528 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
MASSACHUSETTS VETERINARY ASSOCIATION. 
The regular monthly meeting of this Association was held in Boston, Decem¬ 
ber 23, 1885. 
The President and Vice-President being absent, Dr. F. H. Osgood was 
chosen Chairman pro tern. 
There were present Doctors Bryden, Clements, Howard, Osgood, Peters, 
Penniman, Marshall and Winchester. 
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and accepted, and reports of 
progress were presented from the Committees on Charter and Revision of the 
Constitution. 
The meeting then listened to the reading of a paper by A. Marshall* 
M.R.C.V.S., on “Exostoses.” 
He said they were of two kinds, the “ simple,” which were regular in outline, 
round, nearly like bone, and originating from the periosteum—example, a splint ; 
the “ asperous,” originating from periosteum and bone itself, and also a result of 
the “simple.” The principal examples of exostoses he drew attention to were 
splints, spavins and ringbones. Of splints, he said they were caused by concus¬ 
sion, injuries, hereditary predisposition, etc., and there is first an inflammation of 
periosteum, causing a plastic exudation to be thrown out. They do not always 
cause lameness, but oftener do so in young animals than aged ones, and a horse 
with high knee action is more prone to them than one with less knee action. A 
peculiarity of splint lameness he said to be, that the animal will walk sound, but 
trot lame. Pressure causes pain; there is heat present, slight swelling, and then 
an exostosis presents itself, immediately in some cases, in others not for weeks. 
In cases where the lameness is excessive he advised subcutaneous periosteotomy 
to be performed. 
Of spavins, he said hereditary predisposition no doubt operated as a cause, 
but that they were not entirely due to peculiarity of conformation, and mentioned 
the sprain of a ligament as a cause. 
The origin of this exostosis he said to be in the cancellated structure of the 
interior of the bone, then inflammation of the cartilage takes place, and it is 
finally destroyed and a plastic exudate forms, and finally anchylosis takes place. 
The external deposit is not the cause , but the result of this diseased process. 
When anchylosis takes place the lameness generally disappears, but not so if 
anchylosis does not ensue. 
Of ringbones, after classifying them as“ true ” and “ false,” and “ low” and 
“ high,” he said, like the exostoses in the hock, they were the result and not the 
cause of a diseased process, and took their origin also in the cancellated tissue of 
the bone itself. He described their location and some peculiarities of the gait of 
an animal affected with them. 
DISCUSSION. 
Dr. Bryden said he could not agree with the essayist that the diseased process 
originated in the cancellated structure of the bone. He thought there was a dis¬ 
turbance set up on the exterior, the circulation of the parts diverted, and their 
nutrition interfered with. A hyperaemia is produced, the foramina of the bone 
filled or obstructed, and thus the internal structures cannot get nutrition, and die. 
