PATHOLOGY OF bPAVlN. 75 



this friend, hearing of my opinion, which had caused him no little 

 displeasure, one day, about three weeks afterwards, came to me 

 with the horse, begging I would then look at the horse once more, 

 and say whether I really determined him lame or sound. On this 

 occasion, after seeing him ridden a trot, I pronounced him sound. 

 " How, then, could you say he was lame three weeks ago ]" — 

 " Why, sir ! a horse may be lame at one time and sound at another 

 — be that, however, as it may, all I can say now is, that the horse, 

 at present, trots sound; whereas, three weeks ago he went, in my 

 opinion, lameT A month after this, the horse, which in the in- 

 terval had been sold at a reduced price, on account of lameness 

 having manifested itself, to a dealer, was brought for my opinion 

 a fourth time, he having been purchased of the dealer, at the strong 

 recommendation of his former laudator, by a captain in my own 

 regiment. He was now lame enough in the near hind leg, and a 

 large spavin obtruded itself upon my notice, which had no exist- 

 ence certainly at the time I made my first three examinations. 

 After some preparatory treatment, I fired him deeply for the 

 disease, and recommended that he have a winter's rest, the result of 

 which was, restoration to working soundness. At the time I am 

 writing, he continues sound, after having done two seasons' hunt- 

 ing, and remains in the highest estimation with his present master. 

 Hitherto I have regarded spavin as consisting in exostosis. 

 An osseous tumour makes its appearance, either at the time of 

 the manifestation of lameness or shortly afterwards, to which, and 

 to which alone, the pain on motion of the hock, causing the lame- 

 ness, used in times past to be ascribed by veterinarians. Pro- 

 fessor Coleman taught that spavin was no more than a splent of 

 the hind leg; and when once a doctrine is propounded formally 

 ex cathedra, persons in general are apt to place implicit 

 faith in it, few caring or troubling themselves to put it to 

 the test of practice. In time, however, experience, unaided by 

 any special or direct experiment, frequently detects error in received 

 doctrines, and this has been the case in the instance before us. 

 The Professor's pathology of spavin has proved by observation to 

 be both defective and erroneous. True or genuine spavin is now 

 known to have its site above where splent is situated ; and, more- 



