At the head of this article stands an engraving of the mildest form of reward which docility reaps by service unto cruelty. When will this land, which so loudly boasts its Christianity, apply in its fullness and its strength the sacred maxim—"Do unto others as you would others should do unto you"? When will churchmen teach that the religion which does not enlarge the heart toward every breathing life upon the earth, is unworthy of the Christian title? Men who would rage to hear their faith called in question, nevertheless feel no shame when they urge the young steed to that act which probably will cripple the animal for the short remainder of its life.
Spavin, splint, or ring-bone are no more the legitimate consequences of equine existence, than nodes and anchylosis are the natural inheritances of human beings; yet what would the world look like, if men had their motions impeded and their joints firmly locked by bony deposits in anything like the proportion which such misfortunes are witnessed in the inferior life? The most useful, the most trusting, and the most joyous of animals is the one toward which man acts as though his study was to abuse the authority intrusted to him. Its utility lies in its legs; its play also is a canter; but before its body is set, its limbs are disabled. Kindness can subdue the creature, which, however, is never taken out of its prison without the whip; it is treated as a thing without feeling: but its body is not more impressible to brutality than its feelings are sensitive to gentleness. The one is often injured, and the others are frequently vitiated by the master it too literally obeys.
BONE SPAVIN.
A swelling or bony tumor, situated
upon the lower and inner part of
the hock-joint.
Spavin and splint both are the change of ligamentous structure into bone: spavin occurs at the inner and lower part of the hock; splint also may be sometimes found at the same part of the knee. The name splint is likewise applied to any bony enlargement upon the shins or below the hocks and the knees.
Splints in the fore leg are mostly seen on the inner side. On the hind limb, however, such growths principally favor the outer side. The advent of splint, when near the knee, is generally accounted for by saying the inner side of the joint lies more under the center of gravity, and, therefore, is the more exposed to injury. Such an interpretation, however, leaves the preference for the outer locality—when splints are witnessed on the hind leg—unexplained. Perhaps the reader will—after having contemplated the two following engravings, and subsequent to having observed that the artery of the hinder limb crosses the inferior part of the hock, to take its course down the outer side of the leg, while in the fore extremity the vessel continues along the inner side of the shin-bone—conclude with the author that, in splint, the distribution of the blood is more to be regarded than the weight, which, originally conveyed through a ball-and-socket joint, can hardly afterward affect one part to the release of the rest.
THE inside OF THE FORE LEG, SHOWING THE
VESSELS PROPER TO THAT PART OF THE
LIMB GENERALLY AFFECTED BY OSSEOUS
DEPOSITS.
