LAMENESS, FROM VARIOUS CAUSES. 373 
pain as well, which can not be done before we come to treat of the 
pathology of spavin. It is sufficient for our purpose here that we 
note and establish the fact that lameness is not a necessary conse- 
quence of spavin. Nothing is more common than to meet with 
horses, colts even, who have what the dealers call ‘knots’ in their 
spavin places; and the time was when such ‘knots’ (which have 
alwavs been regarded as spavins) were certificated as constituting 
ansoundness, 
Lameness arising from spavin is sometimes presert without the 
outward appearance of spavin. This is a form of disease better 
known to veterinary surgeons in general, I believe, under the de- 
nomination of occult hock lameness. My own attention to the 
subject was first drawn so long ago as in the year 1815, though 
then I was quite in the dark as to the nature of the case. On 
my return from Belgium, after the battle of Waterloo, I had in 
my possession a bay blood mare, who was lame in one of her hind 
.egs (I forget which), but whose lameness was of that nature that 
no external sign whatever was apparent to account for it. The 
limb had been searched over and over again, by myself and some 
other veterinary surgeons, and the mare had been trotted and 
walked, circled and paced, and put to al! other known trials anc 
tests, without the examinations ending in any thing like concur- 
rent opinions respecting either the seat or the nature of her lame- 
ness. The mare returned home, marching with the troops, led 
by a men on horseback—for, notwithstanding her lameness, she 
walked very well—and, as soon as she arrived at head-quarters 
(Woolwich), I showed her to my father, at the time senior veteri- 
nary surgeon of the Ordnance Department. He examined her, 
and without hesitation pronounced her ‘lame in the hock,’ and 
she was treated accordingly; and the result was, at no great dis- 
tance of time, her complete restoration to soundness. 
Tt is true, so far as the case above related goes, that the only 
proof that the mare’s lameness was in the hock, was her restor- 
ation to soundness after the application of remedies to that joint. 
There is, however, tc be said, in addition, to induce us to believe 
that it was so, that, of all the joints of the hind limb, no one is so 
frequently or so likely to be deranged as the hock; and, conse- 
quently, from this fact alone, is a prima facie case made out. 
Moreover, we hay g, to assist us in our diagnosis, the stiff or im- 
perfect fexinn of the hock-joint in action, »nd the wearing away 
