SPLINTS. 239 



that the animal, usually, fails to bend the knee freely ; and that 

 exercise increases the lameness. The last-mentioned condition is 

 also present with corns ; but an examination of the foot will 

 determine the question of their existence. Young horses with 

 obscure splints which cause lameness, are sometimes wrongly sus- 

 pected of having navicular disease. To avoid making this mis- 

 take, recollect — 1st, that the lameness of navicular disease gets 

 better as the animal becomes warm with exercise ; and 2ndly, 

 that young horses, say, those of five years old and under, very 

 jarely suffer from it. Some horses, by an unusual development 

 in the size of the inner splint bones of their fore legs, appear, 

 at first glance, to have splints on both of them, although the 

 limbs may be free from any diseased growth of bqne. In such a 

 case, the splint bones will feel, to the touch of the fingers, free from 

 any bony deposit. When deciding on such a point, carefully 

 observe if the two inner splint bones be of the same size. 



If the swelling which causes the lameness in the case of a recent 

 splint be perceptible, there will usually be heat present, and pain 

 on pressure. 



When training young horses for racing and steeplechasing — 

 during which process I of course made a daily examination of the 

 legs of my charges-— I generally found that splints on the fore 

 legs, before becoming manifest to the touch, have an apparent 

 period of incubation, varying, say, from three to six weeks, during 

 which time, the affected leg, below the knee, shows signs of in- 

 flammatory action, as may be evidenced by filling of the sheath 

 of the back tendons, unusual heat, and, in some instances, by 

 the formation of windgalls. The fact of these inflammatory effects 

 disappearing on the completion of the bony growth, taken in 

 conjunction with the history of the respective cases, proved that 

 these splints, and probably many others, took some weeks to 

 become sufficiently developed to be felt by the hand. 



The lameness occasioned by a recently-formed splint is in no 

 way proportional to the size of the deposit ; for small splints often 

 cause extreme lameness, while large ones, sometimes, occasion 

 little or no inconvenience. In the former case, the lameness is 

 probably due to inflammation deeply seated in the bone ; but, in 

 the latter, the increased action may be almost entirely confined to 

 the covering membrane of the bone, which grows as the tumour 

 grows, and so accommodates itself to the increased superfices it 

 has to spread over, without suffering any tension. An exaggerated 

 form of inflammation in the substance of the bone may occur from 

 the effects of violent concussion; when, instead of a splint being 

 formed, the effusion failing to get vent, is deposited in the bone, 

 thus preventing that part, by blocking up its canals, from receiving 



