THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XIX, No. 228. DECEMBER 1846. New Series, No. 60. 
FIRING FOR SPAVIN. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
[Continued from page 610.] 
The Opinions of Veterinarians of our own Day on the 
important subject before us, fortunately for me on the present 
occasion, are obtainable in a form and to an amount that will, 
I can entertain no doubt, prove highly satisfactory to all who de- 
sire to institute comparisons between the old and the new school 
of veterinary surgery. In the year 1837, Mr. Mayer, jun., of 
Newcastle-under-Line, read a paper* to the Veterinary Medical 
Association “ On the Actual Cautery and Setons, and the Utility 
of each in Veterinary Surgery,” which is not only in itself a 
valuable production, but has proved, in the issue, of very great 
service to us, inasmuch as it became the means of eliciting, in the 
course of the debate to which it gave rise, the opinions of some of 
the oldest and most experienced practitioners of the day. 
Mr. MAYER (jun.) himself, has found the actual cautery, as a 
remedy for spavin, of superior and permanent efficacy. The cau- 
tery has, with him, succeeded when setons have failed in esta- 
blishing a cure ; and “ not alone for the cure of spavins,” but for 
other diseases as well. 
Mr. Sibbald, “ with one exception the oldest practitioner 
present” on the occasion of the discussion of the paper, said, 
“ so far as osseous deposits were concerned, and spavins, and 
lamenesses referrible to the tendons of the fore legs, he had fre- 
quently found setons altogether fail; and then, the firing-iron being 
resorted to, the horse had been cured.” 
* Afterwards published in The Veterinarian for 1837. 
VOL. XIX. 4 X 
