TREATMENT OF SPAVIN. 
609 
we may judge ,.om the quietude the animal commonly evinces, 
while tied up in his stall, his general aspect, and his unimpaired 
appetite, no great pain appears to succeed this circumscribed ap- 
plication of the cautery. About the third day, reckoning the day of 
firing as the first, there will be noticeable, in addition to more or less 
swelling of the limb — which, should it not have come on the day 
before, will most likely become apparent enough now — exudation, 
in the form of dew-drops, of sero-albuminous fluid, tinged in those 
places which the iron has penetrated the deepest, with blood. 
On the fourth day, the swelling of the limb will have become 
augmented, and the liquid exudation, increased in quantity, will be 
observed oozing out from the fired places, trickling down the leg, 
staining white hair, wherever it comes upon it, of a bright 
orange yellow colour, while at the bottom of the deepest scores 
there will, about this period, be visible some pus formations. The 
fifth day will disclose purulent secretion pretty generally from 
such parts as gave omen of it the day before : any scores that may 
not have penetrated the cutis continuing to be gummed up with 
the albuminous exudation. The tumefaction of the limb — the 
horse having been kept all the while standing, fastened up in his 
stall — is now at its highest; and this is the period when the 
horse should be removed into a loose box, and have his liberty 
given to him, taking the precaution to put a cradle upon his neck 
for fear of his gnawing or biting his fired hock. 
From this time there will be daily augmentation of the dis- 
charges, the purulent, as the case proceeds, prevailing over the 
serous and albuminous ; and, shortly after he has had it in his 
power to take exercise, there will be observed manifest decline 
of the general swelling of the limb. The secretion of pus taking 
place now from the surface of the cutis, as well as from the ul- 
cerated scores, the matter lodges, and burrows underneath the 
deadened exfoliating cuticle, forming pouches under it, or little 
abscesses; and the result of this detention of pus in contact with 
the cutis is, ulceration of the latter, destruction of its substance, 
and with it of the bulbs or roots of the hair; and this ulcerative 
process goes on — supposing the lodgment of pus be not disturbed 
— to the entire destruction of the skin ; so that, in the end, the 
eschars of cuticle forced off in patches by the accumulation and 
weight of purulent matter upon them, the cutis presents a per- 
fectly raw surface — a sheet of ulceration, in fact. This is succeeded 
by a healing process, bringing us to the 
Tertiary or remote Effects of Firing. The ulcerative 
action is no sooner arrested than a granulative process commences; 
and surprising it is to observe how rapidly the cherry-cheeked 
granulations form and spread, filling up the chasms and holes 
VOL. XIX. 4 o 
