Manual of veterinary science / by William Dick.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of veterinary science / by William Dick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    57/234 (page 39)
    In the study of the veterinary art, the ground-work is Osteology, inasmuch as it relates to the most fixed and stable part of the frame, and so becomes the guide and directory to the relations and actions of all other parts. In accordance with this fact, we shall first direct attention to the Osseous system. Diseases of bones are numerous, but the only ones we need to mention in particular are Exostosis and Necrosis, under which Caries, or ulceration, and An- chylosis, may be included. Exostosis is an osseous tumour, originating from a bone, in which the perios- teum is always necessarily involved, there being thick- ening of this membrane, and deposition of osseous matter by it, in many cases, not less than by the bone itself. It may generally be the result of some local injury, though unquestionably it may occur from other causes. There is no bone which it may not attack; and an exostosis, as large as a child's head, has been seen on some of the bones. The attending pain seems to vary, and to be greatly dependent upon the extent to which the circumjacent parts are involved, as does also the degree of lameness it may produce. With a few exceptions, the disease does not often force itself upon notice. The appropriate remedy, very uniform in its beneficial results, is counter-irritation, by frequent, and if necessary, smart blistering, firing, or setons. In some cases, it may finally call for excision. The ex- ceptions just alluded to are the diseases known under the names of bone-spavin, splint, and ring-bone, which no doubt afford specimens of the disease. But it is