LAMENESS: ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT. 321 
who will deluge him with references and certificates. It is possible 
that nostrums may in some exceptional instances prove serviceable, 
but the greater number of them are capable of producing only in- 
jurious effects. The removal of the bony tumor can not be accom- 
plished by any such means, and if a trial of these unknown com- 
pounds should be followed by complications no worse than the 
establishment of one or more ugly, hairless cicatrices, it will be 
well for both the horse and his owner. 
Rest and counterirritation, with the proper medicaments, consti- 
tute, then, the prominent points in the treatment designed for the 
relief of bone spavin. Yet there are cases in which all the agencies 
and methods referred to seem to lack effectiveness and fail to produce 
satisfactory results. Either the rest has been prematurely inter- 
rupted or the blisters have failed to modify the serous infiltration, 
or the case in hand has some undiscernible characteristics which 
seem to have rendered the disease neutral to the agencies used against 
it. An indication of more energetic means is then presented, and 
free cauterization with the firing iron becomes necessary. 
At this point a word of explanation in reference to this operation 
of firing may be appropriate for the satisfaction of any among our 
readers who may entertain an exaggerated idea of its severity and 
possible cruelty. 
The operation is one of simplicity, but is nevertheless one which, 
in order to secure its benefits, must be reserved for times and. occa- 
sions of which only the best knowledge and highest discretion should 
be allowed to judge. It is not the mere application of a hot iron to 
a given part of the body which constitutes the operation of firing. 
It is the methodical and scientific introduction of heat into the 
structure with a view to a given effect upon a diseased organ or 
tissue by an expert surgeon. The first is one of the degrees of mere 
burning. The other is scientific cauterization, and is a surgical 
manipulation which should be committed exclusively to the practiced 
hand of the veterinary surgeon. 
Either firing alone or stimulation with blisters is of great efficacy 
for the relief of lameness from bone spavin. Failure to produce 
relief after a few applications and after allowing a sufficient interval 
of rest should be followed. by a second or, if needed, a third firing. 
In case of further failure there is a reserve of certain special oper- 
ations which have been tried and recommended, among which those 
of cunean tenotomy, periosteotomy, the division of nervous branches, 
etc., may be mentioned. These, however, belong to the peculiar do- 
main of the veterinary practitioner, and need not now engage our 
attention. 
36444°—16——21 
