COUNTER lERITANTS. 1031 



for a longer period to the'legs. It mtiy be here mentioned that fo- 

 mentations should not be hot, but soothingly warm. 



" Sometimes blisters, no matter how carefully applied, produce 

 excessive swellings of the limb or limbs, with a tendency to sup- 

 puration and sloughing of the skin. These results are generally 

 due to the animal's being in bad health, and in a condition tending 

 to anasarca or to erysipelatous disease. The treatment must con- 

 sist of purgatives or diuretics, as the case maybe; fomentations, 

 astringent lotions, and gentle exercise, as soon as the pain is suffi- 

 ciently subsided to admit of the animal's being moved about. In 

 man}^ cases the swellings involve the sheath of the penis, and the 

 under surface of the abdomen. Punctures are very useful in such 

 parts, by allowing the escape of the contained fliiid. 1 have seen 

 tetanus arise from a very limited blister to one fore leg. 



'' If the effects are not sufficiently apparent in about thii-ty 

 hours after the blister has been applied, a very little more, or what 

 is remaining on the skin, which may be sufficient, should be gently 

 rubbed in ; and in about fortj^-eight hours after the application the 

 part is to be Avashcd, and every trace of the blister removed ; a lit- 

 tle oil being now applied, or, what suits perhaps better, an emulsion 

 of sweet-oil, carbonate of potash, and water. It is a mistake to 

 keep the parts soft too long ; the eschars should be allowed to ac- 

 cumulate, and to desquamate gradually. 



'■'■Firing, or the application of the actual cautery, is a much 

 more severe irritant than a blister, and often removes pain very 

 rapidly when repeated blisters have failed to do so. In bone dis- 

 eases, and in all cases of chronic lameness, it is of great benefit, and 

 seems to act by powerfully exciting the healing process in the part 

 diseased. The fii'ing may be in lines, and superficial, the transverse 

 method being the least calculated to blemish ; or it may be in 

 points, and deep, by pyro puncture (see treatment for spavins, 

 ring-bones, etc.) into the diseased structure. This latter method 

 is the more easily performed, and the more eifective. 



" jSTothing is more calculated to dispel the idea of the correct- 

 ness of the counter-irritation theor3'' than the dissection of a part 

 which has been recently fired (say three days after the operation), 

 when it will be found that the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and the 

 bones, — when they are superficially situated, such as those of the 

 hock, pastern, etc., — are involved in the inflammatory action so 

 produced. Thus a bone spavin lameness is removed by the inflam- 

 mation excited by the cautery in the diseased bones, providing a 

 supply of material for the pui'pose of uniting them together into one 

 immovable mass ; or as in caries of a ginglymoid joint, for the re- 

 pair of destroyed structure, as alrcad}^ explained. 



'' Setons act very satisfactorily in some cases of bone diseases, 

 especiall}^ in those accompanied by external heat of the part; they 

 produce a discharge of pus, and their action can be continued for 

 a much longer time than that of blistering or firing. In tendenous 

 or ligamentous lamenesses, with much thickening of the integu- 

 ments and subcutaneous structures, setons should not be employed, 



