ON HOCK LAMENESS. 
529 
inserted over the joint with decided benefit. A renewal of work, 
however, brought on a return of the lameness : he was then fired, 
and rested for some time, and was afterwards put to agricultural 
work, where, some months afterwards, he died suddenly of apo- 
plexy, affording me an opportunity of examining the leg. No 
disease could to be found any where but in the hock joint : there 
was no spavin, and on separating all the bones of the hock, no 
disease could be discovered, except in the upper articulation, 
where the tibia presented the appearance of being worn down, as 
it were, by friction about the centre of its middle protuberance — 
the cartilage being absorbed — the bone abraded, and the synovial 
membrane round it red with inflammation.- This was my first 
case ; and can it be wondered that I came to the conclusion, 
that in this case the appearance I have pointed out was the 
cause of the lameness ? And yet now, at the eleventh hour, 
after the lapse of nearly seven years, I am told that I discovered 
a mare’s nest — that these appearances, forsooth, were nothing 
more than the natural and necessary construction of the 
joint ! 
What has been the nature of my 
succeeding cases? Have I gone 
to the knacker’s or the kennel 
and searched for hocks supposed 
to be diseased, and then con- 
cluded, as a matter of course, that 
the horses to which they belonged 
must have been lame ? No ! I 
have related no case, I possess no 
specimen of the disease, whose 
previous history I have been un- 
acquainted with ; and in each 
case there has been previous lame- 
ness, with no visible lesion (un- 
less I have pointed out the con- 
trary) in any other part of the 
leg- 
Mr. Dick, in his third para- 
graph, says, “it must not be sup- 
posed that I am contending that friction, or even ulceration, does 
not take place in the articulation formed by the tibia and astra- 
galus — quite the reverse.” It is fortunate that Mr. Dick gives 
us this caution ; for from his other remarks we should certainly 
have supposed that he was of opinion that ulceration never 
occurred in this joint ; and, indeed, he afterwards adds, that 
he is not satisfied that he has “ seen a case where ulceration 
