SETONS
—are artificial drains (or minor kind of rowels) in horses, corresponding in effect with the issues inserted in the arms or thighs of the human species. They are generally made upon the cheek, or under the jaws of a horse, for some defect in, or inflammation of the eyes. A writer of much celebrity admits "their utility to be very great, because they facilitate the discharge of matter from abscesses, without the necessity of admitting much air; the influence of which upon an ulcer, produces pain and symptomatic fever." Another observes, that, "when tumours are taken in time, whether on the POLL, WITHERS, or BACK, not having been injudiciously retarded by common farriers, (whose management in this case is always worse than the DISEASE,) they may be carried off, and brought to heal by the discharge from SETONS, without any of the usual butchery, or cauterization, or the least blemish or loss of parts. Farriers (he continues) are always very much disposed to proceed with the knife, before the matter of the TUMOUR is fully concocted, by which error they treble the difficulty, protract the period of cure, and probably leave an indurated enlargement, which is never effaced."
The operation is in itself exceedingly simple, and is thus performed: the practitioner being provided with a seton needle, of a size and length proper for the tumour to be discussed, and having armed it with a sufficient number of cotton threads, in proportion to the effect required, and dipped in digestive ointment warm, the needle is to be introduced (if possible) at the upper part of the swelling, and the point conducted through the whole, and brought out at the bottom, as a depending orifice is of considerable advantage in assisting the discharge. The seton having been passed through the ABSCESS or TUMOUR, is then separated from the needle, and the two ends tied together: or if the length will not admit of that, a knot may be formed, or a wooden button may be affixed to each end, by which it may be occasionally pulled up or down, as when the two ends are tied together, it may be moved in a circle. When the swelling is perfectly reduced, and the offending matter entirely run off, the seton may be withdrawn, and the orifice will soon unite, and form a cicatrix, without any farther application.