124 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 



The senses of the two sides of your body are always, at 

 best, a little dissimilar. No physician would attach much 

 weight to your opinion if he caught you comparing the 

 respiratory murmurs of the two sides of the chest, one 

 side with one ear, the other side with the other ear. No. 

 Compare the spavin place of the two hocks always by 

 the touchy but let it be by the same touch. Recollect, of 

 course, that it is the small spavin you have need to do 

 this in the case of— not in the case of the spavin on 

 which you can hang your hat. And you will find that it 

 is the small, just perceptible spavin, which lames a horse. 

 The spavin that is forming. In comparing the two spavin 

 places use a gentle touch, and at once pass your same 

 touch to the opposite spavin place. By the same touch 

 I not only mean the same part of your person, but let 

 it be from the index to the middle finger in each case. 

 I saw one of you the other day trying to accomplish a 

 tremendous physiological feat. He felt the right hock 

 very properly with the fingers I have named of his right 

 hand, and then went round to the other side of the horse 

 and felt the other hock with his other hand. This at 

 once led me to the conclusion that he and Kirke 

 were not boon companions. The larger spavins can, of 

 course, be quite well seen, and we frequently do see them 

 the first thing, but in the all-important spavins, the very 

 small spavins situated far forward, never trust to your 

 sense of sight, as the very least deviation in the aspect of 

 the two limbs you are comparing will lead you wrong. 

 The wearing away of the toe of the shoe is also a mis- 



