Another process, formerly very popular, consisted in slicing the living flesh in a very coarse and vulgar manner; that, however, was merely preparatory. The chief dependence was placed in boiling liquor, which was inhumanly poured into the wounds. After such a method were all sinuous sores treated by an ignorant and uneducated quack, who especially delighted in eradicating such forms of disease. The writer has heard terrible descriptions given of the agony produced, and equally revolting has been the picture of the filth employed by this unqualified horse doctor. While, however, the course which has been mentioned is reprobated, our heaviest condemnation should alight upon those persons who could so violate the sacredness of their trusts as to surrender any creature to the torments of so horrible a remedy.
In poll evil, the only certainty reposes on the knife. When properly employed, the operation is brief; the temporary agony bears no proportion to the years of subsequent relief thereby secured. To be properly employed, however, it should be used as though the person invested with it was, for the time, divested of all feeling. He who accepts it must think only upon what he is about to perform, and must summon resolution to do it quickly. In surgery, hesitation is positive cruelty; the knife, to be curative, should be gracefully moved through the living flesh. All notching and hacking are tortures, and worse than folly; the blade should sweep through the substance; and, to prevent the struggles of the quadruped from interfering with the intentions of the surgeon, all that will be necessary is for some person to sit upon the cheek of the prostrated animal.
FISTULOUS WITHERS.
This disease, in its chief characteristics, closely resembles poll evil. It, however, differs from that disorder in one fortunate particular; poll evil must come to maturity before its cure can be attempted with any hope of success. Injury to the withers is easiest eradicated when attacked upon its earliest appearance; both, however, in their worst periods, proceed from pus being confined, from it decomposing and its establishing numerous sinuses. When disease has reached this stage, the only certain cure is the free but skillful use of the knife.
Fistulous withers, in the first instance, is an injury to one of the superficial burst which nature has provided to facilitate the movement of the vertebral, points spinal under the skin. The hurt is occasioned by badly-made saddles, but more especially by the ladies' saddles. Some fair equestrians delight to feel their bodies lifted into the air, and enjoy the trivial shock of the descent; such movements, however, necessitate the weight should be leaned upon the crutch and stirrup. This kind of exercise is never indulged in by good female riders, as no saddle, however well constructed, can resist the constant strain to one side. Friction is produced; a bursa is irritated, and the animal will, under the best treatment, be rendered useless for a fortnight. Rolling in the stalls is also reported to have occasioned this affection; so likewise is the heavy hammer of the shoeing smith, intemperately employed to chastise the transient movement of an observant horse.
When first produced, the remedy is certain and easy. A swelling about the size of an egg appears near the withers, upon the off side of the body. Go up to the horse upon that side; have with you a keen-edged and sharply-pointed knife of pocket dimensions. Stand close to the animal; then impale the tumor, and, having the back of the blade toward the quadruped, cut quickly upward and outward. Mind, and stand very close to the center of the body, as the pain of this trivial operation is apt to make the creature lash out and prance. At the spot indicated a person is perfectly safe; neither hoof nor leg will touch that particular place, or even come near it. Rest one hand on the back, and by your voice reassure the startled creature.
THE SLIGHT ENLARGEMENT WHICH,
BADLY TREATED OR UNATTENDED TO,
MAY END IN FISTULOUS WITHERS.
The swelling being divided, exchange the knife for a lunar caustic case; smear over the interior well with the cautery, and all the business is over. Never, however, attempt to pass by the heels of a steed which has been pained. The animal may suspect your motives, and the hind feet of the horse are the most powerful weapons of offense and of defense. Have the creature backed from the stall ere you attempt to quit it. Subsequently keep the wound moist with the lotion composed of chloride of zinc—one grain to the ounce of water; also have the part covered with a rag, moistened with solution of tar. In nine or ten days the incision will have healed, and after the lapse of a fortnight the animal may return to its ordinary employment.
Should this remedy be neglected, pus is soon formed within the enlargement, and the formation is accompanied by swelling, heat, and pain. The horse is useless, and continues thus till the affection is eradicated. The animal cannot wear a collar; it cannot endure a saddle; at length numerous holes are formed upon the enlargement. These are the mouths of so many sinuses, and from each exudes a foul discharge. The poor quadruped evidently suffers greatly; it will almost stand still and starve rather than brave agony by violent motion.