ACTUAL CAUTERY AND SETON. 
173 
successful in his attempts at the new method of employing the 
latter, death having ensued in two cases ; and hence the benefit 
likely to accrue from the promised publication of Mr. Turner 
respecting after-treatment, “ I have rarely penetrated the skin,” 
says Mr. Daws, without having cause to repent it.” No won¬ 
der, then, that he seeks for instruction in this appalling operation, 
and his appeal to the author of it is most creditable to him. 
Mr. Beeson advocates the seton, in conjunction with blistering, 
and says he has not fired a horse for fourteen years, although he 
admits there might be cases in which firing would be useful. I 
should like to know amongst what description of horses the 
practice of Mr. Beeson lies, and also its extent, for the assertion 
is a startling one—a sort of clencher in favour of steel. 
P. 171.—We now draw towards the conclusion of this highly 
important debate. We have Mr. Thomas Turner requesting the 
President to give “ an explanation of the march of science as to 
the seton.” The President, however, would fain have marched 
to his dinner ; but on the first prick of the spur he started on his 
course, and ran it honestly and stoutly from end to end. And 
the result? A detail of twenty-five years’ successful practice of 
the seton, to the total abandonment of the firing-irons; and also 
a condemnation, in which he tells us “ some of his brethren 
joined him,” of the Messrs. Turner’s method of deep cautery le¬ 
sions. In fact, when necessity calls for cutting down into newly 
formed osseous deposit, he does with his knife, by the simple 
operation of subcutaneous periosteotomy, what they do with the 
iron. He, however, qualifies the terms, “ barbarous” and 
‘‘cruel,” as applied to deep firing, when considered to be actually 
necessary, associating the degree of suffering with that occasion¬ 
ed to the human frame in lithotomy and such-like operations ; 
but condemns nicking and cropping to the penalties of Martin’s 
Act*. The President next takes a rapid sketch of the various 
parts and distinct diseases to which the rival operations are best 
adapted, clearly stating that the preference must be given to the 
seton in those of the hip, shoulder, stifle, knee, and hock. To 
the last named part, he says, the actual cautery has been oftener 
employed than to all the others, and with least success : and here, 
bating curb, I can agree with him on the result of my own experi¬ 
ence. The seton, it appears, is in this case effective—a great 
point gained, if established ; and one which all sportsmen should 
be acquainted with, for no joint in the hunter is so frequently in¬ 
jured as that of the hock. In fact, I never went into my stable, 
* When passing through the town of Lille, on iny way to Brussels, last 
autumn twelve-months, I saw eight horses in a dealer’s stables with their tails 
on the pullies, having nearly suffered amputation. 
