66 
REVIEWS. 
while the stethoscope applied will 
give a dull but heightened rumbling, 
and by this may be gained whether 
the intensity of disease is equal on 
both sides. As the complaint in- 
creases, the pulse becomes still more 
oppressed and irregular, so as to 
present, at the region of the heart, 
nothing but the faintest flutter ; the 
legs, ears, and muzzle, feel still more 
intensely cold, although partial 
sweats may visit the carcass. The 
nostrils change to a still more livid 
hue, and the air they expire is cold. 
The mouth now becomes cold and 
pale ; convulsive twitchings affect 
the breast, neck, and face ; the teeth 
grate, and death ensues earlier or 
later, as the disease has been more 
or less rapid ; occurring sometimes as 
early as the second or third day, but 
more often between that and the 
seventh, and being sometimes pro- 
longed to the fourteenth or 
fifteenth.” 
As the complaint increases, the pulse 
becomes still more oppressed and 
irregular, so as to present, at the 
region of the heart, nothing but the 
faintest flutter ; the legs, ears, and 
muzzle, fell still more intensely cold, 
although partial sweats may visit the 
carcass. The nostrils change to a 
still more livid hue, and the air they 
expire is chill. The mouth now 
becomes cold and pale; convulsive 
twitchings affect the breast, neck, 
and face ; the teeth grate, and death 
ensues earlier or later, as the disease 
has been more or less rapid ; occur- 
ring sometimes as early as the second 
or third day, but more often between 
the third and seventh, being also 
sometimes prolonged to the four- 
teenth or fifteenth.” 
From a constitutional, let us pass to a local disease. 
SPAVIN. 
“ In the march of veterinary 
knowledge, each of its subjects will 
afford new matter for new views, as 
such become illuminated by the 
lights of anatomy and physiology, or 
are rendered familiar by experience. 
It is to be lamented, however, that, 
as each step is made, the progressor 
halts, and considers himself as having 
arrived at the ultima thule ; Johnny 
Groat could not place a brick beyond 
him. For a time all join in his 
admiration, and see only as he sees, 
until another adventurer raises a new 
pedestal or gains a step beyond the 
former, and the rush of opinion then 
sides with him also; until another 
grade, or rather another theory, 
throws the last also into the same 
obscurity which has overtaken the 
former. It is thus that we are found 
continually vacillating: not halting 
between two opinions, but between 
twenty : not so much examining 
theories by patient research, as re- 
ceiving them by faith in the theorist. 
“Spavin is a very serious aequine 
affection : its destructive attack on 
the utility of the most valuable of 
our domestic animals has made it a 
subject of much importance. There 
is some peculiarity in the degree the 
fore and hind legs are disposed to 
take on disease. In the fore leg, for 
instance, splint occurs upon the inner 
side of the limb ; in the hind leg, it 
is seen upon the outer side of the 
shank bone. Why is this difference 
beheld in the same disease ? In the 
fore leg, we attribute splint to the 
weight cast upon one of the bones of 
the knee being entirely transferred 
to the inner small metacarpal. In 
the hock something of this sort 
occurs also upon the outer side, yet 
the small metacarpal bone there is 
not nearly so often affected ; while 
the outer splint-bone, which takes 
little more than its share of weight, 
is the actual seat of the affection. 
Why is this distinction ? Does not 
its existence show us we have not 
