'502 



SPAVIN. 



in consequence, is the production 

 of that well known disease, 

 Spavin. 



If the joints of the hind limbs 

 are examined, and carefully com- 

 pared with one another, it will be 

 seen that the greatest extent and 

 freedom of motion (of any of these 

 joints) will occur in the hocks ; 

 and also that the motion in the 

 latter will be principally affected 

 between the tibia h and the 

 astragalus g; while the small 

 bones d efcl, situate below the 

 astragalus, will act, during the 

 locomotion of the animal, as a 

 series of buffers. Now it is 

 amongst these bones, d e f c h, 

 upon the inside of the joint, that 

 the disease in question — viz.. 

 Spavin — is always located. 



Sometimes it commences be- 

 tween the under surface of the 

 cuneiform parvum (the bone f) 

 and the head of the inner splint 

 bone h ; in which case the Spavin 

 is called, by dealers and horse- 

 men in general, "a Jack." In 

 other cases, again, the disease 

 commences higher in the joint, or 

 between the under surface of the 

 cuneiform magnum d e, and the 



Flff. SO. 



A representation cf the hock joint, 

 partly diagramatic, showing the ar- 

 rangement of the hones of the organ. 



a The cannou-lDone. 

 h The inner splint bone. 

 c The cuneiform medium. 

 f The cuneiform parvum. 

 d e The cuneiform magnum. 

 g . The astragalus, or pulley-like 

 bone. 



h The tibia. The motion of the 

 joint is eftected between these two 

 bones g and h. The lower end of the 

 bone h fits closely to the bone g^ 

 which is provided with deep grooves, 

 into which the lower extremity of 

 the bone h is securely fixed. 



» The OS calcis, or the bone 

 w^hich forms the back proraiuence 

 of the hock. 



