108 REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 



ing. At one time there were breeders, and other horse-persons, in 

 our own country, who, like the Arabians, would have their foals' 

 or colts' legs and joints fired with a view of " strengthening" them. 

 Whatever effect of a sthenic description, however, firing may have 

 upon legs or joints weakened by disease, I am unhesitatingly of 

 opinion that no sound or normal parts can reap the same benefit 

 from it ; that, in short, we cannot improve that which is already, 

 of its kind, perfect. We can neither ''gild refined gold" nor add 

 a " perfume to the violet." 



The Opinions of Veterinarians of our own Day on the 

 important subject before us, fortunately for me on the present 

 occasion, are obtainable in a form and to an amount that will, 

 I can entertain no doubt, prove highly satisfactory to all who de- 

 sire to institute comparisons between the old and the new schools 

 of veterinary surgery. In the year 1837, Mr. Mayer, jun., of 

 Newcastle-under-Line, read a paper* to the Veterinary JMedical 

 Association " On the Actual Cautery and Setons, and the Utility 

 of each in Veterinary Surgery," which is not only in itself a 

 valuable production, but has proved, in the issue, of very great 

 service to us, inasmuch as it became the means of eliciting, in the 

 course of the debate to which it gave rise, the opinions of some of 

 the oldest and most experienced practitioners of the day. 



Mr. Mayer (jun.) himself, has found the actual cautery, as a 

 remedy for spavin, of superior and permanent efficacy. The cau- 

 tery has, with him, succeeded when setons have failed in esta- 

 blishing a cure ; and " not alone for the cure of spavins," but for 

 other diseases as well. 



Mr. Sibbald, " with one exception the oldest practitioner 

 present" on the occasion of the discussion of the paper, said, 

 " so far as osseous deposits were concerned, and spavins, and 

 lamenesses referrible to the tendons of the fore legs, he had fre- 

 quently found setons altogether fail; and then, the firing-iron being 

 resorted to, the horse had been cured." 



Mr. Thos. Turner — the present President of the Royal College 

 of Veterinary Surgeons — " for twenty years had been accustomed 



* Afterwards published in the tenth volume of The Veterinarian. 



