364 
SPAVIN. 
faction of his master, as he did before he went lame. And it is 
still more especially the business of the veterinary surgeon, before 
he ventures to offer an opinion concerning the curability of spavin, 
to make himself correctly informed of the history, the duration, 
the degree of lameness, the aspect and feel of the tumour, &c. &c. 
of the case in question. It is for want of taking care to be fur- 
nished with these simple and obvious data for guides that young 
and incautious professional men too often suffer themselves to be 
caught, in a disease possessing such a fluctuation of character as 
spavin, faltering in their opinions, or giving such as are of a di- 
verse or conflicting nature : the circumstances, past and present, 
being represented alike, and no omission of any one of them of 
importance being made, the case of spavin, difficult as it often is 
of prognosis, will hardly give rise,- in the minds of experienced 
veterinarians, to any material difference of opinion. Coleman said, 
spavin was an incurable disease ; but then he made cure to con- 
sist in restoration of structure as well as restoration of function. 
We restrict our notions of cure to restoration ofi function. We 
say, if we can remove the lameness of a spavined morse, or remove 
so much of it as will enable him to do that kipd or amount of 
work which is required of him, that we have succeeded in render- 
ing him serviceable, if not sound, notwithstanding he may “ go 
stiff” when he first leaves his stable, and that exostosis may still 
be perceptible enough when we come to inspect his hock. And 
this is the sort of soundness to which spavined horses in general, 
when they are said to be cured, are restored. If I were to say 
that spavin in the end will prove to be an incurable disease, I 
should be asserting that which in the main has been found to be 
correct. Inveterate spavins rarely admit of any alleviation, even 
of their lameness; and such as have not^arrived at that state of 
disease or inveteracy that precludes all hope of cure, have but too 
frequently their alleged ‘‘cures” followed by return and perma- 
nency of lameness. Cceteris paribus , a spavin upon the hock of 
a colt or a young horse is more likely to admit of cure than one 
in an old horse, the powers of restoration being greater in one than 
in the other. A spavin that is put forth on a sudden, and with 
which lameness is simultaneous, is more likely to be cured than 
one that has been long in coming forward — long in “ breeding,” as 
people say — and which has been preceded by lameness of a tran- 
sitory character. This brings to our mind the old observation 
about those lamenesses being the most difficult of removal which 
steal gradually on our notice. Such lamenesses in their tardy ad- 
vance bring with them two important pieces of information : they 
shew they cannot be the result of injury; at the same time they 
afford us pretty strong evidence in themselves of being the off- 
