EXOSTOSIS OF THE HUMERUS AND SCAPULA. 461 
unfortunate result; but of its being followed by serious blemishes there 
is abundant proof. Firing is the safest, and, therefore, the usual plan 
adopted for spavin, and on the first intimation of the disease it is often 
adopted without any necessity for having recourse to so disfiguring a 
process. Its chief advantage is, that while it is a certain means of 
establishing a strong counter-irritation, it has no tendency to cause any 
increase of inflammation in the structures beneath the skin, and therefore 
the good it does is unalloyed by any counterbalancing evil. It is now 
the fashion to deny its use, and horsemasters are often tempted to try 
some substitute for it in the hope of escaping a blemish ; but too often 
they are compelled to submit to it at last, and probably after the disease 
has been aggravated by some “unfailing” remedy. If there is a strong 
desire expressed to avoid a blemish, the veterinary surgeon is perfectly 
warranted in doing all in his power to effect a cure without the use of the 
irons; but the mere fashion of the day should not induce him to decry a 
plan which has for so many years been proved to be successful. In human 
surgery the same course has been adopted, and for the last thirty or forty 
years the actual cautery has been voted “barbarous” in this country. 
Now, however, a counter current is setting in, and it is the general 
opinion of the first hospital surgeons of the day that, in certain diseases 
of the joints, no remedy is nearly so efficacious. All sorts of attempts 
are made to render the use of the hot iron less repugnant to the senses ; 
but in the case of the horse it is only necessary to measure its comparative 
utility and the amount of pain which it gives. The former has been 
already considered, and as to the latter, if the irons are properly heated, 
I much doubt whether their action is not less painful than that of any 
other counter-irritant. Setons, perhaps, give less pain if skilfully inserted, 
and they are admirable remedies, having nearly the same beneficial effects 
as firing, and leaving a far slighter blemish. They should be passed beneath 
a considerable track of the skin, covering the “spavin place,’ and the 
tape requires to be smeared with blistering cerate to produce sufficient 
uritation. Their use by themselves is often sufficient, but when preceded 
by subcutaneous scarification they seem to act even more certainly than 
firmg. Mr. Holmes, of Beverley, has obtained great celebrity for his 
treatment of spavin on this plan, and undoubtedly not without founda- 
tion. Some of his cures have been very remarkable, as even old standing 
and extensive growths of bone have been reduced, and the hocks have 
remained sound afterwards. The method of operation is similar to that 
described for splints, but it requires more knowledge of the anatomy of 
the parts to avoid doing mischief by cutting into one of the joints. There 
is always afterwards considerable effusion into the subcutaneous cellular 
membrane, demanding two or three months for its removal ; but as the 
spavined horse requires that interval of rest, this is of little or no con- 
sequence. When the disease has gone so far that no method of treat- 
ment will remove it, the nerve above the hock may be divided, which will 
enable the horse to work without pain for a time, but the disease goes on 
the faster, and the benefit derived is only temporary. 
EXOSTOSIS OF THE HUMERUS AND SCAPULA. 
THE HEADS OF THE BONES adjacent to most of tne joints of the body are 
more or less sudject to exostosis, though not so frequently as those of 
the pastern bones and tarsus. Next to these probably comes the shoulder 
joint, the neighbourhood of which is often the seat of this disease, bus 
a 
