130 EXAMINATION OF HORSES 
You will hear numbers.say they actually prefer a horse 
that has been fired, especially one who has been fired 
on the hock, because, they say, he is not so likely to fall 
lame. So far as I have observed, such is really the case. 
It may be from either or both of two causes,—either 
that the irritation set up hastens the consolidation of 
the bones involved in spavin, or that fired parts act as 
a bandage to the parts beneath. I have no doubt the 
former is the reason in the case of spavin, but most 
undoubtedly the latter is the reason in the case of 
injured back tendons of either fore or hind legs, inas- 
much as firing, if sufficiently deep, causes more or less 
destruction of the highly elastic subcutaneous tissue, 
which is replaced by white fibrous (inelastic) tissue. 
You know how inpossible it is to “skin” such a part 
without cutting into the skin on the one hand, or scoop- 
ing out pieces of the tissue to which the skin is, as it 
were, glued, on the other. 
I have perhaps encroached too much on your time 
by entering, it may be, at too great a length on the two 
subjects of ‘‘causticking” and “firing; ” but I trust that 
you will be the better able to estimate each at its just 
value, remembering that a horse may be and often is 
even technically as well as practically sound, who has 
been the subject of either operation. 
