256 OF THE NATURE ANI) TREATMENT OF SPLENT. 
4 
My principal object in bringing this matter forward is, to 
ascertain bow far we are justified in asserting that the splent in 
the horse is precisely the same as the node in the human subject, 
and that, consequently, a horse with splent must be unsound. 
Such was the decision of Mr. Sewell in a case which came under 
my knowledge, and which was the cause of involving a poor man 
in a most ruinous expense. 
If the chairman will allow me, I shall, as briefly as possible, 
relate the circumstance : — 
Early in the spring of 1827, a Norfolk breeder brought seven 
or eight horses to town for sale : I was requested by a gentleman 
to inspect one of them, of which he had made choice. They 
were a lot of very clever horses, and all got by old Pretender. 
There was one rather remarkable circumstance,—they had all 
splents, but situated on the shin bone, and, as far as regards 
lameness, they were all perfectly sound. I mean to say, not one 
of them was lame; and, therefore, I considered them sound. I 
passed the one in question (a mare), and she always remained 
sound, and gave great satisfaction. 
A few days after this, a gentleman called upon me to ask if I 
could recommend a horse to carry a lady. Having seen one be¬ 
longing to the breeder to whom I have just alluded, I took the 
gentleman to the stable, accompanied by his friend and servant. 
After they had all ridden the horse and approved of him, 
notwithstanding he had a splent on each leg of large dimen¬ 
sions, and which were pointed out to them, they bought him. 
On the third day I found the whole party at my house, exceed¬ 
ingly angry: the horse was lame, and it was insisted that the 
dealer should take him back. It appeared that the horse was 
sent the day before to the College: it had left the gentleman’s 
stable sound, but on arriving at the College he was discovered to 
be very lame. Mr. Sewell examined him, and said he was lame 
in consequence of the splent, and recommended the gentleman 
immediately to return him. When I saw him on the following 
day, he was still lame; but I was soon satisfied the splents had 
nothing to do with the lameness. I had the shoe taken off, and 
could find nothing wrong in the foot; but on pressing my thumb 
in the heel above the frog, the horse felt so much pain, that he 
plunged from me with violence. On closer examination, I found 
it proceeded from a very trifling crack in the heel. 
After a great deal of angry contention between the dealer and 
the gentleman, I persuaded them to consent to my keeping the 
horse three days; in which time I was to give him a dose of phy¬ 
sic, and poultice his heel. If he was sound at the end of that 
period, the gentleman was to keep him; if he continued lame, he 
