312 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
disturbance, or of practical inconvenience, aside from the rare ex- 
ceptional cases which exist as mere samples of possibility, it can not 
be considered to belong to the category of serious lesions. The. worst 
stigma that attaches to it is that in general estimation it is ranked 
among eyesores and continues indefinitely to be that and nothing dif- 
ferent. The inflammation in which they originated, acute at first, 
either subsides or assumes the chronic form, and the bony growth 
becomes a permanence—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 proviso against 
the occurrence of a subsequent acute attack, when, as with other ex- 
ostoses, 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. 
Treatment.—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 noninterference 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 volume, 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 be exceptional conditions which will at times 
indicate a different course. These will become evident when the occa- 
sions present themselves, and extraordinary forms and effects of 
inflammation and growth in the tumors offer special indications. But 
our conviction remains unshaken that surgical treatment of the oper- 
ative 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; this seems in 
itself to constitute a sufficient negative argument. Even in such a 
ease a resort to the knife or the gouge could scarcely find a justifi- 
cation, since no operative procedure is ever without a degree of haz- 
ard, to say nothing of the considerations which are always forcibly 
negative in any question of the infliction of pain and the unnecessary 
use of the knife: 
If an acute periostitis of the cannon bone has been readily discov- 
_ ered, the treatment we have already suggested for that ailment is 
at once indicated, and the astringent lotions may be relied upon to 
bring about beneficial results. Sometimes, however, preference may 
be given to a lotion possessing a somewhat different quality, the alter- 
ative consisting of tincture of iodin applied to the inflamed spot 
