FISTULOUS PAROTID DUCT. 397 
The cure for this disease was aptly illustrated by Mr. Gowing, the 
excellent veterinary surgeon of Camden Town. ‘That gentleman made 
an adhesive fluid, by either saturating the strongest spirit of wine with 
gum mastic, or dissolving India-rubber in sulphuric ether. Then, when 
the horse was not eating, he pared off the hardened edges of the wound 
till blood issued therefrom. He subsequently allowed the bleeding to 
stop, and placed over the orifice a piece of strained India-rubber. 
Over that he put a thin layer of cotton; fastened one end of the cotton 
to the hair of the cheek by means of the adhesive preparation. That 
being dry, he tightened the cotton and glued down the opposite ex- 
tremity. Next he attached another layer of cotton, and subsequently 
another. Afterward he fastened more cotton, some of it crossways; 
and, having added as many layers as would make a good body, saturates 
the whole with the adhesive solution before alluded to. 
The hair affords a good ground to which any other substance can he 
fastened; but it is rendered better by being thoroughly washed with 
soft soap and warm water. The ablution deprives the skin of the horse 
of its naturally unctuous secretion, and permits the adhesive application 
a better chance. 
The horse should be allowed no food which necessitates mastication. 
The head should be fastened to the pillar-reins during the process of 
cure. Thin gruel only should be presented while treatment is progress- 
ing, and that should: be continued until the covering falls off. Should 
the wound not be healed, allow a couple of days to elapse; but give no 
solid food. Permit the horse to rest on refuse tan—not straw, which 
might be eaten—during all this time. Afterward renew the attempt, 
and repeat it again if necessary—though the first trial generally suc- 
ceeds. 
Before concluding, it may be well to arm the reader against those 
practices generally adopted by horse doctors. These practices consist 
in the use of the red-hot budding iron, which is among them a very 
popular application to a fistulous parotid duct. The theory which in- 
duces this resort is, a belief that the heated iron induces an eschar, and 
the wound closes before the crust falls off. Red-hot iron is, however, 
far more disposed to destroy substance than to favor growth; and, 
probably, its curative properties could have gained faith among no other 
class. Possibly there exists no other body which would credit that, to 
burn a hole larger, was the best way to close it. Another artifice is to 
inject caustic lotions up the duct, and thereby occasion the gland to 
slough out. Against such cruelty the author is pleased to think little 
need be said. The operation, when successful, causes so much irritation 
as endangers the life; for the body of the gland is permeated by so 
