THE CAUTERY AND THE SETON. 
305 
sometimes attempt. The knot or stick must be sufficiently far 
from the lower orifice to permit the suppurative matter to escape, 
and also to allow for the engorgement that will often follow the 
insertion of the seton, and to permit the seton to be drawn suffi- 
ciently upwards and downwards, to allow of the application, if 
necessary, of some digestive or stimulating ointment. 
The worthy Professor, after describing the manner of inserting 
setons in the dewlap of cattle, the shoulder, the jaw, and the 
thigh of the horse, and the poll of the dog, proceeds to speak of 
their intention and effect. The apparent effects of setons are 
immediate pain, and considerable inflammation, which are fol- 
lowed in due time by suppuration. All these, produced by the 
presence of a foreign body, sooner or later lead to certain secon- 
dary effects, and on account of which we had recourse to the 
seton. 1st, The cessation of local pain. 2d, The determination 
of certain of the circulatory fluids, whether habitually or periodi- 
cally, towards the place in which the seton is inserted, as in in- 
flammation of the conjunctiva, or the lining membrane of the ear, 
or in chronic bronchitis, &c. 3d, Adhesion between the walls of 
a cavity that it is wished to obliterate, as in certain fistulee. 4th, 
The re-establishment of suppuration at a part from which it had 
disappeared. 5th, The resolution of chronic enlargements, by 
the irritation which they set up, or the discharge in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood, which must have some influence on them ; 
or, finally, by that which is directly applied to them, when the 
seton passes through the substance of the tumour. 
The time that the seton should be continued must depend on 
the nature of the disease. Chabert advises that it should not be 
left too long, lest by habit they should become necessary to the 
constitution or the part. It will always be proper to remove 
them when the discharge begins materially to diminish, or when 
the skin between the two orifices begins to ulcerate, or to be in 
any way disorganized ; but they may be renewed afterwards in 
the same or in neighbouring parts, if it should be deemed expe- 
dient. 
When several setons have been introduced into the same ani- 
mal, they should not be all withdrawn at the same time, but one 
after another, beginning with those that have been longest worn, 
or yield the least discharge. 
Setons are occasionally followed by certain accidents, and hae- 
morrhage, depots of purulent matter, farcy cords, fungous growths, 
and malignant tumours. 
Hemorrhage to any considerable extent rarely follows from the 
division of a minute arterial or venous branch ; but mostly in a kind 
of a sheet of blood when the seton has passed through a part that 
