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trottiug, to which the victim has been compelled by the torture of whip 

 and spur while in use as a gambling implement by a sporting owner, 

 under the pretext of " improving his breed; "or the extra exertion of 

 starting an inordinately heavy load ; or an effort to recover his balance 

 from a misstep ; or slipping upon an icj^ surface ; or sliding with worn 

 shoes upon a bad pavement, and other kindred causes. And we can 

 repeat here what we have before said concerning bones, in respect to 

 heredity as a cause. As to this, our own experience is an authority — 

 we do know of equine families in which this condition has been 

 transmitted from generation to generation, and animals otherwise of 

 excellent comformation rendered valueless by the misfortune of a con- 

 genital spavin. 



The evil is one of the most serious character for other reasons, among 

 which may be specified the slowness of their development and the in- 

 sidiousness of their growth. Certain indefinite phenomena and alarm- 

 ing changes and incidents furnish usually the only portents of ap- 

 proaching trouble. Among these signs may be mentioned a peculiar 

 posture assumed by the patient while at rest, and becoming at length 

 so habitual that it can not fail to suggest the action of some hidden 

 cause, tending to some undeterminable result. The posture is due to the 

 action of the adductor muscles, the lower part of the leg being carried 

 inward, and the heel of the shoe resting on the toe of the opposite foot. 

 Then an unwillingness may be noticed in the animal to move from one 

 side of the stall to the other. When driven he will travel, but stiffly, 

 and with a sort of sidelong gait between the shafts, and after finishing 

 his task and resting again in his stall, will pose with the toe pointing 

 forward, the heel raised, and the hock flexed. Some little heat and a con- 

 siderable amount of inflammation soon appears. The slight lameness 

 which appears when backing out of the stall ceases to be noticeable 

 after a short distance of travel. 



A minute examination of the hock will then begin to reveal the exist- 

 ence of the lesion, in a bony enlargement which may be detected just at 

 the junction of the hock and the cannon bone, on the inside and a little 

 in front, and tangible both to sight and touch. This enlargement or 

 bone spavin grows rapidly and persistently and soon acquires dimen- 

 sions which render it impossible to doubt any longer its existence or 

 its nature. Once established, its development continues under con- 

 ditions of progress similar to those to which we have before alluded, 

 in speaking of other like afl:ections. The argument obtained by some 

 that because these bony deposits are frequently found on both hocks 

 they are not spavins, is fallacious. If they are discovered on both 

 hocks, it proves merely that they are not confined to a single joint. 



The characteristic lameness of bone spavin, as it affects the motion of 

 of the hock joint, presents two aspects. In one class of cases it is most 

 pronounced when the horse is cool, in the other when he is at work. 

 The first is characterized by the fact that when the animal travels the 



