ON SPLINTS. 539 
I saw them ; and, to tell you the truth, I did not know how to 
treat them better than I did. 
Messrs. Editors, do me the favour to read my paper again; and 
say, was there nothing more worth notice than the bowel affection ? 
Mr. Friend, do the same; and say, was the state of the stomachs, 
cause or eflect ? 
ON SPLINTS. 
Mr. J. P. Cheetham, F.aS., Edinburgh. 
The following remarks are intended to explain the nature of 
that disease denominated a splint. 
It may seem to many superfluous, as the disease is generally 
supposed to be well understood by all in the profession, and even 
by numbers not connected wdth the art. 
In my commencement, it will be requisite for me, in some 
measure, to describe the physiology of the carpus and metacarpus. 
The carpus is composed of seven or eight bones, arranged in 
two rows; and the metacarpus of three bones. 
The carpus has three horizontal articulations; the first is 
formed by the inferior extremity of the radius, with the superior 
row of bones, and in it is allowed the greatest degree of flexion; 
and, as a consequence, there are surfaces adequate to complete 
that motion : but this action diminishes in the articulation formed 
between the two rows of bones ; and in the inferior part of the 
joint we may say it is imperceptible. 
The different parts of the articulations which I have wished 
above to draw attention to, are those presenting the hinge form, 
and of which the superior articulation, posteriorly, is prinpipally 
composed ; the middle has a less hinge surface, and the inferior 
has none. 
On viewing these parts of the articulation that flex the knee 
when the leg is in the extended position, there can be discerned 
in the superior a space between the articular cartilages, and v/hich 
is less seen in the middle one, but which is sufficient to demon¬ 
strate that these portions of the articulations in this action con¬ 
vey none of the weight down to the rest of the limb. 
The remainder of the anterior part of thp articulations not 
occupied by the foregoing, are oblique surfaces, acting similar to 
wedges, so as to separate each other : this curious structure is 
undoubtedly made to diffuse concussion. 
The upper row of bones, I believe, are moved only in a trifling 
degree, from their being bound together by the shape of the 
