REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 115 



being fired — the hock being the part our observations in particular 

 have reference to — nothing but the dry scores of the iron are ob- 

 servable. The hand applied to the surface may discover increased 

 heat and tenderness, and probably fulness as well, of the part 

 fired, or there may be general swelling of the limb ; and yet, if 

 we may judge from the quietude the animal commonly evinces, 

 while tied up in his stall, his general aspect, and his unimpaired 

 appetite, no great pain appears to succeed this circumscribed ap- 

 plication of the cautery. About the third day, reckoning the day of 

 firing as the first, there will be noticeable, in addition to more or less 

 swelling of the limb — which, should it not have come on the day 

 before, will most likely become apparent enough now — exudation, 

 in the form of dew-drops, of sero-albuminous fluid, tinged in those 

 places which the iron has penetrated the deepest, with blood. 

 On the fourth day, the swelling of the limb will have become 

 augmented, and the liquid exudation, increased in quantity, will be 

 observed oozing out from the fired places, trickling down the leg, 

 staining white hair, wherever it comes upon it, of a bright 

 orange yellow colour, while at the bottom of the deepest scores 

 there will, about this period, be visible some pus formations. The 

 fifth day will disclose purulent secretion pretty generally from 

 such parts as gave omen of it the day before : any scores that may 

 not have penetrated the cutis continuing to be gummed up with 

 the albuminous exudation. The tumefaction of the limb — the 

 horse having been kept all the while standing, fastened up in his 

 stall — is now at its highest; and this is the period when the 

 horse should be removed into a loose box, and have his liberty 

 given to him, taking the precaution to put a cradle upon his neck 

 for fear of his gnawing or biting his fired hock. 



From this time there will be daily augmentation of the dis- 

 charges, the purulent, as the case proceeds, prevailing over the 

 serous and albuminous ; and, shortly after he has had it in his 

 power to take exercise, there will be observed manifest decline 

 of the general swelling of the limb. The secretion of pus taking 

 place now from the surface of the cutis, as well as from the. ul- 

 cerated scores, the matter lodges, and burrows underneath the 

 deadened exfoliating cuticle, forming pouches under it, or little 



