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may show such tenderness, as to cause flinching. We have met with 
instances, where no deposit was thrown out for some length of time after 
lameness became manifest. Sometimes in splint lameness, there is 
diminution of the proper amount of bending at the knee, as the horse 
moves. Our readers will remember that we said that horses, suffering from 
navicular disease, as a rule improved in their action during exercise. In 
animals with splints, however, the lameness as a rule becomes more 
marked during progression. This, we may remind our readers, is also the 
case with horses having corns. When one wishes to examine a leg, with a 
view to detecting the presence of a splint, one should grasp the limb in the 
usual manner, with the fingers upon one side, and the thumb upon the other, 
and then should trace the splint bones from above downwards. Should 
there be any growth, it will readily be felt. 
In those instances in which the splint does not cause lameness, it is. 
customary not to interfere with the disease. The animal should be put upon 
a diminished diet scale, and his food should be of a laxative nature. It is. 
well to give an aperient, and afterwards enjoin that no exercise should be 
given. These injunctions should be ordered to be carried out, until the 
inflammation has ceased. In those cases where the lameness is not very 
marked, it is best to rest the animal for a time, and blister the inflamed bone 
with ointment of biniodide of mercury. A dose of aloes should also be given, 
in order to lessen the inflammatory action. Should the blister not prove 
curative, it will be necessary to fire the part with the prick-iron. When the 
lameness produced bya splint is very severe, and the animal places but 
little weight on the limb, Mr. Sewell’s operation of periosteotomy is 
sometimes performed. 
BONE SPAVINS. 
WE may now turn our attention to the consideration of spavin. Few 
diseases of the horse are so commonly before our notice as spavin, and few 
cause so much litigation, and give rise to the expression of such diverse 
professional opinions. Regarding the origin of the word spavin there is. 
also considerable doubt. The Latin word was employed by Jordanus Rufus, 
in the thirteenth century; but we cannot say whether he originated the 
term, or not. Some writers believe it is derived from the Italian sparavano. 
Others again derive it from the Greek word sfasmos, a spasm or cramp. 
Winter derives the term from the French ésfarvzn, while others again believe 
it to have its origin from the Latin spavsws, on account of the straddling’ 
gait, which often results in this disease of the hock. 
A spavin may be defined as a deposition of bone on the inner and lower 
part of the hock, resulting from chronic inflammatory action of certain bones 
composing this joint, and generally resulting in their cementing or 
anchylosing together. Our readers will understand that the bones affected 
by spavin are not those forming the true hock joint; but are the canon 
bone and the little bones situated just above it. Sometimes, we may add 
