imply depositing
bone in place of the removed cartilage, but that, after that is
accomplished, the bone still continues to be produced, as in the case of an
exostosis elsewhere.

Although diagnosis in cases such as these is easy, it becomes a very
different matter when we are called upon to give an opinion in cases where
ossification of the cartilage is only just commencing. Whether the result
of our examination is to decide the sale or purchase of an animal, to
determine his fitness or otherwise to enter the show-ring, or to merely
advise a client as to whether or no a side-bone is in course of formation,
our position is equally difficult, and in either case our examination must
be searching.

Perhaps the best advice we can give is to say that the whole of the
cartilage must be manipulated both with the foot _on_ and _off_ the ground.
What the reason may be we do not pretend to say, but it is a well-known
fact that in many instances the cartilage, with the foot bearing weight,
is so rigid as to at once convey the impression that ossification has
commenced or is even far advanced. And yet that same cartilage, with the
foot removed from the ground, is as pleasantly yielding to pressure of the
thumb as the most exacting of us could wish for. In any case, then, where
doubt exists, the foot should be lifted to the knee, and the cartilage
carefully examined with the foot in that position. If, then, at any spot
above the normal contour of the os pedis we meet with hardness or rigidity,
we are to look upon that foot with suspicion. Nevertheless, providing our
conscience is sufficiently elastic, the animal may be passed _sound_ so far
as the _existence_ of a side-bone is concerned. We know, however, that with
commencing rigidity we may ere long expect one, and if our opinion is asked
with regard to that particular, it must be admitted that with rigidity of
the cartilage once commenced it is usually not long afterwards before a
fully-developed side-bone makes its appearance.

As is only to be expected, the first noticeable hardening of the cartilage
is to be found near the normal bone. We may thus look for it more
particularly in the lower portions of the cartilage. We think we may say,
too, that in the vast majority of cases the ossification of the cartilage
commences in its anterior half. It is thus brought about that often we
are called upon to examine and report on the condition when we have
_anteriorly_ a side-bone in cou