124 OTHER REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 



its sanative power in such cases even beyond that of the actual 

 cautery — that I verily believe some of the juniors and less expe- 

 rienced of our profession have felt disposed to attach a specific 

 power to the seton as a remedy. That setons are often found of 

 great service in spavin ; that in certain cases, and under particular 

 circumstances, they prove relievable or even curative of spavin, 

 I am, from my own practice, too well convinced to listen to any 

 opinions to the contrary ; but, that they possess any remedial 

 power in confirmed or inveterate cases of spavin which will bear 

 a comparison with that belonging to the firing-iron, is what no 

 man who has had to treat many such cases, I should imagine, 

 will subscribe to. Spavin, it must ever be borne in mind, essen- 

 tially consists of two diseases; and these diseases are so opposite 

 in their nature, that to make a selection of any individual remedy, 

 and say, it is applicable to either or to both of them, in any state 

 or stage it or they may happen to be, is downright quackery, and 

 nothing better. 



For articular spavin, then — if our design be to work a cure that 

 will prove serviceable and lasting — the actual cautery is, generally 

 speaking, the preferable remedy. But for callous tumour or ex- 

 ostosis, i. e. periosteal spavin, seton will often be found a very 

 useful and eifective counter-irritant. It must be remembered that 

 spavin, whether it appear in one form or the other, is a disease 

 that rarely manifests much acuteness, or indeed occasions much 

 pain, unless in the latter and aggravated stages of the disease ; and 

 on this account, seton from its action, though tardy, being unre- 

 mitting, is calculated, give it time enough, to work a great amount 

 of good. A blister, prompt and for a time severe in its operation, 

 will probably effect some immediate relief, but that relief is not 

 found to be of the enduring or withstanding character of that which 

 is so much more slowly brought about by the seton. So far there 

 certainly is a sort of appositeness, as a remedy, of seton to spavin ; 

 but that, beyond this, to imagine it possesses any specific power, 

 is, I repeat, absurd. 



Ordinarily, but one seton, that being a broad one, is passed for 

 spavin ; the course given to it being from above, directly across 

 the tumour, to below it. Another seton may be advantageously 



