Definition of "seton"

seton

noun
plural setons
1. (medicine, agriculture) A few silk threads or horsehairs, or a strip of linen etc., introduced beneath the skin by a knife or needle, so as to induce suppuration; also, the issue so formed.
  Quotations
  If the predisposition to the disease has arisen from a plethoric state of the system, or from a turgescence in the vessels of the head, this is to be obviated by bleeding, both generally and topically, but more particularly the latter; an abstemious diet and proper exercise; and by a seton in the neck.
  1842, Gibbons Merle, John Reitch, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper’s Manual: Comprising Everything Related to Cookery, Diet, Economy and Medicine. By Gibbons Merle. The Medical Portion of the Work by John Reitch, M.D., London: William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row, page 360, column 2
  The animal was lean and tall, and had a moth-eaten mane, rough hoofs and loose shoes; a seton bobbed up and down on its breast.
  1904, Gustave Flaubert, Over Strand and Field‎