ON FIRING. 
561 
much more so by being presented to the public through the me¬ 
dium of so widely and deservedly circulated a journal as The 
Lancet. Notwithstanding' Mr. Turner's assertion, of his whole 
life having' been sedulously employed in the veterinary science, 1 
take the liberty of informing him, though I do not doubt but that 
he is well aware, there are many others that have been much 
longer, and equally zealous in the cause as himself, and who 
have had equally as good, if not better, opportunities, of witness¬ 
ing, and at the same time are fully capable of judging of the 
effects of firing. In the rough country, says Mr. Turner, where 
he practised (describing the worst kind of exertion, he alludes to 
hunting, which duty I believe the horse is not called on to per¬ 
form oftener than twice or three times a week, and that only for 
about four months), the most severe injuries and diseased joints 
occur, and on this he g'rounds his practice. Now in London 
alone, I mean to say, we have as many, if not more, diseases re¬ 
quiring the aid of the firing irons, than are to be found in the 
whole county of Surrey; and I positively assert, that, independent 
of my own practice, I have seen and known a great many horses 
successfully fired in the common method by various practitioners. 
Mr. Turner is even compelled to admit, that firing is successfully 
resorted to all over the country; and if he would have us believe 
that they all and everywhere cauterise through the skin, then 
Mr. Turners’s deep method is nothing new T ; if they do not, why 
in his opinion it was of no avail whatever. Now, if this had been 
the real state of the case, we can only reasonably presume that 
firing would have long since sunk into oblivion; but such is not 
the fact, therefore it must be admitted that the present mode that 
is practised by experienced individuals is a good one; and this 
the profession at large will, I feel confident, admit, and even Mr. 
Turner himself, I hope, on a little deeper reflection, if he is not 
too much wedded to his “ monstrous presumption.” But further, 
in order to put the case beyond all cavil, I will suppose Mr. 
Turner called on to fire a diseased fetlock-joint, a case of frequent 
occurrence; would he then make the red hot iron pass boldly 
through the skin by crucial incisions till it reached the cellular 
tissue immediately covering' the ligaments, tendons, periosteum, 
&c. / ? He says, “ To go thus fearlessly to work requires great 
dexterity, tact, talent, and nerve and I think he might as well 
have added, an eye possessing as great an optic power as the 
most powerful microscope, with a firing iron, although red-hot, 
invisible to the naked eye, for he says it is to be done with all 
due caution; then, with all due deference to Mr. Turner’s deep 
knowledge , let me inquire how he avoids cauterising and dividing 
the important nerves, arteries, and veins, that are immediately 
