266 ON CRAMP, DISLOCATION OF THE PATELLA, &C. 
by moving the colt a few steps. A pitch charge was applied 
to the part, the animal was turned out, and did well. The 
facility with which the bone was dislocated and replaced the 
second and third times, deserves note; and it was this circum¬ 
stance that induced me to think that it was possible M. Prevost’s 
case might have been of this nature. 
The second case detailed is decidedly one of hock lameness, 
and, in my opinion, the lesion existed between the tibia and 
astragalas. 
The third is a case no doubt similar in its situation; M. Pre- 
vost himself considered it was in the hock. Why in the world, 
then, should he have called it cramp ? 
The fourth is a case likewise of hock disease, and terminating 
in spavin. M. Prevost says, it would be interesting to know 
whether the osseous tumour was caused by cramp. It would, 
I think, have been much more sagacious, if he had considered 
that deep-seated injury had taken place; that the ligaments were 
involved in the mischief; and that nature, in order to relieve 
the inflammation, threw out an ossific deposit, after which, as 
is generally the case, the lameness was diminished. 
Case the fifth is a lameness of the fore extremity, and, as it 
occurred after exposure to cold, was probably cramp or rheu¬ 
matism. 
The sixth and seventh cases were possibly cramp; but the 
two others which M. Prevost alludes to, presented the symptoms 
of hock disease, viz. lameness after rest, and diminution or ces¬ 
sation from exercise. 
I cannot better conclude these observations than by men¬ 
tioning a case that has recently come under my notice, which 
still further illustrates the seat of obscure hock lameness. 
A chesnut mare, five years old, appeared slightly lame in No¬ 
vember last, in the off hind leg ; it diminished and nearly dis¬ 
appeared from exercise, and was much worse sometimes than at 
others. Not the slightest enlargement or heat could be disco¬ 
vered at the hock or elsewhere; but notwithstanding this, I at 
once pronounced her lame in the hock. She was rested a short 
time, and a vesicating liniment was rubbed on the hock; this, 
or more probably the rest, relieved her: she became nearly 
sound in her action, and was worked moderately through the 
winter, though hunted now and then. She soon became, how¬ 
ever, as lame as before, but the lameness did not much increase. 
She died of inflammation of the bladder and bowels, last month, 
and afforded me an opportunity of examining the hock, which, 
as I expected, discovered an abrasion of surface and ulceration 
^n the ridge of the tibia, and in the concavity of the astragalus. 
