140 THE SUMMERIXG OF HUNTERS. 



lock and the lower third of the back " sinews " 

 become permanently enlarged, and to reduce the 

 enlargement and to strengthen f?) the part a firing 

 iron is used. Perhaps the fellow leg, acting under the 

 same mechanical difficulties precisely, has not be- 

 come enlarged at all, but the owner instructs his 

 veterinary adviser to fire this leg also at the time 

 he is firing its enlarged fellow, with a view to 

 strengthening it and prevent its giving \vay also. 

 At the end of every hunting season this piece of 

 idiocy is carried out in many a well-ordered stud. 

 How far does firing strengthen a part? That firing 

 does strengthen parts there can be no doubt, but it 

 does not strengthen them in the sense many horse- 

 men suppose. If a part is suff'ering from a low form 

 of inflammation, it will not be so strong as if it were 

 not so sufi'ering. Firing will frequently check or 

 abolish the inflammation; therefore it will strengthen 

 the part, that is to say, it will remove a cause which 

 was rendering a part weaker than it otherwise would 

 be. Again, if a part has suffered injury, with or 

 without inflammation, and the material supplied from 

 the blood-vessels for the repair of the parts has been 

 deficient in either quality or quantity, or both, and 

 has not accomplished the repair, then firing, by 

 rousing the blood-vessels of a part to increased ex- 

 ertion, will often thus accelerate the process of 

 repair, and so strengthen the part. Once more; 

 suppose a part has been injured and repaired, and 

 the material for repair, thrown out from the blood- 

 vessels always, has been in excess, and this over- 



