314 CAPPED HOCK. 



A CAPPED Hock may have a constitutional Cause. It may 

 arise in common with tumefaction of other parts, from " humour." 

 What T have, in another place, called " Diffuse Inflammation of the 

 Cellular Tissue" — a disease most apt to fall foul of the hind limb — 

 will produce it. There being such an abundance of cellular sub- 

 stance around the cap of the hock, rendering it an inviting part 

 for infiltration in dropsical or oedematous affections, readily ac- 

 counts for the fulness or swelling of this part under circumstances 

 of the kind. And nothing better than this explains the real nature 

 of ordinary capped hock. In such a case, of course, the tumour 

 here will increase and diminish, and disappear altogether, with the 

 swelling in other parts of the limb. As another constitutional, 

 though a much rarer, source of capped hock, may be mentioned 

 rheumatic inflammation of the joint of the hock. 



Capped Hock does not produce Lameness ; not, at least, 

 in any ordinary form. There must be something unusual about the 

 case for lameness to be present. And there is more likelihood of 

 its appearing after treatment than before ; shewing that the means 

 employed, when they are violent or such as are uncalled for, are 

 apt to prove worse than the disease. It is possible in a case of 

 capped hock of unusual magnitude, attended with more than an 

 ordinary degree of inflammation, that stiffness may be observed in 

 •the motions of the joint, though this hardly ever amounts to 

 actual lameness. It is after bold and violent treatment, such as 

 blisters and the operation of puncturing the distended cap, that 

 lameness is most apt to come on ; but, then, this arises from exten- 

 sion as well as aggravation of disease, and, properly speaking, has 

 little or nothing to do with a pure case of capped hock. 



The Treatment of Capped Hock, in the form in which it 

 ordinarily presents itself, is really more a matter of choice than of 

 necessity. So far as the animal's utility is to be considered, he is 

 quite as serviceable with a capped hock as without one. And yet, 

 having it, he carries about with him a great disfigurement : at 

 least, such it appears to my eyes, though there be those who are 

 of opinion that some enlargement of the cap of the hock rather 

 adds to than detracts from the fair proportions of the hind limb. 

 Other persons there are — and I must confess myself to be among 



