*20 ON FIRING AND THE SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT. 
blood, and a great quantity had escaped from the external 
opening. 
I come to this conclusion — that the excessive hsemorrhage 
must have operated as a sedative, and thus allayed the^pain which 
I should have inferred would naturally have resulted from such 
a serious accident. 
OBSERVATIONS ON FIRING AND THE 
SUBSEQUENT TREATMENT. 
By C. Percivall, Esq., F.S., Royal Artillery. 
The introduction of an operation termed “ subcutaneous pe- 
riosteotomy,” together with the strangely extended application of 
the seton, recommended at the Royal Veterinary College as a 
substitute for the actual cautery, induce me to offer a few 
remarks in defence of this highly useful and important operation 
of our forefathers. I feel satisfied that the more refined surgical 
operations of the present day are not likely, with experienced 
veterinarians and sporting men, to supersede the occasional but 
severe use of the iron. Although I should be ever anxicus to 
relieve the sufferings of the brute creation, and especially those of 
an animal who contributes so largely to our pleasures and comfort, 
with as little torture to him as possible, daily observation assures 
us that the only thing which can restore, for a few additional 
seasons, the stale, and, to a certain degree, stumped-up hunter 
or hack, is the judicious and timely application of the actual 
cautery: all the argument that can be made use of will never 
convince the old sportsman that this can be accomplished by 
other means ; nor will the experienced veterinarian ever take up 
the periosteotomy knife to the exclusion of the cautery. Indeed, 
since the attempts to banish from veterinary practice this highly 
useful auxiliary, it has been taken up and warmly advocated by 
some eminent members of the medical profession in Ireland, 
and frequently had recourse to in cases of sciatica or chronic rheu- 
matism. A small flat iron, about the circumference of a shilling, 
made red hot, is applied lightly in the course of the nerve, with 
decided benefit. I have heard of the kitchen poker — rather a 
rude instrument — having been applied for the same purpose, after 
which we need not be so nice about making use of that “ barbarous 
and unsurgical instrument” — as it has been called — the firing-iron. 
I have, from time to time, witnessed such beneficial results 
from its application, that my ears are with difficulty made 
