THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIX, No. 223. JULY 1846. New Series, No. 55. 
LAMENESS. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. 
Treatment of Spavin. 
[Continued from p. 306.] 
SPAVIN is one of those diseases improvement in the treatment of 
which has not kept pace with our advances in the science of hippo- 
pathology. We all acknowledge that new and bright lights have 
been thrown on the pathology of spavin ; that we are now in a 
situation, through discoveries in morbid anatomy, of explaining 
that in the symptomatology and curability of the jdisease which be- 
fore was inexplicable ; and yet we have left, not merely unimproved 
upon, but undisturbed, our ancestors’ plans of treatment : nay, 
hold them at the present hour in all the estimation they were for- 
merly held. It may be matter of fact, that the experience of ages 
has but confirmed the insurpassable efficacy of the old mode of 
treatment ; it is, however, strange, to say the least about it, that 
the very same remedies our forefathers employed with most suc- 
cess for the cure or relief of spavined horses, should, now that the 
disease has been proved to reside within as well as without the 
hock joint — -to consist in ulceration and caries, as well as in exos- 
tosis — still maintain undiminished their good reputation. To re- 
move any doubt concerning the antiquity of our present remedial 
agents for spavin, I shall make a few quotations from some of 
the old authors on farriery, beginning with Solleysell. “ Bone 
spavin,” says this father of veterinary medicine, “ is a very dan- 
gerous distemper, and requires the most violent remedy, viz. the 
fire ; and even this is oftentimes applied without success.” — 
VOL. XIX. 3 D 
