COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE 
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horses sent me from far and near to get setoned for hock-joint 
lameness, after having been once or twice fired, and I have suc- 
ceeded in getting them to go sound. I shall relate one or two 
cases. 
1st. — The first was that belonging to a medical gentleman 
here, which he purchased on mere speculation from a dealer for 
£12 or £13 sterling. He was a dark grey, about 15 hands 3 high, 
eight years old, and dead lame on the off-hand leg, although he 
had been fired on both hocks in the rig and furrow system. He was 
in sad condition, being quite “ a bag of bones” and fearfully tuck- 
ed up. The doctor was informed that he was a first-rate fencer, 
and very fast, and, as he was leaving Edinburgh for some time, 
he left him under my care, to do the best for him. I setoned 
him on both hocks, and in one month he was going perfectly 
level, and had improved very much in his general health. He 
was then turned out to a straw-yard, in three months was taken 
up, and sold to an officer for £40 or £45. He hacked and 
hunted him, and he kept quite right. 
2. — One of my employers purchased a splendid grey mare for 
£20 sterling. She dragged the toe of the near hind foot, halted 
at a trot, and had been lame from a spavin for several months. 
The proprietor asking my opinion regarding her lameness, I 
told him I thought that, by inserting setons in her hocks, 
she would get all right, and he requested that the operation should 
be performed without further delay. In one month she was 
going quite correctly, no drag, no halt ; and three months after- 
wards, he refused fifty guineas for her. Eighteen months have 
now elapsed, the enlargement is perfectly gone, and she has 
never been up or down since. 
3. — A dealer, who is in the habit of letting out hacks, sent a 
little grey horse to my establishment, dead lame in both hocks 
from spavins, in which condition he had been for some time. 
The poor thing was as lean as a scarecrow. He was a steady 
gig horse, and fast in harness, and at all times in great demand. 
The pain, however, which he suffered from the disease in his 
hocks, together with the work he had done, quite knocked him 
up. I ordered him into a loose box ; put him on a cooling diet ; 
his hocks were fomented regularly for ten days, and he got a 
dose of physic. He was then setoned in both hocks. In six 
weeks he was again put to his work ; he came all right in his 
action, and has continued so for two years at hard work. Time 
and hard labour begin to tell on his fore legs, and he will require 
to be fired. 
One great advantage the seton needle has over the firing-iron 
is, that you can effect cures, or relieve horses when lame, without 
