418 
LAMENESS IN HORSES. 
spring is destroyed ; the splint bones are rendered fixtures, no 
better, indeed, than were they mere processes or prominences of 
the cannon bone itself. These few preliminary observations will, 
it is hoped, render the pathology of splint not only more intelligi- 
ble, but, in a practical point of view, more serviceable. 
The Name of splint, or splent — derived from the Italian word 
spinella, a splint — would seem first to have been used to denote 
the bone in or upon which the disease so called is seated, and 
afterwards the disease itself. The two small bones, in our modern 
nomenclature, called metacarpal and metatarsal, in their position 
along the sides of the cannon bones, or great metacarpal and meta- 
tarsal bones, have so much the aspect of splints (the old name for 
which is splents), or splinters off the shaft of the large bone to which 
they cling, that we can readily imagine how they came to be called 
splint or splent bones, and as easily understand how the appella- 
tion of the bone came to be transferred to the disease. 
The Definition of a Splint is simply this, — That it is an 
exostosis — i. e. a callous or osseous tumour — growing upon one, 
or contiguous to one, of the splint bones. Were the tumour not 
of such composition, or not so situated, we should not call it a 
splint. 
Kinds or Qualities of Splints. — According to Solley- 
SELL — who here, as on most other horse subjects, displays a prac- 
tical knowledge that at times no less surprises than gratifies us — 
there are five kinds or qualities of splints. To give them (and 
more for the sake of gratifying curiosity than of approving of them 
all) in his own words — “ The first is THE SIMPLE SPLINT, which 
but adheres to the bone of the leg, and doth not at all touch the 
back sinew, and is also at a pretty distance from the knee. The 
second is THE PEGGED or DOUBLE SPLINT ( le sur-os double ou 
chevillt), which is when there are two splints, one upon the outer, 
the other upon the inner side of the leg, directly opposite to one 
another, as though they were pinned together through the leg, 
from which they derive the denomination of pegged. The third is 
the splint which ascendeth to the knee, and almost always maketh 
a horse to halt. The fourth is the (la tumeur) FUSEE, which is 
two splints joined at the ends, one above the other. The last 
(the fifth) is the little bony excrescence, OSSELET, which is upon 
the knee, and may be taken for the very substance of the knee 
itself, unless a man have very great experience*.” 
The ordinary Site of Splint is above the middle of the 
leg, rather nearer to the knee than to the fetlock. A splint upon 
or immediately under the knee-joint is an affair df complication 
* Compleat Horseman, Hope’s Translation, 2d edit, part ii, sect. 6, p. 95. 
