174 
THE COMPAllATIVE EFFECT OF THE 
the day after having ridden a horse a severe run over a deep and 
strongly fenced country, that I did not look with apprehension 
for some damage to this part, and with good reason too. Set¬ 
ting fencing aside, look at the action of a horse over rough ground; 
it resembles that of a pointer in a turnip field,—a succession of 
leapSy and leaping, we know, is chiefly done by the exertion of 
the hinder legs of all quadrupeds. With the hunter, the stress 
on the hock joint must be prodigious, which in a great measure 
accounts for the well-known fact of some of the best leapers—of 
the best hunters, indeed,—having wretchedly bad fore legs. Be 
it known, then, that to this joint (with the exception of curb) 
the President declares—although his opinion is opposed by a great 
majority of his brethren—that the use of the seton has a decided 
advantage over the firing-iron. 
Again, the President applies, with success, the seton to the 
knee—a part rarely fired, although veiy subject to contusions, 
and now and then to ligamentous injuries. I have had a good 
deal to do with contused knees, from the circumstance of my 
having, for many years of my life, been in the practice of mak¬ 
ing hunters’^ of young horses, as the term is, and who would of 
course fi’equently hit their fences—timber especially—with their 
knees. I hated the sight of banged knees, and for this reason. 
Beyond fomentation and repellents, I knew no way of treating 
them in the hunting season; and as they seldom occasioned 
lameness, it did not answer to stop horses in their work on their 
account. As for looking into books for advice, that was a use¬ 
less task. No wonder, then, that I hated the sight of a banged or 
contused knee on a promising young hunter, arising from the diffi¬ 
culty I found in reducing the swelling occasioned by the blow. 
I used to blister in the summer mildly and repeatedly, but gene¬ 
rally to small account*. May I ask, then, does the President find 
us a certain remedy here ? for, if he does, the fact should be made 
known. And may the same assurance be given respecting blows 
on the cap of the hock ?—for what an eye-sore is what is called a 
** capped hock,’’ which a trifling blow against a stall-post will 
occasion ? As for attempting to reduce it by medicinal appli¬ 
cations, you may as well employ them against a mountain. 
‘‘To sprains” the President says (page 171), “from every 
cause, and in every part, the firing had been applied with doubt¬ 
ful success, or with no success at all, both in the superficial and 
the severe way. To ossifications on the legs, splents from con- 
• After I became acquainted with the mercurial charge, I saw a contused 
knee very considerably reduced by it, in the case of a neighbour’s horse, 
who applied it at my suggestion. It was not, however, a case of long stand¬ 
ing. 
