2R2 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



set. If it, however, continues to operate with 

 nearly the same violence as on the day before, 

 it must be regarded as super-purgation, and 

 recourse must be immediately had to the 

 treatment already directed for that disease If 

 otherwise, the Horse may now return to his 

 former habits, giving him corn at first rather 

 sparingly, with moderate exercise ; and in five 

 or six days from the physic setting, if the ope- 

 ation has been only ordinary, a, second dose 

 may be given, which is commonly required to 

 oe a Utile stronger than the first. After this, 

 with the same caution, if it be deemed neces- 

 sary, a third dose may be given, which is 

 usually considered a course of physic ; but 

 the number of doses ought, as before pointed 

 out, never to be under the arbitrary direction 

 of custom, but should be regulated by exist- 

 ing circumstances. 



FIRING. 



Firing is performed on Horses for two pur- 

 poses ; one for the forming a permanent band- 

 age, which it does, by destroying the elasticity 

 of the skin, and lessening its surface ; the 

 other, that of raising an active inflammation, 

 and thereby exciting absorption. Sometimes it 

 is used to answer one of these purposes only ; 

 and sometimes it is performed to promote both 

 conjointly. 



The Arabs fire the joints of their young 

 colts to strengthen them ; by the constant 

 bandage the cicatrix forms to the part. Some 

 English breeders of blood-horses have done 

 the same ; but the practice is rare. This is 

 an instance where firing is performed for the 

 first purpose 



In splints, spavins, and ring-bones, firing is 

 used as a strong stimulus to the surrounding , 

 absorbents, to remove any extraneous sub- | 



stance lately deposited ; hence the ossecua 

 matter, so hurtfuUy thrown out, which foriiig 

 such swellings, becomes swallowed up by 

 these vessels, and is thus removed. These 

 are instances where firing is used, princi- 

 pally to promote external inflammation, there- 

 by to relieve a more internal one. But even 

 here, the future pressure, occasioned bv the 

 cicatrix, is an assistant, and often a principal 

 one, to the removal of the adventitious 

 deposit. 



To increase the original inflammation, or to 

 keep it up, it is common in these cases to 

 apply a blister over the firing. In enlarge- 

 ments after violent strains, we fire the legs 

 both to excite the absorbents to remove the 

 deposit of coagulable lymph ; and also, by 

 straightening the skin, to act as a permanent 

 bandage on the part for the future. The 

 various cases in which firing is considered 

 necessary, are dispersed through the body of 

 the work ; and it would be unnecessary to 

 enumerate them here. It need only be at 

 present noticed, that as it is a painful ope- 

 ration, so it should never be resorted to but 

 when absolutely necessary for it ; and the 

 more so, as it leaves a permanent blemish. 

 As blisters act in the same way, except that 

 they leave no permanent bandage ; so, when 

 absorption only is required, repeated blister- 

 ing will often supersede the necessity of firing . 

 and as they can be applied as often as we 

 wish, so, as a promoter of absorption merely, 

 they are greatly to be preferred in many 

 instances. On the subject of blistering imme- 

 diately after firing, different opinions ar'». 

 entertained. 



A morbid sensibility, or rather an artful 

 affectation of feeling, induces some to blame 

 all which does not square with the popular 



