146 ON SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS, 
the eye of the examiner, and he pronounces the horse unsound in 
consequence ; whilst another practitioner might fail in detecting 
it, or might consider it as only the natural formation of the hock : 
and certainly there are many hocks much larger than others at 
the spavin-place. If the horse is actually unsound, yet he is 
not more so than he has, perhaps, been for a long time previous, 
although it is only now just discovered. 
While on this subject, I should allude to the very useful and 
practical communication from Nimrod, in vour last number, in 
which he gives us an account of his experience on the subject of 
spavin, which he thinks ought not to be considered unsoundness, 
unless attended with lameness. But Nimrod should bear in 
mind, that, when a horse is brought to a veterinary surgeon for 
examination, he knows nothing of his previous history; the 
animal appears, perhaps, with a spavin which does not render 
him at present lame. Now this enlargement might possibly 
have been there for years, during which time the horse might 
not have been lame ; but, on the other hand, it is equally pos- 
sible that it may be only a few months old, and it might have 
produced lameness at first, which, perhaps, has been removed by 
rest and treatment, but will return with a renewal of his former 
work. These being the possibilities and probabilities of the 
case, the veterinary surgeon must act upon the safe side, and he 
does so when he pronounces the horse unsound. The purchaser 
may (if he knows the history of the horse) still be justified in 
giving a good price for him ; and the opinion of the practitioner 
may rather dispose him to do so, although condemnatory with 
regard to soundness. 
There are, doubtless, as Nimrod shews, many cases of spavin 
unattended with lameness, and many likewise that have been ac- 
companied by lameness at first, but which has been permanently 
removed by rest and treatment ; but, then, there are probably a 
greater number still that are attended with lameness which no 
treatment is able to relieve. How can we account for this fact ? 
We see two spavins on two separate horses, each similar in size, 
situation, and appearance, to each other, and yet the one is 
attended with lameness and the other is not. 
In order to explain this circumstance, I take it we must go 
deeper than the surfaces on which the exostosis appears ; and 
we shall find, I would venture to assert, in seven cases out of 
ten, both inflammation and ulceration on the articular surfaces of 
the tibia and the astragalus (where the prominence of the former 
fits into the depression in the latter). I should also observe, 
there are as many, or nearly as many, cases of hock lameness un- 
attended with spavin, as with it; and I am not too bold when 
