REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 97 



but too frequently the case — success would attend many of those 

 curative efforts which now end in lamentable failure. Topical 

 blood-letting woidd not be then, as it is but too generally now-a- 

 days, cast aside as an inefficacious remedy. There are three places 

 from which we may draw blood with considerable effect on disease 

 in the hock : — one is the saphena vein in the thigh; another, one 

 of the superficial veins upon the hock ; a third, the artery at the 

 toe of the foot. Of these I prefer the first, taking care to open the 

 vein as low as I conveniently can, and thereby to render the eva- 

 cuation as topical as is possible. We cannot always be certain of 

 obtaining the quantity we may desire from the superficial veins 

 running over the side of the hock ; and as most of these veins 

 communicate with the saphena, there seems no great good in pre- 

 ferring them. The toe of the foot is too far distant from the seat 

 of disease. 



It appears strange that early and copious abstractions of blood 

 should be so universally recommended and practised for disease 

 of the navicular joint; and yet for the disease of the hock-joint — 

 which is of an analogous nature to it — nothing should be thought 

 of but firing and blistering. Neither theory nor experience will 

 countenance inconsistency like this. Under the same circum- 

 stances there is as good cause for bleeding in articular spavin as 

 in navicular joint disease; the reason why it is not "found to 

 answer" being, that it is not put into practice under similar cir- 

 cumstances. A horse falls lame in one of his fore limbs, and the 

 lameness becomes too evident to escape observation; and his 

 master, either from sympathy or shame, at once desists riding the 

 animal, and takes measures for his restoration. But a horse may 

 fall lame in one of his hind limbs, and his owner not discover it, 

 at all events not for some time, or may mistake it for " cramp," 

 or some " peculiar gait" the animal has acquired ; and even should 

 the lameness be detected, still, as it does not amount to enough to 

 incapacitate the horse from working, and as the " stiffness" he 

 manifests when first brought out of the stable "goes off" through 

 exercise, he is continued at work until he evinces absolute in- 

 capability, or lameness to a degree to excite shame, if not com- 

 passion, in the breast of his master. For these reasons we do 



VOL. IV. o 



