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points of juncture, and it is difficult to understand how the natural 

 consequeuces of such a local irritation developing in inflammation or 

 periostitis can be avoided. If the result were deliberately and intelli- 

 gently designed it could hardly be more effectunlly accomplished. 



The splint is an object of the commonest occurrence, so common, 

 indeed, that in large cities a horse which can not exhibit one or more 

 specimens upon some portion of his extremities is one of the rarest 

 of spectacles. Though it is in some instances a cause of lameness 

 and its discovery and cure are sometimes beyond the ability of the 

 shrewdest and most experienced veterinarian, yet as a source of vital 

 danger to the general equine organization, or even of functional dis- 

 turbance, or of practical inconvenience, aside from the rare exceptional 

 cases which exist as mere samples of possibility, it can not be consid- 

 ered to belong to the category of serious lesions. The worst stigma 

 that attaches to it is that in general estimation it is ranked among eye- 

 sores, and continues indefinitely to be that and nothing less or better. 

 The inflammation in which they originated, acute at first, either sub- 

 sides or assumes the chronic form, and the bony growth becomes a per- 

 manence, more or less established, it is true, but doing no positive harm, 

 and not hindering the animal from continuing his daily routine of labor. 

 All this, however, requires a i^roviso against the occurrence of a subse- 

 quent acute attack, when, as with other exostoses, a fresh access of 

 acute symptoms may be followed by a new pathological activity which 

 shall again develop as a natural result a reappearance of the lameness. 



It is of course the consideration of the comparative harmlessness of 

 splints that suggests and justifies the policy of non-interference, except 

 as they become a positive cause of lameness. And a more positive 

 argument for such non-interference consists in the fact that any active 

 and irritating treatment may so excite the parts as to bring about a 

 renewed pathological activity, which may result in a reduplication of 

 the phenomena, with a second edition if not a second and enlarged vol- 

 ume of the whole story. For our part our faith is firm in the impolicy 

 of interference, and this faith is founded on an experience of many 

 years, during which our practice has been that of abstention. 



Of course there will bo exceptional conditions which will at times 

 indicate a difl'erent course. These will become evident when the occa- 

 sions present themselves, and extraordinary forms and effects of inflam- 

 mation and growth in the tumors offer special indications. But our 

 conviction remains unshaken that surgical treatment of the operative 

 kind is usually useless, if not dangerous. We have little faith in the 

 method of extirpation except under very special conditions, among 

 which that of diminutive size has been named, which seems in itself to 

 constitute a sufficient negative argument. But even in such a case a 

 resort to the knife or the gouge could scarcely find ajustification, since 

 no operative procedure is ever without a degree of hazard, to say 



