SPAVIN. 207 



him, that does or is likely to interfere with his feeding, 

 working, and general usefulness. 



Spavin. — A variety of disease affecting the hock-joint. 

 Spavin is not now looked upon as in the days of Oliver 

 Goldsmith and "William Shakspeare, because in the minds 

 of those distinguished men, and of some of their readers 

 of the present time, spavin is an enormous enlargement of 

 the hock of the horse; whereas, in some of the worse 

 forms of spavin, there is no enlargement at all, while the 

 hock-joint is completely destroyed, stiff, or anchylosed. 

 Shakspeare thus refers to Petruchio's horse : — " His horse 

 hipped with an old mothy saddle, the stirrups of no kin- 

 dred : besides possessed with the glanders, and, like to 

 mose in the chine, troubled with the lampas, infected with 

 the fashions, full of wind galls, sped with spavins, raied 

 with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with 

 the staggers, begnawn with the bots, swayed in the back, 

 and shoulder shotten, ne'er legged before, and with a 

 half-cheeked bit, and a head stall of sheep's leather." 



(1.) Bog Spavin. — This kind of spavin is situated in 

 front of the hock-joint, and is a soft, fluctuating swelling, 

 which rarely ever causes lameness. It is merely an 

 enlargement or distention of the bursal cavity of the joint, 

 and is filled with the natural fluid of the joint, but in- 

 creased in quantity, and possibly, in some cases, a little 

 changed in quality also. 



(2.) Blood Spavin. — This is the same as bog spavin, 

 but more extensive, and generally involving the hock-joint 

 on its three sides, front, inside, and outside, and giving to 

 the limb a thick, rounded appearance, called thorough-pin, 

 (which see.) The swelling is soft and fluctuating, and 

 indeed there is no perceptible difference in the nature and 

 result of this form of spavin, and the preceding variety, 



