lameness: ITS CAUSES AN^D TEEATMENT. 311 



Symptoms.— A. splint may thus frequently become a cause of lame- 

 ness though not necessarily in every instance, but it is a lameness 

 possessing features peculiar to itself. It is not always continuous, 

 but at times assumes an intermittent character, and is more marked 

 when the animal is warm than when cool. If the lameness is near 

 the kneejoint, it is very liable to become aggravated when the animal 

 is put to work, and the gait acquires then a peculiar character, aris- 

 ing from the manner in which the limb is carried outward from the 

 knees downward, which is done by a kind of abduction of the lower 

 part of the leg. Other symptoms, however, than the lameness and 

 the presence of the splint, which is its cause, may be looked for in the 

 same connection as those which have been mentioned as pertaining to 

 certain evidences of periostitis, in the increase of the temperature of 

 the part, with swelling and probably pain on pressure. This last 

 symptom is of no little importance, since its presence or absence has 

 in many cases formed the determining point in deciding a question 

 of difficult diagnosis. 



Cause. — A splint being one of the results of periostitis, and the 

 latter one of the effects of external hurts, it naturally follows that 

 the parts which are most exposed to blows and collisions will be 

 those on which the splint will most commonly be found, and it may 

 not be improper, therefore, to refer to hurts from without as among 

 the common causes of the lesion. Bnfr other causes may also be pro- 

 ductive of the evil, and among these may be mentioned the over- 

 straining of an immature organism by the imposition of excessive 

 labor upon a young animal at a too early period of his life. The 

 bones which enter into the formation of the cannon are three in 

 number, one large and two smaller, which, during the youth of the 

 animal, are more or legs articulated, with a limited amount of mo- 

 bility, but which become in maturity firmly joined by a rigid union 

 and ossification of their interarticular surface. If the immature 

 animal is compelled, then, to perform exacting tasks beyond his 

 strength, the inevitable result will follow in the muscular straining, 

 and perhaps tearing asunder of the fibers which unite the bones at 

 their points of juncture, and it is difficult to understand how inflam- 

 mation or periostitis can fail to develop as the natural consequence 

 of such local irritation. If the result were deliberately and intelli- 

 gently designed, it could hardly be more effectually 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 veterinarians, yet as a source of 

 vital danger to the general equine organization, or even of functional 



