THE CAUTERY AND THE SETON. 
300 
gorgement, and the formation of eschars, are the beneficial effects 
of the application of the iron. If these do not appear in a very 
marked degree, the cautery has not been employed with sufficient 
severity, and we then increase the irritation of the part by the 
application of tincture of cantharides. If, notwithstanding the 
use of this auxiliary, the operation appears to have been almost 
ineffectual, we repeat the cautery as soon as the scabs have fallen 
off, or a few months after the first application of it. Some per- 
sons are of opinion that we should then apply the fire on the same 
lines as before ; but we think that it is a preferable way so to 
manage the cautery that the new lines shall fall on surfaces that 
had not yet been touched. When the cauterization has been 
too severe, or the subject of it not in a good state of health, or 
had not been properly prepared for the operation, the inflammatory 
engorgement is sometimes enormous, and the discharge is profuse. 
Deep reservoirs of suppuration then form under some of the large 
eschars, which at length detach themselves, and are succeeded 
by lines, thick, irregular, callous, scirrhous, which are a source of 
lasting deformity, and materially diminish the value of the horse. 
Finally, when the irritation of the part is carried to such an ex- 
tent, gangrene must often supervene. The antiphlogistic mode 
of treatment must be put into full exercise when the cautery is 
applied with such unnecessary severity. Bleeding, fomentation, 
and restricted diet, are imperiously required. If there are reser- 
voirs of pus under some of the eschars, they must be opened, and 
the wounds washed with a Goulard mixture. The callosities and 
the scirrhous indurations should be pared down as much as pos- 
sible, without going to the quick. 
The mediate superficial cautery consists in the interposition of 
the rind of fresh pork between the cautery and the skin. The 
edge of the iron is thicker ; it is heated some degrees above the 
standard in the usual way of firing, and the passage of the iron 
is considerably slower than in the common mode of firing. The 
pork-rind, on which only a small portion of fat is left, is cut to 
the shape of the part to be operated upon, and the fatty side is 
placed downwards : the red iron is then slowly and frequently 
passed over this skin. On removing the interposed substance, 
say the partizans of this operation, and placing the hand on the 
part which it covered, the degree of cauterization may be recog- 
nized, and which may be considered as carried to a sufficient 
extent when the surface is pretty thickly covered with small 
vesicles. This mode of cauterization has been much vaunted for 
wind-galls, splints, and curbs in young horses, and where the price 
of the patients would be materially diminished if there were any 
mark of the cautery ; but we do not hesitate to say, that the 
