THE CAUTERY AND THE SETON. 
299 
If the hock is affected only with blood spavin, the tumour 
should be covered with parallel lines, a perpendicular one passing 
through the centre of them. The proper spavin and the curb 
should be covered with the goose’s foot cautery. 
12. The fire being applied to one side, that is to say, one of 
the lateral faces of the limb, the animal must be turned, the ter- 
mination of the inclined lines, both before and behind, having 
been previously marked. It will always be best to commence 
with the inside of the limb, in order to prevent blemishes from 
the rubbing of the external face against the straw on which he 
lies, 
13. When all four legs require the application of the cautery, 
it will be better to operate on only one, or at most two, at a time, 
and especially if the animal is heavy, and of an insensible tem- 
perament, and to permit an interval of fifteen days, at least, 
between the two operations. When it is decided to apply the 
fire to two of the legs only at the same time, they should be 
diagonal legs, for we thus leave a leg free at each extremity, by 
which the weight of the animal may be supported. 
14. After this superficial cauterization, the parts that have 
been immediately submitted to it, as well as the neighbouring 
ones, are highly irritated — they have all their vital properties 
exalted, and the fluids are determined to them in more than 
usual abundance — an inflammatory engorgement is produced. 
The scars, yellow, narrow, straight, limited at first to the width 
of the edge of the iron, begin to enlarge in the course of a few 
days, and the inflammatory swelling and pain increase, and 
sometimes a considerable degree of fever is excited. After a 
while, the cuticle and the charred part of the cutis begin to 
detach themselves by little and little; and usually between the 
fourth and the ninth day, a superficial oozing of sero-purulent 
matter is established, which continues a dozen or fifteen days, 
and sometimes longer. This fluid, secreted from the surface of 
the lines, hardens, and in process of time detaches itself in the 
form of scabs. During the first few days after the firing, a little 
walking exercise will be advantageous. Some horses that have 
no great degree of irritability may be put to gentle work shortly 
after the application of the fire ; but horses of much breed- 
ing or irritability must not return to their ordinary work until the 
scabs have dropped, and the sero-purulent secretion has ceased, 
and that will not be in less than a month or six weeks. The 
secondary effects of the firing do not often begin to be manifestly 
apparent until two, or three, or four months, or more, have 
passed. 
15. As has been already stated, the pain, the moderate en- 
