THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



ON THE USE OF THE CAUTERY.* 



" The use of the cautery, to the credit of our art be it said, is on 

 the decline. The farriers of former days had ever in their hands 

 their cautery or firing irons ; with them they opened abscesses 

 and penetrated tumors, introduced setons, stanched hemorrhage, 

 cleansed sores, and scored the skin over enlargements and lame- 

 nesses of almost all descriptions ; indeed, even nowadays, we 

 occasionally meet with some luckless wight of a horse that has 

 gone through this ordeal, bearing marks of having been scored 

 over almost every joint in his body. This barbarous and un- 

 necessary practice is, however, much diminished ; the improve- 

 ments of modern times have shown us that we can, in very many 

 of these cases, afford the same relief in a much simpler and more 

 humane manner. Not that I am one of those squeamish or 

 chicken-hearted mortals, who would hesitate, as its medical at- 

 tendant, to put an animal to any pain, short of actual torture, 

 which I was thoroughly convinced was necessary for its cure or 

 relief; at the same time, if I thought I could effect by mild 

 means that for which were commonly employed harsh and pain- 

 ful measures, I should feel it my duty to adopt the former in 

 preference to the latter, even though the process required a 

 somewhat longer interval of time. In fact, I hold it up as one 

 of the proudest boasts of modern veterinary surgery, that red- 

 hot iron — that terrific though potent remedy — is in many cases 

 superseded by comparatively painless but equally efficacious 

 measures ; and let us hope the day is not far distant when we 

 shall require its aid even less than we do at present." — Per- 

 civall on the disorders and lamenesses of horses. 



* Cautery is of two kinds, actual and potential. By the first is meant the 

 red-hot iron ; by the second, any caustic application. 



