' SCIENCE OF FOXHUNTING. 27 



sores, for the purpose, as they gravely assert, of 

 drawing out the heat ; and yet there are hun- 

 dreds — we may say thousands — of well-educated 

 owners of horses who tamely submit to the 

 opinions of these people, Avithout consulting their 

 own common sense as to the cruelty and thorough 

 absurdity of such a barbarous practice. It makes 

 our blood boil to see the most useful of all our 

 domestic animals left to the tender mercies of these 

 professors of the veterinary science in this enlight- 

 ened age, by which term we suppose is meant, that 

 people are more widely awake to their own in- 

 terests than in any previous one since the Deluge. 

 We are really surprised to find a custom so revolting 

 still in force, and we account for its continuance, 

 not because of its utiUty to master or horse, but for 

 the benefit of the farrier's account. What would 

 any clever surgeon prescribe for a severe burn in 

 the human flesh ? The very opposite in its effects 

 to blister — ointment ; they do not add fuel to fire 

 to extinguish it. The only use of firing is to 

 create a perpetual ligature around and over the 

 muscles and tendons which have given way, or are 

 likely to fiiil from their insufficient strength to 

 support extraneous demands upon them. The 

 sinews of spider-legged young horses must give 

 way under too great weight in the saddle ; and 

 even those of well-formed muscular animals are 

 sorely tried by the absurd practice of calling upon 

 four-year-olds to do badly that which at six years 

 old they would do well. There is a restless impa- 

 tience of prudent delay in the present age — cravings 



