THE EFFICACY OF DEEP CAUTERY LESIONS. 637 
but when dexterously performed, it contributes much to the neat- 
ness of the fired leg. 
“ I have, however, on some occasions, dispensed with this divi- 
sion of the operation, and depended solely on the three or four 
longitudinal incisions, carried to the utmost depth that my ex- 
perience would sanction, which have proved successful.” 
It is a fact — a startling fact — arising from the deep-firing ope- 
ration in the cure of ring-bone, spavin, or osseous tumours generally, 
or ligamentous thickenings, that the moment the tumour is pene- 
trated to a certain depth, the lameness vanishes, and the patient 
becomes, in a manner, a sound horse. 
In a long and interesting debate before the Veterinary Medical 
Association, arising out of the memorable Essay of Mr. Mayer, 
jun. on the Comparative Merits of the Actual Cautery and Se- 
tons, I ventured to give the following 
“ Summary of the Operation of ‘ Firing' upon the Legs of Horses. 
“ That veterinarian, with the firing-iron in his hand, who com- 
bines, in his own person, the requisite amount of skill, anatomical, 
physiological, and pathological, with the utmost daring, may wield 
that instrument with such unerring precision as to perform cures 
next to miracles; in short, by curing the incurables of the schools, 
may raise for himself a fame, and legitimately too, tantamount to 
such a distinction. 
“Howl is the question. 
“ The whys and the wherefores are numerous and obvious : — • 
1st. Relief from tension by mechanical lesion — and the abatement 
of pain instantaneous. 2d. Copious local blood-letting from the 
actual seat of chronic inflammation, but perfectly at the controul 
of the operator. 3d. A counter-irritant second to nothing, as yet 
practised. 4th. A depletant, as insuring suppuration in quantity 
and continuance without a parallel by any other artificial process, 
not excepting setoning. 5th. As a rouser to the absorbents, it 
sweeps all before it. All adventitious deposits vanish ; but the 
results are, a permanent condensation of the integument most te- 
naciously adhering to the weak sinew or joint. 6thly, and lastly. 
Such a compress, * encompassing the weak part — such a bracer/ 
in short, the sportsman’s true friend, indeed, because it is his 
friend in need; — and in the perils of the chace, in awful drop- 
jumps, for instance, times and oft has the sixteen-stone rider been 
inspired with confidence, and gratitude to his bold operator for 
having engraven these lesions upon his incomparable hunter’s weak 
ancle.” 
“ My friend Percivall has, unfortunately, declared to the world 
that the present state of veterinary surgery, as applied to bone- 
