758 



DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



one professing to doctor horses. Becoming finally acquainted with 

 a well-known veterinary surgeon, Dr. Wm. Somerville, of Buflfalo, 



New York,* I employed him to give 

 me a private course of lectures, in- 

 structing me in the principles and 

 ti'eatment of the most common caus- 

 es of sickness and lameness in horses, 

 and I spent nearly a year in obtain- 

 ing this knowledge. 



At the commencement of these 

 lectures there were three interesting 

 cases of spavin for treatment, two 

 of them from distant cities. He ex- 

 plained, among other things, that 

 he charged one hundred dollars each 

 for treating these cases, guarantee- 

 ing a cure without blemishing; and 

 that were the treatment for these 

 cases understood by the local veter- 

 inary surgeons, whose charges were 

 comparatively nominal, they would 

 not have been sent to him at such 

 large expense for treatment and 

 shipping. 



The better to explain the nature 

 of spavins, I quote from the best 

 description I can find of this disease 

 and its causes: — 



" There are two distinct kinds of 

 bone spavin : The first is in all re- 

 spects similar to splint, and arises 

 from inflammation of the periosteum. 

 It frequently comes on insidiously 

 without causing much annoyance. 

 The other form, arising from inflam- 

 mation of the internal structures of 

 Fig. 646.-Bones of leg and foot. ^^^ hock-joint, is frequently attended 



by caries or ulceration, and from the 

 fii'st produces intense pain and lameness, when the bones i*ub on one 

 another. "* 



* I give his exact method of treatment in the first method of firing. 



