THE VETERINARIAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 5

THE VETERINARIAN.

\s mm unm Mm? Til 3 vetcn-inarinn expert of the English Farm and Home discourses very instructively on the question of whether spavin is unsoundness, which has arisen in a county court action at Stourbridge. The plaintiff's veterinary surgeon swore the horse was lame from spavin, and (it ordy for the knacker’s yard ; two horse-dealers declared that it was not lame, but only a bit stiff in the morning, and soon got all right; the judge, refusing to endorse the dictum that spavin constitutes unsoundness, decided in favour of the defendant. “ If,’* he said, “ spavin was accoru. panied by lameness, then, no doubt, there was unsoundness ; but if it was a mere malformation, which made a horse unsightly, but did not produce lameness, that was not unsoundness in his opinion.” There is very little doubt that the decision in favour of defendant would be reversed on appeal, as the opinion expressed seems at Y«mnQ9 thb YWiQUS legal prece-

dents as to the meaning to be attached to the term “soundness," and certainly with the opinions of both jirokssional and practical men as to the importance to be attached to the existence of a spavin. The existence of a palpable spavin appears not to have been denied Stiffness is eminently characteristic of spavin, but does not this stiffness on first being compelled to move amount to lameness, or indicate that movement occasions pain ? There are a good many cases of spavin in which the lameness is intense when the horse is first brought out of the stable, but after it has been moving for some time the lameness is scarcely perceptible ; if the animal is allowed to rest again the lameness returns. Horses exhibiting this stiffness," which is a modified or slight lameness, invariably exhibit greater stiffness after a hard day’s work or severe exertion, and in such a case it would seem to impair the horse’s usefulness very materially. The hock is one of the most,- if not the most, important joints of the bod}', whether for riding or driving horses, and any imperfection in it reduces the animal’s value, and renders it always liable to fall lame, and to become unsound. To describe a spavin as “a mere malformation ’’ is obviously incorrect ; it is the product and evidence of disease. Different authorities give different definitions of spavin according to their views of its pathology, but for all practical purposes it may be defined as a complicated chronic inflammation of a hock j Ant, followed by the formation of new hone, which cements the small bones of the hock together and produces an enlargement on the inner and inferior aspect of tLe joint. How can this be described as a malformation ? The deposit is the result of disease, although its presence may nob always be accompanied by lameness. Those who contend for the legal definition that “ sound ’’ means “ perfect,’’ or believe that a horse, to merit the description “sound’’ in any sense of the word must not. possess the germs of unsoundness, is going too far, because in that case we shoulcj not find many sound horses, and should miss many a useful purchase; but it is not right to nse the term “sound ’’ in its legal sense in a case where an animal is not free from disease, unless it is qualified by such terms as “ practically," “ usefully,’’ or “ workably " sound. The purchaser can then judge how far it is suitable to his purpose, and what risk he is prepared to run in consideration of a reduction in the price below that which the animal would fetch if absolutely perfect.