614 
MR. HOUSTON’S REPLY. 
I have Professor Dick’s assurance that he never recommended, 
but always ridiculed, such an operation. He does not ac- 
knowledge as his the instrument the one figured in your last 
as “ Mr. Dick’s spavin punch,” nor its relation c ‘ the iron 
hammer.” I know that he practises very extensively, and 
with great success, even after failure of other remedies, the 
punching on spavin in suitable cases ; and I can bear testi- 
mony to the value, indeed almost immediate utility, of this 
operation, when properly performed with appropriate instru- 
ments. Professor Dick does devote two or three lectures to 
a consideration of the pathology and symptoms of spavin, 
and in explanation of those kinds of hocks and horses most 
predisposed to the disease ; but the subject of “ punching” 
is disposed of, among other items of treatment, in a few 
minutes. His explanation of the effects of punching” 
seems to me very satisfactory. He says, in cases of spavin, 
where ulceration of the bones and articular cartilages, with 
the usual lameness, have for some time existed, that some- 
thing to hurry on and cause a temporary increase of inflam- 
matory action in the parts affected, will favour a deposition 
of bone in and around the diseased surfaces, so that anchylo- 
sis becomes established, and a natural cure effected. Punch- 
ing tends to promote this state of things, by increasing the 
inflammation in the parts themselves, directly, and, in a de- 
gree, by altering its character. 
I have said, and brought proof sufficient to show, that 
Mr. Horsburgh has been guilty of a glaring and deliberate 
mis-statement of facts. He is now far away from a town 
wherein industry, integrity, and adherence to the dictates of 
morality, v^ould have ensured alike abundant professional 
reputation and pecuniary reward. But alas ! in “ choosing 
the evil and refusing the good,’' in seeking to beset my path 
in this neighbourhood with thorns, and in striving to injure 
my professional reputation in your pages, he has only proved 
his own greatest enemy. 
I am, Sir, 
Your obedient Servant, 
George Houston. 
Preston Ford, Dalkeith, N.B. 
