572 
REVIEWS. 
not establish any speciality in favour 
of Ibis habitat. 
“ Spavin may, therefore, be charac- 
terised as exostosis of some one or 
more of the tarsal bones, or ossific 
inflammation of the ligaments which 
connect them with each other. It 
may also be considered, that it has 
no determinate seat , but is more often 
found on the inner than the outer 
side of the hock. It also frequently 
affects the surfaces of the cuneiform 
bones, whose ligamentous connexions 
it ossifies, and whose surfaces it 
ulcerates sometimes. It is equally 
true, that its effects are not to be 
measured by the dimensions of the 
exostosis, as these are sometimes 
great without corresponding lame- 
ness ; and that it is a character of 
the affection founded on the lessened 
irritability and increased absorption 
which warmth, friction, and mental 
excitement occasion, to render the 
horse less lame as lie progresses, and 
which will assist to distinguish it 
from other affections. These affec- 
tions, however, lame the animal more 
or less, according to their situation. 
A spavin of the cuneiform bones 
usually lames more than that which 
is lower down and affects the meta- 
tarsals only. Neither do spavins, 
when arrived at a certain state, 
usually increase ; consequently spa- 
vined horses for some purposes may 
prove very useful. In moderate and 
slow w r ork they are even amended 
frequently, and last many years ; but 
in bad cases the fear of lying down 
prevents their thriving. Thus post- 
masters and stage-coach drivers are 
not often willing to purchase badly 
spavined horses, or any others with 
permanent lamenesses behind, al- 
thought they do not reject the foun- 
dered or groggy horse. Lamenesses 
before force the. horse to lie down ; 
those behind often prevent him doing 
this, from an instinctive dread, that 
when once down he cannot rise again; 
aud these persons are well aware that 
the horse who lies most can work 
most. 
“ Treatment of Bone Spavin . — This 
does not differ from that of splint, 
except that, as it is much eftener a 
cause of serious lameness, and occur- 
ring as it commonly does in older 
horses, from the effect of long-con- 
tinued exertion, so it also proves 
more obstinate ; and the treatment 
required, therefore, should be more 
active. Among the older farriers, 
who, like some of the moderns, think 
nothing too strong for a horse, violent 
mechanical operations were resorted 
to, to remove spavins as well as 
splints ; as the mallet and chisel to 
chip it off, boring the exostosis with 
a gimlet, punching it with a hot iron, 
or applying caustics ; the first re- 
moving it mechanically, and the three 
latter methods destroying its vitality 
and promoting its exfoliation. As 
might be expected, for one case 
which succeeded (and in some it cer- 
tainly did succeed), in many it in- 
creased the lameness, or ended in 
anchylosis, and sometimes in death. 
But the very few successful cases 
gained by these violent means still 
give the practitioner without profes- 
sional character a decided advantage 
over the regular veterinarian ; for 
should the former, by these violent 
means, destroy his patient, he only 
stands where he did : but if he cure 
him, all the world is told that he has 
effected that which the veterinarian 
could not do ; that is, what he dare 
not attempt. As with splint, it is 
not improbable that instruments may 
yet be devised which will operate on 
these bony enlargements without 
risk ; though the chances are fewer 
in the hock, from its connexion with 
capsular and bursal ligaments, than 
in the fore leg. The treatment pur- 
sued by veterinarians of the present 
day varies somewhat ; those border- 
ing on the old school still rub them 
with some violence, and then stimu- 
late them with ol. origanum, ol. 
terebinth., &c., &c. Those of later 
date blister and fire. At the Veteri- 
nary College setons are used, by 
nipping up the skin and pushing a 
seton-needle armed with tape through 
it, so that the tape within the skin 
exactly opposes itself to the spavin. 
If the skin be tender or tumefied, it 
is more proper to make an opening 
above and below the exostosis, and 
