* 
78 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
spreads, A few cutaneous benign tumors, rebel ulcers and ‘‘canker’’ of 
the foot represent about the only actual calls for its use. 
From the beginning of the art, at Cuidus and at Cos, actual 
cauterization was believed to be the most energetic therapeutic’ ; 
agent. Hippocrates thus spoke of it in one of his aphorisms: — ~~ 
‘What drugs do not cure, fire will; what is not cured by fire can 
be looked upon as incurable.”! After having been used dargé manu, 
cauterization was ignored for many centuries. Solleysel rehabilitated 
it for our patients, and laid down its first rules in his ‘‘ Parfait 
Mareschal” (1664.) ‘To well apply firing, three things must be 
observed : 1st, That the one who applies operate with light hand, and 
does not press too heavily upon the skin with the iron knife; 2d, that 
the instruments be only at a red and not a white heat; 3d, that 
they be heated only with charcoal. . . . . I have had firing 
applied hundreds of times in many places with great success ; 
horses have always been benefited by it. . . . . Itis of great 
importance to prevent the horses from scratching, rubbing, biting or 
licking the cauterized parts, since no matter how well the operation 
has been performed, if these precautions are not taken, the parts will 
bedeformed. . . . . Infiring, unless it is absolutely necessary, 
and then never in other than the necessary places, should the skin 
be cut; it should be cauterized by degrees without hurry, until it 
has taken a sherry color. . . . Time is necessary to fire well; 
and it gives better results if the firing is done with irons moderately 
hot, passed five or six times in the same line, than with very hot 
irons which cut through at once or burn only the hair, as blacksmiths 
do. . . . . When firing is’ finished, one may spread over the 
cauterized parts a layer of lard or of yellow wax, melted and mixed 
with melted black pitch; after nine, ten, or twelve days, all is 
washed every day with alcohol. . . . . Every one has his way 
of firing ; some make use of silver knives, others of brass or copper 
irons : copper I prefer, as this metal is very good for wounds. . . 
The effects of firing are slow ; I haveseen animals in which 
the effects of firing were not fully realized for six months; it is an 
imperceptible resolution ; time is required to produce the absorption | 
andreduction lookedfor. . . . . The effect of fire lasts twenty- 
seven days, nine for its increase, nine for its developed condition 
and nine for its subsidence ; the least time that ought to be given 
for one to see the good effects is eighteen days. . . . . Twenty- 
five years ago, to speak of firing a horse or to send it to the skinner 
_were the same thing ; to-day it is different; I have removed the 
fear that people had of it; experience had conquered.” 
In his ‘‘ Nouveau Parfait Mareschal” (1741), Garsault reproduces 
the same principles, and recommends firing, “following as closely 
1 Collection hippocratique, trad. of Littré, vol. iv., Aphorisms, p. 609. 
