ii8 CAUSES OF UNSOUNDNESS. 



and the horse. It is said that the " position " 

 of the enlargement bears some relationship to the 

 degree of lameness, but no matter where situated, 

 it is absolutely necessary to reject the animal. 

 Veterinary surgeons are often at considerable 

 variance as to the existence, or non-existence, of 

 bone-spavin in a particular animal. Why there 

 should be these differences of opinion it is somewhat 

 difficult to understand, provided that an honest 

 opinion be given. More difficulty is likely to arise, 

 however, when the deposit of new bone has taken 

 place upon the grooves, etc., traversing the surfaces 

 of the bones. Some veterinary surgeons make a 

 point of passing cart horses as sound, though the 

 hock be spavined, provided that the animal is free 

 from lameness, has good-shaped hocks, and is over 

 five years of age. Many such practitioners consider 

 that a spavined hock is, under these circumstances, 

 better than one without the disease. When old 

 horses are affected with bone-spavin they should 

 always be condemned, because, in these subjects, the 

 disease continues to run a destructive course. 

 There is a diseased condition of the hock known 

 as occult spavin ; that is, an inflammation attacking 

 the bones of the hock, without giving any external 

 evidence of its existence. There is no method 



