THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
» 
VOL. XIX, No. 220. ^ APRIL 1846. New Series, No. 52. 
LAMENESS. 
By W. Percivall, M.R.C.S. 
[Continued from p. 130.] 
PATHOLOGY OF SPAVIN. 
THE Construction and Action of the Hock Joint, 
complex as the articulation is, and different from all others with 
the exception of the knee, being a requisite preliminary know- 
ledge to the due understanding of the nature and consequences 
of spavin, it may not be out of place here to make a few remarks 
on this introductory part of our subject. The joints of the hock 
and knee — unlike joints in general, which are composed of two, 
or, at most, three bones — are constituted, respectively, of several 
bones, having articulations between them, which, besides being 
for the purposes of motion, are made useful in counteracting con- 
cussion. There are no less than ten bones, and nearly as many 
joints or articulations, concerned in the composition of the hock ; 
though but two of the bones, with the joint they form between 
them, are absolutely necessary for flexion and extension. The 
other smaller articulations, though contributing to motion, being 
especially serviceable in diverting or warding off concussion from 
the principal joint — that between the tibia and astragalus. In 
particular, the large and middle cuneiform bones, and the small 
metatarsals, are concerned in this latter function : hence it is, that 
these are the structures which — as we shall discover hereafter — are 
especially subject to disease. Concussion, however, operates 
differently in one instance from what it does in the other. Any 
force or shock received by the cuneiform or cushion bones is 
transmitted at once upon the large metatarsal bone, and along it 
conveyed to the pastern, and thence to the foot ; whereas, pressure 
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