102 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



generally resorted to previous to their being turned 

 out, or thrown out of condition for the summer, under 

 what I may venture to call the old system of manage- 

 ment, now pretty nearly exploded. In my noviciate I 

 followed this practice myself, and have since been an 

 observer of it in the stables of others, but have long 

 since pronounced it to be a waste of drugs, as un- 

 necessary torture to the animal, and not once in twenty 

 times of the smallest benefit. On the contrary, I have 

 frequently seen it highly injurious, distending the 

 vessels so much beyond their natural state as never 

 to recover their proper tone again ; and, indeed, this 

 is almost certain to be the case if applied when any 

 active inflammation is going on in the limb. My 

 experience, indeed, has led me to place but little faith 

 in blisters to horses' legs, unless the injury to which 

 they are applied has been of very short duration. As 

 to their reducing callous substances and obstinate 

 splints and curbs, to which they are too often ignorantly 

 applied, a sponge with cold water is equally effective, 

 and divested of the torture. As preparatory to firing, 

 in some particular cases, and in all those of incipient 

 excrescences of bone — such as splints, curbs, and bone 

 spavins, just budding — the timely application of a 

 blister will nine times out of ten effect a cure ; and 

 when to these you add their use in diverting certain 

 inflammatory attacks, when applied externally to 

 the body, you close the catalogue of their virtues — 

 by no means a scanty one. 



For injuries to horses' legs when they are serious 

 or of long standing, firing, with time, is my favourite 



