i’HE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XI, No. 123.] MARCH 1838. [New Series, No. 63. 
THE COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF THE ACTUAL 
CAUTERY AND THE SETON. 
By Nimrod. 
[Continued from p. 25.] 
I RESUME my observations on the deeply-important question 
of the relative effect and merits of the actual cautery and the se- 
ton in veterinary operative surgery, together with the proceed¬ 
ings in the Association on the 11th of April last. I find Mr. 
Turner on his legs,’^ as the parliament phrase is, which I 
hope he will long continue to be, without having recourse to 
either of these so stoutly disputed restoratives. 
The sentiments and opinions of Mr. Turner (and the same 
may be said of his brother) must be allowed to have great weight 
on the subject now before us, forasmuch as he has the credit of 
being the introducer of the deep cautery lesions, by which such 
extraordinary cures have been performed,—as Professor Sewell is 
of the system to which his practice is opposed, namely, the sub¬ 
stitution of the periosteotomy knife, as applied to the legs of 
horses. Again : his arguments being founded on very extensive 
practice, in what may be called a cruelly horse-laming country, 
they acquire additional force; for, as Sir Francis Burdett once said 
in the House of Commons, Away with your theories —give me 
results” 
The matter in dispute appears to stand thus :—Mr. Sewell 
says, Make some other more useful instruments of your firing- 
irons, for they are no longer necessary in veterinary practice. 
We have a better, although not a new remedy in the seton—new 
only in its application. We introduced it because we did not 
find the uniform success which was desirable in the old one, or 
the actual cautery. We apply the seton to the cure of those 
diseases for which there was before no adequate remedy, such as 
strains, ossifications on the legs, splents, and injuries to the fet¬ 
lock joint. In fact, wc do (at the College), with the knife, with 
VO I.. XI. R 
