428 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



affair when employed to cure spavin. The fire may be 

 down to the true skin ; it may be through the skin and on 

 to the tumour ; or it may be inflicted by means of a blunt- 

 pointed instrument, which, when heated, burns its way into 

 the bone itself. The punch also admits of variety ; it may 

 be with or without a blister ; it may be holes made in a 

 living body, which holes are filled with a corroding paste. 

 Or the operation may consist of the exposure of the bone, 

 and cutting off the offending portion with a saw, or knock- 

 ing away part of a breathing frame with a chisel and a 

 mallet ! 



All these tortures have for centuries been inflicted ; they 

 have been practised upon thousands of animals, only for 

 men at this day to doubt whether the cruelty has been 

 attended with the slightest service. Flesh, as capable of 

 feeling as our own, has been cut, irritated, burnt, and 

 punched for hundreds of years, and now, at the twelfth 

 hour, such operations are not discarded, but their efficacy 

 is mildly questioned. 



Reader, if you have a horse which is lame from spavin, 

 and your calculations tell you it will not pay to nurse the 

 cripple, have it slaughtered. Do not consent to have it 

 tortured for a chance ; do not sell it to the certainty of a 

 terrible old age, and of immediate torment. 



The cure for spavin is good food and rest — perfect rest — 

 such rest or stagnation as a healthy horse submits to in the 

 stable. This enjoined for months, with the occasional 

 application of a mild blister, with the best of food to enable 

 Nature to rectify man's abuse, will do more good, cost no 

 more money, and occupy no more time than the devilries 

 usually adopted, and very often almost without success. 

 As an additional motive on the side of humanity, it may be 

 stated that the horse suffers much more when disease is 

 located in the hind, than when it is exhibited upon the 

 fore legs. The ravages which in the first case would 

 endanger the life, in the last would be borne with com- 

 parative tranquillity. The posterior parts of the animal 

 seem to be endowed with exquisite sensibility ; yet, in 

 spite of this, the so-called cure for spavin, and the boasted 

 treatment of ages only consists in torturing the hocks of 

 the animal. 



While inflammation exists, apply poultices, and well rub 

 the part with a mixture of belladonna and of opium ; one 



