686 
CASES OF FISTULOUS WITHERS. 
mixture. Can any practice be more barbarous ? It is only fit 
for demons. I blush to think that a mode of proceeding so un¬ 
scientific should be still recommended ; for to the most common 
observer it would reflect on the profession the grossest ignorance, 
and involve it in utter disgrace. The method of cure I adopted 
occurred to me from the circumstance of seeing a person with a 
deep-seated sinus in the leg: after a great many remedies had 
been tried without success, recourse was had to pressure , and 
with the happiest result. 
About the year 1816, I was in the habit of attending the stud 
of the late Earl of Morton. Being at Dalmahoy one day, I met 
his lordship’s land steward : he asked me to go to the farm, and 
look at a bay cart-mare, which they had consigned to the ken¬ 
nel. I accordingly went, and saw the said animal, and found 
the top of her neck much enlarged, accompanied by two deep 
sinuses, which, upon inquiry, I found to have been running 
for the last twelve months, nothing having been done, with the 
exception of cleaning away the matter. 1 proposed to the stew¬ 
ard that she should be sent to my own stable, so that she might 
be more under my own immediate care, and that I would give 
her a fair trial, not with the infernal scalding mixture, but upon 
scientific principles; and I am proud to record, that the result 
fully answered my most sanguine expectation. 
The mare was sent to me, and I proceeded to examine the 
extent of the disease. I found two deep sinuses, one on each 
side of the neck, the bones of which could be distinctly felt with 
the probe. After cleaning away the matter, I took a scalpel, 
and laid both orifices open in an oblique direction downwards: 
then, having fomented the parts with warm water, I dressed the 
wounds with tincture of myrrh and aloes; and in order to apply 
pressure to the parts (for in this I founded all my hope of suc¬ 
cess), I had two pieces of wood prepared, about twelve inches 
long and three broad, thicker in the middle than at the edges, 
which were rounded off, and also a long flannel bandage, four 
inches broad. I then placed two pledgets of tow next the 
wounds, putting on the pieces of wood one on each side, and 
then applied the bandage over all, and as tightly as I could 
without impeding deglutition. It is necessary, while putting 
on the bandage, to keep the nose extended, in order to adapt 
the bandage more perfectly to the part, and apply it more closely. 
I removed the bandage night and morning, and had the parts 
w T ell fomented and dressed with the tincture; and in the course 
of four weeks the mare was well, and returned to her work. 
The second case came under my observation about a year after 
the foregoing. It was a grey cart-horse, the property of Mr. 
