606 
TREATMENT OF SPAVIN. 
able service to the public.” — “About twenty-five years ago, the 
giving of the fire was reckoned to be as effectual a way to dis- 
patch a horse as the discharging of a musket at his head ; but 
now the case is altered, and this method is commonly practised 
without the least scruple.” 
Gibson*, in his relation of the case of “a very fine young 
horse,” who from hunting had “ put out a spavin,” and who was 
given up to have done “ what he (Gibson) would with him,” 
gives us the following account of firing: “ Very strong causticks” 
having failed to afford relief, Gibson “judged it safer (than ven- 
turing farther with caustics) to fire.” And the following consti- 
tuted his “ manner of firing a bone spavin :” — •“ The irons for the 
operation were made in the shape of a fleam, that they might go 
deep into the substance of the spavin, only they were not pointed 
as a fleam, but rounded on the face, and made thick towards the 
back, that they might retain the heat. In this operation some 
small bloodvessels were cut through, which could not be avoided, 
and caused pretty large effusion of blood, till it was stopped with 
styptic. The wound was about half an inch deep, and an inch in 
length, with two or three short strokes or lines on each side. It 
was kept with a dressing of dry tow till the third day, that the 
bleeding might be fully stopped : nothing was discharged for se- 
veral days but a glut of viscid water, during which time he was 
in great pain, and his hock swelled very much, which symptom 
was removed by fomentations, such as are recommended for 
punctured wounds. The first dressings were only turpentine 
spread on tow, afterwards mixed with precipitate finely ground, 
viz. two drachms to an ounce of turpentine.” It was “ two 
months” before “ the skin began to close over the wound.” — “ In 
the space of three months the sore was quite healed up, and co- 
vered with hair, except about the bigness of a farthing, over 
which I caused a defensive plaster to be laid. He was purged 
during the time of his cure, and in four months he went through 
all his exercises, and hunted the first season, and every season 
afterwards, perfectly free from lameness.” 
In the FOREGOING extracts several observations strike us 
forcibly for their accuracy and truth, and their applicability, and 
even use that is constantly made of them, at the present time. One 
is, that it is our duty to make trial of mild or simple means of 
cure before we call into our aid so harsh a measure as firing. 
Blundeville’s caution is, “ not to be too hasty in giving the 
fire,” but “to attempt, first, all other convenient remedies ; and, 
when nothing will help, to make the fire our last refuge.” Hu- 
Op. cit., at p. 604, vol. ii, p. 262. 
