120 
THE COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF THE 
the case of Mr. Maberley’s late stud, it is not prejudicial to the 
sale of horses that are known in the sporting world, it operates 
much against those that are not known ; and I will give a recent 
instance:—Among the numerous visiters assembled last week 
at the chateau of Count Duval, to celebrate the fete of Saint 
Hubert (the patron of hunting) was a gentleman of the name of 
Bryan, residing at Brussels, and one of the leading sportsmen 
of the continent. He, a short time back, sent his chesnut geld¬ 
ing Major, to London, for sale, expecting a good price for him, 
the said Major being not only a good hunter, but the winner of 
several races over the Brussels course, as the French and Belgic 
calendar will shew. But mark the result. Being fired, and not 
known in England, he was bought in at TattersalPs for iS24, 
and eventually sold for £22; and this in spite of his being what 
is called a clever-looking horse, only seven years old, and quite 
sound ! 
Mr. Mayer’s reply, at the conclusion of this day’s discussion 
between the members of the Medical Association, was looked for 
by me with much interest. I was in hopes this ornament to his 
profession would have thrown something more into the scale 
in which the merits of the seton are placed, even if he despaired 
of seeing its fellow kick the beam ; but in this I was disappointed. 
Beyond the abatement of excessive inflammation, and diminution 
of lameness as its concomitant, he is afraid to pin his faith on 
the seton, leaving the death-blow to disease generally in the skilful 
application of the cautery, and where, from what I have yet been 
told, I fear it is likely to remain, at all events, for some years to 
come. 
April \Sth, Mr. Spooner continues the question of the relative 
value of the two operations, admitting the use of each in its place; 
but offers an assurance, in which I sincerely join him, that the 
seton might hitherto have been, in thousands of cases, resorted to, 
occasioning not only less suffering, but as having been better cal¬ 
culated than the actual cautery to perform a radical cure. To legs, 
however, it is evident he leaves the remedy, in bad cases, in the 
firing-iron ; neither do I see how, where there has been laceration 
of the ligaments, the seton can do the business. This gentleman’s 
remarks on superficial firing are well deserving the attention of 
the sportsman ; for whosoever may have recourse to it will, six 
times in ten, discover that he only trifled with the disease, and has 
consequently lost time. The destruction, and then the new organ¬ 
ization of the parts by deep firing may startle him, because, until 
he read the statements of Messrs. Spooner and Turner, he never 
dreamt that such things take place by such means; but here it 
is that the operator by fire finds his account in desperate injuries to 
