450 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
referred to seem to lack effectiveness and fail to produce satisfactory re- 
sults. Either the rest has been prematurely interrupted or the blisters 
have failed to rightly modify the serious infiltration, or the case in hand 
has some undiscernible characteristics which seem to have rendered the 
diease neutral to the agencies employed against it. An indication of 
more energetic means is then presented, and free cauterization with the 
firing iron becomes necessary. 
At this point a word of explanation in reference to this operation of 
firing may be appropriate for the satisfaction of any among our readers 
who may entertatin an exaggeraed idea of its severity and possible cruelty. 
The operation is one of simplicity, but is nevertheless one which, in 
o'rder to secure its benefits, must be reserved for times and occasions of 
which only the best knowledge and highest discretion should be allowed 
to judge. It is not the mere application of a hot iron to a given part of 
the body which constitutes the operation of firing. It is the methodical 
and scientific introduction of heat into the structure with a view to a 
given effect upon a diseased organ or tissue by an expert surgeon. The 
first is one of the degrees of mere burning. The other is scientific cauter- 
ization, and is a surgical manipulation which should be committed ex- 
clusively to the practiced hand of the veterinary surgeon. 
Either firing alone or stimulation v.ith blisters is of great efficacy for 
the relief of lameness from bone spavin. Failure to produce relief after 
a fev/ applications and after allowing a sufficient interval of rest should 
be followed by a second, or, if needed, a third firing. 
In case of further failure there is a reserve of certain special opera- 
tions which have been tried and recommended, among which those of 
cunean tenotomy, periosteotomy, the division of nervours branches, etc., 
may be mentioned. These, however, belong to the peculiar domain of 
the veterinary practitioner, and need not now engage our attention. 
CUBE. 
This lesion is the bulging backward of the posterior part of the hock, 
where in the normal state there should be a straight line, . extending 
from the upper end of the point of the hock down to the fetlock. 
Cause. — The cause may be a sprain of the tendon which passes on the 
posterior part of the hock, or of one of its sheaths, or of the strong liga- 
ment situated on the posterior border of the oscalcis. 
Hocks of a certain conformation seem to posses a greater liability to 
curb than others. They are overbent, coarse, and thick in appearance, 
or may be too narrow from front to back across the lower portion. This 
condition may therefore result as a sequence to congenital malformation, 
as in the case of horses that are saber-legged. It often occurs, also, as 
the result of violent efforts, of heavy pulling, of high jumping, or of 
slipping; in a v/ord, it may result from any of the causes heretofore con- 
sidered as instrumental in producing lacerations of muscular, tendinous, 
or ligamentous structure. 
Symptoms. — A hock affected with curb will, at the outset, present a 
sweeling more or less diffuse on its posterior portion, with varying de- 
grees of heat and soreness, and these will be accompanied by lameness of 
