76 PATHOLOGY OF SPAViN. 



over, it is ascertained that what from the beginning is no more 

 than a splent in the hind limb, rarely turns to a true spavin, but 

 continues in the form of a " knot" or knob, to which little or no 

 importance is attached, from the circumstance of its rarely or never 

 being known to be productive of lameness. This constitutes the 

 error. The grand defect in the Professor's theory of the patho- 

 logy of spavin is its insufficiency either to account for the extreme 

 lameness so often present or to explain the reason of the disease 

 being so commonly irremediable, all which has since been most 

 satisfactorily accomplished. In the year 1830, Mr. Goodwin, the 

 present Veterinary Surgeon to the Queen, read a paper to the 

 Veterinary Medical Society* on the subjects of navicular disease 

 and spavin, wherein, after informing the members present on the 

 occasion that " his ideas on spavin were altogether different from 

 those of authors both of the past and present day,'' he introduced, 

 by way of illustration of his own views, a case which, " as it cor- 

 responds," said Mr. Goodwin, '' minutely with others from which 

 I have derived my notions of spavin, I need only trace the symp- 

 toms that were present in this instance, to put you (the members) 

 in possession of my experience on this disease." 



*' The subject of this case was a harness horse of unusual per- 

 fection both in shape and action, and was a great favourite of an 

 illustrious personage (George IV). He suddenly became lame 

 behind, in the off fore-leg, and without the least visible alteration 

 of structure to account for it. Circumstances, unfortunately for 

 the poor beast, were such — the lameness disappearing after being 

 turned out for a short time — that, instead of being given up imme- 

 diately for treatment, he was made to perform his usual work until 

 perfectly incapacitated from it by returning and aggravated lame- 

 ness. Suspecting the seat of mischief to be in the hock, although 

 at the time the joint was unaltered in its form, he was, three 

 months after the commencement of the disease, blistered and fired ; 

 after which operations he was turned either into a loose place or 

 into a paddock, as circumstances required. Not the least amend- 

 ment took place at the end of six months, even in his quiescent 



* Published afterwards in vol. iii of The Veterinarian. 



