166 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



hindmost portion of the heel comes to the ground. A swelling now 

 appears round the coronet, a bulging is seen in the hollow of the heel, 

 and ultimately the hoof sloughs away and the end has been reached. 



FIRING OR THE ACTUAL CAUTERY 



Firing has been referred to, in other parts of this work, as an indis- 

 pensable operation for the cure of lameness, while the actual cautery has 

 also been advocated for the treatment of other forms of disease. 



In veterinary practice the term " firing " has by common consent 

 been applied to operations upon the limbs, as distinct from the use of 

 the actual cautery for the destruction of morbid tissues, the arrest of 



haemorrhage, or the 

 severance of organs 

 (as in castration). In 

 the former case it is 

 employed with two 

 principal objects, 



namely, the excita- 

 tion of superficial in- 

 flammation outside, 

 but as near as pos- 

 sible to, the seat of injury or abnormal growth, and by its subsequent 

 thickening and contraction of the skin to afford an abiding support un- 

 obtainable in any other way. No humane man can witness the operation 

 of burning the living tissues without pain to himself, and it is a matter 

 for congratulation that not only is firing much less practised at the present 

 time than formerly, but the more general use of chloroform by veterinary 

 surgeons has deprived the operation of all unnecessary suffering. Since 

 the necessity of firing is admitted by the best-informed as well as the 

 most humane practitioners, we need not stay to defend the practice, but 

 proceed briefly to describe the methods. Whether the operator proposes 

 to fire in straight lines, on "feathers", "diamonds", "lozenges", or to 

 make punctures with a pointed iron, the preparation will be the same. 

 The part of the limb to be fired should be closely clipped, or the skin 

 will be scorched by the burning hair, and the smoke and charred remains 

 will obstruct the view of the surgeon and prolong the operation. 



It is usual to cast the patient with hobbles (Plate LIV), but many 

 men, expert by long practice, succeed in making a fairly good pattern 

 with no greater restraint than that afforded by the twitch, and a front 

 or hind limb held up. Cocaine, injected by several punctures a few 



Fig. 510. Firing Irons 



