BONE SPAVIN 515 



mercury may be applied as described at page 509. Repeated dressings will 

 be necessary, and the joint must have at least two months' absolute rest, 

 the horse being placed in a loose box. This remedy is often successful, but 

 it will fail utterly where the exostosis is extensive, or there is caries, or even 

 severe inflammation of the synovial membrane. Firing is the usual plan 

 adopted for spavin, and on the fu'st intimation of the disease it is often adopted. 

 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 horse- 

 masters 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 pi'oved 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 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 i^roduce suflncient irritation. Their use by them- 

 selves is often sufficient, but when preceded by subcutaneous scarification 

 they seem to act even more certainly than firing. IMr. Holmes, of Beverley, 

 has obtained great celebrity for his treatment of spavin on this plan, and 

 undoubtedly not without foundation. Some of his cures have been very 

 remai^kable, as even old-standing and extensive grov/ths of bone have been 

 reduced, and the hocks have remained sound afterwards. It requires an 

 intimate 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 consequence. When the disease has gone so far that no 

 method of treatment 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. 



