CAUTERY AND SETON. 
599 
not two miles from my own, a horse tied by the head to a 
wall, and a dense cloud of smoke issuing from — as appeared to 
me — his back. Now I shudder as I state whence this smoke 
proceeded. The brute in human form was actually endeavour- 
ing to consume, by fire, a fleshy excrescence of at least half a 
pound weight, the effect of a long-neglected fistula, and which, 
no doubt, he would have done, had I not passed at the moment, 
and threatened to lay an information against him if he proceeded. 
And how did the animal endure the apparently excessive torture 
to which he was put? My answer is, I had no criterion by 
which I could estimate the amount of his suffering ; but I can 
state the fact, that he had a twitch on his nose, but nothing 
else to confine him ; and he stood as quiet as a living animal 
could stand. I have a witness of this transaction now in my 
presence, who properly compares it to the frying of a piece of 
meat on a strong coal fire, or rather to a slice of bacon on a 
gridiron, previous to its creating a blaze. 
Now, my good sir, I can imagine what has been passing within 
your breast whilst perusing my statement of these facts. I can 
fancy your saying to yourself “I am mistaken in this man: 
I hitherto believed that Nimrod was of a humane disposition, 
and, above all things, would not be an advocate of inflicting 
unnecessary pain on his favourite animal, the horse .' ” To this 
my reply would be — First, I have only stated facts ; secondly, 
as we have no power over ourselves to make us believe this to 
be that, or that to be this, I merely state, that the impression 
on my mind, with respect to the pain inflicted on horses by 
the mere application of the hot iron — and I here speak from 
experience resulting from having been present at some scores 
of such operations — is, that it is not nearly to the amount to 
which our imagination naturally raises it ; and, also that it is 
my opinion, that the majority of horses suffer as much, if not 
more, from severe blistering than they do from the actual cautery. 
Inexplicable as this presumed fact is to me, I hesitate not in 
presuming it ; and, moreover, it would appear that, independently 
of after-suffering, it matters little how deep the lesions are 
made when once the skin is burnt, as there, we know, lies the 
principal organs of sensation — or, as your President expresses 
himself, “there is the most sensitive part of the frame, its nerves 
being the guards placed by nature to warn the animal of danger.” 
I could almost persuade myself, indeed, that the horse partakes 
somewhat of the salamandrine nature, as regards the power of 
fire in inflicting pain on him. How many times have I seen 
the lampas burnt out of his mouth, and his beginning to eat hard 
hay or corn in five minutes afterwards, as if nothing had happened ! 
