100 REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 



constitute by a great deal the majority of the cases brought before 

 us in private practice, rarely obtain much, if any, relief from re- 

 medies so mild and transitory in their operation. Still, when there 

 exists any sign or indication of inflammatory action in the diseased 

 joint — when lameness is of that painful nature, that, for the sake 

 of mitigating the animal's suffering at least, the soothing and not 

 the irritating plan of treatment is manifestly called for — blood- 

 letting, with physic and fomentation, &c. ought to be had recourse 

 to, and will prove the best preparatives for any counter-irritant 

 treatment intended to come afterwards. 



Firing. 



Fearful and formidable as the operation of firing must be 

 admitted to be, thirty years and upwards of observation and ex- 

 perience of my own, tempered by a regard to the opinions of 

 others thereupon, has brought the conclusion home to me, that, 

 for the radical and permanent cure of articular spavin, it is a 

 remedy paramount to all others. In the inchoate stages of spavin, 

 we have seen that topical blood-letting, with fomentation, physic, 

 and rest, frequently restores the horse to soundness. These reme- 

 dies failing, blisters, setons, stimulants, and other local applica- 

 tions, at times, succeed. From the day, however, that the case 

 of spavin becomes confirmed, inveterate, chronic — in such cases, 

 in fact, as give us reason for apprehension of return of lameness, 

 the actual cautery is the remedy alone to be confided in. The an- 

 cient practice was — and that practice, backed both by humanity 

 and reason, has been handed down to the present generation of 

 veterinarians — before so severe and painful an operation as firing 

 was had recourse to, to make trial of mild remedies; and willingly 

 would I counsel my professional brethren to pursue the same phi- 

 lanthropic course of treatment, did not experience in essays of the 

 kind teach me, that, in such cases as I have described above, they 

 have seldom proved successful, at least, hardly ever permanently 

 so ; and that the actual cautery, resorted to at last through com- 



