S E T O N S . 349 



Some practitioners blister immediately after firing. As a general usage it is highly 

 to be reprobated. It is wanton and useless cruelty. It may be required in bony 

 tumours of considerable extent, and long standing, and interfering materially with the 

 action of the neighbouring joint. Spavin accompanied by much lameness, and ring- 

 bone spreading round the coronet and involving the side cartilages or the pastern 

 joint, may justify it. The inflammation is rendered more intense, and of considera- 

 bly longer duration. In old affections of the round bone it may be admitted, but no 

 excuse can be made for it in slighter cases of sprain or weakness, or staleness. 



On the day after the operation, it will be prudent gently to rub some neat's foot oil, 

 or lard over the wound. This will soften the skin, and render it less likely to sepa- 

 rate or ulcerate. A bandage would add to the irritation of the part. Any cracks of 

 the skin, or ulcerations that may ensue, must be treated with the calamine ointment. 



It will be evident that there is an advantage derived from firing to which a blister 

 can have no pretension. The skin, partially destroyed by the iron, is reinstated and 

 healed, not merely by the formation of some new matter filling up the vacuity, but by 

 the gradual drawing together and closing of the separated edges. The skin, there- 

 fore, is lessened in surface. It is tightened over the part, and it acts, as just described, 

 as a salutary and permanent bandage. Of the effect of pressure in removing enlarge- 

 ments of every kind, as well as giving strength to the part to which it is applied, we 

 have repeatedly spoken ; and it is far from being the least valuable effect of the opera- 

 tion of firing, that, by contracting the skin, it affords a salutary, equable, and perma- 

 nent pressure. It was on this principle, but the practice cannot be defended, that 

 colts which were not very strong on the legs, used to be fired round the fetlock, and 

 along the back sinew, or over the hock, in order to brace and strengthen the parts. 

 It is on the same principle that a racer or hunter, that has become stale and stiff, is 

 sometimes fired and turned out. For whatever reason the horse is fired, he should, 

 if possible, be turned out, or soiled in a loose box, for three or four months at least. 

 The full effect intended to result from the external irritation is not soon produced, and 

 the benefit derived from pressure proceeds still more slowly. In the thickened and 

 tender state of the skin, and the substance beneath, a return to hard work, for some 

 weeks after firing, would be likely to excite new inflammation, and cause even worse 

 mischief than that which before existed. 



Some weeks pass before the tumefied parts begin to contract, and they only, who 

 have had experience in these cases, can imagine how long, with gentle voluntary 

 exercise, the process of absorption is carried on. He who would expect that much 

 good should accrue from the operation of firing, must be content to give up his horse 

 for three or four months ; but if he will use him sooner, and a worse lameness should 

 follow, let him blame his own impatience, and not the inefficiency of the means, or 

 the want of skill in the surgeon. 



The firing in every case should be either in longitudinal or parallel lines. On the 

 back sinews, the fetlock, and the coronet, this is peculiarly requisite, for thus only 

 will the skin contract so as to form the greatest and most equable pressure. 



Some practitioners may pride themselves on the accuracy of their diamonds, lozenges 

 and feathers, but plain straight lines, about half an inch from each other, will consti- 

 tute the most advantajjeous mode of firing. The destroying of deeply-seated inflam- 

 mation, by the exciting of violent inflammation on the skin, is as well obtained ; and 

 common sense Avill determine, that in no way can the pressure which results from the 

 contraction of the skin be so advantageously employed — to which may be added, that 

 it often leaves not the slightest blemish. 



SETONS 



Are pieces of tape or cord, passed, by means of an instrument resembling a large 

 needle, either through abscesses, or the base of ulcers with deep sinuses, or between 

 the skin and the muscular or other substances beneath. They are retained there by 

 the ends being tied together, or by a knot at each end. The tape is moved in the 

 wound twice or thrice in the day, and occasionally wetted with spirit of turpentine, 

 or some acrid fluid, in order to increase the inflammation which it produces, or the 

 discharge which is intended to be established. 



In abscesses, such as occur in the withers or the poll, and when passed from the 

 summit to the very bottom of the swollinsf, sotons are highly useful, by discharging 

 tlie purulent fluid and sufferino- any fresh quantity of it that may be secreted to flow 

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