BONE-SPAVIN. 
139 
accompany spavin, even when the small bones of the joint 
are affected. From which also it will be seen that there is 
a manifest advantage in each of these bones being provided 
with a separate ligament and membrane, and thus, as it 
were, constituting so many separate joints; so that any o* 
them may sustain injury, without its being communicated 
to the rest. It is not uncommon for the bony deposit 
continuing to enlarge and embracing the second series of 
bones, enveloping the larger wedge-bones, d , and extending 
to the cube-bones on the other side; and even then the 
lameness may not be so great as to prove very injurious, for 
this reason, that the motion of these two joints, or rather 
parts of the joint, is small; but when it reaches to the 
union of the tibia, b , and the astragalus, c; when the joint 
in which the principal motion of the joint is affected, then 
the lameness is of a very serious kind, and the horse may 
be considered as no longer fit for use. 
Although spavin unfits horses for active employment, 
yet for farm purposes they need not be rejected, especially 
by those who possess limited farms ; for slow draught and 
other agricultural purposes they will be found quite useful, 
and from this sort of work, in which quick motion is not 
required, the horse may improve, and even the bony matter 
may be absorbed to a considerable extent. 
One strong reason why spavined horses do not improve, 
is that they seldom lie down, as they are conscious that 
they will suffer considerable pain in the act of rising again ; 
so that the continual pressure and weight of the body upon 
the limb, keeps alive the exciting cause. 
There is sometimes an enlargement of the heads of the 
bones of the leg, which may be mistaken for spavin. 
Remedies. —Spavin can only be successfully treated, if at 
all, by blisters frequently repeated, which may induce an 
