106 REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 



able service to the public." — " About twenty-five years ago, the 

 giving of the fire was reckoned to be as effectual a way to dis- 

 patch a horse as the discharging of a musket at his head ; but 

 now the case is altered, and this method is commonly practised 

 without the least scruple." 



Gibson*, in his relation of the case of "a very fine young 

 horse," who from hunting had " put out a spavin," and who was 

 given up to have done " what he (Gibson) would with him," 

 gives us the following account of firing : " Very strong causticks" 

 having failed to afford relief, Gibson ''judged it safer (than ven- 

 turing farther with caustics) to fire." And the following consti- 

 tuted his " manner of firing a bone spavin :" — " The irons for the 

 operation were made in the shape of a fleam, that they might go 

 deep into the substance of the spavin, only they were not pointed 

 as a fleam, but rounded on the face, and made thick towards the 

 back, that they might retain the heat. In this operation some 

 small bloodvessels were cut through, which could not be avoided, 

 and caused pretty large effusion of blood, till it was stopped with 

 styptic. The wound was about half an inch deep, and an inch in 

 length, with two or three short strokes or lines on each side. It 

 was kept with a dressing of dry tow till the third day, that the 

 bleeding might be fully stopped : nothing was discharged for se- 

 veral days but a glut of viscid water, during which time he was 

 in great pain, and his hock swelled very much, which symptom 

 was removed by fomentations, such as are recommended for 

 punctured wounds. The first dressings were only turpentine 

 spread on tow, afterwards mixed with precipitate finely ground, 

 viz. two drachms to an ounce of turpentine." It was *•' two 

 months" before '' the skin began to close over the wound." — " In 

 the space of three months the sore was quite healed up, and co- 

 vered with hair, except about the bigness of a farthing, over 

 which I caused a defensive plaster to be laid. He was purged 

 during the time of his cure, and in four months he went through 

 all his exercises, and hunted the first season, and every season 

 afterwards, perfectly free from lameness." 



* Op. cit., at p. 604, vol. ii, p. 262. 



