DISEASES OF THE MUSCLES AND TENDONS, 189 



large spot remained, however, on which the hair never grew 

 out again. 



A fourth example will exhaust the space which can he 

 given this subject. A horse five years old, belonging to Mr. 

 Robert Ferguson, of Cageville, Haywood County, Tenn. — 

 at which place the writer then resided — was afflicted with 

 an enormously large fistula. The Maj-apple liniment was 

 applied cautiously, in the manner prescribed in the foregoing 

 pages, and with such happy results that in ten days the tumor 

 had entirely disappeared. In this instance treatment began 

 within three weeks after the swelling was first noticed. 



FORMER MODES OP TREATMENT. 



Fifteen or twenty years ago there were always to be found 

 one or more cases of fistula upon nearly every plantation in 

 Tennessee. In many instances the sufferer received no atten- 

 tion whatever, or was given away at once as worthless. Com- 

 paratively few planters were willing to run the risk of keeping 

 a horse or a mule thus afflicted for months, or, perhaps, years, 

 and meanwhile to- undergo the constant and excessively disa- 

 greeable labor of doctoring him according to the barbarous 

 practices of the times, only to have three chances out of five 

 of losing him at last. At best, it was poor pay for hard 

 work ; for,* even when cured, the horse remained greatly 

 disfigured, with shoulders crestfallen and the neck always 

 stiff. 



Arsenic was the specific generally relied upon. A deep 

 gash v/as cut in the crown of the tumor, into which the 

 arsenic was blown by means of a quill, when it was closed. 

 The poison, .readily taken up by the absorbents, soon affected 

 not only the fistula, but also the neighboring tendons and 

 muscles, forming an abscess, from which resulted, in the 

 course of two or three months, a disgusting, running sore. 

 Immense quantities of foul matter poured forth ; the poison, 

 far infused, ate away in all directions, and tendons, cartilages, 

 and sometimes even bones, were utterly destroyed ; it pene- 

 trated to the vertebra, the crown or point of which (the 



