128 OTHER REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 



plied upon his hock, on the outer side of it ; but that did no good. 

 December the 10th two setons were passed, one along the inner side 

 immediately upon the spavin enlargement; the other along the outer 

 side of the hock, the length of each being four inches. The setons 

 continued discharging for three weeks, and then, on account of 

 efflorescences of granulations sprouting up around their apertures, 

 were taken out. It might, also, be as well to state, that during 

 the first fortnight they were in they excited and kept up a more 

 than ordinary irritation and inflammation ; producing, indeed, so 

 much general tumefaction of limb, that it was deemed advisable, 

 in order to restrain it, to give cathartic medicine, foment, &c. The 

 week after the final extraction of the setons I had my patient 

 trotted out, and could not, to my agreeable surprise, perceive any 

 lameness. 



Seemingly contradictory as these cases are, according to my man- 

 ner of reasoning on them, they all three but tend to the elucidation 

 of the same pathology; which, though it has been given before, 

 it may be useful to repeat here; — and that is, that what we call the 

 " cure" of spavin consists in the complete ossification of the diseased 

 joints, and consequent perfect anchylosis or functional annihilation 

 of them ; and that the remedy which brings about this final con- 

 version of the morbid parts the soonest proves the best, and that the 

 cure cannot be manifested until such is accomplished ; the horse 

 then, but not until then, going free from pain: the use of the main 

 joint of the hock being left him entire wherewith to perform flexion 

 and extension with sufficient freedom to constitute what in these 

 " cured" cases is regarded as working soundness. Should there- 

 fore firing, either from not being " deep enough," or from insuf- 

 ficient laying-by of the patient, fail to restore soundness, or, what 

 amounts to the same thing, to bring about this desired or indis- 

 pensable transformation of parts, a seton, by exciting inflammatory 

 action afresh, may complete the process : on the other hand, what- 

 ever seton, or blister, or other remedies, may fail from want of 

 stimulant power to effect, is likely to be accomplished by the po- 

 tent and paramount efficacy of the firing-iron. 



