126 
SPAVIN. 
cannon beginning — the part of the superficial line which constitutes 
the dip from one into the other — that is the site of spavin : a small 
round tumour interrupts the natural declivity from the hock to 
the cannon, and in a moment catches the eye of the experienced 
observer. In cases where the tumour, from its smallness or flat- 
ness, or diffuse character, is indistinct to the eye, the examiner 
will not make his mind up concerning it until he has narrowly 
compared the suspected with the sound or normal hock. For iny 
own part, I always think this comparison is most critically made by 
standing in the situation above described, first on one side of the 
horse and then on the other, and carrying the impression made in the 
eye from one hock to the opposite. By placing himself, however, 
immediately in front of the horse, and directing his view between 
the fore legs, both hocks may be inspected simultaneously, and to 
more advantage than if he were positioned behind the horse : 
in neither of these situations, however, to my mind, can the examiner 
obtain that critical profile view of the superficies which is best 
suited to the detection of the small or flattened tumour of spavin. 
In these doubtful cases it is that we more especially derive 
advantage from coupling the feel with the sight ; by the one sense 
confirming or correcting the impression made by the other. The 
sensation given to the fingers, carried over the place of spavin in a 
normal hock, is not one of uniform levelness or rotundity of surface; 
we feel certain irregular elevations natural to the parts : below the 
malleolus we feel the process of the astragalus, the prominences 
of the cuneiform bones, and immediately beneath that of the small 
cuneiform bone, the head of the inner small metatarsal bona. 
Indistinctness to the feel of these landmarks, if 1 may so deno- 
minate these natural prominences, and particularly about the site 
of spavin, or any unusual fulness or rotundity of surface there- 
abouts, would excite suspicion, and this suspicion would be con- 
firmed or removed by contrasting the feel as well as the aspect of 
one hock with that of the other. It is but natural to expect there 
should be, in their callous or inflamed condition, heat and tender- 
ness in these tumefactions ; it is difficult, however, in general, to 
detect the former ; and as to the latter, it is equally difficult often 
to ascertain whether any flinching the horse may manifest arises 
from tenderness, or from any pressure the examiner may be making, 
or from a habit of catching up his hind leg the moment it is 
handled, as some horses will. 
Lameness, though the ordinary, is not the necessary 
Consequence of Spavin. The lameness of spavin arises from 
two causes : — mostly, from the pain or soreness the animal expe- 
riences in using his hock, which, varying in different cases and at 
different periods or stages of the malady, will account for its fluctu- 
