592 
ON THK (ESTRUS EQUI, 
operation that firing is good as a remedy for bursal enlarge¬ 
ments, yet I do not consider that the benefits resulting from its 
application in cases of bone-spavin, and many other diseases, 
ought to be attributed to the same principle. On the contrary, 
the idea of a bandage for an inflamed splint, or any other sensi¬ 
tive exostosis, is the very acme of absurdity. 
Various are the methods of employing the actual cautery. 
There are the diamond, transverse, longitudinal, planary, plana- 
tory, penniform, and many other ways of firing. The chief 
object, however, being to combine great inflammatory action with 
as little after blemish as possible, I prefer drawing my lines 
parallel to each other, and in the same direction as that of the 
hair. By this means there is much less chance of sloughing 
and after-blemish than when any other is had recourse to. 
When I use the cautery, I do so to all intents and purposes; 
experience having proved to me, that firing, unless the lesion be 
deep, is little more efficacious than the application of a strong 
blister. How different are the French and Italian modes of 
firing from that adopted by the generality of English veterina¬ 
rians. In France they not alone fire deeply, but, for once that 
the English practitioner passes the iron over a line, they do so 
at least ten times, thereby exciting a degree of inflammation 
considerably greater than when the operation is more quickly 
performed. They regard not the depth to which the iron enters so 
much as the quantity of caloric imparted to the diseased organ. 
This procedure, though cruel, is most efficacious. I have seen 
one of the Alfort professors occupy nearly three-quarters of an 
hour at one articulation. At that school they also invariably 
fire in the direction of the hair. 
NOTE ON THE (ESTRUS EQUI, OR THE BOTS OF 
HORSES. 
By Bracy Clark. 
« 
[We extract this, at the desire of Mr. Bracy Clark, from the 
Entomological Magazine of April last. The history of the bot 
of horses is interesting to us; but with the sarcasms in which 
the author so freely indulges we have nothing to do. Mr. 
Bracy Clark is addressing the Editor of that Magazine.—Y.] 
*'In reading your last number, I observed the unexpected 
honour of my name being inserted, with a free accusation of my 
“being in errorwhich imputation precedes, instead of follow- 
