220 -THE HORSE OWNEr's 



both are involved. This inflammatory condition of the 

 joint may be considered the exciting canse of spavin, and, 

 if not speeddy removed, spavin soon follows ; the synovi- 

 al fluid, commonly called juirtt-oil, is soon absorbed, the 

 cartilages of the joint are turned to bone, which unite one 

 with the other, forming one solid mass, destroying the 

 mobility of the parts involved, and constituting what is 

 technically called anchylosis of the hock joint. This union 

 of the bones is not always general, there being in many 

 cases but two, three, or four of the bones involved. When 

 these changes are confined to the cartilages, there is no 

 external enlargement ; on the contrary, when the liga- 

 ments surrounding the joint are involved, we have in all 

 cases external enlargement. When the hock receives au 

 injury, the course of treatment usually pursued by horse- 

 men is very pernicious. The application of a blister to 

 an inflamed surface must do injury by increasing the in- 

 flammation they wish to abate, and in many cases actu- 

 ally producing a spavin where it otherwise would not 

 exist. I do nat deny that blisters are necessary and use- 

 ful in such cases, if properly applied; but the idea of rub- 

 bing blisters on an inflamed surface, to reduce it, is like 

 throwing shavings on burning coals to extinguish them. 

 The educated physician, in applying a blister, does it so 

 as to draw the inflammation from the part affected to a 

 part where it will do no injury ; otherwise, it had better 

 not be applied at all. When the disease has advanced 

 so far as to produce alteration of structure in the part, 

 the application of blisters is proper, not for the purpose 

 of curing the disease, but with a view of removing the 

 lameness, by increasing the inflammation, thereby caus- 

 ing a more speedy union of the diseased bones, which 



