VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
61 
was less yielding to pressure than it should have been, and in 
some parts it was absolutely bony. He ascertained the presence 
of bone to a far greater extent than the size of a pea: it was more 
than half an inch in breadth. There were deposits of bone on 
both sides of both fore feet, and that on the off was larger than 
that on the near, although he was most lame in the near leg. He 
would never become perfectly sound again, but he might so far 
recover that there might be little or no lameness detectable. 
Slight exercise might not shew it, or it even might not be detect- 
able at all. 
On the near fore leg there was a bony enlargement, but it did 
not appear to interfere with the action of the horse. It was an 
exostosis or morbid deposit of bone. It seemed to be connected 
with the main bone of the leg, and, he thinks, with the inner small 
bone also. 
Re-examined . — He has known some horses with these affections 
work for months without lameness. They might do slow work 
without being lame, but they are more liable to lameness with it 
than without it. 
Mr. W. Youalt.— Had not seen the horse in question. Has no 
doubt, from the evidence which he has heard, that the horse was 
spavined, and a spavined horse is, of necessity, an unsound one. 
He may be capable of the exertion usually required of him — he 
may be useful for various purposes — he may be capable of all or- 
dinary work, and his action when thus employed very little im- 
paired; but when some extraordinary exertion of speed or strength 
is required, having been deprived of the advantage which the 
yielding elasticity of the cartilage of the hock affords in its natural 
and unimpaired state, he may break down at once. The far greater 
part of the lamenesses behind are attributable to spavin. 
Cross-examined . — Has written a work on the anatomical struc- 
ture and general management of the horse. Is editor of a periodi- 
cal — The Veterinarian. Knows an occasional writer in it — • 
Nimrod, or Apperley. He is justly celebrated as a sporting writer, 
and a judge of horses. He has contributed a paper to this periodi- 
cal on spavin. He gives a list of several celebrated horses that 
were spavined who always headed the chase, and never exhibited 
the slightest lameness. Is not answerable for the opinions of any 
of his correspondents. Sporting gentlemen have a right to their 
own opinion on sporting subjects. The private opinions of the 
editor are not implicated in this. Recollects the horse Jupiter, and 
others, who were spavined to the greatest degree. It was an inte- 
resting account ; but it only proved that there were exceptions to a 
general rule. Too many spavined horses become lame, and are 
destroyed many years after the first alteration of the structure of 
