LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. 3138 
several times daily. If the lameness persists under this mild course 
of treatment, it must, of course, be attacked by other methods, and we 
must resort to the cantharides ointment or Spanish-fly blister, as we 
have before recommended. Besides this, and producing an analogous 
effect, the compounds of biniodid of mercury are favored by some. 
It is prepared in the form of an ointment, consisting of 1 dram of the 
biniodid to 1 ounce of either lard or vaseline. It forms an excellent 
blistering and alterative application, and is of special advantage in 
newly formed or recently discovered exostosis. 
It remains a pertinent query, however, and one which seems to be 
easily answered, whether a tumor so diminutive in size that it can 
be detected only by diligent search, and which is neither a disfigure- 
ment nor an obstruction to the motion of the limb, need receive any 
recognition whatever. Other modes of treatment for splints are rec- 
ommended and practiced which belong strictly to the domain of oper- 
ative veterinary surgery; among these are to be reckoned actual 
cauterization, or the application of the fire iron and the operation of 
periosteotomy. These are frequently indicated in the treatment of 
splints which have resisted milder means. 
The mode of the development of their growth; their intimacy, 
greater or less, with both the large and the small cannon bones; the 
possibility of their extending to the back of these bones under the sus- 
pensory ligament; the dangerous complications which may follow 
the rough handling of the parts, with also a possibility, and, indeed, a 
probability, of their return after removal—these are the considera- 
tions which have influenced our judgment in discarding from our 
practice and our approval the method of removal by the saw or the 
chisel, as recommended by certain European veterinarians. 
RINGBONES. 
Ringbone is the designation of the exostosis which is found on 
the coronet and in the digital and phalangeal regions. (See Plate 
XXVI.) The name is appropriate, because the growth extends quite 
around the coronet, which it encircles in the manner of a ring, or per- 
haps because it often forms upon the back of that bone a regular 
osseous arch, through which the back tendons obtain a passage. The 
places where these growths are usually developed have caused their 
subdivision and classification into three varieties, with the designa- 
tions of high, middle, and low, though much can be said as to the 
importance of the distinction. It is true that the ringbone or phalan- 
geal exostosis may be found at various points on the foot, in one case 
forming a large bunch on the upper part and quite close to the fet- 
lock joint; in another around the upper border of the hoof, or per- 
haps on the extreme front or on the very back of the coronet. The 
shape in which they commonly appear is favorable to their easy dis- 
