58 THE ACTUAL CAUTERY 



To prevent slipping out, its ends are tied together, or 

 knotted. It is usually moved daily ; and if severe effects are 

 desired, it is smeared with blistering ointment. Setons act 

 chiefly on the comparatively insensitive subcutaneous 

 cellular tissues. 



A rowel acts in much the same manner as a seton. A 

 wound is made in the skin with a bistoury or rowel scissors, 

 and is kept open by the insertion of a disc of leather, or a 

 pledget of tow, which, to increase counter-irritation, is 

 smeared with blistering ointment. 



Acupuncture is effected by needles three to six inches in 

 length, introduced into fleshy parts, with a rotary movement. 

 Occasionally anodynes are deeply injected into muscles for 

 the relief of rheumatic pain. 



THE ACTUAL CAUTERY, or thermo-cautery is still much 

 used in veterinary practice as a counter-irritant. It is 

 generally applied at a red heat, and the higher the tempera- 

 ture, the less the pain attending its application. It is em- 

 ployed for some of the purposes of active vesicants, and also 

 of caustics. In the treatment of chronic inflammation of 

 bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons, for which it is chiefly 

 used, it modifies the nutrition of the diseased part (counter- 

 irritation). Deep cauterisation with penetration, as in 

 pyropuncturing bony outgrowths, increases the activity of 

 the inflammatory process and hastens consolidation. 

 Moderate cauterisation, as in linear or transcurrent firing, 

 promotes absorption of exudate and resolution. The fired 

 skin does not, as was once believed, form a permanent 

 bandage around the parts ; for a short time indeed after 

 the operation the skin is corrugated and tightened, but it 

 soon resumes its natural elasticity, and does not embrace the 

 subjacent parts more firmly than in health. The firing of 

 healthy limbs, with the popular idea of strengthening and 

 bracing them up, is now deservedly discountenanced, and 

 any benefits apparently accruing really result from the rest 

 which the operation necessitates. In nervous, excitable 

 horses, firing occasionally produces irritative fever, especially 

 if several parts are fired at the same time. 



The uses of counter-irritants. In influenza, bronchitis, 

 and other depressing disorders of horses, in order to rouse 



