BONE SPAVIN. 365 



spavin, that it abates, and sometimes disappears, on exercise ; and, therefore, 

 a horse with regard to which there is any suspicion of this affection should be 

 examined when first in the morning it is taken from the stable. 



If the spavin continues to increase, the bony deposit first spreads over the 

 lower wedge-bones, y, page 361, for these are nearest to its original seat. They 

 are capable of slight motion, and share in every action of the joint, but their 

 principal design is to obviate concussion. The chief motion of the joint, and 

 that compared with which the motion of the other bones is scarcely to be 

 regarded, is confined to the tibia a, and the astragalus 6, and therefore stiffness 

 rather than lameness may accompany spavin, even when it is beginning to affect 

 the small bones of the joint. Hence, too, is the advantage of these bones having 

 each its separate ligaments and membranes, and constituting so many distinct 

 joints, since injury may happen to some of them, without the effect being pro- 

 pagated to the rest. When the bony deposit continues to enlarge, and takes in 

 the second layer of bones the larger wedge-bones e and even spreads to the 

 cuboid bones on the other side, the lameness may not be very great, because 

 these are joints, or parts of the joint, hi which the motion is small ; but when 

 it extends to the union of the tibia a, and the astragalus b when the joint, in 

 which is the chief motion of the hock, is attacked the lameness is indeed 

 formidable, and the horse becomes nearly quite useless. 



Spavined horses are generally capable of slow work. They are equal to the 

 greater part of the work of the farm, and therefore they should not be always 

 rejected by the small farmer, as they may generally be procured at little price. 

 These horses are not only capable of agricultural work, but they generally im- 

 prove under it. The lameness in some degree abates, and even the bony tumour 

 to a certain degree diminishes. There is sufficient moderate motion and 

 friction of the limb to rouse the absorbents to action, and cause them to 

 take up a portion of the bony matter thrown out, but not enough to 

 renew or prolong inflammation. It cannot be said that the plough affords 

 a cure for spavin, but the spavined horse often materially improves while 

 working at it. 



For fast work, and for work that must be regularly performed, spavined 

 horses are not well calculated; for this lameness behind produces great difficulty 

 in rising, and the consciousness that he will not be able to rise without painful 

 effort occasionally prevents the horse from lying down at all ; and the animal 

 that cannot rest well, cannot long travel far or fast. 



The treatment of spavin is simple enough, but far from being always effectual. 

 The owner of the horse will neither consult his own interest, nor the dictates of 

 humanity, if he suffers the chisel and mallet, or the gimlet, or the pointed 

 iron, or arsenic, to be used ; yet measures of considerable severity must be 

 resorted to. Repeated blisters will usually cause either the absorption of the 

 bony deposit, or the abatement or removal of the inflammation of the liga- 

 ments, or, as a last resource, the heated iron may be applied. 



The account of the diseases of the hock is not yet completed. It is well 

 known that the horse is frequently subject to lameness behind, when no osten- 

 sible cause for it can be found, and there is no external heat or enlargement to 

 indicate its seat. Farriers and grooms pronounce these to be affections of 

 the stifle, or round bone ; or, if the gait of the horse and peculiar stiffness of 

 motion point out the hock as the affected part, yet the joint may be of its natu- 

 ral size, and neither heat nor tenderness can be discovered. The groom has his 

 own method of unravelling the mystery. He says that it is the beginning of 

 spavin ; but months and years pass away, and the spavin does not appear, and 

 the horse is at length destroyed as incurably lame. 



Horsemen are indebted to Mr. W. J. Goodwin, V. S. to Her Majesty, for the 

 discovery of the seat of frequent lameness behind. The cut, p. 361, represents 



