THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIX, No. 225. SEPTEMBER 1846. New Series, No. 57. 
LAMENESS. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. 
Treatment of Spavin. 
[Continued from p. 425.] 
THE disease presented to the mind of the veterinary practitioner 
of the present day for treatment is not the disease which the farrier 
of former time had in view : they both go by the appellation of 
“ spavin,” it is true ; and to the simple circumstance of the name 
remaining unaltered, it would appear, is in a great measure owing 
the continuance of the old remedies for spavin, as well in their 
commendable as in their objectionable forms. And when once the 
judgment as become wedded to any particular line of treatment, 
we all know how difficult we find it to lay aside old and favourite 
for new and untried remedies, or even to apply the old ones in any 
way different from that in which we have been taught, or from 
what our own practice appears to have confirmed as the best. If 
the same plan of treatment which those before us practised for 
exostosis, or bone spavin, be precisely that which is the best 
adapted for ulcerative disease of the synovial membrane and arti- 
cular cartilages, then are we borne out in firing and blistering for 
spavin at the present day, the same as was done formerly ; nor 
have we any reason to hope for better success than attended the 
practice of those who have gone before us, which, as we find from 
their writings, was sorry indeed. What does Solleysel say I — 
What Gibson ] 
And do we not at the present day, in too many instances, blis- 
ter and fire, and fire and blister, scoring and torturing our patients 
in the severest manner, and yet, after all, without conferring any 
relief? — nay, on occasions, rendering horses lamer than we found 
VOL. XIX. 3 u 
