SPAVIN. 
719 
V.—CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF THE HOCK. SPAVIN. 
ARTHRITIS CHRONICA DEFORMANS TARSI. 
It is not surprising that so common a disease as spavin should early 
have attracted attention. We find the disease described by Jordanus 
Ruffus and Marx Fugger, and treated of by almost every veterinary 
author. Owing to ignorance of pathological processes early observers 
attached undue importance to outward appearances, and distinguished 
many kinds of spavin on the ground of their physical differences. 
This was the basis of the terms “ eparvin calleux ” and “ eparvin sec,” 
invented by Solleysel, and still used in France to the present day, 
and of the English “bog” and “bone spavin.” In Germany Kersting 
distinguished five kinds of spavin. To the same cause was due the 
identification of spavin with stringhalt. 
For a long time the nature of the disease remained obscure, and it 
was sometimes thought to be a bone affection, sometimes an affection 
of the ligaments. Havemann first directed attention to the disease of 
the articular surfaces, and Schrader and Schiitz afterwards described 
the condition thoroughly. At the present day no doubt exists that 
spavin is due to chronic inflammation of the joint, and the only question 
is, in what structure does the disease originate ? 
The view that the bone tissue is the primary seat of disease is old, but 
has again, quite recently, been advanced by Eberlein. Eberlein’s views 
are supported by the experiments of Gotti, and consist in regarding the 
bone substance as being primarily attacked, after which the cartilage of 
the joint, the periosteum, and the ligamentous apparatus are successively 
invaded. He considers spavin to consist in an ostitis rarefaciens et con- 
densans. Frohner, Bayer, Hertwig, and the Gunthers are among the 
supporters of this theory. 
Dieckerhoff, Lafosse, and Hoffmann believe the disease originates in 
the bursa under the middle branch of the flexor metatarsi. 
Anacker, Joly, Moller, Schiitz, and Smith believe spavin to be an 
arthritis chronica deformans. The view that the articular surfaces are 
first invaded is held by Bouley, Dieterichs, Gurlt, Havemann, Hering, 
Schrader, Stockfleth, and Trager. The ligamentous apparatus is con¬ 
sidered to be the primary seat of disease by Aronsohn, Bartels, Barrier, 
Hess, von Hochstetter, Roloff, and Pflug. 
Hohne has advanced a theory which has hitherto won no adherents, 
viz., that in spavin the hock-joint is not alone invaded, but that the 
region of the inner tuberosity of the tibia is simultaneously affected. 
Hohne actually regards this affection of the tibia as more common than 
that of the hock, and thinks, therefore, that spavin originates, not in the 
hock, but in the stifle. 
