VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XX, No. 229. JANUARY 1847. New Series, No. 61. 
FIRING FOR SPAVIN. 
By William Percivall, M.R.C.S. and V.S. 
[Continued from vol. xix, page 666.] 
The modus operandi of firing will comprise, not only the 
effects produced upon the skin and subjacent tissues by the red 
hot iron, but also the relief or aggravation accruing therefrom to 
the disease on account of which the firing is employed, together 
with an explanation of the mode or manner in which such relief 
or aggravation is brought about. It would appear that the phy- 
siological effects of firing must be, in their first impressions at 
least, closely similar to those arising from the application of the 
moxa to the human subject. The pain is “ drawn out” from the 
distempered part by the suddenness and intensity of the shock 
occasioned by the cauterization to the nervous tissue of the healthy 
structures around and about it ; the parts actually burnt or cau- 
terized having their sensation at once destroyed by the searing of 
the divided nervous filaments. However painful the operation 
may be at the time of performance, it appears to leave no more 
annoyance behind it than a general burning benumbing sensation, 
under which a horse will take to feeding with as eager an appetite 
as though he had nothing amiss with him, and will, on occasions, 
as Mr. Turner assures us, “ trot off sound” to his stable. And 
this will endure until the period of inflammation arrives. Then 
will this suspended or benumbed sensibility be followed by a 
morbidly sensitive condition of parts, as well as by increased 
vascularity. Come to dissect fired limbs, what do we find I 
Through the earlier stages, red vessels in unforeseen abundance, 
and of larger size than ordinary, infiltration of the cellular tissue, 
general thickening and augmentation of substance : through the 
VOL. XX. B 
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