20 
THE COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF THE 
cart horses, inclined to have big legs; but with bone-spavins, 
splents, sinew strains, or through the frog, never. 
I commence, of course, with the very able essay of Mr. Mayer, 
jun.j ‘"on the actual cautery and seton, and the utility of each 
in veterinary surgery/’ 
Passing from ancient to modern practitioners, and those of the 
first rank, Mr. Mayer admits the fact, that, in many cases, what¬ 
ever seeming cruelty may attend the operation of firing, it is 
indispensable as a counter-irritant, an absorbent, a destroyer 
of ossified matter (exostosis, as Mr. Percivall classically denotes 
it), a restorer of ligaments and tendons, and an artificial band¬ 
age. Well, surely, we have a panacea here, which was not to 
be found in the blister or the caustic, neither of which, he says, 
would reach the cause. Again; I was much pleased with the 
following sentence respecting the former, the blister, in which, 
it will be recollected, 1 had long ceased to place much faith. 
“ Blisters,” says Mr. Mayer, were often found to be of no benefit, 
sometimes occasioning a great deal of sympathetic irritation, with 
increased pain, and no diminution of lameness ; at other times 
not producing counter-irritation sufficient to reach the cause*. 
Now, then, INIr. Mayer commences with the seton as a substi¬ 
tute, and by the words “ from this period we may date its revi¬ 
val,” I conclude he means the substitute of the newly-practised 
operation of setoning, for the old and obsolete one of rowelling ; 
and also that to the instrumentality of Mr. Sewell, your highly- 
talented President, is the credit of the revival of this system of 
operative veterinary surgery due. 
Well, now comes the result. Mr. Mayer tells us, the plan was 
adopted, and recommended in almost every disease of both body 
and limbs : all appeared to be going on smoothly, and the 
whole profession seemed hushed like nature before a thunder¬ 
storm.” But the question is, how long did this silence continue, 
or, rather, what caused its interruption ? the seton having been, 
as Mr. Mayer tells us, before the profession some years, and they 
having had time to give it a fair trial! Why, I fear, Mr. Mayer 
himself will be found to answer this question in the very same 
page in which these assertions are made, and the one that follows 
]t. The balance of his experiments are in favour of the cautery, 
and, I regret to say, very considerably so. 
But let us hear what he says as to the relative utility of the two 
* The only dead horse I ever had dragged out of my stable, was a pioneer 
horse I purchased of the Rev. Mr. Lowndes, in Bedfordshire, for 130 guineas, 
who died of inflamed lungs. He was twice severely blistered, without the 
smallest effect. The actual cautery was recommended j but I said—“No; 
let him die,’%and he did die. 
