SPLENT. 
85 
as judicious to keep up a “corps de reserve,” in case of an unex- 
pected sally from the enemy’s camp. But I do not think my pro- 
fessional brethren of this country will offer me any opposition, 
although they may be equally startled at my condemnation 
of bleeding as at the undeniable fact, that broken wind can be 
cured ; indeed, I dare say they will be even more so, as I do not 
know a single veterinary surgeon but Mr. Wilkinson, of the 2d 
Life Guards, to whom I can appeal for the practical truth of my 
assertion. But they will all at once perceive that nothing but a 
love for my profession and a desire to serve it have induced me to 
lay these my humble reflections (on a subject apparently wrought 
in mystery) before them ; and, with the same object in view, I am 
at present busily engaged making some experiments, and carefully 
watching some other diseases, as also in testing the action of 
medicinal agents. However, I shall never consider any personal 
trouble too much, so that I can serve a science of which I feel 
justly proud. 
And with a fervent wish that a few years hence may find us all 
pursuing a more rational and consistent course of treatment than 
we are doing at present, 
I have the honour to be, 
Your’s, &c. 
Cavalry Barracks, Brighton, 
January 1846. 
*** I should state that in all my post-mortem examinations of 
horses dying from low fever, and in which evident signs of head- 
ache were present, as also in those affected with gastro-enteritis 
(with the exception of one case), I have found a serous effusion in 
the lateral ventricles of the brain , and which I look upon as an 
additional proof of the weakness of that organ. 
SPLENT. 
By “ No Vet” 
It is proposed to call attention to the looseness of language, ha- 
bitual both with veterinary writers and practitioners, on the subject 
of splent. The writers generally define splent (somewhat) as a 
bony union of the splent bone and cannon bone ; Blaine, however, 
describes it as an “ exostosis upon or about some part of the meta- 
carpal bones.” If one asks a veterinary surgeon to define it, he 
will generally describe it as the bony union, &c., and at the same 
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