to determine the
diagnosis, but there are a few signs which may contribute toward a nicer
identification of the lesion. The capped hock, whether under the
appearance of an acute, edematous swelling, or as a bloody serous
collection, or as a simple serous cyst, does not give rise to any
remarkable local manifestation other than such as have already passed
under our survey in considering similar cases, nor will it be liable to
interfere with the functions which belong to the member in question,
unless it assumes very large dimensions and on each side of the tendons,
as well as on the summit of the bone. But if the inflammation is quite
high, if suppuration is developing, if there is a true abscess, or--and
this is a common complication--especially when the kicking or rubbing of
the animal is frequently recurring, then, besides the local trouble of
the cyst or of the abscess, the bones become diseased and the periosteum
inflamed; perhaps the superior ends of the bone and its fibro-cartilage
become affected, and a simple lesion or bruise, whatever it may have
been, becomes complicated with periostitis and ostitis, and is naturally
accompanied with lameness, developed in a greater or less degree, which
in some cases may be permanent and in others increased by work. These
complications, however, are not common or frequent.

_Treatment._--Capped hocks are in many cases amenable to treatment, and
yet they often become the opprobrium of the practioner by remaining, as
they frequently do, an eyesore on the top of the hock; they do not
interfere, it is true, with the work of the horse, but fixing upon him
the stigma of what, in human estimation, is a most unreliable and
objectionable reputation, to wit, that of being an habitual "kicker,"
and, worse than all, one that kicks when fed.

The maxim that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" fits
the present case very neatly. A horse whose hocks have a somewhat puffy
look and whose skin on the front of the hock is loose and flabby, justly
subjects himself to a suspicion of addictedness to this bad habit, but a
little watching will soon establish the truth. If, then, the verdict is
one of conviction, precautions should be immediately adopted against a
continuance of the evil. The padding of the sides of the stall with
straw mats or mattresses and covering the posts with similar material,
in such manner as to expose no hard surface with which to come in
contact, will reduce