PATHOLOGY OF SPAVIN. 77 



state ; and, after twelve months' trial from the time of his being 

 given up for treatment, he was destroyed, his case being naturally 

 considered a hopeless one." 



" You will perceive" — continues Mr. Goodwin, holding up the 

 hock for the inspection of the members present — '' that ulceration 

 of the synovial membrane, taking its origin between the two 

 cuneiform bones, has extended into the substance of the bones ; 

 that they have become carious ; and the disease has been gra- 

 dually extending itself to other parts of the joint; and I have no 

 doubt that, had the animal been suffered to work on for any length 

 of time, necrosis and anchylosis of every bone concerned in the 

 hock-joint would have been the result, as you will observe has been 

 the case in the hock [holding up to view another specimen] I now 

 shew you." 



At a subsequent sitting of the Society, Mr. Goodwin produced a 

 third specimen of spavin, in a hock that had belonged to a horse, also 

 the property of George IV, and which had cost 350 guineas at five 

 years old. The horse had had curbs, for which he had been fired. 

 Four or five years ago he shewed stiffness in his hind limbs in 

 action ; but, as the stiffness disappeared after he had been ridden 

 for a short time, no serious notice was taken of it, and the disease 

 the occasion of it — incipient spavin — was left to make such pro- 

 gress, that, when the horse came at length to be given up for 

 treatment, he was found past all remedy. However, he was 

 blistered and turned out ; but, after being turned out he became 

 worse, and was in consequence destroyed. In the off hock, in 

 which there was the least lameness, there was no exostosis, no 

 alteration in the form of the joint ; but there was ulceration of the 

 synovial membrane, with slight caries of the cuneiform bones. In 

 the near hock, the disease had proceeded from caries to anchylosis : 

 there was no separating the large and middle cuneiform hones from 

 each other even with a chisel, or the latter from the cannon bone. 

 In neither hock was heat detected during life ; nor was there any 

 tumour or other external indication of disease. 



In the year 1832 a case of spavin occurred to me which fully 

 bore out Mr. Goodwin's improved views of the disease. No. 4 of G 

 troop of my own regiment was passed by me, at four years old, in 



