THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIX, No. 227. NOVEMBER 1846. New Series, No. 59. 
TREATMENT OF SPAVIN. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S . and V.S. 
[Continued from page 486.] 
FIRING. 
Fearful and formidable as the operation of firing must be 
admitted to be, thirty years and upwards of observation and ex- 
perience of my own, tempered by a regard to the opinions of 
others thereupon, has brought the conclusion home to me, that, 
for the radical and permanent cure of articular spavin, it is a 
remedy paramount to all others. In the inchoate stages of spavin, 
we have seen that topical blood-letting, with fomentation, physic, 
and rest, frequently restores the horse to soundness. These reme- 
dies failing, blisters, setons, stimulants, and other local applica- 
tions, at times, succeed. From the day, however, that the case 
of spavin becomes confirmed, inveterate, chronic — in such cases, 
in fact, as give us reason for apprehension of return of lameness, 
the actual cautery is the remedy alone to be confided in. The an- 
cient practice was — and that practice, backed both by humanity 
and reason, has been handed down to the present generation of 
veterinarians — before so severe and painful an operation as firing 
was had recourse to, to make trial of mild remedies; and willingly 
would I counsel my professional brethren to pursue the same phi- 
lanthropic course of treatment, did not experience in essays of the 
kind teach me, that, in such cases as I have described above, they 
have seldom proved successful, at least, hardly ever permanently 
so ; and that the actual cautery, resorted to at last through com- 
pulsion, was, by so much as its employment had been deferred, 
lessened in its chance of success. 
VOL. XIX. 4 N 
