REMEDIES FOR SPAVIN. 101 



pulsion, was, by so much as its employment had been deferred, 

 lessened in its chance of success. 



" Preparation for Firing," as it is called, will be required 

 in all cases where it is intended to apply the cautery deeply and 

 extensively, and will be advisable even though so circumscribed 

 be the fired surface as it is in the case of spavin. And the 

 topical blood-letting and physic,, &c., employed for the cure of 

 recent spavin, though they fail to remove the lameness — pro- 

 bably through the case being of that antecedent date that re- 

 lief is hardly to be expected from them — will be well adapted to 

 bring about this desirable condition of body. So far, therefore, 

 from such antiphlogistic treatment being thrown away, and the in- 

 terval it has occupied being regarded as so much time and labour 

 lost, it will turn out to be the best preparative, local as well as 

 constitutional, we could have instituted for an operation so apt to 

 create excessive inflammation and consequent constitutional dis- 

 order, as firing : while the fomentation '' softens" the skin and 

 renders it more susceptible of the fire*, the lowering of the system 

 prepares it to receive the shock apt to be occasioned thereby. 



Severely painful and irritating as Firing is known to 

 be, it sounds any thing but agreeable, even to the ears of profes- 

 sional men, to hear persons — sporting gentlemen and others — 

 ordering that their horses be fired for this or that trifling defect, 

 the nature of which they know little or nothing about, with as 

 much sang fr old as they issue an order for bridling and saddling 

 their hacks or hunters. The phrase " firing," to them, seems to 

 convey no consequences with it. Scoring a living horse's limbs 

 appears to them no more than a flea-bite. And yet, before now, 

 have horses died in consequence of the pain and irritation occa- 

 sioned by firing. Mr. Spoonert mentions the case of a horse that 

 was destroyed from being fired. Nay, horses have died from 

 having their legs blistered even. An instance of this came under 

 my own observation. 



A veterinary surgeon, a good practitioner, and a man of many 



* Solleysel's View of Local Preparatives, 

 t See Veterinarian for 1837, p. 147-8. 



