104 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



tion I sent him to be fired, with orders to my servant 

 to lead him gently home afterwards. Being a resolute 

 horse he struggled much on being thrown, but when 

 down and secured he did not appear to feel anything. 

 When he got up, and his head turned towards home, 

 he was so fuU of play that the servant was obliged to 

 ride him, or he would have broken away from him on 

 the road. The same operator fired another hunter for 

 me the following week for a young ringbone. He 

 merely put a twitch on his nose, and he never stirred 

 a foot from the ground. The consequences of these 

 operations were, that the ringbone on one horse was 

 stopped in its progress to lameness ; and the enlarge- 

 ment on the tendon of the other, although of more 

 than twelve months' standing, quite disappeared, 

 and his legs all in place again. Now all the blistering 

 ointment that ever was made would not have effected 

 one of those cures, if it had the other : and with respect 

 to the relative suffering caused by the operations of 

 blistering and firing, I have only to observe that the 

 effect of firing is merely local, whereas the anguish 

 of a severe blister deranges the whole system, and 

 often produces strangury and other spasmodic affec- 

 tions. I shall conclude this part of my subject by 

 observing that I have never fired a horse when I thought 

 other means would answer the end ; but I would do it 

 on the principle that I would go to a dentist and have a 

 tooth drawn, rather than suffer protracted pain and 

 illness from temporary or palliative measures. The 

 operation in both cases is severe, but soon over ; and 

 I shall never think we are debarred of inflicting a 



