296 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
was to test, on what we regarded a most fit subject, the 
power of the “ British Remedy; 5 ’ had which experiment 
turned out favorably, the horse would have been retained in 
the service, and Mr. Major’s name as far advanced in esti- 
mation for the cure of spavin in the First Life Guards as it 
appears already to be in the Royal Horse Guards. What- 
ever opinion Mr. Major, in his own mind, may entertain of 
ourselves, we can assure him, in the isolated and independent 
position in which we stand, our report of his “ Remedy” 
would have been a faithful and an impartial one ; and, further, 
that, in the event of its success, no authority should have 
outvied us in commendation and laudation of it. 
What Mr. Major, and others not professing medical know- 
ledge, may think about spavin, seems hardly to amount to 
more than it is a cause of lameness of untoward character ; 
without considering for a moment either the complex struc- 
ture it has for its seat, or its origin, nature, and termination. 
Navicularthritis and spavin are, pathologically viewed, twin 
sisters : both are essentially disease of synovial membrane, 
the tendency of which is to disorganise not the membrane 
alone, but the articular cartilages too, and lastly, the bones 
themselves as well. If the disease be allowed to make head, 
or does in spite of treatment progress, chances of recovery 
become more faint ; still recovery— recovery at least for work 
— does now and then follow even in this second stage of the 
disease ; though the cases of success are, of course, more 
numerous after the first stage. 
To explain what we mean by “ recovery for work,” will 
require a few 7 introductory w 7 ords concerning the anatomy of 
the hock-joint. This complex structure consists of several 
joints or distinct articulations, one of them, that between 
the tibia and astragalus, being of more importance than all 
the rest, inasmuch as in it resides so large an amount of the 
motion (flexion and extension) of the hock, that what limited 
action the others possess appears to exist more for the sake 
of diminishing concussion, by acting as springs to the hock, 
than for any purposes of real motion. This view of the 
physiology of the hock-joint enables us to explain how it is 
