ce FIRING 33 HORSES. 353 
generally object more to the constraint imposed upon them 
than to the pain of such an operation as “ firing,” and we 
have seen that this constraint was necessary in order to give 
the chloroform. So that w T hile the animal w T as being distressed 
by inhaling the vapour, the operation might have been ac¬ 
complished, and the horse in its stall again, without suffering 
from the unpleasant effects of the ansesthetic. In none but 
very painful, difficult, and protracted operations is it advisable 
to use chloroform. 
Veterinary surgeons have, to a large extent, employed the 
cether spray to produce local anaesthesia before operating on 
certain regions of the body; but so far as my experience 
goes, grave accidents are likely to attend or follow its employ¬ 
ment in “ firing/” The operator’s face has been singed, and 
the animal's limb has been enveloped in a blaze, while in one 
case the straw upon which the horse was lying caught fire 
owing to the inflammability of the vapour. In other in¬ 
stances the skin has sloughed deeply, and produced large 
sores, which took a long time to heal, caused much suffering, 
and left the animals badly blemished for life. 
With regard to the frequency with which firing” is re¬ 
sorted to, I fear that it is still too much in favour with cer¬ 
tain people, and is employed when there is not the least 
necessity for it. Towards the end of last century it was a 
panacea for almost every disease and lameness of the limbs— 
real, or imaginary, past, present, or to come—and the burning 
iron was applied with no merciful hand by the untutored 
farrier, who, in the majority of cases, being ignorant of the 
seat of the malady, sometimes ploughed the skin from the top 
to the bottom of the limbs; for to fire deeply was the rule. 
Some of these men yet exist, and traces of their heavy hands 
and hard hearts are evidently on the legs of poor horses in 
many parts of the country. 
The fashion of “ firing” is dying out with the advent of a 
better knowledge of disease and its causes; and though it is 
still thought beneficial to score the legs of hunters after a 
hard season, or when they become shaky from hard work, 
yet I have no doubt this will also disappear when it is found 
that rest, with a milder and more rational treatment, will 
produce the same benefits. It is only among very old- 
fashioned people that the absurd fashion yet lingers of 
“ firing” young horses’ legs in anticipation of disease, or to 
prevent its occurrence. This is one of the foibles of the dark 
days of farriery, and is about as reasonable as applying a 
blister to the chest of a young child to prevent its having 
inflammation of the lungs when it becomes an adult. 
