EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
297 
that so many horses are said to be recovered of spavin, and, 
in fact, are recovered so far as to perform so well that actual 
lameness is no longer perceptible ; though, to a professional 
eye, the action of the hock is not what it originally was, or 
what in perfection it ought to be : there being to such an eye 
a stiffness or want of thorough flexure in it, which betrays to 
the judge of such matters its faultiness, notwithstanding 
such be overlooked by the common run of people. 
From what has gone before, we shall readily understand 
how it happens, that some horses having spavin are curable, 
i. e. recoverable for work, whilst others, do what we will to 
them, are in nowise to be benefited by treatment. If the 
main joint — that between the tibia and astragalus — be the 
seat of disease, consisting in ulceration of the membrane and 
cartilages within the joint, then may the case be regarded, 
with rare exceptions, as irremediable : it being of the nature 
of what is called white swelling in human medicine. But, 
should the disease be external to the joint, or only exist in 
the minor joints, consisting for the most part, or perhaps 
entirely, in conversion of that which was soft and pliable, 
and elastic — ligament and periosteum — into osseous unyield- 
ing material, and especially when lameness proceeds from 
the presence of inflammation in such parts, then is recovery, 
not only possible, but most likely to follow, either under 
the employment of antiphlogistic measures topically applied, 
or, what is better, under the use of some counter-irritation, 
either in the form of a vesicatory or actual cautery, or even 
in the simple stimulant or sloughing form : in such a form, 
in fact, as Mr. Major is now, we understand, employing. 
Consequently, there is nothing that need excite surprise in 
the mind of the professional man, that Mr. Major, or Mr. 
Anybodyelse, has some nostrum, which, under such circum- 
stances, will effect the cure of spavin ; no more than there is, 
that the Veterinarian’s own preparations of iodine or mer- 
cury, or his blisters or firing, should accomplish it. Of 
such cases, some let alone will, through repose, work their 
own cure ; nay, in the course of time, may happen to do so 
even at work. The grand test of a specific is not such a 
