492 SPAVIN. 



also been treated by applying escharotics to tbe denuded 

 bone after the periosteum had been divided : the budding- 

 iron has even been applied ; occasionally much inflamma- 

 tion has succeeded ; and in one instance it extended itself 

 among the tendons, and did irreparable mischief: in all, 

 the blemish is very considerable. It is, however, seldom 

 necessary to have recourse to other means than vesication, 

 which, if persisted in by first actively blistering, and then 

 keeping up an irritation by means of the oil of cantharides, 

 diluted with three additional parts of oil, for four or even 

 more weeks, will generally complete all that can be effected. 

 Or one active blister may be followed up by another, with 

 intervals of a week between. 



SPAVIN. 



Spavin is a very serious sequine affection : its destructive 

 attack on the utility of the most valuable of our domestic 

 animals has made it a subject of much importance. There 

 is some peculiarity in the degree the fore and hind legs 

 are disposed to take on disease. In the fore leg, for in- 

 stance, splint occurs upon the inner side of the limb ; in 

 the hind leg, it is seen upon the outer side of the shank- 

 bone. Why is this difference beheld in the same disease ? 

 In the fore leg, we attribute splint to the weight cast 

 upon one of the bones of the knee being entirely transferred 

 to the inner small metacarpal. In the hock something 

 of this sort occurs also upon the outer side, yet the small 

 metacarpal bone there is not nearly so often affected ; 

 while the outer splint-bone, which takes little more than its 

 share of weight, is the actual seat of the affection. Why 

 is this distinction? Does not its existence show us we 

 have not yet hit upon the right cause. The artery, never- 

 theless, passes along the inner side of the fore leg, close to 

 the seat of splint ; and it likewise does the same upon the 

 outer side of the hind leg, near to the place where splint in 

 that member begins. Splint originates in inflammation. 

 Inflammation is a disease of excessive vascularity. Can, 

 therefore, the neighbourhood of the artery have any thing 

 to do with its production ? It is not for us to answer the 

 question. 



All this, however, is foreign, it may be said, to our pre- 



