DISEASES OF THE JOINTS 445 
sceptical. The treatment has been constantly practised and 
advised, however, and we feel bound to give it mention here. 
A smart blister may, therefore, be applied to the whole of the 
coronet, and need not be prevented from running into the 
hollow of the heel. 
Instead of blistering the coronet (or in conjunction with 
that treatment), the counter -irritant may be applied by 
passing a seton through the plantar cushion or fibro-fatty 
frog. Setoning the frog appears to have been introduced 
by Sewell. In many cases great benefit is claimed to have 
been derived from it, especially by English veterinarians of 
Sewell’s time, and by others on the Continent. Percival, 
however, was not an advocate for it, and, at the present 
day, it is a practice which appears to have dropped out of 
use altogether. 
Fic. 164.—Froc Seton NEEDLE. 
To perform this operation a seton needle of a curved 
pattern is needed (see Fig. 164). This is threaded with 
a piece of stout tape dressed with a cantharides, hellebore, 
or other blistering ointment, and then passed in at the 
hollow of the heel, emerging at the point of the frog. The 
course the needle should take will be understood from a 
reference to Fig. 165. 
The seton may be passed with the horse in the standing 
position. Previously the point of the frog should be thinned, 
and the animal should be twitched. After-treatment consists 
simply in moving the seton daily, and dressing it occasion- 
ally with any stimulating ointment, or with turpentine. 
If, in spite of these treatments, the disease persists, ‘then 
nothing remains but neurectcmy. 
