482 
SPAVIN. 
them ! — disappointing our employers, and vexing ourselves. In a 
word, our treatment has amounted to nothing but lamentable 
failure ; to avoid which, or, at all events, to escape the incurrence 
of blame from such sinister results, must prove of serious import 
to the conscientious veterinary surgeon. 
Rest. — A man has but to reflect for a moment on the delicate na- 
ture of the tissue by which joints are lined, and how the surfaces of 
that lining are defended from rubbing, one against the other, by a 
glib, soft, joint oil, to feel assured that, in its inflamed or ulcered 
condition, motion of any kind must be hurtful. And yet, after hav- 
ing blistered or fired for spavin, what is the usual practice 1 Why, 
to turn the horse out. Suppose a man to be the subject of ulcer- 
ative disease of the hip or knee joint, what would be the direc- 
tions of his surgeon, touching his walking upon or using the affected 
limb 1 On this point, I imagine, we cannot have better authority 
than Sir Benjamin Brodie. “When the cartilages of a joint/’ 
says Sir Benjamin*, “ are ulcerated, it may well be supposed that 
the motion of their surfaces on each other must be favourable to 
the progress of ulceration. I have known some cases in which 
rest alone was sufficient to produce a cure. In all cases the symp- 
toms of the disease are aggravated by any considerable exercise ; 
and we may, therefore, conclude that the keeping of the limb in a 
state of perfect quietude is a very important, if not the most im- 
portant, circumstance to be attended to in the treatment.” Do 
we not keep horses standing quiet, or in confined apartments, in 
treating them for navicular disease 1 And that is but another form 
of ulcerative disease of joint. Setting, however, all analogy out 
of the question, I can positively, out of my own experience, assert, 
that spavined horses that are rested during treatment will derive 
thereby a benefit of which those that are turned out will be de- 
prived ; and, further, that I have seen cases of recent spavin re- 
lieved to a degree approaching to soundness by “ rest alone.” 
I know private practitioners meet with difficulties in keeping 
lame horses up in stables, or in providing boxes for them. The 
stall of the invalid is wanted for his working substitute or suc- 
cessor. Then there is to be considered the keep of the lame and 
useless horse, and how much less the cost of such would be at 
grass or straw-yard. Still, whatever weight these considerations 
may have with the proprietor of the horse, the veterinarian is in 
duty bound to give him to understand that his lame servant will 
stand a very much better chance of recovery under one plan of 
treatment than under the other; and that, should the remedies 
* In his “ Pathological and Surgical Observations on the Diseases of the 
Joints,” p. 142-3, 3d edit. 
