88C DADU’S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
or other strong caustic, so as to occasion a slough. In this case, 
too, the remedy was as bad as the disease; the horse was disfigured 
for life. Better and more recent treatment than this was either 
firing or blistering. The objection to the former, however, was 
the marks it produced; and to the latter, in common with the 
former, that though the lameness was removed, it very frequently 
returned with the resumption of labor. 
The more modern, successful, and scientific treatment ot splents 
consists in the operation of periosteotomy, or division of the peri 
osteum, which covers the bone. 
Professor Sewell has introduced, within the few past years, an 
excellent mode of performing the operation. The horse is cast, 
the leg properly straightened and secured, and then a small open- 
ing is made just below the splent sufficient to introduce a long, 
narrow, convex, probe-pointed knife, the edge of which is on the 
convex side The knife is then passed up under the skin, and by 
drawing it backward and forward on the splent, pressing firmly 
at the same time, the periosteum is completely divided. A small 
opening is then made through the skin above the splent, and a 
narrow seton passed from one orifice to the other, after which a 
bandage is placed on the leg, and the horse released. The seton 
should be moved and dressed daily with digestive ointment, and 
at the expiration of a week removed, and the wound permitted to 
heal. J have found the operation succeed whenever I have adopted 
it. In the very numerous cases that occur of splents being unat- 
tended with lameness, it is ‘better to let well alone;’ but when 
the lameness is slight, and the horse can not be spared from work 
more than a few days, it is well to apply a mild blistering appli- 
cation, such as the tincture of cantharides, about a tea-spoonful of 
which will be sufficient for one application, which may be repeated 
according to the action it produces and the benefit it occasions.” 
Treatment.—Our practice in this country is to treat splent on 
the same general principles that obtain in spavin and ring-bone— 
namely, in the acute stage, when the accident of striking has 
happened, we apply sedatives and refrigerents, and in the chronia 
stage, counter-irritants and absorbents. or the treatment of the 
acute stage, a selection from the following articles may be made: 
Arnica, infusion of hops or poppies, cold water, or equal parts of 
vinegar and water. In the chronic stage, and in view of lessen- 
ing the tumefaction. I recommend the following - 
