502 ON FIRING, AND ONE-SIDED NAILING. 
enlargement occasionally follows, or is consequent on injury done 
to the synovial membrane lining the pulley-like joint, formed by 
the flexor tendon passing the sessamoid bones. The inflammation 
of this membrane extends to the sessamoids, producing absorp¬ 
tion and ulceration of the bone in like manner to what takes place 
in the navicular joint. This species of lameness in the fetlock has 
not been noticed by any one in the ^profession, at least no mention 
has been made of it that I know of. When this sessamoid disease 
takes place, firing and blistering avail nothing : lameness continues 
despite of all remedy; and to divide the metacarpal nerves, I 
fear, would not so far succeed as to bring a horse again to 
hounds; my conclusion on the result of such an operation pre¬ 
vents my recommending it. Where the lameness is owing to 
sprain of the binding ligament and consequent callous enlarge¬ 
ment, deep firing will succeed, and deep firing only : superficial 
firing is of no use in these cases, and, as you justly observe, pro¬ 
duces no effect beyond a common blister whenever it is performed. 
Some gentlemen may conceive that the less the iron can be traced 
after the hair is reproduced, the better the operation has been 
performed ; but it is all fudge. The sporting man whose purse 
has felt the injuries done in the field; who has had repeated occa¬ 
sion to call in the aid of the firing-iron, and to whom an intelli¬ 
gent veterinary surgeon is oftimes a blessing, would form as super¬ 
ficial an opinion of those vets, as they of the firing. The sportsman 
wants to see his horse at the covert side, and fit to go: it is not 
a few eschars from the iron that would concern him; no, the great 
and all-absorbing question is, is he sound? I do not approve 
of deeply cauterizing a horse’s joint beyond what is really 
necessary: when operating for enlarged ankle or spavin, I make no 
more incisions, and those longitudinally, than will act on the 
disease itself, but these I carry freely through the skin. I think 
firing a joint all over in what is termed penniform, and that 
through the skin, uncalled for; from four to six incisions being 
generally all that are required, over which I spread a blister im¬ 
mediately after firing : and, with my usual precaution to have the 
leg perfectly cool before I operate, I have never had to regret 
firing through the skin, but the satisfaction of seeing a recovery 
from lameness in many unfavourable cases. 
I am, dear Sir, your’s respectfully. 
PS. I have to thank you for a very great improvement in the 
feet of a valuable mare of mine from one-sided nailing. Her foot 
is well formed, but the horn is weak: I feared the play at the 
inside quarter between the heel of the foot and that of the shoe 
would have speedily cut the horn away, but the reverse has been 
