ON METACARP1T1S. 
131 
after its formation; yet so obscure have I found the symptoms 
positively indicative of the presence or progress of the malady, that 
I must admit my inability to state with certainty more than its 
situation, and the form that I have found it to assume in those 
morbid specimens which have come under my notice. They must, 
therefore, be considered only in the light of cursory observations : the 
most important part, that of practically defining the useful cha- 
racteristics, being left to the labour of future years : perhaps when 
attention is drawn to the subject this desideratum may not much 
longer be wanting. 
In my earliest researches into the nature of that disease of the 
knee-joint to which T have given the term “ carpitis,” I became 
a^vare of the existence of another malady, which from its close 
approximation to that joint, and from also occasionally finding 
it present with carpitis, I have for some years considered to be 
either a concomitant or closely allied disease ; but reflection has led 
to the conclusion that it is distinct, and ought to be treated of 
as such ; and for the convenience of reference, from its situation 
being on the metacarpal bone, I have used the term “metacar- 
pitis.” 
It is a disease not confined to the fore-leg alone, but is 
nearly as frequently to be found in the hind limb; but as the 
parts below the knee and hock are so nearly similar that the 
description of the one suffices for the other, it is only changing 
the term from “ carpus” to “ tarsus,” to make the pathological 
description correct. 
How far it may be a concomitant of splent” is not easy of so- 
lution ; but I cannot consider it to be a form of or extension of 
that disease, though it may be so closely connected as to have the 
appearance of being so. It must be taken into consideration how 
very rare it is to find an exception to the presence of splent in the 
fore limb, and only in a less degree in the hind limb, and this 
in animals that were never known to have been lame in their 
lives — in fact, simple splent is not so much to be considered as a 
disease, as an effort of nature to make stronger that part which has 
been found to be weak — and though in very many instances 
during the ossific process lameness presents itself, yet so soon as 
this process is effected, the lameness subsides of itself : there are 
exceptions, however, to all rules, and, of course, to this of splent ; 
but it is not my intention to enter upon the consideration of this 
latter disease, only remarking upon those points which bear, or ap- 
pear to do so, upon the main subject. That splent, simply as such, 
is what I have stated it to be, namely, a process of strengthening 
a weak part, I have a good specimen in the legs of a foal, nine months 
old, which, dying from some internal disease — I forget what — 
