AS TO SOUNDNESS. 103 
throws out a deposit that becomes roughened and spreads 
over a large area, and is known by the elegant name of 
“sore shin” when it attacks the front of the cannon 
Bone, as it is apt to doin race-horses from concussion d 
but retains the name of splint when situated at the back 
of the bone where the periosteum is dragged upon and 
irritated by the suspensary ligament. 
You will have all or most of these points to bear in 
mind in judging of splints, for reasonsI shall name, also 
because while technically and in law splints are unsound- 
ness, yet you will give great dissatisfaction by rejecting 
every horse because he has a splint. I believe the law 
to be quite right in regarding all splints as unsoundness, 
because by doing so it puts a well-defined limit to what 
would be a chaos of opinion. Seeing that you have a 
far higher function to perform than merely to say whether 
or not the horse you are examining is sound or unsound 
in the eye of the law, we must dwell on the consideration 
of splints awhile. 
Splints may be situated so high up as actually to inter- 
fere with the lower bones of the knee. When so situated 
they are, whether recent or old, of grave importance, and 
render the horse unsound under any circumstances. It 
is often a most difficult matter to detect them when so 
situated. The late Professor Dick used to tell of such 
a case in his lectures. He was sent for to examine a 
lame horse which three or four veterinarians had seen, 
and had failed to localize the lameness. ‘The ill-defined 
angle formed by the upper part of the cannon bone and 
