The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-11 00:00:00

THE SON, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 1866,

from the Mediterranean, are daily expected at
Plymouth.
Upwards of 100 shipwrights and mechanics from
Chatham and Sheerness dockyards left those es-
tablishments yesterday in the Fearless, paddle-
wheel steamer, for Millwall, to be employed in the
operations to effect the launch of the ironclad frigate
Northumberland. They will be engaged on that
vessel until further orders.

An order has been received at Chatham directing
No. 3 battery of the Ist Brigade, Royal Artillery,
now stationed at Shoeburyness, to be relieved by a
battery of the 2d Brigade, from Gosport. The
above alterations are to be made on the 20th inst.

Rear-Admiral Hugh Dunlop, C. 8., on his promo-
tion, yesterday formally resigned the duties of Com-
modore-Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard, in
favour of his successor, Capt. Edmonstone, C. 8.,
appointed Captain-Superintendent, according to the
new Admiralty regulations. Mr. Frederick W. S.
Ponsonby, naval secretary, who filled the same
office with Commodore Dunlop in the West
Indies, now retires on half-pay. The duties of the
secretary's department have devolved on Mr. Cole,
assistant-secretary, who has filled that post during
the past 10 years, under successive Commodores, at
Woolwich. Capt. Edmonstone, having taken over
the post of Captain-Superintendent, has been
granted a month's leave of absence to arrange his
affairs. The duties, afloat and ashore, appertaining
to the office, will be conducted in the interval re-
spectively by Commander Towsey and Commander
Biddlecombe, senior officers in succession. The
duties of Captain-Superintendent of Deptford Dock
and Victualling yards were yesterday assumed by
Capt. Arthur P. E. Wilmot, C. 8., late senior officer
on the West coast of Africa, vice Captain Henry
Chads, who has succeeded to his flag rank and
retired.

Sp-ints in Horses.

(From a Correspondent of the Sporting Gazette.)

The celebrated surgeon Abernethy is said to have
attributed almost every malady to a diseased state
of the stomach ; so much so, that the following
anecdote is recorded of him :—A gentleman, the
subject of ulcerated legs, seeking the advice of the
doctor, wished, before entering into detail, to show
him the ulcers, but was abruptly prevented by the
remark, " Never mind your legs, your stomach is
the culprit." To state that the stomach plays a
most important part in the animal economy is super-
fluous. The medical man is constantly advising his
patients who complain of headache, pains in the
back, &c., to take more exercise, not to eat suppers,
all which advice goes to prove that the physician
considers the digestive organs to be at fault.
In the treatment of most diseases, the practitioner
considers it necessary to cleanse the system. This
is accomplished by the administration of purgative;
which, by acting on the stomach, affects through
the medium of the nerves the other part of the body
involved in disease.

"The stomach beingmisaffected, which he calls the king
of the belly, because if he be distempered, all the rest suffer
witk him as being deprived of their nutriment, or fed with
bad nourishment, by which come crudities, obstructions,
wind, rumbling, griping, itc."—" Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy."

If such be the case, that the diseased action of
the stomach produces ill effects upon the other
organs of the body, it is our duty to consider
whether the stomach, by its position or construction,
is likely to bring about such a pathological state as
inflammation. The chief nervous influence is sup-
plied to the pneumo-gastric nerve, which, as its
name implies, gives off branches to the lungs, and
arises from that part of the nervous column called
the medulla oblongata, from which it proceeds
downwards to the chest, and therein gives off fila-
ments, which, together with the sympathetic system,
form the pulmonary plexus. After forming these
and other plexuses needless here to he mentioned,
the pneumo-gastric nerve passes into the abdomen,
and therein contributes to the formation of the
semilunar ganglion, whence the stomach, spleen,
and liver derive their nervous force.

From this superficial anatomical sketch, it will
easily be seen how great a nervous relation exists
between the organs of digestion and respiration. It
will be readily understood how impressions made
upon the organs of digestion will affect those of re-
spiration, and produce inflammation of them, but
by what means these bad impressions are obtained'
is beyond our present power to discover. We must
therefore rest satisfied with the knowledge of the
effect of which some omnipotent force as yet un-
known is the cause.
"The manner in which the will is conveyed to the brain,
or how sensations are excited in different parts of the body,
remain involved in mystery. The author of nature is per-
fect in all his works, and although we do not understand
all the workings of his hands, we are compelled to acknow-
ledge their wisdom, propriety, and beauty."—Beaumont.

Much remains for physiologists to discover con-
cerning sympathetic action. That it is a pheno-
menon taking place every moment we all know,
"for whether one member suffer all members suffer
with it, or one member be honoured all members
rejoice with it," but by what means the result of
sympathy is made manifest, remains for future
physiology to determine.
In my letter of last week I attempted to prove
the theory of inflammation, as previously explained,
to be correct, changing theory into fact by adducing
examples of disease of not uncommon occurrence
among horse and cattle, as congestion of the lungs ;
it will now be my endeavour to apply in practice
that which theory has suggested, and in so doing, to
point out the results of inflammation, or, in other
words, to enumerate a number of diseases occurr-
ing consequent upon the withdrawal of nervous
force, either locally or generally ; and in the first
place shall detail those maladies involving the bony
tissue in inflammatory action.
Splints.—Very few horses live who are not
affected, more or less, with the disease denominated
" Splint." A splint consists of a bony tumour,
generally situated on the inside of the foreleg, which
is composed below the knee of the following bones :
—The cannon (metacarpus) and small metacarpal
bones, situated behind the cannon, the one inter-
nally and the other externally.
In the colt the metacarpal bones and cannon arc
united together by a fibro ligamentous substance,
but as age advances, ossification of this structure
commences, and, finally, the cannon and small meta-
carpal bones are cemented together by bony union,
or, in other words, those three bones form one com-
mon shaft. Usually at five years old, while the pro
cess of ossification is progressing, the animal is daily
performing severe physical exertion, and the result
is that, owing to the causes to be afterwards con-
sidered, the horse " throws out," as it is called, a
splint.
Let us consider how it is that the fibro cartilagin-
ous substance:existing between the cannon and meta-
carpal bones becomes converted into bone. Perci-
val' writes :

"The immediate or proximate cause we believe to be
increased action, amounting in some instances to inflam-
mation set up in the vessels of the fibro cartilage, whereby
hypertrophy or exostosis (growth of bone from bone) is
produced."

T cannot agree fully with the opinion of Mr. Per-
civall, which considers that the conversion of the
fibro cartilage into bone is due to a deviation in the
part from health. When the bony depositions pro-
ceed beyond their limits, that is,.grow out beyond
the space occupied by the primary substance—viz.,
the fibro cartilage, and by their aggregation form a
tumour, then, doubtless, the disease splint is set up,
but the conversion of cartilage into bone is no ab-
normal condition of the part,. but simply a natural
consequence occurring prematurely—that is, before
the full development of the animal tissues.
My reasons for arriving at this conclusion are that
in foetal life the skeleton is composed of cartilage,
which becomes gradually converted into bone. Even
at birth many of these bones are not united toge-
ther, but during months in the life of the lower ani-
mals, and years in that of man, they are undergoing
a gradual change from cartilage into bone. In
order to make myself clear on this, let me remind
the readers of the Gazette that bony tissue is com-
posed of two materials—viz., of animal and calcare-
ous matters, the former giving elasticity, and the
latter hardness ; the amount of animal matter in
young animals is large, whereas in old ores it gives
way to the calcareous or earthly material, and