the toe ; after which the foot should 

 be bound up in cloths wetted with tincture of arnica ; 

 and subsequently treated with the ointment of iodide 

 of lead. 



KING-BONE. 



From the great action of the pastern joints, and the 

 injuries to which the bones and ligaments are exposed, 

 inflammation is often accompanied by the deposition 

 of bony matter ; ring-bone, so called because it 

 sometimes extends round the pastern, being the sad 

 consequence of sprain. Occasionally it begins as 

 high up as the superior articulation of the larger pas- 

 tern bone ; sometimes about the joint formed by the 

 two pastern bones; and generally it involves the 

 lower pastern and coffin bones. As a consequence of 

 inflammation bone is deposited ; and apparently cer- 

 tain structures entirely change their natures under 

 the action of disease. The lateral or side ligaments 

 are those that are oftenest or soonest affected ; ring- 

 bone is then discovered, in its early state, by a 

 rounded hard projection on each side immediately 

 above the coronet. 



Ring-bone is always accompanied by lameness at 

 the commencement: but the extent of the after lame- 

 ness depends on the degree in which the bony tumour 

 interferes with the action of the joint. In some cases 

 it disappears altogether, particularly in the hind feet; 

 where the concussion is not so great, and the inflam- 

 mation is not generally so intense. In the fore feet, 



