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THE HOESE,
BY YOUATT
EDITED BY SKINKEE,
Qi
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2009 with funding from
NCSU Libraries
http://www.archive.org/details/horsetogetherwiOOyoua
,Vj
/
THE HORSE,
BY WILLIAM YOUATT.
A NEW EDITION, WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
TOGETHER WITH A
GENERAL HISTOEY OE THE HOUSE;
A DISSERTATION ON
THE AMEKICAN TROTTING HORSE.
HOW TRAINED AND JOCKEYED,
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES;
AND
AN ESSAY ON THE ASS AND THE MULE,
BY J. S. SKINNER,
ASSISTANT POST MASTEFw GENERAL, AND EDITOR OF THE TFRF REGISTER.
PHILADELPHIA:
LEA AND BLAN CHARD.
1850.
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by
LEA AND BLANCHARD,
in the office of the clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
PREFACE TO THE LONDON EDITION.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION
OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
The First Edition of The Horse, which was completed in
the year 1831, has since had a large and continued sale: and
in acknowledging the valuable communications which have
been made for the improvement of the work, it is satisfactor}'
to the Committee to be able to state, that no grave errors in it
have been pointed out.
Vetermary science has, however, made great progress in the
last twelve years; the Structure of the Horse, the Injuries and
Diseases to which he is subject, and the Treatment of these,
have been investigated, in this country and abroad, with much
dihgence and success, both at Colleges and in Societies devoted
to the cultivation of Veterinary knowledge, and by practition-
ers whose education and experience render their observations
worthy of great respect.
In these circumstances, the Society intrusted to the Author
the preparation of a New Edition of this Treatise ; and he has
subjected it to so complete a revision, as to render it in many
respects a new work. This remark applies especially to the
chapters relating to the Diseases of the Horse.
Respectfully submitted.
By order of the Committee,
THOMAS COATES, Sec.
42 Bedford Square, London,
Ut March 1843.
PEERAGE,
BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.
In undertaking, at the instance of the American publishers, to prepare
a new edition of the last London copy of the work here presented, on
he Horse ; it has been lyiy endeavour to adapt it more exactly to the
circumstances of our own country ; and by omitting some portions of
the original, not immediately illustrative of the principal subject, to
reduce the volume, without impairing its value for practical uses.
Few things have occurred, serving better at once to characterize and
accelerate the march of intellect and benevolence which distinguishes
the age in which we live, than the well-known formation, in England,
of a " SOCIETV FOR THE DIFFUSIOIV OF UsEFUL KNOWLEDGE ;" COmpOSCd,
as it is, of men of the highest repute in the various departments of learn-
ing and industry ; headed by Lord Brougham.
Their proceedings, as far as published, all show them to be animated
by a generous desire to collect, simplify, and publish in the cheapest
form, the latest and most authentic discoveries and improvements in
science, and in arts promotive of the comfort and happiness of the
human race. Under their auspices, several series of publications have
appeared, one of which is denominated the " Farmer's Series." Of
this class, the first is the book on the Horse. That the Horse should
have been placed at the head of the list of domestic animals, having in
view a treatise on the breeds, properties and uses of each, is a distinc-
tion to which he is justly entitled, in reference as well to the beautiful
symmetry of his form, and his extraordinary physical powers, as to his
admirable docility of temper, and high moral qualities, fitting him
eminently for the various purposes of pleasure and of business.
In the work to which we are now introducing the reader, pruned, as
it has been, of some preliminary chapters, he will find little to amuse
him, of a character merely curious and speculative ; the mysteries of
charlatanry, and the nostrums of empiricism, have been carefully
excluded ; and where terms of anatomical and medical science have
been necessarily employed, they are explained, and applied with a degree
of plainness and precision, which bring them within the ready compre
hension ol' every reader
vi)
PREFACE. vii
The task of preparation to render the present edition more useful for
American readers, has consisted chiefly in what will be found prefixed
to it, on the various stages which have marked and acts which have
contributed to the improvement o( the English stock of horses ; some of
the best of which, as is more particularly shown, have been imported
into the United States, from time to time, for the last century or more
as also, and more particularly, of what is said of the American Trot-
ting Horse. To these have been added, a dissertation on the natural
history and uses of the Ass and the Mule ; the last named animal
being deeemed worthy of especial notice, on account of its utility
and economy, in American agriculture ; and the yet greater extent to
which it is believed it might be employed with advantage in this, as it
is known to be in some other countries.
But without presuming to recommend the work on account of any
observations of his own, the American Editor, who has himself written
volumes to illustrate and defend the interests of American husbandry, does
venture, with the utmost confidence, to pronounce the work itself to be
one which every gentleman may read with certainty of instruction —
leaving, as it does, in truth, nothing untold, which need be known of the
Horse, in his minutest anatomy, with full directions as to breeding and
breaking, food and exercise ; as, also, plain descriptions of his various
diseases, and their most simple and certain cures. Such a work ought
to be in the possession, for convenient reference, of every owner of
horses, whether for the coach, the saddle, the cart, or the plough. The
great value attached to this work, and its entire success in England,
may be understood, when we state that the new edition just published
in London, and from which the present is reprinted, has been nearly
rewritten by the author, and improved by the insertion of many new
cuts, prepared for it by a distinguished artist.
J. S. S.
Washington, May, 1843.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
41
I TROTTING MATCH IN HARNESS Frontispiecb.
2. HEAD OF THE BLACK ARABIAN Title.
3. SKELETON OF THE HORSE Page 68
4. BONES OF THE HORSE'S HEAD 70
■5. SECTION OF THE HORSE'S HEAD 72
6. DIAGRAM OF THE SKULL 75
7. OCCIPITAL BONE OF THE HORSE 77
8. SPINAL CHORD, WITH BRANCHING NERVES 80
9. SECTION OF THE EYE 86
[0. MUSCLES OF THE EYE 92
n. HORSE LABOURING UNDER LOCK-JAW 103
J2. ANATOMY OF THE LEG AND FOOT 113
13. SECTION OF THE UPPER JAW BONE 123
14. MUSCLES, NERVES, AND BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE HEAD AND
UPPER PART OF THE NECK 125
15. THE PALATE 142
16. GLENOID CAVITY OF THE HORSE AND TIGER COMPARED 143
17. TEETH OF A FOAL A FEW DAYS AFTER BIRTH 144
18. TEETH OF A FOAL AT TWO MONTHS 144
19. TEETH OF A FOAL AT TWELVE MONTHS 145
20. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A GRINDER 145
21. TEETH AT THE AGE OF A YEAR AND A HALF 146
22. TEETH AT THE AGE OF THREE YEARS 147
23. TEETH AT THE AGE OF THREE YEARS AND A HALF 147
24. TEETH AT THE AGE OF FIVE YEARS 148
25. TEETH AT THE AGE OF SIX YEARS 148
26. TEETH AT THE AGE OF SEVEN YEARS 149
27. TEETH AT THE AGE OF EIGHT OR NINE YEARS.— Bishoped 149
28. FINEST SHAPE FOR THE NECK AND HEAD 159
29. THE RIBS AND VERTEBRyE. 167
30. THE STOMACH 221
31. TERMINATION OF THE ESOPHAGUS 222
32. THE BOT-FLY IN ITS VARIOUS STAGES, 224
33. THE INTESTINES 228
34 SECTION OF THE BLIND GUT 229
35. ENTANGLEMENT OF THE SMALL INTESTINES 239
36. CURVED AND STRAIGHT CATHETER 247
37. BONES OF THE LEGS 256
38. SIMPLE LEVER 257
39. MUSCLES OF THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHOULDER 259
40. MUSCLES OF THE INSIDE OF THE SHOULDER AND FOREARM... 260
41. SECTION OF THE PASTERN 272
42. INSIDE VIEW OF THE BONES OF THE PASTERN 276
43. OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BONES OF THE PASERN 276
44. ATTACHMENTS OF THE MUSCLES OF THE PASTERN 276
45. DISEASES OF THE FORE-LEG 277
46. INSIDE MUSCLES OF THE HIND-LEG 281
47. OUTSIDE MUSCLES OF THE HIND-LEG 282
48. THE HAUNCH AND HIND-LEGS i 283
49. THE HOCK-JOINT 286
50. ANATOMY OF THE FOOT 295
51. ANATOMY OF THE BASE OF THE FOOT 295
.52. THE CORONARY RING 297
53. PERCIV ALL'S SUSPENSATORY APPARATUS FOR THE CURE OF
FRACTURES 323
54. THE CONCAVE-SEATED SHOE 338
55. THE UNILATERAL 339
56. OPERATION FOR CORNS 340
57. PERCIVALL'S SANDAL 343
58. PERCIVALL'S SANDAL FASTENED TO THE FOOT 344
C8)
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION, BY J. S. SKINNER.
The Horse, in England and America — as lie has been, and as he is. .tage 17
Lindsey's Arabian 34
The best Races in America 25
Best Races— Mile Heats ^ 36
Best Races at Two-.AIile Heats 37
Best Races at Three-x^Iile Heats 38
Best Races at Four-mile Heats 39
Lengths of the principal Race-Courses in England 41
Rules and Regulations of the New York Jockey Club 42
The Hunter 48
The American Trotter 49
Rules and Regulations of the New Y'ork Trotting Club 54
Trotting at Mile Heats 57
Trotting at Two-Mile Heats . T 57
Trotting at Three-Mile Heats 57
Trotting at Four-Mile Heats 57
Best Pacing in America on Record 53
Miscellaneous Examples of Extraordinary Performances of American
Trotters 5S
Extraordinary Trotting Match 60
Trotting on the Beacon Course 63
Centreville (L. I.) Trotting Course 63
Trotting on the Hunting Park Course 64
Height of Trotting Horses 64
THE HORSE,
HIS ANATOMY— WITH HIS DISEASES AND REMEDIES.
BY WILLIAM YOUATT.
CHAPTER I.
The Zoological Classification of the Hokse 67
CHAPTER II.
The Sensorial function 6<
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
Injuries and Diseases of the Skull — the Brain — the Ears — and
THE Eyes 93
Fracture 93
Exostosis 94
Caries 94
Compression of the Brain 94
Pressure on the Brain 94
Megrims 94
Apoplexy 95
Phrenitis 98
Rabies, or Madness 100
Tetanus, or Locked Jaw 1 03
Cramp 106
Stringhalt 107
Chorea 109
Fits, or Epilepsy 1 09
Palsy 109
Rheumatism 110
Neurotomy j Ill
Insanity 115
Diseases of the Eye 116
Common Inflammation of the Eye 117
Specific Ophthalmia, or Moon-Blindness 117
Gutta Serena 121
Diseases of the Ear 121
Deafness 122
CHAPTER IV.
The ANAxoJir and Diseases of the Nose and Mouth 122
Nasal Polypus 126
Nasal Gleet, or Discharge from the Nose 127
Ozena 128
Glanders , 12,9
Farcy -136
The Lips 139
The Bones of the Mouth 141
The Palate 141
Lampas 142
The Lower Jaw 142
Dis(!ases of the Teeth 151
CONTENTS. Xl
The Tongue 152
Diseases of the Tongue 152
The Salivary Glands 15;{
Strangles 154
The Pharynx 156
CHAPTER V.
The Axatomy and Diseases of the Neck a^'d Neighbouring Parts 157
PoU-Evil '. 157
The ^luscles and proper form of the Neck 158
The Bloodr Vessels of the Neck 161
The Veins of the Neck 161
Inflammation of the Vein 161
The Palate 163
The Larynx 163
The Trachea or Windpipe 164
Tracheotomy 165
The Bronchial Tubes 166
CHAPTER VI.
The Chest 167
The Spine and Back 171
The Loins 172
The Withers 173
Muscles of the Back 173
Fistulous Withers 174
Warbles, Sitfasts, and Saddle Galls 174
Muscles of the Breast: 175
Chest-Founder 175
CHAPTER VII.
The Co^-TE^'TS of the Chest 175
The Thymus Gland 175
The Diaphragm 176
Rupture of the Diaphragm 177
The Pleura 179
The Lungs 181
The Heart 181
Diseases of the Heart 182
The Arteries 184
The Pulse 184
Inflammation 185
Fever 187
xii CONTENTS.
The Veins 1 ^^
Bog and Blood Spavin 188
Bleeding 189
CHAPTER VIII.
The Membrane of the Nose . ^ 191
Catarrh, or Cold 192
Inflammation of the Larynx 1 93
Inflammation of the Trachea 194
Roaring 1 94
Bronchocele 1 97
Epidemic Catarrh 197
The Malignant Epidemic 203
Bronchitis 205
Pneumonia — Inflammation of the Lungs 206
Chronic Cough 211
Thick Wind 212
Broken Wind 21S
Phthisis Pulmonalis, or Consumption . . '. 215
Pleurisy 217
CHAPTER IX.
The Abdomen and its Contents 221
The Stomach 221
Bots 224
The Intestines 227
The Liver 230
The Pancreas 23]
The Spleen 231
The Omentum 231
CHAPTER X.
The Diseases of the Intestines 232
The Duodenum 232
Spasmodic Colic 232
Flatulent Colic 234
Inflammation of the Bowels 235
Enteritis 235
Physicking 237
Calculi, or Stones, in the Intestines 239
Introsusception of the Intestines 238
Entanglement of the Bowels 239
Worms 23f'
,|^
CONTENTS. XllI
Hernia, or Rupture 240
Diseases of the Liver 241
Jaundice 242
The Kidneys 243
Inflammation of the Kidneys 244
Diabetes, or Profuse Staling , 245
Bloody Urine — Hsematuria 245
Albuminous Urine 245
The Bladder 245
Inflammation of the Bladder 246
Stone in the Bladder 246
CHAPTER XI.
Breeding, Castration, &c 248
Castration , 254
CHAPTER XII.
The Fore Legs 255
The Shoulder 255
Sprain of the Shoulder 255
Slanting direction of the Shoulder 256
The Humerus, or Lower Bone of the Shoulder 260
The Arm 261
The Knee 264
Broken Knees 265
The Leg , 267
Splint 268
Sprain of the Back-Sinews 269
Wind-Galls 271
The Pasterns 272
Lesions of the Suspensory Ligament 274
The Fetlock 275
Grogginess 275
Cutting 275
Sprain of the Coffin-Joint 277
Ringbone 277
CHAPTER XIII.
The Hind Legs 279
The Haunch 279
The Thigh 279
The Stifle 283
Thorough-Pin 285
The Hock 285
3
XIV CONTENTS.
Enlargement of the Hock 286
Curb 287
Bog Spavin 287
Bone Spavin 288
Capped Hock 290
Mallenders and Sallenders 291
Swelled Legs 291
Grease 292
CHAPTER XIV.
The Foot 295
The Crust or Wall of the Hoof ■. . . 296
The Coronary Ring 297
■ The Bars 297
The Horny Laminae 298
The Sole 298
The Frog 299
The Coffin-Bone 300
The Sensible Sole 300
The Sensible Frog 301
The Navicular Bone 301
The Cartilages of the Foot 301
CHAPTER XV.
The Diseases of the Foot 302
Inflammation of the Foot, or Acute Founder 302
Chronic Laminitis 304
Pumiced Feet 304
Contraction 305
The Navicular-Joint Disease 309
Sand-Crack 311
Tread and Over-reach 312
False Quarter 313
Quitter 313
Prick or Wound in the Sole or Crust 315
Corns 317
Thrush 318
Canker 320
Ossification of the Cartilages 321
Weakness of the Foot 321
CHAPTER XVI.
Fkactures 322
CONTENTS.
XV
CHAPTER XVII.
On Shoeing 333
The putting on the Shoe 335
Calkins 336
Clips 337
The hinder Shoe 337
Different kinds of Shoes 337
The Concave-seated Shoe 337
The Unilateral, or one side nailed Shoe 339
The Hunting Shoe 34O
The Bar-Shoe 34O
Tips 341
The Expanding Shoe 34I
Felt or Leather Soles 34I
CHAPTER XVIII.
Operations 344
Bleeding 345
Blistering 346
Firing 347
Setons 349
Docking 350
Nicking 35^
CHAPTER XIX.
The Vices and Disagreeable or Dangerous Habits of the Horse 353
Restiveness 353
Backing or Gibbing 355
Biting 357
Getting the Cheek of the Bit into the Mouth 358
Kicking ..358
Unsteadiness while being Mounted 359
Rearing 359
Running Away 359
Vicious to Clean 3g0
Vicious to Shoe 360
Swallowing without Grinding 360
Crib-Biting 36i
Wind-Sucking 362
Cutting 362
Not Lying Down 362
Overreach 362
Pawing ........'.'.!!! 363
XVl CONTENTS.
Quidding 363
Rolling 363
Shying 363
Slipping the Collar 365
Tripping 366
Weaving 366
CHAPTER XX.
The General Management of the Horse 366
Air 366
Litter 368
Light 369
Grooming 370
Exercise 371
Food 372
CHAPTER XXL
The Skin and its Diseases 381
Hide-bound 383
Pores of the Skin 385
Moulting 885
Colour 386
Surfeit 387
Mange 388
Warts 390
Vermin 390
CHAPTER XXII.
On Soundness, and the Purchase and Sale of Horses 390
CHAPTER XXIII.
A List of the Medicines used in the Treatment of the Dis-
eases OF the Horse 398
AN ESSAY ON THE ASS AND MULE, BY J. S. SKINNER... 419
THE HORSE,
[N ENGLAND AND AMERICA— AS HE HAS
BEEN, AND AS HE IS.
Of all the beasts of the field, which, as we are to'>d, the Lord formed out of the
earth, and brought unto Adam to see what he Avould call them, none has more
engaged the attention of the historian and the philosopher — none has figured more in
poetry and romance, than the horse.
Coeval with their domestication, and the knowledge of their admirable capacities
to minister to our comforts and pleasures, according to Plutarch, the sentiment has
been common to all good men, to treat the horse and the dog with especial kindness,
and to cherish them carefully, even when the infirmities of age and long service have
rendered them useless.
For the volumes which have been written on the Horse, whether more or less
authentic, as to his original country, his natural history, the time of his subjutmtion
to the use of man, and the various purposes for which he has been employed, —
whether in the homely gear of field-labour, or in the gorgeous trappings of the tour-
nament or chariot of war on all these points of his history and his uses, we mioht
refer the curious reader to various works, some of them elegant, alike in their embel-
lishments and their literature ; but to quote and to collate them here, would be to
depart from the line of practical utility prescribed for the execution of our task ;
hence, keeping that object constantly in view, we shall merely glance at what has been
written of his early history and services, and so come down rapidly to the period in the
history of the English horse where, after successive importations of foreign stallions,
and the observance of judicious systems of breeding, the stock of the mother country,
from which ours is derived, had attained about the days of Flying Childers, in the
beginning of the last century, a high degree, if not its maximum of excellence. It
was when so improved that the horse was imported into our then British Colonies;
and what, after all, it may be asked, is there economical and thrifty in our ao-ricul-
tural and domestic habits — or good in our political and social institutions, the ele-
ments and general outline of which we have not derived from Old England ? Some
orchardists contend that a branch cut from an old trunk and grafted on a young scion,
will, nevertheless, sympathize with the parent stock, and under the laws of vegetable
life, will decay as the parent tree declines ! Does the theory^ sometimes apply to
ountries and governments 1 or shall we thrive nationally, as plants grow larger and
lore robust when transplanted from the seed-bed into wider space and freer circula-
tion ] But these are questions for the politician.
None of the writings to which we could point the reader contain more frequent
mention, or more glowing descriptions of the power and beauty of the Horse, than
the great bonk .]f bo-iks ! The Bible teaches us that from whatever land this animal
may have been originally brought into Egy^pt, that country had already become a great
horse market, even before horses were known in Arabia ; the country with which
we are apt to associate all that is most interesting in the history of this noble beast.
Geological re«5earches, however, have discovered fossil remains of the horse in almost
2* c ,17)
^8 THE HORSE.
every part of the world, " from the tropical plains of India to the frozen reg-ions of
Siberia — from the northern extremities of the new world to the southern point of
America." But amongst the Hebrews, horses were rare previous to the days of
Solomon, who had horses brought out of Egypt after his marriage with the daughter
of Pharoah, and so rapidly did he multiply them by purchase and by breeding, thai
those kept for his own use required, as it is written, " four thousand stables, and
forty thousand stalls." Hence, when honoured by a visit from the beautiful Queen
of Sheba, bringing with her " camels bearing spices," and " very much gold and
precious stones," it was doubtless in the contemplation of his magnificent stud of
horses and chariots, kept for the amusement of his wives and concubines, as well as
of his other vast displays of power and magnificence, that her majesty exclaimed, in
•he fullness of her admiration, — " Howbeit I believed not the words until 1 came,
and mine eyes had seen it, and behold the half was not told me !"
This gallant monarch appears to have enjoyed a large monopoly of the horse trade
W'th Egypt, for which he was probably indebted to his having an Egyptian Princess
for one of his wives. His merchants supplied horses in great numbers to the Hittite
Kings of Northern Phoenicia. The fixed price was one hundred and fifty shekels for
one horse, and six hundred shekels for a set of chariot horses. Thus early was in
vogue, as it seems, the gentleman-like fashion to drive four-in-hand, which came
down to the good old days when in our Republican country the Tayloes, and the
Ridgelys, and the Lloyds, and Hamptons still figured and flourished on the race-courses
at Annapolis and Washington.
That there was in the " olden time," something remarkably luxurious in the style of
living and equipage at the ancient metropolis of Maryland, may be gathered from the fol-
lowing remarks in " New Travels through America," in the year 1781, by the Abb6
Robin, chaplain to the French army. — " Their furniture here is constructed of the
most costly kind of wood, and the most valuable marble, enriched by the elegant
devices of the artist's hand. Their riding machines are light and handsome, and
drawn by the Jleetest coursers, managed by slaves richly dressed. This opulence was
particularly observable at Annapolis. Female luxury here exceeds what is known in
the provinces of France — a French hair-dresser is a man of importance among them ;
a certain dame here hires one of that craft at a thousand crowns a year salary."
Before the days of Solomon, their honours, the Judges and Princes of Israel, used
generally to ride on Jlsses and Mules ,- no less patient and faithful servants of man than
the horse ; and to whom the editor will endeavour to render justice, in the course of
this introduction to the English work.
It is not, be it said, with all our partiality for the Horse, that he possesses any one
physical or moral trait, in higher excellence than some other animals. In sagacity, he
falls short of the ponderous and drowsy Elephant ; in muscular development and
grace of limb, he surpasses not the Stag; in ardour and constancy of devotion, he can
scarcely be said to equal his friendly companion and rival for his master's aflFections,
the faithful Dog ; and his courage fails him at sight of a " Lion in the way," — while
in the humbler qualities of patience and availability to the very last, even to the hair
and the hoof, that unambitious drudge, the Ox, may well assert his pretensions to com-
parison, if not to superiority. It is the admirable comhinalion of the several qualifies
which, taken singly, serve to confer distinction on other quadrupeds, that united in
him, fits the horse for employments so various ; giving him pre-eminence alike in One
wagon or the plough — the coach and the battle-field. While on the one hand, with a
flight of speed, compared in Scripture to " the swiftness of the Eagle," he submits his
neck, clothed in thunder, to be restrained by a silken rein in the hands of a Di Vernon,
his courage in war is thus eloquently described by .lob. We give what is esteemed
the best translation of a passage often quoted, no less for its appesiteness than for its
sublimity.
" Hast thou given mettle to the horse ?
And clothed his neck with ire ?
Dost thou command him to spring like a grasshopper ?
The grandeur of his neighing is terror :
With his feet he beats the ground,
Rejoicing in his strength ;
And goes forth to meet the embattled foe.
THE HORSE. 19
The fearful sight he scorns, and trembles not,
Nor from the sword doth he draw back.
Above him rattle the quiver, the glittering spear, and arrow,
Under him trembles the earth ; yet he hardly touches it.
He doubts if it be the sound of the trumpet he hears,
But when it becomes more distinct, then he exults,
And from afar, pants for the battle.
The word of command, and the war-cry."
And then as to his gallantry ; -where, in all nature, does she exhibit such a macmifi-
cent display of that conservative passion, by which alone the Great Jehovah has
secured the perpetuity of all his creatures, as in the high-fonned, pampered stallion,
under the impulse of amatory anticipations ! — affording in this resistless necessity of
animal organization, proof that should dispel, even in a land of Atheists, all doubt of
an overruling design or Providence,
" Whose work is without labour ; whose designs
No flaw deforms, no difRculty thwarts ;
And whose beneficence no charge exhausts."
It may be the force of early association, but we apprehend it is almost indispensable
to have been born and " raised in the country" to estimate fully the attachment which
can there alone grow up in all its power, between a ii,an and his horse ! "What con-
queror, " from Macedonia's madman to the Swede," so proud as the boy and his horse
' Button" or " Bright-Eye," that can beat all competitors in a quarter-race ! Alex-
ander was a fool, and Bucephalus a garron, compared to these two great characters, in
playtime at a country school. " Haud experientia loquor P^
To the valetudinarian, how delightful to escape from his sick room, and once more
throw himself in his saddle, to ride abroad and snuff the fresh air of the morning; or
no less to one in the manly vigour of health, to mount his sure-footed, high-mettled
steed, and go bounding, at three-quarter
" Over the hills and far away,"
under the reckless excitement of the chase, or sometimes even solitary and alone, ye*
most agreeably exhilarated by that cheerful turn of thought educed by rapid horseback
motion, in the bracing air of the country ! He, at least, must have felt these sensa-
tions, who described them so happily and with so much enthusiasm, in the old Ameri-
can Turf Register and Sporting Magazine ; a work since much improved, and now
conducted with rare taste and elegance by W. T. Porter, of New York.
In strong fear of reproach for departing from the strict line of utility laid down for
our observance, we cannot forbear to appropriate space enough here to multiply copies
of this beautiful tribute
"TO MY HORSE."
WiTJi a glancing eye and curving mane.
He neighs and cliamps on the bridle-rein ;
One spring, and his saddled back I press,
And ours is a common happiness !
'Tis the rapture of motion ! a hurrying cloud
When the loosened winds are breathing loud :■—
A shaft from the painted Indian's bow —
A bird — in the pride of speed we go.
Dark thoughts that haunt me, where are ye now ?
While the cleft air gratefully cools my brow.
And the dizzy earth seems reehn^ by.
And nought is at rest, but the arching sky :
And the tramp of my steed, so swift and strong,
Is dearer than fame and sweeter than song ?
There is life in the breeze as we hasten on ;
With each bound some care of earth has gone.
And the languid pulse begins to play.
And the night of my soul is turned to day ,
A richer verdure the earth o'erspreads.
Sparkles the streamlet more bright in the meads ;
20 THEKORSE.
And its voice to the flowers that bend above,
Is soft as the whisper of early love ;
With fragrance spring flowers have burdened the air,
And the blue-bird and robin are twittering clear.
Lovely tokens of gladness, I marked ye not,
When last I roamed o'er this self-same spot.
Ah ! then the deep shadows of sorrow's mien
Fell, like a blight, on the happy scene ;
And nature, with all her love and grace.
In the depths of the spirit could find no place.
So the vexed breast of the mountain lake,
When wind and rain mad revelry make,
Turbid and gloomy, and wildly tost.
Retains no trace of the beauty lost.
But when through the moist air, bright and warm.
The sun looks down with his golden charm,
And clouds have fled, and the wind is lull,
Oh ! then the changed lake, how beautiful !
The glistening trees, in their shady ranks,
And the ewe with its lamb, along the banks.
And the kingfisher perched on the wither'd bough,
And the pure blue heaven, all pictured below !
Bound proudly my steed, nor bound proudly in vain,
Since thy master is now himself again.
And thine be the praise when the leech's* power
Is idle, to conquer the darkened hour
By the might of the sounding hoof, to win
Beauty without and joy within;
Beauty else to my eyes unseen.
And joy, that then had a stranger been.
We return without further preliminary to trace the progressive iinprovements which
have ended in giving us the horse of all v)ork of the present day, and as now employed
for ordinary uses. These uses require hardiness and strength for economical and
laborious drudgery, and activity and speed for light harness and the saddle ; while
for every purpose it is essential that he should have good wind. The work itself, to
which these remarks are but introductory, 'it will be remembered treats more par-
ticularly and fully, and leaves nothing more to be learned about the anatomy and
diseases of the Horse. How the qualities designated above have been gradually estab-
lished and preserved from deterioration, it would be impracticable to ascertain and
relate without going back as we propose to trace the outline at least of the history of
the English Horse, from which ours are descended — and here, before proceeding
further, it is deemed proper the better to indicate its importance to every practical
husbandman, that we lay it down as a principle, that the horse, in his domesticated
condition, where his propagation is conducted arbitrarily and without rule — where the
male and female are brought together capriciously, and without care or judgment as
to the qualities of each, constant and wide-spread deterioration viust be the consequence.
On this point, upon which we insist as of the highest consideration, we shall dwell
again, to show why it is that animals in a state of nature will preserve a higher
standard than when unskilfully and carelessly bred in a state of domesti-
cation. In the meantime, in sketching the history of the English horse, it is not
deemed essential to go back anterior to the Invasion of England by Julius Caesar.
Even at that period it is clear that there existed in that island a good substratum Tut
forming a superior race, for that observant and accomplished warrior spoke in the
highest terms of the liorses he found there. So well was he convinced of their excel-
lence, that he took back with him many of them to Rome, where English horses soon
grew into great demand ; and thus early was an inducement offered to the hardy ano
enterprising Briton, which since then has suffered no abatement, to pay strict atten-
tion to this important source of agricultural wealth.
* Leech, in old poetic dialect, means physician.
THE HORSE. 21
Hugh Capet, king of France, in the ninth century, proposing to himself by inter-
marriage with Etheldista, to infuse more vivacity into the breed of these semi-barba-
rous islanders, sent over to her brother Prince Athelstan, a supply of Gerwa/j "running
horses," as they were called, this being the tirst mention of the race-horse in English
annals. It is to be supposed that in all cases of male horses thus spoken of, " entire"
horses are to be understood ; for then it was not common, as it is now, to violate
wantonly the Mosaic Law, which says, "a beast that is crushed, bruised, evulsed, oi
excised, (these being the four modes of castration,) you shall not bring unto Jehovah,
nor shall you make it so in your land,'''' A practice as doubtful, as to its necessity or
utility in respect to the horse, as it is inhuman wherever it is useless. In the case of
edible animals, where emasculation promotes size and fatness, and improves the
flavour for the table, as with the hog and the sheep, this execrable mutilation is neces-
Bar}' , and therefore more excusable ; but this is not the case with the horse. In France,
where he is remarkable for strength in proportion to size, the post and the farm horse
is rarely, if ever, castrated ; and when horses for the road undergo this operation, it is
done in a manner and with such reservations as not to destroy the external appearance
of this sexual development; the suppression of which is there considered a striking
disfigurement. Descending next to the epoch of William the Conqueror, whose
charger was of the Spanish breed, and whose cavalry won for him the victory at the
Battle of Hastings — one of his subjects, Roger de Belseme, justly obtained popularity
as a national benefactor, by the importation of Spanish stallions into England. So
decidedly beneficial was the result of this munificent act of an individual subject, that
it may well be noted as an era in its way, for it is not to be doubted that these Spanish
stallions partook' largely of the blood of the Barb, brought into Spain by the Moors,
as the Norman-French horse in Canada does, of the same blood, earned from Spain
and Palestine to Normandy. To show how largely this new infusion of foreign blood
must have refined and thinned the wind, so to say, of the English strain of horses, at
that juncture, it is sufficient that we exhibit a well-drawn portrait, ready to our hand,
of the Barbary horse, more nearly allied than any other to the Arabian, and quite his
equal at least in form, if not in spirit — of the same stock, in fact, as Godolphin, com-
monly called the " Godolphin Arabian."
" The fore hand of the Barb is generally long and slender, and his mane long and
rather scanty. His ears are small, beautifully shaped, and placed in such a manner
as to give him great expression ; his shoulders are light, flat, and sloping backwards,
withers fine and standing high ; loins short and straight ; flanks and ribs round and
full, without giving him too large a belly ; his haimches strong and elastic ; the croup
is sometimes long to a fault, the tail is placed high, thighs well turned and rounded,
legs clean and beautifully formed, and the hair thin, soft, and silky ; the tendons are
detached from the bone, but the pasterns are often too long and bending ; the feet
rather small, but in general sound."
In this delineation of the barb, what reader will fail to recognise most of the genu-
ine and well-established characteristics of the high form and breeding so much prized
by all good judges ]
The English Stock, to which a little too much heaviness had already been given
by the dash of German blood, was now approaching that stage which demanded but
one more dip of the long-winded, light-footed, silken-coated Eastern courser, such as
it received some centuries after with such palpable and finishing effect, from the
Darley Arabian; and again from Godolphin, endowing it with both speed and
stoutness in a measure, to which no addition has been made by any subsequent sprin-
kle of exotic blood. When we reach in the progress of these remarks the point where
it will be proper to speak more particularly of this effective agency of these two cele-
brated stallions in elevating the character of the English blood horse, we shall give
some reasons, drawn from the true principles of breeding, and which we do not recol-
lect to have seen anywhere asserted, why it was that they contributed so much to
ihat end, and how it is that similar results have not attended later experiments of the
same kind. In the meantime it is necessary to linger on the way in our review, that
the chain may not be broken which connects the series of particular importations and
other important incidents to which we are indebted for the advantages and delights
that spring from the possession of the existing stock of sure-footed, long-winded
22 THE HORSE.
cattle. With your permission then, kind reader, to use an expression familiar to the
votaries of the chase, let us " try back.''''
While the government of one man would be a dangerous experiment until we can
have " Angels in the shape of men to govern us," yet when the monarch happens to
be enlightened and virtuous, then tlie more absolute his power the belter, perhaps, for
his country Even bad ones, sometimes by freak or passion, confer great good on
particular interests or branches of industry. We have already seen how, under the
reign of William the Conqueror, the munificence of a subject gained him renown as a
patriot by the introduction of Spanish horses into England. Subsequently, King John
with all his bad qualities, established for himself at least one claim to honourable
notoriety, by his various measures to better the strain of horses in use at that time, and
especially by the introduction of the Flanders Horse, to give more weight and sub-
stance to the heavy coach-horse, needed for, and adapted to the unwieldy carriages and
bad roads then in use. " To this monarch too," says an English Avriter, " we are
unquestionably indebted for the foundation of our unrivalled draught horses. Aware
of the superiority in bulk and strength of the Flemish breed, he imported, at one time,
an hundred of the finest stallions." Subsequently, Edward II, imported thirty war,
and tw^elve heavy draught horses, from Lombardy ; and these again were well crossed
at a later period, when Edward III. of warlike temper, brought over Jifly Spanish
horses, at a cost of thirteen pounds six shillings, equivalent, in our day of luxury and
paper money, to $800 each. It is fairly to be presumed, that in his great passion foi
the chase, His Royal Majesty perceived the necessity of giving more speed to the
hunter, by throwing off some of the sluggish blood and massiveness of the Flemish
stock, which is in general " large in the carcass, pretty clean in the leg, and patient
and enduring, but slow-. They are good at a dead pull, but very heavy in the fore-
hand ; inclined to get fat, but wanting in activity. They fall off in the rump, and the
hips stand out too much from the ribs. The most unsightly part is the setting-on of
the tail, which comes out low and points downwards." Such are the general charac-
teristics of the Flemish horse. " Flanders Mare," as every one knows, is a common
tenn to express the opposite of grace and delicacy. They were imported into Eng-
land, as above stated, to give size to coach-horses, when roads were bad and coaches
of enormous weight; but, as cause and effect are connected, and the one infallibly fol-
lows and is controlled by the other, coaches have become lighter, and coach-horses
quicker and more airy, as roads have been improved. The policy of this change from
heavy to lighter horses, however, was again necessarily restrained and limited by the
then still existing necessity for having chargers of great stamina to carrj', besidej
their rider, the heavy armour weighing over three hundred pounds, as did that in com
mon use before the invention of gunpowder !
How often public policy, the exterior relations of a country, and various accident?
and events apparently altogether extrinsic, serve to establish historical facts, and to
influence the courses of national industry, literature, and arts ! Thus, the representa-
tion of a man driving a horse attached to a harrow, woven in a piece of tapestry, is
the evidence relied upon to prove that about contemporaneously with the Norman con-
quest, horses had got to be employed in that sort of labour ; and here again we see, at
a subsequent period, a revolution in the whole system of breeding horses in Britain,
brought about by the invention of gunpoivder ! While in our own day, we have beheld
steam so applied as to drive horse-power from all her great thoroughfares, and to do
in her factories the labour of some millions of men I Truly, these are the days of
progress !
We come now to the period when horses were first distinctly classified and disci
plined expressly for war, and the turf the chase, the road, and the coach ; and here we
may safely leave the subject as far as relates to the introduction of foreign horses into
England, for the most part judicious, and well calculated, as the reader must have per-
ceived, to pave the way for what has since been accomplished in the melioration of
this favourite animal, and in adapting his structure and properties, from time to time,
to his new and more various employments, Some particular enactments, however,
designed to accomplish the same objects, are well worthy of being mentioned ; and, il
might be added, of being imitated — in our own country and time. In the reign of
Henry VIIL, even the size and form of Stallions were prescribed by Statute ; and
THE HORSE. 23
at^vere penalties were inflicted for every deviation from the lawful standard. We havs
often tnought, and elsewhere maintained, that the Legislatures of the several States
would do well to impose a tax on Stallions ; and, moreover, provide that none should
j)e allowed to propagate their race, but under license granted by judges, connoisseurs
of horses, who should have power to condemn the worthless as the Inspector con-
demns a hogsiiead of rotten tobacco ; leaving a tax of fixed amount upon all such as
could pass inspection — or the amount should be light or heavy, in proportion to the
perfection or defectiveness of the animal. All thicli, straight-shouldered, cat-hammed
garrans, and all overgrown beasts " sixteen hands or upwards, under the standard,"
should be condemned to celibacy ! This would go far, in a few years, to diminish
the number of ungainly monsters, to be found at every cross-road, propagating their
own wretched deformities, and vices of shape and temper. That horses do propagate
hysical and moral defects, there can be no doubt — were it not invidious, living exam-
ples might be given of both as to curbs and sulks ! one of which defects may have
endangered, and the other have caused on a recent occasion, the loss of many thou-
sands.
Without having, as we hope, omitted anything material to show the reader how
abundant have been the materials, and how judicious the use of them, to secure the
excellence of the English Horse up to the period at which we have arrived — here we
reach the epoch when we are told that public races were established, and horses that
had given proof of their superior swiftness became known and celebrated throughout
the kingdom. " The breed was cultivated, and their pedigree as well as those of their
posterit)^, (in imitation of the Arabian manner,) was preserved and recorded with
exactness."
Here then, at last, as we contend, in this establishment and patronage of the turf, as
an exact and severe test of equestrian power, and in the iddtMvX preservation of pedi-
grees, we discover at once the source and the guarantee for preserving all that is
excellent in this noble animal, distinguished as we have said, in his rare combination
of strength, swiftness, beauty, lastingness, docility, and courage. The prescription
of weight to age — the measurement of the track, and the opening of the Stud-book,
have done for English horses, wiiat Magna Charta did for English-men !
As with man, " 'tis liberty alone that gives to life its lustre and perfume," so there
would seem to be something in his aristocratic blood, that inspires the thorough-bred
courser with an indomitable pride and courage. To look at is but to admire him as
he walks, " rejoicing in his strength !" but both man and horse will degenerate in
character and value when in their government there is provided no test for their
capacity — no stimulus to virtue — no reward for their ambition, nor restraint tipon its
vicious indulgence !
Nothing is easier than to declaim against the turf, on account of the abuse which
too often attends the use of that, and other institutions. We might consent to its
abatement or suppression, if those who desire it will tell us how, except by its
exciting hazards and hopes, and its infallible test as a measure of equestrian power,
men can be prevailed upon to breed systematically, to acquire skill in training, and
to encounter the expense and trouble of carefully testing the capacities of horses ; —
dooming the most worthless to the plough, and sending, finally, the very best only into
the breeding stud, to perpetuate their fine qualities ! How, except by thus ascertain-
ing and breeding from the most perfect, can he be kept up to the standard he has
reached, and finally, how but by such authentic annals, and proofs to refer to, can
even the practical farmer employ any given degree of the pure blood, some of which
all admit to be advantageous and desirable for every service, even the most humble
and laborious to which the Horse can be subjected ■? In respect of the reliance to be
placed on the English Stud-Book for pedigrees, and the good effects of sprinkling the
horse (f all work ivith more or less of the warm blood of the Easier?! Courser, we covet
for our owni conviction no better support or authority than the views adopted and
sanctioned by B. O. Tavloe, Esq. of Washington, a gentleman and scholar, who has
done more than any writer of whom we have any knowledge, to throw light upon tlie
obscure but interesting annals of the American turf, consisting until then of a con-
fused mas? of scattered materials — rudis indigesta quo moles — arranging them in
24 THE HORSE.
chronolotrical order, and imparting to them all the perspicuity and weight of digested
and authentic history.
"Additional attention was given to blood during the reigns of Elizabeth and
James. The latter had his running horses, and with great judgment, imported froia
Arabia. A south-eastern horse was brouglit into England and purchased by James
of Mr. Place, who was afterwards Stud-master to Oliver Cromwell. This beautiful
animal was called Place's White Turk. Shortly after appeared the Helmsly Turk,
imported by the Duke of Buckingham. Charles I. ardently pursued the amusements
of the turf, now a favourite diversion with English gentlemen. With but few ex
coptions, the oldest English pedigrees end in Place's White Turk. At the Restoration
a new impulse was given to breeding and running fine horses. The system of
improvement was thenceforth zealously pursued. Every variety of Eastern blood
was engrafted upon the English; and the superiority of the produce, above the very
best of the original stock, began to be evident. Their beauty of form, speed, and stout-
ness, greatly surpassed the original breed. In the latter part of Queen Anne's reign
there was still further improvement caused by the introduction of the Darby Jrabtun.
Having to contend with prejudice, it was some time before he attracted notice. From
him sprung a strain of unequalled beauty, speed, and strength. The Darby Arabian
has been properly termed the parent of the racing stock. The present English
thorough-bred horse is of foreign extraction, improved and perfected by the influence
of climate and diligent cultivation.
" The pedigree of English Eclipse affords a singular illustration of the descent from
pure Eastern blood, both of himself and his ancestors, Marske, Regulus, Squirt, and
Childers. Tlie strictest attention has been paid to pedigree. In the descent of
almost every modern racer, not the slightest flaw can be discovered ; or Avhen, with
the splendid exceptions of Sampson, and his son Bay Mahon, one common drop has
mingled in the pure stream, it has been speedily detected in the degeneracy cf their
progeny. The Stud-Book, which is authority acknowledged by every English breeder,
traces all the old pedigrees to some Eastern courser, or until they are lost in the
uncertainty of early breeding.
" The thorough-bred horse enters into every other breed, and adds or often gives to
it its only value. For a superior charger, hunter, or saddle-horse, three parts, or one-
half should be of pure blood ; but for the horse of all work, less will answer. The
Toad-horse, according to the work required of him, should, like the hunter, possess
different degrees of blood. The best kind of coach-horse is derived from mares of
some blood, crossed with a three-fourth or thorough-bred stallion of sufficient size
and substance. Even the dray-horse, and every other class of horse, is improved by
a partial mixture of the thorough-bred."
The late John Randolph, a connoisseur as well as an amateur in all such matters,
used to say, that the long, slouching walk of the blood horse would tell, even in the
plough, in a hot summer's day.
A retrospective glance at the low condition of the turf, and of the blood horse in
this country, at the date of the establishment of the American Turf Register and
Sporting Magazine, by Mr. Skinner, at Baltimore, in 1829, will show how the influ-
ence of that official record of blood and of performance, revived this ancient amuse-
ment, and, as if by magic, retrieved and brought into demand again, the still pure but
long-neglected descendants of illustrious ancestors. Pedigrees were thenceforth
strictly scrutinized, the grain was winnowed from the chaff"; and while some bastards,
ehiiming high family pretensions, were exposed and repudiated, the rust which, through
time and carelessness, had accumulated on the bright escutcheon of the real Simon
Pure, was brushed away, and the mark of legitimacy indelibly stamped upon his
brow.
Prior to the establishment of the Turf Register, the dam of Kate Kearney and of
Sussex, two among the best nags ever bred in the Old Dominion, was sold "at public
auction, for thiiteen pounds, tobacco currency, and Avas afterwards bought o>it of a
cart for 850, by Col. J. M. Selden, a fair specimen, himself, of the good old Virginia
stock ; without, at tlie time, it is true, a knowledge of her pedigree. She Avas used as
a common farm hack, in the heaviest and hardest work, g-oing in the waoron and
breaking up heavy James' River bottom-lands in the plough ; and, as Cof. S. has
THE HORSE. 25
assured us, was the only horse on the estate, whereof there were many much larger,
that never lost a day's work, or required to be turned out and rested occasionally, frora
sickness or exliaustion. Being informed of her blood, she was rescued from the? a
"ba&e uses" and sent to Sir Archy, by whom she produced Kate Kearney, and to Sir
Charles, and produced the renowned, but ill-fated Sussex, sire of Lady Clifden. La iy
Lio-htfoot went out of a commoaliver)--stable at S500; and old Eclipse, not long hehie
his race with Sir Charles, was offered to the writer of these remarks for 82,500. At
an advanced age he sold for §10,000, and is now, at twenty-seven years old. in vigor-
ous health, covering in Kentucky at §100. One of his get by Lady Lightfoot was
sold to agentleman of Pennsylvania for 810,000, and that only on condition, as it was
rumoured, that the buyer would reciprocate the favour, by letting the gallant owner
of him have one hundred bottles of his old Bingham wine, for ten times that number
of dollars.
Sir Archy was in a great measure indebted to his fame, if not to his great value as a
stallion, during his declining years, to the establishment of the Turf Register, in which
were heralded the brilliant achievements of his renowned get and their descendants. He
had been made but a mere addition in the exchange, for but so-so high-bred cattle, by
his breeder, the late Col. John Tayloe, of Mount Airy ; and thus passed into the hands
of his nephew, the late Ralph Wormley, Esq., of Rosegill, at whose death, shortly
thereafter, he was purchased in his three year old form, after being beaten, by our re-
nowned turfman, W. R. J., Esq., of Chesterfield, Virginia, who soon placed him at the
head of the turf, with the reputation of being as good a four-miler as had ever run in Ame-
rica. Such fame soon supplied his Harem — and at once he acquired a higher name in the
Stud than any stallion that had ever been in our country ; and now, thanks to the Regis-
ter, is very generally regarded as ourGodolphin Arabian — the ancestor of Boston, and
Fashion, and Wagner, and Grey Eagle, and J. Bascom, and Postboy, and Mingo, and
Lady Clifden, and Fanny, and Sarah^Washington, and Grey INIedoc, and Jim Bell, &c.
It would here be unjust, not to say ungrateful, in one who has so often been the hon-
oured medium of his favours in that way, not to make acknowledgments to the truly vene-
rable Judge G. Duvall, for the light shed by him on the earlier annals of the American
Turf. So wonderful is his memory, that he can place each horse as he saw them
come out in remarkable races befure the revolution ! How gratifying to his friends to
behold this old ^laryland-born advocate of our revolutionary claims ; compatriot of
Washington, and Tilghman, and Howard ; asserter of all we have achieved that is
good in political — examplar of all that is commendable in private morals ; approaching
his centenary, and yet erect in port and in spirit, like one of our majestic old poplars,
sparsely surviving the ravages of the axe and the peltings of the pitiless storm — memo-
rials of the virgin soil and better days in which its roots were struck.
When we insist that the great objects to be aimed at, action and power of endurance,
are onl}^ to be secured with certaintj-, by exact trials of speed and the preservation of
authentic pedigrees, we may perhaps be met by the suggestion that this theory is at
war with all observation as to the effect of indiscriminate intercourse among wild
horses, which are said to display high powers and excellence, not only on the plains
and pampas of North and South America, but yet more in the deserts of Arabia, where
this animal is generally supposed to be found in his highest finish. As to the fine
specimens of their race, which are taken with the lasso, from immense herds roaming
at large on the plains of this continent, it is to be borne in mind, that while none but
the best are thus selected, the basis of these herds was originally brought, like that of
the fine cattle of Louisiana, from old Spain ; being deeply imbued with the fine blood of
the Andalusian or Barb Horse. That such a race, running at large, in a country
highly adapted to its constitution, should not have degenerated and become worthless
inlform and spirit, is not so discordant with the principles of artistical breeding, for
which we contend, as may at first si^ht appear — for it is well known that in these wild
herds, the work of procreation is conceded not indiscriminately to all, but is fought for
and engrossed by the most spirited and vigorous stallions among them ; following, in
this case, the laws that govern all animated nati;re, where might takes the place of
right, and courage and strength, there, as elsewhere, usurp the Lion's share — hence,
through in general the size, too often made a matter of primary consideration, may be
below the medium standard of the domesticated Horse, the more estimable qualities
3 D
26 THE HORSE.
of fine proportion, activity, and game of the sire, are transmitted to his get. It may
well be supposed, too, that this monopoly of sexual enjoyment is rarely allowed to
continue more than one or two years. As the season of love opens with the budding
of the leaf, in the genial warmth of spring weather, this envied privilege becomes
again a prize for the most desperate rivalry ; the fiercest conflicts, often mortal, then
ensue ; and the delights of the harem are at last yielded for a time to the victor who
Droves himself the possessor, in a superior degree, of the very qualities — strength,
spirit, and activity — which, under the hest management, we should desire to impart!
I'his sufficiently accounts, as we apprehend, for such excellence in several points, as
is admitted to be often found in the horse of the desert and the pampas; pre-
serving him from that degeneracy, both moral and physical, which, under the system
of breeding " in-and-in'''' too closely, is seen to show itself in monstrous shapes, in
King's evil, sometimes in idiotcy. Lord Byron, himself a nobleman, and unfortunately
not exempt from personal deformity, could not forbear sarcastic allusion to the effects
of this in-and-in system, which, prompted by reasons of state and of family aggrandize-
ment, is sometimes followed too far in the royal and noble families of Europe :
" they breed in-and-in, as might be known ;
Marrying their cousins, nay, their aunts and nieces,
Which always spoils the breed, if it increases."
The natural-born children of high-born sires are often observed to be more
sprightly and energetic than those which spring lawfully from parents so nearly allied ;
it may be because they are made like the Frenchman's incomparable shoe, in a " mo-
ment of enthusiasm," which, in more enterprises than one, is the guarantee of a for-
tunate issue.
There has been, since long before the American Revolution, on the islands along
the sea-board of Maryland and Virginia, a race of very small, compact, hardy horses,
usually called beach-horses, which, in a sketch like this, deserve a passing notice.
They run wild throughout the year, and are never fed. When the snow sometimes
covers the ground for a few days in winter, they dig through it in search of food.
They are very diminutive, but many of them are of perfect symmetry and extraordinary
powers of action and endurance. The Hon. H. A. W. of Accomac, has been heard to
say that he knew one of these beach-horses, which served as pony and hack for the boys
of one family, for several generations; and another that could trot his 15 miles within
the hour, and was yet so small that a tall man might straddle him, and with his toes
touch the ground on each side. He spoke of another that he believes could have trotted
30 miles in two hours. As an instance of their innate horror of slaveiy, he mentions the
fact of a herd of them once breaking indignantly from a pen into which they had been
trapped, for the purpose of being marked and otherwise cruelly mutilated ; and rather
than submit to their pursuers, they swam off at once into the wide expanse of the ocean,
preferring a watery grave, to a. life of ignominious celibacy and subjugation! Why
might not one of these small but symmetrical stallions, on the principles which we shall
hereafter explain, beget superior stock, if put to large, well-formed, high-bred mares ?
Mr. W. is clearly of opinion, from all circumstances and appearances, that these small
horses, smaller even than the Canada Stallion, possessing such powers as he
describes, are descendants of thorough-bred stock ! Other animals in a wild state, no
less than the Horse, are doubtless preserved from degeneracy under the same con-
servative polity of nature. Thus we see the graceful stag loses in the wilderness
none of his exquisite symmetry of fonn, delicacy and hardness of bone, and matchless
swiftness of foot. When Autumn is first seen to put on the " sere and yellow leaf,"
the Doe, having then performed her maternal ofhce, feels the sexual passion revive in hei
bosom ; but its indulgence is postjioned, until the rival bucks have settled again foi
the season, the question of physical superiority by actual, sometimes deadly combat
So desperate are these encounters, that Stags have not unfrequently been found dead,
as related by that scientific officer. Col. Long, upon his own observation, with their
antlers inextricably interlocked, presenting striking and melancholy pictures of the
universal passion " strong in death." A large pair of antlers thus entangled were
found, in & western wilderness, and sent to Nicholas Biddle, Esq., and may be seen
over the door of his studio at Andalusia, overgrown with ivy. The same reason-
THE HORSE. 27
iug accounts for the great size and beauty observable in cattle that roam at large, in
South America, as indicated b\ the hides we often see on the wharves in our large
seaports — though at other times the males mingle in all kindness and social harmony,
yet in these atiairs of love, still more than in trade, all nature proclaims there is " no
friendship." How much of truth to nature, in the chaste and pious Thomson's
description of the effect of this vernal influence on the temper of the Bull!
" Through all his lusty veins
The bull, deep-scorch'd, the racing passion feels
Of pasture sick, and negligent ot food :
Scarce seen, he wades among the yellow broom,
While o'er his ample side, the rambling sprays
Luxuriant shoot ; and through the mazy wood
Dejected wanders, nor the enticing bud
Crops, though it presses on his careless sense.
And oft in jealous maddening fancy wrapt
He seeks the fight, and idly butting feigns
His rival gored in every knotty trunk."
In these cases, where nature is left without disturbance to preserve herself from
decay. Providence, which never works in vain, will take care that all goes right ; —
but how different the result when animals tamed and domesticated by the cunning of
man, are brought together for reproduction, arbitrarily, and, as is generally done in
our countrv, perhaps above all others, in utter disregard of everj-thing like rule or
svstem. and in total ignorance or carelessness of their respective points and qualities,
as well as of their adaptation or relationship, the one to the other ! With this igno-
rance and carelessness almost universal, there is constant danger, as we have before
stated, of several deterioration ; and in introducing a work intended to promote the
health and" improvement of this animal, it cannot be too strongly urged that this ever-
existing tendency is only to be counteracted by presenting those strong incentives
which alone can prompt a few to devote the time and the skill which are indispensa-
ble to maintain the blood horse, sam tache, and in the highest perfection. Nothing
can more clearly show the wise and benevolent order of Providence that man should
exercise his superior intellect for the improvement of all around him, than the ease
and certainty with which it is seen that, by close attention, we can modify and
meliorate all organized existences in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Hence
the most acid and worthless grape is by skilful culture rendered sweet and luscious ;
flowers without attraction are gradually nurtured into beautj' and fragrance; the
cat may be made to present all the rich colours of tortoise-shell, and the pigeon
may be "bred to a feather." These remarks might appear foreign or super-
fluous, but for their obvious design to enforce the necessity of breeding the horse
with incessant regard to an ever-existing susceptibility of improvement on the
one hand, and liability to degenerate on the other. Without some such strong
incentives as above referred to, in a few years, one might as well look among
the black Dutch for a dancing-master, as to look anywhere for breeding horses
that will insure speed, and stoutness, and spirit.
In regard to the prevalent impression that the Arabian horse runs wild in the desert,
breedinsr promiscuously, and that where he has been domesticated, no attention is paid
to pedigree, and no recourse had to racing to test their powers, — all account.s go to show,
on the contrary, that no people preserve their equestrianyi/w/Vy treeji with more sedulous
care. To reach the root of some, they go down many centuries. Although, according to
Strabo. an historian of hi^h repute, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius,
much about the era of Christ's appearance, Arabia was still without horses ; yet it is
undoubtedly a fact that they soon took the most effectual methods to improve them to
the utmost, and among these, says a very learned commentator on the Mosaic Code,
*• I am inclined to consider the spirit of horse-racinsr, an exercise in which the Arabs
eagerly sought for renown, as the primary cause of that perfection which the art of
horse-breedingf so rapidly attained among them ; but I by no means exchule soil and
climat'^ and food, as contributing causes." — "Wherever, (says the same wnter,)
racing is established either as a source of fame or profit, good horses will be sought
for, and thf breed improved in the first instance by the best foreign stallions, and then
28 THE HORSE.
oy those home-bred ones which show the best qualities ; and tlius the country will
by dejrrees acquire an excellent breed."
"That races (says he,) were introduced among the Arabs, very soon after they
began to breed horses, appears from the very names of the coursers. Ten horses
started together, and from the victor to the last, each has its own proper name or
epithet ; — one of their best scholiasts enumerates them in the following manner as
they came out in the race : —
Sahek, the foremost — the inspirer of joy and banisher of care— because his
aster can behold the race with delight, and without concern, ....... 1
Mutgalli — because he had his head on the back of the winner, 2
Muisalli — because he satisfies his owner, 3
Tali — the pursuer, 4
Murlach — the ardent, or mettlesome, 5
Aiif — the keen, or well disposed, 6
Muvaimnal — the inspirer of future hopes, 7
Hadi — the lazy, 8
Latini — the belaboured, because taken into the stable with blows, .... 9
Lucait — or whose name is not to be named, and of whom nothing is said,
because the case is too bad, 10
The admitted excellence to which the general stock of English horses has been
brought, is then the result, as has been seen, of a good foundation to build upon; of
successive and in most cases judicious crosses, by the use of foreign stallions, most
frequently Barbs ; and of superal)undant wealth employed in the breeding and train-
ing of stud ; those addicted to all the luxurious uses of the horse, having besides
other facilities a wide latitude before them, in the various strains to select and breed
from.
The reason why the Darley Arabian, and after him the celebrated Barb, Godolphin,
contributed more decidedly than any Arabians have done since, to the improvemen.
of the race-horse, is, that they were imported at the very juncture when the British
stock was in a condition to need a cross that would impart more muscle and harder
bone, and give better wind ; while it diminished the size and weight of the carcass,
which had been made too heavy by repeated uses of the Flemish and German breed.
In our own country we know, and probably in all others, the progress of improve-
ment of domestic animals has been much retarded and counteracted, by the vulgar
persuasion that the largest males should be selected for the purpose of procreation. —
Tlian this common impression no error could be more pernicious. This fallacy is
the source of the disappointment and mortification experienced by fanners who give
enormous prices for overgrown bulls and rams, and who always give the preference
to stallions that measure "full sixteen hands and upwards under the standard." — On
this point we cannot do better than refer to an able essay of Professor Cline of Lon-
don, on the form of animals, published in the third volume of the American Farmer.
With the principles laid down in that essay, every farmer should make himself
lamiliar. A few passages may be quoted, no less for their appositeness to the point
here made, than for their general applicability and value in the study of all animal
economy.
" Muscles. — The muscles, and tendons which are their appendages, should be large ;
by which an animal is enabled to travel with greater facility.
" The bones. — The strength of an animal does not depend on the size of the bones
but on that of the muscles. — Many animals with large bones are weak, their muscles
being small. Animals that were imperfectly nourished during growth, have their bones
disproportionably large. If such deficiency of nourishment originated from a consti-
tutional defect, which is the most frequent cause, they remain weak during life
Large bones therefore generally indicate an imperfection in the organs of nulritfon.
" On the improvement of lite form. — When the male is much larger than the female,
the offspring is generally of an imperfect form. If the female be proportionably larger,
the offspring is of an improved form. — For instance, if a well-formed large ram be
put to ewes proportionably smaller, the lambs will not be so well shaped as theii
THE HORSE. 29
parents ; but if a small ram be put to larger ewes, the lambs will be of an unproved
form.
'» The proper method of improving the form of animals consists in selectinor a well
formed female, proportionably larger than the male. The improvement depends on
this principle ; that the power of the female to supply her oflspring with nourishment
is in proportion to her size, and to the power of nourishing herself from the excellence
of her own constitution.
•' The size of the foetus is generally in proportion to that of the male parent, and
therefore when the female parent is disproportionately small, the quantity of nourish-
ment is deficient, and her otfspring has all the disproportions of a stars-eling. But
when the female from her size and good constitution is more than adequate to the
nourishment of a fcetus of a smaller male than herself, the growth must be propor-
tionably greater. The large female has also a greater quantity of milk, and hei
oitspring is more than abundantly supplied with nourishment after birth.
•• To produce the most perfect formed animal, abundant nourishment is necessary
from the earliest period of its existence until its growth is complete.
" The power to prepare the greatest quantity of nourishment from a given quantity
of food depends principally upon the magnitude of the lungs, to which the organs of
digestion are subservient.
'• To obtain animals with large lungs, crossing is the most expeditious method,
l)ecause well formed females may be selected from a variety of large size to be put to
a well-formed male of a variety that is rather smaller.
" Examples of the good effects i>f crossing the breeds. — The great improvement of the
breed of horses in England arose from crossing with those diminutive Stallions, Barbs,
and Arabians ; and the introduction of Flanders mares into this country was the
source of improvement in the breed of cart-horses.
" Examples of the bad effects of crossing the breed. — When it became the fashion in
London to drive large bay horses, the farmers in Yorkshire put their mares to much
larger stallions than usual, and thus did infinite mischief to their breed, by producing
a race of small-chested, long-legged, large-boned, worthless animals."
Such, we believe, was the ill effect of the cross by a large " Cleveland bay" stal-
lion, imported and sent to Carroll's Manor in Frederick Coimty, Maryland, some
years since, by the late Robert Patterson. His younger brother, George, a gentleman
of fortune by inheritance, but a farmer by choice, and of uncommon sagacitj' and
judgment, would have foreseen the result of such a cross. Nowhere so systematically
as on his estate, have we ever seen so fully carried out and completely illustrated,
diis important principle in breeding as already quoted from Professor Cline, that " to
produce the most perfect formed animal, abundant nourishment is necessarj^ from the
earliest period of its existence until its orowth is complete." So thoroughly is ]\Ir.
P. impressed too with the expediency of getting as much blood as j'ou can into the
horse of all work, consistently with the weight which is indispensable for slow and
neavy draught, that he seeks to have as much of it as can be thrown into his plough
and tua^on horses. Were the question doubtful, the argument must preponderate
which is supported by the practice of an agriculturist, rare in all countries, who is
ready with his reason for everything he does, and "no mistake at that."
Enough, it is believed, has already been said to show how exactly opportune was
the cross of the Arabian and the Barb, on the English stock; nor does it require any
further reasoning to sustain the position before laid down, that these males of exquisite
form, but proportionably smaller than the females of their da}- in England, having
accomplished their purposes by enlarging the lungs and improving the conformation
of their progfenv, giving more muscle and less bone ; the same stallions, could they
rise, pha?nix-like "from their ashes, could probably not now be employed with the
s'zme beneficial effects.
A review- of his most distinguished perfonnances, leads us to think that in culti-
vatingr the powers of the horse, the ne plus ultra of success was reached in the daya
of Flying Childers, in the beginning of the last century, and was sustained with
unfailing excellence to the time of Highflyer in 1774 (perhaps we might say ta
tlie present dav M — a period embracing, consecutively, the wonderful performance*
30 THE HORSE.
and progeny of others besides Matchem, Marsk, the sire of Shark (who won in
matclios°upwards of $80,000), Mirza, Bay Malton (who in seven matclies won
^30,000), King Herod, whose get in nineteen years won more than a million of
dollars ; Shark" liiniself, afterwards imported to the U. States, who, besides a fup
of the value of one hundred and twenty guineas, and eleven hogsheads of claret,
won the vast amount of $77,000. Eclipse is said to have nin the four miles at York
in 1770, in eight minutes, carrying one himdred and sixty-eight pounds, being forty-
two pounds over the standard weight — making the result equal to four miles in 6 m.
27s. If, according to the opinion of experienced sportsmen, the correctness of which
is questionable, seven pounds weight be equal to a distance of two himdred and forty
yards in a four-mile race ; and giving him a right to dispute the palm of superiority
with Flying Childers himself.
It is to be remembered that neither of these two paragons of the English Turf, aa
they are generally esteemed, were trained before they were five years old. Some
assuming as a fact, what we consider problematical — a falling off, in stoutness, of
the English racer, since the days of Highflyer, — have ascribed it to the modern prac-
tice of bringing horses forward too young; but it must not be forgotten that High-
flyer himself, who won and received little less than $50,000, and who was never
beaten, nor ever paid forfeit, came on the turf in his three year old form, carrying
one hundred and twelve pounds, and ran his last race on the 14th of September, 1779,
when, though lame and out of condition, he won easy, and retired to the breeding
stud at five years old! But may we not with more reason, attribute the reality, or
the assumption, as it may be, of less bottom, or to speak more distinctly, less capacity
to carry weight and repeat long distances, in the modern English courser, rather to
the modern fashion of training for short racing, and to their reliance on the foot of
the horse, and the skill of the rider to bring him out in a brush at the run home, than
to any real degeneracy of the stock ] On these points we find some observations in
a journal which well sustains the title of " The Spirit of the Times." The remarks
by the Editor are regarded by us as of such high authority, and so apposite, that we
cannot forbear giving them a place."
" The superiority of the English horses over the American, as regards speed, is
almost universally allowed by those American turf-men and amateurs who have
witnessed their performances at home. We might name Captain Stockton, Major
Davie, Judge Porter, Mr. Corbin, Mr. Neil, the late Mr. Golden, Mr. Kirkman,
and many other gentlemen with whom we have conversed upon the subject. The
farle of the English horse of the present day is speed, beyond a doubt ; and while
Americans give up the point, as to short distances, they think our /M/r-mile horses
can beat the English in races of heats at that distance. There is no encouragement
offered to the English turf-man to breed a four-mile horse, save here and there a plate
of 100 guineas value; all, or nearly all the valuable prizes are offered for two and
three year olds, so that the object of the breeder is to bring out a colt in the fall of his
two year old form, having such strength and substance as shall enable him to take
up heavy weights, and go from half to three-quarters of a mile at a flight of speed.
As colts that have won frequently, beating good fields, as three year olds, are subse-
quently very heavily handicapped so as to place them upon an equality wdth indiffer-
ent performers, they almost invariably give way in competing for the valuable ])ublic
prizes offered, such as the cups at Goodwood, Liverpool, Ascot, &c. .-2 very Jinc four-
mile horse in England tvviild not command one-quarter of the price which could he
obtained fir a tried two year old. He would soon be broken down by having twenty
or thirty poimds extra clapped upon his back, to place him on a level with an uritried
three year old carrying a feather."
"Investigator," who we cannot doubt is Mr. B. 0- T. of Washington, explains
conclusively, to our minds, "the yet unexplained difference between the time of thfe
racing in the two countries," when he attributes it, in a great measure, to the shape
and soil of the English courses, &c., emphatically called the turf.
In confirmation of this opinion of the effects of soil, it may be mentioned that a
gentleman amateur has just remarked to us, that when Miss Foote lately won a four
mile heat on the Melaric Gourse, New Orleans, in 7m. 35s., the shortest time in
America until now beaten by Fashion antt Boston on Long Island, the course was
THE HORSE. 31
quite elastic, and that though the surface was dry, water might have been found
within a few feet, if not inches, anywhere below it.
We apprehend, however, that these " verj- fine four-mile King's plate horses" are
exactly such as ought to have been selected for importation to this couKtrjs instead
of the fashionable stock, bred to speed, under the influences before mentioned.
The question has been raised, and may well be entertained without implying any
narrow or nnbecoming feeling of national jealousy; — whether the turf-horse of Eng-
lish stock does not degenerate in .imerica ? Referring to the controling influences of
cUmate, soil, and food, there is certainly no reason to infer that he should ; but, from
the very nature of these, quite the contrary ; and why may we not believe that there
is in nature, a power which will coerce animal, as we know it will vegetable produc-
tions, to forego their original peculiarities, and partially conform themselves, in pro-
cess of time, to the more immutable laws of soil and climate ! We recollect to have
heard ^Ir. Jeflerson, in proof of the influence of soil over vegetables, state, that he
knew a French gentleman, on his inheritance of a famous and very profitable wine
estate, impair at once the quality of the wine, and his own income, materially, by
employing some crude and unsuitable manure to fertilize his vineyard. The vines
bore more abundantly, but the wine lost its flavour, and the vineyard its wonted
repute. So it is with other vegetables. The celebrated white wheat will change
from white to red, on being transplanted into any other from its natale solum — the
eastern shore of Marj'land and Virginia ; and the celebrated Havana tobacco, with change
of soil and climate, loses both its fine texture and rich fragrance. Thus, without any
violence of presumption, we may assert the influence of both soil and climate on the
constitution and temper of the horse. How long would the satin-coated, thin-skinned,
flint-footed, hard-boned, muscular and proud-spirited Arabian, accustomed to a short
bite, and delighting in a hot sun, retain, after being transferred to the rich and suc-
culent pastures of the " low countries," the high and peculiar characteristics which
have given him pre-eminence over all the families of his racel
Exposed in rigorous climates, the horse could not long survive in a state of nature,
but when protected and well supplied with food, it is difficult to determine how far
towards the pole he might be sustained ; and we may here quote from good authority,
" That this animal existed before the flood, the researches of geologists afford
abundant proof. There is not a portion of Europe, nor scarcely any part of the
globe, from the tropical plains of India, to the frozen regions of Siberia — from the
northern extremities of the new world to the very southern point of America, in
which the fossil remains of the Horse have not been found mingled with the
bones of the Hippopotamus, the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Bear, the Tiger, the
Deer, and various other animals, some of which, like the IMastodon, have passed
away." ^
In point of fact, however, every other circumstance being nearly similar, the Horse
thrives best in countries within or near the torrid zone. In the mild climates of
Northwestern Europe, this noble animal reaches a high development. The wild
horse of this continent, brought from Texas, or the more remote provincial infernos,
and tamed, we have been told, though in general unsightly when compared to the
high-bred horse of the United States, is greatl)^ superior in hardiness and ease of
support. We may further sustain these reflections on the influence of climate, with
the opinion of a gentleman of great observation and knowledge of geography and
natural history, Mr. Darby, who thinks that " in the zone of North America, com-
prising Western Louisiana, Texas, &c., to the Gulf of California, this most splendid
auxiliary of man, with anything like equal care and skill, will reach his utmost devel-
opment of form, strength, beauty, and aflTectionate docilitj'."
In additional support of our hypothesis, that climate and food have their influence
on the form and character of animals, and that these influences in England are less
auspicious to high perfection of the Horse than the warmer and dryer climates of the
United States, we may adduce the remarks of English writers of authoritj'. The
effect indeed of climate and soil on wool-bearing animals is asserted by all natural-
ists. Ikkewell, who bestowed particular attention on the subject, contends that the
softrt^i^f wool depends chiefly on the soil on which the sheep are fed. Professor
Cline. Vfcese. able disquisition we have already freely quoted, says "the pliancy
32 THE HORSE.
of the animal economy is such as that an animal will gradually accommodate itself to
great vicissitudes in climate and alterations in food, and by degrees undergo grea
changes in constitution. The size of animals is commonly adapted to the soil which
they inhabit. Where produce is nutritive and abundant, the animals are large, having
grown proportionably to the quantity of food which for generations they have been
accustomed to obtain." To these respectable authors it will be sufficient to add tlie
observations of Captain Thomas Brown, in his Biographical Sketches of the Horse,
that " the degenerating effects of a British atmosphere and pasturage, can only be suc-
cessfully combated, by the occasional introduction of Asiatic blood. A permanently
excellent breed can never be expected in this climate ,•" except, we would add, as haa
been well and truly said of Liberty itself, by eternal vigilance.
On the soundness of these views, may not the opinion safely rest, that on this con-
tinent the Horse ought to reach and retain powers at least equal to any he has ever
attained in England ] And were truth to compel the admission, which is by no means
certain, of any^deficiency or falling off, might it not be fairly ascribed to the w-ant, in
this country, of the vast means and the leisure, the science and the skill, which
English Aristocracy can command and afford to bestow on the turf, and all the appoint
ments and accommodations, requisite for the pursuit and enjoyment of that and othei
field sports ; all of which create wide and constant demand, at high prices, for honest
and stout na^s, that can go both the pace and the distance ] If money " makes the
mare go," so will it the horse, and by its agency, what may not be achieved in a
country where a nobleman finds amusement in spending, like the Duke of Richmond,
at Goodwood, ff/y thousand dollars on his dog kennel? If the superiority claimed by
some for English over American horses, cannot be the fruit of climate, neither can it be
ascriljed to any want on our part of their best blood. Our importations go back more
than a century. On this point we are glad again to borrow and adopt the views of that
accomplished amateur, Mr. B. O. Tayloe, of Washington, by whom the public has
been well reminded that " at a very early period of its Colonial Government, fine
horses were introduced into Virginia — encouragement was given by Legislative
enactments, and speed was particularly attended to — Bull-Rock, a famed son of the
Darby Arabian, and wholly of Eastern blood, was imported as far back as 1730, the
year that the Godolphin Arabian (Barb), w^as introduced into England ; and many
other English horses and mares were imported, long before any Stud-Book appeared
in England." Before and soon after the Revolutionary W^ar, and again, since the
establishment of the American Turf Register, the importations into New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, have embraced many
of the most distinguished families that have adorned the English Turf; bringing
streams pure and copious, from tlie great fountains oi Matchem and Eclipse, with an
ample infusion from the loins oi Herod himself; in whose stock, above all, is united
" the two essential qualities of speed and bottom." To go more into detail in proof
of our abundant resources, if well husbanded, for sustaining a stock of horses equal ir
all desirable points, and for all manner of work, to that which any other country can
exhibit, would here be out of place — else it would be easy to present a list not much
short of three hundred imported horses, among the very best which in their day
could be found in the " fiist-anchored isle," beginning, as before stated, near half
a century before the American Revolution.
Let it suffice to name a few, such, for example, as Shark, at the close of the last
century, and shortly thereafter those Derby winners, Saltram, (one of the best sons
of the famed Eclipse,) Diomed, Spread-Eagle, and Sir Harry; the equally famed
race-horses Gabriel, Buzzard, Eagle, and Chance; and latterly the renowned winners
of the Derby — Priam, St. Giles, and some others — and of the St. Leger, Rowton,
Margrave, and Barefoot, that with their close competitors, also imported to this
country, Sarpedon,Caetus, Trustee, and Emancipation; together with Glencoe, Rid-
dleworth, and Leviathan; Chateau-Margaux, and perhaps some others, were race-
horses of the very highest repute in their day, in England.
Soon after the last revival of the turf in America, and before tlfere was time to witness
its effects on our existing stock, it was deemed expedient to import again, at very great
cost, some of the most fashionable horses of the "old country," with a view to the re-
generation, as it was supposed, of our native stock, but it is questionable how far it was
THE HORSE. 3
needed ; for, as very recently observed in the " Spirit of the Times," — " Notwitl.
standing- the immense chance they have had, (having generally had the choice of
the finest mares,) but seven of them have a winner at four-mile heats last year, while
thirteen of native stallions have winners that won thirty-two races." — True, the
winner of the race nf races, Fashion, is by imported Trustee ; but how much of her
sintifness may not have come down to her from her grand-dam, 0/d Reality, of Medley
blood — a blood illustrated in so many fields in confests of four-mile heats? Witness
the extraordinarj' achievements of his g. g. g. son, (through Duroc, Amanda, and
Grey Diomed, son of Medley) American Eclipse in 1823, three heats of four miles, in
23m. 50s., and his competitor Henry, tracing to Medley through liis grand-dam by
Bellair, son of Medley. Sir Hal, at Broad Rock, winning the four mile day fron:
Cup Bearer, in one heat, 7m. 40s. — Cup Bearer breaking down. Oscar, near Balti-
more, in 180G, beating First Consul in 7m. 40s. — each "winning horse, as well as
Cup Bearer, partaking largely of the jMedley blood, though no two were by the same
horse. It is also worthy of remark as warranting the assumption that Fashion owes
her vast powers as much to the old English imported Medley blood, Americanized,
as to her recently imported sire, that two days after her immortal victor}-, her half-
brother — grandson of Old Reality, and by Shark, a son of American Eclipse, in a
second heat drove the unrivalled son of Timoleon to the winning post in 7m. 46s.,
running the next heat and ending aydoubtful contest in 7m. 5S^s.
As already stated, the object in thus dwelling on the wonderful capabilities of the
bred horse, and of endeavouring to show that with proper inducements and precau-
tion to measure his foot and to gauge his bottom, and to record faithfully his
genealogy and performances, there need not be, as there has not been any general
decay — and in insisting that without a portion of his blood we can reckon on no
general or permanent supply of good nags for saddle or harness, is to impress upon
American husbandmen generally, the absolute necessity of keeping these ulterior but
important objects always in view. Those who are opposed to all field sports, on
account of the dissipation and ^ice with which some of them are too often accom-
Eanied, might yet learn to tolerate what they cannot enjoy. The whole business of
fe is mixed with good and evil, and full of compromises. — Shall we forego the use
of gunpowder, because that '■ villanous compound" sometimes charges the pistol of
the duellist ; or throw up altogether the use of steam, because human life is occasion-
ally sacrificed by the careless use of it 1
But it is not only as a question of individual comfort, or of agricultural resource,
that this subject is to be looked at. It is worthy, too, of the serious regard of the
statesman, in the higher and more important aspect it presents in a military point of
view, and as thus connected with our national defences. In cavalry, perhaps more
than in any other weapon, our locality must always sfive us an advantag-e over any
invading force. An enemy cannot bring cavalry with him. With something like a
well arranged system in breeding our horses, this advantage may be turned to great
account in time of war. With the forecast that distinguished his military adminis-
tration. Napoleon had the sagacity to establish Haras, or studs, in the several
departments of France, where thorough-bred stallions were placed at the service of
the common farmer, on terms which barely paid the expense of their keep. But to
come nearer home, while every one at all familiar with the incidents of our own Re-
volution, knows how much was effected in the South, by Lee's famous " Legion ;'
few, comparatively, may be aware to what that celebrated corps chiefly owed its
efficiency — and yet it is undeniable that in a great measure the prevalence nf blond in
his horses made it at once the scourge and the terror of the enemy. Wonderful ii
their endurance of hunger, thirst, and fatigue; prompt to strike a blow where it was
east expected, and, when forced, as quick to retreat; they may be said to have wel
earned the description applied to the Parthian steed : —
" Quot sine aqua PartJius nullia currat equus,
How many miles can run the Parthian horse,
Nor quench his thirst in the fatiguing course . "
It was not, h-^wever, generally known, until the Repositorj' offered by the "ToRr
Register" for the record of all extraordinary facts connected with these subjects
E
34 THE HORSE.
thai to the remarkahly accidental importation of the celebrated Linasey''s Arabian
may he traced some brilliant exploits of the battle-field, as well as of the turf in
America. The curious history of that renowned Arabian is worthy of preservation
here, as it was thus related to the editor, by a meritorious Maryland officer of the
Revolution, the venerable General T. M. Forman, a yet living monument of the
" times that tried men's souls."
LINDSEY'S ARABIAN.
About the year 1777 or '78, General H. liSe, of the Cavalry, and his officers, had
iheir attention drawn to some uncommonly fine Eastern horses employed in the public
service — horses of such superior form and appearance, that the above officers were led
to make much inquiry respecting their history ; and this proved so extraordinary, that
Captain Lindsey was sent to examine and make more particular inquiry respecting
the fine cavalry, which had been so much admired, and with instructions, that if the
sire answered the description given of him, the Captain was to purchase him, if to be
sold.
The Captain succeeded in purchasing the horse, who was taken to Virginia, where
he covered at a high price and with considerable success.
It was not until this fine horse became old and feeble that the writer of these recol-
lections rode thirty miles expressly to see him. He was a white horse, of the most
perfect form and symmetry, rather above fifteen hands high, and although old and
crippled, appeared to possess a high and gallant temper, which gave him a lofty and
commanding carriage and appearance.
The history of this horse, as given to me during the Revolutionary war, by several
respectable persons from Connecticut, at various times, is : —
For some very important service, rendered by the Commander of a British frigate,
to a son of the then Emperor of Morocco, the Emperor presented this horse (the most
valuable of his stud) to the Captain, who shipped him on board the frigate, with the
sanguine expectation of obtaining a great price for him, if safely landed in England.
Either in obedience to orders, or from some other cause, the frigate called at one of
tlie English West India islands, where being obliged to remain some time, the Cap-
tain, in compassion to the horse, landed him for the purpose of exercise. No con-
venient securely inclosed place could be found but a large lumber-yard, into which
the horse was turned loose ; but delighted and playful as a kitten, his liberty soon
proved nearly fatal to him. He ascended one of the piles, from which and with it he
fell, and broke three of his legs. At this time in the same harbour, the English Captain
met with an old acquaintance from one of our now Eastern states. To him he offered
the horse, as an animal of inestimable value could he be cured. The Eastern
Captain gladly accepted the horse, and knowing he must be detained a considerable
time in the Island before he could dispose of his assorted cargo, got the horse on
board his vessel, secured him in slings, and very carefully set and bound up his
broken legs. It matters not how long he remained in the harbour, or if quite cured
oefore he arrived on our shore ; but he did arrive, and he must certainly have covered
several seasons, before he was noticed as first mentioned.
When the writer of these remarks went to see the horse, his first attention was to
examine his legs, respecting the reported fracture, and he was fully satisfied, not
merely by seeing the lumps and inequalities on the three legs, but by actually feeling
the irregularities and projections of broken bones.
In Connecticut (I think) this horse was called Ranger ; in Virginia (as it should
be) he was called Lindsey's Arabian. He was the sire of Tulip and many good
runners ; to all his stock he gave great perfection of form ; and his blood flows in
the veins of some of the best horses of the present day. Make what use you please
of this statement ; I will stand corrected in my narrative, by any person who can
produce better testimony respecting Lindsey's Arabian.
Your obedient servant, F.
SejAemher 10, 1827.
THEHORSE. 35
Althougli this dissertation has been already extended somewhat beyond the limits
prescribed by our publisher and our own anticipation, we hope to render it more
acceptable as well as more useful by appending to it, in tabular form for greater con-
venience, and for comparison hereafter, an account of some of the mod remarkable
acliieveincnts, of comparatively modern date, of the turf horse in America at all distances.
— In truth, we feel confident that every reflecting reader will regard but as the natural
ssquel to all the observations which have preceded it, the following synopsis of
THE BEST RACES IN AMERICA.
It will yet be necessary however to premise a few obser\^ations, lest the reade
should draw inaccurate conclusions from the statistics laid before him.
In the United States, owing not only to the great territorial extent of the country,
but to the natural obstacles which divide its remote sections, and the extreme differ-
ences of climate, there never has been, and probably never will be, established central
race courses, where horses from all parts of the States may habitually meet, and test
their relative superiority by actual contest. We are compelled therefore to adopt
other criteria for the relative speed and stoutness of horses. But there is one which
has almost swallowed up all others, and is most universal and most popular in its
application. We allude to the time in which races are run. If it be admitted that
this is the best single criterion we can have, it must equally be admitted that it is
often fallacious. It is only necessary to name the different causes by which time is
affected and modified.
The most obvious is the difference in the soils of different courses. This is so well
understood, that it would not be difficult to make a tolerably accurate scale of the
comparative adaptation of our different courses for speed. — Again, in comparing races
at different periods, to arrive at accurate conclusions, it must not be forgotten that
great improvements have been made in the old established courses within a few years.
This improvement commencing with the Union Course on Long Island, which by
levelling it and grading the turns, has been made much faster than of yore, has been
very generally introduced upon rival courses. — The more obvious consideration of the
different condition, in which the same course may be on different days, will present
itself to every mind. Great regard should be paid, too, to the state of the atmosphere,
whether clear, balmy and calm, or raw, damp and windy ; for this state notoriously
affects in a great degree the speed of a horse. These are several of the considerations
which must be taken into account in estimating the powers of horses by a comparison
of the time, in which they have run different races ; indeed the test of mere time,
however more popular and perhaps more unerring than any one other, is not very
much relied upon by a consummate judge of racing. And if a horse, who performed a
given distance m remarkable time may fairly lay claim to distinction, it is undeniable
that there will be other racers of equal powers in the eyes of the judicious, whom the
nature of a course upon the day of a race will prevent from making great time. With
one other suggestion we will come to the tables.
The reader must not only note the period of the year in which a race is run, as
affecting the age of the horse, but he will recollect that in one portion of the United
States, horses take their age from the first of January, and in others from the first of
May. In these tables, for uniformity's sake, the English and Northern rule has been
pursued, giving the ages from the first of January. Another consideration must be
borne in mind — that the interval between the heats has been diminished, of late years ;
and at the present day, horses at the South have ten minutes more time for recovery
between four-mile heats than on Northern courses.
36
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4C THE HORSE.
T'/om the above tables have been excluded all races made over courses notoriously
short of a ruile in length. By adhering to this rule, very many excellent races at
Norfolk have been omitted ; — as Andrew's, Betsey Ransom's, Polly Hopkins', and
others; Mercury's race in 7m. 40s. — 7m, 42s., at New Orleans, is omitted for the
same reason.
Again, we have inserted in the tables only the winners of the different races ;
winners of a single heat are omitted. But it would be unjust not to note one or two
winners of single heats.
Bee's-wing, by imported Leviathan, 5 years old, carrying 97 pounds, in March
1840, won a first heat from Grey Medoc, in 7m. 38s. As she pulled up lame, she
was drawn. Kate Aubrey, by Eclipse, 4 years old, carrying 83 pounds, in March
1842, won a three-mile heat in 5m. 39s., but was distanced the next heat.
The reader will note that the great races made at New Orleans have been nin
generally in March ; according to their rule, their horses taking their ages from May,
have run a year under their true age, and carried weight accordingly. In the above
tables their jsrojoer age has been given, and attention is called to the subject again, for
the purpose of pointing to Sarah Bladen's race, which she lost with Jim Bell — the
first heat by a length and a half, and the second by but eighteen inches ; time, 7m
37s. — 7m. 40s. — The mare ran as aged, and carried 121 pounds — but two less than
she would have to carry at the North.
Again, the best time ever made at two and three miles, has been in four-mile races.
Thus Boston and Charles Carter ran the first and third miles in 3m. 41s., and the
first three miles of their great race in 5m. 30^s. ; Fashion and Boston ran the first
two miles in 3m. 43s., and three miles in 5ra. 37^s. ; Wagner and Grey Eagle, it is
said, ran the last three miles of their best heat in 5m. 35s. • Gallatin is said to have
run the two middle miles of a four-mile heat in 3m. 43s., and Trifle the last two
miles of a four-mile heat in the same time. Mingo and Post Boy are believed by the
writer to have run a mile of a four-mile heat at Trenton, in Im. 48s. ; the former and
Mary Blunt ran their twelfth mile in Im. 47s., and a third four-mile heat in 7m. 46s.
The higher estimation placed upon their great performances at the longer distance,
renders it superfluous to note further the rate of speed in the different miles.
Finally, it will not have escaped the observation of attentive readers, that while the
horse may appear by these tables, exhibiting as they do, his utmost capacity for a
series of years, to have been brought, by careful attention to blood, and by great
skill and nicety in training, up to the probable maximum of his powers ; it is yet as
clear as it is encouraging to see, that by unremitting recourse to the same means,
and by that alone, he may he kept up fully to the standard of capacity which these
records have established as the measure of his attainable speed aiid stoutness.
If with an eye to the fact, that "/Ae lasV is '■'■ the first,'''' and the fastest on the
record, (Fashion and Boston at L. I.) the hope should spring up in the bosom of the
sanguine, that the " end is not yet," and that the thread may be drawn j^et a little
finer ; without wishing to repress an iota of exertion to make good that conclusion,
it may be well to remember, that as before stated, according to the opinion of some
whose judgments we are bound to respect, a few of our principal courses have been
improved at the rate of more than a second to the inile! Thus it may be doubted
whetlier, if we could meet again in the chib-room, or at the social board which they
were wont to ornament and enliven, the Fathers of the American turf, — the Sharpes,
the Ogles, the Taskers, the Tayloes, Hamptons, Ridgelys, Lloyds, Spriggs, Bowies,
Ducketts, Duvalls, Seldens, &c., they would not remind us of these our advan-
tages, and be prompt to match and freely back some of their favourite old nags
against the best on these lists of more modern performers.
To some of these ancestors of our present stock the tribute is due that their name
be here recorded as well for their achievements as for having transmitted their powers
to their descendants, viz. : Tasker's Selima, by the Godolphin Arabian, never beat;
the dam of Galloway's Selim, the best Maryland horse of the last century ; Fitzhugh's
Regulus, Semmes' Wildair, Goode's Brimmer, Tayloe's Virago, Bell Air, Grey Diomed,
Black Maria, Leviathan, and Gallatin; Hoomes' Fairy, sister to Gallatin, Ogle's
Oscar, Ridgely's Post Boy, Bond's First Consul, Willis's Maid of the Oaks, Edelin's
Floretta, Ball's Florizel, Sir Archy ; these last nine were at the head of the turf early
THE HORSE. 4]
in the piesent century. With these no competitor or rival deserves to be named, until
the revival of the best days of the turf by the get of Sir Archy, as exhibited by the
match of his son Henry with Eclipse. By eveiy test of comparison Henry was
no better race-horse than several of the get of Sir Archy, nor as good a one as Timo-
leon, Virginian, Sir Charles, and Bertrand. In those days, Hoomes, Selden, Tayloe,
Ridgely, and Bond were at the head of the turf.
Though not strictly belonging to a work intended as this is, not for a particular
class but for all owners of horses and for every day's reference and use, yet we have
said so much of the race-horse, whose blood we consider it essential to preserve in
its purity and to be used as occasion may require, as every good house-keeper pre-
serves and uses good yeast to leven the mass, that we may as well add the lengtlis
of the principal race-courses in England, and the rules of the jockey club lately
established for the Long Island race-course. These will occupy but little space and
may prove acceptable to those of our readers who take an interest in the amusements
of the turf.
Miles. Fur. Yards.
The Beacon Course is 4 1 138
The Round Course is 3 4 178
Last three miles of Beacon Course 3 0 45
Ditch in 2 0 97
The last mile and a distance of Beacon Course ... 1 1 156
Ancaster mile 1 0 18
From the turn of the lands in 0 5 184
Clermont Course, from the Ditch to the Duke's Stand 1 5 217
Audley End Course, from the starting-post of the T.Y.C.
to the end of the Beacon Course 1 6 • 0
Across the flat 1 2 24
Rowley mile 1 0 1
Ditch mile 0 7 178
Abingdon mile 0 7 211
Two middle miles of Beacon Course • . 1 7 1^5
Two-years-old Course (on the flat) 0 5 136
New ditto (part of the Banbury mile) 0 5 136
Yearling Course • .... 0 2 47
Banbury mile 0 7 248
" Previously to 1753 there were only two meetings in the year at Newmarket foi
the purpose of running horses, one in the Spring and another in October. At present
there are seven. — The Craven, instituted in 1771, in compliment to the late Earl
Craven, and commencing on Easter Monday ; the First Spring, on the Monday fort-
night foUomng, and being the original Spring ^Meeting; the Second Spring, a fortnight
after that, and instituted in 1753; the Jult/, commonly early in that month, instituted
also in 1753 ; the First October, on the first IMonday in that month, being the original
October meeting; the Second October, on the Monday fortnight following — instituted
in 176"2; and the Third October, or Houghton, a fortnight after that, and instituted
1770. With the last-mentioned meeting, which, weather permitting, generally lasts
a week, and at which there is a great deal of racing, the sports of the Turf close for
the year, with the exception of Tarporky, a very old hunt-meeting in Cheshire, novP
nearly abandoned ; and a Worcester autumn meeting, chiefly for hunters and horses
f the gentlemen and farmers within the hunt." — Nimrod — The Turf, 152.
ASCOT HEATH.
The two-mile course is a circular one, of which the last half is called the old mile.
The new mile is straight and up-hill all the way. The T.Y.C. is five furlongs and
136 yards.
EPSOM.
The old course, now seldom used except for the cup, is two miles of an irregular
circular form, the first mile up-hill. The new Derby course is exactly a mile and a
Uaif. and somewhat in the form of a horst-shoe : the first three-quarters of a mile may
4* F
42 THE HORSE.
oe considered as straight running, the bend in the course being very trifling, and the
width very great ; the next quarter of a mile is in a gradual turn, and the last half-
mile straight; the first half-mile is on the ascent, the next third of a mile level, and
the remainder is on the descent, till within the distance, where the ground again rises.
The new T.Y.C. is six furlongs ; the old T.Y.C., or Woodcot course, is somewhat
less than four.
The Craven course is one mile and a quarter.
DONCASTER
Is a circular and nearly flat course of about one mile, seven furlongs, and seventy
yards.
The shorter courses are portions of this circle.
LIVERPOOL.
The new course, now used for both meetings, is flat, a mile and a half round, and
with a straight run-in of nearly three quarters of a mile, and a very gradual rise.
MANCHESTER
Is one mile, rather oval, with a hill, and a fine run-in.
A Distance is the length of two hundred and forty yards from the winning post.
In the gallery of the winning post, and in a little gallery at the distance post, are
placed two men holding crimson flags. As soon as the first horse has passed the
winning post, the man drops his flag ; the other at the distance post drops his at the
same moment, and the horse which has not then passed that post is said to be dis-
tanced, and cannot start again for the same plate or prize.
A Feather-weight is the lightest weight that can be put on the back of a horse.
A Give and Take Plate is where horses carry weight according to their height.
Fourteen hands are taken as the standard height, and the horse must carry nine stone
(the horseman's stone is fourteen pounds). Seven pounds are taken from the weight
for every inch below fourteen hands, and seven pounds added for every inch above
fourteen hands. A few pounds additional weight is so serious an evil, that it is said,
seven pounds in a mile-race are equivalent to a distance.
A Post Match is for horses of a certain age, and the parties possess the privilege
of bringing any horse of that age to the post.
A Produce Match is that between the produce of certain mares in foal at the
time of the match, and to be decided when they arrive at a certain age specified.
Rules and regulations approved and adopted by the New York Jockey Club, on the
ISth September, 1842; to continue in full force and effect until the close of the
hist Fall Meeting in the year 1844, subject to such alterations as may be made
from time to time, according to the discretion of the Club.
Rule 1st. — There shall be two regular meetings held by the New York Jockey
Club at the Union Course, on Long Island, to be called and known as the Spring and
Fall Meeting. The Spring Meeting shall commence on the second Tuesday of May,
and the Fall Meeting shall commence on the first Tuesday of October, in each year.
Bu/e 2d. — There shall be a President, four Vice Presidents, a Secretary and Trea-
surer, to be appointed annually by ballot.
Jiule 3d. — It shall be the duty of the President to preside at all meetings of the
Club ; to act as presiding Judge at each day's race; appoint his Assistant Judges on
the evening preceding each day's race, report and publish the results of each day's
race, and act as Judge in all Sweepstakes, with such other persons as the parties
may appoint.
Piule 'llh. — It shall be the duty of the Vice Presidents to attend all meetings of the
Club, and assist the President in the discharge of his duties. In the absem-e of the
President, the first Vice President, and in his absence, the 2d, 3d, or 4th Vice Presi-
dent, shall act as President pro tern.
THE HORSE. 43
Rule 5th. — It shall be the duty of the Secretary to attend at all meetiriU;S of the
Club, also to attend the Judges of each day's race, assist them with his counsel, and
furnish them with all the requisite information connected with each day's race ; keep
a book, in which he shall record the [Members' names, the Rules and Orders of the
Club, and add to them any Resolutions or Amendments which may change the cha-
racter of either; also record the proceedings at each meeting of the Club, whether a
special or a regular meeting ; he shall also record all the entries of horses. Matches,
and Sweepstakes, in which shall be set forth the names of the respective owners, the
colour, name, age, sex, and name of sire and dam of each horse ; record an account
of each day's race, including the time of nmning each heat, and after the races are
over for a meeting, report the same to the President of the Club for his othcial publi-
cation. He shall also put up, and keep up during every Meeting, at some convenient
place, at or near the Judges' Stand, a copy of the Rules and Regulations of the Club
then in force.
Rule Gfh. — ^It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to collect all the money due the
Club, whether from subscriptions of members, entries of horses, or from any other
source, pay the same over from time to time upon the order of the President of the
Club, and in case of his absence, upon the order of the acting Vice President ; and
within thirty days after the closing of every regular meeting, he shall furnish the
President, or in his absence, the acting Vice President, a full statement of the receipts
and disbursements of the funds of the Club, from the date of the last statement up to
the date of that which he then renders, showing the balance of money in hand, sub-
ject to the order of the President, or acting Vice President, which statement shall be
deposited with the Secretary of the Club, as one of the records of the Club, and so
be entered by him.
Rule lih. — At each regular meeting there shall be appointed four Stewards, who
shall serve for one meeting succeeding their appointment. They shall wear some
appropriate badge of distinction, to be determined upon by themselves. It shall be
the duty of the Stewards to attend on the Course, to preserve order, clear the track,
keep it clear, keep off the crowd of persons from the horses coming to the stand after
the close of each heat, and they may employ in their discretion, at the expense of
the Club, a sutficient number of able-bodied men to assist them in the effectual dis-
charge of their duties.
Rule Sth. — There shall be three Judges in the starting stand, consisting of the
President and two Assistant Judges, assisted by the Secretary', and in case of the
absence of the President of the Club, then the first Vice President, and in his absence,
the second Vice President. The Judges shall keep the stand clear of any intrusion
during the pendency of a heat, see that the Riders are dressed in Jockey style, weigh
the riders before starting in the race, and after each heat, instruct the riders as to their
duty under the rules before starting in the race, and proclaim from the stand the time
and result of each heat, and also the result of the race.
Rule 9th. — There shall be two Distance Judges, and three Patrol Judges, appointed
by the Judges in the starting stand, who shall repair to the Judges' stand imme-
diately after each heat, and report to the Judges the horses that are distanced, and
foul riding, if there be any.
Rule 1 Olh. — All the disputes shall be decided by the Judges of the day, from whose
decision there shall be no appeal, unless at the discretion of the Judges, and no evi-
dence of foul riding shall be received except from the Judges and Patrols.
Rule nth. — When in the opinion of the majority of the Officers of the Club, any
good cause may require the postponement of a race, they may postpone any Purse
race, but in case of a postponement of a race, no new entries shall be received for
that race. A postponement of a Purse race shall give no authority to postpone any
Sweepstake or Match made or advertised to be run on that day ; and in the event of
the Club postponing a regular Meeting, it shall give them no power to postpone any
Matches or Sweepstakes made to be nm at that Meeting.
Rule l-2!h. — All Sweepstakes and Matches advertised to be run on the Course on
any day of a regular Meetinsf of the Club, shall be under the cognizance and control
of the Club, and no change of entries once made shall be allowed after closing, unless
by consent of all parties. Sweepstakes and Matches made to be run at a particulai
44 THE HORSE.
Meeting, without the parties specifying the day, the Secretary must give ten days
notice of what days they will be run during the meeting, in case he is informed
of it in time. And no Sweepstake or Match shall be run on the Course during a
regular meeting without being first reported to the Secretary, to bring it under the
cognizance and control of the Club.
Rule l3/h. — The age of horses shall be computed from the first day of January
next, preceding their being foaled ; that is, a colt or filly foaled on any day in the
year 1841, will be considered one year old on the first day of January, 1842.
Eule lith. — No person shall start or enter a horse for any purse offered by, or
under the control of, the Club, other than a Member of the Club, and producing, if
required, satisfactory evidence or proof of his horse's age; nor shall any Member
start a horse if his entrance money, subscription money, and all forfeits incurred on
the Union Course, are not paid before starting. Nor shall any person start a horse,
during a regular meeting of the Club, who is in arrears to any member of the Club
for a forfeit incurred on the Union Course.
Bale lolh. — All entries of horses for a purse shall be made in writing under seal,
addressed to the Secretary of the Club, and deposited in a box, kept for that purpose,
at the usual place of Meeting of the Club, before five o'clock in the afternoon of the
day of the race, for which the entry is made. Each entry shall contain the entrance
money, and state the name, age, colour, sex, and pedigree, of the horse entered, and
describe the dress of the rider of such horse. After five o'clock of the afternoon of
the day preceding a Purse Race, no other or additional entry shall be allowed to be
made for that race, and no entry shall be received or recorded, that does not contain
the entrance money. The entries so received, shall be drawn from the box by the
Secretary, and declared at five o'clock of the afternoon of the day preceding the day
of the race, in the presence of at least three Members of the Club, and the horses so
entered shall be entitled to the track in the order in which their names are drawn ; in
Sweepstakes and Matches, the Judges shall draw for the track at the stand.
Rule ICth. — Any person desirous of becoming a member only for the purpose of
entering a horse, may do so, he being approved by the Club, and paying double
entrance.
Rule nth. — ^The distance to be run shall be Two-mile heats. Three-mile heats, and
Four-mile heats, and a purse shall be put up to be run for during each regular meet-
ing, for each of the named distances. Not more than five per cent, shall be charged
as entrance upon any amount that may be put up for a purse.
Rule I8ih. — Every horse shall carry weight, according to age, as follows : —
A horse Two years old, A Feather.
" Three years old 90 Pounds.
" Four years old, 104 "
" Five years old, 114 "
" Six years old, 121 "
" Seven years old and upwards, 126 "
An allowance of three pounds to mares, fillies, and geldings. The Judges shall see
that each rider has his proper weight before he starts, and that each rider has within
one pound, after each heat.
Rule I'Jth. — Catch weights are, where each person appoints a rider without weigh-
ing. Feather weights signifies the same. A Post Slake is to name at the starting
post. Handicap weights are weights according to the supposed ability of the horses.
An Untried stallion, or mare, is one whose get or produce has never run in public
\ maiden horse or mare is one that never won.
Rule 20lh. — No horse shall carry more than five pounds over his stipulated weigh!
without the Judges being informed of it, which shall be publicly declared by them,
whereupon all bets shall be void, except those made between the parties who enter the
horses. Every rider shall declare to the Judges who weighs him, when and how his
extra weights, if any, are carried. The member of the Club who enters the horse
shall be responsible for putting up, and bringing out the proper weight. He shall be
bound to weigh the rider of his horse in tlie presence of the Judges before starting,
and if he refuses or neglects to do so, he shall be prevented from starting his horse,
K- ■
THE HORSE. 45
Rule 21sf. — When in running a race, a distance is
In one mile, 45 yards.
In two miles, 70 „
In three miles, 90 „
In four miles, 120 „
Rule '2-2d. — In a Match Race of heats, there shall be a distance, but none in a
single heat.
Rule '23d. — The time between heats shall be '
For one mile heats, 20 minutes.
For two mile heats, 25 „
For three mile heats, 30 „
For four mile heats, 35 „
Rule 24/A. — Some signal shall be given from the starting stand, five minutes before
the period of starting, after the lapse of which time, the Judges shall give the word
start to such riders as are then ready, but should any horse prove restive in being
brought up to the stand, or in starting, the Judges may delay the word a short interval,
at their own discretion.
Rule -25111. — Any horse winning a purse of this Club, shall not be allowed to start
for any other purse during the same meeting.
Rule 2b/A. — If a horse be entered without being properly identified, he shall not be
allowed to start, but be liable to forfeit, or the whole, if play or pay, and all bets on
a horse so disqualified, shall be declared void.
Rule ^Ith. — Where more than one nomination has been made by the same indivi-
dual, in any Sweepstake to be run on the Union Course, and it shall be made to
appear to the satisfaction of the Club, that all interest in such nomination has been
bena fide disposed of before the time of starting, and the horses have not been trained
in the same stable, all may start although standing in the same name in the list of
nominations.
Rule 2S'.h. — No conditional nomination or entry shall be received.
Rule 29tli. — Should any person who has entered a horse formally, declare to the
Judges that his horse is drawn, he shall not be permitted to start his horse.
Rule 30lh. — Any person entering a horse younger than he really is shall forfeit his
entrance money, and if the horse wins a heat or race, the heat or race shall be given
to the next best horse if the objection be made to the age of the horse after the heat
or race is run. The disqualification must be proved by the person making the
objection.
Rule 3 Is/. — If an entered horse die, or a subscriber entering him, die, before the
race, no forfeit shall be required.
Rule 32d. — No compromise or agreement between any two persons entering horses,
or b)' their agents and grooms not to oppose each other upon a promised division of
the purse or stake, or for any other purpose, shall be permitted or allowed, and no
persons shall run their horses in conjunction, that is wnth a determination to oppose
jointly any other horse that may nm against them. In either case upon satisfactory
evidence produced before the Judges, the purse or stake shall be awarded to the next
best horse — and the persons so otTending shall never again be permitted to enter a
horse to run on the Union Course.
Rule 3'Sd. — When the tap of the drum is once given by the Starting Judge, there
shall be no calling back, unless the signal flag shall be hoisted for that purpose, and
when so hoisted it shall be no start. To remedy the inconvenience of false starts,
there shall be a signal flag placed at a point which can be readily seen by the riders
at from one to three hundred yards from the Judges' stand. When a start is given
and recalled, a flaw from the Judgres' stand shall be displayed, and the person having
m charge the signal flag shall hoist the same as a notice to pull up. It shall be the
duty of the Starting Judge to give this rule in charge to the riders.
Rule 3ith. — No two riders from the same stable shall be allowed to ride in the
same race. No two horses trained in the same stable, or owned in whole or in
part by the same person, shall be allowed to enter or start in the same race : both the
entries shall be void and the entrance money forfeited to the Club.
Rule 35/A. — No rider shall be permitted to ride unless well dressed i'^ Jockey style.
46 THE HORSE.
To -wit, Jockey cap, coloured jacket, pantaloons, and boots. Liveries to be recorded
in the Secretary's Book, and not permitted to be assumed by others.
Rule 3Gt/i. — Every rider after a heat is ended must repair to the Judges' stand, and
not dismount from his horse until so ordered by the Judges, and then themselves
carry their saddles to the scales to be weighed, nor shall any groom or other person,
approach or touch any horse until after his rider shall have dismounted and removed
his saddle from the horse by order of the Judges. A rider dismounting without such
permission, or wanting more than one pound of his proper weight, shall be declared
distanced.
liule sulk. — The horse who has won a heat shall be entitled to the track m the
next heat, and the foremost be entitled to any part of the track, he leaving sufficient
space for a horse to pass him on the outside. Uut he shall not when locked by another
horse leave the track he may be running in to press him to the inside or outside, and
having selected his position in a straight stretch, he shall not leave it so as to press
his adversary to either side, the doing of either of which shall be deemed foul riding.
Should any rider cross, jostle or strike an adversary or horse, or run on his heels
intentionally, or do anything else that may impede the progress of his adversary, he
will be deemed distanced although he may come out ahead, and the race awarded to
the next best horse. Any rider offending against this rule, shall never be permitted
to ride over or attend any horse on this Course again.
Rule 381k. — Every horse that shall fail to run outside of every pole, shall be deemed
distanced, although he may come out ahead, and the race shall be awarded to the
next best horse.
Rule 39th. — If a rider fall from his horse, and another person of sufficient weight
rides the horse in to the Judges' stand, he shall be considered as though the rider had
not fallen — provided he returns to the place where the rider fell.
Rule 40th. — A horse that does not win one heat out of three heats, shall not be
allowed to start for the fourth heat, although he may have saved his distance, but
shall be considered better than a horse that is distanced in the third heat.
Rule 41s/. — A distanced horse in a dead heat shall not be allowed to start again in
the race.
Rule 42d. — When a dead heat is made, all the horses not distanced in the dead
heat, may start again, unless the dead heat be made by two horses, that, if either had
been winner of the heat the race would have been decided ; in which case the two
only must start to decide which shall be entitled to the purse or stake. Such horses
as are prevented from starting by this Rule shall be considered drawn, and all bets
made on them against each other shall be drawn, excepting those that are distanced.
Rule i3d. — A horse receiving forfeit, or walking over, shall not be deemed a
winner.
Rule 4-ith. — A bet made after the heat is over, if the horse betted on does not start
again, is no bet.
Rule '15th. — A confirmed bet cannot be off without mutual consent.
Rule AGlh. — If either party be absent on the day of a race, and the money be not
staked, the party present may declare the bet void in the presence of the Judges,
before the race commences ; but if any person present offer to stake for an absentee,
it is a confirmed bet.
Rule 47th. — A bet made on a heat to come, is no bet, unless all the horses qualified
to start shall nm, and unless the bet be between such named horses as do start.
Rule 4<S//j. — The person who bets the odds may choose the horse or the field : when
he has chosen his horse, the field is what starts against him, but there is no field
unless one starts against him.
Rule 49lk. — If odds are bet without naming the horses before the race is over, it
must be determined as the odds were at the time of naming it.
Rule 50///. — Bets made in running, are not determined till the purse is won, if the
heat is not specified at the time of betting.
Rule 51s/. — Bets made on particular horses are void, if neither of them be. tlie
winner of the race, unless specified to the contrary. , '
Rule 52d. — Horses that forfeit are beaten horses, where it is play or pay, *nd no'
otherwises .^?
THE HORSE. 47
Rule 53d. — All bets, matches, and engagements are void on the decease of eithei
party before determined.
Rule bUh. — Horses drawn before the purse is won are distanced.
Rule oolh. — A bet made on a horse is void if the horse betted on does not start.
Rule o6lk. — When a bet is made on a heat, the liorse that comes first to the ending
post is best, provided no circumstance shall cause him to be deemed distanced.
Rule blth. — All bets are understood to relate to the purse or stake, if nothing is
said to the contrary.
Rule 58lh. — When a bet is made upon two horses against each other for the purse,
if each win a heat, and neither are distanced, they are equal — if neither win a heat,
and neither distanced, they are equal. But if one wins a heat, and the other does not,
the winner of the heat is best unless he shall be distanced, in which case the other,
if he saves his distance, shall be considered best. If a horse wins a heat and is
distanced, he shall be better than a horse that does not win a heat and is distanced;
so too if one be distanced the second heat, he shall be better than one distanced the
first heat.
Rule 59lh. — ^The words " absolutely," or "play or pay," are necessary to be used
to make a bet play or pay. "Done" and "Done"' are also necessary to confirm a
bet. If a bet be made, using the expression " play or pay," and the horse die, the
bet shall stand. But if the person entering the horse, or making the engagement on
him, dies, then the bet is void.
Rule GOth. — All members, and such of their families as reside with them, shall
pass the gates free ; and the members themselves shall have free admission to the
members' stand.
Rule Gist. — New members can only be admitted on recommendation. Any person
wishing to become a member, must be so for the unexpired term of the Club, and
must be balloted for. Three black balls shall reject. A non-resident of New York
introduced by a member, can have the privilege of the inclosed space and members'
stand, by paying^ye dollars for the meeting.
Rule 6-2d. — Ten members of the Club shall be deemed a quorum for the transac-
tion of ordinary business and admission of members, but not less than twenty to alter
a fundamental rule, unless public notice shall have been given ten days of such con-
templated meeting. The President or Secretary may call a meeting, and the Presi-
dent and Vice President failing to attend, a Chairman may be selected. Members
of the Club privileged to invite their friends to the Jockey Club Dinners, by paying
for the same. No ladies admitted to the Ladies' Pavilion unless introduced by a
member. No citizen of the State of New York can be admitted to the privileges of
the inclosed space. Members' Stand, or Ladies' Pavilion, unless he be a member.
Rule 63d. — No person shall be permitted to pass into the inclosed space, on the
Union Course, without showing his ticket at the gate, nor shall any person be per-
mitted to remain within the inclosure, or Members' Stand, unless he wears a badge,
that the officers on duty may be enabled to distinguish those privileged. Officers
who shall permit the infraction of this rule shall forfeit all claim to compensation, and
must be employed on this express condition.
Rule Gitk. — Membership of the New York Jockey Club, shall be for three years,
commencing Spring 1842 — subscription Ten Dollars per annum, payable each Spring
— subscription to be paid whether present or absent. Members joining at any time.
whether by original signature, or on nomination, will be bound for the unexpired terir
of the Club from the period of joining.
The following gentlemen comprised the Executive Officers of the New York
Jockey Club, at the period (Sept. 13th, 1842,) when the foregoing Rulefs and Regu
iations were adopted : —
J. Prescott Hall, Esq., President.
John C. Stevens, Esq., 1st Vice President.
John A. King, Esq., 2d „ „
J. Hamilton Wilkes, Esq., 3d „ „
Gerard H. Coster, Esq., 4th „ „
Henry K Toler, Esq., Secretary and Treasurer.
4f5 THE HORSE.
Having now with some care and, as we trust, with accuracy noted how the stoct
■ii Eno-lish horses has been modified from time to time, being made heavier or lighter,
vhh more or less of bone and muscle; according to the nature of their vehicles and
roajri, the implements and modes of warfare in use, their national amusements and
other uses to which the horse was applied ; we come now to speak of him verj- briefly
'n one of his finest and most finished forms, and one in which, from influences to
which we have before referred, England certainly does and must ever excel all rival
— we allude to
THE HUNTER,
which is but a combination of the race-horse thorough-bred, with one of less blood
possessing however more strength and substance with less length of body. His jaw
should be clear and wide, nostrils large, broad thin shoulders, thighs long, strong and
muscular, deep chest, affording free play for the lungs ; back short, ribs large and wide,
iaro-e and strono", but hard and clean bone and sinew, tail coming out high and stiflf,
gaskins well spread, and hind-quarters lean and hard. The right sort of hunter, it
has been further and more sententiously observed, should have as far as possible
strength without weight, courage without fire or flashiness, speed without labour, a
free breath, a strong Malk, a nimble, light but large gallop, and a swift trot, to give
change and ease to the speedy muscles.
"Firm let him tread, and just, and move along
Upon a well-grown hoof, compact and strong;
Proud of the sport, with too much fire to yicM, —
Such be the horse to bear me to the field."
And such an one the writer of this had once the pleasure to ow^n — bred in Prince
George's Countj^ Maryland ; a noble son of Ogle's Oscar, and the best saddle-horse
we ever backed. Alas, old Rasper, we ne'er shall look upon your like again.
" Pride of ihy race ! with worth far less than thine,
Full many human leaders daily shine !"
As in all things supply follows demand, it may here be noted that the high perfec-
tion of the English Hunter, his great speed, stoutness and power of leaping, has been
brought about in a great degree, by a change in the character of the English fnx-huund.
The "old-fashioned, slow, big-headed, southern or Talbot hound, as described by
Shakspeare,
' ' With ears that sweep away the morning dew,"
has given way to a dog so fleet, that he who is not mounted on one among the fleetest
and the strongest, dare not hope for the honour and delight of being " in at the death !"
'I'he chase in modern style is in fact but a burst, sometimes running with the game in
view to the death, and for which they have bred a hound with a light ear, a squealing
note and a power of speed, to which the ancient hound bears no more resemblance
than a cow to a courser. The reader may judge what sort of a nag is necessary to
keep way with the fine-spun descendants of such a bitch as Mtrkm, property of the cele-
brated Col. Thornton, who challenged to run her against any hound of her year, five
miles ov^' New Market, giving 220 yards, for $50,000 ! This famous bitch is said
to tiave run a trial of four miles in seven minutes and a half second ! Under the
influence of this change in the face of the countrj', and in the qualities of the ancient
fox-hound, and in the character of this most noble and splendid diversion, a corres-
ponding modification has ensued in the hunter, and so the price for the best has
advanced from forty, to three hundred guineas ! nor is it easy to imagine any show of
animals like that of a stable of English hunters led out for " the mount," either for
the fox or the St. Albans Steeple-chase ; every nag perfectly well conditioned and
dressed off a.s nicely as a wedding party coming up to the altar.
THE HORSE.
THE AMERICAN TROTTER.
Having', as it is believed, described and accounted for the successive modifications
and general improvement of the English horse, from many of the best of which ours
have been bred — and for the excellence especially of their high-bred courser and
hunter; and having adverted incidentally to the high national importance to be
attached to maintaining the horse in all his capabilities, as giving elasticity and
vigour to one great arm of national defence — cavalry — the use of which has sometimes
decided the issue of battles and the fate of empires, — we pass now to contemplate
this interesting animal in a form in which Ximrod (Mr. Apperly) himself, one of the
most voluminous and authentic writers on these subjects, and one not prone to make
admissions of English inferiority in anything, does admit that we excel, to wit, in
our Trotting Horses.
Instances which will hereafter be given of the performance of American trotters,
such as have been trained to that pace and timed with exactness, in trials instituted
for that purpose by numerous trotting clubs, will leave no doubt of our haA-ing well
established our claim for the excellence conceded to us in that class of horses — and
as speed in that gait, combined with lastingness, is a desideratum in public stages,
and for all kinds of light harness and quick travelling, it becomes an interesting
inquii y, and is deemed to be well worthy of the space here assigned it — whence has
resulted the superiority illustrated by these examples? Is it that we possess a particular
strain of horses not to be found in other countries, not thorough-bred, but yet of a
specific breed, which has been found or made in America, and which may be kept
separate and distinct from all others, the root whereof is not necessarily to be looked
for, like that of our thorough-bred stock, in the English Slud-Book, or in the blood of
some Eastern ancestor — a breed to which, in a word, recourse may be had as a stock
of horses sui generis, and one that may be relied upon to supply fast goers in this
pace ] Or is it that we owe the number that can go their mile under 2.30, to
the higher estimate which is placed on excellence in that wa}', in this country ; and
to the greater pains taken and skill exercised in educating and training horses to go
ahead in the trot ? We confess that retlection and all the lights we possess, lead as
to the adoption of this latter theorj'.
There are various reasons why this property in the horse should be more attended
to in this, than perhaps any other countrj'. ^lay it not be referred in some measure,
to our political institutions, as we have already seen, in the review which has been
taken of the progressive improvement of horses in England, how their qualities have,
from time to time, been influenced and modified by their field-sports, the state of their
roads, the form of their coaches, and changes in their warlike and agricultural habits
and implements. Under the effect of our political institutions, which create fre-
quent division of estates, it is next to impossible that there should exist in America
a class of men with sufficient and extended wealth, either hereditary or acquired,
to maintain the costly and magnificent arrangements for the sports of the turf and the
chase — such as have for centuries existed in England. Yet men must have amuse-
ments, and those which are found a-field are at once the most attractive and salutary.
If one may be allowed to quote himself, we may repeat from the introduction to the
Sporting Magazine, the ideas there expressed that " the knowledge of mankind so
essential in every practical pursuit, nay the yet more essential knowfedge of ourselves,
s not to be found alone in solitary labour, nor in solitary meditation ; neither is it in a
state of isolation from society that the heart most quickly learns to answer to the calls
of benevolence ; — sympathy springs from habits of association, and a sense of mu-
tual dependence on each other ; 3nd the true estimate of character, and friendly and
generous dispositions, are under no circumstances more certainly acquired, nor more
assuredly improved and quickened, than by often meeting each other in the friendly
contentions and rivalries that characterize field-sports."
Recurring to the influence of political institutions and national amusements, it may
fie very safely affirmed, that while there can exist in this country no permanent class
31* men possessmg the wealth which aff"ords the time, and cherishes the taste, for the
5 6
fyQ THE HORSE.
more expensive diversions of the Turf and the Chase; it must yet alwzys abound tai
beyond all other countries, under their existing governments, in citizens of middling,
and yet easy circumstances, with means enough to indulge in other sports involving
moderate outlay, including the ownership of a good old squirrel gun; and the luxury
of a good horse ; and hence the use of both is as familiar to the great mass of American
people, from ^heir childhood, as it is strange to the common people of any other
country ; except as to the employment of the horse, in his lowest offices of neld-labour
and common drudgery. No southern boy at least, just entering his teens, desires
oetter fun than to be allowed to catch and mount any horse in the most distant pas-
ture, and ride him home at the top of his speed, without saddle or bridle — and as to
the use of fire-arms, it was remarked to the writer during the late war with England,
both by General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, that in no country had they ever wit-
nessed any fire so deadly as that of the American militia, as long as they would stand!
In the towns, there is not a sober and industrious tradesman, who cannot manage to
keep his hackney ; and these considerations sufficiently account for the number of
regularly constituted Trotting Clubs of easy access, with courses that serve as so
many nurseries, where the horse is educated exclusively for the trot, and his highest
physical capacities drawn out in that fonn. These associations are composed, for
the most part, of respectable and independent mechanics, and others, especially
victuallers, among whom in all times there has existed a sort of esprit de corps, or
monomania on this subject, which leads them to spare neither pains nor expense to
srain a reputation for owning a crack goer. This sort of emulation so infects the class,
as to have given rise to a common saying that " a butcher always rides a trotter.''^
According to the theory here maintained, the great number of trotters in America
that can go as before said, their mile under 3 minutes, and the many that do it under
2m. 40s. and even in some cases under 2m. 30s. — as for instance in the case of
Ripton and Confidence, whose performances have given so much gratification to
sportsmen, is to be explained in the same way that we account for the great number
of superb hunters that are admitted to abound in England above all countries, not
excepting our own. There, in every county in the Kingdom, there are organized
'■'■ Hunts,'''' with their whippers-in, and huntsmen, and earth-stoppers, and costly
appointments of every kind to accommodate some fil\y or an hundred couple of high-
bred hounds, whose pedigrees are as well preserved as those of Priam or LongAvaist ;
and a wide district of country is reserved and assigned exclusively to each hunt.
Fox-hunting is there termed par excellence, a princely amusement, and gentlemen of
the most exalted rank and largest fortune, take pride in the office of " Master of the
hounds,'''' and assuredly in all the wide field of manly exercises, none can compare
with an English fox or steeple-chase, for union of athletic vigour and daring skill,
and magnificence of equitation ; unless perhaps it were some splendid charge de cavalrie,
like those we used to read of, made by the gallant Murat at a critical moment of the
battle, when he was wont in his gorgeous uniform and towering plumes to fall with his
cavalry like an avalanche upon his adversar}% confounding and crushing him at a
blow ! Truly, it would well be worth a trip across the Atlantic, to see a single "turn
out" of an English hunt, all in their fair tops, buckskin smalls, and scarlet coats,
mounted on hunters that under Tattersall's hammer would command from one to two
hundred guineas! Imagine such a field with thirty couple of staunch hounds, heads
np and stems dow-n, all in full cry, and well away with their fox ! !
-Now, my brave youths,
Flourish the wliip nor spare the galling spur;
But in the madness of delight, forget
Your fears. Far o'er the rocky hills we range,
And dangerous our course ; but in the brave
True courage never fails."
To indicate more strongly the prevalence of this partiality for trotting-horses, and
emulation to o\^ the fastest goer, and the number and extent of associations and
arrangements for this sort of trial and amusement, it need only be mentioned that the
"Spirit of the Times," published in New York, contains lists of hundreds of matches
and purses, and of thousands on thousands of dollars in sirtill purses, won and lost
on these performances on trotting-courses ! A number of these performances will be
THE HORSE. 51
selected, enough to chow that the excellence which is conceded to American ti otters,
s not founded on a solitary achievement or very rare cases, nor to be ascribed to the
possession of any distinct and peculiar breed of horses ; but is the natural and common
fruit ot thai union of blood and bone, which forms proverbially the desideratum in a
good hunter, with the superaddition of skilful training, much practice, and artful
jockeying for the trotting course. Who can doubt that if Hiram Woodruff were to
go to England, having the run of their hunting-stables, he might select nags enoucrh
which could soon be made under his training and consummate jockeyship, to go along
with Edwin Forrest and Lady Suffolk, Ripton, Rattler, Confidence, and the Dutch-
man ] On this point the following may be aptly extracted from the highest authority
— our Bell's Life in London — To wit: Porter's Spirit of the Times.
" Nirarod, in ' admitting the superiority of our Trotting-Horses to the ' English,'
claims that the English ' approach very near to the Americans,' even in this breed
of cattle. Possibly the characteristic national vanity would not allow him to make
a farther concession. But there is no comparison whatever, between the Trottintr-
Horses of the two countries. jNIr. Wheelax, who took Rattler to England last season,
and doubly distanced with ease every horse that ventured to start against him, as the
record shows, informs us that there are twenty or more roadsters in common use in
this city, that could compete successfully with the fastest trotters on the English
Turt". They neither understand the art of training, driving or riding, there. For
example : some few years since, Alexander was purchased by Messrs. C. & B. of tliis
city, for a friend or acquaintance, in England. Alexander was a well-knovrn roadster
here, and was purchased to order, at a low rate. The horse was sent out and trials
made of him ; but so unsuccessful were they, that the English importers considered
him an imposition. Thus the matter stood for a year or more. When Wheelan
arrived in England, he recognised the horse, and learned the particulars of his
purchase and subsequent trials there. By his advice the horse was nominated in a
Stake at Manchester (we believe) with four or five of the best trotters in England,
he (Wheelan) engaging to train and ride him. When the horses came upon the
ground, the odds were 4 and 5 to 1 against Alexander, who won by nearly a quarter
of a mile ! Wheelan says he took the track at starting, and widened the gap at his
ease — that near the finish, being surprised that no horse was anywhere near him, as
his own had not yet made a stroke, he got frightened, thinking some one might out-
brush him — that he put Alexander up to his work, and finally won by an immense
wa}', no horse, literally, getting to the head of the quarter stretch, as he came out at
the winning stand ! The importers of Alexander, at any rate, were so surprised and
delighted at his performance, that they presented Wheelan with a magnificent gold
timing-watch, and other valuable presents, and sent Messrs. C. & B. a superb service
of plate, which may be seen at any time at their establishment in Maiden Lane."
Here it is clearly shown that the comparative speed of American horses is to he
attributed not to breed, but to management, on which we the rather insist, as it is to
be desired that American agriculturists and all breeders and trainers of horses, should
understand and practise upon some fixed and rational principles, rather than rely for
success on some imaginarj^ strain of horses, of no certain origin or established
blood. After all, we have accounts of perfonnances in trotting, by English horses,
that may be considered as extraordinary as those of our own, when allowance is
made for the greater value placed, and the more attention and skill bestowed, upon
trotters in this country than in that.
The celebrated English trotter Archer, descended from old Shields, a remarkable
strong horse and master of fifteen stone (two hundred and ten pounds), trotted his
sixteen miles in a very severe frost in less than fifty -five minutes. In 1791, a brown
mare, trotted in England on the Essex road, sixteen miles in fifty-eight minutes and
some seconds, being then 18 years old — and while we are writing we learn from an
official report that Lady Hampton on the 2d of May, 1842, in England, trotted seven-
teen miles in 5Sm. 37s. in harness. She was driven by Burke, of great English
trotting celebrity. On the 13th of October, 1799, a trotting match was decided over
Sunbury Common between Mr. Dixon's brown geldiuCT and Air. Bishop's grey
gelding', carrjing twelve stone (one hundred and sixty-eight pounds) each, which
52 THE HORSE.
was won by the former in twenty-seven minutes and ten seconds. — A Mr. Stevens
made a bet which was decided 5th October, 1796, that he would produce a pair of
horses, his own property, that should trot in tandem from Windsor to Hampton
Court, a distance of sixteen miles, within the liour ; notwithstanding the cross coun-
try road, and great number of turnings, they j)erformcd it with ease in fifty-seven
miimtes and thirteen seconds. Phenomena trotted nineteen miles in an hour. — These
examples are adduced to show the fallacy of that impression which would lead the
Eublic to look to any but the true and rational sources of superiority — for mankind
as ever been prone to the marvellous, preferring to look for all that does not lie on
the surface, to some mysterious influence, unconnected with known and rational
causes. The trotter, according to the distance prescribed as the measure of his
capacity, needs the combination of form and blood — of bone and of muscle, which
give distinction to the hunter ; and the reason, if it be asked, why the thorough-bred
cannot be relied upon for a hard run over a rough country, is, that he rarely combiius
these requisites, and is moreover put to his work when too young ,■ but does any one
doubt that Sir Archy, or Timoleon, or Eclipse, or imported Tranby, or Leviathan
would have made first-rate hunters or trotters, if, before they were put to hard work,
their frames had been left to ripen, and their bones and joints and muscles to get firm
and solid, and at the same time pliant and supple by gentle and moderately increasing
exercise until five or six years old — for here it is to be noted, that as to the age at
which the trotter should be put in training, and that at which he reaches his maximum
of power, though there would seem to be some difference of opinion, all agTee that
the trotter is not in his prime until he is eight or nine years old. The Abdallahs,
great-grandsons of old Messenger, trot much younger ; Hiram Woodruff, and there
can be no better authority, would commence a horse's training for the trot at five or
six years of age, giving him light work however, but going on increasing his work
from year to year, and expecting increasing excellence up to nine or ten years, and
with kind usage he might continue up to this mark for three or four years longer, and
they often last to perform admirably until after twenty — for example, Columbus, Paut
Fry, Topgallant, &c.
The stoutest horses, of whatever kind or degree of blood, might be expected to
give way if put at three or four, as the race-horse is, into severe training under heavy
weights, for trotting stakes or the chase ; but on the other hand, without blood to give
him wind and courage, what would avail his " bag of bones," in a trial to trot his
hundred miles in ten hours'? Johnson, author of the Sportsman's Cyclopedia, justly
esteemed high authority on such subjects, remarks that " thorough-bred horses, and
particularly those of the best blood, are seldom possessed of sufficient bone to render
them pre-eminently calculated for the chase; yet I am free to confess that the very
best hunters that have fallen under my observation have been remarkably well and
very highly bred, but yet not absolutely thorough-bred." The same remark it is not
doubted might be made as generally applicable to our first-rate trotters, at long dis-
tances. The case of Abdallah and Messenger have been instanced to show, that
great trotters not thorough-bred, may and do beget trotters, and hence some would
argue that a distinct race of horses may or does exist. But it is to be remembered
that both Abdallah and Messenger are sons of Mambrino, son of old Messenger, and
of Messenger mares, though not thorough-bred ; and nothing is better known by all
who have been in the habit of attending to these subjects, than that the Blessenger
family is distinguished for making first-rate coach-horses — quick in light harness, and
remarkable for endurance and long life. That Abdallah, therefore, himself deep in
the Messenger blood, should be himself a trotter and a getter of trotters, only proves
that like begets like, and that of a distinct breed, like the thorough-bred horse, cha-
racterized by the possession of general properties belonging only to and constituting
that breed, there may be particular families, distinguished for some peculiar qualities
not possessed in the same degree by other families of the saijie breed. Thus we
have the three classes of the English thorough-bred stock, to wit: the Herod, the
Matchem, and the Eclipse, that have served as crosses for each other. In like manner,
it may be said of the improved short-horn cattle — their general characteristic is early
maturity and propensity to fat, without being generally remarkable as deep milkers,
(hough there are families of the short-horns esteemed for that quality; — a dash
THE HORSE. 53
ot the hijod of old ^lessenger imparts high form and action for the state roach, and
the eye ol the connoisseur can detect the signs in a horse in whose veins flow even
cue-eighth of his blood ; so the fact is generally known to old gentlemen in the South,
and especially avouched by the Sporting and Agricultural Society in South Carolina,
that the stock of old Janus (there called Genius,) was so remarkable as road and
saddle horses, as to have gotten to be considered a distinct breed ; so the Topgal-
lant stock made line saddle-horses, excelling in the canter. The blood horse, too,
is remarkable for longe\-ity — the Messenger stock particularly so. If the truth could
be known, it is probable it flowed in larger or smaller streams in each of the four
thorough-breds which the late General Hampton, (sire of that paragon of sportsmen
and gentlemen, Col. Wade Hampton,) drove in his coach all together for sixteen
years.
Here may be aptly introduced some extracts from a familiar letter received by the editor
from Col. N. Goldsborough, of Talbot, Maryland, who has an eye for the fine points
of a horse, as quick as a hawk's for a fish — one vrho has thought much and with etfect
on all matters that give dignity and attraction to rural life — himself of the pure old
stock in fashion when it meant something to be called a " Marj'land" or " Virginia
gentleman.'^'' He, in confirmation of our hypothesis, says, speaking of Tom Thumb —
'• But whence came his lastingness, his powers of endurance, as well as speed ? I
have been in the habit of thinking, that no horse could long continue exertion, espe-
cially at a rapid pace, without a good tincture of the hloud. At about the same time
there went to England a horse called Rattler, of great speed as a trotter — he was
represented as the cross of a full-bred horse on the Canadian mare. What a magni-
ficent picture '• Whalebone" makes in his trotting action, and how different from the
abovenamed horses ! When a boy, I have seen Phil Hemsly mounted on his trotting
mare, bred on the borders of Queen Anne's County. She was much in the st\le of
the famous Phenomena Mare of England — about fourteen and a half hands high.^
He could keep up with a pack of hounds all day in a trot — and she could pass over
the largest oak bodies lying in a wood, without breaJcing up. I was informed two
years ago in Philadelphia by Mr. Allen, son-in-law of Badger of the ^Marshall House
— that some of the best trotters then in New Jersey, were the offspring of Monmouth
Eclipse — the Messenger blood you see ! I know of no other family of the pure blood
horse which may be said emphatically to produce trotters — the exception confirms the
rule. Col. Lloyd's Yingtun and old Topgallant got fine rackins; nnd cantering
horses. Is" there more than one out of twenty thorough-breds, that makes really a
racer? And are there not as many trotters at the North, and more, than there are
racers at the South, &c., where the most systematic efforts have been persevered in for
years, exclusively for the production of racers ] I have often wondered where they
of the North derived their horses — from what I have seen and heard, they have a
peculiar family, different in appearance, in form strikingly from ours. They of the
North have had some method in this matter — as well as the breeders of short-horns,
Leicester sheep, &c. About the lakes they have a horse of great speed and power,
as I am informed, called the ' Frenchcr.' The English officers bring over from the
mother countr)% fine blooded stallions for troopers and parade. // is the cross of these
and the Canadian mares, which produces the ' Frencher,' — blood is indispensable.
But what is the Canadian? unde venit ? They are descended from the horses of
Normandy carried over by the French settlers. Napoleon's coach when captured
was being drawn by four Norman horses, and I guess the Emperor was not fond of
sitting behind slow cattle. When the Spaniards were in possession of the Low
Countries, they carried with them their Andalusian horses — these were crossed on
tlie Normans, which produced great improvement. When the Spaniards were ex-
pelled, the breeding in-and-in from this stock must have produced a distinct family,
as Bakewe.l produced with other races of quadrupeds. Climate necessarily produced
a change in the Norman horse, when transferred to the rigour of Canadian winters —
hence the thick coat of hair, &:c. Tlie Andalusian, you know, is of Arabian descent
So far as I have been able to learn, Vermont is indebted to Canada for her distin-
guished race of roadsters, as well as the neighbouring States. They have one dis-
tinct family, the ' Morgan,' descended from a little Canadian, famous too for running
quarter races. This family has been cherished for years, and is as distinguished
5*
54 THE HORSE.
among them as old Archy was in Virginia. I have some indistinct recollection to
have seen, years ago, an account of a horse among them got by, or out of a mare by,
Cock of the Rock — Messenger blood again."
It is now in proof that this Morgan breed is descended from a horse that was stolen
"rom General de Lancey, importer of Wildair, and there is every reason to believe
that though he may not have been thorough-bred, he was well steeped in the best
blood of the Anglo-American turf-horse.
While it has been found impracticable to obtain any precise information as to the
pedigTee of some of our very best trotters, in other cases where more is known, they
are found to be deep in the blood. — Awful, whose performances will be seen in the
tables annexed, is known to have been gotten by a thorough-bred " American boy."
Lady Suffolk is by Engineer, but what Engineer not known. Abdallah, as before
me^ioned, is by Mambrino, and he again, a great trotter, by Messenger ; but Dutch-
^m, one of our best trotters, has no known pedigree, though we have some reason
to think he was by Young Oscar, then at Carlisle. He was taken out of a clay-yard,
and was transferred to the trotting-turf from a Pennsylvania wagon-team. — W ood-
Tuff thinks blood does not give them length, or the povi-er to go the long distances ;
but in this it is believed he must be mistaken. These Canadian or Norman-French
stallions, small and compact, which on well-formed large mares give such fine har-
ness horses, and trotters, are, as before said, deeply imbued with the blood of the
barb taken from Spain into Normandy. We have been told lately by an intelligent
Englishman, that the infusion of blood into their coach-horses has enabled them to
lengthen their stages, and in very observable proportion to the degree of blood.
Finally, as where the blood of the trotter when known, is seen to flow in so many
instances from a spring of pure blood, is it not fair to infer a similar origin in cases
where the blood cannot be traced 1 especially as the universal experience of all times
proves that in other paces, the cases have been extremely rare, in which a horse of
impure blood has been known to keep up a great flight of speed? A horse of mixed
blood may be a great trotter at a long distance, because his speed at his best is
greatly behind that of the best speed on the turf; but it would, according to all prin-
ciples of reasoning, be unreasonable to expect great excellence even as a trotter, in
horses altogether free from the blood which gives foot and wind to the Eastern
courser. Though we may not be able to trace it, and though in solitary cases a
horse without it, may possess gieat speed and lastingness in the trot, from excellent
accidental conformation, we repeat that the possession of the two, warrants the pre-
sumption of the third, however obscure the traces, or remote the origin ; — this is our
theory ! But the action to be cultivated in the racer and the trotter is of itself suffi-
cient to explain why a racer should not succeed at once on the turf and on the trotting,
course. All reflecting and observant men will admit that " as there is no royal way
to mathematics," so there is but one way for a horse to excell in his business ; and
with rare exceptions there is but one in which any individual horse can excel. —
Whatever that business may be, to be perfect in it he should be educated and kept to
it — and to it only. A trotting-horse should do nothing but trot.
As what has been said may promote a disposition to form clubs in order to culti-
vate more generally and certainly the powers of the trotting horse, with the view of
practical utility in the business of life, it is deemed well to submit at tliis point, the
Rules of the Trotting Club at New York. The rules which prevail elsewhere are
essentially the same, or so little variant that the difference is not deemed worthy of
notice.
Rules and Regulations adopted by the New York Trotting Club for the Beacon ana
Centreville Courses. — September 1st, 1841.
1. — All Matches or Sweepstakes which shall come off over a Course, under the
jurisdiction of this Club, will be governed by these Rules, unless the contrary is
mutually agreed upon by the parties making such match or stake.
2. — All Purses, ]\Iatches, or Sweepstakes to which the Club or Proprietors contri-
bute, they shall have the power to postpone, should the weather prove unfavourable
on the day previously named for the trotting of the same.
THE HORSE. 55
3. — None but Members shall be allowed to trot a horse for any lunited Purse wiven
_by this Association.
4. — Horses trained in the same stable or owned in part by the same person, shall
not start for a Purse ; and horses so entered shall forfeit their entrance. A horse
starting alone shall receive but one-half the Purse. Horses deemed by the Judges
not fair trotting horses, shall be ruled oti' previous to, or distanced at the termination
of a heat.
5. — All entries shall be made under a seal, inclosing the entrance money, (ten per
cent, on the Purse,) and addressed to the Secretary, at such time and place as may
have been previously designated by advertisement.
6. — Every Trotting horse starting for Match, Purse, or Stake, shall carry 145lbs. —
if in harness, the weight of the vehicle not to be considered. Pacing horses to be
allowed 5lbs. ; Wagons to weigh 2501bs,
7. — A distance for mile heats, best three in five, shall be one hundred yards ; for
one-mile heats, eighty yards, and for every additional mile an additional eighty
yards.
8. — ^The time between heats shall be — for one mile, twenty minutes, and for every
additional mile, an additional five minutes.
9. — There shall be chosen by the Proprietors of the Course, or Stewards, Three
Judges, to preside over a race for Purses, and by them two additional Judges shall be
appointed for the distance stand ; they may also, during, or previous to a race, appoint
Inspectors at any part of the Course, whose report shall be received of any foul riding
or driving.
10. — Should a difference of opinion exist between the Judges in the starting stand,
on any question, a majority shall govern.
11. — ^The Judges shall order the horses saddled or harnessed, five minutes previous
to the time appointed for starting, or at the expiration of the time allowed between
heats. Any rider or driver causing undue detention, after being called up, by making
false starts or otherwise, the Judges may give the word to start, without reference to
the situation of the horse so offending, unless convinced such delay is unavoidable on
the part of the rider or driver ; in which case not more than thirty minutes shall be
consumed in attempts to start.
12. — The Pole shall be drawn for by the Judges. The horse winning a heat, shall,
for the succeeding heat, be entitled to a choice of the track. On coming out on the
last stretch, each horse shall retain the track first selected ; any horse deviating shall
be distanced.
13. — In all cases of dispute, and not provided for by these Rules, the Judges for the
day will decide finally. In case of a race or match being proved to their satisfaction
to have been made or conducted improperly and dishonestly, on the part of the prin-
cipals, they shall have the power to declare all bets void. They shall also have
the power to mitigate the penalty of a rider or driver's disobeying these rules, by
giving the next best horse a heat, instead of distancing the person so offending, should
circumstances justify them in such mitigation.
14. — Riders and drivers shall not be permitted to start unless dressed in Jockey
style.
15. — Riders and Drivers shall weigh in the presence of one or more Judges, pre.
vious to starting ; and after a heat, are to come up to the starting stand, and not to
dismount until so ordered by the Judges. Any rider or driver disobeying, shall, on
•weighing, be precluded from the benefit of the weight of his saddle and whip — and
if not full weight, shall be distanced.
16. — A rider or driver committing any act which the Judges may deem foul riding
or driving, shall be distanced.
17. — Should any horse break from his trot or pace, and gain by such break, twice
the distance so gained shall be taken from him on coming out. A horse breaking on
the score shall not lose the heat by so doing.
18. — A horse must win two heats to be entitled to the Purse — unless he distance
all other horses in one heat. — A distanced horse in a dead heat shall not start again.
19. — A horse not winning one heat in three, shall not start for a fourth heat, unless
such horse shall have made a dead heat. "When a dead heat is made between two
horses, and if either had won the heat, the race would have been decided, they Twe
56 THE HORSE.
,niy shall start again. Such horses as are prevented from starting by this Rule, snail
be considered drawn and not distanced.
20. If two horses each win a heat, and neither are distanced in the race, they arc
equal ; if neitlier win a heat, and neither distanced, they are equal ; but if one wins
a heat, and the other does not, the winner of a heat is best, unless he shall be dis-
tanced subsequently, in which case the other, if not distanced, shall be the best. A
horse that wins a heat and is distanced, is better than one not making a heat and
oeing distanced. A horse distanced the second heat, than one distanced the firs
beat, &c.
21. — Horses drawn before the conclusion of a race, shall be considered distanced
22. — Horses that forfeit, are the beaten horses, when it is pay or play.
23. — All bets are understood to relate to the Purse, Match, or Stake, if nothing i
said to the contrary.
24. — A confirmed bet cannot be let off without mutual consent. If either party be
absent at the time of trotting, and the money be not staked, the party present may
declare the bet void, in the presence of the Judges, unless some party will stake the
money betted for the absentee.
25. — A bet made on a heat to come, is no bet, if all the horses qualified to start do
not ; unless the bet be between such horses as do start. A bet made after the heat
is over, is void, if the horse bet upon does not start.
26. — The person who bets the odds, has a right to choose the horse or the field.
When he has chosen his horse, the field is what starts against him ; but there is no
field unless one starts wdth him. If odds are bet without naming the horses before the
trot is over, it must be determined as the odds were at the time of making it. Bets
made in trotting are not determined till the Purse is won, if the heat is not specified
at the time of betting. Bets made between particular horses are void, if neither of
them be winner, unless specified to the contrary.
27. — All bets made on horses precluded from starting, by (Rule No. 19,) being
distanced in the race ; or on such horses against each other, shall be drawn.
28. — All engagements are void upon the decease of either party, before being de-
termined.
Under the preceding Rules, the following performances have been achieved,
according to the official record — the New York Spirit of the Times.
It may be proper, however, for the due appreciation of the performances included
in these tables, to make some preliminary remarks upon weighls carried by trotting
horses, and on their comparative speed in harness and under the saddle, &c. The
weight carried on the Northern courses, where a majority of our trotting takes place,
is 145 pounds, without any distinction for age or sex ; and the same weight has to
be carried by the driver, exclusive of the weights of his sulky or match-cart, as by
the same jockey in the saddle. These match-carts are of the neatest construction,
and weigh generally nearly ninety pounds, though they often weigh twenty pounds
less, and there are one or two which weigh but fifty-three pounds ! But the mere
weight to be carried or drawn by a Irolter, is much less regarded by the sportsman
than in the case of the race-horse. On the Hunting Park Course, near Philadelphia,
the weight was formerly 147 pounds in the saddle, and in harness catch-weights, but
they have row adopted the New York scale. But in far the greater number of the
cases below, unless the weight be expressly named, it may be presumed to be from
145 to 155 pounds. Hiram Woodruff weighs without his saddle 160 pounds. On
the Beacon and Centreville Courses, pacers are allowed five pounds, and wagons, in
distinction from sulkeys or match-carts, must weigh 250 pounds.
As a matter of course, from the difference of weights carried along by him, Ihe
trotter generally makes better time under the saddle than in harness, thouoh tlicre
are some exceptions to this rule. Another consideration has great influence upon
this difference in time. Under the saddle, the jockey can hug the pole of our oval-
shaped courses more closely than in harness, and thus he actually goes over less
ground. And for an obvious reason the speed of a horse in going " round the turns'
is more retarded in a sulkcy than under the saddle. As before stated, no allowance
of weights is made for age, and in consequence no note is taken of the age of trotter?
n official reports of their performances.
TROTTING TABLES.
67
TROTTING AT MILE HEATS.
N.me.
Colour
E.lwin Forrest
bl.g..
Edwin Forrest
bl. g..
Burster
gr-g--
Dutchman
1). g. . .
Dut.liuiari
b.g...
Norman Leslie
bl. g..
ConluieiiKO
b.g...
Locomotive
ch.g..
Brooklyn Maid
cli. m.
Pallv Millsr
b. m..
Cliurlotto U'emplo . .
gr. m.
saddle. .
•2.31-
saddle. .
i.>.H7-
saddle..
ii.:«
harness.
'j;«-
saddle..
2.»i-
saddle. .
'->.:«-
harness.
'2.35
saddle..
2.38-
saddle..
'2.42-
-2.32-2.35
-2.35—2.33—2.33—2.40
-2.36i— 2.38— 2.39— 2.3i
-2.37-2.
-2.36—2.
-2.41-2.
36
37
40— 2.40i— 2.40
!.40— 2.42— 2.44
39—2.40
Course.
jale.
Contreville, L. L.
Trenton, N. J....
Hunting Park, Pa.
Beacon Course, N. J.
Trenton, N.J
Do.
Beacon Course, N. J
Centreville, L. I..
Do.
Hunting Park, Pa
Do.
TROTTING AT TWO-MILE HEATS.
Lady Suffolk
LadvSutiolk
Lady Sutiolk
Edwin Forrest
Edwin Forrest
D. D. Tompkins. . . .
Ripton
Kipton
Dutchman
Dutchman
Contidonce
Washington
Dutchess
Rattler
Rattler
Don Juan
Modesty
Greenwich Maid . . .
Awful
Henry
Topgallant
Ripton
Americus
Confidence
saddle..
saddle. .
g. in..
harness.
bl. g..
saddle..
bl.g..
harness.
saddle..
hr. g. .
harness.
br. g..
harness.
b.g...
saddle..
b. g...
harness.
b. g.. .
harness.
gf. S--
harness.
br. in.
harness.
b. g...
saddle. .
b.g...
saddle. .
ch. g..
saddle..
gr. in..
saddle..
b. m..
harness.
b. g...
saddle..
ch. g..
harness.
b. g...
saddle..
hr.'ff..
harness.
b. g...
harness.
b.g...
harness.
4.59— 5.03i
5.05
5.10-5.15
5.05—5.06
5 17-5.13-5.17
5.16^-5.11
5.10i-5.]2t
5.07—5.15
5.16-5.09
5.11—5.10
5.]6i— 5.1Ci-5.16--5.18-5.25
5.18i-5.I7— 5.26
.5.18-5.20
5.17— 5.13i
5.29-5.17-5.40
5 17—5.14
5.25-5.19—5.21
5.20—5.22
5.28-5.2Ii
5.20-5.28
5.27—5.19—5 23
5.07!— 5.15— 5.17!
5.14-5.20
5 14i-5.27-5.37
I Centreville, L. I
Beacon Course, N. J.
i Centreville, L. I
Hunting Park, Pa.. .
Do.
Centreville, L. f
Beacon Course, N. J.
Hu'iting Park, Pa
Bea(on Course, N.J.
Do.
Centieville, L. I
Do
Do
Beacon Course, N. J.
Do.
Centreville, L. I
Do
Beacon Course, N. J.
Do. .. ..
Centreville, L. I
Do
Hunting Park, Pa....
Beacon Course, N. J.
Centreville, L. I
May, 1834
Spring, 1834.
Fall, 1830.
July, 1839.
Sept. 1836.
June, 18:16
June, 1841
Oct. 1837.
May, 1841.
Nov. 1833.
Nov. 1834.
Sept. 1840.
Julv, 1641.
May, 1642.
Mav, 1840.
Oct. 1838.
Oct. ]«37.
May, 1842.
Mav, 1842.
April, 1839.
Oct. 1839.
Mav, 1841.
Sept. 1840.
May, 1841.
Oct. 1838.
July, 1838.
Oct. 1839.
Sept. 1835.
June, 1838.
Oct. 18;}8.
Oct. 1839.
Oct. 1831.
Mav, 1842.
Sept. 1842.
July, 1842.
But the most extraordinary performance is yet to be recorded. We should have omitted it, as being
perhaps apochryphal, had it not been well avouched to us by a respectable looker-on, who may be
believed— as follows : D. Bryan's Lady Suffolk and Rifle— double-harness— Uunling Park- 31st May, 1843,
two miles in 5.19 ! 1
TROTTING AT THREE-MILE HEATS.
Dutchman
Dutchman
Dutchman
Dutchman
Lady Suffolk
Columbus
Aaron Burr
Rattler
Screwdriver
D. D. Tompkins
Lady Warrington. .
Columbus
Lady Victory
Screwdriver
Topgallant
Sir Peter
Sir Fetor
Whalebone
Shakspeare
Betsy Baker
Caio
Ripton
Ripton
b. g...
saddle .
b.g...
harness.
b.g...
saddle..
b. e...
saddle. .
gr. m..
sadd'e..
b.g...
saddle..
b. g...
harness.
b. g...
saddle..
b.g...
saddle..
ch. g. .
saddle. .
ch. m..
saddle..
b. g...
saddle. .
ch.m..
harness.
ch. g. .
hfvness.
b.g...
saddle..
b. g...
harness.
b. g..-
harness.
harness.
b. g..
saddle. .
br. m..
saddle..
bl. h..
harness.
br.g...
harness.
br.g..
harness. |
.54i— 7.50-8.02— 8.24i .
.51-7.51
.40i— 7.56
.02-8.05
.02^-8.03—6.08-8.16 .
.11—8.17
.02-8.10
.07
05—8.17—8.19
.58—8.07
,18-8.38
23—8.06-8.17 .
.32—8.19
17—8.13
18
8.16
8.02-8.18 .
8.00— 7.56i.
8.03—8.04 .
Beacon Course, N.
Do.
Do.
Hunting Park, Pa..
Do.
Centreville, L.L...
Beacon Course, N.
Philadelphia, Pa.. .
Hunting Park, Pa..
Do.
Trenton, N. J
Huntimr Park, Pa..
Centreville, L.I... .
Hunting Park, Pa..
Centreville, L. I
Do.
Do.
Centreville, L.I... .
Beacon Course, N.
Do.
Aug. 1839.
July, 1839.
Oct. ]8.m
May, 1840.
May, 1841.
May, 1834.
June, 1841. .
Oct. 1838.
About 1827.
May, 1838.
Nov. 183C.
June, 1834.
June, 183J
Oct. 183-2.
Oct. 1829.
Oct. 1828.
Oct. 182:j.
May, 1831
Aug. 1842.
i Oct. 1842.
TROTTING AT FOUR-MILE HEATS.
Dutchman
Ladv Suffidk
LadV Suffolk
Sir Peter
Ellen Thompson . .
b. g.. . I saddle. .
gr. m.. I saddle. .
gr. in., saddle. .
11.19-10.51 I Centreville. L.I i May, 1830
11.15—11.58 Do. June, 184a
11.22-11.34 Cambridfje, Mass Nov. 1839.
11.23—11.27 Hunting Park, Pa.... Oct. 1829
11.55—11.33 [Beacon Course, N. J. | May, 184S •
58
THE HORSE,
BEST PACING IN AMERICA ON RECORD.
Drover
Top Sawyer
Oneida Chief. ..
Volcano
Billy
Oneida Chief...
Oneida Chief. ..
Oneida Chief. ..
Bonny Boy
Stranger
Saddle or
H.irnes.
Distance.
saddlf^. .
1 mile.
saddle..
1 do.
saddle :
1 do.
saddle..
1 do.
saddle..
1 do.
saddle..
2 miles
saddle .
3 do.
harness.
3 do.
saddle. .
2 do.
saddle..
2 do.
Tin
2.30—2.31—2.28
2.31
2.:f4— 2.33— 2.31
2.39— 2.31i— 2.34i— 2.3ej .
2.32
5.14-509i
7.50—8.04
8.17—8.201
5.06— 5.07i
5.10—5.16
Course.
Beacon Course, N. J.
Centreville, L.I
Harlaem, N Y
Beacon Course, N. J.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Centreville, L.I
Do
Dale.
Oct. 1839
Oct. 1835.
Oct. 1835.
June, 1841
July, 1841.
June, 1838
Nov. 1841.
June, 1840.
Sept. 1829.
Oct. 1829.
MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES OF EXTRAORDINARY PERFORISI-
ANCES OF AMERICAN TROTTERS.
On the 21st of October, 1841, a match came ofF on the Centreville Course, L. I.,
for $5500, five-mile heats, between Jimericus, a bay gelding, and Lady Suifolk, so
often named in the preceding tables. Americas vron in two heats, and in the follow-
ing time, believed to be the best on record :
SECOND HEAT.
Time of first mile
FIRST HEAT.
Time of first mile 2.54i
" " second " 2.50^
" " third " 2.46
" " fourth " 2.421
" " fifth " 2.441
Time of first heat 13.58
" second
" third
" fourth
" fifth
.2.51
.2.50
.2.46
,2.47
.2.44A
Time of s
3ondheat 13.58|
See
Tup gallant, by Hambletonian, trotted in harness 12 miles in 38 minutes.
Turf Register, vol. 1. p. 124.
Ten miles have been repeatedly trotted in America within two or three seconds of
thirty minutes.
A roan mare called Yankee. Sal trotted, as has been stated without contradiction, in
a match against time, on the Course at Providence, R. I., which was at the time
heavy and" deep, fifteen miles and a half in 48m., 43s. — a rate of speed so pro-
digious under ilie circumstances,X\\-aX we have often suspected there may have been an
error as to the time.
Lady Kate, a bay mare, 15 hands high, trotted on the Canton Course near Balti-
more 16 miles in 56m. 13s., and the reporter adds "she could have done seve^iteen
with easey
In October, 1831, Jerry performed 17 miles on the Centreville Course, L. I., in 58
minutes under the saddle.
In September, 1839, Tom Thumb, an American horse, was driven in England 16^
miles in 56m. 45s. We shall have more to say of this phenomenon, when we come
to his performance of 100 miles.
In 1836, the grey gelding Mount Holly was backed at $1000 to $500, to trot twenty
miles within the hour. The attempt was made on the 10th of October, on tlie Hunt-
ing Park Course, Pa., but failed. He performed 17 miles in 53m. 18s., without the
least distress. He was miserably jockeyed for the first five miles, doing no one of
them in less than five minutes.
Pelham, a large bay gelding, in a match to go 16 miles within the hour, performed
that distance without any training in 58m. 28s. He went in harness seven miles in
26m. 2f)s., when, the sulkey being badly constructed, he was taken out and saddled,
and mounted by Wallace (riding i60lbs. without his saddle) and won his match.
Paul Pry, a bay gelding, was backed to perform 17^^ miles within the hour, under
the saddle. On the 9th of November, 1833, on the Union Course, L. I., he won the
match, performing 18 miles in 58m. 52s. Hiram Woodruff, weighing then 138lbs..
jockeyed him. Paul Pry was nine years old, bred on Long Island, and got bj
Mount Holly, dam by Hambletonian.
THE HORSE. 59
In 1831, Chancellor, a grey gelding, ridden by a small boy, perform*,d 32 miles on
the Hunting Park Course, Pa., in 1 hour, 58m. 31s. The last mile, to save a bet,
was trotted in 3m. 7s.
In October of the same year, George Woodruff drove Whalebone on the same
Course, the same distance in 1 hour, 53m. 5s. He commenced the match in a light
sulkey, which broke down on the 14th mile, and was replaced by one much heavier.
This Course is fifty feet more than a mile in the saddle track, and much more than
that in the harness track.
On the 11th of September, 1839, Mr. McMann's bay mare. Empress, on the Beacon
Course, in a match against time, $600 a side, performed in harness 33 miles in 1
hour, 58m. 55s.
The American horse Rattler was ridden by Mr. Osbaldistone in England, in a
match against Driver, 34 miles in 2 hours, 18m. 56s. — Mr. Osbaldistone rode 125
lbs. ; Rattler was 15^ hands high.
In July, 1835, Black Juke was driven in a match against time, on the Course at
Providence, R. I., 50 miles in 3 hours, 57s.
A gray roadster is reported to have performed the same distance on the Hunt'ng
Park Course, Pa., in 3 hours, 40m. It was a private match.
A grey mare, Mischief, by Mount Holly, out of a Messenger mare, 8 years old, in
Julj^ 1837, performed about 84^ miles in 8 hours, 30m. in harness, on the road from
Jersey City to Philadelphia. The owner would not allow a whip to be \xs&\. The
day was excessively warm, and the mare lost her match (to perform 90 miles in 10
hours) through the stupidity of a groom who dashed a pail of water over her with a
view of cooling her.
Tom Thumb, before mentioned, performed on 2d February, 1829, on Sunbury
Common, England, 100 miles in 10 hours, 7m. in harness. He was driven by
"William Haggerty (weighing over 140 lbs.) in a match-cart weighing 108 lbs. This
performance, so extraordinary, demands more than a passing notice, and we accord-
ingly abridge from an English paper the following description:
Tom Thumb was brought from beyond the Missouri, and is reported to have been
an Indian pony, caught wild and tamed. Others again, allowing him to have been thus
domesticated, think him to have been not the full-bred wild horse of the Western
prairies, but to have had some cross of higher and purer blood. But too little is
known of his breeding, savinjr his western origin, to justify any satisfactory specu-
lation.
His height was 14i hands, and his appearance, when standing still, rough and
uncouth. From his birth, he had never been shorn of a hair. He was an animal of
remarkable hardihood, a hearty feeder, and though accustomed to rough usage, was
free from vice, playful and good-tempered. He was eleven years old when he per-
formed his match, and had never had a day's illness. At full speed his action was
particularly beautiful — he threw his fore-legs well out, and brought up his quarters
in good style ; he trotted square, though rather wide behind, and low. He was driven
without a bearing rein, which is going out of use in England, and simply with a
snaffle-bit and martingale. He pulled extremely hard — his head being, in conse-
quence, well up and close to his neck, and his mouth wide open. He did his work
with great ease to himself, and at 1 1 miles the hour, seemed to be only playing,
while horses accompanying laboured hard.
The whole time allowed for refreshments during his great performance, amounted to
but 37 minutes, including taking out and putting to the cart, taking off and putting on
the harness, feeding, rubbing down and stalling. The day before and the day after the
match, he walked full twenty miles. His jockey provided himself with a whip, but
made no use of it in driving him ; a slight kick on the hind-quarters was quite suffi-
cient to increase his speed when necessary.
In February, 1828, a pair of horses trotted against time 100 miles on the Jamaica
turnpike, on Long Island, and won in 11 hours, 54m.
But in June, 1834, a pair of horses belonoing to Mr. Theal, trotted that distance in
harness on the Centreville Course, within 10 hours, and immediately after Mr. B
offered to bet S5500 that he would produce a pair of horses that could trot 110 miles
in harness within the same time ! — The bet was taken, but afterwards abandoned by
60 THE HORSE,
the backers of time, who paid forfeit. — Another gentleman offered to produce for a
wager a pair of horses that should trot 100 miles in nine hours in harness, but no
Oi.e would back time against the performance. •
Having thus gone through with these numerous details, let us dwell for a moment
upon some of the most extraordinary performances noted in the tables. Probably the
most remarkable trotting performance on record is Dutchman's match against time.
But we will first give the report of his match with Rattler, which we compile from
the " Spirit of the Times."
EXTRAORDINARY TROTTING MATCH.
A TROTTING MATCH, for $1000 a-side, Three mile heats, under the saddle, came off
on Saturday,Oct. 6, 1838, at 4 o'clock, over the Beacon Course, opposite this city. The
annals of the turf furnish no parallel to it; every foot of the ground was severely con-
tested, and the time made is by far the best on record.
Dutchman and Rattler were the contending horses; the first is a handsome bay
gelding, of great size and substance, about 16 hands high; he is what is termed " a
meaty horse," and looks, when in fine condition, like an ordinary roadster in "good
order." He was trained for the match and ridden by Hiram Woodruff. Rattier is
a brown gelding, of about lo| hands, and " a rum 'un to look at;" he was drawn very
fine, though one of those that seldom carry an ounce of superfluous flesh ; we hear that
his feed of late has seldom exceeded six quarts per day, while Dutchman's has been
between twelve and sixteen. Rattler was trained and ridden by William Wheelan.
His style of going is superior to Dutchman's; he spreads himself well, and strikes out
clear and even. Dutchman does not appear to have perfect command of his hind legs :
instead of throwing them forward, he raises them so high as to throw up his rump, and
consequently falls short in his stride. The main dependence of his backers was based
upon his game ; and a gentleman who "put on the pot" to a heavy amount on Rattler,
offered 2 to 1 on Dutchman before the start, provided the heats were broken.
The odds before the horses came upon the track were 5 to 4 on Dutchman ; after the
riders were up, 5 to 3 was current, and at length 2 to 1. As they were ridden up and
down in front of the stand previous to starting, both appeared to be in superb condition,
and to have their action perfectly. The track was so hard and smooth that the nails
in the shoes of the horses could be seen every step they made. A great many bets
were made on time; even bets were made that it would be better than any on record.
To determine what the best time on record was, it was shown that in 1833, Columbus
trotted a three mile heat, under the saddle, over the Hunting Park Course, Philadel-
phia, in 7:57^, — but to prevent any dispute about the fractions of a second, 7:58 was
declared to be the best time made. On the 10th of October, 1837, Daniel D. Tomp-
kins, in a match, literally vs. the world, beat Rattler, over the Centreville Course, in
7:59 — 8:09, three mile heats, under the saddle. Both Dutchman and Rattler are
owned by gentlemen of this city; the latter was ridden without a spur.
The Race. — Rattler drew the track, but resigned it to Dutchman on the first
quarter; he came in fronton the backside, and at the half-mile post led by two lengths;
he soon after broke up, when Dutchman headed him and led past the stand (2:42)
round to the straight stretch on the backside, where the ground being descending, and
more favourable to him, Rattler passed. Dutchman waited upon him, close up, tc
near the three-quarter mile post, where Rattler shook him ofl; and led past the stand
(2:38) by four lengths; keeping up his rate, he led down the backside and round th
turn to the straight stretch in front, where Hiram caught Dutchman by the head, and
laid in the spurs up to the gaffs; the brush home was "tremendous, but Rattler won by
nearly a lenErth, trotting the 3d mile in 2:34^, and the heat in 7:54|.
Second heat. — Dutchman broke at starting, and 2 to 1 was offered against him.
Down the backside the horses were lapped all the way; on the ascending ground,
within about ten rods of the half-mile post, Dutchman gained a little, and came first to
the stand (2:37). He drew out two lengths ahead round the 1st turn on the 2d mile,
but Rattler gallantly challenged him down the backside and lapped him; at the half-
mile post Dutchman was again clear, but by a desperate effort Rattler lapped him
when they got into straight work in front, and thus they came to the stand (2:33).
On the backside Rattler, as usual, drew out clear, but for an instant only ; the spurs
THE HORSE. 61
were well laid into D.,and the struggle was desperate ; Dutchman hung upon Rattler'g
quarter, and gradually gained to the half-mile post, when they were locked as perfectly
as if in double harness. The contest was almost too much for Rattler, who skipped
several times, and was only prevented from breaking by Bill's holding him up. They
came up the quarter stretch at an immense pace, but opposite the four mile distance
stand, Rattier unfoctunately broke up, when nearly a lengm ahead, and Dutchman
won the heat by six or eight lengths. When Rattler skipped, Wheelan should have
taken him in hand, but he was so much ahead, and so near home, (within 180 "ards,)
that under the intense excitement of the moment, he neglected doing so; had he done
so, however, at the rate Dutchman was going he would probably have won by a few
feet, for Rattler could not have made up any lee-way, caused by pulling him up;
nothing but his breaking lost him the heat. The instant Rattler broke, Hiram pulled
up Dutchman, and he would have walked out had not the people in the stand called
out to him to " come on." The last mile was performed in 2:40, and the heat in 7:50;
had Dutchman kept up his stroke, the time of the heat would have been 7:4S.
Third heat. — Dutchman went off with a fine stride (2 to 1 offered on him) and led
about half-way down the backside, when Rattier caught him; at the half mile post
they were locked, and thus they can^^ lo the stand (in 2:4'2); they made the turn in
the same position, and nothing but repeated injunctions from the Judges to keep silent,
prevented cheers from the stands that. would have made the welkin ring; it was a
beautiful sight ; both were going, D. under the spur, at a flight of speed, neck and
neck ; half-way down the backside. Rattler got almost clear, but Dutchman soon after
lapped, and when they came to the stand (2:3S.') was half a length ahead. When
they got into straight work on the backside. Rattler again collared him, and they went
locked to near the half mile post, when Dutchman once more got in front, Wheelan
having taken Rattler in hand for a brush up the straight side. This he made soon
after; they were lapped as they swung round the turn, and the struggle that ensued
revived recollections o^ Bascombe and Post-Boy. Profound silence was preserved on
the stand, that neither horse might be excited or frightened into a break, and the
interest of the scene was so great, that each of the spectators seemed to hold his breath
as the horses neared the stand ; it was a brush to the end, Dutchman coming out a
throatlatch in front, caused by Hiram's giving up his pull, and giving him a push d la
Chifney, which made him clearly the winner by a foot. The excited feelings of the
crowd in tlie stand could no longer be repressed, but burst out in a tumultuous cheer
that might have been heard three miles off. The last mile was done in 2:414, and
the heat in 8:02. The Judges, after some discussion, pronounced it a dead heat.
Great odds were now offered on Dutchman, though he exhibited more "signals of
distress" than Rattler; his trainer, however, informed us that he "hung out" these
after taking his ordinary exercise ; " it was a way he had," rather than any severe
exertion which produced them. Both sweated freely, and came to the post a fourth
time "about as good as new." The performance of the match commenced at 4
o'clock; it was six, and almost dark, when they started on the
Fourth heat. — Dutchman led off from the score to half-way down the backside, by
three lengths; Rattler, however, lapped him at the half mile post, but Dutchman
soon after drew out in front again ; Hiram kept him at his work from this point to the
finish, and Rattler never got up to him afterwards, that we could see, for it was now
so dark, neither horse nor rider conld be distinguished ; Rattler subsequently fell off in
his stride, and was finally beaten handily by six lengths, after as game and honest a
race as we ever saw, and by far the best, in point of time, on record.
As a matter of reference, we give the time of each mile of this great performance:
Saturday, Oct. 6, 1838. — Beacon Course, N. J. — Match, 81000 a side, under the
Saddle ; weight 145 lbs. on each. Three mile heats.
Mr. E. M.'sbr. g. Dutchman Hiram Woodruff. 2 10 1
Messrs. V. & M.'s b. g. Rattler Wm. Wheelan. ..1202
1st mile 2:42 .Tlstmile 2:.37. .1st mile 2:42 ..1st mile... .2:53
2d mile 2:38 ..2d mile 2:33.. 2d mile 2:381. 2d mile... .2:43
3d mile 2:34^.. 3d mile 2:40.. 3d mile 2:4l|..3d mile.... 2:48^
First heat 7:54^. . Second heat . .7:50. . Third heat . .8:02 . .Fourth heat .8:24J
6
(J2 THE HORSE.
From th& sbove it will be seen that the average time of the 2d heat was 2:36 and
two-thirds of a second per mile, and that of the four heats 2:40 and five-sixths of a
second.
A great number of people were assembled to witness the match, and we were struck
with the number of gentlemen in attendance. Every one seemed delighted, and as
they will no doubt be induced to turn out on any similar occasion, the match cannot
fail to exercise a salutary and beneficial influence upon our "Associations for the
Improvement of Road Horses." In closing our account, we must not omit to speak
of the admirable condition in which Woodruff" and Wheelan brought their horses to
the post; they jockeyed them, too, "like a knife," displaying the most consummate
skill and judgment; a superior exhibition of horsemanship has not been seen here
since the day Purdy stripped to throw a leg over the saddle of old Eclipse.
From the same paper we compile a report of the match against time which came
otFin the following year, 1839.
This match, for .$1000 a side, vs. time, was made on the 11th July, on the evening
of the day on which Dutchman beat Awful, three-mile heats, in harness, in a match
of .§.5000 vs. §;2500. The backers of time staked their money against Dutchman's
trotting three miles in 7:49. He was allowed to perform the match in harness or
under the saddle — to make two trials if necessary, and to have two hours intermission
between them ; the match was appointed to come off" on the 1st day of August, pro-
vided the weather and track were unexceptionable ; weight according to the rules of
the course, or 145 lbs.
Fortunately the track was in pretty good order, though dusty; the weather all day
had been excessively warm, but as the match came oft' late in the afternoon, the air
was cooler and more bracing. After being walked for some time up and down in
front of the stand in his match cart, with his hood and sheet on, he was taken out of
harness and groomed; at a quarter to seven o'clock, was led to the judges' stand;
and Hiram Woodruff, coming out of the weighing-room, threw his leg over the
saddle. A fine thorough-bred grey mare was also mounted at the same time by Isaac
Woodruff" to keep him company, and at a steady racing pace. The Judge and the
two official Timers now selected a third, who having taken his place in their stand, the
horses were called up. Dutchman was the favourite at odds.
The race. — At precisely 10 minutes to 7 o'clock the signal was given, and Dutch-
man went off' with a long, clean stroke, that kept the mare up to three parts racing
speed; Dutchman went to the quarter mile post in 40 seconds, and did the 1st halt
mile in 1:17^ ; the mare was not allowed to pass him, but was kept well up ; in com-
ing down the quarter-stretch Dutchman pulled to the mare, doing the 1st mile in 2:34^,
At the stand Hiram told her rider to ''go along,^^ and as she locked him, old Dutch-
man, like a trump as he is, made a tremendous burst, doing the 1st quarter of the 2d
mile in 38 seconds, and the half mile in 1:15. Going down the backside Hiram bade
Isaac ^'let the mare out," and so immense was Dutchman's rate for a few hundred
yards, that it seemed as if the mare could not have passed had she tried. From the
half mile post to the stand there was no faltering, and but little falling off" in the pace,
the mile being done in 2:28 — the best time on record. Dutchman was kept at his
work from the stand, and came to the quarter mile post on the 3d mile in 39 seconds,
and to the half mile post in 1:16, which showed a falling off" but of a second from the
time of the previous 1st quarter and 1st half mile. Hiram feeling confident now that
ne had won the match, and all bets against time, came home at an easier pace, finish-
ing the third and last mile in 2:30, having performed the last two miles in 4:58, and
the heat in 7:32^ — being sixteen and a half seconds inside of his time.
Dutchman, in this match, has made the best time on record, at one, two, and three
miles. He was in superb condition, and never broke up from the start to the end,
we need hardly add, he was jockeyed most admirably. We add, for convenience of
reference, a summary of this wonderful performance : —
Thursday, Aug. 1, 1839 — Match, $1000 a side, Dutchman vs. Time — Three miles
in 7:49, in harness or under the saddle ; weight 145 lbs.
Won by INIessrs. 's b. g. Dutchman. . . .ridden by Hiram Woodruff", as follows.'—
First mile, 2:34i— Second, 2:28— Third, 2:30— Time of the three miles, 7:32-J.
THE HORSE. 63
We will conclude the details of fast trotting with the performance? of the extra
ordinary animals in the current year. They are, it will be seen, the best on record
at the distance of two miles in harness.
TROTTING ON THE BEACON COURSE.
Saturday, jNIay 7. — Purse $300, of which $50 to go to the second best horse in the
race. Two-mile heats, in harness.
Hiram Woodruff's br. g. Ripton II. Woodruff 1 1
D. Bryan's gr. m. Lady Suffolk 2 2
Wra. Wheelan's b. g. Conjldence 3 3
Time, 5:10i— 5:12^.
This was the great event. As they were driven up and down in front of the stand
previous to starting, they all appeared to be in superb condition, and to have their
action perfectly. Confidence had the call in betting. Ripton drew the track. Confi-
dence second, and the Lady outside. After two or three false starts they got off
■well together, but on making the first turn Confidence broke. Ripton drew out two
lengths ahead around the first turn, the Lady close up. Confidence soon got into his
work again, made up his lost ground, and taking the inside down the back stretch, he
soon drew out in front. They all swung into the straight side well together, coming
up the quarter stretch at an immense pace. Confidence passing the Judges' stand a
little ahead, Ripton close upon his wheel, making the first mile in 3:34. As they
swung around the turn, into the back stretch in the second mile, Ripton gallantly
challenged him down the backside at a flight of speed, neck and neck ; at the half
mile post Ripton drew out a length in front. Confidence subsequently fell off in his
stride, but the Lady taking up the running the remaining part of the heat, made Rip-
ton come home in 2:36^.
ScconikHeaf. — They all came up to the scratch for mischief. Confidence broke
again on the turn, Ripton taking the lead for the first quarter, and then resigning it to
the Lady, who kept it, passing the Judges' stand about a length ahead, Ripton well
up, and Confidence considerably in the rear. As they entered the back stretch, Hiram
made play for the lead, and the Lady having broke, he soon took it, closely followed
by the mare. Oji making the turn for the straight side home, Ripton made a skip, and
lost about two lengths ; the mare came up and took the track on the inside, and got
about a length ahead, but Hiram soon got Ripton into his work again, and caught the
mare near the draw gate, passed her, and won the heat in 5:12^ !
CENTREVILLE (L. I.) TROTTING COURSE.
Tuesday, May 10, 1842. — Purse $300. Two-mile heats, in harness.
D. Bryan's gr. m. Ladi/ Suffolk Owner 1 1
H. Woodruff's br. g. Ripton 2 2
Time, 5:10—5:15.
Wonders will never cease — ^the grey mare has proved the better horse, and no mis-
take, No longer ago than last Saturday, Ripton popt it to the mare and Confidence
over the Beacon Course in the quick time of 5:10| — 5:12|.
On the present occasion Ripton was the favourite at 100 to 70. At the start they
went off well together at the top of their rate, making play from the score ; on reach-
ing the first turn Ripton broke, and the mare took the lead by several lengths, going
finely. Hiram made several efforts to make up his loss, but all was of no avail, the
mare kept snugly to her work, and led throughout the heat, making the quick time of
5:10.
Second Heat. — They both cooled off well, and came up ripe for mischief. They got
off well together at a flight of speed; Ripton broke, as usual, on the first turn, and
lost several lengths, the mare taking the lead. Hiram got Ripton snugly to his work
again, and caught the mare in the last quarter of the first mile, both coming down thf
64 THE HORSE.
straight side at a tremendous flight of speed ; on making the turn Ripton broke, and
lost about fifty yards, and before the mare got out Hiram made up his lost ground,
lapt the mare coming down the quarter stretch, but was unable to win the heat, for
Hiram had taken the kink out of his horse to make up the lost ground. Ripton was
very restless, and broke several times during each heat.
Same Day. — Sweepstakes of $50 each. Mile heats, in harness.
Henry Jones' gr. g. Grey Eagle H. Jones 1 1
Mi. Bennett's b. g. Game Chicken 2 3
Time, 2:56—2:56.
Thursday, May 12. — Purse $ . Mile heats, best 3 in 5, under the saddle.
Hiram Woodruff's hi. g. Brandywine //. Woodruff 1 1
Wm. Wheelan's gr. g. Fourth (f July dist
N. Carroll's gr. m. Hantz dist.
Mr. Carll's b. m. Betsey Baker dist
Time, 2:36.
Fourth of July was the favourite at 2 to 1 at the start. Brandywine took the lead
and distanced the field the first heat.
Friday, May 13. — Match for $200, to which the proprietor will add a purse of $50.
Two-mile heats, under the saddle.
. Wm. Wheelan's ch. m. Brooklyn Maid Owner 1 1
A. Conklin's b. g. Homer 2 2
Time, 5.16—5:22.
Brooklyn Maid won both heats with ease.
Same Day. — Purse $ — >. Mile heats, best 3 in 5, in harness.
C. Carll's Pocahontas 1 1 1
J. M. McMann's John Anderson 2 2 2
Time, 2:501—2:49—2:50^.
It is not a little singular, that within three weeks after the last mentioned perform-
ance, the same paper should have to report another trial between these horses, more
extraordinary than either of the previous ones, and which restores to Ripton his su-
premacy. ^
TROTTING ON THE HUNTING PARK COURSE.
On Tuesday last a splendid trot came off over the Hunting Park Course, two-mile
heats, between Ripton and Lady Suffolk, in which they made the best time on record
at this distance, in harness. Hiram Woodruff on Ripton won the last heat by six
inches only !
Hiram Woodruff's br. g. Bipton , Owner 12 1
David Bryan's gr. m. Lady Suffolk 2 1 2
Time, 5:07—5:15—5:17.
The following table has been made with care, and we should despair of command-
ing the attention of the reader to the general subject, who will not consider it worthy
of 'insertion. It will be seen that while in this list of about thirty great performers,
not one is over 16 hands, only two are under 15.
HEIGHT OF TROTTING HORSES.
The annexed list gives the height of many celebrated horses, estimated only, but by
two most experienced men, one of whom had groomed or ridden almost every one
named, and the other is an old amateur, who has the quickest eye for a horse, and
who rode after most of those named, and has seen them all repeatedly. Of the
thirty in the list, they differed only about eight, and of these only by one inch, save
in a single case. In the eijht cases we have given the estimate of the jockey who
had ^'dden or driven them, and have great faith in its accuracy.
THE HORSE,
65
Names.
Dutchman 15
Lady Suffolk .J 15
Columbus 16
Aaron Burr 15
Rattler (the latest) j 15
Screwdriver (old) ....... j 16
Do. (latest) 15
D. D. Tompkins 15
Lady Warrington 15
Lady Victory | 15
Toporallant | 15
Sir Peter 15
Whalebone 15
Shakspeare ' 15
Betsv Baker . . .: 15
Names.
Cato
Edwin Forrest . . .
Burster
Norman Leslie . . .
Confidence (latest)
Locomotive
Sally Miller
Charlotte Temple.
Washington
Modesty
Greenwich Maid . .
Awful
Henry
Paul Pry
The acknowledged superiority of the performances of the American over English
trotters, or to speak with more precise accuracy, extraordinary performances in a
greater number of cases, has been already attributed to superior skill in trnining, but
on that we must not be understood as laying so much stress, as upou superior juckey-
ship in this particular department ; for the training nf the trotting horse, so far as Ave
can learn, requires no considerable skill, save as it is connected with the skill of the
jockey who usuall}^ acts in both capacities. For training, the whole code is said to
consist of three words — air, exercise, and food. The work given him in training is
severe according to his constitution, and consists in walking him from twelve to
twenty miles daily, and giving him " sharp work" three or four times a week. This
" sharp work" is usually a distance of two miles, or sometimes three. The horse is
not put to his speed this entire distance, but taught to rouse himself at intervals, at
the call of his jockey, who encourages him and brings out his utmost capacity by hia
voice, not less scarcely than by the usual persuasion of whip and spur. This feature
of trotting jockey ship is peculiar and not a little amusing. The jockey is continually
talking or rather growling to his horse, and at times he bursts out into shouts and
yells, that would be terrific if not so ludicrous. The object would appear to be two-
fold— first, to encourage his horse to the utmost possible exertion of his powers when
called upon, and again, so to accustom him to this harsh shouting, that he may not
break up when he hears it from the opposing jockey — for it is deemed not unsports-
manlike for one jockey to break up the pace of another's nag by thus actually fright-
ening him. Many a victory has Hiram Woodmtf won by thus rousing his own horse
and breaking up his opponent's on the last quarter. These two-mile drives are not
repeated as is usual in training the race-horse. Nor is the work of the trotter given
at intervals so regular as in the case of the other, nor is he kept in such habitual
quiet ; the trainer consults his own convenience to a great degree as to the time when
he will give his nag exercise, and he never hesitates about taking him out and show-
ing him at any hour.
In other respects too, the treatment of the trotting-horse differs from that of the
more high-bred racer. Less delicate in constitution and form, he is less delicately
fed and sfroomed. Allowed to eat when and what they please, trotting horses are
groomed with much the same care as well-kept town coach-horses, or perhaps the
English hunter. In the two grand points of keeping them in robust health and giving
them hard work enough, the training of the trotter and the racer is identical. But for
the trotter from six to eight weeks' training is deemed sufficient. W'e are inclined to
believe that very much of the superiority of the American trotter and roadster is
attributable to the skill of the jockey. Our mode of driving them differs essentially
fiom the English, and though neither easy nor elegant, it succeeds admirably in de-
veloping the capabilities of a horse at this pace. The case already cited of Wheelan
and the horse Alexander in England, is in point, and it is practically illustrated every
6* I
QQ THE HORSE.
day in New York, many English residents of which city are trjtting amateurs; ihey
one and all, after a little experience, adopt the Yankee mode of driving.
It has long been a question exciting much interest, whether twenty miles has been,
or can be, trotted in one hour. There is no record of any such performance, although
there h-we been many attempts to do it. But men of great judgment and long ex-
perience, are so fully confident of the ability of our horses to go that distance at the
required rate, that large odds would be laid that it can be done. The difficulty is to
find an individual who wall at this day back him to an adequate amount; for it will
readily occur that a horse that can accomplish the feat must be of great value, and
the risk of injury to him is of course "very considerable. It is believed that $10,000 to
$5,000 would readily be laid that Dutchman can do it, and probably Americus would
be backed at less odds likewise to do it. The trotting amateurs in New York pro-
fess to entertain no doubt at all upon the subject, and it is believed they have sufii-
cient reason for the opinion.
Here, most patient reader, we close these our remarks, preliminary to what we
may fairly denominate the great work on the Horse. It is for you to say if they
have served either to instruct or amuse; but whatever may be your judgment as to
this our Introduction, let it not affect your inclination to make yourself acquainted
with the principal work, to which it is no more essential, than a handle to a pitcher,
and that you know may long continue useful though the handle be broken off. This
work on the Horse, however, is not a book to be read for entertainment, like a novel,
and then to be thrown aside. It is one which every man who owns " the hair of a
horse," should have at his elbow to be turned to for useful instruction, and to be con-
sulted like your family physician in every case of need for the means of under-
standing the anatomy, mitigating the disorders, and prolonging the life, of the most
interesting and useful of all domestic animals.
J. S. S.
THE HORSE,
HIS ANATOMY— WITH HIS DISEASES AND
REMEDIES.
CHAPTER I.
THE ZOOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE HORSE.
There are so many thousand species of living beings, some so much resembling
each other, and others so strangely and altogether different, that it would have been
impossible to have arranged them in any order, or to have given any description that
could be understood, had not naturalists agreed on certain peculiarities of form which
should characterise certain classes, and other lesser peculiarities again subdividing
these classes.
The first division of animals is into vertehrated and invertebrated.
Vertebrated animals are those which have a cranium, or bony cavity containing tha
brain, and a succession of bones called the spine, and the divisions of it named vertebrae,
proceeding from the cranium, and containing a prolongation of the brain, denominated
the spinal marrow.
Invertebrated animals are those which have no vertebrae.
The horse, then, belongs to the division vertehrated, because he has a cranium or
skull, and a spine or range of vertebrae proceeding from it.
The vertebrated animals are exceedingly numerous. They include man, quadru-
peds of all kinds, birds-, fishes, and many reptiles. We naturally look for some sub-
division, and a very simple line of distinction is soon presented. Certain of these
vertebrated animals have /na/n/H^e or teats, with which the females suckle their young.
The human female has two, the mare has two, the cow four, the bitch ten or twelve,
and the sow more than twelve.
This class of vertebrated animals having mammae or teats is called mammalia ; and
the horse belongs to the division vertebrata, and the class mammalia.
The class mammalia is still exceedingly large, and we must again subdivide it.
It is stated (Library of Entertaining Knowledge, vol. i. p. 13,) that "this class of
quadrupeds, or mammiferous quadrupeds, admits of a division into two Tribes.
" I. Those whose extremities are divided into fingers or toes, scientifically called
unguiculata, from the Latin word for tiail; and II. Those whose extremities are
hoofed, scientifically called ungulata, from the Latin word for honf.
" The extremities of the first are armed with claws or nails, which enable them to
grasp, to climb, or to burrow. The extremities of the second tribe are employed
merely to support and move the body."
The extremities of the horse are covered with a hoof by which the body is supported,
and with which he cannot grasp anything ; and therefore he belongs to the tribe ungu-
lata or hoofed.
But there is a great variety of hoofed animals. The elephant, the rhinoceros, the
hippopotamus, the swine, the horse, the sheep, the deer, and many others, are ungu-
lated or hoofed; they admit, however, of an easy division. Some of them masticate,
or chew their food, and it is immediately received into the stomach and digested ; but
in others the food, previous to digestion, undergoes a very singular process. It is
returned to the mouth to be remasticated, or chewed again. These are called rumif
(67,
68
THE SKELETON OF THE HORSE.
nantia, or ruminants, from the food being returned from one of the stomachs (for they
have four), called the rumen or paunch, for the purpose of remastication.
The ungulala that do not ruminate are, somewhat improperly, called pachydermata,
from the thickness of their skins. The horse does not ruminate, and therefore belongs
to the order pachydermata.
The pachydermata, who have only one toe, belong to the family solipeda — single-
footed. Therefore, the horse ranks under the division vertebrata — the class mammalia
the tribe ungulata — the order pachydermata — and the family solipeda.
The solipeda consist of several species, as the horse, the ass, the mule, and the
First stands the Equus Caballus, or Common Horse.
Animals are likewise distinguished according to the number, description, and situa-
tion of their teeth. The horse has six incisors or cutting teeth in the front of each
jaw ; and one canine tooth or lusk.
On each side, above and below — at some distance from the incisors, and behind the
canines, and with some intervening space — are six molar teeth, or grinders ; and these
molar teeth have flat crowns, with ridges of enamel, and that enamel penetrating into
the substance of the tooth.
The whole is thus represented by natural historians : —
Horse. — Incisors
canines ^ — r? molar - — -. Total, forty teeth.
1—1
6— e
To this short chapter we may properly append The Skeleton of the Horse.
A The Head.
a The posterior maxillary or under jaw.
h The superior maxillary or upper jaw. A little lower down than the letter is a foramen^
through which pass the nerves and blood-vessels which chiefly supply the lower
part of the face.
e The orbit, or cavity containing the eye.
d The nasal bones, or bones of the nose.
I The suture dividing the parietal bones below from the occipital bones above.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. QQ
f The inferior maxillary bone, containing the upper incisor teeth.
B The Seven Cervical Vertebra, or bones of the neck.
C The Eighteen Dorsal Vertebrae, or bones of the back.
D The Six Lumbar Vertebrae, or bones of the loins.
E The Five Sacral VertebrEB, or bones of the haunch.
F The Caudal Vertebns, or bones of the tail, generally about fifteen.
G The Scapula, or shoulder-blade.
H The Sternum, or fore-part of the chest.
I The Costse or ribs, seven or eight articulating with the sternum, and called the true ribs,
and ten or eleven united together by cartilage, called the false ribs.
J The Humerus, or upper bone of the arm.
K The Radius, or upper bone of the arm.
L The Ulna, or elbow. The point of the elbow is called the Olecranon.
M The Carpus, or knee, consisting of seven bones.
N The metacarpal bones. The larger metacarpal or cannon or shank in front, and the
smaller metacarpal or splint bone behind.
g The fore pastern and foot, consisting of the Os Suffraginis, or the upper and larger pastern
bone, with the sesamoid bones behind, articulating with the cannon and greater
pastern; the Os Coronae, or lesser pastern; the Os Pedis, or coffin bone; and
the Os Naviculare, or navicular, or shuttle-bone, not seen, and articulating with
the smaller pastern and coffin bones.
h The corresponding bones of the hind-feet.
O The Haunch, consisting of three portions, the Ilium, the Ischium, and the Pubis.
P The Femur, or thigh.
Q The slide joint with the Patella.
R The Tibia, or proper leg bone — behind is a small bone called the fibula.
S The Tarsus, or hock, composed of six bones. The prominent part is the Os Qalcis, or
point of the hock.
T The Metatarsals of the hind leg.
CHAPTER II.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
Beautiful as is the horse, and identified so much with our pleasure and our profit,
fie has been the object of almost universal regard; and there are few persons who do
not pretend to be somewhat competent judges of his form, qualities, and worth. From
the nobleman, with his numerous and valuable stud, to the meanest helper in the
stable, there is scarcely a man who would not be offended if he were thought alto-
gether ignorant of horse-flesh. There is no subject on which he is so positive ; there
is no subject on which, generally speaking, he is so deficient ; and there are few
horses, on some points of which these pretended and self-sufficient judges would not
give a totally opposite opinion.
The truth is, that this supposed knowledge is rarely founded on principle, or the
result of the slightest acquaintance with the actual structure of the animal — the form
and connexion of parts on which strength, or fleetness, or stoutness, must necessarily
depend.
In speaking of the structure of this animal, and the points which guide the opinion
of real judges of him, we shall, as briefly and as simply as we a-re able, explain those
fundamental principles on which his usefulness and beauty must depend. We require
one kind of horse for slow and heavy draught, and another for lighter and quicker
work ; one as a pleasant and safe roadster — another, with more speed and equal con-
tinuance, as a hunter — and another still is wanted for the race-course. What is the
peculiarit}^ of structure — what are the particular points that will fit each for his proper
business, and, to a certain degree, unfit him for everything else 1 Tlie farmer will
require a horse of all-work, that can carry him to market and take him round his farm
— on which he can occasionally ride for pleasure, and which he must sometimes
degrade to the dung-cart or the harrow. What combination of powers will enable
the animal to discharge most of these duties well, and all of them to a certain extern
profitably )
70
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
Much time spent among horses, an acquired love of them, and a little, sometimes
nossibly too dearly-bought experience, may give the agriculturist some insight into
Ihese matters. We will try whether we cannot assist him in this affair — whether we
c*annot explain to him the reason why certain points must be good, and why a horse
without them must of necessity be good for nothing. Perhaps some useful rules may
thus be more deeply impressed upon his memory, or some common but dangerous
prejudices may be discarded, and a considerable degree of error, disappointment, and
expense avoided.
If we treat of this at considerable length, let it be remembered that the horse is our
noblest servant, and that, in describing the structure and economy of his frame, we
are in a great measure describing that of other domestic quadrupeds, and shall here-
after have to speak only of points of difference required by the different services and
uses for which they were destined. And further, let it be remembered, that it is only
by being well acquainted with the structure and anatomy of the horse, that we can
appreciate his shape and uses, or understand the different diseases to which he is
liable. It is from the want of this that much of the mass of ignorance and prejudice
which exists as to the diseases to which he is subject is to be referred.
The nervous system Avill first pass in review, for it is the moving power of the
whole machine. It consists of the brain, to which all sensation is referred or carried,
and from which all voluntary motion is derived — the spinal cord, a prolongation of
the brain, and thus connected Avith sensation and voluntary motion, governing all the
involuntary motions of the frame, and by power from which the heart beats, and the
lungs heave, and the stomach digests ; and one other system of nerves — the ganglionic
— presiding over the functions of secretion and of nutrition, and the repair and the
welfare of the frame generally.
The following cut represents the head of the horse divided into the numerous bones
of which it is composed, and the boundaries of each bone clearly marked by the
sutures which connect it with those around.
The upper and broadest part is the cranium or skull in which the brain is con-
tained, and by which it is protected. It is composed of nine bones : the two frontals,
a a ; the two parietals, c c; the two temporals, d d ; the occipital g, and the ethmoid
and sphenoid, which will be found delineated at figures k and /, and will be better
seen in the cut on page 72.
a a The frontal bones, or bones of the forehead.
6 h The supra-orbital foramina or holes above the orbit, through
which the nerves and blood-vessels supplying the fore-
head pass out. The small hole beneath receives the ves-
sels which dip into and supply the bone.
c c The parietal bones, or walls of the skull.
d d The temporal bones, or bones of the temples.
e e The zygomatic, or yoke-shaped arch.
ff The temporal fossa, or pit above the eye.
g g The occipital bone, or bone of the hinder part of the head.
h li The orbits containing and defending the eye.
i i The lachrymal bones belonging to the conveyance of the
tears from the eyes.
The nasal bones, or bones of the nose.
The malar, or cheek-bones.
The superior maxillary, or that portion of the upper jaw
containing the molar teeth or grinders.
m m The infra-orbital foramen — a hole below the orbit, through
which pass branches of nerves and blood-vessels to supply
the lower part of the face.
n n The inferior maxillary, the lower part of the upper jaw
bone — a separate bone in quadrupeds, containing the
incisor or cutting teeth, and the upper tushes at the
point of union between the superior and inferior maxil-
laries.
0 The upper incisor or cutting teeth.
p The openings into the nose, with the bones forming the
palate.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. jy
There is an evident intention in tiiis division of the head into so many bones.
When the fuetus — the unborn foal — first begins to have life, that Avhich afterwards
becomes bone, is a mere jelly-like substance. This is gradually changed into a
harder material — cartilage ; and, before the birth of the animal, much of the cartilage
is taken away by vessels called absorbents, and bone deposited in its stead. In flat
bones, like those of the head, this deposit takes place in the centre, and rays oi radia-
tions of bone extend thence in every direction. Then, by having so many bones,
there are so many centres of radiation ; and, consequently, the formation of bone is
carried on so much the more rapidly, and perfected at the time when the necessities
of the animal require it. At the period of birth, however, this process is not com-
pleted, but the edges of the bones remain somewhat soft and pliant, and therefore,
in parturition, they yield a little and overlap each other, and thus, by rendering
the birth more easy, they save the mother much pain, and contribute to the safety of
the foal.
The first of these bones, or the first pair of them, occupying the broad expanse of the
forehead, are called the frontal bones, a a. They are united together by a most curious
and intricate dove-tailing, to defend from injury the brain which lies beneath the
upper part of them. Lower down, and where the cavity of the nose is to be defended,
their union is suflieient, but far less complicated. Thus, at first starting, there is an
evident proof of design, an illustration of that adaptation to circumstances which will
again and again present itself in the most interesting points of view. Peculiar
strength of union is given where a most important organ is to be defended — the suture
is there intricate and laboured. Where less important parts are covered, it is of a
far simpler character.
Few things more clearly indicate the breed or blood of the horse than the form of
the frontal bones. Who has not remarked the broad angular forehead of the blood
horse, giving him a beautiful expression of intelligence and fire, and the face gradu-
ally tapering from the forehead to the muzzle, contrasted with the large face of the
cart or dray-horse, and the forehead scarcely wider than the face 1
At/, between the frontal bones, is the pit or cavity above the eye, and by the depth
of which we form some idea of the age of the horse. There is placed at the back of
the eye, a considerable quantity of fatty substance, on which it may revolve easily
and without friction. In aged horses, and in diseases attended with general loss of
condition, much of this disappears ; the eye becomes sunken, and the pit above it
deepens. It is said that some of the lower class of horse-dealers puncture the skin,
and, with a tobacco pipe or small tube blow into the orifice, until the depression is
almost filled up. This, with the aid of a bishopped tooth, may give a false appear-
ance of youth, that will remain during some hours, and may deceive the unwary, but
Uie trickery may easily be detected b)" pressing on the part.
These bones, however, are not solid, but a considerable portion of them is composed
of two plates receding from each other, and leaving numerous and large vacuities or
cells. These vacuities are called the frontal sinuses. They are shown in the following
cut.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
SECTION OF THE HEAD.
a The nasal bone, or bone of the nose.
6 The frontal bone. The cavities or cells beneath are called the frontal sinuses.
c The crest or ridge of the parietal bones.
d The tentorium or bony separation between the cerebrum and cerebellum.
e The occipital bone.
/ The hgament of the neck, or pack-wax, by which the head is chiefly supported.
g The atlas, sustaining or carrying : the first bone of the neck.
h. The dentata, tooth-like, or second bone of the neck.
t The cuneiform, or wedge-shaped process, or base of the occipital bone. Between it and
the other portion of the occipital hone e, lies the great foramen or aperture througti
which the prolongation of the brain^ — the spinal marrow — issues from the skull.
The sphenoid, wedge-like, bone, witli its cavities.
The ethmoid, sieve-like, bone, with its cells.
m The cerebrum, or brain, with the appearance of its cortical and medullary substance.
TO The cerebellum, or little brain, with its beautiful arborescent appearance.
o A portion of the central medullary, marrow-like, substance of the brain, and the prolonga-
tion of it under the name of the crus cerebri, leg of the brain, and from which many
of the nerves take their origin.
p The medulla oblongata — the prolongation of the brain after the medullary substance of the
cerebrum and cerebellum have united, and forming the commencement of the spinal
marrow. The columnar appearance of this portion of the brain is represented, and
the origins of the respiratory nerves.
q The spinal marrow extending through a canal in the centre of the bones of the neck, back,
and loins, to the extremities of the tail, and from which the nerves of feehng and
of motion, that supply every part of the frame except the head, arise.
r The septum narium, or cartilaginous division between the nostrils.
s The same cut off at the lower part, to show the spongy turbinated, turlan- shaped, bones
filling the cavity of the nostril.
t The palate.
u The molar teeth, or grinders.
V The inferior maxillary bone, containing the incisor teeth or nippers. The canine tooth, OT
tush, is concealed by the tongue.
to The posterior maxillary, or lower jaw with its incisors.
X The lips.
y The tongue.
X A portion of the os hyoidcs, or bone of the tongue, like a Greek u, v.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 73
1 The thyroid, helmet-shaped, cartilage, inclosing and shielding the neighbouring parts.
2 The epiglottis, or covering of the glottis, or aperture of the wmd-pipe.
3 The aryieiwid, fu,?inel-shaped, cartilages, having between them the aperture leading inU)
the traetiea or wind-pipe.
4 One of the chorda3 vocales, cords or ligaments concerned in the formation of the voice.
5 'I'he sacculus laryngis, sac or ventricle of the larynx, or throat, to modulate the voice.
6 The trachea, or wiiid-pipe, with its different rings.
7 The soft palate at the back of the mouth, so constructed as almost to prevent the possibility
of vomiting.
8 The opening from the back part of the mouth into the nostril.
9 The cartilage covering the entrance into the eustachian tube, or communication between
the°nouth and internal part of the ear.
10 The cesophagus, or gullet.
11 The cricoid, ring-like, cartilage, below and behind the thyroid.
12 Muscle of the neck, covered by the membrane of the back part of the mouth.
The sinus on the different sides of the forehead do not communicate with each
other, but with other sinuses in the ethmoid, and spenoid, and upper jaw-bones, and
'also with the cavities of the nose on their respective sides. These sinuses atibrd a
somewhat increased protection to the brain beneath; and by the continuous and
slightly projecting line which they form, they give beauty to the forehead ; but their
principal use probably is, like the windings of the French horn, to increase the clear-
ness and loudness of the neighing. It will be remarked that they are very irregular
in depth, which at one place is an inch or more.
In the sheep, and occasionally in the ox — rarely in the horse — tlie larva; of maggots
produced by certain species of flies, crawl up the nose, lodge themselves, in these
sinuses, and produce intolerable pain.
Veterinary surgeons have availed themselves of these sinuses, to detect the exist-
ence of glanders, that disease so infectious and so fatal. They may suspect that a
horse respecting which they are consulted is glandeied. It is of great consequence to
be sure about this. The safety of the whole team may depend upon it. It may be
a puzzling case. There may be no ulceration of the nose within sight. The glands
under the jaw may not be close to and seemingly sacking to the bone, which is a
common symptom, yet for a considerable time there may' have been a discharge from
the nostril, and the horse is out of condition. On the other hand, some slight ulcera-
\ in may be detected in the nostril, but the horse . eats well, works well, and is in
good plight. It is possible that from the closest examinatioil of the animal, no horse-
man or veterinary surgeon can give a decided opinion.
If, however, tne horse is glandered, there will probably be considerable ulceration
in the upper part of the cavity of the nose, and a collection of matter there. To
ascertaiu this the veterinary surgeon sometimes makes an opening into these sinuses.
He may do it with perfect safety. On that part of the frontal bone, which lies between
the eye and the pit above it, and above the inner corner of the eye, there is, on either
side, a small depression or hole (see fig. b, cut, page 70), which may be easily felt in
the living horse. It is what anatomists call a foramen— the supra-orbital foramen. It
gives passage to the blood-vessels and nerves of the forehead.
Supposing a line to be drawn across the forehead, from one of these depressions to
the other on that line, and about half an inch from the centre of it — it matters not on
which side — the frontal sinuses will be found an inch in depth (compare fig. 6, pp.
70 and 72. There a perforation may be easily and safely made. A little way above,
the brain would be endangered, and a little below this line, the cavity of the nose
would be pierced. Some warm water may be injected into this«hole, with a common
squirt, and it will run out at the nose. If there is mailer in the frontal sinuses, or
any part of the cavity of the nose, below the indirect opening from the sinus into the
nose under the superior turbinated tone, it will appear mixed with the water, and the
owner may be assured that the horse is glandered; but if the water flows uncoloured,
or simply mixed with blood oi mucus, the horse may be considered as free from this
disease. The thick creamy c jnsis^ence of pus, its sinking in water, and its capability
of being perfectly, although not readily, mixed with water, will distinguish it suffi-
ciently from tne natural discharge from the nose, which is ropy, lighter than water,
and, when mixed witn it, f iill preserves a kind of ?tringiness.
7 K
74 liIESENSORIALFUNCTlON.
Il was formerly the practice to inject various liquids into the nostrils in this way,
for the cure of glanders. Some of them were harmless enough, but others were cruelly
acrid. This practice is now, however, abandoned by the scientific practitioner ; for
it would only be a portion of the cells of the head, and a portion only of the cavity of
the nose, and that least likely to be diseased, with which the fluid could be brought
into contact.
As the frontal sinuses are lined by a continuation of the membrane of the nose,
they will sympathise with many of the affections of that cavity; but the membrane
of the sinuses is susceptible of an inflammation peculiar to itself. The disease is
rare, and the cause of it has not been fully ascertained. It is oftenest metastasis of
inflammation of the brain, — shifting of inflammation from the brain to the mem-
brane of the sinus, or communication of inflammation from the brain by proximity of
situation.
The attack is usually sudden — the horse is dull, lethargic, and almost as comatose
as in stomach-staggers. The first thing that excites suspicion of the actual character
of the disease, is heat in the situation of the frontal sinus, when the hand is placed
on the forehead. The lethargj' soon passes over, and a state of the highest excitation
succeeds. The conjunctiva and the membrane of the nose are injected — the pulse is
quick and hard — the horse becomes violent and dangerous ; he kicks, plunges, and,
half conscious and half unconscious, he endeavours to do all the mischief that he can.
The disease is now evidently combined with, or is essentially, inflammation of the
brain. It is distinguished from madness by this half-consciousness, and also, by his
being more disposed to bite than he is in pure phrenitis.
The disease is usually fatal. It rarely lasts more than eight-and-forty hours.
The post-77i(irlem appearances are, great inflammation of the brain, with frequent
effusions of blood. The sinuses are sometimes filled with coagulated blood. The
brain seems to be affected just in proportion to the violence which the animal has
exhibited.
The treatment should consist of copious bleeding, application of ice to the head,
blistering the head, and physic. The trephine is scarcely admissible, from the danger
of producing greater irritation.
Sometimes the disease assumes a more chronic form. There is ulceration of the
membrane, but not cerebral affection. A purulent discharge then appears from the
nose, evidently not of a glanderous character, and none of the submaxillar}' glands
are enlarged. In both the acute and chronic form, it is usually confined to one sinus.
We are indebted to the late Mr. John Field for the principal knowledge that we have
of this disease.* The inner plate of the frontal bone covers a considerable portion of
the anterior part of the brain, and it is studded with depressions corresponding with
irregularities on the surface of the brain.
Immediately above the frontal, and extending from the frontal to the poll, are the
parietal bones. They are two, united together by a suture when the animal is young,
but that suture soon becoming obliterated. They have tiie occipital, g, p. 72, above,
the frontals, a a, below, and the iemporals, d d, on either side. They are of a closer
and harder texture than the frontals, because they are more exposed to injury, and
more concerned in defending the brain.
A very small portion only of the parietals is naked, and that is composed of bone
even harder than the other part, and with an additional layer of bone rising in the
form of a crest or ridge externally. Every other part of these bones is covered by a
thick mass of muscle, the temporal muscle, which is principally concerned in chewing
the food, but which likewise, by its yielding resistance, speedily and effectually
breaks the force of the most violent blow. A wool-pack hung over the wall of a for-
tress, when the enemy is battering to effect a breach, renders the heaviest artillery
almost harmless. So the yielding resistance of the temporal muscle affords a sure
defence to the brain, however sudden or violent may be the blow which falls on the
parietal. These benevolent provisions will not be disregarded by the reflecting
mind.
On the side of the head, and under the parietals {dd, p. 72) are the temporal bones^
* The Veterinarian, vol. iv. p. 198.
THE SENSORIAL FUN CTION. "^S
one on each side,//. These again are divided into two parts, or consist of :wo dis-
tinct bones ; the petrous portion, so called from its great or stony hardness, and con-
taining the wonderful mechanism of the ear, and the sgua/nows portion from the appear-
ance of its union with the parietal, overlapping it like a great scale.
From the latter there projects a portion of bone, e, which unites with the frontal,
and forms a strong arch — the zj'ojmatic — distinctly to be felt at the side of the head
immediately above the eye. This arch is designed to protect the upper part of the
lower jaw, the motion of which may very plainly be seen beneath it when the horse
is feeding. It is very strong, and it ought to be, for if it were depressed or forced
inward, the horse would starve. There is one species of violence which causes this
arch to require no common strength ; and that is, the brutal manner in which the
collar is often forced over the head.
At the base of the arch is an important cavity not visible in the cut, receiving into
it, and forming a joint with, the head of the lower jaw — it will be presently described.
Having reached the base of the temporal bone, it is found united to the parietal,
not by a simple suture, as the lower part of the frontals, or the bones of the nose (see
fig. a andy, p. 70), nor by a dove-tailed suture, as the upper part of the frontals (see
the same cut), but it is spread over the parietal in the form of a large scale, and hence,
as before observed, called the squamous portion of the temporal bone. In fact, there
are two plates of bone instead of one. Was there design in thisT Yes, evidently
so. In the first place, to increase the strength of the base of the zygomatic arch.
This extensive union between the temporal and parietal bones, resembles the buttress
or mass of masonry attached to the base of every arch, in order to counteract its lateral
pressure. The concussion, likewise, which might be communicated by a blow on the top
of the arch, is thus spread over a large surface, and consequently weakened and ren-
dered comparatively harmless ; and that surface is composed of the union of two
bones of dissimilar construction. The hard stony structure of the parietal is very dif-
ferent from the tougher material of the temporal ; and thus, as a finger acts on a
sounding-glass, the vibration communicated to the temporal is at once stopped, and
the brain receives no injur)\
There is another proof of admirable design. "Where is this squamous portion of
the temporal bone situated ? On the side of the head. And what is the figure of
the cranium or skull, and principally that part of it which contains the cerebrum or
brain"? It is an elliptical or oval arch (see fig. m, n, o, p. 72). If pressure is made
on the crown of that arch — if a blow is received on the suture between the parietals
sufhcient to cause the elastic materials of which the skull is composed to yield — the
seat of danger and injur}- is at the side. If a man receives a violent blow on the
crown or back part of the head, the fracture, if there is any, is generally about the
temple, and the extravasation of blood is oftenest found there. The following figure
will explain this : —
B Let the line ABC represent an elliptical arch,
^^^ ^v composed of elastic materials. Some force shall
/>-,-;.V."::;::;0\ be applied at B, sufficient to cause it to yield.
/'-' "\ ^^ cannot compress it into smaller compass ;
,•;/ \>^ but just in proportion as it yields at B, will it
/'// \\\ spur or bulge out at D, and give way sometimes
E»'' / / \ \ \^ as represented at E. In a dome the weight of
/ p i I I i \ the materials constantly acting may be considered
\j ' as representing the force applied at B ; and so
A'-J ~~r' great is the lateral pressure, or tendency to bulge
out {vide D and E), that it is necessary either to
dove-tail the materials into one another, or to pass strong iron chains round them.
For want of sufficient attention to this, "the dome of St. vSophia, in Constantinople,
built in the time of the Emperor Justinian, fell three times during its erection ; and
the dome of the cathedral of Florence stood unfinished an hundred and twenty years,
for want of an architect."
Nature, in the construction of the horse's head, has taken away the pressure, or
removed the probability of injury, by giving an additional layer of bone, or a mass of
muscle, where alone there was danger, and has dove-tailed all the materials. Farther
76 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
than this, in order to make assurance doubly sure, she has placed this effectual girder
at the base, in the overlapping of the squamous portion of the temporal bone.
Above the parietals, and separated from them by a suture (fig. g, p. 70, and fig. e,
p. 72), is the occipital bone. Superiorly it covers and protects the smaller portion of
the brain, the cerebellum ; and as it there constitutes the summit or crest of the head,
and is particularly exposed to danger, and not protected by muscles, it is interesting
to see what thickness it assumes. The head of the horse does not, like that of the
human being, ride upright on the neck, with all its weight supported by the spinal
column, and the only office of the muscles of the neck being to move the head forward,
or backward, or horizontally on its pivot; but it hangs in a slanting position from the
extremity of the neck, and the neck itself projects a considerable distance from the
chest, and thus the whole weight of' the head and neck is suspended from the chest,
and require very great power in order to support them. In addition to the simple
weight of the head and neck, the latter projecting from the chest, and the head hanging
frorn the extremity of the neck, act with enormous mechanical force, and increase more
than a hundred-fold the power necessary to support them.
The head and neck of the horse, and particularly of some horses of a coarse breed,
are of no little bulk and weight. It will hereafter be shown in what breeds and for
what purposes a light or heavy head and neck are advantageous ; but it may be safely
affirmed, that, projecting so far from the chest, and bein^ consequently at so great a
distance from the fulcrum or support, the lightest head will act or bear upon the joint
between the last bone of the neck and the first rib wuth a force equal to many thousand
pounds.
How is this weight to be supported 1 Is muscular power equal to the task 1 The
muscles of the animal frame can act for a certain time with extraordinary force ; but
as the exertion of this power is attended with the consumption of vital energy, the
period soon arrives when their action is remitted or altogether suspended. A pro-
vision, however, is made for the purpose, simple and complete.
From the back of the occipital bone (fig./, p. 72), and immediately below the crest,
proceeds a round cord of considerable bulk, and composed of a ligamentous substance,
W'hich reaches down and is securely attached to the spines of tire vertebrae, or bones
of the back ; and by this ligament — the ligamenttim colli, ligament of the neck, com-
monly called the pack-wax — the head is supported.
There are, however, some admirable contrivances connected with this ligament.
As it proceeds from the head, it is in the form of a round cord. It passes over the
atlas, or first bone of the neck, without touching it, and then, attaching itself strongly
to the second bone, principally supports the head by its union with this bone. The
mechanical disadvantage is increased ; but the head is turned more freely on the first
and second bones. The principal stress is on the dentata or second bone, so much so,
that, in poll-evil, this ligament may be divided without serious inconvenience to the
horse. It then suddenly sinks deeper, and communicates with all the other vertebrae.
Each of these communications becomes a separate point of support, and as they
approach nearer to the base, the mechanical disadvantage, or the force with which the
weight of the head and neck presses and acts, is materially lessened.
The head, then, while the animal is in a state of rest, is supported by this ligament,
without any aid from muscular energy.
There is, however, something yet wanting. The head must not be always elevated.
The animal has his food to seek. In a state of nature this food lies principally on
the ground, and the head must be low^ered to enable the horse to get at it. How is
this effected ■? This ligament, as it has been called, because it resembles in appear-
ance the other ligaments of the body, possesses a property which they have not, and
which they musFnot have, or they would be useless. No well-knit joint could exist
if it had this property. It is elastic. It will yield to a force impressed upon it, and
will resume its natural dimensions when that force is removed. It sustains perfeitly
the weight of the head. That portion of tenacity or strength is given to it which will
not give way to the simple weight of the head, but which will yield to a very little
additional weight. Its resisting power is so admirably adjusted to that which it has
to sustain, that when certain muscles, whose action is to depress or lower the head,
begin to act, and add their power to the previous weight it had to bear, the ligament
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION 77
stretches, and when the horse is browsing it is full two inches longer than when the
head is erect.
When the animal has satisfied himself, these depressing muscles cease to act, and
other muscles, which are designed to assist in raising the head, begin to exert them-
selves ; and by their aid — but more by the inherent elasticity of the ligament — the
head is once more elevated, and remains so without the slightest exertion of muscular
power. This is one of the many applications of the principle of elasticity which will
be discovered and admired in the construction of the animal frame.
The ligament of the neck is inserted into the centre of the back part of the occipital
bone, and immediately below the vertex or crest of that bone ; and therefore the bone
is so thick at this part (see fig. e, p. 12).
^lany large and powerful muscles are necessary to turn the head in various direc-
tions, as well as to assist in raising it when depressed. The occipital bone, as will
be seen in the cut, presents a spine running down the centre, B, and a large roughened
surface for the attachment of these muscles, C C.
Lower down, and still at the back of the occi-
pital bone, are two rounded protuberances D D,
b)- which the head is connected with the alias,
or upper or first vertebra, or bone of the neck ;
and these are called the condyloid, cup-shaped,
processes of the occipital bone. All the motions
of the head are partly, and many of them wholly,
performed by this joint.
Between them is a large hole, the foramen
magnum, or great aperture, E, through which
the continuation of the brain, termed the spinal
cord or marrow, passes out of the skull.
As an additional contrivance to support the
enormous weight of the head, are two other pro-
jections of the occipital bone, peculiar to animals
whose heads are set on in a slanting direction, and into which powerful muscles are
inserted. They are called the coracoid, beak-like, processes or prolongations, F F,
of the occipital bone.
Running forward, and forming outwardly a part of the base, and inwardly a portion
of the floor of the skull, is what, from its wedge-like shape, is called the cuneiform
process of the occipital bone (fig. i, p. 72). It is thick, strong, and solid, and placed
at the bottom of the skull, not only to be a proper foundation for, and to give additional
strength to, the arch on either side, but speedily to stop all vibration and concussion.
At the base of the skull, and anterior to or below the occipital, lies the sphenoid,
wedge-like bone (fig. k, p. 72). Its body, likewise called the cuneiform or wedge-
shaped process, is a continuation of the same process of the occipital, and, like it, is
thick and solid, and for the same important purpose. This bone branches out into
four irregular bodies or plates, two of which are called the wings, and two running to
the palate, the legs. They could not be represented in the cut, and there is nothing
important belonging to them, so far as this work is concerned. Internally (fig. A-),
the sphenoid forms a portion of the cavity of the skull.
Of the ethmoid, sieve-like, bone, little can be seen outwardly. A small portion is
found in the back part of the orbit, and in the ca\nty of the cranium ; but the most
important part of it is that which is composed of a great number of thin plates, form-
ing numerous cavities or cells (fig. /, p. 72), lined with the membrane of the nose,
and entering into its cavity. The upper portion is called the cribrifonn or sieve-shaped
plate, from its being perforated by a multitude of little holes, through which the nerve
connected with smelling passes and spreads over the nose.
Altogether these bones form a cavit}^ of an irregular oval shape, but the tentorium
penetratincr into it, gives it the appearance of being divided into two {d, p. 72).
The cavity of the skull may be said to be arched all round. The builder knows
tfie strength which is connected with the form of an arch. If properly constructed, it
u e'\ual to a solid mass of masonry. The arch of the horse's skull has not much
78 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
weight to support, but it is exposed to many injuries from the brutality of those by
whom he should be protected, and from accidental causes.
The roof of the skull is composed of two plates of bone : the outer one hard and
tough, and the different parts dove-tailed together, so as not to be easily fractured ;
-he inner plate being elastic. By the union of these two substances of different con-
struction, the vibration is damped or destroyed, so far as safety requires.
On raising any part of the skull of the horse, the dense and strong membrane
which is at once the lining of the cranium and the covering of the brain — the dura
mater — presents itself. It is united to the membranes below by numerous little cords
or prolongations of its substance, conveying blood and communicating strength to the
parts beneath. Between this membrane, common to the cranium and the brain, and the
proper investing tunic of that organ, is found that delicate gossamers' web, appropri-
ately called the arachnoid — the spider's membrane — and which is seen in other
animals, designed either to secrete the fluid which is interposed, for the purpose of
obviating injurious concussion, or, perhaps, to prevent the brain from readily sympa-
thising with any inflammatory action produced by injury of the skull.
Beneath is the proper investing membrane of the brain — the pia mater — which not
only covers the external surface of the brain, but penetrates into every depression,
lines every ventricle, and clothes every irregularity and part and portion of the brain.
We now arrive at the brain itself. The brain of the horse corresponds with the
cavity in which it is placed (/n, p. 72). It is a flattened oval. It is divided into two
parts, one much larger than the other — the cerebrum or brain, and the cerebellum oi
little brain (n, p. 72). In the human being the cerebrum is above the cerebellum, in
the quadruped it is below ; and yet in both they retain the same relative situation.
The cerebellum is nearer to the foramen through which the brain passes out of the
skull (??, p. 72), and the continuation of the cerebrum passes under the cerebellum
{p, p. 72), in order to arrive at this foramen. In the human head this foramen is at
the base of the skull ; but in the quadruped, in whom the head is placed slanting, it
is necessarily elevated.
He who for the first time examines the brain of the horse will be struck with its
comparative diminutive size. The human being is not, generally speaking, more
than one-half or one-third of the size and weight of the horse ; yet the brain of the
biped is twice as large and as heavy as that of the quadruped. If it had been the
brain of the ox that had been here exposed, instead of that of the horse, it would not
have been of half the bulk of tliat of the horse. If the dog had been the subject, it
would have been very considerably larger, comparing the general bulk of each animal.
This is singular. The human brain largest in comparative bulk ; then the brain of
the dog, the horse, the ox. Thus would they be classed in the scale of intelligence.
If the brain is more closely examined, it will be found that there is none of the
roundness and the broadness of that in the human being ; it is comparatively tame
and flat. Tliere is some irregularity of surface, some small projections and depres-
sions ; but they, too, are comparatively diminutive and inexpressive. Were the
brain of the beaver, of the hare, or the rabbit, or of almost any bird, substituted for it,
there would be no convolutions or irregularities at all.
These irregularities are not so bold and so deep in the ox as in the horse, nor in the
horse as in the dog. We do not know enough of the functions of any part of the
brain to associate these convolutions with any particular powers of mind, or good or
bad propensities, although some persons, who are wise above that which is written,
have pretended to do so. It would occupy too great a portion of this volume to ente.
into these questions ; but there are some diseases to which the horse is subject, and a
very useful operation — the division of some of the nerves for certain purposes, and
which could not be understood without a previous slight account of this importani
organ.
When the brain is cut, it is found to be composed of two substances very unlike in
appearance (;«, p. 72) ; one, principally on the outside, grey, or ash-coloured, and
therefore called the cortical (bark-like) from its situation, and cineritious {ashen) from
its colour ; and the other, lying deeper in the brain, and from its pulpy nature callea
the medullary substance. Although placed in apposition with each other, and seem-
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 79
mgly mingling-, tliey never nin into the same mass, or change by degrees into one
another, but are essentially distinct in construction as well as in function.
The medullary portion is connected with the nervous system. The nerves are pro-
longations of it, and are concerned in the discharge of all the offices of life. They
give motion and energy to the limbs, the heart, the lungs, the stomach, and every
part connected with life. They are the medium through which sensation is conveyed ;
and they supply the mind with materials to think and work upon.
The cinerilious part has a different appearance, and is differently constituted. Some
have supposed, and with much appearance of truth, that it is the residence of the
mind — receiving the impressions that are conveyed to the brain by the sensitive nerves,
and directing the operation and action of those which give motion to the limbs. In
accordance with this, it happens that, where superior intelligence is found, the cineri-
tious portion prevails, and where little beside brute strength and animal appeiite
exist, the medullary portion is enlarged. There is, comparing bulk with bulk, less
of the medullary substance in the horse than in the ox, and in the dog than in llie
horse. The additional bulk of brain is composed of cineritious matter ; and how dif-
ferent is the character of these animals ! — the sluggish, stupid ox, and the intelligent
horse ; the silly sheep, and the intellectual, companionable dog !
In a work like this, it would be somewhat out of place to enter deeply into any
metaphysical speculation ; but the connexion between the cineritious part of the brain
and the intellectual principle, and that between the medullary portion and the mere
animal principle, do seem highly probable. The latter is the medium through which
the impression is conveyed, or the motion is effected ; the former is the substance to
which that impression is referred — where it is received, registered, and compared, and
by which the operation of the motor nerves is influenced and governed.
The cortical substance is small in the quadruped ; for in their wild state brutes have
no concern and no idea beyond their food and reproduction ; and in their domesticated
state they are destined to be the servants of man. The acuteness of their senses, and
the preponderance of animal power, qualify them for this purpose ; but were propor-
tionate intellectual capacity added to this — were they made conscious of their strenorth,
they would burst their bonds, and man would, in his turn, be the victim and the slave.
The cortical part is found in each in the proportion in which it would seem to be
needed for our purposes, in order that intelligence should be added to animal power.
Almost every mental faculty, and almost every virtue, too, may be traced in the brute.
The difference is in degree, and not in kind. The one being improved by circum-
stances, and the other contaminated, the quadruped is decidedly the superior.
From the medullary substance — as already stated — proceed certain cords or pro-
longations, termed nerves, by which the animal is enabled to receive impressions from
surrounding objects, and to connect himself with them ; and also to possess many
pleasurable or painful sensations. One of them is spread over the membrane of the
nose, and gives the sense of smell ; another expands on the back of tlie eye, and the
faculty of sight is gained ; and a third goes to the internal structure of the ear, and
the animal is conscious of sound. Other nerves, proceeding to different parts, give
the faculty of motion, while an equally important one bestows the power of feeling.
One division of nerves, (h, p. 7-2) springing from a prolongation of the brain, and
yet within the skull, wanders to different parts of the frame, for important purposes
connected with respiration or breathing. The act of breathing is essential to life, and
were it to cease, the animal would die. These are nerves of hivoluntary motion ; so
that, whether he is awake or asleep, conscious of it or not, the lungs heave and life is
supported. Lastly, from the spinal cord q — a farther prolongation of the brain, and
running through a cavity in the bones of the neck, back, and loins, and extendino- tc
the very tip of the tail — other nerves are given off at certain intervals. The cut at^the
top of the following page delineates a pair of them. The spinal cord a, is combined
of six distinct columns or rods, running through its whole length — three on either side.
The two upper columns — the portion of spinal marrow represented in our cut, is sup-
posed to be placed with its inner or lower surface toward us — proceed from those
tracks of the brain devoted to sensation. Numerous distinct fibres sprinff abruptly
from the column, and which collect together, and, passing through a little ganglion 01
enlargement, d — an enlargement of a nervous cord is called a ganglion — become a
60
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
nerve of sensation. From the loAver or inner side, — a prolongation of the track
devoted to motion, — proceed other fibres, which also collect gradually together, and
form a nervous cord, c, giving the power of motion. Beyond the ganglion the two
unite, and form a perfect spinal nerve, b, possessing the power both of sensation and
motion ; and the fibres of the two columns proceed to their destination, enveloped in
the same sheath, and apparently one nerve. Each portion, however, continues to be
wrapped in its own membrane. They are united, yet distinct ; they constitute one
nerve, yet neither their substance nor their office is confounded. Our cut, closely
examined, will give at b some idea of the manner in which these distinct fibres are
continued; — each covered by its own membrane, but all enveloped in a common
envelope.
All these nerves are organs of sensation and motion alone ; but there are others
whose origin seems to be outside of and below the brain. These are the sympalhelic,
so called from their union and sympathy with all the others, and identified with life
itself. They proceed from a small ganglion or enlargement in the upper part of the
neck, or from a collection of little ganglia in tlie abdomen. They go to the heart, and
it beats, and to the stomach, and it digests. They form a net-work round each blood-
vessel, and the current flows on. They surround the very minutest vessels, and the
frame is nourished and built up. They are destitute of sensation, and they are per-
fectly beyond the control of the will.
The reader, we trust, will now comprehend this wonderful, yet simple machinerj',
and be able, by and by, to refer to it the explanation of several diseases, and particu-
larly of the operation to which we have referred.
Two of the senses have their residence in the cavity of the cranium — those of hear-
ing and sight.
They who know anything of the horse, pay much attention to the size, setting on,
and motion of the ear. Ears rather small than large — placed not too far apart— erect
and quick in motion, indicate both breeding and spirit ; and if a horse is frequently in
the habit of carrj'ing one ear forward, and the other backward, and especially if he
does so on a journey, he will generally possess both spirit and continuance. The
stretching- of the ears in contrary directions shows that he is attentive to everj'thing
that is taking place around him, and, while he is doing this, he cannot be much
fatigued, or likely soon to become so. It has been remarked that few horses sleep
without pointing one ear forward and the other backward, in order that they may
receive notice of the approach of objects in every direction.*
The ear of the horse is one of the most beautiful parts about him, and by few things
is the temper more surely indicated than by its motion. The ear is more intelligible
even than the eye, and a person accustomed to the horse, and an observer of him, can
* " When horses or mules march in company at night, those in front direct their ears for-
wards ; those in the rear direct them backward ; and those in the centre turn them laterally
or across ; the whole troop seeming thus to be actuated by one feehng, which watches the genera,
eafety." — ArnotCs Elemints of Physic, vol. i., p. 478.
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 8*
tell by the expressive motion of that organ, almost all that he thinks or means. It is
a common saying, that when a horse lays his ears flat back upon his neck, and keeps
them so, he most assuredly is meditating mischief, and the stauder-by should bewanj
of his heels or his teeth. In play, the ears will be laid back, but not so decidedly, or
so long. A quick change in their position, and more particularly the expression of
the eye at the time, will distinguish between playl'ulness and vice.
The external ear is formed by a cartilage of an oval or cone-like shajie, ile.sihle,
yet firm, and terminating in a point. It has, directed towards the side, yet somewhat
pointing forward, a large opening extending from the top to the bottom. The inten-
tion of this is to collect the sound, and convey it to the interior part of the ear.
The hearing of the horse is remarkably acute. A thousand vibrations of the air,
too slight to make any impression on the human ear, are readily perceived by him.
It is well known to every hunting-man, that the cry of the hounds will be recognised
by the horse, and his ears will be erect, and he will be all spirit and impatie'nce, a
considerable time before the rider is conscious of the least sound. Need anything
more be said to expose the absurdity of cropping ?
Tills custom of cutting the ears of the horse originated, to its shame, in Great
Britain, and for many years was a practice cruel to the animal, depriving him of
much of his beauty ; and so obstinately pursued, that at length the deformity became
in some hereditary, and a breed of horses born without ears was produced. Fortu-
nately for this too-often abused animal, cropping is not now the fashion. Some
thoughtless or unfeeling young men endeavoured, a little while ago, again to intro-
duce it, but the voice of reason and humanity prevailed.*
This cartilage, the conch or shell, is attached to th(! head by ligaments, and
sustained by muscles, on which its action depends. It rests upon another cartilage,
round without, and irregular within, called the annular, ring-like, cartilage, and con-
ducting to the interior of the ear; and it is likev/ise supp )rted and moved by a third
small cartilage, placed at the fore part of the base of the conch, and into which
several muscles are inserted.
The ear is covered by skin thinner than in most other jiarts of the body, and alto-
gether destitute of fat, in order that it may not be too bi. iky and heavy, and may be
more easily moved. Under the skin lining the inside of the cartilage are numerous
glands that secrete or throw out a scaly white greasy matter, which may be rubbed
off with the finger and is destined to supple this part of the ear and to keep it soft
and smooth. Below this are other glands which pour out a peculiar, sticky, bitter
fluid — the wax — probably displeasing to insects, and therefore deterring them from
crawling down the ear and annoying the animal, or by its stickiness arresting their
progress.
The internal part of the conch is covered with long hair which stands across the
passairc in every direction. This likewise is to protect the ear from insects, that can
with difficulty penetrate through this thick defence. The cold air is likewise pre-
vented from reaching the interior of the ear, and the sound is moderated, not arrested
— penetrating readily but not violently — and not striking injuriously on the mem-
brane covering the drum of the ear. Can these purposes'be accomplished, when it
is the custom of so many carters and grooms to cut out the hair of tlie ear so closely
and industriously as they do ? The groom who singes it to the root with a candle
must either be very ignorant or very brutal. It can scarcely be accomplished without
singeing the ear as well as the hair. Many a troublesome sore is occasioned by this ;
and many a horse, that was perfectly quiet before, rendered difficult to handle or to
halter, and even disposed to be otherwise vicious, from a recollection of the pain
which he suffered during the absurd and barbarous operation.
* Professor Grognier, in his excellent work, " Precis d'un Cours d'Hvgiene Veterinaire,"
speaking of this abominable custom, says, " And thus the English completely destroy or dis-
figure two organs which embellish the head of the most beautiful of all animals, and which,
by their various motions, itidicate the thoughts that are passing through his mind — the passions
which agitate him, and, especially, the designs which he may be meditating, and which it is
often of great importance to learn, in order to guard against the danger which may be at
hand." i.
S2 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
The sound collected by the outer ear, passes through the lower or annular ring
shaped, cartila-re, and through irregularities which, while they break and modily it,
convey it on to another canal, partly cartilaginous and partly bony, conducting
immediately to the internal mechanism of the ear. Tliis canal or passage, is called
the external auditory passage, and at the base of it is placed, stretching across it, and
closing it, a thick and elastic membrane, memhrana tympani, called tlie membrane of
the drum. This membrane is supplied with numerous fibres, from the fifth pair, or
sensitive nerve of the head, for it is necessary that it should possess extreme sensi
bility.
Between this membrane and a smaller one almost opposite, leading to the still
interior part of the ear, and on which the nerve of hearing is expanded, arc four little
bones, united to these membranes, and to each other. Their office ig to convey,
more perfectly than it could be done through the mere air of the cavity, the vibrations
that have reached the memhrana tympani.
These bones are highly elastic; and covered by a cartilaginous substance, elastic
also in the greatest degree, by means of which the force of the vibration is much
increased.
It is conveyed to a strangely irregular cavity, filled with an aqueous fluid, and the
substance or pulp of the portio mollis or soft portion of the seventh pair of nerves, the
auditory ner\'e, expands on the membrane that lines the walls of this cavity.
Sound is propagated far more intensely through water than through air ; and there-
fore it is that an aqueous fluid occupies those chambers of the ear on the walls of
which the auditory nerve is expanded. By this contrivance, and by others, which
we have not space now to narrate, the sense of hearing is fully equal to every possible
want of the animal.
The Eye is a most important organ, and comes next under consideration, as inclosed
in the bones of the skull. The eye of the horse should be large, somewhat but not
too prominent, and the eyelid fine and thin. If the eye is sunk in the head, and
apparently little — for there is actually a very trifling diff'erence in the size of the eye
in animals of the same species and bulk, and that seeming difference arises from the
larger or smaller opening between the lids — and the lid is thick, and especially if
there is any puckering towards the inner corner of the lids, that eye either is diseased,
or has lately been subject to inflammation ; and, particularly, if one eye is smaller
than the other, it has at no great distance of time, been inflamed.
The eye of the horse enables us with tolerable accuracy to guess at his temper.
If much of the white is seen, the buyer should pause ere he completes his bargain ;
because, although it may, yet very rarely, happen that the cornea or transparent part
is unnaturally small, and therefore an unusual portion of the white of the eye is seen,
experience has shown that this display of white is dangerous. The mischievous
horse is slyly on the look out for opportunities to do mischief, and the frequent back-
ward direction of the eye, when the white is most perceptible, is only to give surer
effect to the blow which he is about to aim.
A cursory description of the eye, and the uses of its different parts, must be given.
The eyes are placed at the side of the head, but the direction of the conoid cavity
which they occupy, and of the sheath by which they are surrounded within the orbit,
gives them a prevailing direction forwards, so that the animal has a very extended
field of vision. We must not assert that the eye of the horse commands a whole
sphere of vision ; but it cannot be denied that liis eyes are placed more forward than
those of cattle, sheep, or swine. He requires an extensive field of vision to warn him
of the approach of his enemies in his wild state, and a direction of the orbits con-
siderably forward, in order to enable him to pursue with safety the headlong course
u) wliich -we sometimes urge him.
The eye-ball is placed in the anterior and most capacious part of the orbit, nearer
to the frontal than the temporal side, with a degree of prominence varj'ing with
different individuals, and the will of the animal. It is protected by a bony socket
oeneath and on the inside, but is partially exposed on the roof and on the outside. It
IS, however, covered and secured by thick and powerful muscles — by a mass of
adipose matter which is distributed to various parts of the orbit, upon which the eye
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 83
may be readily moved without friction, and by a sheath of considerable density ana
firmness, and especially where it is most needed, on the external and supenor
portions.
The adipose matter exists in a considerable quantity in the orbit of the eye of the
horse, and enables that organ readily to revolve by the slightest contraction of the
muscles. By the absorption of this fattj- matter in sickness or old age, the eye is not
only to a certain degree sunk in the orbit, but the roof of the orbil posterior to the
frontal bone, being deprived of its support, is considerably depressed. Our work
shall not be disgraced by any farther reference to the rascally contrivance by which
this indication of age is in some degree removed.
In front the eye is supported and covered by the lids, which closing rapidly, pro-
tect it from many an injury that threatens — supply it with that moisture which is
necessary to preserve its transparency — in the momentary act of closing give a certain
and sufficient respite to a delicate organ, which would otherwise be fatigued and
worn out by the constant glare of day— defend it when the eye labours under inflam-
mation from the stimulus of light, — and, gradually drooping, permit the animal to
enjoy that repose which nature requires.
Extending- round both lids, and, it may be almost said, having neither origin nor
insertion, is a muscle called the orbicularis, or circular muscle. Its office is to close
the lids in the act of winking or otherwise, but only while the animal is awake.
When he sleeps, this is effected by another and very ingenious mechanism. The
natural state of the eyelids is that of being closed ; and they are kept open by the
energy of the muscles whose office it is to raise the upper lid. As sleep steals upon
the animal, these muscles cease to act, and the lids close by the inherent elasticity
of the membrane of which they are composed.
The skin of the lid is, like that of the ear, exceedingly fine, in order to prevent
unnecessary weight and pressure on such a part, and to give more easy and extensive
motion. The lids close accurately when drawn over the eye, and this is effected by
a little strip of cartilage at the edge of each of them, which may be easily felt with
the finger, and preserves them in a hoop-like form, and adapts them closely to the
eye and to each other. The lower cartilage, however, does not present, towards the
inner corner of the eye, the whole of its flat surface to the upper, but it evidently
slopes inward, and only the outer edge of the under lid touches the upper. By this
means, a little gutter is formed, through which the superfluous moisture of the eye
flows to the inner comer, where there is a canal to convey it away. By this con-
trivance it neither accumulates in the eye, nor unpleasantly runs down the cheek.
Along the edges of the lids are placed numerous little hollows, which can be
plainly distinguished even in the living horse by slightly turning down the lid.
These are the openings into numerous small cells containing a thick and unctuous
fluid, by means of which the eyes are more accurately closed, and the edges of the
lids defended from the acrimony of the tears.
The horse has no eyehroivs. and the eyelashes are very peculiarly arranged. The
rows of hair are longfest and most numerous on the upper lid, and especially towards
the outer or temporal corner, because the light comes from above ; and, as the animal
stands, particularly when he is grazing, and from the lateral situation of his eyes, the
greater portion of the light, and the attacks of insects, and the rolling down of
moisture, would chiefly be from the outside or temples. Towards the inner corner
of the upper lid there is little or no eyelash, because there is no probable danger or
nuisance in that direction. Only a small quantity of light can enter from below, and
therefore the lashes are thin and short; but as, in the act of grazinsf, insects may
more readilv climb up and be troublesome to the eye, towards the inner anjle, there
the principal or only hair is found on the lower lia. These apparently trifling cir-
cumstances will not be overlooked by the careful observer.
They who are unacquainted with the absurdities of stable management, or who
have not carefully examined the abuses that may exist in their own establishments,
can scarcely believe the foolish and cruel practices of some carters and grooms.
When the sfroom is anxious that his horse should be as trim and neat all over as art
can make him, the very eye-lashes are generally sacrificed. What has the poor
animal suffered, when, travelling in the noon of day, the full blaze of the sun has
84 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
fallen upon his eyes ; and how many accidents have probably happened from his
beino- dazzled by the light, which have been attributed to otiier causes !
If'the horse has no eyebrow, there are several hairs or bristles scattered on the
upper eyelid, and there is a projecting- fold of the lid which discharges nearly the
same office. It is more conspicuous in old horses than in young ones. Some horse-
men do not like to see it, and associate the idea of it with weakness or disease of the
eye. This is perfectly erroneous. It is a provision of nature to accomplish a certain
purpose, and has nothing to do either with health or disease.
On the lower lid is a useful provision to warn the horse of the near approach of
any object that might incommode or injure him, in the fonn of long projecting hairs
or bristles, which are plenteously embued with nervous influence, so that the slightest
touch should put the animal on his guard. We would request our readers to touch
very slightly the extremity of one of these hairs. They will be surprised to observe
the sudden convulsive twitching of the lid, rendering the attack of the insect abso-
lutely impossible. The grooms, however, who cut away the eye-lashes, do not spare
these useful feelers.
The eye is exposed to the action of the atmospheric air, and the process of evapora-
tion, destructive of its transparency, is continually going on. The eye of the horse,
or the visible part of the eye, is, likewise, more prominent and larger than in the
human being, and the animal is often subject to extreme annoyance from dust and
insects, while he has no hands or other guard to defend himself from the torture which
they occasion. What is the provision of nature against this ? Under, and a little
within, the outer corner of the upper lid, is an irregular body, the lacrymal gland
comparatively larger than in the human being, secreting an aqueous fluid, which,
slowly issuing from the gland, or occasionally pressed out of it by the act of winking,
flows over the eye, supplies it w'ith moisture, and cleanses it from all impurities.
Human ingenuity could not have selected a situation from which •"he fluid could be
conveyed over the eye with more advantage for this purpose.
W'hen this fluid is secreted in an undue quan^'ty, and flows over the eye, it is
called tears. An increased flow of tears is prr-iaced by anything that irritates the
eye, and, therefore, a constant accompaniment and symptom of inflammation. A
horse with any degree of weeping should be regarded with much suspicion. In the
human being an unusual secretion of tears is often caused by bodily pain, and emo-
tions of the mind ; and so it is occasionally in the horse. W^e have seen it repeatedly
under acute pain or brutal usage. John Lawrence, speaking of the cruelty exercised
by some dealers in what they call " firing" a horse before he is led out for sale, in
order to rouse every spark of mettle, says, " more than fifty years have passed away,
and I have before my eyes a poor mare stone blind, exquisitely shaped, and showing
all the marks of high blood, whom I saw unmercifully cut with the whip a quarter
of an hour before the sale, to bring her to the use of her stiflfened limbs, while the
tears were trickling down her cheeks.''''
Having passed over the eye, the fluid is conveyed by the little canal to which we
have alhided, formed by the sloping of the under lid, towards the corner of the eye ;
and there are two little orifices that conduct it to a small reservoir within, and at the
upper part of the lacrymal bone, (fig. «, p. 70). A little protuberance of a black or
pied colour, called the caruncle, placed in the very corner of the eye, and to be seen
without opening the lids, is situated between these orifices, and guides the fluid into
them. From this reservoir the tears are conveyed by a long canal, the hicrynial duct,
partly bony, and partly membranous, to the lower part of the nose. A little within
the nostril, and on the division between the nostrils, is seen the lower opening of this
canal ; the situation of which should be carefully observed, and its real use borne in
mind, for not only horsemen, but even some careless veterinary surgeons, have mis-
taken it for a glanderous ulcer, and have condemned a useful and valuable animal
It is fou!ad just before the skin of the muzzle terminates, and the more delicate mem
Drane of the nostril commences. The opening of the canal is placed thus low because
the membrane of the nose is exceedingly delicate, and would be irritated and made
sore by the frequent or constant running down of the tears.
There is, however, something yet wanting. We have a provision fn supplying
the eye with requisite moisture, and for washing from oiT the transparent part of it
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 85
insects or dust that may annoy the animal. What becomes of these impurities when
thus washed off! Are they carried by the tears to the corner of the eye, and so pass
down this duct, and irritate and obstruct it ; or do they accumulate at the inner angle
of the eye ? There is a beautiful contrivance for disposing of them as fast as they
acccumulate. Concealed within the inner corner of the eye, or only the margin of it,
black or pied, visible, is a triangular-shaped cartilage, the haw, with its broad part
forwards. It is concave within, exactly to suit the globe of the eye; it is convex
without, accurately to adapt itself to the membrane lining the lid ; and the base of it
is reduced to a thin or almost sharp edge. At the will of the animal this is suddenly
protruded from its hiding-place. It passes rapidly over the eye, and shovels up every
nuisance mixed with the tears, and then, being speedily drawn back, the dust or
insect is wiped away as the cartilage again passes under the corner of the eye.
How is this managed 1 The cartilage has no muscle attached to it ; and the limbs
and the different parts of the body, when put into motion by the influence of the will,
are moved invariably by muscles. The mechanism, however, is simple and effectual.
There is a considerable mass of fatty matter at the back of the eye, in order that this
organ may be easily moved ; and this fat is particularly accumulated about the inner
corner of the eye, and beneath, and at the point of this cartilage. The eye of the
horse has likewise very strong muscles attached to it, and one, peculiar to quadrupeds,
of extraordinarj' power, by whose aid, if the animal has not hands to ward off a
danger that threatens, he is at least enabled to draw the eye back almost out of the
reach of that danger.
Dust, or gravel, or insects, may have entered the eye, and annoy the horse. This
muscle suddenly acts : the eye is forcibly drawn back, and presses upon the fatty
matter. That may be displaced, but cannot be reduced into less compass. It is
forced violently towards the inner corner of the eye, and it drives before it the haw ;
and the haw, having likewise some fat about its point, and being placed between the
e}'e and an exceedingly smooth and polished bone, and being pressed upon by the
eye as it is violently drawn back, shoots out with the rapidit)' of lightning, and,
guided by the eyelids, projects over tb.e eje, and thus carries off the offending matter.
In what way shall we draw the haw back again Avithout muscular action ] Another
principle is called into play, of which mention has already been made, and of which
we shall have much to say, — elasticity. It is that principle by which a body yields
to a certain force impressed upon it, and returns to its former state as soon as that
force is removed. It is that by which the ligament of the neck (p. 75), while it sup-
ports the head, enables the horse to graze — by which the heart expands after closing
on and propelling forward the blood in its ventricles and the arterj- contracts on the
blood that has distended it, and many of the most important functions of life are
influenced or governed. This muscle ceases to act, and the eye resumes its natural
situation in the orbit. -There is room for the fatty matter to return to its place, and it
immediately returns by the elasticitj- of the membrane by w-hich it is covered, and
draws after it this cartilage with which it is connected, and whose letum is as rapid
as was the projection.
The old farriers strangely misunderstood the nature and design of the haw, and
many at the present day do not seem to be much better informed. When, from
sympathy with other parts of the eye labouring under inflammation, and becoming
itself inflamed and increased in bulk, and the neighbouring parts likewise thickened,
it is either forced out of its place, or voluntarily protruded to defend the eye from the
action of light and cannot return, they mistake it for some injurious excrescence or
timiour, and proceed to cut it out. The " haw in the eye" is a disease well known
to the majority of grooms, and this sad remedy for it is deemed the only cure. It is
a barbarous practice, and if they were compelled to walk half a dozen miles in a thick
dust, without being permitted to wipe or to cleanse the eye, they would feel the tor-
ture to which they doom this noble animal. A little patience hnving been exercised,
and a few cooling applications made to the eye while the inflammation lasted, and
afterwards some'mild astringent ones, and other proper means being employed, the
ttmiour would have disappeared, the haw would have returned to its place, and the
animal would have discharged the duties required of him without inconvenience to
8
80
THE SENSORIAL FUN
TON.
himself, instead of the agony to which an unguarded and unprotected eye must now
expose him.
The loss of blood occasioned by the excision of the haw may frequently relieve the
inflammation of the eye ; and the evident amendment which follows induces these
wise men to believe that they have performed an excellent operation ; but the same
loss of blood by scarification of the overloaded vessels of the conjunctiva would be
equally beneficial, and the animal would not be deprived of an instrument of admi
rable use to him.
The eye is of a globular figure, yet not a perfect globe. It is rather composed of
parts of two globes ; the half of one of them smaller and transparent in front, and of
the other larger and the coat of it opaque, behind. We shall most conveniently begin
with the coats of the eye.
A B a supposed object viewed by tlie animal, and an inverted image of which, a, h, is thrown
on the retina at the back of the eye.
: c The points where the rays, having passed the cornea and lens, converge by the refractive
power of the lens.
d e The rays proceeding from the extremities of the object to the eye.
/ The cornea, or horny and transparent part of the eye, covered by the conjunctiva, unidng
different parts together.
g The crystalline (crystal or glassy) lens, behind the pupil, and in front of the vitreous
humour.
h h Muscles of the eye.
i The optic nerve, or nerve of sight.
k The sclerotica (hard firm coat) covering the whole of the eye except the portion occupied
by the cornea, and being a seeming prolongation of the covering of the optic nerve.
I The choroides (receptacle or covering), or choroid coat, covered with a black secretion
or paint.
m m The iris or rainbow-coloured circular membrane under the cornea, in front of the eye,
and on which the colour of the eye depends. The duplicature behind is the uvea,
from being coloured like a grape. The opening in the centre is the pupil.
n n The ciliary (hair-like) processes.
o The retina, or net-like expansion of the optic nerve, spread over the whole of the cho-
roides as far as the lens.
p The vitreous (glass-like) humour filling the whole of the cavity of the eye behind the
lens.
q The aqueous (water-like) humour filling the space between the cornea and the lens.
The conjunctiva, /, is that membrane which lines the lids, and covers the fore part
of the eye. It spreads over all that we can see or feel of the eye, and even its trans-
parent part. It is itself transparent, and transmits the colour of the parts beneath.
It is very susceptible of inflammation, during which the lining of the lids will become
intensely red, and the white of the eye will be first streaked with red vessels, and then
covered with a complete mesh of them, and the cornea will become cloudy and
opaque. It is the seat of various diseases, and, particularly, in it commences that
sad inflammation of the horse's eye which bids defiance to the veterinary surgeon's
r,kil] and almost invariably terminates in blindness.
The examination of the conjunctiva, by turning down the lid, will enable us to
form an accurate judgment of the degxee of inflammation which exists in the eye.
Covering the back part of the eye, and indeed four-fifths of the globe of it, is the
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 87
sclerotica, k. It is an exceedingly strong membrane, composed of fibres interweaving
with each other, and ahnost defying the possibility of separation. An organ so
delicate and so important as the eye requires secure protection.
It is a highly elastic membrane. It is necessary that it should be so, when it is
considered that the eye is surrounded by several and very powerful muscles, which
must temporarily, and even for the purposes of vision, alter its form. The elasticity
of the sclerotica is usefully exhibited by its causing the globe of the eye to resume
its former and natural shape, as soon as the action of the muscle ceases.
The sclerotica has very few blood-vessels — is scarcely sensible — and its diseases,
except when it participates in general disturbance or disorganisation, are rarely
brought under our notice.
The cornea is, or we should wish it to be, the only visible part of the horse's eye,
for the exhibition of much white around it is a sure symptom of wickedness. The
cornea fills up the vacuity which is left by the sclerotica in the fore part of the eye,
and, although closely united to the sclerotica, may be separated from it, and will
drop out like a watch-glass. It is not round, but wider from side to side than from
top to the bottom ; and the curve rather broader towards the inner than the outer
corner of the eye, so that the near eye may be known from the oft' one after it is taken
from the head.
The convexity or projection of the cornea is a point of considerable importance.
The prominence of the eye certainly adds much to the beauty of the animal, but we
shall see presently, when we consider the eye as the organ of sight, that by being
too prominent the rays of light may be rendered too convergent, and the vision indis-
tinct ; or, if the cornea is small and flat, the rays may not be convergent enough, and
perfect vision destroyed. In either case the horse may unpleasantly start, or sud-
denly and dangerously turn round. An eye neither too prominent nor too flat will be
nearest to perfection.
It should be perfectly transparent. Any cloudiness or opacity is the consequence
of disease. It is an exceedingly firm and dense membrane, and can scarcely be
pierced by the sharpest instrument. The cornea is composed of many different plates,
laid over one another ; and between each, at least in a state of health, is a fluid that
is the cause of its transparency, and the evaporation of which, after death, produces
the leaden or glazed appearance of the eye. When it appears to be opaque, it is not
often, and never at first, that the cornea has undergone any change.
There is nothing that describes attention from the purchaser of a horse more than
the perfect transparency of the cornea over the whole of its surface. The eye should
be examined for this purpose, both in front, and with the face of the examiner close
to the cheek of the horse, under and behind the eye. The latter method of lookinor
through the cornea is the most satisfactory, so far as the transparency of that part of
the eye is concerned. During this examination the horse should not be in the open
air, but in the stable standing in the doorway and a little within the door. If any-
small, faint, whitish lines appear to cross the cornea, or spread over any part of it,
they are assuredly the remains of previous inflammation ; or, although the centre and
bulk of the cornea should be perfectly clear, yet if around the edge of it, where it
unites with the sclerotica, there should be a narrow ring or circle of haziness, the
conclusion is equally true, but the inflammation occurred at a more distant period.
Whether however the inflammation has lately existed, or several weeks or months
have elapsed since it was subdued, it is too likely to recur.
There is one caution to be added. The cornea in its natural state is not only a
beautiful transparent structure, but it reflects, even in proportion to its transparency,
many of the rays which fall upon it ; and if there is a white object immediately before
the eye, as a light waistcoat, or much display of a white neckcloth, the reflection may
puzzle an experienced observer, and has misled many a careless one. The coai
should be buttoned up, and the white cravat carefully concealed.
Within the sclerotica, and connected with it by innumerable minute fibres and
vessels, is the choroid coat, I. It is a very delicate membrane, and extends over the
whole of the internal part of the eye, from the optic nerve to the cornea. It secretes
n dark-coloured substance or paint, by which it is covered ; the intention of which,
ike the inside of our telescopes and microscopes, is probably to absorb any wander-
8S THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
ing rays of light \vhich might dazzle and confuse. Tlie black paint, pigmenlum
nigrum, seems perfectly to discharge this function in the human eye. It is placed
immediately under the retina or expansion of the optic nerve. The rays of light fall
on the retina, and penetrating its delicate substance, are immediately absorbed or
destroyed by the black covering of the choroides underneath. For the perfection of
many of his best pleasures, and particularly of his intellectual powers, man wants
the vivid impression which will be caused by the admission of the rays of light into
a perfectly dark chamber ; and when the light of the sun begins to fail, his superior
intelligence has enabled him to discover various methods of substituting an artificial
day, after the natural one has closed. Other animals, without this power of kindling
another, although inferior light, have far more to do with the night than we have.
Many of them sleep through the glare of day, and awake and are busy during the
period of darkness. Tlie ox occupies some hours of the night in grazing; the sheep
does so when not folded in his pen ; and the horse, worked during the day for our
convenience and profit, has often little more than the period of night allotted to him
for nourishment and repose. Then it is necessary that^ by some peculiar and adequate
contrivance, these hours of comparative or total darkness to us should be partially
yet sufficiently illuminated for them ; and therefore in the horse the dark brov.n or
black coat of the choroides does not extend over the whole of the internal part of the
eye, or rather it is not found on any part on which the rays proceeding from the
objects could fall. It does not occupy the smallest portion of what may be called the
field of vision ; but, in its place a bright variegated green is spread, and more over
the upper part than the lower, because the animal's food, and the objects which it is
of consequence for him to notice, are usually below the level of his hearl — thus, by
suffering the impression to remain longer on the retina, or by some portion of light
reflected from this variegated bed on which the retina reposes, or in some other inex-
plicable but efficient wny, enabling the animal, even in comparative darkness, tc
possess the power of vision equal to his wants.
The reader may see in the dusk, or even when duskiness is fast yielding to utter
darkness, the beautiful sea-green reflection from the eye of the horse. It is that
lucid variegated carpet of which we are now speaking.
Who is unaware that in the fading glimmering of the evening, and even in the
darker shades of night, his horse can see surrounding objects much better than his
rider ; and who, resigning himself to the guidance of that sagacious and faithful
animal, has not been carried in safety to his journey's end, when he would otherwise
have been utterly bewildered ?
If the reader has not examined this beautiful pigment in the eye of the horse, he
should take the earliest opportunity of doing so. He will have a beautiful illustration
of the care which that Being who gave all things life has taken that each shall be
fitted for his situation. The horse has not the intelligence of man, and may not want
for any purpose of pleasure or improvement the vivid picture of surrounding objects
which the retina of the human being presents. A thousand minute but exquisite
beauties would be lost upon him. If, therefore, his sense of vision may not be so
strong during the day, it is made up to him by the increased power of vision in the
night.
Perfectly white and cream-coloured horses have a peculiar appearance of the eyes.
Tlie pupil is red instead of black. There is no black paint or brilliant carpet. It is
the choroid coat itself which we see in them, and not its covering; and the red
appearance is caused by the numerous blood-vessels which are found on every part
of that coat.
When we have to treat of other domestic animals, we shall see how this carpet is
varied in colour to suit the situation and necessity of each. In the ox it is of a dark
green. He has not many enemies to fear, or much difficult\^ in searching- for nourish-
ment, and the colour of the eye is adapted to his food. In the cat and all his varieties,
it is yellow. We have heard of the eyes of the lion appearing like two flaming
torches in the night. There are few oi our readers who have not seen the same
singular glare from the eyes of the domestic cat. In the wolf, and likewise in the
dog, who, in his wild state, prowls chiefly at night, it is grey. In the poor unjustly-
persecuted badger, who scarcely dares to crawl forth at night, although sheltered by
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. gy
the thickest darkness, it is white ; and the ferret, who is destined to hunt his prey
through all its winding retreats, and in what would be to us absolute darkness, has
no paint on the clioroides.
Tracing- the choroides towards the fore part of the eye, we perceive that it is
reflected from the side to the edge of the lens, n, and has the appearance of several
plaits or folds. They are actually foldings of the membrane. It is not diminished
in size, but it has less space to cover, and there must be duplicatures or plaits. They
are usefully employed in the place in which we find them. They prevent tlie passage
of any rays of light on the outside of the lens, and which, proceedino- forward in
various directions, and uncondensed by the power of tlxe lens, would render vision
confused or imperfect. These folds of the choroides are called the ciliary processes.
Within the cornea, and occupying the fore part of the e)'e, is the aque.ous humour,
p, so termed from its resemblance to pure water. It is that by which the cornea is
preserved in its protuberant and rounded form. It extends to the crystalline lens q,
and therefore a portion of it, although a very small one, is behind the" iris (m, p. 86).
Floating in this fluid is a membrane, with an oblong aperture, called the Iris. It is
that which o-ives colour to the eye. The human eye is said to be black, or hazel, or
blue, according to the colour of this membrane or curtain ; and it is denominated the
iris, or rainbow, from its beautiful, intermingling hues. The colour varies little in
the horse, except that it always bears some analogy to that of the skin. We rarely
see it lighter than a hazel, or darker than a brown. Horses perfectly white, or cream-
coloured, have the iris white and the pupil red. When horses of other colours, and
that are usually pied, have a white iris and a black pupil, they are said to be wall-
eyed. Vulgar opinion has decided that a wall-eyed horse is never subject to blind-
ness, but this is altogether erroneous. There is no difference of structure that can
produce this exemption ; but the wall-ej^ed horse, from this singular and unpleasant
appearance, and his frequent want of breeding, may not be so much used and exposed
to many of the usual causes of inflammation.
The aperture in the iris is termed the pupil, and through it light passes to the inner
chamber of the eye. The pupil is oblong, and variable in size. It differs with the
intensity or degree of light that falls upon the eye. In a dark stable the pupil is
expanded to admit a great proportion of the light that falls upon the cornea ; but when
the horse is brought towards the door of the stable and more light is thrown upon the
eye, the pupil contracts in order to keep out that extra quantity which would be pain-
ful to the animal, and injurious to vision. When opposed directly to the sun, the
aperture will almost close.
This alteration of form in the pupil is effected by the muscular fibres that enter
into the composition of the iris. When these fibres are relaxed, the pupil must pro-
portionably diminish. The motions of the iris are not at all under the control of the
will, nor is the animal sensible of them. They are produced by sympathy with the
state of the retina. When, however, a deficient portion of light reaches the retina,
and vision is indistinct, we are conscious of an apparent effort to bring the object more
clearly into view, and the fibres then contract, and the aperture enlarges, and more
light is admitted.
This dilatation or contraction of the pupil gives a useful method of ascertaining the
existence of blindness in one eye or in both. The cornea and crystalline lens remain
perfectly transparent, but the retina is palsied, and is not atTected by light; and many
persons have been deceived when blindness of this description has been confined to
one eye. A horse blind in both eyes will usually have his ears in constant and rapid
motion, directing them in quick succession to every quarter. He will likewise hang
back in his halter in a peculiar way, and will lift his feet high as if he were stepping
over some obstacle, when there is actually nothing to obstruct his passage, and there
will be an evident uncertainty in the putting down of his feet. In blindness of one
eye, little or nothing of this characteristic gait and manner can be perceived. Althouo-h
a one-eyed horse may not be absolutely condemned for the common business of the
carriage or the road, he is generally deteriorated as a hunter, for he cannot measure
his distances, and will run into his leaps.* Many a sportsman, puzzled and angry
* Mr. W. Percivall, however, in his excellent Lectures on the Veterinary Art, vol. iii. p.
8* M
90 THESENSORIALFUNCTION.
at the sudden blundering of his horse, or injured by one or more stunning falls, has
found a very natural although unexpected explanation of it in the blindness of one
eye, -and that perhaps produced through his own fault, by over-riding his willing and
excellent servant, and causing a determination of blood to the eye, which proved fatal
to the delicate texture of the retina. Even for the caniage or the road he is consiuera-
bly deteriorated, for his field of observation must be materially lessened.
Let the size of both pupils be carefully noticed before the horse is removed from the
stable, and, as he is led to the door, observe whether they both contract, and equally
so, with the increase of light. If the horse should be first seen in the open air, let it
be observed whether the pupils are precisely of the same size ; then let the hand be
placed over each eye alternately and held there for a little while, and let it be observed
whether the pupil dilates with the abstraction of light, and equally in each eye.
Hanging from the upper edge of the pupil of the horse, are two or three round
black substances, as large as millet seeds. When the horse is suddenly brought into
an intense light, and the pupil is closed, they present a singular appearance, as they
are pressed out from between the edges of the iris. An equal number, but much
smaller, are attached to the edge of the lower portion of the iris. Their general use
is probably to intercept rays of light which would be troublesome or injurious, and
their principal function is accomplished during the act of grazing. They are larger
on the upper edge of the iris, and are placed on the outer side of the pupil, evidently
to discharge the same function which we have attributed to the eyelashes, viz., to
obstruct the light in those directions in which it would come with greatest force, both
from above and even from below, while, at the same time, the field of view is per*
fectly opeii, so far as it regards the pasture on which the horse is grazing.
In our cut, m gives a duplicature of the iris, or the back surface of it. This is called
the uvea, and it is covered with a thick coat of black mucus, to arrest the rays of
light, and to prevent them from entering the eye in any other way than through the
pupil. The colour of the iris is, in some unknow'n way, connected Avith this black
paint behind. Wall-eyed horses, whose iris is white, have no uvea.
We nov/ arrive at a body on which all the important uses of the eye mainly depend,
the crystalline lens, g, so called from its resemblance to a piece of crystal, or trans-
parent glass. It is of a yielding jelly-like consistence, thicker and firmer towards the
centre, and convex on each side, but more convex on the inner than the outer side. It
is enclosed in a delicate transparent bag ot capsule, nnA is placed between the aqueous
and the vitreous humours, and received into a hollow in the vitreous humour, with
which it exactly corresponds. It has, from its density and its double convexity, the
chief concern in converging the rays of light which pass into the pupil.
The lens is very apt to be afl"ected from long or violent inflammation of the con-
junctiva, and either its capsule becomes cloudy, and imperfectly transmits the light,
or the substance of the lens becomes opaque. The examination of the horse, with a
view to detect this, must either be in the shade, or at a stable door, where the light
shall fall on the animal from above and in front ; and in conducting this examination
we would once more caution the intended purchaser against a superfluity of white
about his neck. Holding the head of the animal a little up, and the light coming in
the direction that has been described, the condition of the lens will at once be evident.
The confirmed cataract, or the opaque lens of long standing, will exhibit a pearly
appearance, that cannot be mistaken, and will frequently be attended with a change
of form — a portion of the lens being forced forwards into the pupil. Although the
disease may not have proceeded so far as this, yet if there is the slightest cloudiness
of the lens, either generally, or in the form of a minute spot in the centre, and with
or without lines radiating from that spot, the horse is to be condemned; for, in ninety-
nine cases out of a hundred, the disease will proceed, and cataract, or complete opacity
of the lens, and absolute blindness, will be the result.
201, says, " The loss of one eye does not enfeeble sight, because the other acquires greater
energy, though it much contracts the field of vision. It is said to render the conception erring,
and the case of misjiidgment of distances is the one commonly brought forward to show this.
All I can say on this point is, that the best hunter I ever possessed, a horse gifted whh extra-
ordinary powers for leaping, was a one-eyed horse, and this animal carried me through a huiitnig
season, without, to my recollection, making one single blunder in leaping."
THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION. 91
Cataract in t.ie human beincr may, to a very considerable extent, be remedied. The
opaque lens may be extracted, or it may be forced into the vitreous humours, and
there existing- as a foreign body, it will soon be absorbed and disappear. These
operations are impossible in the horse ; for, in the first place, there is a muscle of
which we have already spoken, and to be presently more particularly described , that
is peculiar to quadnipeds, and of such power as generally to draw back the eye too
far into its socket for the surgeon to be enabled to make his incision ; or could the
incision be made, the action of tliis muscle would . force out the greater part of the
contents of the eye, and this organ would speedily waste away. If, however, the
opaque lens could be withdrawn or depressed, and the mechanism of the eye were not
otherwise injured, the operation would be totally useless, for we could not make the
horse wear those convex glasses whose converging power might compensate for the
loss of the lens.
Behind the lens, and occupying four-fifths of the cavity of the eye, is the vitreous
humour (glassy, or resembling glass). It seems, when first taken from the eye, to be
of the consistence of a jelly, and of beautiful transparency ; but if it is punctured a
fluid escapes from it as limpid and as thin as water, and when this has been suffered
completely to ooze out, a mass of membraneous bags or cells remains. The vitreous
humour consists of a watery fluid contained in these cells ; but the fluid and the
cells form a body of considerably greater density than the aqueous fluid in the front
of the eye.
Last of all, between the vitreous humour and the choroid coat, is the retina, o, or net-
like membrane. It is an expansion of the substance, g, of the optic nerve. When
that nerve has reached the back of the eye, and penetrated through the sclerotic and
choroid coats, it first enlarges into a little white prominence, from which radiations or
expansions of nerv^ous matter proceed, which spread over the whole of the choroid
coat, and form the third investment of the eye. The membrane by which this nervous
pulp is supported, is so exceedingly thin and delicate, that it will tear with the
slightest touch, and break even with its own weight. The membrane and the pulp
are perfectly transparent in the living animal. The pupil appears to be black, because
in the daytime it imperfectly reflects the colour of the choroid coat beneath. In the
dusk it is greenish, because, the glare of day being removed, the actual green of the
paint appears.
On this expansion of nervous pulp, the rays of light from surrounding objects, con-
densed by the lens and the humours, fall, and, producing a certain image correspond-
ing with these objects, the animal is conscious of their existence and presence.
It may, however, so happen that from the too great or too little convexit}- of the eye
or a portion of it, the place of most distinct vision may not be immediately on the
retina, but a little before or behind it. In proportion as this is the case, the sight will
be indistinct and imperfect ; nor shall we be able to offer any remedy for this defect
of sight. There is a shying, often the result of cowardice or playfulness, or want
of work, but at other times proving, beyond contradiction, a defect of sight even more
dangerous than blindness. A blind horse will resign himself to the guidance of his
rider or driver ; but against the misconception and starting of a shying horse there is
no defence. That horses grow shy as they grow old, no one accustomed to them will
deny ; and no intelligent person will be slow in attributing it to the right cause — a
decay in the organ of vision, — a loss of convexity in the eye, lessening the con-
veraency of the rays, and throwing the perfect image beyond, and not on, the retina.
There is a striking difference in the convexity of the cornea in the colt and the old
horse ; and both of them, probably, may shy from opposite causes — the one from a
cornea too prominent, and the other from one too flat. In the usual examination of
the horse pre\'iously to purchase, suflficient attention is not always paid to the con-
vexit}' of the cornea.
The remedy for shying will be considered when we speak of the vices of horses.
Tliere is a provision yet wanting. The horse has a very extended field of view, but
many persons are not perhaps aware how little of it he can command at a time.
There is not one of our readers who can make out a single line of our treatise without
chang-ing the direction of the eye. It is curious to follow the motion of the eyes of a
rapid reader. Nature has given no less than seven muscles to the horse, in oider to
^
92 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTION.
turn this little but important ortran ; and, that they may act with sufficient power and
quickness, no fewer than six nerves are directed to the muscles of the eye generally,
or to particular ones — while the eye rests on a mass of fat, that it may be turned with
little exertion of power, and without friction.
MUSCLES OF THE EYE.
There are four straight muscles,
three of which, c/, e, and/, are repre-
sented in our cut, rising from the
back of the orbit, and inserted into
the ball of the eye, opposite to, and
at equal distances from each other.
One, rf, runs to the upper part of the
eye, just behind the transparent and
visible portion of it, and its office is
clearly, to raise the eye. When it
contracts, the eye must be drawn
upward. Another,/, is inserted ex-
actly opposite, at the bottom of the eye ; and its office is as clearly to depress the
eye, or enable the animal to look downwards. A third, e, is inserted at the outer
corner, and by means of it the eye is turned outward, and, from the situation of the
eye of the horse, considerably backward ; and the fourth is inserted at the inner
comer, turning the eye inward. They can thus rotate or turn the eye in any direction
the animal wishes, and by the action of one, or the combined power of any two of
them, the eye can be immediately and accurately directed to ever}- point.
These muscles,- however, have another duty to discharge. They support the eye
n its place. In the usual position of the head of the horse, they must be to a certain
iegree employed for this purpose ; but when he is grazing or feeding, the principal
weight of the eye rests upon them. Another muscle is therefore added, peculiar to
quadmpeds, called the refractor {ciratvcr-bac/i-), or the suspe7}sor{us (suspensory) muscle,
Of. It arises from the edge of the foramen through which the optic nerve enters the
orbit — surrounds the ner\'e as it proceeds forward, and then, partially dividing into
four portions, is attached to the back part of the eye. Its office is evidently to support
the eye generally, or, when suddenly called into powerful action, and assisted by the
straight muscles, it draws the eye back out of the reach of threatening danger, and in
the act of drawing it back causes the haw to protrude, as an additional defence.
The power of this muscle is very great. It renders some operations on the eye
almost impossible. It is an admirable substitute for the want of hands, to defend the
eye from many things that would injure it; and, being partially separated into four
divisions, it assists the straiglit muscles in turning the eye.
These muscles discharge another and a most im.portant office. If we examine near
and distant objects through a telescope, we must alter the focus; «. c, we must increase
or diminish the length of the tube. We must shorten it a little when we examine dis-
tant objects, because the rays, coming to us from them in a less divergent direction,
are sooner brought to a point by the power of the lens. Thus the straight and retractor
muscles drawing back the eye, and forcing it upon the substance behind, and in a
slight degree flattening it, bring,the lens nearer to the retina, and adapt the eye to the
observation of distant objects.
Still, however, being constantly employed in supporting the weight of the eye, these
muscles may not be able to turn it so rapidly and so extensively as the wishes or
wants of the animal require ; therefore two others are superadded which are used
solely in turning the eye. They are called oblique muscles, because their course is
obliquely across the eye. The upper one is most curiously constructed, «, h. It
comes from the back part of the orbit, and takes a direction upwards and towards the
inner side, and there, just under the ridge of the orbit, it passes through a perfect me-
chanical pulley, and, turning round, proceeds across the eye, and is inserted rather
beyond the middle of the eye, towards the outer side. Thus the globe of the eye is
evidently directed inward and upward. Something more, however, is accomplished
l)y this singular mechanism. The eye is naturally deep in the orbit, that it may b«
INJURIES AND DISEASES OF THE SKULL, &c. 93
more perfectly defended ; but it may be necessary occasionally to bring it forward,
and enlarge the field of vision. The eye is actually protruded under the influence of
fear. Not only are the lids opened more widely, but the eye is brought more forward.
How is this accomplished 1 There are no muscles anterior to, or before the eye —
there 4s no place for their insertion. The object is readily effected by this singular
pulley, b, c. By the power of this muscle — the trochkaris, or pulley-muscle — and the
straiirht muscles' at the same time not opposing it, or only regulating the direction of
the eye. it is really brought somewhat forward. The lower oblique muscle rises just
within the lacrymal bone (t, p. 70), and, proceeding across the eye, is fixed into the
part cf the sclerotica opposite to the other oblique muscle, and it turns the eye in a
contrary direction, assisting, however, the upper oblique in bringing the eye forward
from its socket.
CHAPTER III.
INJURIES AND DISEASES OF THE SKULL— THE BR.AIN — THE
EARS — AND THE EYES.
We have now arrived at a convenient resting-place in our somewhat dry but neces-
sary description of the structure of the horse, and we willingly turn to more practical
matter. ^\'e will consider the injuries and diseases of the parts we have surveyed.
In entering, however, on this division of our work, we would premise, that it is impos-
^ble for us to give the farmer such an account of the nature and treatment of the dis-
eases of horses as will enable him with safety to practise for himself, except in the
commonest cases. The causes of most diseases are so obscure, their symptoms so
variable, and their connexion with other maladies so complicated and mysterious, that
a life devoted to professional study will alone qualify a man to become a judicious
and successful practitioner on the diseases of the horse and other domestic animals.
Our object will be to communicate sufficient instruction to the farmer to enable him
to act with promptness and judgment when he cannot obtain professional assistance,
to qualify him to form a satisfactory opinion of the skill of the veterinary surgeon
whom he may employ, and, more especially, to divest him of those strange and absurd
prejudices which in a variety of cases not only produce and prolong disease, but bring
it to a fatal termination.
FRACTURE.
We have described the cavity of the skull of the horse as being so defended by the
hardness of the parietal bones, and those bones so covered by a mass of muscle, and
the occipital bone as so exceedingly thick (see page 92), that a Fracture of the skull
is almost impossible. It can only occur from brutal violence, or when a horse falls
in the act of rearing. When, however, fracture of the skull does occur, it is almost
invariably fatal. A blow of sufficient violence to break these bones must likewist;
irreparably inj ure the delicate and important oraran which tliey protect.
The ridge, or outer and upper part of the orbit of the eye, is occasionally fractured.
It happens from falling, or much oftener from violent blows. The slightest examina-
tion will detect the loosened pieces ; but a professional man alone can render effectual
assistance.
^Ir. Pritchard, in the second volume of the " Veterinarian," relates an interesting
case of fracture of the orbit of the eye. " A chestnut mare,'' he says, " received a
blow which fractured the orbit from the superciliary foramen, in a line through the
zygomatic processes of the temporal and malar bones to the outer angle of the eye
The detached bone, together with the divided integument, hung over the eye so as tc
intercept vision. On examining the place where the accident occurred, two portion?
of bone were found belonging to the orbital arch. After carefully inspecting the
wound, and finding no other detached portions, nor any spiculas which might irritate
94 INJURIES AND DISEASES OF THE SKULL, &.c.
or wound, the adjacent portions of the skin were carefully drawn together, and secured
by a silver wire, which closed the wound, and confined the detached portion of bone
in its proper place. A mash diet was ordered.
" On the following day there was considerable inflammation. The eye was bathed
with warm water, and a dose of physic administered. On the third day the i<iflam-
niation and swelling had still more increased. Blood was abstracted from the vein
at the angle of the eye. The swelling and inflammation now speedily abated ; and
on the fifteenth day the wound had quite healed."
If a fracture of this kind is suspected, its existence or non-existence may be easily
determined by introducing the thumb under, and keeping the fore-finger upon, the
edge of tlie orbit.
EXOSTOSIS.
Bony enlargements of the orbital arch sometimes arise from natural predisposition
or local injury. They should be attacked in the earliest stage, for they are too apt
rapidly to increase. Some preparation of iodine, as described in the account of medi-
cines, will be useful in this case.
CARIES.
Inflammation and enlargement of the injured bones, followed by abscess and the
production of certain bony growths, are of occasional occurrence. A skilful practi-
tioner can alone decide whether a cure should be attempted, or the sufferings of the
animal terminated by death.
COMPRESSION OFTHE BRAIN.
Hydatids are often found within the cranial cavity, and lying upon or imbedded in
the brain of oxen and sheep. Their existence is usually fatal to the animal. Ther#'
is no well-authenticated account of the existence of an hydatid in the cranial cavity
of the horse; but cysts, containing a serous or viscid fluid, are occasionally observed.
The following is the history of one : — A horse exhibited symptoms of vertigo, or stag-
gers, which disappeared after copious bleeding and purgatives. About twelve months
afterwards the same complaint was evident. He carried his head low and inclined to
the right side. He staggered as he walked, and the motion of his limbs was marked
by a peculiar convulsive action, confined to the fore extremities. He moved by a suc-
cession of spasmodic houndings. He was completely deaf; and rapidly lost flesh,
though he ate and drank voraciously. He remained in this state, to the shame of the
owner and the practitioner, several months, and then he had a fresh attack of vertigo,
and died suddenly. On examination of the brain, its membranes were found to be
completely reddened; and, between the two lobes of the brain, was a round cyst as
large as a pullet's egg. The pressure of this was the manifest cause of the mischief.
PRESSURE ON THE BRAIN.
This may be produced by some fluid thrown out between the membranes, or occu-
pying and distending the ventricles of the brain. In the full-grown horse it rarely
occurs; but it is well known to breeders as an occasional disease of the foal, under
the name of " water in the head." The head is either much enlarged, or strangely
deformed, or both ; and the animal dies, either in the birth, or a few days after it.
MEGRIMS.
There is another kind of pressure on the brain, resulting from an unusual determi-
nation or flow of blood to it. This organ requires a large supply of blood to enable
it to discharge its important functions. Nature, in the horse more than in many other
animals, has made some admirable provisions to cause this stream to flov/ into the
brain with little velocity, and thereby to lessen the risk of suddenly overloading it or
rupturing its vessels. The arteries pursue their course to the brain in a strangely
winding and circuitous manner; and they enter the skull through bony apertures that
will admit of the enlargement of the vessels only to a very limited e^.tent. From
various causes, however, of which the most common is violent exercise en a hot day,
APOPLEXY
95
and the horse being fat and full of blood, more thah the usual quantity is sent to the
head; or, from some negligence about the harness — as the collar being too small, or
the carb-rein too tight — the blood is prevented from returning trom the head. The
larger vessels of the brain v.\\\ then be too long ai.u injuriously distended ; and, -what
is of more consequence, the small vessels that permeate the' substance of the brain
will be enlarged, and the bulk of the brain increased, so that it will press upon the
origins of the nerves, and produce, almost without warning, loss of power and con-
sciousness.
The mildest affection of this kind is known by the name of ^NlECRnis. It compara-
tively rarely happens when the horse is ridden ; but should he be driven, and perhaps
rather quickly, he may perform a part of his journey with his usual cheerfulness and
ease : lie will then suddenly stop, shake his head, and exhibit evident giddiness, and
half-unconsciousness. In a minute or tivo this will pass over, and he will go on
again as if nothing had happened.
Occasionally, however, the attack will be of a more serious nature. He will fall
without the slightest warning, or suddenly run round once or twice, and then fall. He
will either lie in a state of complete insensibility, or struggle with the utmost violence.
In live cr ten minutes he will begin gradually to come to himself ; he will get up and
proceed on his journey, yet somewhat dull, and evidently affected and exhausted by
what had happened, although not seriously or permanently ill.
At the moment of attack, a person who is competent" to the task should abstract
three or four quarts of blood from the neck-vein ; or cut the bars of the palate in the
manner to be explained when we describe that part, and whence a considerable and
sulUcient quantity of blood may be readily obtained. The driver should pat and
soothe the animal, loosen the curb-rein, if possible ease the collar, and pursue his
journey as slowly as circumstances will permit. When he gets home, a dose of
physic should be administered if the horse can be spared, the quantity of dry food
lessened, and mashes given, or green meat, or he should be turned out to grass for
two or three months.
Is all this necessary because a horse has happened to have a fit of the meorims 1
Yes, and more too. in the mind of the prudent man ; for it is seldom that a horse has
the megrims without the predisposition to a second attack remaining. Tliese over-
distended vessels may be relieved for a while, but it is long before they perfectly
recover their former tone. It requires but a little increased velocitj^ or force in the
vital current once more to distend them, and to produce the same dangerous effects.
The testimony of experience is uniform -nith regard to this ; and he would not do
justice to himself or his family who trusted himself behind a horse that had a second
attack of megrims.
APOPLEXY.
Megrims is Apoplexy under its mildest form. In the latter affection, the deter-
mination of blood, if not so sudden, is greater, or differently directed, or more lasting.
It is seldom, however, that there are not timely warnings of its approach, if the carter
or the groom had wit enough to observe them. The horse is a little off his feed he
is more than usually dull — there is a degree of stupiditj' about him, and, g-enerallv, a
somewhat staggering gait. This goes off when he has been out a little while, but it
soon returns under a more decided character, until, at length, it forces itself on tho
attention of the most careless.
The actual illness is perhaps first recognised by the horse standing ^^^th his head
depressed. It bears upon, or is forced against the manger or the wall, and a con-
siderable part of the weight of the animal is evidentlv supported by this pressure of
the head. As he thus stands, he is balancing himself from one side to the other as
if he were ready to fall ; and it is often dangerous to stand near to him, or to move
lim, for he falls without warning. If he can get his muzzle into a corner, he will
sometimes continue there motionless for a considerable time, and then drop as if he
were shot ; but, the next moment, he is up again, with his feet almost in the rack.
He sleeps or seems to do so as he stands, or at least he is nearly or quite unconscious
of surrounding objects. ^Yhen he is roused, he looks vacantly around him. Perhaps
he will talce a lock of hay if it is offered to him ; but ere it is'half masticated, the eye
96 APOPLEXY.
closes, and he sleeps again with the food in his mouth. Soon afterwards he is, pei
haps, revised once more. The eye opens, but it has an unmeaning glare. The han'i
is moved before him, but the eye closes not; he is spoken to, but he hears not. The
last act of voluntary motion which he will attempt is usually to drink; but he has
'illlo power over the muscles of deglutition, and the fluid returns through the nostrils.
He now begins to foam at the mouth. His breathing is laborious and loud. It is
]ierformed by the influence of the organic nerves, and those of animal life no longer
lend their aid. The pulse is slow and oppressed — the jugular vein is distended
almost to bursting — the muzzle is cold, and the discharge of the fa*ces involuntary
He grinds his teeth — twitchings steal over his face and attack his limbs — they some-
times proceed to convulsions, and dreadful ones too, in which the hoi-se beats himself
about in a terrible manner ; but there is rarely disposition to do mischief. In the
greater number of cases these convulsions last not long. All the powers of life are
oppressed, and death speedily closes the scene.
On examination after death, the whole venous sj'stem is usually found in a state
of congestion, and the vessels of the brain are peculiarly turgid with black blood.
Occasionally, however, there is no inflammation of the brain or its membranes ; but
either the stomach contains a more than usual quantity of food, or the larger intes-
tines are loaded with foul matter.
This disease is found more frequently in the stable of the postmaster and the farmer
than anywhere else. Thirty years ago it was the very pest of these stables, and the
loss sustained by some persons was enormous ; but, as veterinary science progressed,
the nature and the causes of the disease were better understood, and there is not now
one case of staggers where twenty used to occur
Apoplexy is a determination of blood to the head, and the cause is the over-condi-
tion of the animal and too great fulness of blood. Notions of -projier condifiun in the
horse now prevail very different from those by which our forefathers were guided.
It no longer consists in the round, sleek carcase, fat enough for the butcher, but in
fulness and hardness of the muscular fibre, and a comparative paucity of cellular and
adipose matter — in that which will add to the power of nature, and not oppress and
weigh her down.
The system of exercise is better understood than it used formerly to be. It is pro-
portioned to the quantity and quality of the food, and more particularly the division
of labour is more rational. The stage-horse no longer runs his sixteen or eighteen,
or even two-and-twenty miles, and then, exhausted, is turned into the stable for the
next twenty hours. The food is no longer eaten voraciously ; the comparatively little
stomach of the animal is no longer distended, before nature has been able sufficiently
to recruit herself to carry on the digestive process ; the vessels of the stomach are no
longer oppressed, and the flow of blood through them arrested, and, consequently,
more blood directed to other parts, and to the brain among the rest.
The farmer used to send his horses out early in the morning, and keep them at
plough for six or eight hours, and then they were brought home and suffered to over-
gorge themselves, and many of them were attacked by staggers and died. If the evil
did not proceed quite to this extent, the fanner's horse was notoriously subject to fits
of heaviness and slee])iness — he had half-aliachs of staggers. From this frequent
oppression of the brain — this pressure on the optic nerves as well as other parts,
another consequence ensued, unsuspected at the time, but far too prevalent — the horse
became blind. The farmer was notorious for having more blind horses in his stable
than any other person, except, perhaps, the postmaster.
The system of horse management is now essentially changed. Shorter stages, a
livision of the labour of the day, and a sufficient interval for rest, and for feeding,
lave, comparatively speaking, banished sleepy staggers from the stables of the post-
naster. The division of the morning and afternoon labour of the farmer's horse,
\rith the introduction of that simple but invaluable contrivance, the nose-hag, have
.endered this disease comparatively rare in the establishment of the agriculturist. To
vhe late Professor Coleman we are indebted for some of these important improve-
ments.
Old horses are more subject to staggers than young ones, for the stomach has be-
APOPLEXY. 97
come weak by the repetition of the abuses just described. It has not power to digesl
and expel the food, and thus becomes a source of general, and particularly of cere-
bral, disturbance.
Horses at grass are occasionally attacked by this disease; but they are generally
poor, hard-worked, half-starved animals, turned on richer pasture than their impaired
digestive organs are equal to. Perhaps the weather is hot, and the sympathy of the
brain with the undue labour of the stomach is more easily excited, and a determina-
tion of Ijlood to the brain more readily effected.
Mr. Percivall gives a very satisfactory illustration of the production of stao-o-ers in
this way. He says that " when his father first entered the service of the Ordnance,
it was the custom to turn horses which had become low in condition, but were still
well upon their legs, into the marshes, in order to recruit their strength. During the
months of July, August, and September, nothing was more common than an attack
of staggers among these horses, and which was naturally attributed to the luxuriant
pasture they were turned into, combined with the dependent posture of the head, and
the sultry heat to which they were exposed."
Occasionally it will be necessary for the owner or the veterinary attendant to insti-
tute very careful inquiry, or he will not detect the real causes of the disease. Does
it arise from improper management, to which the horse has been in a manner habitu-
ated] Had he been subjected to long labour and fasting, and had then the opportu-
nity of gorging to excess 1 Did it proceed from accidental repletion — from the ani-
mal having got loose in the night, and found out the corn or the chaff bin, and filled
himself almost to bursting] There is nothing in the appearance of the animal which
will lead to a discovery of the cause — no yellowness nor twitchings of the skin, no
local swellings, as some have described ; but the practitioner or the owner must get
at the truth of the matter as well as he can, and then proceed accordingly.
As to the TREATMENT of staggers, whatever be the cause of the disease, bleeding
is the first measure indicated — the overloaded vessels of the brain must be relieved.
The jugular vein should be immediately opened. It is easily got at — it is large — the
blood may be drawn from it in a full stream, and, being also the vessel through which
the blood is returned from the head, the gTeater part of the quantity obtained will be
taken immediately from the overloaded organ, and therefore will be most likely to
produce the desired effect. No definite quantity of blood should be ordered to he
abstracted. The effect produced must be the guide, and the bleeding must be con-
tinued until the horse falters, or begins to blow — or, perhaps, with more assured suc-
cess, until he falls. Some persons select the temporal artery. This is very unsci-
entific practice. It is difficult, or impossible, to obtain from this vessel a stream that
promises any decisive success. It is likewise difficult to stop the bleeding from this
artery ; and, after all, the blood is not drawn from the actual seat of the disease —
the brain.
The second step is to ascertain what is the cause of the apoplexy. Has the animal
got at the corn or the chaff binl Had he been over-fed on the evening before, and is
his stomach probably distended to the utmost by what he has eaten 1 "in such a case,
of what avail can physic be, introduced into a stomach already crammed with indi-
gestive food T Or what effect can twelve or twenty drachms of aloes produce, a small
portion only of which can penetrate into the stomach 1 Recourse must be had to the
STOMACH-PUMP, one of the most valuable discoveries of modern times, and affording
the means of combating several diseases that had previously set all medical skill at
defiance. Warm water must be injected. The horse is now incapable of offering
much resistance, and the injection may be continued not only until the contents of
the stomach are so far diluted that a portion of them can escape through the lower
orifice of that viscus, but until the obstruction to vomiting offered by the contracted
entrance of the stomach is overcome, and a portion of the food is returned through
the nostrils or mouth.
This being effected, or it having been ascertained that there was no extreme disten-
sion of the stomach, recourse should be had to aloes, and from eight to twelve dracnms
of it may be administered. It will be proper to add some stimulating medicine to the
aloes, with a view of restoring the tone of the stomach, and inducing it tc contract on
its contents. Gentian and ginger are most likely to effect this purpose.
9 N
95 PHRENITIS.
The after-treatment must be regulated by circumstances. For some time the horse
should be put on a restricted diet ; mashes should be given ; green meat in no great
quantity ; a moderate allowance of hay, and very little corn. When sufficiently
recovered, he may be turned out with advantage on rather bare pasture. One circum-
stance, however, should never he forgotten — that the horse who has once been attacked
with staggers is liable to a return of the complaint from causes that othertvise would
not affect him. The distended vessels are weakened — the constitution is weakened,
and prudence would dictate that such an animal cannot be too soon disposed of.
Let no farmer delude himself with the idea that apoplexy is contagious. If his
horses have occasionally slight fits of staggers, or if the disease carries off several
of them, he may be assured that there is something wrong in his management. One
horse may get at the corn-bin and cram himself to bursting ; but if several are attack-
ed, it is time for the owner to look about him. The general cause is too voracious
feeding — too much food given at once, and perhaps without water, after hard work
and long fasting.
There is one consequence of this improper treatment, of which persons do not
appear to be sufficiently aware, although they suffer severely from it. A horse that
has frequent half-attacks of staggers very often goes blind. It is not the common
blindness from cataract, but a peculiarly glassy appearance of the eye. If the history
of these blind horses could be told, it would be found that they had been subject to
fits of drooping and dulness, and these produced by absurd management respecting
labour and food.
PHRENITIS.
Primary inflammation of the brain or its membranes, or both, sometimes occurs,
and of the membranes oftenest when both are not involved.
Whatever be the origin of phrenitis, its early symptoms are scarcely d'Aerent from
those of apoplexy. The horse is drowsy, stupid ; his eye closes ; he sleeps while
he is in the act of eating, and dozes until he falls. The pulse is slow and creeping,
and the breathing oppressed and laborious. This is the description of apoplexy. Tlie
Sjrmptoms may differ a little in intensity and continuance, but not much in kind.
The phrenitic horse, however, is not so perfectly comatose as another that labours
under apoplexy. The eye will respond a little to the action of light, and the animal
is somewhat more manageable, or at least more susceptible, for he will shrink when
he is struck, while the other frequently cares not for the whip.
In the duration of the early symptoms there is some difference. If the apoplexy
proceeds from distension of the stomach, four-and-twenty or six-and-thirty hours will
scarcely pass without the cure being completed, or the stomach ruptured, or the horse
destroyed. If it proceeds more from oppression of the digestive organs than from
absolute distension of the stomach, and from that sympathy which subsists between
the stamach and the brain, the disease will go on — it will become worse and worse
every hour, and this imperfect comatose state will remain during two or three days.
The apoplexy of the phrenitic horse will often run its course in a few hours.
In a case of evident phrenitis, blood-letting and physic must be early carried to
their full extent. The horse will often be materially relieved, and, perhaps, cured by
this decisive treatment; but, if the golden hour has been suffered to pass, or if reme-
dial measures have become ineffectual, the scene all at once changes, and the most
violent reaction succeeds. The eye brightens — strangely so; the membrane of the
eye becomes suddenly reddened, and forms a frightful contrast with the transparency
of the cornea; the pupil is dilated to the utmost; the nostril, before scarcely moving',
expands and quivers, and labours; the respiration becomes short and quick ; the ears
are erect, or bent forward to catch the slightest sound ; and the horse, becoming more
irritable every instant, trembles at the slightest motion. The irritability of the patient
increases — it may be said to change to ferocity — but the animal has no aim or object
in what he does. He dashes himself violently about, plunges in every direction,
rears on his hind legs, whirls round and round, and then falls backward with dread-
ful force. He lies for a while exhausted — there is a remission of the symptoms, bu-
peihaps only for a minute or two, or possibly for a quarter of an hour.
PHRENITIS. 99
Now is the surgeon's golden time, and his courage and adroitness will be ;ui to
ihe test. He must open, if he can, one or both jugulars : but let him be on his
g\iard, for the paroxysm wUl return with its former violence and without the slightest
nrarning.
The second attack is more dreadful than the first. Again the animal whirls round
and round, and plunges and falls. He seizes his clothing and rends it in pieces;
perhaps, destitute of feeling and of consciousness, he bites and tears himself. He
darts furiousl}' at everything within his reach ; but no mind, no design, seems to min-
gle with or govern his fury.
Another and another remission and a return of the exacerbation follow, and then,
wearied out, he becomes quiet ; but it is not the quietness of returning reason — it is
mere stupor. This continues for an uncertain period, and then he begins to strug-
gle again ; but he is now probably unable to rise. He pants — he foams — at length,
completely exhausted, he dies.
There are but two diseases with which phrenitis can be confounded, and they are
cholic and rabies. In cholic, the horse rises and falls ; he rolls about and kicks at
his belly ; but his struggles are tame compared with those of the phrenitic horse
There is no involuntary spasm of any of the limbs ; the animal is perfectly sensible,
and, looking piteously at his flanks, seems designedly to indicate the seat of pain.
The beautiful yet fearfully excited countenance of the one, and the piteous, anxious
gaze of the other, are sufficiently distinct ; and, if it can be got at. the rapid, bound-
ing pulse of the one, and that of the other scarcely losing its natural character in the
early stage, cannot be mistaken.
In rabies, when it does assume the ferocious form, there is even more violence than
in phrenitis ; but there is method, and treachery too, in that violence. There is the
desire of mischief for its own sake, and there is frequently the artful stratagem to
allure the victim \vithin the reach of destruction. There is not a motion of which
the rabid horse is not conscious, nor a person whom he does not recognise ; but he
labours under one all-absorbing feeling — the intense longing to devastate and destroy.
The post-mortem appearances are altogether uncertain. There is usually very great
injection and inflammation of the membranes of the brain, and even of portions of
the substance of the brain ; but in other cases there is scarcely any trace of inflam-
mation, or even of increased vascularity.
The treatment of phrenitis has been very shortly hinted at. The first — the indis-
pensable proceeding — is to bleed ; to abstract as much blood as can be obtained ; to
let the animal bleed on after he is down ; and indeed not to pin up the vein of the
phrenitic horse at all. The patient will never be lost bj' this decisive proceeding, but
the inflammation may be subdued, and here the first blow is the whole of the battle.
The physic should be that which is most readily given and will most speedily act.
The farina of the croton will, perhaps, have the preference. Half a drachm or two
scruples of it may be fearlessly administered. The intense inflammation of the brain
gives sufficient assurance that no dangerous inflammation will be easily set up in the
intestinal canal. This medicine can be formed into a very little ball or drink, and in
some momentary remission of the symptoms, administered by means of the probang,
or a stick, or the horn. Sometimes the phrenitic horse, when he will take nothing
else, and is unconscious of everything else, will drink with avidity gruel or water.
Repeated doses of purgative medicine may perhaps be thus given, and they must
be continued until the bowels respond. Tlie forehead should be blistered, if it can in
any way be accomplished ; yet but little service is to be expected from this manipu-
lation. The bowels having been well opened, digitalis should be administered. Its
first and most powerful action is on the heart, diminishing both the number and
strength of its pulsations. To this may be added emetic tartar and nitre, but not a
particle of hellebore ; for that drug, if it acts at all, produces an increased determina-
tion of blood to the brain.
While the disease continues, no attempt must be made to induce the horse to feed:
and even when appetite returns with the abatement of inflammation great caution
must be exercised both with regard to the quantity and quality of the food.
100 RABIES, OR MADNESS.
RABIES, OR MADNESS.
This is another and fearful disease of the nervous system. It results from the bite
of a "-abid animal, and, most commonly, of the companion and friend of the horse —
the coach-dog. The account now given of this malady is extracted from lectures
which tiie author of the present work delivered to his class.
" There is occasional warning of the approach of this disease in the horse, or rather
of the existence of some unusual malady, the real nature of which is probably mis-
taken. A mare, belonging to Mr. Karslake, had during ten days before the recogni-
tion of the disease been drooping, refusing her food, heaving at the llanks, and pawing
occasionally. It was plain enough that she was indisposed, but at length the furious
fit came upon her, and she destroyed almost everj'thing in the stable in the course of
an hour. The late Mr. Moncyment had a two-years old colt brought to his establish-
ment. It was taken ill in the afternoon of the preceding day, when it first attracted
attention by refusing its food, and throwing itself down and getting up again imme-
diately. From such a description, Mr. Moneyment concluded that it was a case of
cholic; but, when he went into the yard, and saw the pony, and observed his wild
and anxious countenance, and his excessive nervous sensibility, he was convinced
that something uncommon was amiss with him, although he did not at first suspect
the real nature of the case.
The early symptoms of rabies in the horse have not been carefully observed or well
recorded ; but, in the majority of cases, so far as our records go, there will not often
be premonitory symptoms sufficiently decisive to be noticed by the groom.
The horse goes out to his usual work, and, for a certain time and distance, performs
it as well as he had been accustomed to do; then he stops all at once — trembles,
heaves, paws, staggers, and falls. Almost immediately he rises, drags his load a
little farther, and again stops, looks about him, backs, staggers, and falls once more.
This is not a fit of megrims — it is not a sudden determination of blood to the brain,
for the horse is not for a single moment insensible. The sooner he is led home the
better, for the progress of the disease is as rapid as the first attack is sudden ; and,
possibly, he will fall twice or thrice before he reaches his stable.
In the great majority of cases — or rather, with very few exceptions — a state of
excitation ensues, which is not exceeded by that of the dog under the most fearful
form of the malady, but there are intervals when, if he had been naturally good-
tempered and had been attached to his rider or his groom, he will recognise his former
friend and seek his caresses, and bend on him one of those piteous, searching looks
which, once observed, M'ill never be forgotten : but there is danger about this. Pre-
sently succeeds another paroxysm, without warning and without control ; and there
is no safety for him who had previously the most complete mastery over the animal.
I was once attending a rabid horse. The owner would not have him destroyed,
under the vain hope that I had mistaken a case of phrenitis for one of rabies, and that
the disease might yield to the profuse abstraction of blood that I had been prevailed
on to eifect, and the purgative influence of the farina of the croton-nut with which he
had been abundantly supplied in an early stage of the malady. I insisted upon his
being slung, so that we were protected from injury from his kicking or plunging. He
would bend his gaze upon me as if he would search me through and through, and
would prevail on me, if I could, to relieve him from some dreadful evil by which he
was threatened. He would then press his head against my bosom, and keep it there
a minute or more. All at once, however, the paroxysm would return. He did not
attempt to bite me ; but, had it not been for the sling, he would have plunged furiously
about, and I might have found it difficult to escape.
I had previously attended another horse, which the OAvner refused to have destroyed,
and to which attendance I only consented on condition of the animal being slung.
He had been bitten in the near hind-leg. When I approached him on that side, he
did not attempt to bite me, ;ind he could not otherwise injure me; but he was agitated
and trpniblcd, and struggled as well as he could ; and if I merely touched him with
my finger, the pulsations were quickened full ten beats in a minute. When, how-
ever, I went round to the off side, he permitted me to pat him, and 1 had to encounter
his imploring gaze, and his head was pressed against me — and then presently woijld
RABIES, OR MADNESS. 101
come the parox3'-!m ; but it came on almost before I could toucn him, w\ en I
api roached liim on the other side.
These mild cases, however, are exceptions to a general rule. They are few and
far between. The horse is the servant, and not the friend of man; and if his com
panion )'et an oppressed one. In proportion to his bulk he has far less of that
portion of the brain with which intelligence is connected — less attachment — less
gratitude. He is nevertheless a noble animal. I am not speaking disparagingly of
him; but I am comparing him with — next to man — the most intellectual of all quad-
rupeds. There is neither the motive for, nor the capability of, that attachment which
the dog feels for his master, and therefore, under the influence of this disease, lie
abandons himself to all its dreadful excitement.
The mare of Mr. Karslake, when the disease was fully developed, forgot her
former drooping, dispirited state: her respiration was accelerated — her mouth was
covered with foam — a violent perspiration covered every part of her, and her screams
would cow the stoutest heart. She presently demolished all the wood-work of the
stable, and then slie employed herself in beating to pieces the fragments, no human
being daring to expose himself to her fu^)^
The symptoms of the malady of ■Mr. Moneyment's pony rapidly increased — he bit
everything within his reach, even ditferent parts of his own body — he breathed
laboriously — his tail erect — screaming dreadfully at short interv^als, striking the
ground with his fore-feet, and perspiring most profusely. At length he broke the top
of his manger and rushed out of the stall w-ith it hanging to his halter. He made
immediately towards the medical attendant, and the spectators who were standing by.
They fortunately succeeded in getting out of his way, and he turned in the next stall,
and dropped and died.
A young veterinarj' friend of mine very incautiously and fool-hardily attempted to
ball a rabid horse. The animal had previously shown himself to be dancrerous, and
had slightly bitten a person who gave him a ball on the preceding evening : he now
seized the young student's hand, and lifted him from the ground, and shook him, as
a terrier would shake a rat. It was with the greatest difficult}-, and not until the
grooms had attacked the ferocious animal with their pitchforks, that they could com-
pel him to relinquish his hold ; and, even then, not before he had bitten his victim to
the bone, and nearly torn away the whole of the flesh from the upper and lower sur-
faces of the hand.*
There is also in the horse, whose attachment to his owner is often comparatively
small, a degree of treachery which we rarely meet with in the nobler and more intel-
lectual dog. A horse that had shown symptoms of great ferocity was standing in the
corner of his box, with a heaving flank, and every muscle quivering from the degree
of excitement under which he laboured. A groom, presuming on the former obedience
of the animal, ventured in, and endeavoured to put a headstall upon him. Neither
the master nor myself could persuade him to forbear. I waa sure of mischief, for I
had observed the ear lying flat upon the neck, and I could see the backward fiance
of the eye ; I therefore armed myself with a hea\7 twitch stick that was at hand, and
climbed into the manger of the next box. The man had not advanced two steps into
the box before I could see the shifting position of the fore feet, and the preparation to
spring upon his victim ; and he would have sprung upon him, but my weapon fell
with all the force I could urge upon his head, and he dropped. The man escaped,
but the brute was up again in an instant, and we trembled lest the partition of the
box should j'ield to his violence, and he would realize the graphic description of Mr.
Blaine, when he speaks of the rabid horse as " levelling everything before him, him-
self sweating, and snorting, and foaming amidst the ruins."
I have had oce-asion more than once to witness the evident pain of the bitten part,
and the manner in which the horse in the intervals of his paroxysms employs himself
in licking or gnawing the cicatrix. One animal had been bitten in the chest, and he,
not in the intervals between the exacerbation, but when tht paroxysm was most
* In the Museum of the Veterinary School at Alfort, is the lower jaw oi a r-^id horae
which was fractured in the violent efforts of the animal to do mischief.
9*
102 RABIES, OR MADNESS.
violent, would bite and tear himself until his breast was shockingly mangled, and the
blood tiowed from it in a stream.
The most interesting and satisfactory symptom is the evident dread of waiter which
exists in the decided majorit}^ of cases, and the impossibility of swallowing any con-
siderable quantity. Professor Dupuy gives an account of^this circumstance: — "A
rabid horse was confined in one of the sick boxes. His food was given to him
through an opening over the door, and a bucket was suspended from the door, and
supplied with water by means of a copper tube. As soon as he heard the water
falling into the pail, he fell into violent convulsions, seized the tube, and crushed it
to pieces. When the water in his bucket was agitated, the convulsions were renewed.
He would occasionally approach the bucket as if he wished to drink, and then, after
agitating the water for an instant, he would fall on his litter, uttering a hoarse cry ;
but he would rise again almost immediately. These symptoms were dreadfully
increased if water was thrown upon his head. He would then endeavour to seize it as
it fell, and bite with fury at everything within his reach, his whole frame being dread-
fully convulsed."
As the disease progresses, not only is the animal rapidl)^ debilitated, but there is
the peculiar staggering gait which is observable in the dog — referrible to evident loss
of power in the muscles of the lumbar region. I once saw a mare sitting on her
haunches, and unable to rise; yet using her fore feet with the utmost fury, and
suffering no one to come within her reach. She, too, would sometimes plunge her
muzzle into the offered pail ; and immediately withdraw it in evident terror, while
every limb trembled. At other times the lowering of the pail would affright her, and
she would fall on her side and struggle furiously. Although this symptom is not
often observed in the dog, it is a satisfactory identification of the disease, when it is
so frequently seen in the horse, and so invariably in the human being.
The earliest and perhaps the most decisive symptom of the near approach of rabies
in the horse, is a spasmodic movement of the upper lip, particularly of the angles of
the lip. Close following on this, or contemporaneous with it, is the depressed and
anxious countenance, and inquiring gaze, suddenly however lighted up and becoming
fierce and menacing, from some unknoAvn cause, or at the approach of a stranger.
From time to time different parts of the frame — the eyes — the jaws — particular limbs
— will be convulsed. The eye will occasionally wander after some imaginary object,
and the horse will snap again and again at that which has no real existence. Then
will come the irrepressible desire to bite the attendants or the animals within its
reach. To this will succeed the demolition of the rack, the manger, and the whole
furniture of the stable, accompanied by the peculiar dread of water which has been
already described.
Towards the close of the disease there is generally paralysis, usually confined tc
the loins and the hinder extremities, or involving those organs which derive their
nervous influence from this portion of the spinal cord; — hence the distressing tenes-
mus which is occasionally seen.
The disease rarely extends beyond the third day.
After death, there is uniformly found inflammation at the back part of the mouth,
and at the top of the windpipe, and likewise in the stomach, and on the membrane
covering the lungs, and where the spinal marrow first issues from the brain.
When the disease can be clearly connected with a previous bite, the sooner the
animal is destroyed the better, for there is no cure. If the symptoms bear considerable
resemblance to rabies, although no bite is suspected, the horse should at least be
slung, and the medicine, if any is administered, given in the form of a drink, and
with the hand well protected ; for if it should be scratched in balling the horse, or
the skin should have been previouslj' broken, the saliva of the animal is capable of
communicating the disease. Several farriers have lost tlieir lives from being bitter.'
or scratched in the act of administering medicine to a rabid horse.
It is always dangerous to encourage any dogs about the stable, and especially if
they become fond of the horses, and are in the habit of jumping up and licking them
The corners of the mouth of the horse are often sore from the pressure of the bit; and
when a coach-dog in a gentleman's stable — and it is likely to happen in every stable
TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW.
103
and with every dog — becomes rabid and dies, the horse too frequently follows him at
no great distance of time.
If a horse is bitten by a dog under suspicious circumstances, he should be carefully
examined, and every wound, and even the slightest scratch, well burned with the
lunar caustic (nitrate of silver). The scab should be removed and the operation
repeated on the third day. The hot iron does not answer so well, and other caustics
are not so manageable. In the spring of 1827, fom- horses were bitten near Hyde
Park, by a mad dog. To one of them the lunar caustic was twice severely applied
he lived. The red-hot iron was unsparingly used on the others, and they died. The
caustic must reach every part of the wound. At the expiration of the fourth month,
the horse may be considered to be safe.
TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW.
Tetanus is one of the most dreadful and fatal diseases to which the horse is sub-
ject. It is called locked jaw, because the muscles of the jaw are earliest affected,
and the mouth is obstinately and immovably closed. It is a constant spasm of all
the voluntary muscles, and particularly of those of the neck, the spine, and the head. It
is generally slow and treacherous in its attack. The horse, for a day or two, does
not appear to be quite well ; he does not feed as usual ; he partly chews his food, and
drops it ; and he gulps his water. The owner at length finds that the motion of the
jaws is considerably limited, and some saliva is drivelling from the mouth. If he
tries he can only open the mouth a very little way, or the jaws are perfectly and
rigidly closed ; and thus the only period at which tlie disease could have been suc-
cessfully combated is lost. A cut of a horse labouring under this disease is here
given, which the reader will do well to examine carefully.
The first thing that
strikes the observer is a
protrusion of the muzzle,
and stiffness of the neck ;
and, on passing the hand
down it, the muscles will
be found singularly promi-
nent, distinct, hard, knotty,
and unyielding. There ia
difficulty in bringing the
head round, and still
greater difficulty in bend-
ing it. The eye is dra\Tn
deep within the socket,
and, in consequence of
this, the fatty matter be-
hind the eye is pressed
forward ; the haw is also protruded, and there is an appearance of strabismus, or
squinting, in an outward direction.
The ears are erect, pointed forward, and immovable ; if the horse is spoken to, or
threatened to be struck, they change not their position. Considering the beautiful
play of the ear of the horse when in health, and the kind of conversation which he
maintains by the motion of it, there is not a more characteristic symptom of tetanus
than this immobility of the ear. The nostril is expanded to the utmost, and there is
little or no play of it, as in hurried or even natural breathing. The respiration is
usually accelerated, yet not always so ; but it is uniformly laborious. The pulse
gives little indication of the severity of the disease. It is sometimes scarcely affected.
It will be rapidly accelerated when any one approaches the animal and offers to touch
him, but it presently quiets down again almost to its natural standard. After a while,
however, the heart begins to sympathise with the general excitation of the system,
and the pulse increast s in frequency and force until the animal becomes debilitated,
when it beats yet quicker and quicker, but diminishes in power, and gradually flutters
and dies away.
104 TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW.
Tho countenance is eager, anxious, haggard, and tells plainly enough what tlid
animal suffers.
The stifi'ness gradually extends to the back. If the horse is in a narrow stall, it is
impossible to turn him ; and, even with room and scope enough, he turns altogether
like a deal-board.
The extremities begin to participate in the spasm — the hinder ones generally first,
but never to the extent to which it exists in the neck and back. The horse stands
with his hind legs straddling apart in a singular way. The whole of the limb moves,
or rather is dragged on, together, and anxious care is taken that no joint shall be
flexed more than can possibly be helped. The fore limbs have a singular appear
ance ; they are as stiff as they can possibly be, but stretched forward and straddling
They have not unaptly been compared to the legs of a form.
The abdominal muscles gradually become involved. They seem to contract with
all the power they possess, and there is a degree of " hide-bound" appearance, and oi
tucking up of the belly, which is seen under no other complaint. The tail becomes
in constant motion from the alternate and violent action of the muscles that elevate
and depress it.
Constipation, and to an almost insurmountable degree, now appears. The abdo-
minal muscles are so powerfully contracted, that no portion of the contents of the
abdomen can pass on and be discharged.
By degrees the spasm extends and becomes everywhere more violent. The motion
of the whole frame is lost, and the horse stands fixed in the unnatural posture which
he has assumed. The countenance becomes wilder and more haggard — its expression
can never be effaced from the memory of him who cares about the feelings of a brute.
The violent cramp of a single muscle, or set of muscles, makes the stoutest heart
quail, and draws forth the most piteous cries — what, then, must it be for this torture
to pervade the whole frame, and to continue, with little respite, from day to day, and
from week to week! When his attendant approaches and touches him, he scarcely
moves ; but the despairing gaze, and the sudden acceleration of the pulse, indicate
what he feels and fears.
Tetanus then is evidently an affection of the nerves. A small fibre of some nerve
has been injured, and the effect of that injury has spread to the origin of the nerve—
the brain then becomes affected — and universal diseased action follows. Tetanus is
spasm of the whole frame — not merely of one set of muscles, but of their antagonists
also. The fixidity of the animal is the effect of opposed and violent muscular con-
traction. It belongs to the lower column of nerves only. The sensibility is unim-
paired— perhaps it is heightened. The horse would eat if he could ; he tries to suck
up some moisture from his mash ; and the avidity with which he lends himself to
assist in the administering of a little gruel, shows that the feelings of hunger and
thirst remain unimpaired.
If the disease terminates fatally, it is usually from the sixth to the eighth day,
when, if there has been no remission of the spasms, or only a slight one, the horse
dies exhausted by hard work. The task extorted by the whip and spur of the most
brutal sportsman is not to be compared with it.
About or a little before this time, there are occasionally evident remissions. The
spasm does not quite subside, but its force is materially lessened. The jaw is not
sufficiently relaxed to enable the animal to eat or to drink, or for advantage to be
taken of an opportunity for the administration of medicine, while the slightest dis-
turbance or fright, recalls the spasmodic action with all its violence. If, however,
the remission returns on the following day, and is a little lengthened, and particularly
if there is more relaxation of the lower jaw, there yet is hope. If the patient should
recover, it will be very slowly, and he will be left sadly weak, and a mere walking
skeleton.
On posl-moriem examination the muscular fibre will exhibit sufficient proof of the
labour which has been exacted from it. The muscles will appear as if they had been
macerated — their texture will be softened, and they will be torn with the greatest
ease. The lungs will, in the majority of cases, be highly inflamed, for they have
been labouring long and painfully, to furnish arterial blood in sufficient quantity lo
support this great expenditure of animal power. The stomach will contain patches
TETANUS, OR LOCKET JAW. 10
of inllammation, but the intestines, in most cases, will not exhibit much departure
from the hue of health. The examination of the brain will be altogether unsatisfac-
tory. There may be slight injection of some of the membranes, but, in the majority
of cases, tliere will not be any morbid change worthy of record.
Tetanus is usually the result of the injurj^ of some nervous fibre, and the effect of
that lesion propagated to the brain. The foot is the most frequent source or focus of
tetanic injury. It has been pricked in shoeing, or wounded by something on the
road. The horse becomes lame — the injurj' is carelessly treated, or not treated at all
—the lameness, however, disappears, but the wound has not healed. There is an
unhealthiness about it, and at the expiration of eight or ten days, tetanus appears.
Some nervous fibre has been irritated or inflamed by the accident, slight as it was.
Docking and nicking, especially when the stump was seared too severely in the
former, or the bandage had not been loosened sufficiently early in the latter, used to
be frequent causes of tetanus. It is frequently connected with castration, when the
colt had not been properly prepared for the operation, or the searing-iron has been
applied too severely, or the animal has been put to work too soon after the operation,
or exposed to unusual cold. The records of veterinarj' proceedings contain accounts
of tetanus following labour, brutally exacted beyond the animal's natural streng-th, in
the draught of heavy loads. Horses that have been matched against time have too
frequently died of tetanus a little while afterwards. Sudden exposure to cold after
being heated by exercise has produced this dreadful state of nervous action, and
especially if the horse has stood in a partial draught, or cold water has been dripping
on the loins.
The treatment of tetanus is simple, and would be oftener successful if carried to its
full extent. The indication of cure is plain enough — the system must he tranquillized.
The grand agent in accomplishing this is the copious abstraction of blood. There is
not a more powerful sedative in cases of muscular spasm than venesection. A double
purpose is effected. The determination of blood to the origins of the nerves, and by
which they were enabled to secrete and to pour out this torrent of nervous influence,
is lessened. The supply of blood to the muscular system is also diminished. The
pabulum of the nervous and muscular system — the life of both of them — the capability
of acting in the one, and of being acted upon by the other, is taken away. The pro-
per course to be pursued, whether theorj' or experience be consulted, is, on the first
access of tetanus, to bleed, and to bleed until the horse falters or falls. Xo attention
should be paid to any specific quantity of blood to be abstracted, but the animal should
bleed on until he drops, or the pulse evidently falters. Twenty pounds have been
taken before the object of the practitioner was accomplished, but he never had occa-
sion to repent of the course which he pursued. Inflammatory action like this must be
subdued by the promptest and most efficient means ; and there is one unerring guide
— the pulse. While that remains firm, the bleeding should continue. The practi-
tioner is attacking the disease, and not in the slightest degree hazarding the permanent
strength of the patient.
Next in order, and equal in importance, is physic. The profuse bleeding just
recommended will generally relax the muscles of the jaw so far as to enable a dose
of physic to be given. Eight or ten drachms of aloes should be administered. If the
remission of the spasm is slight, there is another purgative — not so certain in its
action, but more powerful when it does act — the farina of the Croton nut. There is
little or no danger of exciting inflammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines
by this prompt and energetic administration of purgative medicine, for there is too
much determination of vital power towards the nervous system — too much irritation
there — to leave cause for dreading the possibility of metastasis elsewhere. It would
be desirable if a certain degree of inflammation could be excite<l, because to that
extent the irritation of the nervous system might be allayed. There is another reason,
and a verj^ powerful one — time is rapidlj^ passing. The tetanic action may extend to
the intestines, and the co-operation of the abdominal muscles in keeping up the peri-
staltic motion of the bowels, and expelling their contents, may be lost.
Clys'ers will be useful in assisting the action of the purgative. A solution of
Epsom salts v,-ill constitute the safest and best injection. As to medicine, opium is
o
106 CRAMP.
not only a valuable drug-, but it is tbat on which alone dependence can be placed iw
this disease. It will be borne in doses, from half a drachm to two drachms.
Blisters are completely out of the question in a disease the very essence of which
is nervous irritability.
The application of sheep-skins warm from the animal, and applied along the whole
course of the spine, may somewhat unload the congested vessels of the part, and
diminish the sufferings of the animal. They should be renewed as soon as they
become offensive, and the patient' should be covered from the poll to the tail with
double or treble clothing.
There is one kind of external application that has not been so much used, or so
highly valued as it deserves, — gentle friction with the hand over the course of the
spine, beginning with the slightest possible pressure and never increasing it much.
The horse is a little frightened at first, but he soon gets reconciled to it, and when
at the same time an opiate liniment is used, relief has been obtained to a very marked
degree.
One thing should not be forgotten, namely, that a horse with locked jaw is as
hungry as when in health, and every possible contrivance should be adopted to furnish
him with that nutriment which will support him under his torture, and possibly enable
him to w^eather the storm. If a pail of good gruel is placed within his reach, how
will he nuzzle in it, and contrive to drink some of it too ! If a thoroughly wet mash
is placed before him in a pail, he will bury his nose in it, and manage to extract no
small portion of nutriment. By means of a small horn, or a bottle with a very narrow
neck, it will often be possible to give him a small quantity of gruel ; but the flexible
pipe that accompanies Kead s patent pump will render this of easier accomplishment,
for the nutriment may be administered without elevating the head of the horse, or
inflicting on him the extreme torture which used to accompany the act of drenching.
If the jaw is ever so closely clenched, the pipe may be introduced between the tushes
and the grinders, and carried tolerably far back into the mouth, and any quantitj^ of
gruel or medicine introduced into the stomach.
It will also be good practice to let a small portion of food be in the manger. The
horse will not at first be able to take up the slightest quantity, but he will attempt to
do so. Small portions may be placed between his grinders, and they wdll presently
drop from his mouth, scarcely or at all masticated : but some good will be done —
there is the attempt to put the muscles of the jaw to their proper use. On the follow-
ing day he will succeed a little better, and make some trifling advance towards break-
ing the chain of spasmodic action. Experience will teach the careful groom the value
of these minutise of practice; and the successful termination of many a case may be
traced to the careful nursing of the patient.
When the horse is getting decidedly better, and the weather will permit, there can
be no better practice than to turn him out for a few hours in the middle of the day.
His toddling about will regain to him the use of his limbs ; the attempt to stoop in
order to graze will diminish the spasm in his neck ; the act of grazing will relax the
muscles of the jaws ; and he can have no better food than the fresh grass.
CRAMP.
This is a sudden, involuntary and painful spasm of a particular muscle or set of
muscles. It differs from tetanus in its shorter duration, and in its occasionally attack
ing the muscles of organic life. It may be termed a species of transitory tetanus,
affecting mostly the hind extremities. It is generally observed when the horse is first
brought out of the stable, and especially if he has been hardly worked. One of the
legs appears stiff, inflexible, and is, to a slight degree, dragged after the animal.
After he has proceeded a few steps, the stiffness nearly or quite disappears, or only a
slight degree of lameness remains during the greater part of the day.
Cramp proceeds from an accumulation of irritability in the muscles of the exten-
sors, and is a sudden spasmodic action of them in order to balance the power which
their antagonists have gained over them during the night.
If a certain degree of lameness remains, the attendant on the horse should endea-
vour to find out the muscle chiefly affected, which he may easily do by a feeling of
hardness, or an expression of pain, when he presses on the extensors of the hock
STRINGHALT. 107
somewhat above that joint. He should then give plenty of good hand-rubbintr, or a
little more attention to the grooming generally, or a wider or more comfortable stall,
as the circumstances of the case may appear to require.
STRINGHALT.
This is a sudden and spasmodic action of some of the muscles of the thigh when
the horse is first led from the stable. One or both legs are caught up at every step
with great rapidity and violence, so that the fetlock sometimes touches the belly ; but,
after the horse has been out a little while, this usually goes olf and the natural action
of the animal returns. In a few cases it does not perfectly disappear after exercise,
but the horse continues to be slightly lame.
Stringhalt is not a perfectly involuntary action of a certain muscle, or a certain set
of muscles. The limb is flexed at the command of the will, but it acts to a greater
extent and with more violence than the will had prompted. There is an accumula-
tion of excitability in the muscle, and the impulse which should have called it into
natural and moderate action causes it to take on a spasmodic and, perhaps, a painful
one.
Many ingenious but contradictory theories have been advanced in order to account
for this peculiarity of gait. What muscles are concerned'? Clearly those by which
the thigh is brought under the belly, and the hock is flexed, and the pasterns are first
flexed, and then extended. But by which of them is the effect principally produced 1
What muscle, or, more properly, what nerve is concerned 1 Instead of entering
into any useless controversy on this point, a case shall be related, and one of the
most interesting there is on record : the author was personally cognisani of every
particular.
Guildford, first called Roundhead, and then Landlord, was foaled in 1826. He
was got by Hampden out of a Sir Harry Dimsdale mare. In 1828, and being two
years old, and the property of the Duke of Richmond, he won a 50/. plate at Good
wood. In 1829, and belonging to Lord W. Lennox, he won 55 guineas at Hampton.
Being then transferred to Mr. Coleman, he won 50 guineas at Guildford ; and in
the same year, having been purchased by Mr. Pearce, he won GO guineas at Basing-
stoke.
In the course of this year stringhalt began to appear in a slight degree, and it evi-
dently, although slowly, increased. There soon began to be a little difficulty in get-
ting him off; but when he had once started, neither his speed nor iris stoutness ap-
peared to be in the slightest degree impaired. He continued on the turf until 1836,
and won for his different owners seventeen races, the produce of which, exclusive of
bets, amounted to 1435/.
The difficulty and loss of advantage in starting had now increased to a degree"
which rendered it prudent to withdraw him from the turf, and he came into the 'pos-
session of Dockeray, who used him for the purpose of leading the young horses that
he had under training. This is well known to be hard work, and his rider was a
man of some weight. In addition to this, he was generally hunted twice in the week.
His first starting into a gallop had something singular about it. It was a horrible
kind of convulsive action, and so violent that he frequently knocked off his shoes on
the very day that they were put on : but when he got a little warmed, all this disap-
peared. He gallopped beautifully, and was a very sure fencer. The sport, however,
being over, and he returning to a slow pace, the stringhalt was as bad as ever.
A* length the old horse became artful, and it was with great difficulty thiit he could
be made to lead. Sometimes he refused it altogether. In consequence of this he was
sent to St. Martin's Lane, to be sold. The highest bidding for him was 3/. 14s., and
the hero of the turf and the field was doomed to the omnibus. There he was cruelly
used, and this spasmodic convulsion of his hind legs sadly aggravated his torture.
The skin was presently rubbed from his shoulders, his hips and haunches were bruised
in every part, and his stifles were continually and painfully coming in contact with
the pole.
In this situation he was seen by the veterinary surgeon to " The Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Animals." There is a fund at the disposal of that society for
the purchase of worn-out horses, who are immediately released from their misery by
108
STRINGHALT.
the pole-axe of the knacker. The horse was bought for this purpose, another and
laudable motive influencing the purchase, — the wish to ascertain what light the dis-
section of an animal that had had stringhalt to such an aggravated extent, and for so
long a period, would cast on the nature of this disease.
The author of this work saw him a little while before he was slaughtered. He
was still a noble-looking animal, and seemed to possess all his former strength and
spirit unimpaired ; hut he was sadly scarred all over, in consequence of his being put
to a kind of work for which his spasmodic complaint so entirely incapacitated him.
So aggravated a case of stringhalt had rarely been seen. Both hind legs were affected,
and both in an equal degree ; and the belly was forcibly struck by the pastern joints
every time the hind feet were lifted. The belly and the pastern joint w^ere both de-
nuded of hair, in consequence of this constant battering.
He was destroyed by the injection of prussic acid into the jugular vein, and the
dissection of him was conducted by Professor Spooner, of the Royal Veterinary Col-
lege.
On taking off the skin, all the muscles presented their perfect healthy character.
There was not the slightest enlargement or discolouration of the fascise. The mus-
cles of both extremities were dissected from their origins to their tendinous termina-
tions, and their fibrous structure carefully examined. They were all beautifully de-
veloped, presenting no inequality or irregularity of structure, nor aught that would
warrant the suspicion that any one of them possessed an undue power or influence
beyond the others. The only abnormal circumstance about them was that they were
of a rather darker yellow in colour than is usually found. This refened to them gen-
erally, and not to any particular muscle or sets of muscles.
The lumbar, crural, and sciatic nerves were examined from the spot at which they
emerge from the spinal cord to their ultimate distributions. The crural and lumbar
nerves were perfectly healthy. The sciatic nerve, at the aperture through which it
escapes from the spine, was darker in colour than is usual, being of a yellowish-
brown hue. Its texture was softened, and its fibrilla; somewhat loosely connected
too-ether. The nerve was of its usual size ; but on tracing it in its course through
the muscles of the haunch, several spots of ecchymosis presented themselves, and
were more particularly marked on that part of the nerve which is connected \^■ith the
sacro-sciatic ligament. As the nerve approached the hock, it assumed its natural
colour and tone ; and the fibres given off from it to the muscles situated inferior to
the stifle-joint were of a perfectly healthy character.
On dissecting out a portion of the nerve where it appeared to be in a diseased state,
it was found that this ecchymosis was confined to the membranous investiture of the
nerve, and that its substance, when pressed from its sheath, presented a perfectly
natural character.
The cavity of the cranium, and the whole extent of the spinal canal, were next laid
open. The brain and the spinal marrow were deprived of their membranous cover-
ings, and both the theca3 and their contents diligently examined. There was no lesion
in any part of them, not even at the lumbar region.
The articulations of every joint of the hind extremities, then underwent inspection,
and no disease could be detected in either of them.
Professor Spooner was of opinion that this peculiar affection was not referrible to
any diseased state of the brain or spinal cord, nor to any local affection of the mus-
cles of the limbs, but simply to a morbid affection of the sciatic nerve. He had not
dissected a single case of stringhalt in which he had not found disease of this nerve,
which mainly contributes to supply the hind extremities with sensation and the power
of voluntary motion.
Now comes a very important question. "What connexion is there between strings
halt and the supposed value or deterioration of the horse ? Some experienced prac-
titioners have maintained that it is a pledge of more than usual muscular power. It
is a common saying that " there never was a horse with stringhalt that was incapa-
ble of doing the work required of him." Most certainly we continually meet with
horses having stringhalt that pleasantly discharge all ordinary, and even extraordi-
nary, ser\'ice"; and although stringhalt is excess or irregular distribution of nervous
power, it at least shows the existence of that power, and the capability in the mul^
PALSY. 109
cular system of being acted upon by it. Irregular distributions of vital energy aro
not, however, things to be desired. They argue disease and derangement of the sys-
tem, and a predisposition to greater derangement. They materially interfere with the
speed ot the horse. This was decidedly the case with regard to the poor fellow
whose history has been related.
Stringhalt is decided unsoundness. It is an irregular supply of the nervous influ-
ence, or a diseased state of the nervous or muscular system, or both. It prevents us
from suddenly and at once calling upon the horse for the full exercise of his speed
and power, and therefore it is unsoundness ; but generally speaking, it so little inter-
feres with the services of the animal, that although an unsoundness, it would not
weigh a great deal against other manifest valuable qualities.
CHOREA.
This is a convulsive, involuntary twitching of some muscle or set of muscles. A
few, and very few, cases of it in the horse are recorded. Professor Gohier relates
one in which it attacked both fore legs, and especially the left, but the affection was
not constant. During five or six minutes the spasms were most violent, so that the
horse was scarcely able to stand. The convulsions then became weaker, the inter-
val between them increased, and at length they disappeared, leaving a slight but tem-
porary lameness. All means of cure were fruitlessly tried, and the disease continued
until the horse died of some other complaint. In another case it followed sudden
suppression of the discharge of glanders and disappearance of the enlarged' glalids.
This also was intennittent during the life of the animal.
FITS, OR EPILEPSY.
The stream of nervous influence is sometimes rapid, or the suspensions are consid
erable. This is the theory of Fits, or Epilepsy. Fortunately the horse is not often
afflicted with this disease, although it is not unknown to the breeder. The attack is
not sudden. The animal stops — trembles — looks vacantly around him, and ialls.
Occasionally the convulsions that follow^ are slight; at other tiroes they are terrible.
The head and fore part of the horse are most affected, and the contortions are very
singular. In a few minutes the convulsions cease; he gets up; looks around him
with a kind of stupid astonishment ; shakes his ears ; urines ; and eats or drinks as
if nothing had happened.
The only hope of cure consists in discovering the cause of the fits ; and an expe-
rienced practitioner must be consulted, if the animal is valuable. Generally speaking,
however, the cause is so difficult to discover, and the habit of having fits is so soon
formed, and these fits will so frequently return, even at a great distance of time, that
he who values his own safety, or the lives of his family, will cease to use an epilep-
tic horse.
PALSY.
The stream of nervous influence is sometimes stopped, and thence results palsy.
Tlie power of the muscle is unimpaired, but the nervous energy is deficient. In the
human being, general palsy sometimes occurs. The whole body — ever}"- organ of
motion and of sense is paralysed. The records of our practice, however, do not
aff'ord us a single instance of this; but of partial paralysis there are several cases,'
and most untractable ones they were. The cause of them may be altoorether unknown.
In the human being there is yet another distinction, Hemiplegia and Paraplegia. In
the former the affection is confined to one side of the patient ; in the latter the poste-
rior extremity on both sides is affected. Few cases of hemiplesfia occur in the horse,
and they are more manageable than those of paraplegria ; but if the affection is not
removed, they usually degenerate into paraplegia before the death of the animal. It
would appear singular that this should be the most common form of palsy in the
human being, and so rarely seen in the quadruped. There are some considerations,
however, that will partly account for this. Palsy in the horse usually proceeds from
injury of the spinal cord; and that cord is more developed, and far larger than in iho
human being. It is more exposed to injury, and to injury that will affect not one sido
only but the whole of the cord.
10
110 KHEUMATISM.
Palsy in the horse jciieially attacks tlie hind extremities. The reason of this is
plain. The fore lin.bs are attached to the trunk by a dense mass of highly elastic
substance. This was placed between the shoulder-blade and the ribs for the purpose
if preventing that concussion, which would be annoying and even dangerous to the
norse or his rider. Except in consequence of a fall, there is scarcely the possibility
.-^f any serious injury to the anterior portion of the spine. The case is very diiferent
with regard to the hind limbs and their attachment to the trunk ; they are necessa-
rily liable to many a shock and sprain injurious to the spine and its contents. The
loins and the back oftenest exhibit the lesions of palsy, because there are some of
the most violent muscular eftbrts, and there is the greatest movement and the least
support. It may consequently be taken as an axiom to guide the judgment of the
practitioner that palsy in the horse almost invariably proceeds from disease or injury
of the spine.
On inquiry it is almost invariably found that the horse had lately fallen, or had
been worked exceedingly hard, or that, covered with perspiration, he had been left
exposed to cold and wet. It commences generally in one hind leg, or perhaps both
are equally aflected. The animal can scarcely walk — he walks on his fetlocks
instead of his soles— he staggers at every motion. At length he falls. He is raised
with difficulty, or he never rises again. The sensibility of the part seems for a while
to be dreadfully increased ; but, in general, this gradually subsides — it sinks below
the usual standard — it ceases altogether.
If he is examined after death, there will usually, about the region of the loins, be
inflammation of the membranes of the spinal cord, or of the cord itself. The medul-
lary matter will be found of a yellow colour, or injected with spots of blood, or it will
be softened, and have become semifluid.
The treatment is simple enough. It should commence with bleeding, and, as has
been already recommended in inflammatory cases, until the circulation is evidently
aflected — until the pulse begins to falter or the horse to reel. To this should follow
a dose of physic — strong compared with the size of the animal. The loins should be
covered with a mustard poultice frequently renewed. The patient should be warmly
clothed, supplied plentifully with mashes, but without a grain of corn in them; and
frequent injections should be had recourse to. This will soon render it evident
whether the patient will recover or die. If favourable symptoms appear, the horse
must not be in the slightest degree neglected, nor the medical treatment suspended.
There is no disease in which the animal is more liable to a relapse, or where a relapse
would be so fatal. No misapprehension of the disease, or false humanity, should
induce the attendant to give the smallest quantity of corn or of tonic medicine.
Palsy in the horse is an inflammatory complaint, or the result of inflammation.
If the heat and tenderness are abating, and the animal regains, to a slight degree,
the use of his limbs, or if it is becoming a case of chronic palsy, an extensive and
stimulating charge over the loins should be immediately applied. It will accomplish
three purposes : there will be the principle of counter-irritation — a defence against the
cold — and a useful support of the limbs.
RHEUMATISM.
It is only of late years that this has been admitted into the list of the diseases of
the horse, although it is in truth a very common aff"ection. It is frequent in old
horses that have been early abused, and among younger ones whose powers have
been severely taxed. The lameness is frequently excessive, and the pain is evidently
excruciating. The animal dares not to rest the slightest portion of its weight on the
limb, or even to touch the ground with his toe. He is heaving at the flanks, sweatr
ing profusely, his countenance plainly indicative of the agony he feels ; but there is
at first no heat, or swelling, or tenderness. With proper treatment, the pain and the
lameness gradually disappear; but in other instances the fasciae of the muscles
become thickened — the ligaments are also thickened and rigid — the capsules of the
joint are loaded with a glairy fluid, and the joint is evidently enlarged. Tliis is
simply rheumatism ; but if it is neglected, palsy soon associates itself with, or suc-
ceeds to, the complaint ; and the loss of nervous power follows the difficulty or pain
of moving.
NEUROTOMY. HI
Every horseman will recollect cases in which thfe animal that seemed on the pie-
ceding day to be perfectly sound becomes decidedly lame, and limps as though he
had lost the use of his limbs ; yet there is no thickening of the tendons, nor any
external inflammatory action to show the seat of the complaint. Mr. Cooper, of
Coleshill, relates a case very applicable to the present subject. A farmer purchased
A horse, to all appearance sound, and rode him home — a distance of ten miles. He
was worked on the two following days, without showing the least lameness. On
the third day it was with great ditiicult\' that he managed to limp out of the stable.
Mr. Cooper was sent for to examine him. The horse had clean legs and excellent
feet. The owner would have him blistered all around. It was done. The horse
was turned out to grass for two months, and came up perfectly sound. The weather
soon afterwards became wet and cold, and the horse again was lame ; in fact, it
presently appeared that the disease was entirely influenced by the changes of the
atmosphere. "Thus," adds Mr. C; '"in the summer a horse of this description will
be mostly sound, while in the winter he will be generally lame."
An account of acute rheumatism, by Mr. Thompson, of Beith, is trt) valuable to be
omitted : — " I have had," says he, " fourteen cases of this disease. The muscles of
the shoulders and arms were generally the parts affected. The cure was e&cted in
a few days, and consisted of a good bleeding from the jugular, and a sharp -purge.
" One of these cases was uncommonly severe. The disease was in the back and
loins. The horse brought forward his hind-legs under his flanks, roached his back,
and drew up his flanks with a convulsive twitch accompanied by a piteous groan,
almost every five minutes. The sympathetic fever was alarming, the pulse was 90,
and there was obstinate constipation of the bowels. The horse literally roared aloud
if any one attempted to shift him in the stall, and groaned excessively when lying.
He was bled almost to fainting ; and three moderate doses of aloes were given in the
course of two days. Injections were administered, and warm fomentations were
frequently applied to the back and loins. On the third day the physic operated
briskly, accompanied by considerable nausea and reduction of the pulse. From that
time the animal gradually recovered.
" These horses are well fed, and always in good condition ; but they are at times
worked without mercy, wliich perhaps makes them so liable to these attacks."
NEUROTOMY.
To enable the horse to accomplish many of the tasks we exact from him, we have
nailed on his feet an iron defence. Without the protection of the shoe, he would not
only be unable to travel over our hard roads, but he would speedily become useless
to us. While, however, the iron protects his feet from being battered and bruised, it
is necessarily inflexible. It cramps and confines the hoof, and often, without great
care, entails on our valuable servant bad disease and excessive torture.
The division of the nerve, as a remedy for intense pain in any part of the frame,
was systematically practised by human surgeons more than a century ago. Mr.
Moorecroft has the honour of introducing the operation of neurotomy in the veterinary
school.
He had long devoted his powerful energies to the discovery of the causes and the
cure of lameness in the fore-foot of the horse. It was a subject worthy of him, for it
involved the interest of the proprietor and the comfort of the slave. He found that,
partly from the faulty construction of the shoe, and more from the premature and
cruel exaction'of labour, the horse was subject to a variety of diseases of the foot : all
of them accompanied by a greater or less degree of pain — often of a very intense
nature, and ceasing only with the life of the animal.
He frequently met with a strangely formidable disease, in what was called " coffin-
joint lameness," but to which ]Mr. James Turner afterwards gave the very appropriate
name of " navicular-joint disease." It was inflammation of the synodal membrane,
either of the flexor tendon or navicular bone, or both, where the tendon plays over
that bone ; and it was accompanied by pain, abrasion, and gradual destruction of
these parts.
For a long time he was foiled in every attempt which he made to remove or even
to alleviate the disease. At length he turned his thoughts to the probability of sub
112 NEUROTOMY.
duing the increased sensibility of the part, by diminishing the proportion of nervous
influence distributed en the foot. He laid bare one of the metacarpal nerves, and
divided it Avith a pair of scissors. There was always an immediate and decided
diminution of the lameness, and, sometimes, the horse rose perfectly ^sound. This
happy result, however, was not always permanent, for the lameness returned after
the lapse of a few weeks, or on much active exertion. He next cut out a small piece
of the nerve. The freedom from lameness was of longer duration, but it eventually
returned.
He then tried a bolder experiment. He excised a portion of the nerves going both
to the inner and outer metacarpals. We transcribe his own account of the result of
the first case of complete neurotomy — excision of the nerve on both sides of the leg —
that ever was performed.
" The animal, on rising, trotted boldly and without lameness, but now and then
stumbled with the foot operated on. The wounds healed in a few days, and the
patient was put to grass. Some weeks afterwards a favourable account was received
of her soundness ; but she was soon brought again to us, on account of a large sore
on the bottom of the foot operated on, and extending from the point of the frog to the
middle and back part of the pastern. The mare, in galloping over some broken glass
bottles, had placed her foot upon a fragment of the bottom of one of them, and which
had cut its way through the frog and tendon into the joint, and stuck fast in the joint
for some seconds, while the animal continued its course apparently regardless of
Injury. The wound bled profusely, but the mare was not lame. Many days had
elapsed before I saw her, and large masses of loose flesh were cut from the edges of
the wound, without the animal showing the slightest sign of suffering pain. The
processes usually attending sores went on, with the same appearances that took place
in sores of parts not deprived of sensibility. Such extensive injury, however, had
been done to the joint as rendered the preservation of free motion in it very impro-
bable, even were the opening to close, which was a matter of doubt, and therefore
she was destroyed. It appeared clearly from this, that hy the destruction of serisihility
the repairing powers of the part were not injured; but that the natural guard against
injury being taken away by the division of both the nerves, an accident was rendered
destructive which, in the usual condition of the foot, might have been less injurious."*
The cut in the next page gives a view of the nerve on the inside of the leg, as it
approaches the fetlock. It will be seen that branches are given off above the fetlock,
which go to the fore part of the foot and supply it with feeling. The continuation
of the nerve below the fellock is given principally to the quarters and hinder part of
the foot. The grand consideration, then, with the operator is — does he wisli to
deprive the Avhole of the foot of sensation, or is the cause of lameness principally in
the hinder part of the foot, so that he can leave some degree of feeling in the fore
part, and prevent that alteration in the tread and going of the horse, which the horse-
man so much dislikes 1
The horse must be cast and secured, and the limb to be operated on removed from
tne hobbles and extended — the hair having been previously shaved from the part.
The operator then feels for the throl)bing of the artery, or the round firm body of the
nerve itself, on the side of the shank bone or the larger pastern. The vein, artery,
and nerve here run close together, the vein nearest to the front of the leg, then the
artery, and the nerve behind. He cautiously cuts through the skin for an inch and
a half in length. The vessels will then be brought into view, and the ner\-e will be
distinguished from them by its lying behind the others, and by its whiteness. A
crooked needle, armed with silk, is then passed under it, in order to raise it a little.
It is dissected from the cellular substance beneath, and about three quarters of an inch
of it cut out, — the first incision being made at the upper part, in which case the second
incision will not be felt. The horse must then be turned, and the operation per-
formed on the other side ; for there is a nervous trunk on both sides. The wounds
are now closed with strips of adhesive plaster, a bandage placed over them, the head
tied up for a couple of days, and the animal kept rather low, and as quiet as pos-
sible. The incisions will generally rapidly heal ; and in three weeks or a month,
and sometimes earlier, the horse will be fit for work.
* Veterinarian, vol. ix. p. 363.
NEUROTOMY.
113
A The metacarpal nerve on the inside of the off leg at the edge
of the shank bone, and behind the vein and artery.
B The continuation of the same nerve on the pastern, and pro-
ceeding downward to supply the back part of the fool with
feeling.
C The division of the nerve on the fetlock joint.
D The branch which supplies with feeling the fore part of the
foot.
E The artery between the vein and nerve.
K F The continuation of the artery on the pastern, close to, and
before the nerve.
G The vein before the artery and nerve.
H The same vein spreading over the pastern.
I One of the flexor tendons, the perforatus (perforated).
J The deeper flexor tendon, the perforans (perforating, contained
within the other).
K The tendinous band in which the flexors work.
L One of the extensors of the foot.
M The internal or sensible frog.
N The posterior lateral hgament.
O The fleshy or sensible lamina covering the coffin bone, the
horny crust being removed.
P The horny crust.
Q The sole.
For ring-bone — the side cartilages becoming bony, and there being partial stiffness
of the pastern and coffin joints — the operation of nerving will probably be beneficial.
The sense of pain being taken away, the animal will use these parts more, and they
will gradually recover their natural action and motion. For the same reason, in old
contraction of the feet, it is highly beneficial. The torture occasioned by the pressure
of the horny crust on the sensible parts within being no longer felt, and the foot com-
ing fully and firmly in contact with the ground, not only is lameness relieved, but the
elasticity and form of the foot partially restored. Where lameness has long existed,
unattended with heat of the foot or alteration of shape, and the seat of which could
not be ascertained, although probably existing betweot the navicular bone and the
back tendon that plays over it, neurotomy may be resorted to with decided advantage.
IMischief, however, will result from the operation if the pastern or coffin joints are
perfectly stiff, because the concussion occasioned by the forcible contact of the foot
with the ground, and unbroken by the play of the joints, must necessarily still more
injure the bone. When the sole of the foot is convex ox pumiced, the effect of neuro-
tomy will be most destnictive. The sole scarcely able to bear the pressure of the
coffin-bone, even when pain induces the animal to put his foot as gently as possible
on the ground, being forced below its natural situation, would be speedily worn through
and destroyed. So if inflammation existed, although its pain might be removed, yet
its progress would be quickened by the bruising to which the parts might be sub-
jected ; and more especially would this be the case, if there was any ulceration of
the ligaments or cartilages.
The unfettered shoe of Mr. Turner being adopted, at least so far as we can have it
nfettered — attached to the foot on one side alone, and the inner quarter being left
free — the foot gradually regains its original healthy form, and, when, in process of
time, a new portion of nerve is produced, and the sensibility of the foot re-established,
the horse (continues to be sound. To some extent, immediate good effect is produced
as it regards the actual disease. We remove that general constitutional irritability
which long-continued pain occasions, and which heightens and perpetuates local dis-
ease. We obtain for the patient an interval of repose, and every local ailment soon
•uhsides or disappears, and the whole constitution become invigorated.
Mr. Percivall relates two valuable cases of this. A mare with contracted feet wae
10* P
114 NEUROTOMY.
never subject to periodical (pstrum, and iier owner lamented in vain that he could not
breed from her. She underwent the operation of neurotomy, and became an excellent
l.irood mare. A stallion with many a good point about him was useless in the stud :
lie was suffering from some disease in the feet. A portion of the nerve was excised —
his constitution underwent a complete change, and he became sire to a numerous and
valuable progeny.
By the operation of neurotomy we destroy pain ; and we jnay safely calculate on
the simple effect of that, whether local or constitutional ; and, limiting our expecta
tions to this, we shall rarely be disappointed.
The operation of neurotomy having been performed, has the veterinary surgeon
nothing else to Aol He has got rid of the pain which attended the ossified cartilage
— the ring-bone and the anchylosis of the pastern and the colTm-joints ; shall he be
satisfied with the benefit he has obtained, great as it is 1 He will, or he should now
try whether his former means and appliances have not more power. He will see
whether, by means of his blister or his firing-iron — the effect of which humanity for-
bade him to put to the full test before — he cannot rouse the absorbents to increased
and more efficient action, and not only arrest the progress of the bony tumour, but
remove it. He will not merely suffer the usefulness of his patient to depend on the
continued suspension of feeling, but he will assure it by the partial or total removal
of the morbid growth.
In contraction of the foot, shall he be satisfied with removing the agony occasioned
by the constant pressure of the horn on the sensitive substance interposed between it
and the coffin-bone 1 Shall he leave future improvement to the slow process of
nature, or shall he not take advantage of the insensibility which he has produced, and
pare the sole thoroughly out, and rasp the quarters to the very quick, and apply the
unfettered shoe ] When he has produced a disposition to contraction, and some degree
of it, should he not actively blister the coronets, and use all other fitting means to
hasten the growth of the horn to its pristine dimensions and its original quality 1
In navicular disease, after he has removed, by the application of neurotomy, that
irritation which had so much to do with the perpetuation, if not the origin, of the
complaint, should he not, with the assured hope of success, pass his seton needle
through the frog, in order to get rid of every remaining lurking tendency to inflamma-
tion ! The blister and the firing-iron will have as much power in abating inflamma-
tion and producing a healthy state of the foot, after that foot had been rendered insen-
sible to pain, as it had before. We should fearlessly say that it would have much
more effect, one grand source of irritation having been removed. The veterinary sur
geon and the owner of the horse are becoming more and more convinced of this ; and
the dawning of a better day has commenced.
The principle of neurotomy is plain and simple — it is the removal of pain. Taken
on this ground, it is a noble operation. It is that in which everj^ friend of humanity
will rejoice. It may be abused. If no auxiliary means are adopted — if in canker or
quittor, or inflammation of the laminae, no means are used to lessen the concussion
and the pressure — the destruction of the part and the utter ruin of the horse are the
inevitable consequences. The primary result is the removal of pain. It is for the
operator to calculate the bearing of this on the actual disease, and the future usefulness
of the animal.
On the question of the reproduction of the nerves there is no doubt. A horse is
lame, and he undergoes the operation of neurotomy. At the expiration of a cc-tain
time the lameness returns, and he is probably destroyed. In the majority of cases it
is found that the nerves had united, or rather that a new veritable ner\'ouK substance
had been interposed. The time at which this is effected is unknown. There have
not been any definite experiments on the point.
Can the horse that has undergone the operation of neurotomy be aftei wards passea
as sound! Most certainly not. There is altered, impaired structure; there is
impaired action ; and there is the possibility of the return of lameness at some indefi-
nite period. He has been diseased. He possibly is diseased now ; but the pain
being removed, there are no means by which the mischief can always be indicated.
Beside, by the very act of neurotomy, he is peculiarly exposed to various injuries and
affections of the foot from which he would otherwise escape.
INSANITY. 1^5
INSANITY.
There is no doubt that tlie animals which we have subjugated possess many of tho
same mentiil faculties as the human being — volition, memory, attachment, gratitude,
resentment, fear, and hatn^J. Who has not witnessed the plain and manifest display
of these principles and feelings in our quadruped dependants ? The simple possession
of these faculties implies that they may be used for purposes good or bad, and that,
as in the human being, they may be deranged or destroyed by a multitude of causes
which it is not necessary to particularise. In the quadmped as in the biped, the lesion
or destruction of a certain part of the brain may draw alter it the derangement, or dis-
turbance, or perversion of a certain faculty of the mind. It is only because the menteil
faculties, and good as well as bad properties of the inferior beings, have been so
lately observed and acknowledged, that any doubt on this point can for a moment be
entertained. The disordered actions, the fury, the caprices, the vic^^s, and more par-
ticularly the frenzy and total abandomnent of reason, which are occasionally shovra
by the brute, are in the highest degree analogous to certain acts of insanity in man.
It is merely to complete our subject that they are here introduced.
The reader is indebted to Professor Rodet, of Toulouse, for the anecdotes which
'follow: — A horse, seven years old, was remarkable for an habitual air of stupidity,
and a peculiar wandering expression of countenance. When he saw anything that
he had not been accustomed to, or heard any sudden or unusual noise, whether it was
near or at a distance, or sometimes when his corn was thrown into the manger with-
out the precaution of speaking to him or patting him, he was frightened to an almost
incredible degree ; he recoiled precipitately, every limb trembled, and he struggled
violently to escape. After several useless efforts to get away, he would work him-
self into the highest degree of rage, so that it was dangerous to approach him. This
state of excitement was followed by dreadful convulsions, which did not cease until
he had broken his halter, or otherwise detached himself from his trammels. He
would then become calm, and suffer himself to be led back to his stall : nor would
anything more be seen but an almost continual inquietude, and a wandering and stupid
expression of countenance. He had belonged to a brutal soldier, who had beaten him
shamefully, and before which time he had been perfectly quiet and tractable.
A Piedmontese officer possessed a beautiful and in other respects serviceable mare,
but which one peculiarity rendered exceedingly dangerous — ^that was a decided aver-
sion to paper, which she recognised the moment she saw it, and even in the dark if
two leaves were rubbed together. The effect produced by the sight or sound of it
was so prompt and violent, that she several 'times unhorsed her rider. She had not
the slightest fear of objects that would terrify most horses. She regarded not the
music of the band, the whistling of the balls, the roaring of the cannon, the fire of the
bivouacs, or the glittering of arms. The confusion and noise of an engagement
made no impression upon her; the sight of no other white object affected her. No
other sound was regarded; but the view or the rustling of paper roused her to
madness.
A mare was perfectly manageable and betrayed no antipathy to the human being,
nor to other animals, nor to horses, except they were of a light-grey colour ; but the
moment she saw a grey horse, she rushed towards it, and attacked it with the greatest
fur)'. It was the same at all times, and everywhere. She was all that could be
wished on the parade, on the route, in the ranks, in action, and in the stable ; but if
she once caught a glimpse of a grey or v.-hite horse, she rested not until she had
thrown her rider or broken her halter, and then she rushed on her imagined foe with
the greatest {\iry. She generally contrived to seize the animal by the head or throat,
and held him so fast that she would suffocate him, if he were not promptly released
from her bite.
Another mare exhibited no terror except of white inanimate objects, as white man-
tles or coats, and particularly white plumes. She would fly from them if she could ;
but if she was unable to accomplish this, she would rush furiously upon them, strike
at them with her fore feet, and tear them with her teeth.
These instances are selected from various others, because they appioach so nearly
to what would be termed insanity in the human being. It is confined to one object, —
116 DISEASES OF THE EYE, &c.
it is a species of monomania, and as decided insanity as ever the bi]icd discovered.
One of these horses, the second, was hy long and kind attention divested ol this insane
terror, and became perfectly quiet and useful ; but the other three bid defiance to all
means of cure and to coercion among the rest. If sufficient attention were paid to the
subject, many of the obstinate caprices and inexplicable aversions which we can
neither conquer nor change would be classed under the term insanity. There cannot
be a more remarkable analogy than that which sometimes exists between the insanity
of man and these singularly capricious fancies in animals. The subject is worthy of
attention. Has the principle of hereditary predisposition been applied to any of these
anomalies 1
DISEASES OF THE EYE.
The diseases of the eye constitute a very important, hut a most unsatisfactory divi-
sion of our work, for the maladies of this organ, although few in number, are frequent
in their appearance. They are sadly obstinate, and often baffle all skill.
We have spoken of fracture of the orbit, and its treatment. Occasionally a wound
is inflicted by a passionate or careless servant. The eye itself is rarely injured. It
is placed on a mass of fat, and it turns most readily, and the prong of the fork glances
off; but the substance round the eye may be deeply wounded, and very considerable
inflammation may ensue. This should be abated by poultices, and bleeding, and
physic ; but no probe should be used imder the foolish idea of ascertaining the depth
of the wound in the lid, supposing that there should be one, for, from the constant
motion of the eye, it is almost impossible to pass the probe into the original wound,
and the effort to accomplish it would give a great deal of pain, and increase the
inflammation.
The eyelids are subject to occasional inflammation from blows or other injuries.
Fomentation with warm water will be serviceable here.
The horse has occasionally a scaly eruption on the edges of the eyelids, attended
with great itching, in the effort to allay which, by rubbing the part, the eye may be
blemished. The nitrated ointment of quicksilver, mixed with an equal quantity of
lard, may be slightly rubbed on the edges of the lids with considerable good effect.
The eyelids will sometimes become (Edematous. Horses that are fed in low and
humid pastures are subject to this. It is also the consequence of inflammation badly
treated. The eyelids are composed of a lax stnicture, and the tissue is somewhat
deficient in vitality — hence this disposition to enfiltration. Sometimes the collection
of fluid accunmlates so rapidly, and so extensively, that the eyes are closed. They
should be well bathed with warm water mingled with an aromatic tincture. The
cellular substance of the lids will thus be disposed to contract on their contents and
cause their absorption.
Old carriage horses are subject to this oedema; and it frequently accompanies both
chronic and common ophthalmia.
Weakness and dropping of the upper lid is caused by diminution or loss of power
in its muscles. Drj' frictions and aromatic lotions will frequently restore the tone of
the parts.
The eyelids are subject to occasional injury from their situation and office. In
small incised wounds of them great care should be taken that the divided edges unite
by the first intention. This will hasten the cure, and prevent deformity. If any of
the muscles are divided, it is usually the ciliary or orbicularis palpebrarum. This
lesion must be healed, if possible, by the first intention, and either by means of adhe
sive plaster or the suture. The suture is probably the preferable agent.
Suppurating wounds in the eyelids may be the consequence of the necessary abstrac-
tion of a considerable surface of the skin, in the removal of warts c- tumours. The
principal thing to be attended to is the frequent removal of the pus by means of tew or
cotton wool. The rest may generally be left to nature.
Inversion of the lids is of very rare occurrence in the horse.
Warts are sometimes attached to the edges of the lids, and are a source of great
irritation. When rubbed they bleed, and the common opinion is true — th?t th«>y are
propagated by the blood. They should be taken off with a sharp pair of scisjtiorP, aiw3
their roots touched with the lunar caustic.
SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. -^ij
The membrane which covers the Haw is subject to inflam..iati n. It is, indeed, a
continuation of tlie conjunctiva, the inflammation of wliich constitutes ophthalmia
An account of this inflammation will be better postponed until the nature and treat
ment of ophthalmia come under particular notice.
The Haw, or jMembranu JMctita?is, is subject to inflammation peculiar to itself, aris-
ing from the introduction of foreign bodies, or from blows or other accidents. The
entire substance of the haw becomes inflamed. It swells and protrudes from the
inner angle of the eye. The heat and redness gradually disappear, but the membrane
often continues to protrude. The inflammation of this organ often assumes a chronic
character in a verj' short time, on account of the structure of the parts, which are in
general little susceptible of reaction.
The ordinary causes of this disease in the horse are repeated and periodical at-
tacks of ophthalmia, and blows on the part. Young and old horses are most subject
to it.
Emollient applications, bleeding, and restricted diet will be proper at the com-
mencement of the disease, and, the inflammation being abated, slight astrino-ents will
be useful in preventing the engorgement of the part. Rose-water with subacetate of
lead will form a proper collyrium. If the protruding body does not diminish after
proper means have been tried, and for a sufficient period, it must be removed with a
curved pair of scissors. No danger will attend this operation if it is performed in
time ; but if it is neglected, ulceration of the part and the growth of funo-ous ve"-eta-
tions will give a serious character to the aff"air. A second operation may also be
necessary, and even a third, and fungus hcematodcs will probably be established.
Ulceration and caries of the cartilage will sometimes be accompanied by ulcera-
tion of the conjunctiva. This will frequently prove a very serious aflair, demanding,
at least, the removal of the haw.
The Caruncula Lacr}mialis, or Tubercle, by means of which the tears are directed
into the canal through which they are to escape from the nostril, is sometimes en-
larged in consequence of inflammation, and the Puncta Lacrymalia, or conduits into
which the tears pass from the eye, are partially or completely closed. The applica-
tion of warm and emollient lotions will generally remove the collected mucus or the
inflammation of the parts ; but if the passage of a stylet or other more complicated
means are required, the assistance of a veterinary surgeon should be immediately
obtained. The lacrjnnal sac into which the tears pass from the puncta has occasion-
ally participated in the inflammation, and been distended and ruptured by the tears
and mucus. This lesion is termed Fistula Lacrymalis. It has occasionally existed
in colts, and will require immediate and peculiar treatment.
COMMON INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE.
The conjunctiva is occasionally the seat of great disease, and that which is tO)
often destructive to the eye. Inflammation of the eye may be considered under two
forms — the common and manageable, and the specific and fatal. The Common In-
flammation is generally sudden in its attack. The lids will be found swelled and
the eyes partially closed, and some weeping. The inside of the lid will be red,
some red streaks visible on the white of the eye, and the cornea slightly dim. This
is occasionally connected with some degree of catarrh or cold ; but it is as often
unaccompanied by this, and depends on external irritation, as a blow, or the presence
of a bit of hay-seed or oat-husk within the lid, and towards the outer corner w-here
the haw cannot reach it : therefore the lids should alwaj's be carefully examined as
to this possible source of the complaint. The health of the animal is generally un-
affected— he feeds well, and performs his work with his usual spirit. Cooling appli-
cations to the eye, as the Goulard's extract or tincture of opium, with mash-diet, and
gentle physic, will usually abate the evil ; or the inflammation will subside without
medical treatment.
SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA, OR IVIOON-BLINDNESS.
Should three or four days pass, and the inflammation not be abated, we may begin
to suspect that it is Ophihahma, especially if the. eye is very impatient of light, and
the cornea is considerably clouded. The aqueous humour then often loses its trans-
118
SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA.
parency even the iris changes its colour, and the pupil is exci iniingly contractti
The veterinary surgeon has now an obstinate disease to combat, and one that will
generally maintain its 'ground in spite of all his eflorts. For three, or four, or f^ve
weeks, the inflammation will remain undiminished ; or if it appears to yield on one
day, it will return with redoubled violence on the next. At length, and often uncon-
nected with any of the means that have been used, the eye begins to bear the light,
Ihe redness of the membrane of the lid disappears, the cornea clears up, and the only
vestige of disease which remains is a slight tliickening of the lids and apparent un-
easiness when exposed to a very strong light.
If the owner imagines that he has got rid of the disease, he will be sadly disap-
pointed, for, in the course of six weeks or two months, either the same eye under-
goes a second and similar attack, or the other one becomes affected. All again
seems to pass over, except that the eye is not so perfectly restored, and a slight,
deeply-seated cloudiness begins to appear; and after repeated attacks, and alterna-
tions of disease from eye to eye, the affair terminates in opacity of the lens or its cap-
sule, attended with perfect blindness either of one eye or both. This affection was
formerly known by the name of moon-blindness, from its periodical return, and some
supposed influence of the moon. That body, however, has not, and cannot have any-
thing to do with it.
What is the practitioner doing all this while ? He is an anxious and busy, but
almost powerless spectator. He foments the eyes with warm water, or applies cold
lotions with the extract of lead or opium, or poultices to which these drugs may be
added ; he bleeds, not from the temporal artery, for that does not supply the orbit of
the eye, but from the angular vein at the inner corner of the eye, or he scarifies the
lining of the lid, or subtracts a considerable quantity of blood from the jugular
vein. The scarifying of the conjunctiva, which may be easily accomplished with-
out a twitch, by exposing the inside of the lids, and drawing a keen lancet slightly
over them, is the most effectual of all w^ays to abate inflammation, for we are then
immediately unloading the distended vessels. He places his setons in the cheek,
or his rowels under the jaw ; and he keeps the animal low^, and gives physic or
fever medicine (digitalis, nitre, and emetic tartar.) The disease, however, ebbs and
flows, retreats and^ttacks, until it reaches its natural termination, blindness of one
or both eyes.
The horse is more subject to this disease from the age of four to six years than
at any other period. He has then completed his growth. He is full of blood, and
liable to inflammatory complaints, and the eye is the organ attacked from a peculiar
predisposition in it to inflammation, the nature or cause of which cannot always be
explained. Every affection of the eye appearing about this age must be regarded
with much suspicion.
It is a common opinion that black horses are more subject to blindness than others.
There is considerable doubt about this, or rather it is probable that that colour has no
influence either in producing or aggravating the disease.
As this malady so frequently destroys the sight, and there are certain periods when
the inflammation has seemingly subsided and the inexperienced person would be
deceived into the belief that all danger is at an end, the eye should be most carefully
observed at the time of purchase, and the examiner should be fully aware of all the minute
indications of previous or approaching disease. They are a slight thickening of the
lids, or puckering towards the inner corner of the eye; a difference in the apparent
size of the eyes;"' a cloudiness, although perhaps scarcely perceptible, of the surface
of the cornea, or more deeply seated, or a hazy circle round its edge ; a gloominess
of eye generally, and dulness of the iris ; or a minute, faint, dusky spot in the cen-
tre, with or without minute fibres or lines diverging from it.
The cause of this inflammation is undoubtedly a strong predisposition to it in the eye
of the horse, but assisted by the heated and empoisoned air of many stables. The
he?ted air has much to do with the production of the disease; the empoisoned aii a
great deal more: for every one must have observed, on entering a close stable early
in the morning, strong fumes of hartshorn which were painful to his eyes and caused
the tears to fl(7w. What must be the constant action of this on the eyes of the horse?
The dung of the horse, and the litter of the stables, when becoming prjtrid, emit
SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA. -[19
'umes of volatile alkali or hartshorn. Often, very soon after thej are voided, they
oegin to yield an immense quantity of this pungent gas. If we are scarcely able to
bear this when we stand in the stable for only a few minutes, we need not wonder at
she prevalence of inflammation in the eye of the stabled horse, nor at the difficulty ot
abating intlamraation while this organ continues to be exposed to such painful excite-
ment. Stables are now much better ventilated than they used to be, and ophthalmia
is far from being so prevalent as it was tifty years ago.
The farmer may not be aware of another cause of blindness, to which his horse
is more particularly exposed, viz., confinement in a dark stable. Many stables in the
country have no glazed windows, but there is a flap which is open for a few hours in
'he day, or while the carter is employed in the stable, and when that is shut down
almost total darkness prevails. Let our reader consider what are his sensations
when be suddenly emerges from a dark room into the full glare of light. He is
dazzled and bewildered, and some time passes before his vision is distinct. Let this
be repeated several times daily, and what will be the consequence 1 The sight will
be disordered, or the eye irreparably injured. Then let him think of his poor horse,
who often stumbles and starts through no fault of his own, although he is corrected
for his blundering, but because his eyes are necessarily weakened by these sudden
transitions, and disposed to take on sudden inflammation with all its fatal results.
The propagation of various diseases, and this more than any other, from the sire to
his progeny, has not been sufficiently considered by breeders. Let a stallion that is
blind, or whose sight is defective, possess every other point and quality that can be
wished, yet he is worse than useless ; for a very considerable proportion of his off-
spring will most assuredly inherit weak eyes or become totally blind. There is no
tact better established than this.
Mr. Baker of Reigate puts this in a very strong point of view. He was called
upon to examine a foal only a few days old, which seemed to have some affection of
the head, as from its birth it was totally unconscious of any object, although it ap-
peared to the owner to have good eyes. It ran its head against the waif and the
slanders by, in such a way as to convince the surgeon that it was quite blind, and on
examining the pupil of each eye, he found them greatly dilated and motionless, but
beyond this tlrere was no unhealthy appearance.
He inquired about the sire, and found that his ^nsion was very defective, and that
of all the stock which he got in that part of the country not one colt escaped the dire-
ful effects of his imperfect sight. He persuaded the owner to have the youngster
destroyed, and '. tracing the optic nerve in its passage from the base of the brain, he
found it in a complete state of atrophy. There v/as scarcely any nervous substance
within the tube that led from the brain to the eye.
The most frequent consequences of this disease are cloudiness of the eye, and
cataract. The cloudiness is singular in its nature. It will change in twenty-four
hours from the thinnest film to the thickest opacity'-, and, as suddenly, the eye will
nearly regain its perfect transparency, but only to lose it, and as rapidly, a second
time.
The most barbarous methods have been resorted to for the purpose of removing this
cloudiness. Chalk, and salt, and sugar, and even pounded glass have been introduced
into the eye mechanically to rub off tlie film. It was forgotten that the cloudiness
was the effect of inflammation — that means so harsh and cruel were very likely to
recall that inflammation — that these rough and sharp substances must of necessity
inflict excruciating pain ; and that, after all, it generally was not a film on the surface
of the cornea, but a dimness pervading its substance, and even sinking deep within
it, and therefore not capable of being removed. Where the cloudiness can be remov-
ed, it will be best effected by first abating inflammation, and then exciting the absorb
ents to take up the grey deposit, by washing the eye with a very weak solution of
corrosive sublimate.
Opacity of the lens is another consequence of inflammation. A white speck ap-
pears on the centre of the lens, which gradually spreads over it, and completely cov-
ers i( . It is generally so white and pearly as not to be mistaken — at other times it is
morft hazy, deceiving the inexperienced, and occasioning doubt in the mind of profes
sional men. We have seen many instances in which the sight has been considerably
120 SPECIFIC OPHTHALMIA.
affected or almost lost, and yet the horse has been pronounced sound by very fair
judges. The eye must be exposed to the light, and yet under the kind of shelter
which has been already described, in order to discover the defect. The pupil of the
horse is seldom black, like that of the human being, and its greyish hue conceals the
recent or thin film that may be spreading over the lens.
Confirmed cataract in the eye of the horse admits of no remedy, for two obvious
reasons : the retractor muscle draws the eye back so powerfully and so deeply into
the socket, that it would be almost impossible to perform any operation; and, could
an operation be performed, and the opaque lens removed, the sight would be so
imperfect, from the rays of light not being sufficiently converged, that the horse
would be worse to us than a blind one. The man who has undergone the operation
of couching may put a new lens before his eye, in the form of a convex spectacle ;
but we cannot adapt spectacles to the eye of the horse, or fix them there.
Since the publication of the first edition of "The Horse," some controversy has
taken place with regard to the occasional appearance and disappearance of cataract
without any connexion with the common moon-blindness. Mr. Clay deposed in evi-
dence, that cataracts might be formed in a fortnight or three weeks — that he had
known many instances in which they had been completed in less time, and without
any previous apparent disease of the eyRS ; and that he had detected them when the
owners had not the slightest suspicion of disease in the eye.*
]Mr. Cartwright adds, that he has known two similar cases. The first was of a
horse that had two cataracts in each eye — two of them of the size of a large pin's
head, and the other two treble that size. There was no vestige of former inflamma-
tion; and the person who bred him said that he never had been subject to inflamma-
tion of the eye. In December 1831, these cataracts were plain enough; but in the
autumn of 1832, they had completely vanished.
In November 1832, Mr. Cartwright saw a five-years old mare, and detected a cata-
ract in the right eye, of the size of a coriander seed. He advised the owner to get
rid of her, thinking that she would go blind ; but, being a useful animal, he kept her.
In August 1833, Mr. Cartwright saw her again. The cataract had disappeared and
the eyes were perfect.f
That excellent veterinarian, Mr. Percivall, had a somewhat similar case. A gen-
tleman brought a horse one morning to the hospital, in consequence of its having fallen
in his way to town, and grazed his eyebrow. On examining him carefully, the cornea
was partially nebulous, and a cataract was plainly visible. Neither of these defects
was sufficient to attract the notice of any unprofessional observer, and both were
unconnected with the slight bruise produced by the fall. The owner was told that
the corneal opacity might possibly be removed ; but as for the cataract, he might
regard this as beyond the reach of medicine. He returned with his horse on the fifth
day, saying that the physic had operated well, and that he thought the eye was as
clear as ever. Mr. Percivall examined the eye, and could discover no relic either of
the corneal opacity or of the cataract.
The opinion respecting cataract is therefore essentially modified. It is not necessa-
rily the result of previous inflammation, although in the great majority of cases it is
so, nor does it always lead to blindness. Still it is a serious thing at all times, and,
although existing in the minutest degree, it is unsoundness, and very materially lessens
the value of the horse.
" Were I asked," says Mr. Percivall, " how the practitioner could best distinguish
a cataract of the above description from that which is of ordinary occurrence, and
known by us all to constitute the common termination of periodical ophthalmia, I
should say that the unusually lucid and healthy aspect which every other part of tlie eye
presents is our best diagnostic sign; the slightest indication, however, or the slightest
suspicion of prior or present inflammation, being a reason for coming to a different
conclusion. As to the period of time a cataract of this species, supposing it to be
membranous, would require for its formation, I should apprehend that its production
might be. as its disappearance often would seem to be, the work of a very short inter-
val, perhaps not more than five or six days." As to the cause and treatment of it,
* Veterinarian, vol. vii. p. 41. t Vetermarian, vol. vii. p. 44.
GUTTA SERENA — DISEASES OF THE EAR. 121
we are at present completely in the dark. If it does not soon disappear, the hydriodatft
of potash adiiiiaistered internally might offer the best prospect of success.
GUTTA SERENA.
Another species of blindness, and of which mention was made when describing the
retina, is Gutta Serena, commonly called glass eye. The pupil is more than usually
dilated : it is immovable, and bright, and glassy. This is palsy of the optic nerve, or
its expansion, the retina ; and is usually produced by determination of blood to the
head. We have described it as a consequence of staggers. So much pressure has
been occasioned on the base of the brain, that the nerve has been injured, and Us func-
tion destroyed. The treatment of Gutta Serena is quite as difficult as that of cataract.
We have heard of successful cases, but we never saw one ; nor should we be disposed to
incur much expense in endeavouring to accomplish impossibilities. Reasoning from
the cause of the disease, we should bleed and physic, and administer the strychnine
in doses, commencing at half a grain, and not exceeding two grain*, morning and
night — very carefully watching it. If we succeed, it must be by constitutional "treat-
ment. As to local treatment, the seat of disease is out of our reach.
DISEASES OF THE EAR.
Wounds of the ear are usually the consequence of careless or brutal treatment.
The twitch may be applied to it, when absolute necessity requires this degree of
coercion ; but troublesome ulcers and bruises have been the consequence of the abuse
of this species of punishment, and more especially has the farrier done irreparable
mischief when he has brutally made use of his plyers.
These bruises or wounds will generally — fortunately for the animal, and fortu-
nately, perhaps, for the brute that inflicted the injur)- — speedily heal ; but occasionally
sinuses and abscesses will result that bid defiance to the most skilful treatment. A
simple laceration of the cartilage is easily remedied. The divided edges are brought
into apposition, and the head is tied up closely for a few days, and all is well ; but,
occasionally, ulceration of the integument and cellular substance, and caries of the
cartilage, will take place — deep sinuses will be formed, and the wound will bid defi-
ance to the most skilful treatment. The writer of. this work had once a case of this
kind under his care more than two months, and he was at length compelled to cut off
the ear, the other ear following it, for the sake of uniformity of appearance. The
lunar caustic, or the muriate of antimony, or the heated iron, must be early employed,
or the labour of the practitioner will be in vain.
It has been the misfortune of the same person to witness two cases in which the
auditory passage was closed and the faculty of hearing destroyed, by blows on the
ear violently inflicted. No punishment can be too severe for these brutes in human
shape. Whenever there is considerable swelling about the root of the ear, and the
fluctuation of a fluid within can be detected, it should be immediately opened with a
lancet, and the purulent fluid liberated.
Tlie abscess usually begins to fonn about the middle of the conch, or rather nearer
the base than the point. The incision should be of considerable length,' or the openinor
will close agfain in four-and-twenty hours. The purulent matter having been evacu-
ated, the incision should not be permitted to close until the parietes of the ulcer have
adhered to each other, and the abscess is obliterated.
The size and the carrj'ing of the ear do not always please. The ears may be largei
and more dependent than fashion requires them to be, and this is remedied by parmg
or clipping them to the requisite size. On either side of the projection of the occipital
bone, and in a straight line forward and backward, a fold of the skin is pinched up
and cut away. The divided edges on either side are then brought too-ether, and con-
fined by two or three stitches — they presently unite, and the owner has a better-
looking horse, and soon forgets or cares not about the punishment which he has
inflicted on him.
The ears of other horses may be supposed to be too close to each other. This fault
IS corrected by another piece of cruelty. Similar slips of skin are cut away on the
outside of the base of the ear, and in the same direction. The edges of the wouno
11 Q °
122 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF
are then brought together, confined by sutures, and the ears are drawn further apar*
from each other, and have different directions given to them. A very slight examina-
tion of either of tlie horses will readily detect the imposition.
DEAFNESS.
Of the occasional existence of this in the horse, there is no doubt The beautiful
play of the ears has ceased, and the horse hears not the voice of his master, or the
sound of the whip. Much of the apparent stupidity of a few horses is attributable to
their imperfect hearing. It occasionally appears to follov/ the decline of various dis-
eases, and especially of those that affect the head and the respiratory passages. It
has been the consequence of brutal treatment closing the conduit of the ear, or rup-
turing the tympanum ; and it is certainly, as in other domesticated animals, tho
accompaniment of old age.
In the present state of veterinary knowledge, it is an incurable complaint ; the only
thing that can be done is not to punish the poor slave for his apparent stupidity, pro-
duced perhaps by over-exertion in our service, or, at least, the natural attendant of
the close of a life devoted to us.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
"We now proceed to a description of the /ace, or lower part of the head of the Horse.
The nasal bones, or bones of the nose (j j, p. 70, and a, p. 72), are connected with the
frontal bones above, and with the lacrymal, i i, and the bones of the upper jaw, / /,
on either side. They are united together by a plain suture, which is a continuation
of the frontal, and they terminate in a point at the nostril (/), p. 70). They are
rounded and arched above, because they are exposed to occasional violence and injury,
which the arch-form will enable them best to resist ; and at the base of the arch,
where the main strength should be, they are overlapped by the upper jaw-bone, as the
temporal bone overlaps the base of the parietal. These bones form a principal part
of the face ; and the length, or shortness, and the character of the face, depend upon
them. Sometimes there is an appearance of two little arches, with a depression
between them along the sutures. This is often found in the blood-horse with his com-
paratively broad head and face. The single elevated arch is found in the long and
narrow face of the heavy draught-horse.
The nasal bones pursue their course down the face, in some horses in a straight
line — in others, there is a slight prominence towards the upper part, while in a con-
siderable number, a depression is observed a little lower down. Some persons have
imagined that this deviation in the line of the face affords an indication of the temper
of the animal, and there may be a little truth in this. The horse with a straight pro-
file may be good or bad tempered, but not often either to any great excess. The one
with the prominent Roman nose w ill generally be an easy, good-tempered kind of
beast — hardy — ready enough to feed, not always, perhaps, so ready to work, but may
be made to do his duty without any cruel urging, and having no extraordinary preten-
sion to speed or blood. On the other hand, a depression across the centre of tlie nose
generally indicates some breeding, especially if the head is small, but occasionally
accompanied by a vicious, uncontrollable disposition.
There is another way, however, in which the nasal bones do more certainly indicate
the breed, viz., by their comparative length or shortness. There is no surer criterion
of a well-bred horse, than a broad angular forehead, prominent features, and a short
face; nor of a horse with little breeding, than a narrow forehead, small features, and
lengthened nose. The comoarative development of the head and face indicates, with
little error, the preponderance of the animal or intellectual principle.
Fracture of the nasal bones of the horse will sometimes occur from fallinsr, orakick
THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
123
from the companion, or the brutality of the attendant. It is generally ful lowed by
laceration of the lining membrane of the nostrils, and by haemorrhage. The hajnior-
rhage may usually be arrested by the application of cold water externally. In spon-
taneous haemorrhage this does not often succeed until a considerable quantity of blood
is lost.
In cases of fracture of the nasal bones, the assistance of a veterinary surgeon ia
indispensable. He alone knows the precise anatomy of the parts, and will have
recourse to the elevator or the trephine, as circumstances may require.
The owner nnist not be too sanguine with regard to cases of tins kind, for ozena, —
ulceration attended by a peculiar and almost insufferable stench — is too often the con-
sequence, or foundation may be laid, for the appearance, of glanders.
Spontaneous bleeding from the nose must be carefully attended to. It may proceed
from over-fulness of the capillaries of the membrane of the nose, or determination of
blood to the head, or general plethora of the system. Those that are overfed and
overfat are most liable to it, as troop-horses, brewers' horses, and horses kept for
pleasure. It is not common in young horses, or in such as are out of condition, or
worked hardly. It is always desirable to know whence the bleeding proceeds — if
from the nostril alone, it will usually be confined to one side — if from the lungs, the
discharge is from both nostrils, and generally mingled with mucus, or spume, — ^there
is also a quickened respiration, and more or less cough.
If it is apparently connected with some slight cause, a dose of physic and quietness
for a day or two will be sufficient, and, if necessary, a slight solution of alum may be
injected up the nostril. If the bleeding is apparently from the lungs, a more serious
evacuation will be required.
These bones form the roof of an important cavity (see a, p. 72). The sides are
constituted above by the nasal bones, and, lower down, by the upper jaw-bones, {supe-
rior maxillaries), while plates from these latter bones project and compose the palate,
which is both the floor of the nose and the roof of the mouth (/, p. 72). Above (near
fig. 8), not visible in our cut, is a bone called the palatine, although it contributes very
little to the formation of the palate. It is the termination of the palate, or the border
of the opening where the cavities of the mouth and nose meet (fig. 8). The frontal
sinuses, h, and large vacuities in the upper jaw-bone, and in the aethmoid, /, and sphe
noid bones, k, communicate with and enlarge the cavity of the nose.
This "wity is divided into two parts by a cartilage called the Septum (see a, p. 72).
It is of f-onsiderable thickness and strength, and divides the cavity of the nose into
two equnl parts. It is placed in the centre for the purpose of strength, and it is formed
of cartilage, in order that, by its gradual yielding resistance, it may neutralize almost
any force that may he applied to it.
When we open the nostril, we see the membrane by which the cartilage, and the
whole of the cavity of the nose, is lined, and by the colour of which, much more
than by that of the lining of the eyelids, w'e judge of the degree of fever, and par-
124 THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF
ticularly of inflammation of the lungs, or any of the air-passages. The cut on the
preceding page shows the ramifications of the blood-vessels, both arterial and venous,
on the m'embrane of the nose. It beautifully accounts for the accurate connexion
which we trace between the colour of the nasal membrane, and various diseases or
states of the circulation. By the sore places or ulcerations discovered on this mem-
brane, we likewise determine respecting the existence of glanders ; and the interposi-
tion of the septum is a wise and benevolent provision to hinder the spread of the
mischief, by cutting off all communication with the neighbouring parts, and also to
preserve one nostril pervious, when the other is diseased or obstructed. The nasal
cavity is, on either side, occupied by two bones, which, from their being rolled up
somewhat in the form of a turban, are called the turbinated or turban-shaped bones,
V s, p. 72; part of the cartilage is cut away in our cut in order to display them. They
are as thin as gauze, and perforated, like gauze, with a thousand holes. Between
them are left sufficient passages for the air.
If they were unrolled, they would present a verj' considerable surface ; and on
every part of tliem is spread the substance or pulp of the olfactory, or first pair of
nerves. Tliese bones, lined with delicate membranes, and covered by the olfactory
nerves, are the seat of smell ; and they are thus expanded, because the sense of smell
in the horse must, to a very considerable degree, supply the place of the sense of
touch and the lessons of experience in the human being. By this alone he is enabled
to select, amongst the nutritive and poisonous herbage of the meadow, that which
would support and not destroy him. The troops of wild horses are said to smell the
approach of an enemy at a very considerable distance. In his domestic state, the
horse does not examine the different food which is placed before him with his eye,
but with his nose ; and if the smell displeases him, no coaxing will induce him to
eat. He examines a stranger by the smell, and, by very intelligible signs, expresses
the opinion which he forms of him by tliis inquisition. The horse will evidently
recognise his favourite groom when he has nothing else to indicate his approach but
the sense of smell. These cavities are likewise organs of voice. The sound re-
verberates through them, and increases in loudness, as through the windings of a
French horn.
The extension of the nostril at the lower part of these cavities is an important part
of the face, and intimately connected with breeding, courage, and speed. The horse
can breathe only through the nose. All the air which goes to and returns from the
lungs must pass through the nostrils. In the common act of breathing, these are
sufliciently large ; but when the animal is put on his sjjeed, and the respiration is
quickened, these passages must dilate, or he will be much distressed. The expanded
nostril is a striking feature in the blood-horse, especially when he has been excited
and not over-blown. The sporting man will not forget the sudden effect which is
given to the countenance of the hunter, when his ears become erect, and his nostrils
dilate as he first listens to the cry of the hounds, and snorts, and scents them afar off.
The painful and spasmed stretching of this part, in the poor, over-driven post-horse,
will show how necessary it is that the passage to the lungs should be free and open.
Tlie nostril should not only be large, but the membranous substance which covers the
entrance into the nose should be thin and elastic, that it may more readily yield when
the necessity of the animal requires a greater supply of air, and afterwards return to
its natural dimensions. Tlierefore, nature, which adapts the animal to his situation
and use, has given to the cart-horse, that is seldom blown, a confined nostril, and
surrounded by much cellular snbstance, and a thick skin; and to the horse of more
breeding, whose use consists in his speed and his continuance, a wider nostril, and
one much more flexible.
Tlie inliabitants of some countries were accustomed to slit the nostrils of their
horses, that they might be less distressed in the severe and long-continued exertion
of their speed. The Icelanders do so to the present day. There is no necessity for
this, for nature has made ample provision for all the ordinary and even extraordinary
exertion we can require from the horse.
Some very powerful muscles proceed from different parts of the face to the neighbour-
hood of the nostrils, in order to draw them back and dilate them. Four of these aie
given in the following cut, which is inserted to complete our present subject, and which
THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
125
will be often referred to in the course of our work ; /, /n, o, and p, are muscles em-
ployed for this purpose.
THE MrSCLES, NERTES, AND BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE HEAD AND rPPEK PAKT OF THE NECK.
a The upper part of the ligament of the neck.
b The levator humeri (elevator of the shoulder), arising from the tubercle of the occiput, th»
mastoid (nipple-shaped) process of the temporal bone, and the transverse processes
(cross projections) of the four first bones of the neck, and the ligament of the neck, ana
going to the muscles of the shoulders, and the upper bone of the arm : to draw for-
ward the shoulder and arm ; or turn the head and neck ; and, when the two levatora
act, to depress the head.
c The tendon cominon to the complexus major (larger comphcated), and splenius (sphnt-hke) ;
to the mastoid process of the temporal bone, to hold up the head, or, the muscles on
one side alone acting, to turn it.
d The sterno-maxiUaris (belonging to the breast-bone) and upper jaw, from the cartilage in
front of the chest to the angle of the lower jaw : to bend the head, or, if one only
acts, to bend it on one side.
e The stt/lo-maxillaris. from the styloid (pencil-shaped) or coracoid (beak-shaped) process of
the occiput, to the angle of the jaw : to pull the jaw backward and open it.
/The subscapulo hijoideus, from under the shoulder-blade, to the body of the os hyoides (the
bone at the root of the tongue formed like a Greek u, v) : to draw back that bone.
g The masseter (chewing); a most powerful muscle, constituting the cheek of the horse:—
from the upper jaw bone into the rough surface round the angle of the lower : in con-
junction with the temporal muscle to close the mouth and chew the food.
£ The orbicularis (circular) surrounding the eye and closing the lids.
i The zygomalicus, from the zygomatic arch and masseter to the corner of the mouth, to
draw back the angle of the mouth.
k The buccinator (trumpeter), from the inside of the mouth and cheeks, to the angle of the
mouth, to draw it back.
{ The vasalis lahii superioris (belonging to the nose and upper lip), from a depression at the
junction of the superior ma.\illary and malar bones, to the angle of the nostril : to raise
the lip, and dilate the nostrils.
m Dilator 7iaris lateralis (side dilator of the nostril), reversed to show the vessels and nerves
which it covers, going from the covering of the nasal and frontal bones, to the angle
of the mouth, and side of the nostril : to retract the upper lip and dilate the nostrils.
n Dilator maanus (great dilator), assisting in the same office.
o Depressor labii inferioris (puller down of the under lip), to the sides of the under Up : to pub
it down.
p Orbicularis oris (circular muscle of the mouth), surrounding the mouth: to close the lipa
and dUate the nostrils.
q The upper portion of the parotid gland (gland near the ear) reversed, to show the blood ves-
sels and nerves beneath it.
r The parotid duct piercing the cheek, to discharge the sahva into the mouth,
11*
126 NASAL POLYPUS.
s Tlie maxillary gland (gland of the lower jaw) with hs duct.
t The jugular (neck) vein, after the two branches have united.
sc At this letter, the submaxillary artery, a branch of the jugular, and the parotid duct, paaa
under and within tne angle of the lower jaw ; they come out again at w, and climb up
the cheek to be distributed over the face,
ti The vein and artery, passing under the zygomatic arch.
X A branch of the filth pair, the sensitive nerve of the face, emerging from under the parotid
gland.
y The main branch of the portio dura (hard portion) of the seventh pair, the motor (moving)
nerve of the face coming out from beneath the parotid gland, to spread over the face,
s Branches of both nerves, wiih small blood-vessels.
There are also four distinct cartilages attached to the nostrils, which, hy their
elasticity, bring back the nostrils to their former dimensions, as soon as the muscles
cease to act. Tlie bones of the nose (a a, p. 70, and p. 72) are also sharpened off to
a point, to give wider range for the action of the muscles ; while the cartilages are
so contrived, as not only to discharge the office we have mentioned, but to protect
this projection of bone from injury.
There are two circumstances, which, more than any others, will enable the veteri-
nary surgeon, and the owner of a horse, accurately to judge of the character and
degree of many diseases, and to which very few persons pay sufficient attention ;
these are the pulse, of which we shall presently speak, and the colour of the mem-
brane of the nose. It is the custom of most veterinary surgeons and horsemen to lift
the upper eyelid, and to form their opinion by the colour which its lining presents.
If it is very red, there is considerable fever ; — if it is of a pale pinkish hue, there is
little danger. The nose, however, is more easily got at ; — the surface presented to
the view is more extensive ; — its sympathy with almost all the important organs Is
greater ; — and the changes produced by disease are more striking and more conclu-
sive. Let iiie reader nrst make himself well acquainted with the uniform pale pink
appearance ot mat 'portion of the membrane which covers the lower part of the car-
tilaginous partition between the nostrils, when the horse is in health and quiet; then
the increased blush 'if red, betokening some excitement of the system — the streaked
appearance of inflammation commenced, and threatening to increase — the intense
florid red, of acute inflammation — the pale ground with patches of vi\id red, showing
the half-subdued, but still existing fever — the uniform colour, although somewhat
redder than natural, predicting a return to healthy circulation — the paleness approach-
ing to white, marking the stage of debility, and sometimes intermingled with radia-
tions of crimson, inducing the suspicion of lurking mischief; and the dark livid
colour of approaching stagnation of the vital current. These, with all their shades
of difference, will be the guides to his opinion and treatment, which every one, who
has studied them, will highly appreciate.
NASAL POLYPUS.
By the polypus, is meant an excrescence or tumour, varying in size, structure, and
consistence, and attached by a pedicle to a mucous surface. The true polypus is
attached to mucous membranes, and is usually found in the nostrils, the pharynx, the
uterus, or the vagina. Tumours have been seen hanging loose in the veins and ven-
tricles of the heart ; and in the larger blood-vessels there have been accumulations of
the fibrine of the blood, with peduncular attachments.
Tlie nasal polypus usually adheres to some portion of the superior turbinated bone,
or it has come from some of the sinuses connected with that cavity. It escaped,
while small, through the valvular opening under the superior turbinated bone, into the
cavity of the nose, and there attained its full growth.
No better account, however, can be given of the cause of their appearance, than
that of tumours in other parts of the body. They evidently have a constitutional
origin: they are frequently hereditary, and the animal in which they have once
appeared, is subject to a, return of them.
By some means, probably the increasing weight of the tumour, and being in a
dependent situation, the polypus is gradually detached from its base, and forces with
it the soft and easily distensible membrane of the nose. As it continues to descend,
this portion of membrane is farther elongated, and forms the pedicle or loot of tne
NASAL GLEET, OR DISCHARGE FROM THE NOSE. -37
Uiraour : — if that may be termed a root which is a mere duplicate of its investing
membrane.
The polypus, when it hangs free in the nasal cavity, is usually of a pyriform. or
pear-like shape ; and it varies in weight, from a few drachms to three or four pounds.
How is the surgeon to proceed ? Can he lay hold of the polypus by the finger, or
the forceps, or (for these tumours do not possess much sensibility) the tenaculum I
To ascertain this, he will cast the horse, and fix the head in a position to take the
greatest advantage of the light. If he cannot fairly get at the tumour by any of
these means, he will let it alone. It will continue to grow — the membrane consti-
tuting the pedicle will be lengthened — and the polypus will at length descend, and
be easily got at. Time and patience will effect wonders in this and many similar
Supposing it to have grown, and the surgeon is endeavouring to extract it, he must
not use any great force. It must not be torn out by the root. The tumour must be
gently brought dowij, and a ligature passed round the pedicle, as higR up as it can
conveniently be placed. If the polypus can then be returned to the nose, the animal
will suffer very little inconvenience ; and in a few days it will slough off, and the
pedicle will contract, and gradually disappear.
If the polypus is so large that it cannot be well returned after it has been brought
down, we must, notwithstanding, use the ligature, passing it round the pedicle su1li-
ciently tightly to cut off the supply of blood to the tumour. We may then imme-
diately excise it. Except the pedicle is exceedingly thick, there will be little or no
hasmorrhage. Should some bleeding occur, it will probably soon stop, or may be
stopped by the cautery, which should, however, be avoided if possible; for our object
is to produce as little irritation as may be in the membrane, and the actual cautery
will be applied with considerable difficulty in the cavity of the nose.
In very bad cases, when the tumour cannot be drawn out of the nose, it may be
necessary to slit up the ala or side of the nostril. It will be better, however, not to
cut through the false nostril ; for that consists of a duplicature of such thin integu-
ment, that the stitches can hardly be retained in it, when the horse will be continually
snorting at the least inconvenience. It will also be difficult to bring the edges of this
thin membrane accurately together again; or if this be effected, there is scarcely life
enough in it for the parts readily to unite. The false nostril should be avoided, and
the incision made along the lateral edge of the nasal bone, beginning at its apex or
point. The flap will then conveniently turn down, so as to expose the cavity beneath ;
and there will be sufficient muscular substance to secure an almost certain union by
the first intention. The nostril being opened, the pedicle will probably be displayed,
and a ligature may be passed round it, as already recommended ; or if it is not actu
ally in sight, it may probably gradually be brought within reach.
NASAL GLEET, OR DISCHARGE FROM THE NOSE.
Tliere is a constant secretion of fluid to lubricate and moisten the membrane that
lines the cavity of the nose, and which, under catarrh or cold, is increased in quantity,
and altered in appearance and consistence. This will properly belong to the account
of catarrh or cold ; but that which is immediately under consideration', is a continued
and oftentimes profuse discharge of thickened mucus, when every symptom of catarrh
and fever has passed away. If the horse is at grass, the discharge is almost as green
as the food on which he lives ; — or if he is stabled, it is white, or straw-coloured, or
brown, or even bloody, and sometimes purulent. It is either constantly running, or
snorted out in masses many times a day ; teazing the horse, and becominp- a perfect
nuisance in the stable, and to the rider. This has been known to continue several
months, and eventually to destroy the horse.
If the discharge is not oflfensive to the smell, nor mixed with purulent matter, it is
probably merely an increased and somewhat vitiated secretion from the cavities of the
nose; and, all fever having disappeared, will frequently yield to small doses of blue
vitriol, given twice in the day. If fever or cough remains, the cough medicine that
will hereafter be described must be combined with the tonic. If Ihe discharge is
mingled with pus, and very offensive, the vegetable tonics, gentian and ginger, may
Be added to the copper ; but there is now reason to apprehend that the discharge will
128 OZENA.
not be controlled, and will terminate in glanders. Turning into a salt marsh wiU
occasionally effect a cure, when both the mineral and the vegetable tonics havo
tailea.
OZENA.
Ozena is ulceration of the membrane of the nose, not always or often visible, but
recognised by the discharge of muco-purulent matter, and the peculiar fcctor from
which the disease derives its name. It resembles glanders, in being confined, in most
instances, to one nostril, and the submaxillary gland on the same side being enlarged;
but differs from it in the gland not being adherent, and the discharge, from its earliest
stage, being purulent and stinking.
There is sometimes a fcetid discharge from the nostril, in consequence of inflamma-
tion of the lungs, or produced by some of the sequelae of pheumonia ; distinguished,
however, from ozena, by its usually flowing irregularly, being coughed up in great
quantities, more decidedly purulent, and the gland or glands seldom affected. The
discharge from ozena is constant, muco-purulent, and attended by enlargement of the
glands. It is of immense consequence that we should be enabled to distinguish the
one from the other ; for while ozena may, sometimes at least, be manageable, the
other is too frequently the precursor of death.
The cause of ozena cannot always be discovered. Chronic inflammation of the
membrane may assume another and malignant character. In severe catarrh, the
membrane may become abraded, and the abrasions may degenerate into foul and fcetid
ulcers. It is not an unfrequent consequence of epidemic catarrh. It has been pro-
duced by caustic applications to the lining membrane of the nose.- It has followed
haemorrhage, spontaneous, or the consequence of injury.
In some cases, and those as obstinate as any, it cannot perhaps be traced to any
probable cause, and the health of the animal has not appeared to be in the slightest
degree aff'ected.
The membrane of the nose is highly sensitive and irritable, and an ulcer, in what-
ever way formed on it, does not readily heal. It often runs on to gangrene, and
destroys not only the membrane, but the bone beneath, and even the cartilaginous
septum. This is rarely the case in glanders; and the ravages of the chancrous ulcer?
are usually confined to the membrane. The ulceration proceeds to a certain point —
its progress is then arrested, usually by nature alone — the discharge gradually lessens
— it loses its oflTensive character, and at length ceases.
Local applications are seldom available in the treatment of this disease ; for we
know not the situation of the ulcer ; and if we did, we probably could not get at it.
Some have recommended setons. Where are they to be applied ] If the seat of
ulceration is unknown, the seton may only give useless pain. Several pnsi-mortevt
examinations have shown that the frontal sinuses are a frequent seat of the disease.
Yet what injection could we use? An emollient one would be thrown away. A
stimulating injection might convert ozena into glanders. Other examinations have
shown that the superior portion of the central meatus was diseased. What instru-
ment can be contrived to reach that 1 Internal medicines are almost thrown away in
this complaint: yet something, perhaps, may be done under the form of a local appli-
cation. The discarded nose-bag (undervalued at least by too many practitioners)
will alford the means of employing an emollient fomentation. The steam from a
bran-mash, scalding liot, will probably reach every part of the nasal cavity, and so
aflTord some chance of being beneficially applied to the ulcer. It will, at least,
thoroughly cleanse the part. By means of the nose-bag and the warm mash, the
chloride of time may be introduced into the cavity; not only combining with the
extricated gases, and removing the fcetor, but arresting the tendency to decomposition.
Then there is a digestive — a gentle stimulus to abraded and ulcerated surfaces,
rousing them to healthy action, and without too much irritating them — turpentine.
This may be applied in the form of vapour, and, in the best of all ways, by using
the fresh yellow deal shavings instead of bran. This digestive may be brought into
contact with every part of the Schneiderian membrane, and has been serviceable.
There is another resource, and one that bids fairer to be successful than any nthci
with which we are acquainted — the spring grass. It is the finest alterative, depura
GLANDERS. 129
live, and restorative, in our whole materia mcdica ; and if it is accessible in the foms
of a salt marsh, there is no better chance of doing good.
GLANDERS.
The most formidable of all the diseases to which the horse is subject, is Glanders.
It has been recognised from the time of Hippocrates, of Cos ; and few modern veteri-
nary writers have given a more accurate or complete account of its s3'mptoms, than
is to be found in the works of the father of medicine. Three-and-twenty hundred
years have rolled on since then, and veterinary practitioners are not yet agreed as to
the tissue primarily aSected, nor the actual nature of the disease : we only know that
it is at the present day, what it was then, a loathsome and an incurable malady.
We shall therefore, in treating of this disease, pursue our course slowly and
cautiously.
The earliest symptom of Glanders is an increased discharge from the nostril, small
in quantity, constantly flowing, of an aqueous character, and a little mucus mingling
with it.
Connected with this is an error too general, and highly mischievous with regard to
the character of this discharge in the earliest stage of the disease, when, if ever, a
cure might be effected, and when, too, the mischief from contagion is most frequently
produced. The discharge of glanders is not sticky when it maj'- be first recognised.
It is an aqueous or mucous, but small and constant discharge, and is thus distinguished
from catarrh, or nasal gleet, or any other defluxion from the nostril. It should be
impressed on the mind of every horseman that this small and constant defluxion,
overlooked by the groom and by the owner, and too often by the veterinary surgeon,
is a most suspicious circumstance.
Mr. James Turner deserves much credit for having first or chiefly directed the atten-
tion of horsemen to this important but disregarded symptom. If a horse is in the
highest condition, yet has this small aqueous constant discharge, and especially from
one nostril, no time should be lost in separating him from his companions. No harm
will be done by this, although the defluxion should not ultimately betray lurking mis-
chief of a worse character.
Mr. Turner relates a case very much in point. A farmer asked his opinion respect-
ing a mare in excellent condition, with a sleek coat, and in full work. He had had
her seven or eight months, and during the whole of that time there had been a dis-
charge from tlie right nostril, but in so slight a degree as scarcely to be deemed worthy
of notice. He now wanted to sell her, but, like an honest man, he wished to know
whether he might warrant her. Mr. Turner very properly gave it as his opinion, that
the discharge having existed for so long a time, he would not be justified in sending
her into the market. A farrier, however, whose ideas of glanders had always been
connected with a sticky discharge and an adherent glancf, bought her, and led her
away.
Three months passed on, when Mr. Turner, examining the post-horses of a neigh-
bouring inn, discovered that two of them were glandered, and two more farcied, while,
standing next to the first that was attacked, and his partner in work, was his old
acquaintance, the farmer's mare, with the same discharge from her nostril, and who
had, beyond question, been the cause of all the mischief.
The peculiar viscidity and gluiness which is generally supposed to distinguish the
discharge of glanders from all other mucous and prevalent secretions belongs to the
second stage of the disease, and, for many months before this, glanders may have
existed in an insidious and highly contagious form. It must be acknowledged, how-
ever, that, in the majority of cases, some degree of stickiness does characterise the
discharge of glanders from a very early period.
It is a singular circumstance, for which no satisfactory account has yet been given,
that when one nostril alone is attacked, it is, in a great majority of cases, the near, or
eft. M. Dupuy. the director of the veterinary school at Toulouse, gives a very sin-
gular account of this. He says, that out of eighty cases of glanders that came under
his notice, only one was affected in the right nostril. The difference in the affected
nostril does not exist to so great an extent in Great Britain ; but, in two horses out of
tliree, or tiiree out of four, the discharge is from the left nostril alone. We migh^.
B
130 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
account for the left leg failing oftener than the right, for we mount and dismount on
the left side ; the horse generally leads with it, and there is more weaj and tear of
that limb : but we cannot satisfactorily account for this usual affection of the left nos-
tril. It is true that the reins are held in the left hand, and there may be a little more
bearing and pressure on the left side of the mouth ; but this applies only to saddle-
horses, and even with them does not sufficiently explain the result.
This discharge, in cases of infection, may continue, and in so slight a degree as to
be scarcely perceptible, for many months, or even two or three years, unattended by
any other disease, even ulceration of the nostril, and yet the horse being decidedly
glundered from the beginning, and capable of propagating the malady. In process
of time, however, pus mingles with the discharge, and then another and a characteris-
tic sympi.om appears. Some of this is absorbed, and the neighbouring glands become
affected. If there is discharge from both nostrils, the glands within the under jaw
will be on both sides enlarged. If the discharge is from one nostril only, the swelled
gland will be found on that side alone. Glanders, however, will frequently exist at
an early stage without these swelled glands, and some other diseases, as catarrh, will
prodtice them. Then we must look out for some peculiarity about these glands, and
we shall readily find it. The swelling may be at first somewhat large and diffused,
but the surrounding enlargement soon goes off, and one or two small distinct glands
remain ; and they are not in the centre of the channel, but adhere closely to the jaw on
the affected side.
The membrane of the nose should now be examined, and will materially guide our
■opinion. It will either be of a dark purplish hue, or almost of a leaden colour, or of
any shade between the two; or if there is some of the redness of inflammation, it will
have a purple tinge : but there will never be the faint pink blush of health, or the
intense and vivid red of usual inflammation. Spots of ulceration will probably appear
on the membrane covering the cartilage of the nose — not mere sore places, or streaks
of abrasion, and quite superficial, but small ulcers, usually approaching to a circular
form, deep, and with the edges abrupt and prominent. When these appearances are
observed, there can be no doubt about the matter. Care should be taken, however, to
ascertain that these ulcers do actually exist, for spots of mucus adhering to the mem-
brane have been more than once taken for them. The finger should, if possible, be
passed over the supposed ulcer, in order to determine whether it can be wiped away;
und it should be recollected, as was hinted when describing the duct that conveys the
tears to the nose, that the orifice of that duct, just within the nostril, and on the inner
side of it, has been mistaken for a chancrous ulcer. This orifice is on the continua-
tion of the common skin of the muzzle which runs a little way up the nostril, while
the ulcer of glanders is on the proper membrane of the nose above. The line of sepa-
ration between the two is evident on the slightest inspection.
"When ulcers begin to appear on the membrane of the nose, the constitution of the
horse is soon evidently affected. The patient loses flesh — his belly is tucked up^
his coat unthrifty, and readily coming off — the appetite is impaired — tlie strength fails
—cough, more or less urgent, may be heard — the discharge from the nose will increase
in quantity; it will be discoloured, bloody, offensive to the smell — the ulcers in the
nose will become larger and more mnnerous, and the air-passages being obstracted, a
grating, choking noise will be heard at every act of breathing. There is now a
peculiar tenderness about the forehead. The membrane lining the frontal sinuses is
inflamed and ulcerated, and the integument of the forehead becomes thickened and
somewhat swelled. Farcy is now superadded to glanders, or glanders has degene-
rated into farcy, and more of the absorbents are involved.
At or before this time little tumours appear about the muscles, and face, and neck
following the course of the veins and the absorbents, for they run side by side; and
these the tumours soon ulcerate. Tumours or buds, still pursuing the path of the
absorbents, soon appear on the inside of the thighs. They are connected together by
a corded substance. This is the inflamed and enlarged lympliatic ; and ulceration
quickly follows the appearance of these buds. The deeper-seated absorbents are next
affected ; and one or both of the hind-legs swell to a great size, and become stiff, and
hot, and tender. The loss of flesh and strength is more marked every day. Th«
membrane of the nose becomes of a dirty livid colour. The membrane of the mouth
GLANDERS. ' 131
Is strangely pallid. The eye is infiltrated with a yellow fluid ; and the discharge
from the nose becomes more profuse, and insuflerably offensive. The anima. presents
one mass of putrefaction, and at last dies exhausted.
The enlargement of the submaxillary glands, as connected with this disease, may,
perhaps, require a little farther consideration. A portion of the fluid secreted by the
membrane of the nose, and altered in character by the peculiar inflammation there
existing, is absorbed ; and, as it is conveyed along the lymphatics, in order to arrive
at the place of its destination, it inflames them, and causes them to enlarge and sup-
purate. There is, however, a peculiarity accompanying the inflammation which they
take from the absorption of the virus of glanders. They are rarely large, except at
first, or hot, or tender; but they are characterised by a singular hardness, a proximity
to the jaw-bone, and, frequently, actual adhesion to it. The adhesion is produced by
the intlammatory action going forward in the gland, and the effusion of coagulable
lymph. This hardness and adhesion accompanying discharge from the nostril, and
being on the same side with the nostril whence the discharge proceeds, afford proof
not to be controverted that the horse is glandered. Notwithstanding this, however,
there are cases in wliich the glands are neither adherent nor much enlarged, and yet
there is constant discharge from one or both nostrils. The veterinary surgeon would
have little hesitation in pronouncing them to be cases of glanders. He will trust to
the adhesion of the gland, but he will not be misled by its looseness, nor even by ita
absence altogether.
Glanders have often been confounded with strangles, and by those who ought to
have known better. Strangles are peculiar to young horses. The early stage
resembles common cold, with some degree of fever and sore throat — generally with
distressing cough, or at least frequent wheezing ; and when the enlargement appears
beneath the jaw, it is not a single small gland, but a swelling of the whole of the
substance between the jaws, growing harder towards the centre, and, after a while,
appearing to contain a fluid, and breaking. In strangles, the membrane of the nose
will be intensely red, and the discharge from the nose nrofuse and purulent, or mixed
with matter almost from the first. When the tumour has burst, the fever will abate,
and the horse will speedily get well.
Should the discharge from the nose continue, as it sometimes does, for a consider-
able time after the horse has recovered from strangles, there is no cause for fear.
Simple strangles need never degenerate into glanders. Good keep, and small doses
of ton',',! medicine, will gradually perfect the cure.
G'/.nders have been confounded with catarrh or cold; but the distinction between
ther^. is plain enough. Fever, and loss of appetite and sore throat, accompany cold —
the '/uidding of the food and gulping of tile water are sufficient indications of the
la*V5i of these ; the discharge from the nose is profuse, and perhaps purulent ; the
gfa/itJa under the jaw, if swelled, are moveable, there is a thickening around them,
aod they are tender and hot. With proper treatment the fever abates ; the cough
disappears ; the swellings under the throat subside ; and the discharge from the nose
gradually ceases, or, if it remains, it is usually very different from that which
characterises glanders. In glanders, there is seldom cough of any consequence, and
generally no cough at all.
A running from the nose, small in quantity, and, from the smallness of its quantity,
drying about the edges of the nostril, and presenting some appearance of stickiness,
will, in a few cases, remain after severe catarrh, and especially after the influenza of
spring ; and these have gradually assumed the character of glanders, and more par-
ticularly when they have been accompanied by enlarged glands and ulceration in the
nose. Here the aid of a judicious veterinary surgeon is indispensable; and he will
sometimes experience considerable difficulty in deciding the ease. One circumstance
will principally guide him. No disease will ruu on to glanders which has not, to a
considerable and palpable degree, impaired and broken down the constitution ; and
every disp.ase ihnt does this will run on to glanders. He will look then to the general
state and condition of the horse, as well as to the situation of the glands, the nature
of the discharge, and the character of the ulceration.
If, after all, he is in doubt, an experiment may be resorted to, which wears indeed
the appearance of cruelty, and which only the safety of a valuable animal, or of a
132 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
whole team, can justify. He will inoculate an ass, or a horse already condemned
to the hounds, with the matter discharged from the nose. If the horse is glandcred,
the symptoms of glanders or farcy will appear in the inoculated animal in the course
of a few days.
The post mortem examination of the horse will remove every doubt as to the
character of the disease. The nostril is generally more or less blanclied, with spots
or lines of inflammation of considerable intensity. Ulceration is almost invariably
found, and of a chancrous character, on the septum, and alsa on the ajthmoid and
turbinated bones. The ulcers evidently follow the course of the absorbents, some-
times almost confined to the track of the main vessel, or, if scattered over the
membrane generally, thickest over the path of the lymphatic. The sethmoid and
turbinated bones are often filled with pus, and sometimes eaten through and carious;
but, in the majority of cases, the ulceration is confined to the external membrane,
although there may be pus within. In aggravated cases the disease extends through
all the cells of the face and head.
The path of the disease down the larynx and windpipe is easily traced, and the
ulcers follow one line — that of the absorbents. In aggravated cases, this can generally
be traced on to the lungs. It produces inflammation in these organs, characterised
in some cases by congestion ; but in other cases, the congestion having gone on to
hepatisation, in which the cellular texture of the lungs is obliterated. Most frequently,
when the lungs are affected at all, tubercles are found — miliary tubercles — minute
granulated spots on the surface, or in the substance of the lungs, and not accompanied
by much inflammation. In a few cases there are larger tubercles, which soften and
burst, and terminate in cavities of varying size.
In some cases, and showing that glanders is not essentially or necessarily a disease
of the lungs, there is no morbid affection whatever in those organs.
The history thus given of the symptoms of glanders will clearly point out its
nature. It is an affection of the membrane of the nose. Some say, and at their head
is Professor Dupuy, that it is the production of tubercles, or minute tumours in the
upper cells of the nose, which may long exist undetected, except by a scarcely per-
ceptible running from the nostril, caused by the irritation which they occasion. These
tubercles gradually become more numerous; they cluster together, suppurate and
break, and small ulcerations are formed. The ulcers discharge a poisonous matter,
which is absorbed and taken up by the neiglibouring glands, and this, with greater or
less rapidity, vitiates the constitution of the animal, and is capable of communicatmg
the disease to others. Some content themselves with saying that it is an inflamma-
tion of the membrane of the nose, which may assume an acute or chronic form, or in
a very short time, or exceedingly slowly, run on to ulceration.
It is inflammation, whether specific or common, of the lining membrane of the nose
— possibly for months, and even for years, confined to that membrane, and even to
a portion of it — the health and the usefulness of the animal not being in the slightest
degree impaired. Then, from some unknown cause, not a new but an intenser action
is set up, the inflammation more speedily runs its course, and the membrane becomes
ulcerated. The inflammation spreads on either side down the septum, and the ulcera-
tion at length assumes that peculiar chancrous form which characterises inflammation
of the absorbents. Even then, when the discharge becomes gluey, and sometimes
after chancres have appeared, the horse is apparently well. There are hundreds of
glandered horses about the country with not a sick one among them. For months or
years this disease may do no injury to the general health. The inflammation is purely
local, and is only recognised by the invariable accompaniment of inflammation and
increased secretion. Its neighbours fill around, but the disease alTects not the nninial
whence it came. At length a constitutional inflammation appears ; farcy is established
in its most horrible form, and death speedily closes the scene.
What, then, is the cause of this insidious dreadful disease? Although we maybe
m a manner ])owerless as to the removal of the malady, yet if we can trace its cause
and manner of action, we may at least be able to do something in the way of preven-
tion. Much has been accomplished in this way. Glanders does not commit one*
tenth part of the ravages which it did thirty or forty years ago, and, generally speak-
GLANDERS.
133
inp:, it is now only found as a frequent and prevalent disease where neglect, and filth,
and want of ventilation exist.
Glanders may be either bred in the horse, or communicated by coutagion. What
we have farther to remark on this malady will be arranged under these two heads.
Improper stable management we believe to be a far more frequent cause of slan-
ders than contagion. The air which is necessary to respiration is changed and em-
poisoned in its passage through the lungs, and a fresh supply is necessary for the
support of life. That supply may be sufficient barely to support life, but not to pre-
vent the vitiated air from again and again passing to the lungs, and producing irrita
lion and disease. The membrane of the nose, possessed of extreme sensibility for the
purposes of smell, is easily irritated by this poison, and close and ill-ventilated stables
oftenest witness the ravages of glanders. Professor Coleman relates a case which
proves to demonstration the rapid and fatal agency of this cause. " In the expedition
to Quiberon, the horses had not been long on board the transports before it became
necessary to shut down the hatchways for a few hours ; the consequence of this was,
that some of them were suffocated, and that all the rest were disembarked either
glandered or farcied."
In a close stable, the air is not only poisoned by being repeatedly breathed, but
there are other and more powerful sources of mischief. The dung and the urine are
snlfered to remain fermenting, and giving out injurious gases. In many dark and
ill-managed stables, a portion of the dung may be swept away, but the urine lies
for days at the bottom of the bed, the disgusting and putrefying nature of which is
ill-concealed by a little fresh straw which the lazy horsekeeper scatters over the top.
The stables of the gentleman are generally kept hot enough, and far too hot,
although, in many of them, a more rational mods of treatment is beginning to be
adopted ; but they are lofty and roomy, and the horses are not too much crowded
together, and a most scrupulous regard is paid to cleanliness. Glanders seldom pre-
vail there. The stables of the farmer are ill-managed and filthy enough, and the
ordure and urine sometimes remain from week to week, until the horse lies on a per-
fect dunghill. Glanders seldom prevail there ; for the same carelessness which per-
mits the filth to accumulate leaves many a cranny for the wind to enter and sweep
away the deleterious fumes from this badly-roofed and unceiled place.
The stables of the horse-dealer are hot enough ; but a principle of strict cleanliness
is enforced, for there must be nothing to offend the eye or the nose of the customer,
and iliere glanders are seldom found ; but if the stables of many of our post-horses,
and of those employed on our canals, are examined, almost too low for a tall horse
to stand upright in them — too dark for the accumulation of filth to be perceived — too
far from the eye of the master — ill-drained and ill-paved — and governed by a false
principle of economy, which begrudges the labour of the man, and the cleanliness
and comfort of the animal ; these will be the very hotbeds of the disease, and in
many of these establishments it is an almost constant resident.
Glanders may be produced by anything that injures^ or for a length of time acts
upon and weakens, the vital energy of this membrane. They have been known to
follow a fracture of the bones of the nose. They have been the consequence of
violent catarrh, and particularly the long-continued discharge from the nostrils, of
which we have spoken. They have been produced by the injection of stimulating
and acrid substances up the nostril. Everything that weakens the constitution gen-
erally will lead to glanders. It is not only from bad stable management, but from the
hardships which they endure, and the exhausted state of their constitution, that post
and machine horses are so subject to glanders ; and there is scarcely an inflammatory
disease to which the horse is subject that is not occasionally wound up and terminated
by the appearance of glanders.
Among the causes of glanders is want of regular exercise. The connexion,
although not evident at first glance, is too certain. When a horse has been worked
with peculiar severity, and is become out of spirits, and falls away in flesh, and
refuses to eat, a little rest and a few mashes would make all right again ; but the
grooiT! plies him with cordials, and adds fuel to fire, and aggravates the state of fever
tbat has commenced. What is the necessary consequence of this? The weakest
goes to tha wall, and either the lungs or the feet, or this membrane — that of the nose
134 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
— the weakest of all, exposed day after day to the stimulating, debilitating ii>fluenceB
that have been described, becomes the principal seat of inflammation that terminates
in glanders.
It is in this way that glanders have so frequently been known to follow a hard
day's chase. The seeds of the disease may have previously existed, but its progress
will be hastened by the general and febrile action excited — the absurd measures
A'hich are adopted not being calculated to subdue the fever, but to increase the stim-
L.lus.
Every exciting cause of disease exerts its chief and its worst influence on this mem-
brane. At the close of a severe campaign the horses are more than decimated by
this pest. At the termination of the Peninsular war the ravages of this disease were
dreadful. Every disease will predispose the membrane of the nose to take on the
inflammation of glanders, and with many, as strangles, catarrh, bronchitis, and pneu-
monia, there is a continuity of membrane, an association of function, and a thousand
sympathies.
There is not a disease which may not lay the foundation for glanders. AVeeks,
and months, and years, may intervene between the predisposing cause and the actual
evil ; but at length the whole frame may become excited or debilitated in many a way,
and then this debilitated portion of it is the first to yield to the attack. Atmospheric
influence has somewhat to do with the prevalence of glanders. It is not so frequent
in summer as in the winter, partly attributable, perhaps, to the different state of the
stable in the summer months, neither the air so close or so foul, nor the alternations
of temperature so great.
There are some remarkable cases of the connexion of moisture, or moist exhala-
tions, that deserve record. When new stabling was built for the troops at Hythe,
and inhabited before the walls were perfectly dry, many of the horses that had been
removed from an open, dry, and healthy situation, became affected with glanders ;
but, some time having passed over, the horses in these stables were as healthy as the
others, and glanders ceased to appear. , An innkeeper at Wakefield built some exten-
sive stabling for his horses, and, inhabiting them tod soon, lost a great proportion of
his cattle from glanders. There are not now more healthy stables in the place. The
immense range of stables under the Adelphi, in the Strand, where light never enters,
and the supply of fresh air is not too abundant, were for a long time notoriously un-
healthy, and many valuable horses were destroyed by glanders ; but now they are
filled with the finest wagon and dray-horses that the metropolis or the country con-
tains, and they are fully as healthy as in the majority of stables above-ground.
There is one more cause to be slightly mentioned — hereditary predisposition. This
has not been sufficiently estimated, with regard to the question now under considera-
tion, as well as with respect to everything connected with the breeding of the horse.
There is scarcely a disease that does not run in the stock. There is that in the struc-
ture of various parts, or their disposition to be aflfected by certain influences, which
perpetuates in the offspring the diseases of the sire; and thus contraction, ophthalmia,
roaring, are decidedly hereditary, and so is glanders. M. Dupuy relates some deci-
sive cases. A mare, on dissection, exhibited every appearance of glanders ; her filly,
who resembled her in form and in her vicious propensities, died glandered at six years
old. A second and a third mare, and their foals, presented the same fatal proof that
glanders are hereditary.
Glanders are highly contagious. The farmer cannot be too deeply impressed with
the certainty of this. Considering the degree to which this disease, even at the pre
sent day, often prevails, the legislature would be justified in inlertVring, by soma
severe enactments, as it has done in the case of the small-pox in the human subject.
The early and marked symptom of glanders, is a discharge from the nostrils of a
peculiar character; and if that, even before it becomes purulent, is rubbed on a
wound, or on a mucous surface, as the nostrils, it will produce a similar disease. If
the division between two horses were sufficiently high to prevent all smelling and
snorting at each other, and contact of every kind, and they drank not out of the same
pail, a sound horse might live for years, uninfected, by the side of a glandered one.
The matter of glanders has been mixed up into a ball, and given to a healthy horse,
without effect. Some horses have eaten the hay left by those that were glandered,
GLANDERS. I35
and no bad consequence has followed ; but others have been speedily infected. The
glanderous matter must come in contact with a wound, or fall on some membrane,
thin and delicate, like that of the nose, and through which it may be absorbed. It
is easy, then, accustomed as horses are to be crowded toorether, and to recognise each
other bj' the smell — eating out of the same manger, and drinking from the same pail —
to imagine that the disease may be very readily communicated. One horse has passed
another when he was in the act of snorting, and has become glandered. Some fillies
have received the infection from the matter blown by the wind across a lane, when a
glandered horse, in the opposite field, has claimed acquaintance by neighing or snort-
ing. It is almost impossible for an infected horse to remain long in a stable with
others without irreparable mischief.
If some persons underrate the danger, it is because the disease may remain unre-
cognised in the infected horse for some months, or even years, and therefore, when it
appears, it is attributed to other causes, or to after inoculation. No glandered horse
should be employed on any farm, nor should a glandered horse be permitted to work
on any road, or even to pasture on any field. Mischief may be so easily and exten-
sively effected, that the public interest demands that every infected animal should be
summarily destroyed, or given over for experiment to a veterinary surgeon, or recog-
nised veterinary establishment.
There are a few instances of the spontaneous cure of chronic glanders. The dis-
charge has existed for a considerable time. At length it has gradually diminished,
and has ceased ; and this has occurred under every kind of treatment, and without
'any medical treatment : but in the majority of these supposed cases, the matter was
only pent up for a while, and then, bursting from its confinement, it flowed again in
double quantity : or, if glanders have not re-appeared, the horse, in eighteen or twenty-
four months, has become farcied, or consumptive, and died. These supposed cures
are few and far between, and are to be regarded with much suspicion.
As for medicine, there is scarcely a drug to which a fair trial has not been given,
and many of them have had a temporary reputation ; but they have passed away, one
after the other, and are no longer heard of. The blue vitriol and the Spanish-fly have
held out longest; and in a few cases, either nature or these medicines have done
wonders, but in the majority of instances they have palpably failed. The diniodide
of copper has lately acquired some reputation. It has been of great service in cases
of farcy, but it is not to be depended upon in glanders.
Where the life of a valuable horse is at stake, and the owner adopts every precau-
tion to prevent infection, he may subject the horse to medical treatment; but every
humane man will indignantly object to the slitting of the nostril, and the scraping of
the cartilage, and searing of the gland, and firing of the frontal and nasal bones, and
to those injections of mustard and capsicum, corrosive sublimate and vitriol, by which
the horse has been tortured, and the practitioner disgraced. At the veterinary school,
and by veterinary surgeons, it will be most desirable that every experiment should be
tried to discover a remedy for this pest ; but, in ordinary instances, he is not faithful
to his own interest, or that of his neighbours, who does not remove the possibility of
danger in the most summary way.
If, however, remedial measures are resorted to, a pure atmosphere is that which
should first be tried. Glanders is the peculiar disease of the stabled horse, and the
preparation for, or the foundation of a cure, must consist in the perfect removal of
every exciting cause of the malady. The horse must breathe a cool and pure atmo-
sphere, and he must be turned out, or placed in a situation equivalent to it.
A salt marsh is, above all others, the situation for this experiment: but there».is
much caution required. No sound horse must be in the same pasture, or a nei?nDCPir-
ing one. The palings or the gates may receive a portion of toe matter, wnicn may
harden upon them, and, many a month afterwards, be a source of mischief — nay, the
virus may cling about the very herbage, and empoison it. Cattle and sheep should
not b^ trusted with a glandered horse ; for the experiments are not sufficiently numer-
ous or decided as to the exemption of these animals from the contagion of glanders.
Supposing that glanders have made their appearance in the stables of a farmer, is
there any danger after he has removed or destroyed the infected horse? Certainly
there is ; but not to the extent that is commonly supposed. There is no necessity foi
136 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
pulling down the racks and mangers, or even the stable itself, as some have done.
The poison resides not in the breath of the animal, but in the nasal discharge, and
that can only reach certain parts of the stable. If the mangers, and racks, and bales,
and partitions, are first well scraped, and scoured with soap and water, and then
thoroughly washed with a solution of the chloride of lime, (one pint of the chloride
to a pailfuU of water,) and the walls are lime-washed, and the head-gear burned, and
the clothing baked or washed, and the pails newly painted, and the iron-work exposed
to a red heat, all danger will cease.
Little that is satisfactory can be said of the prevention of glanders.
The first and most effectual mode of prevention will be to keep the stables cool and
well ventilated, for the hot and poisoned air of low and confined stables is one of the
most prevalent causes of glanders.
Next to ventilation stands cleanliness ; for the foul air from the fermenting litter,
and urine, and dung, must not only be highly injurious to health generally, but irritate
and predispose to inflammation that delicate membrane whicK is the primary seat of
the disease. If to this be added regular exercise, and occasional green meat during
the summer, and carrots in the winter, we shall have stated all that can be done in
the way of prevention.
Glanders in the human being. — It cannot be too often repeated, that a glandered
horse can rarely remain among sound ones without serious mischief ensuing ; and,
worse than all, the man who attends on that horse is in danger. The cases are now
becoming far too numerous in which the groom or the veterinary surgeon attending
on glandered horses becomes infected, and in the majority of cases dies. It is, how-
ever, somewhat more manageable in the human being than in the quadruped. Some
cases of recovery from farcy and glanders stand on record with regard to the human
being, but they are few and far between.
FARCY.
Farcy is intimately connected with glanders; they will run into each other, or
their symptoms will mingle together, and before either arrives at its fatal termination
its associate will almost invariably appear. An animal inocculated with the matter
of farcy will often be afl[licted with glanders, while the matter of glanders will fre-
quently produce farcy. They are different types or stages of the same disease.
There is, however, a very material difference in their symptoms and progress, and
this most important one of all, that while glanders are generally incurable, farcy, in
its early stage and mild form, may be successfully treated.
While the capillary vessels of the arteries are everywhere employed in building up
the frame, the absorbents are no less diligently at work in selecting and carrying
away every useless or worn-out portion or part of it. There is no surface — there is
no assignable spot on which thousands of these little mouths do not open. In the
discharge of their duty, they not only remove that which is become useless, and often
that which is healthy, but that which is poisonous and destructive. They open upon
the surface of every glanderous chancre. They absorb a portion of the virus which
is secreted by the ulcer, and as it passes along these little tubes, they suffer from its
acrimonious quality ; hence the corded veins, as they are called by the farrier, or,
more properly, the thickened and inflamed absorbents following the course of the
veins.
At certain distances in the course of the absorbents are loose duplicatures of the
lining membrane, which are pressed against the side of the vessel and permit the
fluid to i)ass in a direction towards the chest, but belly out and impede or arrest its
progress from the chest. The virus at these places, and the additional inflammation
there excited, is to a greater or less degree evident to the eye and to the feeling.
They are usually first observed about the lips, the nose, the neck, and the thighs.
They are very hard — even of a scirrhous hardness, more or less tender, and with
perceptible heat about them.
The poisonous matter being thus confined and pressing on the part, suppuration
and ulceration ensue. The ulcers have the same character as the glanderous ones on
the membrane of the nose. They are rounded, with an elevated edge and a pale
surface. They are true chancres, and they discharge a virus as infectious and as
FARCY. 137
danrrerous as the matter of p^landers. While they remain in their hard prominent
state, they are called hultons or farcy buds ; and they are connected together by the
inflamed and carded veins.
In some cases the horse will droop for many a day before the appearance of the
corded veins or buds — his appetite will be impaired — his coat will stare — he will lose
llesh. The poison is evidently at work, but has not gained sufficient power to cause
the absorbents to enlarge. In a few cases these buds do not ulcerate, but become
hard and difficult to disperse. The progress of the disease is then suspended, and
possibly for some months the horse will appear to be restored to health ; but he
bears the seeds of the malady about him, and in due time the farcy assumes its
virulent form, and hurries him otF. These buds have sometimes been confounded
with the little tumours or lumps termed surfeit. They are generally higher than
these tumours, and not so broad. They have a more knotty character, and are prin-
cipally found on the inside of the limbs, instead of the outside.
Few tilings are more unlike, or more perplexing, than the different forms which
farcy assumes at different times. One of the legs, and particularly one of the hinder
legs, will suddenly swell to an enormous size. At night the horse will appear to be
perfectly well, and in the morning one leg will be three times the size of the other,
with considerable fever, and scarcely the power of moving the limb.
At other times the head will be subject to this enlargement, the muzzle particularly
will swell, and an off'ensive discharge will proceed from the nose. Sometimes the
horse will gradually lose flesh and strength ; he will be hide-bound ; many eruptions
will appear in different parts; the legs will swell; cracks will be seen at the heels,
and an inexperienced person may conceive it to be a mere want of condition, com-
bined with grease.
By degrees the affection becomes general. The virus has reached the termination
of the absorbents, and mingles with the general circulating fluid, and is conveyed
with the blood to every part of the frame. There are no longer any valves to impede
its progress, and consequently no knots or btids, but the myriads of capillary absorbents
that penetrate every part become inflamed, and thickened, and enlarged, and cease to
discharge their function. Hence arises enlargement of the substance of various parts,
swellings of the legs, and chest, and head — sudden, painful, enormous, and dis-
tinguished by a heat and tenderness, which do not accompany other enlargements.
It is a question somewhat difficult to answer, whether iiarcy can exist without
previous glanders. Probably it cannot. There is the long-continued insidious pro-
gress of glanders — the time which may elapse, and often does, before the owner is
aware or the veterinary surgeon sure of it — the possibility that minute ulceration may
have for a long while existed in some of the recesses of the nose — or that the slight
discharge, undreaded and unrecognised, yet vitiated, poisoned, and capable of com-
municating the disease, may have been long travelling through the frame and affecting
the absorbents, and preparing for the sudden display of farcy.
One thing, however, is undeniable, that farcy does not long and extensively prevail
without being accompanied by glanders — that even in the mild stages of farcy,
glanders may be seen if looked for, and that it never destroys the animal without
plainly associating itself with glanders. They are, in fact, stages of the same
disease.
Glanders is inflammation of the membrane of the nose, producing an altered and
poisonous secretion, and when sufficient of this vitiated secretion has been taken up
to produce inflammation and ulceration of the absorbents, farcy is established. Its
progress is occasionally very capricious, continuing in a few cases for months and
years, the vigour of the horse remaining unimpaired ; and, at other times, running
on to its fatal termination with a rapidity perfectly astonishing.
Farcy has been confounded with other diseases ; but he must he careless or ignorant
who mistook sprain for it. The inflammation is too circumscribed and too plainly
connected with the joint or the tendon.
It may be readily distinguished from grease or swelled legs. In grease there is
usually sortie crack or scurfiness, a peculiar tenseness and redness and glossiness of
the skin, some ichorous discharge, and a singular spasmodic catching up of the leg.
In farcy the engorgement is even more sudden than that of grease. The horse is
12* s
138 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
well to-day, and to-morrow he is gorged from the fetlock to the haunch, and although
there is not the same redness or glossiness, there is great tenderness, a burning heat
in the limb and much general fever. It is simultaneous inflammation of all thd
absorbents of the limb.
Surfeit can scarcely be confounded with farcy or glanders. It is a pustular erup-
tion— mrfeit-bunips, as they are called, and terminating in desquamation, not in ulcer-
ation, although numerous, yet irregularly placed, and never following the course of
the absorbents, but scattered over the skin.
Local dropsy of the cellular membrane, and particularly that enlargement beneath
the thorax which has the strange appellation of tvater-farcy, have none of the charac-
ters of real farcy. It is general debility to a greater or less degree, and not inflamma-
tion of the absorbents. If properly treated, it soon disappears, except that, occasion-
ally, at the close of some serious disease, it indicates a breaking up of the constitution.
Farcy, like glanders, springs from infection and from bad stable management. It
is produced by all the causeswhich give rise to glanders, with this difference, that it
is more frequently generated, and sometimes strangely prevalent in particular districts.
It will attack, at the same time, several horses in the same ill-conducted stable, and
others in the neighbourhood who have been exposed to the same predisposing causes.
Some have denied that it is a contagious disease. They must have had little experi-
ence. It is true that the matter of farcy must come in contact with a wound or sore,
in order to communicate the disease ; but accustomed as horses are to nibble and play
with each other, and sore as the corners of the mouth are frequently rendered by the
bit, it is easy to imagine that this may be easily effected ; and experience tells us, that
a horse having farcy ulcers cannot be suffered to remain with others without extreme
risk.
The treatment of farcy differs with the form that it assumes. As a general rule,
and especially when the buttons or buds are beginning to appear, a mild dose of
physic should first be administered. The buds should then be carefully examined,
and if any of them have broken, the budding-iron, at a dull red heat, should be applied.
If pus should be felt in them, showing that they are disposed to break, they should
be penetrated with the iron. These wounds should be daily inspected, and if, when
the slough of the cautery comes off, they look pale, and foul, and spongy, and dis-
charge a thin matter, they should be frequently washed with a strong lotion of corro-
sive sublimate, dissolved in rectified spirit. When the wounds begin to look red, and
the bottom of them is even and firm, and they discharge a thick white or yellow mat-
ter, the Friar's balsam will usually dispose them to heal.
As, however, the constitution is now tainted, local applications will not be suffi-
cient, and the disease must be attacked by internal medicine as soon as the physic
has ceased to operate.
Corrosive sublimate used to be a favourite medicine, combined with tonics, and
repeated morning and night until the ulcers disappeared, unless the mouth became
sore or tlie horse was violently purged, when the sulphate of copper was substituted
for the corrosive siihlimate. During this treatment the animal was placed, if possible,
in a large box, with a free circulation of air ; and green meat or carrots, and particu-
larly the latter, were given, with a full allowance of corn. If he could he turned out
in the day, it was deemed highly advantageous. It is related by Mr. Blaine, that a
horse, so reduced as not to be able to stand, was drawn into a field of tares, and suf-
fered to take his chance. Tlie consequence was, that, when he had eaten all within
his reach, he contrived to move about and search for more, and eventually recovered.
Many horses recover under the use of the sublimate, but the great majority of them
die.
Mr. Vines introduced a more effective medicine — canlharides, m combination like-
wise with the vegetable bitters — as a cure for farcy and glanders. It cannot be denied,
that many animals labouring imder the former, and a few under the latter, were to all
appearance radically cured. The medicine was suspended for a while if affection of
the kidneys supervened.
A still more effectual medicine has been introduced by Professor Morton, namely,
tJie diniodide nf copper, and it has been found of essential service in f\ircy and in dis-
eases simulating glanders. He says that its action is that of a stimulant to the
THE LIPS. 139
absorbent vessels, and a tonic. The gentian root is usually combined with it. Can-
tliarides, in small quantities, may be advantageously added. An indication of its
influence is a soreness of the diseased parts arising from the absorbent vessels being
roused into increased action: the agent should then be for a time withheld.*
Water-Farcy, confounded by name with the common f;ircy, and by which much
confusion has been caused, and a great deal of mischief done, is a dropsical affection
of the skin, either of the chest or of the limbs, and belongs to another part of our
subject.
THE LIPS.
The lips of the horse are far more important organs than many suppose. They are
the hands of the animal ; and if any one will take the trouble to observe the manner
in which he gathers up his corn with them, and collects together the grass before he
divides it with his nippers, he would be satisfied that the horse would be no more
able to convey the food to his mouth without them, than the human being could with-
out his hands. This has even been put to the test of experiment. The nerves which
supply the lips were divided in a poor ass, to illustrate some point of physiology.
The sensibility of the lips was lost, and he knew not when he touched his food with
them. The motion of the lips was lost, and he could not get the oats between his
teeth, although the manger was full of them : at length, driven by hunger, he contrived
to lick up a few of them with his tongue ; but when they were on his tongue, the
greater part of them were rubbed off before be could get them into his mouth.
It is on account of this use of the lips, and that they may be brought into contact
with the food without inconvenience or injury to other parts of the face, that the
heads of most quadrupeds are so lengthened. Several muscles go to the lips from
different parts of the jaw and face. Some of them are shown in the cut, p. 125.
The orbicularis or circular muscle, p, employed in pushing out the lips and closing
them, and enabling the horse to seize and hold his food, is particularly evident; and
in the explanation of the cut, the action of other muscles, i, k, m, and o, was de-
scribed. The nerves likewise, y, taking their course along the cheek, and principally
supplying the lips with the power of motion, and those, r, proceeding from the fora-
men or hole in the upper jaw, deserve attention.
The lips are composed of a muscular substance for the sake of strength, and a
* A very interesting case of the cure of farcy in the human being occurred in January, 1840,
in the practice of Mr. Curtis, a respectable surgeon of Camden Town : —
" Mr. G., a student at the Veterinary College, had, about three weeks before, received a
slight wound on the forefinger of the right hand, while dissecting a glandered horse. The
wound healed ; but, about nine days afterwards, a small abscess formed in the part, which he
would not consent to have opened ; the pus was therefore absorbed, and the finger got well,
and neither the lymphatics nor the glands appeared to be affected.
"Ten days afterwards, he was attacked with giddiness while attending the lecture, and
obliged to leave the room. He immediately applied to Mr. Curtis. He had three blotches of
inflammation of the skin of the right leg, varying in extent from two to four inches in diameter.
The leg was very painful when he walked; and he had also some small blotches on the left
leg. He had headache and thirst. His case was sufiiciently plain — farcy was beginning to
develop itself. Aperient medicine was administered.
•' On the following day, there were numerous small blotches over both legs and thighs. In
many of them the centre was of a pale green colour, having a somewhat gangrenous appear-
ance. The headache was worse; there was a sensation of weight over the eyes, and tender-
ness over the left frontal.
" Mr. Curtis determined to put him under a course of iodine, of the tincture of which eight
minims were ordered every fourth hour, the bowels being kept in a relaxed state.
" On the fourth day, the centre of the blotches, which were still green, appeared to form
cavities, containing a fluid, from about the size of a shilling to that of a half-crown. The
blotches w^ere surrounded by hard, defined edges, covered with cuticle, but the thickening of
which was gradually disappearing^.
" Two days after this, the fluid in the cavities was absorbed, but round their edges were
lumps, or tubercles, about the size of peas. Several weeks passed before the tubercles quite
disappeared.
" Mr. Curtis remarks, that so far as a single case will go, the intractable nature of this dig
ease seems to arise rather from neglect in its early stage, than from any impossibility of sub
duing it." — The Veterinarian, vol. xiii. p. 353.
140 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
multitude of small glanrls, which secrete a fluid that covers the inside of the lips and
the gums, in order to prevent friction, and likewise furnish a portion of the moisture
so necessary for the proper chewing of the food. The skin covering the lips is ex-
ceedingly thin, in order that their peculiar sensihility may be preserved, and for the
same purpose they are scantily covered with hair, and that hair is fine and short.
Long hairs or feelers, termed the beard, are superadded with the same intention.
The horse is guided and governed principally by the mouth, and therefore the lips
are endowed with very great sensibility, so that the animal feels the slightest motion
of the hand of the rider or driver, and seems to anticipate his very thoughts. The
fineness or goodness of the mouth consists in its exquisite feeling, and that depends on
the thinness of this membrane.
The lips of the horse should be thin, if the beauty of the head is regarded ; yet,
although thin, they should evidently possess power, and be strongly and regularly
closed. A firm, compressed mouth gives a favourable and no deceptive idea of the
muscular power of the animal. Lips apart from each other and hanging down, indi-
cate weakness or old age, or dullness and sluggishness.
The depth of the mouth, or the distance from the fore-part to the angle of the lips,
should be considerable. A short, protuberant mouth would be a bad finish to the
tapering face of the blood-horse. More room is likewise given for the opening of
the nostril, which has been shown to be an important consideration. The bridle will
not be carried well, and the horse will hang heavy on hand, if there is not consider-
able depth of mouth.
The comers or angles of the lips are frequently made sore or wounded by the small-
ness, or shortness, or peculiar twisting of the snaffle, and the unnecessary and cruel
tightness of the bearing-rein. This rein was introduced as giving the horse a grander
appearance in harness, and placing the head in that position in which the bit most
effectually presses upon the jaw. There is no possibility of safely driving without
it, for, deprived of this control, many horses would hang their heads low, and be dis-
posed every moment to stumble, and would defy all pulling, if they tried to run away.
There is, and can be no necessity, however, for using a bearing-rein so tight as to
cramp the muscles of the head, or to injure and excoriate the angles of the lips.
The following is the opinion of Nimrod, and to a more competent judge we could
not appeal : — " As to the universal disuse of the bearing-rein with English horses, it
can never take place. The charge against it of cruelty at once falls to the ground,
because, to make a team work together in fast work, every horse's head must be as
much restrained by the coupling-rein as it would be and is by the bearing-rein. Its
excellence consists in keeping horses' mouths fresh — in enabling a coachman to
indultre a horse with liberty of rein, without letting him be all abroad, which he
would be with his head quite loose, and of additional safety to the coach-horse, as
proved by the fact of either that or the crupper always giving way when he falls
down. There are, however, teams in which it may be dispensed with, and the horses
have an advantage in their working against hills. As to the comparison of the road
coach-horses on the Continent and our own, let any one examine the knees of the
French dilio-ence and post horses, which are allowed perfect liberty of head, and he
will be convinced that the use of the b«aring-rein does not keep them on their legs."*
The mouth is injured much oftener than the careless owner suspects by the pres-
sure of a sharp bit. Not only are the bars wounded and deeply ulcerated, but the
lower jaw, between the tush and the grinders, is sometimes worn even to the bone,
and the bone itself affected, and portions of it torn away. It may be necessarj"^ to
* New Sporting Magazine, vol. xiii. p. 99.
The author of the " Essay on Humanity to Brutes," lakes the same view of the subject.
" It is not," says he, " to the extent that has been supposed an instrument of torture. It is
absohitely necessary in fast work, and useful on level ground. The objection to it is the tight-
ness with which it is sometimes applied, and then it is a sad confinement to the head, and a
source of very great pain. It is also disadvantageous when the horse is goinsr up-hill, be-
cause it prevents him from throwing his whole weight into the collar. It cannot, however,
be done without, especially in the horse that is once accustomed to it ; but the poor animal
needs not to be so tightly reined." — The Obligation and Extent of Humanity to Brutes, 6?
W. Youatt, p. 149.
THE BONES OF THE MOUTH — THE PALATE. 141
have a sharp bit for the headstrong and obstinate beast ; yet if that bit is severely
and unjustitiably called into exercise, the animal may rear, and endanger himself and
his rider. Tliere can, however, be no occasion for a thousandth part of the torment
which the trappings of the mouth often inflict on a willing and docile servant, and
which either render the mouth hard, and destroy all the pleasure of riding, or cause
the horse to become fretful or vicious.
Small ulcers are sometimes found in the various parts of the mouth, said to be pro-
duced by rusty bits, but oftener arising from contusions inflicted by the bit, or from
inflammation of the mouth. If the curb-bit is in fault, a snaflle or Pelliam-bit should
be used. If there is inflammation of the mouth, a little coolino- medicine may be
administered ; and to the ulcers themselves, tincture of myrrh, diluted with water, '
or alum dissolved in water, may be applied with advantage.
THE BONES OF THE MOUTH.
The bones in, and giving form to the mouth, are the superior maxillary or upper
jaw {b, p. 68, and /, p. 70), containing the grinders: the anterior maxillary, or lower
part of the upper jaw {b, p. G8, n, p. 70, r, p. 72), containing the upper-nippers or
cutting-teeth ; the palatine bone (below 8, p. 7"2), and the posterior maxillary or
under jaw (a, p. 68, and it', p. 72), containing all the under-teeth.
The superior maxillary is, with the exception of the lower jaw, the largest bone in
the face. It unites above with the lachrymal bone (i, p. 70) ; and, more on the side,
with the malar, or cheek bone, k ; and a portion of it, continued upward and under-
neath, enters into the orbit. Above, and on the front of the face, it unites with the
bones of the nose, j, and below, with the inferior maxillary, 7!. That which most
deserves notice in it externally, is the ridge, or spine, seen at b, p. 68, but better deli-
neated in the cut of the head, p. 72, continued from the base of the zygomatic arch,
and across the malar bone. It, and the surface beneath, serve to give attachment to
the masseter muscle, concerned, almost as much as the temporal one, in the act of
chewing. The dark spot (w, p. 70, and seen likewise at p. 68) marks the foramen,
or hole, through which a branch of the fifth pair of nerves proceeds, to give sensi-
bility to the lower part of the face. As it approaches the teeth, this bone separates
into two plates, and these are divided by long partitions, which contain and firmly
hold the upper grinders. The lower plate then projects inwards, and forms (/, p. 72)
the principal portion of the roof of the mouth, and the floor of the cavity of the nose.
The corresponding bone on the other side, meets its fellow in the centre of the palate.
The upper jaw-bone contains in it large cavities besides those for the teeth, and these
open into, and enlarge the cavity of the nose. They are connected with the voice,
but not with the smell ; for the expansion of the olfactory, or smelling nerve, has
never been traced beyond the bones and membranes of the proper cavity of the nose.
The maxillary sinuses are generally filled with matter in bad cases of glanders.
Below these, are the anterior maxillary bones (/, p. 68, a, p. 68), containing the
upper cutting teeth, with the tushes belonging to both the upper and anterior bones.
These are the bones to which (see cut, p. 72) the upper lip is attached. The supe-
rior and anterior maxillary bones are separated in animals with long faces, like the
horse, that, by overlapping each other, strength might be gained.
The palatine bone forms but a very small portion of the palate. It surrounds the
edge of the communication between the cavity of the nose and the back parts of the
ffouth.
THE PALATE.
Adhering to a portion of the three bones just described, and constituting the lining
of the roof of the mouth, is the palate (/, p. 72), composed of an elastic and dense
substance, divided into several ridges called bars. The following cut gives a view
of them.
It will aho point out the bleeding place, if it should occasionally be deemed advi-
sable to abstract blood from the mouth; or if the horse should be attacked with
megrims on a journey, and the driver, having no lancet, should be compelled to make
use of his knife, the incision should be made between the central and second nippers
on eithe' side, about an inch within the mouth, and cutting through the second bar.
142
ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
A stream of blood will be thus obtained, which will
usually cease to flow when two or three quarts have
escaped, or may generally be arrested by the applica-
tion of a sponge filled with cold water.
This, however, is a make-shift sort of bleeding
that may be allowable on a journey, and possibly in
some cases of lampas, but which is decidedly objec-
tionable as the usual mode of abstracting blood.
The quantity withdrawn cannot be measured, the
degree of inflammation cannot be ascertained by the
manner in which it coagulates, and there may be
difficulty to the operator, and annoyance and pain to
the horse, in stopping the bleeding.
This cut likewise depicts the appearance of the
roof of the mouth, if the bars were dissected off, and
of the numerous vessels, arterial and venous, which
ramify over it.
LAMPAS.
The bars occasionally swell, and rise to a level
with, and even beyond the edge of, the teeth. They
\ are very sore, and the horse feeds badly on account of
the pain he suiTers from the pressure of the food on
them. This is called the Lampas. It may arise
from inflammation of the gums, propagated to the
bars, when the horse is shedding his teeth — and
young horses are more subject to it than others — or
from some slight febrile tendency in the constitution
generally, as when a young horse has lately been
taken up from grass, and has been over-fed, or not sufficiently exercised. At times,
it appears in aged horses ; for the process of growth in the teeth of the horse is con-
tinued during the whole life of the animal.
Li the majority of cases, the swelling will soon subside withoj^ medical treatment;
or a few mashes, and gentle alteratives, will relieve the animal. A few slight inci-
sions across the bars with a lancet, or penknife, will relieve the inflammation, and
cause the swelling to subside; indeed, this scarification of the bars in lampas will
seldom do harm, although it is far from being so necessary as is supposed. The
brutal custom of the farrier, who sears and burns down the bars with a red-hot iron,
is most objectionable. It is torturing the horse to no purpose, and rendering that part
callous, on the delicate sensibility of which all the pleasure and safety of riding and
driving depend. It may be prudent, in case of lampas, to examine the grinders, and
more particularly the tushes, in order to ascertain whether either of them is making
its way through the gum. If it is so, two incisions across each other should be made
on the tooth, and the horse will experience immediate relief.
THE LOWER JAW.
The posterior or lower jaw may be considered as forming the floor of the mouth,
(a, p. 68, or w, p. 72). The body, or lower part of it, contains the under cutting
teeth and the tushes, and at the sides are two flat pieces of bone, containing the
grinders. On the inside, and opposite to a, p. 68, is a foramen, or hole, through
which blood-vessels and nerves enter to supply the teeth, and some of which escape
again at another orifice on the outside, and near the nippers. The branches are
broader and thinner, rounded at the angle of the jaw, and terminating in two processes.
One, the cnracoid, from its sharpness, or supposed resemblance to a beak, passes
under the zygomatic arch (see p. 68) ; and the temporal muscle, arising from the
whole surface of the parietal bone (see p. 74), is inserted into it, and wrapped round
it ; and by its action, principally, the jaw is moved, and the food is ground. The
other, the condi/Ioid, or rounded process, is received into the glenoid (shallow) cavity
of the temporal bone, at the base of the zygomatic arch, and forms the joint on which
the lower jaw moves. This joint is easily seen in the cut at p. 68 ; and being placed
THE LOWER JAW.
143
so icar to thw insertion of tlie muscle, or the centre of motion, the temporal muscle
must act with very considerable mechanical disadvantage, and, consequently, must
possess immense power.
This joint is admirably contrived for the purpose which the animal requires. It
will admit freely and perfectly of the simple motion of a hinge, and that is the action
of the jaw in nipping the herbage and seizing the corn. But the grass, and more
particularly the corn, must be crushed and bruised before it is fit for digestion.
Simple champing, which is the motion of the human lower jaw, and that of most
beasts of prey, would very imperfectly break down the corn. It must be put into a
mill ; it must be actually ground.
It is put into the mill, and as perfect a one as imagination can conceive.
The following cuts represent the glenoid cavity, in a carnivorous or flesh-eating, and
herbivorous or grass-eating, animal, viz. the tiger and the horse : the one requiring a
simple hinge-like motion of the lower jaw to tear and crush the food ; the other, a
lateral or grinding motion to bring it into a pulpy form. We first examine this
cavity in the tiger represented at B. At the root of the zygomatic process D, is a
hollow with a ridge along the greater part of the upper and inner side of it, standing
to a considerable height, and curling over the cavity. At the lower and opposite
edge of the cavity, but on the outside, is a similar ridge, E, likewise rising abruptly
and curling over. At C is another and more perfect view of this cavity in a different
direction. The head of the lower jaw is received into this hollow, and presses against
these ridges, and is partially surrounded by them, and forms with them a very strong
joint where dislocation is scarcely possible, and the hinge-like or cranching motion
is admitted to its fullest extent ; permitting the animal violently to seize his prey, to
hold it firmly, and to crush it to pieces; but from the extent and curling form of the
ridges, forbidding, except to a very slight degree, all lateral and grinding motion,
and this, because the animal does not want it.
As before mentioned, the food of the horse must be ground. Simple bruising and'
champing would not sufficiently comminute it for the purposes of digestion. We
then observe the different construction of the parts to eflfect this. A gives the glenoid
cavity of the horse. First, there is the upper ridge assuming a rounded form, F, and
therefore called the mastoid process; and — a peculiarity in the horse — the mastoid
process of the squamous portion of the temporal bone : sufficiently strong to support
the pressure and action of the lower jaw when cropping the food or seizing an enemy,
but not encircling the head of that bone, and reaching only a little way alongr- the side
of the cavity, where it terminates, having its edges rounded of!" so as to admit, and to
be evidently destined for, a circular motion about it. At the other and lower edge
of the cavity, and on the outside, G is placed — not a curling ridge as in the tiger, but
a mere tubercle: and for what reason? evidently to limit this lateral or circular
motion — to permit it as far as the necessities of the animal require it, and then to
arrest it. How is this done ? Not suddenly or abniptly ; but the tubercle, of which
we have already spoken as strengthening this portion of the zygomatic arch, now
discharging another office, has a smooth and gradual ascent to it, up which the lowei
jaw may climb to a certain extent, and then, by degrees, be stopped. We speak not
now of the moveable cartilage which is placed in this cavity, and between the bones,
to render the motion easier and freer. It is found in this joint in every quadniped ;
and it is found wherever motions are rapid and of long continuance.
144 ANATOMY AND DISEASES 01 THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
So great is the conformity between the structure of the animal and his destination
that a tolerable student in comparative anatomy, by a mere inspection of the glenoid
cavity, would at once determine whether the animal to which it belonged was car-
nivorous, and wanted no lateral motion of the jaw ; or omnivorous, living occasionally
on all kinds of food, and requiring some degree of grinding motion ; or herbivorous,
and needing the constant use of this admirably-constructed mill.
At g, p. 135, is represented the viasse.ter muscle, an exceedingly strong one, con-
stituting the cheek of the horse — arising from the superior maxillary under the ridge
continued from the zygomatic arch, and inserted into the lower jaw, and particularly
round the rough border at the angle of the jaw. This acts with the temporal muscle
in closing the jaw, and in giving the direct cutting or champing motion of it.
Within the lower jaw, on either side, and occupying the whole of the hollowed
portion of them, and opposite to the masseters, are the pterygoid muscles, going from
the jaws to bones more in the centre of the channel, likewise closing the mouth, and
also, by their alternate action, giving that grinding motion which has been described.
The space between the branches of the lower jaw, called the channel, is of consider-
able consequence. It may be a little too wide, and then the face will have a clumsy
appearance : but if it is too narrow, the horse will never be able to bend his head
freely and gracefully ; he will be always pulling or boring upon the hand, nor can ho
possibly be well reined in.
The jaws contain the teeth, which are the millstones employed in comminuting the
food. The mouth of the horse at five years old contains forty teeth, viz. six nippers
or cutting teeth in front, a tush on each side, and six molars, or grinding teeth, above
and below. They are contained in cavities in the upper and lower jaws, surrounded
by bony partitions, to which they are accurately fitted, and by which they are firmly
supported. For a little way above these bony cavities, they are surrounded by a hard
substance called the gum, so dense, and adhering so closely to the teeth and the jaws
as not to be separated without very great difficulty — singularly compact, that it may
not be wounded by the hard or sharp particles of the food, and almost devoid of feel-
ing, for the same purpose.
Heven or eight months before the foal is born, the germs or beginnings of the teeth
are visible in the cavities of the jaws. The tooth grows, and
presses to the surface of the gum, and forces its way through it ;
and, at the time of birth, the first and second grinders have
appeared, large compared with the size of the jaw, and seemingly
filling it. In the course of seven or eight days the two central
nippers are seen as here represented. They likewise appear to
be large, and to fill the front of the mouth ; although they will
afterwards be found to be small, compared with the permanent
teeth that follow. In the course of the first month the third
grinder appears above and below, and, not long after, and gener-
1 ally before six weeks have expired, another incisor above and
/ 1 below will be seen on each side of the two first, which have now
t \ considerably grown, but not attained their perfect height. The
second cut will represent the appearance of the mouth at that time.
At two months, the central nippers will have reached
their natural level, and between the second and third
month the second pair will have overtaken them. They
will then begin to wear away a little, and the outer edge,
which was at first somewhat raised and sharp, is brought
to a level with the inner one, and so the mouth continues
until some time between the sixth and ninth month, whei
another nipper begins to appear on each side of the two
first, making six above and below, and completing the
colt's mouth ; after which, the only observable difference,
until between the second and third year, is in the wear of
these teeth.
The term nipper is familiar to the horseman and the fat-
riei;, and much better expresses the action of these teelli
than the word incisor or cutter, w'hich is adopted by anato
THE PROCESS OF TEETHING.
143
mists. Wlioever has observed a horse in the act of browsing, and the twitch of the
head which accompanies the separation of each portion of grass, will perceive that
vt is nipped or torn rather than cut olF.
These teeth are covered with a polished and exceedingly hard substance, called the
fmamel. It spreads over that portion of the teeth which appears above the gum, and
not only so, but as they are to be so much employed in nipping the grass, and gath-
ering up the animal's food, and in such employment even this hard substance must
be gradually worn away, a portion of it, as it passes over the upper surface of the
teeth, is bent inward, and sunk into the body of the teeth, and forms a little pit in
them. The inside and bottom of this pit being blackened by the food, constitutes the
mark of the teeth, by the gradual disappearance of which, in consequence of the wearing-
down of the edge, we are enabled, for several years, to judge of the age of the animal.
The colt's nipping teeth are rounded in front, somewhat hollow towards the mouth,
and present at first a cutting surface, with the outer edge rising in a slanting direction
above the inner edge. This, however, soonatbegins to wear down until both surfaces
are level, and the mark, which was originally long and narrow, becomes shorter, and
wider, and fainter. At six months the four nippers are beginning to wear to a level.
The annexed cut will convey some idea of the appearance of the teeth at twelve
months. The four middle teeth are almost level, and the corner ones becoming so.
The mark in the two middle teeth is wide and faint; in
the two next teeth it is darker, and longer, and narrower ;
and in the corner teeth it is darkest, and longest, and nar-
rowest.
The back teeth, or grinders, will not guide us far in
ascertaining the age of the animal, for we cannot easily
inspect them ; but there are some interesting particulars
connected with them. The foal is born with two grinders
in each jaw, above and below; or they appear within
three or four days after the birth. Before the expiration
of a month they are succeeded by a third, more back-
ward. The crowns of the grinders are entirely covered
with enamel on the top and sides, but attrition soon wears
it away from the top, and there remains a compound sur-
face of alternate layers of crusted petraser, enamel, and ivory, which are employed in
grinding down the hardest portion of the food. Nature has, therefore, made an ad-
ditional provision for their strength and endurance.
^^^^^-—-^ This cut represents a grinder sawed across. It seems to
,^ : «^~ ij^^^ be a most irregular and intricate structure ; but the expla-
nation of it is not difficult. The tooth is formed and pre-
{jared in cavities within the jaw-bones. A delicate mem-
branous hag, containing a jelly-like substance, is found, in
the unborn animal, in a little cell within the jaw-bone. It
assumes, by degrees, the form of the tooth that is to appear,
and then the jelly within the membrane begins to change
to bony mattter, and a hard and beautiful crystallization is
formed on the membrane without, and so we have the cutting tooth covered by its
enamel. In the formation, however, of each of the grinders of the horse, there are
originally five membranous bags in the upper jaw, and four in the lower, filled with
jelly. This by degrees gives place to bony matter, which is thrown out by little ves-
sels penetratino- into it, and is represented by the darker portions of the cut with cen-
tral black spots. The crystallization of enamel can be traced around each, and there
would be five distinct bones or teeth. A third substance, however, is now secreted
(which is represented by the white spaces), and is a powerful cement, uniting all
these distinct bones into one body, and making one tooth of the five. This being
done, another coat of enamel spreads over the sides, but not the top, and the tooth is
completed. By no other contrivance could we have the grinding tooth capable, with-
out injury and without Wearing, to rub down the hay, and oats, and beans, which
•jt'nstitute the stable-food of horses.
The grinders in the lower jaw, having originally but four of these bags or shells,
13 T
146 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
are sn aller, and narrower, and more regiilar, than the upper ones. They are placed
horizi ntally in either jaw ; but in the lower the higher side is within, and shelving
gradu illy outward ; in the upper jaw the higher side is without, and shelving inward,
and t! us the grinding motion is most advantageously performed. There is also an evi-
dent r ifference m itie appearance and structure of each of the grinders, so that a careful
obsei rei could tell to which jaw every one belonged, and what situation it occupied.
At the completion of the first year, a fourth grinder usually comes up, and the year-
ling -las then, or soon afterwards, six nippers, and four grinders above and below in
each jaw, which, with the alteration in the appearance of the nippers that we have
just described, will enable us to calculate nearly the age of the foal, sul)ject to some
variations arising from the period of weaning, and the nature of the food.
At the age of one year and a-half, the mark in the
central nippers ■will be much shorter and fainter ; that
in the two other pairs will have undergone an evident
change, and all the nippers will be flat.
At two years this will be more manifest. The ac-
companying cut deserves attention, as giving an accu-
rate representation of the nippers in the lower jaw of
a two-years-old colt.
About this period a fifth grinder will appear, and now,
likewise, will commence another process. The first
teeth are adapted to the size and wants of the young
animal. They are sufficiently large to occupy and fill
the colt's jaws; but when these bones have expanded
■with the increasing growth of the animal, the teeth are separated too far from each
other to be useful, and another and larger set is required. Evident provision is made
for them, even before the colt foaled. In cavities in the jaw, beneath the first and
temporary teeth, are to be seen the rudiments of a second and permanent set. These
gradually increase, some with greater rapidity than others, and, pressing upon the
roots or fangs of the first teeth, do not, as would be imagined, force out the former
ones, but the portion pressed upon gradually disappears. It is absorbed — taken up
and carried away, by numerous minute vessels, whose office it is to get rid of the
worn-out or useless part of the system. This absorption continues to proceed as the
second teeth grow and press up^wards, until the whole of the fang is gone, and the
crown of the tooth, or that part of it which was above the gimi, having no longer
firm hold, drops out, and the second teeth appear, larger and stronger and permanent.
In a few instances, ho-wever, the second teeth do not rise immediately under the tem-
porary or milk teeth, but somewhat by their side ; and then, instead of this gradual
process of absorption and disappearance from the point of the root upwards, the root
beinor compressed sideways, diminishes throughout its whole bulk. The crown of
the tooth diminishes with the root, and the whole is pushed out of its place, to the
fore part of the first grinder, and remains for a considerable time, under the name of
a wn/fs tooth, causing swelling and soreness of the gums, and frequently wounding the
checks. They would be gradually quite absorbed, but the process might be slo^w
and the annoyance would be great, and, therefore, they are extracted.
The chancre of the teeth commences in those which earliest appeared, and, there-
fore, the front or first grinder gives way at the age of two years, and is succeeded by
a larger and permanent tooth.
During the period between the falling out of the central milk nippers, and the
coming up of the permanent ones, the colt, having a broken mouth, may find some
difficufty in grazing. If he should fall away considerably in condition, he should be
fed with mashes and corn, or cut meat.
The next cut will represent a three-years-old mouth. The central teeth aie larger
than the others, with two grooves in the outer convex surface, and the mark is long,
narrow, deep and black. Not having yet attained their full growth, they arp rather
lower than the others. The mark in the two next nippers is nearly worn out, and it
is wearing away in the corner nippers. Is it possible to give this mouth to an early
two-years-old I The ages of all horses used to be reckoned from May, but some aro
foaled even so early as January, and being actually four months over the two years,
THE PROCESS OF TEETHING.
147
if they have been well nursed and fed, and are strong and large, they may, wiih the
inexperienced, have an additional year put upon them. The central nippers are
punched or drawn out, and the others appear three
or four months earlier than they otherwise would.
In the natural process, they could only rise by long
pressing upon, and causing the absorption of, the
first set. But opposition "from the first set being
removed, it is easy to imagine that their progress
\\-ill be more rapid. Three or four months wfu be
gained in the appearance of the teeth, and these
three or four months may enable the breeder to
term him a late colt of a preceding year. To him,
however, who is accustomed to horses, the genera]
form of the animal — the little developement of the
fore-hand — the continuance of the mark on the
next pair of nippers — its more evident existence in
the corner ones, some enlargement or irregularity
about the gums from the violence used in'forcino-
out the teeth — the small growth of the first and fifth grinders and the non-appearance
of the sixth grinder, which if it is not through the gum at three years old, is swellino-
under it, and pref)aring to get through — any or all of these circumstances, carefully
attended to, will be a sufficient security against deception.
A horse at three years old ought to have the central permanent nippers orowino-
the other two pairs wasting — six grinders in each jaw, above and below — the first
and fifth level with the others, and the sixth protruding. The sharp edge of the new
incisors, although it could not be well expressed in the cut, will be very "evident when
compared with the neighbouring teeth.
As the permanent nippers wear, and continue to grow, a narrower portion of the
cone-shaped tooth is exposed to the attrition, and they look as if they had been com-
pressed, but it is not so. The mark, of course, gradually disappears as the pit is
worn away.
At three years and a half, or between that and four, the next pair of nippers will
be changed, and the mouth at that time cannot be mistaken. The central nippers
will have attained nearly their full growth. A vacuity will be left where the second
stood, or they will begin to peep above the gum, and the corner ones will be diminished
in breadth, worn down, and the mark becoming
small and faint. At this period, likewise, the
second pair of grinders will be shed. Previously
to this may be the attempt of the dealer to give
f^' ^,.<gg$^ ^^^^T^"\\ *° ^'^ three-years-old an additional year, but the
^^^^^\ \ |\\'B ^^"^^^ ^^ill be detected by an examination similar
_'^P' ~ \ Vi^ ^° ^^^^* which has been already described.
'^ ^ ' ' ■ At four years, the central nippers will be fully
developed; the sharp edge somewhat worn off
and the mark shorter, wider, and fainter. The
next pair will be up, but they Avill be small, with
the mark deep, and extending quite across them.
The corner nippers will be larger than the inside
ones, yet smaller than they \vere, and flat, and
the mark nearly effaced. The sixth grinder will
have risen to a level with the others, and the tushes will begin to appear.
Now, more than at any other time, will the dealer be anxious to put an additional
year upon the animal, for the difference between a four-years-old colt, and a five-years-
old horse, in strength, utility, and value, is very great; but, the want of wear in the
other nippers — the small size of the corner ones — the little growth of the tush — the
smallness of the second grinder — the low fore-hand — the legginess of the colt, and
the thickness and little depth of the mouth, will, to the man of common experience
among horses, at once detect the cheat.
The tushes (see p. 142) are four in number, two in each jaw, situated between the
nippers and the grinders — much nearer to the former than the latter, and nearer in the
148 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
lower jaw than in the upper, but this distance increasing in both jaws with the age
of the animal. In shape it somewhat resembles a cone ; it protrudes about an incli
from the gum, and has its extremity sharp-pointed and curved. At the age now under
consideration, the tushes are almost peculiar to the horse, and castration does not
appear to prevent or retard their development. All mares, however, have the germs
of them in the chambers of the jaw, and they appear externally in the majority of old
mares. Their use is not evident. Perhaps in the wild state of the animal they are
weapons of offence, and he is enabled by them more firmly to seize, and more deeply
wound his enemy.
The breeder often attempts to hasten the appearance of the tush, and he cuts deeply
through the gum to remove the opposition which that would afford. To a little exteit
he succeeds. He may possibly gain a few weeks, but not more. After all, there is
much uncertainty as to the appearance of the tush, and it may vary from the fourth
year to four years and six months. It belongs, in the upper jaw, both to the inferior
and superior maxillary bones (see n. p. 70) ; for, while its fang is deeply imbedded
in the inferior maxillary, the tooth penetrates the process of the superior maxillary at
the union of those bones.
At four years and a half, or between that and five, the last important change takes
place in the mouth of the horse. The corner nippers are shed, and the permanent
ones begin to appear. The central nippers are considerably worn, and the next pair
are commencing to show marks of usage. The tush has now protnided, and is gene-
rally a full half-inch in height ; externally it has a rounded prominence, with a groove
on either side, and it is evidently hollowed within. The reader needs not to be told
that after the rising of the corner nipper the animal changes its name — the colt becomes
a horse, and the filly a mare.
At five years the horse's mouth is almost perfect. The corner nippers are quite up,
with the long deep mark irregular on the inside ;
and the other nippers bearing evident tokens of
increasing wearing. The tush is much grown —
the grooves have almost or quite disappeared,
and the outer surface is regularly convex. It is
still as concave within, and with the edge nearly
as sharp as it was six months before. The sixth
molar is quite up, and the third molar is wanting.
This last circumstance, if the general appearance
of the animal, and particularly his forehead and
the wearing of the centre nippers, and the growth
and shape of the tushes, are likewise carefully
attended to, will prevent deception, if a late four-
years-old is attempted to be substituted for a five.
The nippers may be brought up a few months
before their time, and the tushes a few weeks, but the grinder is with difficulty dis-
placed. The three last grinders and the tushes are never shed.
At six years the mark on the central nip-
pers is worn out. There will still be a differ-
ence of colour in the centre of the tooth. The
cement filling the hole, made by the dipping
in of the enamel, will present a browner hue
than the other part of the tooth, and it will be
evidently surrounded by an edge of enamel,
and there will even remain a little depression
in the centre, and also a depression round the
case of enamel : but the deep hole in the cen-
tre of the teeth, with the blackened surface
which it presents, and the elevated edge of
enamel, will have disappeared. Persons not
much accustomed to horses have been puzzled
here. They expected to find a plain surfucc
of a uniform colour, and knew not what con-
clusion to draw when there was both discolouration and irregularity.
THE PROCESS OF TEETHING.
'49
In the next incisors the mark is shorter, broader, and fainter; and in the corner teetp
the edges of the enamel are more regular, and the surface is evidently worn. The
tush has attained its full growth, being nearly or quite an inch in length ; convex out-
ward, concave within; tending to a point, and the extremity somewhat curved. The
third grinder is fairly up ; and all the grinders are level.
The horse may now be said to have a perfect mouth. All the teeth are produced,
Mly grown, and have hitherto sustained no material injury. During these important
changes of the teeth, the animal has suffered less than could be supuposed possible.
In children, the period of teething is fraught with danger. Dogs are subject to con-
vulsions, and hundreds of them die, from the irritation caused by the cuttino- or shed-
ding of their teeth ; but the horse appears to
feel little inconvenience. The gums and palate
are occasionally somewhat hot and swollen;
but the slightest scarification will remove this.
The teeth of the horse are more necessary to
him than those of the other animals are to
them. The child may be fed, and the dog
will bolt his food ; but that of the horse must
be well ground down, or the nutriment cannot
be extracted from it.
At seven years, the mark, in the way in
which we have described it, is worn out in
the four central nippers, and fast wearing
away in the corner teeth; the tush also is
beginning to be altered. It is rounded at the
point; rounded at the edges ; still round without; and beginning to get round inside.
At eight years old, the tush is rounder in every way; the mark is gone from all the
bottom nippers, and it may almost be said to be out of the mouth. There is nothing
remaining in the bottom nippers that can afterwards clearly show the age of the horse,
or justify the most experienced examiner in giving a positive opinion.
Dishonest dealers have been said to resort to a method of prolonging the mark in
the lower nippers. It is called biskoping, from the name of the scoundrel who invented
it. The horse of eight or nine years old is
thrown, and with an engraver's tool a hole
is dug in the now almost plain surface of the
corner teeth, and in shape and depth resem-
bling the mark in a seven-years-old horse.
The hole is then burned with a heated iron,
and a permanent black stain is left. The
next pair of nippers are sometimes lightly
touched. An ignorant man would be very
easily imposed on by this trick : but the
irregular appearance of the cavity — the diffu-
p~^/ sion of the black stain around the tushes, the
sharpened edges and concave inner surface
of which can never be given again — tbe
-=^ marks on the upper nippers, together with
the general conformation of the horse, can never deceive the careful examiner.
Horsemen, after the animal is eight years old, are accustomed to look to the nippers
in the upper jaw, and some conclusion has been drawn from the appearances which
they present. It cannot be doubted that the mark remains in them for some years
after it has been obliterated from the nippers in the lower jaw ; because the hard sub-
stance, or kind of cement, by which the pit, or funnel, in the centre of the tooth is
occupied, does not reach so high, and there is a (jreater depth of tooth to be worn
away, in order to come at it. To this, it may be added that the upper nippers are not
so much exposed to friction and wear as the under. The lower jaw alone is moved,
and pressed forcibly upon the food : the upper jaw is without motion, and has onlv to
resist that pressure.
There are various opinions as to the intervals between the disappearance of the
13*
15*^ ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
marks from the different cutting-teeth in the upper jaw. Some have averaged it at
two years, and others at one. The author is inclined to adopt the latter opinion, and
then the age will be thus determined : at nine years, the mark will be worn out from
the middle nippers — from the next pair at ten, and from all the upper nippers at
eleven. During these periods, the tush is likewise undergoing a manifest change —
it is blunter, shorter, and rounder. In what degree this takes place in the different
periods, long and most favourable opportunities for observation can alone enable the
horseman to decide.
The tushes are exposed to but little wear and tear. The friction against them must
be slight, proceeding only from the jjassage of the food over them, and Irom the motion
of the tongue, or from the bit; and their alteration of form, although generally as we
have described it, is frequently uncertain. The tush will sometimes be blunt at eight ;
at other times it will remain pointed at eighteen. The upper tush, although the latest
in appearing, is soonest worn away.
Are there any circumstances to guide our judgment after this ? There are those
which will prepare us to guess at the age of the horse, or to approach within a few
years of it, until he becomes very old ; but there are none which will enable us accu-
rately to detemiine the question, and the indications of age must now he taken from
the shape of the upper surface of the nippers. At eight, they are all oval, the length
of the oval running across from tooth to tooth ; but as the horse gets older, the teeth
diminish in size — and this commencing in their width, and not in their thickness.
They become a little apart from each other, and their surfaces are rounded. At nine,
the centre nippers are evidently so ; at ten, the others begin to have the oval shortened.
At eleven, the second pair of nippers are quite rounded ; and at thirteen, the corner
ones have that appearance. At fourteen, the faces of the central nippers become
somewhat triangular. At seventeen, they are all so. At nineteen, the angles begin
to wear off, and the central teeth are again oval, but in a reversed direction, viz. from
outward, inward ; and at twenty-one, they all wear this form. This is the opinion of
some Continental veterinary surgeons, and Mr. Percivall first presented them to us in
an English dress.
It would be folly to expect perfect accuracy at this advanced age of the horse, when
we are bound to confess that the rules which we have laid down for determining this
matter at an earlier period, although they are recognised by horsemen generally, and
referred to in courts of justice, will not guide us in every case. Stabled horses have
the mark sooner worn out than those that are at grass ; and a crib-biter may deceive
the best judge by one or two years. The age of the horse, likewise, being formerly
calculated from the 1st of May, it was exceedingly difficult, or almost impossible, to
determine whether the animal was a late foal of one year, or an early one of the next.
At nine or ten, the bars of the mouth become less prominent, and their regular dimi-
nution will designate increasing age. At eleven or twelve, the lower nippers change
their original upright direction, and project forward or horizontall)^, and become of a
yellow colour. They are yellow, because the teeth must grow, in order to answer to
their wear and tear; but the enamel which covered their surface when they were first
produced cannot be repaired ; and that which wears this yellow colour in old age, is
the part which in youth was in the socket, and therefore destitute of enamel.
The ^neral indications of old age, independent of the teeth, are deepening of the
hollows over the eyes; grey hairs, and particularly over the eyes and about the
muzzle ; thinness and hanging down of the lips ; sharpness of the withers ; sinking
of the back ; lengthening of the quarters ; and the disappearance of windgalls, spa-
vins, and tumours of every kind.
Of the natural age of the horse, we should form a very erroneous estimate from the
early period at which he is now worn out and destroyed. Mr. Blaine speaks of a
gentleman who had three horses that died at the ages of thirty-five, thirty-seven, and
thirty-nine. Mr. Cully mentions one that received a ball in his neck, at ihe battle of
Preston, in 1715, and which was extracted at his death, in 1758 ; and Mr. Percivall
fxives an account of a barge-horse that died in his sixty-second year.
There cannot be a severer satire on the English nation than this, that, from the
absurd practice of running our race-horses at two and three years old, and working
others, in various ways, long before their limbs are knit or their strength develop-vd,
DISEASES OF THE TEETH. 15i
and cruelly exacting from them services far beyond their powers, their age does not
a'uenige a sixth part of that of the last-mentioned horse. The scientific author of the
" Animal Kingdom" declares, that " it may be safely asserted, that more horses are
consumed in England, in every ten years, than in any other country in the world in
ten times that period, except those which perish in war."
This affair has, with the English, been too long considered as one of mere profit
and loss ; and it has been thought to be cheaper to bring the young horse early into
work, and prematurely to exhaust his strength, than to maintain him for a long period,
and at a considerable expense, almost useless. The matter requires much considera-
tion, and much reformation, too.
DISEASES OF THE TEETH.
Of the diseases of the teeth in the horse, we know little. Carious or hollow teeth
are occasionally, but not often, seen ; but the edges of the grinders, from the wearing
off of the enamel, or the irregular growth of the teeth, become rough, and wound the
inside of the cheek ; it is then necessary to adopt a summary, but effectual method of
cure ; namely, to rasp them smooth. JNIany bad ulcers have been produced in the
mouth by the neglect of this.
The teeth sometimes grow irregularly in length, and this is particularly the case
with the grinders, from not being in exact opposition to each other when the mouth
is shut. The growth of the teeth still going on, and there being no mechanical
opposition to it, one of the back teeth, or a portion of one of them, shoots up con-
siderably above the others. Sometimes it penetrates the bars above, and causes
soreness and ulceration ; at other times it interferes partially, or altogether, with the
grinding motion of the jaws, and the animal pines away without the cause being
suspected. Here the saw should be used, and the projecting portion reduced to a
level with the other teeth. The horse that has once been subjected to this operation
should afterwards be frequently examined, and especially if he loses condition : and,
indeed, every horse that gets thin or out of condition, without fever, or other apparent
cause, should have his teeth and mouth carefully examined, and especially if, without
any indication of sore throat, he quids — partly chewing and then dropping — Jiis food,
or if he holds his head somewhat on one side, while he eats, in order to get the food
between the outer edges of the teeth. A horse that has once had very irregular teeth
is materially lessened in value, for, although they may be sawn down as carefully as
possible, they will project again at no great distance of time. Such a horse is to all
intents and purposes unsound. In order to be lit for service, he should be in posses-
sion of his full natural powers, and these powers cannot be sustained without perfect
nutrition, and nutrition would be rendered sadly imperfect by any defect in the
operation of mastication. Not only do some diseases of the teeth render the act of
mastication difficult and troublesome, but, from the food acquiring a foetid odour
during its detention in the mouth, the horse acquires a distaste for aliment altogether.
The continuance of a carious tooth often produces disease of the neighbouring ones,
and of the jaw itself. It should therefore be removed, as soon as its real state is
evident. Dreadful cases of fungus haematodes have arisen from the irritation caused
by a carious tooth. ^
The mode of extracting the teeth requires much reformation. The hammer and the
punch should never be had recourse to. The keyed instrument of the human subject,
but on a larger scale, is the only one that should be permitted.
This is the proper place to speak more at length of the effect of dentition on the
system generally. Horsemen in general think too lightly of it, and they scarcely
dream of the animal suffering to any considerable de«-ree, or absolute illness being
produced ; yet he who has to do with young horses will occasionally discover a con-
siderable degree of febrile affection, which he can refer to this cause alone. Fever,
cough, catarrhal affections generally, disease of the eyes, cutaneous affections, diar-
rhcea, dysentery, loss of appetite, and general derangement, will frequently be traced
by the careful observer to irritation from teething.
It is a rule scarcely admitting of the slightest deviation, that, when young horses
are labouring under any febrile affection, the mouth should be examined, and if the
tushes are prominent and pushing against the gums, a crucial incision should be
152 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
made across them. " In this way," says Mr. Percivall, " I have seen catarrhal and
bronchial inflammations abated, coughs relieved, lymphatic and other glandular
tumours about the head reduced, cutaneous eruptions got rid of, deranged bowels
restored to order, appetite returned, and lost condition repaired."*
THE TONGUE.
The tongue is the organ of taste. It is also employed in disposing the food for
being ground between the teeth, and afterwards collecting it together, and conveying
it to the back part of the mouth, in order to be swallowed. It is likewise the main
instrument in deglutition, and the canal through which the water passes in the act of
drinking. The root of it is firmly fixed at the bottom of the mouth by a variety of
muscles ; the fore part is loose in the mouth. It is covered by a continuation of the
membrane that lines the mouth, and which, doubling beneath, and confining the
motions of the tongue, is called its frsenuvi, or bridle. On the back of the tongue,
this membrane is thickened and roughened, and is covered with numerous conical
papilcE, or little eminences, on which the fibres of a branch of the fifth pair of nerves
expand, communicating the sense of taste. The various motions of the tongue are
accomplished by means of the ninth pair of nerves. The substance of the tongue is
composed of muscular fibres, with much fatty matter interposed between them, and
which gives to this organ its peculiar softness.
DISEASES OF THE TONGUE.
The tongue is sometimes exposed to injury from carelessness or violence in the act
of drenching or administering a ball, it being pressed against and cut by the edges
of the grinders. A little diluted tincture of myrrh, or alum dissolved in water, or
even nature unassisted, will speedily heal the wound. The horse will sometimes bite
his tongue, most frequently in his sleep. If the injury is trifling, it requires little
care ; but, in some instances, a portion of the tongue has been deeply lacerated or
bitten oflf. The assistance of a veterinary practitioner is here required.
There are some interesting accounts of the results of this lesion. Mr. Dickens of
Kimbolton found a portion of the tongue of a mare, extending as far as the frenulum
beneath, lying in the manger in a strangely lacerated condition, and fast approaching
to decomposition. He had her cast, and, excising all the unhealthy portions, he
dressed the wound with chloride of soda and tincture of myrrh. In less than a week
the laceration was nearly healed, and, soon afterwards, she could eat with very little
difficulty, and keep herself in good condition. The injury was proved to have beeii
inflicted by a brutal horsebreaker, in revenge of some slight aflfront.f
A curious case is recorded in the Memoirs of the Society of Calvados. A horse
was difiicult to groom. The soldier who had the care of him, in order the better to
manage him, fixed in his mouth and on his tongue a strong chain of iron, deeply
serrated, while another man gave to this chain a terrible jerk whenever the horse was
disposed to be rebellious. The animal, under such torture, became unmanageable,
and the man who held the chain sawing away with all his strength, the tongue was
completely cut off at the point which separates its base from the free portion of it.
The wound healed favourably, and he was soon able to manage a mash. After that
some hay was given to him in small quantities. He took it and foni.ed it into a kind
of pellet with his lips, and then, pressing it against the bottom of his manger, he
gradually forced it sufficiently back into the mouth to be enabled to seize it with his
grinders.
Another horse came to an untimely end in a singular way. He had scarcely eaten
anytliing for three weeks. He seemed to be unable to swallow. The channel
beneath the lower jaw had much enlargement about it. There was not any known
cause for this, nor any account of violence done to the tongue. At length a tumour
appeared under the jaw. ]\Ir. Young of Muirhead punctured it, and a consideiable
quantity of purulent matter escaped. The horse could drink his gruel after this, but
not take any solid food. A week afterwards he was found dead. Upon separating
the head from the tiunk, and cutting transversely upon the tongue, nearly opposite to
♦Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. ii., p. 173. t Veterinarian, vol. vi., p. 22.
THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 153
the second grinder, a needle was found lying longitudinally, and which had penetrated
from the side to the interior portion of the tongue. It was an inch and a quarter in
length, and tlie neighbouring substance was in a state of gangrene.
Vesicles will sometimes appear along the under side of the tongue, which will
increase to a consider.ible size. The tongue itself will be much enlarged, the animal
will be unable to swallow, and a great quantity of ropy saliva will drivel from the
mouth. This disease often exists without the nature of it being suspected. If the
mouth is opened, one large bladder, or a succession of bladders, of a purple hue, will
be seen extending along the whole of tlie under side of the tongue. If they are lanced
freely and deeply, from end to end, the swelling will very rapidly abate, and any
little fever that remains may be subdued by cooling medicine. The cause of this
disease is not clearly known.
THE SALIVARY GLANDS.
In order that the food may be properly comminuted preparatory to digestion, it is
necessary that it should be previouslj^ moistened. The food of the stabled horse,
however, is dry, and his meal is generally concluded without any fluid being offered
to him. Nature has made a provision for this. She has placed in the neighbournood
of the mouth various glands to secrete, and that plentifully, a limpid fluid, somewhat
saline to the taste. This fluid is conveyed from the glands into the mouth, by various
ducts, in the act of chewing, and, being mixed with the food, renders it more easily
ground, more easily passed afterwards into the stomach, and better fitted for diges-
tion.
The principal of these is the parotid gland (see cut p. 125). It is placed in the
hollow which extends from the root of the ear to the angle of the lower jaw. A por-
tion of it, q, is represented as turned up, to show the situation of the blood-vessels
underneath. In almost every case of cold connected with sore throat, an enlargement
of the parotid gland is evident to the feeling, and even to the eye. It is composed
of numerous small glands connected together, and a minute tube proceeding from
each, to carry away the secreted fluid. These tubes unite in one common duct. At
the letter u, the parotid duct is seen to pass under the angle of the lower jaw, together
with the submaxillary artery, and a branch of the jugular vein, and they come out
again at w. At r, the duct is seen separated from the other vessels, climbing up the
cheek, and piercing it to discharge its contents into the mouth, opposite to the second
grinder. The quantity of fluid thus poured into the mouth from each of the parotid
glands amounts to a pint and a half in an hour, during the action of mastication ; and,
sometimes, when the duct has been accidentally opened, it has spirted out to the dis-
tance of several feet.
The parotid gland sympathises with every inflammatory aflTection of the upper part
of the throat, and therefore it is found swollen, hot, and tender, in almost every catarrh
or cold. The catarrh is to be treated in the usual way ; while a stimulating applica-
tion, almost amounting to a blister, well rubbed over the gland, will best subdue the
inflammation of that body.
In bad strangles, and, sometimes, in violent cold, this gland will be much enlarged
and ulcerated, or an obstruction will take place in some part of the duct, and the
accumulating fluid will burst the vessel, and a fistulous ulcer will be formed that will
be very difficult to heal. A veterinary surgeon alone will be competent to the treat-
ment of either case ; and the principle by which he will be guided, will be to heal
the abscess in the gland as speedily as he can, and, probably, by the application of
the heated iron : or, if the ulcer is in the duct, either to restore the passage through
the duct, or to form a new one, or to cut oflf the flow of the saliva by the destruction
of the gland.
A second source of the saliva is from the suhmaxiUary glands, or the glands under
the jaw. One of them is represented at s, p. 125. The submaxillary glands occupy
the space underneath and between the sides of the lower jaw, and consist of numer-
ous small bodies, each with its proper duct, uniting together, and forming on each
eide a common duct or vessel that pierces through the muscles at the root of the
tongue, and opens in little projections, or heads, upon the frwnum, or bridle of the
tongue, about an inch and a half from the front teeth. When the horse has catarrh
u
154 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH.
or cold, these glands, like the parotid gland, enlarge. This is often to be obsen^eil
after strangles, and several distinct kernels are to be felt under the jaw. It has
already been stated that they may be distinguished from the swellings that accom-
pany or indicate glanders, by their being larger, generally not so distinct, more in the
centre of the channel, or space between the jaws, and never adhering to the jaw-
bones. The farriers call them vives, and often adopt cruel and absurd methods to
disperse them, — as burning them with a lighted candle, or hot iron, or even cutting
them out. They will, in the majority of instances, gradually disperse in proportion
as the disease which produced them subsides ; or they will yield to slightly stimu-
lating embrocations ; or, if they are obstinate in their continuance, they are of no fur-
ther consequence, than as indicating that the horse has laboured under severe cold or
strangles.
During catarrh or inflammation of the mouth, the little projections marking the
opening of these ducts on either side of the bridle of the tongue are apt to enlarge,
and the mouth under the tongue is a little red, and hot and tender. The farriers call
these swellincrs barbs or paps; and as soon as they discover them, mistaking the
effect of disease for the cause of it, they set to work to cut them close oft". The
bleedinor that follows this operation somewhat abates the local inflammation, and
affords temporary relief; but the wounds will not speedily heal. The saliva continues
to flow from the orifice of the duct, and, running into the irregularities of the wound,
causes it to spead and deepen. Even when it heals, the mouth of the duct being fre-
quently closed, and the saliva continuing to be secreted by the submaxillary gland,
it accumulates in the duct until that vessel bursts, and abscesses are formed which
eat deeply under the root of the tongue, and long torment the poor animal. When,
after a great deal of trouble, they are closed, they are apt to break out again foi
months and years afterwards.
All that is necessary with regard to these paps or barbs i^s to abate the inflamma-
tion or cold that caused them to appear, and they will very soon and perfectly sub-
side. He who talks of cutting them out is not fit to be trusted with a horse.
A third source of saliva is from glands under the tongue — the sublingual glands,
which open by many little orifices under the tongue, resembling little folds of the
skin of the mouth, hanging from the lower surface of this organ, or found on the bot-
tom of the mouth. These likewise sometimes enlarge during catarrh or inflamma-
tion of the mouth, and are called gigs, and bladders, and Jfaps in the mouth. They
have the appearance of small pimples, and the farrier is too apt to cut them away, or
burn them off". The better way is to let them alone — for in a few days they will gen-
erally disappear. Should any ulceration remain, a little tincture of myrrh, or a solu-
tion of alum, will readily heal them.
Beside these three principal sources of saliva, there are small glands to be found
on every part of the mouth, cheeks, and lips, which pour out a considerable quantity
of fluid, to assist in moistening and preparing the food.
STRANGLES.
This is a disease principally incident to young horses — usually appearing between
the fourth and fifth year, and oftener in the spring than in any other part of the year.
It is preceded by cough, and can at first be scarcely distingushed from common cough,
except that there is more discharge from the nostril, of a yellowish colour, mixed
with pus, and generally without smell. There is likewise a considerable discharge
of ropy fluid from the mouth, and greater swelling than usual under the throat. This
swelling increases with uncertain rapidity, accompanied by some fever, and disincli-
nation to eat, partly arising from the fever, but more from the pain which the animal
feels in the act of mastication. There is considerable thirst, but after a gulp or two
the horse ceases to drink, yet is evidently desirous of continuing his draught. In
the attempt to swallow, and sometimes when not drinking, a convulsive cough comes
on, which almost threatens to suffocate the animal — and thence, probably, the name
of the disease.*
* Old Gervase Markham civca the following description of this disease, and of the origir
ef its name. " It is," says he, " a great and hard swelling between a horse's nether chaps
STRANGLES. 155
The tumour is under the jaw, and about the centre of the channel. It soon fills the
whole of the space, and is evidently one uniform body, and may thus be distinguished
from glanders, or the enlarged glands of catarrh. In a few days it becomes more
prominent and soft, and evidently contains a tliiid. This rapidly increases ; the
tumour bursts, and a great quantity of pus is discharged. As soon as the tumour has
broken, the cough subsides, and the horse speedily mends, although some degree oi
weakness may hang about him for a considerable time. Few horses, possibly none,
escape its attack ; but, the disease having passed over, the animal is free from it foi
the remainder of his life. Catarrh may precede, or may predispose to, the attack,
and, undoubtedly, the state of the atmosphere has much to do with it, for both its
prevalence and its severity are connected witli certain seasons of the year and changes
of the weather. There is no preventive for the disease, nor is there anything con-
tagious about it. INIany strange stories are told witli regard to this ; but the explana-
tion of the matter is, that when several horses in the same farm, or in the same
neighbourhood, have had strangles at the same time, they have been exposed to the
same powerful but unknown exciting cause.
Messrs. Percivall and Castley have come the nearest to a satisfactory view of the
nature of strangles. Mr. Castley* says, that " the period of strangles is often a much
more trying and critical time for young horses than most people seem to be aware of;
that when colts get well over this complaint, they generally begin to thrive and
improve in a remarkable manner, or there is sometimes as great a change for the
worse : in fact, it seems to etfect some decided constitutional change in the animal."
Mr. Percivall adds, " the explanation of the case appears to me to be, that the
animal is suffering more or less from what I would call strang/e-fever, — a fever the
disposition and tendency of which is to produce local tumour and abscess, and, most
commonly in that situation, underneath the jaws, in which it has obtained the name
of strangles."
Professor Dick, of Edinburgh, adds that which is conclusive on the subject, that
" although the disease commonly terminates by an abscess under the jaw, yet it may,
and occasionally does, give rise to collections of matter on other parts of the surface."
To this conclusion then we are warranted in coming, that strangles is a specific
affection to which horses are naturally subject at some period of their lives, and the
natural cure of which seems to be a suppurative process. From some cause, of the
nature of which we are ignorant, this suppurative process usually takes place in the
space between the branches of the maxillary bone, and occurring there it appears in
the mildest form, and little danger attends. When the disease is ushered in by con-
siderable febrile disturbance, and the suppuration takes place elsewhere, the horse too
frequently sinks under the attack.
Tlie treatment of strangles is verj^ simple. As the essence of the disease consists
in the formation and suppuration of the specific tumour, the principal, or almost the
sole attention of the practitioner, should be directed to the hastening of these pro-
cesses : therefore, as soon as the tumour of strangles is decidedly apparent, the part
should be actively blistered. Old practitioners used to recommend poultices, which,
from the thickness of the horse's skin, must have very little effect, even if they could
be confined on the part ; and from the difficulty and almost impossibility of this, and
their getting cold and hard, they necessarily weakened the energies of nature, and
delayed the ripening of the tumour. Fomentations are little more effectual. A blister
will not only secure the completion of the process, but hasten it by many days, and
save the patient much pain and exhaustion. It will produce another good effect — it
will, previously to the opening of the tumour, abate the internal inifJammation and
soreness of the throat, and thus lessen the cough and wheezing.
As soon as the swelling is soft on its summit, and evidently contains matter, it
should be freely and deeply lanced. It is a bad, although frequent practice, to suffer
the tumour to burst naturally, for a ragged ulcer is formed, very slow to heal, and
upon the rootes of his tongue, and about his throat, which sweUing, if it be not prevented, will
atop tlie horse*s windpipe, and so strangle or choke him- from which effect, and none othor,
the name of this disease tooke its derivation."
* Vet., iii., 406, and vi., 607.
.56 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NOSE AND MOUTH,
difficult of treatment. If the incision is deep and large enough, no second collection
of matter Avill he formed : and that which is already there may be suffered to run out
slowly, all pressure with the fingers being avoided. The part should be kept clean,
and a little friar's balsam daily injected into the wound.
The remainder of the treatment will depend on the symptoms. If there is much
fever, and evident affection of the chest, and which should carefully be distinguished
from the oppression and choking occasioned by the pressure of the tumour, it will be
proper to bleed. In the majority of cases, however, bleeding will not only be unne-
cessary, but injurious. It will delay the suppuration of the tumour, and increase the
subsequent debility. A few cooling medicines, as nitre, emetic tartar, and perhaps
digitalis, may be given, as the case requires. The appetite, or rather the ability to
eat, will return with the opening of the abscess. Bran-mashes, or fresh-cut grass or
tares, should be liberally supplied, which will not only afford sufficient nourishment
to recruit the strength of the animal, but keep the bowels gently open. If the weak-
ness is not great, no farther medicine will be wanted, except a dose of mild physic in
order to prevent the swellings or eruptions which sometimes succeed to strangles. In
cases of debility, a small quantity of tonic medicine, as chamomile, gentian, oi
ginger, may be administered.*
THE PHARYNX.
Proceeding to the back of the mouth, we find the pharynx (^carrying or conveying
the food towards the stomach). It commences at the root of the tongue (see 7, 8 and
9, p. 72) ; is separated from the mouth by the soft palate (7), which hangs down from
the palatine hone at 8, and extends to the epiglottis or covering to the windpipe.
Vv'hen the food has been sufficiently ground by the teeth, and mixed with the saliva,
it is crathered together by the tongue, and by the action of the cheeks and tongue, and
back part of the mouth, forced against the soft palate, which, giving way, and being
raised upwards towards the entrance into the nostrils, prevents the food from proceed-
ing that way. It passes to the pharynx, and the soft palate again falling down, pre-
vents its return to the mouth, and also prevents, except in extreme cases, the act of
vomitino- in the horse. Whatever is returned from the stomach of the horse, passes
through the nose, as the cut will make evident.
The sides of the pharynx are lined with muscles which now begin powerfully to
contract, and by that contraction the bolus is forced on until it reaches the gullet (10),
which is the termination of the phar}mx. Before, however, the food proceeds so far,
it has to pass over the entrance into the windpipe (3), and should any portion of it
enter that tube, much inconvenience and danger might result ; therefore, this opening
is not only lined by muscles which close it at the pleasure of the animal, but is like-
wise covered by a heart-like elastic cartilage, the epiglottis (2), with its back towards
the pharynx, and its hollow towards the aperture. The epiglottis yields to the pres-
sure of the bolus passing over it, and lying flat over the opening into the windpipe,
and prevents the possibility of anything entering into it. No sooner, however, has
* Mr. Percivall gives the following description of some untoward cases: — "The sub-
ma.xillary tumour is often knotted and divided on its first appearance, as if the glands received
the primary attack. As it spreads, it becomes diffused in the cellular tissue included in the
space. between the sides and branches of the lower jaw, involving all the subcutaneous parts
contained in that interval indiscriminately in one uniform mass of tumefaction. Wliile this
general turgescence is going on, various parts in the immediate vicinity often take on the same
kind of action. In particular, the salivary glands, the parotid, sublingual, the throat, the
pharynx and larynx, the nose, the lining membrane, the nostrils, the sinuses, the mouth, the
tongue, the cheeks, the hps — in fine, in some violent cases, the whole head appears to be
involved in one general mass of tumefaction, while every vent is running over with dischargS.
The pntient experiencing this violent form of disease is in a truly pitiable plight. While
purulent matter is issuing in profusion from his swollen nostrils, and slaver foams out from
between his tumefied lips, it is distressing to hear the noise that he makes ui painful and
laboured efforts to breathe. There is imminent danger of suffocation in such a case as this ;
and even although some relief, so far as the breathing is concerned, may be obtained from the
operation of hro?ichotomy, yet, from the pain and irritation he is suficring, added to the impos
eibility of getting aliment into his stomach, he must speedily sink to rise no more." —
Veterinarian, vol. vi. p. Gil.
POLL-EVIL. 13^
the food passed over it, than it rises again by its own elasticity, and leaves the upper
part of the windpipe once more open for the purpose of breathing. The voice of ani
mals is produced by the passage of air through this aperture, communicating certain
vibrations to certain folds of the membrane covering the part, and these vibrations
being afterwards modified in their passage through the cavities of ihe nose. In order
to understand the diseases of these parts, the anatomy of the neck generally must be
considered.
CHAPTER V.
THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK AND
NEIGHBOURING PARTS.
The neck of the horse, and of every animal belonging to the class mammalia, except
one species, is composed of seven bones called vertebras, moveable or turning upon
each other (see cut, p. 68). They are connected together by strong ligaments, and
form so many distinct joints, in order to give sufiiciently extensive motion to this
important part of the body. The bone nearest to the skull is called the atlas (see cut,
p. 68, and g, p. 72), because, in the human being, it supports the head. In the horse
the head is suspended from it. It is a mere ring-shaped bone, with broad projections
sideways ; but without the sharp and irregular processes which are found on all the
others. The pack-wax, or ligament, by which the head is principally supported
(/, p. 72), and which is strongly connected with all the other bones, passes over this
without touching it, by which means the head is much more easily and extensively
moved. The junction of the atlas with the head is the seat of a very serious and
troublesome ulcer, termed
POLL-EVIL.
From the horse rubbing and sometimes striking his poll against the lower edge of
the manger, or hanging back in the stall and bruising the part with the halter — or
from the frequent and painful stretching of the ligaments and muscles by unnecessary
tight reining, and, occasionally, from a violent blow on the poll, carelessly or wan-
tonly inflicted, inflammation ensues, and a swelling appears, hot, tender, and painful.
It used to be a disease of frequent occurrence, but it is now, from better treatment of
the animal, of comparatively rare occurrence.
It has just been stated, that the ligament of the neck passes over the atlas, or first
bone, without being attached to it, and the seat of inflammation is between the liga-
ment and the bone beneath ; and being thus deeply situated, it is serious in its nature
Hnd difficult of treatment.
The first thing to be attempted is to abate the inflammation by bleeding, physic,
and the application of cold lotions to the part. In a very early period of the case a
blister might have considerable effect. Strong purgatives should also be employed.
By these means the tumour will sometimes be dispersed. This system, however,
must not be pursued too far. If the swelling increases, and the heat and tenderness
likewise increase, matter will form in the tumour; and then our object should be to
hasten its formation by warm fqjnentations, poultices, or stimulatino- embrocations.
As soon as the matter is formed, ^^lich may be known by the softness of the tumour,
and before it has time to spread around and eat into the neighbouring parts, it should
be evacuated. Now comes the whole art of treating poll-evil ; the opening into the
tumour 7nusl be so contrived that all the matter shall run out, and continue afterwards to
run out as quickly as it is formed, and not collect at the bottom of the ulcer, irritatincr
and corroding it. This can be effected by a seton alone. The needle should entel
at the top of the tumour, penetrate through its bottom, and be brought out at the side
of the neck, a little below the abscess. Without anything more than this, except
14
158 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK.
frequent fomentation with warm water, in order to keep the part clean, and to obviate
inflammation, poll-evil in its early stage will frequently be cured.
If the ulcer has deepened and spread, and threatens to eat into the ligaments of the
joints of the neck, it may be necessary to stimulate its surface, and perhaps painfully
so, in order to bring it to a healthy state, and dispose it to fill up. In extreme cases,
some highly stimulating application may be employed, but nothing resembling the
scalding mixture of the farriers of the olden time. This is abominable ! horrible I !
All measures, however, Avill be ineffectual, unless the pus or matter is, by the use of
set( us, perfectly evacuated. The application of these setons will require the skill
and anatomical knowledge of the veterinary surgeon. In desperate cases, the wound
may not be fairly exposed to the action of the caustic without the division of the liga-
ment of the neck. This may be effected with perfect safety ; for although the liga-
ment is carried on to the occipital bone, and some strength is gained by this prolon-
gation of it, the main stress is on the second bone; and the head will continue to be
supported. The divided ligament, also, will soon unite again, and its former useful-
ness v.ill be restored when the wound is healed.
The second bone of the neck is the deniata, having a process like a tooth, by Avhich
it forms a joint with the first bone. In the formation of that joint, a portion of the
spinal marrow^, which runs through a canal in the centre of all these bones, is exposed
or covered only by ligament ; and by the division of the marrow at this spot an animal
is instantly and humanely destroyed. The operation is caWei piiki7ig, from the name
(i/ic pith) given by butchers to the spinal marrow.
The other neck, or rack bones, as they are denominated by the farrier, (B. p. 68,)
are of a strangely irregular shape, yet bearing considerable resemblance to each other.
They consist of a central bone, perforated for the passage of the spinal marrow with
a ridge on the top for the attachment of the ligament of the neck, and four irregular
plates or processes from the sides, for the attachment of muscles ; at the base of one
of which, on either side, are holes for the passage of the large arteries and veins. At
the upper end of each, is a round head or ball, and at the low^er end, a cavity or cup,
and the head of the one being received into the cup of the other, they are unitid
together, forming so many joints. They are likewise united by ligaments from these
processes, as well as the proper ligaments of the joints, and so securely, that no dis-
location can take place between any of them, except the first and second, the conse-
quence of which would be the immediate death of the animal.
The last, or seventh bone, has the elevation on the back or top of it continued into
a long and sharp prolongation (a spiiious process), and is the beginning of ^:at ridge
of bones denominated the ivithers (see cut, pp. G8 and 167) ; and as it is the base of
the column of neck bones, and there must be a great pressure on it from the weight
of the head and neck, it is curiously contrived to rest upon and unite with the two
first ribs.
THE MUSCLES AND PROPER FORM OF THE NECK.
The bones of the neck serve as the frame-work to which numerous muscles con-
cerned in the motions of the head and neck are attached. The weight of the head
and neck is supported by the ligament without muscular aid, and without fatigue to
the animal ; but in order to raise the head higher, or to lower it, or to turn it in every
direction, a complicated system of muscles is necessary. Those whose office it is to
raise the head are most numerous and powerful, and are placed on the upper and side
part of the neck. The cut in p. 125 contains a few of them.
c marks a tendon common to two of the most important of them, the splentus, or
splint-like muscle, and the complexus major, or larger complicated muscle. The
splenius constitutes the principal bulk of the neck above, arising from the ligament of
the neck all the way down it, and going to the processes of all the bones of the neck,
but the first, and tendons running from the upper part of it, to the first bone of the
neck, and to a process of the temporal bone of the head. Its action is sufficiently
evident, namely, very powerfully to elevate the head and neck. The principal beauty
of the neck depends on this muscle. It was admirably developed in the horse of
whose neck the annexed cut gives an accurate delineation.
If the curve were quite regular from the poll to the withers, we should call it a
MUSCLES AND PROPER F0R::\I OF THE NECK. 159
perfect uecV, It is rather a long neck, and we do not like it the less for that. In the
carriage-horse, a neck that is not half
concealed by the collar is indispensable,
so far as appearance goes ; and it is only
the horse with a neck of tolerable length
that will bear to be reined up, so as to
give this part the arched and beautiful
appearance which fashion demands. It
is no detriment to the riding-horse, and
there are few horses of extraordinary
speed that have not the neck rather long.
The race-horse at the top of his speed
not only extends it as far as he can, that
the air-passages may be as straight as
he can make them, and that he may
therefore be able to breathe more freely,
but the weight of the head and neck, and
the effect increasing with their distance
from the trunk, add materially to the
rapidity of the animal's motion. It has
been said, that a horse with a long neck
will bear heavj' on the hand ; neither the
length of the neck nor even the bulk of the head has any influence in causing this.
They are both counterbalanced by the power of the ligament of the neck. The sel-
itng on of the head is most of all connected with heavy bearing on the hand, and a
short-necked horse will bear heavily, because, from the thickness of the lower part
of the neck, consequent on its shortness, the head cannot be rightly placed, nor, gene-
rally, the shoulder.
Connected with the splenius muscle, and partly produced by it, are the thickness
and muscularity of the neck, as it springs from the shoulders, in this cut; the height
at which it comes out from them forming nearly a line with the withers ; and the
manner in which it tapers as it approaches the head. The neck of a well-formed
horse, however fine at the top, should be muscular at the bottom, or the horse v,-ill
generally be weak and worthless. Necks devoid of this muscularity are called loui<e
necks by horsemen, and are always considered a very serious objection to the animal.
If the neck is thin and lean at the upper part, and is otherwise well shaped, the horse
will usually carry himself well, and the head will be properly curved for beauty of
appearance and ease of riding. When an instance to the contrary occurs, it is to be
traced to very improper management, or to the space between the jaws being unna-
turally small.
The splenius muscle, although a main agent in raising the head and neck, may be
loo large, or covered with too much cellular substance or fat, thus givino- an appear-
ance of heaviness, or even clumsiness to the neck. This peculiarity of form consti-
tutes the distinction between the perfect horse and the mare, and also the gelding,
unless castrated at a very late period.
This tendon, c, belongs also to another muscle, which makes up the principal bulk
of the lower part of the neck, and is called the complextis -major, or larger complicated
muscle. It arises partly as low as the transverse processes of the four or five first
bones of the back, and from the five lower bones of the neck ; and the fibres from
these various sources uniting together, form a very large and powerful muscle, the
largest and strongest in the neck. As it approaches the head, it lessens in bulk, and
terminates partly with the splenius, in this tendon, but is principally inserted into the
back part of the occipital bone, by the side of the ligament of the neck. In the cut,
p. 1-35, almost its whole course can be distinctly traced. Its office is to raise the neck
and elevate the head ; and being inserted into such a part of the occiput, it will more
particularly protrude the nose, while it raises the head. Its action, however, may be
too powerful ; it may be habitually so, and then it may produce deformity. The back
of the head being pulled back, and the muzzle protruded, the horse cannot by possi-
bility carry his head well. He will become what is technically called a star-gazer ;
J GO ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK.
~hea\'}' in hand, boring upon the bit, and unsafe. To remedy this, recourse is had,
and in the majority of cases without avail, to the martintrale, against which the horse
is continually lighting, and which is often a complete annoyance to the rider. Such
a horse is almost useless for harness.
Inseparable from this is another sad defect, so far as the beauty of the horse is
concerned; — he becomes ewe-necked; i. e. he has a neck like a ewe — not arched
abov^e and straight below, until near to the head, but hollowed above and projecting
below; and the neck rising low out of the chest, even lower, sometimes, than the
points of the shoulders. There can scarcely be anything more unsightly in a horse.
His head can never be got fairly down; and the bearing rein of harness must be to
him a source of constant torture. In regarding, however, the length and the form of
the neck, reference must be had to the purpose for which the horse is intended. In a
hackney, few things can be more abominable than a neck so disproportioned — so long,
that the hand of the rider gets tired in managing the head of the horse. In a race-
horse, this lengthening of the neck is a decided advantage.
Among the muscles employed in raising the head, are the compkxus minores
(smaller complicated), and the recti (straight), and the oblique muscles of the upper
part of the neck, and belonging principally to the two first bones of the neck, and
portions of which may be seen under the tendon of the xplenius c, and between it and
the ligament a.
Among the muscles employed in lowering the head, some of which are given in
the same cut, is the derno-maxillaris, d, belonging to the breast-bone, and the upper
jaw. It can likewise be traced, although not quite distinctly, in the cut, p. 159. It
lies immediately under the skin. It arises from the cartilage projecting from, or con-
stituting the front of the breast-bone (H, p. G8), and proceeds up the neck, of no
great bulk or strength. At about three-fourlhs of its length upward, it changes to a
flat tendon, which is seen (c?, p. 125) to insinuate itself between the parotid and sub-
maxillary glands, in order to be inserted into the angle of the lower jaw. It is used
in bending the head towards the chest.
Another muscle, the termination of which is seen, is the levator humeri, raiser of the
shoulder, h. This is a much larger muscle than the last, because it has more duty to
perform. It rises from the back of the head and four first bones of the neck and the
ligament of the neck, and is carried down to the shoulder, mixing itself partly with
some of the muscles of the shoulder, and finally continued down to, and terminating
on, the humerus (J, p. 68). Its office is double. If the horse is in action, and the
head and neck are fixed points, the contraction of this muscle will draw forward the
shoulder and arm ; if the horse is standing, and the shoulder and arm are fixed points,
this muscle will depress the head and neck.
The muscles of the neck are all in pairs. One of them is found on each side of the
neck, and the oflice which has been attributed to them can only be accomplished w hen
both act together ; but supposing that one alone of the elevating muscles should act,
the head would be raised, but it would at the same time be turned towards that side.
If one only of the depressor muscles were to act, the head would be bent downwards,
but it would likewise be turned towards that side. Then it will be easily rfeen, that
by this simple method of having the muscles in pairs, provision is made for every
kind of motion, upwards, downwards, or on either side, for which the animal can
possibly have occasion. Little more, of a practical nature, could be said of the
muscles of the neck, although they are proper and interesting studies for the anato-
mist.
This is the proper place to speak of the mane ,■ that long hair which covers the cresi
of the neck, and adds so much to the beauty of the animal. This, however, is not its
only praise. In a wild state, the horse has many battles to fight, and his neck,
deprived of the mane, would be a vulnerable part. The hair of the mane, the tail,
and the legs, is not shed in the same manner as that on the body. It does not fall so
regularly, nor so often ; for if all were shed at once, the parts would be left for a long
time defenceless.
The mane is generally dressed so as to lie on the right side — some persons divide
it equally on both sides. For ponies, it used to be cut off near the roots, only a few
stumps being left to stand perpendicularly. This was termed the hog-mane. The
BLOOD. i^ESSELS AND VEINS OF THE NECK. 161
groom sometimes liestows a great deal of pains in gettinir the mane of his norse into
good and fashionable order. It is wetted, and plaited, and loadea with lead ; ano
every hair that is a little too long is pulled out. The mane and tail of the heavy
draught-horse are seldom thin ; but on the well-bred horse, the thin, well-arranged
mane is very ornamental.*
THE BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE NECK.
Running down the under part of the neck, are the principal blood-vessels, going to
and returning from the head, with the windpipe and gullet. Our cut could not give
a view of the arteries that carry the blood from the heart to the head, because they
are too deeply seated. The external arteries are the carotid, of which there are two.
They ascend the neck on either side, close to the windpipe, until they have reached
the middle of the neck, where they somewhat diverge, and lie more deeply. They
are covered by the sterno-maxillaris muscle, which has''been just described, and are
separated from the jugulars by a small portion of muscular substance. Having
reached the larynx, they divide into two branches, the external and the internal ; the
first goes to every part of the face, and the second to the brain.
The vertebral arteries run through canals in the bones of the neck, supplying the
neighbouring parts as they climb, and at length enter the skull at the large hole in the
occipital bone, and ramify on and supply the brain.
Few cases can happen, in which it would be either necessary or justifiable to bleed
from an arter)^ Even in mad-staggers, the bleeding is more practicable, safer, and
more etfectual, from the jugular vein, than from the temporal or any other artery. If
an artery is opened in the direction in which it runs, there is sometimes very great
difficulty in stopping the 'bleeding; it has even be6n necessary to tie the vessel, in
order to accomplish this purpose. If the artery is cut across, its coats are so elastic,
that the two ends are often immediately drawn apart under the flesh at each side, and
are thereby closed ; and after the first gush of blood, no more can be obtained.
THE VEINS OF THE NECK.
The external veins which return the blood from the head to the heart are the jugu-
lars. The horse has but one on either side. The human being and the ox have two.
The jugular takes its rise from the base of the skull ; it then descends, receiving
other branches in its way towards the angle of the jaw and behind the parotid gland ;
and emerging from that, as seen at /, p. 1'35, and being united to a large branch from
the face, it takes its course down the neck. Veterinary surgeons and horsemen have
agreed to adopt the jugular, a little way below the union of these two branches, as
the usual place for bleeding ; and a very convenient one it is, for it is easily got at,
and the vessel is large. The manner of bleeding, and the states of constitution and
disease in which it is proper, Avill be hereafter spoken of; an occasional consequence
of bleeding being at present taken under consideration.
INFLAMMATION OF THE VEIN.
It is usual and proper, after bleeding, to bring the edges of the woimd carefully
together, and to hold them in contact by inserting a pin through the skin, with a little
tow twisted round it. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the wound quickly heals,
and gives no trouble ; but in a few instances, from using a blunt instrument, or a dirty
or rusty one ; or striking too hard and bruising the vein ; or, in the act of pinning
up, pulling the skin too far from the neck and suffering some blood to insinuate itself
into the cellular texture; or neglecting to tie the horse up for a little while, and thus
enabling him to rub the bleeding place against the manger and tear out the pin; or
from the animal being worked immediately afterward ; or the reins of the bridle rub-
bing against it; or several blows having been clumsily given, and a large and ragged
wound made ; or from some disposition to inflammation about the horse (for the
bleeder is not always in fault) the wxjund does not heal, or if it closes for a little
while, it re-opens. A slight bleeding appears — some tumefaction commences — the
edges of the orifice separate, and become swollen and red — a discharge of sanious,
* Stewart's Stable CEconomy, p. 110.
162 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK.
bloody fluid proceeds from the wound, followed, perhaps, in a few days by purulent
matter. The neck swells, and is hot and tender both above and below the incision.
The lips of the wound become everted — the swelling increases, particularly above
the wound, where the vein is most hard and cordy — the horse begins to loathe his
food, and little abscesses form round the orifice. The cordiness of the vein rapidly
increases. Not only the vein itself has become obstructed and its coats thickened,
but the cellular tissue inflamed and hardened, and is an additional source of irritation
and torture.
The thickening of the vein extends to the bifurcation above : it occupies both
branches, and extends downward to the chest — even to the very heart itself, and the
oatient dies.
The ""o grand questions here are, the cause and the cure. The first would seem
to admit of an easy reply. A long list of circumstances has been just given which
would seem to refer the matter entirely to the operator; yet, on the other hand, expe-
rience tells us that he has little to do with these morbid effects of bleeding. Mr.
Percivall states, that Mr. Cherry tried several times to produce inflammation by the
use of rusty lancets, and escharotics of various kinds, and ligatures, and frequent
separation and friction of the granulating edges, but in vain. Professor Spooner tried
to produce the disease, but could not.
On the other hand, it is well known that while inflammation rarely or never follows
the operation of bleeding by some practitioners, others are continually getting into
scrapes about it. The writer of this work had three house-pupils, two of whom he
used to trust to bleed his patients, and no untoward circumstance ever occurred; but
as surely as he sent the third, he had an inflamed vein to take care of.
There is something yet undivulged in the process of healing the vein, or in the
circumstances by which that healing is prevented. The most powerful causes pro-
bably are, that the lips of the wound have not been brought into immediate apposi-
tion, or that a portion of the hair — a single hair is sufficient — has insinuated itself.
The horse has not, perhaps, had his head tied up to the rack after bleeding, which
should always be done for at least an hour, during Avhich time the extravasated blood
will become firmly coagulated, and the flow of blood to the heart will establish its
uninterrupted course. It is also probable that atmospheric agency may be concerned
in the aff'air, or a diseased condition of the horse, and particularly a susceptibility
of taking on inflammatory action, although the exciting cause may be exceedingly
slight.
Of the means of cure it is difficult to speak confidently. The wound should be
carefully examined — the divided edges brought into exact apposition, and any haii
interposed between them removed — the pin withdrawn or not, according to circum-
stances— the part carefully and long fomented, and a dose of physic administered.
If two or three days have passed and the discharge still remains, the application of
the budding-iron — not too large or too hot — may produce engorgement of the neigh-
bouring parts, and union of the lips of the wound. This should be daily, or every
second day, repeated, according to circumstances. A blister applied over the orifice,
or as far as the mischief extends, will often be serviceable. Here, likewise, the
parts will be brought into contact with each other, and pressed together, and union
may be effected. " Sometimes," says Mr. Cartwright, " when the vein is in an
ulcerative state, I have laid it open, and applied caustic dressing, and it has healed
up. I have lately had a case in which five or six abscesses had formed above the
original wound, and the two superior ones burst through the parotid gland, the extent
of the ulceration being evident in the quantity of saliva that flowed through ead;
orifice."*
The owner of the horse will find it his interest to apply to a veterinary practitionei
as soon as a case of inflamed vein occurs.
Should the vein be destroyed, the horse will not be irreparably injured, and per«
haps, at no great distance of time, scarcely injured at all ; for nature is ingenious in
making provision to carry on the circulation of the blood. All the vessels convey-
ing the blood from the heart to the different parts of the frame, or bringing it back
* Abstract of the Veterinary Medical Association, vol. iv. p. 185
THE PALATE — THE LARY^^X. 163
again to the heart, communicate with each other by so many channels, and in such
various ways, that it is impossible by the closure or loss of any one of them long
materially to impede the flow of the vital cun-ent. If the jugular is destroyed, the
blood will circulate through other vessels almost as freely as before; but the horse
could not be considered as sound, for he might not be equal to the whole of the work
required of him.
THE PALATE — (resumed).
At the back of the palate (see p. 72), and attached to the crescent-shaped border of
the palatine bone, is a dense membranous curtain. Its superior and back surface is
a continuation of the lining membrane of the nose, and its anterior or inferior one,
that of the palate. It is called the velum palati, or veil of the palate. It extends as
far back as the larynx, and lies upon the dorsum of the epiglottis, and is a perfect
veil or curtain interposed between the cavities of the nose and mouth, cutting off all
communication between them. Tied by its attachment to the palatine bone, it will
open but a little way, and that only in one direction. It will permit a pellet of food
to pass into the oesophagus ; but it will close when any pressure is made upon it from
behind. Two singular facts necessarily follow from this : the horse breathes through
the nostrils alone, and these are capacious and easily expansible to a degree seen in
no other animal, and fully commensurate to the wants of the animal.
It is also evident that, in the act of vomiting, the contents of the stomach must be
returned through the noslril, and not through the mouth. On this account it is that
the horse can with great difficulty be excited to vomit. There is a structure at the
entrance of the stomach which, except under very peculiar circumstances, prevents 'its
return to the throat, and consequently to the mouth.
The muscles of this singular curtain are very intelligibly and correctly described by
Mr. Percivall, in his " Anatomy of the Horse," to which the reader is referred. The
same remark is applicable to a very singular and important bone, and its muscular
apparatus, the os hyoides.
THE LARYNX
Is placed on the top of the windpipe (see 1, p. 72), and is the inner guard of the
lungs, if any injurious substance should penetrate so far ; it is the main protection
against the passage of food into the respiratory tubes, and it is at the same time the
instrument of voice. In this last character it loses much of its importance in the
quadruped, because in the dumb animal it is a beautiful piece of mechanism.
The Epiglottis (see 2, p. 72) is a heart-shaped cartilage, placed at the extremity
of the opening into the windpipe, with its back opposed to the pharynx, so that when
a pellet of food passes from the pharynx in its way to the oesophagus, it presses down
the epiglottis, and by this means, as already described, closes the aperture of the
larynx, and prevents any portion of the food from entering it. The food having
passed over the epiglottis, from its own elasticity and that of the membrane at its
base, and more particularly the power of the hyo-epiglotideus muscle, rises again and
resumes its former situation.
The Thyroid Cartilage (see 1, p. 72) occupies almost the whole of the external
part of the larynx, both anteriorly and laterally. It envelopes and protects all the
rest; a point of considerable importance, considering the injury to which the lar)'nx
is exposed, by our system of curbing and tight reining. It also forms a point of
attachment for the insertion of the greater part of the delicate muscles by which the
other cartilages are moved.
The beautiful mechanism of the larynx is governed or worked by a somewhat com-
plicated system of muscles, for a description of which the reader is referred to the 5th
vol. of The Veterinarian, p. 447. It is plentifully supplied with nerves from the res-
piratory system, and there are also frequent anastomoses with the motor nerves of the
spinal cord. The sole process of respiration is partly under the control of the will,
and the muscles of the larynx concerned in one stage of it are likewise so, but they
also act independently of the will, for during sleep and unconsciousness the machine
continues to work.
The origin of the artery which supplies these parts with blood is sometimes derived
from the main trunk of the carotid, but oftener it is a branch of the thyroideal artery.
,64 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK.
The lining membrane is a continuation of that of the pharynx above and lh«
trachea below. It is covered with innnmerable follicular glands, from whose mouths
there oozes a mucous fluid that moistens and lubricates its surface. It is possessed
of very great sensibility, and its function requires it. It is, as has been already
stated, tlie inner guard of the lungs, and the larynx must undergo a multitude of
changes of form in order to adapt itself to certain changes in the act of respiration,
and in order to produce the voice. The voice of the horse is, however, extremely
limited, compared with that of the human being; the same sensibility, therefore, is
not required, and exposed as our quadruped slaves are to absurd and barbarous usage,
too great sensibility of any part, and particularly of this, would be a curse to the
animal.
THE TRACHEA OR WINDPIPE.
The course of the inspired air from the larynx to the lungs is now to be traced, and
it will be found to be conveyed through a singularly constructed tube (6, p. 7'2),
passing along the anterior portion of the neck, and reaching from the low-er edge of
the cricoid cartilage (11, p. 73) to the lungs. In the commencement of its course
it is somewhat superficially placed, but as it descends towards the thorax it becomes
gradually deeper and more concealed. In order to discharge its functions as an air-
tube, it is essential that it should always be pervious, or, at least, that any obstruc-
tion to the process of respiration should be but momentary. Attached to a part
endowed with such extensive motion as the neck, it is also necessary that it should
be flexible. It is composed of cartilage, an exceedingly elastic substance, and at the
6anie time possessing a certain degree of flexibility.
The windpipe is composed of cartilage, but not of one entire piece, for that would
necessarily be either too thick and firm to be flexible, or if it were sufiiciently flexible
to accommodate itself to the action of the neck, it would be too weak to resist even
common pressure or injury, and the passage through it would often be inconveniently
or dangerously obstructed. Besides, it is necessary that this tube should occasionally
admit of elongation to a considerable degree. When the neck is extended in the act
of grazing or otherwise, the trachea must be lengthened.
The structure of the cartilage of the windpipe is admirably adapted to eflject every
purpose. It is divided into rings, fifty or fifty-two in number, each possessing suffi-
cient thickness and strength to resist ordinary pressure, and each constituting a joint
with the one above and below, and thus admitting of all the flexibility that could be
required. These rings are connected together by an interposed fibro-ligamentous
substance, extensible, elastic, and yet so strong that it is scarcely possible to rupture
it; and the fibres of that ligament not running vertically from one to another, and
therefore admitting of little more motion than the rotation of the head, but composed
of two layers running obliquely, and in contrary directions, so as to adapt themselves
to every variety of motion.
These rings are thickest in front, and project circularly, opposing an arch-like form.
There, too, the ligament is widest, in order to admit of the greatest motion in the
direction in which it is most needed, when the head is elevated or depressed. Late-
rally these rings are thinner, because they are, to a great degree, protected by the
surrounding parts; and, posteriorly, they overlap each other, and the overlapping
portions are connected together by a strong ligamentous substance. This, while it
does not impede the motion of the tube, gives firmness and stability to it.
Within the trachea is another very curious structure. At the points at which,
posteriorly, the rings begin to bend inwardly, a muscle is found stretching across the
windpipe, dividing the canal into two unequal portions — the anterior one constituting
the proper air-passage, and the posterior one occupied by celhilar texture. It is to
give additional strength to parts. It is the tie which prevents the arcli from spurring
out. In the natural state of the windpipe this muscle is, probably, quiescent; but
when any considerable pressure is made on the crown of the arch at the upper part
by tight reining, or at the lower by an ill-made collar, or any where by brutal or
accidental violence, this muscle contracts, every serious expansion or depression of
the arch is prevented, and the part is preserved from serious injury.
Il may also be readily imagined that, when in violent exertion, every part of the
respiratory canal is on the stretch, this band may preserve the windpipe from injur)
TRACHEOTOMY. 165
or laceration. There are many beautiful points in the phj-siology ot the horse which
deserve much greater attention than has hitherto been paid to tiiem.
The -windpipe should project from the neck. It should almost seem as if it were
detached from the neck, for two important reasons : first, that it may easily enter
Detween the channels of the jaw, so that the Irorse may be reined up without suffering
inconvenience ; and next, that being more loosely attached to tlie neck, it may more
readily adapt itself to the changes required than if it were enveloped by fat, or muscle
to a certain degree unyielding: therefore, in every well-formed neck — and it will be
seen in the cut (p. 159) — it is indispensable that the windpipe should be prominent
and loose on the neck. This is not required in the heavy cart-horse, and we do not
often find it, because he is not so much exposed to those circumstances which will
hurry respiration, and require an enlargement in the size of the principal air-tube.
When the trachea arrives at the thorax, it suddenly alters its form, in order to adapt
itself to the narrow triangular aperture through which it has to pass. It preserves the
same cartilaginous structure ; for if it has not the pressure of the external muscles, or
of accidental violence, to resist, it is exposed to the pressure of the lungs when thty
are inflating, and it shares in the pressure of the diaphragm, and of the intercostal
muscles, in the act of expiration. Having entered the chest, it passes a little to the
right, leaving the oesophagus, or gullet, on the left; it separates from the dorsal ver-
tebrae ; it passes through the duplicature of the mediastinum to the base of the heart,
and it divides beneath the posterior aorta. Its divisions are called the bronchial tubes,
and have much to do with the well-being of the horse.
Its rings remain as perfect as before, but a new portion of cartilage begins to pre-
sent itself: it may be traced as high as the tenth ring from the bottom; it spreads
over the union between the posterior terminations of the rings ; it holds them in closer
and firmer connexion with each other; it discharges the duty of the transverse muscle,
which begins here to disappear, and the support of the cer\-ical and dorsal vertebrae ;
it prevents the separation of the rings when the trachea is distended ; it spreads down
upon, and defends the commencement of the bronchial tubes. Some other small plates
of cartilage reach a considerable waj' down the divisions of the bronchi, and the last
ring has a central triangular projection, which covers and defends the bifurcation of
the trachea.
TRACHEOTOMY.
The respiratory canal is occasionally obstructed, to an annoying and dangerous
degree. Pol3rpi have been described as occupying the nostrils ; long tumours have
formed in them. Tumours of other kinds have pressed into the pharynx. The tumour
of strangles has, for a while, occupied the passage. The larynx has been distorted ;
the membrane of the windpipe, on the larynx, has been thickened, and ulcers have
formed in one or both, and have been so painful that the act of breathing was labo-
rious and torturing. In all these cases it has been anxiously inquired whether there
might not be established an artificial opening for the passage of the air, when the
natural one could no longer be used ; and it has been ascertained that it is both a sim-
ple and safe operation, to excise a portion of the trachea, on or below the point of
obstruction.
The operation must be performed while the horse is standing, and secured by a
side-line, for he would, probably, be suffocated amidst the strugrgles with which he
would resist the act of throwing. The twitch is then firmly fixed on the muzzle ; the
operator stands on a stool or pail, by which means he can more perfectly command
the part, and an assistant holds a scalpel, a bistoury, scissors, curved needles armed,
and a moist sponge.
The operator should once more examine the whole course of the windpipe, and the
different sounds which he will be able to detect by the application of the ear, and like-
wise the different degrees of temperature and of tenderness which the finger will detect,
will guide to the seat of the evil.
The hair is to be closely cut off from the part, the skin tightened across the trachea
with the thumb and fingers of the left hand, and then a longitudinal incision cautiously
made through the skin, three inches in length. This is usually effected when there
is no express indication to the contrary on the fifth and sixth ringfs ; a slip from which,
and the connectingr ligrament above and below, about half the width of each rinsf, should
166 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK.
be excised with the intervening ligament. The remaining portion will then be strong
enough to retain the perfect arched form of the trachea.
If the orifice is only to be kept open while some foreign body is extracted, or tumour
removed, or ulcer healed, or inflammation subdued, nothing more is necessary than to
Keep the lips of the wound a little apart, by passing some thread through each, and
slightly everting them, and tying the threads to the mane.
If, however, there is any permanent obstruction, a tube will be necessary. It should
be two or three inches long, curved at the top, and the external orifice turning down-
wards with a little ring on each side, by which, through the means of tubes, it may
be retained in its situation.
The purpose of the operation being answered, the flaps of integument must be
brought over the wound, the edges, if necessary, diminished, and the parts kept in
apposition by a few stitches. The cartilage will be perfectly reproduced, only the
rings will be a little thicker and wider.
The following account will illustrate the use and the danger of the tracheotomy
tube. A mare at Alfort had great distortion of the rings of the trachea. She breathed
with difficulty. She became a roarer almost to suffocation, and was quite useless.
Tracheotomy was effected on the distorted rings, and a short canula introduced. She
was so much relieved that she trotted and galloped immediately afterwards without
the slightest distress. Six months later she again began to roar. It seemed that the
rings were now distorted below the former place.
M. Barthelemy introduced another canula, seven inches long, and which reached
below the new distortion. She was once more relieved. She speedily improved in
condition, and regularly drew a cabriolet at the rate of seven or eight miles in the
hour; and this she continued to do for three years, when the canula became accident-
ally displaced in the night, and she was found dead in the morning.
THE BRONCHIAL TUBES.
The windpipe has been traced through its course down the neck into the chest. It
is there continued through the mediastinum to the base of the heart, and then divided
into two tubes corresponding with the two divisions of the lungs — the BRo^■cHIAl.
Tubes. These trunks enter deeply into the substance of the lungs. They presently
subdivide, and the subdivision is continued in every direction, until branches from the
trachea penetrate every assignable portion and part of the lungs. They are still air-
passages, carrying on this fluid to its destination, for the accomplishment of a vital
purpose.
They also continue exposed to pressure ; but it is pressure of a new kind, a pressure
alternately applied and removed. The lungs in which they are embedded alternately
contract and expand ; and these tubes must contract and expand likewise. Embedded
in the lungs, the cartilaginous ring of the bronchi remains, but it is divided into five
or six segments connected with each other. The lungs being compressed, the seg-
ments overlap each other, and fold up and occupy little space ; but the principle of
elasticity is still at work; and as the pressure is removed, they start again, and
resume their previous form and calibre. It is a beautiful contrivance, and exquisitely
adapted to the situation in which these tubes are placed, and the functions they havf
to discharge.
But we must pause a little and consider the structuie and functions of the chest.
THE CHEST,
67
CHAPTER VI.
THE CHEST.
a The first rib.
b The cartilages of the eleven hindermost, or false ribs, connected together, and uniting witH
that of the seventh or last true rib.
e The breast-bone.
d The top, or point, of the withers, which are formed by the lengthened spinous, or upright
processes of the ten or eleven first bones of the back. The bones of the back, ars
eighteen in number.
e The ribs, usually eighteen on each side ; the seven first united to the breast-bone by car-
tilage ; the cartilages of the remaining eleven united to each other, as at 6.
/ That portion of the spine where the loins commence, and composed of five bones.
g The bones forming the hip, or haunch, and into the hole at the bottom of which the head
of the thigh-bone is received.
h The portion of the spine belonging to the haunch, and consisting of five pieces.
t The bones of the tail, usually fifteen in number.
The chest, in the horizontal position in which it is placed in the cut, is of a some
what oval figure, with its extremities truncated. The spine is its roof; the sternum,
or breast, its floor; the ribs, its sides; the trachea, oesophagus, and great blood-
vessels passing through its anterior extremity and the diaphragm, being its posterior.
It is contracted in front, broad and deep towards the central boundary, and again
contracted posteriorly. It encloses the heart and the lungs, the origin of the arterial,
and the termination of the venous trunks and the collected vessels of the absorbents.
The windpipe penetrates into it, and the oesophagus traverses its whole extent.
A cavity whose contents are thus important should be securely defended. The
roof is not composed of one unyielding prolongation of bone, which might possibly
have been strong enough, yet would have subjected it to a thousand rude and danger-
ous shocks ; but there is a curiously-contrived series of bones, knit together by strong
ligaments and dense cartilaginous substance, forming so many joints,"each possessed
but of little individual motion, but the whole united and constituting a column of
such exquisitely-contrived flexibility and strength, that all concussion is avoided, and
no external violence or weight can injure that which it protects. It is supported
chiefly by the anterior extremities, and beautiful are the contrivances adopted to
prevent injurious connexion. There is no inflexible bony union between the shoulders
and the chest; but while the spine is formed to neutralise much of the concussion
that might be received — while the elastic connexions between the vertebrae of the
back, alternately affording a yielding resistance to the shock, and regaining their
natural situation when the external force is removed, go far, by this playful motion,
to render harmless the rudest motion — there is a provision made by the attachment
of the shoulder-blade to the chest calculated to prevent the possibility of any rude
concussion reachinsr the thorax.*
* " Had," says I\lr. Percivall, " the entire rib been one soHd piece of bone, a violent blow
might have broken it to pieces. On the other hand, had the ribs been composed from end ta
108 THE CHEST.
Av the shoulder is a muscle of immense strength, and tendinous elastic composition,
the kerratus major, spreading over the internal surface of the shoulder-blade and a
portion of the chest. A spring of easier plaj^ could not have been attached to the
carriage of any invalid. It is a carriage hung by springs between the scapula', and
a delightful one it is for easy travelling ; while there is combined with it, and the
union is not a little difficult, strength enough to resist the jolting of the roughest load
and the most rapid pace.
Laterally there is sufficient defence against all common injury by the expansion of
the shoulder over the chest from between the first and second to the seventh rib ; and
behind and below that there is the bony structure of the ribs, of no little strength ;
and their arched form, although a flattened arch ; and the yielding motion at the base
of each rib, resulting from its jointed connexion with the spine above and its cartila-
ginous union with the sternum below.
A still more important consideration with regard to the parietes of the thorax is the
manner in which they can adapt themselves to the changing bulk of the contents of
the cavity. The capacity of the chest is little affected by the external contraction
and dilatation of the heart, for when its ventricles are collapsed its auricles are
distended, and when its auricles are compressed its ventricles expand ; but with
regard to the lungs it is a very different affair. In their state of collapse and expan-
sion they vary in comparative bulk, one-sixth part or more, and, in either state, it is
necessary for the proper discharge of the function of respiration that the parietes of
the chest should be in contact with them.
The ribs are eighteen in number on either side. Nine of them are perfect, and
commonlj' called the true, or, more properly, sternal ribs, extending from the spine to
the sternum. The remaining nine are posterior and shorter, and are only indirectly
connected with the sternum.
The ribs are united to the corresponding vertebrae, or bones of the spine, so as to
form perfect joints — or, rather, each rib forms two joints. The head of the rib is
received between the vertebrae and bones of the spine, before and behind, so that it
shall always present two articulating surfaces ; one opposed to the vertebra imme-
diately before, and the other to that immediately behind, and both forming one joint,
with a perfect capsular ligament, and admitting of a rotary motion. The head of
the rib seems to be received into the cartilaginous ligamentous substance between the
vertebrae. Nothing could be more admirably devised for motion, so far as it is
required, and for strength of union, that can scarcely be broken.
Before the ribs reach the sternum, they terminate in a cartilaginous prolongation,
or the lower part of the rib may be said to be cartilaginous. There is between the
bony part and this cartilage, a joint with a true capsular ligament, and admitting of a
certain deo-ree of motion ; and where it unites with the sternum, there is a fourth
joint, with a perfect and complete capsular ligament.
The cartilages of the posterior ribs are united to the bony portion by a kind of joint.
They are not, however, prolonged so far as the sternum ; but the extremitj' of one lies
upon the body of that which is immediately before it, bound down upon it by a cellular
substance approaching to the nature of ligament, yet each having some separate
motion, and all of them connected indirectly with the sternum, by means of the last
sternal rib. It is an admirable contrivance to preserve the requisite motion which
must attend every act of breathing, every extension and contraction of the chest, with
a degree of strength which scarcely any accident can break through.
The sternum, or breast-bone, is more complicated than it at first appears to be. It
constitutes the floor of the chest, and is a long flat spongy bone, fixed between the
ribs on either side, articulating with these cartilages, and serving as a point of sup-
port to them. It is composed of from seven to nine pieces, united together by car-
tilage ; and whatever changes may take place in other parts of the frame, this cartilage
is not converted to bone, even in extreme old age, although there may, possibly, be
some spots of ossific matter found in it.
end of cartilage only, the form of the arch could not have been sustained, but, sooner or later,
it must have bent inward, and so have encroached upon the cavity of the chest as to have
compressed the organs of respiration and circulation to that degree that could not but have
ended in suflbcation and dcaih of the animal. It was only the judicious and well-arranged
combination of bone and gristle in the construction of the chest that could answer the ends an
all-wise Providence had in view." — Veterinarian, vol. xv. p. 184.
THE CHEST. 169
The point of the breast-bone maj' be occasionally injured by blows, or by the pres-
sure of the collar. It has been, by brutal violence, completely broken oil" from the
sternum ; but oftener, and that from some cruel usage, a kind of tumour has been
formed on the point of it, which has occasionally ulcerated, and proved very diificult
to heal.
The front of the chest is a very important consideration in the structure of the horse.
It should be prominent and broad, and full, and the sides of it well occupied. When
the breast is narrow, the chest has generally the same appearance : the animal is flat-
sided, the proper cavity of the chest is diminished, and the stamina of the horse are
materially diminished, although, perhaps, his speed for short distances may not be
atfected. When the chest is narrow, and the fore legs are too close together, in
addition to the want of bottom, they will interfere with each other, and there will be
wounds on the fetlocks, and bruises below the knee.
A chest too broad is not desirable, but a fleshy and a prominent out , yet even this,
perhaps, may require some explanation. When the fore legs appear to recede, and to
shelter themselves under the body, there is a fault)^ position of the fore linrbs, a bend,
or standing over, an unnatural lengthiness about the fore parts of the breast, sadly
disadvantageous in progression.
There is also a posterior appendix to the sternum, which is also cartilaginous. It
is called the ensifurm cartilage, although it bears little resemblance to a sword. It is
flat and flexible, yet strong, and serves as the commencement of the floor, or support
of the abdomen. It also gives insertion to some of the abdominal muscles, and more
conveniently than it could have been obtained from the body of the sternum.
The Intercostal Muscles. — The borders of the ribs are anteriorly concave, thin and
sharp — posteriorly rounded, and presenting underneath a longitudinal depression, or
channel, in which run both blood-vessels and nerves. The space between them is
occupied by muscular substance, firmly attached to the borders of the ribs. These
muscles are singularly distributed ; their fibres cross each other in the form of an X.
There is a manifest advantage in this. If the fibres ran straight across from rib to
rib, they might act powerfully, but their action would be exceedingly limited. A
short muscle can contract but a little way, and only a slight change of form or dimen-
sion can be produced. By running diagonally from rib to rib, these muscles are
double the length they could otherwise have been. It is a general rule, with regard
to muscular action, that the power of the muscle depends on its bulk, and the extent
of its action on its length.
The ribs, while they protect the important viscera of the thorax from injury, are
powerful agents in extending and contracting the chest in the alternate inspiration
and expiration of air. In what proportion they discharge the labour of respiration,
is a disputed question, and into the consideration of which we cannot enter, until
something is known of the grand respiratory muscle — the diaphragm. Thus far,
however, may be said, that they are not inactive in natural respiration, although they
certainly act only a secondary part ; but in hurried respiration, and when the demand
for arterialised blood is increased by violent exertion, they are valuable and powerful
auxiliaries.
This leads to a very important consideration, the most advantageous form of the
chest for the proper discharge of the natural or extraordinary functions of the thoracic
viscera. The contents of the chest are the lungs and the heart: — the first, to render
the blood nutrient and stimulating, and to give or restore to it that vitality which will
enable it to support every part of the frame in the discharge of its function, and
devoid of which, the complicated and beautiful machine is inert and dead ; and the
second, to convey this purified arterialised blood to every part of the frame.
In order to produce, and to convey to the various parts, a sufficient quantity of
blood, these organs must be large. If it amounts not to hypertrophy, the larger the
heart and the larger the lungs, the more rapid the process of nutrition, and the more
perfect the discharge of every animal function.
Then it might be imagined that, as a circle is a figure which contains more than
any other of equal girth and admeasurement, a circular form of the chest would be
most advantageous. Not exactly so; for the contents of the chest are alternately
expanding and contracting. The circular chest could not expand, but every change
of fnrn, would be a diminution of capacity.
That form of chest which approaches nearest to a circle, while it admits of suffioien*
13 w
170 THE CHEST,
expansion and contraction, is the best — certainly for some animals, and for all under
peculiar circumstances, and with reference to the discharge of certain functions.
This was the grand principle on which Mr. Bakevvell proceeded, and on which all
our improvements in the breeding- of cattle were founded.
This principle holds good with regard to some breeds of horses. We value the
heavy draught-horse not only on account of his simple muscular power, but tlie
weight which, by means of that power, he is able to throw into the collar. A light
horse may be preferable for light draught; but we must oppose weight to weight,
when our loads are heavy. In the dray-horse, we prize this circular chest, not only
that he may be proportionably heavier before — to him no disadvantage — but that, by
means of the Increased capacity of his chest, he may obtain the bulk and size which
best fit him for our service. But he would not do for speed — he would not do for
ordinary quick exertion; and if he were pushed far beyond his pace, he would become
broken-winded, or have Inflamed lungs.
Some of our saddle-horses and cobs have barrels round enough, and we value them
on account of it, for they are always In condition, and they rarely tire. But when
we look at them more carefully, there is just that departure from the circular form of
which mention has been made — that happy medium between the circle and the ellipse,
which retains the capacity of the one and the expansibility of the other. Such a
horse Is Invaluable for common purposes, but he Is seldom a horse of speed. If he
Is permitted to go his own pace, and that not a slow one, he will work on for ever;
but if he is too much hurried, he Is soon distressed.
Tht Broad Deep Chest. — Then for the usual purposes of the road, and more partic-
ularly for rapid progression, search Is made for that form of the chest which shall
unite, and to as great a degree as possible, considerable capacity in a quiescent state,
and the power of increasing that capacity when the animal requires it. There must
be the broad chest for the production of muscles and sinews, and the deep chest, to
give the capacity or power of furnishing arterial blood equal to the most rapid ex-
haustion of vitality.
This form of the chest is consistent with lightness, or at least with all the light-
ness that can be rationally required. The broad-chested horse, or he that, with mod-
erate depth at the girth, swells and barrels out immediately behind the elbow, may
have as light a forehead and as elevated a wither as the horse wdth the narrowest
chest; but the animal with the barrel approaching too near to rotundity Is Invariably
heavy about the shoulders and low In the withers. It Is to the mixture of the Ara-
bian blood that we principally owe this peculiar and advantageous formation of the
chest of the horse. The Arab Is light ; some would say too much so before : but
immediately behind the arms the barrel almost Invariably swells out, and leaves
plenty of room, and where It Is most wanted for the play of the lungs, and at the
same time where the weight does not press so exclusively on the fore-legs, and expose
the feet to concussion and Injury.
Many horses with narrow chests, and a great deal of daylight under them, have
plenty of spirit and willingness for work. They show themselves well off, and ex-
hibit the address and gratify the vanity of their riders on the parade or in the park,
but they have not the appetite nor the endurance that will carry them through three
successive days' hard work.
Five out of six of the animals that perish from inflamed lungs are narrow-chested,
and it might be safely afljrmed that the far greater part of those who are lost In the
field after a hard day's run, have been horses whose training has been neglected, or
who have no room for the lungs to expand. The most important of all points in the
conformation of the horse Is here elucidated. An elevated wither, or oblique shoulder,
or powerful quarters, are great advantages ; but that which is most of all connected
with the general health of the animal, and with combined fleetness or bottom, Is a
deep, and broad, and swelling chest, with sufficient lengthening of the sternum, o
breast-bone, beneath.
If a chest that cannot expand with the increasing expansion and labour of the lungs
is so serious a detriment to the horse, everything tliat interferes with the action of the
intercostal muscles Is carefully to be avoided. Tight girthing ranks among these,
and foremost among them. The closeness with which the roller Is buckled on In the
stable must be a serious Inconvenience to the horse; and the partially depriving ihesc
muscles of their power of action, for so many hours in every day, must indispose
THE SPINE AND BACK. 171
them for labour when quicker and fuller respiration is required. At all events, a tight
girth, though an almost necessary nuisance, is a very considerable one, when all the
exertion of which he is capable is required from the horse. Who has not perceived
the address with which, by bellying out the chest, the old horse renders every attempt
to girth him tight comparatively useless ;' and when a horse is blown, what imme-
diate relief has ungirthing him atforded, by permitting the intercostals to act with
greater power ?
A point of consequence regarding the capacity of the chest, is the length or short-
ness of the carcase ; or the extent of the ribs from the elbow backward. Some horses
are what is called ribbed hi)me ; there is but little space (see cuts pp. 6S and 167)
between the last rib and the hip-bone. In others the distance is considerably greater,
and is plainly evident by the falling in of the flank. The question then is, what
service is required from the horse ? If he has to carry a heavy weight, and has
much work to do, he should be ribbed home — the last rib and the hip-bone should
not be far from each other. There is more capacity of chest and of belly — there is
less distance between the points of support — and greater strength and endurance.
A hackney (and we would almost say a hunter) can scarcely be too well ribbed
home.
If speed, however, is required, there must be room for the full action of the hinder
limbs ; and this can only exist where there is sufficient space between the last rib
and the hip-bone. The owner of the horse must make up his mind as to what he
wants from him, and be satisfied if he obtains that; for, let him be assured that he
cannot have ever\'thing, for this would require those differences of conformation that
cannot possibly exist in the same animal.
The thorax, or chest, is formed by the spine/, above (p. 167) the ribs e, on either
side ; and the sternum, or breast-bone, c, beneath.
THE SPINE AND BACK.
The spine, or back, consists of a chain of bones from the poll to the extremity of
the tail. It is made up of twenty-three bones from the neck to the haunch; eigh-
teen, called dorsal veriebrse, composing the back; and five lumbar vertebrw, occupy-
ing the loins. On this part of the animal the weight or burden is laid, and there
are two things to be principally considered, easiness of carriage and strength. If
the back were composed of unyielding materials — if it resembled a bar of wood oi
iron, much jarring or jolting, in the rapid motion of the animal, could not possibly
be endured. In order to avoid this, as well as to assist in tua-ning, the back is divided
into numerous bones ; and between each pair of bones there is interposed a cartila-
ginous substance, most highly elastic, that will yield and give way to every jar, not
so much as to occasion insecurity between the bones, or to permit considerable motion
between any one pair, but forming altogether an aggregate mass of such perfect elas-
ticity, that the rider sits almost undisturbed, however high may be the action, or how-
ever rapid the pace.
Strength is as important as ease ; therefore these bones are united together with pe-
culiar firmness. The round head of one is exactly fitted to the cup or cavity of that
immediately before it ; and between them is placed the elastic ligamentous substance,
which has been just described, so strong, that in endeavouring to separate the bones
of the back, they wall break before this substance will give way. In addition to this
there are ligaments running along the broad under-surface of these bones — ligaments
between each of the transverse processes, or side projections of the bones — ligaments
between the spinous processes or upright projections, and also a continuation of the
strong ligament of the neck running along the whole course of the back and loins,
lengthening and contracting, as in the neck, with the motions of the animal, and
forming a powerful bond of union between the bones.
B}' these means the hunter will carry a heavy man Avithout fatigue or strain through
a long chase ; and those shocks and jars are avoided which would be annoying to the
rider, and injurious and speedily fatal to the horse.
These provisions, however, although adequate to common or even severe exertion,
will not protect the animal from the consequences of brutal usage; and, therefore, if
the horse is mmh overweighted, or violently exercised, or too suddenly pulled upon
his haunches, these ligaments are strained. Inflammation follows. The ligaments
become changed to bone, and the joints of the back lose their springiness and ease of
172 THE CHEST.
motion ; or rather, in point of fact, they cease to exist. On account of the too hard
service required from them, and especially before they had gained their full strength,
there are few old horses who have not some of the bones of the back or loins anchy-
losed — united together by bony matter and not by ligament. When this exists to any
considerable extent, the horse is not pleasant to ride — he turns with difficulty in his
stall — he is unwilling to lie down, and when down to rise again, and he has a
singular straddling action. Such horses are said to be broken-backed or chinked in the
cJii7ie.
Fracture of the bones of the back rarely occurs, on account of their being so strongly
united by ligaments, and defended by muscular substance. If a fracture of these
bones does happen, it is during the violent struggles after the horse has been cast for
an operation.
The length of the back is an important consideration. A long-backed horse will
be easy in his paces, because the increased distance between the fore and hind legs,
which are the supports of the spine, will afford greater room for the play of the joints
of the back. A long spring has much more play than a short one, and will better
obviate concussion. A long-backed horse is likewise formed for speed, for there is
room to bring his hinder legs more under him in the act of gallopping, and thus more
powerfully propel or drive forward the body : but, on the other hand, a long-backed
horse will be comparatively weak in the back, and easily overweighted. A long
spring may be easily bent or broken. The weight of the rider, likewise, placed
farther from the extremities, will act Avith mechanical disadvantage upon them, and
be more likely to strain them. A short-backed horse may be a good hackney, and
able to carrj' the heaviest weight, and possess great endurance ; but his paces will
not be so easy, nor his speed so great, and he may be apt to overreach.
The comparative advantage of a long or short carcase depends entirely on the use
for which the horse is intended. For general purposes the horse with a short carcase
is very properly preferred. He will possess health and strength ; for horses of this
make are proverbially hardy. He will have sufficient easiness of action not to fatigue
the rider, and speed for every ordinary purpose. Length of back will always be
desirable when there is more than usual substance generally, and particularly when
the loins are wide, and the muscles of the loins large and swelling. The two requi-
sites, strength and speed, will then probably be united.
The back should be depressed a little immediately behind the withers ; and then
continue in an almost straight line to the loins. This is the form most consistent
with beauty and strength. Some horses have a very considerable hollow behind the
withers. They are said to be saddle-backed. It seems as if a depression were pur-
posely made for the saddle. Such horses are evidently easy goers, for this curve
inward must necessarily increase the play of the joints of the back : but in the same
proportion they are weak and liable to sprain. To the general appearance of the
horse, this defect is not in any great degree injurious ; for the hollow of the back is
uniformly accompanied by a beautifully arched crest.
A few horses have the curve outward. They are said to be roach-backed, from the
supposed resemblance to the arched back of a roach. This is a very serious defect;
— altogether incompatible with beauty, and materially diminishing the usefulness of
the animal. It is almost impossible to prevent the saddle from being thrown on the
shoulders, or the back from being galled ; — the elasticity of the spine is destroyed ;
. — the nimp is badly set on ; — the hinder legs are too much under the animal ; — he is
continually overreaching, and his head is carried awkwardly low.
THE LOINS.
The loins are attentively examined by every good horseman. They can scarcely
be too broad and muscular. The strength of the back, and especially, the strength
of the hinder extremities, will depend materially on this. The breadth of the loins
is regulated by the length of the transverse or side processes of that part. The bodies
of the bones of the loins are likewise larger than those of the back; and a more dove-
tailed kind of union subsists between these bones than between those of the back.
Every provision is made for strength here. The union of the back and loins should
be carefully observed, for there is sometimes a depression between them. A kind of
line is drawn across, which shows imperfection in the construction of the spine, and
is regarded as an indication of weakness.
THE WITHERS. — MUSCLES OF THE BACK. 173
THE WITHERS.
The spinous or upright processes of the dorsal vertebrse, or bones of the back, abovo
tne upper part of the shoulder, are as remarkable for their length as are the transverse
or side processes of the bones of the loins. They are flattened and terminated by
rou^h blunted extremities. The elevated ridge which they form is called the icithers.
It will be seen in the cuts (pp. 63 and 167), that the spine of the first bone of the
back has but little elevation, and is sharp and upright. The second is longer and
inclined backward ; the third and fourth increases in length, and the fifth is the
longest ; — they then gradually shorten until the twelfth or thirteenth, which becomes
level with the bones of the loins.
High withers have been always, in the mind of the judge of the horse, associated
with good action, and generally with speed. The reason is plain enough : — they
atford larger surface for the attachment of the muscles of the back; and in proportion
to the elevation of the withers, these muscles act with greater advantage. The rising
of the fore parts of the horse, even in the trot, and more especially in the gallop,
depends not merely on the action of the muscles of the legs and shoulders, "but on
those of the loins, inserted into the spinous processes of these bones of the back, and
acting with greater power in proportion as these processes, constituting the withers,
are lengthened. The arm of the lever to which the power is applied will be longer;
and in proportion to the length of this arm will be the ease and the height to which
a weight is raised. Therefore good and high action will depend much on elevated
withers.
It is not difficult to understand how speed will likewise be promoted by the same
conformation. The power of the horse is in his hinder quarters. In them lies the
main spring of the frame, and the fore-quarters are chiefly elevated and thrown for-
ward to receive the weight forced on them by the action of the hinder quarters. In
proportion, however, as the fore-quarters are elevated, will they be thrown farther
forward, or, in other words, will the stride of the horse be lengthened. Yet many
racers have the forehand low. The unrivalled Eclipse was a remarkable instance of
this ; but the ample and finely proportioned quart;ers, and the muscularity of the thio-h
and fore-ann, rendered the aid to be derived from the withers perfectly unnecessary.
The hea\y draught-horse does not require elevated withers. His utility depends
on the power of depressing his fore-quarters, and throwing their weight fully into
the collar; but for common work in the hackney, in the farmer's horse, and in the
hunter, well-formed withers will be an essential advantage, as contributing to good
and safe action, and likewise to speed.
MUSCLES OF THE BACK.
TThe most important muscles which belong to this part of the frame are principally
those which extend from the continuation of the ligament of the neck, along the Avhole
of the back and loins; and likewise from the last cervical bone; — i\ie superficial is and
transversaJis cnsfarum, or superficial and transverse muscles of the ribs, going from
this ligament to the upper part of the ribs to elevate them, and to assist in the expan-
sion of the chest; also the large mass of muscle, the loni^issiititts dorsi. or longest mus-
cle of the back, from the spinous and transverse processes of the vertebrae to the ribs,
and by which all the motions cf the spine, and back, and loins, to which allusion has
been made, are principally produced; bj' which the fore-quarters are raised upon the
hind ones, or the hind upon the fore ones, according as either of them is the fixed
point. This is the principal agent in rearing and kicking.
Tlie last muscle to be noticed is the spiimlis dorsi, the spinal inuscle of the hack,
from the spinous processes of some of the last bones of the back to those of the fore
part; — thick and strong about the withers, and broadly attached to them; and more
powerfully attached, and more strongly acting in proportion to the elevation of the
withers ; and proceeding on to the three lowest bones of the neck, and therefore mainly
concerned, as already described, in elevating the fore-quarters, and producing high
and safe action, and contributing to speed.
Before the roof of the chest is left,some accidents or diseases to which it is exposed
mast be mentioned. The first is of a very serious nature.
15*
174 THE CHEST.
FISTULOUS WITHERS.
When the saddle has been suffered to press long upon the withers, a tumour ■will
be formed, hot and exceedingly tender. It may sometimes be dispersed by the cool-
ing applications recommended in the treatment of poll-evil ; but if, in despite of these,
the swelling should remain stationary, and especially if it should become larger and
more tender, warm fomentations and poultices, and stimulating embrocations, should
be diligently applied, in order to hasten the formation of pus. As soon as that can
be fairly detected, a seton should be passed from the top to the bottom of the tumour,
so that the whole of the matter may be evacuated, and continue to be discharged as
it is afterwards formed ; or the knife may be freely used, in order to get at the bottom
of every sinus. The knife has succeeded many a time when the seton has failed.
The after treatment must be precisely that which was recommended for a similar dis-
ease in the poll.
In neglected fistulous withers the ulcer may be larger and deeper, and more destruc-
tive than in poll-evil. It may burrow beneath the shoulder-blade, and the pus appear
at the point of the shoulder or the elbow ; or the bones of the withers may become
carious.
Very great improvement has taken place in the construction of saddles for common
use and in the cavalrj' service. Certain rules have now been laid down from which
the saddler should never deviate, and attending to wliich the animal is saved from
much suffering, and the mechanic from deserved disgrace.
The first nile in the fitting of the saddle is, that it should bear upon the back, and
not on the spine or the withers, for these are parts that will not endure pressure.
Next in universal application is the understanding that the saddle should have
everj'where an equal bearing, neither tilting forward upon the points nor backward
upon the seat.
When the saddle is on, and the girths fastened, there should remain space sufficient
between the withers and the pommel for the introduction of the hand underneath the
latter.
The points of the tree should clip or embrace the sides without pinching them, or so
standing outward that the pressure is all downwards, and upon one place, instead of
being in a direction inwards as well as downwards, so as to be distributed uniformly
over everj- part of the point that touches the side. Horses that have low and thick
withers are most likely to have them injured, in consequence of the continual riding
forward of the saddle, and its consequent pressure upon them. Fleshy and fat shoul-
ders and sides are also subject to become hurt by the points of the trees eitlier pinch-
ing them from being too narrow in the arch, or from the bearing being directly down-
ward upon them.
Injury occasionally results from the interruption which a too forward saddle presents
to the working or motion of the shoulder, and the consequent friction the soft parts
sustain between the shoulder-blade inwardly, and the points of the saddle-tree
outwardly.*
WARBLES, SITFASTS, AND SADDLE GALLS.
On other parts of the back, tumours and very troublesome ulcers may be produced
by the same cause. Those resulting from the pressure of the saddle are called war-
hJes, and, when they ulcerate, they frequently become sUfasls. Warbles are small
circular bruises, or extravasations of blood, where there has been an undue pressure
of the saddle or harness. If a horse is subject to these tumours, the saddle should
remain on him two or three hours after he has returned to the stable. It is only for a
certain time, however, that this will perfectly succeed, for by the frequent application
of tlie pressure the skin and the cellular substance are bruised or otlierwise injured,
and a permanent sore or tumour, of a very annoying description, takes place. The
centre of iho sore gradually loses its vitality. A separation takes place from the sur-
rounding integument, and there is a circular piece of dried and hard skin remaining
in the centre. This is curiously called a navel gall, because it is opposite to the
navel. No effort must be made to tear or dissect it off, but stimulating poultices c
fomentations, or, if these fail, a mild blister, will cause a speedy separation ; and the
• Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. i., p. 199.
THE THYMUS GLAND. 175
wound will then readily heal by the use of turpentine dressings, more or less stimu-
lating, according to circumstances.
Saddle galls are tumours, and sometimes galls or sores, arising also from the pres-
sure and chafing^ of the saddle. They differ little from the warble, except that there
is ver}- seldom the separation of the dead part in the centre, and the sore is larger and
varj'ing in its form. The application of cold water, or salt and water, will generally
remove excoriations of this kind.
With reg^ard, however, to all these tumours and excoriations, the humane man will
have the saddle eased and padded as soon as it begins to he of the least inconvenience
to the horse.
MUSCLES OF THE BREAST.
There are some important muscles attached to the breast connected with that
expansion of the chest which every horse should possess. In the cut, page 159, are
seen a very important pair of muscles, the pecforales transversi, or pectoral muscles,
forming two prominences in the front of the chest, and extending backward between
the legs. They come from the fore and upper part of the breast-bone ; pass across the
inward part of the arm, and reach from the elbow almost down to the knee. They
confine the arm to the side in the rapid motion of the horse, and prevent lum from
being, what horsemen would call, and what is seen in a horse pushed beyond his
natural power, "all abroad." Other muscles, j?fc/ora/c.s ma^ni et parvi, the great
and little pectorals, rather above but behind these, go from the breast-bone to the
arm, in order to draw back the point of the shoulder, and bring it upright. Another
and smaller muscle goes from the breast-bone to the shoulder, to assist in the s;une
office. A horse, therefore, thin and narrow in the breast, must be deficient in import-
ant muscular power.
Between the legs and along the breast-bone is the proper place in which to insert
rowels, in cases of inflamed lungs.
CHEST-FOUNDER.
These muscles are occasionally the seat of a singular and somewhat mysterious
disease. The old farriers used to call it antlcor and chest-founder. The horse has
considerable stiffness in mo\'ing, evidently not referable to the feet. There is tender-
ness about the muscles of the breast, and, occasionally, swelling. We believe it to
be nothing more than rheumatism, produced by suffering the horse to remain too long
tied up, and exposed to the cold, or riding him against a very bleak wind. Some-
times a considerable degree of fever accompanies this; but bleeding, physic, a rowel
in the chest, warm embrocations over the parts affected, warm stabling, and warm
clc thing, with occasional doses of antimonial powder, will soon subdue the complaint.
CHAPTER VII.
THE CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
THE THYMUS GLAND.
At the entrance of the trachea into the thorax, and ere it has scarcely penetrated
between the first ribs in the young subject, it comes in contact with an irregular glan-
dular body, situated in the doublinsr of the anterior mediastinum. It is " the thymus
gland," or, in vulvar languacre. the sweet-bread. In the early period of utero-gesta-
tion, it is of ver\' inconsiderable bulk, and confined mostly to the chest ; but. during- the
latter months, it strangrely developes itself, — the superior cornua protrude out of the
thorax and climb up the neck, between the carotids and the trachea. They are evi-
dently connected with the th)'mus gland, and become parts and portions of the parotid
glands.
We are indebted to Sir Astley Cooper for the best account of the anatomical struc-
.dre, anu possible function of the thymus gland. It presents, on being cut into, a
176 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
great number of small cavities, in which the abundant while fluid of the gland is in
part contained. From those cavities the fluid is transmitted into a jjeneral reservoir,
which forms a common connecting cavity, and is lined by a delicate membrane. Sir
Astley, and in this he is supported by Professor Miiller, believes that a peculiar albu-
minous fluid is conveyed by the thymus gland to the veins, through the medium of
the lymphatics. It has nothing to do with the formation of the blood, in the foetus
or the child.
These two eminent physiologists exert the better part of discretion, by declining
to give any hypothesis of its function beyond this, that it supplies the lymphatics
with an albuminous fluid.
This gland continues to grow for some time after birth, and remains of considera-
ble size during the first year ; it then gradually diminishes, and, about the period of
puberty, usually disappears. It has, however, been found in a mare between five and
six years old.
THE DIAPHRAGM.
Bounding the thorax posteriorly, — the base of the cone in the human subject, — the
interposed curtain between the thorax and the abdomen in the horse, is the dia}ihragni.
It is an irregular muscular expansion, proceeding from the inferior surface of
the lumbar vertebra posteriorly and superiorly, adhering to the ribs on either
side, and extending obliquely forward and downward to the sternum; or, rather
it is a flattened muscle arising from all these points, with its fibres all converg-
ing towards the centre, and terminating there in an expansion of tendinous substance.
It is lined anteriorly by the pleura or investing membrane of the thoracic cavity, and
posteriorly by the peritoneum or investing membrane of the abdominal cavity.
Anatomy of the JDiaphragm. — In the short account which it is purposed to give of
the structure of the diaphragm, the description of Mr. Percivall will be closely fol-
lowed. " The diaphragm may be divided into the main circular muscle, with its
central tendinous expansion forming the lower part, and two appendices, or crura,
as they are called, from their peculiar shape, constituting its superior portion. The
fleshy origin of the grand muscle may be traced laterally and inferiorly, commencing
from the cartilage of the eighth rib anteriorly, and closely following the union of the
posterior ribs with their cartilages ; excepting, however, the two last. The attach-
ment is peculiarly strong; it is denticulated ; it encircles the whole of the lateral and
inferior part of the chest, as far as the sternum, where it is connected with the ensi-
form cartilage. Immediately under the loins are the appendices of the diaphragm,
commencing on the right side, from the inferior surfaces of the five first lumbar ver-
tebree by strong tendons, which soon become muscular, and form a kind of pillar;
and, on the left, proceeding from the two first lumbar vertebraj only, and from the
sides rather than the bodies of these vertebrae, and these also unite and form a shorter
pillar, or leg. The left crus or appendix is shorter than the right, that it may be
more out of the way of pressure from the left curvature of the stomach, which, Avith
the spleen, lies underneath. Opposite to the 17th dorsal vertebra, these two pillars
unite and form a thick mass of muscles, detached from the vertebral, and leaving a
kind of pouch between them and the vertebree. They not only unite, but they decus-
sate : their fibres mingle and again separate from each other, and then proceed onward
to the central tendinous expansion towards which the fibres from the circular muscle,
and the appendices, all converge.''
The diaphragm is the main agent, both in ordinary and extraordinary respiration ;
it assists also in the expulsion of the urine, and it is a most powerful auxiliary in
the act of parturition. In its quiescent state, it presents its convex surface towards
the thorax, and its concave one towards the abdomen. The anterior convexity abuts
upon the lungs ; the posterior concavity is occupied by some of the abdominal viscera.
The effect of the action of this muscle, or the contraction of its fibres, is to lessen the
convexity towards the chest, and the concavity towards the abdomen : or perhaps, by
a powerful contraction, to cause it to present a plane surface either way. The abdo-
minal viscera that must be displaced in order to effect this, have considerable bulk and
weight; and when the stomach is distended with food, and the motion required from the
diaphragm in rapid breathing is both quick and extensive, there needs some strong, firm,
elastic, substance to bear it. The forcible contact and violent pressure would bruise
and otherwise injure a mere muscular expansion; and therefore we have this tendi-
RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM. i.7?
nous expansion, comparatively devoid of sensibility, to stand the pressure and tho
shocK. which will always be greatest at the centre.
Yet it is subject to injury and disease of a serious and varied character. What-
ever may be the original seat of thoracic or abdominal ailment, the diaphragm soon
becomes irritable and inflamed. This accounts for the breathing of the horse being
so much affected under every inflammation or excitement of the chest or belly. The
irritability of this muscle is often evinced by a singular spasmodic action of a portion,
or the whole of it.
Mr. Castley thus describes a case of it: — "A horse had been very much distressed
in a run of nearly thirteen miles, without a check, and his rider stopped, on the road
towards home, to rest him a little. With difficulty he was brought to the stable.
Mr. Castley was sent for, and he says, — ' When I first saw the animal, his breathing
and attitude indicated the greatest distress. The prominent symptom, however, was
a convulsive motion, or jerking of the whole body, audible at several yards' distance,
and evidently proceeding from his inside ; the beats appeared to be about forty in a
minute. On placing my hand over the heart, the action of that organ could be felt,
but very indistinctly ; the beating evidently came from behind the heart, and was
most plainly to be felt in the direction of the diaphragm. Again placing my hand on
the abdominal muscles, the jerks appeared to come from before, backwards; the
impression on my mind, therefore, was, that this was a spasmodic affection of the
diaphragm, brought on by violent distress in running.' "*
Mr. Castley's account is inserted thus at length, because it was the first of the kind
on record, with the exception of an opinion of Mr. Apperley, which came very near
to the truth. " When a horse is very much exhausted after a long run with hounds,
a noise will sometimes be heard to proceed from his inside, which is often erroneously
supposed to be the beating of his heart, whereas it proceeds from the excessive
motion of the abdominal muscles. "I
]\Ir. Castley shall pursue his case, (it will be a most useful guide to the treatment
of these cases) : — " Finding that there was little pulsation to be felt at the submaxillary
artery, and judging from that circumstance that any attempt to bleed at that time would
be worse than useless, I ordered stimulants to be given. We first administered three
ouhces of spirit of nitrous ether, in a bottle of warm water; but this producing no
good effect, we shortly afterwards gave two drachms of the sub-carbonate of ammonia
in a ball, allowing the patient, at the same time, plenty of white water to drink.
About a quarter of aij hour after this, he broke out into a profuse perspiration, which
continued two hours, or more. The breathing became more tranquil, but the convul-
sive motion of the diaphragm still continued without any abatement. After the
sweating had ceased, the pulse became more perceptible, and the action of the heart
more distinct, and I considered this to be the proper time to bleed. When about ten
pounds had been extracted, I thought that the beating and the breathing seemed to
increase ; the bleeding was stopped, and the patient littered up for the night. In the
morning, the affection of the diaphragm was much moderated, and about eleven o'clock
it ceased, after continuing eighteen or nineteen hours. A little tonic medicine was
afterwards administered, and the horse soon recovered his usual appetite and spirits.":}:
Later surgeons administer, and with good effect, opium in small doses, together
with ammonia, or nitric ether, and have recourse to bleeding as soon as any reaction
is perceived.
Over-fatigue, of almost every kind, has produced spasm of the diaphragm, and so
has over-distension of the stomach with grass.
RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM.
This is an accident, or the consequence of disease, very lately brought under the
cognizance of the veterinary surgeon. The first communication of its occurrence was
from Mr. King, a friend of ^Ir. Percivall.§. It occurred in a mare that had been ridden
sharply for half a dozen miles, when she was full of grass. She soon afterwards
exhibited symptoms of broken-wind, and, at length, died suddenly, while standing in
the stable. The diaphragm was lacerated on the left side, through its whole extent,
throwing the two cavities into one.
• The Veterinarian, 1831, p. 247. t Nimrod on the Condition of Hunters, p. 18.5
t The Veterinarian, 1831, p. 248. ^ The Veterinarian, 1828, p. 101.
178 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
Since that period, from the increasing and very proper habit of examining every
dead horse, cases of this accident have rapidly multiplied. It seems that it may
follow any act of extraordinary exertion, and etTorts of every kind, particularly on a full
stomach, or when the bowels are distended with green or other food likely to generate
gas.* Considerable caution, however, should be exercised when much gaseous fluid
is present ; for the bowels may be distended, and forced against the diaphragm to
such a degree, as to threaten to burst.
An interesting case of rupture of the diaphragm was related by Professor Spooner,
at one of the meetings of the Veterinary Medical Association. A horse having been
saddled and bridled for riding, was turned in his stall and fastened by the bit-straps.
Something frightened him — he reared, broke the bit-strap, and fell backward. On the
following^mor'ning, he was evidently in great pain, kicking, heaving, and occasionally
lying down. Mr. S. was sent for to examine him, but was not told of the event of
the preceding day. He considered it to be a case of enteritis, and treated it accord-
ino-ly. He bled him largely, and, in the course of the day, the horse appeared to be
decidedly better, every symptom of pain having vanished. The horse was more
lively he ate with appetite, but his bowels remained constipated.
On the following day there was a fearful change. The animal was suifering sadly
the breathino- was laborious, and the membrane of the nose intensely red, as if it
were more a case of inflammation of the lungs than of the bowels. The bowels
were still constipated. The patient was bled and physicked again, but without
avail. He died ; and there was found rupture of the diaphragm, protrusion of intes-
tine into the thoracic cavity, and extensive pleural and peritoneal inflammation.
In rupture of the diaphragm, the horse usually sits on his haunches, like a dog;
but this is far from being an infallible symptom of the disease. It accompanies
introsusception, as well as rupture of the diaphragm. The weight of the intestines
may possibly cause any protruded part of them to descend again into the abdomen.
This muscle, so important in its office, is plentifully supplied with blood-vessels.
As the posterior aorta passes beneath the crura of the diaphragm, it gives out some-
times a single vessel which soon bifurcates ; sometimes two branches, which speedily
plunge into the appendices or crura, while numerous small vessels, escaping from
them" spread over the central tendinous expansion. As the larger muscle of the
diaphragm springs from the sides and the base of the chest, it receives many ramifica-
tions from the internal pectoral, derived from the anterior aorta ; but more from the
posterior intercostals which spring from the posterior aorta.
The veins of the diaphragm belong exclusively to the posterior vena cava. There
are usually three on either side ; but they may be best referred to two chief trunks
which come from the circumference of the diaphragm, converge towards the centre,
and run into the posterior cava as it passes through the tendinous expansion.
The functional nerve of the diaphragm, or that from which it derives its principal
action, and which constitutes it a muscle of respiration, is the phrenic or diaphragmatic.
Although it does not proceed from that portion of the medulla oblongata which gives
rise to the glosso-pharyngeus and the par vagum, yet there is suflicient to induce us
to suspect that it arises from, and should be referred to, the lateral column between
the superior and inferior, the sensitive and motor nerves, and which may be evidently
traced from the pons varolii to the very termination of the spinal chord.
The diaphragm is the main agent in the work of respiration. The other muscles
are mere auxiliaries, little needed in ordinary breathing, but affording the most
important assistance, when the breathing is more than usually hurried. The mecha-
nism of respiration may be thus explained : — Let it be supposed that the lungs are in
a quiescent state. The act of expiration has been performed, and all is still. From
some cause enveloped in mystery — connected with the will, but independent of it —
some stimulus of an unexplained and unknown kind — the phrenic nerve acts on the
diaphragm, and that muscle contracts; and, by contracting, its convexity into the
chest is diminished, and the cavity of the chest is enlarged. At the same time, and
by some consentaneous influence, the intercostal muscles act — with no great force,
indeed, in undisturbed breathing; but, in proportion as they act, the ribs rotate ob
their axes, their edges are thrown outward, and thus a twofold efi'ect ensues : — the
posterior margin of the chest is expanded, the cavity is plainly enlarged, and also, by
the partial rotation of every rib, the cavity is still more increased.
♦ Pcrcivall's Hippopathology, vol. ii., No. 1, p. 152.
THE PLEURA. i79
By some other consentaneous influence, the spinal accessor}"^ nerve likewise exerts
its power, and the sterno-maxillaris muscle is stimulated by the anterior division of it,
and the motion of the head and neck corresponds with and assists that of the chest;
while the posterior division of the accessory nerve, by its anastanioses with the motoi
nerves of the levator humeri and the splenius, and many other of the muscles of the
neck and the shoulder, and by its direct influence on the rhomboideus, associates
almost every muscle of the neck, the shoulder, and the chest, in the expansion of the
thorax. These latter are muscles, which, in undisturbed respiration, the animal
scarcely needs; but which are necessary to him when tjie respiration is much
disturbed, and to obtain the aid of which he will, under pneumonia, obstinately stand
until he falls exhausted or to die.
The cavity of the chest is now enlarged. But this is a closed cavity, and between
its contents and the parietes of the chest a vacuum would be formed ; or rather an
inequality of atmospheric pressure is produced from the moment the chest begins to
dilate. As the diaphragm recedes, there is nothing to counterbalance the pressure of
the atmorspheric air communicating with the lungs through the medium of the nose
and mouth, and it is forced into the respiratory tubes already described, and the lungs
are expanded and still kept in contact with the receding walls of the chest. There is
no sucking, no inhalent power in the act of inspiration; it is the simple enlargement
of the chest from the entrance and pressure of the air.
From some cause, as inexplicable as that which produced the expansion of the
chest, the respirator)'- nerves cease to act; and the diaphragm, by the inherent
elasticity of its tendinous expansion and muscular fibres, returns to its natural form,
once more projecting its convexity into the thorax. The abdominal muscles, also,
which had been put on the stretch by the forcing of the viscera into the posterior part
of the abdomen by means of the straightening of the diaphragm, contract, and
accelerate the return of that muscle to its quiescent figure ; and the ribs, all armed
wnth elastic cartilages, regain their former situation and figure. The muscles of the
shoulder and the chest relax, a portion of the lungs are pressed on every side, and the
air w'ith which they were distended is again forced out. There is only one set of
muscles actively employed in expiration, namely, the abdominal : the elasticity of
the parts displaced in inspiration being almost sufficient to accomplish the purpose.
The lungs, however, are not altogether passive. The bronchial tubes, so far as
they can be traced, are lined with cartilage, divided and subdivided for the purpose
of folding up when the lungs are compressed, but elastic enough to aff"ord a yielding
resistance against both unusual expansion and contraction. In their usual state the
air-tubes are distended beyond their natural calibre ; for if the parietes of the thorax
are perforated, and the pressure of the atmosphere rendered equal within and without
them, the lungs immediately collapse.
THE PLEURA.
Tlie walls of the chest are lined, and the lungs are covered by a smooth glistening
membrane, the pleura. It is a serous membrane, so called from the nature of its
exhalation, in distinction from the mucous secretion yielded by the membrane of the
air-passages. The serous membrane generally invests the most important organs,
and always those that are essentially connected with life ; while the mucous mem-
brane lines the interior of the greater part of them. The pleura is the investing
membrane of the lungs, and a mucous membrane the lining one of the bronchial tubes.
Among the circumstances principally to be noticed, with regard to the pleura, is
the polish of its external surface. The glistening appearance of the lungs, and of the
inside of the chest, is to be attributed to the membrane by w-hich they are covered,
and by means of which the motion of the various organs is freer and less dangerous.
Although the lungs, and the bony walls which contain them, are in constant approxi-
mation with each other, both in expiration and inspiration, yet in the frequently
hurried and violent motion of the animal, and, in fact, in every act of expiration and
inspiration, of dilatation and contraction, much and injurious friction would ensue if
the surfaces did not glide freely over each other by means of the peculiar polish of
this membrane.
Every serous membrane has innumerable exhalent vessels upon its surface, from
which a considerable quantity of fluid is poured out. In life and during health it
exists in the chest only as a kind of dew, just sufficient to lubricate the surfaces.
180 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
When the chest is opened soon after death, we reco^ize it in the steam that zuseA.
and in a few drops of fluid, which, being condensed, are found at the lowest part of
the chest.
The quantity, however, which is exhaled from all the serous membranes, must be
very great. It is perhaps equal or superior to that which is yielded by the vessels
on the surface of the body. If very liltle is found in ordinary cases, it is because the
absorbents are as numerous and as active as the exhalents, and, during health, that
which is poured out by the one is taken up by the other; but in circumstances of dis-
ease, either when the exhalents are stimulated to undue action, or the power of the
absorbents is diminished, the fluid rapidly and greatly accumulates. Thus we have
hydrothorax or dropsy of the chest, as one of the consequences of inflammation of the
chest; and the same disturbed balance of action will produce similar eff"usion in other
cavities.
The extensibility of membrane generally is nowhere more strikingly displayed than
in the serous membranes, and particularly in that under consideration. How different
the bulk of the lungs before the act of inspiration has commenced, and after it has
been completed, and especially in the laborious respiration of disease or rapid exer-
tion ! In either state of the lungs the pleura is perfectly fitted to that which it
envelopes.
The pleura, like other serous membranes, is possessed of very little sensibility.
Few nerves from the sensitive column of the spinal chord reach it. Acute feeling
would render these membranes generally, and this membrane in particular, unfit for
the function they have to discharge. It has too much motion, even during sleep ; and
far too forcible friction with the parietes of the thorax in morbid or hurried respiration,
to render it convenient or useful for it to possess much sensation. Some of those
anatomists whose experiments on the living animal do no credit to their humanity,
have given most singular proof of the insensibility, not only of these serous mem-
branes, but of the organs which they invest. Bichat frequently examined the spleen
of dogs. He detached it from some of its adhesions, and left it protruding from the
wound in the abdomen, in order " to study the phenomena;" and he saw " them tear
ing off that organ, and eating it, and thus feeding upon their own substance." In
some experiments, in which part of their intestines were left out, he observed them,
as soon as they had the opportunity, tear to pieces their own viscera without any
visible pain.
Although it may be advantageous that these important organs shall be thus devoid
of sensibility when in health, in order that we may be unconscious of their action and
motion, and that they may be rendered perfectly independent of the will, yet it is
equally needful that, by the feeling of pain, we should be warned of the existence oi
any dangerous disease : and thence it happens that this membrane, and also the organ
which it invests, acquire under inflammation the highest degree of sensibility. The
countenance of the horse labouring under pleurisy or pneumonia will sufficiently indi-
cate a state of suffering; and the spasmed bend of his neck, and his long and anxious
and intense gaze upon his side, tell us that that suffering is extreme.
Nature, however, is wise and benevolent even here. It is not of every morbid
affection, or morbid change, that the animal is conscious. If a mucous membrane is
diseased, he is rendered painfully aware of that, for neither respiration nor digestion
could be perfectly carried on while there was any considerable lesion of it; but, on
the other hand, we find tubercles in the parenchyma of the lungs, or induration or
hepatization of their substance, or extensive adhesions, of which there were few or
no indications during life.
The pleura adheres intimately to the ribs and to the substance of the lungs; yet it
is a very singular connexion. It is not a continuance of the same organisation ; it is
not an interchange of vessels. The organ and its membrane, although so closely
connected for a particular purpose, yet in very many cases, and where it would leas
of all be suspected, have little or no sympathy with each other. Inflammation of the
lungs will sometimes exist, and will run on to ulceration, wliile the pleura will be
very little affected : and, much oftener, the pleura will be the seat of inflammation
and will be attended by increased exhalation to such an extent as to suffocate the
animal, and yet the lungs will exhibit little other morbid appearance ttian that o1
mere compression. The disease of a mucous membrane spreads to other parts — that
THE LUNGS— THE HE A IV T. 181
of a serous one is generally isolated. It was to limit the progress of disease that this
difference of structure between the organ and its membrane was contrived.
The investing membrane of the lungs and that of the heart are in continual contact
with each other, but they are as distinct and unconnected, as if they were placed in
different parts of the frame. Is there no meaning in this'?
It is to prcser\-e the perfect independence of organs equally important, yet altogether
different in structure and function — to oppose an insuperable barrier to hurtful sym-
pathy between them, and especially to cut off the communication of disease.
Perhaps a little light begins to be thrown on a circumstance of which we have
occasional painful experience. While we may administer physic, or mild aperients
at least, in pleurisy, not only with little danger, but with manifest advantage, we
may just as well give a dose of poison as a physic-ball to a horse labouring- under
pneumonia. The pleura is connected with the lungs, and with the lungs alone, and
the organisation is so different, that there is very little sympathy between them. A
physic-ball may, therefore, act as a counter-irritant, or as giving a new determination
to the vital current, w ithout the propagation of sympathetic irritation ; but the lungs
or the bronchial tubes that ramify through them are continuous with the mucous mem-
branes of the digestive as well as all the respirator)' passages ; and on account of the
continuity and similarity of organisation, there is much sympathy between them. If
there is irritation excited at the same time in two different portions of the same mem-
brane, it is probable that, instead of being shared between them, the one will be trans-
ferred to the other — will increase or double the other, and act with fearful and fatal
violence.
THE LUNGS.
The lungs are the seat of a peculiar circulation. They convey through their com-
paratively little bulk the blood, and other fluids scarcely transformed into blood, or
soon separated from it, which traverse the whole of the frame. They consist of count-
less ramifications of air-tubes and blood-vessels connected together by intervening
cellular substance.
They form two distinct bodies, the right somewhat larger than the left, and are
divided from each other by the duplicature of the pleura, which has been already
described — the mediastinum. Each lung has the same structure, and properties, and
uses. Each of them is subdivided, the right lobe consisting of three lobes, and the
left of two. Tlie intention of these divisions is probably to adapt the substance of
the lungs to the form of the cavity in which they are placed, and to enable them more
perfectly to occupy and fill the chest.
If one of these lobes is cut into, it is found to consist of innumerable irregularly
formed compartments, to which anatomists have given the name of lobules, or little
lobes. They are distinct from each other, and impervious. On close examination,
they can be subdivided almost without end. There is no communication between
them, or if perchance such communication exists, it constitutes the disease known by
the name of broken tvind.
On the delicate membrane of which these cells are composed, innumerable minute
blood-vessels ramify. They proceed from the heart, through the medium of i\\e jml-
monary artery — they follow all the subdivisions of the bronchial tubes — they ramify
upon the membrane of these multitudinous lobules, and at length return to the heart,
through the medium of the pulmonary- veins, the character of the blood which they
contain being essentially changed. The mechanism of this, and the effect produced
must be briefly considered.
THE HEART.
The heart is placed between a doubling of the pleura — the mediastinum ,- by means
of which it is supported in its natural situation, and all dangerous friction between
these important organs is avoided. It is also surrounded by a membrane or bag of
its own, called the pericardium, whose office is of a similar nature. By means of
the heart, the blood is circnlated through the frame.
It is composed of four cavities — two above, called auricles, fiom their supposed
resemblance to the ear of a dog; and two below, termed ventricles, occupying the sub-
stance of the heart. In point of fact, there are two hearts — the one on the left side
impelling the blood through the frame, the other on the right side conveying it through
16
182 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
the pulmonary system; but, united in the manner in which they are, their junction
contiibutes to their mutual strength, and both circulations are carried on at the same
time
Th" first is the arterial circulation. No function can be discharged — life cannot
exist, without the ])resence of arterial blood. The left ventricle that contains it con-
tracts, and by the power of that contraction, aided by other means, which the limits
of our work will not permit us to describe, the blood is driven through the whole
arterial circulation — the capillary vessels and the veins — and returns again to the
heart, but to the right ventricle. The other division of this viscus is likewise
employed in circulating the blood thus conveyed to it, but is not the same fluid which
was contained in the left ventricle. It has gradually lost its vital power. As it has
passed along, it has changed from red to black, and from a vital to a poisonous fluid.
Ere it can again convey the principle of nutrition, or give to each organ that impulse
or stimulus which enables it to discharge its function, it must be materially changed.
When the right ventricle contracts, and the blood is driven into the lungs, it passes
over the gossamer membrane of which the lobules of the lungs have been described
as consisting; the lobules being filled with the air which has descended through the
bronchial tubes in the act of inspiration. This delicate membrane permits some of
the principles of the air to permeate it. The oxygen of the atmosphere attracts and
combines with a portion of the superabundant carbon of this blood, and the expired
air is poisoned with carbonic acid gas. Some of the constituents of the blood attract
a portion of the oxygen of the air, and obtain their distinguishing character and pro-
perties as arterial blood, and being thus revivified, it passes on over the membrane of
the lobes, unites into small and then larger vessels, and at length pours its full stream
of arterial blood into the left auricle, thence to ascend into the ventricle, and to be dif-
fused over the frame.
DISEASES OF THE HEART.
It may be readily supposed that an organ so complicated is subject to disease. It
is so to a fearful extent; and it sympathises with the maladies of every other part.
Until lately, however, this subject has been shamefully neglected, and the writers on
the veterinary art have seemed to be unaware of the importance of the organ, and the
maladies to which it is exposed. The owner of the.horse and the veterinary profes-
sion generally, are deeply indebted to Messrs. Percivall and Pritchard* for much
valuable information on this subject. The writer of this work acknowledges his
obligation to both of these gentlemen. To Dr. Hope also, and particularly to Laennec,
we owe much. Mr. Percivall well says, "This class of diseases maybe regarded as
the least advanced of any in veterinary medicine — a circumstance not to be ascribed
so much to their comparative rarity, as to their existing undiscovered, or rather
being confounded during life with other disorders, and particularly with pulmonary
affections."
The best place to examine the beating of the heart is immediately behind the
elbow, on the left side. The hand applied flat against the ribs will give the number
of pulsations. The ear thus applied will enable the practitioner better to ascertain
the character of the pulsation. The stethoscope afl:brds an uncertain guide, for it can
not be flatly and evenly applied.
Pericarditis. — The bag, or outer investing membrane of the heart, is liable
inflammation, in which the eff'used fluid becomes organized, and deposited iu layers,
increasing the thickness of the pericardium, and the difiiculty of the expansion and
contraction of the heart. The only symptoms on which dependence can be placed,
are a quickened and irregular respiration ; a bounding action of the heart in an early
stage of the disease; but that, as the fluid increases and becomes concrete, assuming
a feeble and fluttering character.
HvDROPS Pericardii is the term used to designate the presence of the fluid sec.-eted
in consequence of this inflammation, and varying from a pint to a gallon or more.
In addition to the symptoms already described, there is an expression of alarm and
anxiety in the countenance of the animal which no other malady produces. The
horse generally sinks from other disease, or from constitutional irritation, before tha
• See Pritchard's papers in the Veterinarian, vol. vi., and Percivall's Hippopathologv, vol
u.. Part I.
DISEASES OF THE HEART. 183
cavity of the pericardium is filled ; or if he lingers on, most dreadful palpitations
and throbbings accompany the advanced stage of the disease. It is seldom or never
that this disease exists alone, but is combined with dropsy of the chest or abdomen.
Carditis is the name given to inflammation of the muscular substance ot the heart.
A well authenticated instance of inflammation of the substance of the heart does not
stand on record. Some other organ proves to be the chief seat of mischief, even
•when the disturbance of the heart has been most apparent.
IxFLAMMATio.v OF THE LiNiNG OF THE Heart. — Mr. Simpson relates, in the Vete-
rinarian for 1834, a case in which there were symptoms of severe abdominal pain;
the respiration was much disturbed, and the action of the heart took on an extraordi-
nary character. Three or four beats succeeded to each other, so violently as to shake
the whole frame, and to be visible at the distance of several yards, with intervals of
quietude for five minutes or more. At length this violent beating became constant.
On dissection both lungs were found to be inflamed, the serum in the pericardium
increased in quantity, and the internal membrane of the heart violently inflamed, wuth
spots of ecchymosis.
This would seem to be a case of inflammation of the heart ; but in a considerable
proportion of the cases of rabies, these spots of ecchymosis, and this general inflam-
mation of the heart, are seen.
Hyperthrophy is an augmentation or thickening of the substance of the heart;
and although not dreamed of a few years ago, seems now to be a disease of no rare
occurrence among horses. The heart has been knowm to acquire double its natural
volume, or the auricle and ventricle on one side have been thus enlarged. Mr.
Thomson of Bath relates, in The Veterinarian, a very singular case. A horse was
brought with every appearance of acute rheumatism, and was bled and physicked.
On the following day he was standing with his fore legs widely extended, the nos-
trils dilated, the breathing quick and laborious, the eyes sunk in their orbits, the
pupils dilated, his nose turned round almost to his elbow, sighing, and his counte-
nance showing approaching dissolution.
The pulse had a most irregular motion, and the undulation of the jugular veins
was extending to the very roots of the ears. He died a few hours afterwards.
The lungs and pleura were much inflamed ; the pericardium was inflamed and dis-
tended by fluid ; the heart was«of an enormous size and greatly inflamed ; both the
auricles and ventricles were filled with coagulated blood; the greater part of the
chordae tendineae had given way ; the valves did not approximate to perform their
function, and the heart altogether presented a large disorganized mass, weighing thir-
ty-four pounds. The animal worked constantly on the farm, and had never been put
to quick or very laborious work.
Dilatation is increased capacity of the cavities of the heart, and the parietes be-
ing generally thinned. It is probable that this is a more frequent disease than is
generally supposed ; and from the circulating power being lessened, or almost sus-
pended, on account of the inability of the cavities to propel their contents, it is ac-
companied by much and rapid emaciation. In the Gardens of the Zoological Society
of London this is a disease considerably frequent, and almost uniformly fatal. It
attacks the smaller animals, and particularly the quadrumana, and has been found
in the deer and the zebra. It is characterised by slow emaciation, and a piteous
expression of the countenance ; but the mischief is done when these symptoms ap-
pear.
Ossification of the Heart. — There are but too many instances of this both in
the right and the left auricles of the heart, the aortic valves, the abdominal aorta,
and also the bronchial and other glands. Mr. Percivall observes of one of these
cases, that " the cavity could have been but a passive receptacle for the blood, and
the current must have been continued without any or with hardly any fresh impulse."
Of air in the heart destroying the horse, there are some interesting accounts ;
and also of rupture of the heart, and aneurism, or dilatation of the aorta, both thoracic
and abdominal, and even farther removed from the heart and in the iliac artery. The
symptoms that would certainly indicate the existence of aneurism are yet unknown,
except tenderness about the loins and gradual inability to work, are considered as
such : but it is interesting to know of the existence of these lesions. Ere long the
veterinary surgeon may possibly be able to guess at them, although he will rarely
184 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
have more power in averting the consequences of aneurism than the human surgeon
possesses ■with regard to his patient.
Tliis will be the proper place to describe a little more fully the circulation of the
blood, and various circumstances connected with that most important process.
THE ARTERIES.
The vessels which carrj' the blood from the heart are called arteries {keeping air —
the ancients thought that they contained air). They are composed of three coats;
the outer or elastic is that by which they are enabled to yield to the gush of blood, and
enlarge their dimensions as it is forced along them, and by which also they contract
again as soon as the stream has passed ; the middle coat is a muscular one, by which
this contraction is more powerfully performed, and the blood urged on in its course;
the inner or membranous coat is the mere lining of the tube.
This yielding of the artery to the gush of blood, forced into it by the contraction
of the heart, constitutes
THE PULSE.
The pulse is a very useful assistant to the practitioner of human medicine, and
much more so to the veterinary surgeon, whose patients cannot describe either the
seat or degree of ailment or pain. The number of pulsations in any artery will give
the number of the beatings of the heart, and so express the irritation of that organ,
and of the frame generally. In a state of health, the heart beats in a farmer's horse
about thirty-six times a minute. In the smaller, and in the thorough-bred horse, the
pulsations are forty or forty-two. This is said to be the standard pulse — the pulse
of health. It varies singularly little in horses of the same size and breed, and where
it beats naturally there can be little materially wrong. The most convenient place
to feel the pulse, is at the lower jaw (p. 68) a little behind the spot where the sub-
maxillary artery and vein, and the parotid duct, come from under the jaw. There
the number of pulsations will be easily counted, and the character of the pulse, a
matter of fully equal importance, Avill be clearly ascertained. Many horsemen put
the hand to the side. They can certainly count the pulse there, but they can do no-
thing more. We must be able to press the artery against some hard body, as the
jaw-bone, in order to ascertain the manner in which the blood flows through it, and
the quantity that flows.
When the pulse reaches fifty or fifty-five, some degree of fever may be apprehended,
and proper precaution should be taken. Seventy or seventy-five will indicate a dan-
gerous state, and put the owner and the surgeon not a little on the alert. Few horses
long survive a pulse of one hundred, for, by this excessive action, the energies of
nature are speedily worn out.
Some things, however, should be taken into account in forming our conclusion from
the frequency of the pulse. Exercise, a warm stable, and fear, will wonderfully
increase the number of pulsations.
When a careless, brutal fellow goes up to a horse, and speaks hastily to him, and
handles him roughly, he adds ten beats per minute to the pulse, and will often be
misled in the opinion he may form of the state of the animal. A judicious person
will approach the patient gently, and pat and soothe him, and even then the circula-
tion, probably, will be a little disturbed. He should take the additional precaution
of noting the number and qualit)"- of the pulse, a second time, before he leaves the
animal.
If a (luick pulse indicate irritation and fever, a slow pulse will likewise characterise
diseases of an opposite description. It accompanies the sleepy stage of staggers, and
everj' malady connected with deficiency of nervous energy.
The heart may not only be excited to more frequent, but also to more violent action.
It may contract more powerfully upon the blood, which will be driven with greater
^orce through the arteries, and the expansion of the vessels will be greater and more
sudden. Then we have the hard pulse — the sure indicator of considerable fever, and
calling for the immediate and free use of the lancet.
Sometimes the pulse may be hard and jerking, and yet small. The stream though
forcible is not great. The heart is so irritable that it contracts before the ventricle
is properly filled. The practitioner knows that this indicates a dangerous state of
disease. It is an almost invariable accompaniment of inflammation of the bowels.
INFLAMMATION. 185
A weak pulse, when the arterial stream flows slowly, is caused by the feeble action
of the heart. It is the reverse of fever, and expressive of debility.
The oppressed pulse is when the arteries seem to be fully distended with blood.
There is obstruction somewhere, and the action of the heart can hardly force the
stream along, or communicate pulsation to the current. It is the case in sudden
intiammation of the lungs. They are overloaded and gorged with blood, which can-
not find its way through their minute vessels. This accounts for the well-known fact
of a copious bleeding increasing a pulse previously oppressed. A portion being
removed from the distended and choked vessels, the remainder is able to flow on.
There are many other varieties of the pulse, which it would be tedious here to par-
ticularise ; it must, however, be observed, that during the act of bleeding-, its state
should be carefully observed. ^Many veterinary surgeons, and gentlemen too, are apt
to order a certain quantity of blood to be taken away, but do not condescend to super-
intend the operation. This is unpardonable in the surgeon and censurable in the
owner of the horse. The animal is bled for some particular purpose. There is some
state of disease, indicated by a peculiar quality of the pulse, whie4i we are endeavour-
ing to alter. The most experienced practitioner cannot tell what quantity of blood
must be abstracted in order to produce the desired eflfect. The change of the pulse
can alone indicate when the object is accomplished; therefore, the Operator should
have his finger on the artery during the act of bleeding, and, comparatively regardless
of the quantity, continue to take blood, until, in inflammation of the lungs, the op-
pressed pulse becomes fuller and more distinct, or the strong pulse of considerable
fcver is evidently softer, or the animal exhibits sj'mptoms of faintness.
The arteries divide as they proceed through the frame, and branch out into innu-
merable minute tubes, termed capillaries (hair-like tubes), and they even become so
small as to elude the sight. The slightest puncture cannot be inflicted without wound-
ing some of them.
In these little tubes, the nourishment of the body and the separation of all the vari-
ous secretions is performed, and in consequence of this, the blood is chang-ed. When
these capillaries unite together, and begin to enlarge, it is found to be no longer arte-
rial, or of a florid red colour, but venous, or of a blacker hue. Therefore the principal
termination of the arteries is in veins. The point where the one ends, and the other
commences, cannot be ascertained. It is when red arterial blood, having dis-
charged its function by depositing the nutritious parts, is changed to venous or%lack
blood.
Branches from the ganglia! or sympathetic nerves wind round these vessels, and
endue them with energy to discharge their functions. When the nerves communicate
too much energj', and these vessels consequently act with too much power, Z7i/?amma-
tion is produced. If this disturbed action is confined to a small space or a single
organ, it is said to be local, as inflammation of the eye, or of the lungs ; but when
this inordinate action spreads from its original seat, and embraces the whole of the
arterial system,/ei'er is said to be present, and this usually increases in proportion as
the local disturbance is observable, and subsides with it
INFLAMMATION.
Local inflammation is characterised by redness, swelling, heat, and pain. The
redness proceeds from the greater quantity of blood flowing through the part, occa-
sioned by the increased action of the vessels. The swelling arises from the same
cause, and from the deposit of fluid in the neighbouring substance. The natural heat
of the body is produced by the gradual change which takes place in the blood, in
passing from an arterial to a venous state. If more blood is driven through the capil-
laries of an inflamed part, and in which this change is effected, more heat will neces-
sarily be produced there ; and the pain is easily accounted for by the distension and
pressure which must be produced, and the participation of the nerves in the disturb-
ance of the surrounding parts.
If inflammation consists of an increased flow of blood to and through the part, the
ready way to abate it is to lessen the q\iantity of blood. If we take away the fuel,
the fire will go out. All other means are comparatively unimportant, contrasted with
hleeding. Blood is generally abstracted from the jugular vein, and so the general
quantity may be lessened ; but if it can be taken from the neighbourhood of the dis-
eased part, it will be productive of tenfold benefit. One quart of blood abstracted from
16* Y
18G CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
the foot in acute founder, by unloading the vessels of the inflamed part, and enabling
them to contract, and, in that contraction, to acquire tone and power to resist future
distension, will do more good than five quarts taken from the general circulation. An
ounce of blood obtained by scarifying the swelled vessels of the inflamed eye, will
give as much relief to that organ as a copious bleeding from the jugular. It is a prin-
ciple in the animal frame which should never be lost sight of by the veterinary sur-
geon, or the horseman, that if by bleeding the process of inflanunatron can once be
checked, — if it can be suspended but for a little while, — although it may return, it is
never with the same degree of violence, and in many cases it is got rid of entirely.
Hence the necessity of bleeding early, and bleeding largely, in inflammation of the
lungs, or of the bowels, or of the brain, or of any important organ. Many horses are
lost for want or insuflSciency of bleeding, but we never knew one materially injured
by the most copious extraction of blood in the early stage of acute inflammation. 'J^he
horse will bear, and with advantage, the loss of an almost incredible quantity of blood,
— four quarts taken from him, will be comparatively little more than one pound taken
from the human being. We can scarcely conceive of a considerable inflammation of
any part of the horse, whether proceeding from sprains, contusions, or any other
cause in which bleeding, local (if possible), or general, or both, will not be of essen-
tial service.
Next in importance to bleeding, is purging. Something may be removed from the
bowels, the retention of which would increase the general irritation and fever. The
quantity of blood will be materially lessened, for the serous or watery fluid which is
separated from it by a brisk purge, the action of which in the horse continues probably
more than twenty-four hours, is enormous. While the blood is thus determiiied to
the bowels, less even of that which remains will flow through the inflamed part.
When the circulation is directed to one set of vessels, it is proportionately diminished
in other parts. It was first directed to the inflamed portions, and they were overloaded
and injured, — it is now directed to the bowels, and the inflamed parts are relieved.
While the purging contin\ies, some degree of languor and sickness is felt; and the
force of the circulation is thereby diminished, and the g-^neral excitement lessened.
The importance of physic in every case of considerable external inflammation, is sufli-
ciently evident. If the horse is laid by for a few days from injury of the foot, or
sprain, or poll-evil, or wound, or almost any cause of inflammation, a physic-ball
should be given.
In cases of internal inflammation, much judgment is required to determine when a
purgative may be beneficial or injurious. In inflammation of the lungs or bo\\ els, it
should never be given. There is so strong a sympathy between the various contents
of the cavity of the chest, that no one of them can be inflamed to any great extent,
without all the others being disposed to become so ; and, therefore, a dose of physic
in inflamed lungs, would perhaps be as fatal as a dose of poison. The excitement
produced on the bowels by the purgative may run on to inflammation, which no
medical skill can stop.
The means of abating external inflammation are various, and seeminorly contra-
dictory. The heat of the part very naturally and properly led to the application of
cold embrocations and lotions. Heat has a strong tendency to equalize itself, or to
leave that substance which has a too great quantity of it, or little capacity to retain it,
for another which has less of it, or more capacity. Hence the advantage of cold appli-
cations, by which a great deal of the unnatural heat is speedily abstracted from the
inflamed part. The foot labouring under inflammation is put into cold water, or the
horse is made to stand in water or wet clay. Various cold applications are also used
to sprains. The part is wetted with diluted vinegar, or goulard, or salt and water.
When benefit is derived from these applications, it is to be attributed to their coldness
alone. Water, especially when cooled below the natural temperature, is as good an
application as any that can be used. Nitre dissolved in water, will lower the tem-
perature of the fluid many degrees; but the lotion must be applied immediately ai'ter
the salt has been dissolved. A bandage may be afterwards applied to strengthe^i the
limb, but during the continuance of active inflammation, it would only confine .he
heat of the part, or prevent it from benefiting by the salutary influence of the cold
produced by the evaporation of the water.
Sometimes, however, we resort to warm fomentations, and if benefit is derived from
their use, it is to be traced to the warmth of the fluid, more than to any medicinal pro
FEVER. .87
petty in it. Warm water will do as much good to the horse, who has so thi>!l< a skin,
as any decoction of chamomile, or marsh-mallow, or poppy heads, or any nostrum
that the farrier may reconnnend. Fomentations increase tlie warmtli of the skin, and
open the pores of it, and promote perspiration, and thus lessen the tension and swelling
of the part, assuage pain, and relieve inflammation. Fomentations, to be beneficial,
should be long and frequently applied, and at as great a degree of heat as can be used
without giving the animal pain. Poultices are more permanent, or longer-continued
fomentations. The part is exposed to the influence of warmth and moisture for many
hours or days without intermission, and perspiration being so long kept up, the dis-
tended vessels will be very materially relieved. The advantage derived from a poul-
tice is attributable to the heat and moisture, which, by means of it, can be long applied
to the skin, and it should be composed of materials which will best retain this moisture
and heat. The bran poultice of the farrier is, consequently, objectionable. It is
never perfectly in contact with the surface of the skin, and it becomes nearly dry in a
few hours, after which it is injurious rather than beneficial. Linseed-meal is a much
better material for a poultice, for, if properly made, it will remain moist during many
hours.
It is occasionally very difficult to decide when a cold or a hot application is to be
used, and no general rule can be laid down, except that in cases of superficial inflam-
mation, and in the early stage, cold lotions will be preferable; but, when the inflam-
mation is deeper seated, or fully established, warm fomentations will be most ser-
viceable.
Stimulating applications are frequently used in local inflammation. When the
disease is deeply seated, a stimulating application to the skin will cause some irrita-
tion and inflammation there, and lessen or sometimes remove the original malady ;
hence the use of rowels and blisters in inflammation of the chest. Inflammation to a
high degree, cannot exist in parts that are near each other. If we excite it in one, we
shall abate it in the other, and also, by the discharge which we establish from the
one, we shall lessen the determination of blood to the other.
. Stimulating and blistering applications should never be applied to a part already
inflamed. A fire is not put out by heaping more fuel upon it. Hence the mischief
which the farrier often does by rubbing his abominable oils on a recent sprain, hot
and tender. Many a horse has been ruined by this absurd treatment. When the
heat and tenderness have disappeared by the use of cold lotions or fomentations, and
the leg or sprained part remains enlarged, or bony matter threatens to be deposited, it
may be right to excite inflammation of the skin by a blister, in order to rouse the
deeper-seated absorbents to action, and enable them to take up this deposit; but,
except to hasten the natural process and effects of inflammation, a blister, or stimu-
lating application, should never be applied to a part already inflamed.
FEVER.
Fever is general increased arterial action, either without any local affection, or in
consequence of the sympathy of the system with inflammation in some particular
part.
The first is pure fever. Some have denied that that exists in the horse, but they
must have been strangely careless observers of the diseases of that animal. The truth
of the matter is, that the usual stable management and general treatment of the horse
are so absurd, and various parts of him are rendered so liable to take on inflammation,
that pure fever will exist a very little time without degenerating into inflammation.
The lungs are so weakened by the heated and foul air of the ill-ventilated stable, and
by sudden changes from almost insufferable heat to intense cold, and the feet are so
injured by hard usage and injudicious shoeing, that, sharing from the beginning in the
general vascular excitement which characterises fever, they soon become excited far
beyond other portions of the frame ; and that which commenced as fever becomes
inflammation of the lungs or feet. Pure fever, however, is sometimes seen, and runs
its course regularly.
It frequently begins with a cold or shivering fit, although this is not essential to
fever. The horse is dull, unwilling to move, has a staring coat, and cold legs and
feet. This is succeeded by warmth of the body ; unequal distribution of warmth to
the legs ; one hot, and the other three cold, or one or more unnaturally warm, and the
others unusually cold, but not the deathlike coldness of inflammation of the lungs ;
188 CONTENTS OF THE CHEST.
the pulse quick, soft, and often indistinct; the breathing somewhat laborious; but no
fTough, or pawing, or looking at the flanks. The animal will scarcely eat, and is
very costive. While the state of pure fever lasts, the shivering fit returns at nearly
the same hour every day, and is succeeded by the warm one, and that often by a slight
decree of perspiration ; and these alternate during several days until local inflamma-
tion appears, or the fever gradually subsides. No horse ever died of pure fever. If
he is not destroyed by inflammation of the lungs, or feet, or bowels succeeding to the
fever, he gradually recovers.
What has been said of the treatment of local inflammation will sufficiently indicate
that which should be resorted to in fever. Fever is general increased action of the
heart and arteries, and therefore evidently appears the necessity for bleeding, regu-
lating the quantity of blood by the degree of fever, and usually keeping the finger on
the artery until some evident and considerable impression is made upon the system.
The bowels should be gently opened ; but the danger of inflammation of the lungs,
and the uniformly injurious consequence of purgation in that disease, will prevent the
administration of an active purgative. A small quantity of aloes may be given morn-
ing and night, with the proper fever medicine, until the bowels are slightly relaxed,
after which nothing more of an aperient quality should be administered. Digitalis,
emetic tartar, and nitre should be given morning and night, in proportions regulated
by the circumstances of the case. The horse ehould be warmly clothed, but be placed
in a cool and well-ventilated stable.
Symptomulic ftver is increased arterial action, proceeding from some local cause.
No organ of consequence can be much disordered or inflamed without the neighbour-
ing parts being disturbed, and the whole system gradually participating in the
disturbance. Inflammation of the feet or of the lungs never existed long or to any
material extent, without being accompanied by some degree of fever.
The treatment of symptomatic fever should resemble that of simple fever, except
that particular attention must be paid to the state of the part originally diseased. If
the inflammation which existed there can be subdued, the general disturbance will
usually cease.
The arteries terminate occasionally in openings on diflTerent surfaces of the body.
On the skin they pour out the perspiration, and on the different cavities of the frame
they yield the moisture which prevents friction. In other parts they terminate in
glands, in which a fluid essentially different from the blood is secreted or separated :
such are the parotid and salivary glands, the kidneys, the spleen, and the various
organs or laboratories which provide so many and such diff'erent sscretions, for the
multifarious purposes of life ; but the usual termination of arteries is in veins.
THE VEINS.
These vessels carry back to the heart the blood which had been conveyed to the
diff'erent parts by the arteries. They have two coats, a muscular and a membranous
one. Both of them are thin and comparatively weak. They are more numerous and
much larger than the arteries, and consequently the blood, lessened in quantity by the
various secretions separated from it, flows more slowly through them. It is forced on
partly by the first impulse communicated to it by the heart; also, in the extremities
and external portions of the frame, by the pressure of the muscles ; and in the cavity
of the chest, its motion is assisted or principally caused by the sudden expansion of
the ventricles of the heart, after they have closed upon and driven out their contents,
and thereby causing a vacuum which the blood rushes on to fill. There are curious
valves in various parts of the veins which prevent the blood from flowing backward
to its source.
BOG AND BLOOD SPAVIN.
The veins of the horse, although their coats are thin compared with those of tho
arteries, are not subject to the enlargements (varicose veins) which are so frequent,
and often so painful, in the legs of the human being. The legs of the horse may
exhibit many of the injurious consequences of hard work, but the veins will, with one
exception, be unaltered in structure. Attached to the extremities of most of .the
tendons, and between the tendons and other parts, are little bags containing a mucous
substance to enable the tendons to slide over each other without friction, and to move
easily on the neighbouring parts. From violent exercise these vessels are liable to
BLEEDING. 189
enlarge Windgalls and thoroughpins are instances of this. There is one of them
on the inside of the hock at its bending. This sometimes becomes considerably
increased in size, and the enlargement is called a bog-spavin. A vein passes over this
bag, which is pressed between the enlargement and the skin, and the passage of the
blood through it is impeded; the vein is consequently distended by the accumulated
blood, and the distension reaches from this bag as low down as the next valve. This
is called a blood-spavin, Ulood-spavin then is the consequence of bog-spavin. It
verv rarely occurs, and is, in the majority of instances, confounded with bog-spavin.
Blood-spavin does not always cause lameness, except the horse is very hard-
worked, and then it is doubtful whether the lameness should not be attributed to the
enlarged mucous bag rather than to the distended vein. Both of these diseases,
however, render a horse unsound, and materially lessen his value.
Old farriers used to tie the vein, and so cut off altogether the flow of the blood.
Some of them, a little more rational, dissected out the bag which caused the disten-
sion of the vein : but the modern and more prudent way is to endeavour to promote
the absorption of the contents of the bag. This may be attempted by pressure long
applied. A bandage may be contrived to take in the whole of the hock, except its
point; and a compress made of folded linen being placed on the bog-spavin, may
confine the principal pressure to that part. It is, however, very difficult to adapt a
bandage to a joint which admits of such extensive motion; therefore most practi-
tioners apply two or three successive blisters over the enlargement, when it usually
disappears. Unfortunately, however, it returns if any extraordinary exertion is
required from the horse.
BLEEDING.
This operation is performed with a fleam or a lancet. The first is the common
instrument, and the safest, except in skilful hands. The lancet, however, has a more
surgical appearance, and will be adopted by the veterinary practitioner. A blood-
stick — a piece of hard wood loaded at one end with lead — is used to strike the fleam
into the vein. This is sometimes done with too great violence, and the opposite side
of the coat of the vein is wounded. Bad cases of inflammation have resulted from
this. If the fist is doubled, and the fleam is sharp and is struck with sufficient force
with the lower part of the hand, the bloodstick may be dispensed with.
For general bleeding the jugular vein is selected. The horse is blindfolded on the
side on which he is to be bled, or his head turned well away. The hair is smoothed
along the course of the vein with the moistened finger ; then, with the third and little
fingers of the left hand, which holds the fleam, pressure is made on the vein sufficient
to bring it fairly into view, but not to swell it too much, for then, presenting a rounded
surface, it would be apt to roll or slip under the blow. The point to he selected is
about two inches below the union of the two portions of the jugular at the angle of
the jaw (see cut, p. 125). The fleam is to be placed in a direct line with the course
of the vein, and over the precise centre of the vein, as close to it as possible, but its
point not absolutely touching the vein. A sharp rap with the bloodstick or the hand
on that part of the back of the fleam immediately over the blade, will cut through the
vein, and the blood will flow. A fleam with a large blade should always be preferred,
for the operation will be materially shortened, and this will be a matter of some con-
sequence with a fidgety or restive horse. A quantity of blood drawn speedily will
also have far more effect on the system than double the weight slowly taken, while
the wound will heal just as readily as if made by a smaller instrument. There is no
occasion to press so hard against the neck with the pail, or can. as some do; a slight
pressure, if the incision has been large enough and straight, and in the middle of the
vein, will cause the blood to flow sufficiently fast; or, the finger being introduced into
the mouth between the tushes and the grinders, and gently moved about, will keep
the mouth in motion, and hasten the rapidity of the stream by the action and pressure
of the neighbouring muscles.
When sufficient blood has been taken, the edges of the wound should be brought
closely and exactly together, and kept together by a small sharp pin being passed
throuorh them. Round this a little tow, or a few hairs from the mane of the horse,
should be wrapped, so as to cover the whole of the incision ; and the head of the
horse should be tied up for several hours to prevent his rubbing the part against the
manger. In bringing the edges of the wound together, and introducing the pin, care
190 BLEEDING.
shoiild not be taken to draw the skin too much from the neck, otherwise blood will
insinuate itself between it and the muscles beneath, and cause an unsightly and
sometimes troublesome swelling.
The blood should be received into a vessel, the dimensions of which are exactly
known, so that the operator may be able to calculate at every period of the bleeding
the quantity that is subtracted. Care likewise should be taken that the blood flows
in a regular stream into the centre of the vessel, for if it is suffered to trickle down
the sides, it will not afterwards undergo those changes by which we partially judge
of the extent of inflammation. The pulse, however, and the symptoms of the case
collectively, will form a better criterion than any change in the blood. Twent\--four
hours after the operation, the edges of the wound will have united, and the pin should
be withdrawn. When the bleeding is to be repeated, if more than three or four hour?
have elapsed, it will be better to make a fresh incision rather than to open the old
wound.
Few directions are necessary for the use of the lancet. They who are competent
to operate with it, will scarcely require any. If the point is sufficiently sharp tlie
lancet can scarcely be too broad-shouldered ; and an abscess lancet will generally
make a freer incision than that in common use. Whatever instrument is adopted, too
much care cannot be taken to have it perfectly clean, and very sharp. It should be
carefully wiped and dried immediately after the operation, otherwise, in a very short
time, the edges will begin to be corroded.
For general bleeding the jugular vein is selected as the largest superficial one, and
most easily got at. In every affection of the head, and in cases of fever or extended
inflammatory action, it is decidedly the best place for bleeding. In local inflamma-
tion, blood may be taken from any of the superficial veins. In supposed affections
of the shoulder, or of the fore-leg or foot, the plate vein, which comes from the inside
of the arm, and runs upwards directly in front of it towards the jugular, may be opened.
In affections of the hind extremity, blood is sometimes extracted from the saphsena, or
thigh-vein, which runs across the inside of the thigh. In foot cases it may be taken
from the coronet, or, much more safely, from the toe ; not by cutting out, as the far-
rier does, a piece of the sole at the toe of the frog, which sometimes causes a wound
difficult to heal, and followed by festering, and even by canker; but cutting down with
a fine drawing-knife, called a searcher, at the union between the crust and the sole at
the very toe until the blood flows, and, if necessary, encouraging its discharge by dip-
ping the foot in warm water. The mesh-work of both arteries and veins will be here
divided, and blood is generally obtained in any quantity that may be needed. The
bleeding may be stopped with the greatest ease, by placing a bit of tow in the little
groove that has been cut, and tacking the shoe over it.*
* A great improvement has lately been introduced in the method of arresting arterial
haemorrhage. The operation is very simple, and, with common care, successful. The instru-
ment Ls a pair of artery forceps, with rather sharper teeth than the common forceps, and the
blades held close by a slide. The vessel is laid bare, detached from tbe cellular substance
around it, and the artery then grasped by the forceps, the instrument deviating a very little
from the line of the artery. The vessel is now divided close to the forceps, and behind them,
and the forceps are twisted four or five times round. The forceps are then loosened, and,
generally speaking, not more than a drop or two of blood will have been lost. This method
of arresting bleeding has been applied by several scientific and benevolent men with almost
constant success. It has been readily and effectually, practised in docking, and our patients
have escaped much torture, and tetanus lost many a victim. The forceps have been intro-
duced, and with much success, in castration, and thus the principal danger of that operation,
as well as the most painful part of it, is removed. The colt will be a fair subject for this
experiment. On the sheep and the calf it may be readily performed, and the operator will
have the pleasing consciousness of rescuing many a poor animal from the unnecessary inflic-
lion of torture.
MEMBRANE OF THE NOSE. 191
CHAPTER VIII.
We now proceed to the consideration of the diseases of the respiratory system.
THE MExMBRANE OF THE NOSE.
The mucous membrane of the nose is distinguished from other mucous suifaces, not
only by its thickness, but its vasculariiy. The blood-vessels are likewise superficial ;
they are not covered even by integument, but merely by an unsubstantial mucous coat.
They are deeper seated, indeed, than in the human being, and they are more protected
from injury; and therefore there is far less haemorrhage from the nostril of the horse
than from that of the human being, whether spontaneous or accidental. Lying imme-
diately under the mucous coat, these vessels give a peculiar, and, to the horseman, a
most important tinge to the membrane, and particularly observable on the sept\im.
They present him with a faithful indication of the state of the circulation, and espe-
cially in the membranes of the other respiratory passages with which this is con-
tinuous.
The horseman and the veterinary surgeon do not possess many of the auxiliaries of
the human practitioner. Their patients are dumb ; they can neither tell the seat nor
the degree of pain; and the blunders of the practitioner are seldom buried with tne
patient. Well, he must use greater diligence in availing himself of the advantages
that he does possess ; and he has some, and verj^ important ones, too. The vary?niT
hue of the Schneiderian membrane is the most important of all ; and, with reo-ard to
the most frequent and fatal diseases of the horse — those of the respiratory passao-es
it gives almost all the information with regard to the state of the circulation inAose
parts that can possibly be required. Veterinarians too generally overlook this. It
has not yet been sufficiently taught in our schools, or inculcated m our best works on
the pathology of the horse.
It is the custom with almost every horseman who takes any pains to ascertain the
state of his patient, to turn down the lower eyelid, and to form his opinion of the
degree of general inflammation by the colour which the lining membrane of the lid
presents. If it is very red, he concludes that there is considerable fever; if it is of a
pale pinkish hue, there is comparatively little danger. This is a very important
examination, and the conclusion which he draws from it is generally true : but on the
septum of the nose he has a membrane more immediately continuous with those of
the respirator}' organs — more easily got at — presenting a larger surface — the ramifica-
tions of the blood-vessels better seen, and, what is trufy important, indicating not only
the general affection of the membranes, but of those with which he is most of all
concerned.
We would then say to every horseman and practitioner, study the character of that
portion of the membrane which covers the lower part of the membrane of the nose
that which you can most readily bring into view. Day after day, and under all the
varying circumstances of health and disease, study it until you are enabled to recog-
nise, and you soon will, and that with a degTee of exactitude you would have scarcefy
thought possible, the pale pink hue when the horse is in health — the increasing blush
of red, and the general and uniform painting of the membrane, betokening some'excite-
ment of the system — the streaked appearance when inflammation is threatening or
commencing — the intensely florid red of inflammation becoming acute — the startino
of the vessels from their gossamer coat, and their seeming to nm bare over the meiji"
brane, when the inflammation is at the highest — the pale ground with patches of vivi^
red, showing the half-subdued but still existing fever — the uniform colour, but some
what redder than natural, indicating a return to a healthy state of the circulation the
paleness approaching to white, accompanying a state of debility, and yet some radia-
tions of crimson, showing that there is still considerable irritability, and that mischief
may be in the wind — the pale livid colour warning you that the disease is assuming
a typhoid character — the darker livid announcing that the typhus is established, and
that the vital current is stagnating — and the browner, dirty painting, intermingling
with and subduing the lividness, and indicating that the game is up. ° These appear^
03 MEMBRANE OF THE NOSE.
ances will be guides to our opinion and treatment, which we can never too highly
appreciate.
CATARRH, OR COLD.
Catarrh, or Cold, is attended by a slight dcfluxion from the nose — now and then, a
slioliler weeping from the eyes, and some increased labour of breathing, on aec;>unt
of Ihe uneasiness which the animal experiences from tlie passage of the air over the
naturally sensitive, and now more than usually irritable surface, and from the air-
passage being diminished by a thickening of the membrane. When this is a simply
local fnflammation, attended by no loss of appetite or increased animal temperature,
it may speedily pass over.
In many cases, however, the inflammation of a membrane naturally so sensitive,
and rendered so morbidly irritable by our absurd treatment, rapidly spreads, and
involves the fauces, the lymphatic and some of the salivary glands, the throat, the
parotid gland, and the membrane of the larynx. We have then increased discharge
from the nose, greater redness of the membrane of the nose, more defluxion from the
eyes, and loss of appetite, from a degree of fever associating itself with the local
atfection ; and there also being a greater or less degree of pain in the act of swallow-
ing, and which, if the animal feels this, he will never eat. Cough now appears more
or less frequent or painful ; but with no great acceleration of the pulse, or heaving
of ihe flanks.
Catarrh may arise from a thousand causes. Membranes, subjected to so many
sources of irritation, soon become irritable. Exposure to cold or rain, change of
stable, cliange of weather, change of the slightest portion of clothing, neglect of
grooming, and a variety of circumstances apparently trifling, and which they who
are unaccustomed to horses would think could not possibly produce any injurious
effect, are the causes of catarrh. In the spring of the year, and while moulting, a
great many young horses have cough ; and in the dealers' stables, where the process
of making up the horse for sale is carrying on, there is scarcely one of them that
escapes this disease.
In the majority of cases, a few warm mashes, warm clothing, and a warm stable — a
f»ver-ball or two, with a drachm of aloes in each, and a little antimony in the evening,
will set all right. Indeed, all would soon be right without any medicine ; and much
more speedily and perfectly than if the cordials, of which grooms and farriers are so
fond, had been given. Nineteen horses out of twenty with common catarrh will do
well ; but in the twentieth case, a neglected cough may be the precursor of bronchitis,
and pneumonia. These chest affections often insidiously creep on, and inflammation
is frequently established before any one belonging to the horse is aware of its exist-
ence. If there is the least fever, the horse should be bled. A common cold, attended
by heat of the mouth or indisposition to feed, should never pass without the abstrac-
tion of blood. A physic-ball, however, should not be given in catarrh without much
consideration. It can scarcely be known what sympathy may exist between the por-
tion of membrane already affected, and the mucous membranes generally. In severe
thoracic affection, or in that which may soon become so, a dose of physic would be
little better than a dose of poison. If, however, careful investigation renders it evi-
dent that there is no affection of the lungs, and that the disease has not proceeded
beyond the fauces, small doses of aloes may with advantage be imited with other
medicines, in order to evacuate the intestinal canal, and reduce the faecal discharge to
a pultaceous form.
If catarrh is accompanied by sore throat ; if the parotids should enlarge and
become tender — there are no tonsils, amygdala;, in the horse — or if the submaxillary
3-lands should be inflamed, and the animal should quid his food and gulp his water,
this will be an additional reason for bleeding, and also for warm clothing and a com-
fortable stable. A hot stable is not meant by the term comfortable, in which the foul
air is breathed over and over again, but a temperature some degrees above that of the
external air, and where that determination to the skin and increased action of the
fixhalent vessels, which in these cases are so desirable, may take place. Every stable,
both for horses in sickness and in health, should have in it a thermometer.
Some stimulating liniment may be applied over the inflamed gland, consisting of
turpentine or tincture of cantbarides, diluted with spermaceti or neat's-foot oil — strong
lonough to produce considerable irritation on the skin, but not to blister, or to destroy
INFLAMMATION OF THE LARYNX. 193
the hair, A a embrocation sufficiently powerful, and yet that never destroys the hair,
consists of equal parts of hartshorn, oil of turpentine, and camphorated spirit, with a
small quantity of laudanum.
INFLAMMATION OF THE LARYNX.
Strictly speaking, this refers to inflammation confined to the larynx; but either
catarrh or bronchitis, or both, frequently accompany the complaint.
Its approach is often insidious, scarcely to be disting-uished from catarrh, except by
being attended with more soreness of throat, and less enlargement of the parotid glands.
There are also more decided and violent paroxysms of coughing than in common
catarrh, attended by a gurgling noise, which may be heard at a little distance from
the horse, and which, by auscultation, is decidedly referrible to the larynx. The
breatliing is shorter and quicker, and evidently more painful than catarrh ; the mem-
brane of the nose is redder; it is of a deep modena colour; and the horse shrinks,
and exhibits great pain when the larynx is pressed upon. The paroxysms of cough-
ing become more frequent and violent, and the animal appears at times almost
suffocated.
As the soreness of the throat proceeds, the head of the animal is projected, and the
neck has a peculiar stiffness. There is also much difficulty of swallowing. Con-
siderable swelling of the larynx and the pharynx ensue, and also of the parotid, sub-
lingual, and submaxillary glands. As the intlamm-ation increases, the cough becomes
hoarse and feeble, and in some cases altogether suspended. At the commencement,
there is usually little or no nasal detluxion ; but the secretion soon appears, either
pure or mixed with an unusual quantity of saliva.
Auscultation is a very important aid in the discovery of the nature, and serious or
trifling character of this disease. It cannot be too often repeated, that it is one of the
most valuable means which we possess of detecting the seat, intensity, and results of
the maladies of the respiratory passages. No insrument is required ; the naked eat
can be applied evenly and flatly, and with a very slight pressure, on any part that it
is of importance to examine. The healthy sound, when the ear is applied to the
windpipe, is that of a body of air passing uninterruptedly through a smooth tube of
somewhat considerable calibre : it very much resembles the sound of a pair of forge
bellows, when not too violently worked.
He who is desirous of ascertaining whether there is any disease in the larynx of a
horse, should apply his ear to the lower part of the windpipe. If he finds that the air
passes in and out without interruption, there is no disease of any consequence either
in the windpipe or the chest; for it would immediately be detected by the loudness or
the interruption of the murmur. Then let him gradually proceed up the neck, with
his ear still upon the windpipe. Perhaps he soon begins to recognise a little gurgling,
grating sound. As he continues to ascend, that sound is more decisive, mingled with
an occasional wheezing, wh'.stling noise. He can have no surer proof that here is the
impediment to the passage of the air, proceeding from the thickening of the membrane
and diminution of the passage, or increased secretion of mucus, which bubbles and
rattles as the breath passes. By the degree of the rattling or whistling, the owner
will judge which cause of obstruction preponderates — in fact, he will have discovered
the seat and the state of the disease and the sooner he has recourse to professional
advice the better.
Chronic laryngitis is of more frequent occurrence than acute. ^lany of the coughs
♦hat are most troublesome are to be traced to this source.
In violent cases laryngitis terminates in suffocation ; in others, in thick wind or
in roaring. Occasionally it is necessary to have recourse to the operation of trache-
otomy.
In acute laryngitis the treatment to be pursued is sufficiently plain. Blood must
be abstracted, and that from the jugular vein, for there will then be the combined
advantage of general and local bleeding. The blood must be somewhat copiously
withdrawn, depending on the degree of inflammation — the practitioner never for a
moment forgetting that he has to do with inflammation of a mucous membrane, and
that what he does he must do quickly. He will have lost the opportunity of strug-
gling successfully with the disease when it has altered its character and debility has
succeeded. The cases must be few and far between when the surgeon makes up
his mind tfo any determinate quantity of blood, and leaves his assistant or his groom
17 z
194 INFLAMMATION OF THE TRACHEA— ROARING.
to abstract it ; he must himself bleed, and until the pulse flutters o' the constitution
is evidently affected.
Next must be given the fever medicine already recommended : the digitalis, nitre,
and emetic tartar, with aloes. Aloes may here be safely given, because the chest is
not yet implicated. To this must be added, and immediately, a blister, and a sharp
one. The surgeon is sure of the part, and he can bring his counter-irritant almost
into contact vi^ith it.
Inflammation of the larynx, if not speedily subdued, produces sad disorganization
in this curiously formed and important machine. Lymph is effused, morbidly adhe-
sive, and speedily organised — the membrane becomes thickened, considerably, per-
manently so — the submucous cellular tissue becomes cedematous ; the inflammation
spreads from the membrane of the larynx to the cartilages, and difficulty of breath-
ing, and at length confirmed roaring, ensue.
INFLAMMATION OF THE TRACHEA.
Inflammation of the membrane of the larynx, and especially when it has run on
to ulceration, may rapidly spread, and involve the greater part or the whole of the
lining membrane of the trachea. Auscultation will discover when this is taking
place. If the disease is extending down the trachea, it must be followed. A blis-
ter must reach as low as the rattling sound can be detected, and somewhat beyond
this. The fever medicines must be administered in somewhat increased doses ; and
the bleeding must be repeated, if the state of the pulse does not indicate the con-
trary.
Generally speaking, however, althongh the inflammation is now approaching the
chest, its extension into the trachea is not an unfavourable symptom. It is spread
over a more extended surface, and is not so intense or untractable. It is involving a
part of the frame less complicated, and where less mischief can be effected. True,
if the case is neglected, it must terminate fatally ; but it is coming more within reach,
and more under command, and, the proper means being adopted, the change is rather
a favourable one.
The disorganizations produced in the trachea are similar to some which have been
described in the larynx. The same formation of organised bands of coagulated
lymph, the same thickening of membrane, diminution of calibre, and foundation for
roaring.
ROARING.
The present will be the proper place to speak of that singular impairment of the
respiratory function recognised by this name. It is an unnatural, loud grunting sound
made by the animal in the act of breathing when in quick action or on any sudden
exertion. On carefully listening to the sound, it will appear that the roaring i& pro-
duced in the act of inspiration, and not in that of expiration. If the horse is b/iskly
trotted on a level surface, and more particularly if he is hurried up hill, or if he is
suddenly threatened with a stick, this peculiar sound will be heard and cannot be
mistaken. When dishonest dealers are showing a horse that roars, but not to any
great degree, they trot away gently, and as soon as they are too far for the sound to
be heard, show off the best paces of the animal ; on returning, they gradually slacken
their speed when they come within a suspicious distance. This is sometimes techni*
cally called " the dealers' long trot."
Roaring is exceedingly unpleasant to the rider, and it is manifest unsoundness. It
is the sudden and violent rushing of the air through a tube of diminished calibre ;
and if the impediment, whatever it is, renders it so difficult for the air to pa&s in some-
what increased action, sufficient cannot be admitted to give an adequate supply of
artcrialized blood in extraordinary or long-continued exertion. Therefore, as impair-
ing the function of respiration, although, sometimes, only on extraordinary occasions
it is unsoundness. In as many cases as otherwise, it is a very serious cause of un-
soundness. The roarer, when hardly pressed, is often blown even to the ha/;«rd of
suffocation, and there are cases on record of his suddenly dropping and dying when
urged to the top of his speed.
It must not, however, be taken for granted that the roarer is always worthless.
There are few hunts in which there is not one of these horses, who acquits himself
very fairly in the field ; and it has occasionally so happened that the roarer has been
ROARING. 195
the very crack horse of the hunt ; yet he must be ridden with judgmeni, and spared
a little \vh?n goin^ up-hill. There is a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire,
through which a band of smugglers used frequently to pass in the dead of night;
the horse of the leader, and the best horse of the troop, and on which his owner
would bid defiance to all pursuit, was so rank a roarer, that he could be heard at a
considerable distance. The clattering of all the rest scarcely made so much noise as
the roaring of the captain's horse. When this became a little too bad, and he did
not fear immediate pursuit, the smuggler used to halt the troop 'at some convenient
hayrick on the roadside, and, having suffered the animal to distend his stomach with
this dry food, as he was always ready enough to do, he would remount and gallop
on, and, for a while, the roaring was scarcely heard. It is somewhat difficult to ac-
count for this. Perhaps the loaded stomach now pressing against the diaphragm,
that muscle had harder work to displace this viscus in the act of enlarging the chest
and producing an act of inspiration, and accomplished it more slowly, and therefore,
the air passing more slowly by, the roaring was diminished. We do not dare to cal
culate what must have been the increased labour of the diaphragm in moving the load
ed stomach, nor how much sooner the horse must have been exhausted. This did not
enter into the owner's reckoning, and probably the application of whip and spur would
deprive him of the means of forming a proper calculation of it.
Eclipse was a "high-blower." He drew his breath hard, and with apparent difS
culty. The upper air-passages, perhaps those of the head, did not correspond with
his unusually capacious chest ; yet he was never beaten. It is said that he never met
with an antagonist fairly to put him to the top of his speed, and that the actual effect
of this disproportion in the two extremities of the respiratory apparatus was not
thoroughly tested. Mares comparatively seldom become roarers. It appears to be
difficult, if not impossible, to assign any satisfactory reason for this ; but the fact is
too notorious among horsemen, to admit of doubt.
Roaring proceeds from obstruction in some portion of the respiratory canal, and
oftenest in the larj'nx, for there is least room to spare — that cartilaginous box being
occupied by the mechanism of the voice : next in frequency it is in the trachea, but,
in fact, obstruction anywhere will produce it. ^Nlr. Blaine, quoting from a French
journalist, says, that a piece of riband lodged within one of the nasal fossae produced
roaring, and that even the displacement of a molar tooth has been the supposed cause
of it. Polypi in the nostrils have been accompanied by it. Mr. Sewell found, as an
evident cause of roaring, an exostosis between the two first ribs, and pressing upon
the trachea ; and Mr. Percivall goes farther, and says that his father repeatedly blis-
tered and fired a horse for bad roaring, and even performed the operation of trache-
otomy, and at length the roaring being so loud when the horse was led out of the
stable, that it was painful to hear it — the poor animal was destroyed. No thickening
of the membrane was found, no disease of the larjmx or trachea ; but the lungs were
hepatized throughout the greater part of their substaner, and many of the smaller
divisions of the bronchi were so compressed, that they were hardly pervious.
Bands of Coagulated Lymph. — A frequent cause of roaring is bands of coagulated
lymph, morbidly viscid and tenacious, adhering firmly on one side, and by some act
of coughing brought into contact with and adhering to the other side, and becoming
gradually organized. At other times there have been rings of coagulated lymph
adhering to the lining of the trachea, but not organized. In either case they form a
mechanical obstruction, and will account for tlie roaring noise produced by the air
rushing violently through the diminished calibre, in hurried respiration. Thickening
of the membrane is a more frequent cause of roaring than the transverse bands of
coagulated lymph. In many morbid specimens it is double or treble its natural thick-
ness, and covered with manifold ulcerations. This is particularly annoying in the
upper part of the windpipe, where the passages, in their natural state, are narrow.
Thus it is that roaring is the occasional consequence of strangles and catarrh, and
other aflTections of the superior passages.
There is scarcely a horse of five or six years old who has not a portion of the thy-
roid cartilage ossified. In some cases the greater part of the cartilages are becoming
bony, or sufficiently so to weaken or destroy their elastic power, and consequently to
render it impossible for them to be freely and fully acted upon by the delicate muscles
of the larynx.
Chronic cough occasionally terminates in roaring. Some have imagined that the
196 ROARING.
dealers' habit of coughing the horse, i. e. pressing upon the larynx to make him cough
in order that they may judge of the state of his wind l)y the sound that is emitted, has
produced inflammation about the larynx, which has terminated in roaring, or assisted
in producing it. That pain is given to the animal by the rough and violent way in
which the object is sometimes attempted to be accomplished, is evident enough, and
this must, in process of time, lead to mischief; but sufficient inflammation and sub-
sequent ossification of the cartilages would scarcely be produced, to be a cause of
roaring.
The Disease of Draught-Horses generally. — There can he no doubt of the fact, that
the majority of roarers are draught-horses, and horses of quick draught. They are
not only subject to the usual predisposing causes of this obstruction, but there is some-
thing superadded, — resulting from their habits or mode of work, — not indeed necessa-
rily resulting, but that which the folly as well as cruelly of man has introduced — the
system of tight-reining. To a certain extent, the curb-rein is necessary. Without it
there would be scarcely any command over a wilful horse, and it would need a strong
arm occasionally to guide even the most willing. Without the curb-rein the horse
would carry himself low; he would go carelessly along; he would become a stum-
bler ; and if he were disposed at any time to run away, the strongest arm would have
little power to stop him ; but there is no necessity for the tight rein, and for the long
and previous discipline to which the carriage-horse is subjected. There is no necessity
that the lower jaw, whether the channel is wide or narrow, should be so forced on the
neck, or that the larynx and the portion of the windpipe immediately beneath it should
be flattened, and bent, and twisted, and the respiratory passage not only obstructed,
but in a manner closed. The mischief is usually done when the horse is young. It
is effected in some measure by the impatience of the animal, unused to control, and
suffering pain. In the violent tossing of his head he bruises the larynx, and produces
inflammation. The head of the riding-horse is gradually brought to its proper place
by the hands of the breaker, who skilfully increases or relaxes the pressure, and
humours and^lays with the mouth ; but the poor carriage-horse is confined by a rein
that never slackens, and his nose is bent in at the expense of the larynx and wind-
pipe. The injury is materially increased if the head is not naturally well set on, or
the neck is thick, or the jaws narrow.
Connected with this is the common notion that crib-biting is a cause of roaring.
That is altogether erroneous. There is no possible connexion between the com-
plaints: but one of the methods that used to be resorted to in order to cure crib-biting
might be a cause of roaring, namely, the strap so tightly buckled round the upper
part of the neck as to compress, and distort, and paralyse the larynx.
Facts have established the hereditary predisposition to roaring, beyond the possi-
bility of doubt.
In France it is notorious that three-fourths of the horses from Cottentin are roarers,
and some of them are roarers at six months old ; but about La Hague and Le Bocase,
not a roarer is known. There is certainly a considerable difference in the soil of the
two districts ; the first is low and marshy, the latter elevated and dry : but tradition
traces it to the introduction of some foreign horses into Cottentin, who bequeathed
this infirmity to their progeny.
In our own country, there is as decisive a proof. There was a valuable stallion in
Norfolk, belonging to Major Wilson, of Didlington. He was a great favourite, and
seemed to be getting some excellent stock ; but he was a roarer, and some of the
breeders took alarm at this. They had occasionally too painful experience of the
communication of the defects of the parent to his progeny ; and they feared that roar-
ing might possibly be among these hereditary evils. Sir Charles Bunbury was
requested to obtain Mr. Cline's opinion on the subject. Mr. Cline was a deservedly
eminent human surgeon : he had exerted himself in the estahlishment of the Veteri-
nary College : he was an examiner of veterinary pupils, and therefore it was supposed
that he must be competent to give an opinion. He gave one, and at considerable
length : — "The disorder in the horse," said he, "which constitutes a roarer, is caused
by a membranous projection in a part of the windpipe, and is the consequence of thai
part having been inflamed from a cold, and injudiciously treated. A roarer, therefore
is not a diseased horse, for his lungs and every other part may he perfectly sound
The existence of roaring in a stallion cannot be of any consequence. It cannot be
propagated any more than a broken bone, or any other accident." — A fair specimf ii
BRONCHOCELE. 197
of the horse-knowledge of one of the best of the medical examiners c ) veterinary
pupils.
Sir Charles returned full of glee ; the good people of Norfolk and Suffolk were
satisfied ; Major Wilson's horse was in high request: but in a few years a areat part
of the two counties was overrun with roarers, and many a breeder half ruined.
Roaring is not, however, necessarily hereditary. Mr. Goodwin, whose name is Erreat
authority, states that Taurus, a celebrated racer that had become a roarer, had cov^ered
several mares, and tlieir produce all turned out well, and had won several races. In
no instance did his progeny exhibit this defect, notwithstanding that his own family
were notorious for being roarers. Eclipse also is said to have been a roarer.
What then is to be done with these animals "? Abandon them to their fate 1 No,
not so ; but there is no necessity rashly to undertake a hopeless affair. All possible
knowledge must be obtained of the origin of the disease. Did it follow strano-les,
catarrh, bronchitis, or any affection of the respiratory passages ? Is it of long stand-
ing ■? Is it now accompanied by cough or any symptoms of general or local irrita-
tion ] Can any disorganization of these parts be detected"? Any distortion of the
larynx 1 Did it follow breaking-in to harness "? The answer to these questions will
materially guide any future proceedings. If there is plain distortion of the larynx or
trachea, or the disease can be associated, in point of time, with breaking-in to harness,
or tlie coachman or proprietor has been accustomed to rein the animal in too tightly
or too cruelly, or the sire was a roarer, it is almost useless to have anything to do
wit 1 the case. But if it is of rather recent date, and following closely on some dis-
ease with which it can be clearly connected, careful examination of the patient may
be commenced. Is there cough ? Can any heat or tenderness be detected about the
larynx or trachea? Is there in every part the same uniform rushing noise; or, on
some particular spot, can a more violent breathing, a wheezing or whistlino-, or a
rattling and guggling, be detected ] Is that wheezing or rattling either confined to
one spot, or less sonorous as the ear recedes from that spot above or below ; or is it
diffused over a considerable portion of the trachea 1
In these cases it would be fair to bleed, purge, and most certainly to blister. The
. e?.r will guide to the part to which the blister should be applied. The physic having
set, a course of fever medicine should be commenced. It should be considered as a
case of chronic inflammation, and to be subdued by a continuance of moderate deple-
tory measures. Probably blood should again be abstracted in less quantity ; a second
dose of physic should be given, and, most certainly, the blister should be repeated,
or kept discharging by means of some stimulatintr unguent. The degree of success
which attends these measures would determine ^le farther pursuit of them. If no
relief is obtained after a fortnight or three weeks, perhaps the experimenter would
ponder on another mode of treatment. He would again carefully explore the whole
extent of the trachea, and if he could yet refer the rattling or wheezing to the same
point at which he had before observed it, he would boldly propose tracheotomy, for
he could certainly cut upon the seat of disease.
If he found one of these organised bands, the removal of it would afford immediate
relief; or if he found merely a thickened membrane, no harm would be done ; or the
loss of blood might abate the local inflammation. No one would eagerly undertake
a case of roaring ; but, having undertaken it, he should give the measures that he
adopts a fair trial, remembering that, in every chronic case like this, the only hope
of success depends on perseverance.
BRONCHOCELE.
Mr. Percivall is almost the only author who takes notice of enlargement of the
thyroid glands — two oval bodies below the larynx, and attached to the trachea. The
use of them has never been satisfactorily explained. They sometimes grow to the
size of an egg, or larger, but are unattended by cough or fever, and are nothino" more
than an eye-sore. The iodine ointment has occasionally been applied with success.
The blister or the seton may also be useful.
EPIDEMIC CATARRH.
Var.ous names are given to this disease — influenza, distemper, catarrhal fever, and
epidemic catarrh. Its usual history is as follows.
In the spring of the year — a cold, wet spring — and that succeeding to a mild winter,
17*
198 EPIDEMIC CATARRH.
and especially among young horses, and those in high condition, or made up for siU,
or that have been kept in hot stables, or exposed to the usual causes of inflammation,
this disease principally, and sometimes almost exclusively, prevails. Those that are
in moderate work, and that are correspondingly fed, generally escape ; or even when
it appears in most of the stables in a narrower or wider district, horses in barracks,
regularly worked and moderately fed, although not entirely exempt, are comparatively
seldom diseased.
If it has been observed from the beginning, it will be found that the attack is
usually sudden, ushered in by shivering, and that quickly succeeded by acceleration
of pulse, heat of mouth, staring coat, tucked-up belly, diminution of appetite, painful
but not loud cough, heaving at the flanks, redness of the membrane of the nose,
swelled and weeping eye, dejected countenance — these are the symptoms of catarrh,
but under a somewhat aggravated form.
It clearly is not inflammation of the lungs ; for there is no coldness of the extremi-
ties, no looking at the flanks, no stiff immovable position, no obstinate standing up.
It is not simple catarrh ; for as early as the second day there is evident debility. The
horse staggers as he walks.
It is inflammation of the respiratory passages generally. It commences in the mem-
brane of the nose, but it gradually involves the whole of the respiratory apparatus
Before the disease has been established four-and-twenty hours, there is frequently sore-
throat. The horse quids his hay, and gulps his water. There is no great enlargement of
the glands ; the parotids are a little tumefied, the submaxillary somewhat more so, but
not at all equivalent to the degree of soreness. That soreness is excessive, and day aftei
day the horse will obstinately refuse to eat. Discharge from the nose soon follows
in condderable quantity : thick, very early purulent, and sometimes foetid. The
breathing is accelerated and laborious at the beginning, but does not always increase
with the progress of the disease — nay, sometimes, a dieceitful calm succeeds, and the
pulse, quickened and full at first, soon loses its firmness, and although it usually
maintains its unnatural quickness, yet it occasionally deviates from this, and subsides
to little more than its natural standard. The extremities continue to be comfortably
warm, or at least the temperature is variable, and there is not in the manner of the
animal, or in any one symptom, a decided reference to any particular part or spot, as
the chief seat of disease.
Thus the malady proceeds for an uncertain period : occasionally for several days— .
in not a few instances through the whole of its course, and the animal dies exhausted
by extensive or general irritation : but in other cases the inflammation assumes a
local determination, and we have bronchitis or pneumonia, but of no very acute cha-
racter, yet difficult to treat, from the general debility with which it is connected.
Sometimes there are considerable swellings in various parts, as the chest, the belly,
the extremities, and particularly the head. The brain is occasionally affected ; the
horse grows stupid ; the conjunctiva is alarmingly red ; the animal becomes gradually
unconscious, and delirium follows. A curious thickening, that may be mistaken for
severe sprain, is sometimes observed about the tendons. It is seen under the knee
or about the fetlock. It is hot and tender, and the lameness is considerable. The*
feet occasionally suffer severely. There is a determination of fever to them far more
violent than the original disease, and separation of the lamina:^ and descent of the sole
ensue. It may be easily imagined how roaring may be connected with epidemic
catarrh ; but it is rarely or never followed by glanders. These changes of situation
are not fatal, but the practitioner is rather glad to see them, except indeed when the
feet are attacked ; for the disease seems inclined to shift its situation or character,
and is more easily subdued.
The most decided character in this disease is debility. Not the stiff, unwilling
motion of the horse with pneumonia, and which has been mistaken for debility —
every muscle being needed for the purposes of respiration, and therefore imperfectly
used in locomotion — but actual loss of power in the muscular system generally. The
horse staggers from the second day. He threatens to fall if he is moved. He is
sometimes down, permanently down, on the third or fourth day. The emaciation is
•also occasionally rapid and extreme.
At length the medical treatment which has been employed succeeds, or nature
begins to rally. The cough somewhat subsides ; the pulse assumes its natura.
standard ; the countenance acquires a little more animation ; the horse will eat a
EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 199
small quantity of some choice thing; and health and strength slowly, very slowly
indeed, return : but at other times, when there had been no decided change during
the progress of the disease, no manageable metastasis of inflammation while llu're
was sufficient power left in the constitution to struggle with it, a strange exacerbation
af symptoms accompanies the closing scene. The extremities become deathly cold ;
the flanks heave ; the countenance betrays greater distress ; the membrane of the nose
is of an intense red ; and inflammation of the substance of the lungs and congestion
and death speedily follow.
At other times the redness of the nostril suddenly disappears; it becomes purple,
livid, dirty brown, and the discharge is bloody and fatid, the breath and all the
excretions becoming foetid too. The mild character of the disease gives way to
malignant typhus : swellings, and purulent ulcers, spread over different parts of the
frame, and the animal is soon destroyed.
Post-mortem Examination. — Examination after death sufficiently displays the real
character of the disease, inflammation first of the respiratory passages, and, in fatal
or aggravated cases, of the mucous membranes generally. From the pharynx, to the
termination of the small intestines, and often including even the larger ones, there
will not be a part free from inflammation ; the upper part of the trachea will be filled
with adhesive spume, and the lining membrane thickened, injected, or ulcerated ; the
lining tunic of the bronchi will exhibit unequivocal marks of inflanmration ; the sub-
stance of the lungs will be engorged, and often inflamed ; the heart will partake of
the same affection ; its external coat will be red, or purple, or black, and its internal
one will exhibit spots of ecchymosis ; the pericardium will be thickened, and the
pericardiac and pleuritic bags will contain an undue quantity of serous, or bloody-
serous, or purulent fluid.
The oesophagus will be inflamed, sometimes ulcerated — the stomach always so ;
the small intestines will uniformly present patches of inflammation or ulceration.
The liver will be inflamed — the spleen enlarged — no part, indeed, will have escaped ;
and if the malady has assumed a typhoid form in its latter stages, the universality
and malignancy of the ulceration will be excessive.
This disease is clearly attributable to atmospheric influence, but of the precise
nature of this influence we are altogether ignorant. It is some foreign injurious
Srinciple which mingles with and contaminates the air, but whence this poison is
erived, or how it is diffused, we know not. It is engendered, or it is most prevalent,
in cold ungenial weather ; or this weather may dispose the patient for catarrh, or
prepare the tissues to be affected by causes which would otherwise be harmless, or
which may at all times exist.
It is most frequent in the spring of the year, but it occasionally rages in autumn
and in winter. It is epidemic ,• it spreads over large districts. It sometimes pervades
the whole country. Scarcely a stable escapes. Its appearance is sudden, its progress
rapid. Mr. Wilkinson had 3G new cases in one day. It is said that a celebrated
practitioner in London had nearly double that number in less than twenty-four hours
At other times it is endemic. It pervades one town ; one little tract of country. It
is confined to spots exceedingly circumscribed. It is dependent on atmospheric
agency, but this requires some injurious adjuvant and the principle of contagion must
probably be called into play. It has been rife enough in the lower parts of the metro-
polis, while in the upper and north-western districts scarcely a case has occurred.
It has occasionally been confined to a locality not extending half-a-mile in any direc-
tion. In one of the cavalry barracks the majority of the horses on one side of the
yard were attacked by epidemic catarrh, while there was not a sick horse on the
other side. These prevalences of disease, and these exceptions, are altogether unac-
countable. The stables, and the system of stable management, have been most
carefully inquired into in the infected and the healthy districts, and no satisfactory
difference could be ascertained. One fact, however, has been established, and a very
important one it is to the horse proprietor as well as the practitioner. The probability
of the disease seems to be in proportion to the number of horses inhabiting the stable.
Two or three horses shut up in a comparatively close stable may escape. Out of
thirty horses, distributed through ten or fifteen little stables, not one may be afl'ected ,
but in a stable containing ten or twelve horses the disease will assuredly appear,
although it may be proportionally larger and well ventilated. It is on this account
that postmasters and horse-dealers dread its appearance. In a sickly season their
;500 EPIDEMIC CATARRH.
stables are never free from it ; and if, perchance, it does enter one of their largest
stables, almost every horse will be affected. Therefore also it is that grooms have so
much dread of a distempered stable, and that the odds are so seriously affected if
distemper has broken out in a racing establishment.
Does this lead to the conclusion that epidemic catarrh is contagious? Not neces-
sarily, but it excites strong suspicion of its being so ; and there are so many facts of
the disease following the introduction of a distempered horse into an establishment,
that this malady must rank among those that are both contagious and epidemic.
There are few well-informed grooms, or extensive owners of horses, and living much
among them, or veterinary surgeons of considerable practice, who entertain the least
doubt about the matter. Then every necessary precaution should be adopted. The
horse that exhibits symptoms of epidemic catarrh should be removed as soon as
possible. The affected horses should be removed, and not the sound ones, for they,
although apparently sound, may have the malady lurking about them, and may more
widely propagate the disease.
With regard to the treatment of epidemic catarrh, there may be, and is at times,
considerable difficulty. It is a disease of the mucous membrane, and thus connected
with much debility ; but it is also a disease of a febrile character, and the inflamma-
tion is occasionally intense. The veterinary surgeon, therefore, must judge for
himself Is the disease in its earliest stage marked by evident inflammatory action 1
Is there much redness of the membrane of the nose — much acceleration of the pulse
' — much heaving of the flanks ] If so, blood must be abstracted. The orifice should
be large that the blood may flow quickly, and the circulation be sooner affected ; and
the medical attendant should be present at this first venesection, that he may close the
orifice as soon as the pulse begins to falter. This attention to the first bleeding is
indispensable. It is the carelessness with which it is performed — the ignorance of
the object to be accomplished, and the effect actually produced, that destroys half the
horses that are lost from this malady. The first falter of the pulse is the signal to
suspend the bleeding. Every drop lost afterwards may be wanted.
If there is no appearance of febrile action, or only a very slight one, small doses of
aloes may be given, combined with the fever medicines recommended for catarrh.
As soon as the faces are pultaceous, or even before that, the aloes should be omitted
and the fever medicine continued. It will rarely be prudent to continue the aloes
beyond the third drachm.
A stricter attention must be paid to diet than the veterinarian usually enforces, or
the groom dreams of. No corn must be allowed, but mashes and thin gruel. The
water should be entirely taken away, and a bucket of gruel suspended in the box.
This is an excellent plan with regard to every sick horse that we do not wish to
reduce too much ; and when he finds that the morning and evening pass over, and his
water is not offered to him, he will readily take to the gruel, and drink as much of it
as is good for him. Green meat should be early offered ; such as grass, tares (the
latter especially), lucerne, and, above all, carrots. If these cannot be procured, a
little hay may be whetted, and offered morsel after morsel by the hand. Should this
be refused, the hay may be damped with water slightly salted, and then the patient
will generally seize it with avidity.
Should the horse refuse to eat during the two or three first days, there is no occa-
sion to be in a hurry to drench with gruel ; it will make the mouth sore, and the throat
sore, and tease and disgust : but if he should long continue obstinately to refuse his
food, nutriment must be forced upon him. Good thick gruel must be horned down,
or, what is better, given by means of Read's pump.
The practitioner will often and anxiously have recourse to auscultation. He will
listen for the mucous rattle, creeping down the windpipe, and entering the bronchial
passages. If he cannot detect it below the larynx, he will apply a strong blister,
reachmg from ear to ear, and extending to the second or third ring of the trachea.
If he can trace the rattle in the windpipe, he must follow it, — he must blister as far
as the disease has spread. This will often have an excellent effect, not only as a
counter-irritant, but as rousing the languid powers of the constitution. A roM-el of
tolerable size between the fore-legs cannot do harm. It may act as a derivative, or
it may take away a disposition to inflammation in the contiguous port'on of the chest.
Tlie inflammation which characterizes the early stage of this disease is at first con-
fined to the membrane of the mouth and the fauces. Can fomentations be applied"?
i
EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 201
Yes, and to the very part, by means of a hot mash^ not thrown into the manger over
which the head of the horse cannot be confined, but placed in that too-much-under-
valued and discarded article of stable-furniture, the nose-bag. The vapour or the
ivater will, at every inspiration, pass over the inflamed surface, xn the majority of
cases relief will speedily be obtained, and that suppuration from the part so necessary
to the permanent removal of the inflammation — a copious discharge of mucus or puru-
lent matter from the nostrils — will be hastened. If the discharge does not appear so
speedily as could be wished, a stimulant should be applied to the part. The vapour
impregnated with turpentine arising from fresh yellow deal saw-dust, used instead of
bran, will have very considerable effect in quickening and increasing the suppuration.
It may even be resorted to almost from the beginning, if there is not evidently much
irritability of membrane.
A hood is a useful article of clothing in these cases. It increases the perspiration
from the surface covering the inflamed part — a circumstance always of considerable
moment.
An equable warmth should be preserved, if possible, over the whole body. The
hand-brush should be gently used every day, and harder and more effectual rubbing
applied to the legs. The patient should, if possible, be placed in a loose box, in which
he may toddle about, and take a little exercise, and out of which he should rarely, if
at all, be taken. The exercise of which the groom is so fond in these cases, and
which must in the most peremptory terms be forbidden, has destroyed thousands of
horses. The air should be fresh and uncontaminated, but never chiily ; for the object
is to increase and not to repress cutaneous perspiration ; to produce, if possible, a
determination of blood to the skin, and not to drive it to the part already too much
overloaded. In order to accomplish this, the clothing should be rather warmer than
usual.
The case may proceed somewhat slowly, and not quite satisfactorily to the practi
tioner or his employer. There is not much fever — there is little or no local inflam-
mation; but there is great emaciation and debility, and total loss of appetite. The
quantity of the sedative may then be lessened but not omitted altogether ; for the fire
may not be extinguished, although for a little while concealed. There are no diseases
so insidious and treacherous as these. ^lild and vegetable tonics, such as gentian
and ginger, may be given. Two days after this the sedative may be altogether omit-
ted, and the tonic gradually increased.
The feeding should now be sedulously attended to. Almost every kind of green
meat that can be obt?:ned should be given, particularly carrots nicely scraped and
sliced. The food should be changed as often as the capricious appetite prompts ; and
occasionally, if necessary, the patient should be forced with gruel as thick as it will
run from the horn, but the gradual return of health should be well assured, before one
morsel of corn is given.*
A very few weeks ago, the author received from his friend, IMr. Percivall, the fol
lowing account of a new and destructive epidemic among horses : —
"From the close of the past year and the beginning of the present, up to the time
I am writing, the influenza among horses has continued to prevail in the metropolis
and different parts of the country with more or less fatality. In London it has
assumed the form of laryngitis, associated in some instances with bronchitis ; in others
— in all I believe where it has proved fatal — with pleurisy. The parenchymatous
structure of the lungs has not partaken of the disease, or but consecutively and slightly.
The earliest and most characteristic symptom has been snre throat ; causing trouble-
some dry short cough, but rarely occasioningf any difficulty of deglutition, and, in no
instance that I have seen, severe or extensive enough to produce anything like dis-
gorgement or return of the masticated matters through the nose, and yet the slightest
pressure on the larynx has excited an act of coughing. But seldom has any glandular
enlargement appeared. The symptom secondarily remarkable after the sore throat
and cough has been a dispiritedness or dulness. for which most epidemics of the kind
are remarkable. The animal, at the time of sickening, has hung his head under the
manger, with his eyes half shut, and his lower lip pendent, without evincing any
* An interesting account of epidemic among horses will be found in the Association Part of
" The Veterinarian," vols. xii. and xv. A work, by the author of this volume, is in prepara
tion, on the epiiemics that have prevailed among all our domesticated animals.
2a
202 EPIDEMIC CATARRH.
alarm or even much notice, though a person entered his abode or approached I im ;
and if in a box, his head is often found during his illness turned toward the door or
window. Fever, without any disturbance of the respiration, has always been present;
the pulse has been accelerated, though rather small and weak in its beat than indica
tive of strength ; the mouth has been hot, sometimes burning hot, afterwards moist,
and perhaps saponaceous ; the skin and extremities in general have been warm. Now
and then the prostration and appearance of debility have been such, and so rapid in
their manifestation, that, shortly after being attacked, a horse has staggeringly walked
twenty yards only — the distance from his stable into an infirmary-box. The appetite,
though impaired much, has seldom been altogether lost. Generally, if a little fresh
hay has been offered, it has been taken and eaten ; but to mashes there has been com-
monly great aversion. During the long continuance of the wind in the east, the sore
throat and cough have been unattended by any flux from the nose; but since the wind
has shifted within this last fortnight or three weeks, discharges from the nostrils have
appeared, profuse even in quantity, and purulent in their nature; in fact, the disease
has assumed a more catarrhal character — ergo, I might add, a more favourable one.
"The disorder has exhibited every phase and degree of intensity, from the slightest
perceivable dulness, which has passed off with simply a change in the diet, to an
insidious, unyielding, unsubduable pleurisy, ending in hydrothorax, in spite of every-
thing that could be done, and most timely done. So long as the disease has confined
itself to the throat, and that there has been along with that only dejection, prostration,
and fever, there has existed no cause for alarm ; but when such symptoms have, after
some days' continuance, not abated, and have, on the contrary, rather increased, and
others have arisen which but too well have authorised suspicions that ' mischief was
brewing in the chest,' then there became the strongest reasons for alarm for the safety
of the patient. What is now to be done ? The practitioner durst not bleed a second
time, at least not generally, for the patient's strength would not endure it, although he
is certain a pleurisy is consuming his patient. He possesses no effectual means for
topical blood-letting. Neither blisters nor rowels, nor plugs nor setons, Avill take
any effect. Cathartic medicine he must not administer ; nauseants are uncertain and
doubtful in their efficacy; sedatives, tonics, and stimulants and narcotics, appear
counter-indicated, inflammation existing, and, when tried under such circumstances,
have, 1 believe, never failed to do harm.
"Dissatisfied with one and all of these remedies in the late influenza — though the
losses I have experienced have, after all, not been so very comparatively great, being
no more, since the beginning of the year, than three out of nearly forty cases — I
repeat, having, as I thought, reason to be dissatisfied for losing even these three cases,
considering that they came under my care at the earliest period of indisposition, I
determined, in any similar cases that might occur, to have recourse to that medicine
which, in all membranous inflammations in particular, is the physician's sheet-anchor,
and which I had exhibited, and still continue to do, myself, in other disorders, though
I had never given it a fair trial in epidemics having that tendency wliich I have
described the present one unifonnly to have indicated, viz., the destruction of life by
an inflammation attacking membranous parts, of a nature over which, being forbidden
to bleed, we appeared to possess little or no power. Could we have drawn blood
from the sides or breast, by cupping or by leeches, in any tolerable quantity, we
might have had some control over the internal disease; but barred from this, and
without any remedy save a counter-irritant, which we could not make act, or an
internal medicine, whose action became extremely dubious, if not positively hurtful,
w^hatwas to be done? I repeat, I made up my mind to experiment with the surgeon's
remedy in the same disease, namely, mercury ; and that I have had reason to feel
gratified at the result will, I think, appear from the following cases : —
" Case I. — April 8. Every symptom of the prevailing epidemic : and considerably
aggravated on the 10th, when the horse laboured under much prostration of strength,
and staggered considerably in his gait. The following l)all was then ordon-d to be
given him twice a day : K Hydrarg. chlorid. 3i, farin. avena; 3ss. terebinth, vulg.
q. s. ut fiat bol. One to be given morning and night. He soon began to improve:
and was returned to the stable on the 2Gth, convalescent. A second patient of the
same character was cured in eighteen days, and a third in nineteen days." Tht-
author of this work had the ple;isure of witnessing these cases.
Mr. Percivall adds, " Lest it should be said, after the perusal of these three cases
»
MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 203
that they do not appear to have been of a dang-erous character, or to have required
anything out of the ordinary line of treatment, 1 beg to observe, that at the periods
at which I submitted them to the action of mercury, they so much resembled three
others that had preceded them, and the disease had proved fatal, that, under a con-
tinuance of treatment of any ordinary kind, I certainly should have entertained fears
for their safety,
'' It must be remembered that they were cases in which blood-letting, except at the
commencement, was altogether forbidden ; and that, at the critical period when mer-
cury was introduced, they had taken an unfavourable turn, and that nothing in the
shape of remedy appeared available, save internal medicine and counter-irritation, and
that the latter had not, and did not. show results betokening the welfare of the patients.
Under these circumstances, the mercury was exhibited. That it entered the system,
and must have had more or less influence on the disease, appears evident from its
effect on the gums. That it proved the means of cure, I cannot, from so few cases,
take upon myself to assert ; but I would recommend it in similar cases to the notice
of practitioners."
THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC.
Continental veterinarians describe a malignant variety or termination of this disease ;
and the imperfect history of veterinary medicine in Britain is not without its records
of it. So lately as the year LSI 5, an epidemic of a malignant character reigned
among horses. Three out of five who were attacked died. It reappeared in 1823,
but was not so fatal. It was said that the horses that died, were ultimately farcied :
the truth was, that swellings and ulcerations, with fcetid discharge, appeared in
various parts, or almost all over them — the natural swellings of the complaint which
has just been considered, but aggravated and malionant. Our recollection of the
classic lore of our early j-ears will furnish us with instances of the same pest in dis-
tant times and countries. We have not forgotten the vivid description of Apollo
darting his fiery arrows among the Greeks, and involving in one common destruction,
the human being, the mule, the horse, the ox, and the dog. Lucretius, when describ-
ing the plague at Athens, speaks of a malignant epidemic affecting almost every
animal —
Nor longer birds at noon, nor beasts at night
Their native woods deserted ; with the pest
Remote they langiiished, and full frequent died :
But chief, the dog his generous strength resigned.
In 1714, a malignant epidemic was imported from the Continent, and in the course
of a few months destroyed 70,000 horses and cattle. It continued to visit other coun-
tries, with but short intervals, for fifty years afterwards. Out of evil, however, came
good. The Continental agriculturists were alarmed by this destruction of their pro-
perty. The different governments participated in the terror, and veterinary schools
were established, in which the anatomy and diseases of these animals might be
studied, and the cause and treatment of these periodical pests discovered. From the
time that this branch of medical science began to receive the attention it deserved,
these epidemics, if they have not quite ceased, have changed their character, and
have become comparatively mild and manageable. As, however, they yet occur, and
are far too fatal, we must endeavour to collect the symptoms, and point out the treat-
ment of them.
The malignant epidemic was almost uniformly ushered in by inflammation of the
mucous membrane of the respiratory passages, but soon involving other portions,
and then ensued a diarrhoea, which no art could arrest. The fever, acute at first,
lapidly passed over, and was succeeded by great prostration of strength. The inflam-
mation then spread to the cellular texture, and there was a peculiar disposition to the
formation of phlegmonous tumours : sometimes there were pustular emptions, but,
oftener, deep-seated tumours rapidly proceeding to suppuration. Connected with
this was a strong tendency to decomposition, and unless the animal was relieved by
some critical flux or evacuation, malignant typhus was established, and the horse
speedih' sunk.
Tlie most satisfactory account of- one of these epidemics is given us by Professoi
Brugnone, of Turin. It commenced with loss of appetite, staring coat, a wild and
204 THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC.
wandering look, and a staggering from the very commencement. The horse would
continually lie down and get up again, as if tormented by colic ; and he gazed alter-
nately at both flanks. In the moments of comparative ease, there were universal
twitchmgs of the skin, and spasms of the limbs. The temperature of the ears and
feet was variable. If there happened to be about the animal any old wound or scar
from setoning or firing, it opened afresh and discharged a quantity of thick and black
blood. Very shortly afterwards the flanks, which were quiet before, began to heave,
the nostrils were dilated, the head extended for breath. The horse had by this time
become so weak that, if he lay or fell down, he could rise no more ; or if ne was up,
he would stand trembling, staggering, and threatening to fall every moment. The
mouth was dry, the tongue white, and the breath foetid ; a discharge of yellow or
bloody foBtid matter proceeded from the nose, and foetid bloci from the anus. The
duration of the disease did not usually exceed twelve or twenty-four hours ; or if the
animal lingered on, swellings of the head and throat, and sheath, and scrotum, fol-
lowed, and he died exhausted or in convulsions.
Black spots of extravasation were found in the cellular membrane, in the tissue of
all the membranes, and on the stomach. The mesenteric and lymphatic glands were
engorged, black, and gangrenous. The membrane of the nose and the pharynx was
highly injected, the lungs were filled with black and frothy blood, or with black and
livid spots. The brain and its meninges were unaltered.
It commenced in March 1783. The barracks then contained one hundred and six-
teen horses ; all but thirteen were attacked, and seventy-eight of them died. The
horses of both the oflScers and men were subject to the attack of it; and three horses
from the town died, two of which had drawn the carts that conveyed the carcasses
away, and the other stood under a window, from which the dung of an infected stable
had been thrown out. The disease would probably have spread, but the most sum-
mary measures for arresting its progress were adopted ; every horse in the town was
killed that had had the slightest communication with those in the barracks. One
horse was inoculated with the pus discharged from the ulcer of an infected horse, and
he died. A portion of his thymus gland was introduced under the skin of another
horse, and he also died.
Cause. — The disease was supposed to be connected with the food of the horses. All
the oats had been consumed, and the lulium itmulentum, or awned darnel, had been
given instead. // is said that the darnel is occasionally used by brewers to give an
intoxicating quality to their malt liquor. For fifteen days no alteration of health
was perceived, and then, in less than eighteen hours, nearly forty perished. The sta-
bles were not crowded, and there was no improper treatment. A man disinterred
some of the horses to get at the fat ; swellings rapidly appeared in his throat, and he
died in two days. A portion of their flesh was given to two pigs and some dogs, and
they died.
M. Brugnone found that bleeding only accelerated the death of the patient. He
afterwards tried, and ineffectually, acids, cordials, purgatives, vesicatories, and the
actual cautery ; and he frankly attributes to the power of nature the recovery of the
few who survived.
Gilbert's Jccount nf ihe Epidemic of 1795. — M. Gilbert describes a malignant epi-
demic which appeared in Paris in 1795, characterized by dulness, loss of appetite,
weakness, pulse at first rapid and full, and afterwards continuing rapid, but gradu-
ally becoming small, weak, and intermittent. The bowels at first constipated, and
then violent purging succeeding. The weakness rapidly increasing, accompanied
by foetid breath, and foetid evacuations. Tumours soon appeared about the limbs,
under the chest, and in the head, the neck and loins. If they suppurated and burst,
the animal usually did well ; but otherwise he inevitably perished. The formation
of these tumours "was critical. If they rapidly advanced, it was considered as a
favourable symptom ; but if they continued obscure, a fatal termination was prog-
nosticated.
Bleeding, even in an early stage, seemed here also to be injurious, and increafeed
the debility. Physic was given, and mild and nutritious food, gruel, and cordials.
Deep incisions were made into the tumours, and the cautery applied. Stimulating
frictions were also used, but all were of little avail.
These cases have been narrated at considerable length, in order to give some idea
"^f the nature of this disease, and because, with the exception of a short but very
BRONCHITIS. 205
excellent account of the malignant epidemic m the last edition of Mtn B.aine'^ Vete-
rinary Outlines, there will not be found any satisiactory history of it in ihe wriunfrs
of our English veterinarians. It is evidently a disease of the mucous membranes,
both the respiratory and digestive. It is accompanied by early and great debility,
loss of ail vital power, vitiation of every secretion, effusions and tumours everywhere,
and it runs its course with fearful rapidity. If it was seen at its outset, the practi-
tioner would probably bleed; but if a few hours only had elapsed, he would find
witli Messrs. Brognone and Gilbert, that venesection would only hasten the catas
trophe. Stimulants should be administered mingled with opium, and the spirit of
nitrous ether in doses of three or four ounces, with an ounce or more of laudanum.
The quantity of opium should be regulated by the spasms and the diarrhcea. These
medicines should be repeated in a few hours, combined, perhaps, with ginger and
gentian. If these failed, there is little else to be done. Deep incisions into the tu-
mours, or blisters over them, might be proper measures ; but the princijjal attention
should be directed to the arresting of the contagion. The infected should be imme-
diately removed from the healthy. All offensive matter should be carefully cleared
away, and no small portion of chloride of lime used in washing the animal, and par-
ticularly his ulcers. It might with great propriety be administered internally, while
the stable, and everything that belonged to the patient, should undergo a careful ablu-
ion with the same powerful disinfectant.
BRONCHITIS.
This is not generally a primary disease. That inflammation of the superior respi-
ratory passages, constituting catarrh, gradually creeps downwards and involves the
larj'nx and the trachea, and at length, possibly, the farthest and the minutest ramifi-
cations of the air-tubes. When it is found to be thus advancing, its progress should
be carefully watched by the assistance of auscultation. The distant murmur of the
healthy lung cannot be mistaken, nor the crepitating sound of pneumonia; and in
bronchitis the blood may be heard filtering or breaking through the divisions of the
lobuli, and accounting for that congestion or filling of the cells with mucus and blood,
which is found after intense inflammation. Inflammation precedes this increased dis-
charge of mucus. Even that may be detected. The inflamed membrane is thickened
and tense. It assumes an almost cartilaginous structure, and the murmur is not only
louder, but has a kind of snoring sound. Some have imagined that a sound like a
metallic ring is mingled with it; but this is never very distinct.
The interrupted whizzing sound has often and clearly indicated a case of bronchitis,
and there are many corroborative symptoms which should be regarded. The variable
temperature of the extremities will be an important guide — not deathly cold as in
pneumonia, nor of increased temperature, as often in catarrh, but with a tendency to
coldness, yet this varying much. The pulse will assist the diagnosis — more rapid
than in catarrh, much more so than in the early stage of pneumonia : not so hard as
in pleurisy, no ire so than in catarrh, and much more so than in pneumonia. The res-
piration should next be examined, abundantly more rapid than in catarrh, pneumonia,
or pleurisy ; generally as rapid and often more so than the pulse, and accompanied by
a A\''heezing sound, heard at some distance. Mr. Percivall relates a case in which the
respiration was more than one hundred in a minute. Mr. C. Percivall describes an
interesting case in which the respiration was quick in the extreme ; and he remarks,
that he does " not remember to have seen a horse with his respiration so disturbed."
In addition to these clearly characteristic symptoms, will be observed a haggard
countenance, to which the anxious look of the horse labouring under inflammation of
the lungs cannot for a moment be compared ; also an evident dread of suffocation,
expressed, not by inability to move, as in pneumonia, but frequently an obstinate
refusal to do so ; cough painful in the extreme; breath hot, yet no marked pain in the
part, and no looking at the side or flanks.
As the disease proceeds, there will be considerable discharge from the nostrils,
much more than in catarrh, because greater extent of membrane is effected. It will
be muco-purulent at first, but will soon become amber-coloured or green, or greyish
green ; and that not from any portion of the food being returned, but from the pecu-
liar hue of the secretion from ulcers in the bronchial passages. Small organised
p'.eces will mingle with the discharge, — portions of mucus condensed and hardened
18
200 PNEUMONIA — INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS.
and forced from the inside of the tube. If the disease proceeds, the discharge becomea
bloody, and then, and sometimes earlier, it is fcetid.
The natural termination of this disease, if unchecked, is in pneumonia. Although
we cannot trace the air-tubes to their termination, the inflammation will penetrate
mto the lobuli, and affect the membranes of the air-cells or divisions which they con-
lain. There is metastasis of inflammation oftener here than in pure pneumonia, and
the disease is most frequently transferred to the feet. If, however, there is neither
pneumonia nor metastasis of inflammation, and the disease pursues its course, the
animal dies from suffocation. If the air-passages are clogged, there can be no sup-
ply of arterial iz'ed blood.
Like every other inflammation of the respiratory passages, bronchitis is clearly
epidemic. There is a disposition to inflammation in the respiratory apparatus gene-
rally, but it depends on some unknown atmospheric influence whether this shall take
on the form of catarrh, bronchitis, or pneumonia. It has not, however, been yet
proved to be contagious.
Here again the first step will be to bleed ; and here too will be the paramount
necessity of the personal attendance of some well-informed person while the animal is
bled. This is a disease of a mucous, — and an extended mucous surface; and while
our measures must be prompt, there is a tendency to debility which we should never
forget. Although the horse may be distressed quite to the extent which Mr. Charles
Percivall describes, yet he would not bear the loss of four pounds of blood without
fainting. No determinate quantity of blood will therefore be taken, but the vein will
not be closed until the pulse falters, and the animal staggers, and in a minute or two
would fall. This may probably effect the desired object; if it does not, it is possible
that the practitioner may not have a second opportunity.
The medical attendant should be cautious in the administration of piirgafives, for
the reasons that nave again and again been stated ; but if the bowels are evidently
constipated, small doses of aloes must be given with the febrifuge medicine, and their
speedy action promoted by injections, so that a small quantity may suffice.
A blister is always indicated in bronchitis. It can never do harm, and it not unfre-
quently affords decided relief. It should extend over the brisket and sides, and up
the trachea to the larynx. The food, if the horse is disposed to eat, should be mashes.
No corn should be offered, nor should the horse be coaxed to eat.
PNEUMONIA — INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS.
The intimate structure of the lungs has never been satisfactorily demonstrated.
They appear, however, to be composed of minute cells or pouches, into which the air
is at length conducted, and over the delicate membrane constituting the divisions of
which myriads of minute blood-vessels are ramifying. The blood is not merely per-
meating them, but it is undergoing a vital change in them ; there is a constant decom-
position of the air, or of the blood, or of both; and, during the excitement of exercise,
that decomposition proceeds with fearful rapidity. Then it can readily be conceived
Jiat a membrane so delicate as this must be, in order that its interposition shall be
no hindrance to the arterialisation of the blood ; so fragile also, and so loaded with
blood-vessels, will be exceedingly subject to inflammation, and that of a most dan-
gerous character.
Inflammation of the substance of the lungs is the not unfrequent consetpjence of
all the diseases of the respiratory passages that have been treated on. Catarrh,
influenza, bronchitis, if neglected or badly managed, or, sometimes in spite of the
most skilful treatment, will spread along the mucous membrane, and at length involve
the termination of the air-passages. At other times, there is pure pneumonia. This
cellular texture is the primary seat of inflammation. It is often so in the over-worked
horse. After a long and hard day's hunt, it is very common for horses to be attacked
by pure pneumonia. A prodigiously increased quantity of blood is iiurried through
these small vessels, for the vast expenditure of arterial blood in rapid progression
must be provided for. These minutest of the capillaries are distended and irritated,
their contractile power is destroyed, inflammation is produced, mechanical injury is
effected, the vessels are ruptured, blood is poured into the interstitial texture, and
intense inflammation and congestion, with all their train of fatal consequences, ensue
The following are the most frequent causes of pneumonia. A sudden transition
from heat to cold ; a change from a warm stable to a colder one ; a neglect of the usua
PNEUMONIA — INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 207
clothing ; a neglect even of some little comforts ; riding far and fast against a cold
wind, especially in snowy weather; loitering about when unusual perspiration has
been excited; loitering tediously by the side of a covert on a chilly blowing morning.
It has not unfrequently happened that when horses have been turned out too early
to grass, or without gradual preparation, pneumonia has supervened. Few are, under
any management, so subject to pneumonia as those who, in poor condition and with-
out preparation, are turned into a salt-marsh.
On the other hand, a sudden and considerable change from cold to heat may be
followed by intiammation of the lungs. Many horses perish in the dealers' stables
from this cause. The circulation is considerably quickened; more blood, and that
with more than natural rapidity, is driven through the lungs, previously disposed to
take on inflammatory action. The sudden removal from a heated stable to the cold
air, for the purpose of examination, has also much to do with the production of
disease.
Whether it is the consequence of previous disease of the respiratory passasjes, or
that inflammation first appears in the cellular texture of the lungs, pneumonia is
usually ushered in by a shivering fit. The horse is cold all over ; this, however,
soon passes otf, and we have general warmth, or heat of the skin above the usual
temperature, but accompanied b}"^ coldness of the extremities — intense deathy cold-
ness. This is a perfectly diagnostic symptom. It will never deceive. It is an early
symptom. It is found when there is little or no constitutional disturbance ; when
the pulse is scarcely affected, and the flanks heave not at all, but the horse is merely
supposed to be dull and off his feed. It is that bj' which the progress of the disease
may be unhesitatingly marked, when many scarcely suspect its existence.
The puls.e is not alwa3's at first much increased in rapidity, and but rarely or never
hard ; but it is obscure, oppressed. The heart is labouring to accomplish its object ;
the circulation through the lungs is impeded; the vessels are engorged — the}" are
often ruptured ; blood is extravasated into the air-cells ; it accumulates in the right
side of the heart and in the larger vessels ; and in the venous circulation generally
there is a mechanical obstruction which the heart has not power to overcome. Hence
the obscure, oppressed pulse ; the inefliectual attempt to urge on the blood ; and
hence, too, the remarkable result of bleeding in inflammation of the lungs, for the
pulse becomes rounder, fuller, quicker. When blood is abstracted, a portion of the
opposing force is removed, and the heart being enabled to accomplish its object, the
pulse is developed.
It is only, however, in the early insidious stage that the flanks are occasionally
quiet. If the compressibilitv' of the lungs is diminished by the thickening of the
membrane, or the engorgement of the vessels, or the filling of the cells, it will be
harder work to force the air out ; there must be a stronger eflbrt, and that pressure
which cannot be accomplished by one eflbrt is attempted over and over again. The
respiration is quickened — laborious ; the inspiration is lengthened ; the expiration is
rapid ; and when, after all, the lungs cannot be compressed by the usual means, every
muscle that can be brought to bear upon the part is called into action. Hence the
horse will not lie down, for he can use the muscles of the spine and the shoulder
with most advantage as he stands ; hence, too, the very" peculiar stiffness of position
— the disinclination to move. The horse with decided pneumonia can scarcely be
induced to move at all ; he cannot spare for a moment the assistance which he derives
from certain muscles, and he will continue obstinately to stand until he falls exhausted
or dying. How eagerly does the veterinarian ask when he goes into the stable —
"Was he down last night V And he concludes, that much progress has not been
made towards amendment in the case when the answer is in the negative. When
the patient, wearied out, lies do\\Ti, it is only for a moment ; for if the inflammation
is not subdued, he cannot dispense with the auxilian," muscles. He frequently, and
with doleful expression, looks at his sides — at one side or at both, accordinely as <^ne
or both are involved. There is not, however, the decidedly haggard countenance of
bronchitis; and in bronchitis the horse rarely or never gazes at his flanks. His is a
dread of suffocation more than a feeling of pain. The head is protruded, and the
nostrils distended, and the mouth and the breath intensely hot. The nose is injected
frorr: tne earliest period ; and soon afterw'ards there is not merely injection, but the
membrane is uniformly and intensely red. The variation in this intensity is anxiously
208 PNEUMONIA. — INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS.
marked by the observant practitioner; and he regards with fear and despair tlie livid
or dirty brownish liue that gradually creeps on.
The unfavourable symptoms are, increased coldness of the ears and feet, if that bo
possible ; partial sweats, grinding of the teeth, evident weakness, staggerimr, the
animal not lying down. The pulse becomes quicker, and weak and flutteriu"' ; the
membrane of the nose paler, but of a dirty hue ; the animal growing stupid, comatose.
At length he falls, but he gets up immediately. For awhile he is up and down almost
every minute, until he is no longer able to rise ; he struggles severely ; he pileously
groans; the pulse becomes more rapid, fainter, and he dies of suffocation. The
disease sometimes runs its course with strange rapidity. A horse has been destroyed
by pure pneumonia in twelve hours. The vessels ramifying over the tells have
yielded to the fearful impulse of the blood, and the lungs have presented one mass
of congestion.
The favourable symptoms are, the return of a little warmth to the extremities — the
circulation beginning again to assume its natural character, and, next to this, the
lying down quietly and without uneasiness; showing us that he is beginning to do
without the auxiliary muscles. These are good symptoms, and they wilT rarely
deceive.
Congestion is a frequent termination of pneumonia. Not only are the vessels
gorged — the congestion which accompanies common inflammation — but their parietes
are necessarily so thin, in order that the change in the blood may take place although
they are interposed, that they are easily ruptured, and the cells are filled with blood.
This effused blood soon coagulates, and the lung, when cut into, presents a black,
softened, pulpy kind of appearance, termed, by the farrier and the groom, roiienness,
and being supposed by them to indicate an old disease. It proves only the violence
of the disease, the rupture of many a vessel surcharged with blood ; and it also proves
that the disease is of recent date, for in no great length of time, the serous portion of
the blood becomes absorbed, the more solid one becomes organized, the cells are
obliterated, and the lung is hepatized, or bears considerable resemblance to liver.
In every case of pneumonia, early and anxious recourse should be had to ausculta-
tion. Here, again, is the advantage of being perfectly acquainted with the deep
distant murmur presented by the healthy lung. This sound is most distinct in the
young horse, and especially if he is a little out of condition. On such a horse the
tyro should commence his study of the exploration of the chest. There he will make
himself best acquainted with the respiratory murmur in its full state of development.
He should next take an older and somewhat fatter horse ; he will there recognize the
same sound, but fainter, more distant. In still older animals, there will sometimes
be a little difficulty in detecting it at all. Repeated experiments of this kind will
gradually teach the examiner what kind of healthy murmur he should expect from
every horse that is presented to him, and thus he will be better enabled to appreciate
the different sounds exhibited under disease.
If pneumonia exists to any considerable degree, this murmur is soon changed for,
or mingled with, a curious crepitating sound, which, having been once heard, cannot
afterwards be mistaken. It is caused by the infiltration of blood into the air-cells.
Its loudness and perfect character will characterize the intensity of the disease, and
the portion of the chest at which it can be distingiiished will indicate its extent.
The whole lung, however, is not always affected, or there are only portions or
patches of it in which the inflammation is so intense as to produce congestion and
hepatization. Enough remains either unaffected, or yet pervious for the function of
respiration to be performed, and the animal lingers on, or perhaps recovers. By care-
ful examination with the ear, this also may be ascertained. Where the lung is im-
pervious— where no air passes — no sound will be heard, not even the natural murmur.
Around it the murmur will be heard, and loudly. It will be a kind of rushing sound ;
for the same quantity of blood must be artcrialized, and the air must pass more rapidly
and forcibly through the remaining tubes. If there is considerable inflammation or
tendency to congestion, the crepitating, crackling sound will be recognized, and in
proportion to the intensity of the inflammation. The advantages to be derived from
the study of auscultation are not overrated. It was strong language lately applied by
an able critic to the use of auscultation, that " it converts the organ of hearing into an
organ of vision, enabling the listener to observe, with the clearness of ocular demon-
PNEUMONIA.-INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 209
stranon, the ravages which disease occasionally commits in the very centre of tho
rib-cased cavity of the body."
A horse with any portion of the lungs hepatized cannot be sound. He cannot be
capable of continued extra exertion. His imperfect and mutilated lung cannot supply
the arterialized blood which long-continued and rapid progression requires, and that
portion which is compelled to do the work of the whole lung must be exposed to injury
and indammation from many a cause that would otherwise be harmless.
Another consequence of inflammation of the substance of the lungs is the formation
of tubercles. A greater or smaller number of distinct cysts are formed — cells into
which some tluid is poured in the progress of inflammation : these vary in size from
a pin's point to a large egg. Ey degrees the fluid becomes concrete ; and so it con-
tinues for a while — the consequence and the source of inflammation. It occupies a
space that should be employed in the function of respiration, and by its pressure it
irritates the neighbouring parts, and .exposes them to inflammation.
By and by, however, another process, never sufliciently explained, commences.
The tubercle begins to soften at its centre, — a process of suppuration is set up, and
proceeds until the contents of the cyst become again fluid, but of a different character,
for they now consist of pus. The pus increases; the cyst becomes more and more
distended ; it encroaches on the substance of the lungs ; it comes into contact with
other tubercles, and the walls opposed to each other are absorbed by their mutual
pressure ; they run together, and form one cyst, or regular excavation, and this some-
times proceeds until a considerable portion of the lung is, as it were, hollowed out.
By and by, however, the vomica presses upon some bronchial passage ; the cyst gives
way, and the purulent contents are poured into the bronchia;, and got rid of by the
act of coughing. At other times the quantity is too great to be thus disposed of, and
the animal is suffocated. Occasionally it will break through the pleuritic covering
of the lung, and pour its contents into the thorax.
Abscesses may exist in the lungs undiscovered. — It is scarcely conceivable to what
extent they sometimes exist in animals of slow work, without being detected by the
usual means of examination. Mr. Hales says that he gave a physic-ball to a cart-
mare with a bad foot, and she soon afterwards died suddenly. When inquiring as to
the cause of death, he was told, and not very good-humouredly, that his physic had
killed her. He asked if it had purged her violently 1 " No !" it was replied, " it
had not operated at all." She was opened, and the mystery was all unravelled.
The thorax was deluged with pus, and there were then in the lungs several large
abscesses, one of which contained at least a quart of pus. The mare had not shown
a symptom of chest affection, and the gentleman to whom she belonged declared that
he had believed her to be as sound as any horse he had in his possession.
The resolution or gradual abatement of inflammation is the termination most to be
desired in this state of disease, for then the engorgement of the vessels will gradually
cease, and the thickening of the membrane and the interstitial deposit be taken up,
and the effusion into the cells likewise absorbed, and the lungs will gradually resume
their former cellular texture, yet not perfectly ; for there will be some induration,
slight but general ; or some more perfect induration of certain parts; or the rupture
of some of the air-cells ; or an irritability of membrane predisposing to renewed inflam-
mation. The horse will not always be as useful as before ; there will be chronic
cough, thick wind, broken wind; but these merit distinct consideration; and, for the
present, we proceed to the treatment of pneumonia.
There is inflammation of that organ through which all the blood in the frame passes
— that organ most of all subject to congestion. Then nothing can be so important as
to lessen the quantity of blood which the heart is endeavouring to force through the
minute vessels of the lungs, distended, irritated, breaking. Immediate recourse must
be had to the lancet, and the stream of blood must be suffered to flow on until the
pulse falters, and the animal bears heavy upon the pail. This blood must be extracted
as quickly as possible, and the lancet should be broad-shouldered, and the orifice
large. This is the secret of treating inflammation of a vital organ. The disease ;3
w^eakened or destroyed, without permanently impairing the strength of the patient;
whereas, by small bleedings, and with a small stream," the strength of the patient is
sapped, while the disease remains untouched.
Next comes purging, if we dared ; for by having recourse to it some cause of excite-
ment would be got rid of, the circulating fluid would be lessened, and a new detenni-
18* 2b
210 PNEUMONIA. INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS.
nation of the vital current produced ; but experience teaches, that in pneumonia there
is so much sympathy with the abdominal viscera, — there is such a I'atal tendency in
the inflammation to spread over every mucous membrane, that purging is almost to a
certainty followed by inflammation, and that inflammation bids defiance to every
attempt to arrest it. It may be said with perfect confidence that, in the majority of
cases, a physic-ball would be a dose of poison to a horse labouring under pneumonia.
May we not relax the bowels'? Yes, if we can stop ther«. We may, after the
inflammation has evidently a little subsided, venture upon, yet very cautiously, small
doses of aloes in our fever medicine, and we may quicken their operation by frequent
injections of warm soap and Avater; omitting the purgative, however, tlie moment the
faeces are becoming pultaceous. We must, however, be assured that the inflamma-
tion is subsiding, and there nmst be considerable constipation, or the purgative had
better be let alone.
If we must not give physic, we must endeavour to find some other auxiliary to the
bleeding, and we have it in the compound of digitalis, nitre, and emetic tartar, which
has been so often recommended.
The greatest care should be taken of the patient labouring under this complaint.
His legs should be well hand-rubbed, in order to restore, if possible, the circulation
to the extremities. Comfortable flannel rollers should encase the legs from the foot
to the knee. He should be covered up warm. There cannot be a doubt about this.
As for air, in warm weather he cannot have too much. In cold weather, his box must
be airy, but not chilly. We want to determine the blood to the extremities and the
skin, but not all the clothing in the world will keep our patient warm, if he is placed
in a cold and uncomfortable situation.
As for food, we think not of it. In nine cases out of ten he will not touch any-
thing ; or if he is inclined to eat, we give him nothing but a bran-mash, or a little
green meat, or a few carrots.
We now look about us for some counter-irritant. W-'e wish to excite some power-
ful action in another part of the frame, and which shall divert the current of blood
from that which was first affected. We recognise it as a law of nature, and of which
we here eagerly avail ourselves, that if we have a morbid action in some vital ocgan
— an unusual determination of blood to it — we can abate, perhaps we can at once
arrest, that morbid action hy exciting a similar or a greater disturbance in some con-
tiguous and not dangerous part. Therefore we blister the sides and the brisket, and
produce all the irritation we can on the integument ; and in proportion as we do so,
we abate, or stand a chance of abating, the inflammation within.
We have recourse to a blister in preference to a seton ; and decidedly so, for our
stimulus can be spread over a larger surface, — there is more chance of its being applied
to the immediate neighbourhood of the original inflammation — and, most assuredly,
from the extent of surface on which we can act, we can employ a quantity of stimulus
beyond comparison greater than a seton w'ould pennit us to do. Rowels aie frequently
excellent adjuvants to the blister, but should not be depended upon alone.
In the latter stage of disease the blister will not act, because the powers of nature
are exhausted. We must repeat it, — we must rouse the sinking energies of the frame,
if we can, although the eff'ort will generally be fruitless. The not rising of a blister,
in the latter stage of the disease, may, too often, be regarded as the precursor of death,
especially if it is accompanied by a livid or brown colour of the membrane of the nose.
Pneumonia, like bronchitis, requires anxious watching. The first object is to sub-
due the inflammation, and our measures must be prompt and decisive. If the mouth
continues hot, and the extremities cold, and the nose red, we must bleed again and
again, and that in rapid succession. The good which we can do must be done ai
first, or not at all.
W^hen we have obtained a little returning warmth to the extremities, we must con-
tinue to administer our sedative medicines without one grain of a carmmative or a
tonic ; and the return of the deathy-cold foot will be a signal for forther depletion.
The commencement of the state of convalescence requires the same guarded prac-
tice, as in bronchitis. As many horses are lost by impatience now, as by want of
decision at first. If we have subdued the disease, we should let well alone. We
should guard against the return of the foe by the continued administration of our seda-
tives in smaller quantities ; but give no tonics unless debility is rapidly succeeding.
When we have apparently weathered the storm, we must still be cautious ; we must
CHRONIC COUGH. 21-
consider the nature and the seat of the disease, and the predisposition to returning
inflammation. If the season will permit, two or three months' run at grass should
succeed to our medical treatment; but if this is impracticable, we must put otf the
period of active work as long as it can be delayed ; and even after that permit the
horse to return as gradually as may be to his usual employment and food.
Most frequent in occurrence among the consequences of inflammation of the lungs,
is
CHRONIC COUGH.
It would occupy more space than can be devoted to this part of our subject, to treat
of all the causes of obstinate cough. The irritability of so great a portion of the air-
passages, occasioned by previous and violent inflammation of them, is the most fre-
quent. It is sometimes connected with worms. There is much sympathy between
the lungs and the intestines, and the one readily participates in the irritation produced
in the other. That it is caused by glanders can be easily imagined, because that dis-
ease is, in its early stagre, seated in or near the principal air-passages, and little time
passes before the lungs become affected. It is the necessary attendant of thick wind
and broken wind, for these proceed from alterations of the structure of the lungs.
Notwithstanding the clearness of the cause, the cure is not so evident. If a harsh
hollow cough is accompanied by a staring coat, and the appearance of worms, — a few
worm-balls may expel these parasites, and remove the irritation of the intestinal canal.
If it proceeds from irritability of the air-passages, which will be discovered by the
horse coughing after drinking, or when he first goes out of the stable in the morning,
or b}' his occasionally snorting out thick mucus from the nose, medicines may be
given, and sometimes with advantage, to diminish irritation generally. Small doses
of digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre, administered every night, frequently have a bene-
ficial effect, especially w-hen mixed with tar, which seems to have a powerful influence
in allaying the irritation. These balls should, if necessarj', be regularly given for a
considerable time. They are sufficiently powerful to quiet slight excitement of this
kind, but not to nauseate the horse, or interfere with his food or his work. A blister,
extending from the root of one ear to that of the other, taking in the whole of the
channel, and reaching six or eight inches down the windpipe, has been tried and
often with good eflect, on the supposition that the irritation may exist in the fauces
or the larynx. The blister has sometimes been extended through the whole course
of the windpipe, until it enters the chest.
Feeding has much influence on this complaint. Too much dry meat, and espe-
cially chaff, increase it. It is asrgravated when the horse is suffered to eat his litter;
and it is often relieved when spring tares are given. Carrots afford decided relief.
The seat of the disease, however, is so uncertain, and all our means and appliances
so ineflicacious, and the cough itself so little interfering, and sometimes interfering not
at all with the health of the animal, that it is scarcely worth while to persevere in
any mode of treatment that is not evidently attended with benefit. The principal
consideration to induce us to meddle at all with chronic cough is the knowledge that
horses afflicted with it are more liable than others to be affected by changes of tem-
perature, and that inflammation of the lungs, or of the respiratory passages, often
assumes in them a ven,- alarming character; to which, perhaps, may be added, that a
horse with chronic cough cannot be warranted sound.
^^"hen chronic cough chiefly occurs after eating, the seat of the disease is evidently
in the substance of the lungs. The stomach distended with food presses upon the
diaphragm, and the diaphragm upon the lungs; and the lungs, already labouring
under some congestion, are less capable of transmitting the air. In the violent eflort
to discharge their function, irritation is produced ; and the act of coughing is the con-
sequence of that irritation.
The Veterinary Surgeon labours under great disadvantage in the treatment of his
patients. He must not only subdue the malady, but he must remove all its conse-
quences. He must leave his patient perfectly sound, or he has done comparatively nothing.
This is a task always difficult, and sometimes impossible to be accomplished. The
two most frequent consequences of severe chest affections in the horse are recognised
nnder the terms thick wind and broken wind. The breathing is hurried in both, and
the horse is generally much distressed when put upon his speed ; but it is simply
quick breathing in the first, with a peculiar sound like half roaring — the inspirationa
212 THICK-WIND.
and expirations being rapid, forcible, but equal. In the second, the breathing is also
hurried, but the inspiration does not differ materially from the natural one, while the
expiration is difficult, or doubly laborious. The changes of structure which accom-
pany these states of morbid respiration are as opposite as can be imagined. Indura-
tion of the substance of the lungs, diminution of the number or the calibre of the air-
passages, are the causes of thick-wind. If the portion of lung employed is lessened,
or the bronchial tubes will not admit so much air, the quick succession of efforts must
make up for the diminished effect produced by each. In broken-icihd there is rupture
of the air-cells, and an unnatural inter-communication between iIkhi in the same
lobule, or between those of the neighbouring lobuli. The structure of the lung, and
the discharge of function, and the treatment, too, being so differejit, these diseases
require separate consideration.
THICK-WIND.
When treating of pneumonia, it was observed, that not only are the vessels which
ramify over the delicate membrane of the air-cells gorged with blood, but they are
sometimes ruptured, and the cells are filled with blood. The black, softened, pulpy
appearance of the lungs thus produced, is the rottenness of the groom and farrier,
proving equally the intensity of the inflammation, and that it is of recent date. If
the horse is not speedily destroyed by this lesion of the substance of the lungs, the
serous portion of the effused blood is absorbed, and the solid becomes organised.
The cells are obliterated, and the lung is hepatized, — its structure bears considerable
resemblance to that of the liver. This may occur in patches, or it may involve a
considerable portion of the lung.
If a portion of the lung is thus rendered impervious, the remainder will have addi-
tional work to perform. The same quantity of blood must be supplied with air ; and
if the working part of the machine is diminished, it must move with greater velocity
as well as force — the respiration must be quicker and more laborious. This quick
and laboured breathing can be detected even when the animal is at rest ; and it is
indicated plainly enough by his sad distress when he is urged to unusual or continued
speed. The inspirations and the expirations are shorter, as well as more violent ;
the air must be more rapidly admitted, and more thoroughly pressed out; and this is
accompanied by a peculiar sound that can rarely be mistaken.
We may guess at the commencement of the evil, by the laborious heaving of the
flanks; but by auscultation alone can we ascertain its progress. The increase of the
crepitus will tell us that the mischief is beginning, and the cessation of the murmur
will clearly mark out the extent of the congestion.
The inflammatory stage of the disease having passed, and comparative health being
restored, and some return to usefulness having been established — the horse being now
thick-winded — auscultation will be far more valuable than is generally imagined. It
will faithfully indicate the quantity of hepatization, and so give a clue to the degree
of usefulness, or the extent to which we may tax the respiratory system ; and it will
also serve to distinguish, and that very clearly, between this cause of thick-wind, and
the morbid changes that may have resulted from bronchitis, or thickening of the
parietes of the air-passages, and not the obliteration of the air-cells.
Of the treatment, little can be said. We know not by what means we can excite
the absorbents to take up the solid organised mass of hepatization, or restore tne
membrane of the cells, and the minute vessels ramifying over them, now confounded
and lost. We have a somewhat better chance, and yet not mucii, in removing the
thickening of the membrane, for counter-irritants, extensively and perseveringly
applied to the external parietes of the chest, may do something. If thick-wind imme-
diately followed broncliitis, it would certainly be justifiable practice to blister the
brisket and sides, and that repeatedly ; and to administer purgatives, if we dared, or
diuretic s, more effectual than the purgatives, and always safe.
Our attention must be principally confined to diet and management. A thick
winded horse should have his full proportion, or rather more than his proportion of
corn, and a diminished quantity of less nutritious food, in order that the stomach may
never be overloaded, and press upon the diaphragm, and so upon the lungs, and
increase the labour of these already over-worked organs. Particular care should be
ijiken that the horse is not worked immediately after a hV neal. The overcomm-r
BROKEN. WIND. 213
of the pressure and weight of the stomach, will' be a serious addition to the extra
work which tlie lungs already have to perform from their altered structure.
Something may be done in the palliation of thick-wind, and more than has been
generally supposed, by means of exercise. If the thick-winded horse is put, as it
were, into a regular system of training; if he is daily exercised to the fair extent of
his power, and without seriously distressing him, his breathing will become freer and
deeper, and his wind will materially improve. We shall call to our aid one of the
most powerful excitants of the absorbent system — pressure, that of the air upon the
tube — the working part of the lung upon the disorganised — and, adjusting this so as
not to excite irritation or inflammation, we may sometimes do wonders. This is the
very secret of training, and the power and the durability of the hunter and the racer
depend entirely upon this.
Thick-wind, however, is not always the consequence of disease. There are certain
cloddy, round-chested horses, that are naturally thick-winded, at least to a certain
extent. They are capable of that slow exertion for w^hich nature designed them, but
they are immediately distressed if put a little out of their usual pace. A circular
chest, whether the horse is large or small, indicates thick-wind. The circular chest
is a capacious one, and the lungs which fill it are large, and they supply sufficient
arterialised blood to produce plenty of flesh and fat, and these horses are always fat.
This is the point of proof to which we look, when all that we want from the animal
is flesh and fat ; but the expanding form of the chest is that which we require in the
animal of speed — the deep as well as the broad chest — always capacious for the pur-
pose of muscular strength, and becoming considerably more so when arterialised blood
is rapidly expended in quick progression. We cannot enlarge the capacity of a circle ;
and if more blood is to be furnished, that which cannot be done by increase of surface,
must be accomplished by frequency of action. Therefore it is that all our heavy
draught-horses are thick-winded. It is of little detriment to them, for their work is
slow ; or rather it is an advantage to them, for the circular chest, always at its greatest
capacity, enables them to acquire that weight which it is so advantageous for them to
throw into the collar.
BROKEN-WIND.
This is immediately recognisable by the manner of breathing. The inspiration is
performed in somewhat less than the natural time, and with an increased degree of
labour: but the expiration has a peculiar difficulty accompanying it. It is accom-
plished by a double effort, in the first of which, as Mr. Blaine has well explained it,
" the usual muscles operate ; and in the other, the auxiliary muscles, particularly the
abdominal, are put on the stretch to complete the expulsion more perfectly ; and that
being done, the flank falls, or the abdominal muscles relax with a kind of jerk or
spasm."
The majority of veterinary surgeons attribute broken-wind to an emphysematous
state of the lungs. In almost every broken-winded horse which he has examined
after death, the author of this work has found dilatation of some of the air-cells, and
particularly towards the edges of the lobes. There has been rupture through the
parietes of some of the cells, and they have evidently communicated with one
another, and the air could be easily forced from one portion of the cells to another.
There was also a crepitating noise while this pressure was made, as if the attenuated
membrane of some of the cells had given way. These were the true broken cells,
and hence the derivation of the name of the disease.
Broken-wind is preceded or accompanied by cough — a cough perfectly character-
istic, and by which the horseman would, in the dark, detect the existence of the dis-
ease. It is short — seemingly cut short — grunting, and followed by wheezing. When
the animal is suddenly struck or threatened, there is a low grunt of the same nature
as that of roaring, but not so loud. Broken-wind is usually preceded by cough; the
cough becomes chronic, leads on to thick-wind, and then there is but a step to broken-
wind. It is the consequence of the cough which accompanies catarrh and bronchitis
oftener than that attending or following pneumonia ; and of inflammation, and pro-
bably, thickening of the membrane of the bronchise, rather than of congestion of the
air-cells.
Laennec, whose illustrations of the diseases of the chest are invaluable to the hu
man surgeon, comes to our assistance, and, while describing emphysema of the lungs
214 BROKEN- WIND.
of the human being, gives us an explication of broken-wind, more satisfactory than
is to ne found in any of our veterinary writers. He attributes what he calls dry ca-
tarrh "to the partial obstruction of the smaller bronchial tubes, by the swelling of
their inner membrane. The muscles of inspiration are numerous and powerful, while
expiration is chiefly left to the elasticity of the parts : then it may happen that the
air which, during inspiration, had overcome the resistance opposed to its entrance by
the tumid state of the membrane, is unable to force its way through the same obsta-
cle during expiration, and remains imprisoned in the cells, as it were, by a valve.
The succeeding inspirations introduce a fresh supply of air, and gradually dilate the
cells to a greater or less extent; and if the obstruction is of some continuance, the
dilated condition of the cells becomes permanent."
Some circumstances attending this disease may now, probably, be accounted for.
A troublesome cough, and sometimes of long continuance, is the foundation of the
disease, or indicates that irritable state of the bronchial membrane with which broken-
wind is almost necessarily associated. Horses that are greedy feeders, or devour
large quantities of slightly nutritious food, or are worked with a stomach distended
by this food, are very subject to broken-wind. More depends upon the management
of the food and exercise tlian is generally supposed. The post-horse, the coach-horse,
and the racer, are comparatively seldom broken-wanded. They are fed, at stated pe-
riods, on nutritious food that lies in little compass, and their hours of feeding and of
exertion are so arranged that they seldom work on a full stomach. The agricultural
horse is too often fed on the very refuse of the farm, and his hours of feeding, and
his hours of work, are frequently irregular ; and the carriage-horse, although fed on
more nutritious food, is often summoned to work, by his capricious master, the mo-
ment his meal is devoured.
A rapid gallop on a full stomach has often produced broken-wind. "When the exer-
tion has been considerable and long-continued, we can easily conceive a rupture of
the air-cells of the soundest lungs ; but we are inclined to believe, that, were the his-
tory of these cases known, there would be found to have been a gradual preparation
for this result. There would have been chronic cough, or more than usually disturbed
respiration after exercise, and then it required little more to perfect the mischief.
Galloping after drinking has been censured as a cause of broken-w ind, yet we cannot
think that it is half so dangerous as galloping with a stomach distended by solid food.
It is said that broken-winded horses are foul feeders, because they devour almost
everything that comes in their way, and thus impede the play of the lungs ; but there
is so much sympathy between the respiratory and digestive systems, that one cannot
be much deranged without the other evidently suffering. Flatulence, and a depraved
appetite, may be the consequence as well as the cause of broken-wind ; and there is
no pathological fact of more frequent occurrence than the co-existence of indigestion
and flatulence with broken-wind. Flatulence seems so invariable a concomitant of
broken-wind, that the old farriers used to think the air found its way from the lungs
to the abdomen in some inexplicable manner ; and hence their " holes to let out bro-
ken-wind." They used literally to make a hole near to or above the fundament in
order to give vent to the imprisoned wind. The sphincter muscle was generally divi-
ded ; and although the trumping ceased, there was a constant, although silent, emis-
sion of foetid gas, that made the remedy worse than the disease.
The narrow-chested horse is more subject to broken-wind than the broader and
deeper chested one, for there is not so much room for the lungs to expand when rapid
progression requires the full discharge of their function.
Is broken-wind hereditary 1 We believe so. It may be referred to hereditary con-
formation— to a narrower chest, and more fragile membrane — and predisposition to
take on those inflammatory diseases which end in broken-wind ; and the circular chest,
which cannot enlarge its capacity when exertion requires it, must render both thick
and broken-wind of more probable occurrence.
Is there any cure for broken-wand 1 None ! No medical skill can repair the bro-
ken-down structure of the lungs.
If, however, we cannot oire, we may in some degree palliate broken-wind ; and, first
of all, we must attend carefully to the feeding. The food should lie in little com-
pass— plenty of oats and little hay, but no chaff. Cliaff is particularly objectionable,
nom the rapidity with which it is devoured, and the stomach distended. Water
should be given in moderate quantities, but the horse should not be suffereu ^o dnnk
PHTHISIS PULMONALIS, OR CONSUMPTION. 215
as much as he likes until the day's work is over. Green meat will always be ser-
Ticeable. Carrots are particularly useful. They are readily digested, and appear to
have a peculiarly beneficial effect on the respiratory system.
It is from the want of proper attention to the feeding that many horses become
broken-winded, even in the straw-yard. There is little nutriment in the provender
which they tind there ; and in order to obtain enough for the support of life, they are
compelled to keep the stomach constantly full, and pressing upon the lungs. It has
been the same when they have been turned out in coarse and innutritive pasturage.
The stomach was perpetually gorged, and the habitual pressure on the lungs cramp-
ed and contined their action, and inevitably ruptured the cells when the horse gam-
bolled with his companions, or was wantonly driven about.
Next in importance stands exercise. Tlie pursive or broken-winded horse should
not stand idle in the stable a single day. It is almost incredible how much may be
done by attention to food and exercise. The broken-winded horse may thus be ren-
dered comfortable to himself, and no great nuisance to his owner; — but inattention to
feeding, or one hard journey — the animal unprepared, and the stomach full — may
bring on inflammation, congestion, and death. Occ-asional physic, or alterative medi-
cine, will often give considerable relief.
Thick-wind and broken-wind exist in various degrees, and many shades of differ-
ence. Dealers and horsemen generally have characterised them by names that can
boast no elegance, but are considerably expressive of the state of the animal. Our
readers should not be ignorant of them. Some horses make a shrill noise when in
quick action — they are said to be Pipers. This is a species of Roaring. There is
usually a ring of coagulated matter round the inside of the windpipe, by which the
cavity is materially diminished, and the sound produced in quick breathing must evi-
dentl)-^ be shriller. Sometimes the piping is produced by a contraction of the small
passages of the lungs.
The Wheezer utters a sound not unlike that of an asthmatic person when a little
hurried. This is a kind of thick wind, and is caused by the lodgment of some mucous
6uid in the small passages of the lungs. It frequently accompanies hronchitis.
Wheezing can be heard at all times, even when the horse is at rest in the stable ;
roaring is confined to the increased breathing of considerable exertion.
The Whistler utters a shriller sound than the wheezer, but only when in exer-
cise, and that of some continuance. A sudden motion will not always produce it.
It seems to be referable to some contraction in the windpipe or the larynx. The
sound is a great nuisance to the rider, and the whistler very speedily becomes dis-
tressed. A sharp gallop up-hill will speedily detect the ailment.
When the obstruction seems to be principally in the nose, the horse loudly puffs
and blows, and the nostrils are dilated to the utmost, while the flanks are compara-
tively quiet. This animal is said to be a High-blower. With all his apparent dis-
tress, he often possesses great speed and endurance. The sound is unpleasant, but
the lungs may be perfectly sound.
Every horse violently exercised on a full stomach, or when overloaded with fat,
will grunt almost like a hog. The pressure of the stomach on the lungs, or that of
the fat accumulated around the heart, will so much impede the breathing, that the act
of forcible expiration will be accompanied with this kind of sound : but there are some
horses who will at all times emit it, if suddenly touched with the whip or spur.
They are called Gruxters, and should be avoided. There is some altered structure
of the lunjs, which prevents them from suddenly accommodating themselves to an
unexpected demand for exertion. It is the consequence of previous disease, and is
frequently followed by thick or broken wind, or roaring.
PHTHISIS PULMONALIS, OR CONSUMPTION.
Wlien describing the accompaniments and consequences of inflammation of the
lungs in the horse, mention was made of this fatal complaint. It is usually connected
with or the consequence of pneumonia or pleurisy, and especially in horses of a pecu-
liar formation or temperament.
If a narrow-chested, flat-sided horse is attacked by inflammation of the lungs, or
severe catarrhal fever, experience tells us that we shall have more difficulty in sub-
duing the disease in him, than in one deeper in the girth or rounder in the chest
The lungs, deficient in bulk according to the diminished contents of the chest, have
216 PHTHISIS PULMONALIS, OR CONSUMPTION.
been overworked in supplyinn- the quantity of arterial blood expended in the various
purposes of life, and particularly that which has V<?en required under unusual and
violent exertion. Inflammation of the lungs has consequently ensued, and that
inflammatory action has acquired an intense charactei, under circumstances by which
another horse would be scarcely affected.
When tMs disease has been properly treated, and apparently subdued, this horse
?annot be quickly and summarily dismissed to his work. He is sadly emaciated —
tie long continues so — his coat stares — his skin clings to his ribs — his belly is
tuck( d up, notwithstanding that he may have plenty of mashes, and carrots, and
green meat, and medicine — his former gaiety and spirit do not return, or if he is
ft-illing to work he is easily tired, sweating on the least exertion, and the sweat most
profuse about the chest and sides — his appetite is not restored, or, perhaps, never
jias been good, and the slightest exertion puts him completely off his feed.
We observe him more attentively, and, even as he stands quiet in his stall, the
flanks heave a little more laboriously than they should do, and that heaving is pain-
fully quickened when sudden -exertion is required. He coughs sorely, and discharges
from the nose a mucus tinged with blood, or a fluid decidedly purulent — the breath
becomes ofl>nsive — the pulse is always above 40, and strangely increased by the
slightest exertion.
When many of these symptoms are developed, the animal will exhibit considerable
pain on being gently strack on some part of the chest ; the cough then becomes more
frequent and painful ; the discharge from the nose more abundant and foetid, and the
emaciation and consequent debility more rapid, until death closes the scene.
The lesions that are presented after death are very uncertain. Generally there are
Subercles; sometimes very minute, at other times large in size. They are in diflerent
states of softening, and some of them have burst into the bronchial passages, and
exhibit abscesses of enormous bulk. Other portions of the lungs are shrunk, flaccid,
indurated or hepatized, and of a pale or red-brown colour; and there are occasional
adhesions between the lungs and the sides of the chest.
Is this an hereditary disease? There is some difficulty in deciding the point. It
•••.as been scarcely mooted among the horsemen. One thing only is known, that the
side has been flat, and the belly tucked up, and the animal has had much more ardour
and willingness than physical strength. These conformations, and this disposition,
we know to be hereditary, and thus far phthisis may be said to be so too. Low and
damp situations, or a variable and ungenial climate, may render horses peculiarly
susceptible of chest afl^ections. All the absurd, or cruel, or accidental causes of
pneumonia lay the foundation for phthisis ; and, particularly, those causes which tend
to debilitate the frame generally, render the horse more liable to chest affections, and
less able to ward off their fatal consequences. The most numerous instances of
phthisis occur in those poor persecuted animals that are worn out before their time,
and they are frequent enough among cavalry horses after the deprivations and fatigues
of a long campaign.
What is the medical treatment of confirmed phthisis 1 The practitioner must be
guided by circumstances. If the horse is not very bad, and it is the spring of the
year, a run at grass may be tried. It will generally seem to renovate the animal,
but the apparent amelioration is too often treacherous. It should always be tried,
for it is the best foundation for other treatment. The summer, however, having set
in, the medicinal effect of the grass ceases, and the flies tease and irritate the animal.
The medical treatment, if any is tried, will depend on two simple and unerring
guides, the pulse and the membrane of the nose. If the first is quick and hard, and
the second streaked with red, veneseclinn should be resorted to. Small bleedings of
one or two quarts, omitted when the pulse is quieted and the nostril is ]ialo, may be
effected. Counter-irritants will rarely do harm. They should be applied in the form
of blisters, extending over the sides, and thus brought as near as possible to th
afl!ected part. Sedative, medicines should be perseveringly administered : and here, as
in acute inflammation, the chief dependence will be placed on digitalis. It should
be given in small doses until a slightly intermittent pulse is produced, and that state
of the constitution should be maintained by a continued exhibition of the medicine.
Nitre may be added as a diuretic, and pulvis antimnnialis as a diaphoretic.
Any /o7n'cs here ] Yes, the tonic efiect of mild and nutritious food — green meat of
nlraost every kind, carrots particularly, mashes, and now and then a malt mash
PLEURISY. 217
Nothing further than this ? We may try, but very cautiously, those tonics vrhicb
stiniuhite the digestive system, yet comparatively litt'e afl>ct the circulatory one
Small doses of chamomile and gentian may be given, but carefully watched and omitted
if the ilanks should heave more, or the cough be aggravated.
The treatment of phthisis is a most unsatisfactory subject of consideration as it
regards the practice of the veterinarian. If, after the human being has been subjected
to medical treatment for a long course of time and at very considerable expense, he so
far recovers that life is rendered tolerably comfortable to him, he and his connexions
are thankful and satisfied, and he will submit to many a privation in order to ward off
the return of a disease, to which he is conscious there will ever be a strong predispo-
sition : but the case is different with the horse ; and this, the scope and bo^und of the
human practitioner's hope, is worthless to the veterinarian. His patient must not
only live, but must be sound again. Ever}- energ}', every capability must be restored.
Can we cause the tubercles of the lungs to be absorbed ? Can we disperse or dispel
the hepatization "? Can we remodel the disorganised structure of the lungs? Our
consideration, then, will be chiefly directed to the detection of the disease in its earliest
state, and the allaying of the irritation which causes or accompanies the growth of the
tubercles. This must be the scope and bound of the veterinarian's practice — always
remembering that the owner should be forewarned of the general hopelessness of the
case, and that the continuance of his efforts should be regulated by the wish of the
proprietor and the value of the patient.
PLEURISY.
The investing membrane of the lungs, and of the thoracic cavity, namely, the pleura,
now demands consideration. We are indebted to Mr. John Field, one of the noblest
ornaments of the veterinary profession — but cut off in the prime of his days — for the
greater part of our knowledge of this disease, and for the power of distinguishing
between it and pneumonia, as readily and as surely as we do between pneumonia and
bronchitis and epidemic catarrh.
The prevailing causes of pleurisy are the same as those which produce pneumonia
— exposure to wet and cold, sudden alterations of temperature, partial exposure to
cold, riding against a keen wind, immersion as high as the chest in cold water, drink-
ing cold water, and extra work of the respiratory machine. To these may be added,
wounds penetrating into the thorax and lacerating the pleura, fracture of the ribs, or
violent contusions on the side, the inflammation produced by which is propagated
through the parietes of the chest.
It is sometimes confined to one side, or to one of the pleura on either side, or even
to patches on that pleura, whether pulmonary or costal. The inflammation of the
lungs which occasionally accompanies rabies is characterised by a singular patchy
appearance. That produced on the costal pleura, arising from violence or other causes,
rarely reaches the pulmonary covering ; and that which is communicated to the tunic
of the lungs, by means of the intensity of the action within, does not often involve
the costal pleura. In some cases, however, it affects both pleurae and both sides, and
spreads rapidly from one to the other.
The first symptom is rigor, followed by increased heat and partial sweats : to these
succeed loss of appetite aad spirits, and a low and painful cough. The inspiration is
a short, sudden eflbrt, and broken off before it is fully accomplished, indicating the
pain felt from the distention of the irritable, because inflamed, membrane. This symp-
tom is exceedingly characteristic. In the human being it is well expressed bv the
term slikh, and an exceedingly painful feeling it is. The expiration is retarded as
much as possible, by the use of all the auxiliary muscles which the animal can press
into the service ; but it at length finishes abruptly in a kind of spasm. This pecu-
liarity of breathing, once carefully observed, cannot be forgotten. The next character
is found in the tenderness of the sides when the costal pleura is affected. This ten-
derness often exists to a degree scarcely credible. If the side is pressed upon, the
horse will recede with a low painful grunt ; he will tremble, and try to get out of the
way before the hand touches him again. Then comes another indication, both of pain
and the region of that pain, — the intercostal muscles, affected by the contiguous
pleura, and in the.r turn affecting the panniculus camosus. or subcutaneous muscular
expansion without — there are twitchinffs of the skin on the side — corrusrations —
waves creeping over the integument. This is never seen in pneumonia. There is
19 2 c
218 PLEURISY.
however, as we may expect, the same disinclination to move, for every motion must
give intense pain.
The pulse should be anxiously studied. It presents a decided difference of character
from that of pneumonia. It is increased in rapidity, but instead of being oppressed
and sometimes almost unappreciable, as in pneumonia, it is round, full, and strong.
Even at the last, when the strength of the constitution begins to yield, the pulse is
wiry, although small.
'i'he extremities are never deathy cold; they may be cool, they are oftener variable,
and they sometimes present increased heat. The body is far more liable to variations
of temperature ; and the cold and the hot fit more frequently succeed each other.
The mouth is not so hot as in pneumonia, and the breath is rarely above its usual
temperature.
A difference of character in the two diseases is here particularly evident on the
membrane of the nose. Neither the crimson nor the purple injection of pneumonia is
seen on the lining of the nose, but a somewhat darker, dingier hue.
Both the pneumonic and pleuritic horse will look at his flanks, thus pointing out
the seat of disease and pain; but the horse with pneumonia will turn himself more
slowly round, and long and steadfastly gaze at his side, while the action of the horse
with pleurisy is more sudden, agitated, spasmodic. The countenance of the one is
that of settled distress; the other brightens up occasionally. The pang is severe, but
it is transient, and there are intervals of relief. While neither will lie down or wil-
lingly move, and the pneumonic horse stands fixed as a statue, the pleuritic one
shrinks, and crouches almost to falling. If he lies down, it is on the affected side,
when the disease is confined to one side only. The head of the horse with inflamma-
tion of the substance of the lungs hangs heavily ; that of the other is protruded.
We here derive most important assistance from Auscultation. In a case of pleurisy
we have no crepitating, crackling sound, referable to the infiltration of the blood
through the gossamer membrane of the air-cells; we have not even a louder and
distincter murmur. Perhaps there is no variation from the sound of health, or, if
there is any difference, the murmur is fainter ; for the pleural membrane is thick-
ened, and its elasticity is impaired, and the sound is not so readily transmitted. There
is sometimes a slight rubbing sound, and especially towards the superior region of the
chest, as if there was friction between the thickened and indurated membranes.
To this may be added the different character of the cough, sore and painful enough
in both, but in pneumonia generally hard, and full, and frequent. In pleurisy it is
not so frequent, but faint, suppressed, cut short, and rarely attended by discharge
from the nose.
These are sufficient guides in the early stage of the disease, when it is most of all
of importance to distinguish the one from the other.
If after a few days the breathing becomes a little more natural, the inspiration
lengthened and regular, and the expiration, although still prolonged, is suffered to be
completed — if the twitchings are less evident and less frequent — if the cough can be
fully expressed — if the pulse softens, although it may not diminish in frequency, and
if the animal begins to lie down, or walks about of his own accord, there is hope of
recovery. But if the pulse quickens, and, although smaller, yet possesses the wiry
character of inflammation — if the gaze at the flanks, previously by starts, becomes
fixed as well as anxious, and the difficulty of breathing continues (the difliculty of
accomplishing it, although the efforts are oftener repeated) — if patches of sweat break
out, and the' animal gets restless — paws — shifts his posture every minute — is unable
longer to stand, yet hesitates whether he shall lie down — determines on it again and
agam, but fears, and at length drops, rather than lies gently down, a fatal termination
is' at hand. For some time before his death, the effusion and its extent will be evi-
dent enough. He not only walks unwillingly, but on the slightest exercise his pulse
is strangely accelerated ; the feeling of suffocation comes over him, and he stops all
of a sudden, and looks wildly about and trembles; but he quickly recovers himself
and proceeds. There is also, when the effusion is confirmed, oedema of some external
part, and that occasionally to a very great extent. This is oftenest observed in the
abdomen, the chest, and the point of the breast.
The immediate cause of death is effusion in the chest, compressing the lungs on
every side, rendering expiration difficult and at length impossible, and desfving the
animal by suffocation The very commencement of effusion may be detected by au8-
PLEURISY. 219
cultation. There will be the cessation of the respiratory murmur at the sternum, and
the increased grating — not the crepitating, crackling noise as when congestion is going
on — not the feebler murmur as congestion advances ; but the absence of it, beginniuL
from the bottom of the chest.
It is painfully interesting to watch the progress of the effusion — how the stillness
creeps up, and the murmur gets louder above, and the grating sound louder too, until
at length there is no longer room for the lungs to play, and suffocation ensues.
The fluid contained in the chest varies in quantity as well as appearance and con-
sistence. Many gallons have been found in the two sacs, pale, or yellow, or bloody,
or often differing in the two sides of the thorax ; occasionally a thick adventitious coat
covering the costal or the pulmonary pleura — rarely much adhesion, but the lungs
purple-coloured, flaccid, compressed, not one-fourth of their usual size, immersed in
the fluid, and rendered incapable of expanding by its pressure.
Here, as in pneumonia, the bleeding should be prompt and copious. Next, and of
great importance, aperient medicine should be administered — that, the effect of which
is so desirable, but which we do not dare to give when the mucous membrane of the
respiratory passages is the seat of disease. Here we have to do with a serous mem-
brane, and there is less sympathy with the mucous membranes of either cavity.
Small doses of aloes should be given with the usual fever medicine, and repeated
morning and night until the dung becomes pultaceous, when it will always be pru-
dent to stop. The sedative medicine is that which has been recommended in pneu-
monia, and in the same doses. Next should follow a blister on the chests and sides.
It is far preferable to setons, for it can be brought almost into contact with the inflamed
surface, and extended over the whole of that surface. An airy, bat a comfortable box,
is likewise even more necessary than in pneumonia, and the practice of exposure,
uncovered, to the cold, even more absurd and destructive. The blood, repelled from
the skin by the contractile, depressing influence of the cold, would rush with fatal
impetus to the neighbouring membrane, to which it was before dangerously deter-
mined. Warm and comfortable clothing cannot be dispensed with in pleurisy.
The sedative medicines, however, should be omitted much sooner than in pneumo-
nia, and succeeded by diuretics. The common turpentine is as good as any, made
into a ball with linseed meal, and given in doses of two or three drachms twice in
the day. If the constitution is much impaired, tonics may be cautiously given, as
soon as the violence of the disease is abated. The spirit of nitrous ether is a mild
stinQulant and a diuretic. Small quantities of gentian and ginger may be added, but
the turpentine must not be omitted.
By auscultation and other modes of examination, the existence of effusion in the
chest is perhaps ascertained, and, possibly, it is increasing. Is there any mechanical
way of getting rid of it "? There is one to which recourse should be had as soon as it
is evident that there is considerable fluid in the chest. The operation of Paracentesis,
or tapping, should be performed ; it is a very simple one. The side-line may be had
recourse to, or the twitch alone may be used. One of the horse's legs being held up,
and, counting back from the sternum to between the seventh and eighth ribs, the sur-
geon should pass a moderate-sized trochar into the chest immediately above the car-
tilages. He will not have selected the most dependent situation, but as near it as he
could with safety select ; for there would not have been room between the cartilages
if the puncture had been lower; and these would have been injured in the forcing of
the instrument betvveen them, or, what is worse, there would have been great hazard
of wounding the pericardium, for the apex of the heart rests on the sternum. Through
this aperture, close to the cartilages, the far greater part of the fluid may be evacuated.
The operator will now withdraw the stilette, and let the fluid run through the canula.
He will not trouble himself afterwards about the wound ; it will heal readily enough;
perhaps too quick, for, could it be kept open a few days, it might act as a very useful
drain It should be attempted early. Recourse should be had to the operation as soon
as It is ascertained that there is considerable fluid in the chest, for the animal will at
least be relieved for a while, and some time will have been given for repose to the
overlaboured lungs, and for the system generally to be recruited. The fluid will be
evacuated before the lungs are too much debilitated by laborious action against the
pressure of the water, and a state of collapse brought on, from which they will be
incapable of recovering. They only who have seen the collapsed and condensed state
820 PLEURISY.'
of the lung that had been long compressed by the fluid, can conceive of the extent to
which this is carried. It should be added — a fact important and alarming — that tho
records of veterinary surgery contain very few cases of permanently successful per
formance of the operation. This should not discourage the practitioner from attempt-
ing it, but should induce him to consider whether he may not perform it under happier
auspices, before the lungs and the serous membrane which lines the cavity have been
too much disorganised, and the constitution itself sadly debilitated. There could not
be any well-founded objection to an earlier resort to paracentesis, and he must be a
bungler indeed who wounded any important part.
It should be ascertained by auscultation whether there is fluid in both cavities. If
there should be, and in considerable quantity, it will not be prudent to operate on
both sides at once. If much fluid is discharsj^ed, there -will be acceleration and diffi-
culty of respiration to a very great degree. The practitioner must not be alarmed at
this ; it will pass over, and on the next day he may attack the other side ; or open
both at once, if there is but little fluid in either.
Having resorted to this operation, a course of diuretics with tonics should be
immediately commenced, and the absorbents roused to action before the cavity fills
again.
There is in pleurisy a far greater tendency to relapse than in pneumonia. The
lungs do not perfectly recover from their state of collapse, nor the serous membrane
from its long maceration in the effused fluid : oedema, cough, disinclination to work,
incapability of rapid progression, colicky pains — as the unobservant practitioner
would call them — but in truth pleuritic stitches; these are the frequent sequela3 of
pleurisy. This will afl'ord another reason why the important operation of paracentesis
should not be deferred too long.
There is much greater disposition to metastasis than in pneumonia : indeed it is
easy to imagine that the inflammation of a mere membrane may more readily and
oftener shift than that of the substance of so large a viscus as the lungs. The inflani-
mation shifting its first ground, attacks almost every part indiscriminately, and
appears under a strangly puzzling variety of forms. Dropsy is the most frequent
change. Eff'usion in the abdomen is substituted for that of the chest, or rather the
exhalent or absorbent vessels of the abdomen, or both of them, soon sympathise in
the debility of those of the thorax.
THE STOMACH.
TUl
CHAPTER IX.
THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS.
THE STOMACH.
a The oesophagus or gullet, extending to the stomach.
6 The entrance of the gullet into the stomach. The circular layers of the muscles are very
thick, and strong, and which, by their contractions, help to render it difficult for the
food to be returned or vomited.
c The portion of the stomach which is covered by cuticle, or insensible skin.
d d The margin, which separates the cuticular from the villous portion. _ • • ,1
e e The mucous, or villous (velvet) portion of the stomach, in which the food is prmcipally
digested.
f The communication between the stomach and the first intestine.
g The common orifice through which the bile and the secretion from the pancreas pass mto
the first intestine. The two pins mark the two tubes here united.
A A smaller orifice, through which a portion of the secretion of the pancreas enters the
intestines.
The (Esophagus, as has already been stated, consists of a muscular membranous
tube, extending from the posterior part of the mouth down the left side of the neck,
pursuing- its course through the chest, penetrating through the crura of the diaphragm,
and reaching to and terminating in the stomach. It does not, however, enter straight
into the stomach, and with a large open orifice ; but there is an adinirable provision made
to prevent the regurgitation of "the food when the stomach is filled and the horse sud-
denly called upon to perform unusually hard work. The esophagus enters the
stomach in a somewhat curved direction — it runs obliquely through the muscular and
cuticular coats for some distance, and then its fibres arrange themselves around the
opening into the stomach. Close observation has shown, that they form themselves
into segments of circles, interlacing each other, and by their contraction plainly and
forcibly closing the opening, so that the regurgitation of the food is almost im-
possible.
The following is a simple but accurate delineation of the structure of the termina-
tion oi the oesophagus, and the manner in which it encircles the orifice of the stomachi.
We are indebted to Mr. Ferguson, of Dublin, for this interesting discovery.
19*
22 THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS.
\ microscope of very feeble power will beautifully show this singular construction.
It is not precisely either a sphincter muscle
or a valve, but it is a strong and almost
insuperable obstacle to the regurgitation of
the food. The left side of the stomach is
in contact with the diaphragm. It is pressed
upon by every motion of the diaphragm,
and hence the reason why the stomach is
so small compared with the size of the
animal. It is indeed strangely small, in
order that it might not press too hardly
upon the diaphragm, or painfully interfere
uith the process of respiration, when the
utmost energies of the horse are occasion-
ally taxed immediately after he has been
fed.
At the lower or pyloric orifice, the mus-
cles are also increased in number and in size. These are arranged in the same
manner, with sufficient power to resist the pressure of the diaphragm, and retain the
contents of the stomach until they have undergone the digestive process.
The situation of the stomach will at once explain the reason why a horse is so
much distressed, and sometimes irreparably injured, if worked hard immediately after
a full meal. The stomach must be displaced and driven back by every contraction
of the diaphragm or act of inspiration ; and in proportion to the fulness of the stomach
will be the weight to be overcome, and the labour of the diaphragm, and the exhaus-
tion of the animal. If the stomach is much distended, it may be too weighty to be
forced sufficiently far back to make room for the quantity of air which the animal in a
state of exertion requires. Hence the frequency and labour of the breathing, and the
quickness with which such a horse is blown, or possibly destroyed. Hence also the
folly of giving too full a meal, or too much water, before the horse starts on a journey
or for the chaise ; and, in like manner, the absurdity and danger of that unpardonable
custom of some grooms to gallop the horse after his drink, in order to warm it in his
belly, and prevent gripes.
The horse was destined to be the servant of man, and to be always at his call
whether fasting or full : it would seem, therefore, that, to lessen much inconvenience
or danger, a srnaller stomach, in proportion to his size, is given to the horse than to
almost any other animal. The bulk of the horse, and the services required of him,
demand much nutriment, and that of such a nature as to occupy a very considerable
space ; yet his stomach, compared with his bulk, is not half so large as that of the
human being: therefore, although he, like every other animal, feels inconvenience
from great exertion immediately after a full meal, he suflers not so much as other
quadrupeds, for his stomach is small, and his food passes rapidly through it, and
descends to a part of the intestines distant from the diaphragm, and where the exist-
ence and pressure of the food cannot cause him any annoyance.
The stomach has four coats. The outermost is the lining of the cavity of the belly,
and the common covering of all the intestines — that by which they are confined in
their respective situations, and from which a fluid is secreted that prevents all friction
between them. This is called the periiuneum — that which stretches round the inside
of the stomach.
The second is the muscular coat, consisting of two layers of fibres, one running
letigthways, and the other circularly, and by means of which a constant g?ntle motion
is c'ommunicated to the stomach, mingling the food more intimately together, tnd pre-
paring it for digestion, and by the pressure of which the food when properly prepared
[s urged on into the intestines.
The third, or cuticular {slcin-Uke) coat, c, covers but a portion of the inside of the
stomach. It is a continuation of the lining of the gullet. There are numerous glands
on it, which secrete a mucous fluid ; and it is probably intended to be a reservoir in
which a portion of the food is retained for a while, and softened and better prepared
for the action of the other or true digestive portion of the stomach. The cuticular
coat occupies nearly one-half of the inside of the stomach.
The fourth coat is the mucous or villous (velvet) coat, c, where the work of digestion
THE STOMACH. 223
properly commences. The mouths of numerous little vessels open upon it, pourintr
out a peculiar fluid, the gastric (stomach) juice, which mixes with tho food already
softened, and converts it into a fluid called chyme. As this is formed, it passes out
of the other orifice of the stomach, the pylorus (doorkeepers),/, and enters the first
small intestine ; the liarder and undissolved parts being turned back to undero-o farther
fiction.
Every portion of the muscular coat has the power of successively contracting and
relaxing, and thus, in the language of Dr. Bostock, '• the successive contraction of
each part of the stomach, by producing a series of folds and wrinkles, serves to agitate
the alimentary mass, and, by bringing every part of it in its turn to the surface, to
expose it to the influence of the gastric juice, while at the same time the whole of the
contents are gradually propelled forwards, from the orifice which is connected with
the oesophagus to that by which they are discharged."
The cerebro-visceral nerve is the agent in producing these alternate contractions
and relaxations. It is the motor nerve belonging to these parts. It has to keep the
parietes of the stomach in contact with the food, and the food in contact with the
gastric juice. It has to bring the different parts of the food in successive contact with
the stomach, and to propel them through this portion of the alimentary canal in ordej
that they may be discharged into the duodenum.
A viscus thus situated and thus employed must occasionally be subject to inflam-
mation, and various other lesions. The symptoms, however, are obscure and fre-
quently mistaken. Tliey resemble those of colic more than anything else, and should
be met by bleedinj, oleaginous purges, mashes, tepid gruel, and the application of
the stomach-pump : but when, in addition to the colicky pains, there appear indistinct-
ness of the pulse — and a very characteristic symptom that is — pallidness of the mem-
branes, coldness of the mouth, frequent lying down, and in such position that the
weight of the horse ma}' rest on the chest, frequently pointing with his muzzle at the
seat of pain, and, especially, if these symptoms are accompanied or followed by vomit-
ing, rupture of the stomach is plainly indicated. Considering the situati"on of the
stomach, and the concussions and violence to which it is exposed from the diaphragm
and from the viscera around it, this accident will not appear extraordinarj'. The horse
does not necessarily die as soon as this accident occurs. In a case related by Mr.
Rogers, the animal died in about four hours after the accident;* but in one that
occurred in the practice of the author, three days elapsed between the probable rupture
of the stomach, from a sudden and violent fall, and the death of the animal, and in
which interval he several times ate a little food. The rupture was at the rigfht extre-
mity of the stomach, and there were several distinct layers of impacted food between
it and the liver. The liver seemed to have acted as a kind of valve. The stomach was
found still distended, the edges of the rupture hfiving the dull and sodden appearance
of an old wound. There was comparatively little fluid in the abdominal cavity, and
no disposition to vomit occurred during any period. f
A case showing the insensibility of the stomach, wisely and kindly given, con-
sidering the shocks and dangers to which this viscus is exposed, is recorded bv INIr.
Hayes.l A drench was ordered for a horse. For want of a horn, the stable-keeper
made use of a wine-bottle, without examining whether it was clean or foul. Shortly
afterwards it was discovered that the bottle had contained three or four ounces of
liquid blister. This was kept a profound secret until the death of the animal, and
that did not happen until twelve days afterwards. The horse had eaten his provender
in the same manner as usual, and had performed his usual work until about two hours
before his death, when he lay down, rolled about, bruised himscdf sadly, and died.
The food, consisting of hay, oats, and beans, was lodged and impacted between the
folds of the intestines, and the whole abdominal viscera appeared as if they had been
thus surrounded a considerable time before death. The stomach was ruptured in
many directions, and almost decomp.-ipd. Its coats were nearly destroyed, and huno-
like racrs about the orifice through wnich the food was received, and that through
which it naturally was expelled. This account proves how little we are to depend
upon any apparent symptoms as indicating the real state of the stomach in the horse.
Mr. Brown relates a case of polypus found in the stomach, and which had remained
* The Farrier and Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 9.
t The Veterinary-Medical Association, 1S36-7, p. 109. t The Veterinarian, vol. x. p. 615.
224
THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS
dT?
there unsuspected until it weighed nearly half-a-pound, it tlien became entangled m
the pyloric orifice, and prevented the passage of the food, and destroyed the horse.*
BOTS.
In the spring and early part of the summer, horses are much troubled by a grub or
caterpillar, which crawls out of the anus, fastens itself under the tail, and seems to
cause a great deal of itching or uneasiness. Grooms are sometimes alarmed at the
appearance of these insects. Their history is curious, and will dispel ever}' fear
with regard to them. We are indebted to Mr. Bracy Clark for almost all we know
of the hot.
CUT OF THE EOT.
a and b The eggs of the gad-fly, adhering to the hair of the horse.
• c The appearance of the bots on the stomach, firmly adhering by their hooked mouths.
The marks or depressions are seen which are left on the coat of the stomach
when the bots are detached from their hold.
d The bot detached.
e The female of the gad-fly, of the horse, prepared to deposit her eggs.
/ The gad-fly by which the red bots are produced.
g The smaller, or red bot.
A species of gad-fly, e, the cetrus equi, is in the latter part of the summer exceed-
ingly busy about the horse. It is observed to be darting with great rapidity towards
the knees and sides of the animal. The females are depositing their eggs on the
hair, and which adhere to it by means of a glutinous fluid witli which they are sur-
rounded (a and b). In a few days the eggs are ready to be hatched, and the sliglit-
est application of warmth and moisture will liberate the little animals which they
contain. The horse in licking himself touches the egg; it bursts, and a small worm
escapes, which adheres to the tongue, and is conveyed with the food into the stomach.
There it clings to the cuticular portion of the stomach, c, by means of a hook on
either side of its mouth ; and its hold ir so firm and so obstinate, that it must be
broken before it can be detached. It remains there feeding on the mucus of the sto-
mach during the whole of the winter, and until the end of the ensuing spring; when,
having attained a considerable size, d, and being destined to undergo a certain trans-
formation, it disengages itself from the cuticular coat, is carried into the villous por-
tion of the stomacli with the food, passes out of it with the chyme, and is evacuated
with the dung.
The larva or maggot seeks shelter in the ground, and buries itself there; it con-
tracts in size, and becomes a chrysalis or grub, in which state it lies inactive for a
few weeks, and then, bursting from its confinement, assumes the form of a fl}'. The
female, becoming impregnated, quickly deposits her eggs on those parts of the horse
which he is most accustomed to lick, and thus the species is perpetuated.
There are several plain conclusions to be drawn from this history. The bots can
* The Veterinarian, vol. vii., p. 76.
POISONS. 225
not, while they inhabit the stomach of the horse, g^ive the animal any pain, for they
have fastened on the cuticular and insensible coat. They cannot stimulate the sto-
mach, and increase its digestive power, for they are not on the digestive portion of the
stom.ieb. They cannot, by their roughness, assist the trituration or rubbing down
of the food, for no such office is performed in that part of the stomach — the food is
softened, not rubbed down. They cannot be injurious to the horse, for he enjoys the
most perfect health when the cuticular part of his stomach is filled with them, and
their presence is not even suspected until they appear at the anus. They cannot be
removed by medicine, because they are not in that part of the stomach to which medi-
cine is usually conveyed ; and if they were, their mouths are too deeply buried in the
mucus for any medicine, that can be safely administered, to atfect them; and, last of
all, in due course of time they detach tliemselves, and come away. Therefore, the
wise man will leave them to themselves, or content himself with picking them off
when they collect under the tail and annoy the animal.
The smaller hot, /and g, is not so frequently found.
Of inflammation of the stomach of the horse, except from poisonous herbs, or
drugs, we know little. It rarely occurs. It can with difficulty be distinguished from
inflammation of the bowels ; and, in either case, the assistance of the veterinary sur-
geon is required.
Few horses are destroyed by poisonous plants in our meadows. Natural instinct
teaches the animal to avoid the greater part of those that would be injurious.
We cannot do better than abbreviate the list of poisonous agents, and the means
of averting their fatal influence, given b}' Mr. Morton, the Professor of Chemistry
and Materia Medica at the Royal Veterinary College.* It will occasionally be
exceedingly useful to the proprietor of horses.
He begins with the Animal Poisons. The bite of the viper has been occasionally
fatal to dogs and sheep. A horse was brought to the Veterinary College that had
been bitten in the hind leg while hunting. There was considerable swelling, and
the place of the bite was evident enough. Mr. Armstrong mentions a case in which
a horse, bitten by a viper, sunk into a kind of coma, from which he could not be
roused. The antidote, which seldom or never fails, is an alkaline solution of almost
any kind, taken internally and applied externally. There is no chemical eflfect on
the circulation, but the alkali acts as a powerful counter-irritant. In very bad cases,
opium may be added to the alkaline solution.
Hornets, Wasps, &c. — These are spoken of, because there are records of horses
being attacked by a swarm of them, and destroyed. The spirit of turpentine is the
best external application, and, if given in not undue quantities and guarded by an
admixture with oil, may be useful.
Cantharides constitute a useful drug in some few cases! It is one of the applica-
tions used in order to excite the process of blistering. It was occasionally employed
as a medicine in small quantities, and, combined with vegetable tonics, it has been
given in small doses, for the cure of glanders, farcy, and nasal gleet. It is valuable
in cases of general and extreme debility. It is a useful general stimulant wlien judi-
ciously applied : but it must be given in small doses, and never except under the
direction of a skilful practitioner. A drachm of the powdered fly would destroy almost
any horse. In the breeding season it is too often shamefully given as an excitement
to the horse and the mare, and many a valuable animal has been destroyed by this
abominable practice. It is usually given in the form of ball, in which case it may
be detected by the appearance of small glittering portions of the fly, which are sepa-
rated on the inner side of the dung-ball in hot water. If the accidental or too pow
erful administration of it is suspected, recourse should be had to bleeding, purging,
and plentiful drenching with oily and demulcent fluids.
The leaves of the Yew are said to be danjerous to the horse, as well as to many
other animals. "Two horses that had been employed in carrying fodder, were
thoughtlessly placed under a large yew-tree, which tliey cropped with eagferness. In
three hours they began to stagger — both of them dropped, and before the harness
could be taken off, they were dead. A great quantity of yew-leaves w-ere found in
the stomachs, which were contracted and inflamed. "f Mr. W. C. Spooner mentions
* Veterinary Medical Association, 1836-7, p. 41.
t Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 81.
2d
226 THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS.
a case of violent suspicion of the poisoning of ap ass and a mare in the same way.*
On the other hand, Professor Sewell says, that on the farm on which he resided in
his early years, the horses and cattle had every opportunity of eating yew. They
pastured and slept under the shelter of yew-trees, and were often observed to browse
on the branches. I He thinks that these supposed cases of poisoning have talcen place
only when enormous quantities of the yew had been eaten, and that it was more acute
indigestion than poisoning. There are, however, too many cases of horses dying after
feeding on the yew, to render it safe to cultivate it in the neighbourhood of a farm,
either in the form of tree or hedge.
The Hydrocyanic, or Prussic ^cid, belongs to the class of vegetable poisons, but it
is scarcely possible for the horse to be accidentally injured or destroyed by it. Ten
grains of the farina of the croton nut should be given as soon as the poison is sus-
pected, and the patient should be drenched largely with equal parts of vinegar and
thin gruel, and the croton repeated after the lapse of six hours, if it has not previously
operated.
The Water Dropwort {(Enanthe fistulosa), common in ditches and marshy places, is
generally refused by horses ; but brood mares, with appetite somewhat vitiated by
their being in foal, have been destroyed by it. The antidote would be vinegar and
gruel, and bleeding, if there is inflammation.
The Water Parsley, {Mthusa Cynapium) deserves not all the bad reputation it has
acquired ; although, when eaten in too great quantities, it has produced pals)^ in the
horse, which has been strangely attributed to a harmless beetle that inhabits the stem.
Of the Common Hemlock {Conium maciilatum), and the Wafer Hemlock {CEnanthe
crocata), the author knows no harm, so far as the horse is concerned. He has
repeatedly seen him eat the latter without any bad effect ; but cows have been poi-
soned by it.
The Eupharbium, or Spurge, so common and infamous an ingredient in the Farrier's
Blister, has destroyed many a horse from the irritation which it has set up, and the
torture it has occasioned, and should never find a place in the Veterinary Pharma-
copoeia.
Colocynth and Elaterium fairly rank among the substances that are poisonous to the
horse; and so does the Bryony Root {Bryonia dioica), notwithstanding that it is fre-
quently given to horses, in many parts of the country, as a great promoter of condi-
tion. Many a young horse has been brought into a state of artificial condition and
excitement by the use of the Bryony. It is one of the abominable secrets of the horse-
breaker. This state of excitation, however, soon passes away, and is succeeded by
temporary or permanent diminution of vital power. "We have occasionally traced
much mischief to this infamous practice.
Not less injurious is the Savin {Juniperus Sahina). It is well known as a vermifuge
in the human subject, and it is occasionally given to the horse for the same purpose;
but it is a favourite with the carter and the groom as a promoter of condition. A
very great proportion of farmers' servants regard it as a drug efiecting some good
purpose, although they can scarcely define what that purpose is ; and there is scarcely
a countr}' stable in which it is not occasionally found, and in which the horse is not
endangered, or perhaps destroyed, by its use. It is high time that the horse-master
looked more carefully to this, and suffered no drug to be administered to his horses
and cattle, except by his direction or that of the medical attendant. The farmer and
the gentleman can scarcely conceive to what an abominable extent this vile practice
prevails. The presence of savine will be best detected in the stomach of a horso
that has died under suspicious circumstances, by the black-curraiU-kaf smell of the
contents, when boiled in a little water, or beaten in a mortar.
The Common Brake (Ptcris aquilina), and the Slune Fern {Plcris crispo), are violent
and danfjerous diuretics, and, on account of their possessing this property, are pro-
bably favourites with the horse-keeper and the groom. The diuretic influence is
usually evident enough, but not the injurious effect which it has on the lining mem-
brane of the bladder, and the predisposition to inflammation which it excites in the
urinary organs. This has been too much underrated, even by those who have
Inquired into tne subject. If the cuticulsr coat of the stomach is found not merely in
* Veterinarian, vol. x. p. 685.
t Abstract of the Vet. Med. Association, vol. i. p. 62.
THE INTESTINES. 227
a state of great inflammation, but will readily peel or wash ofl:', it must necessarily be
a dangerous medicament, and should be banished entirely from tlie stable.*
Of the mineral poisons, it will be necessary to mention only two. Arsenic was
once in great repute as a tonic and vermifuge. Doses sufficient to kill three or four
men were daily administered, and generally with impunity. In some cases, however,
the dose was too powerful, and the animal was destroyed. Two of the pupils of the
author were attending the patients of a veterinary surgeon, who was confined in con-
sequence of a serious accident. Among them was a valuable horse, labouring under
inflammation of the lungs. The disease was subdued, and the patient was convales-
cent. At this period, our friend beg-an to regain sufficient strength to travel a short
distance. The first patient that he visited was this horse, whose ailments had all
passed away. He could not, however, let well alone, but sent some arsenic balls.
In less than a week this noble animal was taken to the knacker's. There are far
better vermifuges and tonics than this dangerous drug, which will probably soon be
discarded from veterinary practice.
Q)rrosive Sublimate is given internally, and occasionally with advantage, in farcy,
and, as an external application, it is used to destroy vermin, to cure mange, and to
dispose deep and fistulous ulcers to heal.
It may, however, be given in too large a dose, the symptoms of which are, loss of
appetite, discharge of saliva from the mouth, pawing, looking eagerly at the flanks,
rolling, profuse perspiration, thready pulse, rapid weakness, violent purging and
straining, convulsions, and death.
The stomach will be found intensely inflamed, with patches of yet greater inflam-
mation. The whole course of the intestines will be inflamed, with particular parts
black and gangrenous.
The antidote, if it is not too late to administer it, would be — for arsenic, lime-water,
or chalk and water, or soap and water, given in great quantities by means of the
stomach-pump ; and for corrosive sublimate, the white of eggs mixed with water, or
tlrick starch, or arrow-root.
Is there really occasion for the owner of horses to be acquainted with these things?
Long experience has taught the author that poisoning with these drugs is not so rare
a circumstance as some imagine. In the farmer's stable, he has occasionally been
compelled unwillingly to decide that the death of one or more horses has been attri-
butable to arsenic or corrosive sublimate, and not to any peculiar disease, or to any-
thing wrong in the manner of feeding. A scoundrel was executed in 1812, for
administering arsenic and corrosive sublimate to several horses. He had been
engaged in these enormities during four long years. The discarded or ofl^ended carter
has wreaked his revenge in a similar way ; but oftener, in his eagerness to get a more
glossy coat on his horses than a rival servant could exhibit, he has tampered with
these dangerous drugs.
The owner may easily detect this. "Arsenic, if mixed with charcoal and heated,
emits a verj' perceptible smell of garlic. Sulphuretted hydrogen, added to a watery
solution of arsenic, throws down a yellow precipitate — lime-water a white one — and
the ammoniaco-sulphate of copper a green one."-}- ,^
The following are the tests of corrosive sublimate: — "It is sublimed by heat, leav-
ing no residuum, and is soluble in water, alcohol, and sulphuric ether. Lime-water
gives either a lemon-yellow precipitate, or a brick-dust red one. The iodide of potash
occasions a scarlet precipitate. The most curious test is, however, by means of gal-
vanism. A drop of the suspected solution is placed on a sovereign, and a small key
being brought into contact simultaneously with both the gold and the solution, an
electric current is produced which decomposes the bichloride of mercury, for such it
is>. The chlorine unites with the iron, and the mercury with the gold.":;:
THE INTESTINES.
The food having been partially digested in the stomach, and converted into chyme,
passes through the pyloric orifice into the intestines.
* See an account of some experiments on these substances, by Mr. Cupiss, in the early
numbers of " The Sportsman."
t Manual of Fnarniacy, by Professor Morton, Lecturer on Veterinary Medicine at the St.
Pancras Veterinary College, p. 42.
t Ditto page 184.
228
THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS.
CUT OF THE INTESTINES.
a The commencement of the small intestines. The ducts which convey the bile and the
secretion from the pancreas are seen entering a little below.
6 b The convolutions or winding of the small intestines.
c A portion of the mesentery.
d The small intestines, terminating in the caecum.
e The caecum, or bhnd gut, with the bands running along it, puckering and dividing it into
numerous cells.
/ The beginning of the colon.
g g The continuation and expansion of the colon, divided, like the ca;cum, into cells.
h The termination of the colon in the rectum.
I The termination of the rectum at the anus.
The intestines of a full-grown horse are not less than ninety feet in length. Th«
length of the bowels in different animals depends on tlie nature of the food. Tht
nutritive matter is with much more difficulty extracted from vegetable than animal
substances ; therefore the alimentary canal is large, long, and complicated in those
which, like the horse, are principally or entirely fed on corn or herbs. They are
divided into the small and large intestines ; the former of which occupy about sixty-
six feet, and the latter twenty-four.
The intestines, like the stomach, are composed of three coats.
The outer one consists of the peritoneum — that membrane which has been already
described as investing th^contents of the abdomen. By means of this coat, the
intestines are confined in their proper situations ; and, this membrane being smooth
and moist, all friction and concussion are prevented. Did the bowels float loosely in
the abdomen, they would be subject to constant entanglement and injury amid the
rapid and violent motions of the horse.
The middle coat, like that of the stomach, is muscular, and composed of two
layers of fibres, one running longitudinally and the other circularly ; and by means
of these muscles, which are continually contracting and relaxing in a direction from
the upper part of the intestines to the lower, the food is propelled along the bowels.
The inner coat is the mucous or villous one. It abounds with innumerable small
glands, which secrete a mucous fluid to lubricate the passage and defend it from irri-
tatinor or acrimonious substances; and it is said to be villous from its soft velvet-
like feeling. This coat is crowded with innumerable minute orifices that are the
commencement of vessels by which the nutritive part of the food is taken up ; and
these vessels, unitvng and passing over the mesentery, carry this nutritive matter to
a proper receptacle for it, whence it is conveyed into the circulation, and distributed
lo every part.
THE INTESTINES.
229
The intestines are chiefly retained in their relative positions by the mesentery, c
(middle of the intestines), which is a doubling of the peritoneum, including each
intestine in its folds, and also inclosing in its duplicatures the arteries, the veins, the
nerves, and the vessels which convey the nutriment from the intestines to the circulation.
The lirst of tlie small intestines, and commencing from the right extremity of the
stomach, is the duudenum, a, a very improper name for it in the horse, for in that ani-
mal it is nearly two feet in length. It is the largest and shortest of all the small
intestines. It receives the food partially converted into chyme by the digestive
power of the stomach,* and in which it undergoes another and very important
change ; a portion of it being converted into chyle. It is here mixed with the bile and
the secretion from the pancreas, which enter this intestine about five inches from its
commencement. The bile seems to be the principal agent in this change, for no
sooner does it mingle with the chyme than that fluid begins to be separated into two
distinct ingredients— a white, thick liquid termed chyle,°and containing the nutritive
part of the food, and a yellow, pulpy substance, the innutritive portion, which, when
the chyle is all pressed from it, is evacuated through the rectum.
The next portion of the small intestines is the Jejunum, so called because it is
generally found to be empty. It is smaller in bulk and paler in colour than the
duodenum. It is more loosely confined in the abdomen — floating comparatively
unattached in the cavity of the abdomen, and the passage of the l^od being com-
paratively rapid through it.
There is no separation or distinction between it and the next intestine — the Ileum.
There is no point at which the jejunum can be said to terminate and the ileum com-
mence. Together they form that portion of the intestinal tube which floats in the
umbilical region : the latter, however, is said to occupy three-fifths, and the former
two-fifths, of this portion of the intestines, and the five would contain about eleven
gallons of fluid. The ileum is evidently less vascular than the jejunum, and gradu-
ally diminishes in size as it approaches the larger intestines.
These two intestines are attached to the spine by a loose doubling of the peritoneum,
and float freely in the abdominal cavity, their movements and their relative positions
being regulated only by the size or fulness of the stomach, and the stage of the
digestive process.j
The small intestines derive their blood from the anterior mesenteric artery, which
divides into innumerable minute branches that ramify between their muscular and
villous coats. Their veins, which are destitute of valves, return the blood into the vena
cava. The prime agent in producing all these eflTects is the cerebro-visceral nerve.:j:
The large intestines are three in number: — the aecum, the coloii, and the rectum.
The first of them is the csecum (blind gut), e,
— it has but one opening into it, and con-
sequently everything that passes into it, having
reached the blind or closed end, must return,
in order to escape. It is not a continuation of
the ileum, but the ileum pierces the head of it,
as it were, at right angles, ( rf, ) and projects
some way into it, and has a valve — the valvula
coli — at its extremity, so that what has tra-
versed the ileum, and entered the head of the
colon, cannot return into the ileum. Along
the outside of the caecum run three strong
bands, each of them shorter than that intestine,
and thus puckering it up, and forming it into
three sets of cells, as shown in the accom-
panying side cut.
That portion of the food which has not been
* The conversion of food into chyme is very imperfectly performed in the stomach of the
horse, on account of the smallness of that viscus, and the portion of it which is occufled by
cuticle : therefore, he needs in the upper part of the duodenum a kind of second stomach, to
mix up and dissolve the food. That apparatus is evident enough until we arrive at the pan-
creatic and biliary orifices.
+ Percivall's Anatomy of the Horse, p. 256.
T Youatt's Lectures on the Nervous System, Veterinarian, vol. vii. p. 354.
20
230 THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS.
taken up by the lacteals or absorbent vessels of the small intestines, passes through
this valvular opening of the ileum, and a part of it enters the colon, while the
remainder flows into the caecum. Then, from this being a blind pouch, and Irom the
cellular structure of this pouch, the food must be detained in it a very long time; and
in order that, during this detention, all the nutriment may be extracted, the caecum
and its cells are largely supplied with blood-vessels and absorbents. It is principally
the fluid part of the food that seems to enter the cajcum. A horse will drink at one
time a great deal more than his stomach will contain; or even if lie drinks a less
quantity, it remains not in the stomach or small intestines, but passes on to the
cfficum, and there is retained, as in a reservoir, to supply the wants of the system
In his state of servitude, the horse does not often drink more than twice or thrice in a
day, and the food of the stabled horse being chiefly dry, this icattr stomach is mosi
useful to him. The caecum will hold four gallons.
The colon is an intestine of exceedingly large dimensions, and is capable of con-
taining lio less than twelve gallons of liquid or pulpy food. At its union with the
caecum and the ileum, although larger than the latter intestine (/), it is of com-
paratively small bulk ; but it soon swells out to an enormous extent. It has likewise,
in the greater part of its course, three bands like the caecum, which also divide it,
internally, into the same description of cells. The intention of this is evident, — to
retard the progress of the food, and to give a more extensive surface on which the
vessels of the lacteals may open ; and therefore, in the colon, all the chyle is finally
separated and taken up. When this is nearly accomplished, the construction of the
colon is somewhat changed : we find but two bands towards the rectum, and these
not puckering the intestine so much, or forming such numerous or deep cells. The
food does not require to be much longer detained, and the mechanism for detaining it
is gradually disappearing. The blood-vessels and absorbents are likewise rapidly
diminishing. The colon, also, once more contracts in size, and the chyle having been
all absorbed, the remaining mass, being of a harder consistence, is moulded into
pellets or balls in its passage through these shallower cells.
At the tennination of the colon, the rectum (straight gut) commences. It is smaller
in circumference and capacity than the colon, although it will contain at least three
gallons of water. It serves as a reservoir for the dung until it is evacuated. It has
none of these bands, because, all the nutriment being extracted, the passage of the
excrement that remains should be hastened and not retarded. The faeces descend to
the rectum, which somewhat enlarges to receive them ; and when they have accu-
mulated to a certain extent, the animal, by the aid of the diaphragm and the muscles
of the belly, presses upon them, and they are evacuated. A curious circular muscle,
and always in action, called the sphincter (constrictor muscle), is placed at the anus,
to prevent the constant and unpleasant dropping of the faeces, and to retain them until
the horse is disposed voluntarily to expel them. This is effected by the efforts of the
animal, assisted by the muscular coat of the rectum, which is stronger than that of
any of the other intestines, and aided by the compression of the internal oblique and
transverse muscles.
The larger intestines derive their blood from the posterior mesenteric artery. Their
veins terminate in the vena portae.
THE LIVER.
Between the stomach and the diaphragm — its right lobe or division in contact with
the diaphragm, the duodenum and the ri^ht kidney, and the middle and left divisions
with the stomach — is the liver. It is an irregularly-shaped, reddish-brown substance,
of considerable bulk, and performs a very singular and important office.
It has been already stated (p. 163) that the blood, which has been conveyed to the
different parts of the body by the arteries, is brought back to the heart by the veins ;
but that which is returned from the stomach and intestines and spleen and pancreas,
and mesentery, instead of flowing directly to the heart, passes first through the liver.
It enters by two large vessels that spread by means of innumerable minute branches
through every part of the liver. As the blood traverses this organ, a fluid is separated
from it, called the h'de. It is probably a kind of excrement, the continuance of which
in the blood would be injurious ; but while it is thrown oflT, another important purpose
is answered — the process of digestion is promoted, by the bile changing the nutritive
PANCREAS — SPLEEN- OMENTUM. 231
portion of the food from chyme into chyle, and separating it from that which, con-
taining little or no nutriment, is voided as excrement.
Almost every part of it is closely invested by the peritoneum, which seems to dis-
charge the office of a capsule to this viscus. Its arteries are very small, considering
the bulk of the liver; but their place is curiously supplied by a vein — the vena portz
— a vessel formed by the union of the splenic and mesenteric veins, and which seems,
if it does not quite usurp the office and discharge the duty of the artery, to be far
more concerned than it in the secretion of the bile. There is a free intercouse between
the vessels of the two.
There are. scattered through the substance of the liver, numerous little granules,
called acini, from their resemblance to the small stones of certain berries. They are
united together by a fine cellular web, whose intimate structure has never yet been
satisfactorily explained. From the blood which enters the liver there is a constant
secretion of a yellow bitter fluid, called hile. The separation of the bile from the
blood probably takes place within the acini ,- the secreting vessels are the penicelli,
or those which compose this fine cellular web, and the fluid — the bile — is taken up
by the pori hi/iarii, small vessels, from which a yellowish fluid is seen exuding into
whatever part of the liver we cut, and is carried bj them into the main vessel, the
hepatic duct.
The bile, thus formed, is in most animals received into a reservoir, the gall-bladder,
whence it is conveyed into the duodenum {g, p. 221) at the times, and in the quan-
tities, which the purposes of digestion require; but the horse has no gall-bladder,
and, consequently, the bile flows into the intestine as rapidly as it is separated from
the blood. The reason of this is plain. A small stomach was given to the horse, in
order that the food might quickly pass out of it, and the diaphragm and the lungs
might not be injuriously pressed upon, when we require his utmost speed, and also
that we might use him with little danger compared with that which would attach to
other animals, even when his stomach is distended with food. Then the stomach, so
small, and so speedily emptied, must be oftener replenished; the horse must be
oftener eating, and food oftener or almost continuously passing out of his stomach.
How admirably does this comport with the uninterrupted supply of bile !
THE PANCREAS.
In the domestic animals which are used for food, this organ is called the sweet-bread.
It lies bti veen the stomach and left kidney. It much resembles in structure the sali-
vary glands in the neighbourhood of the mouth, and the fluid which it secretes has
been erroneously supposed to resemble the saliva in its properties. The pancreatic
fluid is carried into the intestines by a duct which enters at the same aperture with
that from the liver. It contains a large proportion of albumen, caseous matter, and a
little free acid. Its use, whether to dilute the bile or the chyme, or to assist in the
separation of the chyme from the feculent matter, has never been ascertained : it is,
however, clearly employed in aiding the process of digestion.
THE SPLEEN.
This organ, often called the vielt, is a long, bluish-brown substance, broad and
thick at one end, and tapering at the other; lying along the left side of the stomach,
and between it and the short ribs. It is of a spongy nature, divided into numerous
little cells not unlike a honeycomb, and over which thousands of minute vessels
thickly spread. The particular use of this organ has never been clearly ascertained,
for in some cruel experiments it has been removed without apparent injury to diges-
tion or any other function. It is, however, useful, at least occasionally, or it would
not have been given to the animal. It is perhaps a reservoir or receptacle for any
fluid that may be conveyed into the stomach beyond that which is sufficient for the
j)urposes of digestion.
THE OMENTUM,
Or cawl, is a doubling of the peritoneum, or rather consists of four layers of it. It
has been supposed to have been placed between the intestines and the walls of the
belly, in order to prevent concussion and injurj' during the rapid movement of the
animal. That, however, cannot be its principal use in the horse, from whom tho
most rapid movements are required ; for in him it is unusually short, extending only
232 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
to the pancreas and a small portion of the colon. Being, however, thus short, the
horse is exempt from a very troublesome and, occasionally, fatal species of rupture,
when a portion of the omentum penetrates through some accidental opening in the
covering of the belly.
The structure of the urinary organs and the diseases to which they are exposed
will be hereafter considered.
CHAPTER X.
THE DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
These form a very important and mysterious class of ailments. They will be
considered in the order in which the various contents of the abdomen have been
described.
THE DUODENUM.
This intestine is subject to many more diseases than are included in the present
imperfect veterinary nosology. The passage of the food through it has been impeded
by stricture. A singular case is related by Mr. Tombs : — " An aged horse was taken
suddenly ill. He lay down, rolled upon his back, and perspired profusely, with a
pulse quick and hard ; presently he became sick, and the contents of the stomach
were voided through the mouth and nostrils. Blood-letting, purgatives, fomentations,
&c., were resorted to, but in sixteen hours after the first attack the horse died. The
stomach was distended with food, and there was a complete stricture of the duode-
num, three inches posterior to the entrance of the hepatic duct. The portion of the
iniestine anterior to the stricture was distended, and in a gangrenous state."*
Mr. Dickens records a somewhat similar case. " A horse was attacked by appa-
rent colic. Proper treatment was adopted, and he got seemingly well. Nine days
afterwards the apparent colic returned. He threw himself down, rolled upon his
back, beating his chest with his fore feet, or sitting upon his haunches like a dog.
All possible remedial measures were adopted, but he died thirty-six liours after the
second attack. At the distance of ten inches from the stomach was a stricture which
would scarcely admit of the passage of a tobacco-pipe, and about which were marks
of mechanical injury, as if from a nail or other hard substance. The anterior por-
tion of the intestines was strangely distended. "f
It has been perforated by hots. Mr. Brewer describes a case the symptoms of
which were similar to those already related. " On examining the patient after death,
the intestines were found to be altogether free from disease, except a portion of the
duodenum which was perforated by hots, several of which had escaped into the
abdomen. Around the aperture the duodenum was in a. gangrenous state.":J:
The diseases of the jejunum and the ileum consist either of spasmodic affection or
inflammation.
SPASMODIC COLIC.
The passage of the food through the intestinal canal is effected b}' the alternate
contraction and relaxation of the muscular coat of the intestines. When that«ction
is simply increased through the whole of the canal, the food passes more rapidly, and
purging is produced ; but the muscles of every part of the frame are liable to irregular
and spasmodic action, and the muscular coat of some portion of the intestines may be
thus affected. The spasm may be confined to a very small part of the canal. The
gut has been found, after death, strangely contracted in various places, but the con
traction not exceeding five or six inches in any of them. In the horse, the ileum is
the usual seat of this disease. It is of much importance to distinguish between spas-
modic colic and inflammation of the bowels, for the symptoms have considerai)le
resemblance, although the mode of treatment should be very different.
* Veterinarian, vol. viii. p. 329. t Ibid. vol. x. p. 553. X Ibid. vol. v. p. 493.
SPASMODIGCOLIC. 233
The attack of colic is usually very sudden. There is often not the slightest warn-
ing. The' horse begins to shift his posture, look round at his flanks, paw violently,
strike his belly with his feet, and crouch in a peculiar manner, advancing his hind
liaibs under him ; he will then suddenly lie, or rather fall down, and balance himself
upon his back, with his feet resting on his belly. The pain now seems to cease for
a little while, and he gets up, and shakes himself, and begins to feed ; the respite,
however, is but short — the spasm returns more violently — every indication of pain is
incrcLised — he heaves at the flanks, breaks out into a profuse perspiration, and' throws
himself more recklessly about. In the space of an hour or two, either the spasms
betTin to relax, and the remissions are of longer duration, or the torture is augmented
at every paroxysm ; the intervals of ease are fewer and less marked, and inflammation
and death 'supervene. The pulse is but little affected at the commencement, but it
soon becomes frequent and contracted, and at length is scarcely tangible.
It will presently be seen that many of the symptoms very closely resemble those
of inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bowels : it may therefore be useful to
point out the leading distinctions between them.
COLIC. INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS.
Sudden in hs attack. Gradual in its approach, with previous indi-
cations of fever.
Pulse rarely much quickened in the early Pulse very much quicken'>d, but small, and
period of the disease, and during the intervals often searceiy to be telt.
of ease ; but evidently fuller.
Legs and ears of the natural temperature. Legs and ears cold.
Relief obtained from rubbmg the belly. Belly exceedingly tender and painful to the
touch.
Relief obtained from motion. Motion evidently increasing the pain.
Intervals of rest. Constant^pam.
Strength scarcely aflfected. Rapid and great weakness.
Among the causes of colic are, the drinking of cold water when the horse is heated.
There is not a surer origin of violent spasm than this. Hard water is very apt to pro-
duce this effect. Colic will sometimes follow the exposure of a horse to the cold air
or a cold wind after strong exercise. Green meat, although, generally speaking,
most beneficial to the horse, yet, given in too large a quantity, or when he is hot, will
frequently produce gripes. Doses of aloes, both large and small, are not unfrequent
causes of colic. In some horses there seems to be a constitutional predisposition to
colic. They cannot be hardly worked, or exposed to unusual cold, without a fit of it.
In many cases, when these horses have died, calculi have been found in some part of
the alimentary canal. Habitual costiveness and the presence of calculi are frequent
causes of spasmodic colic. The seat of colic is occasionally the duodenum, but
oftener the ileum or the jejunum; sometimes, however, both the caecum and colon are
affected.
Fortunately, we are acquainted with several medicines that allay these spasms;
and the disease often ceases almost as suddenly as it appeared. Turpentine is one of
the most powerful remedies, especially in union with opium, and in good warm ale.
The account that has just been given of the caecum will not be forgotten here. A
solution of aloes will be advantageously added to the turpentine and opium.
If relief is not obtained in half-an-hour, it will be prudent to bleed, for the continu-
ance of violent spasm may produce inflammation. Some practitioners bleed at first,
and it is far from bad practice ; for although the majority of cases will yield to tur-
pentine, opium, and aloes, an early bleeding may occasionally prevent the recurrence
of inflammation, or at least mitigate it. If it is clearly a case of colic, half of the first
dose may be repeated, with aloes dissolved in warm water. The stimulus produced
on the inner surface of the bowels by the purgative may counteract the irritation that
caused the spasm. The belly should be well rubbed with a brush or warm cloth, but
not bruised and injured by the broom-handle rubbed over it, with all their strength,
by two great fellows. The horse should be walked about, or trotted moderately.
The motion thus produced in the bowels, and the friction of one intestine over the
other, may relax the spasm, but the hasty gallop might speedily cause inflammation
to succeed to colic. Clysters of warm water, or containing a solution of aloes, should
be injected. The patent syringe will here be exceedingly useful. A clyster of tobacco-
smoke may be thrown up as a last resort.
20* '2k
234 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
When relief has been obtained, the clothing of the horse, saturated with perspira-
tion, should be removed, and fresh and dry clothes substituted. He should be well
littered down in a warm stable or box, and have bran mashes and lukewarm watei
for the two or three uext days.
Some persons give gin, or gin and pepper, or even spirit of pimento, in cases of
gripes. This course of proceeding is, however, exceedingly objectionable. It may
be useful, or even sufficient, in ordinary cases of colic; but if there should be any
inflammation or tendency to inflammation, it cannot fail to be highly injurious.
FLATULENT COLIC.
This is altogether a different disease from the former. It is not spasm of the bowels,
but inflation of them from the presence of gas emitted by undigested food. Whether
collected in the stomach, or small or large intestines, all kinds of vegetable matter
are liable to ferment. In consequence of this fermentation, gas is evolved to a greater
or less extent — perhajis to twenty or thirty times the bulk of the food. This may
take place in the stomach ; and if so, the life of the horse is in immediate danger, for,
as will plainly appear from the account that has been given of the cesoj)hagus and
upper orifice of the stomach, the animal has no powder to expel this dangerous flatus
by eructation.
This extrication of gas usually takes place in the colon and caecum, and the disten-
tion may be so great as to rupture either the one or the other, or sometimes to produce
death, without either rupture or strangulation, and that in the course of from four to
twenty-four hours.
In some ill-conducted establishments, and far oftener on the north than the south
of the Tweed, it is a highly dangerous disease, and is especially fatal to horses of
heavy draught. An overloaded stomach is one cause of it, and particularly so when
water is given either immediately before or after a plentiful meal, or food to which
the horse has not been accustomed is given.
The symptoms, according to Professor Stewart, are, " the horse suddenly slacken-
ing his pace — preparing to lie down, or falling down as if he were shot. In the
stable he paw's the ground with his fore feet, lies down, rolls, starts up all at once,
and throws himself down again v\'ith great violence, looking wistfully at his flanks,
and making many fruitless attempts to void his urine."
Hitherto the symptoms are not much unlike spasmodic colic, but the real character
of the disease soon begins to develope itself. It is in one of the large intestines, and
the belly swells all round, but mostly on the right flank. As the disease proceeds,
the pain becomes more intense, the horse more violent, and at length death closes the
scene.
The treatment is considerably different from that of spasmodic colic. The spirit of
pimento would be here allowed, or the turpentine and opium drink ; but if the pain,
and especially the swelling, do not abate, the gas, which is the cause of it, must be
be got rid of, or the animal is inevitably lost.
This is usually or almost invariably a combination of hydrogen with some other
gas. It has a strong affinity for chlorine. Then if some compound of chlorine — the
chloride of lime — dissolved in water, is administered in the form of a drink, the chlo-
rine separates from the lime as soon as it comes into contact with the hydrogen, and
muriatic gas is formed. This gas having a strong affinity for water, is absorbed by
any fluid that may be present, and, quitting its gaseous form, either disappears, or
does not retain a thousandth part of its former bulk. All this may be very rapidly
accomplished, for the fluid is quickly conveyed from the mouth to every part of the
intestinal canal.
Where these two medicines are not at hand, and the danger is imminent, the trochar
may be used, in order to open a way for the escape of the gas. The trochar should
be small but longer than that which is used for the cow, and the puncture should be
made in the middle of the right flank, for there the large intestines are most easily
reached. In such a disease it cannot be expected that the intestines shall always be
found precisely in their natural situations, but usually the origin of the ascending por-
tion of the colon, or the base of the cajcum, will be pierced. The author of this work,
however, deems it his duty to add, that it is only when the practitioner despairs of
otherwise saving the life of the animal that this operation should be attempted. Much
of the danger would be avoided by using a very small trochar, and by withdrawing
INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS— ENTERITIS. 235
it as soon as the gtis has escaped. The wound in the intestines will then probably
close, from the innate elasticity of the parts.
INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS.
There are two varieties of this malady. The first is inflamma'Jon of the external
coats of the intestines, accompanied by considerable fever, and usually costiveness.
The second is that of the internal or nmcous coat, and almost invariably connected
with purging.
ENTERITIS.
The muscular coat is that which is oftenest affected. Inflammation of the external
coats of the stomach, whether the peritoneal • or muscular, or both, is a very frequent
and fatal disease. It speedily runs its course, and it is of great consequence that its
early symptoms should be known. If the horse has been carefully observed, restless-
ness and fever will have been seen to precede the attack. In many cases a direct
shiverintj fit will occur: the mouth will be hot, and the nose red. The animal will
soon express the most dreadful pain by pawing, striking at his belly, looking wildly
at his flanks, groaning, and rolling. The pulse will be quickened and small ; the
ears and legs cold; the belly tender, and sometimes hot; the breathing quickened ;
the bowels costive ; and the animal becoming rapidly and fearfully weak.
The reader will probably here recur to the sketch given in page iSS of the distinc-
tion between spasmodic colic and inflammation of the bowels, or enteritis.
The causes of this disease are, first of all and most frequentl)', sudden exposure to
cold. If a horse that has been highly fed, carefully groomed, and kept in a warm
stable, is heatpd with exercise, and has been during some hours without food, and in
this state of exhaustion is suflered to drink freely of cold water, or is drenched with
rain, or have his legs and belly washed with cold water, an attack of inflammation
of the bowels will often follow. An overfed horse, subjected to severe and long-
continued exertion, if his lungs were previously weak, will probably be attacked by
inflammation of them ; but if the lungs were sound, the bowels will on the following
day be the seat of disease. Stones in the intestines are an occasional cause of inflam-
mF'i'^n, and colic neglected oi wrongly treated will terminate in it.
Tne horse paws and stamps as in colic, but without the intervals of ease that occur
in that disease. The pulse also is far quicker than in colic. The breathing is more
hurried, and the indication of sutlering more evident. " Tlie next stage," in the
graphic language of Mr. Percivall, "borders on delirium. The eye acquires a wild,
haggard, unnatural stare — the pupil dilates — his heedless and dreadful throes render
approach to him quite perilous. He is an object not only of compassion but of appre-
hension, and seems fast hurrying to his end ; when, all at once, in the midst of ago-
nising torments, he stands quiet, as though every pain had left him, and he were
going to recover. His breathing becomes tranquillised — his pulse sunk bevond all
perception — his body bedewed with a cold clammy sweat — he is in a tremour from
head to foot, and about the legs and ears has even a death-like feel. The mouth feels
deadly chill ; the lips drop pendulous; and the eye seems unconscious of objects. In
fine, death, not recovery, is at hand. Mortification has seized the inflamed bowel —
pain can no longer be felt in tliat which a few minutes ago was the seat of exquisite
suffering. He again becomes convulsed, and in a few more struggles less violent
than the former he expires."*
The treatment of inflammation of the bowels, like that of the lungs, should be prompt
and energetic. The first and most powerful means of cure will be bleeding. From
six to eiffht or ten quarts of blood, in fact as much as the horse can bear, should be
abstracted as soon as possible; and the bleeding repeated to the extent of four or five
quarts more, if the pain is not relieved and the pulse has not become rounder and
fuller. The speedy weakness that accompanies this disease should not deter from
bleeding largely. That weakness is the consequence of violent inflammation of these
parts ; and if that inflammation is subdued by the loss of blood, the weakness will
disappear. The bleeding should be eflTected on the first appearance of the disease, for
there is no malady that more quickly runs its course.
* Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. ii. p. 246.
236 DISEASED OF THE INTESTINES.
A strong solution of aloes should immediately follow the bleeding, but, considering
the irritable state of the intestines at this period, guarded by opium. This should be
quickly followed by back-raking, and injections consisting of w^arm water, or very
thin gruel, in which Epsom salts or aloes have been dissolved ; and too much fluid
can scarcely be thrown up. If the common ox-bladder and pipe is used, it should be
frequently replenished ; but with Read's patent pump, already referred to, sufficient
may be injected to penetrate beyond the rectum, and reach to the colon and caecum,
and dispose them to evacuate their contents. The horse should likewise be encouraged
to drink plentifully of warm water or thin gruel ; and draughts, eacii containing a
couple of drachms of dissolved aloes, with a little opium, should be given every six
hours, until the bowels are freely opened.
It will now be prudent to endeavour to excite considerable external inflammation
as near as possible to the seat of internal disease, and therefore the whole of the
belly should be blistered. In a well-marked case of this disease, no time should be
lost in applying fomentations, but the blister at once resorted to. The tincture of
Spanish flies, whether made with spirit of wine or turpentine, should be thoroughly
rubbed in. The legs should be well bandaged in order to restore the circulation
in them, and thus lessen the flow of blood to the inflamed part; and, for the same
reason, the horse should be warmly clothed ; but the air of the stable or box should
be cool.
No corn or hay should be allowed during the disease, but bran mashes, and green
meat if it can be procured. The latter will be the best of all food, and may be given-
without the slightest apprehension of danger. When the horse begins to recover, a
handful of corn may be given two or three times in the day; and, if the weather is
warm, he may be turned into a paddock for a few hours in the middle of the day.
Clysters of gruel should be continued for three or four days after the inflammation is
beginning to subside, and good hand-rubbing applied to the legs.
The second variety of inflammation of the bowels aflTects the internal or mucous
coat, and is generally the consequence of physic in too great quantity, or of an im-
proper kind. The purging is more violent and continues longer than was intended ,
the animal shows that he is suff'ering great pain ; he frequently looks round at his
flanks; his breathing is laborious, and the pulse is quick and small — not so small,
however, as in inflammation of the peritoneal coat, and, contrary to some of the most
frequent and characteristic symptoms of that disease, the mouth is hot and the legs
and ears are warm. Unless the purging is excessive, and the pain and distress great,
the surgeon should hesitate at giving any astringent medicine at first; but he should
plentifully administer gruel or thin starch, or "arrow-root, by the mouth and by clyster,
removing all hay and corn, and particularly green meat. He should thus endeavour
to soothe the irritated surface of the bowels, while he permits all remains of the pur-
gative to be carried ofi". If, however, twelve hours have passed, and the purging,
and the pain remain undiminished, he should continue the gruel, adding to it chalk,
catechu, and opium, repeated every six hours. As soon as the purging begins to
subside, the astringent medicine should be lessened in quantity, and gradually dis-
continued. Bleeding will rarely be necessary, unless the inflammation is very great,
and attended by symptoms of general fever. The horse should be warmly clothed,
and placed in a comfortable stable, and his legs should be hand-rubbed and bandaged.
Violent purging, and attended with much inflammation and fever, will occur from
other causes. Green meat will frequently purge. A horse worked hard upon green
meat will sometimes scour. The remedy is change of diet, or less labour. Young
horses will often be strongly purged, without any apparent cause. Astringents should
be used with much caution here. It is probably an effort of nature to get rid of some-
thing that offends. A few doses of gniel will assist in effecting this purpose, and
the purging will cease without astringent medicine.
Many horses that are not well-ribbed home — having too great space between the last
rib and the hip-bone — are subject to purging if more than usual exertion is required
from them. They are recognised by the term of washy horses. They are often free
and fleet, hut destitute of continuance. They should have rather more than the usual
allowance of corn, with beans, when at work. A cordial ball, with catechu and
opium, will often be serviceable either before or after a journey.
PHYSICKING. 237
PHYSICKING.
This would seem to be the proper place to speak of ph)'sicking horses — a mode of
treatment necessary under various diseases, often useful for the augmentation of health,
and yet which has often injured the constitution and absolutely destroyed thousands
of animals. When a horse comes from grass to hard meat, or from the cool, open
air to a heated stable, a doSe or even two doses of physic may be useful to prevent
tlie tendency to inflammation which is the necessary consequence of so sudden and
great a change. To a horse that is becoming too fat, or has surfeit, or grease, or
mange, or that is out of comiition from inactivity of the digestive organs, a dose of
physic is often most serviceable ; but the reflecting man will enter his protest against
the periodical physicking of all horses in the spring- and the autumn, and more par-
ticularly against that severe system which is thought to be necessary in order to train
them for work, and also the absurd method of treating the animal when under the
operation of physic.
A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of physic. Two or three bran
mashes given on that or the preceding day are far from sufficient when a horse is
about to be physicked whether to promote his condition or in obedience to custom.
JNIashes should be given until the dung becomes softened. A less quantity of physic
will then suffice, and it will more quickly pass through the intestines, and be more
readily diffused over them. Five drachms of aloes, given when the dung has thus
been softened, will act much more effectually and much more safely than seven
drachms, when the lower intestines, are obstructed by hardened fteces.
On the day on which the physic is given, the horse should have walking exercise,
or may be gently trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day ; but after the physic
begins to work, he should not be moved from his stall. Exercise would then pro-
duce gripes, irritation, and, possibly, dangerous inflammation. The common and
absurd practice is to give the horse most exercise after the physic has begun to ope-
rate.
A little hay may be put into the rack. As much mash should be given as the horse
will eat, and as much water, with the coldness of it taken off", as he will drink. If,
however, he obstinately refuses to drink warm water, it is better that he should have
it cold, than to continue without taking any fluid ; but in such case he should not be
suflfered to take more than a quart at a time, with an interval of at least an hour be-
tween each draught.
\Vhen the pursing has ceased, or the physic is set, a mash should be given once or
twice every day until the next dose is taken, between which and the setting of the first
there should be an interval of a week. The horse should recover from the languor
and debility occasioned by the first dose, before he is harassed by a second.
Eight or ten tolerably copious motions will be perfectly sufficient to answer every
good purpose, although the groom or the carter may not be satisfied unless double the
quantity are procured. The consequence of too strong purgation will be, that weak-
ness will hang about the animal for several days or weeks, and inflammation will
often ensue t'rom the over-irritation of the intestinal canal.
Long-continued custom has made aloes the almost invariabl-e purgative of the horse,
and very properly so ; for there is no other at once so sure and so safe. The Bar-
badoes aloes, although sometimes very dear, should alone be used. The dose, with
a horse properly prepared, will vary from four to seven drachms. The preposterous
doses of nine, ten, or even twelve drachms, are now, happily for the horse, gener-
ally abandoned. Custom has assigned the form of a ball to physic, but good sense
will in due time introduce the solution of aloes, as acting more speedily, effectually,
and safely.
The only other purgative on which dependence can be placed is the croton. The
farina or meal of the nut is generally used ; but from its acrimony it should be given
in the form of ball, with linseed meal. The dose varies from a scruple to half a
drachm. It acts more speedily than the aloes, and without the nausea which they
produce; but it causes more watery stools, and. consequently, more debility.
LixsEED-oiL is an uncertain but safe purgative, in doses from a pound to a pound
and a half. Olive-oil is more uncertain, but safe ; but castor-oil. that mild aperient
in the human being, is both uncertain and unsafe. Epsom-salts are inefficacious,
except in the immense dose of a pound and a half, and then they are not always safe.
238 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
CALCULI, OR STONES, IN THE INTESTINES.
These are a cause of inflammation in the bowels of the horse, and more frequently
of colic. They are generally found in the ccecum or colon, varying' considerably in
Bhape according to the nucleus round which the sabulous or otiier earthy matter
collects, or the form of the cell in which they have been lodged. They diifer in size
and weight, from a few grains to several pounds. From ttie horizontal position of the
carcase of the horse, the calculus, when it begins to form, does not gravitate so much
ae in the human being, and therefore calculous concretions remain and accumulate
until their very size prevents their expulsion, and a fatal irritation is loo frequently
produced by their motion and weight. They are oftenest found in heavy draught,
and in millers' horses. In some of these horses they have the appearance ol' grit-stone
or crystallized gneiss. It is probable that they partly consist of these very minerals,
combined with the bran which is continually floating about. An analysis of the
Calculi favours this supposition. They are a source of continual irritation wherever
they are placed, and are a fruitful cause of colic. Spasms of the most fearful kind
have been clearly traced to them.*
Professor Morton, of the Royal Veterinary College, in his Essay on Calculous
Concretions, — a work that is far too valuable to be withdrawn from the public view,
— gives an interesting account of these substances in the intestinal canal of the horse.
Little advance has been or can be made to procure their expulsion, or even to deter-
mine their existence ; and even when they have passed into the rectum, although
some have been expelled, others have been so firmly impacted as to resist all medi-
cinal means of withdrawal, and a few have broken their way through the parietes of
the rectum, and lodged in the abdominal cavity. Mr. Percivall, in his " Elementary
Lectures on the Veterinary Art," has recorded several fearful cases of this.|
Other concretions are described under the title of oat-hair calculi. Their surface is
tuberculated and their forms irregular. They are usually without any distinct nuclei,
and are principally composed of the hairy fibrous matter which enters into the com-
position of the oat. The professor very properly adds, and it is a circumstance which
deserves much consideration, that such oats as are husky, with a deficiency of
farinaceous matter, are likely to give rise to these accumulations, whenever impaired
digestion exists. It is also an undoubted fact, that a great proportion of horses
affected with calculi are the property of millers, or brewers. A third species of con-
cretion too frequently existing is the dung-hall, or mixed calculus. It is made up of
coarse, indigestible, excrementitious matter, mixed with portions of the " oat-hair
calculus,'''' and many foreign substances, such as pieces of coal, gravel, &c., and the
whole agglutinated together. They are commonly met with in horses that are vora-
cious feeders, and mingled with particles of coal and stone.
INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE INTESTINES.
The spasmodic action of the ileum being long continued, may be succeeded by an
inverted one from the ccecum towards the stomach, more powerful than in the natural
direction ; and the contracted portion of the intestine will be thus forced into another
above it that retains its natural calibre. The irritation caused by this increases the
inverted action, and an obstruction is formed which no power can overcome. Ever,
the natural motion of the bowels will be sufficient to produce introsusception, when
the contraction of a portion of the ileum is very great. There are no symptoms to
indicate the presence of this, except continued and increasing pain; or, if there were,
all our means of relief would here fail.
Introsusception is not confined to any particular situation. A portion of the jejunum
has been found invaginated within the duodenum, — and also within the ileum, and
the ileum within the ccecum — and one portion of the colon within another, and within
the rectum. The ileum and jejunum are occasionally invaginated in various places.
More than a dozen distinct cases of introsusception have occurred in one animal, and
Bometimes unconnected with any appearance of inflammation ; but in other cases, or
in other parts of the intestinal canal of the same animal, there will be inflammation
of the most intense character. In the majority of cases, perhaps it is an accidental
♦ Veterinarian IX. 161. t Vol. II. p. 449.
ENTANGLEMENT OF THE BOWELS.- WORMS.
239
consequence of pre-existing disease, and occasioned by some irregular action of the
tnoscular tunic, or some irritation of the mucous surface.
A more formidable, but not so frequent disease is
ENTANGLEMENT OF THE BOWELS.
This is another and singular consequence of colic. Although the ileum is enveloped
in the mesentery, and its motion to a considerable degree confined, yet under the
spasm of colic, and during the violence with which the animal rolls and throws him-
self about, portions of th(3 intestine become so entangled as to be twisted into nooses
and knots, drawn together with a degree of tightness scarcely credible. Nothing but
die extreme and continued torture of the animal can lead us to suspect that this has
taken place, and, could we ascertain its existence, there would be no cure.
An interesting case occurred in the practice of Mr. Spooner of Southampton. A
mare at grass was suddenly taken ill. She discovered symptoms of violent colic, for
which anti-spasmodic and aperient medicines were promptly administered, and she
was copiously bled. The most active treatment was had recourse to, but without
avail, and she died in less than four-and-twenty hours without a momentary relief
from pain.
The small intestines were completely black from inflammation, and portions of
them were knotted together in the singular way delineated in this cut. The parts arw
a little loosened in order better to show the entanglement of the intestines, but in th«
animal they were drawn into a tight knot, and completely intercepted all passage.
The cause of this was probably some acrid principle in the grass, and many a horsa
is thus destroyed by the abominable and poisonous drinks of the farrier.*
WORMS.
Worms of diffeient kinds inhabit the intestines ; but, except when they exist in
rery great numbers, they are not so hurtful as is generally supposed, although the
* Veterinarian, VL 12.
240 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
groom or carter may trace to them, hidebound, and cough, and loss of appetite, and
gripes, and megrims, and a variety of other ailments. Of the origin, or mode of pro-
pagation of these parasitical animals, we can say little; neither writers on medicine,
nor even on natural history, have given us any satisfactory account of the matter.
The long white worm {lumbn'cus feres) much resembles the common earth-worm,
and, being from six to ten inches in length, inhabits the small intestines. It is a for-
midable looking animal ; and if there are many of them, they may consume more tiian
can be spared of the nutritive part of the food, or the mucus of the bowels, A tight
skin, and rough coat, and tucked-up belly, are sometimes connected with their pre-
sence. They are then, however, voided in large quantities. A dose of physic will
sometimes bring away almost incredible quantities of them. Calomel is frequently
given as a vermifuge. The seldomer this drug is administered to the horse the better.
It is the principal ingredient, in some quack medicines, for the expulsion of worms in
the human subject, and thence, perhaps, it came to be used for the horse; but in him
we believe it to be inert as a vermifuge, or only useful as quickening the operation of
the aloes. When the horse can be spared, a strong dose of physic is an excellent
vermifuge, so far as the long round worm is concerned ; but a better medicine, and
not interfering with either the feeding or work of the horse, is emetic tartar, with
ginger, made into a ball with linseed meal and treacle, and given every morninn-,
half an hour before the horse is fed.
A smaller, darker-coloured worm, called tlie needle-worm, or ascaris, inhabits the
large intestines. Hundreds of them sometimes descend into the rectum, and immense
quantities have been found in the ca?cum. These are a more serious nuisance than
the former, for they cause a very troublesome irritation about the fundament, which
sometimes sadly annoys the horse. Their existence can generally be discovered
by a small portion of mucus, which, hardening, is found adhering to the anus.
Physic will sometimes bring away great numbers of these worms ; but when there is
much irritation about the tail, and much of this mucus, indicating that they have
descended into the rectum, an injection of linseed oil, or of aloes dissolved in warm
water, will be a more effectual remedy.
The tape-worm is seldom found in the horse.
HERNIA, OR RUPTURE.
A portion of the intestine protrudes out of the cavity of the belly, either through
some natural or artificial opening. In some cases it may be returned, but, from the
impossibility of applying a truss or bandage, it soon escapes again. At other times,
the opening is so narrow, that the gut, gradually distended by faeces, or thickened by
inflammation, cannot be returned, and strangulated hernia is then said to exist. The
seat of hernia is either in the scrotum of the perfect horse, or the groin of the gelding.
The causes are violent struggling when under operations, over-exertion, kicks, or acci-
dents. The assistance of a veterinary surgeon is here indispensable.*
* The following case of operation for hernia will be acceptable to the owner of horses as
well as to the veterinary surgeon. It occurred in the practice of Professor Simonds, of the
Royal Veterinary ColUege. We borrow his account of it from " The Veterinarian."
" The patient was an aged black carf-niare, that had been lent by the owner to a neighbour
for a day or two. I cannot speak positively as to the cause of the injury which she received,
but I believe that it resulted from her falling in the shafts of a cart laden with manure. Slie
was brought to my infirmary on the next day, October IS, 1837.
" The most extensive rupture I had ever seen presented itself on the left side. The leac
formed by the skin, which was not broken, nor even the hair rubbed ofl^, extended as far for
wards as the cartilages of the false ribs, and backwards to the udder. A perpendicular line
drawn from the superior to the inferior part of the tumour measured more than twelve inches.
It appeared, from its immense size and weight, as if by far the larger part of the colon had
protruded.
To my surprise, there was comparatively little constitutional disturbance. The pulse was
45, and full, with no other indication of fever, and no expression of pain on pressing the
tumour.
" She was bled until the pulse was considerably lowered. A cathartic was given, and the
sac ordered to be kept constantly wet with cold water, and to be supported by a wide band
age. She was placed on a restricted and mash diet.
"On the next day, being honoured with a visit by Messrs. Morton, Spooner, and Youatt,
I had the pleasure and advantage of submitting the case to their examination, and obtaining
Uieir opinion. They urged me to attempt to return the protruding viscera, and secure them bv
DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 241
DISEASES OF THE LIVER.
As veterinary practice has improved, much light has been thrown on the diseases
of the liver — not perhaps on the more advanced and fatal stages ; but giving us the
promise that, in process of time, they may be detected at an earlier period, and in a
more manageable state.
a surgical operation ; and Mr. Spooner kindly offered to be present, and to give me his valu-
able assistance.
"On the 24th, our patient was considered to have had sufficient preparatory treatment, and
she was operated upon. We availed ourselves of the opportunity of putting to the test that
which some among us had doubted, and others had positively denied, but which had always
been maintained by our talented chemical lecturer — the power of opium to lull the sensation
of pain in the horse. We therefore gave her two ounces and a half of the tincture of opium,
shortly before she was led from the box to the operating house, and the power of the drug was
evident through the whole of the operation.
"After a careful examination, externally, as well as per rectum, in order to ascertain the
situation and probable size of the laceration of the muscles, an incision was carefully made
through the integument into the sac, in a line with the inferior border of the cartilage of the
false ribs, which incision was about seven inches in length. This, as we had hoped, proved
to be directly upon the aperture in the muscular parietes of the abdomen. The intestines
were exposed ; and, after having sufficiently dilated the opening to permit the introduction of
the hand, they were quickly returned, portion after portion, into their proper cavity, together
with a part of the omentum, which we found somewhat annoying, it being frequently forced
back again through the laceration.
"At times, it required the exertion of our united strength to prevent the escape of the
intestines, and which was only effected by placing our hands side by side, covering and
pressing upon the opening. By these means we succeeded in keeping in the viscera, until
we were satisfied that we had placed them all within their proper cavity. At about the cen-
tral part of the aperture, we decidedly found the greatest pressure of the intestines to effect
an escape.
" A strong metallic suture of flexible wire was then passed through the edges of the lacera-
tion, taking in the peritoneum and portions of the transversalis, rectus, and internal abdorni-
nal muscles ; and other sutures, embracing the same parts, were placed at convenient dis-
tances, so as nearly to close the aperture. Two sutures of smaller metaUic wire, and three
of stout silk cord, were then passed through the external abdominal muscles, and their apo-
neuroses, which effectually shut up the opening into the abdomen. The integument wag
then brought together by the interrupted suture, taking care to bring out the ends of the
other sutures, and which had been purposely left long, so that in case of supervening inflam-
mation, or swelling, they might be readily examined. The whole operation occupied rather
less tlian an hour, our poor patient being occasionally refreshed with some warm gruel.
" The hobbles were now quietly removed, and, after lying a few minutes, she got up, and
was placed in a large loose box. A compress and a suspensory bandage, that could be tight-
ened at pleasure, were applied to the wound. The pulse was now 84. She was ordered to
be watched, and to have some tepid water placed within her reach, but on no account to be
disturbed.
" At 10, P. M., the pulse had sunk to 66. The respiration, which had been much accele-
rated, was quieter. She was resting the leg on the side operated upon, but did not appear to
be suffering any great pain. Some faeces had passed, and she had taken a small quantuy of
bran mash. The parts were well fomented with tepid water, an oleaginous draught was
administered, and likewise an enema.
"25th. — The pulse is a little quickened ; the sac which had contained the protruded intes-
tine was filled with a serous effusion. I made a dependent orifice in it, and from three to
four pints of fluid eccaped. This much relieved her, and she continued to go on favourably
throughout the day.
"2(jth. — Suppuration now began to be estabhshed, and the parts were dressed with the
compound tincture of myrrh.
" 30tb. — She was enabled to take a little walking exercise ; and on this day some of the
integumental sutures came away.
"'Nov. 4th. — The sloughing process being now set up, three of the smaller metallic sutures,
that had been used to bring the edges of the laceretion together in the external abdominal mus-
cles, came away. The parts were minutely examined, and we detected a sinus running
towards the mammae, and filled with pus. With some little difficulty it was opened, and a
tape passed through it, so as to allow the pus to escape as quickly as it was formed. The
appetite was tolerably good, and the pulse ranged from 52 to 56.
" 6th. — The patient was so far recovered that I ventured to turn her into one of the pad-
docks for a few hours' exercise, taking care to avoid any exposure to cold, if the weather was
Btormy.
" 11th. — An incident occurred which nearly brought our hitherto successful case to a fttaJ
termination. I saw her safe about 1, P. M. ; but at two o'clock a messenger came in hj3to
to apprise me that she was in a pond at the bottom of the paddock, and fixed in the m jdt
21 2f
242 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES,
If horses, destroyed on account of other complaints, are examined when they are
not more than five years old, the liver is usually found in the most healthy state ; but
when they arrive at eight or nine, or ten years, this viscus is frequently increased in
size — it is less elastic under pressure — it has assumed more of a granulated or broken-
down appearance — the blood does not so readily permeate its vessels, and, at length,
rn a greater or less quantity, it begins to exude, and is either confined under the peri-
toneal covering, or oozes into the cavity of the belly. There is nothing, for awhile,
to indicate the existence of this. The horse feeds well, is in apparent health, in good
condition, and capable of constant work, notwithstanding so fatal a change is taking
place in this important viscus ; but, at length, the peritoneal covering of the liver sud-
denly gives way, and the contents of the abdomen are deluged with blood, or a suffi-
c'ent quantity of this fluid has gradually oozed out to interfere with the functions of
the viscera.
The symptoms of this sudden change are — pawing, shifting the posture, distension
of the belly, curling of the upper lip, sighing frequently and deeply, the mouth and
nostrils pale and blanched, the breathing quickened, restlessness, debility, fainting,
and death.
On opening the abdomen, the intestines are found to be deluged with dark venous
blood. The liver is either of a fawn, or light yellow, or brown colour — easily torn
by the finger, and, in some cases, completely broken down.
If the haemorrhage has been slight at the commencement, and fortunately arrested,
yet a singular consequence will frequently result. The sight will gradually fail ; the
pupil of one or both eyes will gradually dilate, the animal will have gutla serena,
and become perfectly blind. This will almost assuredly take place on a return of the
affection of the liver. Little can be done in a medical point of view. Astringent and
Styptic medicines may, however, be tried. Turpentine, alum, or sulphuric acid, will
afford the only chance. The veterinary world is indebted to the late Mr. John Field
for almost all that is known of this sad disease.
JAUNDICE,
Commonly called The Yellows, is a more frequent, but more tractable disease. It
is the introduction of bile into the general circulation. This is usually caused by
There, indeed, I found her, at a considerable distance from the bank, and making the most
violent efforts to release herself With considerable difficulty, and after many unsuccessful
attempts, we succeeded in dragging her ashore, so much exhausted as to be utterly incapable
of rising. A gate was procured, and being well covered with straw, sliu was drawn home-
ward by two horses ; I following, regretting what had occurred, and not a iiitle blaming myself
for having exposed her to this misfortune.
"Having placed her in her box, our first object was her restoration and comfort. Men
were set to work to rub her perfectly dry, and some warm gruel, with a little cordial medi-
cine, was given. The stale of the wound was next examined, and it was well cleaned with
tepid water. It was very dark-coloured. The vitality of the young granulations was appa-
rently destroyed, and it emitted, in some degree, perhaps from the mud which had been so
long in contact with it, an oflensive effluvium. It was well dressed with the spirit of nitrous
ether, and properly bandaged — in order to prevent its receiving any further injury in her inef-
fectual attempts to rise.
" We soon, however, began to fear some ill consequence from the continuance of these
efforts, and we determined to raise her with the slings, those useful appendages to every vete-
rinary establishment. This was soon eflectcd. We allowed very little bearing on the abdo-
men, except when she was compelled, in order to ease her hind extremities, which were yet
unable to support their share of the weight of the body. Frictions, stimulants, and bandages,
were applied to the extremities. An enema was given, the wound again attended to, and
some gruel placed within her reach.
"At midnight she was standing at ease in what may not inappropriately be called her
cradle. The legs were tolerably warm : the pulse 60, and full ; the enema had done its duty,
and she was in a much more comfortable state than I bad any right to expect. I ordered her
a warm mash and some gruel, for hope began once more to cheer me.
" On the following and succeeding days she continued gradually to regain her strength, but
she required great care and attention, and it was not until the expiration of the fourth day that
I dared to remove her from the slings, and then only for a few hours during the day, carefully
replacing her in them at night. Some slight sloughing took place from the wound ; but the
principal effect of her innnersion was a severe catarrh. She required occasional attendance
to the wound ; and it was not until the 12th of January — more than twelve weeks after the
operation — that the last of the metallic sutures came away. She soon afterwards returned
to her usual work."
THE KIDNEYS. 243
Bome obstruction in the ducts or tubes that convey the bile from the liver to the intes-
tines. The horse, however, has but one duct, through which the bile usually flows
as quickly as it is formed, and there is no gall-bladder in which it can become thick-
ened, or hardened into masses so firm as to be appropriately called gall-stones. Jaun-
dice does, however, occasionally appear either from an increased flow or altered
quality of the bile, or obstruction even in this simple tube. The yellowness of the
eyes and mouth, and of the skin where it is not covered with hair, mark it sufficiently
plainly. The dung is small and hard ; the urine highly coloured ; the horse languid,
and the appetite impaired. If he is not soon relieved, he sometimes begins to express
considerable uneasiness; at other times he is dull, heavy, and stupid." A character-
istic symptom is lameness of the right fore leg, resembling the pain in the rio-ht
shoulder of the human being in hepatic affections. The principal causes are ov'er-
feeding or over-exertion in sultry weather, or too little work generally speaking, or
inflammation or other disease of the liver itself.
It is first necessary to inquire whether this affection of the liver is not the conse-
quence of the sympathy of that organ with some other part, for, to a very considerable
degree, it frequently accompanies inflammation of the bowels and the lungs. These
diseases being subdued, jaundice will disappear. If there is no other apparent disease
to any great extent, an endeavour to restore the natural passage of the bile by purga-
tives may be tried, not consisting of large doses, lest there should be some undetected
inflammation of the lungs or bowels, in either of which a strong purgative would bo
dangerous ; but, given in small quantities, repeated at short intervals, and until the
bowels are freely opened. Bleeding should always be resorted to, regulated accord-
ing to the apparent degree of inflammation, and the occasional stupor of the animal.
Plent)' of water slightly warmed, or thin gruel, should be given. The horse should
be warmly clothed, and the stable well ventilated, but not cold. Carrots or STeen
meat will be very beneficial. Should the purging, when once excited, prove violent,
we need not be in any haste to stop it, unless inflammation is beginning to be con-
nected with it, or the horse is very weak. The medicine recommended under diar-
rhoea may then be exhibited. A few slight tonics should be given when the horse is
recovering from an attack of jaundice.
The Spleen is sometimes very extraordinarily enlarged, and has been ruptured.
We are not aware of any means by which this may be discovered, except manual
examination by means or the aid of the rectum. The state of the animal would
clearly enough point out the treatment to be adopted.
The Pancreas. We know not of any disease to which it is liable.
The blood contains a great quantity of watery fluid unnecessary for the nutriment
or repair of the frame. There likewise mingle with it matters that would be noxioua
if suffered to accumulate too much.
THE KIDNEYS
Are actively employed in separating this fluid, and likewise carrying off a substance
which constitutes the peculiar ingredient in urine, called the urea, and consisting prin-
cipally of that which would be poisonous to the animal. The kidneys are two" large
glandular bodies, placed under the loins, of the shape of a kidney-bean, of immense
size. The right kidney is most forward, lying under the liver; the left is pushed
more backward by the stomach and spleen. A large artery nnis to each, carrying not
less than a sixth part of the whole of the blood that circulates through the frame.
This artery is divided into innumerable little branches most curiously complicated and
coiled upon each other; and the blood, traversing these convolutions, has its watery
parts, and others the retaining of which would be injurious, separated from it.
The fluid thus separated varies materially both in quantity and composition, even
during health. There is no animal in which it varies so much as in the horse, — there
is no organ in that animal so much under our command as the kidney ; and no medi-
cines are so useful, or may be so injurious, as diuretics — such as nitre, and digitalis —
not only on account of their febrifuge or sedative effects, but because of the power
which they exert. They stimulate the kidneys to separate more aqueous fluid than
they otherwise would do, and thus lessen the quantity of blood which the heart is
labouring to circulate through the frame, and also that which is determined or d'iven
to parts already overloaded. The main objects to be accomplished in these diseases
is to reduce the force of the circulation, and to calm the violence of excitement. Diu-
244 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
retics, by lessening the quantity of blood, are useful assistants in accomplishing these
purposes.
I'he horse is subject to effusions of fluid in particular parts. Swelled legs are a
disease almost peculiar to him. The ox, the sheep, the dog, the ass, and even the
mule, seldom have it, but it is for the removal of this deposit of fluid in the cellulai
substance of the legs of the horse that we have recourse to diuretics. The legs of
many horses cannot be rendered fine, or kept so, without the use of diuretics ; nor
can grease — often connected with these swellings, producing them or caused by them
— be otherwise subdued. It is on this account that diuretics are ranked among the
most useful of veterinary medicines.
In injudicious hands, however, these medicines are sadly abused. Among the
absurdities of stable-management there is nothing so injurious as the frequent use of
diuretics. Not only are the kidneys often over-excited, weakened, and disposed to
•disease, but the whole frame becomes debilitated ; for the absorbents have carried
away a great part of that which was necessary to the health and condition of the
horse, in order to supply the deficiency of blood occasioned by the inordinate discharge
of urine. There is likewise one important fact of which the groom or the horseman
seldom thinks, viz. : — That, when he is removing these humours by the imprudent
use of diuretics, he is only attacking a symptom or a consequence of disease, and no*
the disease itself. The legs will fill again, and the grease will return. While the
cause remains, the effect will be produced.
In the administration of diuretics, one thing should be attended to, and the good
effect of which the testimony of every intelligent man will confirm : the horse should
have plenty to drink. Not only will inflammation be prevented, but the operation of
the medicine will be much promoted.
INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.
This is no uncommon disease in the horse, and is more unskilfully and fatally
treated than almost any other. The early symptoms are those of fever generally, but
the seat of the disease soon becomes evident. The horse looks anxiously round at
his flanks; stands with his hinder legs wide apart; is unwilling to lie down ; strad-
dles as he walks ; expresses pain in turning ; shrinks when the loins are pressed,
and some degree of heat is felt there. The urine is voided in small quantities ; fre-
quently it is high-coloured, and sometimes bloody. Tlie attempt to urinate becomes
more frequent, and the quantity voided smaller, until the animal strains painfully and
violently, but the discharge is nearly or quite suppressed. The pulse is quick and
hard ; full in the early stage of the disease, but rapidly becoming small, yet not losing
its character of hardness. These symptoms clearly indicate an affection of the urinary
organs ; but they do not distinguish inflammation of the kidney from that of the blad-
der. In order to effect this, the hand must be introduced into the rectum. If the
bladder is felt full and hard under the rectum, there is inflammation of the neck of it ;
if it is empty, yet on the portion of the intestines immediately over it there is more
than natural heat and tenderness, there is inflammation of the body of the bladder;
and if the bladder is empty, and there is no increased heat or tenderness, there is
inflammation of the kidney.
Among the causes of diabetes are improper food, and particularly hay that has been
mow-burnt, or oats that are musty. The farmer should look well to this. Oats that
have been dried on a kiln acquire a diuretic property, and if horses are long fed on
them, the continual excitement of this organ which they produce will degenerate into
inflammation. Too powerful or too often repeated diuretics induce inflammation of
the kidney, or a degree of irritation and weakness of that organ that disposes tc
inflammation from causes that would otherwise have no injurious effect. If a horse
is sprained in ttie loins by being urged on, far or fast, by a heavy rider, or compelled
to take too wide a leap, or by being suddenly pulled up on his haunches, the inflam-
mation of the muscles of the loins is often speedily transferred to the kidneys, with
which they lie in contact. Exposure to cold is another fre(|ii(Mit orifjin of this malady,
especially if the horse is drenched with rain, or the wet drips upon his loins; and,
more particularly, if he was previously disposed to inflannnation, or these organs had
been previously weakened. For this reason, hackney-coach horses and others, exposed
to the vicissitudes of ihe weather, and often fed on unwholesome provender, have, oi
Khould have, their loins protected by leather or some other clothing. The grand cause
DIABETES-BLOODY URINE— ALBUMINOUS URINE, &c. 245
hov/ever, of nephritis, is the unnecessary quantity or undue strength of the diuretic
medicines that are forced on the horse by the ignorant groom. This is an evil carried
to an infamous extent, and against which every horseman should sternly oppose
himself.
The treatment will only vary from that of inflammation of other parts by a consi-
deration of the peculiarity of the organ aflected. Bleeding must be promptly resorted
to, and carried to its full extent. An active purge should next be administered ; and
a counter-inflammation excited as nearly as possible to thj seat of disease. For this
purpose the loins should be fomented with hot water, or covered with a mustard-
poultice — the horse should be warmly clothed; but no cantharides or turpentine
sliould be used, and, most of all, no diuretic be given internally. When the groom
finds this difficulty or suppression of staling, he immediately has recourse to a diuretic
ball to force on the urine ; and by thus needlessly irritating a part already too much
excited, he adds fuel to fire, and frequently destroys the horse. The action of the
purgative having begun a little to cease, white hellebore may be administered in small
doses, with or without emetic tartar. The patient should be warmly clothed ; his
legs well bandaged ; and nlentj' of water offered to him. The food should be care-
fully examined, and anything that could have excited or that may prolong the irrita-
tion carefully removed.
DIABETES, OR PROFUSE STALING
Is a comparatively rare disease. It is generally the consequence of undue irritation
of the kidney by bad food or strong diuretics, and sometimes follows inflammation of
that organ. It can seldom be traced in the horse to any disease of the digestive
organs. The treatment is obscure, and the result often uncertain. It is evidently
increased action of the kidneys, and therefore the most rational plan of treatment is to
endeavour to abate that action. In order to effect this, the same course should be
pursued in the early stage of diabetes as in actual inflammation; but the lowering
system must not be carried to so great an extent. To bleeding, purging, and counter^
irritation, medicines of an astringent qualit}' should succeed, as catechu, the powdered
leaf of the whortleberry (uva ursi), and opium. Very careful attention should be paid
to the food. The hay and oats should be of the best qualit)'. Green meat, and espe-
cially carrots, will be very serviceable.
BLOODY URINE— H.EMATURIA.
The discharge of urine of this character is of occasional occurrence. Pure blood
is sometimes discharged which immediately coagulates — at other times it is more or
less mixed with the urine, and does not coagulate. The cause of its appearance and
the source whence it proceeds cannot always be determined, but it is probably the
result of some strain or blow. It may or may not be accompanied by inflammation.
Should it be the result of strain or violence, or be evidently attended by inflamma-
tion, soothing and depleting measures should be adopted. Perhaps counter-irritation
on the loins might be useful. If there is no apparent inflammation, some gentle
stimulus may be administered internally.
ALBUMINOUS URINE.
A peculiar mucous state of the urine of some horses has lately attracted attention.
It has been associated with stretching out of the legs, stiffness, disinclination to move,
a degree of fever, and costiveness. Slight bleeding, mild physic, the application of
gentle stimulants to the loins, quietness, and gentle opiates, have been of service.
We are indebted to ]Mr. Pcrcivall for what w^e do know of the disease. It is a subject
worthy of the attention of the veterinary surgeon.
THE BLADDER.
The urine separated from the blood is discharged by the minute vessels, of which
we have spoken, into some larger canals, which terminate in a cavity or reservoir iu
the body of each kidney, designated its pelvis. Thence it is convej^ed by a duct called
the ureter, to a larger reservoir, the bladder. It is constantly flowing from the kidney
through the ureter ; and were there not this provision for its detention, it would be
incessantly and annoyingly dribbling from the animal. The bladder lies in, and
when distended by urine nearly fills, the cavity of the great bones of the haunch,
21*
Q46 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES.
termed the pelvis. It has three coats, the outer one covering the greater part of it,
and being a portion of the peritoneum : the muscular, consisting of two layers of fibres,
as in the stomach ; the external, running longitudinally, and the inner circularly, so
that it may yield to the pressure of the urine as it enters, and contract again into an
exceedingly small space as it runs out, and by that contraction assist in the expulsion
of the urine. The inner coat contains numerous little glands, which secrete a mucous
fluid to defend the bladder from the acrimony of the urine. The bladder terminates
in a small neck, round which is a strong muscle, keeping the passage closed, and
retaining the urine until, at the will of the animal, or when the bladder contains a
certain quantity of fluid, the muscular coat begins to contract, the diaphragm is ren-
dered convex towards the intestines, and presses them on the bladder, and by these
united powers the fluid is forced through the sphincter muscle at the neck of the blad-
der, and escapes.
INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER.
There are two varieties of this disease, inflammation of the body of the bladder,
and of its neck. The symptoms are nearly the same with those of inflammation of
the kidney, except that there is rarely a total suppression of urine, and there is heat
felt in the rectum over the situation of the bladder. The causes are the presence of
some acrid or irritant matter in the urine, or of calculus or stone in the bladder. With
reference to inflammation of the body of the bladder, mischief has occasionally been
done by the introduction of cantharides or some other irritating matter, in order to
hasten the period of horsing in the mare. The treatment in this case will be the same
as in inflammation of the kidneys, except that it is of more consequence that the ani-
mal should drink freely of water or thin gruel.
In inflammation of the neck of the bladder there is the same frequent voiding of
urine in small quantities, generally appearing in an advanced stage of the disease,
and often ending in almost total suppression. There is also this circumstance,
which can never be mistaken by him who will pay sufficient attention to the case,
that the bladder is distended with urine, and can be distinctly felt under the rec-
tum. It is spasm of the part, closing the neck of the bladder so powerfully that the
contraction of the bladder and the pressure of the muscles are unable to force out the
urine.
Here the object to be attempted is sufficiently plain. This spasm must be relaxed,
and the most likely means to effect it is to bleed largely, and even to fainting. This
will sometimes succeed, and there will be at once an end to the disease. To the
exhaustion and loss of muscular power occasioned by copious bleeding, should be
added the nausea consequent on physic. Should not this speedily have eflfect, an-
other mode of abating spasm must be tried — powdered opium, made into a ball or
drink, should be given every two or three hours; while an active blister is applied
externally. The evacuation of the bladder, both in the mare and the horse, should
be eflTected through the medium of a veterinary surgeon.
STONE IN THE BLADDER.
The urine is a very compound fluid. In a state of health it contains several acids
and alkalies variously combined, which, under disease, are increased both in number
and quantity. It is very easy to conceive that some of these may be occasionally
separated from the rest, and assume a solid form both in the pelvis of the kidney and
in the bladder. This is known to be the case both in the human being and the brute.
These calculi or stones are in the horse oftener found in the kidney than in the blad-
der, contrary to the experience of the human surgeon. The explanation of this
however is not difficult. In the human being the kidney is situated above the blad-
der, and these concretions descend from it to the bladder by their weight. The belly
of the horse is horizontal, and the force of gravity can in no way affect the passage
of the calculus ; therefore it occasionally remains in the pelvis of the kidney, until
it has increased so much in size as to fill it. We know not of any symptoms that
would satisfactorily indicate the presence of a stone in the kidney ; and if the dis-
ease could be ascertained, we are unable to say what remedial measures could be
adopted
STONE IN THE BLADDER. 247
The symptoms of stone in the bladder much resemble those of spasmodic colic,
except that, on careful inquiry, it will be found that there has been much irregularity
in the discharge of urine and occasional suppression of it. When fits of apparent
colic frequently return, and are accompanied by any peculiarity in the appearance or
ihe discharcre of the urine, the horse should be carefully examined. For this pur-
pose he must be thrown. If there is stone in the bladder, it will, while the horse
lies on its back, press on the rectum, and may be distinctly felt if the hand is intro-
duced into the rectum. Several cases have lately occurred of successful extraction
of the calculus ; but to effect this it will always be necessary to have recourse to the
aid of a veterinary practitioner.
Both the practitioner and the amateur will be gratified by the description of a cathe-
ter, invented by Mr. Taylor, a veterinary surgeon of Nottingham, which may be in-
troduced into the bladder without difficulty or pain, and the existence and situation of
the calculus readily ascertained.
It is made of polished round iron, three feet long, one and a half inch in circum-
ference, and with eight joints at its farther extremity. The solid part between each
joint is one and a quarter inch in length, and one and a half in circumference, the
moveable part being ten inches, and the solid part two feet two inches. The latter
has a slight curve commencing one foot from the handle, and continuing to the first
joint of the moveable part, in order to give it facility in passing the urethra, where
it is attached to the parietes of the abdomen. The joints are on the principle of a
half joint, so that the moveable part would only act in a straight line, or curve in one
direction. The joints are perfectly rounded and smooth when acting either in a
straight line or a curve. It is represented both in its straight and curved state in the
following cuts.
Many horses occasionally void a considerable quantity of gravel, sometimes with-
out inconvenience, and at others with evident spasm or pain. A diuretic miirht be
useful in such case, as increasing the flow of urine, and possibly washing o'ut the
concretions before they become too numerous or bulky.
The urine having passed the neck of the bladder, flows along the urethra, and is
discharged. The sheath of the penis is sometimes considerably enlarged. When
at the close of acute disease, there are swellings and effusions of fluid, under the
chest and belly, this part seldom escapes. Diuretics, with a small portion of cordial
medicine, will be beneficial, but in extreme cases slight scarifications may be neces-
sary. The inside of the sheath is often the seat of disease. The mucous matter,
naturally secreted there to defend the part from the acrimony of the urine, accumu-
lates and becomes exceedingly offensive, and produces swelling, tenderness, and even
excoriation, with considerable discharge. Fomentation with'warm water, and the
cleansing of the part with soap and water, aided perhaps by the administration of a
diuretic ball, will speedily remove every inconvenience. Carters are too apt to neg-
lect cleanliness in this respect.
248 BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c,
CHAPTER XI.
BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c.
This may be a proper period to recur to the subject of breeding, and peculiarly
important when there cannot be a doubt that our breed of horses has, within the last
twenty years, undergone a material change. Our running-horses still maintain their
speed, although their endurance is, generally speaking, considerably diminished ; our
draught and carriage horses are perhaps improved in value ; but our hunters and
hackneys are not what they used to be.
Our observations on this will be of a general nature, and very simple. The first
axiom we would lay down is, that "like will produce like," and that the progeny
will inherit the general or mingled qualities of the parents. There is scarcely a
disease by which either of the parents is affected that the foal does not often inherit,
or at least occasionally show a predisposition to it. Even the consequences of ill
usage or hard work will descend to the progeny. There has been proof upon proof,
tha? blindness, roaring, thick wind, broken wind, spavins, curbs, ringbones, and
founder, have been bequeathed to their offspring, both by the sire and the dam. It
should likewise be recollected that although these blemishes may not appear in the
immediate progeny, they frequently do in the next, or even more distant generation.
Hence the necessity of some knowledge of the parentaoe both of the sire and the dam.
Peculiarity of form and constitution will also be inherited. This is a most important
but neglected consideration ; for, however desirable or even perfect may have been
the conformation of the sire, every good point may be neutralized or lost by the
defective structure of the mare. The essential points should be good in both parents,
or some minor defect in either be met, and got rid of, by excellence in that particular
point in tlie other. The unskilful or careless breeder too often so badly pairs the
animals, that the good points of each are almost lost: the defects of both increased,
and the produce is far inferior to both sire and dam.
Mr. Baker, of Reigate, places this in a striking point of view. He speaks of his
own experience : " A foal had apparently clear and good eyes, but the first day had
not passed, before it was evident that it was totally blind. It had gutta serena.
" Inquiry was then made about the sire, for the mare had good eyes. His were,
on the slightest inspection, evidently bad, and not one of his colts had escaped the
direful effects of his imperfect vision.
" A mare had been the subject of farcial enlargements, and not being capable of
performing much work, a foal was produced from her. She survived ; but the foal
soon after birth evinced symptoms of farcy, and died.
" A mare was lame from navicular disease. A foal was bred from her that at five
years could scarcely go across the country, and was sold for a few pounds. The
mare was a rank jib in single harness ; the foal was as bad."
It is useless to multiply these exam.ples. They occur in the experience of every
one, and yet they are strangely disregarded.
The mare is sometimes put to the horse at too early an age ; or, what is of more
frequent occurrence, the mare is incapacitated for work by old age. The owner is
unwilling to destroy her, and he determines that she shall bear a foal, and thus
remunerate him for her keep. What is the consequence? The foal exhibits an
unkindliness of growth, — a corresponding weakness,— and there is scarcely an organ
that possesses its natural and proper strength.
Of late years, these principles have been much lost sight of in the breeding of
horses for general use ; and the following is the explanation of it. There are nearly
as good stallions as there used to be. Few but well-formed and valuable horses will
be selected and used as stallions. They are always the very prime of the breed : but
the mares are not what ihey used to be. Poverty has induced many of the breeders to
part with the mares from which they used to raise their stock, and which were worth
their weight in gold ; and the jade on which the farmer now rides to market, or
which he uses in his farm, costs him but little money, and is only retained because
hu cannot get much money for her. It has likewise become the fashion for gentlemen
to ride mares, almost as frequently »s g-ekimg? , and i,nas the better kind are taken
BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c. 249
from the breeding service, until old age or injury renders them worth little for it. An
nilelligent veterinary surgeon, Mr. Castiey, has placed this in a very strong light.*
It should be impressed on the minds of breeders, that peculiarity of form and con-
stitution are inherited from both parents, — that the excellence of the mare is a point
of quite as much importance as that of the horse, — and that, out of a sorry mare, let
the horse be as perfect as he may, a good foal will rarely be produced. AH this is
recognised upon the turf, though poverty or carelessness have made the general
breeder neglect or forget it.
That the constitution and endurance of the horse are inherited, no sporting man
ever doubted. The qualities of the sire or the dam descend from generation to genera-
tion, and the excellences or defects of certain horses are often traced, and justly so, to
some peculiarity in a far-distant ancestor.
It may, perhaps, be justly affirmed, that there is more difficulty in selecting a good
mare to breed from than a good horse, because she should possess somewhat opposite
qualities. Her carcase should be long, in order to give room for the growth of the
foetus ; and yet with his there should be compactness of form and shortness of leo-.
What can they expect whose practice it is to purchase worn-out, spavined, foundered
mares, about whom they fancy there have been some good points, and send them far
into the country to breed from, and, with all their variety of shape, to be covered by
the same horse ■? In a lottery like this there may be now and then a prize, but there
must be many blanks. If horse-breeders, possessed of good judgment, would pay the
same attention to breed and shape as Mr. Bakewell did with his sheep, they would
probably attain their wishes in an equal degree, and greatly to their advantao-e,
whether for the collar or the road, for racing or for hunting.
As to the shape of the stallion, little satisfactory can be said. It must depend on
that of the mare, and the kind of horse wished to be bred ; but if there is one point
absolutely essential, it is "compactness" — as much goodness and strength as possible
condensed into a little space.
Next to compactness, the inclination of the shoulder will be regarded. A huge
stallion, with upright shoulders, never got a capital hunter or hackney. From him
the breeder can obtain nothing but a cart or dray horse, and that, perhaps, spoiled by
the opposite form of the mare. On the other hand, an upright shoulder is desirable,
if not absolutely necessary, when a mere slow draught-horse is required.
On the subject of breeding in and in, that is, persevering in the same breed, and
selecting the best on either side, much has been said. The system of crossino-,
requires more judgment and experience than breeders usually possess. The bad
qualities of the cross are too soon engrafted on the original stock, and once enorafted
there, are not, for many generations, eradicated. The good qualities of both are occa-
sionally neutralized to a most mortifying degree. On the other hand, it is the fact,
however some may deny it, that strict confinement to one breed, however valuable or
* " Any one," says he, " who, during the last twenty or five-and-twenty years, has had
frequent opportunities of visitins; some of our great horse-tairs in the north of England must
be struck with the sad falling-off there is everywhere to be remarked in the quality of the one-
half and three-part bred horses, exhibited for sale. The farmers, when taxed with this, com-
plain that breeding horses does not sufficiently repay them ; and yet we find large sums of
money always given at fairs for any horses that are really good, but bad ones are not at any
time likely to pay for rearing, and less now than ever, on account of the advanced rate of
land, and the increased expense of production. The truth is, that farmers do not, now-a-days,
breed horses so generally good as they used to do, and this is owing to the inferior quality of
the mares which they now commonly employ in breeding. They have, to a great degree,
been tempted to part with their best mares, and thus breed from the refuse. The stock con-
sequently deteriorates, and they are disappointed.
" The great demand for mares has also contributed to get the best material for breeding out
of the farmer's hands. Thirty years ago few gentlemen would be seen riding a mare — it was
unfashionable. There was, consequently, but little demand for her, and she was left for the
most part in the farmers' hands, who were then to be seen riding to market, mounted on the
fint^st mares, and from among which they selected the best for the purpose of breeding. Like
will produce hke, and the stock would seldom disappoint them.
" Then there is the demand for the foreign market. Within the last twenty years, a great
number of our finest three-parts-bred mares have been exported to various portions ot the
Continent, and particularly to France and Germany. They never find their way back again.
The money brought into our country by their export is a mere trifle — a drop in the ocean —
while we are doing ourselves incalculable mischief by allowing some of our best materials to
pass out of our hands fo' ever." — Veterinarian, III., p. 371.
2o
250 BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c.
perfect, produces gradual deterioration. Crossing should be attempted with great
caution. The valuable points of the old breed should be retained, but varied or im-
proved by the introduction of some new and valuable quality, with reference to beauty,
strength, or speed. This is the secret of the turf. The pure south-eastern blood is
uever left, but the stock is often changed, with manifest advantage.
A mare is capable of breeding at three or four years old. Some have injudiciously
commenced at two years, before her form or her strength is sufficiently developed, and
with the development of which this early breeding will materially interfere. If a
mare does little more than farm-work, she may continue to be bred from until she is
nearly twenty ; but if she has been hardly-worked, and bears the marks of it, let her
have been what she will in her youth, she will deceive the expectations of the breeder
in her old age.
From the time of covering, to w ithin a few days of the expected period of foaling,
the cart-mare may be kept at moderate labour, not only without injury, but with de-
cided advantage. It will then be prudent to release her from work, and keep her near
home, and under the frequent inspection of some careful person.
"When nearly half the time of pregnancy has elapsed, the mare should have a little
oetter food. .She should be allowed one or two feeds of corn in the day. This is
about the period when they are accustomed to slink their foals, or when abortion
occurs : the eye of the owner should, therefore, be frequently upon them. Good feed-
ing and moderate exercise will be the best preventives of this mishap. The mare that
has once aborted, is liable to a repetition of the accident, and therefore should never be
suffered to be with other mares between the fourth and fifth months ; for such is the
power of imagination or of sympathy in the mare, that if one suffers abortion, others
in the same pasture will too often share the same fate. Farmers wash, and paint, and
tar their stables, to prevent some supposed infection; — the infection lies in the ima-
gination.
The thorough-bred mare — the stock being intended for sporting purposes — should
be kept quiet, and apart from other horses, after the first four or five months. When
the period of parturition is drawing near, she should be watched, and shut up during
the night in a safe yard or loose box.
If the mare, whether of the pure or common breed, be thus taken care of, and be in
good health w^hile in foal, little danger will attend the act of parturition. If there
is false presentation of the foetus, or difficulty in producing it, it will be better to have
recourse to a well-informed practitioner, than to injure the mother by the violent and
injurious attempts that are often made to relieve her.
The parturition being over, the mare should be turned into some well-sheltered pas-
ture, with a hovel or shed to run into when she pleases ; and as, supposing that she
has foaled in April,* the grass is scanty, she should have a couple of feeds of corn
daily. The breeder may depend upon it, that nothing is gained by starving the
mother and stinting the foal at this time. It is the most important period of the life
of the horse ; and if, from false economy, his growth is arrested, his puny form and
want of endurance will ever afterwards testify the error that has been committed.
The corn should be given in a trough on the ground, that the foal may partake of it
with the mother. When the new grass is plentiful, the quantity of corn may gradu-
ally be diminished.
The mare will usually be found again at heat at or before the expiration of a month
from the time of foaling, when, if she is principally kept for breeding purposes, she
may be put again to the horse. At the same time, also, if she is used for agricultural
purposes, she may go again to work. The foal is at first shut in the stable during the
hours of work ; but as soon as it acquires sufficient strength to toddle after the mare,
and especially when she is at slow work, it will be better for the foal and the dam
tJiat they should be together. The work will contribute to the health of the mother:
the foal will more frequently draw the milk, and thrive better, and will be hardy and
tractable, and gradually familiarised with the objects among which it is afterwards to
live. While tJie mother, however, is thus worked, she and the foal should be well
fed ; and two feeds of corn, at least, should be added to the green food which they
get when turned out after their work, and at night.
* By the present rules of the jockey-cbib, the age of turf-horses is reckoned from the 1st of
January ; but this has not by any common consent extended to the half-breds. The 1st of
May is nearest to the general time of foaling, and the age of the cavalry-horses is dated from
that period.
BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c. 251
In five or six months, according to the growth of the foal, it may be weaned. It
ehould then be housed for three weeks or a month, or turned into some distant rick-
yard. There can be no better place for the foal than the latter, as aflbrding, and that
without trouble, both food and shelter. The mother should be put to harder work,
and have drier meat. One or two urine-balls, or a physic-ball, wUl be useful, if the
milk should be troublesome, or she should pine after her foal.
There is no principle of greater importance than the liberal feeding of the foal dur-
mg the whole of his growth, and at this time in particular. Bruised oats and bran
should form a considerable part of his daily provender. The fanner may be assured
that the money is well laid out which is expended on the liberal nourishment of the
growing colt ; yet while he is well fed, he should not be rendered delicate by excess
of care.
A racing colt is often stabled ; but one that is destined to be a hunter, a hackney,
or an agricultural horse, should have a square rick, under the leeward side of which
he may shelter himself; or a hovel, into which he may run at night, and out of the
rain. Too often, however, the foal, after weaning, is left to struggle on as he can,
and becomes poor and dispirited. He is to be seen shrinking under a hedge, cold
and almost shivering, his head hanging down, and rheum distilling from his eyes.
If he is made to move, he listlessly drags his limbs along, evidently weak, and trene-
rally in pain. He is a sad specimen of poverty and of misery. This is the first
scene of cruelty to the horse of inferior breed, and destined for inferior purpose.*
The process of breaking-in should commence from the very period of weaning.
The foal should be daily handled, partially dressed, accustomed to the halter when
led about, and even tied up. The tractability, and good temper, and value of the
horse, depend a great deal more upon this than breeders are aware.
Everj-thing should be done, as much as pc/fesible, by the man who feeds the colt,
and whose management of him should be always kind and gentle. There is no fault
for which a breeder should so invariably discharge his servant as cruelty, or even
harshness, towards the rising stock; for the principle on which their after usefulness
is founded, is early attachment to, and confidence in man. and obedience, implicit
obedience, resulting principally from this.
After the second winter the work of breaking-in may commence in good earnest.
The colt may be bitted, and a bit selected that will not hurt his mouth, and much
smaller than "those in common use. ^Vith this he may be sutfered to amuse himself,
and to play, and to champ it for an hour, on a few successive days.
Having become a little tractable, portions of the harness may be put upon him,
concluding with the blind winkers ; and, a few days afterwards, he may go into the
team. It would be better if there could be one "horse before, and one behind him,
beside the shaft horse. There should at first be the mere empty wagon. Nothing
should be done to him, except that he should have an occasional pat or kind word.
The other horses will keep him moving, and in his plac«; and no great time will pass,
sometimes not even the first day, before he will begin to pull with the rest. The
load may then be gradualljMncreased.
The agricultural horse is sometimes wanted to ride as well as to draw. Let his
first lesson be given when he is in the team. Let his feeder, if possible, be first put
upon him. He will be too much hampered by his harness, and by the other horses,
to make much resistance; and, in the majorit\' of cases, will quietly and at once sub-
mit. We need not to repeat, that no whip or spur should be used in giving the first
lessons in riding.
When he begins a little to understand his business, backing — the most difficult
part of his work — may be taught him; first to back well without anything behind
him, and then with a light cart, and afterwards with some serious load — always taking
the greatest care not seriously to hurt his mouth. If the first lesson causes much sore-
ness of the gums, the colt will not readily submit to a second. If he has been pre\a-
ously rendered tractable by kind usage, time and patience will do everythingr that can
be wished. Some carters are in the habit of blinding the colt when teachinsf him to
back. This may be necessarj' with a restive and obstinate one, but should be used
(inly as a last resort.
The colt having been thus partially broken-in, the necessity of implicit obedience
* Youatt on Humanity to Animals, p. 115.
252 BREEDING, CASTRATION, &c.
must be taught him, and that not by severity, but by finnness and steadiness. The
voice will go a great way, but the whip or the spur is sometimes indispensable — not
80 severely applied as to excite the animal to resistance, but to convince him that we
have the power to enforce submission. Few — it may almost be said, no horses, are
naturally vicious. It is cruel usage which has first provoked resistance. That resist-
ance has been followed by greater severity, and the stubbornness of the animal has
increased. Open warfare has ensued, in which the man has seldom gained advantage,
and the horse has been frequently rendered unser\-iceable. Correction may, or must be
used, to enforce implicit obedience after the education has proceeded to a certain
extent, but the early lessons should be inculcated with kindness alone. Young colts
are sometimes very perverse. Many days will occasionally pass before they will
permit the bridle to be put on, or the saddle to be worn; and one act of harshness will
double or treble this time : patience and kindness, however, will always prevail. On
some morning, when he is in a better humour than usual, the bridle may be put on,
and the saddle may be worn ; and, this compliance being followed by kindness and
soothing on the part of the breaker, and no inconvenience or pain being suffered by
the animal, all resistance will be at an end.
The same principles will apply to the breaking-in of the horse for the road or the
■;hase. The handling, and some portion of instruction, should commence from the
time of weaning. The future tractability of the horse will much depend on this. At
two years and a half, or three years, the regular process of breaking-in should com-
mence. If it is delayed until the animal is four years old, his strength and obstinacy
w'ill be more difficult to overcome. The plan usually pursued by the breaker cannot
perhaps be much improved, except that there should be much more kindness and
patience, and far less harshness and crueky, than these persons are accustomed to
exhibit, and a great deal more attentioA to the form and natural action of the horse.
A headstall is put on the colt, and a cavesson (or apparatus to confine and pinch the
nose) affixed to it, with long reins. He is first accustomed to the rein, then led rouno
a ring on soft ground, and at length mounted and taught his paces. Next to preserv-
ing the temper and docility of the horse, there is nothing of so much importance as
to teach him every pace, and every part of his duty, distinctly and thoroughly. Each
must constitute a separate and sometimes long-continued lesson, and that taught by a
man who will never suffer his passion to get the better of his discretion.
After the cavesson has been attached to the headstall, and the long rein put on, the
colt should be quietly led about by the breaker — a steady boy following behind, by
occasional threatening with the whip, but never by an actual blow, to keep him mov-
ing. When the animal follows readily and quietly, he may be taken to the ring, and
walked round, right and left, in a very small circle. Care should be taken to teach
him this pace thoroughly, never suffering him to break into a trot. The boy with his
whip may here again be necessary, but not a single blow should actually fall.
Becoming tolerably perfect in the walk, he should be quickened to a trot, and kept
steadily at it ; the whip of the boy, if needful, urging him on, and the cavesson restrain-
ing him. These lessons should be short. The pace should be kept perfect, and dis-
tinct in each; and docility and improvement rewarded with frequent caresses, and
handfuls of corn. The length of the rein may now be gradually increased, and the
pace quickened, and the time extended, until the animal becomes tractable in these
his first lessons, towards the conclusion of which, crupper-straps, or something simi-
lar, may be attached to the clothing. These, playing about the sides and flanks,
accustom him to the flapping of the coat of the rider. The annoyance which they
occasion will pass over in a day or two ; for when the animal finds that no harm comes
to him, he will cease to regard them.
Next comes the bitting. The bit should be large and smooth, and the reins buckled
to a ring on either side of the pad. There are many curious and expensive machines
for this purpose, but the simple rein will be quite sufficient. It should at first be
slack, and then very gradually tightened. This will prepare for the more perfect
manner in which the head will be afterwards got into its proper position, when the
colt is accustomed to the saddle. Occasionally the breaker should stand in front of
the colt, and take hold of each side rein near to the mouth, and press upon it, and
thus begin to teach him to stop and to back on the pressure of the rein, rewarding
every act of docility, and not being too eager to punish occasional carelessness or
waywardness.
BREAKING-IN. 253
The colt may now be taken into the road or street to be gradually accustomed to
the objects among which his services will be required. Here, from fear or playful-
ness, a considerable degree of starting and shying may be exhibited. As little no-
tice as possible should be taken of it. The same or a similar object should be soon
oassed again, but at a greater distance. If the colt still shies, let the distance be far-
ther increased, until he takes no notice of the object. Then he may be gradually
broutrht nearer to it, and tliis will be usually effected without the slightest difficulty :
whereas, had there been an attempt to force him close to it in the first instance, the
remembrance of the contest would have been associated with every appearance of the
object, and the habit of shying would have been established.
Hitherto, with a cool and patient breaker, the whip may have been shown, but
will scarcely have been used ; the colt must now, however, be accustomed to this
necessary instrument of authority. Let the breaker walk by the side of the animal,
and throw his right arm over his back, holding the reins in his left, occasionally
quickening his pace, and at the moment of doing this, tapping the horse with the
whip in his right hand, and at first very gently. The tap of the whip and the quick-
ening of the pace will soon become associated in the mind of the animal. If neces-
sar}% these reminders may gradually fall a little heavier, and the feeling of pain be
the monitor of the necessity of increased exertion. The lessons of reining in and
stopping, and backing on the pressure of the bit, ma^ continue to be practised at the
same time.
He may now be taught to bear the saddle. Some little caution will be necessary
at the first putting of it on. The breaker should stand at the head of the colt, pat-
ting him, and engaging his attention, while one assistant, on the off-side, gently
places the saddle on the back of the animal ; and another, on the near-side, slowly
tightens the girths. If he submits quietly to this, as he generally will when the
previous process of breaking-in has been properly conducted, the ceremony of mount-
ing may be attempted on the follo%ving, or on the third day. The breaker will need
two assistants in order to accomplish this. He will remain at the head of the colt,
patting and making much of him. The rider will put his foot into the stirrup, and
bear a little weight upon it, while the man on the off-side presses equally on the other
stirrup-leather; and, according to the docility of the animal, he will gradually in-
crease the weight, until he balances himself on the stirrup. If the colt is uneasy or
fearful, he should be spoken to kindly and patted, or a mouthful of com be given to
him : but if he offers serious resistance, the lessons must terminate for that day. He
may probably be in better humour on the morrow.
When the rider has balanced himself for a minute or two, he may gently throw
his leg over, and quietly seat himself in the saddle. The breaker will then lead
the animal round the ring, the rider sitting perfectly still. After a few minutes he
will take the reins, and handle them as gently as possible, and guide the horse by
the pressure of them ; patting him frequently, and especially when he thinks of
dismounting:— and, after having dismounted, offering him a little corn or green meat.
The use of the rein in checking him, and of the pressure of the leg and the touch of
the heel in quickening his pace, will soon be taught, and his education will be nearly
completed.
The horse having thus far submitted himself to the breaker, these pattings and
rewards must be gradually diminished, and implicit obedience mildly but firmly
enforced. Severity will not often be necessary. In the great majority of cases it
will be altogether uncalled for: but should the animal, in a moment of waywardness,
dispute the command of the breaker, he must at once be taught that he is the slave
of man, and that we have the power, by other means than ttiose of kindness, to bend
him to our will. The education of the horse should be that of the child. Pleasure
is, as much as possible, associated with the early lessons ; but firmness, or. if need
be, coercion, must establish the habit of obedience. Tyranny and cruelty will, more
speedily in the horse than even in the child, provoke the wish to disobey ; and, on
every practicable occasion, the resistance to command. The restive and vicious
horse is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, made so by ill-usage, and not by na-
ture. None but those who will take the trouble to try the experiment are aware how
absolute a command the due admixture of firmness and kindness will soon give us
ovei any horse.
23
254 CASTRATION.
CASTRATION.
The period at which this operation may be best performed depends much on the
breed and form of the colt, and the purpose for which he is destined. For the com-
mon agricultural horse the age of four or five months will be the most proper time,
or, at least before he is weaned. P'ew horses are lost when cut at that age. Care,
however, should be taken that the weather is not too hot, nor the flies too numerous.
We enter our decided protest, however, against the recommendation of valuable but
incautious agricultural writers, that "colts should be cut in the months of June or
July, when flies pester the horses, and cause them to be continually moving about
and thereby prevent swelling." One moment's reflection will convince the reader
that nothing can be more likely to produce inflammation, and consequent swelling
and danger, than the torture of the flies hovering round and stinging the sore part.
If the horse is designed either for the carriage or for heavy draught, the farmer
should not think of castrating him until he is at least a twelve-month old ; and, even
then, the colt should be carefully examined. If he is thin and spare about the neck and
shoulders, and low in the withers, he will materially improve by remaining uncut
another six months; but if his fore-quarters are fairly developed at the age of a
tweive-month, the operation should not be delayed, lest he become heavy and gross
bef(.re, and perhaps has begun too decidedly to have a will of his own. No specific
age, then, can be fixed ; but the castration should be performed rather late in the
spring or early in the autumn, when the air is temperate, and particularly when the
weather is dry. No preparation is necessary for the sucking colt, but it may be pru-
dent to bleed and to physic one of more advanced age. In the majority of cases, no
after-treatment will be necessary, except that the animal should be sheltered from
intense heat, and more particularly from wet. In temperate weather he M'ill do much
better running in the field than nursed in a close and hot stable. The moderate exer-
cise that he will take in grazing will be preferable to perfect inaction. A large and
well-ventilated box, however, may be permitted.
The manner in which the operation is performed will be property left to the vete-
rinary surgeon. The haste, carelessness, and brutality of the common gelder should
no longer be permitted ; but the veterinary surgeon should be able and willing to
discharge every portion of his duty. The old method of opening the scrotum on
either side, and cutting off the testicles, and preventing haemorrhage by a temporary
compression of the vessels while they are seared with a hot iron, must not, perhaps,
be abandoned ; but there is no necessity for that extra pain, and that appearance, at
least, of brutality, which occur when the spermatic cord (the blood-vessels and the
nerve) is as tightly compressed between two pieces of wood as in a powerful vice,
and left there until either the testicle drops off, or is removed on the following day by
the operator.
To the practice of some fanners, of twitching their colts at an early period, some-
times even so early as a month, there is stronger objection. When the operation of
twitching is performed, a small cord is drawn as tightly as possible round the bag,
betweenlhe testicle and the belly. The circulation is thus stopped, and, in a few
days, the testicles and the bag drop off; but not until the animal has sadly suffered.
It is occasionally necessary to tighten the cord on the second or third day, and inflam-
mation and death have frequently ensued.
Another mode of castration has been lately introduced which bids fair to supersede
every other : it is called the operation by Torsion. An incision is made into the
scrotum as in the other modes of operation, and the vas deferens is exposed and
divided. The artery is then seized by a pair of forceps contrived for the purpose, and
twisted six or seven times round. It retracts as soon as the hold on it is quitted, the
coils are not untwisted, and all bleeding has ceased. The testicle is removed, and
there is no sloughing or danger. The most painful part of the operation — the applica-
tion of the firing-iron or the clams — is avoided, and the wound readily heals.
THE SHOULDER. — SPRAIN i)F THE SHOULDER. 255
CHAPTER XII.
THE FORE LEGS.
Wk arrive now at those parts of the frame which are most essentially connected
with the action and value of the horse, and oftenest, and most annoyingly, the subjects
of disease. The extremities contain the whole apparatus of voluntary motion, with
which the action, and speed, and stren^h of the horse are most concerned.
We commence with the upper portion, of which the fore extremity, the shoulder,
is seen aX G, p. 68.
THE SHOULDER.
The scapula or shoulder-blade, situated forward on the side of the chest, is a bont
of a somewhat triangular shape, with its apex or narrowest point downward, and its
broad and thin expansion upward. The point of the shoulder lies opposite to the first
and second ribs ; the hinder expansion of the base reaches as far back as the seventh
rib ; it therefore extends obliquely along the chest. It is divided, externally, into two
unequal portions by a ridge or spine runninsf through -almost the whole of its extent,
and designed, as will be presently seen, for the attachment of important muscles.
The broad or upper part having no muscles of any consequence attached to it, is
terminated by cartilage.
The shoulder-blade is united to the chest by muscle alone. There is one large
muscle, with very remarkable tendinous fibres and of immense strength (the serratus
major, greater saw-shaped muscle), attached to the chest, and to the extensive smooth
internal surface of the shoulder-blade, and by which, assisted, or rather strengthened,
by the muscles of the breast, the weight of the body is supported, and the shock of
the widest leap, or the most rapid motion, sustained. Had there been a bony union
betvreen the shoulder and the body, the vital parts contained in the chest could not
have endured the dreadful shock which they would occasionallj' have experienced ;
nor could any bone have long remained whole if exposed to such violence. The
muscles within the shoulder-blade act as powerful and safe springs. They yield, as
far as necessary, to the force impressed upon them. By their gradual yielding they
destroy the violence of the shock, and then by their elastic power, immediately regain
their former situation.
SPRAIN OF THE SHOULDER.
These muscles are occasionally injured by some unexpecte'd shock. Although in
not more than one case in twenty is the farrier right when he talks of his shoulder-
lameness, 3-et it cannot be denied, that the muscles of the shoulder are occasionally
sprained. This is effected oftener by a slip or side-fall, than by fair, although violent
exertion. It is of considerable importance to be able to distinguish this'shoulder-
lameness from injuries of other parts of the fore extremity. There is not much
tenderness, or heat, or swelling. It is a sprain of muscles deeply seated, and where
these symptoms of inj\iry are not immediately evident. If, on "standing before the
horse, and looking at the size of the two shoulders, or rather their points? one should
appear evidently larger than the other, this must not be considered as indicative of
sprain of the muscles of the shoulder. It probably arises from bruise of the point of
the shoulder, which a slight examination will determine.
The symptoms, however, of shoulder-lameness can scarcelj- be mistaken ; and,
when we relate them, the farmer will recollect that they very seldom occurred when
the village smith pointed to the shoulder as the seat of disease, and punished the
animal to no purpose. In sprain of the shoulder the horse evidently suffers extreme
pain while moving, and, the muscle underneath being inflamed and tender, he wilj
extend it as little as possible. He will dra^ his toe along the ground. It is in the
lifting of the foot that the shoulder is principally moved. If the foot is lifted high,
let the horse be ever so lame, the shoulder is little, if at all affected. In sprain of the
back sinews, it is only when the horse is in motion that the injured parts are put to
most pain ; the pain is greatest here when the weight rests on the limb in shoulder-
lameness, and there is a peculiar quickness in catching up the limb the moment the
256 THEFOREj:.EGS.
weight is thrown on it. This is particularly evident when the horse is going down
hill, and the injured limb bears an additional portion of the weight. In the stable,
too, when, in other cases, the horse points or projects one foot before the other, that
foot is usually flat on the ground. In shoulder-lameness, the toe alone rests on the
ground. The circumstance which most of all characterises this affection is, that
when the foot is lifted and then brought considerably forward the horse will express
very great pain, which he will not do if the lameness is in the foot or the leg. This
point has been longer dwelt upon, in oider that the reader may be enabled to put to
the test the many cases of shoulder-lameness, which exist only in the imagination of
the groom or the farrier.
In sprain of the internal muscles of the shoulder, few local measures can be adopted.
The horse should be bled from the vein on the inside of the arm (the plate vein),
because the blood is then abstracted more immediately from the inflamed part. A
dose of physic should be given, and fomentations applied, and principally on the
inside of the arm, close to the chest, and the horse should be kept as quiet as possible.
The injury is too deeply seated for external stimulants to have very great eflect, yet a
blister will properly be resorted to, if the lameness is not speedily removed. The swim-
ming of the horse is an inhuman practice ; it tortures the animal, and increases the
inflammation. The pegging of the shoulder (puncturing the skin, aud blowing into
the cellular structure beneath until it is considerably puffed up) is another relic of
ignorance and barbarity.
SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER.
The lessening or breaking of the shock, from the weight being thrown violently on
the fore legs, is effected in another way. It will be observed, that (see G and J, p.
68) the shoulder-blade and the lower bone of the shoulder are not connected together
in a straight line, but form a very considerable angle with each other. This will be
more evident from the following cut, which represents the fore and hind extremities
in the situations which they occupy in the horse.
This angular construction of the limbs reminds us of the similar arrangement of th»
springs of a carriage, and the ease of motion, and almost perfect freedom from jolting
which are thereby obtained.
SLANTING DIRECTION OF THE SHOULDER. 257
It must not perhaps be said, that the form of the spring was borrowed from ihis
construction of the limbs of the horse, but the etfect of the carriage-spring beautifully
illustrates the connexion of the different bones in the extremities of this quadruped.
The obliquity or slanting direction of the shoulder etl'ects other very useful pui-
poees. That the stride in the gallop, or the space passed over in the trot, may be
extensive, it is necessary that the fore part of the animal should be considerably ele-
vated. The shoulder, by means of the muscles which extend from it to the inferior
part of the limb, is the grand agent in effecting this. Had the bones of the shoulder
been placed more upright than we see them, they could not then have been of the
length which they now are, — their connexion with the chest could not have been so
secure, — and their movements upon each other would have been comparatively
restricted. The slightest inspection of the preceding cut, or of that at page 68, wiU
show that, just in proportion as the point of the shoulder is brought forward and ele-"
vated, will be the forward action and elevation of the limb, or the space passed ove~
at every eflort.
The slanting shoulder accomplishes a most useful object. The muscles extending
from the shoulder-blade to the lower bone of the shoulder are the powers by which
motion is given to the whole of the limb. The extent and energy of that motion
depend much on the force exerted or the strength of the muscle ; but there are cir-
cumstances in the relative situations of the different bones which have far greater
influence.
Let it be supposed that, by means of a lever, some one is endeavouring to raise a
certain weight.
A is a lever, resting or turning on a pivot B ; C is the weight to be raised ; and D
is the power, or the situation at which the power is applied. If the strength i»
applied in a direction perpendicular to the lever, as represented by the line E, the
power which must be exerted can easily be calculated.
A B
In proportion as the distance of the power from the pivot or centre of motion
exceeds that of the weight from the same place, so will be the advantage gained.
The power here is twice as far from the centre as the weight is, and therefore advan-
vantage is gained in the proportion of two to one : or if the weight is equal to 200lbs.,
a force of lOOlbs. will balance it. If the direction in which the power is applied is
altered, and it is in that of the line F, will lOOlbs. effect the purpose] No; nothing
like it. How, then, is the necessary power to be calculated ] The line of direction
must be prolonged, until another line, falling perpendicularly from the lever, and
commencing at the centre of motion, will cut it; and the length of that line will give
the actual effect of the strength employed. Now, this new line is but half as long
as the distance of the weight from the centre of motion, and therefore advantage is
lost in the proportion of two to one ; or a strength equal to 400lbs. must be exerted
to raise the 200lbs., and so on in proportion to the deviation from the right or perpen-
dicular line.
Let the shoulder of the horse be considered. The point of the shoulder — the
shoulder joint — is the pivot or centre of motion; the leg attached to the bone of the
arm is the weight; the shoulder-blade being more fixed is the part whence the powa:
emanates ; and the muscles extending from the one to the other are the lines in which
that power is exerted. These lines approach much more nearly to a perpendicular
in the oblique than in the upright shoulder (see cut). In the upright one, the shoul-
der-blade and the bone of the arm are almost in a straight line, and the real action
and power of the muscle are most strangely diminished. In this point of view the
oblique shoulder is most important. It not only gives extensive action, but facility
of action. The power of the muscles is more than doubled b/ being exerted in »
line approaching so much nearer to a perpendicular.
22* 2h
258 THE FORE LEGS.
There is yet another advantage of the oblique shoulder. The point of the shoulder
is projected forward ; and therefore the pillars which support the fore-part of the hor^
are likewise placed proportionably forward, and they have less weight to carry.
They are exposed to less concussion, and especially concussion in rapid action. The
horse is also much safer ; for having less weight situated before the pillars of sup-
port, he is not so likely to have the centre of gravity thrown before and beyond them
by an accidental trip ; or, in other words, he is not so likely to fall ; and he rides more
pleasantly, for there is far less weight bearing on the hand of the rider, and annoying
and tiring him. It likewise unfortunately happens that nature, as it were to supply
the deficiency of action and of power in an upright shoulder, has sccumulated on it
more muscle, and therefore the upright shoulder is proverbially thick and cloddy ;
and the muscles of the breast which were designed to strengthen the attachment of
the shoulders to the chest, and to bind them together, must, when the point of the
shoulder lies backward, and under the horse, be proportionably thickened and
strengthened, and the horse is thus still more heavy before, more unpleasant, and
more imsafe to ride.
Then, ought every horse to have an oblique slioulder 1 No ! The question has
relation to those horses that are designed to ride pleasantly, or from which extensive
and rapid action is required. In them it has been said that an oblique shoulder is
indispensable : but there are others which are seldom ridden ; whose pace is slow,
and who have nothing to do but to throw as much weight as possible into the collar.
To them an upright shoulder is an advantage, because its additional thickness gives
them additional weight to throw into the collar, which the power of their hinder quar-
ters is fully sufficient to accomplish; and because the upright position of the shoulder
gives that direction to the collar which enables the horse to act upon every part of it,
and that inclination of the traces which will enable his weight or power to be most
advantageously employed.
An improved breed of our heavy draught-horses has of late years been attempted,
and with much snccess. Sufficient uprightness of shoulder is retained for the purposes
of draught, while a slight degree of obliquity has materially quickened the pace and
improved the appearance.
Above its junction with the humerus, or lower division of the limb, the shoulder-
blade forms what is called the point of the shoulder. Tliere is a round blunted pro-
jection, best seen in the cut (p. 256). The neck of the shoulder-blade there forms a
shallow cavity, into which the head of the next bone is received.
The cavity is shallow because extensive motion is required, and because both of
the bones being so moveable, and the motion of the one connected sc much with that
of the other, dislocation was less likely to occur. A cajasw/ar ligament, or one extend-
ing round the heads of both bones, confines them securely together.
This joint is rarely or never dislocated ; and, should it suffer dislocation, the muscles
of the shoulder-blade and the lower bone of the shoulder are so strong, that the reduc-
tion of it would be impossible. The point of the shoulder, however, projecting con-
siderably, is much exposed to injury from accident or violence. Even turning in a
.narrow stall has inflicted a serious bruise. Fomentations of warm water will usually
remove the tenderness and lameness, but should they fail, blood should be taken from
the plate vein, or, in very obstinate cases, a blister should be resorted to.
A description of the principal muscles of the shoulder-blade, their situation, attach-
ments, and use, may not be uninteresting to the lover of the horse, and may guide his
judgment as to the capability and proper form of that noble animal.
CUT OF MUSCLES ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHOULDER.
a and b, in the following cut, represent a portion of the Trapezhis muscle attached
to the longer bones of the withers broadly and strongly and to the ligament and fascia?
of the neck (a portion of which is seen at b), narrowing below, terminating almost in
a point, and inserted into a tubercle on the spine or ridge of the shoulder-blade. It
occupies the space between the withers and the upper part of th-e shoulder-blade, and
is large and strong in proportion to the height of the withers, and the slanting of the
shoulder. Its use is evidently to elevate and support the scapula — to raise it, and
likewise to draw it backward ; therefore, constituting one of the most important mus
cles connected with the action of the horse, and illustrating the advantage of high
withers and a slanting shoulder. A portion of it is represented as turned back, in
MUSCLES ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHOULDER.
259
order to show other muscles beneath. A moment's inspection will convince the
reader that although a low forehand and thick shoulder are very properly objected to,
yet still some fulness and fleshiness
are necessary, even about the with-
ers ; otherwise, although there may
be height of withers, and obliquity
of shoulder, to give extensive action,
there will not be sufficient muscular
power to work the machine with
either quickness or continuance.
At c is a portion of the levator
humeri (the raiser of the shoulder),
descending from the tubercle of the
head (see cut, page 68), and from
the base of the temporal bone, and
attaching itself to the first four bones
of the neck, and to the ligament of
the neck ; inserting itself into the
covering of the muscles of the shoul-'
der, and those about the point of the
shoulder, and at length terminating
in a ridge on the body of the humerus,
arising from the greater tubercle. It
is a muscle of immense power and
great utility, raising and drawing
forward the shoulder and the arm,
or, when these are fixed, turning the
head and neck if one only acts, and
depressing them if the muscles on
both sides act at the same time.
At £? is a portion of the serratus
magnus muscle, between the shoulder
and side of the chest, and constituting
the bulk of the lower part of the
neck. It is deeply seated, arising
from the fourth, fifth, sixth, and
seventh bones of the neck anteriorly,
and attached posteriorly to the eight
first ribs. All its fibres tend towards
and are inserted into the inner sur-
face of the shoulder, and by means
of them the shoulder is attached to
the chest, and the immense weight
of the body supported. The use of this muscle in obviating concussion, has already
been spoken of.
When the horse is standing, this muscle occasionally discharges another important
function. The shoulders and legs are then rendered fixed points by the weight of the
body, and this muscle exerts all its power in dilating the cavity of the chest, and
thus materially assists in the act of breathing. Therefore, as was stated when that
disease was treated of, a horse labouring under inflammation of the lungs will obsti-
nately stand night and day, in order that he may obtain the assistance of this muscle
in respiration, which is become laborious and painful ; and for the same reason it is
that we regard his lying down as one of the most favourable symptoms, because it
shows us that the breathing is so much relieved as not to need the assistance of this
muscle.
At e is a small portion of the splenius muscle, which was spoken of when the neck
was described, p. 159.
/ represents a muscle sometimes described as a portion of the levator humeri, or
elevator of the shoulder, arising from the nipple-shaped process or tubercle of the
temporal bone, running down the somewhat lateral but fore part of the neck, inserted
into the upper and middle part of the lower bone of the shoulder, and thence con*
260
THE FORE LEGS,
tinued down to the arm. Its office is to bend the head ; or, the head and neck being
fixed, to elevate and bring forward the arm. It is in powerful action when the horse
is running at his speed, with the head projected.
At g is a portion of the sterno maxil/aris, or muscle common to the fore part of the
chest and the lower jaw, and described at p. 159.
h designates the principal portion of this muscle, extending from the shoulder to the
humerus, and employed in drawing this bone towards the shoulder-blade, and bending
the whole of the limb. Exceedingly powerful action is required from this muscle;
therefore it is very tendinous, and inserted in such a direction as to act with great
mechanical advantage, and that advantage increased in proportion to the slanting
position of the shoulder.
The muscle /, antea spinaius, is situated on the outer and anterior part of the shoulder,
below and behind the muscle next mentioned; and its office is to extend the humerus
on the scapula. It is also attached to the greater tubercle of the humerus, and to a
bony ridge extending from it to the capsular-ligament of the shoulder-joint. Its
action is to assist in flexion of the humerus, and to give it a motion outwards.
The muscle j, posfea spinatus, behind the spine or ridge, occupies that space of the
shoulder, and is inserted into the outer and upper head of the bone. It draws this
bone outward and upward.
At k, is a muscle common to the breast and the shoulder-blade, and called the pec-
toralis parvus. It arises from the breast-bone, and reaches to the covering of the
shoulder-joint, and the muscles of the shoulder. Its action, in common with that of
a larger muscle, seen at m, the great pectoral, is to draw the head of the shoulder back-
\vard, and also the lower part of the shoulder-blade, and to give the latter a more up-
right position.
At q, is the tendon of a very important muscle, the extensor longus of the arm,
reaching from the upper angle and the posterior border of the shou'lder-blade to the
point of the elbow and the inside of the arm, and which will be presently described.
At r and s, are the three divisions of another muscle concerned in the same office,
arising from the shoulder-blade and the lower bone of the shoulder, and likewise
attached to the point of the elbow by a very strong
tendon.
Tliis cut represents the muscles on the inside of the
shoulder and fore-arm. a is a very prominent one. It is
called the pectnralis transversus (the muscle crossing the
breast). It arises from the first four bones of the sternum,
and runs across to the inner part of the arm ; it is also
attached to the inferior part of the body of the humerus,
and to the fascia covering the arm, and reaching a con-
siderable way down the arm. The use of this muscle is
obvious and important. It binds the arm to the side of
the horse; it keeps the legs straight before the horse
when he is at speed, that the weight of the body may be
received on them in a direction most easy and safe to the
horse and to the rider, and most advantageous for the full
play of all the muscles concerned in progression. Con-
sidering the unevenness of surface over which a horse
often passes, and the rapid turnings which are sometimes
necessary, these muscles have enough to do ; and when
the animal is pushed beyond his strength, and these
muscles are wearied, and the fore-legs spread out, and
the horse is " all abroad,'''' the confused and unpleasant
manner of going, and the sudden falling-off in speed, are
well known to every rider. Mr. Percivall very properly
observes, that this muscle has probably more to do in
enabling the arm to support weight than to give i>
motion.
M
THE HUMERUS, OR LOWER BONE OF THE SHOULDER.
Forming a joint with the shoulder-blade, at the point of the shoulder, is the humerus
It is a short, strong bone, slanting backward in an opposite direction to the shoulder
THE ARM. 261
olade. At the uppe* part it has a large round head, received into the shallow cavity
of the shoulder-blaae ; or, as Mr. Percivall has graphically described it, " rt is the
segment of a globe, smooth and polished, evidently for the purpose of playing like a
spherical hinge within the cup-like concavity occupying the place of the apex of the
scapula. There are no two bones in the skeleton whose articular connexion is of a
nature to admit more varied and extensive motion than exists between the scapula and
the humerus. If we attempt to lift a horse's fore-leg, we cannot merely bring it for-
ward and backward, but we can also, to a considerable extent, make it perform a sort
of rotatory motion, in consequence of the mobility existing in tliis joint between the
socket of the scapula and the head of the humerus."* It has several protuberances
for the insertion of muscles, and is terminated below by two condyles, or heads, which
in front receive the principal bone of the arm between thvm, as in a groove, thus add-
ing to the security and strength of the joint, and limiting the action of this joint and
of the limb below to mere bending and extension, without any side motion. Farther
behind, these heads receive tlie elbow deep between them, in order to give more
extensive action to the arm. In a well-formed horse, this bone can scarcely be too
short, in order that the fore-legs may be as forward as possible, for reasons already
stated, and because, when the lower bone of the shoulder is long, the shoulder must
be too upright. Dislocation can scarcely occur in either of the attachments of the
bone, and fracture of it is almost impossible. The lower bone of the shoulder and
the shoulder-blade are by horsemen confounded together, and included under the
appellation of the shoulder, and in compliance with general usage, we have described
them as combining to form the shoulder.
Among the muscles arising from the humerus, are two short and very strong ones,
seen at r and s, p. 259, the first proceeding from the upper part of this bone to the
elbow, and the second from the internal part, and likewise going to the elbow, and
both of them being powerful agents in extending the leg.
In front, at y, is one of the muscles of the humerus, the external one employed in
bending the arm, arising from the inner and back part of the neck and body of the
humerus, turning obliquely round that bone, and inserted into the inner and upper part
of the hone of the arm.
THE ARM.
The arm extending from the elbow to the knee (see K and L, p. 68, and also cut,
p. 259), consists, in the young horse, of two distinct bones. The long and front
bone, called the radius, is nearly straight, receiving into its upper end the lower
heads of the humerus ; and the lower end corresponding with the upper layer of the
bones of the knee. The short and hinder bone is called the ulna. It has a very lonf
and powerful projection, received between the heads of the humerus, and called the
elbow; it then stretches down, narrowing by degrees (see L, p. 68, and the cut, p.
259) to below the middle of the front bone, where it terminates in a point. The two
bones are united together by cartilage and ligament; but these are by degrees
absorbed and changed to bone, and before the horse becomes old the whole of the arm
consists of one bone only.
It will be perceived that, from the slanting direction of the humerus, the weight of
the horse, and the violence of the concussion, will be shared between the radius and
the ulna, and therefore less liable to injure either. The circumstance, also, of so
much weight and jar being communicated to them, will account for the extensive and
peculiarly strong^ union between these bones in the young horse ; the speedy inflam-
mation of the uniting substance and absorption of it, and the substitution of bone, and
complete bony union between the radius and ulna, in the old horse. The immense
muscles that are attached to the point of the elbow likewise render it necessary that
the union between these bones should be very strong.
The arm is a most important part of the horse, as will be seen when we describe
the muscles that belong to it. The muscles q, r, and s, proceeding from the shoulder-
blade and the humerus, and inserted into the elbow, have heen already spoken of.
They are the grand agents in extending the arm ; and in proportion to the powei
which they exert, will be the quickness and the length of the stride. The strength
of the horse, so far as his fore-limbs are concerned, principally resides here. Then
* Veterinarian, vol. xv. p. 307.
262 THE FORE LEGS.
there will naturally be a large and muscular arm, and such a formation of the limb,
and particularly of the elbow, as will enable these muscles to act with most advantage.
The principle of the lever (referred to at p. 257) is here beautifully applicable.
The elbow-joint is the centre of motion ; the whole of the lower part of the leg is the
weight to be raised ; and the power by which it is to be raised in one act of progres-
siont the extending of the limb, is the muscles inserted into the elbow. In proportion
as the weight is more distant than the power from the centre of motion, as it is in tha
construction of this limb, so will be the greater degree of energy requisite to be exerted
Supposing that the weight, taking the knee to be the centre of it, is eighteen inches
from the elbow-joint— that the limb weighs GOlbs., and that the elbow projects two
inches from the joint — then an energy equal to nine times the weight, or 5 lUlbs., will
be needed to move and extend the limb, because the weight is nine times farther from
the centre of motion than the power is. If in another horse the point of the elbow
projects three inches from the joint, the weight of the leg remaining the same, only
six times the force, or 360lbs., will be required, making a difference in, or saving of,
muscular action, equal to ISOlbs. in each extension of the arm. If a few pounds in
the weight of the rider tell so much for or against the horse in a long race, this saviiifr
of power must make an almost incalculable diiference ; and therefore, judges of the
horse rightly attach so much importance to the depth of the elbow, or the projection
of the point of the elbow from the joint.
When describing the proper obliquity of the shoulder, it was stated that the power
was exerted with most advantage in a line perpendicular to the arm of the lever, and
that the slightest deviation from that line was manifestly disadvantageous. If the
reader will examine the cut, he will perceive that muscles from the shoulder and the
bone of the arm take a direction much nearer to a perpendicular line in the long than
in the short elbow, and therefore act with proportionably greater advantage ; and if this
advantage from the direction in which the power is applied to that which we gain
from the increased length of the bone is considered, it will be plain that the addition
of one-third to the length or projection of the elbow would be attended by a saving of
one-half in the expenditure of muscular power. There is, however, a limit to this.
In proportion as the elbow is lengthened, it must move over a greater space in order
to give the requisite extension to the limb ; and consequently the muscles which act
upon it must be lengthened, otherwise, although the action might be easy it would
be confined. There must be harmony of proportion in the different parts of the limb,
but a deep elbow, within a certain range, is always connected with increased power
of action.
The elbow is sometimes fractured. If the animal is placed in the hands of a skilful
veterinarian, although the chances of cure are certainly against the horse, yet the
owner needs not to despair. The treatment of fracture of the elbow-joint will be con-
sidered in its proper place.
Enlargements sometimes appear about the elbow, either the consequence of a violent
blow, or from the calkins of the shoes injuring this part when the horse sleeps with
his legs doubled under him. If a seton is passed through the tumour, it will some-
times rapidly diminish, and even disappear; but if it is of considerable magnitude,
the skin should be opened along the middle of the swelling, and the tumour dissected
out.
The elbow-joint is sometimes punctured, either accidentally, or through the brutality
of the groom or carter. The svv'elling is often rapid and extensive, and fatal inflam-
mation may ensue. Rest, and the closure of the wound, are the most important
considerations.
There are other muscles of the fore-arm employed in extending the limb. At x
oage 259, is the principal one, called the extensor metacarpi. It is attached superiorly
.0 '"the outer and fore parts of the external condyle of the humerus, and also to the
capsular ligament, and inferiorly to the antero-superior part of the great metacarpal
bone. Its superior attachments are principally fleshy, with a few tendinous fibres
interposed. These diminish towards the centre, but a little lower down is a tendon,
round at its origin, but gradually growing flat and expanding in breadth towards its
termination. Its ofhce is to extend the leg.
The next muscle in situation and importance is seen at w, and called the extensor
pedis. It rises from the fore part of the external condyle of the humerus, and pursues
its course down the leg, and expanding after it has passed the fetlock, it serves the
THE ARM. 263
purpose of a capsular ligament, covering and adhering to the pastern joints. Its office
is to extend the foot and pasterns, and, at the same time, to assist in the extension of
the knee.
At u, page 259, is the tendon of another extensor muscle, and at z a curious oblique
one, passing over the tendon of x, confining it in its situation, and likewise assisting
in extending or straightening the leg.
The 'iiuscles employed in bending the leg are both numerous and powerful. Two
of the superficial ones are given in the cut, page 2G0. The first is at /, page 259 ;
it IS also seen at 6, page 259. It is called the Jlexor medius metacarpi, bec-duse its
office is to bend the leg. The other is seen at v, page 259. It is called the Jlexor
metacarpi externus, and is also designed to flex the leg.
The internal flexor is seen at e. Its ofiice is also to bend the leg.
A portion of one of the most powerful of the flexor muscles, and powerful indeed
they must be, is delineated at c, page 259. It is the flexor bracliii. It rises from the
extremity of the ridge of the shoulder-blade in the form of a large and round tendon,
which runs between two prominences in the upper part of the front of the lower bone
of the shoulder, and in as perfect a groove or pulley as art ever contrived. This
groove is lined with smooth cartilage ; and between it and the tendon there is a secre-
tion of oily fluid, so that the tendon may play freely in the pully without iriction.
Having escaped from this pully, and passed the head of the lower bone of the shoul-
der, the cord swells out into a round fleshy body, still containing many tendinous
fibres. Deeply seated, it contributes materially to the bulk of the front of the arm,
and is inserted into the head and neck of the bone of the arm, and likewise into the
capsular ligament of the elbow-joint. It is the muscle by whicli, almost alone, the
whole of the leg below the arm is bent, and carried forward and upward.
It acts at great disadvantage. It is inserted into the very head of the bone of the
arm, and expanded even upon the joint. Then the power is applied almost close to
the centre of motion, while the weight to be raised is far distant from it. The power
is thirty times nearer the centre of motion than is the weight ; and, calculating as
before, the weight of the arm and the rest of the limb at GOlbs., it must act with a
force of thirty times sixty, or ISOOlbs. In addition to this, the line of the direction of the
force strangely deviates from a perpendicular. The direction of the muscle is nearly
the same as that of the limb, and the mechanical disadvantage is almost incalculably
great. If it is calculated at only ten times more, this muscle, and its feeble coadju-
tors, act with a force often times 1800, or 18,0001bs.
Why this almost incredible expenditure of muscular power T That the beauty of
the limb might be preserved, and the joint be compact. If the tendon had been
inserted half-way down the arm, the elbow-joint would have oflfered a very unsightly
appearance.
Beauty of form, however, is the least result of this conformation. Extensive and
rapid motion are among the excellences of the horse. He is valuable in proportion
as he has them combined with stoutness ; and by this conformation of the limb could
he alone obtain them. Therefore the tendon is at first unusually strong; it plays
throuGfh the natural but perfect pulley of the bone of the arm without friction; the
body of the muscle is mixed with tendinous fibres, and the insertion into the fore-arm
is very extensive, lest the application of such immense force should tear it from its
adhesions. There is sufficient strength in the apparatus ; the power may be safely
applied at this mechanical disadvantage; and it is applied close to the joint to give
an extent and rapidity of motion which could not otherwise have been obtained, and
without which the horse would have been comparatively useless.
At the back of the arm are other flexor muscles of great power, to bend the lower
portions of the limb. Two of them have been described belonging to the arm and
the leg, and some very peculiar ones acting on the feet must not be omitted. Only a
small portion of one of them can be seen in our cut, p. 259, at 1.
The first is the flexor pedis perfuratus. It is deeply seated in the posterior part of
the cirm, where, with the perforans, it forms a thick fleshy mass, the tendons issu
ino from which are adapted to the convexity and concavity of each other. As it
descends along the bone of the arm, it becomes tendinous ; and, approaching the
knee, it is bound down by arches or bands of ligament, that it may not start in sud-
den and violent action. Proceeding from the knee, it widens, and partly wraps
rouni the tendon of the perforating muscle, and they run down together in contact
264 THE FORE LEGS.
yet not adhering; freely playing over each other, and a mucous fluid obviating all
friction. Both of them are inclosed in a sheath of dense cellular substance, attached
to them by numerous fibrils; and they are likewise supported by various ligamentous
expansions.
Near the fetlock the tendon still further expands, and forms a complete ring round
the tendon of the perforating muscle. This is seen at J, p. 113. The use of this
will be best explained when the fetlock is treated of.
The perforated tendon soon afterwards divides, and is inserted into the smaller
and larger pastern bones, and serves to flex or bend the fetlock and joints, as it had
previously assisted in the flexion of the knee.
The flexor perforans muscle has nearly the same origin as the perforatus ; but it
continues muscular farther down the arm than it, and lies before it. At the knee its
tendon passes, like the perforatus, under strong ligamentary arches, which confine it
in its situation. It then becomes round, and is partly enveloped in the perforatus,
and at the fetlock is entirely surrounded by it. It emerges from the perforatus when
that tendon divides, and continues its progress alone after the other has inserted itself
into the pasterns, and, passing over the navicular bone, is broadly implanted into the
posterior cavity of the foot.
It is sufficiently plain that the arm should be large and muscular, otherwise it could
not discharge all these duties. Horsemen differ on a variety of other points, but here
they are agreed. A full and swelling fore-arm is the characteristic of every thorough-
bred horse. Whatever other good points the animal may possess, if the arm is nar-
row in front and near the shoulder, fiat on the side, and altogether deficient in mus-
cular appearance, that horse is radically defective. He can neither raise his knee for
rapid action, nor throw his legs sufficiently forward.
The arm should likewise be long. In proportion to the length of the muscle is
the degree of contraction of which it is capable; and in proportion also to the degree
of contraction will be the extent of motion in the limb beneath. A racer, with a
short arm, would be sadly deficient in stride ; a hunter, with the same defect, would
not be able to double his legs well under him in the leap. There is, however, a
medium in this, and the advantage of length in the arm will depend on the use to
which the horse is applied. The lady's horse, the cavalry horse, every horse in
which prancing action is esteemed a beauty, and in which utility is, to a certain
degree, sacrificed to appearance, must not be too long in the arm. If he is long
there, he will be proportionably short in the leg; and although this is an undoubted
excellence, whether speed or continuance is regarded, the short leg will not give the
grand and imposing action which fashion may require. In addition to this, a horse
with short legs may not have quite so easy action as another whose length is in the
shank rather than in the arm.
THE KNEE.
The Knee (M, p. 68, and cut, p. 256), answering to the human ^^Tist, constitutes
the joint or joints between the arm and the shank or leg; and is far more complicated
than any joint that has been yet considered. Beside the lower heads of the bone of
the arm, and the upper heads of the three bones of the leg, there are no less than
six other bones interposed, arranged in two rows, three in each row, and the seventh
placed behind.
What was the intention of this complicated structure? A joint between the elbow
and the fetlock was absolutely necessary to the action of the horse. An inflexible
pillar of that length could scarcely have been lifted from the ground, much less fai
enough for rapid or safe motion. It was likewise necessary, that the interposing
joint should be so constituted as to preserve this part of the limb in a straight direc-
tion, and possess sufficient strength to resist all common work and accidents. Being
in a straight direction, the shock or jar between the ends of the bones of the arm and
the leg would be dreadful, and would speedily inflict irreparable injury. The heads
of all bones are covered with elastic cartilage, in order to protect them from injury by
concussion ; but this would be altogether insufficient here. .Six distinct bones are
therefore placed here, each covered above and below by a thick coating of cartilage,
connected togetlier by strong ligaments, but separated by interposed fluids and mem-
branes. The concussion is thus spread over the whole of them — shared by the
whole of them ; and, by the peculiarity of their connexion, rendered harmless.
BROKEN KNEES. 265
These six distinct bones, united to each other by numerous and powerful ligaments,
vill also afford a far stronger joint than the apposition of any two bones, however
perfect and strong might be the capsular ligament, or by whatever other ligaments it
might be strengthened. In addition to the connexion between the individual bones,
there is a perfect capsular ligament here, extending from the bone of the arm to those
of the leg; and the result of the whole is, that the hardest work and the severest
accidents produce little deformity, and no dislocation in the knee : nor do the shocks
and jars of many a year cause inflammation or disease. It is an undeniable fact,
that such is the perfect construction of this joint, and to so great a deoTee does it
lessen concussion, that the injuries resulting from hard work are, almost^ without an
exception, found below the knee, which seems to escape the injuries of the hock.
There is a remarkable difference in the effects of work on the knee and the hock.
The knee is subject to enormous concussion in its strict sense. The hock to a some-
what different work. The knee altogether escapes bony enlargements and inflam-
mations of the ligaments, like spavins ; and, what is more remarkable, it also escapes
the damages to which the anterior fetlock is liable from precisely the same concussion
as the knee.
The seventh bone, the trapezium, so called from its quadrangular figure, is placed
(see M, p. GS) behind the others, and does not bear the slightest portion of the weight.
It, however, is exceedingly useful. Two of the flexor muscles, already described,
proceed from the bone of the arm, and are inserted into it; and being thus thrown
off the limb, have a less oblique direction given to them, and, therefore, according to
the principle of the lever, act with considerably more power. It is also useful in
another way. As the tendons of the various muscles descend the limbs, they are
tied down, as we have described, by strong ligamentous bands : this is particulaily
the case in the neighbourhood of the joints. The use of it is evident. The exten-
sor tendons, which lie principally on the front of the leg, are prevented from startintr
and strengthened and assisted in their action ; but the flexor tendons which are at the
back would be liable to friction, and their motion impeded, if they were bound down
too tightly. This projecting bone prevents the annular or ring-like ligament from
pressing too closely on the main flexor tendons of the foot ; and, while it leaves them
room to play, leaves room likewise for a little bag filled with mucus to surround them,
which mucus oozing slowly out, supplies the course of the tendons with a fluid that
prevents much injurious friction.
The knee should be broad. It should present a very considerable width, compared
with the arm above, or the shank below. In proportion to the breadth of the knee
is the space for the attachment of muscles, and for the accumulation of ligramentous
expansions and bands. In proportion to the breadth of the knee there \vi]\ be more
strength ; and likewise the direction of some muscles will be less oblique, and the
course of others will be more removed from the centre of motion, in either of which
cases much power will be gained.
BROKEN KNEES.
The treatment of broken knees is a subject of considerable importance, for many
horses are sadly blemished, and others are destroyed, by wounds in the knee-joint.
The horse, when falling, naturally throws his knees forward; they receive all his
weight and are sometimes very extensively lacerated. The first thing to be done is,
by very careful washing with warm water, to cleanse the wound from all gravel and
dirt. It must then be ascertained whether the joint is penetrated. The grating of
the probe on one of the bones of the knee, or the depth to which the probe enters the
wound, will too plainly indicate that the joint has been opened. Should anv doubt
exist, a linseed-meal poultice must be applied. This will at least act as a fomenta-
tion to the wound, and will prevent or abate inflammation ; and when, twelve hours
afterwards, it is taken off, the synovia or joint-oil, in the form of a glairy, yellowish,
transparent fluid, will be seen, if the capsular ligament has been penetrated. Should
doubt remain after the first poultice, a second ought to be applied.
It having been ascertained that the interior of the joint is not injured, attention
must be paid to the wound that is actually made. The horse should wear a cradle
to prevent his getting at the wound. A stimulating application — the common black-
oil of the farrier is as good as any — should be lightly applied every day until healthy
266 THE FORE LEGS.
pus is produced on the wound, and then a little friar's balsam will probably effect a
cure.
The opening of the joint, however, being ascertained, the first and immediate care
is to close the orifice ; for the fluid which separated and lubricated the bones .of tlie
knee being suffered to escape, they will be brought into contact with and will rub
upon each other; the delicate membrane with which they are covered will be highly
inflamed ; the constitution w ill be speedily affected, and a degree of fever will ensue
that will destroy the horse : while, in the mean time, of all the tortures that can be
inflicted on the poor animal, none can equal that which accompanies inflammation of
the membranes lining the joints.
The manner of closing the orifice must be left to the judgment of the veterinary
surgeon, who alone is capable of properly treating such a case. It may be effected
by a compress enclosing the whole of the wound, and not to be removed for many
days ; or it may be attempted by the old and generally successful method of apply-:
ing the hot iron over the wound, and particularly over the spot where the ligament
appears to be lacerated. A poultice may then be placed on the part, and the case
treated as a common wound. The surgeon will find no difilculty in determining
whether the sharp edge of the common firing-iron should be used — as would be the
case if the laceration is considerable, or whether the budding-iron should be resorted
to. After the use of the cautery, the application of a blister may, in some cases, be
serviceable. Should the joint-oil continue to flow, the iron may be applied a second,
or even a third time. By its application, so much swelling is produced on the imme-
diate puncture, and in the neighbouring parts, as mechanically to close and plug up
the orifice.
If, however, the opening into the joint is extensive, and the joint-oil continues to
flow^ and the horse is evidently suffering much pain, humanity will dictate that he
should be destroyed. The case is hopeless. A high degree of fever will ere long
carry him off, or the inflammation will cause a deposit of matter in the cavity of the
joint that will produce incurable lameness.
The pain caused by the iron is doubtless great ; it is, however, necessary : but let
no reader of "The Horse" permit the torturing experiments of the farrier to be tried,
who w ill frequently inject stimulating fluids, and even oil of vitriol, into one of the
most sensible and irritable cavities in the whole frame.
A person well acquainted with the anatomy of the part will judge of the proba-
bility of a favourable result, not merely by the extent, but by the situation of the
wound. If it is low down, and opposite to the bottom row of the bones of the knee,
a small opening into the joint will be easily closed. A larger one needs not to cause
despair, because there is little motion between the lower row and the bones of the
leg. If it is high up, there is more danger, because there is more motion. If it is
situated opposite to the union of the two rows, the result is most to be dreaded, be-
cause between these is the principal motion of the joint, and that motion will not
only disunite and irritate the external wound, but cause a dreadful friction between
the bones brought into actual contact with each other, through the loss of the joint-
oil.
Among the various mt tlu.ds of treating opened knee-joint, where the lesion is very
considerable, is one introduced by IMr. Turner, of Croydon, which must not be passed
over in silence. The wound having been cleansed, a paste is prepared composed of
wheaten flour and table-beer, which are stirred together and boiled for five minutes,
or until they become of the consistence commonly used by paper-hangers. This is
spread on the wound, and round the joint, and four inches above and below it.
Pledgets of tow are passed over this and confined in their places by means of a stock-
ing, and over the whole is another layer, and another stocking or bandage. This i?
not removed until the joint has closed, and the synovia ceases to flow. On the second
or third day the bandage will become dry and hard, and cause considerable pain. It
must not be meddled with before or behind, but four longitudinal incisions may be
made through the bandages on each side, which will sufficiently liberate the joint ano
remove the pain.*
When the knee has been much lacerated, although the wound may be healed, some
blemish will remain. The extent of this blemish will depend on that of the original
* A full account of this interesting operation may be found in the Veterinarian for 1829
THE LEG. 267
wound, and more especially on the nature of the treatment that has buen adopted.
Every caustic application will destroy a portion of the skin, and leave a certain mark.
Should the blemish be considerable, a mild blister may be applied over the part, after
the wound has healed. It will stimulate the hair to grow more rapidly and thickly
round the scar, and particularly hair of the natural colour; and, by contracting the
skin, it will lessen the scar itself. Many persons have great faith in ointments that
are said to promote the growth of the hair. If they have this property, it must be
from their stimulating the skin in which the roots of the hair are imbedded. These
ointments usually contain a small portion of blistering matter, in the form of turpen-
tine, or the Spanish-fly. The common application of gunpowder and lard may, by
blackening the part, conceal the blemish, but can have no possible effect in quickening
the growth of the hair.
In examining a horse for purchase, the knees should be very strictly scrutinised.
A small blemish on them should not induce u^ at once to condemn the animal for a
bad rider, for the merest accident may throw ti.e safest horse. A broken knee, how-
ever, is a suspicious circumstance, and calls for the most careful observation of the
make and action of the horse. If it is accompanied by a thick and upright shoulder,
and legs far under the horse, and low slovenly action, he is unwise w^ho does not
take the hint. This faulty conformation has produced its natural consequence. But
if the shoulder is oblique, and the pastern of the proper length and inclination, and
the fore-arm strong, the good judge will not reject the animal because he may have
been accidentally thrown.
THE LEG.
The part of the limb between the knee and the fetlock consists of three bones — a
large one before, called the cannon or shank, and two smaller or splhit bones behind
(see N, p. 68). The shank-bone is rounded in front, and flattened, or even concave,
behind. It is the straightest of the long bones, as well as the most superficially
situated, for in some parts it is covered only by the skin. The upper head is flat,
with slight depressions corresponding with the lower row of the bones of the knee.
The lower head is differently and curiously formed. It resembles a double pulley.
There are three elevations ; the principal one in the centre, and another on each side.
Between them are two slight grooves, and these so precisely correspond with deep
depressions and slight prominences in the upper head of the larger pastern, and are so
enclosed and guarded by the elevated edges of that bone, that when the shank-bone
and the pastern are fitted to each other, they form a perfect hinge. They admit of the
bending and extension of the limb, but of no lateral or side motion. This is a circum-
stance of very great importance in a joint so situated, and having the whole weight
of the horse thrown upon it.
The smaller bones are placed behind the larger ones on either side. A slight pro-
jection of the head of each can alone be seen in front. The heads of these bones are
enlarged, and receive part of the weight conveyed by the lower row of the bones of
the knee. They are united to the larger bone by the same kind of substance vrhich
is found in the colt between the bone of the elbow and the main bone of the arm ; and
which is designed, by its great elasticity, to lessen the concussion or jar when the
weight of the animal is thrown on them. They reach from one-half to two-thirds of
the length of the shank-bone, and, through their wiiole extent, are united to it by this
substance ; but, as in the elbow, from the animal being worked too soon, or too
violently, inflammation ensues — bony matter is deposited in the room of the
ligamentous, and a bony union takes place instead of the natural one. There is no
doubt that the ease of motion is somewhat lessened by this substitution of bone, but
other elastic principles are probably called into more powerful action, and the value
of the horse is not perceptibly impaired, although it is hard to say what secret injury
may be done to the neighbouring joints, and the cause of which, the lameness not
appearing until a distant period, is not suspected.
In this process, however, mischief does often immediately extend to the neigh-
bouring parts. The disposition to deposit bone reaches beyond the circumscribed
space between the larger and smaller bones of the leg, and a tumour, first callous,
and afterwards bony, is found, with part of its base resting on the line of union
between these bones. This is called a
268 THE FORE LEGS.
SPLINT.
The splint is invariably found on the outside of the small bones and generally on
the inside of the leg (c, p. 277). Why it should appear on the outside of the sniall
bones it is difficult to explain, except that the space between these bones is occupied
by an important mechanism, which will be presently described ; and, as in the case
of abscess, a natural tendency was given to them to determine outward, that vital
parts might not be injured. The cause of their almost exclusive appearance on the
inside of the leg admits of easier explanation. The inner splint-bone is placed nearer
the centre of the weight of the body than the other, and, from the nature of its con-
nexion with the bones of the knee, actually receives more of the weight than does the
outer bone, and therefore is more liable to injury, and inflammation, and this con-
sequent deposit of bony matter. The inner bone receives the whole of the weight
transmitted to the small bone of the knee. It is the only support of that bone. A
portion only of one of the bones rests on the outer splint-bone, and the weight i?
shared between it and the shank. In addition to this, there is the absurd practice of
many smiths of raising the outer heel of the shoe to an extravagant degree, which
throws still more of the weight of tlie horse on the inner splint-bone. Bony tumours
occasionally appear on other parts of the shank-bone, being the consequence of
violent blows or other external injuries, and are commonly called splints.
When the splint of either sort is forming, the horse is frequently lame, for the
periosteum or membrane covering the bone is painfully stretched ; but when this
membrane has accommodated itself to the tumour that extended it, the lameness sub-
sides, and altogether disappears, unless the splint be in a situation in which it inter-
feres with the action of some tendon or ligament, or in the immediate neighbourhood
of a joint. Pressing upon a ligament or tendon, it may cause inflammation of those
substances ; or, being close to a joint, it may interfere with its action. Splints, then,
do not necessarily cause unsoundness, and may not lessen in the slightest degree the
action or value of the horse. All depends on their situation.
The treatment of splints, if it is worth while to meddle with them, is exceedingly
simple. The hair should be closely shaved oif round the tumour; a little strong mer-
curial ointment rubbed in for two days; and this followed by an active blister. If
the splint is of recent formation, it will generally yield to this, or to a second blister.
Should it, however, resist these applications, it can rarely be advisable to cauterize
the part, unless the tumour materially interferes \vith the action of the suspensory
ligament, or the flexor tendon; for it not unfrequently happens, that, although the
splint may have apparently resisted this treatment, it will afterwards, and at no
great distance of time, begin rapidly to lessen, and quite disappear. There is also a
natural process by which the greater part of splints disappear when the horse grows
old.
The hydriodate of potash, made into an ointment with lard, and a small quantity
of mercurial ointment being added, will frequently cause the disappearance of a splin*
of either sort.
As for the old remedies, many of them brutal enough — bruising the splint with a
hammer, boring it with a gimlet, chipping it off with a mallet, sawing it off, slitting
down the skin and periosteum over it, sweating it down with hot oils, and passing
setons over it — the voice of humanity, and the progress of science, will consign them
to speedy oblivion.
Professor Sewell has introduced a new treatment of splints, which is certainly
ingenious, and generally successful. He removes any inflammation about the part
by the use of poultices or fomentations, and then, the horse being cast, the operation
is commenced by pinching up the skin, immediately above the bony enlargement,
with the finger and thumb of the left hand, and with the knife, or lancet, or scissors,
making an orifice sufficient to introduce a probe-pointed bistoury, with the edge on
the convex side. This is passed under the skin along the whole length of the ossifi-
cation beneath, cutting through the thickened periosteum down to the bone ; and this
being effectually completed by drawing the knife backwards and forwards severai
times, a small tape or seton is inserted, and if the tumour js of long standing, kept in
during a few days. The operation is attended with very slight pain to the animal.
Perhaps slight inflammation may appear, which subsides in a few days, if fomentation
SPRAIN OF THE BACK-SINEWS. 2G9
Ig used. The inflammation being removed, the enlalrgement considerably subsides
and in many cases becomes quite absorbed.*
The inside of the leg, immediately under the knee, and extending to the head of the
inner splint-bone, is subject to injury from what is termed the speedy cut. A horse
■with high action, and in the fast trot, violently strikes this part, either with his hoof
or the edge of the shoe. Sometimes bony enlargement is the result ; at others, great
heat and tenderness ; and the pain from the blow seems occasionally to be so great,
that the horse drops as if he were shot. The only remedy is to take care that no part
of the shoe projects beyond the foot"; and to let the inner side of the shoe— except the
country is very deep, or the horse used for hunting — have but one nail, and that near
the toe. This part of the hoof, being unfettered with nails, will expand when it
comes in contact with the ground, and contract when in air and relieved from the
pressure of the weight of the body ; and, although this contraction is to no great
extent, it will be sufficient to carry the foot harmlessly by the leg. Care should like-
wise be taken that the shoe is of equal thickness at the heel and the toe, and that the
bearing is equal on both sides.
Immediately under the knee, is one of those ligamentous rings by which the ten-
dons are so usefully bound down and secured ; but if the hinder bone of the knee, the
trapezium, described at p. -366, is not sufficiently prominent, this ring will confine the
flexor tendons of the foot too tightly, and the leg will be very deficient in depth under
tlie knee. This is called being tied in below the knee {b, p. 277). Every horseman
recognises it as a most serious defect. It is scarcely compatible with speed, and
most assuredly not with continuance. Such a horse cannot be ridden far and fast,
without serious sprain of the back sinews. The reason is plain. The pressure of the
ring will produce a degree of friction inconsistent with the free action of the tendons;
more force must, therefore, be exerted in every act of progression ; and although the
muscles are powerful, and sufficiently so for every ordinary purpose, the repetition of
this extra exertion will tire and strain them.
A more serious evil, however, remains to be stated. When the back sinews, or
tendons, are thus tied down, they are placed in a more oblique direction, and in which
the power of the muscles is exerted with greater disadvantage. A greater degree of
exertion is required, and fatigue and sprain will not unfrequently result. There arei
few more serious defects than this tying-in of the tendons immediately below the
kuee. The fore-leg may be narrow in front, but it must be deep at the side, in order
to render the horse valuable ; for then only will the tendons have free action, and the
muscular force be exerted in the most advantageous direction. There are few good
race-horses whose legfs are not deep below the knee. If there are exceptions, it is
because their exertion, although violent, is but of short continuance. The race is
decided in a few minutes, and, during that short period, the spirit and energy of the
animal may successfully struggle with the disadvantages of form : but where great
and lonQT-continued exertion is required, as in the hunter or the hackney, no strength
can long^ contend with a palpably disadvantageous misapplication of muscular power.
As they descend the back part of the legr, the tendons of the perforated and per-
foratincr tiexor muscles should be far and distinctly apart from the shank-bone. There
should be space free from thickening for the finger and thumb on either side to be
introduced between them and the bone, and that extending from the knee to the fet-
lock. In a perfect leor, and towards its lower part, there should be three distinct and
perfect projections visible to the eye, as well as perceptible by the finger — the sides
of the shank-bone beingf the most forward of the three ; next, the suspensory liga-
ment; and '.indermost of all, the flexor tendons. When these are not to be distincUy
seen or felt, or there is considerable thickening about them and between them (d, p.
277), and the leg is round instead of flat and deep, there has been what is commonly,
but improperly, called
SPRAIN OF -THE BACK-SINEWS.
These tendons are enclosed in a sheath of dense cellular substance, in order to con-
line them in their situation, and to defend them from injur}'. Between the tendon and
tne sheath, there is a mucous fluid to prevent friction ; but when the horse has been
orer-worked, or put to sudden or violent exertion, the tendon presses upon the delicate
Vide Veterinarian, vol. viii. p. 504.
23*
270 THE FORE LEGS.
membran'^ lining the sheath, and inflammation is produced. A different fluid is then
thrown out, which coagulates, and adhesions are formed between tlie ten''on and the
sheath, and the motion of the limb is more difficult and painful. At other times, from
violent or long-continued exertion, some of the fibres w hich confine the tendons are
ruptured. A slight injury of this nature is called a sprain of the back-sinews or ten-
dons ; and, when it is more serious, the horse is said to have hruken down. It should
be remembered, however, that the tendon can never be sprained, because it is inelastic
and incapable of extension ; and the tendon, or its sheath, are scarcely ever ruptured,
even in what is called breaking down. The first injury is confined to inflammation
of the sheath, or rupture of a few of the attaching fibres. This inflammation, how-
ever, is often very great, the pain intense, and the lameness excessive. The anguish
expressed at every bending of the limb, and the local swelling and heat, will clearly
indicate the seat of injury.
In every serious aflection of this kind, care should be taken that the local inflam-
mation does not produce general disturbance of the system ; and, therefore, the horse
should be bled and physicked. The bleeding may be at the toe, by which an import-
ant local, as well as general, effect will be produced. The vessels of the heart will
be relieved, while fever will be prevented. Let not the hleeding be performed in the
farrier's usual way of first paring down the sole, and then taking out a piece of it
at the toe of the frog ; in which case a wound is made often difficult to heal, and
through which fungous granulations from the sensible parts beneath will obstinately
spring: but, after the sole has been well thinned, let a groove be cut with the rounded
head of a small drawing-knife, at the junction of the sole and the crust (see z, in the
next cut, p. 272). The large vein at the toe will thus be opened, or the groove may
be widened backward until it is found. When the blood begins to appear, the vein
may be more freely opened by a small lancet thrust horizontally under the sole, and
almost any quantity of blood may be easily procured. The immersion of the foot in
warm water will cause the blood to flow more rapidly. A sufficient quantity having
been withdrawn, a bit of tow should be placed in the groove, and a patten shoe tacked
on, by which the heels may be raised from the ground, and much tension removed
from the sinews. The bleeding will, thus, be immediately stopped, and the wound
will readily heal.
As a local application, no hot farrier's oil should come near the part, but the leg
should be well fomented with warm water two or three times in the day, and half an
hour at each time. Between the fomentations, the leg should be enclosed in a poul-
tice of linseed-meal. Any herb that pleases the owner may be added to the fomenta-
tion, or vineo-ar or Goulard's extract to the poultice ; for the beneficial effect of both
depends simply on the warmth of the water and the moisture of the poultice. All
stimulating applications will infallibly aggravate the mischief.
The horse beginning to put his foot better to the ground, and to bear pressure on
the part, and the heat having disappeared, the object to be accomplished is changed.
Recurrence of the inflammation must be prevented, the enlargement must be got rid
of, and the parts must be strengthened. The two latter purposes cannot be better
effected than by using an elastic bandage — one of thin flannel will be the best. This
will sustain and support the limb, while by few means are the absorbents sooner
induced to take up the effused coagulable matter of which the swelling is composed,
than by moderate pressure. If the bandage is kept wet with vinegar — to each pint
of which a quarter of a pint of spirit of wine has been added — the skin will be
slightly stimulated and contracted, and the cold produced by the constant evapora-
tion will tend to subdue the remaining and deep-seated inflammation. This band-
age should be daily tightened in proportion as the parts are capable of bearing
increased pressure, and the treatment should be persisted in for a fortnight. If, at
the expiration of that period, there is no swelling, tenderness, or heat, the horse may
gradually, and very cautiously, be put to his usual work.
Should there, however, remain the slightest lameness or considerable enlargement,
the leg must be blistered, and, indeed,^it would seldom be bad practice to blister
after every case of severe sprain, for the inflammation may lie deep in the sheath of
the tendons, and the part once sprained may long remain weak, and subject to
renewed injury, not only from unusual, but even ordinary exertion. If a blister is
resorted to, time should be given for it to produce its gradual and full effect, and
the horse should be afterwards turned out for one or two months. We must here
WIND-GALLS. 271
be permitted to repeat that a blister should never be used while any heat or tender-
ness remains about the part, otherwise the slightest injury may be, and often is, con-
verted into incurable lameness.
Very severe sprains, or much oftener, sprains badly treated, may require the appli-
cation of the cautery. If from long-continued inflammation the structure of the part
is materially altered — if the swelling is becoming callous, or the skin is thickened
and prevents the free motion of the limb, no stimulus short of the heated iron will be
sufficient to rouse the absorbents to remove the injurious deposit. The principal use
of firing is to rouse the absorbents to such increased action that they shall take up
and remove the diseased thickness of the skin, and likewise the unnatural deposit in
the cellular substance beneath. The firing should be applied in straight lines,
because the skin, contracting by the application of the cautery, and gradually regain-
ing its elastic nature, will thus form the best bandage over the weakened part. It
should likewise be as deep as it can be applied without penetrating the skin. Here,
even more particularly than in the blister, time should be given for the full action of
the firing. This removal of diseased matter is a work of slov/ progress. ]\Iany
weeks pass away before it is perfectly accomplished ; and, after firing, the horse
should have at least a six months', and it would be better if he could be given a
t\velve months' run at grass. When the animal has been set to work in a few weeks,
and the enlargement remains, or lameness returns, the fault is to be attributed to the
impatience of the owner, and not to the want of power in the operation or skill in the
operator.
Farriers are apt to blister immediately after firing. A blister may be useful six
wi?eks or two months after firing, if lameness remains ; but can never be wanted
immediately after the severe operation of the cautery. If the iron has been skilfully
applied, subsequent blistering inflicts on the animal, already sufficiently tortured,
much unnecessary and useless pain, and should never be resorted to by him wiio
possesses the slightest feeling of humanity.
In examining a horse for purchase, the closest attention should be paid to the
appearance of these flexor tendons. If there is any thickness of cellular substance
around them, that horse has been sprained violently, or the sprain has not been pro-
perly treated. This thickening will probably fetter the motion of the tendon, and
dispose the part to the recurrence of inflammation and lameness. Such a horse,
although at the time perfectly free from lameness, should be regarded with suspicion,
End cannot fairly be considered as sound. He is only patched up for a while, and
will probably fail at the close of the first day's hard work.
WIND-GALLS.
In the neighbourhood of the fetlock there are occasionally found considerable
enlargements, oftener on the hind-leg than the fore-one, which are denominated,
in'nd-ga!k (e, p. 277). Between the tendons and other parts, and wherever the ten-
dons are exposed to pressure or friction, and particularly about their extremities, little
bags or sacs are placed, containing and suflTering to ooze slowly from them a mucous
fluid to lubricate the parts. From undue pressure, and that most frequently caused
by violent action and straining of the tendons, or, often, from some predisposition
about the horse, these little sacs are injured. They take on inflammation, and some-
ti-nes become large and indurated. There are few horses perfectly free from them.
When they first appear, and until the inflammation subsides, they may be accompa-
nied by some degree of lameness ; but otherwise, except when they attain a great
size, they do not interfere with the action of the animal, or cause any considerable
unsoundness. The farriers used to suppose that they contained wind — hence their
name, wind-galls; and hence the practice of opening them, by which dreadful inflam-
mation was often produced, and many a valuable horse destroyed. It is not uncom-
mon for wind-galls entirely to disappear in aged horses.
A slight wind-gall will scarcely be subjected to treatment; but if these tumours
are numerous and large, and seem to impede the motion of the limb, they may bs
attacked first by bandage. The roller should be of flannel, and soft pads should be
placed on each of the enlargements, and bound down tightly upon them. The band-
aje should also be wetted with the lotion recommended for sprain of the back-sinews.
The wind-gall will often diminish or disappear by this treatment, but will too fire-
272
THE FORE LEGS.
quently return when the horse is again hardly worked. A blister is a more eflec
tual, but too often temporar}' remedy. Wind-galls will return with the renewal of
work. Firing is still more certain, if the tumours are sufficiently large and annoy-
ing to justify our having recourse to measures so severe; for it will not only effect
the immediate absorption of the fluid, and the reduction of the swelling, but, by con-
tracting the skin, will act as a permanent bandage, and therefore prevent the reap-
pearance of the tumour. The iodine and mercurial ointments have occasionally
been used with advantage in the proportion of three parts of the former to two of the
latter.
THE PASTERNS.
a The shank-bone.
b The upper and larger pastern-bone.
c The sessamoid-bone.
d The lower or smaller pastern-bone.
e The navicular or shuttlo-bone.
/Tlie coffin-bone, or bone of the foot.
g The suspensory ligament, inserted into the sessamoid-bone.
h A continuation of the suspensory ligament, inserted into the smaller pastern-bone.
i The small inelastic Jiwament, tying down the sessamoid-bone to the larger pastern-bone.
Jc A long ligament reaching from the pastern-bone to the knee.
I The extensor tendon inserted into both the pasterns and the coffin-bone.
TO The tendon of the perforating flexor inserted into the coffin-bone, after having passed ovoi
the navicular bone.
n The seat of the navicular joint lameness.
CI The inner or sensible frog.
p The cleft of the horny frog.
q A hgament uniting the navicular bone to the smaller pastern.
r A ligament uniting the navicular bone to the coffin-bone.
8 The sensible sole, between the coffin-bone and the horny sole.
t The horny sole.
u The crust or wall of the foot.
V The sensible laminae to which the crust is attached.
w The coronary ring of the crust.
X The covering of the coronary ligament from which the cruat is eecreted.
e Place of bleeding at the toe.
THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENTS. 273
At the back of the shank just below the knee, arid in the space between the two
splint-bones, is found an important ligament, admirably adapted to obviate concus-
sion. It originates from the head of tlie shank-bone, and also from the heads of the
splint-bones; then, descending down the leg, it fills the groove between tbe splint-
bones, but is not attached to either of them. A little lower down it expands on either
side, and, approaching the pasterns, bifurcates, and the branches are inserted into two
little bones found at the back of tbe upper pastern, one on each side, called the sessa-
moid bones. (See page 272, and in this cut which represents the pastern and foot,
sawn through the centre.) The bones form a kind of joint both with the lower head
of the shank-bone and the upper i)astern-bone, to both of which they are united by
ligaments (? and g), but much more closely tied to the pastern than to the shank.
The flt'xor tendons pass down between them through a large mucous bag to relieve
them from the friction to which, in so confined a situation, they would be exposed.
The suspensory ligament is continued over the sessamoids, and afterwards obliquely
forward over the pastern to unite with the long extensor tendon, and downward to the
perforated tendon, which it surrounds and fixes in its place, and also to the smaller
pastern-bone.
It will be easy to perceive, from this description of the situation of the suspensory
ligament, why splints placed backward on the leg are more likely to produce lame-
ness than those which are found on the side of it. They may interfere with the motion
of this ligament, or, if they are large, may bruise and wound it.
The principal action of these ligaments is with the sessamoid bones, which they
seem to suspend in their places, and they are therefore called the suspensory liga-
ments. The pasterns (see cut p. 272) are united to the shank in an oblique direction,
differing in degree in the different breed of horses, and in each adapted to the pur-
pose for which that breed was designed. The weight falls upon the pastern in the
direction of the shank-bone, and the pastern being set on obliquely, a portion of that
weight must be communicated to the sessamoids. Much concussion is saved by the
yielding of the pasterns, in consequence of their oblique direction ; and the concus
sion which Avould be produced by that portion of weight whicli falls on the sessa-
moid bones is completely destroyed, for there is no bone underneath to receive it.
They are suspended by this ligament — an elastic ligament, which gradually yields
to, and is lengthened by, the force impressed upon it, and in this gradual yielding and
lengthening, materially lessening, or generally preventing, all painful or dangerous
concussion.
If the ligament lengthens, the sessamoid bones must descend when the weight is
thrown on them, and it would appear that they do so. If the thorough-bred horse
with his long pasterns is carefully observed as he stands, the tuft at the fetlock will
be some inches from the turf; but when he is in rapid motion, and the weight is
thrown violently on this joint, the tuft descends and sweeps the very ground. This,
however, is from the combined action of the fetlock and pastern-joints, and the sessa-
moid-bones. The sessamoids do not actually descend ; but they revolve, they partly
turn over. The strong ligament by which they are attached to the pastern-bone acts
as a hinge, and the projecting part of the bone to which the suspensory ligament is
united, turns round with the pressure of the weight; so that part of the bone be-
comes lower. How is it raised again 1 This ligament, strangely constructed as a
ligament, is elastic. It yields to the force impressed upon it and lengthens ; but as
soon as the foot is lifted from the ground, and the weight no longer presses, and the
force is removed, its elastic power is exerted, and it regains its former dimensions,
and the sessamoid-bono springs back into its place, and by that forcible return assists
in raising the limb.*
It may be supposed that ligaments of this character, and discharging such functions,
* Mr. Percivall very clearly describes this : " Furthermore it seems to ns that these elastic
parts assist in the elevation of the feet from the ground in those paces in which they are called
into sadden and forcible action. The suspensory hgament, by its reaction, instantaneously
after its extension, aids the flexor muscles in bending the pastern-joints. The astonishing
activity and expedition displayed in the movements of the race-horse at speed, seem to be
referable, in part, to the promptitude with which the suspensory ligament can act before the
Sexor muscles are duly prepared ; the latter, we should say catch, as it were, and then direct
the limb first snatched trom the ground by the powers of elasticity." — Percivall's TiCCturea
o» the Veterinary Art, vol. i. p. 334.
2e
274 THE FORE LEGS.
will occasionally be subject to injury, and, principally to strains. Mr. W, C. Spooner*
gives a very satisfactor}' account of this. He says that '' hunters and race-horses
are considerably more liable to lesions of the suspensory ligament than any other
description of horses. The character of these strains is very rarely so acute as that
of the tendons. They generally come on gradually with little inflammation or lame-
ness. Occasionally the injury is sudden and severe, but then it is rarely confined to
these ligaments, for although they may be principally involved, the neighbouring
parts are generally implicated. The usual symptoms are a slight enlargement and
lameness at first, or there may be the former without the latter. The enlargement is
commonly confined to the ligament below the place of bifurcation, and sometimes one
division alone is affected. \Vith the exception of strains of the flexor sinews, this
unfits more animals for racing than any other cause — indeed horses are rarely or never
fit for the turf after the suspensory ligaments have been diseased," or for hunting.
The case being evidently a lesion of the suspensory ligament, nothing short of firing
will be of service.
The length and obliquity of the pastern vary in the different breeds of horses, and
on it depends the elastic action of the animal, and the easiness of his paces. The
pastern must be long in proportion to its obliquity, or the fetlock will be too close to
the ground, and, in rapid action, come violently into contact with it. It is necessary
that the fetlock should be elevated a certain distance from the ground, and this may
be effected either by a short and upright, or a long and slanting pastern. In propor-
tion as the pastern is oblique or slanting, two consequences will follow, less weight
will be thrown on the pastern, and more on the sessamoid, and, in that proportion,
concussion will be prevented.
Every advantage, however, has, to a certain extent, its corresponding disadvantage.
In proportion to the obliquity or slanting of the pastern, will be the stress on the fet-
lock-joint, and, therefore, the liability of that joint to injur}" and strain; and also the
liability to sprain of the back-sinews from the increased action and play of the flexor
tendons ; and likewise to injuries of the paslern-joints, for the ligaments will be weak
in proportion to their length. The long and slanting pastern is advantageous in the
race-horse, from the springiness of action and greater extent of stride by which it is
accompanied. A less degree of it is given in the hunter who is to unite continuance
of exertion with ease of pace. For the hackney there should be sufficient obliquity to
give pleasantness of going, but not enough to endanger continuance and strength.
Experience among horses will alone point out the most advantageous direction of the
pastern, for the purpose required ; but the slightest observation will show the necessity
of considerable variety in the structure of this part. Let the reader imagine the
heavy dray-horse with his short and upright pasterns contending in the ract ; or the
race-horse with his long and weak pasterns, endeavouring to dig his toe into the
ground in order to move some heavy weight. The concussion which attends the com-
mon action of the cart-horse is little, because his movements are slow, and therefore
the upright and strong pastern is given to him, which be can force into the ground,
and on which he can throw the whole of his immense weight. The oblique pastern
is given to the race-horse because that alone is compatible with extent of stride and
great speed. Except a horse for general purposes, and particularly for riding, is very
hardly used, a little too much obliquity is a far less evil than a pastern too upright.
While the jolting of the upright pastern is an insufferable nuisance to the rider, it is
injuriou"; and most unsafe to the horse, and produces many diseases in the feet and
legs, and particularly ringbone, ossification of the cartilages, and contracted feet.
Strains of the pastern-joint are not so frequent, nor so severe as those of the fetlock,
but they are not uncommon, especially in horses with pasterns naturally too upright.
By careless observers they are not so readily detected as in the fetlock-joint, for ♦he
increaped heat round the pastern-joint may be overlooked.
The treatment will not differ materially from that of the fetlock-joint.
LESIONS OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT.
The suspensory ligament is sometimes strained and even ruptured by extraordinary
exertiexi. The sessamoids, which in their natural state are suspended by it, and fronn
which function its name is derived, are in the latter case let down, and the fetlock
* Mr. W. C. Spooner on the Foot and Leg of the horse.
THE FETLOCK — GROGGINESS — CUTTING. 275
almost touches the ground. This is generally mistaken for rupture of the flexor
tendon ; but one circumstance will sufficiently demonstrate that it is the suspensory
ligament which is concerned, viz. : that the horse is able to bend his foot. Kupturft
of this ligament is a bad, and almost desperate case. The horse is frequently lame
for life, and never becomes perfectly sound. Keeping him altogether quiet, bandaging
the leg, and putting on a high-heeled shoe, will atibrd the most probable means of
relief.
The common injury to this ligament is sprain, indicated by lameness, and swelling,
and heat, more or less severe in proportion as the neighbouring parts are involved.
This will sometimes yield to rest and cooling treatment ; but if the case is obstinate,
it will be necessary to have recourse to the actual cautery. The hunter and the race-
horse are most subject to lesions of these ligaments — the hunter from leaping the
fence, and the race-horse from the violent efforts which 'ire occasionally demanded
from him. In both cases, the neighbouring parts usually share in the injury, and a
cure is rarely completely effected.
The means of cure are the same as in lesions of other joints, but they must be more
seriously and perseveringly applied.
THE FETLOCK.
Tlie fetlock-joint is a very complicated one, and from the stress which is laid on it,
and its being the principal seat of motion below the knee, it is particularly subject to
injury. There are not many cases of sprain of the back-sinew that are not accom-
panied by inflammation of the ligaments of this joint; and numerous supposed cases
of sprain higher up are simple aftections of the fetlock. It requires a great deal of
care, and some experience, to distinguish the one from the other. The heat about the
part, and the point at which the horse least endures the pressure of the finger, will be
the principal guides. Occasionally, by the application of cooling lotions, the inflam-
mation may be subdued, but, at other times, the horse suffers dreadfully, and is unablo
to stand. A serious affection of the fetlock-joint demands treatmeut more prompt and
severe than that of the sheaths of the tendons.
GROGGINESS.
The peculiar knuckling of the fetlock-joint, and the tottering of the whole of the
fore-leg, known by the name of groggincss, and which is so often seen in old and
over-worked horses, is seldom an affection of either the fetlock or the pastern-joints
simply. Indeed it is difficult to fix on any particular joint, unless it is that wiiich is
deep in the foot, and where the flexor tendon runs over the navicular bone. It seems
oftenest to be a want of power in the ligaments of the joints generally, produced by
frequent and severe sprains, or by ill-judged and cruel exertion. Professor Stewart
very truly says, that " it is common among all kinds of fast workers, and long journeys
at a fast pace will make almost any horse groggy. Bad shoeing and want of stable
care may help to increase, but never can alone produce grogginess. It is one of the
evils of excessive work."* In the majority of cases it admits of no remedy.
CUTTING.
The inside of the fetlock is often bruised by the shoe or the hoof of the opposite
foot. IVIany expedients used to be tried to remove this ; the inside heel has been
raised and lowered, and the outside raised and lowered; and sometimes one operation
has succeeded, and sometimes the contrar}' ; and there was no point so involved in
obscurity or so destitute of principles to guide the practitioner. The most successful
remedy, and that which in the great majority of cases supersedes all others, is Mr.
Turner's shoe, of equal thickness from heel to toe, and having but one nail, and that
near the toe on the inside of the shoe ; care being taken that the shoe shall not
extend beyond the edge of the crust, and that the crust shall be rasped a little at the
quarters.
There are some defects, however, in the natural form of the horse, which are the
causes of cutting, and Avhich no contrivance will remedy ; as when the legs are
placed too near to each other, or when the feet are turned inward or outward. A
• Stewart's Stable (Economy, p. 385.
276
THE FORE LEGS.
horse with these defects should he carefully examined at the inside of the fetlock, and
if there are any sore or callous places from cutting, there will be sufficient reason for
rejecting;' the animal. Some horses will cut only when they are fatigued or lame, and
old ; many colts will cut before they arrive at their full strength.
A consideration of the pasterns will throw more light upon this and other diseases
of the extremities.
The upper pastern bone (6, p. 272, and a in the first figure, and b in the second in
the following cuts) receives the lower pulley-like head of the shank-bone, and forms
a hinge-joint admitting only of bending and extension, but not of side motion ; it
likewise articulates with the sessamoid-bones. Its lower head has two rounded pro-
tuberances, which are received into corresponding depressions in the lower pastern.
On either side, above the pastern joint, are roughened projections for the attachment
of very strong ligaments, both in capsular ligaments, and many cross ligaments,
which render the joint between the two pasterns sufficiently secure.
Fig. 1.
a The upper pastern.
6 The lower pastern.
c The navicular bone.
d The coffin-bone.
■ Fig. 2.
a The sessamoid bone.
h The upper pastern.
c The lower pastern.
d The navicular bone.
e The coffin-bone, with the horny laminae.
The lower pastern (f/, p. 272, and h in the first figure, and c in the second in this
cut) is a short and thick bone with its larger head downward. Its upper head has
two depressions to receive the protuberances on the lower head of the upper bone,
bearing some resemblance to a pulley, but not so decidedly as the lower head of the
shank-bone. Its lower head resembles that of the other pastern, and has also two
prominences, somewhat resembling a pulley, by which it articulates with the coffin-
bone ; and a depression in front, corresponding with a projection in the coffin-bone.
There are also two slight depressions behind, receiving eminences of the navicular
bone. Neither of these joints admits of any lateral motion. The ligaments of this
joint, both the capsular and the cross ones, are like those of
tbe pastern-joint, exceedingly strong. The tendon of the
extensor muscle is inserted into the fore part, both of the
upper and lower pastern-bones as well as into the upper part
of the coffin-bone (/, p. 272) ; and at the back of these bones
the suspensory ligament is expanded and inserted, while a
portion of it goes over the fore part of the upper pastern to
reach the extensor tendon. These attachments in front oi
the bones are seen in the accompanying cut, in which a
represents the lower part of.the shank-bone ; b the sessamoid-
bones ; c the upper pastern ; d the lower pastern ; and e the
coffin-bone ; / are the branches of the suspensory liga
ments going to unite with the extensor tendon ; g the
long extensor tendon; h ligaments connecting thu two
pastern-bones together; and i the lateral cartilages of the
foot.
SPRAIN OF THE COFFIN-JOINT- RINGBONE. 277
SPRAIN OF THE COFFIN-JOINT
The F'^f of this is when the lameness is sudden, and the heat and tenderness are
principally felt round the coronet. Bleeding at the toe, physic, fomentation, and
blisters are the usual means adopted. This lameness is not easily removed, even bv
a blister; and it removed, like sprains of the fetlock and of the back sinews, it is apt
u) return, and finally produce a great deal of disorganization and mischief in the foot.
Sprain of the coffin-joint sometimes becomes a very
serious affair. Not being always attended by any
external swelling and being detected only by heat
round the coronet, the seat of the lameness is
often overlooked by the groom and the farrier;
and the disease is suffered to become confirmed
before its nature is discovered.
From violent or repeated sprains of the pastern
or coffin-joints, or extension of the ligaments
attached to other parts of the pastern-bones, in-
flammation takes place in the periosteum, and bony
matter is formed, which often rapidly increases,
and is recognized by the name of
RINGBONE.
Ringbone is a deposit of bony matter in one of
the pasterns, and usually near the joint. It rapidly
spreads, and involves not only the pastern-bones, but
the cartilages of the foot, and spreading around the
pasterns and cartilages, thus derives its name.
When the first deposit is on the lower pastern,
and on both sides of it, and produced by violent
inflammation of the ligaments of the joints, it is
recognised by a slight enlargement, or bony tumour
on each side of the foot, and just above the coronet.
(See / in the accompanying cut.) Horses with
short upright joints, and with small feet and high
action, are oftenest, as may be supposed, the sub-
jects of this disease, which is the consequence
either of concussion or sprain of the pastern-joints.
It is also more frequent in the hind foot than the
fore, because, from the violent action of the hind
legs in propelling the horse forward, the pasterns
are more subject to ligamentarj' injury behind than
before; yet the lameness is not so great there,
because the disease is confined principally to the
ligaments, and the bones have not been injured by
concussion ; while from the position of the fore
limbs, there will generally be in them injury of
the bones to be added to that of the ligaments. In
its early stage, and when recognized only by a bony
enlargement on both sides of the pastern-joint, or
in some few cases on one side only, the lameness
is not very considerable, and it is not impossible
to remove the disease by active blistering, or by
the application of the cauterj- : but there is so much
wear and tear in this part of the animal, that the
inflammation and the disposition to the formation
of bone rapidly spread. The pasterns first become
connected together by bone instead of lioament,
and thence results what is called an anchyfosed or
fixed joint. From this joint the disease proceeds
to the cartilages of the foot, and to the union
between the lower pastern, and the coffin and
278 THE FORE LEGS.
navicular hones. The motion of these parts likewise is impeded or lost, and the
whole of the foot becomes one mass of spongy bone. From a disposition to spread,
and at first around the pastern-joint, which is situated just above the coronet, the
disease has acquired the name of ringbone.
On the preceding page we have introduced a bird's-eye view of some of the principal
lamenesses to which the fore extremities of the horse are subject.
At a is a representation of the capped hock, or enlargement of the joint of the elbow.
b is the tying-in of the leg below^ the knee.
c is the most frequent situation of splint on the side of the shank-bone, and not pro-
ducing lameness after its first formation, because it does not interfere with the motion
of the knee, nor injure the suspensory ligament.
d is the situation and appearance of the enlargement accompanying sprain of the
back sinews. This, however, is an aggravated case ; and the sprain may be great,
and the lameness distressing, without all this swelling.
e is the place of wind-gall.
/ gives the appearance of ringbone when it first appears on the side of the pastern,
about the joint, and where there is naturally some prominence of bone.
g is the situation of sand-crack in the fore-leg.
h the situation of mallenders.
The fore-legs, when viewed in front, should be widest at the chest, and should
gradually approach to each other as we descend towards the fetlock. The degree of
width must depend on the purpose for which the horse is wanted. The legs of a
heavy draught-horse can scarcely be too far apart. His rounded chest enables him to
throw more weight into the collar ; and not being required for speed, he wants not
that occasionally increased expansion of chest which the circular form is not calculated
to give. A hunter, a hackney, and a coach-horse should have sutficient expansion of
the chest, or the legs sufficiently wide apart, to leave room for the play of the lungs ;
but depth more than roundness of chest is here required, because the deep chest admits
of most expansion when the horse, in rapid action, and the circulation proportionally
quickened, needs most room to breathe : yet if the breast is too wide, there will be
considerable weight thrown before, and the horse will be heavy in hand and unsafe.
Whether the legs are near to each other or wide apart, they should be straight.
The elbow should not have the slightest inclination inward or outward. If it inclines
towards the ribs, its action will be confined, and the leg will be thrown outward when
in motion, and describe a curious and awkward curve. This will give a peculiar
rolling motion, unpleasant to the rider and unsafe to the animal. The toe will like-
wise be turned outward, which will not only prevent the foot from coming flat on the
ground in its descent, but be usually accompanied by cutting, even more certainly
than when the toe turns inward. If the elbow is turned outward, the toes will
necessarily be turned inward, which is a great unsightliness, and to a considerable
degree injurious, for the weight cannot be perfectly distributed over the foot — the
bearing cannot be true. There will also be undue pressure on the inner quarter, a
tendency to unsafeness, and a disposition to splint and corn. The legs should come
down perpendicularly from the elbow. If they incline backward and under the horse,
there is undue stress on the extensor muscles ; and, the legs being brought nearer the
centre of gravity, too great weight is thrown forward, and the horse is liable to
knuckle over and become unsafe. If the legs have a direction forward, the flexor
muscles are strained, and the action of the horse is awkward and confined, 'i'lic to«
should be found precisely under the point of the shoulder. If it is a little more i.ir-
ward, the horse will probably be deficient in action; if it is more under the horse,
unsafeness Avill be added to still greater defect in going.
THE HAUNCH — THE THIGH 279
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HIND LEGS.
THE HAUNCH.
The haunch (see O, p. 68, and the cut, p. 256,) is composed of three bones. The
first is the ilium, principally concerned in the formation of the haunch. Its extended
branches behind the flanks are prominent in every horse. When they are more than
usually wide, the animal is said to be ras^ged-hipped. A branch runs up to the spine
at the commencement of the sacral vertebraj (E), and here the haunch-bones are firmly
united with the bones of the spine. The ischium, or hip-bone, is behind and below
the ilium. Its tuberosities or prominences are seen under the tail (cut, p. 68). The
pubis unites with the two former below and behind.
From the loins to the setting-on of the tail a line should be carried on almost
straight, or rounded only in a slight degree. Thus the haunch-bones will be most
oblique, and will produce a corresponding obliquity, or slanting direction, in the thigh-
bone— a direction in which, as stated when the fore legs were described, the muscles
act with most advantage. This direction of the haunch is characteristic of the
thorough-bred horse ; and by the degree in which it is found, we judge to a considera-
ble extent of the breeding of the animal. If the bones at D and E, p. 68, take a
somewhat arched form, as they do in the cart-horse, it is evident that the haunch-
bone O would be more upright. The thigh-bone P would likewise be so. The stifle
Q would not be so far under the body, and the power of the horse would be considera-
bly impaired. The oblique direction of the haunch and thigh-bones, produced by the
straightness of the line of the spine, does not, as is commonly supposed, afford
increased surface for the attachment of muscles, but places the muscles in a direction
to act with great advantage. It is in the advantageous direction, quite as mnch as in
the bulk of the muscle, that the strength of the horse consists.
It will be seen, from the diff'erent cuts, that the angles formed by the fore and hind
extremities have different directions. One points forward, and the other backward.
The action of the fore legs thus least interferes with the chest, and that of the hind
legs with the belly.
Width of haunch is a point of great consequence, for it evidently aflTords more room
for the attachment of muscles ; and even though it should be so wide as to subject
the horse to the charge of being ragged-hipped, and may somewhat offend the eye, it
will not often be any detriment to action. If the loins are broad and the horse well
ribbed home, the protuberances of the ilium can scarcely be too far apart. Many a
ragged-hipped horse has possessed both fleetness and strength, while but few that
were narrow across the haunch could boast of the latter quality.
The opening in the centre of these bones, which constitutes the passage through
which the young animal is expelled from the mother, is large in the mare, and in
every quadruped, because there cannot, on account of the form of the animal, be any
danger of abortion from the weight of the foetus pressing on the part.
The only portion of these bones exposed to injury or fracture are the tuberosities or
prominences of the haunch. A fall or blow may chip ofT or disunite a portion of them,
and, if so, there are no means of forcibly bringing the disunited parts together again,
and retaining them in their natural position. The power of nature, however, will
gradually unite them, but that union will be attended by deformity and lameness. A
charge, or very strong adhesive plaster, across the haunch may be useful, as helping,
in some slight degree, to support the parts, and hold them together.
THE THIGH.
In the lower and fore part of the hip-bones is a deep cavity or cup for the reception
of the head of the thigh-bone.* Although in the movement of the hind legs there
* This, alfhoufrh the true thigh-bone, is so concealed by thick muscles that its situation and
shape arc not visible to the eye. It is therefore frequently overlooked by horsemen, who call
'he next bone, extending from the stifle to the hock, the thigh.
280 THE HIND LEGS.
cannc* be the concussion to which the fore legs are exposed (for the weight of the
body s never thrown violently upon them), yet in the powerful action of these limbs
there is much strain on the joints, and we shall, therefore, find that there are, in all
of them, admirable provisions against injury. The head of the upper bone of the thigh
is received into a deep cup (the acetabulum'), by which it is surrounded on every side,
and dislocation from which would seem almost impossible. But the bony cup may
orive way *? Not so, provision is made against this. All three of the haunch-bones
unite in the formation of this cup, and the sutures by which they are held together are
of such a nature, that, generally speaking, no shock, or exertion, or accident, can dis-
unite them. There is even something more in order to make the attachment doubly
sure. In addition to the usual capsular and other ligaments, a singularly strong one
rises from the base of the cup, and is inserted into the head of the thigh-bone, seeming
as if it would render separation or dislocation altogether impossible. Such, however,
is the strange power of the muscles of the hind limbs, that, with all these attach-
ments, sprain of the ligaments of the thigh, or the round bone, as horsemen call it, and
even dislocation of it, are occasionally found.
The thio-h-bone is both the largest and strongest in the frame. It is short and
thick, and exhibits the most singular prominences, and roughnesses, and hollows, for
the insertion of the immense muscles that belong to it. Four prominences, in particu-
lar, called by anatomists trochanters, two on the outside, one on the inside, and one
near the head of the bone, afford attachment to several important muscles. The head
of the bone is placed at right angles with its body, by which this important advantage
is gained, that the motion of the thigh-joint is principally limited to the act of bending
and extending, although it possesses some slight lateral, and even some rotatory action.
The lower head of the thigh-bone is complicated in its form. -It consists of two
prominences, which are received into corresponding depressions in the next bone,
and a hollow in front, in which the bone of the knee or stifle plays as over a perfect
pulley.
A short description of the muscles of the hinder extremities may not be uninterest-
ing to the horseman. The next cut will contain a few of them.
The muscles of the hinder extremity are more powerful than those of any other
part of the frame ; therefore an extraordinary provision is made to confine them in
their respective situations, and thus contribute to their security and strength. When
the skin is stripped from any part, we do not at once arrive at the muscles, but they
are thickly covered by a dense, strong, tendinous coat, intended to confine them to
their places. This membrane, called the fascia, is of extraordinary strength in the
hind quarter, and reaches over the whole of the haunch and thigh, and only ceases
to be found at the hock where there are no muscles to be protected. If the power of
the muscles is sufficient to dislocate or fracture the thigh-bone, they need the support
and confinement of this tendinous coat. When this tendinous band is dissected off,
another is found beneath, which is represented at a, in the cut at p. 281, raised and
turned back, larger than the former, thicker and more muscular. It proceeds from the
haunch-bones to^the stifle, upon the fore and outer part of the haunch and thigh, and
is intended to tighten and strengthen the other.
Under the part of this flat and binding muscle, which is represented in our cut as
raised from its natural situation, is a large round one, proceeding from the ilium, not
far from the cup which receives the upper bone of the thigh, and running straight
down this bono, and thence its name rectus. It is inserted into the bone of the stifle.
An inspection of the cut, p. 68, will show that it is so situated as to be enabled to
exert its great power in the most advantageous way. It is a very prominent muscle,
and possesses immense strength. It terminates in a tendon, which is short and very
strong, and which is, before its insertion into the patella, united with the prolongation
of the tendinous substance at g, in the cut, p. 282, and also with the tendon of the
muscle at i, in that cut, and at c, in that on page 281, and which is properly called
vastus, from its great bulk. Some have divided this into two muscles : the external
and internal. The external arising from the outer surface of the upper bone of the
thigh; the internal, from the innef surface ; and they are inserted into the upper pa-t
of the bone of the stifle, both on the inner and outer side. These muscles act at
considerable mechanical disadvantage. They form a very slight angle, not at all
approaching to a right angle; but they are muscles of immense size, and occupy all
the fore part of the thigh, i'rom the stifle upwards. They are powerful extensors of
THE THIGH.
281
the thigh, and of the hinaer leg gene-
rally ; for they are all inserted into
the bone of the knee, and that is
connected by strong tendons with
the bone of the true leg.
On the inside of the thigh are
several other large fleshy muscles,
which will be easily recognized on
the thigh of the living horse. First
is a long, narrow, prominent muscle,
the sarturius, d, arising partly from
the lumbar vertebra, and extending
down the thigh — assisting in bind-
ing the leg, and turning it inward —
giving it a rotatory motion, and also
aiding in many of the natural actions
of the horse.
Next comes a broad, thin muscle,
the gracilis., e, occupying the greater
portion of the surface of the inner
part of the thigh, and particularly
the prominent part of it. It arises
from the lower portion of the
haunch-bone, and, in its passage
downward uniting with the last
muscle, is inserted with it into the
inner and upper part of the tibia.
It acts with great mechanical disad-
vantage, but its power is equal to
the task. It bends the leg, and
rotates it inward.
Still, on the inside of the thigh,
and forming the posterior edge of
the thigh inwards, and contributing
much to its bulk, is another import-
ant muscle, the peciineus. Part of
it acts with very great mechanical
advantage, and powerfully flexes the
thigh on the pelvis, and lifts and bends the leg. It is one of the most effectual of
the extensor muscles. Considering the weight of limb which it has to raise ami
tlex, it had need to possess great power.
We now turn to some of the muscles that are evident to the eye on the outside ot
the thigh.
First is the glutxus exfernus, situated in the middle of the external partof the
haunch. It is of a triangular figure, attached to the antero-superior and to the inferior
spines of the ilium, and is inserted into the smaller outer prominence of the upper bone
of the thigh. Next is the great glutastis muscle, arising from the spinous and transverse
processes of several of the bones of the loins, and from the sacrum, and from the dif-
ferent edges of the ilium, and inserted into the great protuberance of the upper bone
of the thigh (page 68), behind and a little above the joint that unites the thigh to the
haunch-bone. It is seen at c, in the cut on the following page. It constitutes the
upper and outer part of the haunch, and gives that fulness and roundness to it which
good judges so much admire in the quarters of the horse. It is one of the main
instruments in progression. When the thigh has heen brought forward under the
body by the muscles already described, the plain action of these glutasi muscles is to
extend the haunch, and force or project the body onward. To effect this, they must
be very powerful, and therefore they are so large, and rise from such an extensive
surface. They ought, also, to act at great mechanical advantage, and so, in one
sense, t^ey do. Springing from the loins and the ilium, and the sacrum, they act
almost in a right, or perpendicular line ; in that line in which we ha^e seen that the
greatest power is gained.
24* 2l
282
THE HIND LEGS.
CUT OF THE MUSCLES OF THE OUTSIDE
OF THE THIGH.
There is another and smaller glutxi/s
muscle under that which lias hccii last
described, arising likewise from the
back of the ilium, inserted into the same
protuberance of the" thigh-bone, and
assisting in the same office. It is not
visible in the cut.
These muscles, as Mr. Percivall well
explains it, are extensors either of the
femoris upon the pelvis, or the pelv/«
and loins upon the hind quarter. \\ hen
the limb has been carried in advance
under the body by the muscles of the
anterior femoral region, and the toe
firmly set down upon the ground, the
glutei, by extending the haunch, will
carry the trunk forward ; thus becom-
ing potent agents in progression, and
the maximus being the most powerful
of them.
In the acts both of rearing and kick-
ing, these muscles are thrown into vio-
lent and forcible contraction. In the
former action, the limbs become the
fixed points, and the trunk the weight
moved, and vice versa in the latter.*
There are also several other muscles
proceeding from different parts of the
haunch-bones, and inserted about the
heads of the upper thigh-bone, and per-
forming the same work ; but there are
two muscles to which we must par-
ticularly refer. The first occupies the
outer part of the quarter behind, and is
beautifully developed in the blood-
horse; it is found at e, above. It lises
high up from the bones of the spine,
from others at the root of the tail, from the protuberances of the ischium (vide cut, p.
68), and from other bones of the pelvis. It in fact consists of two muscles, but is
usually described as one muscle with two heads, hiceps femoris, the two-headed mus-
cle of the thigh. It is situated on the postero-external side of the haunch and thigh,
where, being superficial, it is well marked in the living animal. The two divisions
of it have an opposite action. The anterior or superior one assists the vasti in extend-
ing the thigh — the posterior one flexes it. They both, however, co-operate in
abducting the limb, and also in rotating it forward, the hock, at the same time, turn-
ing outwards.
Those muscles alone have been selected which are particularly prominent in tht
thorough-bred horse, and are the source of his strength and speed. The following
cut, containing one excellence above and many defects below, will not be unaccepta
ble here : —
The Os Femoris, or Thigh Bone (see P, page 68), is long and cylindrical, taking
an oblique direction from above, downwards, and from i)ehind, forwards. At its
upper extremities, and projecting from the body, is a thick flattened neck, terminat-
ir.nr in a large smooth hemispherical head, adapted to a hollow, or acetabulum, in the
superior point of the haunch.
This bone is commonly called the Round Bone, It has, in some rare instances,
been dislocated and fractured. It is much oftencr sprained, but not so frequently as
the groom or farrier imagines. There is nothing peculiar in the lamenes.'s to detect
injury of this part, except, that the horse will drag his leg after him. Injury jf ihe
Percivall's Anatomy, p. 148.
THE STIFLE.
283
CCT OP THE HAUNCH AND HIND LEGS.
round bone will be principally dbcovered by
heat and tenderness in the situation of the
joint.
A part so deeply situated is treated witli
difficulty. Fomentions should at first be used
to abate the intlammation, and, after that, an
active blister should be apj)lied. Strains of
this joint are not always immediately relieved,
and the muscles of the limb in some cases
waste considerably : it therefore may be neces-
sary to repeat the blister, while absolute rest
should accompany every stage of the treat-
ment. It may even be requisite to fire the
part, — or, as a last resort,' a charge may be
placed over the joint, and the horse turned out
for two or three months.
Proceeding from the body of the bone is a
large irregular projection, rising from a kind
of pyramidal eminence (see p. 68), and into
which are implanted various powerful mus-
cles.
THE STIFLE.
The inferior extremity presents a pulley-
like articulatory surface in front, over which
plays the p-^.tella, and two condyles, rounded
and smooth, presenting inferiorly and posteri-
orly, and which are received into slight de-
pressions on the upper surface of the lower
bone ; while in front is a curious groove, over
which plays a small irregular bone, the pa-
tella, or stifle bone. The whole is commonly
called the stifle joint. The patella (Q, p. 68)
answers to the kneepan in the human subject.
Some of the tendons of the strongest muscles
of the upper bone of the thigh are inserted
into it, and continued from it over the lower
bone. This important joint is hereby much
strengthened ; for the proper ligaments be-
tween the upper and lower bones, and these
additional tendons and ligaments from the
patella, must form altogether a very pow-
erful union. The patella likewise answers another and even more important purpose.
The tendons of some strong muscles are inserted into it. When these muscles are
not in action, the patella lies in the groove which nature has contrived for it; but
when they begin to contract, it starts from its partial hiding-place, becomes promi-
nent from the joint, and alters the line of direction in which the muscles act. It
increases the angle, and thus very materially increases the power of the muscles.
The lower bone of the thigh is double. The larger portion, in front, extending
from the stifle to the hock, is called the Tibia, The smaller bone, or fibula, behind
(see R, p. 68), reaches not more than a third of the way down. It is united to the
shank-bone, like the splint-bone, by a cartilaginous substance, which is soon changed
into a bony one. Of the use of these little bones we cannot speak.
The lower bone of the thigh forms an angle with the upper one, being the reverse
of that which exists between the upper bone and the pelvis. The object of this is
twofold, — to obviate concussion, and to give a direction to the muscles favourable to
their powerful action; and in proportion to the acuteness of the angle, or the dejrree
in which the stifle is brought under the horse, will these purposes be accomplished.
There is much difference in this in different horses, and the construction of this part
of the frame is a matter worthy of more regard than is generally paid to it.
Tb\s part of the thigh should likewise be long. In proportion to the length of the
284 THE HIND LEGS.
muscle is the degree of contraction of wliich it is capable ; and also in proportion tc
the contraction of the muscle is the extent of motion in the limb ; but it is still more
necessary that this part of the thigh should have considerable muscle, in order that
streno-th may be added to such extent or compass of motion. Much endurance would
not be expected from a horse with a thin arm. A horse with thin and lanky thighs
will not possess the strength which considerable exertion would sometimes require.
In the cuts p. 281 and 2h2, the principal muscles of this part of the thigh are deli-
neated. They are usually somewhat prominent, and may readily be traced in the
living animal : a very brief notice of them may not be uninteresting.
The continuation from g, p. 282, is the tendinous expansion given to bind and
strengthen these muscles.
w is a very important muscle. It is the principal extensor muscle of the hind leg
{extensor pedis, extensor of the foot). It commences by a small flat tendon, common
to it, and the flexor metatarsi. Passing over the tibia it becomes fleshy : but a little
above the hock it changes to a flat tendon, and pursues its course in front of the hock
in union with the tendon of the perona;us. On the fetlock joint they disunite. It
now begins to expand, and is finally inserted into the upper part of the cofiin-bone,
or bone of the foot, after having given various fibres to both the pasterns. The
course of the corresponding tendon in the hind leg is given in the cut p. 282, fig. /.
It helps to flex the hock joint, but is principally concerned in the extension of the
foot, and also the pastern and fetlock joints.
At 771, p. 282, is another of the extensor muscles, called the peronscvs, from a name
given to the fibula. It arises from the whole course of the fibula, and also becomes
tendinous before it reaches the hock. About half-way down the shank it is found in
the same sheath with the principal extensor muscle, and is inserted with it into the
coffin-bone. Its office is to co-operate with the extensor pedis in raising the foot from
the ground, and bringing it forward under the body.
At 0 is %\\Bjlexor pedis, one of the principal flexor muscles of the foot, arising from
the upper part of the tibia. As it approaches the hock rt is distin^ished by its
large round tendon, which is seen to enter into a groove at the back of the hock. Its
tendon passes down the back of the leg like that of a similar muscle in the fore leg.
It is the perforating flexor muscle of the hind leg, and assists in flexing the pastern
and fetlock.
h is a very slender muscle, arising from the head of the fibula, and proceeding over
the external part of the thigh, and, just above the hock, its tendon unites with that
of the perforating muscle.
j is a very powerful muscle, springing from the head of the upper bone of the
thigh, and, midway down the lower bone of it, ending in a flat tendon, which is
inserted into the point of the hock. Its use is to extend the hock. It is evidently
most advantageously situated for powerful action ; for it acts almost at right angles,
and its effect is increased in proportion to the projection of the point of the hock.
We will now turn to the inner side. See cut, p. 281.
772 gives a portion of the muscle which has been just described.
n is an inside view of the perforating flexor muscle of the foot.
/ is the peronaeus.
0 is the flexor perforatus muscle, having its origin from near the lower head of the
upper bcie of the thigh — becoming tendinous as it passes down the thigh — ex-
panding over and surrounding the point of the hock, and assisting in extending it.
After this the tendon pursues its course down the posterior part of the leg, in a man-
ner so much resembling that of similar tendons in the fore leg, that it will be suffi
cient to refer to a description of the perforated and perforating flexor tendons at page
280.
At e is a continuation of the gracilis muscle, p. 281, over the stifle.
At h is the extensor pedis, already described, p. 282, with its tendon.
At i is a muscle used to bend the hock, the flexor metatarsi, or bender of the leg;
arising from the external condyle of t^P os femoris, and inserted into the large and
small metatarsal bones. It is a muscle of considerable power, although disadvania-
geously situated, both as to its direction and its being inserted so near to the joint
It flexes the hock, the joint turning somewhat inwards.
At k is a short muscle extending from the upper to the lower thigh-bones (the vopn-
tens), bending the stifle and turning the limb inward.
THOROUGH-PIN — THE HOCK, 285
These cuts represent the situation of some of the principal blood-vessels and nerves
'if the hind extremities.
In the cut of the inside of the thigh, page 281, p represents the course of the prm-
cipal artery ; at q are blood-vessels belonging to the groin ; at r is the large cutane-
ous vein, or the vein immediately under the skin. The principal nerves on the fore
part of the inside of the thigh pursue their course at /, in the direction of the subcu-
taneous vein ; and those of the posterior part are seen at s, while at « are those im-
portant ligamentous bands at the bending of the hock which confine the tendons.
In the cut of the outside of the thigh, page 282, p will give the course of the an-
terior arteries and veins ; q that of the principal nerves, and coming into sight below ;
and r the bands described in the former plate.
Also, in the cut of the outside of the shoulder and arm, p. 259, the figures 1, 2, and
3, designate the places of the principal artery, nerve, and vein of the leg; 4 gives
the subcutaneous vein running within the arm; and 5 the subcutaneous vein of the
side of the chest.
In the cut of the inside of the arm, p. 260, the lines above represent, in the order
from the front, the principal nerves, arteries, and veins of the shoulder and arm ; and,
on the muscles, k represents the principal subcutaneous vein of the inside of the arm,
and i the artery by which it is accompanied.
The stifle joint is not often subject to sprain. The heat and tenderness will guide
to the seat of injury. Occasionally, dislocation of the patella has occurred, and the
horse drags the injured limb after him, or rests it on the fetlock ; the aid of a veteri-
nary surgeon is here requisite. The muscles of the inside of the thigh have some-
times been sprained. This may be detected by diffused heat, or heat on the inside
of the thigh above the stifle. Rest, fomentations, bleeding, and physic, will be the
proper means of cure.
THOROUGH-PIN.
Mention has been made of ivind-galls and their treatment. A similar enlargement
is found above the hock, between the tendons of the flexor of the foot and the exten-
sor of the hock. As from its situation it must necessarily project on both sides of
the hock, in the form of a round swelling, it is called a thorough-pin, a, p. 283. It is
an indication of considerable work, but is rarely attended by lameness. The mode
of treatment must resemble that for wind-galls. Although thorough-pin cannot, per-
haps, be pronounced to be unsoundness, it behoves the buyer to examine well a horse
that is disfigured by it, and to ascertain whether undue work may not have injured
him in other respects.
THE HOCK.
This is a most important joint, occasionally the evident, and much oftener the un-
suspected seat of lameness, and the proper formation of which is essentially connect-
ed with the value of the horse. It answers to the ancle in the human being.
The inferior head of the tibia is formed into two deep grooves, with three sharpen-
ed ridges, one separating the grooves, and the other two constituting the sides of
them. It is seen at a in the following cut. It rests upon a singularly-shaped bone,
i, the astralgus, which has two circular risings or projections, and, with a depression
between them, answering exactly to the irregularities of the tibia. These are re-
ceived and mortised into each other. At the posterior part its convex surface is re-
ceived into a concavity near the base of another bone, and with which it is united by
very strong ligaments. This bone, c, is called the os calcis, or bone of the heel, and
it projects upwards, flattened at its sides, and receives, strongly implanted into it, the
tendons of powerful muscles. These bones rest on two others, the os cuboides, d
(cube-formed), behind, and the larger cuneiform or wedje-shaped bone e, in front.
The larger wedge-shaped bone is supported by two smaller ones, /, and these two
smaller ones and the cuboides by the upper heads of the shank-bone s-, and the splint-
Dones h. The cuboides is placed on the external splint-bone, and the cannon-bone,
or principal bone of the leg; the small wedge-bone is principally evident on the inner
splint-bone, not seen in the cut; and the middle wedge-bone on the shank-bone only,
g. These bones are all connected together by very strong ligaments, which prevent
dislocation, but allow a slight degree of motion between them, and the surfaces which
ve opposen to each other are thickly covered by elastic cartilage.
288
THE HIND LEGS.
CUT OF THE HOCK.
Considering the situation and action of this joint, the weight and stress thrown
upon it must be exceedingly great,
and it is necessarily liable to much
injury in rapid and powerful mo-
tion. What are the provisions to
prevent injury'? The grooved or
pulley-like heads of the tibia and
the astragalus, received deeply
into one another, and confined by
powerful ligaments, admitting
freely of hinge-like action ; but
of no side motion, to which the
joint would otherwise be exposed
in rapid movement, or on an un-
even surface. A slight inspection
of the cut will show that the stress
or weight thrown by the tibia a
on the astragalus b, does not
descend perpendicularly, but in a
slanting direction. By this much
concussion is avoided, or more
readily diffused among the dif-
ferent bones; and, the joint con-
sisting of six bones, each of them
covered with elastic cartilage, and
each admitting of a certain degree
of motion, the diminished con-
cussion is diffused among them
all, and thereby neutralised and
rendered comparatively harmless.
Each of these bones is covered
not only by cartilage, but by a
membrane secreting synovia ; so
that, in fact, these bones are
formed into so many distinct
joints, separated from each other,
and thereby guarded from injury,
yet united by various ligaments —
possessing altogether sufficient
motion, yet bound together so
strongly as to defy dislocation.
When, however, the work which
this joint has to perform, and the
thoughtlessness and cruelty with
which that work is often exacted,
are considered, it will not excite
any surprise if this necessarily complicated mechanism is sometimes deranged. The
hock, from its complicated structure and its work, is the principal seat of lameness
behind.
ENLARGEMENT OF THE HOCK.
First, there is inflammation, or sprain of the hock-joint generally, arising from sud-
den violent concussion, by some check at speed, or over-weight, and attended with
enlargement of the whole joint, and great tenderness and lameness. This, however,
like other diffused inflammations, is not so untractable as an intense one of a more
circumscribed nature, and by rest and fomentation, or, perchance, firing, the limb
recovers its action, and the horse becomes fit for ordinary work.
The swelling, however, does not always subside. Enlargement, spread over the
whole of the hock-joint, remains. A horse with an enlarged hock must always be
regarded with suspicion. In truth, he is unsound. The parts, altered in structure,
must be to a certain degree weakened. The animal may discharge his usual work
BOG SPAVIN. 287
ilurinff a long period, without return of lameness; but if one of those emergencies
sliould occur when all his energies require to be exerted, the disorganised and
weakened part will fail. The purchase, therefore, of a horse with enlarged hock
will depend on circumstances. If he has other excellences, he will not be uniformly
rejected ; for he may be ridden or driven moderately for many a year without incon-
venience, yet one extra hard day's work may lame him for ever.
CURB.
There are often injuries of particular parts of the hock-joint. Curb is an affection
of this kind. It is an enlargement at the back of the hock, three or four inches below
its point. It is represented at d, p. 283, and is either a strain of the ring-like liga-
ment wiiich binds the tendons in their place, or of the sheath of the tendons ; oftener,
however, of the ligament than of the sheath. Any sudden action of the limb of more
than usual violence may produce it, and therefore horses are found to ' throw out
curbs' after a hardly-contested race, an extraordinary leap, a severe gallop over heavy
ground, or a sudden check in the gallop. Young horses are particularly liable to it,
and horses that are cow-hocked (vide cut, p. 283), — whose hocks and legs resemble
those of the cow, the hocks being turned inward, and the legs forming a considerable
angle outwards. This is intelligible enough; for in hocks so formed, the annular
ligament must be continually on the stretch, in order to confine the tendon.
Curbs are generally accompanied by considerable lameness at their first appearance,
but the swelling is not always great. They are best detected by observing the leg
sideway.
The first object in attempting the curs is to abate inflammation, and this will be
most readily accomplished by cold evaporating lotions frequently applied to the part.
Equal portions of spirit of wine, water, and vinegar, will afford an excellent applica-
tion. It will be almost impossible to keep a bandage on. If the heat and lameness
are considerable, it will be prudent to give a dose of physic, and to bleed from the
subcutaneous vein, whose course is represented at r, p. 281 ; and whether the injury
■ s of the annular ligament, or the sheath of the tendon, more active means will be
necessary to perfect the cure. Either a liquid blister should be rubbed on the part,
consisting of a vinous or turpentine tincture of cantharides, and this daily applied
until some considerable swelling takes place ; or, what is the preferable plan, the hair
should be cut off, and the part blistered as soon as the heat has been subdued. The
blister should be repeated until the swelling has disappeared, and the horse goes
sound. In severe cases it may be necessary to fire; but a fair trial, however, should
be given to milder measures. If the iron is used, it should be applied in straight
lines.
There are few lamenesses in which absolute and long-continued rest is more requi-
site. It leaves the parts materially weakened, and, if the horse is soon put to work
again, the lameness will frequently return. No horse that has had curbs, should be
put even to ordinary work in less than a month after the apparent cure; and, even
then, he should very gradually resume his former habits.
A horse with a curb, is manifestly unsound. A horse with the vestige of curb,
should be regarded with much suspicion, or generally condemned as unsound.
Curb is also an hereditary complaint; and therefore a horse that has once suffered
from it, should always be regarded with suspicion, especially if either of the' parents
has exhibited it.
BOG SPAVIN.
The hock is plentifully supplied with reservoirs of mucus, to lubricate the different
portions of this complicated joint. Some of these are found on the inside of the joint,
which could not be represented in the cut, p. 236. From over-exertion of the joint,
they become inflamed, and considerably enlarged. They are wind-galls of the hock.
The subcutaneous vein passes over the inside of the hock, and over some of these
enlarged mucous reservoirs, and is compressed between them and the external integu-
ment— the course of the blood is partially arrested, and a portion of the vein below
the impediment, and between it and the next valve, is distended, and causes the soft
tumour on the inside of the hock, called Bog or Blood spavin.
This is a very serious disease, attended with no great, but often permanent lame
ness, and too apt to return when the enlargement has subsided under medical treat
288 THE HIND LEGS.
ment. It mast be considered as decided unsoundness. In a horse for slow draught,
it is scarcely worth wliile even to attack it. And in one destined to more rapid action,
the j)robiibility of a relapse should not be forgotten, when the chances of success and
the exuenses of treatment are calculated.
The cause of the disease — the enlarged mucous capsule — lies deep, and is with
difllculty operated upon. Uniform pressure would sometimes cause the absorption
of the fluid contained in cysts or bags like these, but in a joint of such extensive
motion as the hock, it is difficult, or almost impossible, to confine the pressure on the
precise spot at which it is required. Could it be made to bear on the enlarged bag,
it would likewise press on the vein, and to a greater degree hinder the passage of the
blood, and increase the dilatation below the obstruction. The old and absurd method
of passing a ligature above and below the enlarged portion of the vein, and then dis-
secting out the tumour, is not, in the advanced stage of veterinary science', ])ractised
by any surgeon who regards his reputation. The only method of relief which holds
out any promise even of temporary success, is exciting considerable inflammation on
the skin, and thus rousing the deeper-seated absorbents to carry away the fluid eifused
in the enlarged bag. P^or this purpose, blisters or firing may be tried : but in the
majority of cases, the disease will bid defiance to all appliances, or will return and
baffle our hopes when we had seemed to be accomplishing our object.
A horse with bog spavin will do for ordinary work. He may draw in a cart, or
trot fairly in a lighter carriage, with little detriment to his utility; but he ^vill never
do for hard or rapid work.
BONE SPAVIN.
A still more formidable disease ranks under the name of Spavin, and is an affec-
tion of the bones of the hock-joint. It has been stated that the bones of the leg, the
shank-bone, g, p. 286, and the two small splint-bones behind, h, support the lower
layer of the bones of the hock. The cube-bone, d, rests principally on the shank-
bone, and in a slight degree on the outer splint-bone. The middle wedge-bone, /,
rests entirely upon the shank-bone, and the smaller wedge-bone presses (not seen in
the cut) in a very slight degree on the shank-bone, but principally, or almost entirely,
on the inner splint-bone. Then the splint-bones sustain a very unequal degree of
concussion and weight. Not only is the inner one placed more under the body, and
nearer the centre of gravity, but it has almost the whole of the weight and concussion
communicated to the smaller cuneiform bone carried on to it. It is not, therefore, to
be wondered at that, in the violent action of this joint in galloping, leaping, heavy
draught, and especially in young horses, and before the limbs have become properly
knit, the inner splint-bone, or its ligaments, or the substance which connects it with
the shank-bone, should suffer material injury.
The smith increases the tendency to this by his injudicious management of the feet.
It is a common notion that cutting, and wounds in the feet — from one foot treading on
the other — are prevented by putting on a shoe with a calkhi on the outer heel — that
is, the extremity of the heel being considerably raised from the ground. It is not
unusual to see whole teams of horses with the outer heel of the hind foot considerably
raised above the other. This unequal bearing, or distribution of the weight, cannot
fail of being injurious. It places an unequal strain on the ligaments of the joints,
and particularly of the hock-joint, and increases the tendency to spavin.
The weight and concussion thus thrown on the inner splint-bone, produce inflam-
mation of the cartilaginous substance that unites it to the shank-bone. In conse-
quence of it, the cartilage is absorbed, and bone deposited ; the union between the
splint-bone and the shank becomes bony, instead of cartilaginous ; the degree of
elastic action between them is destroyed, and there is formed a splint of the hind leg.
This is uniformly on the inside of the hind leg, because the greatest weight and con-
cussion are thrown on the inner splint-bones. As in the fore leg, the disposition to
form bony matter having commenced, and the cause which produced it continuing to
act, bone continues to be deposited, and it generally appears in the form of a tumour,
vi'here the head of the splint-bone is united with the shank, and in front of that union.
It is seen at c, p. 283. This is called bone spavin. Inflammation of the ligaments
of any of the small bones of the hock, proceeding to bony tumour, would equally
class under the name of spavin ; but, commonly, the disease commences on the pre-
cise spot that has been described.
BONE SPAVIN. 289
While spaYin is /orming, there is always lameness, and that frequenTly to a vtry
great degree: but when the membrane of the bone has accommodated itself to the
tumour that extended it, the lameness subsides or disappears, or depends upon the
degree in which the bony deposit interferes with the motion of the joint. It is well
known to horsemen, that many a hunter, with spavin that would cause his rejection
by a veterinary surgeon, stands his work without lameness. The explanation is this :
there is no reason why an old bony tumour on the outside of any of the bones of the
hock, free from connexion with the next bone, and from any tendon, should be at all
injurious ; as, for instance, one immediately under e or/, p. 286 : but, from the com-
plicated nature of the hock, it is difficult, if not impossible, to be quite sure of the
place, or extent, from inspection, of the tumour ; and, besides, the disposition to throw
out bone covered by the tumour, may continue and extend to the joint. The surgeon,
therefore, cannot be perfectly safe in pronouncing a bone spavin to be of no conse-
quence. Horses with exceedingly large spavins, are often seen that are only slightly
lame, or that merely have a stiffness in their gait at first starting, but which gradually
goes off after a little motion ; while others, with the bony tumour comparatively
small, have thg lameness so great as to destroy the usefulness of the horse. There is
always tliis peculiarity in the lameness of spavin, tliat it abates, and sometimes dis-
appears, on exercise; and, therefore, a horse, with regard to which there is any sus-
picion of this affection, should be examined when first in the morning it is taken from
the stable.
If the spavin continues to increase, the bony deposit first spreads over the lower
wedge-bones, /, page 386, for these are nearest to its original seat. They are capa-
ble of slight motion, and share in every action of the joint, but their principal de-
sign is to obviate concussion. The chief motion of the joint, and that compared
with which the motion of the other bones is scarcely to be regarded, is confined to
the tibia a, and the astragalus b, and therefore stiffness rather than lameness may
accompany spavin, even when it is beginning to affect the small bones of the joint.
Hence, too, is the advantage of these bones having each its separate ligaments and
membranes, and constituting so many- distinct joints, since injury may happen to
some of them, without the effect being propagated to the rest. When the bony de-
posit continues to enlarge and takes in the second layer of bones — the larger wedge-
bones e — and even spreads to the cuboid bones on the other side, the lameness may
not be very great, because these are joints, or parts of the joint, in which the motion
is small ; but when it extends to the union of the tibia a, and the astragalus b — when
the joint, in which is the chief motion of the hock, is attacked — the lameness ia
indeed formidable, and the horse becomes nearly quite useless.
Spavined horses are generally capable of slow work. They are equal to the greater
part of the work of the farm, and therefore they should not be always rejected by the
small farmer, as they may generally be procured at little price. These horses are
not only capable of agricultural work, but they generally improve under it. The
lameness in some degree abates, and even the bony tumour to a certain degree dimin-
ishes. Tliere is sufficient moderate motion and friction of the limb to rouse the ab-
sorbents to action, and cause them^ to take up a portion of the bony matter thrown
out, but not enough to renew or prolong inflammation. It cannot be said that the
plough affords a cere for spavin, but the spavined horse often materially improves
while working at it.
For fast work, and for work that must be regularly performed, spavined horses are
not well calculated ; for this lameness behind produces great difficulty in rising, and
the consciousness that he will not be able to rise without painful effort occasionally
prevents the horse from lying down at all ; and the animal that cannot rest well can-
not long travel far or fast.
The treatment of spavin is simple enough, but far from being always effectual.
The owner of the horse will neither consult his own interest, nor the dictates of hu-
manity, if he suffers the chisel and mallet, or the gimlet, or the pointed iron, or arse-
nic, to be used ; yet measures of considerable severity must be resorted to. Repeated
blisters will usually cause either the absorption of the bony deposit, or the abatement
or removal of the inflammation of the ligaments, or, as a last resource, the heated
iron may be applied.
The accoun', of the diseases of the hock is not yet completed. It is well known
that the horse "s frequently subject to lameness behind, when no ostensible cause for
25 2m
290 THE HIND LEGS.
it can be found, an-l there is no external heat or enlargement to indicate its seat.
Farriers and gTooms pronounce these to be afl'ections of the stifle, or round bone ; or,
f the gait of the horse and peculiar stifTness of motion point out the hock as the
affected part, yet the joint may be of its natural size, and neitlier heat nor tenderness
can be discovered. The groom has his own method of unravelling the mystery. He
says that it is the beginning of spavin; but months and years pass away, and the
■snavin does not appear, and the horse is at length destroyed as incurably lame.
Horsemen are indebted to Mr. W. J. Goodwin, V. S. to Her Majesty, for the dis-
covery of the seat of frequent lameness behind. The cut, p. 286, represents the two
'ayersof small bones within the hock — the larger wedge-like bone e, above; and the
middle /, and the smaller one below, and it will be seen that almost the whole of the
\veight of the horse, communicated by the tibia o, is thrown upon these bones. The
cube-bone d does little more than support the point of the hock c. It is then easy to
imagine that, in the concussion of hard work or rapid travelling, these bones, or the
delicate and sensible membranes in which they are wrapped, may be severely injured.
Repeated dissections of horses that have been incurably lame behind, without any-
thing external, during life, to point out the place or cause of lameness, have shown
that inflammation of the membranes lining these joints, and secreting the fluid that
lubricates them, has taken place.
Mr. Goodwin narrates a very interesting case in corroboration of this account of
hock lameness. The author of this work had the honour of being present when the
examination took place. " The patient was a harness horse of unusual perfection,
both in shape and action, and was a great favourite with an illustrious personage.
He suddenly became lame behind on the ofF-leg, but without the least accident or
alteration of structure to account for it. He was turned out for a short time, and the
lameness disappeared. He was then incautiously made to perform his usual work,
until perfectly incapacitated for it by returning and aggravated lameness. Suspect-
ing the seat of lameness to be in the hock, although the joint was perfectly unaltered
in form, he was, three months after the commencement of the lameness, blistered and
fired, and placed either in a loose place or paddock, as circumstances seemed to re-
quire. Not the least amendment took place at the end of six months, even in his
quiescent state, and, after twelve months from the time of his being given up for
treatment, he was destroyed, his case being naturally considered a hopeless one.
Ulceration of the synovial membrane was found, taking its origin between the two
cuneiform bones. These bones had become carious, and the disease had gradually
extended itself to other parts of the joint. Mr. Goodwin had no doubt that if the
animal had been suffered to work on for any greater length of time, necrosis, or an-
chylosis of every bone concerned in the hock, would have been the result."* — (Fe/e-
rinarian, iii. 158.)
Much more depends, than they who are not well accustomed to horses imagine, on
the length of the os calcis, or projection of the hock. In proportion to the length of
this bone will two purposes be effected. The line of direction will be more advanta-
geous, for it will be nearer to a perpendicular, and the arm of the lever to which the
power is applied will be lengthened, and thus mechanical advantage will be gained
to an almost incredible extent. The slightest lengthening of the point of the hock
will wonderfully tell in the course of a day's work, and therefore it is that the char-
acter of the OS calcis is of such immense importance.
The point of the hock is sometimes swelled. A soft, fluctuating tumour appears
on it. This is an enlargement of one of the mucous bags of which mention has been
made, and that surrounds the insertion of the tendons into the point of tlie hock. It
is termed,
CAPPED HOCK.
It is eeldom accompanied by lameness, and yet it is a somewhat serious business,
for it is usually produced by blows and mostly by the injuries which the horse in-
* These opinions of the seat and nature of obscure hock-lameness are now maintained b"
the majority of %'eterinary surgeons, although some of them diflier a little with regard to the
articulation that is p;cneral!y affected, and the manner in which the depressions or excavations
on the surface of these Viones is effected. In tlie 10th volume of the "Veterinarian," are
some valuable observations on this subject by Professor Dick, and Messrs. Pritchard and
Spooner.
MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS. — SWELLED LEGS. 291
flicts upon himself in the act of kicking: therefore it is that a horse with a capped
hock is very properly regarded with a suspicious eye. The whole of the hock
should be carefully examined in order to discover whether there are other marks of
violence, and the previous history of the animal should be carefully inquired into.
Does he kick in harness or in the stall, or has lie been lying on a thin bed, or on nc
bed at all ; and mus may the liock have been bruised, and the swelling produced'?
It is exceedingly difficult to apply a bandage over a capped hock; and puncturing
the tumour, or passing a seton through it, would be a most injudicious practice".
Blisters, or iodine, repeated as often as may be necessary, are the best means to be
employed. Occasionally the tumour will spontaneously disappear; but at other
times it will attain a large size, or assume a callous structure, that will bid defiance
to all the means that can be employed.
MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS.
On the inside of the hock, or a little below it, as well as at the bend of the knee
{h, p. 277), there is occasionally a scurfy eruption, called mallenders in the fore leg,
and sallenders in the hind leg. They seldom produce lameness ; but if no means are
taken to get rid of them, a discharge proceeds from them which it is afterwards
difficult to stop. They usually indicate bad stable management.
A diuretic ball should be occasionally given, and an ointment of sugar-of-lead and
tar, with treble the quantity of lard, rubbed over the part. Should this fail, a weak
mercurial ointment may be used. Iodine has here also been useful.
The line of direction of the legs beneath the hocks should not be disregarded. Tho
leg should descend perpendicularly to the fetlock. The weight and stress will thus
be equally diffused, not only over the whole of the hock, but also the pasterns and
the foot. Some horses have their hocks closer than usual to each other. The legs
take a divergent direction outward, and the toes also are turned outward. These
horses are said to be Cat or Cow hocked. They are generally supposed to possess
considerable speed. Perhaps they do so; and it is thus accounted for. The cow-
hocked horse has his legs not only turned more outward, but bent more under him,
and this increases the distance between the point of the hock and the tendons of the
perforating muscle : see 6, in the cut, page 283. It increases the s"j>ace which is
usually occupied by thoroughpin, see a, in the same page. Then tl e point of the
hock, moved by the action of the muscles, is enabled to describe a gieater portion of
a circle ; and in proportion to the increased space passed over by the point of the hock,
will the space traversed by the limb be increased, and so the stride of the horse may
be lengthened, and, thus far, his speed may be increased. But this advantage is
more than counterbalanced by many evils. This increased contraction of the muscles
is an expenditure of animal power ; and, as already stated, the weight and the con-
cussion being so unequally distributed by this formation of the limbs, some part must
be over-strained and over-worked, and injury must ensue. On this account it is that
the cow-hocked horse is more subject than others to thoroughpin and spavin; and is
so disposed to curbs, that these hocks are denominated by horsemen curly hocks.
The mischief extends even farther than this. Such a horse is peculiarly liable to
windgall, sprain of the fetlock, cutting, and knuckling.
A slight inclination to this form in a strong powerful horse may not be very objec-
tionable, but a horse decidedly cow-hocked should never be selected.
SWELLED LEGS.
The fore legs, but oftener the hind ones, and especially in coarse horses, are some-
times subject to considerable enlargement. Occasionally, when the horse does not
eeera to labour under any other disease, and sometimes from an apparent shifting of
disease from other parts, the hind legs suddenly swell to an enormous degree from
the hock and almost from the stifle to the fetlock, attended by a greater or less degree
of heat, and tenderness of the skin, and sometimes excessive and very peculiar lame-
ness. The pulse likewise becomes quick and hard, and the horse evidently labours
under considerable fever. It is acute inflammation of the cellular substance of the
legs, and that most sudden in its attack, and most violent in its degree, and therefore
attended by the effusion of a considerable quantity of fluid into the cellular membrane.
It occurs in young horses, and in those which are over-fed and little exercised
292 THE HIND LEGS.
Fomentation, diuretics, oi puroratives, or, if there is much fever, a moderate bleeding
will often relieve the distension almost as suddenly as it appeared.
The kind of swelled legs most frequently occurring and most troublesome is of a
different nature, or rather it is most various in its kind and causes, and consequences
and mode of treatment. Sometimes the legs are filled, but there is little lameness or
inconvenience. At other times the limbs are strangely gorged, and with a great
degree of stiffness and paim Occasionally the horse is apparently well at night, but,
onthe following morning, one or both of the legs are tremendously swollen ; and on
its being touched, the horse catches it up suddenly, and nearly falls as he does so.
Many horses, in seemingly perfect health, if suffered to remain several days without
exercise, will have swelled legs. If the case is neglected, abscesses appear in various
parts of the legs ; the heels are attacked by grease, and, if proper measures are not
adopted, the horse has an enlarged leg for life.
The cure, when the case has not been too long neglected, is sufficiently plain.
Physic or diuretics, or both, must be had recourse to. iMild cases will generally
yield to their intiuence; but, if the animal has been neglected, the treatment must be
decisive. If the horse is in high condition, these should be preceded or accompanied
by bleeding; but if there are any symptoms of debility, bleeding would only increase
the want of tone in the vessels.
Horses taken from grass and brought into close stables very speedily have swelled
legs, because the difference of food and increase of nutriment rapidly increase the
quantitv of the circulating fluid, while the want of exercise takes away the means by
which it might be got rid of. The remedy here is sufficiently plain. Swelled legs,
however, may proceed from general debility. They may be the consequence of
starvation, or disease that has considerably weakened the animal ; and these parts,
being farthest from the centre of circulation, are the first to show the loss of power
by the accumulation of fluid in them. Here the means of cure would be to increase
the general strength, with which the extremities would sympathise. I\lild diuretics
and tonics would therefore be evidently indicated.
Horses in the spring and fall are subject to swelled legs. The powers of the con-
stitution are principally employed in providing a new coat for the animal, and the
extremities have not their share of vital influence. Mingled cordials and diuretics are
indicated here — the diuretic to lessen the quantity of the circulating fluid, and the
cordial to invigorate the frame.
Swelled legs are often teasing in horses that are in tolerable or good health : but
where the work is somewhat irregular the cure consists in giving more equal exercise,
walking the horse out daily when the usual work is not required, and using plentj'
of friction in the form of hand-rubbing. Bandages have a greater and more durable
effect, for nothing tends more to support the capillary vessels, and rouse the action
of the absorbents, tlian moderate pressure. Hay -bands will form a good bandage for
the airricultural horse, and their effect will probably be increased by previously
dipping them in water.
GREASE.
The physic, or the diuretic ball, may occasionally be used, but very sparingly ; and
only when they are absolutely required. In the hands of the owner of the horse, or
of the veterinary surgeon, they may be employed with benefit ; but in those of the
carter or the groom they will do far more harm than good. The frequent and undue
stimulus of the urinary organs by the diuretic ball, will be too often followed by
speedy and incurable debility. If the swelling bids defiance to exercise and friction
and bandage, the aid of the diuretic may be resorted to, but never until these have
failed, unless there is an evident tendency to humour or grease.
Swelled legrs, although distinct from grease, is a disease that is apt to degenerate
into it. Grease is a specific inflammation of the skin of the heels, sometimes of the
fore-feet, but oftener of the hinder ones. It is not a contagious disease, as some have
asserted, althoudi when it once appears in a stable it frequently attacks almost every
horse in it. Bad stable manajement is the true cause of it.
There is a peculiarity about the skin of the heel of the horse. In its healthy state
there is a secretion of greasy matter from it, in order to prevent excoriation and chap-
ping, and the skin is soft and pliable. Too often, however, from bad management,
the secretion of this greasy matter is stopped, and the skin of the heel becomes red,
GREASE. 293
and drj', and scurfy. The joint still continuing to be extended and flexed, cracks of
the skin begin to appear, and these, if neglected, rapidly extend, and the heel becomes
a mass of soreness, ulceration, and fungus.
The distance of the heel from the centre of circulation, and the position of the hina
limbs, render the return of blood slow and difficult. There is also more variation of
temperature here than in any other part of the frame. As the horse stands in the
closed stable, the heat of this part is too often increased by its being embedded in
straw. When the stable door is open, the heels are nearest to it, and receive first,
and most powerfully, the cold current of air. When he is taken from his stable to
work, the heels are frequently covered with mire and wet, and they are oftenest and
most intensely chilled by the long and slow process of evaporation which is taking
place from them. No one, then, can wonder at the frequency with which the heels
are attacked by inflammation, and the difficulty there is in subduing it.
Much error has prevailed, and it has led to considerable bad practice, from the
notion of humours flying about the horse, and which, it is said, must have vent some-
where, and attack the heels as the weakest part of the frame. Thence arise the
physicking, and the long course of diuretics, which truly weaken the animal, and often
do irreparable mischief.
Grease is a local complaint. It is produced principally by causes that act locally,
and it is most successfully treated by local applications. Diuretics and purgatives
may be useful in abating inflammation ; but the grand object is to get rid of the inflam-
matory action which exists in the skin of the heel, and to heal the wounds, and
resnedy the mischief which it has occasioned.
The first appearance of grease is usually a dry and scurfy state of the skin of the
heel, with redness, heat, and itcliiness. The heel should be well but gently washed
with soap and water, and as much of the scurf detached as is easily removable. An
ointment, composed of one part plumb, diacet. and seven of adeps suillae, will usually
supple, and cool, and heal the part.
When cracks appear, the mode of treatment will depend on their extent and depth.
If they are but slight, a lotion, composed plumbi sulph. oij. et aluminis oiiij., dis-
solved in a pint of water, will often speedily dry them up, and close them. There is
sometimes considerable caprice in the application of this lotion, which has induced
Professor Morton to have recourse to alumen et terebinthinus vulgaris one part each,
and adeps suillse three parts, made into an ointment.
If the cracks are deep, with an ichorous discharge and considerable lameness, it
will be necessarj" to poultice the heel. A poultice of linseed meal will be generally
eflective, unless the discharge is thin and offensive, when an ounce of finely-powdered
charcoal should be mixed with the linseed meal ; or a poultice of carrots, boiled soft
and mashed. The efficacy of a carrot-poultice is seldom sufficiently appreciated in
cases like this.
When the inflammation and pain have evidently subsided, and the sores discharge
good matter, the calamine ointment may be applied with advantage ; and the cure
will generally be quickened if a verj' diluted vitriolic or alum solution is applied.
The best medicine will consist of mild aloetic balls ; gentle diuretics being given
towards the close of the treatment.
After the chaps or cracks have healed, the legs will sometimes continue gorged and
swelled. A flannel bandage, evenly applied over the whole of the swelled part, will
be very serviceable ; or, should the season admit of it, a run at grass, particularly
spring grass, should be allowed. A blister is inadmissible, from the danger of
bringing back the inflammation of the skin, and the discharge from it; but the
actual cautery, special care being taken not to penetrate the skin, may occasionally be
resorted to.
In some cases the cracks are not confined to the centre of the heels, but spread over
them, and extend on the fetlock, and even up the leg, while the legs are exceedingly
swelled, and there is a watery discharge from the cracks, and an apparent oozing
through the skin at other places. The legs are exceedingly tender and sometimes
hot. and there is an appearance which the farrier thinks very decisive as to the state
of the disease, and which the better informed man should not overlook — the heels
smoke — the skin is so hot. that the watery fluid partly evaporates as it runs from the
cracks or oozes through the skin.
There will be great danger in suddenly stopping this discharge. Inflammation of
29^ THE HIND LEGS.
a more important part has rapidly succeeded to the injudicious attempt. The local
application should be directed to the abatement of the inflammation. The poultices
just referred to should be diligently used night and day, and especially the carrot-
poultice; and when the heat, and tenderness, and stiiTness of motion have diminished,
astringent lotions may be applied — either the alum lotion, or a strong decoction of oak-
bark, changed, or used alternately, but not mixed. The cracks should likewise be
dressed with the ointment above-mentioned ; and, the moment the horse can bear it, a
flannel bandage should be put on, reaching from the coronet to three or four inches
above the swelling.
The medicine should be confined to mild diuretics, mixed with one-third part of
cordial mash ; or, if the horse is gross, and the inflammation runs high, a dose of
physic may be given. If the horse is strong, and full of flesh, physic should always
precede and sometimes supersede the diuretics. In cases of much debility, diuretics,
with aromatics or tonics, will be preferable.
The feeding should likewise vary with the case, but with these rules, which admit
of no exception, that green meat should be given, and more especially canots, when
they are not too expensive, and mashes, if the horse will eat them, and never the full
allowance of corn.
Walking exercise should be resorted to as soon as the horse is able to bear it, and
this by degrees may be increased to a gentle trot.
From bad stable management at first, and neglect during the disease, a yet worse
kind of grease occasionally appears. The ulceration extends over the skin of the heel
and the fetlock, and a fungus springs from the surface of both, highly sensible, bleed-
ing at the slightest touch, and interspersed with scabs. By degrees, portions of the
fungus begin to be covered with a horny substance protruding in the form of knobs,
and collected together in bunches. These are known by the name of grapes. A
fcEtid and very peculiar exudation proceeds from nearly the whole of the unnatural
substance. The horse evidently suffers much, and is gradually worn down by the
discharge. The assistance of a veterinary surgeon is here indispensable.
Some horses are more subject to grease than others, particularly draught-horses,
both heavy and light, but particularly the former, and if they have no degree of blood
in them. It was the experience of this which partly contributed to the gradual
change of coach and other draught-horses to those of a lighter breed. In the great
majority of cases, grease arises from mismanagement and neglect.
Everything that has a tendency to excite inflammation in the skin of the heel is a
cause of grease. Therefore want of exercise is a frequent source of this disease
The fluid which accumulates about the extremities and is unable to return, is a source
of irritation by its continual pressure. When high feeding is added to irregular or
deficient exercise, the disease is evidently still more likely to be produced. Want
of cleanliness in the stable is a fruitful source of grease. When the heels are
embedded in filth, they are weakened by the constant moisture surrounding them —
irritated by the acrimony of the dung and the urine, and little prepared to endure the
cold evaporation to which they are exposed when the horse is taken out of the stable.
The absurd practice of washing the feet and legs of horses when they come from
their work, and either carelessly sponging them down afterwards, or leaving them to
dry as they may, is, however, the most common origin of grease.
When the horse is warmed by his work, and the heels share in the warmth, the
momentary cold of washing may not be injurious, if the animal is immediately rubbed
dry ; yet even this would be better avoided : but to wash out the heels, and then
leave them partially dry or perfectly wet, and suffering from the extreme cold that is
produced by evaporation from a moist and wet surface, is the most absurd, danger-
ous, and injurious practice that can be imagined. It is worse when the post-horse or
the plough-horse is plunged up to his belly in the river or pond, immediately after
his work. The owner is little aware how many cases of inflammation of the lungs,
and bowels, and feet, and heels follow. After they have been sufiered to stand for
twenty minutes in the stable, during which time the horse-keeper or the carter may
be employed in taking care of the harness, or carriage, or beginning to dress the
horse, the greater part of the dirt which had collected about the heels may be got rid
of with a dry brush ; and the rest Mill disappear a quarter of an hour afterwards under
the operation of a second brushing . The trouble will not be great, and the heel8
will not be chilled and subject to inflammation.
THE FOOT.
29b
There has heen some dispute as to the propriety of cuttinor the h?.ir from theheels.*
Custom has very properly retained the hair on our farm-horses. Nature would not
have 5fiven it, had it not been useful. It guards the heel from being injured by the
inequalities of the ploughed field; it prevents the dirt, in which the heels are cor.
stantly enveloped, from reaching and caking on, and irritating the skin; it hinders
the usual moisture which is mixed with the clay and mould from reaching the skin
ind it preserves an equal temperature in the parts. If the hair is suft'ered'to remain
n the heels of the farm-horses, there is greater necessity for brushing and hand-rub-
ing the heels, and never washing them.
Fashion and utility have removed the hair from the heels of our hackney and car- .
iage horses. When the horse is carefully tended after his work is over, and his legs
quickly and completely dried, the less hair he has about them the better, for then
both the skin and tiie hair can be made perfectly dry before evaporation begins, or
proceeds so far as to deprive the legs of their heat. Grease is the child of negligence
and mismanagement. It is driven from our cavalry, and it will be the fault of the
gentle:nan and the farmer if it is not speedily banished from every stable.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FOOT.
a The external crust seen at
the quarter.
b The coronary ring.
c The httle horny plates lining
the crust.
d The same continued over the
bars.
e e The two concave surfaces
of the inside of the horny frog.
/ That which externally is the
cleft of the frog.
g The bars.
h The rounded part of the heels,
belonging to the frog.
This smaller cut exhibits, in as satisfactory a manner, the mechanism and struc-
ture of the base of the foot.
a a The frog.
i] b The sole.
c c The bars.
d d The crust.
* Professor Stewart has the following observations: — "During two very wet winters I
,lad opportunity of observing the results of trimming and no trimming, among upwards of
500 horses. More than 300 of these have been employed in coaching and posling, or work
of a similar kind, and about 150 are cart-horses. Grease, and other skin diseases of the heels
have been of most frequent occurrence where the horses are both trimmed and washed ; they
have been common where the horses were trimmed but not washed, and there have been
very few case" where washing or trimming were forbidden or neglected."— .S<a6Ze CEconomy,
296 THE FOOT.
The foot is composed of the horny box that covers the extremities of the horse, and
Hie contents of that box. The hoof or box is composed of the crust or wall, the coro-
nary ring and band, the bars, the horny laminae, the sole, and the horny frog.
THE CRUST OR WALL OF THE HOOF.
The. crust, or luall, is that portion which is seen when the foot is placed on tho
ground, and reaches from the termination of the hair to the ground. It is deepest in
front, where it is called the toe, measuring there about three inches and a half in
depth (see cut, p. 297), shallower at the sides, which are denominated the quarters,
and of least extent behind, where it is seldom more than an inch and a half in height,
and is termed the heel. The crust in the healthy foot presents a flat and narrow sur-
face to the ground, ascending obliquely backwards, and possessing diflerent degrees
of obliquity in different horses. In a sound hoof the proper degree of obliquity is
calculated at forty-five degrees, or the fourth part of a semicircle, at the front of the
foot. When the obliquity is greater than this, it indicates undue flatness of the sole,
and the crust is said to have " fallen in." If the obliquity is very much increased, the
sole projects, and is said to be pumiced or convex.
If the foot is more upright, or forms a greater angle than forty-five degrees, it
indicates much contraction, and a sole too concave ; and this difference of obliquity
is often so great, that the convexity or concavity of the sole may be affirmed without
the trouble of raising the foot for the purpose of examination.
It is of some importance to observe whether the depth of the crust appears rapidly
or slowly to decrease from the front to the heel. If the decrease is little, and even at
the heel the crust is high and deep, this indicates a foot liable to contraction, sand-
crack, thrush, and inflammation. The pasterns are upright, the paces of that horse
are not pleasant. On the other hand, if the crust rapidly diminishes in depth, and
the heels are low, this is accompanied by too great slanting of the pastern, and dis-
position to sprain in the back sinew. The foot, generally, is liable to be weak and
flat, and bruised, and there is more tendency to the frequent, but obscure lameness,
of which there will presently be occasion to treat — the navicular-joint disease.
The crust is composed of numerous horny fibres, connected together by an elastic
membranous substance, and extending from the coronet to the base of the hoof. It
differs materially in its texture, its elasticity, its growth, and its occasional fragilit)'^,
according to the state in which it is kept, and the circumstances that are acting
upon it.
The exterior wall of the hoof should be smooth and level. Protuberances or rings
round the crust indicate that the horse has had inflammation in the feet, and that to
such a degree, as to produce an unequal growth of horn, and probably to leave some
injurious consequences in the internal part of the foot. If there is a depression or
hollow in front of the foot, it betrays a sinking of the coffin-bone, and a flat or pumiced
sole. If there is a hollow at the quarters, it is the worst symptom of bad contraction.
The thickness of the crust, in the front of the foot, is rather more than half an inch ;
it becomes gradually thinner towards the quarters and heels, but this often varies to
a considerable extent. In some hoofs, it is not more than half the above thickness.
If however there is not, in the majority of horses, more than half an inch for nail-hold
at the toe, and not so much at the quarters, it will not appear surprising that these
horses are occasionally wounded in shoeing, and especially as some of them are very
unmanacreable while undergoing this process.
While the crust becomes thinner towards both quarters, it is more so at the inner
quarter than at the outer, because more weight is thrown upon it than upon the outer.
It is more under the horse. It is under the inner splint-bone, on which so much more
of the weight rests than on the outer; and, being thinner, it is able to expand more.
Its elasticity is called more into play, and concussion and injury are avoided. When
the expansion of the quarters is prevented by their being nailed to an unbending shoe,
the inner quarter suffers most. Corns are oftenest found there; contraction begins
there; sand-crack is seated there. Nature meant that this should be the most yield-
ing part, in order to obviate concussion, because on it the weight is princinally
thrown, and therefore when its power of yielding is taken away it must be the' first
to suffer.
A careful observer will likewise perceive that the inner quarter is higher than the
THE CORONARY RING. — THE BARS. 297
outer. While it is thin to yield to the shock, its iiicreased surface gives it sufiicient
strength.
On account of its thinness, and the additional weight which it bears, the inner heel
wears away quicker than the outer; a circumstance that should never be forgotten by
the smith. His object is to give a plane and level bearing to the whole of the crust.
To accomplish this, it will be often scarcely necessary to remove anythin<r from the
inner heel, for this has already been done by the wear of the foot. If he forgets this,
as he too often seems to do, and cuts away with his knife or his buttress an equal
portion all round, he leaves the inner and weaker quarter lower than the outer ; he
throws an uneven bearing upon it; and produces corns and sand-cracks and splints,
ivhich a little care and common sense might have avoided.
THE CORONARY RING.
The crust does not vary much in thickness (see a, page 295, and b, in the accom-
panying cut), until near the top, at the coronet, or union" of the horn of the foot with
the skin of the pasterns, where (ly, page 272), it rapidly gets
thin. It is in a manner scooped and hollowed out. It likewise
changes its colour and consistence, and seems almost like a con-
tinuation of the skin, but easily separable from it by maceration
or disease. This thin part is called the coronary ring, x, p. 272.
It extends round the upper portion of the hoofs, and receives,
within it, or covers, a thickened and bulbous prolongation of the
skin, called the coronary ligament (see b, in the accompanying
cut). This prolongation of the skin — it is nothing more — is
thickly supplied with blood-vessels. It is almost a mesh of
blood-vessels connected together by fibrous texture, and many
of them are employed in secreting or forming the crust or wall
of the foot. Nature has enabled the sensible laminae of the coffin-bone, c, which will
be presently described, to secrete a certain quantity of horn, in order to afford an
immediate defence for itself when the crust is wounded or taken away. Of this there
is proof when in sand-crack or quitter it is necessary to remove a portion of the crust.
A pellicle of horn, or of firm hard substance resembling it, soon covers the wouhd ;
bat the crust is principally formed from this coronary ligament Hence it is, that in
sand-crack, quitter, and other diseases in which strips of the crust are destroyed, it is
so long in being renewed, or growing dowii. It must proceed from the coronarj'
ligament, and so gradually creep down the foot with the natural growth or lengthen-
ing of the horn, of which, as in the human nail, a supply is slowly given to answei
to the wear and tear of the part.
Below the coronary ligament is a thin strip of horny matter, which has been traced
to the frog, and has been supposed by some to be connected with the support or
action of that body, but which is evidently intended to add to the security of the part
on which it is found, and to bind together those various substances which are collected
at the coronet. It resembles, more than anything else, the strip of skin that surrounds
the root of the human nail, and which is placed there to strengthen the union of the
nail with the substance from which it proceeds.
THE BARS.
At the back part of the foot the wall of the hoof, instead of continuing round and
forming a circle, is suddenly bent in as in the small cut, in page 295, where d repre-
sents the base of the crust, and e its inflection or bending at the heel. The bars are,
in fact, a continuation of the crust, forming an acute angle, and meeting at a point at
the toe of the frog — see a, b, and c, in the smaller cuts — and the inside of the bars,
like the inside of the crust — see the first and larger cut — presents a continuance of the
horny leaves, showing that it is a part of the same substance, and helping to discharge
the same office.
It needs only the slightest ' onsideration of the cut, or of the natural hoof, to show
the importance of the bars. The arch which these form on either side, between the
frog and the quarters, is admirably contrived both to admit of, and to limit to its pro-
per extent, the expansion of the foot. When the foot is placed on the ground, and the
weight of the animal is thrown on the leaves of which mention has just been madcf
298 THE FOOT.
these arches will shorten and -widen, in order to admit of the expansion of the quar-
ters the bow returning to its natural curve, and powerfully assisting the foot in
reo-aining its usual form. It can also be conceived that these bars must form a power-
ful protection against the contraction, or wiring in, of the quarters. A moment's
inspection of the cut (g, p. 295) will show that, if the bars are taken awaj-, there will
be nothing to resist the contraction or falling in of the quarters, when the foot is
exposed to any disease, or bad management, that would induce it to contract. One
moment's observation of them will also render evident the security which they afford
to the frog (/), and the effectual protection which they give to the lateral portions of
the foot.
Then appears the necessity of passing lightly over them, and leaving prominent,
when the foot is pared for shoeing, that which so many smiths cut perfectly away.
They imagine that it gives a more open appearance to the foot of the horse. Horses
shod for the purpose of sale, have usually the bars removed with this view; and the
smiths in the neighbourhood of the metropolis and large towns, shoeing for dealers,
too often habitually pursue, with regard to all their customers, the injurious practice
of removing the bars. The horny frog, deprived of its guard, will speedily contract,
and become elevated and thrushy ; and the whole of the heel, having lost the power
of resilience or reaction which the curve between the bar c and the crust d gave it
(vide p. 295, cut), will speedily fall in.
THE HORNY LAMINA.
The inside of the crust. is covered by thin homy leaves (c, p. 295), extending al
round it, and reaching from the coronary ring to the toe. They are about 500 in num-
ber, broadest at their base, and terminating in the most delicate expansion of horn.
They not a little resemble the inner surface of a mushroom. In front, they run in a
direction from the coronet to the toe, and towards the quarters they are more slanting
from behind forwards. They correspond, as will be presently shown, with similar
cartilaginous and fleshy leaves on the surface of the cofiin-bone, and form a beautiful
elastic body, by which the whole w^eight of the horse is supported.
THE SOLE
Is under, and occupies the greater portion of the concave and elastic surface of the
foot (see h, p. 295), extending from the crust to the bars and frog. It is not so thick
as the crust, because, notwithstanding its situation, it does not support so much
weight as the crust; and because it was intended to expand, in order to prevent con-
cussion, when, by the descent of the bone of the foot, the weight was thrown upon it.
It is not so brittle as the crust, and it is more elastic than it. It is thickest at the toe
(see /, p. 272), because the first and principal stress is thrown on that part. The
coffin-bone, /, is driven forward and downward in that direction. It is likeAvise
thicker where it unites with the crust than it is towards the centre, for a similar and
evident reason, because there the weight is first and principally thrown.
In a state of nature it is, to a certain degree, hollow. The reason of this is plain.
It is intended to descend or yield w-ith the w^eight of the horse, and by that gradual
descent or yielding, most materially lessen the shock which would result from the
sudden action of the weight of the animal in rapid and violent exercise ; and this
descent can only be o-iven by a hollow sole. A flat sole, already pressing upon the
ground, could not be brought lower ; nor could the functions of the frog be then dis-
charged ; nor would the foot have so secure a hold. Then if the sole is naturally
hollow, and hollow because it must descend, the smith should not interfere with this
important action. When the foot will bear it, he must pare out sufficient of the horn
to preserve the proper concavity ; also a small portion at the toe and near the crust, and
cutting deeper towards the centre. He must put on a shoe which shall not prevent
the descent of the sole, and which not only shall not press upon it, but shall leavt
sufficient room between it and the sole to admit of this descent. If the sole is pressei
upon by the coffin-bone during the lengthening of the elastic laminse. and the shot
will not permit its descent, the sensible part between the coffin-bone and the horn wil
necessarily be bruised, and inflammation and lameness will ensue. It is from this
cause, that if a stone insinuates itself between the shoe and the sole, it produces so
much lameness. Of the too great concavity of the sole, or the want of concavity in
it, we shall treat when we arrive at diseases of the foot.
THE FROG. 299
THE FROG.
In the space between the bars, and accurately filling it, is the frog. It is a trian-
gular portion of horn, projecting from the sole, almost on a level with the crust and
covering and defending a soft and elastic substance called the sensible frog. It is
wide at the heels, and there extending beyond a portion of the crust ; narrowing
rapidly when it begins to be confined between the bars, and terminating in a point at
somewhat more than half the distance from the heel to the toe. It consists of two
rounded or projecting surfaces, with a fissure or cleft between them, reaching half-
way down the frog, and the two portions again uniting to form the point or toe of the
frog.
"Fhe frog is firmly united to the sole, but it is perfectly distinct from it. It is of a
different nature, being softer, and far more elastic ; and it is secreted from a ditferent
surface, for it is thrown out from the substance which it covers. It very much
resembles a wedge, with the sharp point forwards ; and it is placed towards the back
Sart of the foot. The foot is seldom put flush and flat upon the ground, but in a
irection downwards, yet somewhat forwards ; then the frog evidently gives safety to
the tread of the animal, for it occasionally ploughs itself into the ground, and pre-
vents the horse from slipping. This is of considerable consequence, when some of
the paces of the horse are recollected, in which his heels evidently come first to the
ground, and in which the danger from slipping would be very great. Reference needs
only be made to the gallop, as illustrative of this.
The frog being placed at. and filling the hinder part of the foot, discharges a por-
tion of the duty sustained by the crust; for it supports the weight cf the animal. It
assists, likewise, and that to a material degree, in the expansion of the foot. It is
formed internally of two prominences on the sides (see a, p. •395), and a cleft in the
centre, presenting two concavities with a sharp projection in the middle, and a gradu-
ally rounded one on each side. It is also composed of a substance peculiarly flexible
and elastic. What can be so well adapted for the expansion of the foot, when a por-
tion of the weight of the body is thrown on it ? How easily will these irregular sur-
faces 3'ield and spread out, and how readily return again to their natural state ! In
this view, therefore, the horny frog is a powerful agent in opening the foot "; and the
diminution of the substance of the frog, and its elevation above the ground, are both
the cause and the consequence of contraction — the cause, as being able no longer
powerfully to act in expanding the heels ; and the consequence, as obeying a law of
nature, by which that which no longer discharges its natural function is gradually
removed. It is, however, the cover and defence of the internal and sensible frog,
which will be presently treated of; enough, however, has been said to show the
absurdity of the common practice of unsparingly cutting it away. In order 1o dis-
charge, in any degree, some of the offices which we have assigned to it, and fully to
discharge even one of them, it must come in occasional contact with the ground. In
the unshod horse, it is constantly so : but the additional su])port given by the shoes,
and more especially the hard roads over which the horse is now compelled to travel,
render this complete exposure of the frog to the ground not only unnecessary, but
injurious. Being of so much softer consistence than the rest of the foot, it would be
speedily worn away : occasional pressure, however, or contact with the ground, it
must have.
The rough and detached parts should be cut off at each shoeing, and the substance
of the frog itself, so as to bring it just above or within the level of the shoe. It will
then, in tlie descent of the sole, when the weight of the horse is thrown upon it in
the putting down of the foot, descend likewise, and pressing upon the ground, do its
duty; while it will be defended from the wear, and bruise, and injur)' that it would
receive if it came upon the ground with the first and full shock of the weight. This
will be the proper guide to the smith in shoeing, and to the proprietor in the direc-
tion which he gives. The latter should often look to this, for it is a point of very
great moment. A few smiths carry the notion of fmg pressure to an absurd extent
and leave the frog bej'ond the level of the sole. — a practice which is dangerous in
the horse of slow draught, and destructive to the hackney or the hunter; but the
majority of them err in a contrary way, and, cutting off too much of the frog, lift it
above the ground, and destroy its principal use. It should be left just above, or within
ihe level n* the shoe
300 THE FOOT.
THE COFFIN-BONE.
The interior part of the foot must now be considered. The lower pastern, a smalj
portion of which (see d, nage 272) is contained in the horny box, has been already
described, p. 27G. — Beneath it, and altogether inclosed in the lioof, is the coffin-bone,
or proper bone of the foot, (see /, page 272, and d, fig. 1, page 27G). It is fitted to,
ind fills the fore part of the hoof, occupying about half of it. It is of a light and
spongy structure (see d, fig. 1, page 276), and filled with numerous minute foramina.
Through these pass the blood-vessels and nerves of the foot, which are necessarily
numerous, considering the important and various secretions there carrying on, and
the circulation through the foot which could not possibly be kept up if these ves-
sels did not run through the substance of the bone. Considering the manner in
which this bone is inclosed in the horny box, and yet the important surfaces around
and below it that are to be nourished with blood, the circulation which is thus carried
on within the very body of the bone is one of the most beautiful provisions of nature
that is to be found in the whole frame. No inconvenience can arise from occasional
or constant pressure, but the bone allows free passage to the blood, and protects it
from every possible obstruction.
The fore part of the coffin-bone is not only thus perforated, but it is curiously rough-
ened for the attachment of the numerous minute laminae about to be described. On
its upper surface it presents a concavity for the head of the lower pastern, p. 276.
In front, immediately above d, is a striking prominence, into which is inserted the
extensor tendon of the foot. At the back, e, p. 272, it is sloped for articulation with
the navicular bone, and more underneath, is a depression for the reception of the per-
forating flexor tendon, m, continued down the leg, passing over the navicular bone \t
n, and at length inserted into this bone. On either side, as seen p. 27G, are projec-
tions called the wings, or heels of the coffin-bone, and at the bottom it is hollowed to
answer to the convexity of the internal part of the sole.
That which deserves most attention in the coffin-bone is the production of the nu-
merous laminae round its front and sides. They are prolongations of the thick and
elastic membrane covering it, and consist of cartilaginous, fleshy plates, proceeding
from it, running down the coffin-bone, and corresponding with and received between
the horny leaves that line the inside of the hoof-bone — each horny plate being re-
ceived between two sensitive plates, and vice versa. These laminaj are exceedingly
sensitive and vascular, and elastic, and, as first simply and beautifully explained by
Mr. Percivall, their elasticity is not inherent in the lamina?, but in the substance
which connects these lamina; with the coffin-bone, and which, while it contains highly
elastic properties, aflfords a convenient bed for the numerous vessels that secrete the
lamina;. While the animal is at rest, the whole weight of the horse is supported by
them, and not by the sole. This extraordinary fact has been put to the test of expe-
riment. The sole, bars, and frog were removed from the foot of a horse, and yet as
he stood, the coffin-bone did not protrude, or in the slightest degree descend ; but
when the rapidity with which the foot descends is added to the weight of the horse,
these little leaves, horny and fleshy, gradually lengthen, and suffer the bones to press
upon the sole. The sole then descends, and in descending, expands; and so, by an
admirable mechanism, the violent shock which would be produced by the pressure
of such a weight as that of the horse, and the velocity with which it descends, is
lessened or destroyed, and the complicated apparatus of the foot remains uninjured.
When the foot is ag-ain lifted, and the weight which pressed upon it is removed,
the principle of elasticity is called into exercise, and by it the sole resumes its con-
cavity, and the horny frog its folded state ; — the quarters return to their former situ-
ation,— the leaves regain their former length, and everything is prepared for a repeti-
tion of action.
THE SENSIBLE SOLE.
Between the coffin-bone and the horny sole is situated the sensible sole, p. 272,
formed above of a substance of a ligamentous or tendinous nature, and below of a
cuticular or skin-like substance, plentifully supplied with blood-vessels. It was
placed between the coffin-bone and the sole, by its yielding structure to assist in pre-
venting concussion, and also to form a supply of horn for the sole. It extends be-
yond the coffm-bonc, but not at all under the frog. Leaving a space for the frog, it
THE SENSIBLE FROG— THE NAVICULAR BONE, &,c. 301
proceeds over the bars, and there is covered by some laminae, to unite with those
that have been described, page 295, as found in the bars. It is here likewise thicker,
and more elastic, and by its elasticity is evidently assisting in obviating concussion.
It is supplied with nervous fibres, and is highly sensible, as the slightest experience
in horses will evince. The lameness which ensues from the pressure of a stone or
of the shoe on the sole is caused by inflammation of the sensible sole. Corns result
from bruise and inflammation of the sensible sole, between the crust and the bar.
THE SENSIBLE FROG.
The coffin-bone does not occupy more than one-half of the hoof. The posterior
part is filled by a soft mass, partly ligamenfous, and partly tendinous (o, p. •212). Its
shape below corresponds with the cavities of the horny frog ; in front it is attached
to the inferior part of the coffin-bone ; and farther back, it adheres to the lower part
of the cartilages of the heels, where they begin to form the rounded protuberances
that constitute the heel of the foot. It occupies the whole of the back part of the
foot above the horny frog and between the cartilages. Running immediately above
the frog, and along the greater part of it, we find the perforans flexor tendon, which
passes over the navicular bone, e, p. 272, and is inserted into the heel of the coflin-
bone.
THE NAVICULAR BONE
Is placed behind and beneath the lower pastern-bone, and behind and above the heel
of the coffin-bone, e, p. 272, so that it forms a joint with both bones, and answers a
very important office in strengthening the union between these parts, in receiving a
portion of the weight which is thrown on the lower pastern and in enabling the flexor
tendon to act with more advantage. Supposing that this tendon were inserted into
the coffin-bone without the intervention of the navicular bone, it would act at great
mechanical disadvantage in bending the pastern, for it is inserted near the end of the
coffin-bone, and the weight, concentrated about the middle of the bone, is far off, and
requires a great power to raise it; but when the navicular bone is interpos'.J, the
centre of motion becomes the posterior edge of that bone, where it is in contact with
the tendon, and then it will be seen that the distance of the power from the centre of
motion is nearly or quite the same as the weight, and very great expenditure of mus-
cular power will be saved. In the one case, the power must be at least double the
weight, in the other ihey will be nearly equal ; and also the angle at which the tendon
is inserted, is considerably more advantageous. Perhaps this is the principal use of
the navicular bone; yet at the same time we are aware of the benefit which accrues
(see page 272) from a portion of the weight being taken from the coffin-bone, and
thrown on the navicular bone, and from it on the tendon, and the tendon resting on
the elastic frog underneath. The navicular bone is sometimes, but inaccurately, said
to descend with the motion of the foot. It does not do that. It cannot ; for it is
connected both with the pastern and coffin-bones by inelastic ligaments. When, how-
ever, the horny bulb, with its tuft of hair, at the back of an oblique fetlock, descends
in the rapid gallop, and almost touches the ground, the navicular bone, being, as it
were, a part of the pastern, must descend with it. With this exception, both in the
extending and the bending of the pastern, the navicular bone turns or rolls upon the
other bones rather than descends or ascends, and with this remarkable advantage,
that when the pastern is extended (see page 272), the navicular bone is placed in that
situation which enables the flexor tendon to act with greatest advantage in again
bending the foot.
THE CARTILAGES OF THE FOOT.
There is a groove extending along the upper part of the coffin-bone and on either
side, except at the protuberance which receives the extensor tendon e, page 272, occu-
pied by cartilage, which, like the crust, is convex outwards and concave inwards. It
extends to the very posterior part of the foot, rising about the quarters half an inch or
more above the hoof, and diminishing in height forward and backward. These car-
tilaores occupy a greater portion of the foot than does the coffin-bone, as will be seen
in the lowest cut, page 276, where they are represented as extending far behind the
coffin-bone. They are held in their situation not merely by this groove, but by other
26
302 THEDISEASESOFTHEFOOT.
connexions with the coffin-bone, the navicular bone, and the flexor tendon, and are
thus perfectly secured.
Below are other cartilages connected with the under edges of the former, and on
either side of the frog.
Between these cartilages is the sensible frog, filling up the whole of the space, and
answering several important purposes, being an elastic bed on which the navicular
hone and the tendon (see page 272) can play with security, and without concussion
or shock, by which all concussion communicated to the cartilages of the foot are
destroyed — by which these cartilages are kept asunder, and the expansion of the upper
jart of the foot preserved. As the descent of the sole increases the width of the lower
part of the foot, so the elevation of the frog, a portion of it being pressed upward and
outward by the action of the navicular bone and tendon, causes the expansion of its
upper part. Precisely as the strong muscle peculiar to quadrupeds at the back of the
eye (see page 86), being forcibly contracted, presses upon the fatty matter in which
the eye is embedded, which may be displaced, but cannot be squeezed into less com-
pass, and which, being forced towards the inner corner of the eye, drives before it that
important and beautiful mechanism the haw, so the elastic and yielding substance the
frocT, being pressed upon by the navicular bone and the tendon, and the pastern, and
refusing to be condensed into less compass, forces itself out on either side of them,
and expands the lateral cartilages, which again, by their inherent elasticity, recur to
their former situation, when the frog no longer presses them outward. It appears,
that by a different mechanism, but both equally admirable, and referable to the same
principle, viz. : that of elasticity, the expansion of the upper and lower portions of
the hoof are effected, the one by the descent of the sole, the other by the compression
and rising of the frog.
It is this expansion upward, which contributes principally to the preservation of
the usefulness of the horse, when our destructive methods of shoeing are so calculated
to destroy tlie expansion beneath. In draught-horses, from the long-continued as well
as violent pressure on the frog, and from the frog on the cartilage, inflammation is
occasionally produced, which terminates in the cartilages being changed into bony
matter.
CHAPTER XV.
THE DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
Of these there is a long list. That w ill not be wondered at by those who have
duly considered the complicated structure of the foot, the duty it has to perform, and
the injuries to which it is exposed. It will be proper to commence with that which
is the cause of many other diseases of the foot, and connected w-ith almost all.
INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER.
The sensible lamina;, or fleshy plates on the front and sides of the coffin-bone, being
replete with blood-vessels, are, like every other vascular part, liable to inflammation,
from its usual causes, and particularly from the violence with which, in rapid and
long-continued action, these parts are strained and bruised. When in a severely con-
test'ed race they have been stretched to their utmost, while, at the fullest stride of the
horse, his weight has been thrown on them with destructive force ; or, when the feet
have been battered and bruised in a hard day's journey, it will be no wonder if inflam-
mation of the over-worked parts should ensue, and the occurrence of it may probably
be produced and the disease aggravated by the too prevalent absurd mode of treating
the animal. If a horse that has been ridden or driven hard is suffered to stand in the
cold, or if his feet are washed and not speedily dried, he is very likely to have " fevei
in the feet." There is no more fruitful source of inflammation in the human being, or
the brute, than these sudden changes of temperature. This has been explained as it
regards grease, but it bears more immediately on the point now under consideration.
The danger is not confined to change from heat to cold. Sudden transition from_ cold
o heat is as injurious, and therefore it is that so many horses, after having been ridden
INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT, OR ACUTE FOUNDER. 303
lai in frost and snow, and placed immediately in a hot stable, and littered up to the
ijiees, are attacked by this complaint. The feet and the lungs are the org-ans oftenest
attacked, because they have previouslj' suffered most by our mismanagement, and are
most disposed to take on disease, and that which would cause slight inflammation of
other parts, or trifling general derangement, will produce all its mischief on thes-j
organs; therefore it is that horses, the cnist or lamina; of whose feet are warped or
iibiiqueiy placed, are most subject to it.
Sometimes there is a sudden change of inflammation from one organ to another.
A. horse may have laboured for several days under evident inflammation of the lungs;
all at once that will subside, and the disease will appear in the feet, or inflammation
of the feet may follow similar affections in the bowels or the eyes. In cases of
severe inflammation of the lungs, it may not be bad practice to remove the shoes and
poultice the feet.
To the attentive observer the symptoms are clearly marked, and yet there is no
disease so often overlooked by the groom and the carter, and even by the veterinary
surgeon. The disease may assume an acute or chronic form. The earliest symp-
toms of fever in the feet are fidgetiness, frequent shifting of the fore-legs, but no
pawing, much less any attempts to reach the belly with the hind-feet. The pulse is
quickened, the flanks heaving, the nostrils red, and the horse, by his anxious coun-
tenance, and possibly moaning, indicating great pain. Presently he looks about his
litter, as if preparing to lie down, but he does not do so immediately ; he continues to
shift his weight from foot to foot ; he is afraid to draw his feet sufficiently under him
for the purpose of lying down : but at length he drops. The circumstance of his
lying down at an early period of the disease will sufficiently distinguish inflamma-
tion of the feet from that of the lungs, in which the horse obstinatelj" persists in
standing until he drops from mere exhaustion. His quietness when down will dis-
tinguish it from colic or inflammation of the bowels, in both of which the horse is up
and down, and frequently rolling and kicking when down. "When the grievance is
in the feet, the horse experiences so much relief, from getting rid of the weight pain-
fully distending the inflamed and highly sensible lamina;, that he is glad to lie as
long as he can. He will likewise, as clearly as in inflammation of the lungs or
bowels, point out the seat of disease by looking at the part. His muzzle will often
rest on the feet or the affected foot. He musl. be inattentive who is not aware of
what all this indicates.
If the feet are now examined, they will be found evidently hot. The patient will
express pain if they are slightly rapped with a hammer, and the arterj- at the pastern
will throb violently. No great time will now pass, if the disease is suffered to pur-
sue its course, before he will be perfectly unable to rise ; or, if he is forced to get up,
and one foot is lifted, he will stand with difficulty on the other, or perhaps drop at
once from intensity of pain.
The treatment will resemble that of other inflammations, with such differences as
the situation of the disease may suggest. Bleeding is indispensable; and that to its
fullest extent. If the disease is confined to the fore-feet, four quarts of blood should
be taken as soon as possible from the toe of each at the situation pointed out, fig. z,
p. 2T-2, and in the manner already described ; care being taken to open the artery as
well as the vein. The feet may likewise be put into warm water, to quicken the
flow of the blood, and increase the quantitj^ abstracted. Poultices of linseed meal,
made very soft, should cover the whole of the foot and pastern, and be frequently
renewed, which will promote evaporation from the neighbouring parts, and possibly
through the pores of the hoof, and, by softening and rendering supple the hoof, will
relieve its painful pressure on the swelled and tender parts beneath. More fully to
accomplish this last purpose, the shoe should be removed, the sole pared as thin as
possible, and the crust, and particularly the quarters, well rasped. All this must be
done gently, and with a great deal of patience, for the poor animal can scarcely bear
his feet to be meddled with. There used to be occasional doubt as to the adminis-
tration of physic, from fear of metastasis of inflammation which has sometimes
occurred, and been generally fatal. \Vhen, however, there is so much danger
of losing the patient from the original attack, we must run the risk of the other.
Sedative and cooling medicines should be diligently administered, consisting of digi-
talis, nitre, and emetic tartar.
If no amendment is observed, three quarts of blood should be taken from each foot
a04 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
on the folj-^wing day. In extreme cases, a third bleeding of two quarts may be jus-
tifiable, and, instead of the poultice, cloths kept wet with water in which nitre has
been dissolved iinmcdialely befare, and in the proportion of an ounce of nitre to a
pound of water, may be wrapped round the feet. About the third day a blister may
be tried, taking in the whole of the pastern and the coronet ; but a cradle must pre-
viously be put on the neck of the horse, and the feet must be covered after the blis-
ter, or they will probably be sadly blemished. The horse should be kept on mash
diet, unless green meat can be procured for him; and even that should not be given
too liberally, nor should he, in the slightest degree, be coaxed to eat. When he
appears to be recovering, his getting on his feet should not be hurried. It should be
left perfectly to his own discretion ; nor should even walking exercise be permitted
until he stands firm on his feet. When that is the case, and the season will permit,
two months' run at grass will be very serviceable.
It is not always, however, or often, that inflammation of the feet is thus easily
subdued ; and, if it is subdued, it sometimes leaves after it some fearful consequences.
The loss of the hoof is not an unficquent one. About six or seven days from the
first attack, a slight separation will begin to appear between the coronet and the hoof.
This should be carefully attended to, for the separated horn will never again unite
with the parts beneath, but the disunion will extend, and the hoof will be lost. It is
true that a new hoof will be formed, but it will be smaller in size and wetiker than
the first, and will rarely stand hard work. When this separation is observed, it
will be a matter of calculation with the proprietor of the horse whether he will suffer
the medical treatment to proceed.
CHRONIC LAMINITIS.
This is a species of founder, insidious in its attack, and destructive to the horse.
It is a milder form of the preceding disease. There is lameness, but it is not so
severe as in the former case. The horse stands as usual. The crust is warm, and
that warmth is constant, but it is not often probably greater than in a state of health.
The surest symptom is the action of the animal. It is diametrically opposite to that
in the navicular disease. The horse throws as much of his weight as he can, on the
posterior parts of his feet.
The treatment should be similar to that recommended for the acute disease — blood-
letting, cataplasms, fomentations, and blisters, and the last much sooner and much
more frequently than in the former disease.
PUMICED FEET.
The sensible and horny little plates which were elongated and partially separated
during the intensity of the inflammation of founder, will not always perfectly unite
again, or will have lost much of their elasticity, and the coffin-bone, no longer fully
supported by them, presses upon the sole, and the sole becomes flattened, or convex,
from this unnatural weight, and the horse acquires a pumiced foot. This will also
happen when the animal is used too soon after an attack of inflammation of the feet,
and before the laminae have regained sufficient strength to support the weight of the
horse, or to contract again by their elasti'c power when they have yielded to the
weight. When the coffin-bone is thus thrown on the sole, and renders it pumiced,
the crust at the front of the hoof will "/«// in," leaving a kind of hollow about the
middle of it.
Pumiced feet, especially in horses with large, wide feet, are frequently produced
without this acute inflammation. Undue work, and especially much battering of the
feet on the pavement, will extend and sprain these laminae so much, that they will
not have the power to contract, and thus the coffin-bone will be thrown backward on
the sole. A very important law of nature will unfortunately soon be active here.
When pressure is applied to any part, the absorbents become busy in removing it;
so, when the coffin-bone begins to press upon the sole, the sole becomes thin from the
increased wear and tear to which it is subjected by contact with the ground, and also
because these absorbents are rapidly taking it away.
This is one of the diseases of the feet for which there is no cure. No skill is
competent to efl^ect a reunion between the separated fleshy and horny lamina», or to
restore to them the strength and elasticity of which they have been deprived, or to
take up that hard, horny substance which speedily fills the space between the crust
CONTRACTION. 305
and the receding coffin-bone. Some efforts have been made to palliate the disease,
but the}' have been only to a slight degree successful. If horses, on the first ap-
pearance of flat feet, were turned out in a dry place, or put into a box for two or
three months, sufficient stress would not be thrown on the lamince to increase the
evil, and time might be given for the growth of horn enough in the sole to support
the cothn-bone ; yet it is much to be doubted whether these horses would ever be
useful, even for ordinary purposes. The slowest work required of them would drive
the coffin-bone on tlie sole, and the projection would gradually reappear, for no power
and no length of time can again unite the separated leaves of the coffin-bone and the
hoof. All that can be done in the way of palliation is by shoeing. Nothing must
press on the projecting and pumiced part. If the projection is not considerable, a
thick bar shoe is the best thing that can be applied; but should the &ole have much
descended, a shoe with a very wide web, bevelled off so as not to press on the part,
may be used. These means of relief, however, are only temporary, the disease will
proceed ; and, at no great distance of time, the horse will be useless.
The occasional removal of the shoe, and compelling the horse to stand for a while
on the crust and lamina?, has been resorted to. The bar shoe and the leathern sole,
and occasional dressing with tar ointment have had their advocates, and it is suffi
ciently plain that the pumiced foot should have plenty of cover.
A somewhat similar affection, known by the name of a " Seedy Toe," is thus de*
scribed by Mr. W. C. Spooner: — " It can scarcely be called a disease, but it is rathei
a natural defect, wluch may be considerably increased by labour and bad shoeing.
It arises from too great drj-ness of the horn, which renders it brittle, and causes its
fibres to separate. There is a want of that tough, elastic material which connects
the longitudinal fibres together, and produces that strong bond of union between them
and the horny laminae and the sole. There is a hollow space within the foot, which
sometimes extends upward and around, so as to admit a large probe. Neither the
bone nor the laminae, however, are exposed, but are still protected by the internal por-
tion of the crust. The only thing to be done is to anoint the toot occasionally, par-
ticularly the affected part, with tar and grease. A blister may also be applied to ex-
cite the developement of a new growth of horn, that which is become dry and brittle
being occasionally cut away."*
CONTRACTION.
The cut, page 295, will give a fair idea of the young healthy foot, approaching
nearly to a circle, and of which the quarters form the widest part, and the inner quar-
ter (tills is the near foot) rather wider than the outer. This shape is not long pre*
served in many horses, but the foot increases in lengfth, and narrows in the quarters,
and particularly at the heel, and the frog is diminished in width, and the sole be-
comes \nore concave, and the heels higher, and lameness, or at least a shortened and
feeling action, ensues.
It must be premised that there is a great deal more horror of contracted heels than
there is occasion for. ]Many persons reject a horse at once if the quarters are wiring
in ,- but the fact is, that although this is an unnatural form of the hoof, it is slow of
growth, and nature kindly makes that provision for the slowly altered form of the
hoof which she does in similar cases — she accommodates the parts to the change of
form. As the hoof draws in, the parts beneath, and particularly the coffin-bone, and
especially the heels of that bone, diminish ; or, after all, it is more a change of form
than of capacity. As the foot lengthens in proportion as it narrows, so does the cof-
fin-bone, and it is as perfectly adjusted as before to the box in which it is placed,
ts lamina; are in as intimate and perfect union with those of the crust as before
the hoof had begun to change. On this account it is that many horses, with very
contracted feet, are perfectly sound, and no horse should be rejected merely be-
cause he has contraction. He should undoubtedly be examined more carefully, and
with considerable suspicion ; but if he has good action, and is otheiwise unexcep-
tionable, there is no reason that the purchase should not be made. A horse with
contracted feet, if he goes sound, is better than another with open but weak heels.
The opinion is perfectly erroneous that contraction is the necessary conseqvience
of shoeing. There can be no doubt that an inflexible iron ring being nailed to
* Spooner on the Foot of the Horse.
26* 2o
306 THE FOOT.
the foot prevents, to a very considerable degree, the descent of the sole and the
expansion of the heels below ; and it is likew ise probable, that when the expansion
of the heels is prevented they often begin to contract. But here again nature, cut
off from 01.3 resource, finds others. If one of the jugular veins is lost, the blood
pursues its course by other channels, and the horse does not appear to suffer in the
sliii-htest decree. Thus also if the expansion of the heels below is diminished,
that of the cartilages above is made more use of. If the cofhn-bone has not so much
descent downward, it probably acquires one backward, and the functions of the foot
are usefully if not perfectly performed. The plain proof of this is, that although
tliere are many horses that are injured or ruined by bad shoeing, there are others,
and they are a numerous class, who suffer not at all from good shoeing, and scarcely
even from bad. Except it be from accident, how seldom is the fanner's horse lame !
and it might even be farther asked, how seldom is his foot much contracted ! Some
gentlemen who are careful of their horses have driven them twenty years, and
principally over the rough pavement of towns, without a day's lameness. Shoe-
ing may be a necessary evil, but it is not the evil which some speculative persons
have supposed it to be ; and the undoubted fact is, that when the horse is put to real
hard work, and when the injury produced by shoeing in destroying the expansibility
of the foot would most of all show itself, the foot lasts a great deal longer than the
leg ; nay, horsemen tell us that one pair of good feet is worth two pairs of legs.
^Having thus premised that contraction is not inevitably accompanied by lameness,
and thatthoeing, with all its evils, does not necessarily injure the foot, those cases
of contraction, too numerous, which are the consequence of our stable management,
and which do cripple and ruin the horse, may be considered. There is nothing in the
appearance of the feet which would enable us to decide when contraction is or is not
destructive to the usefulness of the animal ; his manner of going, and his capability
for work, must be our guides. Lameness usually accompanies the beginning of con-
traction ; it is the invariable attendant on rapid contraction, but it does not always
exist when the wiring in is slow or of long standing.
A very excellent w'riter, particularly when treating of the foot of the horse, Mr.
Blaine, has given us a long and correct list of the causes of injurious contraction, and
most of them are, fortunately, under the control of the owner of the animal. He
places at the head of them, neglect of paring. The hoof is continually growing, the
crust is lengthening, and the sole is thickening. This is a provision for the wear
and tear of the foot in an unshod state ; but when it is protected by a shoe, and none
of the horn can be worn away by coming in contact with the ground, and the growth
of horn continues, the hoof grows high, and the sole gets thick, and, in consequence
of this, the descent of the sole and the expansion of the heels are prevented, and con-
traction is the result. The smith might lessen, if not prevent the evil, by carefully
thinning the sole and lowering the heels at each shoeing; but the first of these is a
matter of considerable labour, and the second could not be done effectually without
being accompanied by the first, and therefore they are both neglected. The prejudice
of rnany owners of horses assists in increasing the evil ; they imagine that a great
deal of mischief is done by cutting away the foot. Mischief may be the result of
injudicious cutting, when the bars are destroyed and the frog is elevated from the
ground; but more evil results from the unyielding thickness of horn impairing the
elastic and expansive principle of the foot. If gentlemen would accasionally stand
by, and see that the sole is properly thinned, and the heels lowered, they would be
amply repaid in the comfort and usefulness of the horse.
Ill-judged economy is another source of this disease. If the shoes of one smith will,
with ordinary work, last a little more than three weeks, while another contrives to
make his last six weeks, he is supposed to be the better workman and the more
honest man, and he gets the greater part of the custom. His shoe is suffered to
remain on during the whole time, to the manifest injury of the feet, and that injury is
materially increased by the greater thickness and weight of these shoes, and the
tightness with which they are fastened on, the nails being necessarily placed nearer
to the quarters, and possibly an additional nail or two used in the fastening, and these
also applied at the quarters. There is no rule which admits of so little exception, as
that, once in about every three weeks, the growth of horn which the natural wear of
the foot cannot get rid of, should be pared away — the toe should be shortened in most
feet the sole should be thinned, and the heels lowered. Every one who has carefully
CO^TRACTION. 307
observed the shape of the horse's foot, must have seen that in proportion to 'ts height
or neglected growth, it contracts and closes round the coronet. A low-heeled horso
might have other serious defects, of which it will be our duty to speak but he has
seldom a contracted foot.
Another source of contraction is the want of natural moisture. The unshod colt has
seldom contracted feet, nor does the horse at grass acquire them, because the hoof is
kept cool and damp by occasional rain, and by the regular dew. It is thus rendered
supple, and its elasticity is preserved, and the expansive power of the foot is uninjured.
The hoof of tlie stabled horse sometimes has not one drop of moisture on it for several
days. The effect of this, in the contraction of the horn, is sufficiently evident. Hence
the propriety of stopping the feet where there is the least tendency to contraction.
The intelligent and careful groom will not omit it a single night. Cow-dunsf, with a
small portion of clay to give it consistence, is a common and very good stopping. A
better one is a piece of thick felt cut to the shape of the sole and soaked in water.
The common stopping of tar and grease is peculiarly objectionable, for it closes the
pores of the feet, and ultimately increases the dryness and brittleness which it was
designed to remedy.
The usual management of the farmer's horse that is often turned out after his daily
task is exacted, or whose work is generally performed where the feet are exposed to
moisture, is an excellent preventive against contraction.
Some persons have complained much of the influence of litter. If the horse stands
many hours in the day with his feet embedded in straw, it is supposed that the hoof
must be unnaturally heated ; and it is said that the horn will contract under the
influence of heat. It is seldom, however, that the foot is so surrounded by the litter
that its heat will be sufficiently increased to produce this effect. It will be difficult
to produce the case in which contraction, or thrush, or tenderness, has been produced
by the horse standing on dry litter. There are thousands of horses that stand upon
straw twenty hours out of the twenty-four, without receiving the slightest injury from
it. The author of this work is not one of those who would, during the day, remove
all litter from under the horse. It gives a naked and uncomfortable appearance to the
stable. There is a considerable ditference in our own feelings whether we stand for
an hour or two on the hard stones, or a soft carpet, and especially w-hether we beat
our feet upon the one or the other. Humanity and a proper care of the foot of the
horse should induce the owner to keep some litter under the animal during the day ;
but his feet need not sink so deeply in it that their temperature becomes much affected.
If the straw is suffered to remain until it is wet, hot, and rotten, the effluvia proceeding
from it may produce cough, or inflammation of the eyes, or thrushes in the feet; but
a light bed of straw, with tolerable attention to cleanliness, can never do harm.
" There are horses," says Professor Stewart, " that, in the habit of pawing and
stamping, slip about and sometimes lame themselves on the bare stones; many dis-
posed to lie down during the day, will not, or ought not, to do it, with a slight portion
of litter under them. It is a frequent observation with regard to road horses, and
many others, that the more a horse lies the better he works. Lame or tender-footed
horses cannot lie too much, and a great deal of standing ruins the best legs and feet.
Some horses, indeed, do not need this day-bedding, but many are the better for it,
and none are the worse."*
Thrushes are much oftener the consequence than the cause of contraction. The
homy frog, yielding to the pressure of the contracted quarters, is diminished in size,
and the lower portion of the fleshy frog becomes imprisoned, irritated, and inflamed,
and pus or matter is discharged at the cleft ; yet there are many heels in the last
stage of contraction that are not thrushy. On the other hand, thrush never long
existed, accompanied by much discharge, without producing a disposition to con-
traction ; therefore, thrush may be considered as both the cause and consequence of
contraction.
The removal of the bars takes away a main impediment to contraction. Their use
in assisting the expansion of the foot has been already stated, and should a disposition
t<~ -contraction be produced by any other cause, the cutting away of the bars would
hasten and aggravate the evil ; but the loss of the bar would not of itself produce
' Stewart's Stable CEconomy, p. 139.
808 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
The contraction, however, that is connected with permanent laraeness, althoug1\
increased by the circumstances which we have mentioned, usually derives its origin
from a different source, and from one that acts violently and suddenly. Inflammation
of the little plates covering the coffin-bone is the most usual cause ; and a degree of
inflammation not sufficiently intense to be characterised as acute founder, but quickly
leading to sad results, may and does spring from causes almost unsuspected. There
is one fact to which we have alluded, and that cannot be doubted, that contraction is
exceedingly rare in the agricultural horse, but frequently occurs in the stable of the
gentleman and the coach-proprietor. It is rare where the horse is seemingly neglected
and badly shod ; and frequent where every care is taken of the animal, and the shoes
are unexceptionable and skilfully applied. Something may depend upon the breed.
Blood horses are particularly liable to contraction. Not only is the foot naturally
small, but it is disposed to become narrower at the heels. On the other hand, the
broad, flat foot of the cart-horse is subject to diseases enough, but contraction is sel-
dom one of the number.* In horses of equal blood, not a little seems to depend up®n
the colour, and the dark chestnut is proverbially prone to contraction.
Whatever is the cause of that rapid contraction or narrowing of the heels which is
accompanied by severe lameness, the sy^mptoms may be easily distinguished. While
standing in the stable the horse will point with, or place forward, the contracted foot,
or, if both feet are affected, he will alternately place one before the other. When he
is taken out of the stable, he will not, perhaps, exhibit the decided lameness which
characterises sprain of the flexor tendon, or some diseases of the foot ; but his step
will be peculiarly short and quick, and the feet will be placed gently and tenderly on
the ground, or scarcely lifted from it in the walk or the trot. It would seem as if the
slightest irregularity of surface would throw the animal down, and so it threatens to
do, for he is constantly tripping and stumbling. If the fore-feet are carefully observed,
one or both of them will be narrowed across the quarters and towards the heels. In a
few cases the whole of the foot appears to be contracted and shrunk ; but in the majo-
rity of instances, while the heels are narrower, the foot is longer. The contraction
appears sometimes in both heels : at other times in the inner heel only ; or, if both are
affected, the inner one is wired in the most, either from the coronet to the base of the
foot, or only or principally at the coronet — oftener near the base of the foot — but in
most cases the hollow being greatest about mid-way between the coronet and the bet
tom of the foot. This irregularity of contraction, and uncertainty as to the place of
it, prove that it is some internal disorganization, the seat of which varies with the
portion of the attachment between the hoof and the foot that was principally strained
or injured. In every recent lase the contracted part will be hotter than the rest of
the foot, and the sole will, in the majority of cases, be unnaturally concave.
Of the treatment of contraction attended with lameness little can be said that will
be satisfactory. Numberless have been the mechanical contrivances to oppose the
progress of contraction, or to force back the foot to its original shape, and many of
them have enjoyed considerable but short-lived reputation. A clip was placed at the
inside of each heel, which, resting on the bars, was intended to afford an insur-
mountable obstacle to the further wiring in of the foot, while the heels of the shoe
were bevelled outward in order to give the foot a tendency to expand. The foot,
however, continued to contract, until the clip was embedded in the horn, and worse
lameness was produced,
A shoe jointed at the toe, and with a screw adapted to the heels, was contrived, by
which, when softened by poulticing, or immersion in warm water, the quarters were
to be irresistibly widened. They were widened by the daily and cautious use of the
screw until the foot seemed to assume its natural form, and the inventor began to
exult in having discovered a cure for contraction : but, no sooner was the common
* A valued correspondent suggests, that the difference between these two kinds of horses
may perhaps throw some light on the subject. The long-continued and heavy pressure on
the frog in the cart-horse produces ossification of the cartilages, from which the blood-horse
is free. In the quickness of the action of the blood-horse, the expansion of the frog is not
sufficiently continued to produce this effect ; but the concussion is severe, and the frog and the
shorter lamina towards the heel are the first to suffer, and contraclion ensues. We do not find
coniraciion in the hind feet, where there is "little contraction, nor ossification, because the
pressure is chiefly on the toe. Quick draught-horses have it both ways, but chiefly in con-
traction.
The readef will form his own opinion on this subject.
NAVICULAR-JOINT DISEaSL. 309
sftoe again applied, and the horse had returned to his work, than the heels hegan to
narrow, and the foot became as contracted as ever. Common sense would have
foretold that such must have been the result of this expansive process; for the heels
could have been onlj' thus forced asunder at the expense of partial or total separation
from the interior portions of the foot with which they were in contact.
The contracted heel can rarely or never permanently expand, for this plain reason,
that although we may have power over the crust, we cannot renew the laminae, or
restore the portion of the frog that has been absorbed.
If the action of the horse is not materially impaired, it is better to let the contrac-
tion alone, be it as great as it will. If the contraction has evidently produced consi-
derable lameness, the owner of the horse will have to calculate between his value if
cured, the expense of the cure, and the probability of failure.
The tnedical treatment should alone be undertaken by a skilful veterinary surgeon,
and it will principally consist in abating any inflammation that i;.ay exist, by local
bleeding and physic, paring the sole to the utmost extent that it will bear; rasping
the quarters as deeply as can be, without their being too much weakened, or the
coronary ring (see 6, p. 27'2) injured; rasping deeply likewise at the toe, and perhaps
scoring at the toe. The horse is afterwards made to stand during the day in wet
clay, placed in one of the stalls. He is at night moved into another stall, and his
feet bound up thickly in wet cloths ; or he is turned out into wet pasturage, with tips,
or, if possible, without them, and his feet are frequently pared out, and the quarters
lightly rasped. In five or six months the horn will generally have grown down,
when hp may be taken up, and shod with shoes unattached by nails on the inner side
of the foot, and put to gentle work. The foot will be found very considerably enlarged,
and the owner will, perhaps, think that the cure is accomplished. The horse may,
possibly, for a time stand very gentle work, and the inner side of the foot being left
at liberty, its natural expansive process may be resumed : the internal part of thefoot,
however, has not been healthily filled up with the expansion of the crust. If that
expansion has been effected forward on the quarters, the crust will no longer be in
contact with the lengthened and narrowed heels of the coffin-bone. There will not be
the natural adhesion and strength, and a very slight cause, or even the very habit of
contraction, will, in spite of all care and the freedom of the inner quarter, in very
many instances, cause the foot to wire in again as badly as before.
THE NAVICULAR-JOINT DISEASE.
Many horses with well-formed and open feet become sadly and permanently lame,
and veterinary surgeons have been puzzled to discover the cause. The farrier has had
his convenient explanation "the shoulder;" but the scientific practitioner may not
have been able to discover an ostensible cause of lameness in the whole limb. There
is no one accustomed to horses who does not recollect an instance of this.
By reference to the cut, e, page 272, it will be seen that, behind and beneath the
lower pastern-bone, and behind and above the heel of the coffin-bone, is a small bone
called the navicular or shuttle bone. It is so placed as to strengthen the union between
the lower pastern and the coffin-bone, and to enable the flexor tendon, which passes
over it in order to be inserted into the bottom of the coffin-bone, to act with more
advantage. It forms a kind of joint with that tendon. There is a great deal of weight
thrown on the navicular-bone, and from the navicular-bone on the tendon ; and there
is a great deal of m.otion or play between them in tlie bending and extension of the
pasterns. It is very easy to conceive that, from sudden concussion, or from rapid and
overstrained motion, and that, perhaps, after the animal has been sometime at rest,
and the parts have not adapted themselves for motion, there may be too much play
between the bone and the tendon — the delicate membrane which covers the bone, or
the cartilage of the bone, may be bruised, and inflamed, and destroyed ; that all the
painful effects of an inflamed and opened joint may ensue, and the horse be irreco-
verably lame. Numerous dissections have shown that this joint, formed bvthe tendon
and the bone, has been the frequent, and the almost invariable, seat of these obscure
amenesses. The membrane covering the cartilage of the bone has been found in an
ulcerated state ; the cartilage has been ulcerated and eaten away ; the bone has become
carious or decaj'ed, and bony adhesions have taken place between the navicular and
the pastern and the coffin-bones, and this part of the foot has often become completely
disorganised and useless. This joint is probably the seat of lameness, not only in
31C DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
well-formed and perfect feet, but in those which become lame afler contraction ; for
in proportion as the inner frog is compressed by the contraction of the heels, and is
absorbed by that pressure, and the sole is become concave, and the horny frog, and
the coflin-bone too, thereby elevated, there will be less room for the action of this
joint, and more danger of the tendon and the delicate membrane of the navicular-bone
being crushed between that bone and the horny frog.
Stable management has little to do with the production of this disease, any farther
than if a horse stands idle in the stable several days, and the structure of the foot, and
all the apparatus connected with motion, become unused to exertion, and indisposed
for it, and he is then suddenly and violently exercised, this membrane is very liable
to be bruised and injured. This, amongst other evils, will be lessened by a loose
box, in which a horse will always take some exercise.*
The cure of navicular disease is difficult and uncertain. The first and all-important
point is the removal of the inflammation in this very susceptible membrane. Local
bleeding, poulticing, and physic will be our principal resources. If there is contrac-
tion, this must, if possible, be removed by the means already pointed out. If there is
no contraction, it will nevertheless be prudent to get rid of all surrounding pressure,
and to unfetter, as much as possible, the inside heel of the coffin-bone, by paring the
sole and rasping the quarters, and using the shoe without nails on the inner quarter,
and applying cold poultices to the coronet and the whole of the foot. This is a case,
however, which must be turned over to the veterinary surgeon, for he alone, from his
knowledge of the anatomy of the foot, and the precise seat of the disease, is competent
to treat it. If attacked on its earliest appearance, and before ulceration of the mem-
brane of the joint has taken place, it may be radically cured : but ulceration of the
membrane will be with difficulty healed, and caries of the bone will for ever remain.
Blistering the coronet will often assist in promoting a cure by diverting the inflam-
mation to another part, and it will materially quicken the growth of the horn. A seton
passed through the frog by a skilful operator, and approaching as nearly as possible
to the seat of disease, has been serviceable.
In cases of old contraction, attended by a short and feeling step, neurotomy, or the
excision of a portion of the nerve (for an explanation of the nature and effects of
which see page 113), may be resorted to with decided advantage. Not only will the
lameness be removed, but, by the foot being again brought fully and firmly upon the
ground, the inner side of the shoe being unfettered by nails, a portion of the contrac-
tion may be removed by the sole being allowed to descend and the foot to expand at
each contact with the ground.
Even when the navicular-joint is particularly suspected, if there is no apparent
inflammation (and that would be readily detected by the heat of the foot), neurotomy
may be practised with the hope of alleviating the sufferings of the animal, and thus
* To Mr. James Turner the veterinary profession is indebted for a knowledge of the seat
and cause of this lameness. In the year 1816, he first alluded to it, and the truth and import-
ance of his discovery is now universally allowed.
According to Mr. Turner, 'contraction of the hoof is more or less apparent in the majority
of horses that have been accustomed to be shod. This is often long before they have
attained the highest value for work, and not unfrequently before they are five years old. Thi*
contraction is not, however, necessarily connected with lameness — a large proportion of horses,
in the very midst of labour, are perfectly free from lameness.
The next deviation from nature is the passive state to which the foot is submitted at
least twenty-two or twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, and sometimes for several
consecutive days. Let this be compared with the few hours during which the feet of a horse
at pasture are in a quiescent state, and there will be no cause of surprise in the change of form
and position, and character, and the state of contraction — which takes place in the foot deprived
of its natural pressure and motion.
The first consequence of contraction is the gradual displacement of the navicular and coffin-
bones. They ascend within the hoof An unnatural arch is formed by the ascent of the frog,
and the dehcate synovial membrane lining the joint is crushed and bruised by the very material
which nature has bestowed as a defence. This bruise of the synovial membrane lining the
joint is the veritable source of this complaint, the actual cause of the whole not consisting in
the wear and tear of the part, but having its origin in rest. It is engendered in the stable, bui
it becomes permanently established by sudden violence out of it. General contraction of the
foot of the horse may take place to a great extent with comparative impunity, but it is a pat
tial contraction or pressure which is the root of the evil. — Turner on the Navicular Diseast
Veterinarian, vol. ii, p. 53.
SAND-CRACK. 11]
removing a portion of the lameness ; but if the lameness is extreme, either with or
without contraction, and especially if there is heat about the foot, the operation is dan-
gerous. There is, probably, ulceration of the membrane — possibly, decay of the bone;
and the additional friction to which the parts would be subjected, by tlie freer action
of the horse, the sense of pain being removed, would cause that ulceration or decay to
proceed more rapidly until the foot would be completely disorganised, or the tendon
would be gradually worn through by rubbing against the roughened surface of the
bone.
SAND-CRACK.
This, as its name imports, is a crack or division of the hoof from above downward,
and into which sajid and dirt are too apt to insinuate themselves. It is so called,
because it most frequently occurs in sandy districts, the heat of the sand applied to
the feet giving them a disposition to crack. It occurs both in the fore and tlie hind
feet. In the fore feet it is usually found in the inner quarter (see g, page 278), but
occasionally in the outer quarter, because there is the principal stress or effort towards
expansion in the foot, and the inner quarter is weaker than the outer. In the hind
feet the crack is almost invariably found in the front, because in the digging of the
toe into the ground in the act of drawing, the principal stress is in front.
This is a most serious defect. It indicates a brittleness of the crust, sometimes
natural, but oftener the consequence of mismanagement or disease, which, in spite of
every means adopted, will probably be the source of future annoyance. On a hoof
that has once been thus divided, no dependence can be placed, unless, by great care,
the natural suppleness of the horn has been restored and is retained.
Sand-crack may happen in an instant, from a false step or over-exertion, and there-
tore a horse, although he may spring a sand-crack within an hour after the purchase,
cannot be returned on that account.
It is always necessary to examine the inner quarter of the foot at the time of pur-
chase ; for it has more than once occurred that, by low dealers, and particularly at
fairs, a sand-crack has been neatly covered with pitch, and then, the whole of the
hoof having been oiled, the injury was so adroitly concealed, that an incautious per-
son might be easily deceived.
The crack sometimes does not penetrate through the horn. It then causes no lame-
ness; nevertheless, it must not be neglected. It shows that there is brittleness,
which should induce the purchaser to pause ; and, if proper means are not taken, it
will srenerally soon penetrate to the quick. It should be pared or rasped fairly out;
and if the paring or rasping has been deep, the foot should be strengthened by a coat-
ing of pitch, with coarse tape bound over it, and a second coating of pitch covering
this. Every crack should be pared or rasped, to ascertain its depth. If it penetrates
through the crust, even although no lameness exists, a firing-iron, red-hot, should be
passed somewhat deeply above and below it, in order to prevent its lengthening — the
edges should be thinned, to remove any painful or injurious pressure, and the foot
should be bound up in the manner directed, care being taken that the shoe does not
press upon the crust immediately under the sand-crack.
If the crack has penetrated through the crust, and lameness has ensued, the case is
more serious. It must be carefully examined, in order to ascertain that no dirt or
sand has got into it; the edges must be more considerably thinned, and if any fungus
is beginning to protrude through the crack, and is imprisoned there, it must be
destroyed by the application of the butyr (chloride) of antimony. This is preferable
to the cautery, because the edges of the horn will not be thickened or roughened, and
thus become a source of after-irritation. The iron must then be run deeply across,
above, and below the crack, as in the other case ; a pledget of dry tow being placed
in the crack, in and over it, and the whole bound down as tightly as possible. On
the third day the part should be examined, and the caustic again applied, if necessary :
but if the crack is dry, and defended by a hard horny crust, the sooner the pitch plaster
is put on the better.
The most senous case is, when, from tread or neglect, the coronet is divided. The
growth of horn proceeds from the coronary ligament, and unless this ligament is
sound, the horn ■^nll grow down disunited. The method to be here adopted, is to ran
the back of the firing-iron over the coronet where it is divided. Some inflammation
will ensue ; and when the scab produced by the cautery peels off, as it will in a few
312 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
days, the division will be obliterated, and sound and united horn will grow down.
When there is suflicient horn above the crack, a horizontal line should be drawn with
a firing-iron between the sound horn and the crack. The connexion between the sound
part and the crack will thus be prevented, and the new horn will gradually and safely
descend, but the horse should not be used until sufficient horn has grown down fairly
to isolate the crack. In this case, as in almost every one of sand-crack, tiie horse
.should be kept as quiet as possible. It is not in the power of the surgeon to effect a
perfect cure, if the owner will continue to use the animal. When the horn is divided
at the coronet, it will be five or six months before it will grow fairly down, and not
before that, should the animal be used even for ordinary work. When, however, the
horn is grown an. inch from the coronet, the horse may be turned out — the foot being
well defended by the pitch plaster, and that renewed as often as it becomes loose — a
bar-shoe being worn, chambered so as not to jiress upon the hoof immediately under
the crack, and that shoe being taken off, the sole pared out, and any bulbous projec-
tion of new horn being removed once in every three weeks.
To remedy the undue brittleness of the hoof, there is no better application than that
recommended in page 303, the sole being covered at the same time with the common
cow-dung, or felt stopping.
TREAD AND OVER-REACH.
Under these terms are comprised bruises and wounds of the coronet, inflicted by the
other feet.
A TREAD is said to have taken place, when the inside of the coronet of one hind
(c-Ql is struck by the calkin of the shoe of the other, and a bruised or contused wound
is inflicted. The coronary ring is highly vascular externally, and within it is cartila-
ginous ; the blow, therefore, often produces much pain and hemorrhage, and contusion
and destruction of the parts. The wound may appear to be simple, but it is often of
a sadly complicated nature, and much time and care will need to be expended in
repairing the mischief. Mr. Percivall very accurately states that " the wound has,
in the first place, to cast off a slough, consisting of the bruised, separated, and
deadened parts; then the chasm thereby exposed has to granulate; and finally, the
sore has to cicatrize, and form new horn."*
A tread, or wound of the coronet, must never be neglected, lest gravel should
insinuate itself into the wound, and form deep ulcerations, called sinuses or pipes, and
which constitute quittor. Although some mildly stimulating escharotic may be occa-
sionally required, the caustic, too frequently used by farriers, should be carefully
avoided, not only lest quittor should be formed, but lest the coronary ligament should
be so injured as to be afterwards incapable of secretirtg perfect horn. When pro-
perly treated, a tread is seldom productive of much injury. If the dirt is w'ell washed
out of it, and a pledget of tow, dipped in Friar's balsam, bound over the wound, it
will, in the majority of cases, speedily heal. Should the bruise be extensive, or the
wound deep, a poultice may be applied for one or two days, and then the Friar's bal-
sam, or digestive ointment. Sometimes a soft tumour will form on the part, which
will be quickly brought to suppuration by a poultice; and when the matter has run
out, the ulcer will heal by the application of the Friar's balsam, or a weak solution
of blue vitriol. •»
An OVER-REACH is a tread upon the heel of the coronet of the fore foot by the shoe
of the corresponding hind foot, and either inflicted by the toe, or by the inner edge of
the inside of the shoe. The preventive treatment is the bevelling, or rounding ofT, of
the inside edge or rim of the hind shoes. The cure is, the cutting away of the loose
parts, the application of Friar's balsam, and protection from the dirt.
There is a singular species of over-reaching, termed forging or clicking. The
horse, in the act of trotting, strikes the toes of the hind shoes against the fore ones.
This noise of the clicking is unpleasant, and the trick or habit is not altogether free
from danger. It is most frequent in young horses, and is attributable to too great
activity, or length of stride in the hind legs. The rider may do something by keep-
ing the head of the horse well up ; but the smith may effect more by making the hind
Bhoes of clicking horses short in the toe, and having the web broad. W'hen they are
* Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. i. p. 243.
FALSE QUARTER. — QUITTOR. 313
too long, thpy are apt to be torn off — when too narrow, the hind foot ui.iy bruise the
sole of the fore one, or may be locked fast between the branches of the fore shoe.*
FALSE QUARTER.
If the coronary ligament, by which the horn of the crust is secreted, is divided by
some cut or bruise, or eaten through by any caustic, there will occasionally be a divi-
sion in the horn as it gTows down, either in the form of a permanent sand-crack, or
one portion of the horn overlapping tiie other. It occcasionally follows neglected
sand-crack, or it may be the consequence of quittor. This is exteriorly an evident
fissure in the horn, and extending from the coronet to the sole, but not always pene-
trating to the laminae. It is a very serious defect, and exceedingly difficult to remedy;
for occasionally, if the horse is over-weighted or hurried on his journey, the fissure
will open and bleed, and very serious inconvenience and lameness may ensue. Grit
and dirt may insinuate itself into the aperture, and penetrate to the sensible laminae.
Inflammation will almost of necessity be produced ; and much mischief will be
effected. While the energies of the animal are not severely taxed, he may not expe-
rience much inconvenience or pain ; but the slightest exertion will cause the fissure
to expand, and painful lameness to follow.
Tills is not only a very serious defect, but one exceedingly difficult to remedy.
The coronary ligament must be restored to its perfect state, or at least to the dis-
charge of its perfect function. Much danger would attend the application of the
caustic in order to eflect this. A blister is rarely sufficiently active : but the applica-
tion, not too severely, of a heated flat or rounded iron to the coronet at the injured part
affords the best chance of success — the edges of the horn on either side of the crack
being thinned, the hoof supported — and the separated parts held together by a firm
encasement of pitch, as described when speaking of the treatment of sand-crack.
The coronet must be examined at least once in every fortnight, in order to ascertain
whether the desired union has taken place ; and, as a palliative during the treatment
of the case, or if the treatment should be unsuccessful, a bar-shoe may be used, and
care taken that there be no bearing at or immediately under the separation of the horn.
This will be best effected, when the crust is thick and the quarters strong, by paring
off a little of the bottom of the crust at the part, so that it will not touch the shoe ;
but if the foot is weak, an indentation or hollow should be made in the shoe. Strain
or concussion on the immediate part will thus be avoided, and, in sudden or violent
exertion, the crack will not be so likely to extend upward to the coronet, when whole
and sound horn has begun to be formed there. |
In some cases false quarter assumes a less serious character. The horn grows
down whole, but the ligament is unable to secrete that which is perfectly healthy,
and, therefore, a narrow strip of horn of a different and lighter colour is produced.
This is sometimes the best result that can be procured when the surgeon has been
able to obliterate the absolute crack or separation. It is, however, to be regarded as
a defect, not sufficient to condemn the horse, but indicating that he has had sand-
crack, and that a disposition to sand-crack may possibly remain. There will also, in
the generality of cases, be some degree of tenderness in that quarter, which may pro-
duce slight lameness when unusual exertion is required from the horse, or the shoe is
suffered long to press on the part.
QUITTOR.
This has been described as being the result of neglected or bad tread or over-reach ;
but it may be the consequence of any wound in the foot, and in any part of the foot. In
the natural process of ulceration, matter is thrown out from the wound. It precedes the
actual healing of the part. The matter which is secreted in wounds of the foot is
usually pent up there, and, increasing in quantity, and urging its way in every direc-
* Stewart's Stable (Economy, p. 393.
t James Clark, whose works have not been valued as they deserve, expresses in a few
wordsthe real state of the case, and the course that should be pursued : —
" We may so far palliate the complaint as to render the horse something useful by using a
shoe of such a construction as will support the limb without resting or pressing too much
upon the weakened quarter." A proper stopping should also cover the sole, on whicn some
coarse tow may be placed, and a piece of leather over that; the whole being confined by a
broad web-shoe.
27 2p
314 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
tion, it forces the little fleshy plates of the coffin-bone, from the homy ones of the
crust, or ihe horny sole from the fleshy sole, or even eats deeply into the internal
parts of the foot. These pipes or sinuses run in every direction, and constitute the
essence of quiitor.
If it arises from a wound at the bottom of the foot, the purulent matter which is
rapidly formed is pent up there, and the nail of the shoe or the stub remains in the
wound, or the small aperture which was made is immediately closed again. This
matter, however, continues to be secreted, and separates the horny sole from the
fleshy one to a considerable extent, and at length forces its way upwards, and appears
at the coronet, and usually at the quarter, and there slowly oozes out, while the aper-
ture and the quantity discharged are so small that the inexperienced person would
have no suspicion of the extent of the mischief within, and the difficulty of repairing
it. The opening may scarcely admit a probe into it, yet over the greater part of the
quarter and the sole the horn may have separated from the foot, and the matter may
have penetrated under the cartilages and ligaments, and into the coffin joint. Not
only so, but two mischievous results may have been produced, — the pressure of the
matter wherever it has gone has formed ulcerations that are indisposed to heal, and
that require the application of strong and painful stimulants to induce them to heal ;
and, worse than this, the horn, once separated from the sensible parts beneath, will
never again unite with them. Quittor may occur in both the fore and the hind feet.
It will be sufficiently plain that the aid of a skilful practitioner is here requisite,
and also the full exercise of patience in the proprietor of the horse. It may be neces-
sary to remove much of the horny sole, which will be speedily reproduced when the
fleshy surface beneath can be brought to a healthy condition ; but if much of the horn
at the quarters must be taken away, five or six months may probably elapse before it
will be sufficiently grown down again to render the horse useful.
Measures of considerable severity are indispensable. The application of some
caustic will alone produce a healthy action on the ulcerated surfaces ; but on the
ground of interest and of humanity we protest against that brutal practice, or at leasi
the extent to which it is carried, and is pursued by many ignorant smiths, of coring
out, or deeply destroying the healthy as well as the diseased parts — and parts which
no process will again restore. The unhealthy surface must be removed ; but the car
tilages and ligaments, and even portions of the bone, need not to be sacrificed.
The experienced veterinary surgeon will alone be able to counsel the proprietor of
the horse when, in cases of confirmed quittor, there is reasonable hope of permaneni
cure. A knowledge of the anatomy of the foot is necessary to enable him to decide
what parts, indispensable to the action of the animal, may have been irreparably
injured or destroyed, or to save these parts from the destructive effect of torturing
caustics. When any portion of the bone can be felt by the probe, the chances of
success are diminished, and the 'owner and the operator should pause. When the
joints are exposed, the case is hopeless, although, in a great many instances, the
bones and the joints are exposed by the remedy and not by the disease. One hint
may not be necessary to the practitioner, but it may guide the determination and
hopes of the owner; if, when a probe is introduced into the fistulous orifice on the
coronet, the direction of the sinuses or pipes is backward, there is much probaliility
that a perfect cure may be effected ; but if the direction of the sinuses is forward, the
cure is at best doubtful. In the first instance, there is neither bone nor joint to be
injured ; in the other, the more important parts of the foot are in danger, and the prin-
cipal action and concussion are found.
Neglected bruises of the sole sometimes lay the foundation for quittor. When the
foot is flat, it is very liable to be bruised if the horse is ridden fast over a rough and
stony road ; or, a small stone, insinuating itself between the shoe and the sole, oi
confined by the curvature of the shoe, will frequently lame the horse. The heat ana
tenderness of the part, the occasional redness of the horn, and the absence of punc
ture, will clearly mark the bruise. The sole must then be thinned, and particularly
over the bruised part, and, in neglected cases, it must be pared even to the quick, ir
order to ascertain whether the inflammation has run on to suppuration. Bleeding at
the toe will be clearly indicated ; and poultices, and such other means as have either
been described under "Inflammation of the Feet," or will be pointed out under the
next head. The principal causes of bruises of the foot are leaving the sole too nmch
exposed by means of a narrow-webbed shoe, or the smith paring out the sole too
PRICK OR WOUND IN THE SOLE OR CRUST. 315
closel}% or the pressure of the shoe on the sole, or the introduction of gravel or stones
between the shoe and the sole.
The author subjoins the mode of cure in this disease, as it has been practised by
two veterinary surgeons. They are both excellent, and, so far as can well be the
case, satisfactory^
Mr. Percivall says : — " The ordinary mode of cure consists in the introduction of
caustic into the sinus; and so long- as the cartilage preserves its integrity by which
I mean, is free from caries — this is perhaps the most prompt and etfectual mode of
proceeding. The farrier's practice is to mix about half a drachm of corrosive sub-
limate in powder with twice or thrice the quantity of flour, and make them into a
paste with water. This he takes up by little at a time with the point of his probe,
and works it about into the sinus until the paste appears rising in the orifice above
After this is done he commonly has the horse walked about for an hour or two, or
even sent to slow work again, which produces a still more effectual solution of the
caustic, at the same time that it tends greatly to its uniform and thorough diffusion
into every recess and winding of the sinus. The consequence of this sharp caustic
dressing is a general slough from the sinus. Every part of its interior surface is
destroyed, and the dead particles become agglutinated, and cast off along with the
discharges in the form of a dark, firm curdled mass, which the farrier calls the
core ; and so it commonly proves, for granulations follow close behind it, and fill up
the sinus."*
The other mode of treatment is that of Mr. Newport, a surgeon of long standing :
— " After the shoe has been removed, thin the sole until it will yield to the pressure
of- the thumb ; then cut the under parts of the wall in an oblique direction from the
heel to the anterior part, immediately under the seat of complaint, and only as far as
it extends, and rasp the side of the wall thin enough to give way to the pressure of
the over-distended parts, and put on a bar shoe rather elevated from the frog. As-
certain with a probe the direction of the sinuses, and introduce into them a saturated
solution of sulphate of zinc, by means of a small syringe. Place over this dressing
the common cataplasm, or the turpentine ointment, and renew the application every
twenty-four hours. I have frequently found three or four such applications complete
a cure. I should recommend that when the probe is introduced, in order to ascer-
tain the progress of cure, that it be gently and carefully used, otherwise it may break
down the new-formed lymph. I have found the solution very valuable, where the
synovial fluid has escaped, but not to be used if the inflammation of the parts is
great."t
PRICK OR WOUND IN THE SOLE OR CRUST.
This is the most frequent cause of quitter. It is evident that the sole is very liable
to be wounded by nails, pieces of glass, or even sharp flints. Every part of the
foot is subject to injuries of this description. The usual place at which these wounds
are found is in the hollow between the bars and the frog, or in the frog itself. In
the fore feet the injury will be generally recognized on the inner quarter, and on the
hind feet near the toe. In fact these are the thinnest parts of the fore and hind feet.
Much more frequently the laminae are wounded by the nail in shoeing ; or if the nail
does not penetrate through the internal surface of the crust, it is driven so close to it
that it presses upon the fleshy parts beneath, and causes irritation and inflammation,
and at length ulceration. When a horse becomes suddenly lame, after the legs have
been tarefuUy examined, and no cause of lameness appears in them, the shoe should
be taken off. In many cases the offending substance will be immediately detected,
or the additional heat felt in some part of the foot will point out the seat of injury;
or, if the crust is rapped with the hammer all round, the flinching of the horse will
discover it ; or pressure with the pincers will render it evident.
When the shoe is removed for this examination the smith should never be permit-
ted to wrench it off, but each nail should be drawn separately, and examined as it is
drawn, when some moisture appearing upon it will not unfrequently reveal the spot
at which matter has been thrown out.
Sudden lameness occurring within two or three days after the horse has oecn shod
* Percivall's Hippopathology, vol. i. p. 248.
t Thp Vetennarian vol. i. p. 329
316 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
will lead to the suspicion that the smith has been in fault; yet no one who considers
the thinness of the crust, and the difficulty of shoeing many feet, will blame him for
sometimes pricking the animal. His fault w ill consist in concealing or denying that
of which he will almost always be aware at the time of shoeing, from the flinching-
of the horse, or the dead sound, or the peculiar resistance that may be noticed in the
drivino- of the nail. We would plead the cause of the honest portion of an humble
class of men, who discharge this mechanical part of their business with a skill and
good fortune scarcely credible; but we resign those to the reproaches and the punish-
uient of the owner of the horse who too often, and with bad policy, deny that which
accident, or possibly momentary carelessness, might have occasioned, and the neglect
of which is fraught with danger, although the mischief resulting from it might at the
time have been easily remedied.
When the seat of mischief is ascertained, the sole should be thinned round it, ana
at the nail-hole, or the puncture, it should be pared to the quick. The escape of
some matter will now probably tell the nature of the injury, and remove its conse
quences. If it be puncture of the sole effected by some nail, or any similar body,
picked up on the road, all that will be necessary is a little to enlarge the opening
and then to place on it a pledget of tow dipped in Friar's balsam, and over that a
little common stopping. If there is much heat and lameness, a poultice should be
applied.
The part of the sole that is wounded and the depth of the wound should be taken
into consideration. It will be seen, by reference to the cut in page 272, that a deep
puncture towards the back part of the sole, and penetrating even into the sensible frog,
may not be productive of serious consequence. There is no great motion in the part,
and there are no tendons or bones in danger. A puncture near the toe may not be
followed by much injury. There is little motion in that part of the foot, and the
internal sole covering the coffin-bone will soon heal. A puncture, however, about the
centre of the sole may wound the flexor tendon where it is inserted into the coffin-bone,
or may even penetrate the joint which unites the navicular-bone with the coffin-bone,
or pierce through the tendon into the joint which it forms with the navicular-bone,
and a degree of inflammation may ensue, that, if neglected, may be fatal. Many
horses have been lost by the smallest puncture of the sole in these dangerous points.
All the anatomical skill of the veterinarian should be called into requisition, when he
is examining the most trifling wound of the foot.
If the foot has been wounded by the wrong direction of a nail in shoeing, and the
sole is well-pared out over the part on the first appearance of lameness, little more
will be necessary to be done. The opening should be somewhat enlarged, the Friar's
balsam applied, and the shoe tacked on, with or without a poultice, according to the
degree of lameness or heat, and on the following day all will often be well. It may,
however, be prudent to keep the foot stopped for a few days. If the accident has
been neglected, and matter begins to be formed, and to be pent up, and to press ori the
neighbouring parts, and the horse evidently suffers extn nie pain, and is sometimes
scarcely able to put his foot to the ground, and much matter is poured out when the
opening is enlarged, further precautions must be adopted. The fact must be recol-
lected that the living and dead horn will never unite, and every portion of the horny
sole that has separated from the fleshy sole above must be removed. The separation
must be followed as far as it reaches. Much of the success of the treatment depends
on this. No small strip or edge of separated horn must be suffered to press upon any
part of the wound. Tlie exposed fleshy sole must then be touched, but not too
severely, with the butyr (chloride) of antimony, some soft and dry tow being spread
on the part, the foot stopped, and a poultice placed over all if the inflammation seems
to require it. On the following day a thin pellicle of horn will frequently be found
over a part or the whole of the wound. This should be, yet very lightly, again
touched with the caustic ; but if there is an appearance of fungus sprouting from the
exposed surface, the application of the butyr must be more severe, the tow being
again placed over it, so as to afford considerable yet uniform pressure. Many days do
not often elapse before the new horn covers the whole of the wound. In these exten-
sive openings the Friar's balsam will not always be successful, but the cure must br.
effected by the judicious and never-too-severe use of the caustic. Bleeding at the
toe, and physic, will be resorted to as useful auxilaries when much inflarnmatior
CORNS. 317
In searching the foot in order to ascertain the existence of prick, there is often
something very censurable in the carelessness with which the horn is cut away
between the bottom of the crust and the sole, so as to leave little or no hold for the
nails, although some months must elapse before the horn will grow down sufficiently
far for the shoe to be securely fastened.
When a free opening has been made below, and matter has not broken out at the
coronet, it will rarely be necessary to remove any portion of the horn at the quarters,
although we may be able to ascertain by the use of the probe that the separation of
fhe crust extends for a considerable space above the sole.
CORNS.
In the angle between the bars (c, p. 297) and the quarters, the horn of the sole has
sometimes a red appearance, and is more spongy and softer than at any other part.
The horse flinches when this portion of the horn is pressed upon, and occasional or
permanent lameness is produced. This disease of the foot is termed corns : bearing
this resemblance to the corn of the human being, that it is produced by pressure, and
IS a cause of lameness. When corns are neglected, so much inflammation is pro-
duced in that part of the sensible sole, that suppuration follows, and to that, quittor
succeeds, and the matter either undermines the horny sole, or is discharged at the
coronet.
The pressure hereby produced manifests itself in various ways. When the foot
becomes contracted, the part of the sole inclosed between the external crust that is
wirinCT in, and the bars that are opposing that contraction (see cut, p. 297), is placed
in a kind of vice, and becomes inflamed ; hence it is rare to see a contracted foot with-
out corns. When the shoe is suffered to remain on too long, it becomes embedded in
the heel of the foot : the external crust grows down on the outside of it, and the bear-
ing is thrown on this angular portion of the sole. No part of the sole can bear con-
tinued pressure, and inflammation and corns are the result. From the length of wear
the shoe sometimes becomes loosened at the heels, and gravel insinuates itself
between the shoe and the crust, and accumulates in this angle, and sometimes seriously
v^ounds it.
The bars are too frequently cut away, and then the heel of the shoe must be bevelled
inward, in order to answer to this absurd and injurious shaping of the foot. By this
slanting direction of the heel of the shoe inward, an unnatural disposition to contrac-
tion is given, and the sole must sutfer in two ways, — in being pressed upon by the
shoe, and squeezed between the outer crust and the external portion of the bar. The
shoe is often made unnecessarily narrow at the heels, by which this angle, seemingly
less disposed to bear pressure than any other part of the foot, is exposed to accidental
bruises. If, in the paring out of the foot, the smith should leave the bars prominent,
he too Irequently neglects to pare away the horn in the angle between the bars and
the external crust ; or if he cuts away the bars, he scarcely touches the horn at this
point ; and thus, before the horse has been shod a fortnight, the shoe rests on this
angle, and produces corns. The use of a shoe for the fore feet, thickened at the heels
is, and especially in weak feet, a source of corns, from the undue bearing there is on
the heels, and the concussion to which they are subject.
The unshod colt rarely has corns. The heels have their natural power of expan-
sion, and the sensible sole at this part can scarcely be imprisoned, while the projec-
tion of the heel of the crust and the bar is a sufficient defence from external injury.
Corns seem to he the almost inevitable consequence of shoeing, which, by limiting-,
or in a manner destroying, the expansibility of the foot, must, when the sole attempts
to descend, or the coffin-bone has a backward and downward direction (see cut, p.
272), imprison and injure this portion of the sole. This evil consequence is increased
when the shoe is badly formed, or kept on too long, nr when the paring is omitted or
injudiciously extended to the bars. By this unnatural pressure of the' sole, blood is
thrown out, and enters into the pores of the soft and diseased horn which is then
secreted ; therefore the existence and the extent of the corn is judged of by the colour
and softness of the horn at this place.
Corns are most frequent and serious in horses with thin horn and flat soles, and low
weak heels. They do not often occur in the outside heel. It is of a stronger con-
strui-'tion than the inside one. The method adopted by shoeing-smiths to ascertain
the existence of corn by the pain evinced when they pinch the bar and crust with
27*
318 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
their irons, is very fallacious. If the horn is naturally thin, the horse will shrink
under no great pressure although he has no corn, and occasionally the bars are so
strong as not to uive way under any pressure.
The cure of old corns is difficult; for as all shoeing has some tendency to produce
pressure here, the habit of throwing out this diseased horn is difficult to get rid of
when once contracted ; recent corns, however, will yield to good shoeing.
'i'he first thing to be done is well to pare out the angle between the crust and the
i)ars. Two objects are answered by this : the extent of the disease will be ascertained,
and one cause of it removed. A very small drawing-knife must be used for this pur-
pose. The corn must be pared out to the very bottom, taking care not to wound the
sole. It may then be discovered whether there is any effusion of blood or matter
underneath. If this is suspected, an opening nmst be made through the horn, the
matter evacuated, the separated horn taken away, the course and extent of the sinuses
explored, and the treatment recommended for quitter adopted. Should there be no
collection of fluid, the butyr of antimony should be applied over the whole extent of
the corn, after the horn has been thinned as closely as possible. The object of this
is to stimulate the sole to throw out more healthy horn. In bad cases a bar-shoe may
be put on, so chambered, that there shall be no pressure on the diseased part. This
may be worn for one or two shoeings, but not constantly, for there are few frogs that
would bear the constant pressure of the bar-shoe ; and the want of pressure on the
heel, generally occasioned by their use, would produce a softened and bulbous state
of the heels, that would of itself be an inevitable source of lameness.
Mr. Turner is in the habit of using a shoe that promises to lessen to a very material
degree the sufferings of the horse. The ground surface of the shoe is so bevelled off,
that it does not come into contact with the ground, and thus much concussion is saved
to the horse. A slight space, however, should be left between the heel of the foot,
and that of the shoe; and which cannot be better occupied than by the leather sole,
preventing the insinuation of foreign bodies, and yet preserving the heel from corn
cussion.
In unusually troublesome cases of corns, recourse should be had to the bar-shoe.
Mr. Spooner, of Southampton, very properly states, that the corns occasionally
fester, and the purulent matter which is secreted, having no dependent orifice, ascends,
torturing the animal to a dreadful extent, and breaks out at the coronet. These cases
are very troublesome. Sinuses are formed, and the evil may end in quittor. A large
and free dependent orifice must then be made, and a poultice applied ; to which should
succeed a solution of sulphate of zinc, with the application of the compound tar
ointment.
The cause of corn is a most important subject of inquiry, and which a careful
examination of the foot and the shoe will easily discover. The cause being ascer-
tained, the effect may, to a great extent, be afterwards removed. Turning out to
grass, after the horn is a little grown, first with a bar-shoe, and afterwards with the
shoe fettered on one side, or with tips, will often be serviceable. A horse that has
once had corns to any considerable extent should, at every shoeing, have the seat of
corn well pared out, and the butyr of antimony applied. The seated shoe (hereafter
to be described) should be used, with a web sufficiently thick to cover the place of
corn, and extending as far back as it can be made to do without injury to the frog.
Low weak heels should be rarely touched with the knife, or anything more be done
to them than lightly to rasp them, in order to give them a level surface. The inner
heel should be particularly spared. Corns are seldom found in the hind feet, because
the heels are stronger, and the feet are not exposed to so much concussion ; and when
they are found there, they are rarely or never productive of lameness. There is nothing
perhaps in which the improvement in the veterinary art has relieved the horse from so
much suffering as shoeing. Where corns now exist of any consequence, they are a
disgrace to the smith, the groom, and even to the owner.
THRUSH.
This is a discharge of offensive matter from the cleft of the frog. It is inflamma-
tion of the lower surface of the sensible frog, and during which pus is secreted toge-
ther with, or instead of horn. When the frog is in its sound state, the cleft sinks but
a little way into it; but when it becomes contracted or otherwise diseased, it extendfl
in length, and penetrates even to the sensible horn within, and through this vjinatn
THRUSH. 319
rally deepened fissure the thrushy discharge proceeds. A plethoric state of the oodv
may be a predisposing cause of thrush, but the immediate and grand cause is mois-
ture. This should never be forgotten, for it will lead a great way towards tht Proper
treatment of the disease. If the feet are haljitually covered with any moist applica-
tion— his standing so much on his own dung is a fair example — thrush will inevitably
appear. It is caused by anything that interferes with the healthy structure and action
of the frog. We find it in the hinder feet oftener and worse than in the fore, because
in our st ible management the hinder feet are too much exposed to the pernicious
effects of the dung and the urine, moistening, or as it were macerating, and at the
same time irritating them. The distance of the hind feet from the centre'of circulation
would also, as in the case of grease, more expose them to accumulations of fluid and
discharges of this kind. In tiie fore feet thrushes are usually connected with contrac-
tion. We have stated that they are both the cause and the effect of contraction. The
pressure on the frog from the wiring in of the heels will produce pain and inflamma-
tion; and the inflammation, by the increased heat and suspended function of the part,
will dispose to contraction. Horses of all ages, and in almost all situations, are sub-
ject to thrush. The unshod colt is frequently thus diseased.
Thrushes are not always accompanied by lameness. In a great many cases the
appearance of the foot is scarcely, or not at all altered, and the disease can only be
detected by close examination, or the peculiar smell of the discharge. The froo- may
not appear to be rendered in the slightest degree tender by it, and therefore the^horse
may not be considered by many as unsound. Every disease, liowever, should be con-
sidered as legal unsoundness, and especially a disease which, although not attended
with present detriment, must not be neglected, for it will eventually injure and lame
the horse. All other things being right, a horse should not be rejected because he
has a slight thrush, for if the shape of the hoof is not altered, experience tells us that
the thrush is easily removed ; but if this is not soon done, the shape of the foot and
the action of the horse will be altered, and manifest unsoundness will result.
The progress of a neglected thrush, although sometimes slow, is sure. The fro»
hegins to contract in size — it becomes rough, ragged, brittle, tender — the discharo-e is
more copious and more offensive — the horn gradually disappears — a mass of hardened
mucus usurps its place — this easily peels off, and the sensible frog remains exposed
— the horse cannot bear it to be touched — fungous granulations spring from it — they
spread around — the sole becomes under-run, and canker steals over the greater part
of the foot.
There are few errors more common or more dangerous than this, that the existence
of thrush is a matter of little consequence, or even, as some suppose, a benefit to the
horse — a discharge for superabundant humours — and that it should not he dried up too
quickly, and in some cases not dried up at all. If a young colt, fat and full of blood,
has a bad thrush, with much discharge, it will be prudent to accompany the attempt
at cure by a dose of physic or a course of diuretics. A few diuretics may not be inju-
rious wh.en we are endeavouring to dry up thrush in older horses : but the disease can
scarcely be attacked too soon, or subdued too rapidly, and especially when it steals
on so insidiously, and has such fatal consequences in its train. If the heels once
begin to contract through the baneful effect of thrush, it will, with difficulty, or not
at all, be afterwards removed.
There are many recipes to stop a running thrush. Almost every application of
an astringent, but not of too caustic nature, will have the effect. The common
^gyptiacum (vinegar boiled with honey and verdigrease) is a good liniment; but
the most effectual and the safest — drying up the discharge speedily, but not suddenly
--is a paste composed of blue vitriol, tar, and lard, in proportions according to the
virulence of the canker. A pledget of tow, covered with it, should be introduced as
deeply as possible, yet without force, mto the cleft of the frog every night, and
removed in the morning before the horse goes to work. Attention should at the same
time, as in other dise:ises of the foot, be paid to the apparent cause of the complaint,
and that cause should be carefully obviated or removed. Before the application of
the paste, the frog should be examined, and every loose part of the horn or hardened
discharge removed ; and if much of the frog is then exposed, a larger and wider piece
of tow, covered with the paste, may be placed over it, in addition to the pledget intro-
duced into the cleft of the frog. It will be necessary to preserve the frog moist while
iie cure is in progress, and this may be done by filling the feet with tow, covered by
320 DISEASES OF THE FOOT.
common stopping, or using the felt pad, likewise covered with it. Turjiino- ouV
would be prejudicial rather than of benefit to thrushy feet, except the dressing is con-
tinued, and the feet defended from moisture.
CANKER
Is a separation of the horn from the sensible part of the foot, and the sprouting of
fungous matter instead of it, occupying a portion or even the whole of the sole and
frog. It is the occasional consequence of bruise, puncture, corn, quittor, and thrush,
and is exceedingly difficult to cure. It is more frequently the consequei;ce of
neglected thrush than of any other disease of the foot, or rather it is thrush involving
the frog, the bars, and the sole, and making the foot in one mass of rank putre-
faction.
It is oftenest found in, and is almost peculiar to, the hea^^y breed of cart horses, and
partly resulting from constitutional predisposition. Horses with white legs and thick
skins, and much hair upon their legs — the very character of many dray horses — are
subject to canker, especially if they have had an attack of grease, or their heels are
habitually thick and greasy. The disposition to canker is certainly hereditary. The
dray horse has likewise this advantage, that in order to give him fuot-hold, it is some-
times necessary to raise the heels of the hinder feet so high, that all pressure on the
frog is taken away ; its functions are destroyed, and it is rendered liable to disease.
Canker, however, arises mostly from the peculiar injury to which the feet of these
horses are subject from tlie enormous shoes with which they are covered — the bulk
of the nails with which these shoes are fastened to the foot, the strain of the foot in
the violent, although short exertion of moving heavy w-eights ; but, most of all,
neglect of the feet, and the filthiness of the stable in these establishments.
Although canker is a disease most difficult to remove, it is easily prevented.
A^ttention to the punctures to which these heavy horses, with their clubbed feet and
brittle hoofs, are more than any others subject in shoeing, and to the bruises and
treads on the coronet, to which, from their awkwardness and weight, they are so
liable, and the greasy heels which a very slight degree of negligence will produce in
them, and the stopping of the thrushes, which are so apt in them to run on to the
separation of the horn from the sensible frog, will most materially lessen the number
of cankered feet. Where this disease often occurs, the owner of the team may be
well assured that there is gross mismanagement either in himself or his horse-keeper,
or the smith, or the surgeon, and it will rarely be a difficult matter to detect the pre-
cise nature of that mismanagement.
The cure of canker is the business of the veterinary surgeon, and a most painful
and tedious business it is. The principles on which he proceeds are, first of all, to
remove the extraneous fungous growth ; and for this purpose he will need the aid of
the knife and the caustic, or the cautery, for he should cut away every portion of horn
which is in the slightest degree separated from the sensible parts beneath. He will
have to discourage the growth of fresh fungus, and to bring the foot into that state in
which it will again secrete healthy horn. Here he will remember that he has to do
with the surface of the foot; that this is a disease of the surface only, and that there
will be no necessity for those deeply-corroding and torturing caustics which penetrate
to the very bone. A slight and daily application of the chloride of antimony, and
that not where the new horn is forming, but on the surface which continues to be dis-
eased, and accompanied by as firm but equal pressure as can he made — the careful
avoidance of the slightest degree of moisture — the horse being exercised or worked
in the mill, or wherever the foot will not be exposed to wet, and that exercise adopted
as early as possible, and even from the neginning, if the malady is confined to the sole
and frog — these means will succeed, if the disease is capable of cure. Humanity,
perhaps, will dictate that, considering the long process of cure in a cankered foot, and
the daily torture of the caustic, and the suffering which would otherwise result from
so large or exposed a surface, the nerves of the leg should be divided, in order to take
away the sense of pain ; but then, especial care must be taken that the horse is placed
in such a situation, and exposed to such work, that, being insensible to pain, he may
not injuriously batter and bruise the diseased parts.
Medicine is not of much avail in the cure of canker. It is a mere local disease;
or the only cause of fear is, that so great a determination of blood to the extremities
having existed during the long progress of cure, it may in some degree continue, and
OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES, &c. 321
produce injury in another form. Grease has occasionally followed canker. They have
been known to alternate. It may, therefore, be prudent, when the cure of a cankered
foot is nearly effected, to subject the horse to a course of alteratives or diuretics.
OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES
Mention has been made of the side cartilages of the foot, occupying (see cut, page
27G) a considerable portion of the external side and back part of the foot. They are
designed to preserve the expansion of the upper part of the foot, and especially when
that of the lower part is limited or destroyed by careless shoeing. These cartilages
are subject to inflammation, and the result of that inflammation is, that the cartilages
are absorbed, and bone substituted in their stead. This ossification of the cartilages
frequently accompanies ringbone, but it may exist without any affection of the pastern
joint. It is oftenest found in horses of heavy draught. It arises not so much from
concussion, as from sprain, for the pace of the horse is slow. The cause, indeed, is
not well understood ; but of the effect, there are too numerous instances. Very few
heavy draught-horses arrive at old age without this change of structure ; and particu-
larly if they are much employed in the paved streets. The change commences some-
times at ttie anterior part of the cartilage, but much oftener at the posterior and inferior
part. •• From the combined operation of great weight and high action, the feet, and
particularly the heels, come with great force on the ground. The cartilages, being
embedded in the heels of the feet, are, therefore, the parts that receive the greatest
degree of concussion, the consequence of which is, that subacute inflammation is set
up, and the secreting vessels deposit ossific instead of cartilaginous matter, in the
room of that which is absorbed in the usual process of nature."*
No evident inflammation of the foot, or great, or perhaps even perceptible lame-
ness, accompanies this change ; a mere slight degree of stiffness may have been ob-
served, which, in a horse of more rapid pace, would have been lameness. Even
when the change is completed, there is not in many cases an_vthing more than a slight
increase of stiffness, little or not at all interfering with the usefulness of the horse.
When this altered structure appears in the lighter horse, the lameness is more deci-
ded, and means should be taken to arrest the progress of the change. These are
blisters or firing; but, after the parts have become bony, no operation will restore the
cartilage. Some benefit, however, will be derived from the use of leather soles.
.\dvantage has resulted from bar-shoes in conjunction with leather.
Connected with ringbone the lameness may be very great. This has been spokep
of in page 277.
WEAKNESS OF THE FOOT.
This is more accurately a bad formation, than a disease ; often, indeed, the result
of disease, but in many instances the natural construction of the foot. The term
weak foot is familiar to every horseman, and the consequence is too severely felt by
all who have to do with horses. In the slanting of the crust from the coronet to the
toe, a less angle is almost invariably formed, amounting probably to not more than
forty instead of forty-five degrees; and, after the horse has been worked for one or
two years the line is not straight, but a little indented or hollow, midway between
the coronet and the toe. This has been described as the accompaniment of pumiced
feet, but it is often seen in weak feet, that, although they might become pumiced by
severity of work, do not otherwise have the sole convex. The crust is not only less
oblique than it ought to be, but it has not the smooth, even appearance of the good
"oot. The surface is sometimes irregularly roughened, but it is much oftener rough-
ned in circles or rings. The form of the crust likewise presents too much the
appearance of a cone; the bottom of the foot is unnaturally wide in proportion to
the coronet ; and the whole of the foot is generally, but not always, larger than it
should be.
When the foot is lifted, it will often present a round and circular appearance, with
a fullness of frog, that would mislead the inexperienced, and indeed be considered
as almost the perfection of structure; but, being examined more closely, manv glar-
ing defects will be seen. The sole is flat, and "the smith finds that it will bear little
(II no paring. The bars are small in size. They are not cut away by the smith, but
• W. C. Soooner on the Foot of the Horse, page 249.
2(j
322 FRACTURES.
they can be scarcely said to have any existence. The heels are low, so low that the
Tery coronet seems almost to touc^ the ground ; and the crust, if examined, appeaiH
scarcely thick enough to hold the nails.
Horses with these feet can never stand much work. They will be subject to corns,
to bruises of the sole, to convexity of the sole, to punctures in nailing, to breaking
away of the crust, to inflammation of the foot, and to sprain and injury of the pastern,
dnd the fetlock, and the flexor tendon.
These feet admit of little improvement. Shoeing as seldom as may be, and with
a liglit yet wide concave web ; little or no paring at the time of shoeing, and as little
violent work as possible, and especially on rough roads, may protract for a long pe-
riod the evil day, but he who buys a horse with these feet will sooner or later have
cause to repent his bargain.
CHAPTER XVI.
FRACTURES.
Accidents of this description are not of frequent occurrence, but when they do
happen it is not always that the mischief can be repaired : occasionally, however,
and much more frequently than is generally imagined, the life of a valuable animal
might be saved if the owner, or the veterinary surgeon, would take a little trouble,
and the patient is fairly tractable, and that, in the majority of cases, he will soon
become. The number of valuable animals is far too great that are destroyed under
a confused notion of the difficulties of controlling the patient, or the incurable char-
acter of the accident. Messrs. Blaine and Peicivall have given a valuable record
of the usual cases and treatment of fracture which occur in the practice of the Eng-
lish veterinary surgeon, and the splendid work of Hurtrel d'Arboval contains a re-
cord of all that has been attempted or effected on the Continent. The author of this
volume must confine himself to a rapid survey of that which they have described,
adding a few cases that have been brought under his own observation, or communi-
cated to him by others.
With the exception of accidents that occur in casting the animal for certain opera-
tions, and his struggles during the operation, the causes of Fracture are usually
blows, kicks, or falls, and the lesion may be considered as simple, confined to one
bone, and not protruding through the skin — or compound, the bone or bones protrud
ing through the skin — or complicated, where the bone is broken or splintered in more
than one direction. The duty of the vet*inary surgeon resolves itself into the re-
placing of the displaced bones in their natural position, the keeping of them in that
position, the healing of the integument, and the taking of such measures as will pre-
vent any untoward circumstances from afterwards occurring.
In the greater number of cases of fracture, it will be necessary to place the horse
under considerable restraint, or even to suspend or sling him.
The cut in the next page contains a view of the suspensory apparatus used by
Mr. Percivall. A broad piece of sail-cloth, furnished with two brecchings, and two
breast-girths, is placed under the animal's belly, and, by means of ropes and pulleys
attached to a cross beam above, he is elevated or lowered as circumstances may re-
quire. It will seldom be necessary to lift the patient quite off the ground, and the
horse will be quietest, and most at his ease, when his feet are suffered just to touch
it. The head is confined by two collar ropes, and the head-stall well padded. Many
horses may plunge about and be difficult to manage at first, but generally speaking,
it is not long ere they become perfectly passive.
The use of the different bucldes and straps which are attached to the sail-cloth will
be evident on inspection. If the horse exhibits more than usual uneasiness, other
ropes may be attached to the corners of the sail-cloth. This will afford considerable
relief %•> the patient, as well as add to the security of the bandages.
FRACTURES.
In many cases the fracture, although a simple one, may he visihle on the slightest
inspection ; in others, there may be merely a suspicion of its existence. Here Avill
be exhibited the skill and t"he humanity of the educated surgeun, or the recklessness
and brutality of the empiric. The former will carefully place his patient in the posi-
tion at once the least jjainful to the sufferer, and the most commodious for himself.
He will proceed with gentleness, patience, and management — no rough handling or
motion of the parts, inflicting torture on the animal, and adding to the injury already
received. It is interesting to observe how soon the horse comprehends all this, and
submits to the necessary inspection ; and how complete and satisfactory the exami-
nation terminates under the superintendence of the humane and cautious practitioner,
while the brute in human shape fails in comprehending the real state of the case.
Heat, swelling, tenderness, fearfulness of the slightest motion, crepitus, and espe-
cially change of the natural position of the limb, are the most frequent indications of
fracture. »
The probabilit}'- of reunion of the parts depends upon the depth of the wound con-
nected with the fracture — the contusion of the soft parts in the immediate neighbour-
hood of it — the blood-vessels, arterial or venous, that have been wounded — the pro-
pinquity of some large joint to which the inflammation may be communicated —
dislocation of the extremities of the fractured joint — injuries of the periosteum — the
existence of sinuses, caries, or necrosis, or the fracture being compound, or broken
into numerous spiculae or splinters.
In a horse that is full of flesh, the cure of fracture is difficult; likewise in an old
or worn-out horse — or when the part is inaccessible to the hand or to instruments — or
when separation has taken place between the parts that were beginning to unite — or
where the surrounding tissues have been or are losing their vitality — or when the
patient is already afflicted with any old or permanent disease.
It may be useful briefly to review the various seats of fracture.
Fracture of the skull. — The skull of the horse is so securely defended by the
yielding resistance of the temporal muscle, that fracture rarely occurs except at the
occipital ridge; and should a depression of bone be there effected, it will produce
complete coma, and bid defiance to all surgical skill. Fracture of the skull is gene-
rally accompanied by stupidity, convulsive motions of the head or limbs, laborious
breathing, and a staggering walk. The eyes are almost or quite closed, the head is
^4 FRACTURES.
carried low, and the lower lip hangs down. Blows on the cranium, wliicli the bm-
tality of man too often inflicts, as well as many accidents, are very serious matters,
and require considerable attention, for, although it may have been ascertained that the
cranium is uninjured, there may be considerable concussion of the brain.
It having been known that a horse had received a violent blow on the head, the
strictest examination of the part should take place. An artillery horse broke loose
from his groom, and, after galloping about, dashed into his own stall with such force
as sadly to cut his face under the forelock. The farrier on duty sewed up the wound,
proper dressings were applied, and in a little more than a fortnight the wound was
healed and the horse dismissed, apparently well. Four days afterwards the patient
moved stiffly ; the jaws could not be separated more than a couple of inches, and there
was evident locked jaw. The horse was cast, and the place where the wound had
been was most carefully examined. On cutting to the bottom of it, a fracture was
discovered, and a piece of bone three-fourths of an inch long was found on the centre
of the parietal suture. This was removed — the wound was properly dressed, and a
strong aloetic drink was given with great difficulty. The aloetic drink was repeated
— the bowels became loosened — the tetanic symptoms diminished, and in less than
three weeks the horse was perfectly cured.*
This is a very interesting case. There was some carelessness in intrusting the
treatment of the wound to the farrier : but the surgeon afterwards repaired the error
as well as he could, and no one was better pleased than he was at the result. A
violent blow being received on the forehead, the part should always be most carefully
examined.
Hurtrel D'Arboval relates three cases of fracture of the skull. One occurred in a
mare that ran violently against a carriage. The skull was depressed, and a portion
of bone was removed, but it was four months ere complete re-union of the edges was
effected. Another horse received a violent kick on the forehead. The union of the
depressed bones was effected after the external wound was healed, but there was
always a depression, an inch in length. An aged mare met with the same accident
A depression here remained as large as a finger.
Fracture of the arch of the orbit of the eye. — A very interesting account of
this, followed by perfect cure, is related at p. 136.
Fracture of the nasal bones. — This will sometimes occur from falling, or be
produced by a kick from another horse, or the brutality of the attendant or the rider
We have seen a passionate man strike a horse about the head with a heavy hunting
■whip. The danger of punishment of this kind is obvious; and so would be the pro
priety of using the whip for another purpose. A fracture of this kind is generally
accompanied by a laceration of the membrane of the nose, and considerable hai-mor
rhage, which, however, may generally be arrested by the application of cold water
The fractured portion of bone is usually depressed, and, the space for breathing bcinp
diminished, difficulty of respiration occurs. The author had a case of fracture of both
nasal bones. He was enabled to elevate the depressed parts, but the inflammation
and swelling were so great, that the animal was threatened with suffocation. The
operation of tracheotomy was resorted to, and the animal did well.
If there is fracture of the nasal bones, with depression, and only a little way from
the central arch and the section between the nostrils, a slightly curved steel rod may
be cautiously introduced into the passage, and the depressed portions carefully raised
If this cannot be effected, the trephine must be applied a little above or below the
fracture, and the elevator, or steel rod, be introduced through the aperture. If the
fracture is in any other part of the bone, it will be impossible to reach it with the
elevator, for the turbinated bones are in the way. The trephine must then be resorted
to in the first instance. The wound, if there is any, must be covered, and a compresa
kept on it.
A writer in a French journal, relates a case in which a horse was violently kicked,
and there was a contused wound, with depression of bone. The trephine w^as applied.
Fifteen splinters were extracted, and the case terminated well. It, nevertheless, too
often happens that, in these injuries of the nasal membrane, the inflammation wi..
obstinately continue, in despite of all that the surgeon can do, and the natural tormina
* Veterinarian, vol. vii., p. 142.
FRACTURES. 325
tion of every injury of the membrane of the nose, and, in fact, of every chronic ais-
ease of the frame, will appear — glanders.
If, however, glanders do not appear, some portion of bone may remain depressed,
or the membrane may be thickened by inHamination. The nasal passage will then
be obstructed, and a difficulty of breathing, resembling roaring, will ensue.
Tn.E SUPERIOR MAXILLARY, OR UPPER JAW-BONE, will Occasionally be fractured. Mr.
Cartwright had a case in which it was fractured by a kick at the situation where it
unites with tiie lachrymal and malar bones. He applied the trephine, and removed
many small pieces of bone. The wound was then covered by adhesive plaster, and
in a m-onth the parts were healed.
^Ir. Clayworth speaks of a mare who, being ridden almost at speed, fell and frac-
tured the upper jaw, three inches above the corner incisors. The front teeth and jaw
were turned like a hook, completely within the lower ones. She was cast, a hailing
iron put into her mouth, and the surgeon, exerting considerable force, pulled the teeth
outward into their former and proper situation. She was then tied up, so that she
could not rub her muzzle against anything, and was well fed with bean-meal, and
linseed tea. Much inflammation ensued, but it gradually subsided, and, at the expira-
tion of the sixth week, the mouth was quite healed, and scarcely a vestige of the frac-
ture remained.
A very extraordinary and almost incredible account of a fracture of the superior
maxillary bone is given in the records of the Royal and Central Society of Agricul-
ture in France. A horse was kicked by a companion. There was fracture of the
upper part of the superior maxillary, and zygomatic bones, and the eye was almost
forced out of the socket. Few men would have dared to undertake a fracture like
this, but M. Revel shrank not from his duty. He removed several small splinters of
bone — replaced the larger bones — returned the eye to its socket — confined the parts by
means of sufficient sutures — slung the horse, and rendered it impossible for the animal
to rub his head against anything. In six weeks, the cure was complete.
The MAXILLARY BONE, OR LOWER JAW% is more subject to fracture, and particularly
in its branches between the tushes and the lower teeth, and at the symphysis between
the two branches of the jaw. Its position, its length, and the small quantity of muscle
that covers it, especially anteriorly, are among the ca>ises of its fracture, and the same
circumstances combine to render a reunion of the divided parts more easy to be
accomplished. Mr. Blaine relates that, in a fracture of the lower jaw, he succeeded
by making a strong leather frame that exactly encased the whole jaw. The author
of this volume has effected the same object by similar means.
ISI. H. Boulay attended a horse, fracture of whose lower maxillary had taken place
at the neck of that bone, between the tushes and the corner incisor teeth. The whole
of the interior part of the maxillary bone in which the incisor teeth were planted, was
completely detached from the other portion of the bone, and the parts were merely
held together by the membrane of the mouth.
The horse was cast — the corner tooth on the left side extracted — the wound tho-
roughly cleansed — the fractured bones brought into contact — some holes were drilled
between the tushes and the second incisor teeth, above and below, through which
some pieces of brass wire were passed, and thus the jaws were apparently fixed
immovably together. The neck of the maxillary bone was surrounded by a suffi-
cient compress of tow, and a ligature tied around it, with its bearing place on the
tushes, and all motion thus prevented.
The horse was naturally an untractable animal, and in his efforts to open his jaws,
the wires yielded to his repeated struggles, and were to a certain degree sep&raled.
The bandage of tow was, however, tightened, and was sufficient to retain the fractured
edges in apposition.
The mouth now began to exhale an infectious and gangrenous odour ; the animal
was dispirited, and would not take any food ; gangrene was evidently approaching,
and Mr. Boulay determined to amputate the inferior portion of the maxillary bone,
the union of which seemed to be impossible. The sphacelated portion of the maxil-
lary was entirely removed ; every fragment of bone that had an oblique direction was
sawn away, and the rough and uneven portions which the saw could not reach, were
rasped off.
Before night, the horse had recovered his natural spirits, and was searching for
something to eat. On the following day, a few oats were given to him, and he aw
326 FRACTURES.
them with so much appetite and ease, that no one looking at him would think that he
had been deprived of his lower incisor teeth. On the following day, some hay was
given to hira, which he ate without difficulty, and in a fortnight was dismissed, the
wounds being nearly healed.*
In the majority of tliese cases of simple fracture, a cure might be effected, or should,
at least, be attempted, by means of well-adapted bandages around the niuzzle, confined
by straps. It will always be prudent to call in veterinary aid, and it is absolutely
necessary in case of compound fracture of the lower jaw.
Fracture of the Spine. — This accident, fortunately for the horse, is not of frequent
occurrence, but it has been uniformly fatal. It sometimes happens in the act of falling,
as in leaping a wide ditch ; but it oftener occurs while a horse is struggling during a
painful operation. It is generally sufficiently evident while the horse is on the ground.
Either a snap is heard, indicative of the fracture, or the struggles of the hind-limbs
suddenly and altogether cease. In a few cases, the animal has been able to get up
and walk to his stable ; in others, the existence of the fracture has not been apparent
for several hours: showing that the vertebrae, although fractured, may remain intheir
place for a certain period of time. The bone that is broken, is usually one of the pos-
terior dorsal or anterior lumbar vertebrae. There is no satisfactory case on record of
reunion of the fractured parts.
In the human being, the depressed portion of the spinal arch, and of the fractured
vertebrae, have been removed by a dextrous operation, and sensibility and the power
of voluntary motion have, in cases few and far between, been restored ; but in the
horse, this has rarely or never been effected. We should consider him a bold operator,
but we should not very much dislike him, who made one trial, at least, how far sur-
gical skill might be available here.
Mr. W. C. Spooner relates an interesting case, and many such have probably oc-
curred. A horse had been clipped about three weeks, and was afterwards galloped
sharply on rough ground, and pulled up suddenly and repeatedly, for the purpose of
sweating him. After that he did not go so well as before, and would not canter
readily, although he had previously been much used to that pace. Two days before
he was destroyed, the groom was riding him at a slow pace, when he suddenly
gave way behind and was carried home, and could not afterwards stand. He had,
doubtless, fractured the spine slightly, when pulled up suddenly, but without dis-
placing the bones. f
M. Dupuy was consulted respecting a mare apparently palsied. She had an uncer-
tain and staggering walk, accompanied by evident pain. After various means of re-
lief had in vain been tried during five-and-twenty days, she was destroyed. A frac-
ture of the last dorsal vertebra was discovered. It had never been quite complete,
and ossific union was beginning to take place.
Fracture of the ribs. — These fractures are not always easily recognised. Those
that are covered by the scapula may exist for a long time without being detected, and
those that are situated posteriorly are so thickly covered by muscles as to render the
detection of the injury almost impossible. A man was trying to catcli a mare in a
field. She leaped at the gate, but failing to clear it, she fell on her back on the oppo-
site side. She lay there a short time, and then got up, and trotted to the stable. She
was saddled, and her master, a heavy man, cantered her more than three miles. She
then became unusually dull and sluggish, and was left on the road. She was bled ;
and on the following morning an attempt was made to lead her home. She was not,
however, able to travel more than a mile. On the following morning she was evi-
dently in great pain, and a veterinary surgeon, discovering a slight depression of the
spinous processes of the eleventh and twelfth dorsal vertebrae and detecting a certain
crepitus, ordered her to be destroyed. On post-mortem examination, tlie twelfth dorsal
vertebra was found fractured, and the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth ribs on the
near side were all fractured about two inches from their articulation with the verte-
brae.:}:
Hurtrel d'Arboval says that " the two ribs behind the elbow are the most subject
to fracture, and the false ribs, from the yielding motion which they possess, are least
liable." The ordinary causes of fracture are kicks and blows, or falls on the chest, ana
* Rec. de Med. Vet. Nov. 1838. t Veterinarian, vol. xi. p. 207.
; Veterinarian, vol. iii. p. 681.
FRACTURES. 327
especially in leaping. The fractures are generally about their middle, and, in the trua
ribs, commonly oblique. They are occasionally broken into splinters, and if those
splinters are directed inward, they may seriously wound the pleura or lungs. In order
most certainly to detect the situation and extent of these fractures, it may be neces-
sary to trace the rib through its whole extent, and, should there be any irregularity,
to press firmly upon it above and below in order to ascertain the nature and extent of
the injury.
If fracture is detected, it is not often that much essential good can be done. If
there is little or no displacement, a broad roller should be tightly drawn round the
chest, in order to prevent as much as possible the motion of the ribs in the act of
breathing, and to throw the labour on the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles until
the fractured parts are united. If the fractured parts protrude outwards, a firm com-
press must be placed upon them. If they are depressed, it will always be advisable
to place a firm bandage over the seat of fracture, although, perhaps, there may bti
scarcely the possibility of elevating them to any considerable degree. Should amch
irritation be the consequence of the nature or direction of the fracture, proper means
must be adopted to allay the constitutional disturbance that may be produced. Gen-
eral or local bleedings will be most serviceable.*
Fracture of the pelvis. — This is not of frequent occurrence, on account of th-e
thickness of the soft parts which surround the pelvis, and protect it from injury, but
it is of a most serious character when it does take place, on account of the violence
which must have been necessary to produce it. The usual cases are falls from a con-
siderable height, or heavy blows on the pehis. The injury may have reference to
the internal or external portion of the pelvis. In the first case, the danger may not
be discovered until irreparable mischief is produced. "When it is chiefly external, the
altered appearance of the hip speaks for itself. It is rarely in our power to aflford any
assistance in cases like this, except when there are fractured portions of the bone that
may be partially or entirely removed, or the projecting spine of the ilium is only par-
tially fractured.
]M. Levrat gives an interesting account of a case of fracture of the right side of
the pelvis, near the acetabulum, in leaping a wide ditch when hunting. " The lame-
ness which it occasioned," says he, " was such that the toe of the foot was scarcely
permitted to touch the ground while the motion was at all rapid. When the motion
was slow, the foot was placed flat on the ground, but with great difficulty moved for-
ward. On applying my right hand to the fractured part, which did not exhibit any
heat, and seizing with my left hand the point of the thigh, I felt a movement of the
ischium, which easily enabled me to judge of the fracture and its seat, and to dis-
cover that none of the fractured parts were displaced. I ordered her to be kept quiet
for three weeks, and then permitted to wander about the stable. At the end of two
months she was mounted and exercised at a foot pace, and in another month she was
enabled to sustain the longest day's work without lameness. In the following year
she was placed in the stud of the Baron de Stael, where she produced some good
foals.f
The Annals of the school at Alfort contain the case of an old mare with fracture
of the pelvis and of the left ischium, and in whom union of the bones was effected
so promptly, that on the thirtieth day very little lameness remained, and she shortly
returned to her usual work. She soon afterwards died from some other cause, and
the state of the osseous parts was thoroughly examined. These cases, however, stand
almost alone, and post-mortem examination discovers fractures of the ischium and
the pelvis, and each bone divided into many pieces, so that it is impossible for the
hind quarters of the animal to be supported — also fractures of the external ano-le of
the ilium, which rarely is again consolidated, and roughness of the bony fragments,
which produce sad laceration of the soft parts. Fracture of the ischium presents
ilmost insuperable difficulties — that of the ilium is uniformly fatal.:):
* Cases of anchvlosis of the vertebrce of the horse are too frequent, from the heavy weights
and sudden and violent concussion which are too frequently thrown on these parts. Com-
plete anchylosis of all the dorsal and lumbar vertebrte have been produced, extending even to
'he haunch.— Sandifort's Mus. Anat. vol. ii. p. 3S to 44, and iii. p. 243.
t Rec. de Med. Vet., Nov. 1831, and Veterinarian, vol. vi. p. 390.
. Diet. Vet. Mar. Hurtrel d'Arboval, vol. ii. p. 586.
328 FRACTURES.
Fracture of the tail. — This accident is not of frequent occurrence, except from
accidental entanglement, or the application of brute force. The fracture is easily
recotrnised, frequently by the eye and always by the fing-ers. If the tail is not ain|)u-
tated, a cord passed over a pulley, and with a small weight attached to it, will bring
the separated bones again into apposition, and in about a month the natural cartilage
o/ the part will be sufficiently re-instated.
Fractures of the limbs. — These, fortunately, are of rare occurrence in the horse,
for although their divided edges might be easily brought again into apposition, it
would be almost impossible to retain them in it, for the slightest motion would dis-
place them. A rapid survey of each may not, however, be altogether useless.
Fracture of the shoulder. — The author is not aware of the successful treatment
of this accident by any English veterinary surgeon. Mr. Fuller attempted it, but from
the difficulty of keeping the divided edges of the bone in apposition with each other,
and the natural untractableness of the animal, and symptoms of tetanus beginning to
appear, the patient was destroyed. The fracture was a little above the neck of the
scapula, and the muscles were dreadfully lacerated.*
It is not at all times easy to discover the existence and precise situation of fracture
of the humerus. The lameness is very great — the animal will not bear at all upon
the broken limb — he will drag it along the ground — he will move slowly and with
difficulty, and his progression will consist of a succession of short leaps. The lifting
of the foot will give very great pain. If he is roughly handled, he will sometimes
rear, or throw himself suddenly down. By careful application of the hand a crepitus
will more or less distinctly be heard. The chances are almost materially against the
union of a fracture of the humerus. The patient must be kept constantly suspended,
and splints and bandages carefully applied. M. Delaguette attended an entire draught-
horse, whose humerus had been fractured by the kick of a mare. The fracture
extended longitudinally through two-thirds of the length of the bone, and the parts
were separated from each other. They were brought again into apposition, and kept
so by means of pitch plasters and splints. The horse was put into slings; the pave-
ment of the stable was taken up ; a hollow dug under the fractured limb, and this
depression filled with straw, in order to afford a soft support for the foot. He was
bled, gruel alone given as food, and injections daily administered.
On the 25th day the rollers were removed and replaced. On the 40th day he began
to rest on the fractured limb. On the 60th day the bandages were removed — the frac-
ture had been well consolidated, and the horse rested his weight upon it. It is
reluctantly added that he was afterwards destroyed, on account of some disease of
the loins. j"
Fracture of the arm. — ^This accident is not of unfrequent occurrence. It com-
monly takes an oblique direction, and is usually first discovered by the displacement
of the limb. Mr. Gloag, of the 10th Hussars, gives an interesting account of a case
that occurred in his practice. " An entire black cart-horse was grazing in a field, into
which some mares were accidentally turned. One of them kicked him severely a
little above the knee. H^, however, contrived to get home, and, being carefully
examined, there was found a simple fracture of the radius, about an inch and a half
above the knee. The ends of the fractured bone could be heard distinctly grating
against each other, both in advancing the leg and turning it sideway from the body.
He was immediately placed in a sling not completely elevated from the ground, but
in which he could occasionally relieve himself by standing. The leg was well bathed
with warm water, and the ends of the bone brought as true to their position as possible.
Some thin slips of green wood were then immersed in boiling water until they would
readily bend to the shape of the knee, and they were tied round the joint, reaching
about nine inches above and six below the knee, the ends of them being tied round
with tow.
A fortnight afterv/ards he became very troublesome, knocking his foot on the ground,
and when, at the expiration of the sixth week, he was taken from the slings, there
was a considerable bonv deposit above the knee. This, however, gradually subsided
as the horse regained his strength, and, with the exception of turning the leg a little
outwards, he is as useful as ever for common purposes. ":f:
Fracture of the elbow. — This is far more exposed to danger than the two las'
Veterinarian, vol. viii., p. 143. t Journal Pratique, Dec. 1834. t Veterinarian, vol. iv, p. 42?.
FRACTURES. 329
bonds, and is oftener fractured. The fracture is generally an oblique ^ne, and about
two-iliirds from llie summit of the limb. It is immediately detected by the altered
action, and different appearance of the limb. It is not so difficult of reduction as
either the humerus or the scapula, when the fracture is towards the middle of tho
bone. A great quantity of tow saturated with pitch must be placed around the elbow,
and confined with firm adhesive plasters, the ground being hollowed away in the fron*
of the injured leg, so that no pressure shall be made by that foot.
Fractuue of the femur. — Considering the masses of muscle that surround this*
bone, and the immense weight which it supports, it would naturally be deemed ira
possible to reduce a real fracture of the femur. If the divided bones are ever united,
it is a consequence of the simple repose of the parts, and their tendency to unite
Professor Dick, however, relates a very singular and interesting account of the cure
of fracture of the femur. He was requested to attend a bay mare that had met with
an accident in leaping a sunken fence. He found a wound in the stifie of the hind
leg running transversely across the anterior of the articulation, about an inch and a
half in length, and in it was a portion of bone that had been fractured, and that had
escaped from its situation towards the inside of the stifle, where it was held by a por-
tion of ligament. The isolated nature of the fractured portion, the difficulty, or rather
impossibility of replacing it in its situation, and the few vessels which the connecting
medium possessed, rendered it impossible that union would be effected ; he therefore
determined to remove it.
Having enlarged the wound, and divided the portion of capsular ligament which
retained it in its place, he extracted the bone, and found it to be the upper part of the
inner anterior condyle of the femur, measuring three inches in length, one inch and a
half in breadth, and about an inch in thickness, and being in shape nearly similar to
the longitudinal section of a hen's egg.
After the removal of the bone, the animal seemed very much relieved ; the wound
was firmly sewed up, adhesive strapping applied over it, and the part kept wet with
cold water.
Two days afterwards considerable swelling had taken place ; she seemed to suffer
much, and there was some oozing from the wound. Fomentations were again applied,
and she was slung.
She now began rapidly to improve, and, although one of the largest articulations in
the body had been laid open and a part of the articular portion of the bone removed,
tlie wound healed so rapidly that in three weeks she walked with little lameness to a
loose box. At the expiration of another three weeks the Professor again visited her.
On being led out she trotted several times along the stable yard, apparently sound,
with the exception of moving the limb in a slight degree wider than usual, and so
completely was the part recovered that, had it not been for a small scar that remained,
a stranger could not have known that such an accident had taken place.*
Fracture OF THE PATELLA. — This does occasionally, though verj' seldom occur.
It is usually the consequence of violent kicks, or blows, and if this sinjular bone is
once disunited, no power can bring the divided portions of the bone together again.
Fracture of the tibia. — This affection is of more frequent occurrence, and of
more serious consequence than we were accustomed to imagine it to be. IMr. Trump,
twelve years ago, first called the attention of the profession to some singular circum-
stances connected with tlie tibia. A large draught-horse belonging to the Dowlais
Iron Company, at Merthyr Tydvil, came in from his labour very lame in the near
hind leir, but with no visible sign of any severe injury being received. The foot was
searched, but nothing farther was done. He stood in the stable several days, and
then was turned into a field, and was discovered one morning with the limb depend-
ent, and a fracture of the tibia just above the hock.
Fourteen or sixteen months after that, another horse came home from a journey of
seven miles, lame, with a slight mark on the inside of the thigh — a mere scratch, and
very little tumefaction. There was nothing to account for such severe lameness : but,
a few mornings afterwards, the tibia was seen to be fractured. The front of the bone
was splintered as from a blow.
Two months after that, another horse had been observed to be lame seven or eighi
days. A slight scratch was observed on the inside of the thigh, with a little swell-
* Veterinarian, vol. ii. p. 140.
2r
330 FRACTURES.
ini^, and increased heat and tenderness just above the hock. Mr. Trump h;ul (xam-
ined the footdurino- the time that the horse stood in the stable, not being satislitd tliat
the apparently slight injury on the thigh could account for the lameness. He uas
turned to grass, and three days afterwards the tibia was found broken at the part men-
tioned, and evidently from a blow. Were there not positive proof of the circumstance,
t would have been deemed impossible that a fracture, and of such a bone, could havft
existed so long without detection.*
Mr. J. S. Mayer gives an interesting account of the successful treatment of a case
of fracture of the tibia. The simplicity of the process will, we trust, encourage many
another veterinary surgeon to follow his example.
" A horse received a blow on the tibia of the near leg, but little notice was taken
of it for two or three days. When, however, we were called in to examine him, we
found the tibia to be obliquely fractured about midway between the hock and t'-.e
stifle, and a small wound existing on the inside of the leg. It was set in the follow-
ing manner: — The leg from the stifle down to the hock was well covered witli an
adhesive compound ; it was then wrapped round with fine tow, upon which another
layer of the same adhesive mixture was laid, the whole being well splinted and ban-
daged up, so as to render what was a slightly compound fracture a simple one. Thb
local inflammation and sympathetic fever that supervened were kept down by anti-
phlogistic measures. At the end of six weeks the bandages and splints were removed,
and readjusted in a similar way as before, and at the termination of three months from
the time of the accident he was discharged, cured, the splints being wholly taken off,
and merely an adhesive stay kept on the leg. The horse is now at work and quite
sound, there being merely a little thickening, where the callus is formed."")"
Fracture of the hock. — This is not of frequent occurrence, but verj' difllcult to
treat, from the almost impossibility of finding means to retain the bone in its situa-
tion. A case, however, somewhat simple in its nature occurred in the practice of
Mr. Cartwright. A colt, leaping at some rails, got his leg between them, and, una-
ble to extricate himself, hung over on the other side. After being liberated it appeared
on examination, that there was a simple horizontal fracture of the whole of the os
calcis about the middle. A splint was contrived so as to reach from the middle of
the tibia to that of the cannon bone, and this was applied to the front of the leg. keep-
ing the hock from its usual motion, and relaxing the muscles inserted into the os calcis.
Underneath this splint a charge was applied about the part, in order to form a level
surface for the splint to rest upon. The whole was bound together by proper adhe-
sive bandages, and he was ordered to be kept quiet in tlie stable, but not to be slung.
In about two months the hock was fired and became perfectly sound.:}:
Fracture of the cannon or shank bone. — This is of more frequent occurrence
than that of any other bone, on account of the length of the leg, and the danger to
which it is exposed. There is rarely any difficulty in detecting its situation, but there
is sometimes a great deal in bringing the divided edges of the bone again into appo-
sition. A kind of windlass, or a power equal to it, is occasionally necessary to pro-
duce sufficient extension in order to eflfect the desired purpose : but the divided edges
being brought into apposition are retained there by the force of the muscles above.
Splints reaching from the foot to above the knee should then be applied. The horse
should be racked up during a fortnight, after which, if the case is going on well, the
animal may often be turned out.
In cases of compound fracture the wounds should be carefully attended to : but
Mr. Percivall says that he knows one or two old practitioners, who are in the habit
of treating these cases in a very summary and generally successful manner. They
employ such common support, with splints and tow and bandages, as the case seems
to require, and then the anmial with his leg bound up is turned out, if the season per-
mits; otherwise he is placed in a yard or box, where there is not much straw to
incommode his movements. The animal will take care not to impose too much
weight on his fractured limb; and, provided the parts are well secured, nature will
generally perform the rest.§
* Veterinarian, vol. iii. p. 394.
t The Transactions of the Vet. Med. Association. Some other cases of the successful treat
ment of fractures are related in this work.
X Veterinarian, vol. in. p. 69. 6 Percivall's Hippopatho.v>;(> tfol. i. p 9A9.
FRACTURES. 331
FRACxaRE OF THE SESAMOID BONES. — There are but two instances of this on record
The first is related by Mr. Fuller of March. lie was galloping steadily and not
rapidly a horse of his own, when the animal suddenly fell as if he had been shot.
He was broken down in both fore legs. The owner very humanely ordered him to
be immediately destroyed. Both the perforans and perforatus tendons of the near fore
leg were completely ruptured, just where they pass over the sesamoid bone, which
was fractured in a transverse direction. The sesamoid bone of the oft' leg was frac-
tured in the same direction, but the tendons were entire.*
The second case is one described by ^Ir. Harris of Preston. A strong coachlike
animal was galloped rapidly. He had not gone more than a hundred yards before he
suddenly fell, and it was with great difficulty that he could be led home, a distance
of about two miles. There was soon considerable swelling in the oft" fore leg — great
pain on the animal's attempting to walk, and his fetlock nearly touched the ground.
Some slight crepitus could be detected, but the exact seat of it could not be ascer-
tained. Mr. Harris considered the case as hopeless, but the owner would have some
means tried to save the animal. He was accordingly bled and physicked, and cold
lotions and bandages were applied to the foot. Two days afterwards some bony
spicule began to protrude through the skin, and, the case being now perfectly hope-
less, the animal was destroyed. The inner sesamoid bone was shivered to atoms. f
Fracture of the upper pastern. — Thick and strong, and movable as this bone
seems to be, it is occasionally fractured. This has been the consequence of a violent
effort by the horse to save himself from falling, when he has stumbled, — it has hap-
pened when he has been incautiously permitted to run down a steep descent — and has
occurred when a horse has been travelling on the best road, and at no great pace.
The existence of fracture in this bone is, generally speaking, easily detected. The
injured foot is as lightly as possible permitted to come in contact with the ground. As
little weight as may be is thrown on it, or, if the animal is compelled to use it, the
fetlock is bent down nearly to the ground, and the toe is turned upward. If the foot
is rotated, a crepitus is generallj'^ heard.
This, however, is not always the case. I\I. Levrat was requested to exanxine a
horse that had suddenly become lame. The near hind leg was retracted, and the
foot was kept from touching the ground. He carefully examined the foot, and dis-
covered that much pain was expressed when the pastern was handled. He suspected
fracture of the bone, but he could not detect it. He bled the animal, ordered cooling
applications to the part, and gave a dose of physic. Three days afterwards he again
savv his patient, and readily detected a fracture, taking a direction obliquely across
the pastero.:j:
The probability of success in the treatment of this fracture, depends on its being
a simple or compound one. If it runs laterally across the bone, it may be readily
and successfully treated — if it extends to the joints above and below, it will proba-
bly terminate in anchylosis, and if the bone is shivered, as it too frequently is, into
various parts, there would scarcely seem the possibility of a successful treatment of
the case. The instances, however, are numerous in which the case terminates suc-
cessfully. Hurtrel d'Arboval recommends that a bandage steeped in some adhesive
matter should be applied from the coronet to the middle of the leg. On this some
wet pasteboard is to be moulded, enveloped afterwards in a linen bandage. A small
splint is now to be applied before and behind and on each side and the liollow places
are filled with tow, in order to give them an equal bearing. If this does not appear
to be sufficiently secure, other splints, thicker and broader, are placed over those ex-
tending to the knee or the hock.
The case related by M. Levrat was treated in this way. It v.dll be comparatively
seldom that it will be necessary to suspend the patient. The animal, under the treat-
ment of j\I. Levrat, kept his foot in the air for nearly three weeks. At the end of
that period he now and then tried to rest his toe on the litter. Six weeks after the
accident, he beoran to throw some weight on the foot; and a few days afterwards he
was able to go to a pond, about fifty paces from his stable, and where, of his own
accord, he took a foot-bath for nearly an hour at a time. At the expiration of another
* Veterinarian, vol. iii. p. 393. t Veterinarian, vol. v. p. 37^
T Rec. de Med. Vet., Nov. 1831.
332 FRACTURES.
raonth he was mounted, and went very well at a walking-pace; he was, '.owevei,
still lame wlien he was trotted.
Another horse, treated by the same surgeon, was soon able to rest on the bad leg,
in order to change his position — he w-as allowed three weeks after tha% and then
commenced his former daily work — the drawing of a heavy cart. He limped a little
when he was trotted ; but did as much slow work as he was ever accustomed to do.
Fracture of the lower pastern. — Although this bone is much shorter than the
upper pastern, there are several instances of fracture of it. The fractures of this
bone are commonly longitudinal, and often present a lesion of continuity extending
from the larger pastern to the coffin-bone. It is frequently splintered, the splinters
taking this longitudinal direction. Hurtrel d'Arboval relates three cases of this, and
in one of them the bone was splintered into four pieces. In several instances, how-
ever, this bone has been separated into eight or ten distinct pieces. When the frac-
ture of the bone is neither compound nor complicated, it may be perfectly reduced by
proper bandaging, and, in fact, there have been cases, in which union has taken place
with slight assistance from art beyond the application of a few bandages.
M. Gazot relates a very satisfactory termination of fracture of this bone in a car-
riage-horse. The animal fell, and was totally unable to rise again. He was placed
on some hurdles, and drawn home. A veterinary surgeon being consulted, recognised
fracture of the lower pastern in both feet, and advised that the animal should be de-
stroyed. It was a favourite horse, between five and six years old, and the owner de-
termined to give it a chance of recovery.
]\I. Gazot was consulted. He plainly recognised a transverse fracture in the lower
pastern of the right leg, and a longitudinal one in the left pastern. They were both
of them simple fractures. The horse w^as manageable, and seemed to comprehend
the whole affair. He was a favourite of the groom as well as the master, and it
was determined to give him a chance of recovery. He had plenty of good litter
under him, which w^as changed twice in the day. The first object that was attempt-
ed to be accomplished was the healing of the excoriations that had taken place
in drawing him home, and abating the inflammation that was appearing about the
pasterns.
At the termination of the first week all these were healed, the horse ftd well, and
was perfectly quiet, except that when he was tired of lying on one side he contrived
to get on his knees and then to raise himself on his haunches, and, having voided his
urine and his dung, he turned himself upon the other side, without the bandages
round his pasterns being in the slightest degree interfered with.
At the expiration of the second week, he seemed to wish to get up. The groom
had orders to assist him, and a sling was passed under him. Some oats were placed
in the manger, and he seemed to enjoy the change for a little while. Soon after-
wards he began to be uneasy, and a copious perspiration appeared on every part.
He was immediately lowered, when, with evident delight, he stretched out his head
and his legs, and lay almost without motion during several hours. On the follow-
ing day he was again placed in the sling, and again lowered as soon as he appeared
to be fatigued.
At the expiration of a month from the time of the accident he could get up without
assistance, and would continue standing two or three hours, when he would lay down
again, but with a degree of precaution that was truly admirable. The bandages
around the pasterns had been continued until this period, and had been kept wet with
a spirituous embrocation. The horse was encouraged to walk a little, some corn be
ing offered to him in a sieve. He was sadly lame, and the lameness was considera-
bly greater in the left than in the right foot. A calculous enlargement could also be
felt in the direction of the fracture on each pastern; but it was greatest in ihe left
fetlock, and there was reason to fear the existence of anchylosis, between the pastern
bones of the left leg. That foot was surrounded with emollient cataplasms, and, two
days afterwards, was pared out, and the cautery applied over both pasterns, the spirit-
nous embrocation being continued.
A fortnight afterwards the effect of the cautery was very satisfactory. The action
of the part was more free, and there was no longer any fear of anchylosis. It was,
however, deemed prudent to apply the cautery over the right pastern. Walking ex-
ercise was now recommended, and in the course of another month the lameness was
ON SHOEING.' 333
much diminished. It was most on the left side, which, however, had resumed its
former degree of inclination.
At the expiration of four months, the horse was sent to work. His master, how-
over, douhting: the stability of the cure, sold him, for which he ought to have had his
own legs broken, and he fell into bad hands. He was worked hardly, and half
starved ; nevertheless, the calculus continued to diminish, and the lameness alto-
gether disappeared. He soon, however, passed into better hands. He was bouorht
by a farmer at Chalons, in whose service he long remained, in good condition, and
totally free from lameness. His last owner gave him the name of Old Broken Le^.*
Fracture of the coffix-boxe. — This is an accident of very rare occurrence, and
diihcult to distinguish from other causes of lameness. The animal halts very con-
siderably— the foot is hot and tender — the pain seems to be exceedingly great, and
none of the ordinary causes of lameness are perceived. According- to Hurtrel D'Ar-
boval, it is not so serious an accident as has been represented. The fractured portions'
cannot be displaced, and in a vascular bone like this, the union of the divided parts
will be readily eifected.
.Mr. Percivall very properly remarks, that, "buried as the coffin and navicular
bones are within the hoof, and out of the way of all external injury as well as of mus-
cular force, fracture of them cannot proceed from ordinary causes. It is, perhaps,
thus produced : — in the healthy foot, in consequence of the elasticity of their connec-
tions, these bones yield or spring under the impression they receive from the bones
above, and thus are enabled to bear great weights, and sustain violent shocks withouJ
injury; but, disease in the foot is otlen found to destroy this elasticity, by changing
the cartilage into bone, which cannot receive the same weight and concussion withoul
risk of fracture. Horses that have undergone the operation of neurotomy more fre-
quently meet with this accident than others, because they batter their senseless feet
with a force which, under similar circumstances, pain would forbid the others from
doing."!
Fractcire of the navicular boxe has been sufficiently considered under the article
" Navicular Joint Disease," p. 309.
Mr. flayer sums up his account of the treatment of fractures in a way that reflects
much credit on him and the profession of which he is a member. " Let your reme-
dies." says he, " be governed by those principles of science, those dictates ofhumanity,
and that sound discretion, which, while they raise the moral and intellectual supe
riority of man, distinguish the master of his profession from the bungling empiric"!
CHAPTER XVII.
ON SHOEING.
The period when the shoe began to be nailed to the foot of the horse is uncertain.
William the Norman introduced it into our country.
■\Ve have seen, in the progress of our inquiry, that, while it affords to the foot of the
horse that defence which seems now to be necessary against the destructive effects
of our artificial and flinty roads, it has entailed on "the animal some evils. It has
limited or destroyed the beautiful expansibility of the lower part of the foot — it has
led to contraction, although that contraction has not always been accompanied by
lameness — in the most careful fixing of the best shoe, and in the careless manufac-
ture and setting on of the bad one, irreparable injury has occasionally been done to
the horse.
We will first attend to the preparation of the foot for the shoe, for more than is
generally imagined, of its comfort to the horse and its safety to the rider, depends on
this. If the master would occasionally accompany the horse to the forge, more
expense to himself and punishment to the horse would be spared than, perhaps, he
* Recueil de Med. Vet. 1834. p. 7. No apology is offered for the introduction of cases liko
this. The cause of science and of humanity is equally served.
+ Perdvall's Hippopathology, vol. i., p. 272. t Vet. Trans, vol. i., p. 245.
334 .ON SHOEING.
would tliink possible, provided he will take the pains to understand the matter hini
self, otherwise he had better not interfere.
The old shoe must be first taken off. We have something to observe even here
The shoe was retained on the foot by the ends of the nails being twisted off, turned
down, and clenched. Tbese clenches should be first raised, which the smith seldom
takes the trouble thoroughly to do ; but aft(;r looking carelessly round the crust and
loosening one or two of the clenches, he takes hold first of one heel of the shoe, and
then of the oti)er, and by a violent wrench separates them from the foot : then, l)y
means of a third wrench, applied to the middle of the shoe, he tears it off. By these
means he must enlarge every nail-hole, and weaken the future and steady hold of the
shoe, and sometimes tear oil' portions of the crust, and otherwise injure the foot. The
horse generally shows by his flinching that he suffers from the violence with which
this preliminary operation too often is performed. The clenches should always be
raised or filed off; and, where the foot is tender, or the horse is to be examined foi
lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. According to the common system
of procedure, many a stub is left in the crust, the source of future annoyance.
The shoe having been removed, the smith proceeds to rasp the edges of the crust.
Let not the stander-by object to the apparent violence which he uses, or fear that the '
foot will suffer. It is the only means that he has to detect whether any stubs remain
in the nail-holes ; and it is the most convenient method of removing that portion of
the crust into which dirt and gravel have insinuated themselves.
Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to w'"ich it is almost
impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, is undoubted, that far
more injury has been done by the neglect of paring, than by carrying it to too great
an extent. The act of paring is a work of much more labour than the proprietor of
the horse often imagines. The smith, except he is overlooked, will frequently give
himself as little trouble about it as he can; and that portion of horn which, in the
unshod foot, wo\ild be worn away by contact with the ground, is suffered to accumu-
late month after month, until the elasticity of the sole is destroyed, and it can no
longer descend, and its other functions are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn,
and contraction, and navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn
should be left on the foot, which will defend the internal parts from being bruised,
and yet suffer the external sole to descend. How is this to be ascertained 1 The
strong pressure of the thumb of the smith w-ill be the best guide. The buttress, that
most destructive of all instruments, being, except on very particular occasions, banished
from every respectable forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing-knife, and
removes the growth of horn, until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible
degree, to the strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thickness of horn will then
remain.
If the foot has been previously neglected, and the horn is become very hard, the
owner must not object if the smith resorts to some other means to soften it a little,
and takes one of his flat irons, and having heated it, draws it over the sole, and keeps
it, a little while, in contact with the foot. When the sole is really thick, this rude
and apparently barbarous method can do no harm, but it should never be permitted
with the sole that is regularly pared out.
The quantity of horn to be removed, in order to leave the proper degree of thick-
ness, will vary with different feet. From the strong foot, a great deal must be taken.
From the concave foot, the horn may be removed until tbe sole will yield to a mode-
rate pressure. From the flat foot, little needs be pared ; while the pumiced foot should
be deprived of nothing but the ragged parts.
The paring being nearly completed, the knife and the rasp of the smith must be a
little watched, or he will reduce the crust to a level with the sole, and thus endanger
the bruising of it by its pressure on the edge of the seating. The crust should be
reduced to a perfect level all around, but left a little higher than the sole.
The heels will require considerable attention. From the stress which is thrown on
the inner heel, and from the weakness of the quarter there, the horn usually wears
away considerably faster than it w'ould on the outer one, and if an equal portion of
horn were pared from it, it would be left lower than the outer heel. The smith
should, therefore, accommodate his paring to the comparative wear of the heels, and
be exceedingly careful to leave them precisely level.
If the reader will recollect what has been said of the intention and action of thf
PUTTING ON THE SHOE. 335
oars, he will readily perceive that the smith should be checked in his almost universal
fondness for opening the heels, or, more truly, removing that which is the main impedi-
ment to contraction. The portion of the heels between the inflexion of the bar and the
frog should scarcely be touched — at least, the rag-ged and detached parts alone should
be cut away. The foot may not look so fair and open, but it will last longer without
contraction.
Tlie bar, likewise, should be left fully prominent, not only at its first inflexion, but
as it runs down the side of the frog. The heel of the shoe is designed to rest partly
on the heel of the foot and partly on the bar, for reasons that have been already stated.
If tiie bar is weak, the growth of it should be encouraged ; and it should be scarcely
touched when the horse is shod, unless it has attained a level with the crust. The
reader will recollect the observation which has been already made, that the destruction
of the bars not only leads to contraction, by removing the grand impediment to it, but
by adding a still more powerful cause in the slanting direction which is given to the
bearing of the heels, when the bar does not contribute to the support of the weight.
It will also be apparent, that the horn between the crust and the bar should be
carefully pared out. Everj' horseman has observed the Telief which is given to the
animal lame with corns, when this angle is well thinned. This relief, however, is
often but temporary ; for when the horn grows again, and the shoe presses upon it,
the torture of the horse is renewed.
The degree of paring to which the frog must be subjected, will depend on its promi-
nence, an'" on the shape of the foot. The principle has already been stated, that it
must be left so far projecting and prominent, that it shall be just within and above the
lower surface of the shoe ; it will then descend with the sole sufficiently to discharge
the functions that have been attributed to it. If it is lower, it will be bruised and
injured ; if it is higher, it cannot come in contact with the ground, and thus be enabled
to do its duty. The ragged parts must be removed, and especially those occasioned
by thrush, but the degree of paring must depend entirely on the principle just stated.
It appears, then, that the office of the smith requires some skill and judgment, in
order to be properly discharged ; and the proprietor of horses will find it his interest
occasionally to visit the forge, and complain of the careless, or idle, or obstinate
fellow, while he rewards, by some trifling gratuity, the expert and diligent workman.
He should likewise remember that a great deal more depends on the paring out of the
foot, than on the construction of the shoe ; that few shoes, except they press upon the
sole, or are made outrageously bad, will lame the horse ; but that he may be very
easily lamed from ignorant and improper paring out of the foot.
THE PUTTING ON THE SHOE.
The foot being thus prepared, the smith looks about for a shoe. He should select
rn-e that as nearly as possible fits the foot, or may be easily altered to the foot. He
vvill sometimes, and especially if he is an idle and reckless fellow, care little about
this, for he can easily alter the foot to the shoe. The toe-knife is a very convenient
instrument for him, and plenty of horn can be struck off with it, or removed by the
rasp, in order to make the foot as small as the shoe ; while he cares little, although
by this destructive method the crust is materially thinned where it should receive the
nail, and the danger of puncture, and of pressure upon the sole, is increased ; and a
foot so artificially diminished in size, will soon grow over the shoe, to the hazard of
considerable or permanent lameness.
While the horse is travelling, dirt and gravel are apt to insinuate themselves
between the web of the foot and the sole. If the shoe were flat, they would be per-
manently retained there, and would bruise the sole, and be productive' of injury ; but
when the shoe is properly bevelled off, it is scarcely possible for them to remain.
They must be shaken out almost every time that the foot comes in contact with the
ground.
The web of the shoe is likewise of that thickness, that when the foot is properly
pared, the prominent part of the frog shall lie just within and above its ground sur-
face, so that in the descent of the sole, the frog shall come sufficiently on the ground
to enable it to act as a wedge, and to expand Ihe quarters, while it is defended from
the wear and injury it would receive, if it came on the ground with the first and full
shock of the weight.
The nail-holes are, on the ground side, placed as near the outer edge of the shoe as
336 ON SHOEING.
they cvin safely be, and broug-lit out near the inner edge of the seating. The nails
thus take a direction inwards, resembling that of the crust itself, and have firmer
hold, wiiile the strain upon them in the common shoe is altogether prevented, and the
weight of the horse being thrown on a flat surface, contraction is not so likely to be
produced.
The smith sometimes objects to the use of this shoe, on account of its not being so
easily formed as one composed of a bar of iron, either flat or a little bevelled. It
likewise occupies more time in the forging; but these objections would vanish, when
the owner of the horse declared that he would have him shod elsewhere, or when he
consented — as, in justice, he should — to pay somewhat more for a shoe that required
better workmanship, and a longer time in the construction.
It is expedient not only that the foot and ground surface of the shoe should be most
accurately level, but that tl^e crust should be exactly smoothed and fitted to the shoe.
Much skill and time are necessary to do this perfectly with the drawing-knife. The
smith has adopted a method of more quickly, and more accurately adapting the shoe
to the foot. He pares the crust as level as he can, and then he brings the shoe to a
heat somewhat below a red heat, and applies it to the foot, and detects any little
elevations by the deeper colour of the burned horn. This practice has been nmch
inveighed against; but it is the abuse, and not the use of the thing which is to be
condemned. If the shoe is not too hot, nor held too long on the foot, an accuracy of
adjustment is thus obtained, which the knife would be long in producing, or would
not produce at all. If, however, the shoe is made to burn its way to its seat, with
little or no previous preparation of the foot, the heat must be injurious both to the
sensmle and insensible parts of the foot.
The heels of the shoe should be examined as to their proper width. Whatever is
the custom of shoeing the horses of dealers, and the too prevalent practice in the
metropolis of giving the foot an open appearance, although the posterior part of it is
thereby exposed to injur}', nothing is more certain than that, in the horse destined for
road-w-ork, the heels, and particularly the seat of com, can scarcely be too well
covered. Part of the shoe projecting externally can be of no possible good, but will
prove an occasional source of mischief, and especially in a heavy country. A shoe,
the web of which prr jects inward as far it can without touching the frog, affords pro-
tection to the angle between the bars and the cnist.
Of the manner of attaching the shoe to the foot the owner can scarcely be a compe-
tent judge; he can only take care that the shoe itself shall not be heavier than the
work requires — that, for work a little hard the shoe shall still be light, with a bit of
steel welded into the toe — that the nails shall be as small, and as few, and as far from
the heels as may be consistent with the security of the shoe; and that, for light work
at least, the shoe shall not be driven on so closely and firmly as is often done, nor the
points of the nails be brought out so high up as is generally practised.
CALKINS.
There are few cases in which the use of calkins (a turning up or elevation of the
heel) can be admissible in the fore-feet, except in frosty weather, when it may in
some degree prevent unpleasant or dangerous slipping. If, however, calkins are
used, they should be placed on both sides. If the outer heel only is raised with the
calkin, as is too often the case, the weight cannot be thrown evenly on the foot, and
undue straining and injury of some part of the foot or of the leg must be the necessary
consequence. Few things deserve more the attention of the horseman than this most
absurd and injurious of all the practices of the forge. One quarter of an hour's walk
ing, with one side of the shoe or boot raised considerably above the other, will pain-
fully convince us of what the horse must suffer from this too common method of
shoeing. It cannot be excused even in the hunting shoe. If the horse is ridden far
to cover, or galloped over much hard and flinty ground, he will inevitably suffer from
this unequal distribution of the weight. If the calkin is put on the outer heel, in order
to prevent the horse from slipping, either the horn of that heel should be lowered to
a corresponding degree, or the other heel of the shoe should be raised to the same
level by a gradual thickening. Of the use of calkins in the hinder foot we shall
presently speak.
CLIPS-THE HINDER SHOE, Sec. ■ 337
CLIPS.
These are portions of the upper edge of the shoe, hammered out, and turned up so
as to embrace the lower part of the crust, and which is usually pared out a little, io
order to receive the clip. They are very useful, as more securely attaching- the shoe
to the foot, and relieving the crust from that stress upon the nails which would other-
wise be injurious. A clip at the toe is almost necessary in every draught-horse, and
absolutely so in the horse of heavy draught, in order to prevent the shoe from being
loosened or torn oft' by the pressure which is thrown upon the toe in the act of draw-
ing. A clip on the outside of each shoe, at the beginning of the quarters, will give
security to it. Clips are likewise necessary on the shoes of all heavy horses, and of
all others who are disposed to stamp, or violently paw with their feet, and thus incur
the danger of displacing the shoe ; but they are evils, inasmuch as they press upon
the crust as it grows down, and they should only be used when circumstances abso-
lutely require them. In the hunter's shoe they are not required at the sides. One at
the toe is sufficient.
THE HINDER SHOE.
In forming the hinder shoes it should he remembered that the hind limbs are the
principal instruments in progression, and that in every act of progression, except the
walk, the toe is the point on which the whole frame of the animal turns, and from
which it is propelled. This part, then, should be strengthened as much as possible ;
and, therefore, the hinder shoes are made broader at the toe than the fore ones. An-
other good eifect is produced by this, that, the hinder foot being shortened, there is
less danger of overreaching or forging, and especially if the shoe is wider on the foot
surface than on the ground one. The shoe is thus made to slope inward, and is a
little within the toe of the crust.
The shape of the hinder foot is somewhat different from that of the fore foot. It is
straighter in the quarters, and the shoe must have the same form. For carriage and
draught-horses generally, calkins may be put on the heels, because the animal will be
thus enabled to dig his toe more firmly into the ground, and urge himself forward,
and throw his weight into the collar with greater advantage : but the calkins must
not be too high, and they must be of an equal height on each heel, otherwise, as has
been stated with regard to the fore feet, the weight will not be fairly distributed over
the foot, and some part of the foot or the leg will materially suffer. The nails in the
hinder shoe may be placed nearer to the heel than in the fore shoe, because, from the
comparatively little weight and concussion thrown on the hinder feet, there is not so
much danger of contraction.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SHOES.
The shoe must vary in substance and weight with the kind of foot, and the nature
of the work. A weak foot should never wear a heavy shoe, nor any foot a shoe that
will last longer than a month. Here, perhaps, w^e may be permitted to caution the
horse-proprietor against having his cattle shod by contract, unless he binds down his
farrier or veterinary surgeon to remove the shoes once at least in every month ; for if
the contractor, by a heavy shoe, and a little steel, can cause five or six weeks to inter-
vene between the shoeings, he will do so, although the feet of the horse must neces-
sarily suffer. The shoe should never be heavier than the work requires, for an ounce
or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell at the end of a hard day's work. This
is acknowledged in the huntin? shoe, which is narrower and lighter than that of the
hackney, although the foot of the hackney is smaller than that of the hunter. It is
more decidedly acknowledged in the racer, who wears a shoe only sufficiently thick
to prevent it from bending when it is used.
THE CONCAVE.SEATED SHOE.
The proper form and construction of the shoe is a subject deserving of very serious
inquiry, for it is most important to ascertain, if possible, the kind of shoe that will do
the least mischief to the feet. A cut is subjoined of that which is useful and valuable
for general purposes. It is employed in many of our best forges, and promises
gradually to supersede the flat and the simple concave shoe, although it must, in many
Tespects, yield to the unilateral shoe.
29 2s
338 ON SHOEING.
It presents a perfectly flat surface to the ground, in order to give as many points ot
bearing as possible, except that, on the outer edge, there is a groove ox fuller, in which
tlie nail-holes are punched, so that, sinking into the fuller, their heads project but a
little way, and are soon worn down level with the shoe. The ground surface of the
common shoe. used in the country is somewhat convex, and the inner rim of the shoe
iomes first on the ground : the consequence of this is, that the weight, instead of
'.>oipg borne fairly on the crust, is supported by the nails and clenches, which must
vi injurious to the foot, and often chip and break it.
The web of this shoe is of the same thickness throughout, from the toe to the heel ;
dud it is sufficiently wide to guard the sole from bruises, and, as much so as the frog
will permit, to cover the seat of corn.
On the foot side it is seated. The outer part of it is accurately flat, and of the width
of the crust, and designed to support the crust, for by it the whole weight of the hoise
is sustained.
Towards the heel this flattened part is wider and occupies the whole breadth of the
web, in order to support the heel of the crust and its reflected part — the bar; thus,
while it defends the horn included within this angle from injury, it gives that equal
pressure from the bar and the crust, which is the best preventive against corns, and
a powerful obstacle to contraction.
It is fastened to the foot by nine nails — five on the outside, and four on the inner
side of the shoe; those on the outside extending a little farther down towards the
heel, because the outside heel is thicker and stronger, and there is more nail-hold;
the last nail on the inner quarter being farther from the heel on account of the weak-
ness of that quarter. For feet not too large, and where moderate work only is re-
quired from the horse, four nails on the outside, and three on the inside, will be sufii-
eient ; and the last nail being far from the heels, will allow more expansion there.
The inside part of the web is bevelled off", or rendered concave, that it may not
press upon the sole. Notwithstanding our iron fetter, the sole does, although to a
very inconsiderable extent, descend when the foot of the horse is put on the ground
It is unable to bear constant or even occasional pressure, and if it came in contact
with the shoe, the sensible sole between it and the coffin-bone would be bruised, and
lameness would ensue. Many of our horses, from too early and undue work, have
the natural concave sole flattened, and the disposition to descend and the degree of
descent are thereby increased. The concave shoe prevents, even in this case, the pos-
sibility of much injury, because the sole can never descend in the degree in which
THE UNILATERAL SHOE.
339
the shoe is or may be bevelled. A shoe bevelled still farther is necessary to protect
the projecting or pumiced foot.
THE UNILATERAL, OR ONE SIDE NAILED SHOE.
For a material improvement in the art of shoeing, we are indebted to Mr. Tumei
of Regent Street. What was the state of the fool of the horse a few years ago 1 An
unyielding iron hoof was attached to it by four nails in each quarter, and the conse-
quence was, that in nine cases out of ten the foot underwent a very considerable alter
ation in its form and in its usefulness. Before it had attained its full development—
before the animal was five years old, there was, in a great many cases, an evident
contraction of the hoof. There was an alteration in the manner of going. The step
was shortened, the sole was hollowed, the frog was diseased, the general elasticity
of the foot was destroyed — there was a disorganization of the whole horny cavity,
and the value of the horse was materially diminished. What was the grand cause
of this ] It was the restraint of the shoe. The firm attachment of it to the foot by
nails in each quarter, and the consequent strain to which the quarters and every part
of the foot were exposed, produced a necessary tendency to contraction, from which
sprang almost all the maladies to which the foot of the horse is subject.
The unilateral shoe has this great advantage : it is identified with the grand prin-
ciple of the expansibility of the horse's foot, and of removing or preventing the
worst ailments to which the foot of the horse is liable. It can be truly stated of this
shoe, that while it affords to the whole organ an iron defence equal to the common
shoe, it permits, what the common shoe never did or can do, the perfect liberty of the
foot.
W^e are enabled to present our readers with the last improvement of the unilateral
ehoe.
The above cut gives a view of the outer side of the off or right unilateral shoe.
The respective situations of the five nails will be observed ; the distance of the last
from the heel, and the proper situations at which they emerge from the crusi. The
two clips will likewise be seen — one in the front of the foot, and the other on the side
Detween the last and second nail.
The second cut gives a view of the inner side of the unilateral shoe. The two
nails near the tqe are in the situation in which Mr. Turner directs that they should be
placed, and behind them is no other attachment, between the shoe and the crust. The
portion of the crust which is rasped off from the inner surface of the shoe is now, we
believe, not often removed from the side of the foot ; it has an unpleasant appearance,
ana the rasping is somewhat unnecessary. The heel of this shoe exhibits the method
which Mr. Turner has adopted, and with considerable success, for the cure of corns ;
he cuts away a portion of the ground surface at the heel, and injurious compressioa
or concussion is rendered in a manner impossible.
340 ON SHOEING.
There can be no doubt that this one-sided nailing has been exceedingly useful. It
has, in many a case that threatened a serious termination, restored the elasticity of
the foot, and enabled it to discharge its natural functions. It has also restored to the
foot, even in bad cases, a great deal of its natural formation, and enabled the horse to
discharge his duty with more ease and pleasure to himself, and greater security to his
rider.
It is difficult to tell what was the character of " the old English shoe." It certainly
was larger than there was any occasion for it to be, and nearly covered the lower sur-
face of the foot. The nail-holes were also far more numerous than they are at present.
The ground side was usually somewhat convex. " The effect of this," says Mr. W.
C. Spooner, " was to place the foot in a kind of hollow dish, which effectually pre-
vented its proper expansion, the crust resting on a mere ledge instead of a fiat surface ;
and, on the ground side, from the inner rim coming to the ground first, the ■\\ eight
was almost supported by the nails and clinches, which were placed, four or five on
each side, at some distance from the toe, and approaching nearly to the heels."*
It was an improvement to make the ground surface flat, and to take care that it did
not press on the sole. At length, however, came the concave-seated shoe of Osmer,
which was advocated by Mr. Clark, of Edinburgh, improved by Mr. Moorcroft, and
ultimately became very generally and usefully adopted.
THE HUNTING SHOE.
The hunter's shoe is different from that commonly used, in form as well as in
weight. It is not so much bevelled off as the common concave-seated shoe. Suffi-
cient space alone is left for the introduction of a picker between the shoe and the sole,
otherwise, in going over heavy ground, the clay would insinuate itself, and by its
tenacity loosen, and even tear off the shoe. The heels likewise are somewhat shorter,
that they may not be torn off by the toe of the hind-feet when galloping fast, and the
outer heel is frequently but injudiciously turned up to prevent slipping. If calkins
are necessary both heels should have an equal bearing.
THE BAR-SHOE.
A bar-shoe is often exceedingly useful. It is the continuation of the common shoe
round the heels, and by means of it the pressure may be taken off from some tendei
part of the foot, and thrown on another which is better able to bear it, or more widely
and equally diffused over the whole foot. It is principally resorted to in cases of com
the seat of which it perfectly covers — in pumiced feet, the soles of which may be thus
elevated above the ground and secured from pressure, — in sand-crack, when the pres-
* A Treatise on the Foot of the Horse, by Mr. W. C. Spooner, p. 113.
TIPS. — EXPANDING SHOE. — FELT. 341
sure may be removed from the fissure, and thrown on either side of it, and in Thrushes,
when the frog is tender, or is become cankered, and requires to be frequently dressed,
and the dressing can by this means alone be retained. In these cases the bar-shoe is
an excellent contrivance, if vi^orn only for one or two shoeings, or as long as the dis-
ease requires it to be worn, but it must be left off as soon as it can be dispensed with.
If it is used for the protection of a diseased foot, however it may be chambered and
laid off the frog, it will soon become flattened upon it ; or if the pressure of it is thrown
on the frog, in order to relieve the sand-crack or the corn, that frog must be very strong
and healthy which can long bear the great and continued pressure. More mischief
is often produced in the frog than previously existed in the part that was relieved. It
will be plain that in the use of the bar-shoe for corn or sand-crack, the crust and the
frog should be precisely on a level : the bar also should be the widest part of the shoe,
in ordfr to afford as extended bearing as possible on the frog, and therefore less likely
to be injurious. Bar-shoes are evidently not safe in frosty weather. They are never
safe when much speed is required from the horse, and they are apt to be wrenched
off in a heavy, clayey country.
TIPS.
Tips are short shoes, reaching only half round the foot, and worn while the horse
is at grass, in order to prevent the crust being torn by the occasional hardness of the
ground, or the pawing of the animal. The quarters at the same time being free, the
foot disposed to contract has a chance of expanding and regaining its natural shape
THE EXPANDING SHOE.
Our subject would not be complete if we did not describe the supposed expanding
shoe, although it is now almost entirely out of use. It is either seated or concave
like the common shoe, with a joint at the toe, by which the natural expansion of the
foot is said to be permitted, and the injurious consequences of shoeing prevented.
There is, however, this radical defect in the jointed shoe, that the nails occupy the
same situation as in the common shoe, and prevent, as they do, the gradual expansion
of the sides and quarters, and allow only of a hinge-like motion at the toe. It i^- a
most imperfect accommodation of the expansion of the foot to the action of its internal
parts, and even this accommodation is afforded in the slightest possible degree, if it
is afforded at all. Either the nails fix the sides and quarters as in the common shoe,
and then the joint at the toe is useless; or, if that joint merely opens like a hinge, the
nail-holes near the toe can no longer correspond with those in the quarters, which are
unequally expanding at every point. Tliere will be more stress on the crust at these
holes, which will not only enlarge them and destroy the fixed attachment of the shoe
to the hoof, but often tear away portions of the crust. This shoe, in order to answer
the intended purpose, should consist of many joints, running along the sides and quar-
ters, which would make it too complicated and expensive and frail for general use.
While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, we must be content with the
concave-seated or unilateral one, taking care to place the nail-holes as far from the
heels, and particularly from the inner heel, as the state of the foot and the nature of
the work will admit; and where the country is not too heavy nor the work too severe,
omitting all but two on the inner side of the foot.
FELT OR LEATHER SOLES.
"When the foot is bruised or inflamed, the concussion or shock produced by the hard
contact of the elastic iron with the ground gives the animal much pain, and aggra-
vates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather is, therefore, sometimes placed
between the seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its want of elasticity,
deadens or materially lessens the vibration or shock, and the horse treads more freely
and is evidently relieved. This is a good contrivance while the inflammation or ten-
derness of the foot continues, but a very bad practice if constantly adopted. The
nails cannot be driven so surely or securely when this substance is interposed between
the shoe and the foot. The contraction and swelling of the felt or leather from the
29*
342 ON SHOEING.
effect of moisture or dryness will soon render the attachment of the shoe less firm-
there will be too much play upon the nails — the nail-holes will enlarge, and the crus*
will be broken away-
After wounds or extensive bruises of the sole, or where the sole is thin and flat
and tender, it is sometimes covered with a piece of leather, fitted to the sole, and
nailed on with the shoe. This may be allowed as a temporary defence of the foot;
but there is the same objection to its permanent use from the insecurity of fastening,
and the strain on the crust, and the frequent chipping of it. There are also these
additional inconveniences, that if the hollow between the sole and the leather is filled
with stopping and tow, it is exceedingly difficult to introduce them so evenly and ac-
curately as not to produce partial or injurious pressure. A few days' work will almost
invariably so derange the padding, as to cause unerjual pressure. The long contact
of the sole with stopping of almost every kind will produce, not a healthy, elastic
horn, but that of a scaly, spongy nature — and if the hollow is not thus filled, gravel
and dirt will insinuate themselves, and eat into and injure the foot.
The general habit of stopping the feet requires some consideration. It is a very
good or very bad practice, according to circumstances. When the sole is flat and
thin it should be omitted, except on the evening before shoeing, and then the appli-
cation of a little moisture may render the paring of tiie foot safer and more easy.
If it were oftener used it would soften the foot, and not only increase the tendency
to descent, but the occasional occurrence of lameness from pebbles or irregularities
of the road.
Professor Stewart gives a valuable account of the proper application of stopping.
"Farm horses seldom require any stopping. Their feet receive suflicient moisture
in the fields, or, if they do not get much, they do not need much. Cart-horses used
in the town should be stopped once a week, or oftener during winter, and every se-
cond night in the hot weeks of summer. Groggy horses, and all those with high
heels, concave shoes, or hot and tender feet, or an exuberance of horn, require stop-
ping almost every night. When neglected, especially in dry weather, the sole
becomes hard and rigid, and the horse goes lame, or becomes lame if he were not so
before."*
One of two substances, or a mixture of both, is genera.iy used for stopping the feet
— clay and cow-dung. The clay used alone is too hard, and dries too rapidly. Many
horses have been lamed by it. If it is used in the stable, it should always be removed
before the horse goes to work. It may, perhaps, be applied to the feet of heavy
draught-horses, for it will work out before much mischief is done.
Cow-dung is softer than the clay, and it has this good property, that it rarely or
never becomes too hard or dry. For ordinary work, a mixture of equal parts of clay
and cow-dung will be the best application ; either of them, however, must be applied
with a great "deal of caution, where there is any disposition to thrush. Tow used
alone, or with a small quantity of tar, will often be serviceable.
In the better kind of stables, a felt pad is frequently used. It was first introduced
by Veterinary Surgeon-General Cherry. It keeps the foot cool and moist, and is very
useful, when the sole has a tendency to become flat. For the concave sole, tow would
be preferable.
The shoe is sometimes displaced when the horse is going at an ordinary pace, and
more frequently during hunting; and no person who is a sportsman needs to be told
in what a vexatious predicament every one feels himself who happens to lose a shoe
in the middle of a chase, or just as the hounds are getting clear away with their fox
over the open country.
Mr. Percivall has invented a sandal which occupies a very small space in the pocket,
can be buckled on the foot in less than two minutes, and will serve as a perfect sub-
stitute for the lost one, on the road, or in the field ; or may be used for the race-horse
when travelling from one course to another; or may be truly serviceable in cases of
diseased feet that may require at the same time exercise and daily dressing. The
following is a short sketch of the horse sandal.
* Stewart's Stable (Economy, p. 127.
THE SANDAL. S4S
•Toe-Clasp
Heel CUp — "
Heel CUp
Rings
From an inspection of the above cut, it will be seen that the shoe, or iron part of
the sandal, consists of three principal parts, to which the others are appendages ;
which are, the tip, so called from its resemblance to the horse-shoe of that name ; the
middle bar, the broad part proceeding backward from the tip ; and the side bars, or
branches of the middle bar, extending to the heels of the hoof. The appendages zie,
the toe-clasp, the part projecting from the front of the tip, and which moves by a hinge
\ipon the toe-clip, which toe-clasp is furnished with two iron loops. The heel-clips are
two clips at the heels of the side bars, which correspond to the toe-clip ; the latter
embracing the toe of the crust, while the former embrace its heels. Through the
heel-clips run the rings, which move and act like a hinge, and are double, for the pur-
pose of admitting both the straps. In the plate, the right ring only is represented;
the left being omitted, the better to show the heel-clip. The straps, which are com-
posed of web, consist of a hnof-strap and a heel and coronet-strap.
The hoof-strap is furnished with a buckle, whose office it is to bind the shoe to the
noof ; for which purpose it is passed through the lower rings, and both loops of the
shoe, and is made to encircle the hoof twice.
The heel and coronet-strap is furnished with two pads and two sliding loops ; one, a
movable pad, reposes on the heel, to defend that part from the pressure and friction
of the strap ; the other, a pad attached to the strap near the buckle, affords a similar
defence to the coronet, in front. The heel-strap runs through the upper rings, crosses
the heel, and encircles the coronet ; and its office is to keep the heels of the shoe
closely applied to the hoof, and to prevent them from sliding forward.
In the application of the sandal, the foot is taken up with one hand, and the shoe
slipped upon it with the other. With the same hand, the shoe is retained in its place,
while the foot is gradually let down to rest on the grouno. As soon as this is done,
the straps are drawn as tight as possible, and buckled.
The following cu represents an accurate delineation of the sandal, when properly
fastened on thelfoot.
Horses occasionally fall from bad riding, or bad shoeing, or overreaching, or an
awkward way of setting on the saddle. The head, the neck, the knees, the back, or
the legs, will oftenest suffer. It is often difficult to get the animal on his legs again,
especially if he is old, or exhausted, or injured by the fall. The principal object is,
to support the head, and to render it a fixed point from which the muscles may act in
supporting the body.
344
OPERATIONS.
If the horse is in harness, it is seldom that he can rise until he is freed from the
shafts and traces. The first thing is to secure the head, and to keep it down, that he
may not beat himself against the ground. Next, the parts of the harness connected
with the carriage must be unbuckled — the carriage must then be backed a little way,
so that he may have room to rise. If necessary, the traces must be taken off; and
after the horse gets up, he must be steadied a little, until he collects himself.
CHAPTER XVIII.
OPERATIONS.
These belong more to the veterinary surgeon than to the proprietor of the horse, but
a short account of the manner of conducting the principal ones should not be omitted.
It is frequently necessary to bind the human patient, and in no painful or dangerous
operation should this be omitted. It is more necessary to bind the horse, who is not
under the control of reason, and whose struggles may not only be injurious to himself,
but dangerous to the operator.
The trevis is a machine indispensable in every continental forge ; even the quietest
horses are there put into it to be shod.
The side-line is a very simple and useful method of confining the horse, and placing
him in sufllcient subjection, for the operations of docking, nicking, and slight firing.
The long line of the hobbles, or a common cart-rope, with a noose at the end, is fast-
ened on the pastern of the hind-leg that is not to be operated on. The rope attached
to it is then brought over the neck and round the withers, and there tied to the portion
that comes from the leg. The leg may thus be drawn so far forward that, while the
horse evidently cannot kick with that leg, he is disarmed of the other ; for he would
not have sufficient support under him, if he attempted to raise it: neither can he easily
use his fore-legs ; or, if he attempts it, one of them may be lifted up, and then he
becomes nearly powerless. If necessary, the aid of the twitch, or the barnacles, may
ne resorted to.
For every minor operation, and even for many that are of more importance, this
mode of restraint is suflicient, especially if the operator has active and determined
assistants ; and we confess that we are no friends to the casting of horses, if it can
possibly be prevented. When both legs are included in the holable, or rope — as la
BLEEDING. 345
another way of using the side-line — the horse may appear to be more secure ; bui
there is greater danger of his falling in his violent straggles during the operation.
For castrating and severe firing, the animal must be thrown. The safety of the
horse, and of tlie operator, will require the use of the improved hobbles, by which any
leg uwy be released from confinement, and returned to it at pleasure ; and, when the
operation is ended, the whole of the legs may be set at liberty at once, without
danger. The method of putting the legs as closely together as possible before the
pull — the necessity of the assistants all pulling together — and the power which one
man standing at tlie head, and firmly holding the snafile-bridle, and another at the
haunch, pushing the horse when he is beginning to fall, have in bringing- him on the
proper side, and on the very spot on which he is intended to lie, need not to be
described. It will generally be found most convenient to throw the patients on the
otf side, turning tliem over when it is required. This, however, is a method of
securing the horse to which we repeat that we are not partial, and to which we should
not resort, except necessity compelled ; for in the act of falling, and in the struggles
after falling, many accidents have occurred, both to the horse and the surgeon.*
Among the minor methods of restraint, but sufficient for many purposes, are the
twitch and the barnacles. The former consists of a noose passed through a hole at the
end of a strong stick, and in which the muzzle is inclosed. The stick being turned
round, the muzzle is securely retained, while the horse sutlers considerable pain from
the pressure — sufficiently great, indeed, to render him comparatively inattentive to
that which is produced by the operation ; at the same time he is afraid to struggle, for
every motion increases the agony caused by the twitch, or the assistant has power to
increase it by giving an additional turn to the stick.
The degree of pain produced by the application of the twitch should never be for-
gotten or unnecessarily increased. In no case should it be resorted to when milder
measures would have the desired effect. Grooms and horsekeepers are too much in
the habit of having recourse to it when they have a somewhat troublesome horse to
manage. The degree of useless torture which is thus inflicted in large establishments
is dreadful; and the temper of many a horse is too frequentlj' cornpletelj' spoiled.
The barnacles are the handles of the pincers placed over and inclosing the muzzle,
and which, being compressed by the assistant, give pain almost equal to that of the
twitch. These may appear to be barbarous modes of enforcing submission, but they
are absolutely indispensable. In a few instances the blindfolding of the horse terri
fies him into submission; but this is not to be depended upon. The twitch should bo
resorted to when the least resistance is offered ; and when that, as it occasionally does,
renders the horse more violent, recourse must be had to the side-line or the hobbles.
In the painful examination of the fore-leg or foot while on the ground, the other
foot should be held up by an assistant; or, if his aid is required in an operation, the
knee may be fully bent, and the pastern tied up to the arm. When the hind-leg is
to be examined in the same way, the fore-leg on that side should be held or fastened
up.
BLEEDING.
The operation of bleeding has been already described (p. 189), but we would remind
our readers of the necessity, in every case of acute inflammation, of making a large
orifice, and abstracting the blood as rapidly as possible, for the constitution will thus
be the more speedily and beneficially affected ; and also of the propriety of nevei
determining to take a precise quantity of blood, but of keeping the finger on the artery
until the pulse begins to falter, or the strong beating of fever becomes softer, or the
animal is faint, or the oppressed pulse of inflammation of the lungs is rounder ana
fuller.
In cases of inflammation, and in the hands of a skilful practitioner, bleeding is the
sheet-anchor of the veterinarian ; yet few things are more to be reprobated than the
indiscriminate bleeding of the groom or the farrier.
The change which takes place in the blood after it is drawn from the vein is dili-
gently noticed by many practitioners, and is certainly deserving of some attention.
* The safest and best hobbles, are those invented by Mr. Gloag, and improved by Mr. Daws
as represented in the Veterinarian, va x. p. 108, and vol. xi. p. 163. The humb-screw (fig. 3)
should, however, be inverted.
2t
346 OPERATIONS.
The blood coagulates soon after it is taken from the vein. The coagiilable part is
composed of two substances : that which gives colour to the blood, and that in wliicn
the red particles float. These, by degrees, separate from each other, and the red par-
ticles sink to the bottom. If the coagulation takes place slowly, the red particles
have more time to sink through the fluid, and there appears on the top a thick, yel-
lowish, adhesive substance, called the buffy coat. The slowness of the coagulation
and the thickness of bufly coat are indicative of inflammation, and of the degree of
inflammation.
In a healthy state of the system, the coagulation is more rapid, the red particles
have not time to fall through, and the buff'y coat is thin. These appearances are
worth observing; but much more dependence is to be placed on the charatter and
change of the pulse, and the symptoms generally. When the horse is exhausted and
the system nearly broken up, the blood will sometimes not coagulate but ne of one
uniform black colour and loose texture. When the blood runs down the side of the
vessel in which it is received, the coagulation vv'ill be very imperfect. AVhcn it is
drawn in a full stream, it coagulates slowly, and when procured from a smaller orifice,
the coagulation is more rapid. Every circumstance affecting the coaguiation and
appearance of the blood, the pulse, and the general symptoms, should be most atten-
tively regarded.
A great deal of mystery is associated wath bleeding in the management of the racer
and the hunter. The labour of the turf and the field having ceased, there is frequently
some difficulty in preventing a plethoric state of the constitution — a tendency to
inflammatory complaints. If the horse is rapidly accumulating flesh, it may be pru-
dent to abstract blood, dependent in quantity on the age and constitution of the ani-
mal. Attention to this may prevent many a horse from going wrong; but the custom
that once prevailed of bleeding every horse a fortnight or more after the racing or
hunting season had passed, is decidedly objectionable.
As preparatory to work, bleeding is far from being so much employed as it used to
be. As a universal practice, when the horse is first taken from grass, it now scarcely
exists. It would not always be objected to, if the horse was fat and full of flesh, but,
otherwise, it is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance. It cer-
tainly produces very considerable effect. IMore rapidly than any species of diet-
more rapidly than any sweating or purging ; it reduces the condition of the horse, but,
we have often thought, at the expense of those essentials to life and health that cannot
be easily replaced.
BLISTERING.
W'e have spoken of the eff'ect of blisters, wlien treating of the various diseases to
which they are applicable. The principle on which they act is, that no two intense
inflammations can exist in neighbouring parts, or perhaps in the system, at the same
time. Hence we apply some stimulating acrimonious substance to the skin, in order
to excite external inflammation, and thus lessen or remove that which exists in some
deeper seated and, generally, not far distant part. Hence, also, we blister the sides
in inflammation of the lungs — the abdomen in that of the bowels — the legs in that of
the cellular substance surrounding the sheaths of the tendons, or the sheaths them-
selves, and the coronet or the heel in inflammation of the navicular joint.
Blisters have likewise the property of increasing the activity of the neighbouring
vessels : thus we blister to bring the tumour of strangles more speedily to a head — to
rouse the absorbents generally to more eneroretic action, and cause the disappearance
of tumours, and even callous and bony substances.
The judgment of the practitioner will decide whether the desired effect will be best
produced by a sudden and violent action, or by the continuance of one of a mildei
character, "inflammation should be met by active blisters; old enlargements and
swellings will be most certainly removed by milder stimulants — by the process which
farriers call srveafing down.
There are few more active or effectual blisters than the Spanish fly, mixed "with the
proportions of lard and resin that will be hereafter stated. The best liquid or sweat-
ing blister is an infusion of the fly in spirit of turpentine, and that lowered with neat's
foot oil, according to the degree of activity required.
In preparing the horse for blistering, the hair should be clipped or shaved as closely
as possible, and the ointment thoroughly nibbed in. Much fault is often found wit'b
FIRING. 347
die ointment if the blister does not rise, but the failure is generally to be attributed to
the idleness of the operator.
The head of the horse should be tied up during^ the first two days ; except uiat,
when the sides are blistered, the body-clothes may be so contrived as to prevent the
animal from nibbling and blemishing- the part, or blistering his muzzle. At the expi-
ration of twenty-four hours, a little olive or neat's foot oil should be applied over the
blister, which will considerably lessen the pain and supple the part, and prevent cracks
in tlie skin that may be difficult to heal. The oil should be applied morning and
night, until the scabs peel oiT. When they begin to loosen, a lather of soap and watei
applied with a sponge may hasten their removal, but no violence must be used.
Every particle of litter should be carefully removed from the stall, for tlie sharp
ends of the straw coming in contact with a ])art rendered so tender and irrit,al)le by
the blister, will cause a very great annoyance to the animal. After the second day
the horse may be sutfered to lie down ; but the possibility of blemishing himself
should be prevented by a cradle or wooden necklace, consisting of round strips of
wood, strung together, reaching from the lower jaw to the chest, and preventing him
from sufficiently turning or bending his head to get at the blistered part.
A blister thus treated will rarely produce the slightest blemish. When the scabs
are all removed, the blister may be repeated, if the case should appear to require it,
or the horse may be turned out.
In inflammations which threaten life, a blister can scarcely be too active or exten-
sive. In inflammation of the lungs it should reach over the whole of the sides, and
the greater part of the brisket, for, should a portion of the fly be absorbed, and produce
strangury (inflammation, or spasmodic affection of the neck of the bladder,) even this
new irritation may assist in subduing the first and more dangerous one. In blistering,
however, for injuries or diseases of the legs or feet, some caution is necessary. When
speaking of the treatment of sprain of the back sinews, p. 271, it was stated, that " a
blister should never be used while any heat or tenderness remained about the part,"
for we should then add to the superficial inflammation, instead of abating the deeper-
seated one, and enlargements of the limb and extensive ulcerations might follow,
which would render the horse perfectly unserviceable. When there is a tendency to
grease, a blister is a dangerous thing, and has often aggravated the disease. In winter,
the inflammation of the skin produced by blistering is apt to degenerate into grease;
therefore, if it should be necessary to blister the horse during that season, great care
must be taken that he is not exposed to cold, and, particularly, that a current of cold
air does not come upon the legs.
The inhuman practice of blistering all round at the same time, and perhaps high on
the legs, cannot be too strongly reprobated. Many a valuable horse has been lost
through the excessive general irritation which this has produced, or its violent effect
on the urinary organs ; and that has been particularly the case, when corrosive subli-
mate has entered into the composition of the blister.
If strangury should appear, the horse should be plentifully supplied with linseed
tea, which is thus best prepared — a gallon of boiling water is thrown on half a pound
of linseed ; the infusion suffered to stand until nearly cold, and the clean mucilaginous
fluid then poured off". Three-quarters of a pound of Epsom salts should also be given,
dissolved in a quart of water, and, after that, a ball every six hours, containing opium
and camphor, with linseed meal and treacle.
Half a pound or a pound of good mustard powder, made into a paste with boiling
water, and applied hot, will often produce as good a blister as cantharides. It is a
preferable one, when, as in inflammation of the kidneys, the eff"ect of cantharides on
the urinary organs is feared. Hartshorn is not so eff'ectual. Tincture of croton
makes an active liquid blister, and so do some of the preparations of iodine.
FIRING.
Whatever seeming cruelty may attend this operation, it is in many cases indis-
pensable. The principle on which we have recourse to it is similar to that which
justifies the use of a blister — by producing superficial inflammation we maybe enabled
to get rid of a deeper-seated one, or we may excite the absorbents to remove an
unnatural bony or other tumour. It raises more intense external inflammation than
we can produce by any other means. It may be truly said to be the most powerful
agent that we have at our disposal. Humanity, however, will dictate, that on account
348 OPERATIONS.
of the inflammation which it excites, and the pain it inflicts, it should only he had
recour^ie to when milder means rarely succeed.
The part which is to be submitted to the operation should be shaved, or tne hair
cut from it as closely as possible with the trimming scissors. This is necessary in
order to bring the iron into immediate contact with the skin, and likewise to prevent
the smoke that will arise from the burned hair obscuring the view of the operator.
The horse must then be thrown. This is absolutely necessary for the safety both of
the operator and the animal. The side line may be applied in a shorter time, and so
many hands may not be wanted to cast the horse ; but no person can fire accurately,
or with the certainty of not penetrating^ the skin, except the animal is effectually
secured by the hobbles. Although accidents have occurred in the act of casting, yet
many more have resulted to the operator, the assistants, or the horse, in a protracted
operation, when the side-line only has been used.
The details of the operation belong to the veterinary surgeon. The grand points to
be attended to are to have the edge of the iron round and smooth — the iron itself at,
or rather below a red heat — to pass it more or less rapidly over the skin, and with
slighter or greater pressure, according to the degree of heat — to burn into the skin
until the line produced by the iron is of a brown colour, rather light than dark, and,
oy all means, in common cases, to avoid penetrating the skin. Leaving out of the
4uestion the additional cruelty of deep firing, when not absolutely required, we may
depend on it that if the skin is burned through, inflammation, and ulceration, and
sloughing will ensue, that will be with much difllculty combated — that will unavoida-
bly leave unnecessary blemish, and that has destroyed many valuable horses. It may
happen, nevertheless, that by a sudden plunge of the animal the skin will be una-
voidably cut through. The act of firing requires much skill and tact, and the practi-
tioner cannot be always on his guard against the struggles of the tortured beast.
It will, also, and not unfrequently, occur that the skin, partially divided, will separate
in two or three days after the operation. Tliis must not be attributed to any
neglect or unskil fulness of the surgeon, and the ulceration thus produced will be
slight and easily treated, compared with that caused by actually burning through the
skin.
A very considerable change has taken place in the breed of many of the varieties
of the horse, and the labour exacted from him. As illustrations of this we refer to
the altered character and pace of the modem hunter and the additional increase of
speed requited from the coach and the post horse ; the exertion being limited only by
the degree to which every muscle and every nerve can be extended, while the calcu-
lation between the utmost exaction of cruelty and the expenditure of vital power, is
reduced to the merest fraction. The consequence of this is, that the horse is subjected
to severer injuries than he used to be, and severer measures are and must be employed
to remedy the evil. Hence the horrible applications of the actual cautery to the horse
that have disgraced the present day. Lesions — gashes have been made on either side
of the tendon of the leg, which it took no fewer than seven months to heal. Was
there nothing short of this lengthened torture that could have been done to relieve the
victim ? Could he not have been more lightly fired for the road or for the purposes
of breeding ? Was there no pasture on which he had earned a right to graze ? — or
could he not have been destroyed ? These sad lesions will occasionally come before
the practitioner and the owner. It will be for the first, to advocate that, which, on a
careful view of the case, mercy prompts ; and the latter, except there is a reasonable
prospect of ultimate enjoyment, as well as usefulness, should never urge a continua-
tion of suffering.
Supposing, however, that prospect to exist, the surgeon must discharge his duty.
These gashes, after a while, begin to close, and then commences the beautiful process
of granulation. Little portions of the integument form on the centre of the wound,
and the sides of the wound creep closer together, and the skin steals over the surface,
until the chasm is perfectly closed. In order to insure the continuance of this, a ridge
of contracted integument as hard as any cartilage, but without its elasticity, nms from
one end of the lesion to the other, tighter, and harder, and more eff'ectual every week
and month, and year, and lasting during the life of the animal. Therefore, the vete-
rinary surgeon is not to be too severely censured, if, after due consideration, he is
induced to undertake one of these fearful operations : but let him do it as seldom as
he can, and only when every circumstance promises a favourable result.
SETONS. 349
Some practitioners blister immediately after firing. As a general usage it is highly
to be reprobated. It is wanton and useless cruelty. It may be required in bony
tumours of considerable extent, and long standing, and interfering materially with the
action of the neighbouring joint. Spavin accompanied by much lameness, and ring-
bone spreading round the coronet and involving the side cartilages or the pastern
joint, may justify it. The inflammation is rendered more intense, and of considera-
bly longer duration. In old affections of the round bone it may be admitted, but no
excuse can be made for it in slighter cases of sprain or weakness, or staleness.
On the day after the operation, it will be prudent gently to rub some neat's foot oil,
or lard over the wound. This will soften the skin, and render it less likely to sepa-
rate or ulcerate. A bandage would add to the irritation of the part. Any cracks of
tiie skin, or ulcerations that may ensue, must be treated with tlie calamine ointment.
It will be evident that there is an advantage derived from firing to which a blister
can have no pretension. The skin, partially destroyed by the iron, is reinstated and
healed, not merely by the formation of some new matter filling up the vacuity, but by
the gradual drawing together and closing of the separated edges. The skin, there-
fore, is lessened in surface. It is tightened over the part, and it acts, as just described,
as a salutary and permanent bandage. Of the effect of pressure in removing enlarge-
ments of every kind, as well as giving strength to the part to which it is applied, we
have repeatedly spoken; and it is far from being the least valuable effect of the opera-
tion of firing, that, by contracting the skin, it affords a salutary, equable, and perma-
nent pressure. It was on this principle, but the practice cannot be defended, that
colts which were not very strong on the legs, used to be fired round the fetlock, and
along the back sinew, or over the hock, in order to brace and strengthen the parts.
It is on the same principle that a racer or hunter, that has become stale and stiff, is
sometimes fired and turned out. For whatever reason the horse is fired, he should,
if possible, be turned out, or soiled in a loose box, for three or four months at least.
The full effect intended to result from the external irritation is not soon produced, and
the benefit derived from pressure proceeds still more slowly. In the thickened and
tender state of the skin, and the substance beneath, a return to hard work, for some
weeks after firing, would be likely to excite new inflammation, and cause even worse
mischief than that which before existed.
Some weeks pass before the tumefied parts begin to contract, and they only, who
have had experience in these cases, can imagine how long, with gentle voluntary
exercise, the process of absorption is carried on. He who would expect that much
good should accrue from the operation of firing, must be content to give up his horse
for three or four months ; but if he will use him sooner, and a worse lameness should
follow, let him blame his own impatience, and not the inefficiency of the means, or
the want of skill in the surgeon.
The firing in every case should be either in longitudinal or parallel lines. On the
back sinews, the fetlock, and the coronet, this is peculiarly requisite, for thus only
will the skin contract so as to form the greatest and most equable pressure.
Some practitioners may pride themselves on the accuracy of their diamonds, lozeng«s
and feathers, but plain straight lines, about half an inch from each other, will consti-
tute the most advantageous mode of firing. The destroying of deeply-sented^inflam-
mation, by the exciting of violent inflammation on the skin, is as well obtained; and
common sense will determine, that in no way can the pressure which results from the
contraction of the skin be so advantageously employed — to which may be added, that
it often leaves not the slightest blemish.
SETONS
Are pieces of tape or cord, passed, by means of an instrument resembling a large
needle, either through abscesses, or the base of ulcers with deep sinuses, or between
the skin and the muscular or other substances beneath. They are retained there by
the ends being tied together, or by a knot at each end. The tape is moved in the
wound twice or thrice in the day, and occasionally wetted with spirit of turpentine,
or some acrid fluid, in order to increase the inflammation which it produces, or the
discharge which is intended to be established.
In abscesses, such as occur in the withers or the poll, and when passed from the
summit to the very bottom of the swelling, setons. are highly useful, by discharging
tlie purulent fluid and suflTering any fresh quantity of it that may be secreted to flow
30
350 OPERATIONS.
out; and, by the degree of inflammation which they excite on the interior of the
lumour, stimulating it to throw out healthy granulations which gradually occupy and
fill the hollow. In deep fistulous wounds they are indispensable, for except some
channel is made through which tlie matter may flow from tlie bottom of the wound,
it will continue to penetrate deeper into the part, and the healing process will never
be accomplished. On these accounts, a seton passed through the base of the ulcer
in ])oll-evil and fistulous withers is of so much benefit.
Setons are sometimes useful by promoting a discharge in the neighbourhood of an
inflamed part, and thus diverting and carrying away a portion of the fluids which dis-
tend or overload the vessels of that part: thus a seton is placed with considerable
advantage in the cheek, when the eyes are much inflamed. We confess, however
that we prefer a rowel under the jaw.
With this view, and to excite a new and different inflammation in the neighbour-
hood of a part already inflamed, and especially so deeply seated and so difficult to be
reached as the navicular joint, a seton has occasionally been used with manifest ben-
efit, but we must peremptorily object to the indiscriminate use of the frog-setou for
almost every disease of the frog or the foot.
In inflammations of extensive organs, setons afford only feeble aid. Their action
is too circumscribed. In inflammation of the chest or the intestines, a rowel is pre-
ferable to a seton ; and a blister is far better than either of them.
On the principle of exciting the absorbents to action for the removal of tumours, as
spavin or splent, a blister is quicker in its action, and far more effectual than any se-
ton. Firing is still more useful.
DOCKING.
The shortening of the tail of the horse is an operation which fashion and the
convenience of the rider require to be performed on most of these animals. The
length of the dock, or stump, is a matter of mere caprice. To the close-cropped
tail of the wagon-horse, however, we decidedly object, from its perfect ugliness,
and because the animal is deprived of every defence against a thousand tortures.
The supposition that the blood which would have gone to the nourishment of the
tail, causes greater development and strength in the quarters, is too absurd to de-
serve serious refutation. It is the rump of the animal being wholly uncovered, and
not partly hidden by the intervention of the tail, that gives a false appearance of in-
creased bulk.
The operation is simple. That joint is searched for which is the nearest to the
desired length of tail. The hair is then turned up, and tied round with tape for an
inch or two above this joint; and that which lies immediately upon the joint is cut
olT. The horse is fettered with the side-line, and then the veterinary surgeon with
his docking-machine, or the farmer with his carving-knife and mallet, cuts through
the tail at one stroke. Considerable bleeding ensues, and frightens the timid and
the ignorant; but if the blood were suffered to flow on until it ceased of its own
accord, the colt, and especially if he were very young, would rarely be seriously
injured. As, however, the bleeding would ocwasionally continue for some hours,
and a ^great quantity of blood might be lost, and the animal might be somewhat
weakened, it is usual to stop the hemorrhage by the application of a red-hot iron
to the stump. A large hole is made in the centre of the iron, that the bone may not
be seared, which would exfoliate if it were burned with any severity, or drop off" at
the joint above, and thus shorten the dock. The iron rests on the muscular parts
round the bone, and is brought into contact with the bleeding vessels, and very
speedily stops the haemorrhage. Care should be taken that the iron is not too hot, —
and that it is not held too long or too forcibly on the part, for many more horses would
be destroyed by severe application of the cautery, than by the bleeding being left to
its own course.
Powdered resin sprinkled on the stump, or indeed any other application, is worse
than useless. It causes unnecessary irritation, and sometimes extensive ulceration;
but if the simple iron is moderately applied, the horse may go to work immediately
after the operation, and no dressing will be afterwards required. If a slight bleeding
should occur after the cautery, it is much better to let it alone than to run the risk of
inflammation or locked-jaw, by re-applying the iron with greater severity.
Some farmers dock their colts a few days after they are dropped. This is & com-
NICKING. 35i'
mendable custom on the score of humanity. No colt yra.3 ever lost by it; and neither
llie growth of the hair, nor the beauty of the tail, is in the least impaired.
NICKING.
This barbarous operation was once sanctioned by fashion, and the breeder and the
dealer even now are sometimes tempted to inflict the torture of it in order to obtain a
ready sale for their colts. It is not, however, practised to the extent that it used to
be, nor attended by so many circumstances of cruelty.
We must here introduce a small portion of the anatomy of the horse, which we
had reserved for this place. The eighteen dorsal vertebrae or bones of the back (see
(1, p. It37), and the five lumbar vertebra; or bones of the loins (/, p. 167), have already
been described. The continuation of the spine consists of the sacrum, composed of
five bones (/;, p. 167), which, although separate in the colt, are in the full-grown
horse united into one mass. The bones of the ilium, the upper and side portion of
the haunch, articulate strongly with the sacrum, forming a bony union rather than a
joint. The spinal marrow and the blood-vessels here generally begin to diminish,
and numerous branches of nerves are given out, which, joined by some from the ver-
tebra; of the loins, form the nervous apparatus of the hind-legs.
The bones of the tail (/, p. 167) are a continuation of those of the sacrum. They
are fifteen in number, gradually diminishing in size, and losing altogether the charac-
ter of the spinal vertebrcc. Prolongations of the spinal marrow run througli the whole
of them, and likewise some arterial vessels, which are a continuation of those which
supply the sacrum. ^luch attention is paid by persons who are acquainted with the
true form of the horse to this continuation of the sacral and tail-bones. From tiitj
loins to the setting on of the tail the line should be nearly straight, or inclining only
a slight degree downward. There is not a surer test of the breed of the horse than
this straight line from the loins to the tail ; nor, as was shown when the muscles of
the quarters were described, is there any circumstance so much connected with the
mechanical advantage with which these muscles act.
The tail seems to be desisined to perfect the beauty of the horse's form. There are
three sets of muscles belonging to the tail — the erector coccygis, situated on the supe-
rior and lateral part of it, and by the action of which {d, p. 282) the tail may be both
elevated and drawn on one side — the depressor coccygis, on the inferior and lateral part
of it, by the action of which the tail may be both lowered and drawn on one side —
and the curvator coccygis, by the action of which the tail may be curved or flexed on
either side. The depressor and lateral muscles are more powerful than the erector
ones, and when the horse is undisturbed, the tail is bent down close on the buttocks ;
but when he is excited, and particularly when he is at speed, the erector muscles are
called into action, the tail is elevated, and there is an appearance of energy and spirit
which adds materially to his beauty. To perpetuate this, the operation of nicking
was contrived. The depressor muscles and part of the lateral ones are cut through,
and the erector muscles, left without any antagonists, keep the tail in a position more
or less erect, according to the whim of the operator or the depth to which the incisions
have been carried.
The operation is thus performed. The side-line is put on the horse, or some per-
sons deem it more prudent to cast him, and that precaution we should be disposed to
recommend. The hair at the end of the tail is securely tied together, for the purpose
of afterwards attaching a weight to it, Tlve operator then grasps the tail in his hand,
and, lifting it up. feels for the cenire of one of the bones — the prominences at the
extremities will guide him — from two to four inches from the root of the tail, accord-
ing to the size of the horse. He then, with a sharp knife, divides the muscles deeply
from the edge of the tail on one side to the centre, and, continuing the incision across
the bone of the tail, he makes it as deep on the other side. One continued incision,
steadily yet rapidly made, will accomplish all this. If it is a blood-horse that is
operated on, this will be sufficient. For a hunter, two incisions are usually made, the
second being about two inches below the first, and likewise as nearl)^ as possible in
the centre of one of the bones.
On a hackney, or cocktail, a third incision is made ; for fashion has decided that his
352 OPERATIONS.
tail shall be still more elevated and curved. Two incisions only are made in the tatl
ot a mare, and the second not very deep.
When the second incision is made, some fibres of the muscles between the first and
second will project into the wound, and must be removed by a pair of curved scissors.
The same must be done with the projecting portions from between the second and
third incisions. The wounds should then be carefully examined, in order to ascer-
tain that the muscles have been equally divided on each side, otherwise the tail will
be carried awry. This being done, pledgets of tow must be introduced deeply into
each incision, and confined, but not too tightly, by a bandage. A very profuse bleed-
ing will alone justify any tightness of bandage, and the ill consequences tnat have
resulted from nicking are mainly attributable to the unnecessary fcrce that is used in
confining these pledgets. Even if the bleeding, immediately afler the o])eration,
should liave been very great, the roller must be loosened in two or three hours, other-
wise swelling and inflammation, and even death, may possibly ensue. Twenty-four
hours after the operation, the bandage must be quite removed ; and then, all that is
necessarjs so far as the healing of the incisions is concerned, is to keep them clean.
If, however, the tail were suffered to hang down, the divided edges of the muscles
would again come in contact with each other, and close; the natural depression of
the tail would remain ; and the animal would have been punished for no purpose.
The wounds must remain open, and that can only be accomplished by forcibly keeping
the tail curved back during two or three weeks. For this purpose a cord, one or two
feet in length, is affixed to the end of the hair, which terminates in another divided
eord, each division going over a pulley on either side of the back of the stall. A
weight is hung at either extremity sufficient to keep the incisions properly open, and
regulated by the degree in which this is wished to be accomplished. The animal
will thus be retained in an uneasy position, although, after the first two or three days,
probably not one of acute pain. It is barbarous to increase this uneasiness or pain
by affixing too great a weight to the cords ; for it should be remembered that the
proper elevated curve is given to the tail, not by the weight keeping it in a certain
position for a considerable time, but by the depth of the first incisions, and the degree
in which the wounds are kept open. By every ounce of weight beyond that which is
necessary to keep the incisions apart, unnecessary suffijring is inflicted. Some prac-
titioners use only one pulley ; others do not use any, b*ut put on a light girth, and tie
a cord from the end of the tail to the girth, bending it over the back. The double
pulley, however, is the least painful to the horse, and more perfectly secures the
proper elevation and straight direction of the tail.
The dock should not — for the first three or four days — ^be brought higher than the
back. Dangerous irritation and inflammation would probably be produced. It may,
after that, be gradually raised to an elevation of forty-five degrees. The horse should
be taken out of the pulleys, and gently exercised once or twice every day ; but the
pulleys cannot finally be dispensed with until a fortnight after the wounds have
healed, because the process of contraction, or the approach of the divided parts, goes
on for some time after the skin is perfect over the incisions, and the tail would thus
sink below the desired elevation.
If the tail has not been unnecessarily extended by enormous weights, no bad conse-
quences will usually follow ; but if considerable inflammation should ensue, the tail
must be taken from the pulley and diligently fomented with simple warm water, and
a dose of physic given. Locked-jaw has in some rare instances followed, under
which the horse generally perishes. The best means of cure in the early state of this
disease is to amputate the tail at the joint above the highest incision. In order to
prevent the hair from coming off, it should be unplaited and combed out every fourth
«r fifth day.
RESTIVENESS. 353
CHAPTER XIX.
THE VICES AND DISAGREEABLE OR DANGEROUS HABITS OF
THE HORSE.
The horse has many excellent qualities, but he lias likewise defects, and these
occasionally amounting to vices. Some of them may be attributed to natural temper,
for the human being scarcely discovers more peculiarities of habit and disposition
than does the horse. Tlie majority of them, however, as perhaps in the Imman being,
are the consequences of a faulty education. Their early instructor has been ignorant
and brutal, and they have become obstinate and vicious.
RESTIVENESS.
At the head of all the vices of the horse is restiveness, the most annoying and the
most dangerous of all. It is the produce of bad temper and worse education; and,
like all other habits founded on nature and stamped by education, it is inveterate.
Whether it appears in the form of kicking, or rearing, or plunging, or bolting, or in
an}^ way that threatens danger to the rider or the horse, it rarely admits of cure. A
determined rider may to a certain extent subjugate the animal; or the horse may have
his favourites, or form his attachments, and with some particular person he may be
comparatively or perfectly manageable; but others cannot long depend upon him, and
even his master is not always sure of him. It is a rule, that admits of very fevf
exceptions, that he neither displays his wisdom nor consults his safety, who attempts
to conquer a restive horse.
An excellent veterinary surgeon, and a man of great experience in horses, Mr.
Castley, truly said, in "The Veterinarian," — "From whatever cause the vicious
habits of horses may originate, whether from some mismanagement or from natural
badness of temper, or from what is called in Yorkshire a mistech, whenever these
animals acquire one of them, and it becomes in some degree confirmed, they very
seldom, if ever, altogether forget it. In reference to driving it "is so true, that it
may be taken as a kind of aphorism, that if a horse kicks once in harness, no
matter from what cause, he will be liable to kick ever afterwards. A good coach-
man m ly drive him, it is true, and may make him go, but he eannot make him
forget his vice; and so it is in riding. You may conquer a restive horse — you may
make him go quiet for months, nay, almost for years together ; but I affirm that, under
other circumstances, and at some future opportunity, he will be sure to return to his
old tricks."
Mr. Castley gives two singular and conclusive instances of the truth of this doc-
trine. " When a very young man," says he, "I remember purchasing a horse at a
fair in the north of England, that was offered very cheap, on account of his beino-
unmanageable. It was said that nobody could ride him. We found that the anim^
objected to have anything placed upon his back, and that, when made to move for-
ward with nothing more than a saddle on, he instantly threw himself down on his
side with great violence, and would then endeavour to roll upon his back.
"There was at that time in Yorkshire, a famous colt-breaker, known by the name
of .Jumper, who was almost as celebrated in that country for taming vicious horses
into submission, as the famed Whisperer was in Ireland. We put this animal into
Jumper's hands, who took him away, and in about ten days brought him home again,
certainly not looking worse in condition, but perfectly subdued, and almost as obedient
as a dog ; for he would lie down at this man's bidding, and only rise again at his
command, and carry double or anything. I took to riding him myself, and may say,
that I was never better carried for six or eight months, during which time he did not
show the least vice whatever. I then sold him to a Lincolnshire farmer, who said
that he would give him a summer's run at grass, and show him as a very fine horse
at the great Horncastle fair.
"Happening to meet this gentleman in the following year, I naturally enough
inquired after my old friend. 'Oh,' said he, 'that was a bad business — the horse
turned out a sad rebel. The first time we attempted 1 j mount him, after getting him
354 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
\\p from grass, he in an instant threw the man down with the greatest violence, pitch-
t\g him several yards over his head ; and after that, he threw every one that attempted
lo got on his back. If he could not throw his rider, he wuvld throw himself down.
We could do nothing with him, and I was obliged at last to sell him to go in a stage-
3oach."'
In the next story, .lumper's counterpart and superior, the Irish Whisperer, is brought
on the stage, and although he performed wonders, he could not radically cure a restive
horse. " At the Spring Meeting of 1804, Mr. Whalley's King Pippin was brought
on the Curragh of Kildare to run. He was a horse of the most extraordinary savage
and vicious disposition. His particular propensity was that oi Jiying at and worry-
ing any person who came within his reach ; and if he had an opportunity, he would
get his head round, seize his rider by the leg with his teeth, and drag him down from
his back. For this reason, he was always ridden with what is called a sword; which
is a strong flat stick, having one end attached to the cheek of the bridle, and the other
to the girth of the saddle, a contrivance to prevent a horse of this kind from getting
at his rider.
" King Pippin had long been difficult to manage, and dangerous to go near to ; but
on the occasion in question, he could not be got out to run at all. Nobody could put
the bridle upon his head. It being Easter Monday, and consequently a great holiday,
there was a large concourse of people assembled at the Curragh, consisting princi-
pally of the neighbouring peasantry ; and one countryman, more fearless than the
rest of the lookers-on, forgetting, or perhaps never dreaming that the better part of
courage is discretion, volunteered his services to bridle the horse. No sooner had he
committed himself in this operation, than King Pippin seized him somewhere about
the shoulders and chest, and, says Mr. Watts (Mr. Castley's informant), 'I know of
nothing I can compare it to, so much as a dog shaking a rat.' Fortunately for the
foor fellow, his body was very thickly covered with clothes, for on such occasions an
rishman of this class is fond of displaying his wardrobe ; and if he has three coats at
all in the world, he is sure to put them all on.
"This circumstance, in all probability, saved the individual who had so gallantly
volpnteered the forlorn hope. His person was so deeply enveloped in extra integu-
ments, that the horse never got fairly hold of his skin, and I understand that he
escaped with but little injury, beside the sadly rent and totally ruined state of his
holyday toggery.
"The Whisperer was sent for, who, having arrived, was shut up with the horse all
night, and in the morning he exhibited this hitherto ferocious animal, following him
about the course like a dog — lying down at his command — suffering his mouth to be
opened, and any person's hand to be introduced into it — in short, as quiet almost as a
sheep.
" He came out the same meeting, and won his race, and his docility continued
satisfactory for a considerable time ; but at the end of about three years his vice returned,
and then he is said to have killed a man, for which he was destroyed."
It may not be uninteresting, in this connexion, to give some account of this tamer
of quadruped vice. However strange and magical his power may seem to be. there
is no doul)t of the truth of the account that is given of him. The Rev. Mr. Town-
send, in his Statistical Survey of Cork, first introduced him to the notice of the public
generally, although his fame had long spread over that part of Ireland. We, how-
ever, give the following extract from Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of Ire-
land, Part 11, p. 200, for his performances seem the work of some elfin sprite, rathei
than of a rude and ignorant horse-breaker.
" He was an awkward, ignorant rustic of the lowest class, of the name of Sullivan,
but better known by the appellation of the Whisperer. His occupation was horse-
oreaking. The nickname he acquired from the vulgar notion of his being able to
communicate to the animal what he wished by means of a whisper; and the singu-
larity of his method seemed in some degree to justify the supposition. In his own
neighbourhood, the notoriety of the fact made it seem less remarkable; but I doubt if
any instance of similar subjugating talent is to be found on record. As far as the
sphere of his control extended, the boast of vein, vidi, vici, was more justly claimed
by Sullivan, than even by Caesar l^imself.
" How his art was acquired, and in what it consisted, is likely to be for ever
unknown, as he has lately (about 1810) left the world without divulging it. His eon
RESTIVENESS. 355
who follows the same trade, possesses but a small portion of the art, having either
never learned the true secret, or being incapable of putting it into practice. The
wonder of his skill consisted in the celerity of the operation, which was performed in
privacy, without any apparent means of coercion. Every description of horse, or
even nmle, whether previously broken or unhandled, whatever their* peculiar habits
or vices might have been, submitted without show of resistance to the magical influ-
ence of his art, and in the short space of half an hour became gentle and tractable.
This effect, though instantaneously produced, was generally durable. Though more
submissive to him than to others, the animals seemed to have acquired a docility
unknown before.
" When sent for to tame a vicious beast, for which he was either paid according xo
the distance, or generally two or three guineas, he directed the stable, in which he and
the object of the experiment were, to be <ihut, with orders not to open the door until a
signal was given. After a tete-d-iele of about half an hour, during which little or no
bustle was heard, the signal was made, and, upon opening the door, the horse
appeared lying down, and the man by his side, playing with him like a child with a
puppy dog. From that time, he was found perfectly willing to submit to any disci-
pline— however repugnant to his nature before. I once," continues Mr. Croker,
" saw hig skill tried on a horse, which could never before be brought to stand for a
smith to shoe him. The day after Sullivan's half-hour's lecture, I went, not without
some incredulity, to the smith's shop, -with many other curious spectators, where we
were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his art. This, too, had been a troop-
horse, and it was supposed, not without reason, that after regimental discipline had
failed, no other would be found availing. I observed that the animal appeared terrified
whenever Sullivan either spoke to, or looked at him ; how that extraordinary ascend-
ency could have been obtained, is difficult to conjecture.
" In common cases this mysterious preparation was unnecessary. He seemed to
possess an instinctive power of inspiring awe, the result, perhaps, of natural intre-
pidity, in which, 1 believe, a great part of his art consisted; though the circumstance
of the fele-d-lele shows that, on particular occasions, something more must have been
added to it. A faculty like this would, in some hands, have made a fortune, and I
understand that great offers were made to him, for the exercise of his art abroad. But
hunting was his passion. He lived at home in the style most agreeable to his dispo-
sition, and nothing could induce him to quit Duhallow and the fox-hounds."
Mr. Castley witnessed the total failure of the younger Sullivan. He says, " we
have in the regiment a remarkably nice horse, called Lancer, that has always been
very difficult to shoe, but seven or eight years ago, when we first got him, he was
downright vicious in that respect. When the regiment was stationed at Cork, the
farrier-major sought out the present Sullivan, the son of the celebrated Whisperer,
and brought him up to the barracks in order to try his hand upon Lancer, and make
him more peaceable to shoe ; but I must say this person did not appear to possess any
particular controlling power over the animal more than any other man. Lancer
seemed to pay no attention whatever to his charm, and at last fairly beat him out of
the forge. Time, however, and a long perseverance in kind and gentle treatment, have
effected what force could not. The horse is now pretty reasonable to shoe."*
* An account, bearing considerable resemblance to the feats of the English horse-tamer, has
been lately laid before the public.
Mr. CatUn has published an account, the veracity of which is unimpeached, of his travels
among the North American Indians. He thus describes the manner in which the Indian
tames the wild horse. " He coils his lasso on his arm, and gallops fearlessly into the herd
of wild horses. He soon gets it over the neck of one of the number, when he instantly
dismounts, leaving his own horse, and runs as fast as he can, letting the lasso pass out gradu-
ally and carefully through his hands, imtil the horse fails for want of breath, and lies helpless
on the ground. The Indian advances slowly towards the horse's head, keeping the lasso tight
upon his neck, until he fastens a pair of hobbles on the animal's two fore feet, and also loosens
the lasso, giving the horse a chance to breathe, and passing a noose round the under jaw, by
which he gets great power over the affi-ighted animal, that is rearing and plunging when it gets
breath, and by which, as he advances, hand over hand, towards the horse's nose, be is able to
hold it down, and prevent it from throwing itself over on its back. By this means he gradu-
ally advances, until he is able to place his hand on the animal's nose and over its eyes, and
at length, to breathe into its nostrils, when it soon becomes docile and conquered ; so that he
has httle else to do than to remove the hobbles from its feet, and lead or ride it to the camp.
356 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
BACKING OR GIBBING.
One of the first kinds of restiveness, taking them in alphabetical order, is baclxiog
or gibbing. These are so closely allied that we hardly know how to separate tlunn.
Some hor'ses have the habit of backing at first starting, and that more from playful-
ness than desire of mischief, A moderate application of the whip will usually be
effectual. Others, even after starting, exhibit considerable obstinacy and vicioiis-
ness. This is frequently the effect of Irad breaking. ~ Either the shoulder of the horse
had been wrung when he was first put to the collar, or he had been foolishly accus-
tomed to be started in the break up-hill, and, therefore, all his work coming upon him
at once, he gradually acquired this dangerous habit.
A hasty and passionate breaker will often make a really good-tempered young horse
an inveterate gibber. Every young horse is at first shy of the collar. If he is too
quickly forced to throw his weight into it, he will possibly take a dislike to it, that
will occasionally show itself in the form of gibbing as long as he lives. The judi-
cious horse-breaker will resort to no severity, even if the colt should go out several
times without even touching collar. The example of his companion will ultimately
induce him to tajie to it voluntarily and effectually.
A lartre and heavy stone should be put behind the wheel before starting, ^yhen the
horse findino- it more difficult to back than to go forward, will gradually forget this
unpleasant trick. It will likewise be of advantage, as often as it can be managed, so
to start that the horse shall have to back up-hill. The difficulty of accomplishing this
will soon make him readily go forward. A little coaxing, or leading, or moderate
flagellation, will assist in accomplishing the cure.
When, however, a horse, thinking he has had enough of work, or has been impro-
perly checked or corrected, or beginning to feel the painful pressure of the collar,
swerves, and gibs, and backs, it is a more serious matter. Persuasion should first be
The animal is so completely conquered, that it submits quietly ever after, and is led or rode
away with very little difficuhy."
Mr. Ellis, B. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, happened to read this account, and he
felt a natural desire to ascertain how far this mode of horse-taming might be employed
among British horses. He soon had the opportunity of putting the veracity of the story to
the test. His brother-in-law had a filly, not yet a year old, that had been removed from hei
dam three months before, and since thai time had not been taken out of the stable. A great
amateur in everything relating to horses was present, and at liis request it was determined
that the experiment of the efficacy of breathing into the nostrils should be immediately put to
the test. The filly was brought, the amateur leading her by the halter. She was quite wild,
and bolted, and dragged the amateur a considerable distance. He had been using a short
halter ; he changed it for a longer one, and was then able to lead the little scared thing to the
front of the house. The experiment was tried under manifest disadvantage, for the filly was
in the open air, several strangers were about her, and both the owner and the amateur were
rather seeking amusement from the failure than knowledge from the success of their experi-
ment.
The filly was restive and frightened, and with great difficulty the amateur managed to cover
her eyes. At length he succeeded, and blew into the nostrils. No particular effect seemed
lo follow. He then breathed into her nostrils, and the moment he did so, the filly, who had
very much resisted having her eyes blindfolded, and had been very restive, stood perfectly
still and trembled. From that time she became very tractable. Another gentleman also
breathed into her nostrils, and she evidently enjoyed it, and kept putting up her nose to receive
the breath.
On the following morning she was led out again. She was perfectly tractable, and it seemed
to be almost impossible to frighten her.
A circumstance wliich, in a great measure corroborated the possibility of easily taming the
most ferocious horses, occurred on the next day. A man, on a neighbouring farm, was
attempting to break-in a very restive colt, who foiled him in every possible way. After seve-
ral manoeuvres the amateur succeeded in breathing into one of the nostrils, and from thai
moment all became easy. The horse was completely subdued. He suffered himself to bo
led quietly away with a loose halter, and was perfectly at command. He was led through a
field in which were four horses that had been his companions. They all surrounded him ; he
took no notice of them, but quietly followed his new master. A surcingle was buckled on
him, and then a saddle, and he was finally fitted with a bridle. The whole experimer'
occupied about an hour, and not in a single instance did he rebel.
On the next day, however, the breaker, a severe and obstinate fellow, took him in hand,
and, according to his usual custom, began to beat him most cruelly. The horse broke from
him, and became as unmanageable as ever. The spirit of the animal had been subdued but
not broken.
BITING. 35?
tried ; and, afterwards, reasonable coercion, but np cruelty : for the brutality which
is often exercised in attempting to compel a gibbing horse to throw himself habitu-
ally into the collar, never yet accomplished the purpose. The horse may, perhaps,
be whipped into motion ; but if he has once begun to gib, he will have recourse to it
ao"aia whenever any circumstance displeases or annoys him, and the habit will be so
rapidly and completely formed, that he will become insensible to all severity.
It is useless and dangerous to contend with a horse determined to back, unless
there is plenty of room, and, by tight reining, the driver can make him back in
the precise direction he wishes, and especially up-hill. Such a horse should be
immediately sold, or turned over to some other work. In a stage-coach as a
wheeler, and particularly as the near-wheeler; or, in the middle of a team at
agricultural work, he may be serviceable. It will be useless for him to attempt to
gib there, for he v/ill be dragged along by his companions whether he will or not;
and, finding the inutility of resistance, he will soon be induced to work as well as
any horse in the team. The reformation will last while he is thus employed, but,
like restiveness generally, it will be delusive when t!ie horse returns to his former
occupation. The disposition to annoy will very soon follow the power to do it. Some
instances of complete reformation rnay have occurred, but they are rare.
When a horse, not often accustomed to gib, betrays a reluctance to work, or a de-
termination not to work, common sense and humanity will demand that some consid-
eration should be taken before measures of severity are resorted to. The horse may
be taxed beyond his power. He soon discovers whether this is the case, and by re-
fusing to proceed, tells his driver that it is so. The utmost cruelty will not induce
many horses to make the slightest effort, when they are conscious that their strength
is inadequate to the task. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and the shoulders sadly
galled, and the pain, which is intense on level ground and with fair draught, becomes
insupportable when he tugs up a steep acclivity. These things should be examined
into, and, if possible, rectified ; for, under such circumstances, cruelty may produce
obstinacy and vice, but not willing obedience.
They who are accustomed to horses know what seemingly trivial circumstances
occasionally produce this vice. A horse, whose shoulders are raw, or have fre-
quently been so, will not start with a cold collar. When the collar has acquired
the warmth of the parts on which it presses, the animal will go without reluctance.
Some determined gibbers have been reformed by constantly wearing a false collar,
or strip of cloth round the shoulders, so that the coldness of the usual collar should
never be felt; and others have been cured of gibbing by keeping the collar on
nigflit and day, for the animal is not able to lie down completely at full length,
which the tired horse is always glad to do. When a horse gibs, not at starting,
but while doing his work, it has sometimes been useful to line the collar with
cloth instead of leather; the perspiration is readily absorbed, the substance which
presses on the shoulders is softer, and it may be far more accurately eased off at a
tender place.
BITING.
This is either the consequence of natural ferocity, or a habit acquired from the
foolish and teasing play of grooms and stable-boys. When a horse is tickled and
pinched by thoughtless and mischievous youths, he will first pretend to bite his tor-
mentors ; by degrees he vv-ill proceed farther, and actually bite them, and very soon
after that, he will be the first to challenge to the combat, and, without provocation,
seize some opportunity to gripe the incautious tormentor. At length, as the love of
mischief is a propensity too easily acquired, this war, half playful and half in earnest,
becomes habitual to him, and degenerates into absolute viciousness.
It is not possible to enter the stall of some horses without danger. The ani-
mal gives no warning of his intention ; he is seemingly quiet and harmless : but
if the incautious by-stander comes fairly within his reach, he darts upon him, and
seldom fails to do some mischief. A stallion addicted to biting is a most formi-
dable creature. He lifts the intruder — he shakes him — he attacks him v/ith his
feet — he tramples upon him, and there are many instances in which he effects
irre_>drable mischief. A resolute groom may escape. When he has once got firm
hold ff the head of the horse, he may back him, or muzzle him, or harness him;
358 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
but he must be always on his guard, or in a moment of carelessness he may be sen
ously injured.
It is seldom that anything can be done in the way of cure. Kindness will aggra-
vate the evil, and no degree of severity will correct it. " I have seen," says^Professor
Stewart, "biters punished until they trembled in every joint, and were ready to drop,
but have never in any case known them cured by this treatment, or by any other.
The lash is forgotten in an hour, and the horse is as ready and determined to repeat
the offence as before. He appears unable to resist the temptation, and in its worst
form biting is a species of insanity."*
Prevention, however, is in the power of every proprietor of horses. While he
insists on gentle and humane treatment of his cattle, he should systematically for-
bid this horse-play. It is that which can never be considered as operating as a re-
ward, and thereby rendering the horse tractable ; nor does it increase the affection
of the animal for his groom, because he is annoyed and irritated by being thus inces-
santly teased
GETTING THE CHEEK OF THE BIT INTO THE MOUTH.
Some horses that are disposed to be mischievous try to do this, and are very expert
at it. They soon find what advantage it gives them over their driver, who by this
manoeuvre loses almost all command. Harsh treatment is here completely out of the
question. All that can be done is, by some mechanical contrivance, to render the
thing difficult or impossible, and this may be managed by fastening a round piece of
leather on the inside of the cheek of the bit.
KICKING.
' This, as a vice, is another consequence of the culpable habit of grooms and stable-
boys of teasing the horse. That which is at first an indication of annoyance at
the pinching and tickling of the groom, and without any design to injure, gradually
becomes the expression of anger, and the effort to do mischief. The "horse likewise
too soon recognises the least appearance of timidity, and takes advantage of the dis-
covery. There is no cure for this vice ; and he cannot be justified who keeps a kick-
ing horse in his stable.
Some horses acquire, from mere irritability and fidgetiness, a habit of kicking at
the stall or the bail, and particularly at night. The neighbouring horses are disturbed,
and the kicker gets swelled hocks, or some more serious ini-iry. This is also a habit
very difficult to correct if suffered to become established, [•'.ares are far more subject
to it than horses.
Before the habit is inveterately established, a thorn bush or a piece of furze fasten-
ed against the partition or post will sometimes effect a cure. When the horse finds
that he is pretty severely pricked, he will not long continue to punish himself. In
confirmed cases it may be necessary to have recourse to the log, but the legs are
often not a little bruised by it. A rather long and heavy piece of wood attached to
a chain has been buckled above the hock, so as to reach about half-way down the leg.
When the horse attempts to kick violently, his leg will receive a severe blow : this,
and the repetition of it, may, after a time, teach him to be quiet.
A much more serious vice is kicking in harness. From the least annoyance about
the rump or quarters, some horses will kick at a most violent rate, and destroy the
bottom of the chaise, and endanger the limbs of the driver. Those that are fidgety
in the stable are most apt to do this. If the reins should perchance get under the
tail, the violence of the kicker will often be most outrageous ; and while the animal
presses down his tail so tightly that it is almost impossible to extricate the reins, he
continues to plunge until he has demolished everything behind him.
This is a vice standing foremost in point of danger, and which no treatment will
always conquer. It will be altogether in vain to try coercion. If the shafts are very
strong and without flaw, or if they are plated with iron underneath, and a stout kick
ing-strap resorted to which will barely allow the horse the proper use of his \\m^
limbs in progression, but not permit him to raise them sufficiently for the purpose of
kicking, he may be prevented from doing mischief; or if he is harnessed to a heavy
cart, and thus confined, his efforts to lash out will be restiained : but it is frequency
* Stewart's Stable CEconomy, page 160.
UNSTEADINESS WHILE BEING MOUNTED— REARING, &c. o5i)
a verj' unpleasant thing to witness these attempts, though iiicHeclual, to demolish the
vehicle, for the shafts or the kicking-strap may possibly break, and extreme danger
may ensue. A horse that has once begun to kick, whatever nray have been the origi-
nal cause of it, can never be depended upon again, and he will be very unwise w-ho
ventu.es behind him. The man, however, who must come within reach of a kicker
should come as close to him as possible. The blow may thus become a push, and
Beldom is injurious.
UNSTEADINESS WHILE BEING MOUNTED.
When this merely amounts to eagerness to start — very unpleasant, indeed, at times,
for many a rider has been thrown from his seat before he was fairly fixed in it — it
may be remedied by an active and good horseman. We have known many instances
in which, while the elderly, and inactive, and fearful man has been making more than
one inetfectual attempt to vault into the saddle, the horse has been dancing about to
his annoyance and danger; but the animal had no sooner been transferred to the
management of a younger and more agile rider than he became perfectly subdued.
Severity will here, more decidedly than in any other case, do harm. The rider should
be fearless — he should carelessly and confidently approach the horse, mount at the
first efl"ort, and then restrain him for a while ; patting him, and not suffering him to
proceed until he becomes perfectly quiet. Horses of this kind should not be too
highly fed, and should have sufficient daily exercise.
%Vhen the difficulty of mounting arises, not from eagerness to start, but unwilling-
ness to be ridden, the sooner that horse is disposed of the better. He may be con-
quered by a skilful and determined horseman ; but even he will not succeed without
frequent and dangerous contests that will mar all the pleasure of the ride.
REARING.
This sometimes results from playfulness, carried, indeed, to an unpleasant and
dangerous extent ; but it is oftener a desperate and occasionally successful effort to
unhorse the rider,' and consequently a vice. The horse that has twice decidedly and
dangerously reared, should never be trusted again, unless, indeed, it was the fault of
the rider, who had been using a deep curb and a sharp bit. Some of the best horses
will contend against these, and then rearing may be immediately and permanently
cured by using a snaffle-bridle alone.
The horse-breaker's remedy, that of pulling the horse backward on a soft piece of
ground, should be practised by reckless and brutal fellows alone. ]\Iany horses have
been injured in the spine, and others have broken their necks, by being thus suddenly
pulled over; while even the fellow, who fears no danger, is not always able to extri-
cate himself from the falling horse. If rearing proceeds from vice, and is unprovoked
by the bruising and laceration of the mouth, it fully partakes of the inveteracy which
attends the other divisions of restiveness.
RUNNING AWAY.
Some headstrong horses will occasionally endeavour to bolt with the best rider.
Others with their wonted sagacitj'^ endeavour thus to dislodge the timid or unskilful
one. Some are hard to hold, or bolt only during the excitement of the chase; others
will run away, prompted by a vicious propensity alone. There is no certain cure
here. The method which affords any probability of success is, to ride such a horse
with a strong curb and sharp bit; to have him always firmly in hand; and, if he will
run away, and the place will admit of it, to give him (sparing neither curb, whip, nor
spur) a great deal more running than he likes.
VICIOUS TO CLEAN.
It would scarcely be credited to what an extent this exists in some horses that are
otherwise perfectly ()uiet. It is only at great hazard that they can be cleaned at all
The origin of this is proba"bly some maltreatment. There is, however, a great differ-
ence in the sensibility of the skin in different horses. Some seem as if they could
scarcely be made to feel the whip, while others cannot bear a fly to alight on them
without an expression of annoyance. In young horses the skin is peculiarly delicate.
If they have been curried with a broken comb, or hardly rubbed with an uneven bruslv.
360 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
the recollection of the torture they have felt makes them impatient, and even vicious,
tiurino- every succeeding operation of the kind. Many grooms, likewise, seem to
delight in producing these exhibitions of uneasiness and vice; although, when they
are carried a little too far, and at the hazard of the limbs of the groom, the animals
that have been almost tutored into these expressions of irritation are brutally kicked
and punished.
This, however, is a vice that may be conquered. If the horse is dressed with a
lighter hand, and wisped rather than brushed, and the places where the skin is most
6ensitive are avoided as much as thorough cleanliness will allow, he will gradually
lose the recollection of former ill-treatment, and become tractable and quiet.
VICIOUS TO SHOE.
The correction of this is more peculiarly the business of the smith ; yet the mastei
should diligently concern himself with it, for it is oftener the consequence of injudi-
cious or bad usasje than of natural vice. It may be expected that there will be some
difficulty in shoeing a horse for the first few times. It is an operation that gives him
a little uneasiness. — The man to whom he is most accustomed should go with him to
the forge; and if another and steady horse is shod before him, he may be induced
more readily to submit. It cannot be denied that, after the habit of resisting this
necessary operation is formed, force may sometimes be necessarj' to reduce our rebel-
lious servant to obedience ; but we unhesitatingly affirm that the majority of horses
vicious to shoe are rendered so by harsh usage, and by the pain of correction being
added to the uneasiness of shoeing. It should be a rule in every forge that no smith
should be permitted to strike a horse, much less to twitch or to gag him, without the
master-farrier's order; and that a young horse should never be twitched or struck.
There are few horses that may not be gradually rendered manageable for this purpose
by mildness and firmness in the operator. They will soon understand that no harm
is meant, and they will not forget their usual habit of obedience; but if the remem-
brance of corporal punishment is connected with shoeing, they will always be fidgety,
and occasionally dangerous.
This is a very serious vice, for it not only exposes the animal to occasional severe
injury from his own struggles, but also from the correction of the irritated smith,
whose limbs and whose life being in jeopardy, may be forgiven if he is sometimes a
little too hard-handed. vSuch a horse is very liable, and without any fault of the
smith, to be pricked and lamed in shoeing; and if the habit should be confirmed, and
should increase, and it at length becomes necessary to cast him, or to put him in the
trevis, the owner may be assured that many )'ears will not pass ere some formidable
or fatal accident w411 take place. If, therefore, mild treatment will not correct this
vice, the horse cannot be too soon got rid of.
Horses have many unpleasant habits in the stable and on the road, which cannot
be said to amount to vice, but which materially lessen their value.
SWALLOWING WITHOUT GRINDING.
Some greedy horses habitually swallow their corn without properly grinding it,
and the power of digestion not being adequate to the dissolving of the husk, no nutri-
ment is extracted, and the oats are voided whole. This is particularly the case when
horses of unequal appetite feed from the same manger. The greedy one, in his eager-
ness to get more than his share, bolts a portion of his corn whole. If the farmer,
without considerable inconvenience, could contrive that every horse shall have his
separate division of the manger, the one of smaller appetite and slower feed would
have the opportunity of grinding at his leisure, without the fear of the greater share
being stolen by his neighbour.
Some horses, however, are naturally greedy feeders, and Avill not, even when alone,
allow themselves time to chew or grind their corn. In consequence of this they carry
but little flesh, and are not equal to severe work. If the rack was supplied with hay
when the corn was ]Hit into the manger, they will continue to eat on, and their sto-
machs will become distended with half-chewed and indigestible food. In consequence
of this they will be incapable of considerable exertion for a long time after feedincr,
and, occasionally, dangerous symptoms of staggers will occur.
The remedy is, not to let such horses fast too long. The nose-bag should be the
companion of every considerable journey. The food should likewise be of such z
CRIB- BITING. 361
natUitf that it cannot be rapidly bolted. Chaff should be plentifully mixed with the
corn, and, in some cases, and especially in horses of slow work, it should with the
corn, constitute the whole of the food. This will be treated on more at large under
the article " Feeding."
In every case of this kind the teeth shoul^} be carefully examined. Some of them
may be unduly lengthened, particularly the first of the grinders: or they may be
ragged at the edges, and may abrade and wound the cheek. In the first place the
horse cannot properly masticate his food; in the latter he will not; for these animals,
as too often happens in sore throat, would rather starve tiian put themselves to much
pain.
CRIB-BITING.
This is a very unpleasant habit, and a considerable defect, although not so serious
a one as some have represented. The horse lays hold of the manger with his teeth,
violently extends his neck, and then, after some convulsive action of the throat, a
slight grunting is heard, accompanied by a sucking or drawing in of air. It is not
an effort at simple eructation, arising from indigestion. It is the inhalation of air.
It is that which takes place with all kinds of diet, and when the stomach is empty as
well as when it is full.
The effects of crib-biting are plain enough. The teeth are injured and worn awaj'',
and that, in an old horse, to a very serious degree. A considerable quantity of corn
is often lost, for the horse will frequently crib with his mouth full of it, and the greater
part will fall over the edge of the manger. Much saliva escapes while the manger is
thus forcibly held, the loss of which must be of serious detriment in impairing the
digestion. The crib-biting horse is notoriously more subject to colic than other horses,
and to a species difficult of treatment and frequently dangerous. Although many a
crib-biter is stout and strong, and capable of all ordinary work, these horses do not
generally carry so much flesh as others, and have not their endurance. On these
accounts crib-biting has very properly been decided to be unsoundness. We must
not look to the state of the disease at the time of purchase. The question is, does it
exist at all ? A case was tried before Lord Tenterden, and thus decided : " a horse
with crib-biting is unsound."
It is one of those tricks which are exceedingly contagious. Every companion of a
crib-biter in the same stables is likely to acquire the habit, and it is the most invete-
rate of all habits. The edge of the manger will in vain be lined with iron, or with
sheep-skin, or with sheep-skin covered with tar or aloes, or any other unpleasant sub-
stance. In defiance of the annoyance which these may occasion, the horse will per-
sist in the attack on his manger. A strap buckled tightly round the neck, by com-
pressing the wind-pipe, is the best means of preventing the possibility of this trick;
but the strap must be constantly w^orn, and its pressure is too apt to produce a worse
affection, viz. an irritation in the windpipe, which terminates in roaring.
.Some have recommended turning out for five or six months ; but this has nevei-
succeeded except with a young horse, and then rarely. The old crih-biter will employ
the gate for the same purpose as the edge of his manger, and we have often seen him
gallopintj across a field for the mere object of having a gripe at a rail. Medicine will
be altogether thrown away in this case.
The only remedy is a muzzle, with bars across the bottom ; sufficiently wide to
enable the animal to pick up his corn and to pull his hay, but not to grasp the edge
of the manger. If this is worn for a considerable period, the horse may be tired of
attempting that which he cannot accomplish, and for a while forget the habit, but, in
a majority of cases, the desire of crib-biting will return with the power of gratifying it.
The causes of crib-biting are various, and some nf them beyond the control of the
proprietor of the horse. It is often the result of imitation ; but it is more frequently
the consequence of idleness. The high-fed and spirited horse must be in mischief if
he is not usefully employed. Sometimes, but we believe not often, it is produced by
partial starvation, whether in a bad straw-yard, or from unpalatable food. An occa-
sional cause of crib-biting is the frequent custom of grooms, even when the weather
is not severe, of dressing them in the stable. The horse either catches at the edge
of the manger, or at that of the partition on each side, if he has been turned. And thus
he forms the habit of laying hold of these substances on every occasion.
31 2v
362 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
WIND-SUCKING.
This hears a close analogy to crib-biting. It arises from the same causes ; the
same purpose is accomplished ; and the same results follow. The horse stands with
his neck bent; his head drawn inward ;'his lips alternately a little opened and then
closed, and a noise is heard as if he were sucking. If we may judge from the same
comparative want of condition and the flatulence which we have described under the
last head, either some portion of wind enters the stomach, or there is an injurious loss
of saliva. This diminishes the value of the horse almost as much as crib-biting ; it
is as contagious, and it is as inveterate. The only remedies, and they will seldom
avail, are tying the head up, except when the horse is feeding, or putting on a muzzle
with sharp spikes towards the neck, and which will prick him whenever he attempts
to rein his head in for the purpose of wind-sucking.
CUTTING.
Of this habit, mention has been made at page 275 ; and we would advise the owner
•>( a cutting horse, without trying any previous experiments of raising or lowering the
leels, to put on the cutting foot a shoe of even thickness from lieel to toe, not project-
ing in the slightest degree beyond the crust, and the crust itself being rasped a little
at the quarters. The shoe should be fastened as usual, on the outside, but with only
one nail on the inside, and that almost close to the toe. The principle on which this
shoe acts, has been explained at page 339.
NOT LYING DOWN.
It not uncommonly happens that a horse will seldom or never lie down in the
6table. He sometimes continues in apparent good health, and feeds and works well ;
but generally his legs swell, or he becomes fatigued sooner than another horse. If it
is impossible to let iiim loose in the saddle, or to put him into a spare box, we know
not what is to he. done. No means, gentle or cruel, will force him to lie down. The
secret is that he is tied up, and either has never dared to lie down through fear of the
confinement of the halter, or he has been cast in the night, and severely injured. If
he can be suffered to range the stable, or have a comfortable box, in which he may be
loose, he will usually lie down the first night. Some few horses, however, will lie
down in the stable, and not in a loose box. A fresh, well-made bed will generally
tempt the tired horse to refresh himself with sleep.
OVERREACH.
This unpleasant noise, known also b}' the term "clicking," arises from the toe of
the hind foot knocking against the shoe cf the fore foot. In the trot, one fore leg and
the opposite hind leg are first lifted from the ground and moved forward, the other
fore leg and the opposite hind leg remaining fixed ; but, to keep the centre of gravity
within the base, and as the stride, or space passed over by these legs, is often greater
than the distance between the fore and hind feet, it is necessary that the fore feet
should be alternately moved out of the way for the hind ones to descend. Then, as
occasionally happens with horses not perfectly broken, and that have not been taught
their paces, and especially if they have high hinder quarters and low fore ones, if the
fore feet are not raised in time, the hind feet will strike them. The fore foot will
generally be caught when it has just begun to be raised, and the toe of the hind foot
will meet the middle of the bottom of the fore foot. It is an unpleasant noise, and
not altogether free from danger ; for it may so happen that a horse, tlie action of
whose feet generally so much interferes with each other, may advance the hind foot a
little more rapidly, or raise the fore one a little more slowly, so that the blow may fall
on the heel of the shoe, and loosen or displace it; or the two shoes may be locked
together, and the animal may be thrown ; or the contusion may be received even
higher, and on the tendons of the leg, and considerable swelling and lameness will
follow.
If the animal is young, the action of the horse may be materially improved ; other-
wise nothing can be done, except tc keep the toe of the hind foot as short and as
round as it can safely be, and to bevel off and round the toe of the shoe, like that
PAWING— QUIDDING— ROLLING— SHYING. 365
which has been worn by a stumbler for a fortnight, and, perhaps, a little to lower the
heel of the fore foot.
A blow received on the heel of the fore foot in this manner, has not unfrequently,
and especially if neglected, been followed by quittor.*
The heel most frequently suffers in overreaching, although the pastern is sometimes
injured. It usually, or almost always, occurs in fast paces on deep ground. The
injury is inflicted by tlie edge of the inner part of the shoe. The remedy is the cut-
ting away the edge of the shoe. An account of the most successful treatment of
overreach has been given in page 312.
PAWING.
Some hot and irritable horses are restless even in the stable, and paw frequent!
and violently. Their litter is destroyed, the floor of the stable broken up, the shoes
worn out, the feet bruised, and the legs sometimes sprained. If this habit does not
exist to any great extent, ^^et the stable never looks well. Shackles are the only
remedy, with a chain sufficiently long to enable the horse to shift his posture, or move
in his stall ; but tliese must be taken off at night, otherwise the animal will seldom
lie down. Except, however, the horse possesses peculiar value, it will be better to
dispose of him at once, than to submit to the danger and inconvenience that he may
occasion.
QUIDDING.
A horse will sometimes partly chew his hay, and suffer it to drop from his mouth.
Tf this does not proceed from irregular teeth, which it will be the business of the vete-
linary surgeon to rasp down, it will be found to be connected with sore-throat, and
then the horse v.-ill exhibit some other symptom of indisposition, and particularly, the
swallowing of water will be accompanied by a peculiar gulping effort. In this case,
the disease (catarrh, with sore-throat) must be attacked, and the quidding will cease.
ROLLING.
This is a very pleasant and perfectly safe amusement for a horse at grass, but can
not be indulged in the stable without the chance of his being dangerously entangled
with the collar rein, and being cast. Yet, although the horse is cast, and bruised,
and half-strangled, he will roll again on the following night, and continue to do so as
long as he lives. The only remedy is not a very pleasant one to the horse, nor
always quite safe ; yet it must be had recourse to, if the habit of rolling is inveterate.
" The horse," says Mr. Castley, " should be tied with length enough of collar to lie
down, but not to allow of his head resting on the ground ; because, in order to roll
over, a horse is obliged to place his head quite down upon the ground."
SHYING.
We have briefly treated of the cause of this vice at page 91, and observed that
while it is often the result of cowardice, or playfulness, or want of work, it is at
* Mr. Simpson relates an inleresiing though unfortunate case of this interference, after the
operation of neurotomy: — "An old but splendid horse had been sadly lame in the otY fore-
foot during some months. Many plans of treatment were adopted, without the desired effect ;
and at length it was determined to have recourse to neurotomy. A portion of the metacarpal
nerve was excised on both sides, just above the fetlock. Three weeks afterwards, the horse
being quite free from lameness, he was put into harness, and driven about twelve miles. He
appeared to go very well, but, on arriving at his journey's end, it was found that the off hind-
foot was covered with blood, and the heels of the neurotomised foot were dreadfully bruised
and cut. from repeated blows from the corresponding foot behind. In order to remedy this,
the toe of ihe hind-foot was ordered to be shortened as much as possible.
" Four davs afterwards, he was driven again with the same contusions, but did not appear
to feel the slightest pain, ehher when the blows were inflicted, or when he was examined again
some days afterwards.
" There was not the same activity in this foot that there had been before the operation, and
it could not get out of the way of the hind-foot, a circumstance that would hardly have been
expected, for it is the general belief that, although sensation is destroyed in the foot, the loco-
motive powers of the teg are unimpaired. This deserves future inquiry." — The Veterinarian.
vol. viii. p. 242.
364 VICES AND DEFECTS OF THE HORSE.
other times the consequence of a defect of sight. It has been remarked, and we
believe very truly, that shying is oftener a vice of half or quarter-bred horses, tlian
of those who have in them more of the genuine racing blood.
In the treatment of shying, it is of great importance to distinguish between that
which is the consequence of defective sight, and what results from fear, or newness
of objects, or mere affectation or skittishness. For the first, the nature of which we
have explained at page 91, every allowance must be made, and care must be taken
that the fear of correction is not associated with the imagined existence of some ter-
rifying object. The severe use of the whip and the spur cannot do good here, and are
likely to aggravate the vice tenfold. A word half encouraging and half scolding,
with a gentle pressure of the heel, or a slight touch of the spur, will tell the horse
that there was nothing to fear, and will give him confidence in his rider on a future
occasion. It should be remembered, however, that although a horse that shies from
defective sight may be taught considerable reliance on his rider, he can never have
the cause of the habit removed. We may artificially strengthen the human sight,
but that of the horse must be left to itself.
The shying from skittishness or affectation is quite a different affair, and must be
conquered : but how^ 1 Severity is altogether out of place. If he is forced into con-
tact with the object by dint of correction, the dread of punishment will afterwards be
associated with that object, and, on the next occasion, his starlings will be more fre-
quent and more dangerous. The way to cure him is to go on, turning as little as
possible out of the road, giving a harsh word or two, and a gentle touch with the
spur, and then taking no more notice of the matter. After a few times, whatever*
may have been the object which he chose to select as the pretended cause of affright,
he will pass it almost without notice.
In page 253, under the head " breaking in," we described how the colt may be
cured of the habit of shying from fear or newness of objects ; and, if he then is ac-
customed as much as possible to the objects among which his services will be re-
quired, he will not possess this annoying vice w^hen he grows. to maturer age.
Mr. John Lawrence, in his last work on the Horse, says, "These animals gener-
ally fix on some particular shying butt: for example, I recollect having, at different
periods, three hacks, all very powerful ; the one made choice of a wind-mill for the
object or butt, the other a tilted wagon, and the last a pig led in a string. It so hap-
pened, however, that I rode the two former v>hen amiss from a violent cold, and they
then paid no more attention to either wind-mills or tilted wagons than to any other
objects, convincing me that their shying when in health and spirits was pure affecta-
tion ; an affectation, however, which may be speedily united with obstinacy and vice.
Let it be treated with marked displeasure, mingled with gentle, but decided firmness,
and the habit will be of short endurance."*
It is now generally admitted by all riding-masters and colt-breakers, that a great
deal more is to be effected by lenient than by harsh treatment. Rewards are found
to operate more beneficially than punishments ; and therefore the most scientific and
practised riding-masters adopt methods based upon the former. The writer of tlie
present work remembers a very remarkable instance of the efficacy of this plan, or
rather of its vast and decided superiority over violence of the worst description. A
* " We will suppose a case — a very common one, an every-day one. A man is riding a
young horse upon the high-road in the country, and meets a stage-coach. What with the
noise, the bustle, the imposing appearance altogether, and the slashing of tli£ coachman's
whip, the animal at its approach erects its head and crest, pricks his ears, looks affrighted,
and no sooner comes alongside of the machine than he suddenly starts out of the road. His
rider, annoyed by this, instantly commences a round of castigation whh whip, spur, and curb,
in which he persists until the horse, as well as liimself, has lost his temper; and then one
whips, spurs, and pulls, and the other jumps, plunges, frets, and throws up his head, untU
both, pretty well exhausted by the conflict, grow tranquil again and proceed on their journey,
thougli not for some time afterwards in their former mutual confidence and satisfaction.
Should they in their road, or even on a distant day, meet with another coach, what is the
consequence ? The horse is not only more alarmed than before, but now, the momciU he has
started, being conscious of his fault and e.xpeciiiig chastisement, he jumps about in fearful
agitation, making plunges to strike into a gallop, and attempting to run away. So that by
this correction, instead of rendering his horse tranquil during the passage of a coach, the rider
adds to the evil of shying that of subsequently plunging, and perhaps runnmg away."— TAe
Feterinariafi, vol. i., p. 96.
SLIPPING THE COLLAR. 365
vicious, thorough-bred horse had baffled the efforts of every one into whose hands he
had been put in order to be rendered tractable : at length a foreigner of considerable
repute among the equestrians of the " school," took him to make trial of; and in the
course of a twelvemonth had rendered him so quiet tliat not only could any person
ride hiui wilh the utmost safety, but, at the same time he was so docile and tractable
that he could bo induced, by certain signs, to lie down and permit his rider to mount
before he arose again.
The same forbearance and humanity have been practised with the same beneficial
results upon shy horses. With all such persons as are best able to give counsel in
cases of shyness, the language is now-a-days, " let the horse alone" — " take no no-
tice of his shyness" — " work him well and accustom him to the objects he dislikes,
and in time he will of himself leave oft" his trick of shying."
This is good advice; but, let it not be misinterpreted. Let it not be understood to
mean that the animal is to receive any encouragement to shy ; for by no other expres-
sion can be characterised that erroneous and foolish practice of patting the horse, or
" making much of him," either just before or during the time he evinces shyness.
The former is bad, because it draws the attention of the animal to the object he
dreads; the latter is worse, because it fills him with the impression either that the
object itself is really terrific, or that he has acted right in shying at it, and ought to
do so again.
Whether we are approaching the frightful object, or the horse is actually shying,
"we should let him alone" — "we should take no notice whatever of him" — neither
letting him perceive that we are aware that we are advancing towards anything he
dislikes ; nor do more with him, while in the act of shying, than is necessary for
due restraint with a steady hand upon the rein. We may depend upon it, that
battling on our part will only serve to augment aifright and arouse resistance on
his, and that the most judicious course we can pursue is to persevere in mild forbear-
ant usage.
Shyuig on coming out of the stable is a habit that can rarely or never be cured. It
proceeds from the remembrance of some ill-usage or hurt which the animal has re-
ceived in the act of proceeding from the stable, such as striking his head against a
low doorway, or entangling the harness. Coercion will but associate greater fear
and more determined resistance with the old recollection. ]Mr. Castley giv^es an
interesting anecdote, which tends to prove that while severity will be worse than
useless, even kind treatment will not always break a confirmed habit. " I remember
a very fine grey mare that had got into this habit, and never could be persuaded to
go through a doorway without taking an immense jump. To avoid this, the servants
used to back her in and out the stable ; but the mare happening to meet with a se-
vere injury of the spine, was no longer able to back; and then I have seen the poor
creature, when brought to the door, endeavouring to balance herself, with a stag'o'cr-
ing motion, upon her half-paralysed hind extremities, as if making preparation and
summoning up resolution for some great effort; and then, when urged, she would
pluntje lieadlong forward with snch violence of exertion, as often to lose her feet, and
tumble down, altogether most pitiable to be seen. This I merely mention," he
continues, "as one proof how inveterate the habits of horses are. They are evils,
let it always be remembered, more easy to prevent than to cure."
When the cure, however, is early attempted, it may be so far overcome that it will
be unattended with danger or difiiculty. The horse should be bridled when led out
or in. He should be held short and tight by the head that he may feel he has not
liberty to make a leap, and this of itself is often sufficient to restrain him. Punish-
ment, or a threat of punishment, will be highly improper. It is only timid or high?
spirited horses that acquire this habit, and rough usage invariably increases their
agitation and terror. Some may be led out quite at leisure when blindfolded ; others
when they have the harness bridle on ; some will best take their own way, and a few
may be ridden through the doorway that cannot be led, By quietness and kindness,
however, the ht/rse will be most easily and quickly subdued.
SLIPPING THE C(iLLAR.
This is a trick at which many horses are so clever that scarcely a night passes
tvithout their getting loose. It is a very serious habit, for it enables the horse some-
times to gorge himself with food, to the imminent danger of sta"-gers; or it exposes
31*
366 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
mm, as he wanders about, to be kicked and injured by the other horses, while his
restlessness will often keep the whole team awake. If the web of the halter, being
first accurately fitted to his neck, is suffered to slip only one way, or a strap is attached
to the halter and buckled round the neck, but not sufficiently tight to be of serious
inconvenience, the power of slipping the collar will be taken away.
TRIPPING.
He must be a skilful practitioner or a mere pretender who promises to remedy this
habit. If it arises from a heavy forehand, and the ibre legs being too much under the
horse, no one can alter the natural frame of the animal : if it proceeds from tenderness
of the foot, grogginess, or old lameness, these ailments are seldom cured. Also, if it
is to be traced to habitual carelessness and idleness, no whipping will rouse the drone.
A known slumbler should never be ridden, or driven by any one who values his safely
or his life. A tight hand or a strong-bearing rein are precautions that should not be
neglected, although they are generally of little avail; for the inveterate stumbler will
rarely be able to save himself, and this tight rein may sooner and farther precipitate
the rider. If, after a trip, the horse suddenly starts forward, and endeavours to break
into a sharp trot or canter, the rider or driver may be assured that others before him
have fruitlessly endeavoured to remedy the nuisance.
If the stumbler has the foot kept as short and the toe pared as close as safety will
permit, and the shoe is rounded at the toe, or has that shape given to it which it
naturally acquires in a fortnight from the peculiar action of such a horse, the animal
may not stumble quite so much ; or if the disease which produced the habit can be
alleviated, some trifling good maybe done, but in almost every case a stumbler should
be got rid of, or put to slow and heavy work. If the latter alternative is adopted, he
may trip as much as he pleases, for the weight of the load and the motion of the other
horses will keep him upon his legs.
WEAVING.
This consists in a motion of the head, neck, and body, from side to side, like the
shuttle of a weaver passing through the web, and hence the name which is given to
this peculiar and incessant and unpleasant action. It indicates an impatient, irritable
temper, and a dislike to the confinement of the stable. A horse that is thus incessantly
on the fret will seldom carry flesh, or be safe to ride or drive. There is no cure for
it, but the close tying-up of the animal, or at least allowing him but one loose rein,
except at feeding-time.
CHAPTER XX.
THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
This is a most important part of our subject, even as it regards the farmer, although
there are comparatively few glaring errors in the treatment of the agricultural horse
but it comes more especially home to the gentleman, who is too often and too irnpli
citly under the guidance of an idle, and ignorant, and designing groom.
We will arrange the most important points of general management under the fol
lowing heads :
AIR.
The breathing of pure air is necessary to the existence and the health of man and
beast. It is comparatively lately that this has been admitted even in the manage
ment of our best stables. They have been close, and hot, and foul, instead of airy,
and cool, and wholesome. The effect of several horses being shut up in the same
stable is com])letely to empoison the air; and yet, even in the present day, there are
too many who carefully close every aperture by which a breath of fresh air can by
possibility gain admission. In effecting this, even the key-hole and the threshold are
not forgotten. What, of necessity, must be the consequence of this 1 Why ! if one
VENTILATION. 367
tnouglit is bestowed on the new and dangerous character that the air is assuming, it
will be too evident that sore throat, and swelled legs, and bad eyes, and inflamed
lungs, and mange, and grease, and glanders, will scarcely ever be long out of that
stable.
Let this he considered in another point of view. The horse stands twenty or two-
and-twenty hours in this unnatural vapour bath, and then he is suddenly stripped of
all his clothing, he is led into the open air, and there he is kept a couple of hours or
more in a temperature fifteen or twenty degrees below that of the stable. Putting the
inhumanity of this out of the question, must not the animal thus unnaturally and
absurdly treated be subjected to rheumatism, catarrh, and various other complaints?
Does he not often stand, hour after hour, in the road or the street, while his owner is
warming himself within, and this perhaps after every pore has been opened by a
rushing gallop, and his susceptibility to the painful and the injurious influence of
cold has been excited to the utmost]
It is not so generally known, as it ought to be, that the return to a hot stable is
quite as dangerous as tiie change from a heated atmosphere to a cold and biting air.
Many a horse that has travelled without harm over a bleak country, has been suddenly
seized with inflammation and fever when he has, immediately at the end of his
jourue}^ been surrounded with heated and foul air. It is the sudden change of tem-
perature, whether from heat to cold, or from cold to heat, that does the mischief, and
yearly destroys thousands of horses.
Mr. Clarke of Edinburgh was the first who advocated the use of well-ventilated
stables. After him Professor Coleman established them in the quarters of the cavalry
troops, and there cannot be a doubt that he saved the government many thousand
pounds every year. His system of ventilation, however, like many other salutary
innovations, was at first strongly resisted. Much evil was predicted ; but after a
time, diseases that used to dismount whole troops, almost entirely disappeared from
the army.
The stable should be as large, compared with the number of horses that it is destined
to contain, as circumstances will allow. A stable for six horses should not be less
than forty feet in length, and thirteen or fourteen feet wide. If there is no loft above,
the inside of the roof should always be plastered, in order to prevent direct currents
of air and occasional droppings from broken tiles. The heated and foul air should
escape, and cool and pure air be admitted, by elevation of the central tiles ; or by large
tubes carried through the roof, with caps a little above them, to prevent the beating in
of the rain ; or by gratings placed high up in the walls. These latter apertures
should be as far above the horses as they can conveniently be placed, by which means
all injurious draught will be prevented.
If there is a loft above, the stable, the ceiling should be plastered, in order to prevent
the foul air from penetrating to the hay above, and injuring both its taste and its
wholesomeness ; and no openings should be allowed above the racks, through which
the hay may be thrown into them; for they will permit the foul air to ascend to the
provender, and also in the act of filling the rack, and while the horse is eagerly gazing
upward for his food, a grass seed may fall into the eye, and produce considerable
inflammation. At other times, when the careless groom has left open the trap-door,
a stream of cold air beats down on the head of the horse.
The stable with a loft over it should never be less than twelve feet high, and proper
ventilation should be secured either by tubes carried through the loft to the roof, or by
gratings close to the ceiling. These gratings or openings should be enlarged or con-
tracted by means of a covering or shutter, so that during spring, summer, and autumn,
the stable may possess nearly the same temperature with the open air, and in winter
a temperature of not more than ten degrees above that of the external atmosphere.
A hot stable has, in the mind of the groom, been long connected with a glossy
coat. The latter, it is thought, cannot be obtained without the former.
To this we should reply, that in winter a thin, glossy coat is not desirable. Nature
gives to every animal a warmer clothing when the cold weather approaches. The
horse — the agricultural horse especially — acquires a thicker and a lengthened coat, in
order to defend him from the surrounding cold. Man puts on an additional and a
warmer covering, and his comfort is increased and his health preserved by it. He
wno knows anything of the farmer's horse, or cares about his enjoyment, will not
tjbject to a coat a little longer and a little roughened when the wintry wind blows
8 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
leak. The coat, however, needs not to be so long as to be unsightly; and warm
iilothing, even in a cool stable, will, with plenty of honest grooming, keep the liair
sufficiently smooth and glossy to satisfy the most fastidious. The overheated air of
a close stable saves much of this grooming, and therefore the idle attendant unscru-
pulously sacrifices the health and safety of the horse. When we have presently to
treat oi' the hair and skin of the horse, this will be placed in a somewhat different
Doint of view.
If the stable is close, the air will not only be hot, but foul. The breathing of every
animal contaminates it ; and when, in the course of the night, with evi ry aperture
stopped, it passes again and again through the lungs, the blood cannot undergo its
proper and healthy change; digestion will not be so perfectly performed, and all the
functions of life are injured. Let the owner of a valuable horse think of his passing
twenty or twenty-two out of the twenty-four hours in this debilitating atmnspliere!
Nature does wonders in enabling every animal to accommodate itself to the situation
in which it is placed, and the horse that lives in the stable-oven suffers less from it
than would scarcely be conceived possible; but he does not, and cannot, possess
the power and the hardihood which he would acquire under other circumstances.
The air of the improperly close and heated stable is still farther contaminated by
the urine and dung, which rapidly ferment there, and give out stimulating and un-
wholesome vapours. "When a person first enters an ill-managed stable, and especially
early in the morning, he is annoyed, not only by the heat of the confined air, but by
a pungent smell, resembling hartshorn; and can he be surprised at the inflammation
of the eyes, and the chronic cough, and the disease of the lungs, by which the animal,
who has been all night shut up in this vitiated atmosphere, is often attacked ; or if
glanders and farcy should occasionally break out in such stables? It has been ascer-
tained by chemical experiment that the urine of the horse contains in it an exceedingly
large quantity of hartshorn; and not only so, but that, influenced by the heat of a
crowded stable, and possibly by other decompositions that are going forward at the
same time, this ammoniacal vapour begins to be rapidly given out almost immediately
after the urine is voided.
When disease begins to appear among the inhabitants of these ill-ventilated places,
is it wonderful that it should rapidly spread among them, and that the plague-spot
should be, as it were, placed on the door of such a stable 1 When distemper- appears
in spring or in autumn, it is in very many cases to be traced to such a pest-house. It
is peculiarly fatal there. The horses belonging to a small establishment, and ration-
ally treated, have it comparatively seldom, or have it lightly ; but among tlie inmates
of a crowded stable it is sure to display itself, and there it is most fatal. The experi-
ence of every veterinary surgeon, and of every large proprietor of horses, will corro-
borate this statement. Agriculturists should bring to their stables the common sense
which directs them in the usual concerns of life, and should begin, when their plea-
sures and their property are so much at stake, to assume that authority and to enforce
that obedience, to the lack of which is to be attributed the greater part of bad stable-
management and horse-disease. Of nothing are we more certain than that the majority
of the maladies of the horse, and those of the worst and most fatal character, are
directl}!' or indirectly to be attributed to a deficient supply of air, cruel exaction of
work, and insufficient or bad fare. Each of these evils is to be dreaded — each is, in
a manner, watching for its prey; and when they are combined, more than half of the
inmates of the stable are often swept away.
Every stable should possess within itself a certain degree of ventilation. The cost
of this would be trifling, and its saving in the preservation of valuable animals may
be immense. The apertures need not be large, and the whole may be so contrived
that no direct current of air shall fall on the horse.
A gentleman's stable should never be without a thermometer. The temperature
should seldom exceed 70° in the summer, or sink below 40° or 50° in the winter.
LITTER.
Having spoken of the vapour of hartshorn, which is so rapidly and so plentifully
given out from the urine of a horse in a heated stable, we next take into consideration
the subject of litter. The first caution is frequently to remove it. The early
extrication of gas shows the rapid putrefaction of the urine; and the consequence of
which will be the rapid putrefaction of the litter that has been moistened by it.
LIGHT. 369
Everythincr hastening to decomposition should be carefully removed where life and
health are to be preserved. The litter that has been much wetted or at all soflnned
by the urine, and is beginning to decay, should be swept away every morning; the
greater part of the remainder may then be piled under the manger; a little being left
to prevent the painful and injurious pressure of the feet on the hard pavement during
the day. The soiled and macerated portion of that which was left should ne removed
at night. In the better kind of stables, however, the stalls should be completely
emptied every morning.
No heap of fermenting dung should be suffered to remain during the day in the
corner or in any part of the stable. With regard to this, the directions of the master
should be peremptory.
The stable should be so contrived that the urine shall quickly run off, and the
offensive and injurious vapour from the decomposing fluid and the litter will thus be
materially lessened : if, however, the urine is carried away by means of a gutter run-
ning along the stable, the floor of the stalls must slant towards that gutter, and the
declivity must not be so great as to strain the back sinews, and become an occasional,
although unsuspected, cause of lameness. Mr. R. Lawrence well observes, that,
" if the reader will stand for a few minutes with his toes higher than his heels, the
pain he will feel in the calves of his legs will soon convince him of the truth of this
remark. Hence, when a horse is not eating, he always endeavours to find his level,
either by standing across the stall or else as far back as his halter will permit, so that
his liind-legs may meet the ascent of the other side of the channel."
This inclination of the stall is also a frequent cause of contraction of the heels of
the foot, by throwing too great a proportion of the weight upon the toe and removing
that pressure on the heels which tends most to keep them open. Care, therefore,
must be taken that the slanting of the floor of the stalls shall be no more than is suf-
ficient to drain off the urine with tolerable rapidity. Stalls of this kind certainly do
best for mares ; but for horses we much prefer those with a grating in the centre, and
a slight inclination of the floor on every side towards the middle. A short branch
may communicate with a larger drain, by means of which the urine may be carried
off to a reservoir outside the stable. Traps are now contrived, and may be procured
at little expense, by means of which neither any offensive smell nor current of air
can pass through the graling.
The farmer should not lose any of the urine. It is from the dung of the horse that
he derives a principal and most valuable part of his manure. It is that which earliest
takes on the process of putrefaction, and forms one of the strongest and most durable
dressings. That which is most of all concerned with the rapidity and the perfection
of the decomposition is the urine.
Humanity and interest, as well as the appearance of the stable, should induce the
proprietor of the horse to place a moderate quantity of litter under him during the
day. The farmer who wants to convert every otherwise useless substance into ma-
nure, will have additional reason for adopting this practice : especially as he does not
confine himself to that to which in towns and in gentlemen's stables custom seems
to have limited the bed of the horse. Pea and bean-haum, and potato-tops, and
heath, occupy in the stable of the farmer, during a part of the year, the place of
wheaten and oaten straw. It should, however, be remembered, that these substances
are disposed more easily to ferment and putrefy than straw, and therefore should be
more carefully examined and oftener removed. It is the faulty custom of some farm-
ers to let the bed accumulate until it reaches almost to the horse's belly, and the bot-
om of it is a mass of dung. If there were not often many a hole and cranny through
which the wind can enter and disperse the foul air, the health of the animal would
materially suffer.
LIGHT.
This neglected branch of stable-management is of far more consequence than is
generally imagined ; and it is particularly neglected by those for whom these trea-
tises are principally designed. The farmer's stable is frequently destitute of any
glazed window, and has only a shutter, which is raised in warm weather, and closed
when the weather becomes cold. When the horse is in the stable only during a few
hours in the day, this is not of so much consequence, nor of so much, probably, with
regard to horses of slow work , but to carriage-horses and hackneys, so far, at least,
2w
370 TPIE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
as the eyes are concerned, a dark stable is little less injurious than a foul and heated
one. In order to illustrate this, reference may be made to the unpleasant feeling, and
the utter impossibility of seeing distinctly, when a man suddenly emerges from a
dark place into the full blaze of day. The sensation of mingled pain and giddiness
i<5 not soon forgotten; and some minutes pass before the eye can accommodate itself
to the increased light. If this were to happen every day, or several times in the day,
the sight would be irreparably injured, or possibly blindness would ensue. Can we
wonder, then, that tlie horse, taken from a dark stable into a glare of light, feeling,
probably, as we should do under similar circumstances, and unable for a considerable
time to see anything around him distinctly, should become a starter, or that the fre-
quently repeated violent effect of sudden light should induce inflammation of the eye
30 intense as to terminate in blindness 1 There is, indeed, no doubt that horses kept
in dark stables are frequently notorious starters, and that abominable habit has been
properly traced to this cause.
Planners know, and should profit by the knowledge, that the darkness of the stable
is not unfrequently a cover for great uncleanliness. A glazed window, with leaden
divisions between the small panes, would not cost much, and would admit a degree
of light somewhat more approaching to that of day, and at the same time would ren-
der the concealment of gross inattention and want of cleanliness impossible.
If plenty of light is admitted, the w-alla of the stable, and especially that portion
of them which is before the horse's head, must not be of too glaring a colour. The
constant reflection from a white wall, and especially if the sun shines into the stable,
•will be as injurious to the eye as the sudden changes from darkness to light. The
perpetual slight excess of stimulus will do as much mischief as the occasional but
more violent one when the animal is taken from a kind of twilight to the blaze of
day. The colour of the stable, therefore, should depend on the quantity of light.
Where much can be admitted, the walls should be of a grey hue. Where dark-
ness would otherwise prevail, frequent whitewashing may in some degree dissipate
the gloom.
For another reason, it will be evident that the stable should not possess too glaring
a light: it is the resting-place of the horse. The work of the fanner's horse, indeed,
is confined principally to the day. The hour of exertion having passed, the animal
returns to his stable to feed and to repose, and the latter is as necessary as the former,
in order to prepare him for renewed work. Something approaching to the dimness
of twilight is requisite to induce the animal to compose himself to sleep. This half-
light more particularly suits horses of heavy work, and who draw almost as much by
the weight of carcass which they can throw into the collar, as by the degree of mus-
cular energy of which they are capable. In the quietness of a dimly-lighted stable,
they obtain repose, and accumulate flesh and fat. Dealers are perfectly aware of this.
They have their darkened stables, in which the young horse, with little or no exercise,
and fed upon mashes and ground corn, is made up for sale. The round and plump
appearance, however, which may delude the unwary, soon vanishes with altered
treatment, and the animal is found to be unfit for hard work, and predisposed to many
an inflammatory disease. The circumstances, then, under which a stable somewhat
darkened may be allowed, will be easily determined by the owner of the horse ; but,
as a general rule, dark stables are unfriendly to cleanliness, and the frequent cause of
the vice of starting, and of the most serious diseases of the eyes.
GROOMING.
Of this, much need not be said to the agriculturist, since custom, and apparently
without ill effect, has allotted so little of the comb and brush to the fiirmer's horse.
The animal that is worked all day, and turned out at night, requires little more to be
done to him than to have the dirtbrushed off his limbs. Regular grooming, by ren-
dering his skin more sensible to the alteration of temperature, and the inclemency of
the weather, would be prejudicial. The horse that is altogether turned out, needs no
grooming. The dandriff, or scurf, which accumulates at the roots of the hair, is a
provision of nature to defend him from the wind and the cold.
It is to the stabled horse, highly fed, and little or irregularly worked, that grooming
is of so much consequence. Good rubbing with the brush, or the currycomb, opens
the pores of the skin, circulates the blood to the extremities of the body, produces
free and healthy perspiration, and stands in the room of exercise. No horse will
EXERCISE. 371
carry a fine coat without either unnatural heat or dressing. They both effect the same
purpose ; they both increase the insensible perspiration : but the first does it at the
expense of health and strength, while the second, at the same time that it produces a
glow on the skin, and a determination of blood to it, rouses all the energies of the
frame. It would be well for the proprietor of the horse if he were to insist — and to
see that his orders are really obeyed — that the fine coat in which he and his groom so
much delight, is produced by honest rubbing, and not by a heated stable and thick
clothing, and most of all, not by stimulating or injurious spices. The horse should
be regularly dressed every day, in addition to the grooming that is necessary after
work.
When the weather will permit the horse to be taken out, he should never be groomed
in the stable, unless he is an animal of peculiar value, or placed for a time under pecu-
liar circumstances. Without dwelling on the want of cleanliness, when the scurf and
dust that are brushed from the horse lodge in his manger, and mingle with his food,
experience teaches, that if the cold is not too great, the animal is' braced and invigo-
rated to a degree that cannot be attained in the stable, from being dressed in the
open air. There is no necessity, however, for half the punishment which many a
groom inflicts upon the horse in the act of dressing; and particularly on one whose
skin is thin and sensible. The curry-comb should at all times be lightly applied.
W^ith many horses, its use may be almost dispensed with; and even the brush needs
not to be so hard, nor the points of the bristles so irregular, as they often are. A
soft brash, with a little more weight of the hand, will be equally effectual, and a great
deal more pleasant to the horse. A hair-cloth, while it will seldom irritate and tease,
will be almost sufficient with horses that have a thin skin, and that have not been
neglected. After all, it is no slight task to dress a horse as it ought to be done. It
occupies no little time, and demands considerable patience, as well as dexterity. It
will be readily ascertained whether a horse has been well dressed by rubbing him
with one of the fingers. A greasy stain will delect the idleness of the groom.
When, however, the horse is changing his coat, both the curry-comb and the brush
should be used as lightly as possible.
Whoever would be convinced of the benefit of friction to the horse's skin, and to
the horse generally, needs only to observe the effects produced by well hand-rubbing
the legs of a tired horse. W'hile every enlargement subsides, and the painful stiffness
disappears, and the legs attain their natural warmth, and become fine, the animal is
evidently and rapidly reviving ; he attacks his food with appetite, and then quietly
lies down to rest.
EXERCISE.
Our observations on this important branch of stable-management must have only a
slight reference to the agricultural horse. His work is usually regular, and not
exhausting. He is neither predisposed to disease by idleness, nor worn out by exces-
sive exertion. He, like his master, has enough to do to keep him in health, and not
enough to distress or injure him: on the contrary, the regularity of his work prolongs
life to an extent rarely witnessed in the stable of the gentleman. Our remarks on
exercise, then, must have a general bearing, or have principal reference to those per-
sons who are in the middle stations of life, and who contrive to keep a horse for busi-
ness or pleasure, but cannot afford to maintain a servant for the express purpose of
looking after it. The first rule we would lay down is, that every horse should have
daily exercise. The animal that, with the usual stable feeding, stands idle for three
or four days, as is the case in many establishments, must suffer. He is predisposed
to fever, or to grease, or, most of all, to diseases of the foot ; and if, after three or four
days of inactivity, he is ridden far and fast, he is almost sure to have inflammation
of the luncfs or of the feet.
A gentleman or tradesman's horse suffers a great deal more from idleness than he
does from work. A stable-fed horse should have t\vo hours' exercise every day. if ho
is to be kept free from disease. Nothing of extraordinary^ or even of ordinarj' labour
can be effected on the road or in the field, without sufiicient and regular exercise. It
is this al'ine which can give energy to the system, or develope the powers of any
animal.
How, then, is this exercise to be given 1 As much as possible by, or under the
superintendence of, the owner. The exercise given by the groom is rarely to bo
372 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
depended upon. It is inefficient or it is extreme. It is in many cases both irregular
and injurious. It is dependent upon the caprice of him who is performing a task,
and who will render that task subservient to his own pleasure or purpose.
In training the hunter and the race-horse, regular exercise is the most important of
all considerations, however it may be forgotten in the usual management of the stable.
The exercised horse will discharge his task, and sometimes a severe one, with ease
and pleasure ; while the idle and neglected one will be fatigued ere half his labour is
accomplished, and, if he is pushed a little too far, dangerous inflammation will ensue.
How often, nevertheless, does it happen, that the horse which has stood inactive in
the stable three or four days, is ridden or driven thirty or forty rnilcs in the course of
a single day I This rest is often purposely given to prepare for extra-exertion ; — to
lay in a stock of strength for the performance of the task required of him : and then
the owner is surprised and dissatisfied if the animal is fairly knocked up, or possibly
becomes seriously ill. Nothing is so common and so preposterous, as for a person to
buy a horse from a^dealer's stable, where he has been idly fattening for sale for many
a day, and immediately to give him a long run after the hounds, and then to complain
bitterly, and think that he has been imposed upon, if the animal is exhausted before
the end of the chase, or is compelled to be led home suffering from violent inflamma-
tion. Regular and gradually increasing exercise would have made the same horse
appear a treasure to his owner.
Exercise should be somewhat proportioned to the age of the horse. A young horse
requires more than an old one. Nature has given to young animals of every kind a
disposition to activity ; but the exercise must not be violent. A great deal depends
upon the manner in which it is given. To preserve the temper, and to promote
health, it should be moderate, at least at the beginning and the termination. Tlie
rapid trot, or even the gallop, may be resorted to in the middle of the exercise, but
the horse should be brought in cool. If the owner would seldom intrust his horse to
boys, and would insist on the exercise being taken within sight, or in the neighbour-
hood of his residence, many an accident and irreparable injury would be avoided. It
should be the owner's pleasure, and it is his interest, personally to attend to all these
thino-s. He manages every other part of his concerns, and he may depend on it that
he suffers when he neglects, or is in a manner excluded from, his stables.
FOOD.
The system of manger-feeding is becoming general among farmers. There are few
horses that do not habitually waste a portion of their hay; and by some the greater
part is pulled down and trampled under foot, in order first to cull the sweetest and
best locks, and which could not be done while the hay was enclosed in the rack. A
good feeder will afterwards "pick up much of that which was thrown down ; but some
of it must be soiled and rendered disgusting, and, in many cases, one-third of this
division of their food is wasted. Some of the oats and beans are imperfectly chewed
by all horses, and scarcely at all by hungry and greedy ones. The appearance of the
dung will sufficiently evince this.
The observation of this induced the adoption of manger-feeding, or of mixing a
portion of chaff with the corn and beans. By this means the animal is compelled to
chew his food ; he cannot, to any great degree, waste the straw or hay ; the chaff is
too hard and too sharp to be swallowed without considerable mastication, and, while
he is forced to grind tliat down, the oats and beans are ground with it, and yield more
nourishment; the stomach is more' slowly filled, and therefore acts better on its con-
tents, and is not so likely to be overloaded ; and the increased quantity of saliva
thrown out in the lengthened maceration of the food, softens it, and makes it more fi»
for digestion.
Professor Stewart very properly remarks that " many horses swallow their corn in
great haste, and when much is eaten, that habit is exceedingly dangerous. The sto
mach is filled — it is overloaded before it has time to make preparation for acting ou
its contents — the food ferments, and painful or dangerous colic ensues. By adding
chaff to his corn, tl.j horse must take more time to eat it, and time is given for the
commencement of digestion, before fermentation can occur. In this way chaff is very
useful, especially after long fasts."*
* Stewart's Stable CEconomy, p. 225.
FOOD. 373
If, when considerable provender was wasted, the horse maintained his condition,
and was able to do jiis work, it was evident that much might be saved to the farmer,
when lie adopted a system by which the horse ate all that was set before him ; and
by degrees it was found out that, even food somewhat less nutritious, but a great deal
cheaper, and which the horse either would not eat, or would not properly grind down
in its natural state, might be added, while the animal would be in quite as good plight,
and always ready for work.
Chaft'may be composed of equal quantities of clover or meadow hay, and wheaten,
oaten, or barley straw, cut into pieces of a quarter or half an inch in length, and
mingled well together ; the allowance of oats or beans is afterwards added, and mixed
with the chaff. Many farmers very properly bruise tlie oats or beans. The whole
oat is apt to slip out of the chaff and be lost; but when it is bruised, and especially
if the chaff is a little wetted, it will not readily separate ; or, should a portion of it
escape the grinders, it will be partly prepared for digestion by the act of bruising.
The prejudice against bruising the oats is, so far as the farmer's horse, and the wagon
horse, and every horse of slow draught, are concerned, altogether unfounded. The
quantity of straw in the chaff will always counteract any supposed purgative quality
in the bruised oats. Horses of quicker draught, except they are naturally disposed to
scour, will thrive better with bruised than with whole oats; for a greater quantity of
nutriment will be extracted from the food, and it will always be easy to apportion the
quantity of straw or beans to the effect of the mixture on the bowels of the horse.
The principal alteration that should be made in the horse of harder and more rapid
work, such as the post-horse, and the stage-coach horse, is to increase the quantity
of hay, and diminish that of straw. Two trusses of hay may be cut with one of
straw.
Some gentlemen, in defiance of the prejudice and opposition of the coachman or the
groom, have introduced this mode of feeding into the stables of their carriage-horses
and hackneys, and with manifest advantage. There has been no loss of condition or
power, and considerable saving of provender. This system is not, however, calculated
for the hunter or the race-horse. Their food must lie in smaller bulk, in order that
the action of the lungs may not be impeded by the distension of the stomach ; yet
many hunters have gone well over the field who have been manger-fed, the proportion
of corn, however, being materially increased.
For the agricultural and cart horse, eight pounds of oats and two of beans should
be added to every twenty pounds of chaff. Thirty-four or thirty-six pounds of the
mixture will be sufficient for any moderate-sized horse, with fair, or even hard work.
The dray and wagon horse may require forty pounds. Hay in the rack at night is, in
this case, supposed to be omitted altogether. The rack, however, may remain, as
occasionally useful for the sick horse, or to contain tares or other green meat.
Horses are very fond of this provender. The majority of them, after having been
accustomed to it, will leave the best oats given to them alone, for the sake of the
mingled chaff and corn. We would, however, caution the farmer not to set apart too
much damaged hay for the manufacture of the chaff. The horse may be thus induced
to eat that which he would otherwise refuse ; but if the nourishing property of the
hay has been impaired, or it has acquired an injurious principle, the animal will either
lose condition, or become diseased. Much more injury is done by eating damacfed
hay or musty oats than is generally imagined. There will be sufficient saving in the
diminished cost of the provender by the introduction of the straw, and the improved
condition of the horse, without poisoning him with the refuse of the farm. For old
horses, and for those with defective teeth, chaff is peculiarly useful, and for them the
grain should be broken down as well as the fodder.
While the mixture of chaff with the corn prevents it from being too rapidly de-
voured and a portion of it swallowed whole, and therefore the stomach is not too
loaded with that on which, as containing the most nutriment, its chief digestive powe-
should be exerted, yet, on the whole, a great deal of time is gained by this- mode ot
feeding, and more is left for rest. When a horse comes in wearied at the close of
the day, it occupies, after be has eaten his corn, two or three hours to clear his rack.
On the system of manger-feeding, the chaff being already cut into small pieces, and
the beans and oats bruised, he is able fully to satisfy his appetite in an hour and a
half. Two additional hours are therefore devoted to rest. This is a circumstance
des(;rving of much consideration even in the farmer's stable, and of immense conse-
32
374 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
quence to the postmaster, the stage-coach proprietor, and the owner of jvery hard
worked horse.
Mano-er food will be the usual support of the farmer's horse during the winter, and
while at constant or occasional hard work ; but from the middle of April to the ena
of July, he may be fed with this mixture in the day and turned out at night, or he
may remain out duiing every rest-day. A team in constant employ should not, how-
ever, be suffered to be out at night after the end of July.
The farmer should take care that the pasture is thick and good ; and that the dis-
tance from the yard is not too great, or the fields too large, otherwise a very consid-
erable portion of time will be occupied in catching the horses in the morning. He
will likewise have to take into consideration the sale he would have for his hay, and
the necessity for sweet and untrodden pasture for his cattle. On the whole, how ever,
turning out in this way, when circumstances will admit of it, will be found to be
more beneficial for the horse, and cheaper than soiling in the yard.*
The horse of the inferior farmer is sometimes fed on hay or grass alone, and the
animal, although he rarely gets a feed of corn, maintains himself in tolerable condi-
tion, and does the work that is required cf him : but hay and grass alone, however
good in quality, or in whatever quantity allowed, will not support a horse under hard
work. Other substances containing a larger proportion of nutriment in a smaller
compass, have been added. They shall be briefly enumerated, and an estimate form-
ed of their comparative value.
In almost every part of Great Britain, Oats have been selected as that portion of
the food which is to afford the principal nourishment. They contain seven hundred
and forty-three parts out of a thousand of nutritive matter. They should be about or
somewhat less than a year old, heavy, dry, and sweet. New oats will Aveigh ten or
fifteen per cent, more than old ones ; but the difference consists principally in watery
matter, which is gradually evaporated. New oats are not so readily ground down
by the teeth as old ones. They form a more glutinous mass, difficult to digest, and,
when eaten in considerable quantities, are apt to occasion colic and even staggers.
If they are to be used before they are from tliree to five months old, they would be
materially improved by a little kiln-drying. There is no fear for the horses from
simple drying, if the corn was good when it was put into the kiln. The old oat
forms, when chewed, a smooth and uniform mass, which readily dissolves in the sto-
mach, and yields the nourishment which it contains. Perhaps some chemical change
may have been slowly effected in the old oat, disposing it to be more readily assimi-
lated. Oats should be plump, bright in colour, and free from unpleasant smell or
taste. The musty smell of wetted or damaged corn is produced by a fungus which
grows upon the seed, and which has an injurious effect on the urinary organs, and
often on the intestines, producing profuse staling, inflammation of the kidneys, colic,
and inflammation of the bowels.
This musty smell is removed by kiln-drying the oat ; but care is here requisite that
too great a degree of heat is not emploj^ed. It should be sufficient to destroy the fun-
* Professor Stewart thus sums up the comparative advantages of chaff and racked feed-
ing : —
" Where the stablemen are careful, waste of fodder is diminished, but not prevented, by
feeding from the manger.
" Where the racks are good, careful stablemen may prevent nearly all waste of fodder with-
out cutting it.
" An accurate distribution of the fodder is not a very important object.
" No horse seems to like his corn the better for being mingled with chaff.
" Among half-starved horses chaff-cutting promotes the consumption of damaged fodder.
" Full-fed horses, rather than eat the mixture of sound with unsound, will reject the whole,
or eat less than their work demands.
" Chaff is more easily eaten than hay. This is an advantage to old horses and others work-
ing all day — a disadvantage when the horses stand long in the stable.
" Chaft' insures complete mastication and deliberate digestion of the corn. It is of con-
siderable, and of most importance in this respect. All the fodder needs not to be mingled
with the corn, one pound of chaff being sufficient to secure the mastication and slow ingestion
of four pounds of corn.
" The cost of cutting all the fodder, especially for heavy horses, is repaid only when hay is
dear, and wasted in largo quantities.
" Among hard-workmg horse-s bad food should never be cut." — Stewart's Stable Qlconu-
my, p, 225,
FOOD. 375
fr\is without injuring the life of the seed. Many persons, but without just cause,
have considerable fear of the kiln-burnt oat. It is said to produce inflammation of
the bladder, and of the eyes, and mangy affections of the skin. The fact is, that
many of the kiln-dried oats that are given to horses were damaged before they were
dried, and thus became uniiealthy. A considerable improvement would be etfected
by cutting the unthreshed oat-straw into chaff, and the expense of threshing would
be saved. Oat-straw is better than that of barley, but does not contain so much nu
triment as that of wheal .
When the horse is fed on hay and oats, the quantity of the oats must vary with
his size and the work to be performed. In winter, four feeds, or from ten to fourteen
pounds of oats in the day, will be a fair allowance for a horse of fifteen hands one
or two inches high, and tiiat has moderate work. In summer, half the quantity, with
green food, will be suflicieiit. Those who work on the farm have from ten to four-
teen pounds, and the hunter from twelve to sixteen. Tiiere are no efficient and safe
substitutes for good oats; but, on the contrary, we are much inclined to believe that
they possess an invigorating property which is not found in other food.
Oatmeal will form a poultice more stimulating than one composed of linseed meal
alone — or they may be mingled in different proportions, as circumstances require. In
the form of gruel it constitutes one of the most important articles of diet for the sick
horse — not, indeed, forced upon him, but a pail containing it being slung in his box,
and of which he will soon begin to drink wlien water is denied. Few grooms make
good gruel ; it is either not boiled long enough, or a sufficient quantity of oatmeal has
not been used. The proportions should be, a pound of meal thrown into a gallon of
water, and kept constantly stirred until it boils, and five minutes afterwards.
White-water, made by stirring a pint of oatmeal in a pail of water, the chill being
taken from it, is an excellent beverage for the thirsty and tired horse.
Barlev is a common food of the horse on various parts of the Continent, and,
until the introduction of the oat, seems to have constituted almost his only food. It
is more nutritious than oats, containing nine hundred and twenty parts of nutritive
matter in every thousand. There seems, however, to be something necessary be-
sides a great proportion of nutritive matter, in order to render any substance whole-
some, strengthening, or fattening ; therefore it is that, in many horses that are hardly
worked, and, indeed, in horses generally, barley does not agree with them so well as
oats. They are occasionally subject to inflammatory complaints, and particularly to
surfeit and mange.
When barley is given, the quantity should not exceed a peck daily. It should
always be bruised, and the chaff should consist of equal quanti'ies of hay and bar-
le^'-straw, and not cut too short. If the farmer has a quantity of spotted or unsale-
able barley that he wishes thus to get rid of, he must very gradually accustom his
horses to it, or he will probably produce serious illness among them. For horses that
are recovering from illness, barley, in the form of malt, is often serviceable, as tempt-
ing the appetite and recruiting the strength. It is best given in mashes — water, con-
siderably below the boiling heat, being poured upon it, and the vessel or pail kept
covered for half an hour.
Grains fresh from the mash-tub, either alone, or mixed with oats or chaff, or both,
may be occasionally given to horses of slow draught; they would, however, afford
very insufficient nourishment for horses of quicker or harder work.
Wheat is, in Great Britain, more rarely given than barley. It contains nine hun-
dred and fiftj'-five parts of nutritive matter. When farmers have a damaged or un-
marketable sample of wheat, they sometimes give it to their horses, and, being at
first used in small quantities, they become accustomed to it, and thrive and work
well : it must, however, always be bruised and given in chaff. Wheat contains a
greater portion of gluten, or sticky, adhesive matter, than any other kind of grain.
It is difficult of digestion, and apt to cake and form obstructions in the bowels. This
will oftener be the case if the horse is suffered to drink much water soon after feed-
ing upon wheat.
Fermentation, colic, and death, are occasionally the consequence of eating any
great quantity of wheat. A horse that is fed on wheat should have very little hay.
Tlie proportion should not be more than one truss of hay to two of straw. Wheaten
flour, boiled in water to the thickness of starch, is given with good effect in cs^er-purg-
ing, and especially if combined with chalk and opium.
376 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
Bran, or the ground husk of the wheat, used to be frequently given to sick horses
on account of the supposed advantage derived from its relaxing the bowels. There
is no doubt that it does operate gently on the intestinal canal, and assists in quick-
ening the passage of its contents, when it is occasionally given ; but it must not be
a constant, or even frequent food. Mr. Ernes attended three mills at which many
horses were kept, and there were always two or three cases of indigestion from the
accumulation of bran or pollard in the large intestines. Bran may, however, be use-
ful as an occasional aperient in the form of a mash, but never should become a regu-
lar article of food.
Beans. — These form a striking illustration of the principle, that the nourishing or
strengthening effects of the ditferent articles of food depend more on some peculiar
property which they possess, or some combination which they iorm, than on the ac-
tual quantity of nutritive matter. Beans contain but live hundred and seventy parts
of nutritive matter, yet they add materially to the vigour of the horse. There are
many horses that will not stand hard work without beans being mingl. d with their
food, and these not horses whose tendency to purge it may be necessary to restrain
by the astringency of the bean. There is no traveller who is not aware of the ditVer-
ence in the spirit and continuance of his horse whether he allows or denies him beans
on his journey. They afford not merely a temporary stimulus, but they may be daily
used without losing their power, or producing exhaustion. They are indispensable
to the hard-worked coach-horse. Washy horses could never get through their work
without them; and old horses would often sink under the task imposed upon them.
Tney should not be given to the horses whole or split, but crushed. This will make
a meterial difference in the quantity of nutriment that will be extracted. They are
sometimes given to turf horses, but only as an occasional stimulant. Two pounds
of beans may, with advantage, be mixed with the chaff of the agricultural horse,
during the winter. In summer the quantity of beans should be lessened, or they
should be altogether discontinued. Beans are generally given whole. This is very
absurd ; for the young horse whose teeth are strong, seldom requires them ; while the
old horse, to whom they are in a manner necessary, is scarcely able to masticate them,
swallows many of them which he is unable to break, and drops much corn from his
mouth in the ineffectual attempt to crush them. Beans should not be merely split,
but crushed ; they will even then give sufficient employment to the grinders of the
animal. Some postmasters use chaff with beans instead of oats. With hardly-
worked horses they may possibly be allowed; but, in general cases, beans, without
oats, would be too binding and stimulating, and would produce costiveness, and pro-
bably megrims or staggers.
Beans should be at least a twelvemonth old before they are given to the horse, and
they should be carefully preserved from damp and niouldiness, which at least disgust
the horse if they do no other harm, and harbour an insect that destroys the inner part
of the bean.
The straw of the bean is nutritive and wholesome, and is usually given to the
horses. Its nutritive properties are supposed to be little inferior to those of oats. The
small and plump bean is generally the best.
Peas are occasionally given. They appear to be in a slight degree more nourish-
ing than beans, and not so heating. They contain five hundred and seventy-four
parts of nutritive matter. For horses of slow work they may be used ; but the
quantity of chaff should be increased, and a few oats added. They have not been
found to answer with horses of quick draught. It is essential that they should be
crushed ; otherwise, on account of their globular form, they are apt to escape from
the teeth, and many are swallowed whole. Exposed to warmth and moisture in
the stomach, they swell considerably, and may painfully and injuriouslj' distend it.
The peas that are given to horses should be sound, and at least a twelvemonth old.
In some northern counties pea-meal is frequently used, not only as an excellent food
for the horse, but as a remedy for diabetes.
Linseed is sometimes given to sick horses — raw, ground, and boiled. It is sup-
posed to be useful in cases of catarrh.*
* "Mr. Black, veterinary surgeon of the 14th Dragoons, says that sugar was tried as an
article of food during the Peninsular War. Ten horses were selected, each of which got 8
l)Ounds a day at four rations. They took it very readily, and their coats became fine, smooth
FOOD. 377
Herba>To, jrreen and dr}', constitutes a principal part of the food of the horse. There
are few thina^s with regard to which the farmer is so careless as the mixture of grasses
on both his upland and meadow pasture. Hence we find, in the same field, the ray-
grass, coaiinir to perfection only in a loamy soil, not fit to cut until the middle or lat-
ter part of .Inly, and yielding little aftermath ; the meadow fox-tail, best cultivated in
a clayey soil, fit for the scythe in the beginning of June, and yielding a plentiful
aftermath; tlie glauctnis fescue-grass, ready at the middle of June, and rapidly dete-
riorating in value as ils seeds ripen; and the fertile meadow-grass, increasing in value
until the end of July. These are circumstances the importance of which will, at no
distant period, be recognised. In the mean time, Sinclair's account of the different
grasses, or the condensation of the most important part of his work in Sir Humphry
Davy's Agricultural (.'hemistry, or Low's Elements of Practical Agriculture, are well
deserving of the diligent perusal of the farmer.
Hay is most in perfection when it is about a twelvemonth old. The horse perhaps
would prefer it earlier, but it is neither so wholesome nor so nutritive, and often has
a purgative qualitj". When it is about a year old, it retains or should retain some-
what of its green colour, its agreeable smell and its pleasant taste. It has undergone
the slow process of fermentation, by which the sugar which it contains is developed,
and its nutritive quality is fully exercised. Old hay becomes dry and tasteless, and
innutritive and unwholesome. After the grass is cut, and the hay stacked, a slight
degree of fermentation takes place in it. This is necessary for the development of
the saccharine principle; but of'casionally it proceeds t^o far and the hay becomes
mowbur?}t, in which state it is injurious, or even poisonous. The horse soon shows
the effect which it has upon him. He has diabetes to a considerable degree — he
becomes hidebound — his strength is wasted — his thirst is excessive, and he is almost
worthless.
Where the system of manger-feeding is not adopted, or where hay is still allov.'ed
at night, and chaff and corn in the day, there is no error into which the farmer is so
apt to fall as to give an undue quantity of hay, and that generally of the worst kind.
If the manger system is good, there can be no necessity for hay, or only for a small
quantity of it; but if the rack is overloaded, the greedy horse will be eating all night,
instead of taking his rest — when the time for the morning feed arrives, his stomach
will be already filled, and he will be less capable of work from the want of sleep, and
from the long-continued distension of the stomach rendering it impossible for the food
to be properly digested.
It is a good practice to sprinkle the hay with water in which salt has been dis-
solved. It is evidently more palatable to the animal, who will leave the best unsalted
hay for that of an inferior quality that has been moistened with brine ; and there can
be no doubt that the salt verj' materially assists the process of digestion. The pre-
ferable way of salting the hay is to sprinkle it over the different layers as the rick is
formed. From its attraction for water, it would combine with that excess of moisture
which, in wet seasons, is the cause of too rapid and violent fermentation, and of the
hay becoming mowburnt, or the rick catching fire, and it would become more incor-
porated with the hay. The only objection to its being thus used is, that the colour
of the hay is not so bright; but this will be of little consequence for home consump-
tion.
Of the value of Tares, as forming a portion of the late spring and summer food of
the stabled and agricultural horse, there can be no doubt. They are cut after the pods
are formed, but a considerable time before the seeds are ripe. They supply a larger
quantity of food for a limited time than almost any other forage-crop. The vicia sntiva
is the most profitable variety of the tare. It is very nutritive, and acts as a gentle
aperient. When surfeit-lumps appear on the skin, and the horse begins to rub him
self against the divisions of the stall, and the legs swell, and the heels threaten to
crack, a few tares, cut up with the chaff, or given instead of a portion of the hay, will
afford considerable relief. Ten or twelve pounds may be allowed daily, and half thai
and fflossy. They got no corn, and only 7 pounds of hay, instead of the ordinary allowance,
which is i2 pounds. The sugar seemed to sujiply the place of the corn so well, that it would
have been probably given abroad; but peace came, and the circumstances that rendered the
use of sucrar for corn desirable ceased, and the horses returned to their usual diet. That the
BUgar iniuht not be appropriated to other purposes it was shghtly scented with assafcEtida,
which did not produce any apparent effect upon them."
32* 2x
378 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
weight of hay subtracted. It is an erroneous notion, that, given in moderate cjuanti-
ties, they either roughen the coat or lessen the capability for hard work.
Rye Grass aflbrds a valuable article of food, but is inferior to the tare. It is no!
so nutritive. It is apt to scour and, occasionally, and late in the spring, it has ap
peared to be injurious to the horse.
Clover, for soiling the horse, is inferior to the tare and the rye grass, but neverthe-
less, is useful when they cannot be obtained. Clover hay is, perhaps, preferable to
meadow hay for chaff. It will sometimes tempt the sick horse, and may be given
with advantage to those of slow and heavy work ; but custom seems properly to have
forbidden it to the hunter and the hackney.
LucERN, where it can be obtained, is preferable even to tares, and sain-foin is supe-
rior to lucern. Although they contain but a small quantity of nutritive matter, it is
easily digested, and perfectly assimilated. They speedily put both muscle and fat
on the Jiorse that is worn down by labour, and they are almost a specific for hide-
bound. Some farmers have thought so highly of lucern as to substitute it for oats.
This may be allowable for tiie agricultural horse of slow and not severe work, but he
from t\hom speedier action is sometimes required, and the horse of all work, must
have a propoition of hard meat within him.
The .Swedish Turnip is an article of food the value of which has not been suffi-
ciently appreciated, and particularly for agricultural horses. Although it is far from
containing the quantity of nutritive matter which has been supposed, that which it
has seems to be capable of easy and complete digestion. It should be sliced with
chopped straw, and without hay. It quickly fattens the horse, and produces a smooth
glossy coat and a loose skin. It will be good practice to give it once in the day, and
that at night when the work is done.
Carrots. — The virtues of this root are not sufficiently known, whether as contri-
buting to the strength and endurance of the sound horse, or the rapid recovery of the
sick one. To the healthy horse they should be given sliced in his chaff. Half a
bushel will be a fair daily allowance. There is little provender of which the horse is
fonder. The following account of the value of the carrot is not exaggerated. "This
root is held in mucli esteem. There is none better, nor perhaps so good. When first
given it is slightly diuretic and laxative; but as the horse becomes accustomed to it,
these effects cease to be produced. They also improve the state of the skin. They
form a good substitute for grass, and an excellent alterative for horses out of condi-
tion. To sick and idle horses they render corn unnecessary. They are beneficial in
all chronic diseases connected with breathing, and have a marked influence upon
chronii; cough and broken wind. They are serviceable in diseases of the skin, and
in combination with oats they restore a worn horse much sooner than oats alone."*
Potatoes have been given, and with advantage, in their raw state, sliced with the
cbafi'; but, where it has been convenient to boil or steam tliem, the benefit has been
far more evident. Purging has then rarely ensued. Some have given boiled potatoes
alone, and horses, instead of rejecting them, have soon preferred them even to the
oat; but it is better to mix them with the usual manger feed, in the proportion of one
pound of potatoes to two and a half pounds of the other ingredients. The use of the
potato must depend on its cheapness, and the facility for boiling it. Half a dozen
horses would soon repay the expense of a steaming boiler in the saving of provender,
without taking into the account their improved condition and capability for work.j"
A horse fed on potatoes should have his quantity of water materially curtailed.
Furze has sometimes been given during the winter months. There is considerable
trouble attending the preparation of it, although its plentifulness and little value for
other purposes would, on a large farm, well repay that trouble. The furze is cut
down at about three or four years' growth ; the green branches of that and the pre-
ceding year are bruised in a mill, and then given to the horses in the state in which
they come from the mill, or cut up with the chaff. Horses are very fond of it. If
* Stewart's Stable CEconomy, p. 183.
+ Professor Low says that 15 lbs. of potatoes yield as much nourishment as four pounds and
a half of oats. Von Thayer asserts that three bushels are equal to 112 lbs. of hay ; and Cur-
wen, who tried potatoes extensively in the feeding of horses, says that an acre goes as far aa
four acres of hay.
FOOD. 379
twenty pounds of the furze are given, five pounds of straw, the beans, and three
pounds of the oats, may be withdrawn.
It may not be uninteresting to conchido this catak)gue of the different articles of
horse-food with a list of the quantities of nutritive matter contained in each of them ;
for although these quantities cannot be considered as expressing the actual value of
each, because other circumstances besides the simple quantity of nutriment seem to
influence their effect in supporting the strength and condition of the horse, yet many
a useful hint may be derived when the farmer looks over the produce of his soil, and
inquires what other grasses or vegetables might suit his land. Tlie list is partly
taken from Sir Humphry Davy's Agricultural Chemistry : — 1000 parts of wheat con-
tain 955 parts of nutritive matter ; barley, 920 ; oats, 743 ; peas, 574 ; beans, 570 ;
potatoes, 230; red beet, 118; parsneps, 99 ; carrots, 98. Of the grasses, 1000 parts
of the meadow cat's-tail contain, at the time of seeding, 98 parts of nutiitive matter;
narrow-leaved meadow grass in seed, and sweet-scented soft grass in flower, 95;
narrow-leaved and flat-stalked meadow grass in flower, fertile meadow grass in seed,
and tall fescue in flower, 93 ; fertile meadow grass, meadow fescue, reed-like fescue,
and creeping soft grass in flower, 78 ; sweet-scented soft grass in flower, and the
aftermath, 77; florin, cut in the winter, 76; tall fescue, in the aftermath, and meadow
soft grass in flower, 74 ; cabbage, 73 ; crested dog's-tail and brome, when flowering,
71; yellow oat, in flower, 66; Swedish turnips, 64; narrow-leaved meadow grass,
creeping beet, round-headed cocksfoot, and spiked fescue, 59 ; roughish and fertile
meadow grass, flowering, 56 ; florin, in summer, 54 ; common turnips, 4'2 ; sain-foin,
and broad-leaved and long-rooted clover, 39; white clover, 32; and lucern, 23.
The times of feeding should be as equally divided as convenience will permit; and
when it is likely that the horse will be kept longer than usual from home, the nose-
bag should invariably be taken. The small stomach of the horse is emptied in a few
hours ; and if he is suffered to remain hungry much beyond his accustomed time, he
will afterwards devour his food so voraciously as to distend the stomach and endanger
an attack of staggers. When this disease appears in tlie farmer's stable, he may
attribute it to various causes; the true one, in the majority of instances, is irregularity
in feeding. If the reader will turn back to page 97, he will be convinced that this
deserves more serious attention than is generally given to it.
When extra work is required from the animal, the system of management is often
injudicious, for a double feed is put before him, and as soon as he has swallowed it,
he is started. It would be far better to give him a double feed on the previous eve-
ning, which would be digested before he is wanted, and then he might set out in the
morning after a very small portion of corn has been given to him, or perhaps only a
little hay. One of the most successful methods of enabling a horse to get well
through a long journey, is to give him only a little at a time while on the road, and
at night to indulge him with a double feed of corn and a full allowance of beans.
Water. — This is a part of stable management little regarded by the farmer. He
lets his horses loose morning and night, and they go to the nearest pond or brook and
drink their fill, and no harm results, for they obtain that kind of water which nature
designed them to have, in a manner prepared for them by some unknown influence
of the atmosphere, as well as by the deposition of many saline admixtures. The dif-
ference between hard and soft water is known to every one. In hard water, soap will
curdle, vegetables will not boil soft, and the saccharine matter of the malt cannot be
fully obtained in the process of brewing. There is nothing in which the different
effect of hard and soft water is so evident, as in the stomach and digestive organs of
the horse. Hard water, drawn fresh from the well, will assuredly make the coat of a
horse unaccustomed to it stare, and it will not unfrequently gripe and otherwise injure
him. Instinct or experience has made even the horse himself conscious of this, for
he will never drink hard water if he has access to soft, and he will leave the most
transparent and pure water of the well for a river, although the stream may be turbid,
and even for the muddiest pool.* He is injured, however, not so much by the hard-
ness of the well-water as by its coldness — particularly by its coldness in summer,
snd when it is many degrees below the temperature of the atmosphere. The water
* Some trainers have so much fear of hard or strange water, that they carry with them to
the different courses the water that the animal has been accustomed to drink, and that which
they know agrees with it.
380 THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE.
in the br-^ok and the pond being- warmed by long exposure to the air, as well as having
become soft, the horse drinks freely of it without danger.
If the horse were watered three times a day, and especially in summer, he would
often be saved from the sad torture of thirst, and from many a disease. Whoever has
observed the eagerness with which the over-worked horse, hot and tired, plunges his
muzzle into the pail, and the difficulty of stopping him until he has drained the last
drop, may form some idea of what he had previously suffered, and will not wonder at
the violent spasms, and inflammation, and sudden death, that often result.
There is a prejudice in the minds of many persons against the horse being fully
supplied with water. They think that it injures his wind, and disables him for quick
and hard work. If he is galloped, as he too often is, immediately after drinking, his
wind may be irreparably injured; but if he were oftener suffered to satiate his thirst
at the intervals of rest, he would be happier and better. It is a fact unsuspected by
those who have not carefully observed the horse, that if he has frequent access to
water, he will not drink so much in the course of the day as another will do, who, to
cool his parched mouth, swallows as fast as he can, and knows not when to stop.
On a journey, a horse should be liberally supplied with water. When he is a little
cooled, two or three quarts may be given to him, and after that, his feed. Before he
has finished his corn, two or three quarts more may be offered. He will take no
harm if this is repeated three or four times during a long and hot day.
It is a judicious rule with travellers, that when a horse begins to refuse his food,
he should be pushed no farther that day. It may, however, be worth while to try
whether this does not proceed from thirst, as much as from exhaustion, for in many
instances his appetite and his spirits will return soon after he has partaken of the
refreshing draught.
Management of the Feet. — This is the only division of stable management
that remains to be considered, and one sadly neglected by the carter and groom.
The feet should be carefully examined every morning, for the shoes may be loose
and the horse would have been stopped in the middle of his work; or the clenches
may be raised, and endanger the wounding of his legs ; or the shoe may begin
to press upon the sole or the heel, and bruises of the sole, or corn, may be the
result; and, the horse having stood so lon^ in the stable, every little increase of heat
in the foot, or lameness, will be more readily detected, and serious disease may often
be prevented.
Wiien the horse comes in at night, and after the harness has been taken off and
stowed away, the heels should be we., brushed out. Hand-rubbing will be prefer-
able to washing, especially in the agricultural horse, whose heels, covered with long
hair, can scarcely be dried again. If the dirt is suffered to accumulate in that long
hair, the heels will become sore, and grease will follow; and if the heels are washed,
and particularly during the winter, grease will result from the coldness occasioned by
the slow evaporation of the moisture. The feet should be stopped — even the feet of
the farmer's horse, if he remains in the stable. Very little clay should be used in
the stopping, for it will get hard and press upon the sole. Cowdung is the best stop-
ping to preserve the feet cool and elastic; but, before the stopping is applied, the
picker should be run round the whole of the foot, between the shoe and the sole, in
order to detect any stone that may have insinuated itself there, or a wound on any
other part of the sole. For the hackney and hunter, stopping is indispensable. After
several days' hard work it will afford very great relief to take the shoes off, having
put plenty of litter under the horse, or to turn him, if possible, into a loose-box ; and
the shoes of every horse, whether hardly worked or not, should be removed or changed
once in every three weeks.
THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES. 381
CHAPTER XXI.
THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES.
The skin of the horse resembles in construction that of other animals. It consists
of three layers, materially differing in their structure and office. Externally is the
CUTICLE — the epidermis or scarf-skin — composed of innumerable thin, transparent
scales, and extending over the whole animal. If the scarf-skin is examined by
means of a microscope, the existence of scales like those of a fish, is readily detect-
ed. In the action of a blister they are raised from the skin beneath in the form of
pellucid bladders, and, in some diseases, as in mange, they are thrown off in hard,
dry, white scales, numerous layers of which are placed one above another. In
every part of the body the scarf-skin is permeated by innumerable pores, some of
which permit the passage of the hair — through others the perspirable matter finds
a passage — others are perforated by tubes through which various unctuous secre-
tions make their escape, while, through a fourth variety, numerous fluids and gases
are inhaled. It is destitute of nerves and blood-vessels, and its principal use seems
to be to protect the cutis from injury, and to restrain and moderate its occasional mor
bid sensibility.
There is at all times a singular change taking place in this outer covering of
the animal. There is a constant alteration and renewal of every part of it, but it
adheres to the true skin through the medium of the pores, and also numerous little
eminenry'.s, or projections, which seem to be prolongations of the nerves of the skin.
The cuticle is in itself insensible ; but one of its most important functions is to pro-
tect and defend the parts beneath, which are so often exposed to the effects of a mor-
bid sensibility.
Beneath the cuticle is a thin, soft substance, through which the pores and eminences
of the true skin pass. It is termed the rete mucosiim, from its web-like structure,
and its soft mucous consistence. Its office is to cover the minute vessels and nerves
in their way from the cutis to the cuticle. It is also connected with the colour of the
skin. In horses with white hair the rete mucosum is white ; it is brown in those of
a brown colour — black in the black, and in patches of different colours with those
the hue of whose integument varies. Like the cuticle it is reproduced after abrasion,
or other injury.
The cutis, or true skin, lies beneath the rete mucosum. It is decidedly of a fibrous
texture, elastic, but with difficulty lacerated — exceedingly vascular, and highly sen-
sitive. It is the substance which is converted into leather when removed from the
bodv, and binds together the different parts of the frame. In some places it does this
literally and clings so closely to the substance beneath that it scarcely admits of any
motion : this is the case about the forehead and the back, while upon the face, the
sides and flanks, it hangs in loosened folds. In the parts connected with progression
it is folded into various duplicatures, that the action of the animal may admit of the
least possible obstruction. The cutis is thinnest, and most elastic, on those parts that
are least covered with hair, or where the hair is altogether deficient, as the lips, the
muzzle, and the inside of the flanks.
Whatever is the colour of the rete mucosum, the true skin is of a pale white ; in
fact, the cutis has no connection with the colour of the hair. Of its general char-
acter, Mr. Percivall gives a very accurate description : — " It appears to consist of
a dense substratum of cellular tissue, with which are interwoven fibres of a liga-
mentous nature, in such a manner that innumerable areolae, like the meshes of a
net, are formed in it. These areolae open, through correspondent pores in the cuti-
cle, upon the external surface, and are for the purpose of transmitting thither blood-
vessels and absorbents, giving passage to the hair, and lodging the various secretory
organs of the skin."*
Over a great part of the frame lies a singular muscle peculiar to quadrupeds, and
more extensive and powerful in the thin-skinned and thin-haired animals, than in
* Percivall's Anatomy of the Horse, p. 400.
382 THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES.
those with thicker hides. It reaches from the poll over the whole of the carcase, and
down to the arm before, and the stifle behind. By its contraction the skin is pucker-
ed in every direction ; and if it acts strongly and rapidly, the horse is not only ena-
bled to shake otV any insect or fly that may annoy him, but sometimes to displace a
great part of his harness, and to render it difficult for the most expert rider to keep
his seat. This muscle also assists the skin in bracing that part of the frame which
It covers, and, perhaps, gives additional strength to the muscles beneath. It is called
the panniculus carnosus, or fleshy panicle or covering.
The skin answers the double purpose of protection and strength. Where it is
necessary that the parts should be bound and knit together, it adheres so tightly that
we can scarcely raise it. Thus the bones of the knees and the pasterns and the ten-
dons of the legs, on which so much stress is frequently thrown, are securely tied
down and kept in their places. It is in order to take additional advantage of this
binding and strengthening power that we fire the legs of overworked horses, in whom
the sinews have begun to start, and the ligaments of the joints to swell, or be dis-
placed. The skin is tight along the muscles of the back and loins, and down the
yet more powerful muscles of the quarters ; but in other places it is loosely attached,
that it may not interfere with the motions of the animal. About the brisket, and
within the arms and at the flanks, it hangs even in folds.
Of its strength we have abundant proof, both in the living and dead animal. Its
fibres are interlaced in a most curious and intricate manner, so as, when living, to be
scarcely lacerable, and converted into leather after death.
It is, while the animal is alive, one of the most elastic bodies with which we are
acquainted. It not only perfectly adapts itself to the slow growth or decrease of the
body, and appears equally to fit, whether the horse is in the plumpest condition oi
reduced to a skeleton ; but, when a portion of it is distended to an extraordinary de-
gree, in the most powerful action of the muscles, it, in a moment, again contracts to
its usual dimensions.
It is principally indebted for this elasticity to almost innumerable minute glands
which pour out an oily fluid that softens and supples it. When the horse is in health,
and every organ discharges its proper functions, a certain quantity of this unctuous
matter is spread over the surface of the skin, and is contained in all the pores that
penetrate its substance ; and the skin becomes pliable, easily raised from the texture
beneath, and presenting that peculiar yielding softness and elasticity which experi-
ence has proved to be the best proofs of the condition, or, in other words, the general
health of the animal. Then, too, from the oiliness and softness of the skin, the hair
lies in its natural and proper direction, and is smooth and glossy. When the system
is derano-ed, and especially the digestive system, and the vessels concerned in the
nourishment of the animalfeebly act, those of the skin evidently sympathize. This
oily secretion is no more thrown out; the skin loses its pliancy; it seems to cling to
the animal, and we have that peculiar appearance which we call hide-bound. This,
however, requires attentive consideration.
We observe a horse in the summer. We find him with a thin, smooth, glossy
coat, and his extremities clean and free almost from a single rough or misplaced hair.
We meet with him again towards the winter, when the thermometer has fallen almost
or quite to the freezing point, and we scarcely recognize him in his thick, rough,
coarse, colourless coat, and his legs enveloped in long, shaggy hair. The health of
the horse is, to a certain degree, deranged. He is dull, languid, easily fatigued. He
will break into a sweat with the slightest exertion, and it is almost impossible tho-
roughly to dry him. He may perhaps feed as well as usual, although that will not
generally be the case, but he is not equal to the demands which we are compelled to
make upon him.
This process goes on for an uncertain time, depending on the constitution of the
animal, until nature has eflfected a change, and then he once more rallies : but a great
alteration has taken place in him — the hair has lost its soft and glossy character, and
IS become dry and staring. The skin ceases to secrete that peculiar unctuous matter
which kept it soft and flexible, and becomes dry and s.-Uy ; and the exhalents on the
surfece, having become relaxed, are frequently pouring out a profuse perspiration,
without any apparent adequate cause for it.
So passes the approach to winter, and the owner complains sadly of the appear-
ance of his steed, and, according to the old custom, gives him plenty of cordis'
HIDE-BOUND. 383
balls, — perhaps too many of them, — on the whole not being unserviceable at this
critical period, yet not productive of a great deal of good. At length the animal
rallies of himself, and although not so strong and full of spirits as he ought to be, is
hardier and more lively than he was, and able to struggle with the cold of the coming
winter.*
What a desideratum in the management of the horse would be a course of treat-
ment that would render all this unnecessary ! This desideratum has been found —
a free escape of perspiration, a moist and softened state of the skin, an evident in-
crease of health and capability of enduring fatigue, and working on shorter supply
of food than he could before. This is said to be perfomied by the clipping and singe-
ing systems.
.Mr. Thomas Turner, who was almost one of the earliest advocates of these sys-
tems, states that during the months of October and November an inordinate growth
ef hair is observed over the whole surface of the body, and in many horses as early
as the beginning of September, and almost invariably prevails, more or less, in every
horse that is not thorough-bred. The debilitating etfects thereby induced are profuse
perspiration on the least possible exertion — depression of the animal spirits, and tem-
porary loss of appetite. The immediate removal of all the superfluous hair by close
clipping, instantly proves so powerful a tonic to the animal, that he unhesitatingly
aflirms it to be inferior to none at present known in our pharmacopoeia. ]Mr. Turner
adds. — " Now, signal as the success of clipping has been, I do entertain a hope, and
am of opinion that, in the majority of instances, it may be superseded by singeing
under certain modifications.""!"
We may not, perhaps, be able satisfactorily to explain the apparently magical
effects of clipping and singeing on the general constitution, and particularlv the wind
of the horse, or the respiratory functions generally, but there is no doubt of their ex-
istence. An increased tone is given to the system generally ; and probably, in some
way not yet sufEcienlly developed, the increased current of the electric fluid may
have much to do with it.
Mr. Snewing gives an interesting account of the effect of clipping on two horses
in his establishment. He had a cob, with a fixed catarrh of several months' stand-
ingr. It did not interfere with the animal's general health, but was a source of con-
siderable annoyance. At length the owner determined to sell him ; but first he had
him clipped. After a few days his attention was drawn to the circumstance, that
either the horse's cou^h must have left him, or, from repeatedly hearing^ it, he had
ceased to regard it. He watched the animal, and, truly enough, he found that the
rough had entirely disappeared. He rode him through the winter and the following
summer, and there was no return of it.
The other instance was in a mare which he had after this one was sold. In the
months of August, September, and October, 18-il, she was continually the subject of
intermittent cough. He had her clipped, and in a few days she ceased to couo-h, and
has not been heard to cough from that time.
HIDE. BOUND.
This is not so much a diminution of the cellular or fatty substance between the
skin and the muscles beneath, as it is an alteration in the skin itself. It is a hard-
ness and unyieldingness of the skin from the want of the oily matter on its surface
* Mr. E. Gabriel, V. S., on the Treatment of the Horse in Autumn. — Veierhiarian. vol.
xiii. 627.
t Veterinarian, vol. xiv., IS.
In justice, however, to an excellent sportsman, Ximrod, we must quote another opinion,
and with that the subject shall be left to the consideration of our readers. " On the subject
of clipping. I cannot agree with ^Ir. Gabriel as to the call for it, much less admit its almost
universal adoption. I would clip road-coach horses, and a hunter that had been summered
entirety at grass, despairing of condition on any other terms. It is a mere substitute for good
grooming. As for its almost universal adoption, such is far from being the case. I did'noi
see three clipped horses last year (1840) ; at Melton, in the Quorn stables, not one, nor in
Mr. Foljambe's. Singed ones I did see to a certain extent ; but a hardy-riding Meltonian
told me that he would have no more spirits of wine charged in his groom's book. ' A mere
substitute,' said he. ' in rny stable for the old-fashioned elbow-grease.' In my opinion thft
norse is not yet foaled which cannot be got into perfect condition without this outrage on na-
ture."—-TXe Veterinarian, voj". xiv., p. 35.
384 THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES.
and in its substance. It is the difference that is presented to the feeling by wojI cur
lied and supple leather, and that which has become dry and unyielding.
The surface of the skin becoming dry and hard, the scales of the cutii-le are no
lonu"er penetrated by the hair, but, separating themselves in evory direction, give that
peculiar roughness to the coat which accompanies want of condition. It betokens
impaired function o: \he vessels everywhere, and particularly those of the stomach
and bowels. Hide-bound is not so much a disease as a syinjitom of disease, and
particularly of the digestive organ«" and our remedies must be applied not so nmch to
the skin — iilthough we have, in friction and in warmth, most valuable agents in pro-
ducing a healthy condition of the integuments — as to the cause of the hide-bound,
and the state of the constitution generally. Every disease that can affect the general
system may produce this derangement of the functions of the skin. Glanders, when
become constitutional, is strongly indicated by the unthrifty appearance of the coat.
Chronic cough, grease, farcy, and founder, are accompanied by hide bound : and diet
too sparing, and not adequate to the work exacted, is an unfailing source of it. If
the cause is removed,' the effect will cease.
Should the cause be obscure, as it frequently is — should the horse wear an unthrifty
coat, and his hide cling to his ribs, without any apparent disease, we shall generally
be warranted in tracing it to sympathy with the actual, although not demonstrable,
suspension of some important secretion or function, either of the alimentury canal or
the respiratory functions. A few mashes, and a mild dose of physic, are first indi
cated, and, simple as they appear to be, they often have a very beneficial effect. The
regular action of the bowels being re-established, that of all the organs of the frame
will speedily follow. If the horse cannot be spared for physic, alteratives may be
administered. There is no better alterative for hide-bound and an unthrifty coat, than
that which is in common use, levigated antimony, nitre, and sulphur. I'he peculiar
effect of the antimony and sulphur, and electric influence on the skin, with that of the
sulphur on the bowels, and of the nitre on the urinary organs, will be here advan
tageously combined.
Should the horse not feed well, and there is no indication of fever, a slight tonio
may be added, as gentian, or ginger; but in the majority of cases, attended by loss
of condition, and an unthrifty coat, and hide-bound, tonics and aromatics should be
carefully avoided.
The cause of the im^iaired action of the vessels being removed, the powers of
nature will generally be suffif'ient, and had better be left to themselves. Theni are
not any more dangerous medicines in common use in the stable, and especially in
cases like these, than tonics and cordials. They often arouse to fatal action a ten-
dency to fever that would otherwise have slept, or they produce a state of excitement
near akin to fever, and apt to degenerate into it. By the stimulus of a cordial, the
secretions may be suddenly roused, and among them, this unctuous secretion from the
pores of the skin, so necessary to apparent condition ; but the effect soon passes ov(>r,
and a repetition of the stimulus is necessary — the habit is soon formed — the doso
must be gradually increased, and in the mean time the animal is kept in a state of
dangerous excitement, by which the powers of nature must be eventually impaired.
Friction may be employed with advantage in the removal of hide-bound. It ha?
repeatedly been shown that this is one of the most efficacious instruments we can
use, to call into exercise the suspended energies either of the absorbent or secreting
vessels. Warmth may likewise be had recourse to — not warmth of stable, which
has been shown to be so injurious, but warmth arising from exercise, and the salu-
tary, although inexplicable, influence of clipping and singeing. Before this can be
fully considered, the hair by which the skin is covered must be described.
The base of the bulb whence the hair proceeds being beneath the tnie skin, it is
easy to perceive that the hair will grow again, although the cuticle may have been
destroyed. A good blister, although it may remove the cuticle, and seemingly for a
while the hair with it, leaves no lasting trace. Even firing, lightly and skilfully per-
formed, and not penetrating through the skin, leaves not much blemish ; but when, in
broken knees, the true skin is cut through, or destroyed, there will always remain s
spot devoid of hair. The method of hastening and perfecting the re-production of the
hair, has been described in page 367.
PORES OF THE SKI N . — M 0 U LTI NG. 385
PORES OF THE SKIN.
Besides the openings already mentioned, through which proceeds the unctuous fluid
that supplies and softens the skin, there are others more numerous, by means of which
a vast quantity of aqueous fluid escapes, and perspiration is carried on. As in the
human being, this actually exists in a state of health and quietness, although imper-
ceptible; but when the animal is excited by exercise, or labours under some stages
of disease, it becomes visible, and appears in the form of drops.
This process of perspiration is not, however, so far under the control of medicine as
in the human being.
We are not aware of any drugs that will certainly produce it. Warm clothing
seems occasionally to effect it, but this is more in appearance than reality. The
insensible perspiration cannot escape through the mass of clothing, and assumes a
visible form. This, perhaps, is the case when sheep-skins are applied over the back
and loins in " locked jaw." They produce a good effect, acting as a warm poultice
over the part, and so contributing to relax the muscular spasms. There are, how-
ever, a few medicines, as antimony and sulphur, that have an evident and very con-
siderable effect on the skin in opening its pores and exciting its vessels to action.
Of the existence of absorbent vessels on the skin, or those w^hich take up seme
fluid or substance, and convey it into the circulation, we have satisfactory proof. A
horse is even more easily salivated than the human being. Salivation has been pro-
duced by rubbing a splint with mercurial ointment, previous to blistering; and a very
few drachms rubbed on the inside of the thighs, will probably produce a greater effect
than the practitioner desires.
From some parts of the skin, there are peculiar secretions, as that of grease in the
heel, and mallenders in the knee.
MOULTING.
Twice in the year, the hair of the body of the horse is changed. The short, fine
coat of summer would afford little protection against the winter, and that of the winter
would be oppressive to the animal, if it appeared during the summer. The hair of the
mane and tail remains. The bulbous root of the hair does not die, but the pulpy
matter seems to be removed from the root of the hair, which, thus deprived of its
nourishment, perishes and drops off, and a new hair springs at its side from the same
bulb. The hair which is produced in the autumn, is evidently diflferent from that
which grows in the spring ; it is coarser, thicker, and not so glossy as the other. As
moulting is a process extending over the whole of the skin, and requiring a very con-
siderable expenditure of vital power, the health of the animal is generally aflfected at
these times. That energy, and nervous and vital influence, which should support the
whole of the frame, is to a great degree determined to the skin, and the animal is lan-
guid, and unequal to much hard work. He perspires greatly with the least unusual
exertion, and if he is pressed beyond his strength, becomes seriously ill.
The treatment which the groom in this case adopts, is most absurd and dangerous.
The horse, from the deranged distribution of vital power, is disposed to fever, or he
labours under a slight degree of fever, sufficiently indicated by the increased quick-
ness of pulse, redness of nose, and heat of mouth. The lassitude and want of appe-
tite which are the accompaniments of this febrile state, are mistaken for debility; and
cordials of various kinds, some of them exceedingly stimulating, are unsparingly
administered. At length, with regard to the hunter, the racer, and even in the hack-
ney and the carriage horse, the scissors or the lamp are introduced, and a new method
is established of guarding against this periodical debility, setting at defiance the occa-
sional exposure to cold, and establisliing a degree of health and strength previously
unknown. Friction may be allowed, to assist the falling oflT of the old hair, and to
loosen the cuticle for the appearance of the new hair, but it is somewhat more gently
applied than it used to be. The curry-comb is in a great measure banished, and even
the brush is not applied too hard or too long. The old hair is not forced off before
the young hair is ready to take its place.
Nature adapts the coat to the climate and to the season. The Shelti* has one as
long and thick as that of a bear; and, as the summer is short and cold in those
northern islands, the coat is rough and shagsy during the whole of the year. In the
southern parts of our country, the short, and light and glossy coat of summer gradu
33 2y
386 THE SKIN AND ITSDISEASES.
ally yields to the close and heavy, and warm clothing of winter. In the deserts of
Arabia, where the winter is rarely cold, the coat remains short and glossy throughout
the year. These are wise and kind provisions of nature, and excite our admiration.
COLOUR.
The colour of the hair admits of every variety, and each colour becomes in turn
fashionable. Like that of the skin, it is influenced by, or depends on, the mucous
mesh-work under the cuticle. There are comparatively few perfectly white horses
now remaining. The snow-white palfrey, with its round carcass and barb head,
originally from Spain, or perhaps from Barbary, and rarely exceeding the size of a
galloway, is nearly extinct. Some, however, yet remain in the possession of the
Duke of Montrose. They are of good constitution, and pleasant in their paces. The
majority of white horses are those that have become so. Light-grey colts begin to
grow white before they are five years old, especially if they have not much dark mix-
ture about the joints.
Grey horses are of different shades, from the lightest silver to a dark iron-grey.
The silver-grey reminds the observer of the palfrey, improved by an admixture of
Arab blood. He does not often exceed fourteen hands and a half in height, and is
round carcassed — thin-legged — with oblique pasterns, calculated for a light carriage,
or for a lady's riding — seldom subject to disease — but not very fleet, or capable of
hard work.
The iron-grey is usually a larger horse; higher in the withers, deeper and thinner
in the carcass, more angular in all his proportions, and in many cases a little too long
in the legs. Some of these greys make good hackneys and hunters, and especially
the Irish horses ; but they are principally used for the carriage. They have more
endurance than the flatness of their chest would promise ; but their principal defect is
their feet, which are liable to contraction, and yet that contraction not so often accom-
panied by lameness as in many other horses.
The dappled grey is generally a handsomer and a better horse. All the angular
points of the iron-grey are filled up, and with that which not only adds to symmetry,
but to use. Whether as a hackney, or, the larger variety, a carriage horse, there are
few better, especially since his form has been so materially improved, and so much of
his heaviness got rid of, by the free use of foreign blood. There are not, however, so
many dappled greys as there used to be, since the bays have been bred with so much
care. The dappled grey, if dark at first, generally retains his colour to old age.
Some of the greys approach to a nutmeg, or even bay colour. Many of these are
handsome, and most of them are hardy.
The roans, of every variety of colour and form, are composed of white mixed with
bay, or red, or black. In some it seems to be a natural mixture of the colours; in
others it appears as if one colour was powdered or sprinkled over another. They are
pretty horses for ladies or light carriages, and many of them easy in their paces, but
they do not usually display much blood, nor are they celebrated for endurance. If
they should have white fore legs, with white hoofs, they are too often tender-footed,
or become so with even a little hard work.
The strawberry horse is a mixture of sorrel with white ; usually handsome and
pleasant, but more celebrated for these qualities than for strength and endurance.
The pied horse is one that has distinct spots or patches of different colours, but
generally of white with some other colour. They are not liked as hackneys, on
account of their peculiarity of colour, nor in teams of horses ; but they look well when
tolerably matched in a phaeton or light carriage. Tiieir value must depend on theii
breed. Of themselves they have no peculiar character, except that a white leg and
foot is as suspicious in them as it is in the roan.
The dun, of the Galloway size, and with considerable bbod, is often attaclied to
the curricle or the phaeton. The larger variety is a true fiirmer's or miller's horse,
with no great speed or extraordinary strength, yet a good-tempered, good-feeding,
good-conslitutioned, useful horse enough. Varieties of the dun, shaded with a darker
colour, or dappled, and with some breeding, and not standing too high, are beautiful
animals, and much sought after for light carriages.
The cream-colour, of Hanoverian extraction, with his white iris and red pupil, is
appropriated to royal use. Attached to the state-carriage of the monarch, he is a
superb animal. His bulky, yet perfectly-formed body, his swelling crest, and his
SURFEIT. 387
proud and lofty action, as if conscious of his office, qualify him for the service that is
exacted from him, but we have little experience how far he would suit other purposes.
Of the chestnuts there are three varieties — the pale red or the sorrel, usually with
some white, either on the face or the legs — generally lightly made, yet some of them
bulky enough for the heaviest loads. Their colour is generally objectionable, and
they are supposed to be somewhat deficient in endurance.
The light chestnut, with less red and a little more bay or brown, is considered a
preferable animal, especially if he has little or no white about him; yet even he,
although pleasant to ride, is sometimes irritable, and generally weak. We must
except one variety, the Sutfolk punch; a heavy horse, and adapted for slow work, but
perfect of his kind — whom no labour can daunt, no fatigue overcome. This is a breed
now, unfortunately, nearly extinct. The present variety, however crossed, is not
equal to the old Suffolk.
The dark chestnut is as different a horse from the hackney-like chestnut as can he
well imagined; round in the carcase; powerful in the quarters, hut rather fine in the
legs ; possessed of great endurance, and with a constitution that rarely knows an ail-
ment, except that the feet are small and disposed to contraction, and the horse is occa-
sionally of a hot and unmanageable temper.
Of the bays, there are many varieties, and they include the very best of our horses
of every description. The bright yellow bay, although very beautiful, and especially
if his mane and tail are black, is the least valuable — the lightness of his colour seems
to give him some tenderness of constitution. The pure bay, with no white about him,
and black from the knees and hocks to the feet, is the most desirable of all. He has
generally a good constitution, and good feet ; and, if his conformation is not faulty,
will turn out a valuable horse for almost every purpose.
The bay-brown has not always so much show and action, but, generally, more
strength and endurance, and usefulness. He has greater substance than the lighter
bay, and more depth of leg; and, if he had the same degree of breeding, he would be
as handsome, and more valuable.
When, however, we arrive at the browns, it is necessary to examine the degree of
breeding. This colour is not so fashionable, and therefore these horses have been
considerably neglected. There are many good ones, and those that are good are
valuable ; others, probably, are only a half or a quarter bred, and therefore compara-
tively coarse, yet useful for the saddle and for harness — for slow work, and, occasion-
ally, for that which is more rapid.
The black-brown is generally more neglected so far as its breed is concerned, and
should be more carefully examined. It is valuable if it retains the goodness of con-
stitution of the brown and bay-brown.
Of the black, greater care has been taken. The heavy black of Lincolnshire and
the midland counties is a noble animal, and would be almost beyond price if he could
be rendered more active. The next in size constitute the majority of our wagon-
horses, and perhaps our best; and, on a smaller breed, and to the improvement of
which much attention has been devoted, many of our cavalrj' are mounted. A few
black thorough-bred horses and black hunters are occasionally seen, but the improve-
ment of horses of this colour has not been studied, except for the purposes that have
been mentioned. Their peculiar high action, while not objectionable for draught, and
desirable for the parade, would be unbearable in the roadster. Black horses have
been said to be more subject to vice, disease, and blindness, than those of any other
colour. This charge is not true to its full extent ; but there certainly are a great many
worthless black horses in every part of the country.
After all, there is an old saying, that a good horse cannot be of a bad colour; and
that it is far more necessary to attend to the conformation and points of the animal
than to his colour. The foregoing observations, however, although they admit of
many exceptions, may be useful in guiding to the judicious purchase of the horse.
SURFEIT.
Large pimples or eruptions often appear suddenly on the skin of the horse, and
especially in the spring of the year. Occasionally they disappear as quickly as they
came. Sometimes they seem to be attended with great itching, but. at other times,
the annoyance is comparatively little. When these eruptions have remained a few
."lays, the cuticle frequently peels off, and a small scaly spot — rarely a sore — is left.
388 THE SKIN AND ITS DISEASES.
This is called a surfeit, from its resemblance to some eruptions en the skin of the
human being when indigestible or unwholesome food has been taken. The surfeit is,
in so:i.e eases, confined to the neck ; but it oftener spreads over the sides, back, loins,
and quarters. The cause is enveloped in some obscurity. The disease most fre-
quently appears when the skin is irritable during or after the process of moulting, or
when it sympathises with any disorder of the stomach. It has been known to follow
the eating of poisonous herbs or mowburnt hay, but, much oftener, it is to be traced
to exposure to cold when the skin was previously irritable and the horse heated by
exercise. It has also been attributed to the immoderate drinking of cold water when
the animal was hot. It is obstruction of some of the pores of the skin and swelling
of the surrounding substance, either from primary affection of the skin, or a plethoric
state of the system, or sympathy with the digestive organs.
The state of the patient will sufficiently guide the surgeon as to the course he
should pursue. If there is simple eruption, without any marked inflammatory action,
alteratives should be resorted to, and particularly those recommended for hidebound
in page 476. They should be given on several successive nights. The night is bet-
ter than the morning, because the warmth of the stable will cause the antimony and
sulphur to act more powerfully on the skin. The horse should be warmly clothed —
half an hour's walking exercise should be given, an additional rug being thrown over
him — such green meat as can be procured should be used in moderate quantities, and
the chill should be taken from the water.
Should the eruption continue or assume a more virulent character, bleeding and
aloetic physic must be had recourse to, but neither should be carried to any extreme.
The physic having set, the alteratives should again be had recourse to, and attention
should be paid to the comfort and diet of the horse.
If the eruption, after several of these alternate appearances and disappearances,
should remain, and the cuticle and the hair begin extensively to peel off, a worse
affection is to be feared, for surfeit is too apt to precede, or degenerate into, mange.
This disorder, therefore, must next be considered.
MANGE
Is a pimpled or vesicular eruption. After a while the vesicles break, or the cuticle
and the hair fall off, and there is, as in obstinate surfeit, a bare spot covered with
scurf — some fluid oozing from the skin beneath, and this changing to a scab, which
likewise soon peels off, and leaves a wider spot. This process is attended by consi-
derable itching and tenderness, and thickening of the skin, which soon becomes more
or less folded, or puckered. The mange generally first appears on the neck at the
root of the mane, and its existence may be suspected even before the blotches appear,
and when there is only considerable itchiness of the part, by the ease with which the
short hair at the root of the mane is plucked out. From the neck it spreads upward
to the head, or downward to the withers and back, and occasionally extends over the
whole carcass of the horse.
One cause of it, although an unfrequent one, has been stated to be neglected oi
inveterate surfeit. Several instances are on record in which poverty of condition, and
general neglect of cleanliness, preceded or produced the most violent mange. A
remark of Mr. Blaine is very important: — "Among the truly healthy, so far as my
experience goes, it never arises spontaneously, but it does readily from a spontaneous
origin among tlie unhealthy." The most common cause is contagion. Amidst the
whole list of diseases to which the horse is exposed, there is not one more highly
contagious than mange. If it once gets into a stable, it spreads through it, for the
slightest contact seems to be sufficient for the communication of this noisome com-
plaint.
If the same brush or currycomb is used on all the horses, the propagation of mange
is assured ; and horses feeding in the same pasture with a mangy one rarely escape,
from the propensity they have to nibble one another. Mange in cattle has been pro-
pagated to the horse, and from the horse to cattle. There are also some well-authen-
ticated instances of the same disease being communicated from the dog to the horse,
but not from the horse to the dog.
Mange has been said to origiuate in want of cleanliness in the management of the
stable. The comfort and the health of the horse demand the strictest cleanliness
The eyes and the lungs frequently suffer from the noxious fumes of the putrefying
MANGE. 389
dung and urine ; but, in defiance of common prejudice, there is no authentic instance
of manjre being the result. It may, however, proceed from poverty. When the ani-
mal is half starved, and the functions of digestion and the power of the constitution
are weakened, the skin soon sympathises, and mange is occasionally produced instead
of surfeit and hide-bound. Every farmer has proof enough of this being the case.
If a horse is turned on a common where there is scarcely sufficient herbage to satisfy
his appetite, or if he is placed in one of those straw-yards that are under the manage-
ment of mercenary and unfeeling men, and are the very abodes of misery, the ani-
mal comes up a skeleton, and he comes up mangy too. Poverty and starvation are
fruitful sources of mange, but it does not appear that filth has much to do with it,
although poverty and filth generally go hand in hand.
The propriety of bleeding in cases of mange depends on the condition of the pa-
tient. If mange is the result of povert}", and the animal is much debilitated, bleed-
ing will increase the evil, and will probably deprive the constitution of the power of
rallying. Physic, however, is indispensable in every case. It is the first step in the
progress towards cure. A mercurial ball will be preferable to a common aloetic one,
as more certain and effectual in its operation, and the mercury probably having some
influence in mitigating the disease. In this, however, mange in the horse resembles
itch in the human being — medicine alone will never effect a cure. There must be
some local application. There is this additional similarity — that which is most effec-
tual in curing the itch in the human being must form the basis of every local appli-
cation for the cure of mange in the horse. Sulphur is indispensable in every
unguent for mange. It is the sheet-anchor of the veterinary surgeon. In an early and
not very acute state of mange, equal portions of sulphur, turpentine, and train-oil,
gently but well rubbed on the part, will be applied with advantage. Farriers are fond
of the black sulphur, but that which consists of earthy matter, with the mere dregs
of various substances, cannot be so effectual as the pure sublimed sulphur. A toler-
ably stout brush, or even a currj-comb, lightly applied, should be used, in order to
remove the dandriff or scurf, wherever there is any appearance of mange. After that,
the horse should be washed with strong soap and water as far as the disease has ex-
tended ; and, when he has been thoroughly dried, the ointment should be well rubbed
in with the naked hand, or with a piece of flannel. More sfood will be done by a
little of the ointment being well rubbed in, than by a great deal being merely smeared
over the part. The rubbing should be daily repeated.
The sulphur seems to have a direct influence on the disease — the turpentine has an
indirect one, by exciting some irritation on the skin of a different nature from that
produced by the mange, and under the influence of which the irritation of mange will
be diminished, and the disease more easily combated. During the application of the
ointment, and as soon as the physic has set, an alterative ball or powder, similar to
those recommended for the other affections of the skin, should be daily given. If,
"after some days have passed, no procrress should appear to have been made, half a
pound of sulphur should be well mixed with a pint of oil of tar, or, if that is not to
be obtained, a pint of Barbadoes tar, and the atTected parts rubbed, as before. On
every fifth or sixth day the ointment should be washed off with warm soap and wa-
ter. The progress towards cure will thus be ascertained, and the skin will be cleans-
ed, and its pores opened for the more effectual application of the ointment.
The horse should be well supplied with nourishing, but not stimulating food. As
much green meat as he will eat should be given to him, or, what is far better, he
should be turned out, if the weather is not too cold. It may be useful to add, that,
after the horse has been once well dressed with either of these liniments, the danger
of contagion ceases. It is necessary, however, to be assured that every mangy place
has been anointed. It will be prudent to give two or three dressings after the horse
has been apparently cured, and to continue the alteratives for ten days or a fortnight.
The cure being completed, the clothing of the horse should be well soaked in wa-
ter, to which a fortieth part of the saturated solution of the chloride of lime has been
added ; after which it should be washed with soap and water, and again washed and
soaked in a solution of the chloride of lime. Every part of the harness should un-
dergo a similar purification. The curr\'comb may be scoured, but the brush should
be burned. The rack, and manger, and partitions, and every part of the stable which
the horse could possibly have touched, should be well washed with a hair-broom — a
pint of the chloride of lime being added to three gallons of water. All the- wood-
33*
390 SOUNDNESS AND UNSOUNDNESS.
work should then be scoured with soap and water, after which a second washing with
the chloride of lime will render all secure. Some farmers have pulled down their
stables, when they have been thoroughly infected with mange. This is being unne
cessarily cautious. The efficacy of the chloride of lime was not then known ; but
if that is carefully and sufficiently applied to every part of the stable and its furni
lure, there cannot afterwards be danger.
Every case of itchiness of the skin should be regarded with suspicion. When a
horse is seen to rub the root of his tail, or his head, or neck, against the manger, the
xiarts should be carefully examined. Some of the hair may have been rubbed or torn
ufT, but if the roots remain firmly adherent, and there is only redness and not scurfi-
ness of the skin, it probably is not mange, but only inflammation of the skin, from
too great fulness of blood. A little blood should be abstracted — a purgative admin-
istered and the alteratives given. The mange ointment cannot do harm, and may
possibly prevent this heat of the skin from degenerating into mange, or arrest the
proo-ress of mange if it has commenced. If a scurfiness of skin should appear on
any of the points that are pressed upon by the collar or harness, the veterinary sur-
geon will do right to guard against clanger by alterative medicine and the use of the
ointment.
WARTS.
These are tumours of variable size, arising from the cuticle, and afterwards con-
nected with the true skin by means of the vessels which supply the growth of the
tumours. They are found on the eyelids, the muzzle, the ears, the belly, the neck,
the penis, and the prepuce. There are some caustics available, but frequently they
must be removed by an operation. If the root is very small, it may be snipped asun-
der, close to the skin, with a pair of scissors, and touched with the lunar caustic. If
the pedicle or stem is somewhat larger, a ligature of waxed silk should be passed
firmly round it, and tightened every day. The source of nutriment being thus re-
moved, the tumour will, in a short time, die and drop off. If the warts are large, or
in considerable clusters, it will be necessary to cast the horse, in order to cut them
off close to the skin : the root should then be seared with a red-hot iron. Unless
these precautions are used, the warts will speedily sprout again.
VERMIN.
Both the biped and the quadruped are 'Subject to the visitation of insects, that fasten
on the skin, and are a constant nuisance from the itchiness which they occasion. If
the horse, after being turned out for the winter, is taken up in the spring, long and
rough in his coat, and poor in condition, and with evident hide-bound, he will almost
invariably be afflicted with vermin.
In our present imperfect acquaintance with natural history, it is difficult to account
for the appearance of certain insects, and of those alone, on the integument of one
animal, while others of an altogether different character are found on its neighbour.
Each one has a tormentor peculiar to itself.
The vermin of the horse is destroyed by an infusion of tobacco, or a solution of
corrosive sublimate, the latter requiring the greatest caution. The skin being once
cleansed of them, an attention to cleanliness will prevent their reappearance.
CHAPTER XXII.
ON SOUNDNESS, AND THE PURCHASE AND SALE OF HORSES.
There are few sources of greater annoyance both to the purchaser and the seller
of the horse than disputes with regard to the soundness of the animal. Although,
in describing the various parts of the horse, we have glanced at the connexion of cer-
tain natural conformations, and some alterations of structure, and accidents, and dis-
eases, with the question of soundness or unsoundness, it may not be uninteresting to
those for whom our work is designed, if we now bring into one point of view the
substance of that which has been scattered over many pages.
That horse is sound in whom there is no disease, and no alteration of structure that
LNSOUNDNESS. 391
impairs, or is likely to impair, his natural usefulness. The horse is unsound that
labours under disease, or has some alteration of structure which does interfere, or is
likely to interfere, with his natural usefulness.* The term " natural usefulness^'' must
be borne in mind. One horse may possess great speed, but is soon knocked up; an-
other will work all day, but cannot be got beyond a snail's pace : a third with a heavy
forehand is liable to stumble, and is continually putting to hazard the neck of his
rider; another, with an irritable constitution and a loose, washy form, loses his appe-
tite and begins to scour if a little extra work is exacted from him. The term un-
soundness must not be applied to either of these ; it would be opening far too widely
a door to disputation and endless wrangling. The buyer can discern, or ought to
know, whether the form of the horse is that which will render him likely to suit his
purpose, and he should tr}' him sufficiently to ascertain his natural strength, endur-
ance, and manner of going. Unsoundness, we repeat, has reference only to disease,
or to that alteration of structure which is connected with, or will produce disease, and
lessen the usefulness of the animal.
These principles will be best illustrated by a brief consideration of the usually sup-
posed appearances or causes of unsoundness.
Broken knees certainly do not constitute unsoundness, after the wounds are healed,
unless they interfere with the action of the joint ; for the horse may have fallen from
mere accident, or through the fault of the rider, without the slightest damage more
than the blemish. No person, however, would buy a horse with broken knees, until
he had thoroughly tried him, and satisfied himself as to his form and action.
Capped hocks may be produced by lying on an unevenly paved stable, with a
scanty supplv of litter, or by kicking generally, in neither of which cases would they
constitute unsoundness, although in the latter they would be an indication of vice ;
but, in the majority of instances, they are the consequence of sprain, or of latent
injury of the hock, and accompanied by enlargement of it, and would constitute un-
soundness. A special warranty should always be taken against capped hocks.
Contraction is a considerable deviation from the natural form of the foot, but not
necessarily constituting unsoundness. It requires, however, a most careful examina-
tion on the part of the purchaser or veterinary surgeon, in order to ascertain that there
is no heat about the quarter, or ossification of the cartilage — that the frog, although
diminished in sizF, is not diseased — that the horse does not step short and go as if
the foot were tender, and that there is not tTi"e slig-htest trace of lameness. Unless
these circumstances, or some of them, are detected, a horse must not be pronounced
to be unsound because his feet are contracted ; for many horses with strangely con-
tracted feet do not suffer at all in their action. A special warranty, however, should
be required where the feet are at all contracted.
Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. The portion of the foot in which bad
corns are situated will not bear the ordinary pressure of the shoe ; and accidental
additional pressure from the growing down of the horn, or the introduction of dirt or
gravel, will cause serious lameness. They render 'it necessary to wear a thick and
heavy shoe, or a bar shoe, in order to protect the weakened and diseased part ; and
they are very seldom radically cured. There may be, however, and frequently is, a
difference of opinion as to the actual existence or character of the corn. A veterinary
surgeon may consider it so slight and insignificant as not apparently to injure the horse,
and he pronounces the animal to be sound ; but he should be cautious, for there are
corns of every shade and degree, from the slightest degree to the most serious evil.
They may be so slight and manaa-pable as, though ranginsf under the class of morbid
alteration of structure, yet not to diminish the natural usefulness of the horse in any
degree. Slight corns will disappear on the horse being shod with ordinary skill and
care, even without any alteration in the shoe.
* vince the publication of our first edition, this definition or rule as to soundness or unsound-
nesp has received very high judicial sanction. Coates v. Stepheris, 2 Moody and Robinson,
157 . Scholefield v. Eohb, id. 2iO. We shall adhere to it as our test of soundness or unsound-
ness" thro-jphout this chapter, not forgetting what is said in the following extract from a note
to one of these cases. " As it may now be considered as settled law, that the breach of a
warranty of soundness does not entitle the purchaser to return the horse, but only to recover
the difference of value of the horse with or without the particular unsoundness, the question
of temporary maladies, producing no permanent deterioration of the animal, would, gener-
ally speaking, only involve a right to damages merely nominal."
392 UNSOUNDNESS.
Cough. — This is a disease, and consequently unsoundness. However slight may
be its degTee, and of whatever short standing it may be, although it may soinetiines
scarcely seem to interfere with the usefulness of the horse, yet a change of stabling,
or slight exposure to wet and cold, or the least over-exertion, may, at other times,
cause it to degenerate into many dangerous complaints. A horse, therefore, should
never be purchased with a cough upon him, without a special warranty ; or if — the
cough not being observed — he is purchased under a general warranty, that warranty
is thereby broken. It is not law, that a horse may be returned on breach of the \\ ar-
ranty. The seller is not bound to take him back, unless he has contracted so to do;
but he is liable in damages. Lord Ellenborough has completely decided this matter.
" I have always held," said he, " that a warranty of soundness is broken, if the ani-
mal, at the time of sale, had any infirmity upon him that rendered him less fit for
present service. It is not necessary that the disorder should be permanent or incura-
ble. While he has a cough, he is unsound, although that may either be temporary
or prove mortal."*
Roaring, Wheezing, W^histling, High-blowing, and Grunting, being the result
of alteration of structure, or disease in some of the air-passages, and interfering with
the perfect freedom of breathing, especially when the horse is put on his speed, witii-
out doubt constitute unsoundness. There are decisions to the contrary, which are
now universally admitted to be erroneous. Broken wind is still more decidedly
unsoundness.
Crib-biting. — Although some learned judges have asserted that crib-biting is sim-
ply a trick or bad habit, it must be regarded as unsoundness. This unnatural sucking
in of the air must to a certain degree injure digestion. It must dispose to colic, and
so interfere with the strength, and usefulness, and health of the horse. Some crib
biters are good goers, but they probably would have possessed more endurance hud
they not acquired this habit; and it is a fact well established, that, as soon as a horsf
becomes a crib-biter, he, in nine cases out of ten, loses condition. He is not to th(
experienced eye the horse he was before. It may not lead on to strongly-marked dis-
ease, or it may rarely do so to any considerable degree ; but a horse that is morbidlji
deficient in condition must, to that extent, have his capability for extraordinary work
diminished, and so be brought within our definition of unsoundness. In its very early
stage it may be a mere trick — confirmed, it must have produced morbid deterioration.
The wear of the front teeth, and the occasional breaking of them, make a horse old
before his time, and sometimes render it difficult or almost impossible for him to graze,
when the state of the animal or the convenience of the owner requires that he should
be turned out.
Curb constitutes unsoundness while it lasts, and perhaps while the swelling
remains, although the inflammation may have subsided ; for a horse that has once
♦brown out a curb is, for a while at least, very liable to do so again, to get lame in
Ihe same place on the slightest extra exertion ; or, at all events, he would there firs*
* In deciding on another case, the same judge said, " I have always held it that a cough
SI a breach of the warranty. On that understanding I have always acted, and think it quite
clear." It was argued on the other hand that two-thirds of the horses in London had coughs,
yet still the judge maintained that the cough was a breach of warranty. When it was farther
argued that the horse had been hunted the day after the purchase, and the cough miiiht have
been increased by this, the reply was singular, but decisive. " There is no proof that he
would have got well if he had not been hunted." This doctrine is confirmed by Parke, B.,
in the first case cited in p. 391. . . .
In p. 194, it is very properly stated that roaring is unsoundness, because it impairs the lunc-
tion of respiration. Tliis was not always, however, the law of the bench. " Lord Ellenbo-
rough," quoting from Sir James Mansfield, says, " It has been held by very high authority
that roaring is not necessarily unsoundness, and I entirely concur in that opinion. If the horse
emits a loud noise, which is offensive to the ear, merely from a bad habit which he has con-
tracted, or from any cause that does not interfere with his general health, or muscular powers,
he is still to be considered a sound horse. On the other hand, if the roaring proceeds from
any disease or organic infirmity, which renders him incapable of performing the usual func-
tions of a horse, then h does constitute unsoundness. The plaintiff has not done enough ir.
showing that this horse was a roarer. To prove a breach of the warranty he must go on to
show that the roaring was symptomatic of disease." These extracts are taken from a singu-
lar work, not always correct, vet from which much amusement, and instruction too, may be
derived—" The Adventures of a Gentleman in Search of a Horse, by Caveat Emptor."
UNSOUNDNESS. 393
fail on extraordinary exertion. A horse, however, is not returnable, although he
ihould spring- a curb five minutes after the purchase ; for it is done in a moment, and
ioes not necessarily indicate any previous unsoundness or weakness of the part.
Cutting, as rendering a horse liable to serious injury of the legs, and indicating
that he L> either weak, or lias an awkwardness of gait inconsistent with safety, pro-
duces, rather than is, unsoundness. Many horses go lame for a considerable period
after cutting themselves severely; and others have dropped from the sudden agony
and endangered themselves and their riders. As some doubt, however, exists on thia
subject, and as it is a very materia] objection to a horse, cutting, when evident, should
nave its serious consequences provided against by a special warranty.
ExLARGED Glands. — The enlargement of the glands under the jaw has not been so
much considered as it ought to have been in our estimate of the soundness of the
horse. Simple catarrh will occasionally, and severe affection of the chest will gene-
rally, be accompanied by swelling of these glands, which does not subside for a con-
siderable time after tlie cold or fever has apparently been cured. To slight enlarge-
ments of the glands under the jaw much attention need not be paid ; but if they are of
considerable size, and especially if they are tender, and the glands at the root of the
ear partake of the enlargement, and the membrane of the nose is redder than it should
be, we should hesitate in pronouncing that horse to be sound. We must consider the
swelling as a symptom of disease.
ExLARGED Hock. — A horse with enlarged hock is unsound, the structure of thia
complicated joint being so materially affected that, although the horse may appear for
a considerable time to be capable of ordinary work, he will occasionally fail even in
that, and a few days' hard Avork will always lame him.
The Eyes. — That inflammation of the e3-e of the horse which usually terminates in
blindness of one or both eyes, has the peculiar character of receding or disappearing
for a time, once or twice, or thrice, before it fully runs its course. The eye, after an
attack of inflammation, regains so nearly its former natural brilliancy that a person
even well acquainted with horses will not always recognise the traces of former dis-
ease. After a time, however, the inflammation returns, and the result is inevitable.
A horse that has had one attack of this complaint, is long afterwards unsound, how-
ever perfect the eye may seem to be, because he carrier about with him a disease thai
will probably again break out, and eventually destroy the sight. Whether, therefore,
he may be rejected or not, depends on the possibility of proving an attack of inflam-
mation of the eye, prior to the purchase. Next to direct evidence of this are appear-
ances about the eye, of which the veterinary surgeon at least ought not to be ignorant.
Allusion has been made to them in page 89. They consist chiefly of a puckerinw
of the lids towards the inner corner of one or both eyes — a difference in the size of
the eyes, although perhaps only a slight one, and not discovered except it be looked
for — a gloominess of the eye — a dulness of the iris — a little dulness of the transparent
part of the ej-e generally — a minute, faint, dusky spot, deep in the eye, and generally
with little radiations of white lines proceeding from it. If these symptoms, or the
majority of them, existed at the time of purchase, the animal had assuredly been dis-
eased before, and was unsound. Starting has been considered as an equivocal proof.
It is usually an indication of defective sight, but it is occasionally a trick. Connect-
ed, however, with the appearances just described, it is a very strong corroborative
proof.
Lamexess, from whatever cause arising, is unsoundness. However temporary it
may be, or however obscure, there must be disease which lessens the utility of the
horse, and renders him unsound for the time. So says common sense, but there are
conlradictory decisions on the case. " A horse labouring under a temporary injury of
hurt, which is capable of being speedilj* cured or removed, is not, according to Chief
Justice Eyre, an unsound horse ; and where a warranty is made that such a horse is
sound, it is made without any view to such an injury; nor is a horse so circumstanced
within the meaning of the warranty. To vitiate the warranty, the injury the horse
had sustained, or the malady under which he laboured, ought to be of a pfimanent
nature, and not such as may arise from a temporary injur}' or accident."*
On the contrary. Lord Ellenborouffh says: "•! have always held, and now hold,
that a warranty of soundness is broken, if the animal at the time of sale has any
2 Espin. Rep. 673, Garment v, Barrs.
2z
294. UNSOUNDNESS.
nfirmity upon him which renders him less fit for present service. It is not necessa y
that the disorder should be permanent or incurable. While a horse has a couifh he
IS unsound, although it may either be temporary or may prove mortal. The horse in
question having been lame at the time of sale, when he was warranted to be sound,
his condition subsequently is no defence to the action."* The decisions of Mr.
Baron Parke, already referred to, confirm this doctrine.
Neurotomy. — A question has arisen liow far a horse that has undergone the opera
tion of the division of the nerve of the leg (see p. Ill), and has recovered from the
lameness with which he was before aflected, and stands his work well, may be con
sidered to be sound. Chief .Justice Best held such a horse to be unsound, and in our
opinion there cannot be a doubt about the matter. The operation of neurotomy does
not remove the disease causing the lameness, but only the sensation of pain. A horse
on whom this operation has been performed may be improved by it — may cease to be
lame — may go well for many years ; but there is no certainty of this, and he is unsound,
within our definition, unless nature gave the nerve for no useful purpose.
Ossification ok the lateral cartilages constitutes unsoundness, as interfering
with the natural expansion of the foot, and, in horses of quick work, almost invariably
producing lameness.
Pumiced-foot. — When the union between the horny and sensible laminae, or little
plates of the foot (see p. 301), is weakened, and the coffin-bone is let down, and
presses upon the sole, and the sole yields to this unnatural weight, and becomes
rounded, and is brought in contact with the ground, and is bruised and injured, that
horse must be unsound, and unsound for ever, because there are no means by which
we can raise the coffin-bone again into its place.
QuiDDiNG. — If the mastication of the food gives pain to the animal, in consequence
of soreness of the mouth or throat, he will drop it before it is perfectly chewed. This,
as an indication of disease, constitutes unsoundness. Quidding sometimes arises from
irregularity in the teeth, which wound the cheek with their sharp edges ; or a protrud-
ing tooth renders it impossible for the horse to close his jaws so as to chew his food
thoroughly. Quidding is unsoundness for the time; but the unsoundness will cease
when the teeth are properly filed, or the soreness or other cause of this imperfect
chewing removed.
Quittor is manifestly unsoundness.
Ring-bone. — Although when the bony tumour is small, and on one side only, there
is little or no lameness — and there are a few instances in which a horse with ring-
bone has worked for many years without its return — yet from the action of the foot,
and the stress upon the part, the inflammation and the formation of bone may acquire
a tendency to spread so rapidly, that we must pronounce the slightest enlargement of
the pasterns, or around the coronet, to be a cause of unsoundness.
Sandcrack is manifestly unsoundness. It may, however, occur without the slight-
est warning, and no horse can be rejected on account of a sandcrack that has sprung
after purchase. Its usual cause is too great brittleness of the crust of the hoof; but
there is no infallible method of detecting this, or the degree in which it must exist in
order to constitute unsoundness. W hen the horn round the bottom of the frot has
chipped oflfso much that only a skilful smith can fasten the shoe without pricking the
horse, or even when there is a tendency in the horn to chip and break in a much less
degree than this, the horse is unsound, for this brittleness of the crust is a disease of
the part, or it is such an altered structure of it as to interfere materially with the use-
fulness of the animal.
Spavin. — Bone spavin, comprehending in its largest sense every bony tumour en
the hock, is not necessarily unsoundness. If the tumour affects in the slightest degree
the action of the horse, it is unsoundness; — even if it does not, it is seldom safe to
pronounce it otherwise than unsoundness. But it may possibly be (like splint in the
fore-leg) so situated as to have no tendency to affect the action. A veterinary surgeon
consulted on the purchase will not always reject a horse because of such a tumour
His evidence on a question of soundness will depend on the facts. The situation and
history of the tumour may be such as to enable him to give a decisive opinion in a
norse going sound, but not often.
BoG or Blood Spavin is unsoundness, because, although it may not bo productive
* 4 Campbell, 251, Elton v. Brogden.
UNSOUNDNESS. 395
of lameness at slow work, the rapid and powerful action of the hock in quicker motion
will produce permanent, yet perhaps not considerable lameness, which can scarcely
ever be with certainty removed.
Splint. — It depends entirely on the situation of the bony tumour on the shank-bone,
whether it is to be considered as unsoundness. If it is not in the neighbourhood of
any joint, so as to interfere with its action, and if it does not press upon any ligament
or tendon, it may be no cause of unsoundness, although it is often very unsightly.
In many cases it may not lessen the capability and value of the animal. This has
been treated on at considerable length in page 2G8.
Stringhalt. — This singular and very unpleasant action of the hind leg is decided-
ly an unsoundness. It is an irregular communication of nervous energy to some
muscle of the thigh, obsenfable when the horse lirst comes from the stable, and gra-
dually ceasing on exercise. It has usually been accompanied by a more than com-
mon degree of strength and endurance. It must, however, be traced to some morbid
alteration of structure or function; and it rarely or never fails to deteriorate and gra-
dually wear out the animal.
Thickening of the Back Sinews. — Sufficient attention is not always paid to the
fineness of the legs of the horse. If the flexor tendons have been sprained, so as to
produce considerable thickening of the cellular substance in which their sheaths are
enveloped, they will long afterwards, or perhaps always, be liable to sprain, from
causes by which they would otherwise be scarcely aftected. The continuance of any
considerable thickness around the sheaths of the tendons indicates previous and vio-
lent sprain. This very thickening will fetter the action of the tendons, and, alter
much quick work, will occasionally renew the inflammation and the lameness; there-
fore, such a horse cannot be sound. It requires, however, a little discrimination to
distinguish this from the gumminess or roundness of leg, peculiar to some breeds.
There should be an evident diff'erence between the injured leg and the other.
Thoroughpin, except it is of great size, is rarely productive of lameness, and there-
fore cannot be termed unsoundness ; but as it is the consequence of hard work, and
now and then does produce lameness, the hock should be most carefully examined,
and there should be a special warranty against it.
Thrush. — There are various cases on record of actions on account of thrushes in
horses, and the decisions have been much at variance, or perfectly contradictory.
Thrush has not been always considered by legal men as unsoundness. We, how-
ever, decidedly S'O consider it; as being a disease interfering and likely to interfere
with the usefulness of the horse. Thrush is inflammation of the lower surftice of the
inner or sensible frog — and the secretion or throwing out of pus — almost invariably
accompanied by a slight degree of tenderness of the frog itself, or of the heel a little
above it, and, if neglected, leading to diminution of the substance of the frog, and
separation of the horn from parts beneath, and underrunning, and the production of
fungus and canker, and, ultimately, a diseased state of the foot, destructive of the
present, and dangerous to the future usefulness of the horse.
WiNDGALLS. — There are fev/ horses perfectly free from windgalls, but they do not
interfere with the action of the fetlock, or cause lameness, except when they are nu-
merous or large. They constitute unsoundness only when they cause lameness, or
are so large and numerous as to render it likely that they will cause it.
In the purchase of a horse the buyer usually receives, embodied in the receipt,
what is termed a warranty. It should be thus expressed :—
"Received of A. B. forty pounds for a grey mare, warranted only five years old, sound,
free from vice, and quiet to ride and drive.
'' £A0. "CD."
A receipt, including merely the word "warranted," extends only to soundness, —
warranted sound" ^oes no farther; the age, freedom from vice, and quietness to
ide and drive, should be especially named. This warranty comprises every cause
of unsoundness that can be detected, or that lurks in the constitution at the time of
jale, and to every vicious habit that the animal has hitherto shown. To establish a
>reach of the warranty, and to be enabled to tender a return of the horse and recover
the difference of price, the purchaser must prove that it was unsound or viciously dis-
posed at the time of sal". In case of cough, the horse must have been heard to cough
immediately after the purchase, or as he was led home, or as soon as he had entered
396 UNSOUNDNESS.
the stable of the purchaser. Coughing, even on the following morning-, will not be
sufficient; for it is possible that he might have caught cold by change of stabling.
If he is lame, it must be proved to arise from a cause that existed before the animal
was in the purchaser's possession. No price will imply a warranty, or be equivalent
to one ; there must be an express warranty. A fraud nmst be proved in the seller, in
order that the buyer may be enabled to return the horse or maintain an action for the
price. The warranty should be given at the time of sale. A warranty, or a promise
to warrant the horse given at any period antecedent to the sale, is invalid ; for horse-
flesh is a very perishable commodity, and the constitution and usefulness of the ani-
mal may undergo a considerable change in the space of a few days. A warranty
after the sale is invalid, for it is given without any legal consideration. In order to
complete the purchase, there nmst be a transfer of the antmal, or a memorandum of
agreement, or the payment of earnest-money. The least sum will suffice for earnest.
No verbal promise to buy or to sell is binding without one of these. The momen
either of these is effected, the legal transfer of property or delivery is made, and what-
ever may happen to the horse, the seller retains, or is entitled to the money. If the
purchaser exercises any act of ownership, by using the animal without leave of the
vendor, or by having any operation performed, or any medicines given to him, he
makes him his own. The warranty of a servant is considered to be binding on the
master.*
If the horse should be afterwards discovered to have been unsound at the time of
warranty, the buyer may tender a return of it, and, if it be not taken back, may bring
his action for the price ; but the seller is not bound to rescind the contract, unless he
hap agreed so to do.
Although there is no legal compulsion to give immediate notice to the seller of the
discovered unsoundness, it will be better for it to be done. The animal should then
be tendered at the house or stable of the vendor. If he refuses to receive him, the
animal may be sent to a livery-stable and sold ; and an action for the difference in
orice may be brought. The keep, however, can be recovered only for the time that
necessarily intervened between the tender and the determination of the action. It is
not legally necessary to tender a return of the horse as soon as the unsoundness is
discovered. The animal may be kept for a reasonable time afterwards, and even pro-
per medical means used to remove the unsoundness ; but courtesy, and indeed jus-
tice, will require that the notice should be given as soon as possible. Although it is
stated, on the authority of Lord Loughborough, that "no length of time elapsed
after the sale will alter the nature of a contract originally false," yet it seems to
have been once thought it was necessary to the action to give notice of the unsound-
ness in a reasonable time. The cause of action is certainly complete on breach of
the warranty.
It used to be supposed that the buyer had no right to have the horse medically treat-
ed, and that he would waive the warranty by doing so. The question, however,
would be, has he injured or diminished the value of the horse by this treatment? It
will generally be prudent for him to refrain from all medical treatment, because the
means adopted, however skilfully employed, may have an unfortunate effect, or may
be misrepresented by ignorant or interested observers.
The purchaser possibly may like the horse, notwithstanding his discovered defect,
and he may retain, and bring his action for the depreciation in value on account of
the unsoundness. Few^, however, will do this, because his retaining the horse will
cause a suspicion that the defect was of no great consequence, and will give rise to
much cavil about the quantum of damages, and after all, very slight damages wil'
probably be obtained. " I take it to be clear law," says Lord Eldon, " that if a per-
son purchases a horse that is warranted, and it afterwards turns out that the horse
was unsound at the time of the warranty, the buyer may, if he pleases, keep the
horse, and bring an action on the warranty ; in which he will have a right to recover
the difference between the value of a sound horse, and one with such defects as ex-
isted at the time of warranty ; or he may return the horse, and bring an action to
recover the full money paid : but in the latter case, the seller has a right to expect
that the horse shall be returned to him in the same state he was when sold, and not
' The weight of authority decides that the master is bound by the act of the servant. Lord
Kenyon, however, had some doubt on the subject.
UNSOUNDNESS. 39.^
by any means diminished in value ; for if a person keeps a warranted article for any
length of time after discovering its defects, and when he returns it, it is in a worse
state than it would have been if returned immediately after such discovery, I think
the party can have no defence to an action for the price of the article on the ground
of non-compliance with the warranty, but must be left to his action on the warranty
to recover the diflerence in the value of the article warranted, and its value when
sold "*
Where there is no warranty, an action may be brought on the ground of fraud ; but
this is very difficult to be maintained, and not often hazarded. It will be necessary
to prove that the dealer knew the defect, and that the purchaser was imposed upon
by his false representation, or other fraudulent means. If the defect was evident to
every eye, the purchaser has no remedy — he should have taken more care; but if a
warranty was given, that extends to all unsoundness, palpable or concealed. Al-
though a person should ignorantly or carelessly buy a blind horse, warranted sound,
he may reject it — the warranty is his guard, and prevents him from so closely exam-
ining the horse as he otherwise would have done; but if he buys a blind horse, think-
ing him to be sound, and without a warranty, he has no remedy. Every one ought
to exercise common circumspection and common sense.
A man should have a more perfect knowledge of horses than falls to the lot of
most, and a perfect knowledge of the vendor too, who ventures to buy a horse without
a warranty.
If a person buys a horse warranted sound, and discovering no defect in him, and,
relying on the v.-arranty, re-sells him, and the unsoundness is discovered by the second
purchaser, and the horse returned to the first purchaser, or an action commenced
against him, he has his claim on the first seller, and may demand of him not only the
price of the horse, or the difference in value, but every expense that may have been
incurred.
Absolute exchanges, of one horse for another, or a sum of money being paid in
addition by one of the parties, stand on the same ground as simple sales. If there is
a warranty on either side, and that is broken, an action may be maintained : if there
be no warranty, deceit must be proved.
The trial of horses on sale often leads to disputes. The law is perfectly clear, but
the application of it, as in other matters connected with horse-flesh, attended with
glorious uncertainty. The intended purchaser is only liable for damage done to the
horse through his own misconduct. The seller may put what restriction he chooses
on the trial, and takes the risks of all accidents in the fair use of the horse within
such restrictions.
If a horse from a dealer's stable is galloped far and fast, it is probable that he will
soon show distress ; and if he is pushed farther, inflammation and death maj'' ensue.
The dealer rarely gets recompensed for this ; nor ought he, as he knows t!ie unfitness
of his horse, and may thank himself for permitting such a trial ; and if it should occur
soon after the sale, he runs the risk of having the horse returned, or of an action for
its price.
In this, too, he is not much to be pitied. The mischievous and fraudulent practice
of dealers, especially in London, of giving their horses, by overfeeding, a false appear-
ance of muscular substance, leads to the ruin of many a valuable animal. It would
be a useful lesson to have to contest in an action or two the question whether a horse
overloaded with fat can be otherwise than in a state of disease, and consequently
unsound.
It is proper, however, to put a limit to what has been too frequently asserted from
the bench, that a horse warranted sound must be taken as fit for immediate use, and
capable of being immediately put to any fair work the owner chooses. A huntei
honestly warranted sound is certainly warranted to be in immediate condition to fol
low the hounds. The mysteries of condition, as has been shown in a former part ot
the work, are not sufficiently unravelled.
In London, and in most great towns, there are repositories for the periodical sale
of horses by auction. They are of great convenience to the seller who can at once
get rid of a horse with which he wishes to part, without waiting month after month
before he obtains a purchaser, and he is relieved from the nuisance or fear of having
* Curtis V. Hannay, 3 Esp. 83.
34
398 MEDICINE.
the anima returned on account of breach of the warranty, because in these places only
(wo days are allowed for the trial, and if the horse is not returned within that period,
he cannot be afterwards returned. They arc also convenient to the purchaser, who
can thus in a large town soon find a horse that will suit him, and which, from this
restriction as to returning' the animal, he will obtain twenty or thirty per cent, below
the dealers' prices. Although an auction may seem to oft'er a fair and open competi-
tion, there is no place ai which it is more necessary for a person not much accustomed
to horses to take with him an experienced friend, and, when there, to depend on his
own judgment, or that of his friend, heedless of the observations or manoRuvres of the
bystanders, the exaggerated commendation of some horses, and the thousand faults
found with others. There are always numerous groups of low dealers, copers, and
chaunters, whose business it is to delude and deceive.
One of the regulations of the Bazaar in King Street was exceedingly fair, both with
regard to the previous owner and the purchaser, viz. —
" When a horse, having been warranted sound, shall be returned within the pre-
scribed period, on account of unsoundness, a certificate from a veterinary surgeon,
particularly describing the unsoundness, must accompany the horse so returned ; when,
if it be agreed to by tiie veterinary surgeon of the establishment, the amount received
for the horse shall be immediately paid back; but if the veterinary surgeon of tlie
establishment should not confirm the certificate, then, in order to avoid further dispute,
one of the veterinary surgeons of the college shall be called in, and his decision shall
be final, and the expense of such umpire shall be borne by the party in error."
CHAPTER XXIII.
^ LIST OF THE MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF THE
DISEASES OF THE HORSE.
He will rarely consult his own interest, who, not having had the advantage of a
vcterinarj' education, undertakes the tieatment of any of the serious diseases of his
horses. Many of the maladies of ibe horse nearly resemble each other. They are
continually varying their character, and rtquire, in their different stages, a very differ-
ent treatment, and in the plainest case not only the characteristic symptoms of disease
are obscure, but even the indications of returning health, or increasing danger, are
often scarcely ascertainable, consequently the sick horse, as well as the human being,
needs the care of one whom study and experience have qualified for the task. A list
of the drugs generally employed, with a slight account of their history, adulterations,
and medicinal effects, will be interesting to the horsc-pioprietor as well as to tlie
veterinary surgeon ; and may occasionally be useful when professional aid cannot be
obtained.
Frequent reference will be made to Professor Morton's most valuable Manual of
Pharmacy. This work will be found to be a treasure to every veterinary surgeon.
Mr. W. C. Spooner's Materia Medica, in his recent compendium of White's account
of the horse, will occasionally be laid under contribution.
Acacia Gummi. — Many varieties of gxim arable are procured from Egypt, Arabia,
and the East Indies. It is an exudation from the trunk and branches of various trees.
It is employed in the form of a mucilage, made by dissolving it in water, in the pro-
portion of one part of the gum to three or four of water. Various insoluble powders
may be thus suspended, or oils rendei~ed miscible or emulsions formed. Emulsions
composed of gum arabic are supposed to be useful in urinary affections.
AciDUM AcETicuM, AcF.Tic AciD, ViNEGAR. — Vinegar is a verj' useful application
for sprains and bruises. Equal parts of boiling water and cold vinegar will form a
good fomentation. Extract of lead, or bay salt, may be added with some advantage.
As an internal remedy, vinegar is rarely given, nor has it, except in large doses, any
consideiable medicinal power. The veterinarian and the horse-owner should manu
I\I E D I C I N E . 399
ficture their own vinegar. That which they huy frequently contains sulphuric acid
and pungent spices, and irritates the inflamed part to which it is applied.
AciuuM Arseniosu.m, Arsenic. — Were it not that some practitioners continue to
lise it as a tonic, in doses of from ten to twenty grains daily, and others employ it to
core out old ulcers, we would not include it in our list, for we have little faith in it.
There are better and safer tonics, and far better and safer caustics. The method of
detecting the presence of arsenic, in cases of poisoning, has been described at page
227.
AtMDUM McRiATicuM, or HYDROCHLORIC AciD : SpiRiT OF Salt. — This acid is
formed by distilling corrosive sublimate with antimony. The butter-like matter which
is produced (whence the common name, Butyr of dntimony) has a strong affinity for
water, which it attracts from the atmosphere, and thus becomes converted into a fluid.
The less water it is suffered to attract to itself the more powerful it remains, and
therefore it should be kept in stoppered bottles. The proof of its goodness is its
weight. It is decidedly the best liquid caustic we have. It is most manageable, and
its effect can most readily be ascertained. As soon as it touches any muscular or
living part, a change of colour is perceived, and the effect of the caustic can be fairly
judged of by the degree of change. For corns, canker, indisposition in the sole to
secrete good horn, wounds in the foot not attended by healthy action, and for every
case where the superficial application of a caustic is needed, this acid is unrivalled.
AciDUM NiTRicuM : Nitric Acid, Aquafortis. — This is a valuable external appli-
cation. It is both a caustic and an antiseptic. It destroys fungous excrescences. A
pledget of tar should be dipped in the acid, and then firmly pressed on the cankerous
surface. Every part with which the acid has come into contact will be deadened and
slough off, and healthy granulations will spring up.
AciDUM HvDRociAMCCM : Prussic Acid. — This, in a concentrated state, is truly a
deadly poison; a few drops of it will kill a large animal. In a diluted form, it is a
powerful sedative. In doses of six drops, largely diluted, it abates both pulmonary
and gastric irritation. It may be worth trying in the form of enema in cases of Te-
tanus. It may also be given by the mouth in the same disease. Nothing is more
likely to tranquillize the general excitement of the nervous system. The author of
this work was the first person who applied the hj'drocyanic acid for the purpose of
allaying irritation of the skin in dogs. It seldom fails of producing the desired effect,
and it has had a similar good effect in subduing itchiness and mange in the horse.
Acidum SuLPHURicLM, Sl'lphuric Acid. — When mixed with tar in the proportion
of an ounce to the pound, it is a good application for thrush and canker: a smaller
quantity mixed with olive oil makes a good stimulating liniment. If too much sul-
phuric acid is added, either by mistake or wilfully, it inflames and corrodes the sto-
mach and bowels. The proper antidotes in this case are magnesia, or the carbonate
of soda or potash, with soft soap. The acid might possibly be neutralized by this
combination.
Adeps, Hog's Lard, very properly forms the basis of most of our ointments. It
is tasteless, inodorous, and free from everj' stimulating quality. That cannot be said
of all the ingredients used in the composition of our unguents.
Alcohol, Rectified Spirit. — This is necessarily used in many of our tinctures
and other preparations, and is sometimes given to the horse in almost a pure state.
Some horses that are compelled to travel far and quickly, show CTident fatigue before
they arrive at the end of their journey. A cordial or carminative tincture, to the ex-
tent of three or four ounces, largely diluted, may occasionally be given, and they
rally, and cheerfully pursue their course to the end. The groom or the stableman
gives the gin or whiskey of the country, in preference to any other stimulant. In
cases of thorough fatiofue the Daffy's Elixir may be administered, and probably ren-
dered more stimulant by the addition of pepper. Mr. Bracy Clark recommends four
ounces of the tincture of allspice in cases of gripes. On the other hand, some veteri-
nary surgeons have preferred simple hot water, or the infusion of several of our medi-
cinal herbs, as peppermint, rosemary, &c. We should be loath, except on extraordi-
nary occasions, to advocate the use of any spirituous drink.
Aloes. — There are two kinds used in horse practice, the Barbadoes and the Cape.
The Socotrine, preferred by the human surgeon, are very uncertain in their effect on
the horse, and are seldom to be met with pure. Of the Barbadoes and the Cape, the
first are much to be preferred. They are obtained principally from the island of Bar-
400 MEDICINE.
badces, and are the juice of the large leaves of the aloe boiled to a considerable
thickness, and then poured into gourds in which tiiey gradually harden. The true
Cape are the extract of a species of aloes chiefly cultivated at the Cape of Good
Hope. The Barhadoes aloes are black, with a shade of brown, of an unctuous feel-
ing, with a stronger smell, broken with difficulty, and the fracture dull. Tlie Cape
are darker coloured, stronger smelling, very brittle, and the fracture perfectly glossy
Every veterinary surgeon who uses much aloes should buy them in the mass, and
powder them at home, and then, by attending to Ihis account of the difference of the
two, he can scarcely be imposed upon. It is, however, the fact, that these are mostly
adulterated, by their being melted together. Aloes purchased in powder are too oftei'
sadly adulterated.
The Cape aloes may be powdered at all times, and the Barbadoes in frosty wea-
ther, when enough should be prepared, to be kept in closed bottles, for the year's
consumption. They may also be powdered when they have been taken from the
gourd, and exposed to a gentle heat for two or three hours before they are put into
the mortar. In the proportion of fifteen ounces of the powder mixed with one ounce
of powdered ginger, and beaten up with eight ounces of palm oil, and afterwards
divided into the proper doses, it will form a purging mass more effectual, and much
less likely to gripe, than any that can be procured by melting the drug. If the phy-
sic is given in the shape of a ball, it more readily dissolves in the stomach, and more
certainly and safely acts on the bowels when mingled with some oily matter, like
that just recommended, than when combined with syrup or honey, which are apt to
ferment, and be themselves the cause of gripes. It is also worse than useless to add
any diuretic to the mass, as soap or carbonate of soda. The action of these on one
set of organs will weaken that of the aloes on another. A physic mass should never
be kept more than two or three months, for, after that time, it rapidly loses its purga-
tive property.
Directions for physicking will be found at page 237. We will only add that, as a
promoter of condition, the dose should alwaj's be mild. A few fluid stools will be
suff.cient for every good purpose. Violent disease will alone justify violent purging.
The Barbadoes aloes have a greater purgative power than the Cape, exclusive of
griping less and being safer. In addition to this, the action of the bowels is kept up
longer by the Barbadoes aloes than by the Cape. If the horse is well mashed, and
carefully exercised, and will drink plenty of warm water, the Cape may be ventured
on, or at least mixed with equal quantities of the Barbadoes ; but if there is any neglect
of preparation for physic, or during the usual operation of the physic, the Cape are
not always to be depended upon. The combination of alkaline compounds with aloes
alters the results of the medicine. Their action is quickened, but their purgative pro-
perties are impaired, and they cease to operate specifically on the larger intestines.
Such is the opinion of Professor Morton, and undoubtedly the latter would be an
advantage gained. The activity of the aloes may be occasionally increased by a few
drops of the croton oil. Mashes are useful helps when physic is administered.
Some persons are fond of what are called half-doses of physic. Three or four
drachms are given on one day, and three or four on the following; and perhaps, if the
medicine has not operated, as in this divided state it will not always, two or thrre
additional drachms are given on the third day. The consequence is, that the bowels
having been rendered irritable by the former doses, the horse is over-purged, and
inflammation and death occasionally ensue. In physicking a horse, whatever is to
be done should be done at once. Whatever quantity is intended to be given should
be given in one dose.
The system of giving small doses of aloes as alteratives is not good. These repeated
minute doses lodging in some of the folds of the intestines, and at length uniting, often
produce more effect than is desirable. It is never safe to ride a horse far or fast, with
even a small dose of aloes within him.
Most of all objectionable is the custom of giving small doses of aloes as a nauseant.
in inflammation of the lungs. There is so much sympathy between the contents of
the chest and the belly in the horse, and inflammation of one part is so likely to be
transferred to another, that it is treading on very dangerous ground, when, with mu^h
inflammation of the lungs, that is given which will stimulate and may inflame the
Intestines.
MEDICINE. 401
Aloes are most commonly, because most easily, administered in the form of ball
but in a stale of solution their effect is more speedy, effectual, and safe.
Aloes are useful in the form of tincture. Eio;ht ounces of powdered aloes, and one
ounce of powdered myrrh, may be put into two quarts of rectified spirit, diluted with
an equal quantity of water. The mixture should be daily well shaken for a fortnight,
and then suffered to stand, in order that the undissolved portion may fall to the bottom.
This will constitute a very excellent application for wounds, whether recent or of
lon^ standing and indisposed to heal. It is not only a gentle stimulant, but it forms
a thin crust over the wound, and shields it from the action of the air.
The principal adulteration of aloes is by means of resin, and the alteration of colour
is concealed by the addition of charcoal or lamp-black. This adulteration is easily
enough detected by dissolving the aloes in hot water. All aloes contain some resin-
ous matter, which the water will not dissolve and which has very slight purgative
effect. The excess of this resin at the bottom of the solution will mark the degree of
adulteration.
Alteratives are a class of medicines the nature and effect of which are often much
misunderstood, and liable to considerable abuse. It is a very convenient name in
order to excuse that propensity to dose the horse with medicines, which is the dis-
grace of the groom, and the bane of the stable.
By alteratives we understand those drugs which effect some slow change in the
diseased action of certain parts without interfering with the food or work ; but by
common consent the term seems to be confined to medicines for the diseases of the
circulation, or of the digestive organs, or of the skin. If a horse is heavy and incapa-
ble of work from too good keep, or if he is off his food from some temporary indiges-
tion— or if he has mange or grease, or cracked heels, or swelled legs, a few alteratives
are prescribed, and the complaint is expected to be gradually and imperceptibly
removed. For all skin affections there is no better alterative than that so often recom-
mended in this treatise, consisting of black antimony, nitre, and sulphur. If there is
any tendency to grease, some resin may be added to each ball. If the complaint is
accompanied by weakness, a little gentian and ginger may be farther added, but we
enter our protest against the ignorant use of mercury in any form, or any of the mine-
ral acids, or mineral tonics, or heating spices, as alteratives. We indeed should be
pleased if we could banish the term alterative from common usage. The mode of
proceeding which reason and science would dictate is to ascertain the nature and
degree of the disease, and then the medicine which is calculated to restore the healthy
action of the part, or of the frame generally.
Alum is occasionally used internally in cases of super-purgation in the form of
alum-whey, two drachms of the powder being added to a pint of hot milk ; but there
are much better astringents, although this may sometimes succeed when others fail.
If alum is added to a vegetable astringent, as oak-bark, the power of both is dimin-
ished. Its principal use is external. A solution of two drachms to a pint of water
forms alone, or with the addition of a small quantity of white vitriol, a very useful
■wash for cracked heels, and for grease generall \' ; and also for those forms of swelled
legs attended with exudation of moisture through the skin. Some add the Goulard
lotion, forgetting the chemical decomposition that takes place; the result of which is,
that the alumine, possessing little astringency, is detached, and two salts with no
astringrency at all, the sulphate of lead and the sulphate of potash, are formed.
The BcR_\T Alum is inferior to the common alum for the purposes mentioned, and
we have better stimulants, or caustics, to apply to wounds.
Ammonia is, to the annoyance of the horse, and the injury of his eyes and his lungs,
lentifully extricated from the putrefying dung and urine of the stable; but, when
combined with water in the common form of hartshorn, it is seldom used in veterinary
practice. It has been given, and with decided benefit, and when other things have
failed, in flatulent colic; and is best administered in the form of the aromatic spirit of
ammonia, and in doses of one or two ounces, in warm water.
Chloride of Ammonia, or sal ammoniac, is scarcely deserving of a place in oui
list. It is not now used internally ; and as an astringent embrocation, it must yield
to several that are more effectual, and less likely to blemish.
Anisi Semina, Anise-seed. — This seed is here mentioned principally as a record of
old times, when it was one of the sheet-anchors of the farrier. It i? not yet ^uit«
Jiscarded from his shop as a stimulant, a carminative, and a cordial.
34* 3 a
402 MEDICINE.
Anodvnes. — Of these there is but one in horse practice : Opium is the only drug
that will hill pain. It may be given as an anodyne, but it will also be an astringent
in doses of one, two, or three drachms.
Antimony. — There are several valuable preparations of this metal.
The Black Sesqui-Sulphuret of Antimony, a compound of sulphur and antimony,
is a good alterative. It is given with more sulphur and with nitre, in varying doses,
according to the disease, and the slow or rapid effect intended to be produced. It
should never be bought in powder whatever trouble there may be in levigating it. for
It is often grossly adulterated with lead, manganese, forge-dust, and arsenic. The
adulteration may be detected by placing a little of the powder on a red-hot iron plate.
The pure sulphuret will evaporate without the slightest residue — so will the arsenic:
l)ut there will be an evident smell of garlic. A portion of the lead and tlie manga-
nese will be left behind.
Antimonii Potassio Tartras, Emetic Tartar. — ^The tartrate of potash and anti-
mony, or a combination of super-tartrate of potash and oxide of antimony, is a very
useful nauseant, and has considerable effect on the skin. It is particularly valuable
in inflammat'-on of the lungs, and in every catarrhal affection. It is given in doses
of from one drachm to a drachm and a half, and combined with nitre and digitalis.
It is also beneficial in the expulsion of worms. It should be given in doses of two
drachms, and M^ith some mechanical vermifuge, as tin filings, or ground glass, and
administered on an empty stomach, and for several successive days. Although it
may sometimes fail to expel the worms, it will materially improve the condition of
the horse, and produce sleekness of the coat. To a slight degree the emetic tartar is
decomposed by the action of light, and should be kept in a jar, or green bottle. It is
sometimes adulterated with arsenic, which is detected by the garlic smell when it is
placed on hot iron, and also by its not giving a beautiful gold-coloured precipitate
when sulphuret of ammonia is added to a solution of it. It has also been externally
applied in chest affections, in combination with lard, and in quantities of from one
drachm to two drachms of the antimony, to an ounce of the lard ; but, except in ex-
treme cases, recourse should not be had to it, on account of the extensive sloughing
which it sometimes produces.
PuLvis Antimonii Compositus, The Compound Powder of Antimony. — Com-
monly known by the name of Jameses Powder. It is employed as a sudori/ic in fever,
either alone or in combination with mercurials. The dose is from one to two drachms.
The late Mr. Bloxam used to trust to it alone in the treatment of Epidemic Catarrh
in the horse. It is, however, decidedly inferior to Emetic Tartar. It is often adulte-
rated with chalk and burnt bones, and other white powders, and that to so shameful
a degree, that little dependence can be placed on the antimonial powder usually sold
by druggists. The muriatic or sulphuric acids will detect most of these adulterations.
Anti-spasmodics. — Of these our list is scanty, for the horse is subject only to a
few spasmodic diseases, and there are fewer medicines which have an anti-spasmodic
effect. Opium stands first for its general power, and that exerted particularly in
locked-jaw. Oil of turpentine is almost a specific for spasm of the bowels. Cam-
phor, assafcetida, and various other medicines, used on the human subject, have a verj'
doubtful effect on the horse, or may be considered as almost inert.
Argentum, vSiLVER. — One combination only of this metal is used, and that as a
manageable and excellent caustic, viz., the Lunar Cmislic. It is far preferable to the
hot iron, or to any acid, for the destruction of the part if a horse should have been
bitten by a rabid dog; and it stands next to the butyr of antimony for the removal of
fungus generally. It has not yet been administered internally to the horse.
Arsenicum, Arsenic. — This drug used to be employed as a tonic, in order to core
out old ulcers; but it is now seldom employed, for there are better and safer tonics,
and far better and safer caustics. The method of detecting the presence of arsenic
in cases of poisoning has been described at page 227.
Balls. — The usual and the most convenient mode of administering veterinary
medicines is in the form of balls, compounded with oil, and not with honey or syrup,
on account of their longer keeping soft and more easily dissolving in the stomach.
Balls should never weigh more than an ounce and a half, otherwise they will be so
large as not to pass without difficulty down the gullet. They should not be more
(han an inch in diameter and three inches in length. The mode of delivering balls
is not difficult to acquire ; but the balling-iron, while it often wounds and permanently
MEDICINE. 403
injures the bars, occasions the horse to struggle more than he otherwise would against
the administration of the medicine. The horse should be backed in the stall ; — the
tongue should be drawn gently out with the left hand on the off side of the mouth,
and there fixed, not by continuing to pull at it, but by pressing the fingers against the
side of the lower jaw. The ball, being now taken between the tips of the fingers
of the right hand, is passed rapidly up the mouth, as near to the palate as poss'ble,
until it reaches the root of the tongue. It is then delivered with a slight jerk, and
the hand being immediately withdrawn and the tongue liberated, the ball is forced
through the pharynx into the cssophagus. Its passage should be watched down the
left side of the throat ; and if the passage of it is not seen going down, a sliglit tap
or blow under the chin will generally cause the horse to swallow it, or a few gulps
of water will convey it into the stomach. Very few balls should be kept ready made,
for they become so hard as to be incapable of passing down the gullet, or dissolving
in the stomach, and the life of the horse may be endangered or lost. This is pecu-
liarly liable to be the case if the ball is too large, or wrapped in thick paper.
Bark, Peruvian. — A concentrated preparation of this is entitled the Sulphate of
Quinine. The simple bark is now seldom used. If it has any good etfect, it is in
diabetes. The quinine, however, is strongly recommended by Professor Morton as
singularly efficacious in the prostration of strength which is often tiie consequence of
influenza.
Basilicon is a valuable digestive ointment, composed of resin, bees'-wax, and
olive-oil. If it is needed as a stimulant, a little turpentine and verdigris may be
added.
Belladonn.'E Extractum, Extract of Deadly Nightshade. — The inspissated
Juice is principally used as a narcotic and sedative, and indicated where there is un-
due action of the nervous and vascular systems, as in tetanus, carditis, and nervous
affections generally. Externally, it is beneficially applied to the eye.
Blisters are applications to the skin which separate the cuticle in the form of vesi-
cles containing a serous fluid. They excite increased action in the vessels of the
skin, by means of which this fluid is thrown out. The part or neighbouring parts
are somewhat relieved by the discharge, but more by the inflammation and pain that
are produced, and lessen that previously existing in some contiguous part. On this
principle we account for the decided relief often obtained by blisters in inflammation
of the lungs, and their efficacy in abating deeply-seated disease, as that of the ten-
dons, ligaments, or joints ; and also the necessity of previously removing, in these
latter cases, the superficial inflammation caused by them, in order that one of a dif-
ferent kind may be excited, ond to which the deeply-seated inflammation of the part
will be more likely to yield. The blisters used in horse-practice are composed of
cantharides or the oil of turpentine, to which some have added a tincture of the cro-
ton-nut.
For some important remarks on the composition, application and management of
the blister, see page 346.
Bole Armenian is an argillaceous earth combined with iron, and is supposed to
possess some astringent property. The propriety of its being administered inwardly
is doubtful; for it may remain in the intestinal canal, and become the nucleus of a
calculus. On account of its supposed astringency, it is employed externally to give
consistence to ointments for grease. Even the bole Armenian has not escaped the
process of adulteration, and is largely mixed with inferior earths. The fraud may he
suspected, but not satisfactorily detected, by the colour of the powder, which should
be a bright red.
Calamine. — See Zinc.
Calomel. — See Mercury.
Camphor is the produce of one of the laurus species, a native of Japan, and too
often imitated by passing a stream of chlorine through oil of turpentine. According
to Professor Morton, it is a narcotic. It diminishes the frequency of the pulse, and
softens its tone. When long exhibited, it acts on the kidneys. Externally applied,
it is said to be a discutient and an anodyne for chronic sprains, bruises, and tumours.
The camphor ball is a favourite one with the groom, and occasionally administered
by the veterinary surgeon. Mr. W. C. Spooner uses it, mixed with opium, in cases
of locked-jaw, and in doses of from one to two drachms. In the form of camphorated
oil, it promotes the absorption of fluids thrown out beneath the skin, the removal of
404 MEDICINE.
old callus, and the suppling of joints stiff from labour. Combined with oil of turpen
tine it is more effective, but in this combination it occasionally blemishes.
Cantharides are the basis of the most approved and useful veterinary blisters.
The cantharis is a fly, the native of Italy and the south of France. It is destroyed
by sulphur, dried and powdered, and mixed with palm oil and resin in the proportion
directed at page 225. Its action is intense, and yet superficial ; it plentifully raises
the cuticle, yet rarely injures the true skin, and therefore seldom blemishes. The
application of other acrid substances is occasionally followed by deeply-seated ulcera-
tions; but a blister composed of the Spanish fly alone, while it does its duty, leaves,
after a few weeks have passed, scarcely a trace behind.
The art of blistering consists in cutting, or rather shaving, the hair perfectly close;
then well rubbing in the ointment, for at least ten minutes; and, afterwards, and what
is of the greatest consequence of all, plastering a little more of the ointment lightly
over the part, and leaving it. As soon as the vesicles have perfectly risen, which will
be in twenty or twenty-four hours, the torture of the animal may he somewhat relieved
by the application of olive or neat's-foot oil, or any emollient ointment.
When too extensive a blister has been employed, or, from the intensity of the origi-
nal inflammation, the blister has not risen, (for no two intense inflammations can exist
in neighbouring parts at the same time), strangury — great diflRculty in passing urine,
and even suppression of it — has occurred. The careful washing off of the blister, and
the administration of plenty of warm water, with opium, and bleeding if the symp-
toms run high, will generally remove this unpleasant effect.
An infusion of two ounces of the flies in a pint of oil of turpentine, for several days,
is occasionally used as a liquid blister; and, vi'hen suflficiently lowered with common
oil, it is called a sweatino; oil, for it maintains a certain degree of irritation and inflam-
mation on the skin, yet not sufficient to blister, and thus gradually abates or removes
some old or deep inflammation, or cause of lameness.
Of late cantharides have come into more general use. They vi^ere recommended
by Mr. Vines, in combination with vegetable bitters, as a stimulating tonic, in cases
of debility. He next applied them for the cure of Glanders, and with considerable
success. The Veterinary public is much indebted to Mr. Vines, for the steadiness
■with which he has followed up the employment of the Spanish fly. The dose is from
five to eight grains given daily, but withheld for a day or two when diuresis super-
venes.
Capsici Baccje, Capsicum Berries.^- They are valuable as stimulants affecting
the system generally, yet not too much accelerating the pulse. Their beneficial effect
in cases of cold, has seldom been properly estimated. The dose is from a scruple to
half a drachm.
Carui Semina, Caraway Seeds. — ^These and Ginger, alone or combined, are the
best stimulants used in horse-practice.
CAScARiLLiE CoRTEX, Cascarilla Bark. — Tonic as well as aromatic. It must not,
however, be used with the sulphates of iron or zinc.
Castor Oil, Oleum Ricini. — An expensive medicine. It must be given in large
doses, and even then it is uncertain in its effects. Mild as is its operation in most
animals, it sometimes gripes and even endangers the horse.
Catechu, Japan Earth, yet, no earth, but extracted from the wood of one of the
acacia trees, is a very useful astringent. It is given in super-purgation, in doses of
one or two drachms, with opium, as a yet more powerful astringent; chalk, to neu-
tralize any acid in the stomach or bowels ; and powdered gum, to sheath the ovor-irri-
tated mucous coat of the intestines. It is not often adulterated in our country, bu<,
grossly so abroad — fine sand and aluminous earth being mixed with the extract. It
is seldom given with any alkali, yet the prescription just recommended contains
chalk : but, although tlie chalk, as an alkali, may weaken the astringency of the cate
chu, it probably neutralizes some acid in the stomach or bowels, that would have
diminished the power of the catechu to a greater degree. It must not be given ir
conjunction with any metallic salt, for the tannin or gallic acid, on which its powei
chiefly or entirely depends, has an affinity for all metals, and will unite with them,
and form a gallate of them, possessing little astringent energy. Common ink is the
union of this tannin principle with iron.
A tincture of catechu is sometimes made by macerating three ounces of the powder
m a quart of spirit for a fortnight. It is an excellent application for wounds ; and.
MEDICINE. 40r>
with the aloes, constitutes all that we want of a balsamic nature for the purpose of
nastening the healing process of wounds.
Caustics are substances that burn or destroy the parts to Avhich they are applied.
First among them stands the red-hot iron, or actual cautery, and then pure alkalies,
potash, and soda, and the sulphuric and nitrous acids. Milder caustics are found in
the sulphate of copper, red precipitate, burnt alum, and verdigris.. They are princi-
pally used to destroy fungous excrescences, or stimulate indolent tumours, or remove
portions of cellular substance, or muscle infected by any poison.
Creta Preparata, Chalk, is principally used in combination with catechu and
opium in cases of super-purgation. All adventitious matters are removed by washing,
and the prepared or levigated chalk remains in the form of an impalpable powder. It
is usually administered in doses of two or three ounces. It is externally applied over
ulcers that discharge a thin and ichorous matter.
Chamomile, Anthejiis. — The powder of the flower is a useful vegetable tonic, and
the mildest in our list. It is given in doses of one or two drachms, and is exhibited
in the early stage of convalescence in order to ascertain whether the febrile stage of
the disease is passed, and to prepare the \\ay for a more powerful tonic, the gentian.
If no acceleration of pulse, or heat of mouth, or indication of return of fever, accom-
panies the cautious use of the chamomile, the gentian, with carbonate of iron, may
be safely ventured upon; but if the gentian had been first used, and a little too soon,
there might have been considerable, and perhaps dangerous return of fever.
Charcoal is occasionally used as an antiseptic, being made into a poultice with
linseed meal, and applied to foul and offensive ulcers, and to cracked heels. It re-
moves the foetid and unwholesome smell that occasionally proceeds from them.
Charges are thick, adhesive plasters spread over parts that have been strained or
weakened, and, being applied to the skin, adhere for a considerable time. The fol-
lowing mixture makes a good charge — Burgundy or common pitch, five ounces ; tar,
six ounces ; yellow wax, one ounce, melted together, and when they are becoming
cool, half a drachm of powdered cantharides well stirred in. This must be partially
melted afresh when applied, and spread on the part with a large spatula, as hot as
can be done without giving the animal too much pain. Flocks of tow should be
scattered over it while it is warm, and thus a thick and adhesive covering will be
formed that cannot be separated from the skin for many months. It is used for old
sprains of the loins, and also strains of the back sinews. The charge acts in three
ways — by the slight stimulant power which it possesses it gradually removes all
deep-seated inflammation — by its stimulus and its pressure it promotes the absorption
of any callus or thickening beneath ; and, acting as a constant bandage, it gives tone
and strength to the part.
Clysters. — These are useful and too often neglected means of hastening the evac-
uation of the bowels when the disease requires their speedy action. The old ox-
bladder and wooden pipe may still be employed, and a considerable quantity of fluid
thrown into the intestine; but the patent stomach and clyster pump of Mr. Reid is
far preferable, as enabling the practitioner to inject a greater quantity of fluid, and in
a less time.
Two ounces of soft or yellow soap, dissolved in a gallon of w^arm water, will form
a useful aperient clyster. It will detach or dissolve many irritating substances that
may have adhered to the mucous coat of the bowels. For a more active aperient,
half a pound of Epsom salts, or even of common salt, may be dissolved in the same
quantity of water. A stronger injection, but not to be used if much purgative medi-
cine has been previously given, may be composed of an ounce of Barbadoes aloes,
dissolved in two or three quarts of warm water. If nothing else can be procured,
warm water may be employed ; it will act as a fomentation to the inflamed and irri-
table surface of the bowels, and will have no inconsiderable effect even as an ape-
rient.
In cases of over-purging or inflammation of the bowels, the injection must be of a
soothing nature. It may consist of gruel alone, or, if the purging is considerable,
and difficult to stop, the gruel must be thicker, and four ounces of prepared or pow-
dered chalk well mixed with or suspended in it, with two scruples or a drachm ot
powdered opium.
No oil should enter into the composition of a clyster, except that linseed oil may
13 used for the expulsion of the ascarides, or needle-worms.
406 MEDICINE.
In epidemic catarrh, when the horse sometimes obstinately refuses to eat or to drink,
his strength may be supported by nourishing clysters ; but they should consist of thick-
gruel only, and not more than a quart should be administered at once. A greater
quantity would be ejected soon after the pipe is withdrawn. Strong broths, and more
particularly ale and wine, are dangerous ingredients. They may rapidly aggravate
the fever, and should never be administered, except under the superintendence, or by
the direction, of a veterinary surgeon.
The principal art of administering a clyster consists in not frightening the horse.
The pipe, well oiled, should be very gently introduced, and the fluid not too hastily
thrown into the intestine ; its heat being as nearly as possible that of the intestine,
or about 96° of Fahrenheit's thermometer.
CoLLYRiA, Lotions for the Eves. — These have been sufficiently described when
inflammation of the eyes was treated of.
Copaiba, Balsam of Capivi. — The resin is obtained from a tree growing in South
America and the West India Islands. It is expensive, much adulterated, and seldom
used ; for its properties differ but little from those of common diuretics.
Copper. — There are two combinations of this metal used in veterinary practice :
the verdicrris or snbacetate, and the blue vitriol or sulphate.
Verdigris or Suhaceiale of Copper is the common rust of that metal produced by
subjecting it to the action of acetic acid. It is given internally by some practitioners,
in doses of two or three drachms daily, as a tonic, and particularly for the cure of
farcy. It is, however, an uncertain and dangerous medicine. The corrosive subli-
mate, with vegetable tonics, as recommended at page 138, is preferable. Verdigris
is, however, usefully applied externally as a mild caustic. Either alone, in the form
of fine powder, or mixed with an equal quantity of the sugar (superacetate) of lead,
it eats down proud flesh, or stimulates old ulcers to healthy action. When boiled
with honey and vinegar, it constitutes the farriers' Egyptiacum, certainly of benefit
in cankered or ulcerated mouth, and no bad application for thrushes ; but yielding, as
it regards both, to better remedies, that are mentioned under the proper heads. .Some
practitioners use alum and oil of vitriol in making their Egyptiacum, forgetting the
strange decomposition which is produced.
Blue Vitriol or Sulphate of Copper is the union of sulphuric acid and copper. It is
a favourite tonic with many practitioners, and has been vaunted as a specific for glan-
ders; while others, and we think properly, have no very good opinion of it in cither
respect. As a cure for glanders, its reputation has nearly passed away. As a tonic,
when the horse is slowly recovering from severe illness, it is dangerous, and its
internal use should be confined to cases of long-continued discharge from the nostril,
when catarrh or fever has ceased. It may then be given wath benefit in doses of
from one to two drachms twice in the day, and always combined with gentian and
ginger. It is principally valuable as an external application, dissolved in water in
the'proportion of two drachms to a pint, and acting as a gentle stimulant. If an
ounce is dissolved in the same quantity of water, it becomes a mild caustic. In the
former proportion, it rouses old ulcers to a healthy action, and disposes even recent
wounds to heal more quickly than they otherwise would do; and in the latter it re-
moves fungous granulations or proud flesh. The blue vitriol is sometimes reduced to
powder and sprinkled upon the wound for this purpose : it is also a good application
for canker in the foot.
Cordials are useful or injurious according to the judgment with which they are
given. When a horse comes home thoroughly exhausted, and refuses his food, a
cordial may be beneficial. It may rouse the stomach and the system generally,
and may prevent cold and fever ; but it is poison to the animal when administered
after the cold is actually caught and fever begins to appear. More to be reprobated
is the practice of giving frequent cordials, that by their stimulus on the stomach, (the
skin sympathising so much with that viscus,) a fine coat may be produced. The
artificial excitement of the cordial soon becomes as necessary to enable the horse to
do even common work, as is the excitement of the dram to sustain the animal spirits
of the drunkard.
In order to recall the appetite of the horse slowly recovering from illness, a cordial
may sometimes be allowed; or to old horses that have been worked hard and used
to these excitements when young; or to draught horses, that have exhibited slight
symptoms of staggers when their labour has been unusually protracted and their sto-
MEDICINE. 407
machs left too long empty ; or mixed with diuretic medicine, to fine the legs of the
over-^vorked and debilitated animal ; but in no other case should they obtain a place
in the stable, or be used at the discretion of the carter or the groom.
Corrosive Sublimate. — See Mercury.
Creasote has very lately been introduced into veterinary practice, and is much
valued on account of its antiseptic properties. It is obtained by the destructive dis-
tillation of various substances, as pyroligneous acid, tar, wood, smoke, &c. Pure
creasote is colourless and transparent; its odour is that of smoked meat, and its taste
is caustic and burning. It coagulates the albumen of the blood, and hence has been
lately employed in stopping hsemorrhages. It acts very powerfully on the general
system, and q\iickly destroys small animals. Professor Morton gives a very inte-
resting and faithful account of it. It is, according to him, both a stimulant and a
tonic. In an undiluted state it acts as a caustic. When diluted it is a general ex-
citant and an antiseptic. In the form of a lotion, a liniment, or an ointment, it has
been useful in farcy and glanders, also in foot-rot, canker, and thrush, — mange, caries,
excessive suppuration, and the repression of fungous granulations. As a caustic it
acts as a powerful stimulant, and it is an antiseptic.
Croton Tiglii Semixa, Croton Seeds. — The croton-nut has not been long intro-
duced into veterinary practice, although it has been used from time immemorial by
the inhabitants of India as a powerful purgative. An oil has been extracted from it,
and used by the surgeon ; the meal is adopted by the veterinarian. It is given in
doses from a scruple to half a drachm, and, from its acrid nature, in the form of a ball,
with an ounce of linseed meal. ^Yhen it does operate the eflect is generally observed
in six or eight hours, the stools being profuse and watery, and the patient frequently
griped. On account of its speedy operation, it may be given in locked-jaw and stag-
gers : and also in dropsy of the chest or belly, from the watery and profuse stools
■which it produces ; but it is often uncertain in its operation, and its griping, and the
debility which it occasions, are serious objections to it as common physic. ^Yhea
placed on the tongue of the horse in quantities varying from twenty to forty drops, it
produces purging, but the membrane of the mouth frequently becomes violently inflamed.
This likewise happens, but not to so great a degree, when it is given in the form of a
drink, or in a mash.
Demulcents are substances that have the power of diminishing the effect of acri-
monious or stimulating substances. The first, by some oily or mucilaginous sub-
stance, sheaths the sensible parts. The other dilutes the stimulus, and diminishes its
power. It will rarely be diihcult to determine which effect should be produced, and
the means by waich it is to be effected.
Diaphoretics are medicines that increase the sensible and insensible perspiration
of the animal. As it regards the horse, they are neither many nor powerful. Anti-
mony in its various forms, and sulphur, have some effect in opening the pores of the
_ skin, and exciting its vessels to action, and especially when assisted by warmth of
" stable or clothing, and therefore is useful in those diseases in which it is desirable
that some portion of the blood should be diverted from the overloaded, and inflamed,
and vital organs of the chest, to the skin or the extremities. The only diaphoretics,
however, on which much confidence can be placed, and especially to produce condi-
tion, are warm clothing and good grooming.
Digestives are applications to recent or old wounds, as mild stimulants, in order
to produce a healthy appearance and action in them, and to cause them more speedily
to heal. A weak solution of blue vitriol is an excellent digestive ; so is the tincture
of aloes, and the tincture of myrrh. The best digestive ointment is one composed of
three parts of calamine ointment (Turner's cerate) and one of common turpentine.
Digitalis. — The leaves of the common foxglove, gathered about the flowering time,
dried carefully in a dark place, and powdered, and kept in a close black bottle, form
one of the most valuable medicines in veterinary practice. It is a direct and powerful
sedative, diminishing the frequency of the pulse, and the general irritability of the
system, and acting also as a mild diuretic : it is therefore useful in every inflamma-
tory and febrile complaint, and particularly in inflammation of the chest. It is usually
given in combination with emetic tartar and nitre. The average dose is one drachra
of digitalis, one and a half of emetic tartar, and three of nitre, repeated twice or thrice
in the day.
Dio-italis seems to have an immediate effect on the heart, lessening the number of
408 MEDICINE.
its pulsations; but effecting this in a singular manner — not by causing the heart to
beat more slowly, but producing certain intermissions or pauses in its action. When
these become marlied — when at every sixth or seventh beat, the pulsations are sus-
pended while two or three can be slowly counted, this is precisely the effect that is
intended to be produced, and, however ill the horse may appear to be, or however
alarming this intermittent pulse may seem to the standers-by, from that moment the
animal will frequently begin to amend. The dose must then be diminished one-half,
and, in a few days, it may be omitted altogether: but the emetic tartar and the nitre
should be continued during some days after the practitioner has deemed it prudent to
try the effect of mild vegetable tonics.
There is no danger in the intermittent pulse thus produced ; but there is much when
the digitalis fails to produce any effect on the circulation. The disease is then too
powerful to be arrested by medicine. Digitalis requires watching ; but the only con-
sequence to be apprehended from an over-dose is, that the patient may be reduced a
attle too low, and his convalescence retarded for a day or two.
In the form of infusion or tincture, digitalis is very useful in inflannmation of the
eyes. It is almost equal in its sedative influence to opium, and it may with great
advantage be alternated with it, when opium begins to lose its power. The infusion
is made by pouring a quart of boiling water on an ounce of the powder. When it is
become cold, a portion of the liquid may be introduced into the eye. One or two
drops of the tincture may be introduced with good effect. This may be obtained by
macerating three ounces of the digitalis in a quart of spirit.
The infusion has been serviceable in mange ; but there are better applications.
Diuretics constitute a useful but much abused class of medicines. They stimu-
late the kidneys to secrete more than the usual quantity of 'urine, or to separate a
greater than ordinary proportion of the watery parts of the blood. The deficiency of
water in the blood, thus occasioned, must be speedily supplied or the healthy circula-
tion cannot be carried on, and it is generally supplied by the absorbents taking up the
■watery fluid in some part of the frame, and carrying it into the circulation. Hence
the evident use of diuretics in dropsical affections, in swelled legs, and also in inflam-
mation and fever, by lessening the quantity of the circulating fluid, and, consequently,
that which is sent to the inflamed parts.
All this is effected by the kidneys being stimulated to increased action ; but if this
stimulus is too often or too violently applied, the energy of the kidney may be im-
paired, or inflammation may be produced. That inflammation may be of an acute
cliaracter, and destroy the patient ; or, although not intense in its nature, it may by
frequent repetition assume a chronic form, and more slowly, but as surely, do irre-
parable mischief. Hence the necessity of attention to that portion of the food which
may have a diuretic power. Mow-burnt hay and foxy oats are the unsuspected causes
of many a disease in the horse, at first obscure, but ultimately referable to injury or
inflammation of the urinary organs. Hence, too, the impropriety of suffering medi-
oines of a diuretic nature to be at the command of the ignorant carter or groom. In
swelled legs, cracks, grease, or accumulation of fluid in any part, and in those super-
ficial eruptions and inflammations whicli are said to be produced by humours floating
in the blood, diuretics are evidently beneficial ; but they should be as mild as possible,
and not oftener given or continued longer than the case requires. For some cautions
as to the administration of diuretics, and a list of the safest and best, the reader is
referred to page 245. The expensive Castile soap, and camphor, so often resorted to,
are not needed, for the common liquid turpentine is quite suflicient in all ordinary
cases, and nitre and disfitalis may be added if fever is suspected.
DuiNKS. — Many practitioners and horse-proprietors have a great objection to the
administration of medicines in the form of drinks. A drink is not so portable as a
ball, it is more troublesome to give, and a portion of it is usually wasted. If the
drink contains any acid substance, it is apt to excoriate the mouth, or to irritate the
throat already sore from disease, or the unpleasant taste of the drug may unnecessa-
rily nauseate the horse. There are some medicines, however, which must be given
in the form of drink, as in colic; and the time, perhaps, is not distant when purga-
tives will be thus administered, as more speedy, and safer in their operation. In
cases of much debility and entire loss of appetite, all medicine should be given in
solution, for the stomach may not have sufficient power to dissolve the paper in which
the ball is wrapped, or the substance of the ball.
MEDICINE. 409
An ox's horn, the larger end being cut slantingly, is the usual and best instrument
for administering drinks. The noose of a halter is introduced into tlve mouth, and
then, by means of a stable-fork, the head is elevated by an assistant considerably
higher "than for the delivery of a ball. Tiie surgeon stands on a pail or stable-basket
on tlie oif-side of the norse, and draws out the tongue with the left hand; he then,
with the right hand, introduces the horn gently into the mouth, and over the tongue,
and by a dexterous turn of the horn empties the whole of the drink — not more than
about six ounces — into the hack part of the mouth. The horn is now quickly with-
drawn, and the tongue loosened, and the greater portion of the fluid will be swallow-
ed. A portion of it, however, will often be obstinately held in the mouth for a long
time, and the head must be kept up until the whole is got rid of, which a quick, but
not violent slap on the muzzle will generally compel the horse to do. The art of
giving a drink consists in not putting too much into the horn at once ; introducing
the horn far enough into the mouth, and quickly turning and ^withdrawing it, without
bruising or wounding the mouth, the tongue being loosened at the same moment. A
bottle is a disgraceful and dangerous instrument to use, except it be a flat pint bottle,
with a long and thick neck.
Ferrum, Iron. — Of this metal there are two preparations adopted by veterinarians.
The rust, or Carbonate, is a mild and useful tonic in doses of from two to four drachms.
The Sulphate (green vitriol or copperas) is more powerful. It should never be given
in the early stages of recovery, and always with caution. The dose should be the
same as that of the carbonate. The sulphate has lately been recommended for the
cure of that deceitful stage or form of glanders, in which there is nothing to charac-
terise the disease but a very slight discharge from the nostrils. It is to be dissolved
in the common drink of the horse. It is worth a trial, but too sanguine expectations
must not be encouraged of the power of any drug over this intractable malady. The
iron should be given in combination with gentian and ginger, but never with any
alkali or nitre, or soap, or catechu, or astringent vegetable.
Fever. — For the nature and treatment of the fever, both pure and symptomatic,
reference may be made to page 1 87.
Forge-water used to be a favourite tonic with farriers, and also a lotion for canker
and ulcers in the mouth. It owes its power, if there be any, to the iron with which
it is impregnated.
Fomentations open the pores of the skin and promote perspiration in the part, and
so abate the local swelling, and relieve pain and lessen inflammation. They are
oftea used, and with more benefit when the inflammation is somewhat deeply seated,
than w'hen it is superficial. The effect depends upon the, warmth of the water, and
not on any herb that may have been boiled in it. They are best applied by means
of flannel, frequently dipped in the hot water, or on which the water is poured, and
the heat should be as great as the hand will bear. The benefit that might be derived
from them is much impaired by the absurd method in which the fomentations are con-
ducted. They are rarely continued long enough, and when they are removed, the
part is left wet and uncovered, and the coldness of evaporation succeeds to the heat
of fomentation. The perspiration is thus suddenly checked ; the animal suffers con-
siderable pain, and more harm is done by the extreme change of temperature than if
tlie fomentation had not been attempted.
Gentian stands at the head of the vegetable tonics, and is a stomachic as well as
a tonic. It is equally useful in chronic debility, and in that which is consequent
on severe and protracted illness. It is generally united with chamomile, ginger,
and, when the patient will bear it, carbonate of iron. Four drachms of gentian, two
of chamomile, one of carbonate of iron, and one of ginger, will make an excellent
tonic ball. An infusion of gentian is one of the best applications to putrid ulcers.
Ginger is as valuable as a cordial, as gentian is as a tonic. It is the basis of the
cordial ball, and it is indispensable in the tonic ball. Although it is difficult to pow
der, the veterinary practitioner should always purchase it in its solid form. If the
root is large, heavy, and not worm-eaten, the black ginger is as good as the white,
and considerably cheaper. The powder is adulterated with bean-meal and the saw
dust of boxwood, and rendered warm and puncrent by means of capsicum.
Helleborus Albus, White Hellebore. — This is a drastic cathartic, and should
be used with great caution. It is a powerful nauseant, and lowers both the force and
frequency of the pulse, and is therefore given with good effect in various inflamma-
35 3 b
410 MEDICINE.
lions, and particularly that of the lungs. In the hospital of the veterinary surgeon,
or in the stable of the gentleman who will superintend the giving and the operation
of every medicine, it may be used with safety; but with him who has to trust 1o
others, and who does not see the horse more than once in twelve or twenty-four hours,
it is a dangerous drug. If it is pushed a little too far, trembling and giddiness, and
purging follow, and the horse is sometimes lost. The hanging of tiie head, and the
frothinor of the mouth, and, more particularly, the sinking of the pulse, will give
warning of danger; but the medical attendant may not have the opportunity of ob-
serving this, and when he does observe it, it may be too late. Its dose varies from
a scruple to half a drachm. In doses of a drachm it could not be given with safety ;
and yet, such is the different effect of medicines given in different doses, that in the
quantity of an ounce it is said to be a diuretic and a tonic, and exhibited with advan-
tage in chronic and obstinate grease.
"Helleborus Niger, Black Hellebore. — This is used mostly as a local applica-
tion, and as such it is a very powerful stimulant. Mr. K. Stanley, of Banbury, fre-
quently resorts to it in fistulous affections of the poll and withers, and with consider-
able success. The abscess having formed, and exit being given to the imprisoned
fluid, it is allowed to discharge itself, for two or three days, being dressed with an
ordinary digestive ointment. When the pus assumes a laudable character, he intro-
duces a few portions of the fibrous part of the root, passing them down to the bottom
of the sinus, and letting them remain for a fortnight or more; in the mean time,
merely keeping the surrounding parts clean. On examination, it will be found that
the healing process has commenced.
Professor Morton adds, that an ointment, formed of the powder of either the black
or white Hellebore, in the proportion of one part of the powder to eight of lard, will
be found exceedingly active for the dressing of rowels and setons.*
Hemlock is used by some praciitioners, instead of digitalis or hellebore, in affec-
tions of the chest, whether acute or chronic ; but it is inferior to both. The dose of
the powder of the dried leaves is about a drachm.
HvDRARfiYRUM. — This metal is found native in many countries in the form of mi
nute globules. It also occurs in masses, and in different varieties of crj'stallization.
It has the singular property of being liquid in the natural temperature of our earth.
It freezes, or assumes a singular species of crystallization, at 39° below 0 of Fah.,
and at G60° above 0 of Fah. it boils, and rapidly evaporates. In its metallic state it
appears to have no action on the animal system, but its compounds are mostly pow-
erful excitants, and some of them are active caustics.
The Common Mercurial Ointment may be used for ring-worm, and that species of
acarus which seems to be the source, or the precursor of, mange. The compound
mercurial ointment is also useful in the destruction of the same insect. For most
eruptions connected with or simulating mange, the author of this work has been ac-
customed to apply the following ointment with considerable success : —
vSublimed sulphur 1 pound.
Common turpentine 4 oz.
Mercurial ointment 2 oz.
Linseed oil 1 pint.
The Mercurial Ointment is prepared by rubbing quicksilver with lard, in the propor-
tion of one ])art of mercury to three of lard, until no globules appear. The practi-
tioner should, if possible, prepare it himself, for he can seldom get it pure or of the
proper strength from the druggist. It is employed with considerable advantage in
preparing splcnts, spavins, or other bony or callous tumours, for blistering or firing.
One or two drachms, according to the nature and size of the swelling, may be daily
well rubbed in; but it should be watched, for it sometimes salivates the horse very
speedily. The tumours more readily disperse, at the application of a stronger stim-
ulant, when they have been thus prepared. Mercurial ointment in a weaker state is
sometimes necessary for the cure of mallenders and sallenders; and in very obstinate
cases of mange, one-eighth part of mercurial ointment may be added to the ointment
recommended at page .381.
Calomel, the submuriate or protochloride of mercury, may be given, combined will
♦ Morton's Manual of Pharmacy, p. IT.").
MEDICINE. 4ll
aloes, in mange, surfeit, or worms. It is also useful in some cases of chronic couoh,
in farcy, and in jaundice. Alone it has little purcrative effect on the horse, but it
assists the action of other aperients. It is ^iven in doses from a scruple to a drachm.
As soon as the gums become red, or the animal begins to quid or drop his hav, it
must be discontinued. Calomel has lately gained much repute in arrestins^ the "pro-
gress of epidemic catarrh in the horse. Mr. Percivall has succeeded in this attempt
to a very considerable extent. In fact, the influence of calomel in veterinary practice
seems to have been far too much undervalued.*
Currosive Sub/imate, the oxymuriate or bichloride of mercury, combined with chlo-
rine in a double proportion, is a useful tonic in farcy. It should be given in doses
of ten grains daily, and gradually increased to a scruple, until the horse is purged
or the mouth becomes sore, when it may be omitted for a few days, and resumed
Some have recommended it as a diuretic, but it is too dangerous a medicine for
this purpose. It is used externally in solution; in substance in quittor, as a stimu-
lant to foul ulcers; and in the proportion of five grains to an ounce of rectified spirit
in obstinate mange, or to destroy vermin on the skin. It is, hoM'ever, too uncertaiL-
and too dangerous a medicine for the horse-proprietor to venture on its use.
JElhiiip's Wneral, the black sulphuret of mercury, is not often used in horse-prac-
tice, but it is a good alterative for obstinate surfeit or foulness of the skin, in doses
of three drachms daily. Four drachms of cream of tartar may be advantageously
added to each dose.
Infusions — The active matter of some vegetable substances is partly or entirely
extracted by water. Dried vegetables yield their properties more readily and per-
fectly than when in their green state. Boiling water is poured on the substance
to be infused, and which should have been previously pounded or powdered, and the
vessel then covered and placed near a fire. In five or six hours the transparent part
may be poured off, and is ready for use. In a few days, however, all infusions be-
come thick, and lose their virtue, from the decomposition of the vegetable matter.
The infusion of chamomile is advantageously used instead of water in compound-
ing a mild tonic drench. The infusion of catechu is useful in astringent mixtures;
that of linseed is used instead of common water in catarrh and cold ; and the infu-
sion of tobacco in some injections.
Iodine. — This substance has not been long introduced into veterinary practice.
The first object which it seemed to accomplish, was the reduction of the enlaro-ed
glands that frequently remain after catarrh, but it soon appeared that it could reduce
almost every species of tumour. Much concerned in the first introduction of iodine
into veterinary practice, the writer of the present work bears willing testimonv to
the zeal and success of others, in establishinor the claims of this most valuable medi-
cine. Professor Morton has devoted much time and labour to the different combina-
tions of iodine, and they are described at leno^th in his useful " Manual of Pharma-
cy." He wives the formula of the composition of a liniment, an ointment, and a
tincture of iodine, adapted to different species and stages of disease. He next de-
scribes the preparation of the iodide of potassium — the combination of iodine and
potash, — and then the improvement on that under the name of the diniodide of
copper — the union of two parts of the iodide of potassium with four of the sulphate
of copper.
The action of this compound is an admirable tonic and a stimulant to the absorb-
ent system, if combined with vegetable tonics, and, occasionally, small doses of
cantharides. Professor Spooner and Mr. Daws applied this compound, and with
marked success, to the alleviation of farcy, nasal gleet, and glanders. It is pleas-
ing to witness these triumphs over disease, a little while ago so unexpected, and now
so assured.
Juniper, Oil of. — This essential oil is retained because it has some diuretic pro-
perty, as well as being a pleasant aromatic. It frequently enters into the compositi<-
of the diuretic ball.
Lead, Plumbum. — The Carbonate of Lead has a deleterious effect on the biped and
the quadruped in the neighbourhood of lead works. They are subject to violent grip-
ing pains, and to constipation that can with great difficulty, or not at all, be overcome.
Soiaething of the same kind is occasionally observed in the cider counties, and the
* Veterinarian, vol. xvi., or i., new series, pp. 325, 441, and f 24,
412 MEDICINE.
" painter's colic" is a circumstance of too frequent occurrence — the occasional dread-
ful pains, and the ravenous appetite extending to everything that comes in the way
of the animal. Active purgatives followed by opium are the most effectual remedies.
The Jlcdale of Lead, Flumbi Jcetas. — Sugar of lead is seldom given externally to
the horse, but is used as a coUyrium for infianmiation of the eyes.
The Liquor Flumbi Siibacetatis, or Goulardh Extract, or, as it used to be termed
at the Veterinary College, the J}qua Fegetn, is a better coUyrium, and advantageously
used in external and superficial inflammation, and particularly the inflammation that
remains after the application of a blister.
Lime was formerly sprinkled over cankered feet and greasy heels, but there are less
painful caustics, and more effectual absorbents of moisture. Lime-water is. rarely
used, but the Chhride of Lime is exceedingly valuable. Diluted with twenty times
its quantity of water, it helps to form the poultice applied to every part from which
there is the slightest oflensive discharge. The foetid smell of fistulous withers, poll-
evil, canker, and ill-conditioned wounds, is immediately removed, and the ulcers are
more disposed to heal. When mangy horses are dismissed as cured, a washing with
the diluted chloride will remove any infection that may lurk about them, or which
they may carry from the place in which they have been confined. One pint of the
chloride mixed with three gallons of water, and brushed over the walls and manger
and rack of the foulest stable, will completely remove all infection. Professor Mor-
ton, very properly, says that the common practice of merely whitewashing the walls
serves only to cover the infectious matter, and perhaps to preserve it for an indefinite
length of time,' so that when the lime scales off, disease may be again engendered by
the exposed virus. The horse furniture worn by a glandered or mangy animal will
be effectually purified by the chloride. Internally administered, it seems to have little
or no power.
Liniments are oily applications of the consistence of a thick fluid, and designed
either to soothe an inflamed surface, or, by gently stimulating the skin, to remove
deeper-seated pain or inflammation. As an emollient liniment, one composed of half
an ounce of extract of lead and four ounces of olive oil will be useful. For sprains,
old swellings, or rheumatism, two ounces of hartshorn, the same quantity of cam-
phorated spirit, an ounce of oil of turpentine, and half an ounce of laudanum, may
be mixed together; or or an ounce of camphor may be dissolved in four ounces of
sweet oil, to which an ounce of oil of turpentine may be afterwards added. A little
powdered cantharides, or tincture of cantharides, or mustard powder, will render
either of these more powerful, or convert it into a liquid blister.
Linseed. — An infusion of linseed is often used instead of water, for the drink of
the horse with sore-throat or catarrh, or disease of the urinary organs or of the bowels.
A pail containing it should be slung in the stable or loose box. Thin gruel, however,
is preferable ; it is as bland and soothing, and it is more nutritious. Linseed meal
forms the best poultice for almost every purpose.
Magnesia. — The sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom Salts, should be used only in
promoting the purgative effect of clysters, or, in repeated doses of six or eight
ounces, gently to open the bowels at the commencement of fever. Some doubt,
however, attends the latter practice ; for the dose must occasionally be thrice repeated
before it will act, and then, although safer than aloes, it may produce too much irri-
tation in the intestinal canal, especially if the fever is the precursor of inflammation
of the lungs.
Mashes constitute a very important part of horse-provender, whether in sickness
or health. A mash given occasionally to a horse that is otherwise fed on dry meat
prevents him from becoming dangerously costive. To the over-worked and tired
horse, nothincr is so refreshing as a warm mash with his usual allowance of corn in it
The art of getting a horse into apparent condition for sale, or giving him a round and
plump appearance, consists principally in the frequent repetition of mashes, and
from their easiness of digestion and the mild nutriment which they afford, as well as
their laxative effect, they form the principal diet of the sick horse.
They are made by pouring boiling water on bran, and stirring it well, and then
covering it over until it is sufliciently cool for the horse to cat. If in the heat of
summer a cold mash is preferred, it should, nevertheless, be made with hot water,
and then suffered to remain until it is cold. This is not always sufliciently attended
t,o by the groom, who is not aware that the efficacy of the mash depends principally
MEDICINE. 413
on the change which is effected in the bran and the other ingredients by the boiling
water rendering them more easy of digestion, as well as more aperient. If the horse
refuses the mash, a few oats may be sprinkled over it, in order to tempt him to eat
it", but if it is previously designed that corn should be given in the mash, it should
be scalded with the bran, in order to soften it and render it more digestible. Bran
maslies are very useful preparatives for physic, and they are necessary during the
operation of the physic. They very soon become sour, and the manger of the horse,
of whose diet they form a principal part, should be daily and carefully cleaned out.
When horses are weakly and much reduced, malt mashes will often be very pala-
table to them and very nutritive : but the water that is poured on a malt mash should
be considerably below the boiling heat, otherwise the malt will be set, or clogged
together. If the owner was aware of the value of a malt mash, it would be oftener
given when the horse is rapidly getting weaker from protracted disease, or when he
is beginning to recover from a disease by which he has been much reduced. The
only exception to their use is in cases of chest affection, in which they must not
be given too early. In grease, and in mange accompanied by much emaciation, malt
mashes will be peculiarly useful, especially if they constitute a principal portion of
the food.
Mustard, Sinapis. — ^This will be found occasionally useful, if, in inflammation
of the chest or bowels, it is well rubbed on the chest or the abdomen. The external
swelling and irritation which it excites may, to a greater or less degree, abate tho
inflammation within.
Myrrh may be used in the form of tincture, or it may be united to the tincture of
aloes as a stimulating and digestive application lo wounds. Diluted with an equal
quantity of water, it is a good application for canker in the mouth, but as an internal
medicine it seems to be inert, although some practitioners advocate its use, combined
with opium, in cases of chronic cough.
Nitrous ^ther. Spirit of, is a very useful medicine in the advanced stages of
fever, for while it, to a certain degree, rouses the exhausted powers of the animal, and
may be denominated a stimulant, it never brings back the dangerous febrile action
which was subsiding. It is given in doses of three or four drachms.
Olive Oil is an emollient and demulcent. Its laxative effect is very inconsider
able and uncertain in the horse.
Opium. — However underrated by some, there is not a more valuable drug on our
list. It does not often act as a narcotic except inconsiderable doses; but it is a pow-
erful antispasmodic, sedative, and astringent. As an antispasmodic, it enters into
the cholic drink, and it is the sheet-anchor of the veterinarian in the treatment of teta-
nus or locked-jaw. As a sedative it relaxes that universal spasm of the muscular
system which is the characteristic of tetanus ; and, perhaps, it is only as a sedative
that it has such admirable effect as an astringent, for when the irritation around the
mouths of the vessels of the intestines and kidneys is allayed by the opium, the undue
purging and profuse staling will necessarily be arrested.
Opium should, however, be given with caution. It is its secondary effect that is
sedative, and, if given in cases of fever, its primary effect in increasing the excita-
tion of the frame may be very considerable and highly injurious. In the early and
acute stage of fever, it would be bad practice to give it in the smallest quantity ; but
when the fever has passed, or is passing, there is nothing which so rapidly subdues
the irritability that accompanies extreme weakness. It becomes an excellent tonic,
because it is a sedative.
If the blue or green vitriol, or cantharides, have been pushed too far, opium, sooner
than any other drug, quiets the disorder they have occasioned. It is given in doses
of one or two drachms, in the form of ball. Other medicines are usually combined
with it, according to the circumstances of the case.
Externally, it is useful in ophthalmia. In the form of decoction of the poppy-head,
it may constitute the basis of an anodyne poultice; but it must not be given in union
with any alkali, with the exception of chalk, in over-purging; nor with the supera-
cetate of lead, by which its powers are materially impaired; nor with sulphate of
zinc, or copper, or iron.
From its high price it is much adulterated, and it is not always met with in a state
of purity. The best tests are its smell, its taste, its toughness and pliancy, its fawn
01 brown colour, and its weight, for it is the heaviest of all the vegetable extracts
3.5*
414 MEDICINE.
except iTiiin arabic; yet its weight is often fraudulently increased by stones and bits
of lead dexterously concealed in it. The English opium is almost as good as the
Turkish, and frequently sold for it; but is distinguishable by its blackness and soft-
ness.
P,.ji.M Oil, -when genuine, is the very best substance that can be used for making
masses and balls. It has a pleasant smell, and it never becomes rancid.
Pitch is used to give adhesiveness and firmness to charges and plasters. The
common pitch is quite as good as the more expensive Burgundy pitch. The best
plaster for sandcrack consists of one pound of pitch and an ounce of yellow bees-
wax melted together.
Physic. — The cases w^hich require physic, the composition of the most effectual
and safest physic-ball, and the mode of treatment under physic, have been already
described.
Potash. — Two compounds of potash are used in veterinary practice. The Nitrate
of Potash {Nitre) is a valuable cooling medicine and a mild diuretic, and, therefore,
it should enter into the composition of every fever-ball. Its dose is from two to four
drachms. Grooms often dissolve it in the water. There are two objections to this :
cither the horse is nauseated and will not drink so much water as lie ought; or the
s;ilt taste of the water causes considerable thirst, and disinclination to solid food.
Nitre, whilst dissolving, materially lowers the temperature of water, and furnishes a
very cold and useful lotion for sprain of the back sinews, and other local inflamma-
tions. The lotion should be used as soon as the salt is dissolved, for it quickly be-
comes as warm as the surrounding air. The Bitartrate of Potash {Cream of Tartar')
is a mild diuretic, and, combined with ^thiop's mineral, is used as an alterative in
obstinate mange or grease. The objection, however, to its use in such an animal as
the horse, is the little power which it seems to exercise.
Poultices. — Few horsemen are aware of the value of these simple applications in
abating inflammation, relieving pain, cleansing wounds, and disposing them to heal.
They are applications of the best kind continued much longer than a simple fomenta-
tion can be. In all inflammations of the foot they are very beneficial, by softening
the horn hardened by the heat of the foot and contracted and pressing on the internal
and highly sensible parts. The moisture and warmth are the useful qualities of the
poultice; and that poultice is the best for general purposes in which moisture and
warmth are longest retained. Perspiration is most abundantly promoted in the part,
the pores are opened, swellings are relieved, and discharges of a healthy nature pro-
cured from wounds.
Linseed meal forms the best general poultice, because it longest retains the mois-
ture. Bran, although frequently used for poultices, is objectionable, because it so
soon becomes dry. To abate considerable iuflammation, and especially in a wounded
part, Goulard may be added, or the linseed meal may be made into a paste with a
decoction of poppy-heads. To promote a healthy discharge from an old or foul ulcer;
or separation of' the dead from the living parts, in the process of what is called coring
out; or to hasten the ripening of a tumour that must be opened ; or to cleanse it when
it is opened, — two ounces of common turpentine may be added to a pound of linseed
meal : but nothing can be so absurd, or is so injurious, as the addition of turpentine
to a poultice that is designed to be an emollient. The drawing poultices and stop-
pings of farriers are often highly injurious, instead of abating inflammation.
If the ulcer smells offensively, two ounces of powdered charcoal may be added to
the linseed meal, or the poultice may be made of water, to which a solution of the
chloride of lime has been added in the proportion of half an ounce to a pound. As
an emollient poultice for grease and cracked heels, and especially if accompanied by
mucli unpleasant smell, there is nothing preferable to a poultice of mashed carrots
with charcoal. For old grease some slight stimulant must be added, as a little yeast
or the grounds of table-beer.
There are two errors in the application of a poultice, and particularly as it regards
the legs. It is often })Ut on too tight, by means of which the return of the blood from
the foot is prevented, and the disease is increased instead of lessened; or it is'too hot
and unnecessary pain is given, and the inflammation aggravated.
Powders. — Some horses are very difficult to ball or drench, and the violent Strug
gle that would accompany the attempt to conquer them may heighten the fever or
inflammation. To such horses powders must be given in mashes. Emetic tartar an^
MEDICINE. 415
riiffitalis may be generally used in cases of inflammation or fever ; or emetic tartar
for worms; or calomel or even the farina of the croton nut for physic: but powders
are too olten an excuse for the laziness or awkwardness of the carter or groom. The
dorse frequently refuses them, especially if his appetite has otherwise begun to fail;
the powder and the mash are wasted, and the animal is unnecessarily nauseated. All
medicine should be given in the form of ball or drink.
Raking. — This consists in introducing the hand into the rectum of the horse, and
drawing out any hardened dung that may be there. It may be necessary in costive-
ness or fever, if a clyster pipe cannot be obtained ; but an injection will better effect
the purpose, and with less inconvenience to the animal. The introduction of the
hand into the rectum is, however, useful to ascertain the existence of stone in the
bladder, or the degree of distension of the bladder in suppression of urine, for the
bladder will be easily felt below the intestine, and, at the same time by the heat of
the intestine, the degree of inflammation in it or in the bladder may be detected.
Resin. — The yellow resin is that which remains after the distillation of oil of tur-
pentine. It is used externally to give consistence to ointments, and to render them
slightly stimulant. Intfernally it is a useful diuretic, and is given in doses of live or
six drachms made into a ball with soft soap. The common liquid turpentine is, how-
ever, preferable.
Rowels. — The manner of Towelling has been already described. As exciting
inflammation on the surface, and so lessening that which had previously existed in a
neighbouring but deeper-seated part, they are decidedly inferior to blisters, for they
do not act so quickly or so extensively ; therefore they should not be used in acute
inflammation of the lungs or bowels, or any vital part. When the inflammation,
however, although not intense, has long continued, rowels will be serviceable by pro-
ducing an irritation and discharge that can be better kept up than by a blister. As
promoting a permanent, although not very considerable discharge, and some inflam-
mation, rowels in the thighs are useful in swelled legs and obstinate grease. If fluid
is thrown oiit under the skin in any other part, the rowel acts as a permanent drain.
When sprain of the joint or the muscles of the shoulders is suspected, a rowel in the
cliest will be serviceable. The wound caused by a rowel will readily heal, and wilb
little blemish, unless the useless leather of the farrier has been inserted.
Secale cornutum, the Ergot of Rye. — This is well known to be an excitant ii>
assisting parturition in cattle, sheep, and dogs. It has been used with success in the.
mare by Mr. Richardson, of Lincoln. It should only be applied in diflicult cases,
and the dose should be two drachms, combined with some carminative, and given
every hour.
Sedatives are medicines that subdue irritation, repress spasmodic action, or deaden
pain. We will not inquire whether they act first as stimulants : if they do, theit
effect is exceedingly transient, and is quickly followed by depression and diminished
action. Digitalis, hellebore, opium, turpentine, are medicines of this kind. Their
effect in difl^erent diseases or stages of disease, and the circumstances which indicate
the use of any one of them in preference to the rest, are considered under their respec-
tive titles.
Soda The Carbonate of Soda is a useful antacid, an^ probably a diuretic, but it is
not much used in veterinary practice. The Chloride of Soda is not so eflicacinos for
the removal of unpleasant smells and all infection as the chloride of lime; but it is
exceedingly useful in changing malignant and corroding and destructive sores into the
state of simple ulcers, and, in ulcers that are not malignant, it much hastens the cure.
Poll evil and fistulous withers are much benefited by it, and all farcy ulcers. It is
used in the proportion of one part of the solution to twenty-four of waiter.
SoDii CiiLORiDUM, Common Salt, is very extensively employed in veterinary prac-
tice. It forms an efficacious aperient clyster, and a solution of it has been given as
an aperient drink. Sprinkled over the hay, or in a mash, it is very palatable to sick
horses ; and in that languor and disinclination to food which remain after severe illness,
•ew things will so soon recall the appetite as a drink composed of six or eight ounces
of salt in solution. To horses in health it is more useful than is generally imagined,
as promoting the digestion of the food, and, consequently, condition. Externally ap
plied, there are few better lotions for inflamed eyes than a solution of half a drachm
of salt in four ounces of water. In the proportion of an ounce of salt to the same
<juanti*y of water, it is a good embrocation for sore shoulders and backs; and if it
416 MEDICINE.
does not always disperse warbles and tumours, it takes away much of the tenderness
of the skin.
SodjE Sulphas, — Sulphate i>f Sada. — Glauber's Salt. — This medicine is seldom used
in the treatment of the horse. It appears to have some diuretic property.
Soap is supposed to possess a diuretic quality, and therefore enters into the compo-
sition of some diuretic masses. See Resin. By many practitioners it is made an
ingredient in the physic-ball, but uselessly or even injuriously so; for if the aloes are
fuPely powdered and mixed with palm oil, they will dissolve readily enough in tlie
nowols without the aid of the soap, while the action of the soap on the kidneys will
jnpair the purgative effect of the aloes.
Starch may be substituted with advantage for gruel in obstinate cases of purging,
ooth as a plyster, and to support the strength of the animal.
Stoppings constitute an important, but too often neglected part of stable manage-
ment. If a horse is irregularly or seldom worked, his feet are deprived of moisture;
ihey become hard and unyielding and brittle, and disposed to corn and contraction
and founder. The very dung of a neglected and filthy stable would be preferable to
habitual standing on the cleanest litter without stopping, in wounds, and bruises,
and corns, moisture is even more necessary, in order to supple the horn, and relieve
its pressure on the tender parts beneath. As 'a common stopping, notliing is better
than cow-dung with a fourth part of clay well beaten into it, and confined with splents
from the binding or larger twigs of the broom. In cases of wounds a little tar may
be added ; but tar, as a common stopping, is too stimulating and drying. Pads made
of thick felt have lately been contrived, which are fitted to the sole, and, swelling on
being wetted, are sufl!iciently confined by the shoe. Having been well saturated with
water, they will continue moist during the night. They are very useful in gentlemen's
stables; but the cow-dung and clay are sufiicient for the firmer.
Strychnia. — This drug has frequently been employed with decided advantage in
cases of paralysis in the dog; and lately, and with decided advantage, it has been
administered to the horse. The dose is from one to three grains, given twice in the
day.
Sulphur is the basis of the most effectual applications for mange. It is an excel-
lent alterative, combined usually w ith antimony and nitre, and particularly for mange,
surfeit, grease, hidebound, or want of condition; and it is a nseful ingredient in the
cough and fever ball. When given alone, it seems to have little effect, except as a
laxative in doses of six or eight ounces ; but there are much better aperients. The
black sulphur consists principally of the dross after the pure sulphur has been sepa-
rated.
Tar melted with an equal quantity of grease forms the usual stopping of the farrier.
It is a warm, or slightly stimulant, and therefore useful, dressing for bruised or wounded
feet; but its principal virtue seems to consist in preventing the penetration of dirt and
water to the wounded part. Asa common stopping it has been considered objection-
able. From its warm and drying properties it is the usual and proper basis for thrush
ointments ; and from its adhesiveness, and slightly stimulating power, it often forms
an ingredient in applications for mange. Some practitioners give it, and advantageously,
with the usual cough medicine, and in doses of two or three drachms for chronic cough.
The common tar is as effectuSl as the Barbadoes for every veterinary purpose. The
oil, or spirit (rectified oil) of tar is sometimes used alone for the cure of mange, but it
is not to be depended upon. The spirit of tar, mixed with double the quantity offish
oil, is, from its peculiar penetrating property, one of the best applications for hard and
brittle feet. It should be Avell rubbed with a brush, every night, both on the crust
and sole.
Tinctures. — The medicinal properties of many substances are extracted by spirit
of wine, but in such small quantities as to be scarcely available for internal' use iir
veterinary practice. So much aloes or opium must be given in order to produce effect
on the horse, that the quantity of spirit necessary to dissolve it would be injurious or
might be fatal.. As applications to wounds or inflamed surfaces, the tinctures of aloes,
digitalis, myrrh, and opium, are highly useful.
Tobacco, in the hands of the skilful veterinarian, maybe advantageously employed
in cases' of extreme cosliveness, or dangerous cholic; but should never be permitted
to be used as an external application for the cure of mange, or an internal medicine tc
promote a fine coat.
MEDICINE. 41?
Tonics are valuable medicines when judiciously emploj-ed; but, like cordials, they
have been fatally abused. Many a horse recovering from severe disease has been
destroyed by their too early, or too free use. The veterinary surgeon occasionally
administers them injuriously, in his anxiety to gratify the impatience of his employer.
The mild vegetable tonics, chamomile, gentian, and ginger, and, perhaps, the carbonate
of iron, may sometimes be given with benefit, and may hasten the perfect recovery of
the patient; but there are few principles more truly founded on reason and experience,
than, that disease once removed, the powers of nature are sufficient to re-esiablisii
health. Against the more powerful mineral tonics, except for the particular purposes
that have been pointed out under the proper heads, the horse proprietor and the vete-
rinarian should be on his guard.
Turpentine. — The common liquid turpentine has been described as one of the best
diuretics, in doses of half an ounce, and made into a ball with linseed meal and pow-
dered ginger. It is added to the calamine or any other mild o.ntment in order to render
it stimulating and digestive, and, from its adhesiveness and slight stimulating power
it is an ingredient in mange ointments. The oil of turpentine is an excellent antispas-
modic. For the ren>oval of cholic it stands unrivalled. Forming a tincture with
cantharides, it is the basis of the sweating blister for old strains and swellings. As a
blister it is far inferior to the common ointment. As a stimulant frequently applied it
must be sufficiently lowered, or it may blemish.
Wax. — The yellow wax is used in charges and some plasters to render them less
brittle.
Zixc. — ^l^he impure carbonate of zinc, under the name of Calamine Powder, is used
in the preparation of a valuable healing ointment, called Turner's Cerate. Five parts
of lard and one of resin are melted together, and when these begin to get cool, two
parts of the calamine, reduced to an impalpable powder, are stirred in. If the wound
is not healthy, a small quantity of common turpentine may be added. This salve
justly deserves the name which it has gained, "The Healing Ointment." The
calamine is sometimes sprinkled with advantage on cracked heels and superficial
sores.
The sulphate of zinc, White Vitriol, in the proportion of three grains to an ounce
nf water, is an excellent application in ophthalmia, when the inflammatory stage is
passing over; and quitter is most successfully treated by a saturated solution of white
vitriol being injected into the sinuses. A solution of white vitriol of less strength
forms a wash for grease that is occasionally useful, when the alum or blue vitriol does
not appear to succeed.
ZiNGiBERis Radix. — Ginger Root. — This is an admirable stimulant and carminative.
It is useful in loss of appetite and flatulent cholic, while it rouses the intestinal canal
to its proper action. Tlie cordial mass resorted to by the best surgeons consists of
equal parts of ginger and gentian beaten into a mass with treacle.
THE ASS AND THE MULE,
BY J. S. SKINNER.
Have made them mules: wni, nave then pjove^er
Only for bearing burdens ; and sore blows
For Binkicg under them."
Against these humble animals there seems with many, to be a prejudice, more cruel, if
not more inveterate, tiian tliat wliich prompts every son of Adam, whether he meet him on
the liigh-way or the bye-way, to "bruise the serpent's head!" Can it be tiiat these
abiding antipathies to both, are perpetuated by the force of scriptural injunctions against tlie
life of the one and the procreation of the other ? " Thou shall not let thy cattle gender with
a diverse kind," saith the Scriptures : now, though this command may be admitted as binding
upon the Jews not to breed mules, does it follow that a christian is forbidden the kind treat-
ment and judicious use of them? The same chapter and verse which denounces this
experiment upon the procreative faculties of God's creatures, also warns the husbandman not
to " sow mingled seed" — but what farmer, whether Jew or Gentile, refuses to reap a good
crop of mixed clover and timothy? and besides, did not King David, a man after God's own
heart, indicate his care for his sou, and intend it as a compliment for both him and tlie mule,
when he gave the order, " take with you the servants of your Lord, and cause Solomon my
son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon ?" Let me then invoke the
liberality of my readers to cast aside all prejudice against this useful and too often abused
hybrid, and impartially to hear me " for my cause,"
To all, and there are many, who entertain a scornful contempt for the whole asinine
family, might be commended Sterne's pathetic story of " The Dead Ass," for a touching
picture of laithful service, and of mutual friendship in the humblest walks of life — "Shame
on the world ! said I to myself. Did we love each other as this poor soul loved hia
Ass — 't would be something."
America, as to its Agiiculture, may be likened to a gallant ship, moored in a beautiful
harbour, whose owners have no means to buy her cargo or hire sailors to man and send her
to sea. The mildew blights her sails, and worms eat out her boltom. So it is with our
lands ; with millions on millions of acres, the growth of our population and national wealth
is lamentably retarded for want of force to put them in good and profitable tillage.
There is no country where labour, and all labour-saving animals and contrivances, are so
much a desideratum as in ours ! Hence the necessity and the usefulness of every discussion
which sliall teach the land-holder how and in what form — with what animal or implemeut,
he can with the least outlay, command the greatest amount of productive poioer applicable to
agriculture. Tiiat power, in a word, whether animate or inanimate, which will work the
longest and the cheapest and with most effect Among animals, is it not in the ?nule t'u^^
we find this power or machine ? This, reader, is the subject of our inquiry : and first it
seems proper to look into its natural history ana qualities, to see whether there be in fact
any ground of preference between one and another, or whether a mule is a mule I all being
alike, as too many seem to suppose; and finally to inquire and explain in what the differ!
ence of quality, imparting difference of value, consists — ruch, reader, is the object of this
dissertation.
Agriculturists, even those who have enjoyed opportunities of becoming more familiar
with the qualities and uses of this animal, seem to reason, as already hinted, or rather to
conclude without reason, that all mules are alike ; with the name and the sight of all is alike
associated th? idea of jumping and kicking and all sorts of devilment incarnate '. Hence
has arisen the difficulty, the limited employment and the slowness in realising the improve-
ments of which this animal is susceptible, like others, even the proud " lord of the creation,"
Hy attention to breed and to education !
We must be allowed to premise that we have not taken the subject in hand in any vain
belief that we can add anything new to what has been written upon their natural history;
(419^
420 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
but rather with the hope of makings some impression on the public mind, and inducing a
higher appreciation of these animals, by presenting at one view the opinions, some of them
hitherto unpublished, and believed to be very striking, of gentlemen who have enjoyed rare
opportunities to judge of the different races of the Ass, and of the temper, habits and capa-
bilities of the Mule. True, the Editor professes to be himself not altogether without expe-
ri-jnce on some of these points ; having often, when a boy, been mounted on the back of
one, and sent, on Saturday (always on Saturday) in spite of all pouting and sulking, to the
weaver, the shoemaker, the tailor, or the country store. On these mournful occasions, the
sense of hardship at being disappointed of some well-concerted scheme of rural sport, tbund
vent, it may be easily imagined, in acts of spitefulness (not always unretaliated) towards the
innocent mule — the poor beast being beaten and the rider sometimes thrown over Ids head!
until now, that though near forty years have passed away since the close of tliis war of
puerile injustice and mulish resentment, it may yet be questioned whether it be exactly
fair, that one of the parties should assume to be the limner of the other ! We will ea.
deavour, however, in weighing the subject, to hold the scales with even hand ; and here,
lest it be elsewhere omitted, let one acknowledgment be made, and noted by the advocates
of the more sightly and favoured horse, — that though the mule may, as already suggested,
be the cause of falls in others, no man ever yet saw a mule fall down! but we must not
anticipate.
As already stated, the first inquiry would seem to be as to the progenitors of the mule,
to decide how far, on these, depend the qualities and value of the progeny. This point being
discussed, the subject leads us to consider the question of rearing and breaking — his age,
strength and general usefulness compared with other animals. On all these points we shall
rely as before admitted on the views of intelligent writers, and of gentlemen of close obser-
vation and of the highest respectability with whom we have recently corresponded. Before
proceeding however to quote authorities on these points, there is one proposition or conclusion
which reading and inquiry have led us to adopt, and which may as well be here expressed,
without stopping to trouble the reader with all the particular grounds of it. It is that the
best mules are produced by the union of the Jack with the mare, rather than from cohabita-
tion between the Stallion and the Jennet. Independently of any particular facts, and of the
few instances in which the Stallion is known to have been so employed, (that alone warrant-
ing the inference against its eligibility) we should form the conclusion here announced, that
the better produce would be, generally from the smaller sire and the larger dam ; on the clear
principles of breeding laid down by Professor Cline of London, in his essay on breeding
domestic animals, which is elsewhere referred to and quoted in our introduction to the work
on the Horse.
In the annals of American agriculture at least, the essay on the mule, which may be
regarded as the most elaborate and of the highest authority, is one written by S. W. Pomeroy,
Esq., a gentleman who, whether farming, as then, near the " Literary Emporium," or as
now, more profitably employed, as we learn and hope, in heaving coal on the banks of the
Ohio ; brings light to every circle in which he moves. Of an essay so meritorious, we may be
justified in telling the history ; and the more so as by so doing we shall give to the positions
it maintains more weight with the reader than would any dictum of ours.
The writer of this, then the Editor of the old American Farmer, being himself bred on a
"plantation" where mules were bred and in constant use, and anxious to have the minds of
his numerous patrons disabused and enlightened as to the true qualities and value of this, as
compared with other and more favoured animals for the usual purposes of husbandry, with-
out difficulty persuaded the late venerable Charles Carroll of (JarroUton to offer a premium
for the best essay on that subject. The competitors were numerous, but the award of the
plate, with its appropriate devices and inscriptions, was unanimously and without hesitation,
to S. W. PoMEROY, then of Brighton Massachusetts. It is to that essay we shall now have
free recourse ; and first as to
THE DIFFERENT RACES OF JACKS.
It seems to be a well-established fact, that different races of the Ass exist with properties
as distinctly marked as those which characterise the various species of camel. According
to the learned Doctor Harris, author of the " Natural History of the Bible," tour different
races of asses are recognised in the original Hebrew Scriptures : viz. Fara, Chamor, Aton,
und Orud.
We find, says the author of the prize essay referred to, that at a very early period of sacred
history, the common domestic ass, Chamor, was employed in all the menial labours of a
patriarchal family, while a nobler and more estimable animal {Aton) was destined to carry
the patriarchs, the well-born, and those on whom marks of distinction were to be conferred.
They constituted an important item in a schedule of pastoral wealth of those times.
David, wo are told, had an officer of high dignity appointed expressly to superintend his stud
of high-bred asses ! Atonoth.
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 421
The difFercncc lir-tween the different races, for which all writers of research anJ the ruost
observant travelLrs and agriculturists contend, may be plainly traced in the portriits drawn
by G. \V. Park Custis, Esq., of Arlington, of the two Jacks, the Royal Gift, and the Knight
OF Malta, presented to General Washington about tlie year 1787 — of these Mr. Custis
says, " The Gij'ly witli a jennet, was a present from the king of Spain, and said to have been
selected from the royal stud. The Knight I believe was from the Marquis de Lafayette,
and shipped from Marseilles.
"The Gift was a huge and ill-shaped Jack, near sixteen hands high, very large head, clumsy
limbs, and to all appearance little calculated for active service ; he was of a grey colour,
probably not young when imported, and died at Mount Vernon but little valued for his mules,
which were unwieldy and dull.
" The Knight was of a moderate size, clean limbed, great activity, the fire and ferocity of a
tiger, a dark brown, nearly a black colour, wiiite belly and muzzle, could be managed only
by one groom, and that always at considerable personal risk. He lived to a great old age,
and was so infirm towards the last as to require lifting. He died on my estate, in New
Kent, in the state of Virginia, in the year 18U2 or '3. His mules were all active, spirited,
and serviceable, and from stout mares attained considerable size.
The Kni^'ht of Malta, here mentioned by Mr. Custis, is believed unquestionably to have
been " the first Maltese Jack ever brought to the United States." The second one, says Mr.
Pomeroy, came in the Frigate Constitution on her return, as he thinks, from the Mediter-
ranean, and was sold, it is believed, in the District of Columbia. Since that time a number
have been introduced by officers of tlie Navy, and in merchant-ships.
The learned Professor Wilson, in an article in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, on the natural
history of quadrupeds and whales, says of the Ass : " The races of eastern origin are much
more beautiful, with glossy skins, carrying their heads loftily, and moving their limbs in a
very graceful manner. They accordingly fetch a very high price."
There is no one within the range of our acquaintance whose dealings and whose experi-
ence on these subjects, equal those of General James Shelby of Kentucky. Owning and
residing upon a magnificent estate of "blue grass land," its resources have been in a good
measure dedicated to rearing mules and cattle of improved breeds. The writer had the
pleasure to make him a visit in 1839 ; and while partaking festively and intellectually of the
hospitalities of his mansion, to learn much of the 7nule trade, in its various branches. It
was like going to New Bedford to be instructed in all the art and mystery of the whaling
business '. The general's residence is eight miles from Lexington : and it may be taken as a
proof of no mean powers of performance in light harness, that we were taken to his house in
his own carriage by a pair of his mules, then in common family use in that waj', within the
hour, and without a touch of the whip.
On the point under consideration, the different breeds of Jacks, General Shelby's opinion
is positive, and should carry with it all the weight that habit of close observation and large
experience can impart. He maintains, without question, that the Ass belongs to a family,
possessing as many varieties as that of the horse ; the size, form, and general appearance in
the one being as dissimilar, in different races, as in the other. By judiciously crossing, says
he, the different varieties of horses, other varieties have been obtained, better adapted to the
particular purposes of the breeder — so likewise may the Jack be improved. This last sug-
gestion is in strict accordance with the fact stated by Mr. Custis, who, in his letter to Mr. Pome-
roy, after exemplifying the remarkable difference of properties which distinguished the Royal
Gift and the Knight of I\Ialta, says that General Washington bred a favouiite Jack called
Compound from the cross of Spanish and Maltese, putting the Knight of Malta sent out by
General Lafayette to the large jennet sent out by the king of Spain along with the Royal
Gifl. The Jack produced by this cross, Mr. Custis says " was a very superior animal, very
long bodied, well set, with all the qualities of the Knight and the weight of the Spanish
breed — he was sire of some of the finest mules at Mount Vernon, and died from accident.
In full support of these views and descriptions of ditfcrence of breed in J^icks, we have
yet in reserve an authority on which we place the highest confidence and value. It is that
of J. N. Hambleton, Esq., of the United States Navy — whose profossionil duties carr}' him
to different quarters of the world, and who, moreover, carries with him on his travels very
rare advantnges and habits, such as, be it said, en passant, it behoves all our young officers
to acquire and to practise — he has been studious to gain the command of languages, which
he takes with him, as so many keys, to unlock and examine the stores that contain whatever
is curious or useful, wherever he goes. VVith these advantages he combines an inqui.'^itiva
disposition and the faculty of clear discrimination Wh.it fruitful sources, these, of intel
lectual enjoyment! what sure guarantees of extraordinary information and usefulness!
Mr. Hambleton, on the question o^ different breeds of Asses, states, as the result of inquiry
and personal observation during years of service and travel along the shores of the Mediter.
ranean, that "The Maltese Ass is without doubt the best — he has greater activity and en-
durance than Uie coarse Jack of Spain and France; and in his fine limbs and deer-like form,
422 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
has immense power — the other breeds are often clumsy and sluggish. — It is the biood-horst
against Conestoga. In Minorca the farmers were extremely anxious to breed trom Jacks
which our officers of the navy had brought from Malta, and confessed their superiority. —
There are two Uinds at Malta, the black and the grey. The former is always most esteemed.
I paid tor I'cter Simple two hundred and fifty Spanish dollars, and he cost me five liundred
here. It was considered a high price, but he was known to be the best Jack of his age in
tlie Island. His sire was carried to England for Admiral Rowley." The Jack here spoken
of; Fctcr Simple, is one of, if not the finest we have ever seen. Mr. H. adds in a
familiar letter in answer to one addressed to him on the subjects of this memoir gen-
erally, some interesting facts which we take the liberty to transcribe in the unstudied lan-
guage (and the better tor that) in which they are written by one friend to another. As to
the well-known inditfercncc, not to say antipathy, evinced by some Jacks to cohabit with a
mare, she being of a " diverse kind," he says, " I have heard that it was common lor jacks
to refuse mares in Spain, and hence the risk of buying them untried. They do not like to
sell their breeders, and ask high prices for them. In Majorca I have heard of some that
were held as high as $1000. I sent in two from Gibraltar which came from Ronda, in An-
dalusia : one was a grey, and the other milk-white with a sorrel belly. I was told that he,
the white, was of an excellent strain, originally from Barbary. He was short-legged, very
broad over the back, and compactly made ; and took on fat like a pig. He was not clumsy,
and was the Jinest ambler I ever saw. Unfortunately he was very slack, and on that account
of little value. His colts are good, but have not the spirit of those of Peter Simple. Some
of the latter from good mares can compare with the Kentucky mules in size."
We shall now bind all that has been asserted in support of the fact that Jacks are of dif-
ferent races and tempers, and that the Maltese, among those within our reach and with which
we are familiar, is the best, by the following quotation from a friendly letter, written, to use
his own expressive phrase, currente calamo, "just as if we were sitting under a tree along
shore," from Col. N. Goldborough of Maryland, whose attention to all such matters is linown
to be as critical as his judgment in them is allowed to be sound and superior.
Of Asses and Mules, says the Col., " I know but little of the natural history of the former,
but have an experience of some thirty years of the latter. The Maltese Jack in the pro-
duction of mules holds the same rank with the Arabian as to horses. I have never seen
a dull mule got by the Jack I purchased of you, even t>om notoriously sluggish mares. 1
have often wondered that the mule had so much spirit, when the usual qualities attributed to
the ass are taken into consideration. I have bred the same marc at different periods to the
ass, and to the blood-horse — the horse of fine spirit too, and the progeny of the ass has pos-
sessed as much spirit, and in one instance far more than that of the horse." It would be
superfluous to multiply authorities or opinions in proof or in description of different races
of Jacks, possessing distinct qualities as to conformation and temper: than those already
quoted, none can be higher or more conclusive. It was, however, deemed necessary to say
thus much, because if, as we expect to show, the mule be highly worthy of more genera!
regard, as an animal whose employment is attended with great economy, is it not essential
that those who may be led to breed or purchase, should understand that their value, no less
than that of tlie horse, is affected by and depends in a great measure upon breed? and that
if this fact be not kept constantly in mind, both animals are liable to deterioration, leading
in time, as with respect to the mule it has already done, to disparagement and rejection
Having indicated, by the opinion of the most competent judges, how much the progeny de-
pends tor its value on the quality of the sire, it will be seen in the .sequel that the influence
of the mare is no less than that of the Jack — we have heard large mule traders contend that
it was greater and more obvious. It is doubtless the greater prevalence of blood in the Ken-
tucky mares, for example, which stamps the mules of that state with a blood-like look and
air of superiority, which so plainly distinguish them from the coarser mules of Ohio — where
racing, until very lately, has been considered almost an "abomination in the sight of the Lord "
We proceed now to view the mule as he is, in a practical point of view — that is in respect
of the cost and mode of rearing him — his capacities and uses : to this end we shall take
leave to publish, without stopping to separate and systematise the facts they contain, and the
arguments they advance, some portions of letters from the friends already spoken of, as well
as further quotations from respectable writers who have given their attention to this subject,
than which, it is not easy to think of one more interesting to the American husbandman.
The great nurseries of the mule, for the supply of Maryland and the yet greater demand
for the Southern plantations, have for years past been Kentucky, and more recently Ohio.
Before the commencement of this century, the breeding of the nmlc for sale in our own
country, and for the plantations in the West Indies, had been confined to New-England ; of
its history there — the sort of jack employed, and kind of inule then and there produced, the
following account is given in the prize essay already spoken of, and which we commend to
the reader for proof at once of the eagerness and tlie accuracy of the writer's inquiries into
the qualities of the mule.
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 423
In Sir George Staunton's account of Lord Macartney's embassy to China, we are told
»Jiat innles are valued in that economical empire at a much higher price than horses. In our
own country, prior to the war of the revolution, a few Jacks of an ordinary kind were im-
ported — a small number of mules bred ; and all exported to the West Lidies. I have refer-
ence to New-England, as I am not aware that any attention was paid to the system in the
Middle or Southern States, though it is not improbable that some valuable mules may have
ocen raised by the farmei-s and planters for their own use. When peace took place, the price
of mules in the West Indies e.xcited attention to the breeding of them, which was principally
confined to Connecticut; and several cargoes of the small race of Jacks were imported from
^ne Cape de Verd Islands, and St. Michael's, one of the Azores. It should be observed that
the exportation of jacks from Spain, or any of her colonies, was strictly prohibited, and con-
tinued to be until after the Peninsular war. There might have been, however, a few smug-
gled from the Spanish part of Hispaniola into Cape Francois, and from tiience introduced,
but tliey were vastly inferior to the Spanish Jacks. From this miserable stock a system of
breeding mules commenced, the best calculated to deteriorate any race of animals that has
been, or could be devised, since their creation. The purchaser of a Jack, when about to
commence intile dealer, made little inquiry concerning him but of his capacity to propagate
a nmlo. He placed him in a district where there was tiie greatest number of mares of quali-
ties so inferior that their colts would not compensate their owners for the expense of putting
them to a horse, and contracted to purchase their mules at four months old. Those are kept
in herds, with precarious shelter in winter, having ample opportunities afforded them to
mature and transfer that propensity for kickinrr, which seems at first merely playful, into an
habitual means of defence, to be exercised wiicn the biped or any other race of animals
approach them. In tliis kicking seminary they remain two years, and are then driven to
market. At subsequent periods, a few Jacks of higher grades were procured, from which a
small number of good-sized mules were bred, and a few of them broke. The breed of Jacks
has somewhat improved, and 7nule dealers are now located in most of the New-England
states and some parts of New- York. But the system as above detailed, with few exceptions,
has continued ; and it is from such a race of Jacks, and such a system of breeding and ma-
nagement, that the mules have been produced, with v.-hich the farmers and planters of Mary-
land and Virginia, and the Southern States, have been supplied from New-England; and
such have furnished a criterion for a great portion of our countrymen to form an estimate
of the value and properties of this degraded animal.
On the share of the ?nare, in affecting the value of the mule, Mr. Custis says emphatically,
that General Washington bred nmles from "his best coach mares; and found the value of the
mule to bear a just proportion to the value of the dam. Four mules sold at the sale of hib
effects for upwards of $800, and two more pair at upwards of $100 each pair. One pair of
these mules was nearly sixteen hands high." — Now, although it be not here affirmed that
these " best coach mares" were hlood mares, the fact may be very safely assumed that they
were deep in the blood, when we consider that the General himself was of the " race-horse
region," — a member and officer of tlie jockey club at Alexandria — sometimes acting as judge
of the race — fond of the turf and of the chase; in which, according to one, of all men
living, most familiar with his habits, he was " always superbly mounted, in true sporting
costume, of blue coat, scarlet vest, buckskin breeches, top-boots, velvet cap and whip with
long thong, he took the field at day dawn, with his huntsman Will Lee, his friends and
neighbours ; and none rode more gallantly in the chase, nor with voice more cheerly awak-
ened echo in the woodland, than he who was afterwards destined, by voice and example, to
cheer his countrymen in tiieir glorious struggle for independence and empire." — Thus
mounted on his famous hunter Blue-skin, sa3's the author of his yet unpublished memoirs,
Washington was aUvays " in at the death, and yielding to no man the honour of the brush."
BeL.g himself breeder and runner of thorough-bred stock, and well acquainted with the good
effect of a generous sprinkling of hlood, as well for the road as for the battle-field, it may be
fairly inferred that these "best coach mares" had a heavy dash of it, from which were bred
mules that commanded 8200 each, and were nearly sixteen hands high, " active and spirited."
It is well remembered as the opinion of the late Frederick Skinner, (blessed be his me-
mory,) futiier of the writer of this memoir, who sent his jennets several years from Calvert
County, to the Jacks at Mount Vernon, and who was withal a connoisseur in all such cases.
— it was his often-expressed conviction that the activity, endurance, and value of nmles was
greatly enhanced when bred from mares deep in the blood. But we cannot dismiss our re-
spected and cautious author of the prize essay, without availing yet more largely of the
result of his careful researches and reflections, founded on personal experience, and so we
proceed to transcribe his remarks on the several points of breeding and rearing — economy
of keep — steadiness to labour — docility of temper — exemption from disease — and longevity of
the animal.
The impressions received, says he, when on a visit to the West Indies in my youth, by observ-
ing in the sugar plantations, the severe labour performed by mules in cane mills, induced me,
424 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
when I commenced farming, to purchase the first well-broke mule I could light on ; and
notwithstanding lie was so small as to require a vehicle and harness constructed purposely
for him, liis services were found so valuable, and the economy of using tliose animals so
evident, that I was stimulated to great exertions for procuring several otliers of larger
size: in this 1 succeeded, after great difficulty, to such an extent, as to have had more labour
performed by tiicm on farm and road for thirty years past, tlian any person, I presume, in
New England ; and every day's experience lias served to fortify my conviction of tlie supe^
rior utility of the mule over the horse, for all the purposes for which I have proposed him as
a candidate. And it sliould be considered that those I have used were of an ordinary breed,
vastly inferior to such as may be easily produced in our country, by attention to the intro-
duction of a suitable race oi'Jacks, and a proper system of breeding and management.
Tiic quot-tion occurs, how is this to be effected ? 1 will premise, that there exists a strong
analogy between three varieties of the horse, and those of the domestic ass, considered the
most valuable. We have the Arabian, the hunter, and the stout cart-horse. There is the
heavy Spanish Jack, with long slouching ears, which Mr. Custis has described, that answers
to the carl-horse ; another Spanish breed called the Andalusian, with ears shorter and erect, of
tolerable size, plenty of bone, active, more spirited, and answering to the hunter. Tlien
comes the Arabian Jack, with ears always erect, of a delicate form, fine limbs, and full of
fire and spirit. Judicious crosses from these varieties, will be requisite to produce such kind
of mules as may be wanted for general purposes. From the small Jack of African origin,
with a list down his back and shoulders, are bred a small race of mules, by fur the most
hardy of any. With attention to selection in breeding the Jacks, with, perhaps, a dash of
some cross of the foregoing description, a stock of mules may be produced, preferable to all
others for the light lands and cotton culture of the middle and southern states.
To procure any number of Arabian Jacks from their native country, is hardly practicable
at the present time. Egypt has been celebrated by Sonnini and other travellers, for superb
Jacks of the Arabian breed, which probably has been often improved by those introduced
by the pilgrims from Mecca. I apprehend no great difficulty in obtaining them from that
country. There is, however, no question but the Maltese Jacks are of the Arabian race,
more or less degenerated. The most of those brought to this country that I have seen, were
selected on account of their size, and had been used to the draught. I should recommend
the selection of those that are esteemed most suitable for the saddle, as likely to possess
greater pvritij of blood. A Jack of this kind was, a number of years since, imported from
Gibraltar, that had been selected by a British officer at Malta ; and very much resembled the
Knight of Malta, described by Mr. Custis. I found, upon a careful examination, that he
differed but little from the description I had heard and read of the true Arabian race; indeed
I could discover some prominent points and marks, that agreed with those found, by Profes-
sor Pallas, to belong to the Hemioims or wild mule of Mongalia. From this Jack I have
bred a stock, out of a large Spanish Jennet of the Andalusian breed, that corresponds very
minutely with Mr. Custis's description of Compound, bred by General Washington, and
also a 7nule that now, not three years old, stands fifteen hands, and has other points of great
promise.
My attention has been but lately directed to breeding mules ; and those intended only for
my own use. The system adopted is to halter them at four months, and have the males
emasculated before six months old ; which has great influence on their future conduct, and
is attended with much less hazard and trouble, than if delayed until they are one or two
years old, as is the general practice. If they are treated gently, and fed occasionally out of
the hand, with corn, potatoes, &c., they soon become attached ; and when they find that
" every man's hand is not against them," will have no propensity to direct their heels against
him, and soon forget they have the power. In winter they sliould be tied up in separate
stalls, and often rubbed down. By such treatment there is not more danger of having a
vicious mule than a vicious horse — and I am decidedly of opinion, that a high-spirited mule
so managed, and well broke, will not jeopard the lives or limbs of men, women, or children
by any means so much as a high-spirited horse, however well he may have been trained.
The longevity of the mule has become so proverbial, that a purchaser seldom inquiies
his age. Pliny gives an account of one, taken from Grecian history, tliat was eighty years
old ; and though past labour, followed others that were carrying materials to build the temple
of Minerva at Athens, and seemed to wish to assist them ; which so pleased the people, that
they ordered he should have free egress to the grain market. Dr. Rees mentions two that
weic seventy years old in England. I saw, myself, in the West Indies, a mule perform his
task in a cane mill, that his owner assured me was forty years old. I now own a 7nare
mule twenty-Jive years old, that 1 have had in constant work twenty-one years, and can discover
no diminution in her ])owcrs; she has within a year past often taken upwards of a ton
weight in a wagon to Boston, a distance of more than five miles. A gentleman in my
neighbourhood has owned a very large mule about fourteen years, that cannot be less than
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 425
ivoenly-eight years old. He informed me a few days since, that he could not perceive the
least failure in him, and would not exchange him for any farni horse in the country. And
I am just informed, from a source entitled to perfect confidence, that a highly respectable
gent.eman and eminent agriculturist, near Centreville, on liie eastern shore of Maryland,
owns a mule that is thirty-fice years old, as capable of labour as at any former period.
From what has been stated respecting the longevity of the mule, I think it may be fairy
assumed, that he does not deteriorate more rapidly atler twenty years of age than the horse
after ten, allowing the same extent of work and similar treatment to each. Tlie contrast in
the mule's freedom from malady or disease, compared with the horse, is not less striking.
Arthur Young, during his tour in Ireland, was informed that a gentleman had lost several
fine mules, by feeding them on wheat straw cut. And I have been informed tiiat a mule-
dealer, in the western part of New- York, attributed tlie loss of a number of young mules, in
a severe winter, when his hay was exhausted, to feeding them exclusively on cut straw and
Indian-corn meal. In no other instance have I ever heard or known of a mule being
attacked with any disorder or complaint, except two or three cases of inflammation of the
intestines, caused b}' gross neglect in permitting them to remain exposed to cold and wet,
when in a high state of perspiration after severe labour, and drinking to excess of cold
water.
From his light frame and more cautious movements, the mule is less subject to casualties
than the horse. Indeed it is not improbable that a farmer may work the same team of mules
above twenty years, and never be presented with a. farrier's bill, or find it necessary to exer-
cise the art himself
Sir John Sinclair, in his "Reports on the Agriculture of Scotland," remarks that " if the
whole period of a horse's labour be fitleen years, the first six may be equal in value to the
remaining nine; therefore a horse of ten years old, after working six years, may be worth
half his original value." He estimates the annual decline of a horse to be equal to fifty per
cent, on his price every six years, and supposes one out of twenty-five that are regularly
employed in agriculture, to die every year: for insurance against diseases and accidents.
He considers five acres of land, of medium quality, necessary for the maintenance of each
horse, and the annual expense, including harness, shoeing, farriery, insurance and decline in
value, allowing him to cost S230, to exceed that sum about Jive per cent., which is the only
difference between the estimate of this illustrious and accurate agriculturist, and that of a
respectable committee of the Farmers' Society of Barwell district. South Carolina, who in a
report published in the Carleston Courier, of the '23d of February last (1825,) state, that" the an-
nual expense of keeping a horse is equal to his value." The same committee also state, that, "at
four years old a horse will seldom sell for more than the expense of rearing him." That
"the superiority of the mule over the horse, had long been appreciated by some of their most
judicious planters ; that two mules could be raised at less expense than one horse ; that a mule
is fit for service at an earlier age, if of sufficient size ; will perform as much labour; and if
attended to when first put to work, his gait and habits may be formed to suit the taste of the
owner." This report may be considered a most valuable document, emanating, as it does,
from enlightened practical farmers and planters, in a section of our country where we may
suppose a horse can be maintained cheaper than in Maryland, or any state farther north.
I am convinced that the small breed of muks will consume less, in proportion to the labour
they are capable of performing, than the larger rice; but I shall confine the comparison to
the latter — those that stand from fourteen and a half to rising of fifteen hands, and equal to
any labour that a horse is usually put to. From repeated experiments, in the course of two
winters, I found that three mules of this description, that were constantly at work, consumed
about the same quantity of hay, and only one-fourth the provender that was given to two
middling-sized coach horses, moderately worked. And from many years' attentive observa-
tion, I am led to believe that a large sized mule will not require more than from three-Jiflhs
totioothirds the food, to keep him in good order, that will be necessary for a horse performing
the same extent of labour. Altiiough a mule will work and endure on such mean and hard
fare, that a horse would soon give out upon, he has an equal relish for that which is good ;
and it is strict economy to indulge him, for no animal will pay better for extra keep by extra
work. But if by hard fare, or hard work, he is reduced to a skeleton, two or three weeks,
rest and good keeping will put him in flesh and high condition for labour. I have witnessed
3e\'eral such examples with subjects twenty years old ; so much cannot be said of a horse at
half that age. The expense of shoeing a mule, the year round, does not amount to more than
one-third that of a horse, his hoofs being harder, more horny, and so slow in their growth,
that the shoes require no removal, and hold on till worn out ; and the wear, from the liglitne«>
of the animal, is much less.
In answer to the charge generally prevalent against the mule, that he is "vicious, stubborn
and slow," I can assert, that out of about twenty that have been employed on my estate at
different periods during a course of thirty years, and those picked up, chiefly on account of
36* 3d
426 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
their size and spirit, wherever they could be found, one only had any vkious propensities,
and those might liave been subdued by proper management when youn^, 1 have always
found them truer pullers and quicker travellers, with a load, than horses. Their vision and
Hearing is mucli more accurate. I have used them in my family carriage, in a gig, and
under the saddle ; and have never known one to start or run from any object or noise ; a
fault in the horse that continually causes the maiming and death of numbers of human
beings. The mule is more steady in his draught, and less likely to waste his strength than
the horse; hence more suitable to work with oxen; and as he walks faster, will habituate
them to a quicker gait. But for none of the purposes of agriculture does his superior.'ty
appear more conspicuous tlian ploughing among crops ; his feet being smaller, and follow
each other so much more in a line, that he seldom treads down the ridges or crops. The
facility of instructing him to obey implicitly the voice of his driver or the ploughman, is as-
tonishing. The best ploughed tillage land I ever saw, I have had performed by two mules
tandem without lines or driver.
There is one plausible objection often urged against the mule, that "on deep soils and deep
roads, his feet being so much smaller than those of the horse, sink farther in :" but it should
be considered that he can extricate them with as much greater facility.
Few can be ignorant of the capacity of the mule to endure labour in a temperature of /icat
that would be destructive to the horse, who have any knowledge of the preference for him,
merely on that account, in the West Indies, and in the Southern States.
It is full time to bring our comparison to a close ; which I shall do by assuming the posi-
tion, that the farmer, who substitutes rnules for horses, will have this portion of his animal
labour performed, with the expense of one spire of grass, instead of two ; which may be
equal, so far, to making " two spires grow where one grew before." For although a large-
sized mule will consume somewhat more than half the food necessary for a horse, as has
been observed, yet if we take into the account the saving in the expense of shoeing, farriery,
and insurance against diseases and accidents, we may safely affirm, that a clear saving of
one-half ca.n be fully substantiated. But, in addition to this, the rnule farmer may calculate,
with tolerable certainty, upon the continuation of his capital for thirty years; whereas the
horse farmer, at the expiration of fifteen years, must look to his crops, to his acres, or a
Bank, for the renewal of his — or, perhaps, what is worse, he must commence horse-jockey at
an eai-ly period.
******* * « »
I cannot resist the impulse to exhibit the mule in one other point of view. For the move,
ment of machinery, tlie employment of this animal, when judiciously selected, has met with
a most decided preference, in comparison with the horse, independent of the economy of using
him. And if we consider the rapid and probably progressive increase of labour-saving ma-
chines, in every department where they can be made subservient to the requirements of so-
ciety, it is evident there will be a corresponding demand for animal power, as well as for that,
more potent, derived from the elements ; and although the latter may vastly predominate, yet
should tlie horse be employed, and his increase for other purposes continue, as it now does,
in tiie ratio of population, the number, at no very distant period, may become as alarming in
oar own, as it is at present in our mother country. And notwithstanding we may feel secure,
from the extent of our territory, and extreme diversity of soil and climate, but, above all,
from being in possession of Indian-corn, — the Golden Fleece, found by our " Pilgrim Fa-
thers," when they first landed on these shores ; yet such peculiar advantages may not insure
us against the visitations of one of the most distressing calamities that a feeling community
can possibly be subjected to."
The reader cannot fail to be struck with the strong corroborative proof which is brought
in support of the views of this well-informed writer, after a lapse of seventeen years, in the
testimony which follows, from no less instructive and intelligent observers. On the pre-
ceding points generally, we now present the answers, of recent date, unstudied in style, but
deliberate as to facts ; received in reply to, and corresponding in order with interrogatories
propounded in desultory form to gentlemen whose names we have already taken the freedom
to introduce to the reader — beginning with the letter from General Shelby, whose testimony
embraces the practical knowledge derived from many years of opportunity to view the subjev't
well in all its aspects. " As to mules," says the General, their qualities may be greatly varied
from the same Jack, whether the diminutive donkey of three feet, or the Jack of Spain of
sixteen hands, by reason of the great variety of mares bred to him. The Maltese Jack of
fourteen hands, I consider entitled to the same rank and dignity in his race that is accorded
to t'ne Arahian Horse in his. A cross between him and the Spanish Jack of sixteen hands,
will be found to combine all the essential properties of size, form and action, and to facilitate
the breeding of mules possessing those requisites — I need only add that, in all respects,
whether in breeding, rearing, breaking, using and in selecting — tiie subject of the mule
should be considered as in the same light precisely as that of tlie horse — therefore the grounds
of preference between one Jack and another; in other words, their good and bad points, resul*
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 427
Iron -he CDmbination of sutScient size, form and action, and not from any one of those quali
ties. — Tlic sunie as to mules.
Jacks have sold in Kentucky as high as S5000. Their value at this time (April, 1842) is
nominal — sixteen hands is the largest size — fifteen is quite common — laules of seventeen
hands are sometimes to be met with. The quality of the mule is improved by the blood of
the mare. It is quite common to work mares while going to the Jack, while in foal, and
while suckling. Mules should be weaned at about five months old — we teed our mules on
grain, corn, oats, or rye, the latter in the form of chop, from season to season until sold. I
mean during the winter, our blue-grass being all-suSicient during the rest of the year. It is
necessary, however, to grain feed them on the grass through the summer they are fattened
for market — we sell the majority of our stock the fall after tiiey are two — mostly to the cotton
planters — a few of lute to the Pennsylvania iron works, and a few to Cuba; the remainder
we sell at a year older. The present prices at a given age are as variant as that of horses
cattle, or any thing else whose value depends upon its quality, and the demands and mone-
tary condition of the country — sales were effected last fall at from 835 to $125. I have known
mules sell at weaning-time for $150, and when grown as higii as $300. They should be
broke at the age you would break a horse ; and, according to my observation, by the same
system. They eat as mucii as horses, and reward a liberal allowance as well, though he
may, when unavoidable, be able to withstand privation better. I have known mules to travel
ten miles within the hour in light harness. I drove a pair from Lexington to the Blue Lick
in six hours, stopping one hour by the way — the distance is forty miles. What may be the
precise ditference in " the age of the miile as compared with the horse, under the same treat-
ment, on a plantation," I cannot say ; the advantage, however, would be on the side of the
former — I know of no particular inconvenience in using them in a carriage.
The mule trade in Kentucky is of about forty years' standing. For the first twenty years
the number increased gradually, to about eight hundred ; during the next fifteen or sixteen
years, it went up to four or five thousand; since when, it has gone back to where it was
twenty years ago. Our farmers who breed mules, prefer to sell them when they put their
mares to the Jack, or at weaning time. The price rose gradually from twenty to fifty
dollars for colts. My last lot cost me in 1833 fifty dollars, and the season of my Jack given
in. The mares were selected, and the colts bargained for in the season of 1837. When the
price went down with everything else a few years back, they discontinued, in a great degree,
the breeding of them ; so that our present prices result from a greatly insufficient supply for
the ordinary demand. I sold m}' stock of three year olds, (seventy-three head) last fall at
$70. I was anxious to retain two or three pair (not the largest) at $250 a pair, but the
purchaser objected — but he was equally anxious to select for me some twenty head (and not
the least) at thirty-five dollars. 1 declined taking them. The number of mules annually
exported from Kentucky, may be set down at the whole number raised — as the small number
broke to service in this state, are sure, at last, to find their way to a foreign market — at a
rough guess, I would fix the nett average value, in market, of our mules, at about $70.
The reason why mules have been raised in such numbers in Kentucky more than in other
states, is the better adaptation of our soil and climate to the production of grain and grass
than any other state, and for which we can obtain a market only in the form of live stock.
The " cost of raising a mule to be three years old, when corn is twenty-five cents per bushel,"
charging from the usual time of weaning, 25th of September, may be computed at about
thirty dollars, including a fair equivalent for grazing and salting. I have not known of a
case of a female mule breeding — I wisii you would tell me on what testimony the Norfolk
case rests [it shall be done] I am a sceptic. — Our Jacks are doing but little this season. —
They stand at about five dollars to mares, and from that to fifty dollars for Jennies. — The
proportion of foals from a Jack and a horse, does not vary materially, in a given number of
mares."
So much for the views and opinions of one who has, perhaps, bought and sold a greater
aumber of mules than any individual in the United States. We now present, in like man-
oer, without leave of the writer, in so many words, and without any studied formality of
Jiction, a letter from Mr. Hambleton, which the reader will agree needs no iiigher
polish of the pen, or greater amplification, to give it interest and value.
"I am now, March 5th, 1842, raising three mules, and their ration is four ears of corn a
day, each, and straw a discretion. This from the 1st of October, to the 30th of April, when
they will go to grass, would be about one and a quarter barrels each of corn, allowing seven
hundred ears to the barrel. At S3 per barrel, one and a quarter barrels are $3.75 the first year;
second year add one third, $5 ; tiie third year add one tiiird, S6.62=:S14.37, the cost for corn
at three years old. As our farmers never sell straw, and consider it a favour for any animal
lo work it up into manure, the expense of that is not counted. W^hen two years old, the
ration should be augmented one-third — you may smile at my statistics, but I can assure you
these colts keep in good order on this allowance. Eight years ago, I bought two three-yea.'
428 THEASSANDTHEMULE.
olds from a New-England drove, that had never eaten any grain, I gave $105 for the
pair, and there is one of them that I would not take SlOO for now. Five cars of corn at a
feed is sufficient (or a working mule with corn blades. They will keep fat on it under the
Bevcrcst labour — I have worked them eight years, exclusively; never had one sick or lame,
and find them fully efficient for any kind of farm labour, in this region (Talbot Countj',
Maryland.) Our soil is extremely stiff, but a pair of mules will carry a plough through the
toughest sward ; and in carting, will move the heaviest loads. In lorming our largo com-
post beds of manure (sometimes 300 loads in a bed,) and having the raw materials to haul,
first under the cuttle, and again to the field after it is made, you may know that our teams
have little idle lime. After the ground is broke, a single mule carries the plough in culti-
vating corn, or ploughing in wheat. Kentucky mules, ot large size, three years old, sold last
year in this county for §200 a pair: — now they would not bring as much. I paid for one,
raised by a neighbour, four years old, §70 ; and after he was pertectly broke, refused §100 for
him. They are easier broke than horses, and do not kick or bite. Negroes, not accustomed
to them, regard them as wild beasts, are afraid of them, and thus many are spoiled in
breaking.
" Mules are more used in Spain and Portugal than in any other countries I have visited.
. The king of Spain used them for his carriage when I was in Madrid — and most of the
grandees. In Lisbon I was told $1500 was often paid for a pair of carriage mules. The
Dutchess of Brnganza (Don Pedro's widow,) was a decided mule-woman, and drove six of the
most splendid greys I ever saw. Doiia Maria used Englisii horses. I went through her
stables with her coachman, who was an Englishman. He told me that in that mountainous
country, native horses were the best for service — mules belter than either. I travelled in
the Diligence from Barcelona to Madrid, via Valencia, 400 miles, and back. Mules were
used the whole route, six to the team, and travelled as fast as our stages usually do. Their
public vehicles are much heavier than ours.
"They have a beautiful race of asses in Egypt — small but exquisitely formed, and of great
spirit. They are much used for the saddle. If you should ever go to Alexandria, you will
never forget the importunity of the Jackass boys at the landing, wliere there are always
hundreds ready for service. Our hackmen at a railroad depot are nothing to them ; and
they all speak a little English. — " Thin a fine Jack, Sir, don't take that one, that fellow 's a
d d rogue," &c. The Egyptian Ass is generally of a mouse colour, with a black streak
down the back and cross on the shoulder — some of them blue, {sacre hleu.)
" I cannot inform you the average number of mares impregnated in Talbot by Jacks. If
I could, the criterion would not be fair — as it is known that an old Jack is much more cer-
tain than a young one ; and they are not in their prime till fifteen.* Mules, I think, would
bring more at tiiree years old than horses from the same dams. A respectable-looking man
told me at the fair at Ellicott's mills, that he knew a Jack then covering at Pittsburg, that
was sixty years old. Would it not be well to try to verify this ? Judge Brackenridge could
assist you "in doing it. — My brother Edward told me that he kept a Jennet and Stallion some
weeks together, but he would not notice her. Against this, I heard of a case of a Stallion
covering a Jennet without producing a colt. It appears to be a mere matter of taste. When
abroad I could get no satisfactory information as to breeding mules; but am of opinion that
the best mules are not from the horse and jennet. I was told that they were so scary and
timid as to be of little value. Your Jack is always the leader of a caravan of camels in Asia
Minor. In Syria, I travelled from Beyrout to Damascus, 70 miles, and back, on a mule, over
the Lebanon mountains. I could give you no idea of the badness of the road — the elevation
is 6000 feet above the sea. The owner of our mules (a man about my size, and consequently
above saddle -iceight,) rode a small Jack, and carried sundry bags filled with barley and cut
straw. I doubt whether your old sorrel that ran away with Campino, could liavc carried
him as safely. In our expeditions to Balbec, over the same mountains, and to Jerusalem,
we had mules. In Genoa the mules are large, but coarse, in Italy they are little used in
carriages, and I believe not much in France; but they "go their death on them" in the
Spanish possessions, Cuba, &c,
" The relative expense of keeping, I think, is as 5 to 8 ; or, to be on the safe side, a mulo
can be kept at one-third less."
If the preceding views, in which the attentive reader will have noticed a remarkable coin
cidence generally, needed any further confirmation or support, none could be adduced more
conclusive than the following, from Col. N. Goldsborough. The more especially so vvith
ail who, having the pleasure of his acquaintance, unite in their respect for his candour, and
anC in deference to his superior judgment in such matters.
'♦ I regard," says he, " the point as settled, that the mule is superior to the horse, for all
'Mares, grazing on clover, are supposed not to breed well.
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 429
agricultural uses and purposes; especially where not crushed nearly to death, by the bruta.
conduct of man. The disposition to misciuef proceeds from neglect. Because it is a mule.
it wants notiiintr to eat, forsooth ! My mules are not more mischievous tlian horses of the
same family ; {i. e.) from the same mares.
" Sir John Sinclair has somewhere said, that wheat straw is unsuited to the nature of the
mule — thiit it is not eaten kindly, and does not agree with the animal. I must respectfully
dissent from such high authority. My mules live on nothing else through tlie winter, with
the iiddition of a little corn, and are always in good condition. They will haul the cart in
all suitable weather, on six ears of corn at a feed, and plenty of clcaii wheat siraio. They
require less grain than the horse. I need not say to you how much longer they live and do
good worii. More free from disease — not so liable to gall — superior s^farfinfss of draft
and, when properly broke, treated and managed, will walk over as much ground in a day —
blodd horses to the contrary notwithstanding. The mule is perhaps nowhere so remarkable
as at the sweeps of a threshing-machine, where steadiness of draft is all-important. Horses
walking in a circle gall sorely where mules do not. I will add that the mule, in its three
year old form, must be worked with moderation. It is scarce!}' capable of doing as much
work as the horse at the same tender age. The many dull and sluggisli ones that you see,
are rendered so, by being crushed in spirit before being gradually inured to work ; and they
ever after remain so, the habit being once formed. Upwards of twenty years ago, I had the
largest mule ever seen on our shore. He was from one of Gordon's Jacks. When three
years old, he was put in the plough, and worked finely, and possessed good spirit. Some
weeks after, the weather became very hot — lie was overworked — became dull, and finally
could not be worked with any satisfaction, alongside of any animal on the ftrm. He was
doomed to work, solus, in the manure-cart, and in his prime 1 sold him. But two other
mules bred from the same mare, had first-rate spirit; and this I attribute to their not being
exposed to the same injurious treatment. One of them, now twenty Jive years old, is among
the most efficient animals on my farm ! What would a horse be worth at the same age ?"
The Colonel in what he ascribes to Sir John Sinclair about the deleterious effect of wheat
straw as food for the mule, perhaps confounds him, in his recollection, with Sir Arthur
Young, both known to him as voluminous and eminent writers on British Agriculture,
The latter, during his tour in Ireland, was informed that a gentleman had lost several fine
mules by feeding them on wheat straw cut, Mr. Pomeroy, too, was told that "a mule-dealer
in the western part of New- York, attributed the loss of a number of young mules to their
being fed exclusively on cut straw and Indian-corn meal, during a severe winter, when his
hay was exhausted." He goes on to say, "in no other instance have I ever heard or known
of a mule being attacked with any kind of disorder or complaint, except two or three cases
of inflammation of the intestines, caused by gross neglect in permitting them to remain ex-
posed to cold and wet when in a state of perspiration, after severe labour; and drinking to
excess of cold water. From his light frame and more cautious movements, the mule is less
subject to casualties than the horse. Indeed it is not impossible that the farmer may work
the same team of mules above twenty years and never be presented with a farrier's bill, or
find it necessary to exercise the art himself" We are here prompted to add, by way of
caution to the reader against that horrible disease, the glanders (fully treated in this work
on tile Horse,) tiiat within two years we were painfully made acquainted with the case of a
drunken Irish ditcher, bringing a glandered horse, (which was not worth, if well, a 85 Owl-
Creek bank-note,) on a gentleman's farm, on West River, to stay while he was to open some
old ditches. — The vile beast communicated his disorder, nor was it arrested until five valua-
ble horses, and as many first-rate young mules, fell victims to the loathsome disease.
On the point of mischief in the mule, however, we cannot but think that Col. G.'s spirit
of resentment at the injustice with which this valuable creature is too often denounced and
outraged, has led him, in a measure, to overlook some of his natural proclivities. Some of
these are doubtless the more excusable as being exercised in the right of self-protection—
such for instance as dropping a negro over his head, when he attempts to beat him tiiere ;
and then kicking at him to make him lie still, as paddy does the eel, what won't lie still to
be skinned. But after all, we suspect, that if a skilful eraniologist would examine the skull of
a mule, he would somewhere find, more enlarged than the rest, that apartment in which the
great artificer has stored away that quality called obstinacy, for which, be it noted, mulishness
is occasionally used as a synonyme — and of this opinion, we dare say, was a certain Abbess
of Andouillets, spoken of by Sterne, who knew something of mu'e as well as human nature
— as our friend will agree, when he recollects the story he tells of the expedients to which
the Abbess and the Nun resorted, to get the mules, " who had taken the stud" to go ahead, when
night was coming, in the absence of the muleteer, and they were afraid of being ravished. — He
will there see what " a shrewd, crafty old devil" of a mule will sometimes do when — it won't do
any thing else; and then for mischief — another friend and warm advocate admits that they
are " rank poison upon young calves ."' And as for jumping, it has certainly been said that
430 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
with yoke and clog on, they will yet roll down, or roll over a fence ! But this argument
proves too much, for will not many horses do the like ? After all, it may be fairly argued
thai in most cases the habit of jumping is first prompted by starvation ; and that with mules
as with man, bad habits are more easily acquired tl)an laid aside ; to lay the spirit of jumping
there is nothing like a good supply of what is vulgarly called "belly timber;^' and when
the farmer complains that his stock destroy his crops, he may well be suspected of having
been himself, in some degree, the author of the mischief he deprecates. It is ten to one but
you will find him deficient in good feeding or good fencing ; and he who neglects the one, is
sure to have greater necessity for attention to the other. " For want of a nail the shoe was
lost — for want of a shoe the horse was lost," saith poor Richard.
Any reader may make for himself an estimate of the saving to be realized by the substitu-
tion of mule for horse power, to any given extent. For ourselves, we cannot suppose it to
be less than $15 per head per annum in favour of the mule, for mere difference of keep — for
we must take into the calculation not only the difference in the grain consumed, bu4 that
coarser forage will subsist the mule— he moreover needs no grain when not at work, fbr it is
characteristic of his family, on one side of the house, to browse on furze and tiiistles, and
almost any coarse herbage. How many things, rejected by the more fastidious taste of the
horse, is gladly eaten by the Ass — " whose house I have made the wildernsss, and the barren
land his dwelling: the range of the mountains is his pasture, and he seeketh after every
green thing." The average saving among any given number of the two animals, in stabling,
grooming, smithery and farriery, will make no inconsiderable item in the bill of costs, in
favour of the mule; and when to these is added how much oftener the capital in the horse i«
altogether sunk, and "swallowed up" in the grave— the difference, in favour of the mule, is
so striking and remarkable, that the wonder is that the conviction of it is not carried out iu
the agricultural economy of the country, to the almost universal adoption of mule power.—
Have we not the evidence, that as a general rule it may be laid down, that a mule at twei'ity-
five is as hearty, and capable of labour, as a horse at twelve .' Has not Boz made somebody
ask Sammy Veller, or some one else, the question — Did you ever see a dead donkey ? Did
you ever see any body that ever saw a dead donkey? Let any one take up the census and
figure out the cost of supporting all the horses in the United States, and then strike off one-
third of that sum, which would be saved by substituting them with mules, and he cannot fail
to be amazed to think how many good and beneficent tilings might be accomplished by such
a savings fund. Let him calculate what an enormous sum this saving would pay the interest
of True, the census has been taken in many cases with so little skill, and so much care-
lessness, that it is impossible to found upon it any calculations on statistical and economical
questions of the highest interest. — In regard, for example, to the very subject in hand — on
turning to it, for data to form an opinion of the waste of national means which is committed
by the use of horses instead of mules, for the common drudgery and uses of agriculture — a
question of obvious importance, and one which any political economist might suppose would
be raised by any curious inquirer or practical statesman ; what do we find ? Truly, that
those who have taken the census, have mingled horses and mules under one head, and left
the investigator of one of the most important problems in politico-agricultural economy
without any means for its solution approacliing to exactness ! In the state of New-York,
for example, instead of giving for eacli county the number of each, both horse and mule, the
census tells us the gross number of " horses and mules !" Of these, jumbled together,
the number is set down at 474,543. — In Maryland, " horses and mules," 92,220. — In the
whole Union, horses and mules, 4,335,669. As before remarked, every reader may work his
own sum. In Maryland we suppose it to be a large allowance to say that of the 92,220
"horses and mules," there are in the whole state 17,220 of the latter, leaving 75,000 horses.
In South Carolina the expense of the mule is rated at one-half that of the horse — but sup.
posing the horse to be more expensive than the mule by only §10 per annum, and here is an
unnecessary annual outlay, or deduction from the agricultural resources of the state, of
$750,000 I ! In how many years would that sum extinguish the state debt ? How long would it
require, with such a sum, to finish the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — cutting one, pari passu,
from Georgetown to Baltimore, which ought to be done ? How many schools would such a
sum establish — how much knowledge would it diffuse, and power create ? for nothing is truer
than the French maxim, le savoir est puissance ! VVlio will say that our tiieme, in this view
of the subject, does not swell at once into a question of national wealth and importance, that
ought to command the regard of every friend and promoter of the agricultural and of the
public interest?
Observers, of much more than ordinary experience, entertain the belief that a mule can
be kept in good order, at the same work, on one-half the quantity of corn or oats necessary
for a horse, provided he stands at hay, of which he will consume, they say, at least twenty-
five per cent, more than a horse.
At Ellicott's large iron works the feed for one horse is ten common-sized ears of corn three
times a day, while that for a mule is seven ears twice a day ; and so, it may be added, while
horses and mules were employed on portions of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road, the feed,
THE ASS AND THE MULE. 431
as has been stated by one of the superintendents, was two bushels of chop (rye) and one
bushel of corn a day for six horses : tlie same number of mules getting one and a-half bushels
corn only — our informant entertains the common impression that soft food is not suitable for
the mule, and that chopped rye, especially, is ill-adapted to his constitution, scouring him, as
it is said to do negroes, who have a great aversion to the substitution of corn with occasional
rations of rye, when the owner happens to have a larger supply of the latter than of the
former; unground grain, in a w^ord, of whatever kind, answers best for the mule — though it
may be contended that when ground the stomach can extract more completely its nutritious
qualities, it is not to be forgotten that the toll for grinding is in no case less than an eighth
for the miller, besides rats, and the labour of sending to mill !
The impressions of Mr. Andrew Ellicott, as to the economy and powers of the mule, so-
licited because of his extraordinary opportunities to speak upon the subject, cannot be better
given than in his own words :
"A mule, with one feed of six quarts of oats or rye, and furnished with good hay, will be
supported in good order. A team of six mules, kept at hay, can be supported with one bushel
and a half of ship-stufi' with cut straw— or with one bushel of corn, divided into two feeds,
per day. They do not require water in as great quantity, or as often as a horse, but they
thrive better by being watered often.
"A mule weighing "OOlbs., at the Paluxent Furnaces, carries daily fifteen tons of ore, one
and a half tons of shells, slag and sand ten tons, and three tons of siftings and dirt from the
ore kilns. — The ore and shells are hauled up an eleva'tion of thirty feet, and a distance of three
hundred yards; the balance of the above quantities is hauled about the same distance, though
at less elevation. This one mule has been at work at this rate smce 1836, a period of six
years.
'"Mules are not subject to • Botts.' Bleeding at the mouth will cure them of nearly every
disease ; and by being turned out on pasture, will recover from almost any accident. This
is wonderfully the case. Out of about one hundred mules, at the works, we have not lost,
on an average, one in two years. We do not recollect ever to have seen a "wind-broken"
one. They are scarcely ever defective in the hoofs, and although we keep them regularly
shod, it is not near so important to do so, as in the case of a horse. Their skin is tougher
than that of a horse, and, consequently, are not so much worried by flies, nor do they suffer
as much with the heat of summer. They are ' truer' in starting, and never give up if well
driven. They are driven in the stages between Winchester and Staunton in Virginia.
"The instinct of the mule is very strong; and he has a much better memory, better judg-
ment, and requires, in a greater degree, kind treatment. The manner in which he has been
treated by his driver can always be told by the temper he exhibits in the presence of that
flinctionary. If well-used, they are very docile and tractable, and show an attachment for
their care-takers — but if abused, or beaten, become exceedingly vicious and unmanageable,
and manifest, for a long time, a recollection of such treatment. We have known them kick
at, and endeavour to injure, one who has beaten them, after a lapse of three weeks. If they
go astray, they may generally be found by pursuing a direct course towards the place from
whence they were purchased. Their driver can go into their stable, after they become ac-
quainted with him, at all hours in the night, without molestation, while it would be very
dangerous for a stranger to attempt it.
" The ugly-headed mule, or that approximating the nearest to the Jack, is the hardiest,
while the handsomest and largest is generally interior in value to the middle-sized. Our
teams are very often out from sunri.se to late in the night — not feeding at noon, and are in
first rate order."
Here, as well as anywhere else, may be introduced the proof in support of the "Norfolk
case of the breeding mule," referred to by General Shelby. Whatever doubt may arise here-
after, there is none now, of the truth of the fact. Were it worth the trouble, the testimony
might be had of yet living witnesses, the principal one, a most respectable farmer and gen-
tleman, having died since this account was published.
We are indebted for a copy of tlie memoir of this extraordinary case from Ruffin's Maga-
zine, where it would not have gained admittance if not well founded, to the kindness of that
observant naturalist, and zealous promoter of useful industry — Doctor G. B. Smith, of Balti-
more.
Baltimore, April 1, IS42.
Dear Sir : — I comply with your request with pleasure. The case of breeding by a muie
ifi recorded authentically in the Farmer's Register, volume 2, page 389 ; and volume 3,
page 440. Supposing it no more than probable that you have not the Register to refei to^
uid having half an hour's leisure, I proceed to copy the articles : —
432 THE ASS AND THE MULE.
From the Farmer's Register, Vol. 2, page 3.
A BREEDING MULE
To the Editor of the Farmers' Register.
Spring Hill, Nansemoui County (Va.,) May 2d, 1S34.
A circumstance has occurred on my plantation, which seems to be against the general
principles of nature. On the 23d of April, 1834, a female mule of mine had a colt, never
suspected by me, until I saw its birth. I had worked her hard all last year, upon the farm,
and on the rail-road, through the winter, hauhng marl, and all the month of March, hauling
loo-s from a distance of two miles, si.v loads a-day, and thirty logs each load, making twenty-
four miles each day. She was at work all April, hauling out manure, until the 23d. On
that day I had gone, a little before night, from the labours of the day, owing to one of my
family being sick; and about 5 o'clock in the evening, the boy that drove the mule, came
running to the house, saying that Jenny (for that was her name) had a colt. I went out,
and in a few minutes thereafter, the thing (for I know not what to call it,) was delivered,
and is doing well. I never suspected the mother's being with foal, because I thought it con-
trary to nature, though I had for four or six weeks observed that her belly was enlarged, and
so much so, that the cart had to be altered, as it rubbed her. Slie showed no other signs —
so I did not suspect it. She has little or no bag, though I believe she gives a plenty of suck,
as her child is now getting fat. At first it was very poor. Now you will ask what is the
father of it? I cannot say — but believe, a colt of mine, now three years old. He ran out on
Sundays, with the mules, and the black boy tells me that there was cause for such an effect.
So it is, the mule has a colt, and it is exactly like the young stallion. If this is a matter of
curiosity, you may give publicity to it, under my name. Hundreds can prove the fact, and
several can testify that they were present at the birth.
John Thompson Kilby.
P S. The mother certainly is a mule, for she was foaled mine, and is now ten years old.
Fro7n the Farmer'' s Register, Vol. 2, page 389.
DEATH OF THE MULE'S COLT.
To the Editor of the Farmer's Register.
Nansemond, 22d October, 1834,
As the birth of the phenomenon, my mule-colt, was recorded in your Register, so I will
with your permission, record his death, that the learned may speculate upon it. He was
born, as I informed you, and as will be seen in your Register of May or June, 1834, on the
23d of April, 1834; and died on the 20th of October, 1834, at night. The particulars are as
follows : on Friday evening late, I was informed that the mule-colt was sick : upon examin-
jng him, I thought he had the staggers. He was freely bled, and put in a lot, and went to
eating fodder; it was now dark, and I determined tiiat in the morning I would commence
blistering, purging, and the use of injections, which I have never known to fail if taken in
lime. But in the morning he had the lockjaw, and so nothing could be done effectually for
him, and he died on the Monday night following. He was weaned, and running in a good
pasture with a horse-colt, also just weaned, which is doing well. Now was it the staggers, or
what disease ? Or was ever a colt delivered of a mule known to live ? I should have been
much pleased to raise it, and to have known if it could continue its species,
John T. Kilby.
From the Farmer''s Register, Vol. 2, page 440.
ANOTHER COLT FROM A MULE.
To the Editor of the Farmer's Register.
Spring Hill, Nansemond County, Va., 17th September, 1835.
Permit me to record in your Register, the birth of a second mule colt of mine, on the 13th
of August, 1835. The same mule brought a fme female colt, jet black, save a star in its
forehead, and one foot white. It partakes, as did the other, more of the horse than of the
mule, and is a much finer colt. It can be seen in my pasture by any and every one.
John T. Kilby.
THE ASS AND THE MULE, 433
From the Farmer's Register, Vol. 4, page 357.
DEATH OF THE SECOND MULE'S COLT.
To the Editor of the Farmi^r's Register.
Spring Hill, Nansemond County, (Va.,) Aug. 20, 183G.
Dea: Sir : — Permit me to record, in your Register, the death of my second colt, the issue
of a mare mule, by a iiorse. The colt was born in August, 1835, and died on this day, hav-
ing been sick two or three days. Having lost one, I was desirous of raising this. It was
in fine order — the mother doing nothing, upon a good pasture. It is true, the mother nor
the colt had not been housed until the night before it was taken sick. I had another colt
running in the same pasture, treated in the same way, and is as yet doing well. Everything
was done for the mule's colt that could be done, but it suffered much and died at last. A
passage could not be gotten through it, and when dead, I had it opened and all that could be
discovered, was, that everything that had been given it was then in its stomach and had
never passed on to the bowels. It was blistered on its forehead — the blister drew well, but
in vain : and a question arises with uie — can an offspring delivered of the body of a mongrel
be raised ? That question I should like to liear solved by those better informed upon that
subject than I am. If it should be thought to be possible to raise one, I will then try the
mare mule with a Jack, as suggested by A. B. C. (in No. 4, vol. 4,) whose opinion I should
like to have upon this subject. John T. Kilby.
There, sir — you have the whole history of the breeding mule, so far as published to my
knowledge. It seems to me, you ought to write to Mr. Kilby to furnish the subsequent
nistory of this mule, and the success that may have attended any subsequent attempt to breed
and raise the foal. I would enclose the letter to Mr. Ruffin, who knows K.'s post-office, and
will forward it to him."
We should have have done so, but that we have understood that Mr. Kilby has since deceased.
There are, we may observe, a few other such cases recorded " in the books," but in alJ
they seem to have come into the world as unwelcome and monstrous exceptions to a genera!
decree ; and then to have soon perished, as if Providence would stamp with early decay, all
fruits of a passion so universal and intense, whenever it is gratified in violation of its edict?,
and in a way that would engender infinite disorder and confusion.
J. S. &
THE EN P.
3e
INDEX
Aaron Burr, performance of, 57 ; height of,
65.
Acetabulum, description of the, 280.
Acini, description of, 231.
Acetic acid, its properties, 398.
Adeps, properties of, 399.
iEthiop's mineral, an alterative, 411.
^thusa cynapium, poisonous, 226.
Age, natural, of the horse, 150 ; of the horse
as indicated by the teeth, 145 ; other indi-
cations of, 150.
Air, a supply of pure, necessary for the health
of the horse, 366.
Alcohol, its medicinal properties, 399.
Aloes, Barbadoes, far preferable to Cape, 399 ;
description of the different kinds of, 400 ;
principal adulterations of, 401 ; tincture of,
its composition and use, ib.
Alteratives, the best, 401 ; nature and effect
of, ib.
Alum, the use of, in restraining purging, 401 ;
solution of, a good wash for grease, ib.;
burnt, a stimulant and caustic for wounds,
ib.
American Turf Register, 24 ; Sir Archy in-
debted to for his fiime, 25 ; established by
Mr. Skinner in 1829, 24 ; value of horses
before its establishment, 25.
Americus, performance of, 57, 58.
American Trotter, 49 ; miscellaneous exam-
ples of, 58 ; pedigrees of, 54.
America, best races in, 35; best pacing in, 58.
American turf, opinions. of B. O. Tayloe, 23,
24, 32.
Ammonia, given in flatulent colic, 401 ; va-
pour of, plentifully extricated from dung
and urine, most injurious to the eyes and
lungs, ib.
Anchylosis of bones, what, 1 72.
Andrewetta, race won by, 38.
Animal poisons, an account of, 225.
Animals, zoological divisions of, 67.
Anise-seed, its properties, 401.
Anodyne, opium the only one to be depended
on, 402.
Antea-spinatus muscle, description of the, 260.
Antimonial powder, a good febrifuge, 402.
Antimony, black sulphuret of, method of de-
tecting its adulterations, 402 ; used as an
alterative, ib.; tartarized, used as a nau-
seant, diaphoretic and worm medicine, ib.
Antispasmodics, nature of, 402.
Apoplexy, nature and treatment of, 95.
Aqueous fluid, an, why placed in the laby-
rinth of the ear, 81 ; humour of the eye,
description of the, 89.
Arabian, Lindsay's, 34; Darby, 24; Darley,
21 ; Godolphin, 21 ; Ass, 424.
Arbaces, race won by, 38.
Arched form of the skull, advantage of, 77.
Ariel, race won by, 36.
Arietta, race won by, 37.
Arm, description of the, 261 ; action of, ex-
plained on the principle of the lever, 257,
262; extensor muscles of the, 261, 262;
flexor muscles of the, 263; full and swell-
ing, advantage of, ib. : should be muscular
and long, 261 ; fracture of the, 328.
Arsenic, medical use of, 402 ; treatment under
poison by, 227.
Arteries, description of the, 161 ; of the arm,
261 ; of the face, 124 ; neck, 161 ; shoulder,
255.
Ascaris, account of the, 240.
Ascot course, length of the, 41.
Ass, history of, 419 ; account of two presented
to Gen. Washington, 421 ; opinion of him
by Prof Wilson, ib.; ditto by Gen. Shelby,
421, 426; ditto by J. N. Hambleton, Esq.,
421, 427 ; ditto by Col. N. Goldsborough,
422, 428 ; the Arabian, 424 ; price of, 427 ;
cruel prejudice against, 419 ; mentioned iu
scripture, ib.; different races of, 420.
Astor, race won by, 38.
Astragalus, account of the, 285.
Atlas, anatomy of the, 157.
.■\uscultation, the importance of, 193.
Awful, performance of, 57 ; height of, 65.
Back, general description of the, 171 ; proper
form of the, ib. ; long and short, compara-
tive advantages of, 172; anatomy of the,
171 ; muscles of the, 173.
Backing, of the colt, 356 ; a bad habit of the
horse, usual origin of it, ib.
Back-sinews, sprain of the, 269 ; thickening
of the, constituting unsoundness, 395.
Balie Peyton, race won by, 38.
Balls, the manner of giving, 402 ; the manner
of making, ib.
Barbary horse, description of, 21.
Barbs or paps, treatment of, 154.
Bark, Peruvian, the properties of it, 403.
Barley, considered as food for the horse, 375.
Barnacles, use of the, as a mode of restraint,
345.
Bar-shoe, description and use of, 341.
Bars, description and office of the, 29" ; proper
paring of, for shoeing, 299 ; folly of cutting
them away, 298; removal of, a cause of
contraction, ib, ; corns, ib.
Basilicon ointment, 403.
Bay horses, description of, 387.
Bay Malton, performances of, 30.
Beach horses, 26.
Beacon course, length of, 41.
(435;
436
NDEX.
Boans, good for hardly worked horses, and
that have a tendency to purge, 376, 379 ;
should always be crushed, 376.
Bearing-rein, the use and abuse of, 140.
Bees-wing, race won by, 37.
Beet, the nutritive matter in, 379.
Belladonna, extract of, 403.
Bendigo, race won by, 36.
Bertrand, race won by, 38.
Bethune, race won by, 36.
Betsy Baker, performance of, 57 ; height of, 65.
Biceps femoris, account of the, 282.
Bile, account of the, 230, 231.
Billy, performance of, 58.
Bishoping the teeth, description of, 149.
Biting, a bad habit, and how usually acquired,
357.
Bit, the, often too sharp, 140 ; sometimes got
into the mouth, 358.
Bitting of the colt, 252.
Black horses, description and character of,
387.
Black Joke, performance of, 59.
Black Maria, races won by, 36, 37, 38.
Blacknose, races won by, 37.
Bladder, description of the, 245; inflamma-
tion of, symptoms and treatment, 246 ;
neck of, ih. ; stone in the, ib.
Bleeding, best place for general, 189, 345 ;
directions for, 161, 189; from veins rather
than arteries, 161 ; finger should be on the
pulse during, ib. ; importance of, in inflam-
mation, ib. ; at the toe described, 190 ; com-
parison between the fleam and lancet, 189.
Blindness, usual method of discovering, 89 ;
discovered by the pupil not dilating or con-
tracting, ib. ; of one eye, ib.
Blistering all round at once, barbarity and
danger of, 347, 404 ; after firing, absurdity
and cruelty of, 346, 361.
Blisters, best composition of, 346 ; the differ-
ent kinds and uses of, ib. ; best mode of
applying, ib. ; caution with regard to their
application, ib. ; the principle of their ac-
tion, 403 ; use of, in inflammation, 346 ;
comparison between them and rowels and
setons, 350.
Blood, change in after bleeding, 190 ; changes
in during respiration, 1 79 ; coagulation of,
189; horses, very subject to contraction,
308; spavin, nature and treatment of, 188.
Bloody urine, 245.
Blue Dick, races won by, 38.
Bog spavin, nature and treatment of, 189, 287,
288.
Bole- Armenian, medical use of, 403.
Bones, strength does not depend on the size
of, 28.
Bone-spavin, nature and treatment of, 288.
Bonny Boy, performance of, 58.
Bonnets-o' Blue, race won by, 36.
Boston, race won by, 39.
Bots in the stomach, natural history of, 224 ;
not usually injurious, ib.
Bowels, inflammation of the, 235.
Brain, description of the, 78; its cortical and
cineritious composition, ib. ; the ofEte of
each, 78, 79 ; compression of the, 78, 94
pressure on the, ib. : inflammation of the, 98.
Bran, as food for the horse, 376.
Breaking in should commence in the second
winter, 251 ; description of its various
stages, ib. ; necessity of gentleness and pa-
tience in, 251, 252 ; of the farmer's horse,
251 ; of the hunter or hackney, ib.
Breast, muscles of the, 175.
Breathing, the mechanism of, 179.
Breeding, qualities of the mare of as much
importance as those of .he horse, 248; the
peculiarity of form and constitution inhe
rited, ib. ; in-and-in, observations on, 26, 249.
Breeds, good eflfects of crossing them, 29 ;
bad effects of ditto, ib.
Broken down, what, 270.
Broken knees, treatment of, 391 ; method of
judging of the danger of, ib. ; when healed
not unsoundness, but the form and action
of the horse should be carefully examined.ift.
Broken wind, nature and treatment of, 213;
influenced much, and often caused by the
manner of feeding, 215; how distinguished
from thick wind, ib.
Brooklyn Maid, performance of, 57.
Bronchial tubes, description of the, 166.
Bronchitis, nature and treatment of, 205.
Eronchocele, account of, 197.
Bronchotomy, the operation of, 165.
Brood mare, description of the, 248; should
not be too old, ib. ; treatment of, after co-
vering, 250 ; after foaling, ib.
Brown horses, description ot, 387.
Brown, Capt. Thomas, opinions of with re-
gard to climate, 32.
Bryony, dangerous, 226.
Buckeye, race won by, 37.
Buccinator muscle, description of the, 125.
Bull, the, Thompson's description of the, 54.
Cabbage, the nutritive matter in, 379.
Ccecum, description of the, 229.
Cadmus, race won by, 37.
Calamine powder, account of, 417.
Calculi in the intestines, 238.
Calkins, advantages and disadvantages ofj
336 ; should be placed on both heels, ib.
Camden, race won by, 37.
Camphor, the medical use of, 403.
Canker of the foot, nature and treatment of,
320.
Cannon, or shank-bone, description of the, 267
Cantharides, form the best blister, 225, 404 ,
given for the cure of glanders, 225, 404.
Capillary vessels, the, 185.
Capivi, balsam of, 406.
Capped hock, nature and treatment of, 278
description of, 278, 290 ; although not al
ways unsoundness there should be a special
warranty against it, 391.
Capsicum Berries, their stimulating effectj
404.
Carbon of the blood got rid of in respiratior
206.
INDEX,
437
Carbonate of iron, a mild tonic, 409.
Carraways, a good aromatic, 404.
Carrots, excellent elfects of in disease, 37S ;
the nutritive matter in, 379.
Cartilages of the foot, description and action
of the, 300; ossification of the, 321, 394; a
cause of unsoundness, 394.
Caruncuia lacrymalis, the, 117.
Cascarilla Bark, a tonic and aromatic, 404.
Cassjindra, race won by, 36.
Castlcy, Mr., on restiveness in the horse, 353.
Castor-oil, not a purgative for the horse, 404.
Castration, method of, 254 ; proper period for,
ib. ; the operation by torsion, ib.
Cataract in the eye, nature of, 90 ; cannot be
operated on in the horse, ib. ; method of
examination for, ib. ; the occasional appear-
ance and disappearance of, 120.
Catarrh, description and treatment of, 192;
distinguished from glanders, 193 ; distin-
guished from inflammation of the lungs,
192; epidemic, 197.
Catarrhal fever, nature and treatment of,
192.
Catechu, a good astringent, method of giving,
and adulterations of, 404.
Catheter, description of one, 247.
Cato, performances of, 57 ; height of, 65.
Caustic, an account of the best, 405.
Cawl, description of the, 231.
Centreville Trotting course, 63.
Cerebellum, description of the, 78.
Cerebrum, description of the, 78.
Chalk, its medicinal use in the horse, 4U5.
Chaff, attention should be paid to the good-
ness of the ingredients, 373 ; best composi-
tion of, ib. ; when given to the hard-worked
horse, much time is saved for repose, ib.;
quantity of necessary for different kinds of
horses, ib.
Chamomile, a mild tonic, 405
Chancellor, performances of, 59.
Channel of the jaws, what, 144.
Charcoal, useful in a poultice, and as an anti-
septic, 405.
Charges, composition and use of, 405.
Charlotte Temple, performances of, 57; height
of, 65.
Chest, anatomy of the, 167 ; proper form of
the, 168, 169 ; cut of the, 167 ; the import-
ance of depth of, 167 ; narrow and rounded,
comparison between, 169 ; the broad chest,
170 ; founder, description of, 175.
Chestnut horses, varieties of, 387,
Chinked in the chine, what, 172.
Chloride of lime, an excellent disinfectant,
412; of soda, useful in unhealthy ulcers,
415.
Chorea, 109.
Choroid coat of the eye, description and use
of the, 87,
Chyle, the formation of, 229.
Ciliary processes of the eye, description of
the, 89.
Cineritous matter of the brain, nature and
function of the, 79.
37*
Clara Howard, races won by, 37, 38,
Clicking, cause and remedy of, 362.
Clipping, recommendation of, 383,
Clips, when necessary, 337.
Clover, considered as an article of food, 378,
379.
Clysters, the composition and great usefulness
of, 405 ; directions as to the administration
of, ib.
Coat, fine, persons much too solicitous to pro
cure it, 371.
Cocktail horse, mode of docking, 351.
Coffin-bone, description of the, 300 ; the la-
mellce, or leaves of, ib. ; fracture of, 383.
Coffin-joint, sprain of, 277.
Cold, common, description and treatment of,
192.
Colic, flatulent, account of, 234 ; spasmodic,
description and treatment of, 232,
Colocynth, is poisonous, 226.
Ctjlon, description of the, 229, 230.
Colour, remarks on, 386.
Colt, early treatment of the, 251 ; mules, death
of, 454, 455.
Columbus, performances of, 57; height of| 65,
Comple.xus major, description of the, 159 ;
minor, description of the, 160.
Concave-seated shoe, the, described and re-
I commended, 337.
Confidence, performances of, 57 ; height, 65.
Conium maculatum, poisonous, 226.
Conjunctiva, description of the, 87; appear-
! ance of, how far a test of inflammation, ib.
Consumption, account of, 215.
Contraction of the foot, nature of, 305, 391 ;
I the peculiarity of tiie lameness produced
by, 303 ; how far connected with the navi-
cular disease, 307 ; is not the necessary-
consequence of shoeing, ib. ; produced by
neglect of paring, 306 ; wearing the shoes
too long, 305 ; want of natural moisture,
306 ; the removal of the bars, ib. ; not so
much produced by litter as imagined, 307 ;
the cause rather tlian the consequence of
thrush, 305 ; best mode of treating, 308, 309 ;
rarely permanently cured, 309 ; does not
necessarily imply unsoundness, 391; al-
though not necessarily unsoundness, should
have a special warranty against it, ib. ; blood
horses very subject to, 308,
Convexity of the eye, the proper, not suffi-
ciently attended to, 87.
Copaiba, account of the resin, 406.
Copper, the combinations of, used in veteri-
nary practice, 406.
Corded veins, what, 136.
Cordials, the use and abuse of, in the horse,
406.
Cornea, description of the, 87 ; mode of exa-
mining the, ib. ; its prominence or flatness,
ib.; should be perfectly transparent, j6.
Corns, the nature and treatment of, 317; pro-
duced by cutting away the bars, ib. ; not
paring out the toot between the crust and
bars, ih. ; pressure, ib. ; very difficult tc
cure, 318; constitute unsoundness, 391.
438
INDEX.
Coronary ligament, description of the, 297 ;
tfie crust principally produced from, ib.;
ring, description of the, ib.
Coronet, description of the, ib.
Corrosive sublimate, treatment under poi-
son by, 227 ; a good tonic for farcy, 227,
411.
Cortical substance of the brain, description
and fraction of, 78.
Cough, the nature and treatment of, 209, 210 ;
constitutes unsoundness, 392 ; the occasional
difficulty with regard to this, 395.
Cow hocks, description of, 291.
Cradle, a safe restraint upon the horse when
blistered, 347.
Cramp, the nature and treatment of, 106.
Cream-coloured horses, account of, 38G ; pecu-
liarity' in their eyes, 88.
Cream of tartar, a mild diuretic, 414.
Creasote, its use in veterinary practice, 407.
Creath, races won by, 36, 37.
Crib-biting, description of, 361 ; causes and
cure, ib. ; injurious to the horse, ib. ; con-
stitutes unsoundness, 361, 392.
Cricoid cartilage of the windpipe, the, 163.
Cropping of tlie ear, absurdity of, 81.
Crossing the breeds, good effect of, 29 ; bad
effects of ditto, ib.
Croton, the farina of, used as physic, 407.
Crust of the foot, description of the, 295 ; com-
position of the, 296; consisting within of
numerous horny plates, 298; proper degree
of it, slanting, 296; proper thickness of the,
ib.; brittleness of, remedy for, 298; the
cause of sandcrack, 311.
Crystalline lens, description of the, 90.
Cub, race won by, 37.
Cuboid bones, description of the, 285.
Cuneiform bones, description of the, 77,
285.
Curbs, nature and treatment of, 267; consti-
tute unsoundness, 392.
Cuticle, description of the, 381.
Cutis, or true skin, account of the, ib.
Cutting, cause and cure of, 275, 276, 362;
constitutes unsoundness, 393 ; away the
foot, unfounded prejudice against, 306.
Dandriff, the nature of, 331.
Darley Arabian, 21.
Deafness, 122.
Depressor labii inferioris muscle, description
of the, 125.
Diabetes, the nature and treatment of, 245.
Diaphoretics, their nature and effects, 407.
Diaphraorm, description of the, 176; rupture
of; 177 ; its connexion with respiration, 178.
Digestion, the process of it described, 222.
Digestives, their nature and use, 407.
Digitalis, highly recommended in colds and
all inflammatory complaints, 407.
Dilator magnus lateralis muscle, description
of the, 285; naris lateralis muscle, descrip-
tion of the, ib.
Distance, 42.
Diuretic medicines, the use and abuse of, 408.
Docking, method of performing, 350.
Dogs, danger of encouraging them about the
stable, 100.
Doncaster course, the length of, 42.
Don Juan, performances of, 57.
Dosoris, race won by, 37.
Drinks, how to administer, 408; comparison
between them and balls, ib.
Dropsy of the chest, 219 ; of the heart, 183.
Drover, performance of, 58.
Drum of the ear, description and use of the,
81.
Duane, race won by, 39.
Dun horse, account of the, 336.
Duodenum, description of the, 229 ; diseases
of the, ib.
Dura mater, description of the, 78.-
Dutchman, performances of, 57, 60, 61, 62;
height of, 65.
Dutchess, prrformances of, 57,
D. D. Tompkins, performances of, 57 ; height
of, 65.
Duval 1, Judge G., services rendered to the
turf by, 25.
Ear, description of the external parts, 81 ; in-
ternal parts, ib. ; bones of the, description
and use of, 81, 82; labyrinth of the, 81;
indicative of the temper, ib. ; clipping and
singeing, cruelty of, ib.; treatment of
wounds or bruises of, 121 ; cruel operations
on the, ib.
Earl of Margrave, race won by, 37.
Eclipse, his performances, 30, 39, 41 ; was a
high-blower.
Edwin Forrest, performances of, 57 ; heigut
of, 65.
Elasticity of the ligament of the neck, 77.
Elatcrium, poisonous, 226.
Elbow, (he proper form and inclinatioii of,
264; capped, 261 ; fracture of, 328; pjnc
tured, 262,
Ellen Thompson, performances of, 57,
Emetic tartar, used as a nauseant, diaphoretic,
and worm medicine, 402.
Empress, performance of, 59.
Enamel of the teeth, account of the, 145.
English Eclipse, 24.
English steeple-chase, description of, 50.
English aristocracy, advantages of, 32,
English trotters, examples of, 51,
Ensiform cartilage, the, 169,
Entanglement of the intestines, description
of, 239.
Enteritis, account of, 235.
Epidemic catarrh, nature and treatment of,
197 ; malignant, nature and treatment ofl
203.
Epiglottis, description of the, 163.
Epilepsy, nature and treatment of, 109,
Epsom salts, used as a purgative, 412.
Epsom course, the length of, 41.
Ergot of rye, the action of, 415.
Ethmoid bone, description of the, 77.
Euphorbium, the abominable use of it, 226.
Eutaw, race won by, 39,
INDEX.
430
Ewe-neck, unsighlliness and inconvenience
of, IGO
Exchanges ofhorses stand on the same ground
as sales, 397.
Ivtercise, directions for, 371 ; the necessity
of regular, ib. ; want of, producing grease,
^94 ; more injury done by the want of it
than by the hardest work, 372.
Expansion shoe, description and use of the,
341
Extensor pedis muscle, description of the,
284.
Eye, description of the, 82 ; cut of the, 86 ;
fracture of the orbit of the, 93 ; healthy
appearance of the, 85 ; diseases of the, 116 ;
inflammation of, common, 117 ; ditto, spe-
cific, ib.; ditto, causes, 118; ditto, medical
treatment of, 118, 119; ditto, untractable
nature of, 119, 120; ditto, consequences
of, 119 ; ditto, marks of recent, 393 ; ditto,
constitutes unsoundness, i6. ; ditto, heredi-
tary, 119 ; method and importance of exa-
mining it, 87, 90; indicative of the temper,
82 ; the pit above, indicative of the age, 71 ;
muscles of the, 92.
Eyebrows, substitute for, 83.
Eyelashes, description of, 83 ; folly of singe-
insT them, 84.
Eyelid, description of, 83, 84.
Eyehds, diseases of the, 116.
Exostosis on the orbit of the eye, 94.
Face, description of tlie, 122; cut of the mus-
cles, nerves, and blood-vessels of, 125.
Falling in of the foot, what, 304.
False quarter, nature and treatment of, 313.
Fanny Wyatt, race won by, 39.
Farcy, a disease of the absorbents of the skin,
136, 137; connected with glanders, 136 ;j
both generated and infectious, 13S; symp-
toms of, 137; treatment of, 138; buds,
what, 137 ; the effect of cantharides in,
138, 139 ; diniodide of copper, 138.
Fashion, perfiirmance of, 39 ; the winner of
the race of races, 33.
FeatI.er-weight, a, 42.
Feeding, high, connected with grease, 294;
regular periods of, necessity of attending
to, 379 ; manner of, has much influence on
broken wind, 214,
Feet, the general management of, 380 ; atten-
tion to, and stopping at night, recommend-
ed, ib.
Felt soles, description and use of, 341,
Femur, fracture of the, 329.
Fetlock, description of the, 275.
Fever, idiopathic or pure, 187; symptoms of,
ib.; symptomatic, 188.
Fibula, description of the, 283.
Filly by Imp. Trustee, race won by, 37.
Firincf, the principle on which resorted to,
347 ; mode of applying, ib. ; should not
penetrate the skin, 349 ; absurdity and
cruelty of blistering after, ib. ; horse should
not be used for some months after, ih.
Fistula lacrymalis, 84; in the poll, 157.
Fits, symptoms, causes, and treatment of^
109,
Fleam and lancet, comparison between them,
189.
Flexor of the arm, description of the, 263 ;
metatarsi muscle, description of the, 284 ;
pedis peiforatus, the perforated muscle, de-
scription of the, 263, 284 ; pedis perforans,
the perforating muscle, description of tiie,
264, 269, 284.
Fiirtilla, race won by, 38.
Flying Childers, the ne plus ultra of success
reached in his days, 29.
Foal, early treatment of, 251 ; early handling
of, important, ib.; importance of liberal
feeding of, ib. ; time for weaning, ib.
Fomentations, theory and use of, 409.
Food of the horse, observations on, 372; a list
of the usual articles of, 374 ; should be ap-
portioned to the work, 373.
Foot, description of the, 295 ; diseases of the,
302 ; canker, 320 ; corns, 317 ; contraction,
305; false quarter, 313; founder, acute,
302; chronic laminitis, 304; inflammation,
ib. ; navicular joint disease, 309 ; overreach,
312; prick, 315; pumiced, 304; quittor,
313; sandcrack, 311; thrush, 318; tread,
312 ; weakness, 321 ; wounds,. 315
Forceps, arterial, the use of, 190.
Forehead, the different form of, in the ox and
horse, 78.
Fore-legs, description of, 255 ; diseases of
them, 267 ; proper position of them, 278.
Forge-water occasionally used, 409.
Form, on the improvement of, 28.
Founder, acute, symptoms, causes, and treat-
ment of, 302; chronic, nature and treat-
ment of, 304.
Foxglove, strongly recommended in colds,
and all fevers, 407, 408.
Fracture of the skull, treatment of, 93 ; gene-
ral observations on fractures, 322 ; of the
skull, 323; orbit of the eye, 324; nasal
bones, ib.; superior maxillary or upper jaw-
bone, 325'; inferior ditto, ih.; spine, 326;
ribs, ib.; pelvis, 327; tail, 328; limbs, ib.;
shoulder, ib. ; arm, ib. ; elbow, ib. ; femur,
329 ; patella, ib. ; tibia, ib. ; hock, 330 ; leg,
ib.; sessamoid bones, 331; pastern, ib.;
lower pastern, 332 ; coffin bone, 333 ; navi-
cular bone, ib.
Frog, horny, description of the, 299 ; sensible,
description of the, 299, 301 ; ditto, action
and use of the, 299 ; pressure, question of
the, ife. ; proper paring of, for shoeing, ih. ,
diseases of the, ib.
Frontal bones, description of the, 70; sinuses,
description of the, 73 ; ditto, perforated to
detect glanders, ib.
Furze, considered as an article of food, ^78.
Gallatin, race won by, 37.
Gall, account of the, 2'31 ; bladder, the horse
has none, ib.
Gall-stones, 243.
Gazan, race won by, 37.
440
INDEX.
Gentian, the best tonic for the horse, 409.
George Martin, races won by, 36, 38.
Gibbing, a bad liabil, cause of, and means of
lessening, 356.
Gigs, fornialion of, 154.
Ginger, an excellent aromatic and tonic, 409,
417.
Give and take plate, 42.
Glanders, nature of, 129, 131 ; symptoms, 74,
129, 134; slow progress of, 129, 131 ; ap-
pearances of the nose in, 74, 129, 131 ; de-
tected by injecting tlie frontal sini ses, 73 ;
how distinguished from catarrh, 131 ; ditto
from strangles, ib. ; connected with farcy,
130, 132; treatment of, 135; causes, 133;
both generated and contagious, 133, 134,
429 ; oflenest produced by improper stable
management, 133; mode of communica-
tion, 134 ; prevention of, 135 ; account of
its speedy appearance, 132, 133.
Glands, enlarged, it depends on many circum-
stances wliether they constitute unsound-
ness, 393.
Glass-eye, nature and treatment of, 121.
Glauber's salt, its effect, 416.
Glut£Bi muscles, description of the, 281, 282.
Godolphin Arabian, Sir Archy regarded as
the, of America, 25.
Goulard's extract, the use of it much over-
valued, 412.
Gracilis muscle, description of the, 281, 284.
Grains, occasionally used for horses of slow
work, 375.
Grapes on the heels, treatment of, 294.
Grasses, neglect of the farmer as to the pro-
per mixture of, 377.
Grease, nature and treatment of, 292 ; cause
of, ib. ; farmer's horse not so subject to it
as others, 294 ; generally a mere local com-
plaint, 293.
Greenwich Maid, performances of, 57; height.
Grey Eagle, race won by, 37.
Grey Medoc, race won by, 39.
Grey horses, account of the different shades
of, 386.
Grinders, construction of the, 145.
Grinding, of the food, accomplished by the
mechanism of the joint of the lower jaw,
146 ; swallowing without, 360.
Grogginess, account of, 275.
Grooming, as important as exercise to the
horse, 370 ; opens the pores of the skin, and
gives a fine coat, 371 ; directions for, ib.
Grunter, the, description of, 215 ; is unsound,
392.
Gullet, description of the, 221 ; foreign bodies
in, 223. ^
Gum-arabic, for what purposes used, 398.
Gutta .<erena, nature and treatment of, 121.
Habits, vicious or dangerous, 353.
Hrematuria, 245.
Hair, account of the, 381 ; question of cutting
it from the heels, 295.
Haj-as, established by Napoleon, 33.
Haunch, description of the, 279 ; wide, ad-
vantage of, ib. ; injuries of the, ib, ; joint,
singular strength of it, ib. ; also of the thigh
bones, advantage of the oblique direction
of, ib.
Haw, curious mechanism of the, 85; diseases
of, 117; absurdity and cruelty of destroy-
ing it, 85, 86.
Hay, considered as food, 373 ; mowburnt, in
jurious, 377 ; old preferable to new, ib.
Head, anatomy of the, 70 ; the numerous
bones composing it, the reason of this, 70,
71 ; section of the. 72 ; beautiful provision
for its support, 76.
Healing ointment, account of the, 417.
Hearing of the horse, the very acute, 81.
Heart, description of the, 181 ; its action de
scribed, 182; inflammation of the, 183,
dropsy of the, ib.
Heels, question of cutting the hair from them,
295 ; low, disadvantage of, 322 ; proper par-
ing of, for shoeing, 334; washing of the,
producing grease, 294.
Height of trotting horses, 64.
Hellebore, white, used in inflammation of the
lungs and fevers, 409 ; black, its use, ib.
Hemlock, given in inflammation of the chest,
410.
Henry, match won by, 57 ; height, 65.
Hepatic duct, the, 231.
Hernia, the nature and treatment of, 240.
Hide-bound, the nature and treatment of, 383.
High-blowrr, a description of the, 195,315 ; is
unsound, 392.
Hind legs, description of the, 279.
Hip-joint, the great strength of the, 280.
Hips, ragged, what, 279.
Hobbles, description of the best, 344.
Hock, the advantage of its numerous separate
bones and ligaments, 290 ; capped, 278,
291 ; cow, ib. ; description of the, 285 ; en-
largement of the, nature of and how affect-
ing soundness, 286, 393; inflammation of
the small bones of, a frequent cause of
lameness, 286, 287 ; the principal seat of
lameness behind, 286; lameness of it, with-
out apparent cause, 290 ; fracture of, 330.
Hogs' lard, properties of, 399.
Hoof, cut of the, 295 ; description of the, 296.
Horn of the crust, secreted principally by the
coronary ligament, 298 ; once separated
from the sensible part within, will never
again unite with it, ib.
Hornet, sting of the, 225.
Horse, the first allusion to him, 17; in England
and America, 17; English, 20; Barb, 21;
the different colours of the different breeds,
386 ; his fossil remains found in every part
of the world, 17, 31 ; the general manage-
ment of, 366; sublime account of, by Job,
18; first mention of race-horse in English
annals, 21; Arabian race, 27,28; height
of trotting, 64 ; price of, in Solomon's time,
18 ; sagacity of, ib. ; can sec almost in dark-
ness, 88 ; English, improved under William
the Conqueror, 21, 22 • zoological descrip.
NDEX,
441
tion of, 67 ; numerous in Britain at the in-
vasion of the Roiiiuns, 20.
Horse, Flanders, introduced by King John,
32; Lombardy, imported by Edward II.,
tb ; Spanish, imported by Edward III., ib.;
Flemish, characteristics of, ib. ; Darby Ara-
bian, 24 ; revolution in the system of breed-
ing brought about by the invention of gun-
powder, 23 ; first classification for war, the
turf, the chase, the road, and the coach, ib. ;
value of before the establishment of the
Turf Register, 25 ; Beach, anecdotes of, 26;
thrives best within or near the torrid zone,
31 ; influence of climate and food on the
form and character of, 31 ; value of since
the establishment of the Turf Register, 32 ;
ancestors of the present stock of American,
40; good blood in, important in a military
point of view, 33 ; prevalence of blood of,
in Lee's Legion, 33; American trotting,
49 ; superiority of the American trotting
over the English, 49, 51 ; speed of, 50, 51.
Houri, (Imp.), race won by, 36.
Humerus, description of the, 260.
Hunter, the, general account of, 48 ; proper
degree of blood in, ib. ; form of, ib. ; spirit
of, ib. ; English, ib.; shoe, description of
the, 340.
Hunting Park course, 64.
Hydrocyanic acid, poisoning by it, 226; its
occasional good service, 399.
Hjdrothorax, symptoms and treatment of, 219.
Ileum, description of the, 229.
Inflammation, nature of, 185; treatment of,
186 ; hot or cold applications to, guide in
the choice of, ib. ; importance of bleeding
in, 185, 345; when proper to physic in,
LS6; of the bowels, 235; ditto, distinction
between it and colic, 233 ; brain, 98 : eye,
117; foot, 302 ; kidneys, 244 ; larynx, 193 ;
lungs, 206; stomach, 223; trachea, 194;
veins, 161.
Influenza, nature and treatment of, 197.
Infusions, manner of making them, 411.
Insanity, 115.
Intercostal muscles, description of the, 169.
Intestines, description of the, 228.
Introsusception of the intestines, treatment
of, 238.
Invertebrated animals, what, 67.
Iodine, usefulness of, in reducing enlarged
glands, 411.'
Iris, description of the, 89.
Iron, the carbonate of, a mild and useful
tonic, 409 ; sulphate of, a stronger tonic,
ib.; ditto, recommended for the cure of
glanders, ib.
tchiness of the skin should always be re-
garded with suspicion, 390.
Jacks. See the Ass.
■James's powder, 402.
Jaundice, symptomsandtreatmentof,243, 244.
Jaw, the lower, admirable mechanism of, 142 ;
upper, description of, 141
3f
Jejunum, description of the, 229.
Jerry, performance of, 58.
Jim Bell, races won by, 36, 39.
Jockeys, superiority of American, 51, 65.
Jockey Club, rules and regulations of, 42.
John Barcombe, race won by, 39.
John C'ausin, race won by, 36.
John R. Grymes, race won by, 37.
Jointed shoe, the description and use of, 341
Jugular vein, anatomy of the, 190.
Jumper, the horse-breaker, anecdotes of his
power over animals, 353.
Juniper, oil of, use of, 411.
Kate Kearney, her dam sold for 13 pounds
tobacco currency, 24 ; her fame established
by Col. J. M. Selden, ib.
Kicking, a bad and inveterate habit, 358.
Kidneys, description of the, 243 ; inflamma-
tion of, symptoms and treatment of, 244.
King Pippin, anecdotes of him as illustrating
the inveterateness of vicious habits, 354.
Knee, an anatomical description of the, 264;
tied in below, 269 ; broken, treatment of^
265, 391.
Knowledge of the horse, how acquired, 69.
Labyrinth of the ear, description and use of
the, 81.
Lachrymal duct, description of the, 84 ; gland,
description and use of the, ib.
Lady Clifden, race won by, 39.
Lady Suffolk, performances of, 57, 63, 64;
height of, 65.
Lady Victory, performances of, 57; height
of, 65.
Lady Warrington, performances of, 57 ; height
of, 65.
Lady Kate, performances of, 58.
Lamellffi or lamina), horny, account of the,
298 ; fleshy, account of the, ib. ; weight of
the horse, supported by the, ib.
Lameness, shoulder, method of ascertaining,
255 ; from whatever cause, unsoundness,
393.
Lampns, nature and treatment of, 142 ; cruelty
of burning the bars for, ib.
Laminae of the foot. See Lamellae.
Lancet and fleam, comparison between them,
189.
Laryngitis, chronic and acute, 193.
Larynx, description of the, 163 ; inflammatioM
of the, 193.
Laudanum, the use of in veterinary practice^
413.
Lead, the compounds of, used in veterinary
practice, 411, 412; extract of, its povrer
much overvalued, 412; sugar ofj use of, ib.j
white, use of, ib.
Leather soles, description and use of, 341.
fi g, cut of the, 112; description of the, 267;
fracture of the, 332.
Legs, fore, the situation of, 255 ; hind, anato-
mical description of the, ib. ; swelled, 291.
Levator humeri muscle, description of the^
160, 259.
442
INDEX.
Lever, muscular action explained on the
principle of it, 257.
Ligament of the neck, description and elasti-
city of the, 76.
Light, the degree of, in the stable, 369.
Limbs, fracture of the, 328.
Lime, the chloride of, exceedingly useful for
bad smelling wounds, &lc., 412; the chlo-
ride of, valuable in cleansing stables from
infection, if).
Lindsay's Arabian, 34.
Liniments, the composition and use of, ib.
Linseed, an infusion of, used in catarrh, 376,
412; meal forms the best poultice, 412,
414.
Lips, anatomy and uses of the, 139 ; lips the
hands of the horse, ib.
Litter, the, cannot be too frequently removed,
368; proper substances for, 369; contrac-
tion not so much produced by it as some
imagine, 307.
Liver, the anatomy and use of it, 230 ; diseases
of the, 241.
Liverpool, account of the course at, 42.
Locked jaw, symptoms, cause, and treatment
of, 103.
Locomotive, performances of, 57 ; height of,
65.
Loins, description of the, 172.
Longissimus dorsi muscle, description of the,
173.
Lucern, considered as an article of food, 378,
Lumbricus teres, the, 240.
Lunar caustic, a very excellent application,
402.
Lungs, description of the, 181 ; symptoms of
inflammation of the, 206; causes of, ib.;
how distinguished from catarrh and dis-
temper, 207, 208 ; treatment of, 208, 209 ;
importance of early bleeding in, 209 ; blis-
ters preferable to rowels or setons in, 210 ;
consequences of, 210, 212, 215.
Madness, the symptoms and treatment of,
100.
Magnesia, the sulphate of, 412.
Mallenders, the situation of, 278 ; the nature
and treatment of, 291.
Mammalia, the, an important class of animals.
67.
Manchester, account of the course at, 42.
Mane, description and use of the, 160.
Mange, description and treatment of, 388;
causes of, 388, 389 ; ointment, recipes for,
ib.; highly infectious, 389; method of
purifying the stable after, ib.
Manger-feeding, the advantage of, 373.
Mare, put to tlie horse too early, 248, 250 ;
deterioration in, 249 ; her proper form, ib. ;
breeding in-and-in, ib.; time of being at
heat, 250 ; time of going with foal, ib. ; best
time for covering, ib. ; management of,
when with foal, ib. ; management of, after
foaling, 250,
Maria Duke, race won by, 36.
Mark of the teeth, what, 146.
Marsk, his performances, 30.
Mashes, importance of their use, 412; best
method of making them, ib.
Masseter muscle, description of the, 125, 144.
Master Henry, race won by, 38.
Matchem, his performances, 30.
Maxillary bones, anatomy of the, 141 , frac-
tures of, 325.
Meadow grasses, the quantity of nutritivo
matter in, 379.
Medicines, a list of the most useful, 398.
Medullary substance of the brain, its natur*
and function, 72, 78, 79.
Megrims, cause, 94 ; symptoms, 95 ; treat-
ment, ib. ; apt to return, ib.
Melt, description of the, 231.
Mercurial ointment, the use of, in veterinary
practice, 410.
Mercury, its use in epidemic catarrh, 201.
Mesentery, description of the, 229.
Metacarpals, description of the, 267.
Midriff, description of the, 176.
Minstrel, race won by, 36.
Mischief, performance of, 59.
Miss Foote, races won by, 39.
Mount Holly, performance of, 58.
Modesty, performance of, 57 ; height of, 65.
Moisture, want of, a cause of contractiou,
307.
Moon-blindness, the nature of, 117.
Moulting, the process of, 385 ; the horse
usually languid at the time of, ib. ; no sti-
mulant or spices should be given, ib. ; mode
of treatment under, ib.
Mounting the colt, 253.
Mouth of the horse, description of the bones
of, 141 ; should be always felt lightly in
riding, ib.; importance of its sensibility, ib,
Mowburnt hay injurious, 377.
Mule, the, 419; as he is, 422; value of, in
China, 423 ; value of the breed of Gen.
Washington, ib. ; more valuable when bred
from blooded mares, ib. ; longevity of, 424;
Pliny's account of a, ib. ; does not deterio-
rate more rapidly after twenty years of age
than the horse after ten, 425 ; health of, ib. ;
economy in food, &c., ib. ; is more steady
in his draught than the horse, 426 ; trade
in Kentucky, 427 ; his obstinacy, 429 ; bad
habits, 429, 430 ; number of in the United
States, 430 ; a breeding, 432; birth of two
colts, ib.; death of ditto, 432, 433.
Muriatic acid, its properties, 399.
Muscles of the back, description of the, 173;
breast, ditto, 175 ; eye, ditto, 92 ; face, ditto,
125; neck, ditto, 158; ribs, ditto, 169;
shoulder-blade, 255; lower bone of the
shoulder, ib. ; the advantageous direction
of, more important than their bulk, 266,
257, 258 ; should be large, 28.
Muscular action, the principle of, 261.
Mustard, the use of, 413.
Myrrh, the use of, for canker and wounds,
413.
INDEX,
443
Nasalis labii superioris muscle, description
of the, 125.
Nasal bones, fracture of, 324 ; description of,
72.
gleet, 127.
polypus, 126.
Navicular bone, description of the, 301 ; the
action and use of it, ib.
Navicular joint, disease, nature and treatment
of the, 309 ; how far connected with con-
traction, 310 ; the cure very uncertain, ib.;
fracture of, 333.
Neck, anatomy and muscles of the, 158, 159 ;
description of the arteries of the, 161 ; de-
scription of the veins of the, ib. ; bones of
the, 153; proper confirmation of the, ib.;
comparison between long and short, 159 ;
loose, what, ib.
Nerves, the, construction and theory of, 70 ;
spinal, the compound nature of, 79 ; of tlie
face, 125.
Neurotomy, or nerve operation, object and
effect of it, 111 ; manner of performing it,
112 ; cases in which it should or should not
be performed, 113; a vestige of the per-
formance of it, constitutes unsoundness,
394.
Nicking, the method of performing, 351 ; use-
less cruelty of\en resorted to, 352.
Nimrod, his objection to clipping, 383 ; ad-
mits the superiority of American trotters,
49, 51.
Nitre, a valuable cooling medicine, and mild
diuretic, 414.
Nitric acid, for what employed, 399.
Nitrous sether, spirit of, a mild stimulant and
diuretic, 413.
Norman Leslie, match won by, 57 ; height of,
65.
Nose, description of the bones of the, 122,
123 ; spontaneous bleeding from, ib. ; tlie
importance of its lining membrane, 123,
191 ; the nose of the horse slit to increase
his wind, 124.
Nosebag, importance of the, 379.
Nostrils, description of the, 122 ; peculiar in-
flammation of the membrane of the, 74;
the membrane of, important in ascertaining
disease, 126, 191; importance of an ex-
panded one, 124; slit by some nations to
increase the wind of the horse, ib.
Nutriment, the quantity of, contained in the
diflferent articles of food, 379,
ATS, the usual food of the horse, 374, 379 ;
should be old, heavy, dry, and sweet, 374,
375; kiln-dried, injurious to the horse,
375 ; proper quantity of, for a horse, ib.
Oatmeal, excellent for gruel, and sometimes
used as a poultice, 375.
Occipital bone, description of the, 74.
CEnanthe fistulosa, poisonous, 226.
ffisophagus, description of the, 221.
Olfactory nerves, the importance of them, 124.
Olive oil, an emollient, 413.
Omega, races won by, 38, 39.
Omentum, descnption of the, 231.
Oneida Chief, perlormance of, 58.
Opacity of the eye, the nature and treatment
of, 118.
Operations, description of the most important,
344.
Ophthalmia, 117.
Opium, its great value in veterinary practice,
412 ; adulterations of it, ib.
Orbicularis muscle of the eye, description of
it, 92.
Orbit of the eye, fracture of, 93.
Os temoris, account of, 282.
Ossification of the carlillages, cause and treat-
ment of, 321.
Over-reach, the nature and treatment of, 312,
362; often producing sandcrack or quiltor,
363.
Ozena, account of, 123.
Pachydermata, an order of animals, 68.
Pack-wax, description of the, 76, 157.
Palate, description of the, 163.
Palm-oil, the best substance for making up
balls, 414.
Palsy, the causes and treatment of, 109.
Pancreas, description of the, 243.
Paps or barbs, 154.
Parietal bones, description of the, 74.
Paring out of the foot for shoeing, directions
for, 334 ; neglect of, a cause of contraction,
306.
Parotid gland, description of the, and its dis-
eases, 125, 153.
Parsnips, the nutritive matter in, 379
Passenger, race won by, 37.
Pastern, upper, fracture of, 331 ; lower, frac-
ture of, 332 ; description of the, 272, 276;
bones of the, ib. ; cut of the, 272 ; proper
obliquity of the, 274.
Patella or stifle bone, description of the, 283 ;
fracture of, 329.
Paul Pry, performance of, 58.
Pawing, remedy for, 363.
Payment of the smallest sum completes the
purchase of a horse, 396.
Peacemaker, race won by, 37.
Peas, somtimes used as food, but should be
crushed, 376, 379.
Pectineus muscle, the, 281.
Pectorales muscles, description of the, 175,260
Pedigrees of American trotters, 54.
Pelham, performance of, 58.
Pelvis, fracture of the, 327.
Pericardium, description of the, 181.
Peronaeus muscle, description of the, 284.
Perspiration, insensible, no medicines will
certainly increase it, 385.
Pharynx, anatomy of the, 157.
Phrenitis, 98.
Phthisis pulmonalis, description of, 215.
Physic balls, method of compounding the
best, 401 ; should never be given in inflam
mation of the lungs, 181.
Physicking, rules for, 237.
Pia mater, description of the, 78.
444
INDEX.
Pied horse, account of the, 386.
Pigmentum nigrum, account of the, 88.
Piper, description of the, 215.
Pit of the eye, the, indicative of the age, 71.
Pitch, its use for charges and plasters, 414.
Pithing, a humane method of destroying ani-
mals, 158.
Pleura, description of the, 179.
Pleurisy, the nature and treatment of, 181,
217.
Pneumonia, the nature and treatment of, 206.
Poisons, account of the most frequent, 226,
227 ; tests of the different ones, 227.
Poll-evil, the cause and treatment of, 157 ;
importance of the free escape of the mat-
ter, ib.
Popliteus muscle, description of the, 284.
Porter's Spirit of the Times, opinion of, 51.
Postea spinatus muscle, description of the,
260.
Post Boy, race won by, 37.
Post Match, 42.
Potash, the compound of, 414.
Potatoes, considered as an article of food, 378,
379.
Poultices, their various compositions, manner
of acting, and great use, 4l4.
Powders, comparison between them and balls,
415.
Pressure, race won by, 37.
Pressure on the brain, effect of, 94.
Prick, in the foot, treatment of, 315 ; injuri-
ous method of removing the horn in search-
ing for, 317.
Prussic acid, treatment of poisoning by, 226.
Puffing the glims, a trick of fraudulent horse-
dealers, 71.
Pulse, the natural standard of the, 184; vari-
eties of the, ib.; importance of attention to
the, 185 ; the most convenient place to feel
it, ib. ; the finger on the pulse during the
bleeding, ib.
Pumiced feet, description and treatment of,
304; do not admit of cure, i6. ; constitute
unsoundness, 394.
Pupil of the eye, description of the, 89 ; the
mode of discovering blindness in it, ib.
Purchase, to complete the, there must be a
memorandum, or payment of some sum,
however small, 396.
Purging, violent, treatment of, 235.
Quarters of the horse, description of the,
261 ; importance of their muscularity and
depth, ib. ; fool, description of, 297 ; the
inner, crust thinner and weaker at, 298;
folly of lowering the crust, ib.
Quidding the food, cause of, 363; unsound-
ness while it lasts, 394.
Quinine, the sulphate of, 403.
Quittor the nature and treatment of, 313; the
treatment often long and difficult, exercis-
ing the patience both of the practitioner
and owner, 314, 315; is unsoundness, 394.
Rabies, symptoms of, 100
Race-courses, different lengths of, 41,
Races, among the Arabs, 27 ; best in America
on record, 35 ; at mile heats, 36 ; at two
mile heats, 37; at three mile Iieats, 38; at
four mile heats, 39 ; miscellaneous -exam-
ples of, 40 ; prejudices against, 33.
Racers may beget trotters, 52, 53.
Racks, no openings should be allowed above
them, 367.
Radius, description of the, 261.
Ragged-hipped, what, 279 ; no impediment to
action, ib.
Raking, the operation of, 415.
Rattler, matches won by, 57, 59 ; height of, 65.
Reality, race won by, 37.
Rearing, a dangerous and inveterate habit,
359.
Recti muscles, of the neck, description of!
158; of the thigh, 280.
Rectum, description of the, 229, 230.
Red Bill, races won by, 36, 38.
Reins, description of the proper, 140.
Resin, its use in veterinary practice, 415.
Respiration, description of the mechanism
and effect of, 179.
Respiratory nerves, the, 79.
Restiveness, a bad habit, and never cured,
353 ; anecdotes in proof of its inveterate.
ness, 353, 354.
Retina, description of the, 91.
Retractor m uscle of the eye, description of it,92,
Rheumatism, 110.
Rifle, performance of, 57.
Ribbed-home, advantage of being, 171.
Ribs, anatomy of the, 168, 169.
Richard of York, race won by, 37.
Ringbone, the nature and treatment of, 277,
278 ; constitutes unsoundness, 394.
Ripple, race won by, 38.
Ripton, matches won by, 57, 63, 64; height
of, 65.
Roach-backed, what, 172.
Roan horses, account of, 386.
Roaring, the nature of, 194, 215 ; curious his-
tory of, 195 ; constitutes unsoundness, 392 ;
from tight reining, 196; fron) buckling in
crib-biting, ib.; treatment of, 197.
Robin Hood, race won by, 36.
Rocker, race won by, 37.
Rolling, danger of, and remedy for, 363.
Roman nose in the horse, wliat, 122.
Round-bone, the, can scarcely be dislocated,
282.
Round course, length of, 41.
Rowels, manner of inserting, and their opera-
tion, 415 ; comparison between them, blis-
ters, and setons, 350.
Rules and regulations of the New York
Jockey Club, 42.
Rules and regulations of the New York
Trotting Club, 54.
Running away, method of restraining, 359.
Rupture, treatment of, 240; of the suspensory
ligament, 193.
Rye-grass, considered as an article of food.
378.
INDEX.
145
Saddles, tlie proper const»- ^ction of, 174;
points of, ib.
Saddle-backed, what, 172; galls, treatment of,
170.
Saddling oflhc colt, 253.
Sailor Boy, race won by, 36.
Sainlbin used as an article of food, 378
Sal ammoniac, the medical use of, 401,
Saliva, its nature and use, 153.
Salivary glands, description of tlie, ib.
Sallenders, nature and treatment of, 291.
Sally Shannon, race won by, 37.
Sally Miller, match won by, 57 ; height of,
65.
Sally Walker, race won by, 38.
Salt, use of in veterinary practice, 415 ; value
of, mingled in the food of animals, 377.
Sandal, .Mr. Percivall's, 343.
Sandcrack, the situation of, 278 ; the nature
and treutnient of, 31 1 ; most dangerous
when proceeding from tread, 312 ; liable to
return, unless the brittleness of the hoof is
remedied, 313; constitutes unsoundness,
3;) 4.
Sarah Bladen, race won by, 38.
Sarah Washington, race won by, 38.
Sartorius muscle, description of the, 281.
Savin, dangerous, 226.
Scapula, description of the, 255.
Sclerotica, description of the, 87.
Scouring, general treatment of, 234.
Screwdriver, performances of, 57 ; height of,
65.
Secale cornutum, the effect of, 415.
Sedatives, a list of them, and their mode of
action, 415.
Serratus major muscle, description of the,
168, 255, 259.
Scssnmoid bones, admirable use of in obviating
concussion, 273 ; fracture of, 331.
Setons, mode of introducing, 349 ; cases in
wiiich they are indicated, ib. ; comparison
between them and rowels and blisters, 350.
Shakspeare, performance of, 57 ; height of,
65.
Shank-bone, the, 267.
Shark, his performances, 30, 36.
Shoe, the concave-seaied, cut of, 338; de-
scribed and recommended, 337; the man-
ner in which the old one should be taken
off, 334 ; the putting on of the shoe, 335 ;
it should be fitted to the foot, and not the
^oot to the shoe, ib. ; description of the
.ninder, 337 ; the unilateral, or one side
nailed shoe, 339 ; the bar shoe, 340 ; the
tip, 341 ; the hunting, 340 ; the jointed, or
expansion, 341.
Shoeing, not necessarily productive of con-
traction, 307 ; preparation of the foot for,
333 ; the principles of, 334.
Shoulder, anatomical description of the, 255 ;
slantinsr direction of the, advantageous,
256, 257 ; when it should be oblique, and
when upright, 258 ; sprain of the, 255 ;
lameness, method of ascertaining, ib.; frac-
ture of the. 328.
38
Shoulder-blade, muscles ot the, 2i)5 , why
united to the chest by muscle alone, ib. ;
lower bone of the, description of, 260 ; mus-
cles of the, 262, 263.
Shying, the probable cause of, 91, 363; treat-
ment of, 364 ; on coming out of the stable,
description of, ib.
Side-line, description of the, 344.
Sight, the acute sense of, in the horse, 80.
Silver, the nitrate of, an excellent caustic,
402.
Singeing, recommendation of, 383.
Sinuses in the foot, necessity of following
them as far as they reach, 319 ; frontal, of
the head, 72.
Sir Archy, indebted for his fame to American
Turf Register, 25 ; regarded as the Godol-
phin Arabian of America, ib.
Sir Lovel, race won by, 37.
Sir Peter, match won by, 57 ; height of, 65,
Sir Willianj, race won by, 37.
Sitfasts, treatment of, 174.
Skeleton of the horse, description of the, 68,
69.
Skin, anatomical description of the, 381 ;
function and uses of it, 381, 382 ; pores of
it, 385; when the animal is in health, is
soft and elastic, 382.
Skull, anatomical description of the, 70 ; arch,
ed form of the roof, 77 ; fracture of the, 93,
323.
Slipping the collar, remedy for, 365, 366.
Smell, the sense and seat of, 124 ; very acute
in the horse, ib.
Snewing, Mr., his advocacy of clipping, 383
Soap, its use in veterinary practice, 416.
Soda, chloride of, its use in ulcers, 415 ; sul-
phate of, ib.
Sole, the horny, description of, 298 ; descent
of, ib. ; proper form of, ib. ; management
of, in shoeing, ib. ; the sensible, 299 ; felt
or leather, their use, 341.
Sore-throat, symptoms and treatment of, 193.
Sorrow, (imp.), race won by, 37.
Soundness, consists in their being no disease
or alteration of structure that does or is
likely to impair the usefulness of the horse,
390, 391 ; considered with reference to the
principal causes of unsoundness, 391.
Spasmodic colic, nature and treatment of,
232.
Spavin, blood, the nature and treatment of,
188; is unsoundness, 394; bog, cause, na-
ture and treatment of, 188, 189, 287 ; bone,
288; why not always accompanied by
lameness, 289 ; is unsoundness, 394.
Spavined horses, the kind of work they arc
capable of, 289.
Speedy-cut, account of, 269.
Sphenoid bone, description of the, 77.
Spinalis dorsi muscle, description of the, 173
Spine, description of the, 167; fracture of
326.
Spirit of the Times, remarks of, 30.
Spleen, description of the, 231, 243.
Splenius muscle, description of the, 158.
446
NDEX.
Splint, nature and treatment of, 268, 278 ;
when constituting unsoundness, 395 ; bones,
description of the, 268,
Sprain of tlie bacii sinews, treatment of, 269,
278; sometimes requires firing, 271; any
remaining thickening constitutes unsound-
ness, 395 ; sprain of the shoulder, 255.
Stables, dark, an occasional cause of inflam-
mation of the ej'e, 119; hot and foul, a
frequent one of inflammation of the eye,
ib.; ditto, lungs, 367 ; ditto, glanders, 133, j
134; should be large, compared with the
number of horses, 367 ; the management
of, too much neglected by the owner of the
horse, ib. ; the ceiling of, should be plaster-
ed, if there is a loft above, ib. ; should be so
contrived that the urine will run off, 369 ;
the stalls should not have too much decli-
vity, ib. ; should be sufficiently light, yet
without any glaring colour, 369, 370.
Staggers, stomach, symptoms, cause, and
treatment of, 95, 96, 379 ; generally fatal,
96; producing blindness, 98; sometimes
epidemic, ib. ; mad, symptoms and treat-
ment, ib.
Staling, profuse, cause and treatment of, 245.
Stallion, description of the proper, for breed-
ing, 248 ; size and form of, prescribed by
Henry VIII., 22; contests between, 26.
Starch, useful in superpurgation, 416.
Stargazer, the, 159.
Sternum, or breast-bone, description of the,
168, 260.
Stifle, description of the, 283 ; accidents and
diseases of the, 285.
Stomach, description of the, 221, 222; very
small in the horse, 222 ; inflammation of
the, 223 ; pump recommended in apoplexy,
97.
Stone in the bladder, symptoms and treatment
of, 246 ; kidney, ib.
Stoppings, the best composition of, and their
great use, 416.
Stranger, performance of, 38.
Strangles, symptoms and treatment of, 154 ;
distinguished from glanders, 131 ; the im-
portance of blistering early in, 155.
Strangury, produced by blistering, 347 ; treat-
ment of, ib.
Strawberry horse, account of the, 386.
Stringhalt, nature of, 107; is decidedly un-
soundness, 109, 395,
Structure of the horse, importance of a know-
ledge of, 69.
Strychnia, account of, 416.
Stud-book, English, reliance to be placed on,
Stureshly, race won by, 37.
Stylo-maxillaris muscle, description of the,
125.
Sublingual gland, description of the, 154.
Submaxillary glands, description of the, 153 ;
artery, description of the, 126.
Sub-scapulo hyoideus muscle, description of
the, 125.
''ugar of lead, use of, 412.
Sullivan, the Irish whisperer, ar<ecdotes of his
power over the horse, 354; the younger,
did not inherit the power of his father, an-
ecdote of this, 355.
Sulphate of copper, use of in veterinary prac-
tice, 406; iron, 409 ; magnesia, 412 ; zinc,
417.
Sulphur, an excellent alterative and ingre-
dient in all applications for mange, 416,
Surfeit, description and treatment of, 387 ; im-
portance of bleeding in, 388.
Suspensory ligament, beautiful mechanism
of the, 275; rupture of the, 276; suspen-
sory muscle of the eye, description of the,
92.
Swallowing without grinding, 360.
Swelled legs, cause and treatment of, 291 ;
most frequently connected with debility,
292.
Sweetbread, description of the, 231.
Sympathetic nerves, description of the, 80,
Tail, anatomy of the, 167; fracture of the,
328 ; docking, 350 ; nicking, 351.
Tar, its use in veterinary practice, 416,
Tares, a nutritive and healthy food, 377,
Tartar, cream of, 413.
Tayloe, B. O., his views of the American turf,
23, 24, 32.
Tears, the secretion and nature of the, 84 ;
how conveyed to the nose, ib. ; sometimes
shed by the horse from pain and grief, ib.
Teeth, description of the, as connected with
age, 144 ; at birth, ib. ; 2 months, ib. ; 12
months, 145; 18 months, 146; the front
sometimes pushed out, that the nest pair
may sooner appear, and the horse seem to
be older than he is, 147 ; 3 years, 146; 3i
years, 147; 4 years, ib.; 4i years, 148;
5 years, ib.; 6 years, ib.; 7 years, 149;
8 years, ib.; change of the, 146; enamel
of the, 145; irregular, inconvenience and
danger of, 151 ; mark of the, 145; frauds
practised with regard to the, 147 ; diseases
of the, 151.
Temper denoted by the eye, 82 ; by the ear,
80.
Temperature, sudden change of, injurious in
its effect, 367.
Temporal bones, description of the, 74.
Tendons of the leg, 267.
Tetanus, symptoms, causes and treatment o£
103.
Thick wind, nature and treatment of, 212
214, 215; often found in round-chestec
horses, 213.
Thigh and haunch bones, description of, 279 ;
form of, 280; should be long and muscula"
t6. ; description of the muscles of the inside
of the upper bone of, ib. ; do. of the outside,
ib. ; niechanical calculation of their power
281.
Thompson's description of the bull, 54.
Thorough-pin, the nature and treatment of^
285 ; is not unsoundness, 395.
Thrush, nature and treatment of, 318; the
INDEX.
447
consequence, rather than the cause of con-
traction, 319 ; its serious nature and conse-
quences not sufficiently considered, ib.;
constitutes unsoundness, 395.
Thymus gland, the, 175.
Thyroid cartilage of the windpipe, description
of the, 163.
Tibia, account of the, 283, 285 ; fracture of,
329.
Tied in below the knee, nature and disadvan-
tage of, 269.
Timoleon, race won by, 36.
Tinctures, account of the best, 417.
Tips, description and use of, 341.
Tobacco, when used, 417.
Toe, bleeding at the, described, 190.
Tom Thutnb,, his performances, 58, 59.
Tongue, anatomy of the, 152 ; diseases of, ib. ;
bladders along the under part of, 153.
Tonics, an account of the best, 417 ; their use
and danger in veterinary practice, ib.
Topgallant, performance of, 57, 58; height
of, 65.
Top Sawyer, performance of, 58.
Torsion, the mode of castration by, 254 ; for-
ceps, description of, ib.
Trachea, or windpipe, description of, 164;
inflammation of, 194.
Tracheotomy, 165; operation of, ib.
Trapezius muscle, description of the, 258.
Trapezium bone, description of the, 265.
Tread, nature and treatment of, 312; often
producing sandcrack or quittor, ib.
Treasurer, races won by, 37, 38.
Trenton, race won by, 37.
Tripping, an annoying and inveterate habit,
366.
Trochanter of the thigh, description of the,
280.
Trochlearis muscle, the, 93.
Trotter, American, 49.
Trotters, American, 49 ; superiority over Eng-
lish, 49, 51 ; speed of, 50, 51 ; speed of
\merican attributed to management rather
than to breed, 51 ; should not be put in
training too young, 52.
Trotting, American horses excel English, 49 ;
great number of clubs in America, 50, ex-
traordinary match, 60; height of horses,
64, 65.
Trotting on the Beacon course, 63; tables,
57 ; horses should do nothing but trot, 54.
Turbinated bones, description of the, 124.
Turner, Mr. T., on clipping, 383.
Turnips, considered as an article of food, 379.
Turpentine, the best diuretic, 243 ; a useful
ingredient in many ointments, 417.
Tushes, description of the, 198, 199.
Twitch, description of the, 345.
Ulcers in the mouth, treatment of, 151, 152.
Ulna, description of the, 261.
Unguiculata, a tribe of animals, 67
Ungulata, a tribe of animals, 68,
Unilateral -shoe, 339.
Unsoundness, contraction does not always
cause it, 307 ; being discovered, the animal
should be tendered, 397 ; ditto, but the ten-
der or return not legally necessary, i6, ; the
horse may be returned and action briiught
for depreciation in value, but this not ad-
visable, ib. ; medical means may be adopted
to cure the horse, they are, however, better
declined, lest in an unfortunate issue of the
case they should be misrepresented, 396.
Unsteadiness whilst mounting, remedy for
359.
Urine, albuminous, 245 ; bloody, ib.
Vastus muscle, description of the, 280.
Veins, description of the, 188; of the arm,
description, &.C., 285; of the neck, ditto,
161 ; of the face, ditto, 125 ; of the shoulder,
ditto, 252 ; inflammation of the, treatment
of, 161.
Velocity, race won by, 37.
Vena portarum, the, 231.
Verdigris, an uncertain medicine, when given
internally, 406 ; a mild caustic, ib.
Vermin, account of, 390.
Vertebrae, the dorsal and lumbar, 167.
Vertebrated animals, what, 67.
Vices of horses, account of the, 353.
Vicious to clean, a bad habit that should he
conquered, 359 ; to shoe, a bad habit that
may also be conquered, 360.
Vinegar, its use in veterinary practice, 398.
Vines, Mr., his use of the Spanish fly in glan-
ders, 404.
Viper, account of the bite of, 225.
Vision, theory of, 88.
Vitreous humour of the eye, account of the,
91.
Vitriol, blue, use of, in veterinary practice,
406.
Volcano, performance of, 58.
Wagner, racea won by, 39.
Wall-eyed horses, what, 89; whether they
become blind, ib.
Warbles, treatment of, 174.
Warranty, the form of a, 395 ; breach of, how
established, ib. ; no price will imply it, 396;
when there ia none, the action must be
brought on the ground of fraud, ib.
Warts, method of getting rid of, 390.
Washington, match won by, 57 ; height ofj
65.
Washing of the heels, productive of grease,
295.
Washy horses, description and treatment of,
236.
Wasps, treatment of the sting of, 225.
Water-dropwort, poisonous, 226; hemlock,
poisonous, ib. ; parsley, poisonous, ib.
Water, generally given too sparingly, 379 ,
management of on a journey, 3S0; the dif-
ference in effect, between hard and soft,
379 ; spring, principally injurious on ac-
count of its coldness, ib. ; stomach of the
horse, the, 230.
Water farcy, nature and treatment of, 138.
448
INDEX.
Wax used in charges and plasters, 417.
Weaknrss o*" the foot, what, 321.
Weaving- indicating an irritable temper, and
no cure for it, 366.
Whalebone, performance of, 57, 59; height
of, 65.
Wheat, considered as food for the horse, 375,
379 ; inconvenience and danger of it, 375.
Wheezer, description of the, 215 ; is unsound,
392.
Whisperer, tlie anecdotes of his power over
ttie liorse, 354.
Whistler, description of the,215; is unsound,
392.
White lead, use of, 411 ; vitriol, its use in ve-
terinary practice, 417.
Wind, broken, nature and treatment of, 213;
galls, description and treatment of, 271,
278; ditto, unsoundness when they cause
lameness, or are likely to do so, 395 ; thick,
nature and treatment of, 212.
Windpipe, description of the, 164; should he
prominent and loose, 165.
Wind-sucking, nature of, and remedy for,
362.
Withers, description of the, 158, 173; high,
advantage of, ib. ; fistulous, treatment of,
174.
Worms, different kinds, and treatment of,
239.
Wounds in the feet, treatment of, 315.
Yankee Sal, performance of, 58.
Yellows, symptoms and treatment of the, 242
Yew, the leaves of, poisonous, 226.
Zinc, its use in medicine, 417.
Zoological classification of the horse, 67.
Zygomatic arch, reason of the strong con-
struction of the, 75.
Zygomaticus muscle, description of tbe^
125.
CATALOGUE
OF
LEA & BLiNCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS.
NOVEMBER, 1S5 0.
LYNCH'S DEAD SEA.
CONDENSED AND CHEAPER EDITION.— Now Ready.
PRICE ONE DOLLAR BY MAIL, FREE OF POSTAGE.
NARRATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES' EXPEDITION
TO THE
DEAD SEA AWD RIVER JORDAN.
BY W. F. LYNCH, U. S. N.,
Commander of the Expedition.
New and condensed edition, with a Map, from actual Surveys.
IN ONE NEAT ROYAL 12mO. VOLUME, EXTRA CLOTH.
The uniyersal curiosity excited by the interesting narrative of this remarkable
expedition, has induced the author to j^repare a condensed edition for popular use,
which is now furnished at a very low price. In preparing the former editions the
object was to produce a work worthy in every respect of the national character which
it assumed, and no pains or expense was spared in bringing out a volume as hand-
some as anything of the kind as yet prepared in this country. The great demand,
which has rapidly exhausted many large impressions of this edition, notwithstanding
its price, is a sufficient proof of the intrinsic value and interest of the work, and in
presenting this new and cheaper edition, the publishers would merely state that it
contains all the substance of the former volume, from the time the expedition reached
Lake Tiberias till its departure from Jerusulem, embracing all the explorations upon
the river Jordan and the Dead Sea. Some matter in the preliminary and concluding
chapters has been omitted or condensed, and the two maps of the former edition
have been reduced in one, preserving however, all the more important features of .the
country described. In its present form, therefore, afforded at about one-third the
price of the more costly issue, in a neat and handsome volume, admirably adapted
for pai-lor or fireside reading, or for district schools, sabbath schools, and other libra-
ries, it should find a place in every house and cottage in the land where there is a
copy of the Bible, or where there is any interest felt for the sacred regions now first
accurately surveyed and described.
To facilitate its acquisition by those who live at a distance from bookstores, or from
the larger towns, the publishers have prepared an edition in paper covers, suitable
for mailing, which they will forward through the Post-office, free OF POSTAGE, on
the receipt of one dollar, by mail.
Tliis is a condensed and cheap, yet very handsome edition of t,ieut. I.ynch's admirable Narrative of the
Expedition to the Dead Sea The interest wliich was excited and gratified by the first pablieation of this
work, demanded that it should be placed in a form for more general circulation, and this demand is met in the
edition we have before us. Of the work iiself nothing need be said in us praise, the judgment of the public
havin? confirmed its excellence. It is a narrative that must have an abiding interest for all time, and that
library that is without it IS imperfect; as is the knowledge imperfect of the man who, however otherwise
versed in the subject it treats of should be ignorant of the facts it details. We cannot dismiss the work wiiii-
out saying that, apart from the absorbing interest which belongs to the subject, the author has given it a charm
in the easy, flowing, and correct style in which the narrative is written, that makes the reailer reluctant,
when h^ has taken up the volume, to lay it down before it is finished, and which will cause hiin to return to
it again and again, with renewed interest and pleasure. — Baltimore Patriot.
Copies may still be had of the FINE EDITION,
In one very large and handsome octavo volume,
"With Twenty-eight beautiful Plates, and Two Maps.
This book, so long and anxiously expected, fully sustains the hopes of the mosi sanguine and fastidious.
It is truly a magnificent work. The type, paper, binding, style, and execution, are all of the best and highest
character, as are also the maps and engravings. It will do more to elevate the character of our national
literature than any work that has appeared for years. The intrinsic interest of the subject will give it popu-
larity and immortality at once. It must be read to be appreciated; and ii will be »ead extensively, aad
valued, both in this and other countries.— Z-arfj/'^ Book.
LEA & BLANCHARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
JOHNSTON'S PHYSICAL ATLAS.
THE PHYSICAL ATLAS
OF NATURAL PHENOMENA.
FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND FAMILIES.
BY ALEXANDER KEITH JOHNSTON, F. R. G. S., F. G. S.
In one large volume, imperial quarlo, handsomely bound,
With Twenty-six Plates, Engraved and Colored in tlie liest style.
Together with 112 pages of Descriptive Letterpress, and a very copious Index.
This splendid volume will fill a void long felt in this country, where no work has
been attainable presenting the results of the important science of Physical Geography
in a distinct and tangible form. The list of plates subjoined will show both the design
of the work and the manner in which its carrying out lias been attempted. The repu-
tation of the author, and the universal approbation with which his Atlas has been
received, are sufficient guarantees that no care has been spared to render the book
complete and trustworthy. The engraving, printing, and coloring will all be found
of the best and most accurate description.
As but a small edition has been prepared, the publishers request all who may desire
to procure copies of the work to send orders through their booksellers without delay.
LIST OF PLATES.
GEOLOGY. I METEOROLOGY.
1. Geological Structure of llie Globe. j 1. FTumboklt's System of Isothermal Lines.
•2. Moumain Chains of Europe and Asia. { '2. (ifographical Disiribuliou of the Currents of Air.
3. Mountain Chains of America.
4. Illustration of the Glacier System of the Ali)s,
(Mont Blanc.)
5. Phenomena of Volcanic Action.
Palajoniological and Geological Map of the
British Islands. (A double sheet.)
HYDROGRAPHY.
1. Physical Chart of the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Physical Chart of the Indian Ocean.
3. Physical Chart of the Pacific Ocean or Great Sea.
4. Tidal Chart of llie British Seas.
5. The River Systems of Europe and Asia.
6. The River Systems of America.
. Tidal Chart of the World.
llyetographic or Rain Map of the World.
4. llyetographic or Rain Map ofEurope.
NATURAL HISTORY.
1. Geographical Distril)ulion of Plants.
2. Geographical Distribution of the Cultivated Plants
used as Food.
3. Geographical Distribution of Quadrumana, Eden-
tata, Marsupialia, and Pachydermala.
4. Geographical Distribution of Carnivora.
5. Geographical Distribution of Rodenlia and Rumi-
nantia.
6. Geograpliical Distribution of Birds.
7. Geographical Distribution of Reptiles.
8. Ethnographic Map of the world.
9. Ethnographic Map of Great Britain and Ireland.
The intention of this work is to exhibit, in a popular and attractive form, the results
of the researches of naturalists and philosophers in all the most important branches
of Natural Science. Its study requires no previous training ; for while facts and de-
ductions are stated according to the strictest rules of scientific inquiry, they are by
an ingenious application of colors, signs, and diagrams, communicated in a manner
so simple and striking as to render them at once intelligible and easily retained.
For the first time, in this country, the principles of graphic representation are here
applied to the delineation of the most important facts of external phenomena. Simple
but significant symbolical signs have been introduced to an extent, and with an efi"ect,
hitherto never contemplated. The contents of the many volumes, formerly the sole
depositories of information regarding the different kingdoms of nature, have been
condensed and reproduced with a conciseness, precision, completeness, and prompt-
itude of application altogether unattainable by any other agency.
The elegant substitute of linear delineation registers the most complicated results
in the most perspicuous form, affords inexhaustible facilities for recording the con-
tinued advance of science, and " renders its progress visible."
The Physical Atlas is the result of many years' labor, and in its construction not
only have the writings and researches of the philosophers and travellers of all nations
been made use of, but many of the most eminent men of the age, in the different depart-
ments of science, have contributed directly to its pages. The letterpress gives a con-
densed description of each subject treated of, with constant reference to the elucidation,
of the maps, and the colors and signs employed arc uniformly explained by notes on
the plates. But while endeavoring to make available to every one the rich stores of
knowledge otherwise nearly inaccessible, it has ever been borne in mind that, in such
a Avork, accuracy and truth are the first requisites, in order that If may be a guide to the
naturalist in investigating the more philosophical departments of science, and to the
inquirer in showing what has already been done, and what remains to be accomplished,
in perhaps the most universally interesting and attractive branch of human knowledge.
LEA & BLANCHAKD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
JOHNSTONS PHYSICAL ATLAS.- (Continued.)
From among a vast number of commendatory notices the publishers submit the following : —
We have thus rapidly run through tlie contents of the Atlas to show its comprehensiveness and
philosophic arrangement. Of its execution no praise would be in excess. The maps are from
the original plates, and these are beautifully finished, and the coloring has been laid on with the
utmost nicety and care. The size is an imperial quarto, and the accompanying text embraces a
vast amount of details that the imagination is called on to fasten and associate with the maps. The
enterprise and fine taste of the American publishers will, we hope, be rewarded by an extensive
sale of this most admirable work. No school-room auu no family should be without the Physical
Alias.
In the hands of a judicious teacher, or head of a family, information of the most varied nature
in all departments of science and natural history can be introduced and commented onj in refer-
ence to its geographical bearing, while the materials of the text and the Atlas may be commented
on to any desired extent. Such works give attractiveness to knowledge, and stimulate to energy
the mind of the young; while in the beauty, harmony, and intermediate reactions of nature thus
exhibited, the faculties of imagination and judgment find room for equal exercise and renewed
delight. It is the lively picture and representation of our planet. — N. Y. Lit. World, March 9, 1850.
The book before us is, in short, a graphic encyclopajdia of the sciences — an alias of human
knowledge done into maps. It exemplifies the truth which it expresses — that he who runs may
read. The Thermal Laws of Leslie it enunciates by a bent line running across a map of Europe;
the abstract researches of Gauss it embodies in a few parallel curves winding over a section of the
globe; a formula of Laplace it melts down to a little path of mezzotint shadow; a problem of the
transcendental analysis, which covers pages with definite integrals, it makes plain to the eye by a
little stippling and hatching on a given degree of longitude! All possible relations of time and
space, heat and cold, wet and dry, frost and snow, volcano and storm, current and tide, plant and
beast, race and religion, attraction and repulsion, glacier and avalanche, fossil and mammoth, river
and mountain, mine and forest, air and cloud, and sea and sky — all in the earth, and under the
earth, and on the earth, and above the earth, that the heart of man has conceived or his head un-
derstood— are brought together by a marvellous microcosm, and planted on these little sheets of
paper, thus making themselves clear to every eye. In short, we have a summary of all the cross-
questions of Nature for twenty centuries — and all the answers of Nature herself set down and
speaking to us voluminous system datis un mot Mr. Johnston is well known as a geo-
grapher of great accuracy and research; and it is certain that this work will add to his reputation;
for it is beautifully engraved, and accompanied with explanatory and tabular letterpress of great
value. — London Athcn<eum,
To the scholar, to the student, and to the already large yet daily increasing multitude of inqui-
rers who cultivate natural science, the Physical Atlas is a treasure of incalculable value. It brings
before the mind's eye, in one grand panoramic view, and in a form clear, definite, and easily com-
prehensible, all the facts at present known relative to the great subjects of which it treats, and
may be regarded as a lucid epitome of a thousand scattered volumes, more or less intrinsically
valuable, of which it contains the heart and substance. — Blackwood's Magazine.
Although we have thus endeavored to give our readers an idea of the valuable contents of the
Physical Atlas, yet we are persuaded that it is only by an examination and study of the work itself,
that they can form anything like an accurate estimate of the amount of instruction and even amuse-
ment which it affords. In public libraries and reading-rooms the work will be of inestimable value;
and in our public, and even private schools, the teacher can scarcely perform his duties to the
youth under his charge, unless he gives them the advantage of studying the phenomena of the
material universe through the medium of its graphic representations. — North British Review.
From a work so rich in information, and so varied in its materials, it is almost impossible to
select and compress into moderate compass anything which will give the general reader a satisfac-
tory idea of its character and contents. It is a merit which may justly be conceded to these maps,
that almost every one of them embodies the materials of many volumes — the results of long years
of research — and exhibits the most valuable thoughts of the most distinguished men of the age,
pictured visibly to the eye. — Edinburgh Review.
FI^ETCilEH'S A'lIVEVEII. (\ow Ready.)
NOTES FROM NINEVEH,
And Travels in Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Syria.
BY THE REV. J. P. FLETCHER.
In one neat royal 12mo. volume, extra cloth.
Well written, and deeply interesting.— i\^or(ft American.
STRICKLAND'S QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
A "Xew and Elegant Edition of
LIVES QF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
BY AGNES STRICKLAND.
Forming a handsome series in crown octavo, beautifully printed with large type on fine paper,
done up in rich extra crimson cloth, and sold at a cheaper rate than former editions.
LEA & BLANCHARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
J\'Iill^ .fJS'If CME.1l'ESi EnfTIO.^\ — V.m- Ready,
KENNEDY'S LIFE OF WIRT.
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM WIRT.
BY. JOHN P. KENNEDY.
NEW EDITION, REVISED.
In two large vols., royal 12mo., with a Portrait and fac-simile letter from John Adams.
The whole of Mr. Wirt's Papers, Correspondence, Diaries, &c., having been placed in the hands
of Mr. Kennedy, to be used in this work, it will be found to contain much that is new and inter-
esting relating to the political history of the times, as well as to the private life of Mr. Wirt.
The exceedingly i'avorable manner in which this work has been everywhere received, having
rapidiv exhausted the first edition, the publishers have pleasure in presenting a second, revised, in
a smaller form and at a lower price. In so doing, they have been desirous to meet the wishes of
many with whom its former cost was an objection. In its present neat and convenient form, the
work is eminently fitted to assume the position which it merits as a book for every parlor-table and
for every fire-side where there is an ap[)reciation of the kindliness and manliness, the intellect and
the affection, the wit ami liveliness which rendered William Wirt at once so eminent in the world,
so brilliant in society, and so loving and loved in the retirement of his domestic circle. Uniting
all these attractions, it cannot fail to find a place in every private and public library, and in all col-
lections of books for the use of schools and colleges, for the young can have before them no bright-
er example of what can be accomplished by industry and resoluticm, than the life of William Wirt,
as unconsciously related by himself in these volumes. To lawyers especially this work will j)re-
sent peculiar attraction, as embodying the life of one who rose from obscurity to the head of his
profession, and as embracing sketches and observations on all the most distinguished members of
the bar of that brilliant period, as well as notices of the many important cases in which Mr. Wirt
was engaged.
This book is for the most part, as all life-like "liives" are, autobiographic. Wirt stands before you de-
picled l>y his own pen, eiiher in exlract^! from his own personal memoirs, or from his public addresses, or in
Uie iVauk and careless self exposure of his private letters. His life in all its moods passes before you in
liviiifi: porlraiture. His slrii£ri;les nii(\ jippreheiisions, his trials, hopes, successes and sorrows; his defects
and mistakes, his amiable weaknesses and liis innocent vanity, all commit themselves so naively and so
iriistiiigly to you, that you sympathize with all. The book thus fascinating your interest and sympathy, bears
you on'with its rapid and picturesque sketch, through the scenery of his enliie life. — St. Louis Intelligencer.
Oue of the most valualile books of the season, and certainly one of the most entertaining works ever pub-
lished in ihis country. Mr. Kennedy is admirably qualified for the preparation of such a work, and has evi-
dently had access to a great variety of useful material. The work is one which should be in the hands of
every young man in the coantry. Its intrinsic interest will secure it a very general popularity. — N. Y. Cou-
rier and Enquirer.
Tne fascinating letters of Mr. Wirt, one of the most brilliant and agreeable men of the day, in themselves
furnish a rich fund of instruclion and enjoyment.— ib/c/nMO/i'i Inquirer.
This work has been looked for with much interest by the public, and will not disappoint the high expecta-
tions justly based upon the well-known talents of the author, and the abundant materials left by the disun-
guished orator and jurist, to which he has had free access. — Baltimore American.
The style is at once vigorous and fascinating, and the interest of the most absorbing character. — Philadtl-
jihia Inquirer.
Air. Kennedy is one of the very finest of American writers. He never touches a subject that he does not
adorn— and it is fortunate for the memory of Mr. Wirt that the history of his life has fallen into such hands.
The publishers have performed their task in excellent style. The paper and the type are good, and the whole
getting up is admirable.— .RicAwiond Whig.
Wlil'W ILATIW IS>ICTI®KAKT F»fl SCMOOI^S.— Just Ready.
A SCHOOL DICTIONARY OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
]?Y m\. KALTSCHMIDT.
IN TWO PARTS, LATIN-ENGLISH AND ENG LISH -LATI N.
Forming one large volume, royal ISmo., of over nine hundred double column pages.
Part I, Latin-English, of about 500 pages, just ready.
I4lW®X &N races of MEiV.-Jessl RcsatJy,
THE RACES OF MEN.
A FRAGMENT.
BY IIOBEIIT KNOX.
lu one neat volume, Yoya] 12mo., extra clotli.
■\Ve know of no work which so prominently inilicates the absolute necessity for an entire revision of the
fundamental doctrines of ihe science called ethnology, a revision, loo, which, lo our minds, must certainly be
undertaken upon ihe piincip:i -i indii-:iir(1 hy Dr. Knox, and whose indicaiioiis in the work before us siamp
i;.s author as a man of v;i-i' ,•• mp,^,,' mielleet, exiensive scientific acquirements, of great jjeneral know-
ledge and discursive re;u! I I I I'l.ver, of refined taste in the plastic arts. These acquirements have
been, in many instances, I., ■ ; , h. I nr npnn a very favorite subject of the author in a most original and
valuiible method ; and ihe ■ iu^iii.m before; us suffieienily proves that Dr. Knox is almost the only ethnolo-
gist vvlio has seized ihe true fundamental elements, which nmst form ihe basis of our reasoninffs upon many
of the most important and interesling questions connected with the natural history of man. Bythe few page's
oiTered ihem for consideration in the work of Dr. Knox, more real knowledge has accrued lo them than after
a laborious study of the ponderous lucubrations of the greatest ethnologists of the (Iny.— Medical Times.
LEA & BLANCH ARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
PAGET'-S TRAV'JELS IX HLXGAKY — Just llcaily.
HUNGARY AND Yr ANS YL V ANI A,
WITH REMARKS OX THEIR CONDITION, SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL.
BY JOHN PAGET, ESQ.
In two neat volumes, royal 12ino., extra. cloth.
We must now turn aside to make a short excursion into lluiiirary, wiih Mr. Pasei for our Ruide. I; would
not be well possible lo choose a better, for he never suliers our interest to floir. and appears to have made
himself accurately acquainted, not only with the localities and traditions of tne counlry, but wiili its whole
history and insiiluiions. which presents so many points of analosjy lo those of Rutland, as really to invest the
suoject wilh a new and peculiar interest for an EugVifhman.— Quarttrly Review.
MACFARLANE'S TURKEY.— Just Ready.
TURKEY AND~TtS DESTINYj
THE RESULT OF JOURXEYS M.\DE IX 1S47 AXD 1S4,S TO EXAAIIXE INTO THE
STATE OF THAT COUNTRY.
BY CHARLES MACFARLANE, ESQ.,
Author of ■■ Constantinople in 1S23."
la two neat volumes, royal 12mo., extra cloth.
Mr. Macfarlane was alto.sether eleven months in Turkey during this last visit ; remaining first for a brief
period at Consianlinople. then performing a country exeursion principally to the great Pashalik of Brusa,
and, after another residence in Constantinople, visiting Nicomedia and Adriaiiople. His accounts of the pro-
vincial pashaliks appear to us to possess the greatest interest, and his? occasional notices of agricultural or
matiufacturing operations in places removed from ihe capital are weU worth reading. These he vanes by
cleverly-drawn portraits of people with whom his travel brought him in coiiuict. by remarkable statistical
details not sei<Iom telling against his own views, and by notices of the public departments of stale, anc of the
leading Ministers, which we are not at all disposed to think inaccurate or overcharged. The abuses of the
Hart-m are described generally as in no respect reformed, melancholy descriptions are siveii of ihe manners
and morals of women of station, and Mr Macfarlane speaks wiih iUdisguised contempt and sarcasm of the
private character and pursuits of the fiah&n.— Examiner.
£;i£.W.I.^/'S S SII E 111,1. — ^ust Heady.
TI1AT]^L.S IN SIBKRIA.
INCLUDING EXCURSIONS NORTHWARD,
Down the Obi to the Folar Circle, and Southward to the Chinese Frontier,
BY ADOLPH ERMAN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,
BY WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY.
In two large volumes, royal 12mo., extra cloth.
Much interest attaches to this work as the only complete and authentic account which we pos-
sess of the vast territories extending from the Ural Mountains to Behrinc's Straits, of which less
is known, than perhaps of any other densely inhabited portion of the globe. Dr. Erman devoted
several years to these researches, and has embodied in these volumes a large amount of curious
and novel information.
THE WESTERN WORLD; OR, TRAVELS m THE UNITED STATES.
E.^lilbiting them in their latest development, Social, Political, and Industrial.
INCLUDING A CHAPTER ON CALIFORNIA.
BY ALEXANDER 3LACKAY, Esq.
From tlie Second and Eularj.^ed Lciidou KditioJi.
In two very neat volumes, royal 12mo. (Just Issued.)
This is not the work of a six months' traveller in this country, wlio adopts all his ideas of the " ;\rodel Re-
publlc'" from the life he sees in steamboats, railroad cars, and hotels. Mr. Mackay spent some years in ihe
United Slates, made himself thoroughly conversant with our national genius and character, and w ih our
peenliarities. political, social, moral, and religious. These he describes with the spirit and vivacity of a
keenly observant man. but wilh the kindness of a friend ; and while he does not hesiiaie to express disap-
probation where he considers it deserved, he is totally I'ree from the sweeping and indiscriminating censure
oi the Trollopes and Basil Halls.
JUST ISSUED.
IRISH MELODIES,
BY THOMAS MOORE, Esq.
Witli Notes and Autobiographical Prefaces.
ILLUSTRATED AVITH BEAUTIFIII. STEEL PLATES,
ENGR.A.VED tJ>-DER THE I3IJlEDr.\TE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MR. EDWARD FIXDEX.
In one large imperial 4to. volume of 174 pages, handsomely bound in extra cloth, with gilt edges.
BEAUTIFULLY PRINTED ON SUPERIOR PAPER.
LEA & BLANCHARD'S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
ASPECTS OF NATURE,
IN DIFFERENT LANDS AND DIFFERENT CLIMATES^
WITH SCIENTIFIC ELUCIDATIONS.
BY ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.
TRANSLATED BY MRS. SABINE.
SECOND AMERICAN EDITION.
In one very ne.it volume, royal 12mo., extra cloth.
A remarkable work; com'iiiiing in a rare manner ihe lofty and all comprehen-^ive imasrinalion of the peel
wiUi the precise knowledge and minule accuracy of the man of science. — London Spectator.
I'he inlriiisic interest of ihis pulilicaiion must secure for it a vi^ide and rapid popularity. It is at one©
learned and fascinating, decking the most wonderful features of natural history in the charms of a simple,
clear, and picturesque style. — Benltty\' Miscfllany
The whole book contains the most striking evidence of genius. Every page teems with information, and
that of the most curious kind — Sunday Times.
SOMERVILLE'S PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
New Edition, much Improicd— Now Ready.
PHYSIC A L g"e O G E A P H Y.
BV MAUY SOMERVILLE,
AUTHOR OF "the CONNECTION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES," ETC. ETC.
SECOND AMERICAN EDITION,
from the Second and Revised Jjondon Edition.
WITH AMERICAN NOTES, GLOSSARY, &c.
In one neat royal 12mo. vol., extra cloth, of over 550 pages.
The great success of this work, and its introduction into many of the higlier schools and academies, have
induced the publishers to prepare a new and much improved edition. In addition to the corrections and
improvements of the author bestowed on the work in it« passage through the press a second time in London,
notes have been introduced to adapt it more fully to the physical geography of this countr>'; and a comprehensive
glossary has been added, rendering the volume more particularly suited to educational purposes. The
amount of these additions may be understood from the fact tliat not only has the size of the page been increased,
but the volume itself enlarged by over one hundred and fifty pages. At the same lime, the price has not been
increased.
Our praise comes lagging in the rear, and is wrell-nigh superfluous. But we are anxious to recommend to
our youth the enlarged method of studying geography which her present work demonstrates to be a^ capti-
vating as it is instructive. Nowhere, except in her own previous work. The Connection of the Physical
Sciences, is there to be found so large a store of well-selected information so lucidly set forth. In surveying
and grouping together whatever has been seen by the eye of others, or detected by their laliorious investiga-
tions, she is not surpassed by any one. We have no obscurities other than what the imperfect state of sci-
ence itself involves her in : nodisserlations which are felt to interrupt or delay. She strings her beads dis-
tinct and close together. With C|Uiel perspicacity she seizes at once whatever is most interesting and most
captivating in her subject. Therefore it is we are for the book ; and we hold such presents as Mrs iSomer-
ville lias bestowed upon the public to be of incalculable value, disseminating more sound information than
a'l the literary and scientific institutions will accomplish in a whole cycle oif their existence.— £/aciiPood'»
Mri^azine
HBRSCHEL'S OUTLINES OF ASTRONOMY— Now Ready.
OUTLII\IES OF~ASTRONO!VIY.
13Y Sill JOHN F. W. HErtSCHEL, F. R. S., &c.
In one neat volume, crown 8vo., with six plates and numerous wood-cuts.
Willi tills, we take leave of ihis remarkable work ; which we hold to be, beyond a doubt, Ihe greatest and
most ri-markalile of Ihe works in which the laws of astronomy and ihe appearance of the heavens are de-
scribed to those who are not maihemalicians nor observers, and recalled to those who are. It is the reward
of inert who can descend from the advancement of knowledge to care for its difTusion. that their works are
essential to all. that they become the rtianualsof the proficient as well as the text books of the learner —/IMe'w.
I'robaldy no book ever written upon any science, has been found to embrace within so small a compass an
eiitire e|)itome of everything known within all its various departments; practical, theoretical; and phyiical. —
A text-book of astronomy from one of the highest names in the science.— SiW/OTon's Journal.
NEW AMERICAN "WORK ON SHOOTING.— Nearly Ready.
NOTES GN SHOOTtNG; OR HINTS TO SPORTSMEN.
CO.MPRISINCi
THE HABITS OF THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL OF NORTH AMERICA;
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We need hardly inform our readers lliat ilie aulhoress of this work is the accomplished wife of the gentle-
man who was originally accredited to the English Cabinet by the (Provisional Governmenl of Hungary. The
private interest attaching to the recital of events which have become so famous would insure a wide popu-
larity for Madame Pulszky's book. But we should very much under-eslimaie its value if we so limited our
praise The Memoirs, indeed, contain sketches of social life which are worthy of a place by the side of
INladame de Stael De Lautiay. and Madame Campan. But they are also rich in political and topographical
information of the first character. Madame Pulszky was in the habit of direct intercourse with the foremost
and most distinguished of the Hungarian generals and statesmen, and has givon a complote summary of the
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MISS KAVANAGH'S WOMAN IN FRANCE. -NOW READY.
WOMAN IN FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
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In one very neat volume, royal 12mo., extra cloth.
In treating other subjects of her gallery— as for instance those vi-idely different personages, Mdlle Aiss6 and
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in other hands might have become wearying from its unmitigated sparkle.
The critic, dpaling with such an encyclopaedia of coquetries, amours, vicissitudes, sufferings, and repent-
ances as the history of '■ Woman in France" must necessarily be. is fain to content himself with offering
merely a general character like the above Such is the fascination of the sulijecl — such is the fullness of mat-
ter— such is the affluence of suggestion — that every page tempts him to stop for a gossip or for speculation on
modes and morals.
Which among us will ever be tired of reading about the Women of France? especially when they are mar-
shalled so agreeably and discreetly as in the pages before us. — The Athenaum.
PJinnOE^S FRJiJS'CSS tux: FIRST.-jrugt issued.
THE COURT AND REIGN OF FRANCIS THE FIRST, KINS OF FRANCE.
BY MISS PARDOE,
AUTHOR OF " LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH," " CITY OF THE SULTAN," &C. &C. •
In two very neat volumes, royal 12mo., extra cloth.
FOSTER'S EUROPEAN LITERATURE.— Nov? Ready.
HANDBOOK OF MOEERnTuROPEAN LITERATURE:
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With a full Biographical and Chronological Index.
•BY MRS. FOSTER.
In one large royal 12mo. volume, e.\tra cloth.
(UNIFORM with SHAW'S OUTLINES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.)
This compilation will prove of great utility to all young persons who have just completed their academical
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letters to the present day. It is compiled with care and judgment, and is, in all respects, one of the most in-
structive works that could be placed in the hands of young persons. — Morning Herald.
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Specimens of the Engravings and style of the volumes may be had on application to the publishers.
MtJLLER'S PHYSICS-LATELY ISSUED.
PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. By PnoFF.sson J. MrLLEn, M. D.
Edited, with Additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith, M. D. In one large and handsome octavo-
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KWAPP'S CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY.
TECHNOLOGY; or, Chemistry Applied to the Arts and to Manufactcres. By Dn. F.
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Volume One. lately published, with two hundred and fourteen lar^e wood engravings.
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WEISBACH'S MECHANICS.
PRINCIPLES OF THE IVIECHANICS OF MACHINERY AND ENGINEERING. By Pro-
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The second volume of this work embraces the application of the Principles of Mechanics to
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MOHR, REDWOOD, AND PROCTER'S PHARMACY.
PRACTICAL PHARMACY: Comprising the ArrRn^ements, Apparatus, and Manipulations of
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Prof. William Procter, of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. In one handsomely printed
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BY E. GOULD BUFFUM, ESQ.,
Lieut. First R'gimenl New York Volunteers.
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A PRIZE ESSAY ON THE USE OF ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE.
BY W. B. CARPENTER, M. P., F. R. .*<.,
Author of" Principles of Human Physiology,' &.c.
In one neat volume, royal 12mo.
A prize of one hundred guineas having been ofTered in London for Ihe be.=t essay on the above subject,
that sum has been awarded lo Dr. Carpenter for the present work, by ilie adjudicators, Dr. John Forbes,
Dr. G. L. Roupell, and Dr. W. A. Guy. A irr-aiise on a subject of such universal interest by so distin-
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SPENCE'S EQUITY JURISDICTION.— Now Complete.
VOLU.MK n JUST ISSUED.
EQUITABLE JURISDICTION Of'tHE COURT OF CHANCERY.
BY GEORGE SPEXCE, Esq., Queen's Counsel.
VOLUME L
COMPRISING ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT.
To which is prefixed, with a view to the elucidation of the main subject, a concise account of the
Leading Doctrines of the Common Law, and of the Course of Procedure in the Courts of
Common Law, with res^ard to Civil Rights; with an attempt to trace them to
their sources; and in which the various Alterations made by the Legis-
lature down to the present day are noticed.
VOLUME II.
COMPRISING EQUITABLE ESTATES AND INTERESTS; THEIR NATURES,
QUALITIES AND INCIDENTS.
In which is incorporated, so far as relates to these subjects, the substance of" Maddock's Treatise
on the Principles and Practice of the High Court of Chancery.
The whole forming two very large octavo volumes, of over Sixteen Hundred large pages, strongly
bound in the best law sheep.
In the first volume, the History of the Court of Chancery has been brought down to the time
when its modern jurisdiction was established, nnd the various heads under which its jurisdiction
may be classed, were there stated. The object of the second volume is to illustrate the principles
upon which the jurisdiction of the Courts of Chancery is now exercised, in regard to what are, for
the purposes of this work, designated as " Equitable Estates and Interests."
The appearance of this work lias been delayed beyond the period originally anticipated, by the
care which the author has exercised in collecting materials from every side, and treating thoroughly
every ramification of his subjects. Those who possess the first volume should lose no time in
completing their sets while the second volume is to be had separate.
Some three years ago. we had occasion to notice tlie first volume ot" this work. (4 West. Law. Jour. 90.)
We then said, -The second volume will treat the subjeel ot" Chancery jurisdiction praoiieally as ii is now
exercised; and judging from what we have now seen, we should think the whole work would prove to be
by far the most learned and elaborate work yet wriuen upon the su'iecl." This prediction has been fully
realized by the appearance of the second volume. It seems to exhaust the learning connected with all the
subjects of which it treats. These sulTicienlly appear from the title-page. The leading cases are so fully
analyzed, as almost to supersede the necessity of consulting the reports.— Western Law Journal, April 1550.
Thus he has given us the most perfect and lailhful his'.ory of the English Law. especially in remote ages,
which has ever been offered to the legal profession. Reeves is undoubtedly more full and particular in minute
details, but the present is the only work to which we can have ppcourse for a satistactory and philosophical
acquaimauce wiih the growth of English jurisprudence. To the professional lawyer, no recommendation is
necessary to gain favor for a production which will elucidate much that is dark in the history and practice
of the law, and furnish him with the history and growth of the courts in which he practices, and the princi-
ples which it is his duty to expound. We will now leave this inestimable work, with a general commenda-
tion and a hearty concurrence with the eulogy pronounced by the London Jurists trusting, less on account
of its own merits, than for the credit of the profession in Virginia, that lawyers at least will not neglect to
study its pages most diligently.— iJjcAmonrf irAi§-.
If Mr. Spence's professional engagements should admit of his completing with due accuracy a work of this
elaborate and coinprei.ensive character, he will have conferred a lasting >ervice on his profession. The gen-
tleman's qualifications for the task are undoubtedly great. To say nothing of his great practical experience,
he is the author of the valuable '■ Inquiry into the Origin of the Laws of Modern Eiirope." &c.— Warrtn's Law
StU'lies. p. 241.
Mr. Spence has entitled himself to these thanks by the production of the volume now before us. in which
we find, as the result of inquiries ihat must have been painfully laborious, a deeply intere<tiiig account of the
origin and gradual growth of the Court of Chancery, and of iis equitable principles. — London Jurist.
From Pro/. Simon Greenlenf.
It is one of the most valuable works on English Law issued from the American press, and I earnestly hope
that your enterprise will be liberally rewarded by the patronage of the prolessiou.
HIL.I.IARI> OX REAL. ESTATE. Eately Isstied.
THE AMERICAN LAW~~OF REAL PROPERTY.
Second edition, revised, corrected, and enla.rged.
BY FRANCIS HILLIAED,
Counsellor at Law.
In two large octavo volumes, beautifully printed, and bound in best law sheep.
This book is designed as a substitute for Cruise's Digest, occupying the same ground in American
law which that work has long covered in English law. It embraces all that portion of the English
Law of Real Estate which has any applicability in this country ; and at the same time it embodies
the statutory provisions and adjudged cases of all the States upon the same subject; thereby con-
stituting a complete elementary treatise for American students and practitioners. The plan of the
work is such as to render it equally valuable in all the States, embracing, as it does, the peculiar
modifications of the law in each of them. In this edition, the statutes and decisions subsequent to
the former one, which are very numerous, have all been incorporated, thus making it one-third
larger than the original work, and bringing the view of the law upon the subjeel treated (juite
down to the present time. The book is recommended in the highest terms by distinguished jurists
of different States.
10 LEA & BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS —(Lato 5ooAs )
EAST'S R^EPORTS.
REPORTS OF CASES ADJUDGED AND DETERMINED IN THE COURT OF KINGS DENCH.
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Price, to subscribers, only twenty-five dollars.
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to $25, the subscription price of this.) together with the improvement in ai)i)earaiice, will, it is trusted, procure
for it a ready sale.
ADDISON ON_CONTRACTS.
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In this treatise upon the most constantly and frequently administered branch of law, the author has collected,
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It comprises the Rights and Liabilities of Seller and Purchaser; Landlord and Tenant; Letter and Hirer of
Chattels; Borrower and Lender ; Workman and Employer; Master, Servant and Apprentice; Principal,
Agent and Surety ; Hu.sband and Wifi;; Partners, Joint Stock Companies; Corporations; Trustees; Provi-
sional Committeemen ; Shipowners; Sliipinasiers ; Inkeepers; Carriers; Infant.?; Lunatics, &c.
HILL ON JTRUSTEES.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW RELATING TO TRUSTEES; their powers, duties, privi-
leges, and liabilities. By James Hill, Esq., of the Inner 'Temple. Barrister at Law. Edited by Fka.ncis J.
Troubat, of the Philadelphia Bar. In one large octavo volume, best law sheep, raised bands.
The editor begs leave to iterate the observation made by the author that the work is intended principally
for the instruction and guidance of trustees. That single feature very much enhances its practical value.
A NEW LAW DICTIONARY,
Containing explanations of such technical terms and phrases as occuri in^' wotn-< of legal authors, in the
practice of the courts, and in the parliamentary proceedings of the Housec .>oras and Commons; toWhich
IS added, an outline of an action at law and of a suit in equity. By Henry James Holthouse, Esq., of the
Inner Temple, Special Pleader. Edited from the second and enlarged London edition, with numerous
additions, by Hexry Peninuton, of the Philadelphia Bar. In one large volume, royal 12mo., of about
500 pages, double columns, handsomely bound in law sheep.
Ilsobject principally is to impress accurately and distinctly upon the mind the meaning of the technical
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WHEATON'S INTERNATIONAL LAW.
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ofour author it is a delightful one. — North American.
A NEW WORK ON_COURTS MARTIAL.
A TREATISE ON AMERICAN MILITARY LAW, AND THE PRACTICE OF COURTS-
MARTIAL, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT. By John O'Brien,
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TAYLOR'S MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.— New Edition, Just Ready, 1850.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE By Alfred S. Taylor. AViih nu-
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England and two in this country, has alTorded an op|)ortuiiity for the auihor to enlarge it considerably by the
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TRAILL'S
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VOL U. ME I
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VOT,UME V.
Q. Curtii Rnfi de Ge.sti.s Alexandri 3Iagm
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INTRODUCTION TO LATIN GRAMMAR.
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