372 UADDS VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



amination, by dint of whip and spur, and management in the 

 bridle-hand, he might pass his merchandise oif to an unwary 

 buyer as sound. Indeed, so much is sweating work, or exercise 

 approaching thereto, apt to prove a foil to sliowing lamenes.s, 

 that one is almost inclined to say no horse ought to be examined 

 under such circumstances ; certainly no horse susjjected of spavin 

 The time, of all others, that a spavined horse will be apt to man- 

 ifest his lameness will be the day following after a hard day's 

 work ; and when he makes his first egress from the stable in the 

 morning is the critical period for examination. Horses that go 

 limpingly lame from spavin, lame at all times, and lamer still 

 when they work, often experience pain in the seat of disease to a 

 degree which, in the language of Solleysell, causes them ' to pine 

 away, especially about the flanks.' They have probably beau 

 blistered and fired, perhaps setoned ; have had their hocks fright- 

 fully scarred, and y-et are lame to that degree that they are unable 

 to do more than gingerly put the toe of the foot of the spavined 

 limb to the ground, and so painfully hobble along ; and, although 

 they may still maintain their appetite, yet they are low in condi- 

 tion, tucked up in their flanks — evidently, in short, ' pining awa>.' 



Such pitiable subjects, it is true, may be kept at work. The 

 little, however, they can do, when put to any thing requiring 

 strength of action or pull, together with the wretched condition 

 they are generally in, is a fact so well known to coach and omni- 

 bris proprietors, and horse-keepers in general, that at the horse 

 auctions such animals fetch little or nothing. Even for agricul- 

 tural work such laborers as these prove of but little WorSi. Now 

 and then, however, it happens that the spavined horse, although 

 treatment has failed to render him sound, continues, in respect to 

 his disease, in that state in which he appears to sufier no local 

 pain at all while at rest, an'^ but little while at work, and so is 

 able to do a considerable ^ L of some kinds of labor, lasting 



in it perhaps for year^ .Jlill, such a horse is more likely than 

 another to receive injuries, to experience aggravation or relapse 

 of disease in his already diseased hock ; and, under such return 

 or augmentation of ailment, unless great care be taken, and fre- 

 quently with all the care we can take, may and will Ml altogether 



Spavins exist which occasion no lameness. How this comes to 

 pass will appear when the time arrives to consider the reasons why 

 vpcivins in general cause lameness, and, on occasions, very great 



