ON HOCK LAMENESS. 
29 
Fig: 2. 
Fig. 3 . 
is represented by figure No. 1 ; but there is not the '• 
slightest discolouration, and the indented spot is cover¬ 
ed with cartilage and synovial membrane, though the 
former might not perhaps be as thick as in other 
parts of the joint. This hock, together with a few 
others having a similar appearance, has been in my 
possession several years, but I never thought of de¬ 
scribing it as a specimen of the lesion I have pointed 
out. Nos. 2 and 3 represent the exact circumference 
of the abrasion on the ridge of the tibia of two hocks, 
whose cases I have before described in The Veteri¬ 
narian. Now, not only are these abrasions con¬ 
siderably more extensive than the indentation No. 1, 
but there is considerable discolouration; and there is 
as much difference in the colour of the abraded spots 
and the other parts of the articulation, even in these ^ ° 
dry specimens, as there is between that of a horse of a / 
dark bay and another of a cream colour. The abrad- 5 s. 
ed parts, too, are denuded of cartilage, they feel very? \ 
rough, and have the appearance of spreading. If any/ v 
doubt be entertained as to the exact correctness of my \ 3 
description, I will readily send the hocks to the Editor \ /—^ 
of The Veterinarian for his inspection, and indeed 
would do so now, if a convenient opportunity presented itself. 
With reference to the figure No. 1, I may observe, that I have 
seen other hocks (one or two recently) in which these cavities 
appeared, some of them of a less size, others a trifle larger, than 
I have here represented, but all unmarked with those other ap¬ 
pearances which I have mentioned. 
Now, being in possession of these facts, but not quite satisfied 
whether such cases as No. 1 were normal, one object of my last 
paper on the subject was to shew, that, even supposing they were 
normal, yet this fact would not militate against the cases I had 
described. I, therefore, have mentioned the symptoms that I 
have met with in cases of obscure hock lameness ; and as it was 
certainly out of my power to open the joint from time to time for 
the purpose of examination, I have stated what changes we may 
rationally suppose, on acknowledged pathological principles, to 
have gone on. In doing this, however, I was guided by the 
many varieties and degrees of lameness that I had met with, as 
well as the many degrees of mischief that I had seen, both with 
reference to the inflammation and abrasion in different hocks. This 
fine-spun theorijj therefore, as Mr. Dick pleases to term it, is 
not altogether unfounded on facts, and, indeed, is similar to the 
changes that take place in navicular lameness in the fore extremity. 
