634 THE EFFICACY OF DEEP CAUTERY LESIONS. 
mischievous in proportion to the author’s celebrity. I am the last 
to impugn this gentleman’s motives, having the greatest veneration 
for the honesty of purpose with which he invariably wields his 
powerful pen ; yet in the instances I am about to cite he appears 
to me to be writing down one of the greatest laurels or triumphs 
achieved by operative surgery, belonging exclusively to (because 
perfected by) the more matured skill and dexterity of the/as£ twenty 
years, and especially to those veterinarians located in hunting 
districts. 
The July paper commences thus : “ Spavin is one of those 
diseases improvement in the treatment of which has not kept pace 
with our advances in the science of hippopathology.” He then 
adds, “ We have left, not merely unimproved upon but undis- 
turbed, our ancestors’ plans of treatment; nay, hold them at the 
present hour in all the estimation they were formerly held.” In 
quoting the ancients, beginning with Solleysell : “ Bone-spavin,” 
says this father of veterinary medicine, “ is a very dangerous dis- 
temper, and requires the most violent remedy; viz., the fire ; and 
even this is oftentimes applied without success.” Our author then 
quotes Gibson somewhat copiously, with whom he is much ena- 
moured, and quite carried away, as the following passage proves : 
“ I have made my extracts from Gibson so full and lengthy, that 
my readers might see how much, a century ago, had been accom- 
plished in the way of treatment of spavin ; and now that they have 
perused this excellent account, I can entertain no doubt of the pro- 
fessional part of them, at least, being of opinion with me, that the 
veterinarians of the present day have little to boast of in the way 
of innovation or discovery in this department of veterinary thera- 
peutics.” 
Mr. P. then winds up the July paper with the following extra- 
ordinary version of the modus operandi of deep-firing : “ I am 
very much inclined to the belief that the success derived from 
deep-firing and blistering is, in a measure, ascribable to the ex- 
tremely sore and rigid condition of the skin produced thereby, 
rendering it for a considerable time, through the pain consequent on 
the act, next to impossible to flex the diseased joint.” 
The August paper, at the commencement, has this reiteration : 
“ At the present day we are found practising blistering and firing, 
the same as was practised a hundred years ago by our professional 
predecessors.” 
Now, Mr. Editor, with this spavin bone there is lurking the 
bone of contention, which has aroused me from my lair. My pen 
is not taken up for vain-boasting or personal gratification, but 
simply and honestly to deny the foregoing allegations, and to claim 
a high position in science for the existing state of veterinary sur- 
