PATHOLOGY OF SPAVIN. 69 



time the Senior Veterinary Surgeon of the Ordnance Department. 

 He examined her, and without hesitation pronounced her " lame 

 in the hock" and she was treated accordingly ; and the result 

 was, at no great distance of time, her complete restoration to 

 soundness. 



It is true, so far as the case above related goes, that the only proof 

 the mare's lameness was in the hock, was her restoration to soundness 

 after the application of remedies to that joint. There is, however, 

 to be said, in addition, to induce us to believe that it was so, that of all 

 the joints of the hind limb, no one is so frequently — so likely to be 

 — deranged as the hock ; and, consequently, from this fact alone, is a 

 prima facie case made out. Moreover, we have to assist us, in 

 our diagnosis, the stiff or imperfect flexion of the hock joint in action, 

 and the wearing away of the toe of the shoe, shewing that the heel 

 is rarely or but very gingerly put to the ground. Also the cir- 

 cumstance — often observable by the groom — of the animal resting 

 the lame (hind) limb in the stable; on occasions, perhaps, knuck- 

 ling over upon it, and so bearing the weight upon the toe alone. 

 And it has happened before now, that while doubt was impending 

 as to the locality and nature of the lameness, a spavin has made 

 its appearance and dissipated all further conjecture ; and with this 

 development of the spavin, the lameness, so far from being aug- 

 mented, is not unlikely to become better. This is an observation 

 made so long ago as the time of SoUeysell: this admirable ob- 

 server, in one part of his chapter on spavins, says — " at their first 

 piercing they commonly always make a horse halt, and afterwards, 

 the swelling growing bigger, the horse halteth no more with it*." 



Pathology of Spavin. 



The Construction and Action of the Hock Joint, 

 complex as the articulation is, and different from all others with 

 the exception of the knee, being a requisite preliminary know- 

 ledge to the due understanding of the nature and consequences 

 of spavin, it may not be out of place here to make a few remarks 



* Op. cit. part i, chap, xvi, page 60. 



