1 26 EX AM IN A TION OF HORSES 



alike. I shall explain this operation that you may know 

 how to perform it, and by that means learn to detect the 

 appearance a hock presents after it has been successfully 

 accomplished. The operation is neither more nor less 

 than a rowel placed over the seat of spavin in a neat way, 

 but goes by the name of *' causticking." It was, I be- 

 lieve, performed first, and I know very extensively, by the 

 late Mr. Fryer, of Kirkby Fleetham, in Yorkshire, who 

 got such a reputation in the performance of this operation 

 that his services were sought far and near. The ''caustic" 

 he used, so far as I know, was never made known even 

 to his profession, but I have always used a simple 

 digestive made of equal parts of oil of cantharides, oil of 

 turpentine, and oil of thyme. After the horse has been 

 cast and secured properly, an incision through the skin 

 and cellular tissue only is made, about an inch in length, in 

 the long axis of the limb, about an inch and a \\2i\i behind 

 the spavin place, and an inch below this again. You then 

 take a probe-pointed seton needle, and push it upwards 

 diXid forwards, and sweep it all over the site of spavin, 

 taking care in doing so that your needle is well under the 

 cellular tissue as well as the skin, because, as you know, 

 the cellular tissue contains the blood-vessels and nerves 

 which nourish the skin and holds the same relation to 

 the skin that the periosteum does to bone, and therefore, 

 as the bone beneath the stripped- off periosteum must die, 

 so does the skin separated from its cellular tissue. Take 

 care then in doing this operation not to fall into such an 

 error, or a "slough" of the skin may result. Having 



