THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 395 



established, without injury to motion or blemish to the 

 animal. 



STRAIN OF THE KNEE-JOINT. 



The knee-joint is seldom strained, so well is it secured by 

 ligaments. It, however, occurs to young horses and colts in 

 training, the seat of injury being the side of the knee, by 

 slipping outward on the turf. Bleeding from the arm, 

 warm fomentations followed by cold lotions, and a little 

 iodine ointment when the inflammation has gone, are 

 advisable. 



IV.— The Leg. 



SPLINTS — INJURIES — SPRAIN OF THE FLEXOR TENDON — 

 SPEEDY-CUT. 



This we consider as the part between the knee and the 

 fetlock, consisting of the cannon-bone in front, and the two 

 splint-bones behind, and is the seat of that common calamity 

 of the horse : 



Splints. — These are exostoses or bony tumours, formed 

 by inflammation of the periosteum, and are found in three 

 positions : on the inner side of the leg, close under the knee- 

 joint ; half way down on the inside ; and sometimes on the 

 front of the cannon-bone; in which last position they would 

 more properly be called " nodes." Splints are formed by 

 the animal being worked too soon or too severely. Inflam- 

 mation follows, and a bony, instead of a ligamentous deposit, 

 takes place. A bony union, too, is set up between the 

 two smaller bones and the cannon-bone; and hence the ease 

 of motion is impaired. In the young and vigorous horse, 

 however, other elastic principles are called into action, and 

 the ease of action is not strikingly deteriorated ; though at 

 some distant period the mischief will crop out in stiff joint, 

 or splints, in an aggravated form. The disposition to bony 

 deposit, moreover, seems a spreading complaint, and is not 

 confined to the space between the larger and smaller bones 

 of the leg. A tumour, at first callous, afterwards bony, is 

 formed with a part of its base resting on the line between 

 these bones. This is a simple splint, and is invariably 

 found outside the small bone and inside the fore leg, and 

 outside the hinder one. 



