24*2 OCCULT-SPAVIN. 



action of the limb in ploughing can be borne without 

 very great pain ; at length ossification being perfected, 

 the parts become fixed ; and the leg is subsequently 

 used without pain. 



The farrier once used to have recourse to the chisel 

 and mallet in order to remove this and some other bony 

 productions ; the spavin was sometimes punctured with 

 the awl, or perforated with the gimlet; but this, in the 

 great majority of cases, only added to the inflammation; 

 and thus aggravated the evil which was previously 

 disabling the limb ; moreover, the tumour is somewhat 

 too close to important vessels for ignorance to inter- 

 fere with it. 



OCCULT-SPAVIN. 



In some cases there will be lameness clearly refer- 

 able, by the action of the horse, to the hock; but it 

 will be unaccompanied by any external bony enlarge- 

 ment, The cause of this was long unsuspected : at 

 length it was recollected by Mr. Godwin, that the 

 joint consisted of several bones, having some slight 

 motion upon one another, each bone being invested 

 by its own synovial membrane, so as to form a sepa- 

 rate perfect joint; wherefore it began to be suspected 

 that the concussion which excited inflammation and 

 ossification, might produce injurious effects on some of 

 these little, but complicated joints. The examination 

 of some horses after death that had laboured under 

 obscure lameness in the hind leg, set the matter in its 

 proper light ; for there was found, deep in the internal 

 part of the hock, inflammation of the membranes of 

 these little joints, going on to caries of the bones, 

 without any external appearance to indicate such an 



