ACTUAL CAUTERY AND SETON. 
25 
to work, and go sound, at the end of a fortnight, after having 
been fired, and now and then at the end of a week. 
The remarks of this gentleman on the act of firing for spavins, 
on the principle of its producing absorption, are as interesting as 
they are scientific. That the case is precisely as he states it, my 
want of science disables liie from proving; but should his theory 
be correct, it is not to be wondered at, that in all my experience 
of lameness from bone spavin, excepting in its incipient state, 
I cannot produce relief from firing. But what a beautiful piece 
of machinery does Mr. Spooner represent this hock joint to be !— 
its ten bones, its flexible and extensile action. Dr. Paley took 
his stand, for the existence of an invisible power, on the mechan¬ 
ism of the human body. It is evident he need not have gone 
beyond the horse. 
The remarks of Mr. Spooner on the actual cautery are credita¬ 
ble to him in every respect. He would avoid it when possible. 
He would prefer the seton, if he could effect a cure by it, because 
he thinks it inflicts less pain both in the operation and after¬ 
wards; ‘^but,^’ he adds, ^Uoheti 7jouJire,Jire” He regards it, as 
every man should regard it, as a dernier resort, not to be aban¬ 
doned, but its just claims to be more carefully inquired into.” 
But, he asks,—and here he excites my admiration and astonish¬ 
ment,—What is the effect produced by the application of the 
cautery in those diseases in which he advocates it? Why, as it 
were, a new organization of the part! On injecting limbs that 
had been deeply fired, he found bloodvessels, venous and arterial, 
that had never been seen before. The result of this discovery 
induces him to recommend bold and deep cauterization in bad' 
sinew cases; but, with respect to spavin, he is decidedly in 
favour of the seton, as, from its long-continued action, most likely 
to produce good effect. Such was my opinion previously to 
reading this paragraph; and if spavin be justly characterized by 
stiffness of action of the hock, its flexible and extensile powers arc 
certainly not likely to be restored by fire. Mr. Sibbald’s remark 
on the wearing of the shoe of a spavined horse is much in favour 
of this theory of Mr. Spooner’s. 
Having arrived at the end of the first discussion on this im¬ 
portant subject, I shall, with your permission, quit it here, and 
resume my remarks in a future number. 
VOL. \ I. 
K 
