SPLINTS. 



235 



bones of his legs, the more predisposed will he be to develop 

 splints, is an assertion that cannot be gainsaid. 



CAUSES. — In young and healthy horses, each of the splint 

 bones is attached to the cannon bone by a strong interosseous 

 ligament, which, with advancing years, tends to become converted 

 into bone. As, in the large majority of cases, bony deposits (with 

 tht; exception of "sore shins") on the leg between the knee and 

 the fetlock, appear somewhere at the junction of a splint bone and 

 the cannon bone, and as they usually occur during youth, before 



Fig. 8 1. — Splint on the inside of the near fore leg. 



bony union has taken place between the cannon bone and the splint 

 bones; we may fairly surmise that they are brought on in the 

 majority of cases, by inflammation having been set up in the part 

 by sprain of the interosseous ligament. This view is further 

 strengthened by the fact, which I shall presently attempt to ex- 

 plain, of splints occurring more frequently on the inside than on 

 the outside of the leg. This sprain of the interosseous ligament 

 gives rise to inflammation of the periosteum (the covering mem- 



