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MODERN ODZ utt
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A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF THE VETERINARY ART
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AS AT PRESENT
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PRJCTISED JT THE ROTJL VETERINARY COLLEGE, LONDON.
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BY
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W. J. MILES, M.R.C.V.S.L.
INCLUDING PRACTICAL TREATISES ON
CATTLE, TI1EIR MANAGEMENT IN DAIRY, FIELD, AND STALL,
By JOHN WALXEE.
PASTURE GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS,
By SAMUEL P. PEESTOE
THE PRACTICE OF SHEEP FARMING,
By CHAELES SCOTT.
AND
Til E DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGS,
By J. I. LUPTON, M.R.C.V.S.L
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LONDON: *
WILLIAM MACKENZIE, 69 LÜDGATE HILL, E.C.; GLASGOW, EDINBÜEGH, DUBLIN.
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1839 8127
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Rfjïe»»iversiteit te Utrecht
Aid. Diergene#ekaaée |
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MODERN
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PRACTICAL FARRIEEY,
A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF THE 'VETEKINARY ART.
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PREFACE.
No branch of husbandry and of the many allied industries in this country, has developed so great
an importanee of late years as the breeding and management of all deseriptions of animals. England has long been known as the place of origin of the modern racehorse, but the knowledge- and practical skill wHch produced that magnificent animal, have also been turned in more practical direetions and the various breeds of horses for riding and for light and heavy draughfc have been wonder- lully increased in value by the intelligent application to thcm of the same principles of selection and^continuous improvement. Even in these days of universal competition, other nations still look to Great Britain as their model in all that pertains to Horse Breeding and Management. To England also belongs the honour of having first successfully applied the same principles to
the improvement of the Breeds of Cattle and of Sheep. Erom the time of Robert Bakewell, who origmated this movement in the middle of last century, progress has been steady and continuous. Otlier breeds than those to which his attention was directed have been developed and improved by the application of similar methods, until the chief English breeds ha,ve become celebrated throughout the world, and selected animals are eagerly purchased by foreign nations, that they may share the benefits enjoyed by the British farmer. Of late years, as is well known, the constantly increasing imports of gram into this country, duo to the vast improvement in communication by railwavs and steam navrgation, have more and more directed attention to our Live Stock and tlieir means of support, as being probably in the near future the staple productions of our country. In issuing a New Edition of Miles' " Modern Practical Farriery," which has long been
accepted as a Standard on its subject, the publisher has endeavoured still further to adapt it to the needs of the time, by important additions and extensions. The Origin and Varieties of the Horse m all parts of the world; his Breeding, Breaking, Training, Age as determined by the condition of his mouth; his treatment in Biding, Driving, and on a lengthened journey; the Stable and its Management; Vices in the Stable and on the Boad; Warranty, Soundness, and Unsoundness— such are some of the leading topics treated of in the general and descriptive part of the Work. In preparing the section of the Work specially devoted to Diseases of the Horse and Moder
Vetermary Practice, the highest professional authorities have been carefully consulted and tl e |
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A-TL3-1 oxny, Pla-i, e 1 .
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THE BO N ES OF T H E H 0 R S E .
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author has brought the results of bis own wide and lengthened experience, and all available information
regarding equine Anatomy, Medicine, and Surgery, to bear upon the elucidation of' every subject which he has thought it necessary to consider. In the section devoted to the Management of Cattle and Sheep, special treatises have been added
by Messrs. John Walker and Charles Scott, -writers of great practical experience in these departments, while the various Grasses and Forage Plants available for feeding cattle are fuUy described by Samuel P. Preston, and where necessary illustrated. The new systems of preserving grasses and green crops for winter use, as Ensilage, whether produced in Silos or in Stacks, are fully described and illustrated. A special section is devoted to the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep, and Pigs, and their Treatment according to the best veterinary practice of the day, by J. I. Lupton, M.RC.V.S.L. It is hoped that the whole will be found of the greatest importance to those engaged in the
breeding, rearing, and management of stock, and will contribute not a little to render them their own Farriers. Tlie Work is illustrated by numerous finely executed anatomical and other Engravings, possessing high value on the score of utility as well as of ornament, many of which are executed in colours. |
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•4 r0<*'ty ', f^
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THE MUSCLES OE THE HORSE
Drawii fr om Na/torre expresslyfor this work .
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THE HTSTORY OF THE HORSE.
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CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN AND ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
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The origmal country of the Horse is not known with
certamty from any extant records of history or from reliable tradition. Ruifon has asserted, and his thousand-and-one copjasts-compüers of Natural Histories, Anecdotes of Animals, craSe tf^' ^^ &f>~have echoed' that Arabia is the
th' Y t 6 raCe'* ^ore recent enquirers, searching and tion P ^f. emselves>"kave shown this to be mere assump- of ' , rr£UIlly the natui-e of that country, its wide expanse sandy plams, and its scanty herbage, offer no indication of a t habitat for the wild horse to increase and multiply; and
tüe conclusion is almost inevitable, that the Arab steed, like thorough-bred of our own country, is indebted for the pecuhar excellences which have made it celebrated, to the care skill, and sedulous attention of its breeders and trainers : m short, that the Arab horse is not indigenous to that country, but the product of judicious cultivation during a long series "of years—a process for which man is always rewarded by the development of the best, and often new and higher qualities, in the object of his care. Nor are there wanting written proofs of this position. We
shall first refer to the Bible, as the oldest historical record, to show that Arabia, notwithstanding its modern celebrity, has not the claim to number this noblest of quadrupeds among the native animals; and then proceed to notice those nations in which, at the earliest periods, the horse, as we know from their monuments, was used in war and in the arts of peace. In those countries where the horse is indigenous, he appears
to have been reduced to servitude from the earliest formation of human society. The first country in which we have proof of its domestication is in Africa. In Egypt, then, we have the testimony of history, both sacred and profane, as well as the marvellous monuments of this great community, which have survived the lapse of three thousand years, to attest the early subjugation of this valuable animal. In numerous sculptures, fresh as if yesterday from the chisel of the artist, the horse of the Egyptians appears harnessed to the chariots of warriors and kmgs; and the subsequent history of the same country shows how much it relied on the power of the horse in war. It is * The late Mr. Youatt, in his agreeable and useful book of The Morse,
compiled for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; Professor I^ow, in his Domestic Quadrupeds of the Eritish Islands; Blaine' and other authorities, adopt this view. Mr. Karkeek, of Truro, in some cléver papers m the Veterinarian (vol. üi. pp. 18 and 125), supports Buffon. Gibbon, and «tebuhr in then- view of the origmal habitat of the horse. |
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from the records of Jewish history that we receive the earliest
written accounts of the subjugation of the horse in Egypt ;f and, from the same source, we learn that the ancestors of the Israelites were not possessed of horses when they dwelt in the plains of Syria. When Abraham, more than 1,900 before Christ, sent his servant from Palestine to Mesopotamia, to bring a wife for his son Isaac, the messenger thus announced himself to Laban, the brother of Rebecca:—" I am Abraham's servant, and the Lord hath blossed my master greatly, and he is become great; and He hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, andmen-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses." Observe, there is in this enumeration no mention of the horse; neither is it onco spoken of in the subsequent recital of the wealth of Isaac. Again, when Jacob returned to his native land, he had oxen, sheep, goats, and asses, and camels, but no horses. In a later age, when the descendant» of Jacob had multiplied in a district of Egypt which lies between the Kile and the Red Sea, and whence they were conducted to the Promised Land, they retaiiied the habits of their ancestors in regard to the horse. In the Levitical law reference is made to the ass to denounce its flesh as " unclean ;" and the sin of coveting " thy neighbour's ass" is denounced. Moreover, the duty of a seventh day's r<«t to that now despised but useful servitor is specially enjoined. Yet, all through, the horse is never spoken of as a part of the wealth or property of the people. On the other hand, there is an injunction that they shall not possess themselves of this animal, the pride. of the Egyptians, in the land to which they are to be led. This t The pre-eminently poetical picture of the war-horee in Job (e. ixxix.
v. 19—25) is familiar to all:—"Jlast thou given the horse strength ? Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? " Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of his nostrils
is terrible/' &c. In Berenger's Korsemanship is a note on the use of the word thunder
in the above quotation, which is worth transcribing:—" In this enume- ration of the beauties and noble qualities of the horse, it Bhould be re- marked that the Engüsh translators make Job say that the animal's neck is clothed with thunder, an expression as false as it is absurd. The true rendering of this passage is, that his neck is clothed with a marie; thus Bochart, Le Clerc, Fatrick, and other commentators translate it. Bochart says that the word which in Hebrew signifies thunder is synonymous for the mane of a horse ; but this being so, it is astonishing that the translator should have set aside the just and natural signification, and have chosen to cover the horse's neck with thunder instead of a mane ; nor is it less amazing that this nonsense should have been extolled by the author of the Guardian (vol. ü. p. 26), and others, as an instance of the sublime." |
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HISTORY OF
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THE HORSE.
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4
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rocky and limited territory was then, as it is now, unsuited to
the horse, and never could be so well defended by cavalry as by infantry. Indeed, we have the historical fact that the Jews were never so successful as when they trusted to their " foot- aen" in their earlier struggles, and in their subsequent wars under the glorious Maccabees. Moses, well knowing the nature of the country to be sub-
dued, discountenanced the use of cavalry. He counsels the people, when they go forth to the war, to have no fear of the " horses and chariots" of their enemies. He directs the future rulers of the land not " to multiply horses ;" and so closely was this command adhered to, that it was the practice to hamstring the horses made prizes of in the field. David, when he took seven hundred horses and one thousand chariots, houghed all the horses except one hundred of those trained for chariots. The Psalmist speaks with proud disdain of horses as used in war, exults in the overthrow of " the horse and his rider," and never mentions them, except as used by the enemies of his country. As the commerce of Judea, and her intercourse with other nations, increased, these prejudices were broken down, and Solomon, his son, formed an army of chariots and cavalry ; nay, he established a trade for horses with Africa, and supplied the neighbouring countries with those animals from Egypt. It is farther remarkable, that when the Jews entered Palestine from the south, they encountered no horses ; for no mention is made of horses in the first campaign of Joshua. The Philis- tines alone had horses, in the south of Syria; and they were an Egyptian colony. There is, therefore, every reason to conclude that Arabia, and all the countries southward of Pales- tine to the Persian Gulf, were, at that time, without horses. Proofs multiply upon us. When the Midianites, an Arabian
nation, were subdued, the spoil consisted of sheep, oxen, and slaves, but no horses. In the reign of Saul a war was carried on with Arabian nations on the Persian Gulf; the plunder consisted of slaves, camels, sheep, and asses. And, in an attack on Judea, by the Midianites, in an after age, we are told they came " with their cattle and their tents; and they came as locusts for multitude:" still no mention of horses. But although the Jews, on their first entrance to Palestine from the south, found no horses, no sooner did they come in contact with the nations of the north, than they were met by warlike people possessed of horses and chariots. These nations approached the Black Sea and the Caspian, the great region of what may be called the " Asiatic horse;" this being the source of supply, and not Africa, with which, at that time, they were cut off from intercourse; nor Arabia, as that country had no horses. If, then, historical record be of worth, we must conclude that Syria and Arabia, and the countries to the Persian Gulf, were not countries of the subjugated horse in early times, and that the horses which they possessed in later times came to them, not from the south, or from Africa, but from the great river-watered plains and wide steppes of the north, the original habitat of that species of the equine race which we shall call the Horse of Central Asia. It was from their contiguity to this region that the Assyrians
and the Medes became so early nations of conquering horsemen. |
From other documents we learn that Asia Minor was a country
of horses; and these again, we believe, came from the north, and not the south. An able writer, Professor Low,* to whom we are much indebted for his researches, suggests an easy explanation of what might seem to suggest itself as a difïiculty. He says, we may believe that the species was called into existence in more than one place, and was thence diffused as from different centres; and thus we may suppose one species existed in Africa, and another in eastern and northern Asia. Ilence we conclude, from the testimony of history, that the Egyptians derived their horses from the vast continent which they inhabited, and not from a region from which they were separated by a tract of arid and sandy country, in which the horse did not exist in the first ages. On the contrary, this remarkable people procured the horses they so early possessed from regions where the African horse was as indigenous as those of Asia are to the plains of Tartary. The horse, then, appears to have been obtained by the Arab as his predatory habits took a more extended range"; and his contact with Persia, and countries to the north, put it in his power to obtain them, and he acquired tkern and prized them, just as we see savages in modern times possess themselves of fire-arms for purposes of destruction or of defence. Though there is no precise record of when the Arabs began to use horses, it is clear that they had very little multiplied there till after the Christian era. Strabo states that in the time of Tiberius Coesar, the south of Arabia, called Arabia Felix, had " neither horses nor mules," and that as regards Arabia Deserta, the north of Arabia, it had no horses, but the camel supplied its place. This is definite; and we find that though the warlike and aggressive followers of the Prophet became horsemen, and laid the original countries of the horse in the East under contribution, the horse in Arabia, in the time of Mahomet, was neither numerous nor generally possessed. When the Prophet of the Moslem advanced on Mecca, to wreak his vengeanceonthe enemies of the Koran, he had no more than two horses in his army ; and in the list of plunder which he carried back with him after his victory there were oxen, sheep, and camels, but, as in more remote scripture times, not a mention of a single horse is made. When once, however, the horse was added to th.9 family j
of the Bedouin, in aid of the predatory purposes of this j nation of robbers, the acquisition was treasured with un- ceasing care, and the condition of the horse looked to with unsleeping anxicty. To the wandering and plundering i Ishmaelite the horse possessed a value that no other people j could estimate. Not only did luxury and enjo}Tnent depend upon their horse's goodness, his stoutness, his readiness, and his speed, but often the owner's liberty and life. Hence the love and regard for the horse acquired by this peculiar people; hence the warmth of esteem which leads to their hyperbolical Eastern praises; hence the cherished memory of their feats; hence their boastful pedigrees. Thus the Arab has formed for himself noble families of horses ; and breeding from these, and |
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• Domettic Animalt of the SritM Mondt. London: Longman * Ca.
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HISTORY OF TUE HOUSE.
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the more prevalent in particular countries, or at particular
periods, the one must have suggested and accompanied the other. It appears most probable that the horse was subjugated
in Central Asia from an ante-historie period, whence the know- ledge of his usefulness radiated to China and India. Another early region, perhaps of equal antiquity in the training of the horse, was Egypt and the adjacent countries. That systematic attention was there paid to the breed of these animals the abun- dant historical and sculptarod remains testify, and these seemto be designed from high bred types. In one or other of the countries of Western Europe the bridle, the true saddle, and probably the horse-shoe were invented ; while with many of the Asiatic nations a horse, a mare, and a colt were fixed standards of value. Next to the Egyptians, the Assyrians and Medes became,
according to Strabo, the most eelebrated horsemen of the ancient world. These people are often mentioned by the Jewish writers for the beauty of their horses and their skill as horsemen, and for the splendour of their equestrian trappings. They were at a later period imitated by the Tersians, who decked and " clothed their horsemen most gorgeously." Although Persia became most renowned for its horse-riding, Xenophon says, that before the time of Cyrus, Persia had no horses; but that, from personal example, encouragements, prizes, and recommendations of the king, every man in Persia rode on horseback. Indeed, the very name of the people, by which their country afterwards became known, was taken from the Chaldee and Ilebrew word peresh, a horseman. Im- mense droves of these animals were reared in the plains of Assyria and Persia; and one author speaks of 150,000 horses feeding in one vast plain near the Caspian gates. The Nysaian horses used by the kings of Persia are declared to have been the finest horses in the world—a pre-eminence apparently claimed by every nation that ever possessed a horse ; and we may also add, by most persons who have owned one. In Greece, the art of riding horses, and most probably the
introduction of the horse himself, did not very long precede the Trojan war. llomer, who was some centuries after Joshua, frequently dwells on the beauty of the horses which drew the chariots of his heroes ; although the fact is worthy of note, that he makes but two refcrences to horse-riding in the Wad, and but one in the Odyssey. The first in the Iliad (K 513), is where Ulysses and Diomed, havïng stolen the horses of Phosus, without the chariot, mount and gallop them to the Grecian camp That in the Odyssey is mcrcly as a- simile (E 371), likening Ulysses, after his shipwreck, bestriding a bcam of wood, to a man on horseback. The reference in the 15th Pook of the Wad, however, as it gives an early instance of the Ducrow feat of riding four horses, we wil] quote:— " So when a horseman, from the watery raead,
(Skilied in the manage of the bounding steed) Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey, To some great city, through the public way | Safe in his art, as side by side they run, He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one : |
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preserving the purity of descent, this artificial product has
distinguished them, acove all the people of the East, as the possessors of a race of animals remarkable for many valuable properties, and suited, in an eminent degree, to the condition of the country and the uses of the people, who have brought them to a certain Standard of perfection. The best horses are those of Nejd and Shomer, where the breed is maintained and jealously guarded in its greatest purity. To Sesostris, fable and the poets attribute the subjugation of
the horse among the Egyptians. "We have already noticed that Egypt was the direct source of Solomon's supplies. The price of a horse, we are then told, was 150 shekels, which, according to our scripture computation, would be about £17 10s., an immense sum if we estimate it by the price of food in those times. Six hundred years after Solomon, in the time of Xenophon, a good horse was £27 12s.; at least, that is the price—fifty drachmae—which Seuthis the Thracian paid for the steed on which he rode during the Itetreat of the Ten Thousand. Mr. Griffith, the ingenious annotator and translator of
Cuvier's great work, Le Regne Animal, expresses his opinion that the horse is indigenous to Asia, and especially to the plains of Tartary, but that almost every district has its variety. These we shall note, at length, when we come to treat of Asiatic, African, and European horses in their varieties. Uppei Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania, N umidia,
indeed, all the country north and west of Sahara, the Great Desert, doubtless abounded, even before the historie period, with numerous fleet and beautiful horses, the progenitors of the Barbs, of the stately horses of Dongola, and—through Palestine and Syria eastward to Persia, and westward into Asia Minor- meeting most probably with occasional crosses from the more northern breeds, whom they met roammg southwards, a migratory tendency remarkable not only in the northern races of man, and all animal creation, wild quadrupeds, as the deer, and in birds, but even in the innumerable shuals of the finny tribes. Colonel Hamilton Smith discusses the question as to whether
the use of chariots, or the art of riding was the earliest service of the horse. It is a point of curiosity rather than of importance, and, perhaps, does not admit of a satisfactory conclusion. In Egypt, Palestine, and Greeee, Colonel Smith supposes there were originally chariots only The monuments and authorities do not, we think, negative the existence of riders. Job, with the exception of Genesis the most ancient extant writing, distinctly describes the horse as trained to battle ; but he does not stop there. From a verse in the same chapter he shows that the horse was then, as now, employed in the chase of the ostrich, (exclusively an African bird), " what time she lifteth her- self up on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider ;" and a still earlier intimation of the backing of this noble animal is found in Genesis, chap xlk., v. 17. " An adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider falleth backward." For ourselves we cannot see any valid reason for not accept- ing the opinion of Berenger,* that, although either might be * üistory of Horsemanship, vol. i., p. 12.
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Anatomy, Plakte V.
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q -f1
Fig.1. The bones of the
flead&their sutures |
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Fig. 2 . The hones of the
Head from Nature. |
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Kg. 3. Section of the Head
showmg lts interna] organs
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Fig.4.AlJa.s dentata, or first
Vertehra of. the neck. |
Fig. 5.The medulla orpith & spinal cord.divided,
& showing the decussationofthe nerves&ganglia. |
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ANATOMY--THE hl E AD OF 7" H E H Ü R S E:
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THE HORSE.
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Hl STORT OF
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Asia Minor); and that from that island she emigrated to
Thessaly and the country of the Pelasgi. This mother of the Centaurs gives a hint to Mr. Tennant, who, thereupon, takes a rapid glance at the probable migrations of the horse, which is so much in accordance with our views that we make no apology for quoting it:—" In this way one might amuse himself by attempting to tracé, even by the few data afforded by history, the circuit by which horses, with the consequent art of equestrian exercise, passed from Egypt, the original and central riding-schobl of the world, into Greece and into Europe. Erom Egypt they passed into Assyria and Persia ; from Assyria to Cappadocia, Amazonia, and Pontus—countries where horses were most reared, most admired, and, as the most admirable objects in animated nature, offered up as sacriüces to the sun. From Pontus they passed, with the streams of westward- rushing population, to Phrygia and the southern banks of the Propontis; and from thence, with ' horse-taming' Pelops and the Pelasgi, they migrated into Thessaly, and confounded with their novel and terrifying appearance, the simple and aboriginal inhabitants, to whom' the horse and his rider' seemed a monster, outlandish and inscrutable!" The Thessalonians for many centuries continued the most celebrated of the Grecian cavalry. Another colony of Egyptians appears to have landed some- what later in Southern Greece, and to have introduced the horse to Athens. The leader of this migratory band was Erichthoneus.* This horse-breaker by profession, or prince and leader of a people, perhaps both, is celebrated by Virgil in his third Georgië. The lines are thus given in Dryden's version:— " Bold Erichthoneus was the first who joined
Four horses for the rapid race design'd, And o'er the dusty wheels presiding sat: The Lapithse to chariots add the state Of bits and bridles j taught the steed to bound, To run the ring, and tracé the airy round; To slop, to fiy, the rules of war to know, T' obey the rider, and to dare the foe." The most celebrated individual horse, of the Thessaiian or an
allied breed, was Bucephalus, the charger of Alexander the Great. He was bought for sixteen talents from Philonicus, |
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And now to tliis and now to that he flies;
Admiring numbers follow with tlieir eyes." The horse formed a prominent feature in the beautiful my-
thologie fables of the ancients. Neptune, we are told, created the horse by striking the earth
with his trident:— " When Neptune his huge trident hurl'd
Against the sounding beach, the stroke Transfix'd the globe, and open broke The central earth, whence swift as light Eorth rush'd the first-born horse." JEsehylus, the tragedian, describes Prometheus as the first
who taught man to render the horse obedient to the yoke (perhaps cultivating the earth is here alluded to). Pluto carried off Proserpine in a chariot drawn by four horses
(a quadriga); their names are preserved. In Ovid's beautiful fable of Phaeton, a description is given
of the horses whieh were supposed to draw the chariot of the sun, and which we find thus alluded to by our own immortal bard:— " Qallop apace, ye fiery-footed steeds,
To Phoebus mansion j sueh a waggoner Aa Phaeton would wliip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately."* The goddess Aurora is represented, by the ancient poets,
drawn in a rose-coloured chariot by milk-white horses, and preceding the sun at his rising. It was the eighth of the labours of Hercules to destroy
Diomedes, Icing of Thrace, a tyrant who fed his mares on human flesh. Mars, the god of war, was generally represented as riding in a chariot, drawn by furious horses, named Flight and Terror; and horses were offered up on his altars, to propitiate his warlike spirit. The origin of the Ceiitaurs, half man, half horse—a favourite
fable of the ancients, some of whom, as Plutarch and even Pliny, have actually maintaincd that these monsters existed— is thus given by Palaephatus, in his book, De Incredibilibus llistoriis. Tuis author relates, that in the reign of Ixion, king of Thessaly, a herd of mad bulls descended from Mount Pelion and ravaged the neighbouring country. In consequence of a large reward offered by Ixion for the destruetion of the bulls, certain adventurous young men turned their attention to the training of horses for the saddle ; before that time they having been only used in chariots. These men having attacked the bulls on horseback, and clcarcd the country of them, ravaged the plains of Thessaly, and even attacked Ixion himself. At their departure from these exploits, the ignorant Lapithse, as the inhabitants of that county were called, seeing only the tails of the horses and the upper parts of the men, delineated them as monsters, half man and half horse. The "certain adventurous young men" here spoken of were a
«»lony of Egyptians.f A Grecian tradition makes these Ceiitaurs actual beings, and fables that Philyre, the mother of the Centaurs, cohabited with Saturn in Philyres, an island near the south shore of the Euxine (this would point to * Romeo and Juliet (Act iii. seene 2). + See Termant's Shreds of Antiquity.
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* Mr. Bracy Clark, a scholar and a careful Btudier of all thmgs pertaining
to the horse, and to whom we owe one of the best and earliest esaays on the horse's foot, obseryes—" Those err widely who derive this name from the old Greek language, since the Egyptian appears the natural clue to it. Erictho —the ancient Egyptian word, of which the Greeks made Ericlheus and Eric- thonius, aa of Apollo they made Apollonius—ia composed of two words, en facere, vel rei alicujus auctorem esse, and chto, or ichto, eqnus, the horse; and hence Erictho, autor equitatus et equorum, the oceupation ascribed to Ericthoneus, in the lines of Virgil. Ariatides and others confirm this by observing that he first tamcd the horse, and then apphed hun to the chariot. On this account he was raised to heaven, and placed ainong the con»tt\'lations, as Auriga, Agitator, or Jleniochus, the driver, or charioteer. Chiron, poetically surnamed the Centaur—half man, half horse—was, it is
conjectured, a Thessaiian. His hybrid nature, signified his medical skili was equally directed to human and to brute medicine. .SLsculapius, to whom the establishment of rational prineiples in medicine is attributed, as well as Podaliriua and Machoan, were also hia pupila. These early professors of tha ars medendi and veterinary science were for centuries venerated as the oracle^ and fatherfl of medicine. |
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luatonry: Plate. VI.
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LOOD-V ESS E L S
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ANATQMY.-THE H E A D . E A K, B R A I N & THEIR NERVES, MUSCLES
Drawn from Nature .by Ben Herring
Fié. I. |
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Fig. 2.
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W
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Tl.e, ïalate,'bars.jalatme.Tem, nerre. &c.
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I^ISÉ^è
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The interna! E ar, tynrpammuTDoue!
Fig. 4.
a. |
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■m^
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The Ituscles &. esterna! "bloocL-Yessels of the face &neck.
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m
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The Erain, sho-wing the arteries & its seTeral TDarts.
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b.i Braia, orioin of the nerres, kc.
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T. Co-wan..
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{AWx.NVvwvuy.
_r__.__il
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WILUAM MACKENZIF. GLASGOW, F.DINBURGH & LONDON.
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HISTORY OF
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7
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THE HORSE.
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out of his breeding pastures of Pharsalia. It is known he was
a skewbakl—that is white, clouded with large bay spots. He was, in short, a genuine and nable specimen of what moderns would call a circus horse, and his habits corresponded with this description. These parti-coloured harses were prized by the Parthians, but disliked by the Romans, who objected to them because so easily seen in partial darkness. Bucephalus was ridden by Alexander at the battle of the Hydaspes, and thcre received his death wound. Disobedient for once to the eommand of his master, he galloped from the heat of the fight, brought Alexander to a place where he was secure from danger, knelt, as was his custom, for him to alight, and having thus, like a good and faithful servant, discharged his duty to the last, he trembled, dropped down, and dicd. Although, with the exccption of the pastures of Thessaly,
Greece was not a favourable country for the horse, he was soon found necessary in all parts of the country for the purposes of offence and defence, Accordingly, in most of the states, particularly in Athens and Sparta, a new order of citizens was instituted, to be ranked second in the Commonwealth, and distinguished by certain honours and privileges, as owners of horses. The equites, or knights, of the Roman Republic, were instituted with the same view of kceping up the numbers and excellence of this noble animal. Blundeville, in The Fowcr Chiefest Offices belonging to Horse-
manship, speaks thus of the horses of Greece, and his descrip- tion applies well to the animal we see figured on the frieze of the Parthenon and other temples. " The horses of Greece have good legges, great bodyes, comely heades, and are of high stature and verie wel made forwarde, but not backwarde, because they are pin-buttocked. Notwithstanding they are very swifte, and of a bolde courage. But of alle the racys of Greece, both the horses and mares of Thessaly for their bewtie, bignes, and courage of al authors are most celebrated. For which cause Xerxes, on hys comming into Greece, made a runnyng of horses in chariots to be proclaymed in Thessalia, because hee wolde have hys owne horses to runne wyith the best in Greece. Julius Caesar also beying dictatour of Rome, knowying the courage of the horses, was the first that ordeyned them as a spectacle before the people to fighte wyth wilde bulls, and to kyll them." The caparisoning of the horse, and his part in the cele-
brated Olympic games will come more properly into the his- tory of racing; whereto the two great works of Xenophon, "The Duties of the Master of the Horse," and "Of the Management of the Horse," will furnish prefatory matter. On the decline of the Greek empire the Romans claim atten-
tion. It is clear that from the very building of their city they sedulously attcnded to the breeding and management of the horse. Chariot and horse races were early introduced, but the chariot-race seems to have fallen into disfavour and horse- races to have advanced in esteem. Down to the times of the Caesars the young men of the equestrian order were enthu- siastically devoted to horse exercise. Numerous writers describe or allude to these. They were either trials of speed, |
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or more frequently exhibitions of dexterity in the manége,
pacing and curvetting in intricate circles, a performance in modern times limited to the circus. Standing upright on the back of the horse, lying along his back, vaulting off and on, picking up objects from the ground, and sbifting from one horse to another, were among the favourite feats of these noble youths. The knowledge of the horse now bccomcs more accurate and
generally difFused. The most eminent Roman writers on rural affairs introducé incidental notices of the breeds and the diseases of the horse and their remedies. Cornelius Celsus, whose vetcrinary works are lost, is stated to have wiitten excellently on this branch of the subject. Marcus Terentius Varro, (70 b. c.) M. Portius Cato, (130 is. c.) Virgil, (10 b. c), a few years later Columella and Palladius, also wrote on the horse and his diseases. The two last copiously for the time. During this period the Roman emperors, busied in foreign wars, and maintaining a numerous cavalry, professional veterinarii were appointed to the several legions, and the horse and his diseases were systematically studied. Not much that is worth preserving has come down to modern times from any of these " professionals." About the middle of the fourth century, one of these, by
name Vegetius, wrote the first work worthy of the name of a treatise on the Veterinary art. Ile begins systematically with the diseases of the head and their treatment, and proceeds to those of the feet. He also gives extracts from the works of Chiron and of Hippocrates, which else had been totally lost. The Romans seem to have learned the inhabitants of the
southern Mediterranean coast, to place superior value on the mare. Their authors are of one accord in this. It may be in some degree attributable to the custom of the Romans to castrate all horses employed in traffic, for hire, or in agri- culture. Oxen were used for the latter purpose in almost every other country. The horse was rendered far more valuable and useful by these applications of his strength and docility. The practice spread from Italy, and this most admirable servant of man became a yet more general object of cultivation and attention. The irruption of the Goths, however, swept away almost every vestige of the civilization of the Romans, and the breeding of the horse and impro vements in agriculture shared the general ruin. Passing from Rome to Britain, we find in the 33rd chapter
of the 4th book of Caesar's Commentaries, an accurate detail of the mode of equestrian warfare in Britain, as practised in the century before Christ. This will, we think, add another corroboration to the factthat the " penitüs toto divisos orbe Bri- tannos " had their own iadigenous horse, aye, and a horse of such size and vigour as to attract the cupidity of the con- querors. Caesar carried many of them to Rome, and the British horse—we will presently speak of the mannii or ponies—was for a long time in request in many parts of the Roman Empire. It is impossible that Caesar, who had horses of the full stature, fifteen hands and upwards, in his cavalry, could speak thus if his enemies had driven Welsh or Dartmoor |
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AncLtorny. Plat e, Vil
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Fig 2 _ The Healtby Eye.
Snowmg the Pupil in moderate liglt |
Fig. 3 . The Healthy Eye .
Shcwmgthe Pupil coniracted uuderthe influence of streng I igh.1 |
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Fig. I The Pupil, Retina,and. Coats of the Eye
Showïng the Mechanism of Vision
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■ bh
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Fig 5 Complete Cataract,
Vision totally lost |
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Fig.4 Cataract.
The disease has here ma.de caaadarable progress |
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T.Cowan.
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AEATOMY.- THE EYE OE TEE HOUSE, IN HEALTB h DISEASE
Drawn from Nature by BEN HEB HING. |
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THE HORSE.
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8 HISTORY OF
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buckles, &c. It has been suggested by antiquarians, that the
amphitheatre of Glen Roy might have been the scène of ancient public games, and that these stone collars might be intended to commemorate the victor in the race. Hengist, the name of the founder of the Saxon dynasty,
signified an entire horse; and by the Saxons the horse was an object of superstitious veneration. Of this there remains an example which must be familiar to all who in the old coaching days rode through White Horse Vale, in Berkshire. The turf on the side of a hill has been cut away, displaying the chalk beneath in the figure of a gigantic horse, covering many hundred square feet. This is a genuine Saxon relic, and has, we believe, been preserved by a day being annually kept as high festival, on which all weeds are carefully cleared from the figure, and the outline restored. The Anglo-Saxons are supposed to have first used the horse
in ploughing about the latter part of the tenth century ; on the border of the Bayeux tapestry, representing the landing of William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings (a.d. 1066), there is a representation of a man driving a harrow, the earliest instance we believe of horses thus used in field labour in this island. Hugh tbe Great, head of the House of Capets, monarchs
of France, presented to Athelstan, the natural son of Alfred the Great, whose sister Edelswitha he wooed and won, several running horses from Germany (equos cursores of the old Chronicle) magnificently caparisoned. Athelstan seerns to have attachcd due importance to this improvement upon the previous breed, since he issued a decree prohibiting the exporta- tion of horses without his licence. The most marked improve- ment, however, took place at the Norman Conquest, the martial barons bringing with them a large force of cavalry; and it was, by the way, to their superiority in that important arm that the victory of Hastings was in a great measure to be ascribed. The office of the Mastcr of the Horse dates back to the reisrn
of Alfred the Great; the ancient Chronicles relate the atten- tion paid by him to the breeding and improvement of the horse, to carry out which in the most efficiënt manner, an Officeï was appointed, called Hors Tliane—Master of the Horse; and during every succeeding reign this officer has held high rank, being near the royal person on all state occasions. We may form an estimate of the value of a horse about
that time, by an account hearing date a.d. 1000, which enacts that if a horse be destroyed or negligently lost, the compensation to be demanded was thirty shülings, for a mare or colt twenty shillings, and for a man one pound.* * There were forty-eight sliillings in the Anglo-Saxon poand, five pence in
tho shilling. The value of a horse in eurrent money at that time would be about seventeen or eighteen pounds of modern money—a remarkable coin- cidence with the earliest recorded value of a horse in distant lands of the East. Mr. M'Culloch estimatea that there are now in Great Britain from 1,400,000 to 1,500,000 horses employed for various purposes of pleasure and utility : taking their average worft at from ten pounds to twelve, their total value would be from 14,000,000i. to 18,000,000/., exclusive of the young horseB. |
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ponies, as some have gratuitously assumed, not knowing how
else to get rid of the difficulty of a special horse for these separated islands. The passage of Ccesar will speak for itself. " Their mode of fighting with their chariots is this : firstly, they drive about in all directions and throw their weapons, and generally break the ranks of the enemy with the vcry dread of their horses and the noise of their wheels ; and when they have worked themselves in between the troops of horse, leap from their chariots and engage on foot. " The charioteers meantime withdraw some little distance
from the battle, and so place themselves with the chariots, that if their masters are overpowered by the number of the enemy they may have a ready retreat to their own troops. Thus they display in battle the speed of horse with the firmness of infantry; and by daily practice and exercise attain to such expertness, that they are accustomcd, even on a declining and steep place, to check their horses at full speed, and manage and turn them in an instant, to run along the pole and stand on the yoke, and thence betake themselves with the greatest celerity to their chariots again." IIow numerous these horses were at the time of Cacsar's
invasion, we learn from the fact that when Cassibelaunus dismissed the main body of his army, he retained four thousand of his war chariots to harass the Roman army in their attempts to forage.' The Romans soon found it necessary to send a numerous
cavalry into England, and at this period must have come the first cross in their breeding; horses from Gaul, Italy, Spain, and every province of the Roman empire being brought into the island. For hundreds of years we are without any record as to whether the British horse was thereby deteriorated or im- proved. We may presume that the neglect of breeding from selectcd parents must have led to a degeneration of the race. Reverting to the ponies of Great Britain, these indigenous
races were then as distinct as now, and contemporaneous with the British horse of Caesar. Six centuries after, St. Augustine distinctly speaks of our Shetland, Welsh, New Forest, or Dartmoor breeds. Their diminutive stature is attested. The monk says:—" The mannii, or ponies that are brought from Britain, are those chiefly in use by jugglers and strollers, to exhibit the feats of their craft." They also fancifully shaved or clipped the upper parts of their shaggy bodies to add to their singularity of appearance. The county of Argyle, in Scotland, is said to derive its name
from Are-Gael—the breeding or horse-stud of the Gael; and in a superb work recently published, called the " Arehajology of Scotland," there is a description of a truly remarkable dis- coveiy, throwing light on the charioteering of the Celts. There have been dug up, near the parallel roads of Glen Roy, two stone horse collars, the one formcd of trap or whinstonc, the other of a fine-grained red granite; these bear all the evidence of first-rate workmanship, are highly polished, and are of the full size of a collar adapted to a small highland horse, hearing a close imitation of the details of a horse collar of common materials in the folds of the leather, the nails, |
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. i
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Fig,4 dluBcles Df inside of Fore-leg
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Tig 5 Sil uation of diseas
ü |
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tii F< i • les
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M l< i of Foi Ie Shoüldér
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;: 2 Bones af paster
( back \ v < I ;. vi ai I .;. |
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Fig L.B ones of , -. For fooi
navK'iilar bone i, qo1 Been i
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(ft.
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I Cowan
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'" .'i' VU/i/Lö).
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AN'ATOMY-THE BONES, MU! ( i E ,ANb Af ! E Ril S'O'i IHI I ORI i I G
fHE G-EM1 Al VIK'.V Of I HE MUS C LES IS ) /: N IN 'I I A'l !' II )
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NAT UB AL HISTOBY OF THE HOBSE.
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9
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The year of grace 1112 is important in equestrian annals,
as witnessing the introduction into England of the first African norse; and about the same time another was presented by Alexander L, king of Scotland, to the Church of St. Andrews, though what relation a race-horse had to the church has been a knotty point for antiquaries. Both these animals were true Barbs from Morocco, procured doubtless through the agency of Jew dealers. There is no breed which has exercised so great an influence upon the stock of these islands as the Barb, and none more deserving of kindness for the admirable qualities |
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they possess. Kindness and forbearance towards animals is
inculcated by the Koran, and it was a cutting satire upon our boasted civilization when, in allusion to this point, a Moor remarked to Colonel Hamilton Sniith, " It is not in your book." With this period we shall conclude our historical retrospect;
what is further to be said on the English horse will come when we treat of him in the perfection to which various crosses have brought him, as adapted for the different purposes of his master. |
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CHAPTEB II.
TITE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE: THE WILD HORSE: THE HORSES OF CENTRAL ASIA: THE PERSIAN HORSE! THE
TOORKMAN HORSE : THE CIRCASSIAN HORSE : HORSES OF INDIA: BIRMAN AND CHINESE HORSES : THE ARAB.—THE HORSES OF AFRICA:—THE BARB : THE DONGOLA HORSE: THE EGYPTIAN HORSE : THE HORSE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. |
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been used merely to astonish the natives. The painter, how-
ever, was not content to give the animal split hoofs; he has drawn him, with as much veracity as the writer, with two human hands, four fingers and a thumb, and nails to each of them! Butler had this monster in his eye when he wrote of the steed of Sir Hudibras:— Great Ceesar's horse, who, as fame gces,
Had eorns upon his feet and toes, Was not by half so tender-hooft Kor trod upon the ground so soft. And as that beast would kneel and stoop (Some write) to take his rider up, So Hudibras's ('tis well-known) Would often do to set him down. * But we will quit these follies of the learned, and come to
Cuvier, who places the Solipedes (single-footed animals) at the end of his mammiferous Pachyderms (teat-bearing thick-skinned animals) and makes the family consist of only one genus Equus, with four varieties. E. Cabalhis (the horse). E. Hemionus (the wild ass of Kertch and the Indus, dziggtai of Thibet and Tartary), E. Asinus (the wild ass of Africa, the Onager), E. Zebra, and E. Quagga. All of which, except the first (and here we have the support of Mr. Bell, in his British Quadrupeds, and Dr. Gray), we repudiate and reject as horses; and maintain that, as a fruitful progeny cannot be obtained from their admixture, and as they always have been and always will be asses, demand for them, in future systems, a separate genus as Asinus, protesting against the Equus as misapplied. We must quote some remarks of Mr. Bell on the structural differencesofthe two animals:—"The character of the tail is one of the most striking points upon which this distinction rests. In the horse the whole of this is covered with thick long hair, totally concealing its actual form ; whilst in the whole of the others—the ass, the zebra, the quagga, the dziggtai, &c—it is • Hudibras, part i. canto i. 435.
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NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE.
It is not our intention to enter into a disquisition as to the
place of the horse in a systematic classification of quadrupcds. I We shall merely note, incidentally, some of the more amusing results of that laborious brain-scattering which great natu- ralists have permitted themselves, while endeavouring rigidly to classify and catalogue the varieties of the horse and his affined races, and the absurdities into which they have been led bj obstinately attempting to derive all the different species of the animal from one original pair. The great Linnasus, in his last edition of Systema Natura,
ïeaves the horse among his Belluce, the sixth order of Mammalia, in company with the hippopotamus, the hog, and the rhinoceros. Erxleben places him between the elephant and dromedary. Gmelin divides his horse genus into two sections: 1, Equus pedibus bisukis (horse with split or doublé hoof), found in Chili (most probably a Llama), and Equus solidungulm (horse with a solid hoof). Jonston has figured a horse, called in German the Ethiopisches Pferd {Equus Ethiopicm) with a mane extending the whole length of his body from head to tail. This seems, pro- bably, a sort of yak, of which there are two specimens in the Palace at Sydenham, and many live animals of this tribe have been recently introduced to France by the Société cFAcclima- tation. Jonston also figures a wild horse with a horn in the centre of his forehead. Though the unicorn has been aban- doned by naturalists, some stül cling to their bisukus. Old Aldrovandus has some monstrous figures of horses with human faces, and hands at their hinder extremities. A horse of this sort, says that credulous author, belonged to Julius Caïsar, * teste Suetonius: " Julius Caesar rode a horse with remarkable feet nearly like human ones: his hoofs being split after the manner of fingers, &c." This malformed beast must have |
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Caius Julius Ceesar utebatur equo insigni pedibus prope humanis, et in
modum digitorum ungulis fissis.—Sttet. in Jul. cap. 61. Ti
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r*
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Ana-tomy, PI at e IX
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Tig 2. Mu.scJ.es & arteries
inside the thigh |
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Tig L. Musci.es & arteries outside the chigh
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Tig 3. The arteries & nerves of the. hmd.-leg
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h
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Tig 5 The hock& hindei exl remity,
wiLh the sir.tiiu.cn of therr diseases |
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IJTg4 Bolles of The hoek.enlarged
lo show their articulaxioos |
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'V'.Hi, \
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■ ( owaj
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yt'W.ll).
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A NA TOM V ... M U SCLES, ARTERI ES. BüNE S &c,0F TH E HINDER EXTREMITIE
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WILLIAM MACKENZIE, LONDON. EDINBURGH g GLASGOW.
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10
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VARIETIES OMÏÏSJIOftSE.
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only clothed with long hair towards its extremity. The mane
of the true horse is long and flowing, in the ass it is short and upright. In the horse the hind as well as the fore legs are furnished with those warty excrescences which in the ass are only found on the fore-legs, Waiving some other matters of minor importance, there is one character of some interest and value as a material distinction—I mean the general tendency of the ooloration and markings in the two races. In the horse's coat there is an obvious disposition to the formation of small round spots of a different shade or hue to that of the ground, and this is the case whether the colour be black, chesnut, or grey; in the genus Asinus, on the contrary, the markings are invariably disposed in stripes. The zebra, the quagga, &c, are examples too familiar to require more than this allusion ; and in the common ass not only is the same tendency evinced in the cross-marks on the shoulders, but in the young ass there are frequently observed some small darker bands upon the legs. These tendencies to a peculiar character of colouring and mark- ing are worthy of special note in the mammalia, among which will be found many instances bearing upon the distinction of approximating forms. In birds and insects it is still more marked, general, and striking, and has always attracted the attention of naturalists." To this may be added the variations in the vocal organs of
the two animals (which are mixed in various proportions in the mules), and the wide distinction between the playful whinny or proud neigh of the horse and the excruciating vocal performance of what, if it is to be retained as a horse, we would call Equus Hierosolymus. * With these acknowledged varieties of the ass, what but a determination to ignore the patent facts of natural history can induce writers to cling with supersti- tious awe to some myth of a single type of the horse, and refuse original habitats to the horses of Central Asia, of Africa, of Northern Tartary, of the continent of Europe, aye even to our own Welsh pony and Sheltie, who bear all the marks of genuine races? The facts of geology are admitted: right |
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ïteverends, very Reverends, and Deans, uphold the centuries
and myriads of years of preadamite history of fossils, rocks, and minerals; but the natural historian is afraid to whisper about there having been half a dozen original horses, or a dozen different dogs, as ancestors for the most distinct varieties of the family. Erom this, we trust not altogether uninteresting digression,
we return to method. The distinctive characters of the horse according to Linnajus, are :— " The tail long, with hair all over ; the mane long, without
any humeral stripe. It is a generous, proud, and strong animal; fit for all the purposes of man; for draught, the course, or the road; he is delighted with the freedom of open pastures; he is fearful of being touched on his hinder quarters; defends himself from the nies with his tail, scratches his fellow, defends his young, calls by neighing, sleeps after night-fall, fights by kicking and biting, rolls on the ground when weary and perspiring, bites the grass closer than the ox, wants a gall-bladder, never vomits ; the foal is produced with the legs stretched out; he is injured by being struck on the ear, or upon the stifle, by his being caught by the nose in barracks, by having his teeth rubbed with grease, and by various herbs. His diseases vary in different countries and climates. With us the glanders, a corruption of the ethmoid bones of the nose, is the most fatal and infectious disease. He eats hemlock without injury ; he has no canine teeth tiïl five years of age." The teeth of the horse, fully treated hereafter, are
incisors §; canines 4 f; molars | f; total 40. " Of all quadrupeds," says Buffon, " the horse possesses.
along with grandeur of stature, the greatest elegance and proportion of parts. By comparing him with the animals above or below him, we find that the ass is ill-made, and that the head of the lion is too large; that the limbs of the os are too slender, and too short in proportion to the size of the body; that the camel is deformed; and that the grosser animals — as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and elephant— may be considered as rude and shapeless masses. " The great difference between the head of a man and that
of a quadruped consists in the length of their jaws, which is the most ignoble of all characters. But though the jaws of a horse be very long, he has not, like the ass, an air of imbe- cility, nor like the ox of stupidity.* The regularity and proportion of the parts of his head give him a light and sprightly aspect, being gracefully attached to his finely arched neck, which is well supported by the beauty of his chest; he elevates his head as if anxious to exalt himself above the condition of other quadrupeds. In this noble attitude he regards man face to face. " His eyes are open, lively, and intelligent, his ears hand-
some and of a proper height, being neither too long like those of the ass, nor too short like those of the buil. His |
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* The following anatomical distinctions may interest some readers:—
In the horse the apertures of the lateral saes are long and wide, and bear «ome resemblance to the usual ventrieles of the glottis. On the contrary, in the ass, the opening into each of the three sacs is a small round hole, and the anterior »ac is a real bag of considerable size. Curier states that the mule, which is geuerated by the male ass and the mare, has the openings into the laryngal sacs wide, and the structure of tl e organs of voice altogether approaching that found in the horse; and he therefore concludes that the account published by Herissant was taken from the dissection of the offspring of the stallion and the female ass. Blumenbach has, howeyer, foliowed many other anatomists in attributing similar organs of voice to the common mule and the ass. Cuvier further adds, that in the horse and the mule there is, at the commissure of the two cord» yocales, a slight fold of the membrane, which is not visib!e in the ass. The size of this fold bas been greatly exag- gerated by Herissant; he has also attributed to it important offices, which it does not seem to perform. The peculiar sound called a bray is uttered by the ass in consequence of the extent of the laryngal sacs, and their being so much ■eparated from the cavity of the laryni by very contracted apertures. The bray •eems indeed when heard to be a compound discordant sound, produced from the resonance of different sized cayities. Curier found in the quagga the larynx organised as in the horse, eicept that the membrane extending from one corda voealis to the other, did not exist.—Mees's Cyclopadia, art. Mammalia. Majendie's Comparative Physiology |
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* It need scarcely be observed that this is rhetorical nonsense. Kao.h animal
is perfect in its adaptation to its place in the scale of creation, and to its purposei. |
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Anatomy, Pl.ate, X.
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Fl G, 5, THE FROG &S0LE
(horn removed)
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Fl G, 6, B LOOD VESS ELS ü E THE
80LE &- FROG. |
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Fl G, 7, ARTERIES OF DITTO .
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Fl G, 2, THE BON ES & LIGAMEMTS
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FIG.4, THE BLOODVESSELS OF THE.--FOOT
& PA8TERNS. |
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FI G, I, SECTION OF THE FOUT,. PASTERNS & SHANK.
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A^TIIY-TtÖE lftt 1 DS § E'g FUT.
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WlLLIAIvl MAGKENZ1E, LONDON, EDINBURGH & 6LASG0W.
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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11
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mane adorns his graceful neck, and gives him the appearance
ot strength and courage. His long bushy tail covers and tenninates with advantage the extremity of his body. His tail, very different from the short tails of the deer, elephant, and foppopotamus, and from the naked tails of the ass, camel and rhinoceros, is formed of long thick hairs, which seem to nse from his crupper, because the trunk from which they proceed is very short. He cannot, like the lion, elevate his tail; but though pendulous, it becomes him botter, and as he can move it from side to side it serves him to drive off the flies which incommode him ; for though his skin is very firm, and well garnished with close hair, it is nevertheless very aensible." |
strictly. He says—" The animal receives its name from the
Mongolian Tartars on account of its large ears. The tail has hairs only at the extremity, and a black dorsal line which enlarges at the crupper. The general colour is a uniform bay or fawn colour, but the tint is redder in winter and lighter in summer. The ears, as already intimated, are longer than those of the horse, but straighter and better formed than those of the mule. WTien undisturbed their character seems social and peaceablc; they live in troops of from twenty to thirty, and often in much larger communities. The Mongols, Tungooses, and other nations bordering on the Great Desert hunt these animals for food, the flesh being considered a great delicacy." The kiang, (Equus Ilemionus) another of these pseudo-
wild horses, was often seen by Col. Markham, who says:— " The so-called wild horse is numerous throughout Chinese
Tartary and Thibet. Several were seen to-day, and Coles j killed one—he never killed another; and as for myself I could not have fired a shot after hearing the account of this one's death. The poor beast was badly wounded, and she (for it was a mare) feeling herself struck, walked up quietly witliin ten paces of Coles, and looked at him as much as to say, 'What have I done to you that you should thus ill-treat me ?' " " I could have shot as many as I pleased without any
trouble, but never fired at one. In districts, however, where
they have been disturbed and fired at, they become very
difficult to approach. They are not at all like horses, but bear
a wondrous similitude to a large donkey, being nearly of the
same colour, and having a very big head with long ears.
Their feet are remarkably good, shaped like those of a horse,
and possessing great speed; their movements are easy and
graceful, when seen at such a distance that their huge heads
are not a prominent feature. Usually seen in coinpanies of
from two or three to ten or a dozen, large troops of thirty or
forty are occasionally met with. When approached, they
stand gazing at the intruder, until he gets within about three
hundred yards, when they will trot off to a little distance,
and then turn to look, standing as before, until their pursuer
draws near, when they again move off. The Tartar name of
the wild horse is kiang; young ones are occasionally caught
by the Tartars, but I never heard of any attempt being made
to break them for use."
We may remark, in concluding this branch of the subject,
that the so-called wild horses of the steppes near the banks of the Don and "Wolga, are the descendants of horses turned loose by the Russian army when suffering under scarcity of forage at the siege of Azof in 1657, and who have multiplied amazingly, though not so largely as the descendants of the horses taken over to South America by the Spaniards, myriads of whom roam over the Pampas, and of which more than 60,000 hides are imported yearly to this country. We shall now proceed to consider the varieties of the
Horse. |
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THE WILD HORSE.
No authentic record remains of the indigenous horse in his
wild state. The dziggtai of Tartary, the kiang of Ladak and the Himalayas, the onager of Numidia, the zebra, and the quagga of Central and Southern Africa, are none of them the Equm Caballus, or true horse, of Buffon, Linnasus, Cuvier, Gray, &c.; they all belong to that secondfamily of the Equidm, the ass. Malte Brun very rationally suggests that there was more than one original horse, varying in his different habitat. These would produce a fertile cross, partaking of the qualities and conformation of both sire and dam. This author specifies three original breeds of horse. The first indigenous to Bokhara, Persia, and Asia Minor; the second to Mongolia and Scythia, originated in the steppes of Central and Northern Asia; and third, the Arabian courser. The first two, as true indigenous varieties, we consider most probable, but in the third the great geographer adopted the current opinion of his time, and has assigncd no true horse to North Africa—the original habitat of what we now know as the Barb—and has given to Arabia the credit of the first horse of this noble variety. "We trust we have already shown, that whatever celebrity the land of Ishmael may have acquired in comparatively modern times for the perfection of its Lorses — a perfection attained through many generations of careful breeding, training, and the " hard meat" system—it only possessed them at a period long since Africa owned its Barbs. To the land now known as the Empire of Morocco, to Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and Lower Egypt, we transfer the claim of Arabia. From this variety too, we opine, the larger varieties of Persia, Armenia, Anatolia, Turkey, and Western Europe drew,—at intervals, from the period of the Carthaginians and Romans until the Crusades, and thence to more modern times—thatglorious attribute knovra as " blood ;" which gradually raised and gave fire and vigour to the heavier and more sluggish horses of the European continent and these islands, till the culminating point in speed, size, symmetry, and active strength, was realized in the British " thorough bred," such as we behold him in the son of Bay Middleton and Barbelle, a portrait of whom will be found in this volume. As we have already said, the dziggtai or Tartary horse of'
Colonel H. Smith, (See Naturalist''s Library) is not a horse |
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* Shooting t» the Sim<üay<u; By Col. F. Markham, p. 325.
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ANA TOMY, PLA l I . XI
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F I G, I, F O ü T of F O A L
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. -F, T H E F O O I AS C H A N
IN F O R M B Y S H O E I NG.
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Fl G, 2, HALF GRQWN Fn O T.
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Fl 8, 3, MATU RAI v, OF UNSHOD HORSE.
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F I ; f H t ■ iï! ■!, i! ! 'j H
& L D W M F 1 R A r i U N S
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FI G, 5, SENS1BLE" FQB T I H O O F R E M !i V EU
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. S^ E QJ D8 1 TT QD i ¥ -
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' KEN NDON. EDINBHRGH
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THE HORSE.
permitted to suck up with their lips a little frozen snow to
refresh themselves; and then turning their heads towards the sledge they have so patiently drawn, they are granted the happiness of eating the hay which has served as litter to warm the feet of its recent occupants. And thus horse and sledge are left generally in an open court-yard, where they are under the covering of heaven day and night. If it snows during the night, an apparently inanimate object may be seen standing immovable by the sledge in the morning. It is the gallant animal who yesterday drew you fifteen leagues, to return the same distance to-morrow." These semi-wild animals range over the plains, each herd
under the care of a stallion, who jealously prevonts intrusion and the mingling of another herd with his own. As the stallion foals grow up they are expelled the herd, and wander till they succeed in forming a herd of their own. The Ostraces, Urals, Mongols, Calmucks, Nogays, Visigoths,
Ostrogoths, and Huns, who people the vast plains of Central Asia, seem to have been always horsemen. The nations known to antiquity as Scythians, Medes, and Parthians, were of common origin with one or other of these hordes, which fed the stream of invasion to the West, the South, and the East. Some of their leaders, from time to time, could bring three hundred thousand cavalry into the field. The celerity of their marches, of their attacks and their retreats; the hardihood to which they brought themselves and their horses; their incur- sions and settlement—horde after horde—are the staple of the history of Asia, and of a large portion of Europe. In the central steppes of Tartary there are, however, horses
of a larger stature than those here spoken of. The Khirgese Tartars spear them and use them for food—the principal delicacy at high feasts being the horse's head, or a roasted foal. The milk of the mare has from time immemorial been mads
by fermentation into a drink called kumm. The process of its preparation is as follows:—To a gallon of fresh mare's milk about a quart of water and a pint of old kumiss, or sour milk, is added. The whole is then set in a warm place, covered with a thick cloth. At the end of twenty-four hours a clotted curd will have formed on the top, and the whole mixture will have become sour. Jt is then beaten up with a churn-staff, and again set by. Another churning completes the process, and the liquor is fit for consumption. Dr. Clarke, in his Travels in Russia, gives the following
account of the distillation of a spirit called rakee from this kumiss. The name will recall the vile brandy with which the Eussian columns, who precipitated themselves on our brave Guards on the day of Inkermann, were maddened to the charge. The delicate process cf production is thus detaüed:— " The stül was composed of mud, or very close clay. For the neck of the retort a cane was used ; and the receiver entirely covered by a coating of wet clay. The brandy had just passed over. The woman who had the management of the distülery, wishing to give me a taste of the spirit, thrust a small stick * Trans, of Boy al Soo. of üdinb., vol. j.
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12 VARIETIES OF
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I.—THE HORSE OF CENTRAL AS1A.
The Tartar and Calmuck horses are perhaps the least culti-
vated or domesticated of any breed. They are small in stature, and by no means prepossessing in appearance, yet capable of undergoing long journeys, and of standing any amount of exposure. The colts are scarcely ever sheltered, and follow the tribe in its horseback movements. If a colt is weakly, a Calmuck quickly turns him into provender and feasts upon him ; or, if of more mature age, subjects him, in the form of a steak-saddle, to a process intended to render the meat tender, which we find recorded in books of travels.* Linton, the author of a series of pleasant papers on
" Kussia and its Field Sports" in the Sporting Review, thus speaks of the endurance of this race :— " Althougli we did not halt on the high road to Moscow till
we reached Ichondova, one hundred and ten versts, our horses did at least five leagues an hour. But subsequently, on arriving at Grovona—a place celebrated for the sumptuous building follies committed by Count Aratcheef, the detested favourite of the Emperor Alexander—we were obliged to change our sledges and reduce our horses to two in each, thus simply travelling at the pace of a mail; being finally obliged, when quitting the high roads, to submit to a simple village- sledge, drawn by a small active horse, whose harness was composed of cords. I may here add with much truth that sixty versts are somewhat a long distance thus to travel during a night bitterly cold and dark, with a frozen wind which penetrates to the heart's core, and blinds you with frozen snow fine as salt. Iv is then, notwithstanding great-coats and furs, that the rigour of a liussian climate finds holes through which to penetrate. " But it would be very unjust, even when frozen, to accuse
the poor beast who drags you; on the contrary, we ought to give the greatest possible praise and consideration for showing the most unequalled patience and courage amid storms and danger, evincing an extraordinary instinct in reference to the snow-covered tracts which are daily re-covered by wind or fresh storms, however previously beaten and demarked; in fact, an unfortunate animal, without apparent form, nerve, or strength—in fact, a horse scarcely deemed sufficiënt to convey vegetables to market—will trot sixty versts without halting, over snow-clad fields, through woods, over hedges and ravines, into which you descend like an avalanche, and rise again by a miracle ; and yet, how are these poor beasts—so strong, so patiënt, so precious, notwithstanding their ugliness—treated when they arrive at their journey's end? Why, they are |
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* Butler (Jludibras, pt. 1, canto 2) alludes to thia unsayoury custom,
where he says his bear was a " Muscovite," and " 'mong the Cossack» h&d been bred;" •' And though bis countrymen the Huns,
Did stew their meat between their bums And th' horses' backs whereon they straddla, And every man eats up his saddle j He was not half so nice as they, Bat ate his rsw, when't came in his way." |
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Anatomy, PiaLe 12.
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lig. 3. The Eeart, showmg the
lef t VetitriclGrAxiricle, &c . |
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Fig.2. The Beart dissected Lo show the mterior
of the nght Ventricle , tricuspid valve.&c |
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Fig.l.The Ti.ora.cic Viscera
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Fig. 4. Th e Lungs
o o
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nig.5 The pülraonary Artery8cVeins,with the
raraified hlood-vessels of the Ltmgs . |
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fa*
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T.Cowan
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ANATOMY OF THE. HORSL. THE TH0RAC1C VISCLRA
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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13
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with a tuft of camel's hair iuto the receiver, dropped a portion
of it on the retort, and, waving the instrument above her head, scattered the remaining liquor in the air. I asked the meaning of this ceremony, and was answered that it was a religious custom to give always the first of the brandy which they drew from the receiver to their god. The stick was then plunged into the liquor a second time, when more brandy adhering to the camel's hair, she squeezed it into the palm of her dirty hand, and having tasted the liquor, presented it to our lips." For two hundred and fifty years we are told that the Dukes
of Muscovy, at their reception of Tartar ambassadors, made a ceremonial presentation of the milk of mares, after the fashion of coffee with Turks and Persians. Berenger, in his excellent Treatise on Sorsemanship, thus
sketches the better breed of Tartar horse:—" Though but of a moderate stature, they are strong, nervous, proud, full of spirit, bold, and active. They have good foet, but somewhat narrow. Their heads are well-shaped and lean, but too small (?). Their forehand long and stiff, and the legs over- long. Tet, with all these imperfections, they are good and serviceable horscs, being unconquerable by labour, and endowed with considerable speed. The Tartars live with them some- what in the manner the Arabs do with their horscs. When they are six or eight months old they make their children ride them, who exercise them in small excursions, dressing and forming them by degrees, and bringing them into gentle and early discipline; and, after awhile, making them undergo hunger and thirst, and many other hardships. The men, how- ever, do not ride them until they are five or six years old, when they exact from them the sevcrest service, and inure them to almost incredible fatigue, travelling two or three days almost without resting, and passing four or five days without better nourishment than a handful of grass, and with nothing to quench thirst." The Nogay Tartars have some of the tallest and strongest of
the Tartar horses; and a variety that is used for draught. The Khan of Tartary uses these on state occasions. The Nogays can mount, it is said, one hundred thousand men. Each Nogay has four horses when on an expedition: one for his own riding; a secoud as spare horse; and two more to carry his provision, his slaves, and his plunder. "We will close this notice of the Cossack ór Calmuck horse,
by a transcript of an often printed account of a race, in which the question of superiority of the English racer in endurance, stoutness, and speed, was incontrovertibly established:—For this match the most celebrated Cossack horses from the Don, the Black Sea, and the Ural, were sent; and, after numerous trials, the best were selected. The English horses, on the other hand, were by no means of the first class. Their names were Sharper and Mina, and neither of them here would have ranked much above ' leather-platers.' "On the 4th of August, 1825, on the challenge of the
Cossacks, a race of the cruel distance of forty-seven miles, out and home, was agreed to. The four horses to start together; and the first in to take the whole stakes. " On starting, the Cossacks took the lead at a moderate
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pace—the English horses following at the distance of three or
four lengths; but before they had gone half-a-mile the stirrup- leather of Sharper broke, and he ran away with his rider, foliowed by Mina, and they went more than a mile, and up a stoep hill, before they could be held in. " Half the distance was run in an hour and four minutes.
Both the English horses were then fresh, and one of the Cossacks. On their return Mina feil lame, and was taken away. The Cossack horse, likewise, began to flag, when the accom- panying Russians began to drag him on by the bridle, throwing I away the saddle, and putting a more child on his back. Sharper, likewise, evidcntly shewed the effects of the pace at which he had gone when running away, and was much dis- j tressed. The Cossacks then had recourse to foul play, and actually carried on their horse; some dragging him on by a rope, and the bridle at his head; and others pulliug him on by the tail, and riding alongside of his quarters to support him, and relieving each other at this fatiguing work. Sharper did the whole distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes ; and the Cossack horse was warped in eight minutes after him. At starting the English horses carried full three stone more than the Cossacks; and during the latter half of the race a mere child had ridden the Cossack." The horses here engagcd were of the breed, or a closely
allicd one, to those of the Ukraine, which Byron so beautifully paints in Mazeppa:— " A tramplirig troop : I see them come,
In one vast squadron they advance I I strove to cry—my lips were dumb. The steeds rush on in plunging pride, But where are they the reins who guide ? A thousand horse and none to ride! With üowing tail and flying mano, Wide nostrils—never stretch/d by pain— Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, And fcet that iron nerer shod, And flanks unsearr'd by spur or rod— A thousand horse, the wild, the tree, Like waTes that follow o'er the sea. On came the troop......
They stop—they start—they snuff the air,
Gallop a moment here and there, Approach, retire, wheel round and round, Then plunging back with sudden bound ; They snort, they foam, neigh, swerve aside, And backward to the forest fly." II.----THE PERSIAN HORSE.
The Persian horse is of high antiquity. Ilis figure appears
in the Assyrian sculptures. Alexander the Great received a Persian horse as a most valuable and acceptable present. From this, and the allied Toorkman horse, some of our earliest improvements of our breed are due. It may be observed, that an immense race of horses was early known in Dongola, in Africa; and that these, with a cross of the Barb, may have produced the more noble breed known as the Persian horse, par excellence, for there were several breeds in that country. It is by no means improbable that the chariot of Xerxes was
drawn by Persian horses. We are told that they were from |
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Anatoiny. Piate XIIL.
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Fig. 5._Larvae of the Gadfly
(Bots) adhermg to die iinnip"
of the Stomach |
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Fig. 2. _ The Thdneys,Bladder, &.
other vessels, in situ.tae abdomen
being deprived of tHe mtestines.
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Tig'. 1._ The large mtestines, as seen
when the ah domen is first lajd open. |
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..:n,,T
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Fig1. 4. - harva of the Gadfly
f the Bot) detached frorn
the raeiiibrane. |
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Yif. 6. _ The CE stans Eqtri
(C-adfly) the parent of' die
Bot (Eemaie)
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Fig. 3._ Ova of the Gadfly
attached to a hair. |
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T, C owan fi
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Jmx'.-i YUVWfiA
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ü
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ANATOMY. - THF ^
THE GESTRUS EQ
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VISCERA, KIDIhEYS, Sec.
rA, LARVE, (BOTS) &c. |
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.An&tomy, Plale.XUI.a-.
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Hg". 4;. The Tcetiis ,'witli its aMomem laid open,
Sc-Tcetal circulati'on shown 'by uiit"wisting'tüe fout' vessels of the iimb.ilical corchonevein, two arteries, & the uxachus.cixt off. |
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Kö". 3. Tte Foetus , in situ -mih. its
siirroxmdiiig flnids ^inenibraiies
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lig. ].a (of Plate Xfd) The siomach
vith its orifices,&c.
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T.Cowan.
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(jiW.Jljywwvq)
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ANATOMY-GESTATIOM.THE FCETUS& F CE TAL CIRCULATION
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VABIET1ES OE TUK HOrlSE.
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14
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always been rejected by the sheik, obtained the lady's consent
and eloped with her. The sheik and his followers pursued, but the lover and bis mistress, mounted on one horse, made a wonderful march, and escaped. The old chief swore that the fellow was either mounted with the devil, or the favourite mare he had lost. After his return he found the latter was the case ; that the lover was the thief of his mare as well as of his daughter, and that he stole the one to carry off the other. The chief was quite gratified to find he had not been beaten by a mare of another breed; and was easily reconciled to the young man, in order that he might recover the mare, which appeared an object about which he was more solicitous than about his daughter." Sir John Malcolm says—"A variety of horses ara
produced in Persia. The inhabitants of the districts which border on the Gulf still preserve pure those race3 of animals which their ancestors brought from the opposite shore of Arabia. In Fars and Irak they have a mixed breed from the Arabian, which, though stronger, is still a small horse com- pared with either Toorkman or Khorassan breeds, which are most prized by the soldiers of Persia. Both these latter races have also a great proportion of Arabian blood." The Persian horse and its management is thus described by
Sir Robert Ker Porter:—" The Persian horses never exceed 14 or 14| hands high ;* yet certainly, on the whole, are talier than the Arabs. Those of the desert and country about Hillah seem very small, but are full of bone, and of good speed. General custom feeds and waters them only at sunrise and sunset, when they are cleaned. Their usual provender is barley and chopped straw, which, if the animals are picketed, is put into a nose-bag, and hung from their hcads; but, if stablcd, it is thrown into a lozenge-shaped hole, left in the thickness of the mud wall for that purpose, but much higher up than the line of our mangers, and there the animal eats at his leisure. Hay is a kind of food not known here. The bedding of the horse consists of his dung. After being exposed to the drying influence of the sun during the day, it becomes pulverized, and, in that state, is nightly spread under him. Little of it touches his body, that being covered by his clothing, a large nicmmud, from the head to the tail, and bound firmly round his body by a very large surcingle. But this apparel ia only for cold weather; in the warmer season the night clothes are of a lighter substance, and during the heat of the day the animal is kept entirely under shade. " At night he is tied in the courtyard. The horses' heads
are attached to the place of security by doublé ropes from their halters, and the heels of their hinder legs are confined by cords of twistcd hair, fastened to iron rings and pegs driven into the earth. The same custom prevailed in the time of Xenophon, and for the same reason, to secure them from being able to attack and maim each other, the whole stud generally consisting of stallions. Their keepers, however, always sleep in their rugs amongst them, to prevent accident; and sometimes, not- withstanding all their care, they manage to break loose, and |
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Armenia, and the noblest and stateliest which his extensive
empire could furnish.* Under Cyrus the Persians became renowned for the beauty
of their horses and the splendour of their caparisons; and in later days it was dcemed unbecoming for a Persian of any pretension to rank to be seen in public except on horseback- Athenajus, the historian, however, tells us that they were more desirous of sitting at their ease than to prove themselves dexterous and bold horsemen. The stature of the Persian horse is often noted by ancient writers. Down to the year 1800 no political mission had visited
Persia for a century, but the fame of the English as soldiers had spread from India, and with a Persian until within the last twenty years a horseman and a warrior were convertible terms. An officer of one of the frigates which conveyed Sir John Malcolm's mission, who had gone on shore at Abusheher, and was there mounted on a spirited horse, afforded no small entertainment to the Persians by his bad horsemanship. The following day the man who supplied the ship with vegetables, and who spoke a little English, met him on board, and said, " Don't be ashamed, sahib: nobody knows you bad rider. I teil them you, all English, ride very well, but that time they see you, you very drunk." The worthy Persian thought it would have been an indelible reproach for a man of a warlike nation not to ride well, but none for an European to get drunk. As a pendant to the Persian horse, we may give the follow-
ing two anecdotes, from Sir John Malcolm's Sketches of Persia, premising that Sir John always applies the term Arab to all the horses of the territory washed by the Euphrates, and even those of Asia Minor:— " When the envoy, returning from his former mission, was
encamped near Bagdad, an Arab rode a bright bay mare of extraordinary shape and beauty before his tent, until he attracted his attcntion. On being asked if he would sell her; —' Wkat wül you give me ?' was the reply: ' That deponds upon her age; I suppose she is past five r" ' G uess again,' said he. ' Four ?' ' Look at her mouth,' said the Arab, with a smile. On examination she was found to be rising three. This, from her size and symmetry, greatly enhanced her value. The envoy said, ' I wül give you fifty tomans' (a coin nearly of the value of a pound sterling). ' A little more if you please,' said the fellow, apparently entertained. 'Eighty. A hundred.' Ile shook his head and smiled. The offer at last came to two hundred tomans! ' Well,' said the Arab, ' you need not tempt me further; it is of no use. You are a rich elchee (nobleman). You have fine horses, camels, and mules, and I am told, you have loads of silver and gold. Now,' added he, ' you want my mare, but you shall not have her for all you have got.'" " An Arab sheik, who lived within fifty miles of Bussorah,
had a favourite breed of horses. He lost one of his best mares, and could not for a long while discover whether she was stolen or had strayed. Some time after, a young man of a different tribe, who had long wished to marry his daughter, but had |
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Berenger'» Horsemanship, vol. i.
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* This ia only true of one of the modern races.
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Veiy S üj-gery, Flat e. 14'
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su' fpr po~u! tice, &c
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Lg. 5.] ironc tiotomy witli
the tube Ln position
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Fig.4 I; - for Straj gig :
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!■ ;. !' for Crü Lc&] Absi
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T.Cowan.
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BAND A GING & BRONCHO1 0M Y
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WILLIAM MACKENZIE. LONÜOM, EDINBURGH X GLA5&OW.
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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15
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tlien the combat ensues. A general neighing, screaming,
kicking, and snorting, soon raise the grooms, and the scène for awhile is terrible. Indeed, no one can conceive the sudden uproar of such a moment, who has not been in Eastern countries to hear it; and then all who have must bear me witness that the noise is tremendous. They seize, bite, and kick each other, vrith the most determined fury; and frequently cannot be separated before their heads and haunches stream with blood. Even in skirmishes with the natives, their horses take parts in the fray, tearing each other with their teeth, while their masters are in similar close quarters on their backs." We have the following description of a Persian race, by the
same author: " My curiosity was fully on the spur to see the races, which I
could not doubt must have been chosen from the best in the nation, to exhibit the perfections of its breed before the sove- reign. The rival horses were divided into three sets, in order to lengthen the amusement. They had been in training several weeks, going very often over the ground during that time; and when I did see them I found so much pains had been taken to sweat and reduce their weight, that their bones were nearly cutting the skin. The distance marked for the race was a stretch of twenty-four miles; and that his Majesty might not have to wait when he had reached the field, the horses had set forward long before by three divisions from the starting point (a short interval of time passing between each set) so that they might have to come in a few minutes after the King had taken his seat. The different divisions arrived in regular order at the goal, but all so fatigued and exhausted, that their former boasted neet- ness hardly exceeced a moderate canter when they passed before the royal eyes." ïn.----THE TOORKMAN HORSE.
Abeautiful breed of horses has long been known in Turkistan
and South Tartary on the shores of the Caspian. They are large, stately, and strong, standing from fifteen to sixteen hands. The best breed of Turkish horses is descended from the Barb through the Arab and Persian horse; but these Toorkmans greatly exceed the horses of both those countries in point of size. The body is longer than the Arabian, and the croup more elevated. They have contributed materially to the improvement of the English breed. This noble breed of horse appears to have been indigenous
to Khorassan, thence westward through Mazanderan, to the South of the Caspian, in Armenia, Karamania, and Anatolia. He seems probably the progenitor of those Cappadocian horses so famed in ancient history for stature and stateliness. Vegetius expressly mentions that the horses of the Parthians were lighter and hardier than those of the Cappadocians or the Medes. Old Blundeville too says, from the inspection of many sculptures, these horses had larger heads than those of the Parthians. Oppian says of them, as is the case still with horses of large stature, " when young they are delicate and weak ; but strength comes with years, and, contrary to other horses, they are better and more powerful when advanced in age." In which the ancient goes a little too far. |
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When, at the end of the eighth century, the Saraeens
overrun a great part of Syria, Asia Minor, and Europe, they brought with them a force of two hundred thousand cavalry, far superior to the Goths and Huns of former ages. These horses, crossed with the Persian, seem to have given them size and weight. Of the modern Toorkman horse we may observe that, right
or wrong, since the Moslem faith and language have spread over the land, everything wonderful and beautiful is traced from the land of the Prophet; every first-rate animal to a dash of the blood of one of " the sacred mares," sanctified by the ownership of Mahomet himself. With how much historio truth the reader may easily imagine. Captain Fraser thus relates the impression which they made
upon him, in his Journey to Khorassan—the reader hearing in mind that the gallant Captain's idcal standard was our English blood horse. " They are deficiënt in compactness. Their bodies being long in proportion to their bulk.* They are not well ribbed up. They are long on the legs—deficiënt in muscle—falling off below the kneef—narrow-chested, long- necked, head large and not well put on. Such was the im- pression I received from the first sight of them, and it was not for some time that their superior valuable qualities became apparent to me." Captain Fraser's experience in many a long ride sub-
sequently convinced him of the truth that horses " go well in all forms." Sir John Malcolm must again be our authority for the
Toorkman's capabilities. He says, " This horse is regülarly trained by the Toorkmans preparatory to their plundering expeditions. Before procceding on a foray, these wild people knead a number of small hard balls of barley-meal, which, when wanted, they soak in water, and which serves as food both for themselves and their horses. It is a frequent practice with them in crossing deserts where no water is to be found, to open a vein in the shoulder of the horse and drink a little of his blood, which, according to their own opinion, benefits rather than injures the animal. It is confidently stated, that when in condition their horses have gone one hundred and forty miles within twenty-four hours; and it has been proved that parties of them were in the habit of marching from seventy to one hundred and five miles for twelve or fifteen days together without a halt." During Sir John's first mission to Persia, he, when riding
one day near a small encampment of Afshar families, expressed doubts to his Mehmander, a Persian nobleman, as to the reputed boldness and skill in horsemanship of their females. The Mehmander immcdiately called to a young woman of handsome appearance, and asked her in Turkish, if she was a soldier's daughter. She said she was. " And you expect to be a mother of soldiers ?"■ She smiled. " Mount that horso," |
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» This is ju«t the fault an Arab cross would remedy. liaison de plu* for
the originality of the Toorkman race.
t See description of Arab, pott.
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ARAB-TOORKMAN' CHARCER(FROM SYRIA)
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33 The El'bo-w:
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16
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VABJETIES OF THE HORSE.
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r,aid he, pointing to one with a bridle, but without a saddle,
" and show this European Elchee the differenee between a girl of a tribe and a citizen's daughter." She instantly sprang upon the animal, and setting off at full speed, did not stop till she had reached the summit of a small hill in the vicinity, which was covered with loose stones. When there she waved her hand over her head, and came down the hill at the same rate at which she had ascended it. Nothing could be more dangerous than the ground over which she galloped; but she appeared quite fearless, and seemed delighted at having the opportunity of vindicating the females of her trib» from the reproach of being like the ladies of cities. IV.----THE TURKISH HORSE.
This variety is on<j rather of admixture of breeds than having
a distinct and indigenous origin. He partakes more or less of the Barb, the Arab, the Persian, the Toorkman, and, in some parts, of the Tartar horse in different localities. The Turkish horse possesses valuable qualities. Some of our best blood is due to the Turkish horse. The Byerley Turk, (brought from the Levant in 1685); the Acaster Turk; the Belgrade Turk (taken by General Mercée at the siege of that place in 1720) ; the Lister Turk (brought from Buda by the Marshal Duke of Berwick, temp. James II.); the Helmsley Turk, and others, will suggest themselves. The author of Sylva, old Evelyn, thus enthusiastically
paints a Turkish horse sent over to England in the second Charles's reign:— " I never beheld so delicate a creature; somewhat of a
bright bay, two white feet, a blaze ; such a head, eyes, ears, neck, breast, belly, haunches, legs, pasterns, and feet, in all respects beautiful, and proportioned to admiration; spirited, proud, nimble, making halt, turning with that swiftness, and in so small a compass, as was admirable." The Turkish horses are likewise remarkable for their extreme
docility, which is thus accounted for by Busbequius, who was ambassador at Constantinople in the seventeenth century; and itwould be well, if both masters and grooms would learn a lesson from the wisdom and humanity of this truly worthy and benevolent writer. " Nothing," writes Busbequius, " can surpass the gentleness
of the Turkish horses; and their obedience to their masters and grooms is very great. The reason is, they always treat them with great kindness. I myself saw when I was in Pontus, passing through a part of Bithynia called Axilos, towards Cappadocia, how gentle the country people were to young colts and how kindly they used them soon after they were foaled. " They took them into their own habitations, cleansed, combed,
and caressed them, with as much affection as they would their own children. They hang something like a jewel about their necks, and a broad ribbon which was full of amulets against poison, which they are most afraid of. They never strike them, the grooms that dress them being as gentle as their masters. In return for this treatment these animals naturally acquire a great attachment to man, and are always most tractable and easily managed. |
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" But, alas ! our Christian grooms' horses go on at another
rate. They never think them rightly curried till they thundei at them with their voices, and let their clubs or horse-whips, as it were, dweil on their sides. This makes some horses even tremble when their keepers come into their stable; so that they hate and fear them too. But the Turks love to have their horses so gentle, that at the word of command they may fall on their knees, and in this position receive their riders. " They will take up a staff or club upon the road with their
teeth, which their rider has let fall, and hold it up to him again; and when they are perfect in this lesson, then, for credit^ they have rings of silver hung on their nostrils as a badge of honour and good discipline. I saw some horses when their m aster was f allen from the saddle stand stock still without wagging a foot till he got up again. Another time I saw a grooin standing at a distance in the midst of a whole ring of horses, and I saw some horses when their master was at dinner with me in an upper room prick up their ears to hear his voice, and when they did so they neighed for joy." It may be worthy of note, that while the Arab horse is
remarkable for uniformity of colour, and firm, flat, black legs; these larger horses, Persian, Toorkman, and Turkish have shown a disposition towards a white leg, and sometimes, as in the celebrated racer, Whitestockings, to a pair of them, We have already said Bucephalus was a skewbald; and a white leg —against which there is a traditional prejudice among English grooms—has often marked the finest of this race. A writer in the " Sporting Magazine " thus attacks this prejudice :— " Turn to the banks of the Euphrates, to the decayed but
once splendid seats of the Caliphs of the Black Banner, to the cradle of the Arabian tales; to the queen of the east, Bagdad, the beloved capital of the great Haroun al Raschid, and there we have a breed of horses uniting the fire of the Persian with the symmetry and enduring qualities of the Desert breed. Go further to the southward, cross the great river, roam among the settled tribes who have pitched their tents on the very verge of civilization, near unto the great cities, the dwellings of slaves, as they are not inaptly termed by the Bedouins, and you may lay your hand on the flowing manes of a race of horses — all chesnut, with the starting prominent eye, like an ember glowing, 'full of fire and full of bone,' and all singularly and invariably stamped with the peculiar distinctive marks of their caste; the white blazed face, and white legs (generally three) white up to the knee, perhaps the ancestors of the great Eclipse; a chesnut also with these remarkable marks, and which sometimes breaks forth in his most distinguished descendants—to wit, Sultan,his son Beiram, Harkaway, and a number of winners of our greatest stakes. " The prejudice against white legs is strong; yet my expe-
rience, and it justifies me in the assertion, has proved that the chesnut horse with the white legs up to the knee is one of the hardiest, cleancst-limbed, fastest, and most honest of all the breeds; none bear so much rattling. I speak not of one, but of many of this kind." We shall have more, however, to say of this in another
place. Good authorities have much per contra. |
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'PlsiteXYl
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Exl : pa Lïng t'olyi as
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Rowellin is 's & R.owe]
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P-owell ing Bis Louri
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VI I l RINARY IN;-: ÏRI.MLN fS ANP APPARATUS
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17
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VAEIETIES OP THE HORSE.
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" Those from Guzerat and Cutch* are certainly endowed
with greater amiabüity of disposition, but are more calculated for purposes of display and parade than anything else. The natives are very partial to this breed, and give long prices for them, frequently as much as two or three thousand rupees. They blow them out to an enormous size, by feeding them on a composition which must be any thing but agreeable to the palate of the horse, viz., a kind of paste, made of pounded grain and sheep's head, wherewith the poor devil is crammed like a turkey. The end of the flowing taü, generally reaching the ground, is dyed of a deep red colour, a cruelly sharp bit is put into his mouth, he is buried under a ton of bedding covered with crimson cloth, doing duty for saddle, and, thus caparisoned, he is deemed fit to carry one of the ' Pillars of the State.' It is a pretty sight to see a procession, accom- panied by a cavalcade thus mounted, and taking every opportunity of displaying their horsemanship, a cavalier occa- sionally darting from the crowd at the top of his speed, and as suddenly puiling his horse on his haunches in the midst of his headlong career, then wheeling about, and stül at full speed, describe in an incredibly small space, the difhcult figure of eight, with all the apparent ease of a graceful skaiter." The Kozakee is a hardier and more patiënt animal. He has
a deep girth and a good forearm, but betrays his origin by a large head and what are called " cat-hams." Nevertheless he is enduring, hardy, and capable of long joumeys. Next we have the Mahratta horse, the product of half-
blood Arab and the native Tazee. These horses are thus not very complimentarily described by the writer we have already quoted:— " The Mahratta horse is an active, serviceable little beast,
but, in ten cases out of twenty, extremely vicious, but will often make a capital hunter, in fact, being the only horse in India worth his keep, the larger horses from Hindostan being adapted only for the capering of a native Sowar; they are leggy, under-limbed, and, as far as vice goes, regular man-eaters." These were the horses who carried that formidable race who
ruled in Central India from sea to sea, across the south of the Deccan, and whose rule was broken by the fall of Serin- gapatam and the death of Tippoo Sultaun. The Mahratta army consisted almost entirely of cavalry. The Mahratta, when not on horseback, may be said to be almost constantly employed in shampooing his horse. It is properly so called, for he rubs him violently with his wrists and elbows, as well as his hands, and moulds and bends his limbs in every direc- tion. The Mahrattan way of riding is a singular and, according to European notions, a very ungraceful one. His knees are as high as his horse's back; he holds on with his heels, and clings with his hands either to the mane or the peak of the saddle. With such aids, his seat is more secure than at first sight it would appear to be. The peak of the saddle rises in the form of a crane's aeck, and is said to have been |
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V.----THE CTECASSIAN HOKSE.
There is little to be said of this breed, except that it is
smaller than the Persian, and somewhat larger than the northern Tartar breeds. Vast numbers of horses and sheep are reared in the valleys of the Tcherkesses, and they and the slaves which, up to a few years since, were a prime article of commerce with the Turks, formed the wealth of this bold nomadic race. The most valuable breed, marked with a pale horseshoe, was in the possession of the reigning famüy— reigning now no longer in the Caucasus ; the fall and captivity of Schamyl, having placed the country in the power of the Russian invader. The Oircassian horses have a good repute for stoutness and speed. VI.----THE HORSES OF INDIA.
Retracing our steps to the far East and South, we come to
the vast peninsula, the scène of so much glory, so much suf- fering, and so much triumph for England and Englishmen. The native horses of India are diminutive in size, so much so that the Persian or Arab cross is absolutely necessary to bring them up to the standard of general utility. They are divided by writers on India into several classes. The Tazee, the Toorkee, the Iranee, the Kozdkee—the three last names- suffi- ciently indicate their supposed origin; the Mahratta horss, so called from that warlike people of Central Hindostan; and the Tattoo, or native Indian pony. Of these the Tazee seems to have the most claim to originality. It is low and rather hollow in the back, but easy in its paces, and has the draw- back of being generally vicious and violent. India is now well supplied with various breeds: many
Arabian horses, bred for the purpose, are yearly imported from Muscat and the eastern coast of Arabia. Thorough-bred English horses are often sent from England to Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, as well as to Australia, where the East India Company formerly had a stud for the mounting of the cavalry in their service. Mr. Moorcroft, a veterinary surgeon of high reputation, undertook the management of this enterprise, and the result has been that the cavalry horses of India have rapidly improved. To return. The second-named horse, the Toorkee, originally
derived from a Toorkman or Persian strain, perhaps both, is the noblest race for spirit, size, and beauty. With an elevated crest, lofty action, and withers quite or nearly fifteen hands high, they make showy horses for the parade. They are, however, what is called "tied in under the knee," showing. a deficiency of volume in the flexor tendons, a fault seldom seen in the Arab or the Barb. There is also appa- rently a disproportionate smallness of bone below the knee ioint and about the hoeks. The Iranee is stouter and better limbed, has powerful loins
and quarters, with the drawbacks of a coarsehead, lopping ears, and a sluggish temperament. A writer on the horses of India, in the Sportsman's
Magazine, says:— c
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* These are Persian horses, or nearly ao; spoilt by unnatural treatment
for purposes of pomp.—E». |
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_£2a,r,e XVII.
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FARRI ER1 ! ' ' • S & iMPLEMENTS
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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Hissar, is by no means so complimentary to this class of
animal, in a second or third descent—" There were not less than one thousand horses shown. They were all above four- teen hands and a half in height, high-crested, and showy- looking horses. The great defect seemed a want of bone below the knee, which is indeed general to all the native horses throughout India; and also so great a tendency to fulness in the hoeks, that, in England, it would be thought half of them had blood spavins." Both Arab and native crosses have, however, succumbed to
the imported English horse. In 1829, Arab horses having previously been matched against English on race-courses at the various stations, Meerut, Cawnpore, Calcutta, Barrackpore, &c, &c, the question was thought to be brought to issue by the race of the English-bred horse Recruit, against Pyramus, a pure Arabian. The race was two miles over the Barrackpore course ; in this the English horse was an easy victor. Another English race-horse, Constance, however, was shortly after defeated by a selected Arab, and this balanced the account, say the advocates of the Arab. Why then place penalties on every imported horse on every race-course in India P the question answers itself. Lest, however, we should seem to do injustice to the Arab,
on this point, we subjoin a table of time and distance, made by Captain Gwatkin, of the H. E. I. C. service, of the best performances of the Arab horses then in India :— |
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borrowed from the Moguls. A crupper and a martingale are
almost indispensable accompaniments of the Mahratta horse- furniture. It is a singular kind of crupper, luwever, not projecting from the centre of the saddle, but attached to both sides. The tobsa, or leathern vessel out of which the horse eats his corn, is also attached to the crupper; and this part of the trappings is generally ornamented with silver knobs, or with silk tassels or embroidery. Their horses, like most of those of the East, are picketed,
not only during the day, but very frequently in the night. A rope is carried from the headstall on each side to a peg driven into the ground. A rope, or thong, is also tied round the fetlocks behind, and carried backwards twenty or thirty feet, and fastened to a peg. This pulls the horse back, and keeps him, when standing, on the stretch, but does not prevent him from lying down. When they are thus tethered, their eyes are covered, that they may not be alarmed at any object that passes. They are also clothed, in order that the beau- tiful, glossy appearance of their coat may be preserved. They use the snaffle-bridle, but it is so jagged and pointed
that the animal may be punished to the full content of any barbarian that may ride him. The headstall is usually orna- mented, and from the rein a thong descends by which the horse may be occasionally reminded of his duty. The horse- man has neither whip, switch, nor spur, but the horse is controlled, if he is disposed to rebel, by the cruel argument of the bit. The breast of the Mahratta horse is more splendidly orna-
mented than any other part. Numerous coins, of different size and value—rupees and doublé rupees—are formed into plates more or less highly ornamented, and which in time of war form a rich booty for the conqueror. The mane, too, is generally plaited with silk-braids, and silver knobs attached to them, with a beautiful top-knot between the ears. If the rider has distinguished himself in war, some curious tails, said to be taken from the wild cow, dangle on either side. The imported horses of India occupy a prominent place in
a consideration of this subject. We have already alluded to the several sources of supply. Colonel Markham,* in his lively volume, bears testimony to the goodness of the horses brought from Muscat and the Persian Gulf. He says:— " The centre point of attraction (at Oalcutta,) was the Arab stables of Sheik Ibrahim, who deserves to be commemorated were it only for his honesty. Eilled with the best bred horses to be found in India, many an hour did I pass there ; com- panionable as other horses may be, there are none to compare for sociality with high caste Arabs. Four thousand pounds did the old Sheik take from the regiment, with an air of the most perfect indifference, and wonderful to say, not a bargain was repented of in after times." A writer who describes a sale of these horses, crossed with
the Iranee, from the now defunct Oompany's stud at Bala |
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The speed and endurance in the Arabian therefore are not,
according to the above report, diminished; and, as Captain Gwatkin observes, when we consider the average height of these diminutive racers (fourteen hands, one inch), and the want of tenacity in the sandy soil of India, we cannot but be struck with their performances. We may refer the reader who seeks further details to the
pages of the Sporting Magazine and Asiatic Journal, which from time to time contain accounts of Racing in India. A remarkable instance of the confidence of a horse in a
firm rider, and his native courage, Was conspicuously evinced in the case of an Arab, mentioned by Colonel Hamilton Smith. General Sir Robert Gillespie happened, when mounted on this animal, to be present on the race-course of Calcutta during one of the great Hindoo festivals, when several hundred thousand people were assembled. On a sudden an alarm was given that a tiger had escaped from his keepers. Sir Robert |
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* Shooüng in the Bmuilayas. A Journal of Sporting Adventure» and
Travel in Chinese Tartary, Ladak, Thibet, Cashmere, &c, by Col. IVed. Markham, C.B. Bentley, 1854. |
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Plat e XVIÏT.
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Cornmon Seated Shoe.-
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Foot Surface
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i*,,tTw
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Jolnted Shoe.
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S and al Shoe.
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Trost Shoe
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1'.11:'\'i ;ii Hum ing Shoe
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Bar Shoe
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Stewaxts Shoe.
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CJ Muckerpie, del
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FARRi ERY._ VARIETIES OE S H O E S ._ RL AT E. I
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WILLIAM MACKËNZIE. LONDON. EDINBUR6H X GLASGOW.
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19
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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immediately snatched a boar spear, and rode to attack this
formidable enemy. The tiger was probably confounded by the crowd, but the moment he peroeived Sir Robert, he crouched to spring at him. At that very instant, the gallant soldier, on his gallant steed, leapt right over him; Sir Robert striking the spear through the animal's spine ! This was a small grey, but he possessed another horse who has become almost historical. It was a favourite black charger, bred at the Cape of Good Hope, and carried with him to India. When the noble soldier feil at the storming of Kalunga, this charger was put up for sale, and after great competition was knocked down to the privates of the 8th Dragoons, who actually contributed their prize-money, to the amount of £500, to retain this memorial of their beloved commander. The beautiful charger was always led at the head of the regiment on a march, and at the station at Cawnpore, took his ancient post at the colour stand, where . salute of Passing squadrons were given at drill, and on
reviews. When the regiment was ordered home, the funds of the privates running low, he was bought by a gentleman, who provided funds and a paddock for him, where he might pass the remainder of his days in comfort; but when the corps had departed, and the sound of the trumpet was heard no more, the gallant steed pined, refused his food, and on the first opportunity being led out for exercise, he broke from his groom, galloped to his ancient station on parade, neighed loudly again and again; and there, on the spot where he had so often proudly borne his beloved master, he dropped down and died 1 Bishop Heber thus describes the docility of his Indo-
Arabian horse. He says: "My morning rides are very pleasant. My horse is a nice, quiet, good-tempered little Arab, who is so fearless, that he goes, without starting, close to an elephant; and so gentle and docile that he eats out of my hand, and has almost as much attachment and as many coaxing ways_ as a dog. This seems the general character of the Arabian horses, to judge from what I have seen in this country. It is not the fiery, dashing animal I had supposed, but with more rationality about him, and more apparent confidence in his rider than the majority of the English horses." VIT.—THE ARAB.
The incomparable and improved breed of the noblest of
q^adrupeds, which takes its name from the country of the Ishmaelite, has certainly a high, if not the highest, claim to the admiration of every lover of the horse. Mr. Youatt, in addition to many reasons which we have
before given, as proving the Arab, like the British blood horse, a product of judicious crossing, training, and sedulous culture, notes that, "in a curious record of the commerce of the second century, among the articles exported from Egypt to Arabia, horses are mentioned, as presents to princes; while m the fourth century the Roman Emperor sent two hundred Cappadocian* horses as the most acceptable present he could offer to a powerful prince of Arabia." * The peculating bacon-factor, and frauduleiit army contractor, known as
St. George of Cappadocia, and distinguished as a h orse-riding saint, is especially the tutclary patron of cavalry. When our Crusader» went to the |
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We have before noted the poverty of Mahomet in horses,
and that at the close of the great campaign against the Koreish, though he drove off 24,000 camels and 40,000 sheep, and carried off 24,000 ounces of silver, horses are not in the list of plunder. These and other circumstances sufficiently confute the notion
of an original Arab horse, and show that he has been com- paratively recently naturalized in that country. Indeed, the Arabs themselves lend countenance to this; for when, within the last hundred years, they found how eagerly their horses were sought, they pretended. to no higher pedigree for their Kohlani than tracing the animal to one of the four mares on which Mahomet and his four immediate successors, fled from Mecca to Medina, in the night of the Hejira (July 15th, 622). We wül now say a few words on the country which gives birth to this beautiful animal. The extensive country of Arabia, celebrated in all ages for
its roving tribes, is situated at the south-western extremity of Asia. It is bounded on the south-west by the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez; on the north-east by the Persian Gulf and the lower course of the Euphrates; on the north-west by Syria, the Euphrates, and the intervening desert; and on the south-east by the Indian Ocean. The country may be described as a vast collection of rocky and precipitous moun- tains, encircled by a border of low, barren, and sandy plains, which differ widely in their climate, soil and productions. The plains consist either of bare rocks or of hard or loose sand, and suffer from an almost constant drought, there being no rivers; consequently the deep wells and springs scattered at distant intervals, and which are generally surrounded by a small margin of the most refreshing verdure, form the sole resource of the fainting traveller. The temperature of other tropical climates is moderate in comparison with the heat of these deserts, where the thermometer is frequently above 100 ° during the night, in the sun 180°, and in the course of the day often rises to 110° in the shade. The mountainous tracts immediately behind these dry and sandy deserts stretch back- wards from the sea shore, and contain numerous valleys of remarkable fertility, forming the celebrated region called by the ancients Arabia Felix. The dry air and soil of Arabia seem peculiarly aÖapted to
produce hard muscular fibrè; accordingly we find the Arabian horse in the highest, and other Eastern breeds in an inferior, degree, possess a firmness of anatomical organization un- equalled except by the English thorough-bred horse. The nature and character of what is popularly called the horse of the desert particularly adapted him to beget an animal which, as in the case of the race horse, is called upon to put its physical power to the severest trial to which nature, aided by art, can |
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East in 1096, they found him in the Calendar as a warrior-Baint, with the
■title of " Victorious." It seems that, at the siege of Antioch, St. George helped the English knights! Hence his adoption by Edward III. as patron of the Garter, and the cry of "St. George forEngland!" so long the echo of the shout, " St. Denis for Erance!" The dragon is, according to one of the church-historians, merely the emblem of " the Inearnation of Evü," which this not yery reputable saint is fabled to havo alsin. |
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Shoeto prevent cutting.
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Frog-pressure 3hce,(0:.
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Patten S
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ch Shoe.
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Poultice Boot
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Fip 4- Various forms )f H ir: - shos Nails.
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Groimd line.
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niiidpiaU; .fül].
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Fore p]ate_fuïï.
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'. J.Mookersie. dei
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wan. se
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FARRIERY . VARIETIES OF SHOES.&c.
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WILL1AM MACKENZIE. LONDON. EÜINBURGII j GLASGOW.
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VAEIEÏIES OF THE HORSE.
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20
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submit. These advantages, which he derives from climate, and
the great care exercised in breeding and rearing him by his Arab master, arise from the possession of larger muscles and smaller, harder bones than any other horses—muscles and sinews constituting the powers of action; and on these depend the lasting qualities of an animal going at the top of his speed. Bones, being the weight to be lifted, serve only to extend the parts; and it is obvious that such as are small, but highly condensed, like those of the deer and the Arabian horse, are, by occupying less space, and containing less weight, more easily acted upon by muscular force than such as are large and porous, and for a greater duration of time, without fatiguing the actiye powers. But the excellence of the horse of the border of the Desert
does not end with his condensed bone and flat, wiry leg, so much valued by real judges. On reference to eminent writers on the anatomy of the horse, we find all the muscles, and fibres, and sinews of his frame described as driven into closer contact than those of any other breed—always excepting our own thorough-bred horse ; and from the membranes and ligaments being composed of a firmer and thinner substance, he possesses the rare union of strength with lightness, so essential to the endurance of fatigue in all quick motions; and when to these qualifications are added the peculiar and deer- like elegance, the broad squareness of forehead, the short fine muzzle, the prominent and brilliant eye, the small ear, and the beautiful course of the veins, he appears to furnish all the requisites of a race-horse. The following tradition 01 the origin of the Kohlani, or
Kailhani, the noblest race of horses, whose genealogy, with true Eastern exaggeration, has sometimes even been traced to the stud of Solomon, is from Burckhardt. The author relates that the Arabian prophet, wishing to set aside from his stud the best mares, in order to form a distinct and perfect breed, had them all kept for two entire days and nights without water. On a sudden, when almost mad with thirst, the mares are released, and gallop with the swiftness of the wind to the well-known spring. When in view of the refreshing waters, by a preconcerted signal, the trumpets sound a war charge. At this well-known sound five of the mares, forgetting in a moment the agonies of their thirst, leave untasted the waters of the spring, and gallop to the' imagined war ; and from these five mares the author fables the noblest breed to have descended. Another writer, upon whose statements we shall hereafter
remark, asserts that the greatest care is exercised in breeding the Kohlani, or Kailhani. Much ceremony takes place as well at the union of these animals as at the birth of the foal; and a certificate is made out and properly authen- ticated within seven days after that event.* It is generally believed that pedigrees of the noble race of horses exist of not less than five hundred years, with sire and dam distinctly |
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traced. The following pedigree is mentioned by "Weston, in
his Fragments of Oriental Literature: it was found hanging round the neck of an Arabian horse purchased by Colonel Ainslie during the English campaign in Egypt against the first Napoleon. " In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, and
of Seyd Mohammed, agent of the High God, and of the com- panions of Mohammed and of Jerusalem. Praised be the Lord, the onmipotent Creator. This is a high-bred horse, and its colt's tooth is here in a bag about his neck, with his pedigree, and of undoubted authority, such as no infidel can refuse to believe. He is the son of Rabbaing, out of the dam Lahadah, and equal in power to its sire, of the tribe of Zazhalah. He is frnely moulded, and made for running like an ostrich, and great in his stroke, covering much ground. In the honours of rela- tionship he reckons Zaulah, sire of Mahat, sire of Kallack, and the unique Alket, sire of Manasseh, sire of Alshek, father of the race down to the famous horse the sire of Lakalala; and to him be ever abundance of green meat, and corn, and water of life, as a reward from the tribe of Zazhalah, for the fire of his cover; and may a thousand branches shade his carcase from the hyena of the tomb, from the howling wolf of the desert; and let the tribe of Zazhalah present him with a festival within an enclosure of walls; and let thousands assemble at the rising of the sun, in troops, hastily, where the tribe holds up, under a canopy of celestial signs within the walls, the saddle, with the name and family of the possessor. Then let them strike the hands with a loud noise incessantly, and pray God for immunity for the tribe of Zoab, the inspired tribe." Burckhardt has some sensible remarks on the exaggeration
of these pedigrees. In the interior the Bedouin does not trouble himself with them, as they know the genealogy of their horses as well, if not better, than that of their own families. The Arab horsedealer, however, with that acuteness which seems born of the profession, who goes with his stock to Damascus, or Bagdad, or eastward to Bussorah, supplies him- self with a written pedigree, duly made out, for the edification of the purchaser. In these the animal is as gloriously furnished with an ancestry, as ever was parvenu by herald 01 king-at-arms. Some of these call on the credulity of the buyer to an immense extent. They tracé the descent of the terrible high-bred animal, not only from one of the "foui mares" of Mahomet, who figure like "the royal mares" in our stud-book, but might make paler Europeans blush, bringing them down in a direct line from the stud of Solomon, the son of David. This suggests a curious inference: the Arab, the child of tradition, with 2500 years of oral history, goes back to the stud of Solomon, who, we need hardly repeat, " brought up horses out of Egypt" a phrase equivalent to all Northern and Eastern Africa. The Bedouins of the Desert, unless, of course, they are " dealing," laugh at the idea of a horse's pedigree. It is a prevalent error that the Arab is bred in the arid
desert; and equally unphilosophical to suppose that he owes his undoubted powers of endurance in his adult state to the |
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* M. de Portes, who was sent by the French Government into Syria,
eeemingly contradicts thi» : bnt the oustoms of the tribes vsry.—See pages 23-84 poft. |
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21
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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hardships inflicted upon him in his youth. The real fact is,
the Arabs select for their breeding places some of those beau- tiful spots, known only in such countries, where, though all may be dry and barren around, there is pasture, and the smaller sort of cereal grasses, saccharine dates, and various succulent herbs, remarkable for nutritious and sub-aromatic properties. The powers of the animal are developed in the natural way by exercise sufficiënt for health, and by hard work, when under- going that exercise. Once only is a cruel, and sometimes ruinous exertion, imposed upon the animal, as we shall pre- sently note. In tfedjed the horses are regularly fed on dates, and the
fragment» af any proyisions that may be used by the inhabi- tants; and songwriters have even asserted, that flesh, raw, as well as boüed, is giTeil them by the wealthy peopJe> a practice in the prevalence of which we are not inclined to place much faith. Very little water is given, as the Arabs conceive (and justly) that much liquid injures the horse's shape and affects his wind. üe co^ is mounted after its second year, when the Arab,
on all other occasions so kind to his horse, puts it to a cruelly severe trial. The colt, or filly, is led out to be mounted for the first time ; its master springs on its back, and rides at full speed for perhaps forty miles, over sand and rock of the burning desert, without one moment's respite. He then plunges it into water enough to swim, and if immediately after this, it will eat as if nothing had happened, its purity of blood and staunchness are considered incontrovertible. Count Rcziousky gives the following account of the docility
and sagacity of the Kohlan, translated by an English writer, which we give as curious, although extremely exaggerated both in style and matter:— " Aboye all horses in the world," writes the Count, " the
Kohlan is distinguished for the goodness of his quality and the beauty of his form. He possesses uncommon mildness of temper, an unalterable faithfulness to his master, a courage and intrepidity as astonishing as they are innate in his noble breast, an unfailing remembrance of the places where he has been, and of the treatment he has received. Not to be led, not to be touched but by his master, in the most dreadful confusion of battle cool and collected, he never forgets the place he came from, and, though mortally wounded, if he can gather up suffi- ciënt strength he carries back his desponding rider to his de- feated tribe. "His intelligence is wonderful; he knows when he is
sold, or even when his master is bargaining to sell him. When the proprietor and purchaser meet for that purpose in the stables, the Kohlan soon guesses what is going on, becomes restless, gives from his beautiful eye a side glance at the interlocutors, scrapes the ground with his foot, and plainly shows his discon- tent. Neither the buyer nor any one else dates to come near him; but the bargain being struck, when the vendor, taking the Kohlan by the halter, gives him up to the purchaser with a slice of bread and some salt, and turns away, never more to look at him as his own—an ancient custom of taking leave of a |
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horse, and his recognizing a new master—it is then that this
generous and noble animal becomes tractable, mild, and faithful to another, and proves himself immediately attached to him whom his passion, a few minutes before, might have laid at his feet, and trampled under his hoofs. " This is not an idle story; I have been a witness of, and
an actorin the interesting scène, having bought three Kohlans from Turkish prisoners. I made the bargain in the stables, and received personally, and led off the most fierce but intelli- gent animals, which before the above mentioned ceremony I should not have dared to approach. The fact has been con- firmed to me by all the Turkish and Arab prisoners, and by several rich Armenian merchants who deal in horses, and go generally to the desert to buy them. The Kohlans also evince great warlike qualities." M. de Chateaubriand, in his Travels in the East, relates the
feat of an Arab mare, who died to save her master:— " When I was at Jerusalem a feat of one of these steeds
made a great noise. The Bedouin to whom the animal, a mare, belonged, being pursued by the governor's guards, rushed with her from the top of the huls that overlooked Jericho. The mare scoured at full gallop down an almost perpendicular declivity without stumbling, leaving the pursuers lost in admiration and astonishment. The poor animal, however,dropped down dead on entering Jericho, and the Bedouin, who would not quit her, was taken weeping over the body of his faithful companion. This mare," he continues, " has a brother in the desert who is so famous that the Arabs always know where he is. what he is doing, and how he does." Sir John Malcolm has two anecdotes to the same purpose,
but of a more amusing nature. "When the British envoy, returning from his former
mission, was eücamped near Bagdad, an Arab rode a bright bay mare, of extraordinary shape and beauty, before his tent, until he attracted his attention. On being asked if he would sell her—' What will you give me ?' was the reply. ' That depends upon her age; I suppose she is five off?' ' Gfuess again,' said he. ' Four.' ' Look at her mouth,' said the Arab, with a smile. On examination she was found to be rising three. This, from her size and symmetry, greatly enhanced her value. The envoy said, ' I will give you fifty tomans' (a coin nearly of the value of a pound sterling. ' A little more, if you please,' said the fellow, apparently entertained. ' Eighty —a hundred.' He shook his head and smiled. The offer at last came to two hundred tomans. 'Well,' said the Arab, 'you need not tempt me further; it is of no use; you are a rich elchee (nobleman) j you have fine horses, camels, and mules, and, I am told, you have loads of silver and gold. Kow,' added he, ' you want my mare, but you shall not have her for all you have got.' " * " An Arab sheik, or chief, who lived within fifty miles of
Bussorah, had a favourite breed of horses. He lost one of bis best mares, and could not for a long while discover whether |
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• Sketches of Fersia, vol. i. p. 49.
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VABIETIES OF THE HOUSE.
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quarters at a few yards from his master. During my coasting
voyages along the shore, he always accompanied me; and even in a crazy open boat from Muscat to India1. My health having compelled me to return to England overland, I could not in consequence bring Sayyid with me. In parting with this attached and faithful creature, so long the companion of my perils and wanderings, I am not ashamed to acknowledge that I feit an emotion similar to what is experienced in being separated from a tried and valued friend." M. de Chateaubriand, in his florid and poetic style, gives
the subjoined apocryphal ülustration of the affection of the Arab for his steed :— " An Arab and his tribe had attacked in the desert the
caravan from Damascus with complete success, and the Arabs were occupied in packing their booty, when the horsemen of the Pacha of Acre, who had come to meet the caravan, rushed suddenly on the victorious Arabs, of whom they killed a considerable number, and made the others prisoners; and, having tied them with cords, took them to Acre, as presents to the Pacha. " Abon el Masseh, the hero of this story, had received a
ball in his arm during the engagement, but as his wound was not mortal, the Turks had tied him upon a camel, taking his horse also with him. " The evening of the day of their approach to Acre, the
party encamped with their prisoners upon the Mountain of Saf hadt. The legs of the wounded Arab were tied together by a leathern belt, and he was laid near the spot where the Turks slept. Kept awake during the night by the pain of his wound, he heard his horse neigh among others picketed round the tents, according to the Eastern custom. Becognising its voice, he could not resist the desire to go once more to the former companion of his life. He crawled with great diffi- culty, with the help of his hands and knees, and reached his steed. ' My poor friend (addressing him), what canst thou do among these Turks ? thou wilt be imprisoned under the roof of a khan, with the horses of an Aga or Pacha. The women and children wül no longer bring thee camel's milk * or barley, or doura in their palms. Thou wilt no more course the desert like the wind from Egypt. No more wilt thou divide with thy chest the refreshing waves of Jordan. O that, if I remain a slave, I could render thee at least free! Let me try! There, go! return to our tents, teil my wife that Abon el Masseh returns to it no more, and lick the hands of my four children.' "Thus speaking, Abon had gnawed with his teeth the
goat's hair which had served to fasten the Arab horse, and the animal became free; but seeing his master manacled and bound at his feet, the faithful and intelligent creature was taught by instinct what no language could have taught it. He bent his head, seized his master, and taking him up by his teeth by the leathern girdle round his body, set off in a gallop, and carried him to his tent. Arriving there, and * See post. in "Hor»es of Africa," on this iingular nutriment for
the horse. |
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she was stolen or had strayed. Some time after, a young man
of a different tribe, who had long wished to marry his daughter, but had always been rejected by the sheik, obtained the damsel's consent and eloped with her. The sheik and his followers pursued, but the lover and mistress, mounted on one horse, made a wonderful march, and escaped. Upon this the old chief swore that the fellow was either mounted upon the devil, or the favourite mare he had lost. After his return he found the latter was the case ; that the lover was the thief of his mare, as well as of his daughter, and that he stole the one to enable him to carry off the other. The sheik was quite gratified to think he had not been beaten by a mare of another breed; and was easily reconciled to the young man, in order that he might recover the mare, about which he was more solicitous than about his daughter."* Lieutenant Welstead relates an adventure in his Travels in
Arabia which illustrates the importance of being well-mounted in that wild land:—" On my return from Obri to Suweit, con- trary to the wish of the Bedouins, who had received intelligence that the "Wahabees were lurking around, I left the vülage where we had halted, alone, with my gun, in search of game. Scarcely had I rode three miles from the walls, when suddenly turning an angle of the rocks, I found myself within a few yards of a group of about a dozen horsemen, who lay on the ground, basking listlessly in the sun. To turn my horse's head away was the work scarcely of an instant; but hardly had I done so, when tbe whole party were also in their saddles, in full cry after me. Several balls whizzed past my head, which Sayyid acknowledged by bounding forward like an antelope: he was accustomed to these matters, and their desire to possess him unharmed alone prevented my pursuers from bringing him down. As we approached the little town, I looked behind me; a sheik, better mounted than his followers, was in advance, his dress and long hair streaming behind him, while he poised his long spear on high, apparently in doubt whether he was sufficiently within range to pierce me. My good stars decided that he was not; for reining up his horse he rejoined his party, whilst I gained the walls in safety! The day before Sayyid came into my hands he had been presented to the Imaum by a Nedji sheik. Reared in domesticity, and accus- tomed to share the tent of some Arab family, he possessed, in an extraordinary degree, all the gentleness and docility, as well as the fleetness, which distinguish the pure breed of Arabia. To avoid the intense heat and rest their camels, the Bedouins frequently halted during my journey for an hour about mid- day. On these occasions Sayyid would remain perfectly still while I reposed on the sand, screened by the shadow of his body. My noon repast of dates he always looked for and shared. Whenever we halted, after unsaddling him and taking off his bridle with my own hands, he was permitted to roam about the encampment without control. At sunset he oame for his corn at the sound of my voice; and during the night, without being fastened, he generally took up his |
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* ld. vol. i. p. 45.
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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23
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ttuwinghis master on the sand, at the feet of his wife and
children, the horse expired from fatigue. The whole tribe wept his loss—poets sang his merits, and
bis name isconstantly in the mouths of the Arabs who inhabit the country about Jericho." Of this interesting and wonderful account we can only say
—" Si non è vero e ben trovato," M. de Portes, another French writer, of a much earlier date
than Chateaubriand, is much more prosaic and reliable. He tells us that although this nomadic people (the Arabs) possess the finest race of horses known to us, such a farrago of non- sense lias been written, that it is difficult to clear the mists of untruth, and separate the actual from the invented. He tells us, that "the Arabian horses are commonly called Nedj.* A more noble race is called Kohlan, divided into five different families, or noble sherifs, which five races, as the legend goes, originated from the five blessed mares of the prophet, and are named Tonaisse, Gilpha, Manegine, Seydie, and Seelani. Besides these, there are a number of other famüies too difficult to enumerate. I must own there are no certain signs by which one can ascertain whether a horse is Nedj or Kohlan, for. I have conversed with many intelligent Arabs, and they all assured me they could not distinguish them unless the origin of the dam was known to them, and for that reason they kept their mares unstained by the leap of an inferior stallion, wbachis considered one of the principal sins of the folW ^ c°™nd of their reHgion they at least hTelt fedOTm d°eS QOt Vake the foal the A and,
aïïSsr t prrjg lt may be'he ** ^ **
stallion, the foal L » l !1J£oUan mare * s^ted to a Nedj
foal also is omyaeLÏdet11; Y *, ^ "° * *"***> th' by a Kohlan s'talliont^Z 'f ^ a *<* ™° meetamongst the latter 1 \ ■ ? reaS°n y°U ^ at least as Lik^'^T^ *?*" T' ^ Ws
distinguish them ZZtL ' * 7? *" ^ Camot «The Arabs haTe n0 tS b ,§ ■ ** ^ do they call together a nuÏber of "V «"""fY a"ertod» nOT
0 4- ■ _f j f number of witnesses when the covpn-™
act is performed or when the foal is bom: all this is fZ-? 1 have often had opportunities to observe a Ie£L tiï^
where scarcelyany and but casual witnesses'were pr"ent They choose the best horses among their own or a nS bounng tribe for a covering stallion, "which Cis Iblt aft dXfthfl4 -18 very ****t0 purchase Oïïï
daTït 1 TTS IT"1116 W Se™% ^e mares
2 t tf (Engh8h CUrrenC^ ™h> ^d travelling from
nbe to tnbe, sometimes to a great distance. They aUow em t0 C0Ter as ea% as two years old, and frequentiy the
mares are not older. It happens, however, not unfrequently m tnis^tornd climate that they are worthless at fbur or five years old. Stallions, mares, and foals all graze together." •This case, properly, only applies to the district of Jebel (the Hills)
otherwise called Nejd, Nedj, or Nejed (the Highlands), the mountainous and central portion of Arabia. |
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The Arab generally rides without a bridle: a halter with a
nose-band covered with iron like a cavesson, serves him for that purpose; and, instead of a saddle, these fiery coursers have merely a piece of wadded cloth, often ragged and always dirty, with two loops for stirrups attaehed on the back. They seldom have the hind-feet shod, an omission yet to be seen in some parts of Germany. The practice of uring is an oriental one: man and beast are subject to it, and complaints of the most anomalous nature are subjected to the actual cautery. In a work entitled Horse-buying in Syria, the writer of
which went to Damascus vid Beyrout, and thence to the bor- ders of the Arabian Desert, for the purpose of purchasing re- mounts for our cavalry in the Crimea, we have an interesting account of the state of the Anaze horses and their owners at that time. M. de Portes, however, speaks slightingly of them. He describes them as much inferior to the Nedji. The same writer states that the Arabs are indifferent about the formation and shape of their stallions: " if he runs well is of the proper origin, and has no supersütious marks, they use him as such, and would put him without hesitation to their best mares; whereas, the most splendid stallion, if his origin is doubtful, and the marks ill-favoured, would not get the worst mare, I shall speak of their superstition—the Evil Eye —hereaffcer. In candour I must own, that though the stal- lions may possess great faults in their shape, they at the same time have extraordinary qualities, for as soon as they are mounted, all defects vanish: it would be almost impossible to detect any, so noble is their appearance. I saw many stallions with ugly hind (marters, the tail put' on very low; but when mounted, they carry their taüs erect, so that one doubted whether it was the same horse. A few of the finest horses had much the appearance of English thorough-breds, but were much more active and pleasant to ride, when broken in a little in the European fashion; for, raw from the Desert, not knowing bridle or spur, which latter is never used by the Arabs, they walk terrified on any pavement, and can only with difficulty be got into a trot, as they jump out of a walk into a full gallop, and stop as suddenly; but being very docile, they are easily broken-in properly." It has already been stated that the five principal races are
said to originate from the five favourite mares of the Prophet, and these only deserve the name of Kohlan, and are mostly met with at Bagdad and Orfa. Those on the Euphrates are talier and stronger, but their muscles are not so finely developed. Some European judges prefer the Nedj to the Kohlan, as one often finds amongst them grander horses; but the Oriental prejudice always returns to the Kohlan, as their race is bred more in and in, like our race-horses. It is difficult to say with any sort of certainty whether a horse is Nedj or Kohlan: the former have somewhat of a Roman nose and high forehead: a true Kohlan, witha genuine certificate, has anose drawn inwards, like a jack or pike, large eyes, wide nostrils, a broad front, and a beautiful head. One may buy without difficulty a stallion; but an Arab seldom parts with a mare, and, if pressed by necessity, they manage as follows. First, the price is agreed upon: the |
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24 VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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purchaser then begins to use the mare, and the first and seeond
foal is delivered to the seller, who, if he likes, has the right to deliver in return one foal for the dam. These conditions often vary, for at times the owner will not sell above a fourth of the mare, which in the Arabianlanguageis called purchasing "one fooi" We have alluded above to " superstitious marks;" these vary
with different tribes. The " Evil Eye" is as rife among the Arabs of the present day as with the Highlanders of two centuries or three centuries ago. In dread of this,- many tribes are loth to show their horses—but more especially their mares—to strangers; and never omit to fortify the animal against it by a prayer to " Mashallah." If a horse falls ill after such a visit, they immediately call in a sort of wizard, who, uttering some cabalistical words, breaks an egg on the frontal- bone of the patiënt, who, nevertheless, generally dies. The wizard then gravely says, " God ordained it so," or, " It was written so." But a French veterinary surgeon, under these circumstances, thought proper to administer a smart dose of physic, which saved his horse, whereas that attended by the Arab died in spite of the egg, the -magical words, and the golden ring. Some of the prophecies of Mahomet are sheer nonsense, particularly those about colour: others eoincide with observations of the present age. If Mahomet were inspired, our wives would do well never to permit their husbands to ride horses who carry the tail on one side, as they are sure to be soon repudiated; and maidens ought to be in awe agraiust bachelors on stallions with white spots on the thighs. Burckhardt, the celebrated Asiatic travelier, says, in a letter
to Professor Sewell—and this accords with the most recent travellers—that the " tribes richest in horses are those who dweil, during the spring of the year at least, in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia; for, notwithstanding all that is said of the desert horse, plenty of nutritious food is absolutely requisite for its reaching its full vigour and growth. The numerous tribes in the Red Sea, between Akaba and Mecca, and as far as Yemen, have very few horses; but the Kurds and Bedouins in the East, and especially in Mesopotamia, possess more horses, and more valuable ones than all, the Arabian Bedouins; for the richness of their pastures easily nourishes the colts and fills their studs." These observations are very important, and evidently founded on truth. He adds, that "the number of horses in Arabia is not more than 50,000; a number far inferior to that found in any part of Europe or Asia on an equal extent of ground. " During the Wahabee government, horses became scarcer
every year among the Arabs. They were sold by their masters to foreign purchasers, who carried them to Yemen, Syria, and Bussora, which latter place supplies India with Arabian horses, because they were afraid of having them seized upon by their chiefs, it having become the custom, upon every slight pretext of disobedience or crime, to declare the most valuable Bedouin mare forfeit to the public treasury." Such are the accounts handed down to us by respectable
authorities, who in their turn received them trom the Arabs |
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themselves; but much allowance should be made for the prone-
ness to exaggeration for which all eastern nations are remarkable, especially the Arabians ; and glorying, as they justly do, in the prowess of their beautiful steeds, it is not to be wondered at if they should sometimes enlarge upon their attributes and exploits. The Imaum, or Sultan of Muscat, Syed Said, doubtless,
during his long reign, froin 1806 to 1856, sent to England the most genuine specimens of the Arab horse. His dominions, lying on the east of Nedjid, and south of the Persian Gulf, have, from their position, a more unadulterated Arab, pur sang, than the horse-dealing Anazes, Toorkmans, and the Syrian " copers," who are all interested in palming off their cross- breeds as Arabs. The monarch above mentioned, on more than one occasion, sent as royal presents to George IV., William IV., and her present Majesty, horses of surpassing beauty, according to the Arabian standard. One of these appears in our engraving of the " Barb and the Arabian," as a specimen of the contrasted qualities of the two races: the one the genuine NorthAfrican horse—progenitor of some breeds of the Spanish, and many of our early racers—and the other the Oriental stock, to which also our turf. owes deep obligations It will be curious and interesting to the reader to peruse
an accurate description of two of these undoubted Arabs, written by a gentleman of unquestionable turf-experience; and to compare their points with those of an English race-horse, of which our frontispiece is a model:—" The first that was shown me was a black stallion, standing 14 hands v inches high, and branded ' M' on the off-quarter. This horse is the more esteemed of the two, this colour in Arabs of the highest class being rarely or ever met with. Years, I was given to under- stand, were consumed in selecting the pair, and no limit put upon the price. ' Great as the difiiculty has ever been to convey a just idea of the horse with the pencil, to put upon paper words to effect such a purpose is ten times a more hopeless affair. The first impression that the sight of this little unpretending animal made upon me was anything save in accordanee with my anticipations as I entered his box. The issue was precisely such as we experience in contemplating a highly-finished picture ; the more you gaze upon it, the more its beauties are developed. In this country we are by no means familiar with the Arab; many have not even seen one : I do not even think above a score have come within my own notice; but I must say, that if the portraits with which every sportsman is acquainted of the Darley and Godolphin Arabians be faithful delineations of the animals they profess to represent the whole model of the Arab horse, as I have seen it, differ, toto ccelo from them.* Here I had befbre me one, selected by a Prince whose subjects have ever been celebrated for trafSck- ing in the purest blood of the Desert: I could not doubt his claim to legitimacy. I have said his height is 14 hands 3 inches ; his form so angular that at the first glance it seems |
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•We need hardly iterate that this proceeds upon the popular assumption that
those historical stallioni were Arabs. They were both African horsea. |
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VARIETIES OF THE HOUSE.
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25
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to defy all claim to symmetry. The whole character of shape
and hearing is closely allied to that of the deer. When you come to a minuter examination of the parts, individually, then you are convinced how pure the fountain must have been whence such blood was obtained. The head of this horse can be likened to nothing but exquisitely chiselled marble ; there is literally no flesh upon it; it is marble too to the touch. The eye is small, but clear to transparency; the cheek-bones are prominent; and there is a fixedness about the ears that helps you to think you are really looking upon the work of the sculptor. The jaws stand very far asunder; the nostrils are large and high; and the wind-pipe is of an extraordinary size. The neck is light, and set on similar to the deer's ; the shoulders more fleshy and upright than suits our taste; but below the knee the legs are perfection: you find quite as much bone as in the largest sized English blood-horse, and the tendons are in your grasp like iron. His carcase, without being very full of substance, is round and tolerably deep; his quarters what we express by vulgar. His thighs are very thin and sinewy, his loins narrow, the hoeks perfectly clean, and slightly inverted; he is what we call * cat-ham'd.' The tail is well set on, the doek small, the hair fine and scant, giving it the appearance of a mule's more than that of a horse. His shanks are short, and hard as adamant, the pasterns flexible, the hoofs singularly hard, but healthy, and the feet open and roomy. You read his temper in his eye; he is a light-hearted animal, without the slightest taint of vice." The other stallion, a bright bay, is described aimost in the
same words. " His head is less perfect, and his bone smaller, but his quarters are roller and more softened down by the swell of the muscles. His back, which, like the other, is rather mchned to be hoUow, is not more than eight or ten inches from hip to shoulder: I never saw a pony's so short. His height is as near as possible the same as the black; in middle piece he has the advantage. They were both brought out for me, and I saw them in all their paces. In their action, as in their lean spare forms, you detect nothing superfluous: it is quiet and graceful, and entirely without any expression of exuberant exertion. TJtility is the characteristic of the Arab horse. I can imagine them going for days together without fatigue: Nature intended them, and she has fitted them, for endurance. The impression of their extraordinary speed was long a vulgar error, which is now fast exploding. No Arab that ever trod the sand could live in company with an English race-horse, weight for inches, or affcer any fashion you will: with the size of a galloway you cannot have the stride essential to great velocity. Speed, regular and long sustained, no doubt they possess: the blight of degeneracy is yet unknown to the Desert-bred." A writer, who remarks upon the discrepaney here mentioned as to the Godolphin and Darley barbs, gravely Buggests that these were "small Arabs;" the others, horses of " considerable size and power, whose immediate descendants became racers;" which certainly leaves the matter just where it stood. It is much to be regretted that at the death of William
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IV., who, though himself no sportsman, lost no opportunity
of promoting the national amusements of the turf and the chase, these beautiful specimens of the true Arab should have been sold into the hands of foreigners. Mr. Christie Whyte, in his " History of the Turf," vol. ii., p. 389, thus notices the discreditable event. " Nothing could exceed the general indignation of all parties
throughout the kingdom, when it became publicly known that this noble appendage to royalty was to be broken up and sold off, for the benefit of foreigners. But, notwithstanding the remonstrances of members of both houses of the legisla- ture, without distinction of political party, the sale was perse- vered in." The following memorial on this subject was presented to
her Majesty's government from the leading members of the Jockey Club. "' We, the undersigned, have heard, with great concern, of
the probability of a dissolution of the royal stud at Hampton Court. We think that the great and permanent attraction of the annual stud sale, by producing competition, enhances the value of thorough-bred horses, and thus promotes the improve- ment of the breed throughout the kingdom. We trust, therefore, that her Majesty's government may be induced to advise the Queen to retain the establishment; and we have the less scruples in expressing this hope, because we are persuaded that, under judicious management, the proceeds of the sale would be found, upon an average, to cover all the expense of maintaining the stud. "Beaufort, O. Anson, O. Bentinck,
S. Batson, Chesterfield, H. Biggs,
Clarendon, GL Byng, Dorset,
O O Grevüle, Richmond, Wm. Hallett,
Suffield, W. Powlett, Tavistock,
Gr. Rush, TTxbridge, J. R. TJdney,
Wilton, H. S. Waddington, Dorset,
Oxford, C. Wilson."
The splendid stud was sold by Messrs. Tattersall, in the
paddocks at Hampton Court, on Wednesday, the 25th of October, 1837; and drew together an immense concourse, including many influential noblemen and gentlemen connected with the turf, agents from France, Germany, Bussia, and Prussia, and an immense collection of trainers, breeders, and others interested in the sale, or drawn thither by curiosity. The general product of the sale was :—brood mares, 9,568
gs.; colt foals, 1,471 gs.; filly foals, 1,109 gs.; the staUions and two half-bred colts, 3,541 gs.; total, 15,692 gs. Most of the lots were purchased by commission; Baron^ Maltzahn acting for the government of Prussia, and M. Lupin for that of France. It would be irrelevant here to give the items of the sale,
farther than the Arabians are in question :— Guineas.
A Grey Arabian Mare of the purest caste; covered by the Colonel.. 50
A Grey ditto of the purest caste, from the Imaum of Moseat; covered by the Colonel..............,......................,..........,..... 160 |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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26
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Ouineaa.
A Grey ditto of the purest caste, from. the Imaum of Mtiscat;
covered by Actason ......................................................... 105
Belvoirina, the dam of Elizabeth, Maria, &c., by Stamford—
Mercury—Herod, &c.; covered by the Black Arabian, horse
untried........................................................................ 65
Brown Colt by the Colonel out of the first Arabian mare ............ 71
A Chesnut Pilly by Acteon out of the second Arabian mare, mare
untried......................................................................., 58
A Bay Pilly by the Colonel out of the third Arabian mare, mare
untried ........................................................................ 76
The Black Arabian of the purest caste, from the Imaum of Muscat. 580
The Bay Arabian of the purest caste, from the Imawm of Muscat... 410 Of these the Black Arabian was bought for the king of
"Wurtemburg, and his stock have become celebrated in Germany. The others went to France and Prussia. The following lines, supposed to be from the pen of Thomas
Campbell, appeared in the New Monthïy Magazine, suggested by a visit to Hampton Paddocks. THE ARABIAN—A Sketch from Nature.
All breathing things delight in the green world! Behold in yon small paddock a fair steed, Arabian shaped, sleek limbed, eyes that beam fire— In action graceful as the swimming swan— The mould and model of his kind—as proud And glorious a thing as eyes can see. Pixed, statue-like, he stands, like Parian stone, Chiselled by art to the similitude And attitude of life!—But greater hands Than human hands have made him what he is— The beautiful, the buoyant thing, whose speed Could tire the shadows coursing o'er this ground; A creature that we love, while to our wül We bend his nature down, and teach him fear —But he must leave the field in whicli he fed, And joyful run his om impulsive race. See where the groom, with sieve thin spread with corn,
Presented oft, oft seen, as oft refused (Por the shy creature knows that the decoy Covers the thralling rein, and more prefers Preedom uncurbed, and his own wanton play), Comes now to snatch him from his heaven of ease. He stands a moment only, as if caught; The coaiing groom believes his task is done, And wonders where his freakishness is fled. Almost his hand has elutohed the dangling mane— |
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Almost the rein is slipped upon his head,
When, ere an eye can turn, with playful prance,
Short, snuffling snort, and instantaneouB spring,
As if in mockery of the powers of man
Away he flies, swift as an eagle shoots
The shrinking air, and scours his prison bounds,
Till the air thunders as his frantic feet
Strike with strong clatter on the hollow ground.
—Breathless, but patiënt, still the dodging man
Pollows the dodging beast, soothes the coy thing,
Calls him by name, whistles, and lastly, swears,—
" Th&tfirst infirmity of noble grooms;"
Now reddens with fierce rage, and now, once more,
Comes whispering wheedling words into his ear.
He knows and hears him, and seems fairly won;
Too sure he has him, and too slow when sure—
He's gone again, straight as an arrow fiies,
As hopeless to pursue. Down drop the sieve
And jingling rein; and now the savage whip
With shrilly threatenings thrüls along the air;
He heeds it not, and still his race he runs.
Now, tired of play, or else instinctive fear,
Or more instinctive love, tames the wild thing,
And makes him docile. He has had his wül,
And now resigns the mastery to man;
Por suddenly he turns in his mid flight,
And stands a prisoner, willing to be bound.
A writer in the Sportsman (vol. iii. p. 253) gives the follow-
ing summary of the divisions of Aiabia and the character of their horses, which is, in the main, sufficiently accurate as a generalization:— " Taking the comparative excellence of the different races,
Nejed (between the desert of Syria and Yemen, and now in the possession of the "Wahabees) is generally reckoned to produce the noblest, grandest horses; Hedjaz (extending along the Red Sea, from Mount Sinai to Yemen, and rncluding in it Medina and Mecca) the handsomest; Yemen (on the coast of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and the most fertile part of Arabia) the most durable; Syria the richest in colour; Mesopotamia the most quiet; Egypt the swiftest; Barbary the most pro- lific; and Persia and Koordistan the most warlike." The Arab, in his influence on our thorough-bred stock, wül
receive due notice when we come to treat of the varieties of the English horse. |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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27
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CHAPTER III.
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THE HOESES OF AFEICA.—I. THE BARB: II. THE DONGOLA, NUBIAN AND ABYSSINIAN HORSE : III. THE EGYPTCAN HOESE :
IV. THE HORSE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
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Wewill, however, quit general considerations, and confine
ourselves to the leading specialties of the African breeds. I.----THE BARB.
The country known as Barbary may be considered, for the
purpose of the present enquiry, as comprising all North Africa, from Egypt westward along the coast of the Mediterranean; Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco, falling within its boun- daries, which reach southward to the Sahara or Great Desert. Here was found that original breed known as the Barb, to which this island owes the early improvement of its coarse unwieldy horse, which we had derived, possibly, through'the European continent from Central or Northern Asia—though we must confess we can see no solid reason against, but much strong presumption in favour, of an indigenous Britieh horse.* For the North African horse too may be claimed an improv-
ing cross, which produced the handsomer breeds of Spain, still hearing the traces, in the Andalusian "barbs," and " jennets," of their Moorish original; while in yet earlier times, when Egypt was the granary of the Mediterranean countries, and Carthage held her head high against Rome, Africa gave " blood" to the horses of Thessaly, Italy, and the Northern shores of that inland sea. In the historie period of English racing, the Barb figures
largely as the ancestor of our thorough-breds. The Godolphin Barb, (popularly and erroneously called the Godolphin " Ara- bian ") was the origin of much of our best racing blood, while several of our greatest modern "flyers" tracé their descent from the "African mares " imported by Charles II. This sub- ject is treated in extenso in the Supplement on Horse Racing. The following are given by Berenger as the characteristic "points" of the Barb of Morocco, Fez, and the interior of Tripoli. " It seldom exceeds fourteen hands and a half in height.
Its countenance is indicative of its spirit, and the facial line, in direct contradistinction to that of the Arabian, is often rounded: the eyes are prominent; the ears, though frequently small and pointed, are occasionaliy rather long and drooping; the crest is generally fine, but prominent, and not overladen with mane. The neck is of a good length; the shoulders flat and oblique; the withers prominent, and the chest almost invariably deep; the back is moderately curved and the carcase somewhat round; the arms and thighs are muscular and strongly marked; the knee and hoek are broad and low-placed; the back-sinews singularly distinct and well-marked from the |
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THE HORSES OF AFRTCA.
That this quarter of the globe possessednumerous distinct and
original varieties of the horse, in form, ske, and qualities is evident, despite the theory of a common origin for all breeds of that valuable quadruped—a theory which has led to such violent absurdities, in the endeavour to reconcile incongruous facts, and to force them into agreement with preconceived prejudices. "We have already shown that Media, Persia, and Assyria
were not countries of the subjugated horse at a period long posterior to what is called the historie era; and that these countries manifestly derived the horses which multiplied therein in subsequent ages not from the South (or Arabia), but from the great " officina equorum," on the north. So also did the people of Northern Syria derive the horses with which they encountered Joshua from the same source: for there were then no horses in Southern Syria. Asia Minor, from the earliest times, was a country of horses, derived from the North and East; but Egypt, it is proved by all history, sacred and profane, derived its horses from the vast continent of which it forms a part, and not from a tract on which the horse did not exist in the first ages. "We may rather believe," says Professor Low, " that Egypt derived the horses she so early possessed from regions in which horses existed from the earliest times, and which we have as much reason to consider indigenous to Africa, as those which people the plains of Tartary are to Asia." To our minds this disposes of the claims of the Arabian, and transfers to the Barb, or true African horse, the patriarchal honours, as regards our own incom- parable English breed, so long usurped by the Ishmaehtic parvenu. It appears to be the old case of an Americus Ves- putius supplanting a Christopher Columbus. "We need not resort to Scripture to show that the "Howden" or "Horncastle" of the Israelites and Egyptians was on the banks of the Nile, and that " the Ethiopians were a huge host with very many ehariots and horsemen."* The horse that drew their chariots yet exists in Abyssinia, Dongola, and Darfour, which possess a larger and a coarser horse than the finer breed of Arabia; while in various parts of North and Eastem Africa are breeds easüy distinguishable from the Asiatic horse. Even at this day, deep in the interior, Major Denham tells us, " at Mandura a beau- tiful and powerful breed of horses is found;" and Mr. Tully nirther tells us "the horses of Bornou are excellent; they unite all the valuable properties of the Barb and the Arabian." |
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* 2 Ohron. chap. xvi., v. 8;
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» Seo History of the Horse, pp. 7, 8, ante.
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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28
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tnee downwards; the pasterns rather long, the feet firm,
and but moderately open at the bars. The croup, as compared with the Arab, is perhaps a little too long,* but the quarters are muscular and well-developed. The Barb is mounted at two years old, but never castrated,
for "a Mussulman would not mutilate or sell the skin of the beast of the Prophet." The horses, with the Moors and Kabyles, are used for the saddle, and the mares kept for breeding. While no Arab mounts a stallion on his exeur- sions, their descendants in Africa, and the Moors, never ride mares. The reason of this is, that the Arabs, constantly at war and plundering, endeavour to surprise their enemies in the grey of the morning or at the dawn of day. A stallion no sooner smells the stale of the mare in the enemies' quarters than he begins to neigh, which would, of course, giye the alarm to the party to be surprised. This cannot happen when riding mares only. The African Arab, on the contrary, trusts to superior force. He fights in an open plain country, where an enemy can be discovered at many miles' distance: such stratagem is therefore useless to them. The Moorish method of cavalry exercise, and the training of their chargers, greatly consists in galloppiag at the top of speed for a mile or more, then suddenly stopping while the rider hurls his lance, fires his musket, or goes through some other feat of assault or defence. By way of exercise, howeyer, the lance is launched or the espingarda fired when at full gallop. The best-trained Barbary horses will stand still for hours when quitted by their riders. The usual food of the Barb is barley or chopped straw, and grass when to be found; hay as a winter feed, in our acceptation of the term, is unknown to him. The Barb requires more excitement to call out his powers than the Arabian, but when sufficiently stimulated his speed and endurance are equal, while the superior strength of loin and forehand makes him master of the greater weight of the two. It would be unpardonable here to pass over the Godolphin
Barb, whose blood ran through Oade—Matchem—Conductor— Trumpator—Sorcerer—Doctor Syntax ; through Eclipse, and a line of winners, by Bay Middleton to the Flying Dutchman; through Hambletonian, Highflyer, to his great opponent and Voltigeur; while Nutwith, "West Australian, Sir Tatton Sykes, Tomboy, Melbourne, SurpHce, Chanticleer, and a host of first class animals, tracé their " blood " to this glorious Barb. The Godolphin Barb, (whose figure accompanies the
Royal Arab on Plate IV.) was sent, together with eight other horses, as a present from the Bey of Tunis to Louis XY. of France, on the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with that potentate by the Yiscount de Manty, Admiral of the French neet. The Godolphin Barb was of a brown bay coiour, with
some white on the off heel behind. He was supposed to have been foaled in 1724, but this is conjectural. He was above the stature of the Arab, standing 15 hands. So süght was * This is a defect, if it be one, which is shared with the Barb by all our
rary best hor»e». |
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the value set upon him in France, where his points were by
no means understood, that he was degraded to the drudgery of drawing a wood-cart in Paris. There is a tradition that he was sold from the royal stables for ungovernable temper. He was brought to England by Mr. Coke, who presented him to Mr. Roger "Williams, then proprietor of the St. James's Coffee House, near Charing Cross. As the most celebrated horses of modern times partake of his blood and that of the Darley " Arabian,"—a crossed Toorkman horse from Aleppo— we shall have further occasion to refer to him in this respect. By Mr. "Williams he was presented to Lord Godolphin, in whose possession, at Hog-Magog, in Cambridgeshire, he remained as a private stallion until his death. In 1731, Hobgoblin, a then celebrated stallion, refusing to
cover Roxana, she was sent to the Godolphin Barb, and from that leap came the celebrated Lath, the first horse from the so- called "Arabian." Lath was one of the very best racers of his day, and
superior to any horse preceding him except Flying Childers. The Godolphin Barb was sire to 38 colts and 20 fillies between 1732 and 1753, Lath being the first and Mr. Panton's Matchless the last of his stock. The Godolphin Barb died at Hog-Magog, Cambridgeshire,
in December, 1753, being supposed to be then in the 29th year of his age. He lies buried in a covered passage, leading to the stables, with a flat stone over him without inscription. At his interment there was a gathering, and a gift of cakes and ale, as afterwards at that of his celebrated descendant Eclipse. There is an original portrait of this remarkable horse, by Seymour, in the collection of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, and another picture of him with his favourite cat, in the Library at Gog-Magog, Cambridge- shire. He is represented in the prints of the day with his attendant cat, between whom and himself a warm attachment for many years subsisted. So great indeed was it, on the part of poor puss, that we have it upon the best authority the cat pined away, refused its food, and died of grief at the loss of its companion. Mr. Holcroft, the celebrated dramatic writer, who in early youth was a Wewmarket stable-lad, relates a similar mutuality of affection between a race-horse and a cat, which the horse would place on his back or in the manger, by taking her in his mouth without hurting her. The crest of the Godolphin, preternaturally prominent, dis-
tinguishes him from every other horse. The Duke of Portland, however, had a Barb but little less lofty in this respect. It will be seen too, from the plate, which is a copy of his portrait, that his withers, from their almost humpish rise, give the effect of a sudden fall in the back, while there is a corresponding elevation of the spine towards the loins. Eclipse, with a straighter back, shared this peculiarity, almost to deformity. The Godolphin's muzzle was uncommonly fine, his head beautifully set on, his shoulders deep and oblique, his loins wide, and his quarters symmetrically powerful and well let down. The greater proportion of both colts and fillies from this celebrated horse were bay, like himself. His descendants, |
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29
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VARIETIES OP THE HORSE.
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reasons for instructing their horses early, in these proverbs:—
" The lessons of infancy are graven in stone; but those of age disappear like the nests of birds." "The young branch without difficulty straightens itself; the large tree never." Accordingly the instruction of the horse begins in the first year. "If," says the Emir, "the horse is not mounted before the third year, at the best he will only be good for the course; but that he has no need of learning—it is his natural faculty." The Arabs thus express the idea :—"Le djuad suivant sa race." (" The high-bred horse has no need of learning to run.") The esteem of the Arab for his horse is conveyed in the follow-
ing sentiment of the sage and saint, Ben-el-Abbas, which has been handed down from generation to generation :—"Love thy horses; take care of them; spare thyself no trouble: by them comes honour, and by them is obtained beauty. If horses are abandoned by others, I take them into my family; my children share with them their bread; my wives cover them with their veils, and wrapthemselves in their housings; I daily take them to the field of adventure; and, carried away by their impetuous course, I can fight with the most valiant." General Daumas thus describes a combat between two tribes,
drawn from life, for he enjoyed many opportunities for witness- ing such scènes:—" The horsemen of the two tribes are in front, the women in the rear, ready to excite the combatants by their cries and applause: they are protected by the infantry, who also form the reserve. The battle is commenced by little bands of ten or fifteen horsemen, who hover on the flanks and seek to turn the enemy. The ehiefs, at the head of a compact body, form the centre. "Presently the scène becomes warm and animated—the
young cavaliers, the bravest and best mounted, dash forward to the front, carried away by their ardour and thirst for blood. They uncover their heads, sing their war-songs, and excite to the fight by these cries, ' Where are those who have mistresses ? It is under their eyes that the warriors fight to-day. Where are those who by their ehiefs always boast of their \alour ? Now let their tongues speak loud, and not in those babblings. "Where are those who run after reputation? Forward! forward ! children of powder ! Behold these sons of Jews— our sabres shall drink their blood—their goods we will give to our wives!' These cries inname the horsemen—they make their steeds bound, and unsling their guns—every face demands blood—they mingle in the fray, and sabre cuts are everywhere exchanged. "However, one party has the worst of it, and begins to fall
back on the camels which carry the women. Then are heard on both sides the women—on the one animating the conquerors by their cries of joy—on the other, seeking to stimulate the failing courage of their husbands and brothers by their screams of anger and imprecation. Under these reproaches the ardour of the vanquished returns, and they make a vigorous effort. Supported by the fire of the infantry who are in reserve, they recover their ground, and throw back their enemy into the midst of the women, who in their turn curse those whom just before they had applauded. The battle returns to the ground |
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by crossing, hare been of every colour. The "Wellesley
" Arabian" is neither Barb nor Arabian, but most probably a cross of Barb and Toorkman. " This horse," says Mr. Youatt, "has been erroneously selected as the pattern of a superior Arabian." The same remark will apply here as to the Darley Arabian. (See ante, p. 24.) * The fullest and most interesting account of the Barb of
modern Algeria has been wratten by General Daumas, and its value is greatly enhanced by contaiuing a letter on the subject, written entirely by the celebrated Abd-el-Kader, and a very remarkable document it is. According to this high authority, a perfeotly sound Barb horse can, without difficulty, travel nearly thirty miles daily for three or four months, without resting a single day; and such a horse can accomplish fifty parasanffs—not less than two hundred miles—in one day. When Abd-el-Kader was with his tribe at Melonia, they made razzlas in the Djeb-el-amur, pushing their horses at a gallop for five or six hours without drawing bridle, and they accomplished their expeditions in from twenty to twenty-five days. During all this time their horses ate only the corn carried by their riders, amounting to about eight ordinary meals. They often drank nothing for one or two days; and on one occasion were three days without water. The Arabic language is very epigrammatic, and the Arabs assign the |
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* Long since the above views were formed and committed to press by the
writer, he had the gratification of finding them confirmed by the high authority of Admiral Eous, in a series of papers in Sailtfs Magazine of Sports and Pastimes,Soi. 1, 2, et sea., for March, April, and following months of 1860. The Admiral, though still adopting the looseness of epithet, which made our torefathers apply the term « Arabian " to almost all horses from the East or « ,tl tho8 bearS testimonyt0 the deep obligation we owe to that breed :-
Ine Stud Book contains no horse's name which cannot prove a pure descent from Barbs, Arabians, Turkish, or Persian stallions, and from Barb, Arabian, or Eoyal mares. «With respect to Turkish blood, I have no doubt that onr patriarchs of
this denommation, such as Helmsley Turk, Byerley Turk, Place's White Turk, D'Arcey's White Turk, the Selaby Turk, and others, were Arabian horses bought in Constantinople or Hungary, either captured in war or purchased from Turkish pachas. "The Barbary stallions were very numerous and very successful, espeeially
the Dodsworth, Curwen and Bay Barb, Greyhound, the Compton Barb, the Thoulouse Barb; but the most prominent forefathers of the turf are the Darley Arabian (?), sire of Hying Childers, and the Godolphin Arabian (Barb), whose blood has been transmitted to every first class horse now in training. I can discover no Persian stallions on the register; but Bonny Black, the best mare of her day for a long distancein 1719, (whose owner, the Duke of Eutland, challenged all the world to run sixteen miles for £1000), was by Black Hearty, a son of the Byerley Turk, out of a mare by a Bersian stallion. " A great difference of opinion exists respecting the pedigrees of the Eoyal
mares. Some were purchased in Hungary in the reign of Charles II.; hut I have no doubt that a great majority of the Sot/al mares were importedfrom Morocco tehen Tangiers was under the Uritish fiag, and that the superior Barbs were brought by the Saracens in the sixth century from Arabia, when they conquered northern Africa, and that they are of the purest breed of the Desert." In the last sentence the gallant Admiral, having started from the false
premiss that the Arabian Deserts were well supplied with horses in the sixth century, has proceeded, as must needs follow, to an utterly false deductiom The historical slip is venial. Admiral Eous's acumen perceived how much these animal» differed from the Arab type, but the popular traditional and accuatomed phrase led hun to overlook the true Afrioan origin of the race. |
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VAEIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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which Kes between the females of their tribes. At last the
party who have suffered most in men and horses, who have sustained the greatest loss, and have seen their bravest chiefs fall, take flight, in spite of the exhortations and prayers of those bold men who, trying to rally them, fly right and left, and try to recover their victory. Some warriors still hold ground, but the general rout sweeps them off. They are soon foliowed by their women—then each seeing that all is lost, occupies himself in saving that which is dearest; they gain as much ground as possible in their flight, turning from time to time to face the pursuing enemy. The conquerors might ruin them completely if the intoxication of their triumph did not build a bridge of gold for the vanquished, for the thirst of pülage disbands them. One despoils a foot-soldier—another a horse- man. This one seizes a horse—that a negro. Thanks to this disorder the bravest of the tribe save their wives, and fre- quently their tents." A touching incident ïs mentioned by Mungo Park as having
occurred whilst he, friendless and forlorn, was pursuing his weary journeyings far in the interior of Africa. The simple narrative tells its own tale of accumulated misery:—"July 29th. Early in the morning my host, observing that I was sickly, hurried me away, sending a servant with me as a guide to Kea. But though I was little able to walk, my horse was still less able to carry me, and about six miles to the east of Modiboo, in crossing some rough clayey ground, he feil; and the united strength of the guide and myself could not place him again upon his legs. I sat down for some time beside this worn-out associate of my adventures; but fin ding him still unable to rise, I took off the saddle and bridle, and placed a quantity of grass before him. I surveyed the poor animal as he lay panting on the ground, with sympathetic emotion, for I could not suppress the sad apprehension that I should myself in a short time lie down and perish in the same manner of fatigue and hunger. "With this foreboding I left my poor horse, and with great reluctance I foliowed my guide on foot along the bank of the river until about noon, when we reached Kea, which I found to be nothing more than a small fishing village." Torn with doubt and perplexity, heavy of heart and weary
in body, the unhappy travelier returned westward to Modiboo, after two days' journeying in company with a neg carrying his horse accoutrements. " Thus conversing," says he, " we travelled in the most friendly manner, until unfortunately we perceived the footsteps of a lion quite fresh in the mud near the river side. My companion now proceeded with great circumspection, and at last, coming to some thick underwood, he insisted that I should walk before him. I endeavoured to excuse myself by alleging that I did not know the road, but he obstinately persisted; and after a few high words and menacing look, threw down the saddle, and went away. This very much disconcerted me, for as I had given up all hopes of obtaining a horse, I could not think of encumbering myself with a saddle; and taking off the stirrups and girths, I threw the saddle into the river. The Negro no sooner saw me throw the |
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saddle into the water, than he came running from among the
bushes where he had concealed himself, jumped into the river, and by help of his spear brought out the saddle, and ran aWay with it. I continued my course along the bank, but as the wood was remarkably thick, and I had reason to believe that a lion was at no great distance, I became much alarmed, and took a long circuit through the bushes to avoid him. About four in the afternoon I reached Modiboo, where I found my saddle ; the guide, who had got there before me, being afraid that I should inform the king of his conduct, had brought the saddle with him in a canoe. White I was conversing with the dooty, and remonstrating with the guide for having left me in such a situation, I heard a horse neigh in one of the huts, and the dooty inquired with a sniile if I knew who was speaking to me. He explained himself by telling me that my horse was still alive, and somewhat recovered from his fatigue." The happiness with which Park met his lost andfaithful Barb may be conceived, for in him he had one friend left in the world. Another of our many victims to African travel thus touchingïy
laments a grievous misfortune which befel him. Returning from an excursion to Kouka, Major Denham writes:—" I was not at all prepared for the news which was to reach me on returningtoour enclosure. The horse that had carried me from Tripoli to Mourzuk and back again, and on which I had ridden the whole journey from Tripon to Bornou, had died a very few hours after my departure for the lake. There are situations in a man's life in which losses of this nature are feit most keenly, and this was one of them. It was not grief, but it was something very nearly approaching to it; and though I feit ashamed of the degree of derangement which I suffered from it, yet it was several days before I could get over the loss. Let it, however, be remembered, that the poor animal had been my support and comfort—may I not say, companion ? —through many a dreary day and night,—had endured both hunger and thirst in my service with the utmost patience,— so docile, that he would stand still for hours in the desert while I slept between his legs, his body affording me the only shelter that could be obtained from the powerful influence of a noonday sun : he was the fleetest of the fleet, and ever foremost in the race." There are few who have not seen Stubbs's world-famed
picture of the " Horse frightened by the Lion," which all sorts of describers—scorning even to reflect for a moment on the actual locale of the adventure—have spoken of as " an Arab;" nay, his " crest" has been charged with exaggeration, and one of the great points of exactitude and truthfulness treated as extravagant. In an obituary notice of Stubbs, who died in 1808,1 find the following:—" Having remained in Italy the time necessary for his improvement, Mr. Stubbs embarked for England; and during his passage he became acquainted with a gentleman, a native of Africa, whose taste and pursuits in life were similar to his own. This gentleman had been to Rome, and was returning to his family; he was liberally educated, and spoke the English language with accuracy. His informa- tion made him a delightful companion to Stubbs, who often |
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VARIETIES OF THE HOUSE.
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31
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expressed how much it would add to his gratification if he
could but hehold the lion in its wild state, or any other wild beast. His friend, on one occasion, gave him an invitation to the paternal mansion he was about to visit. The offer was accepted with pleasure, and Stubbs landed with his friend at the fortress of Ceuta.* They had not been on shore many days when a circumstance occurred most favourable to the wishes of our painter. The town where his friend resided was sur- rounded by a lofty wall and a moat. Nearly level with the wall a capacious platform extended, on which the inhabitants occasionally refreshed themselves with the breeze after sunset. One evening, while Stubbs and his friend were viewing the delightful scenery, and a thousand beautiful objects, from this elevation, which the brilliancy of the moon rendered more interesting, a lion was observed at some distance, directing his way, with a slow pace, towards a white Barbary horse, which was grazing not more than two hundred yards distant from the moat. Mr. Stubbs was reminded of the gratification he had so often wished for. The orb of night was perfectly clear, and the horizon serene.. The lion did not make towards the horse by a regular approach, but performed many curvatures, still drawing nearer towards the devoted animal, till the lion, by the shelter of a rocky situation, came suddenly upon his prey. The affrighted Barb beheld his enemy, and, as if conscious of his iate, threw himself into an attitude highly interesting to the pamter The noble creature then appeared fascinated, and the non, nndmg him within his power, sprang in a moment, like a cat on the back of the defenceless horse, threw him down, and wstantly tore out his bowels." attentit?r?m to,EnSland' M'- Stubbs became exceedingly
celebratL 71T If-^ P°rtraits of many of the mos*
ce ebrated race-horses of his day. His anatomy of the horse
was held in the highest estimation, both in tliil country and
abroad; and his sporting pictures yet retain their places in the
gallenes of our nobÜity and gentry
Arabian the favourite charger of Napoleon Bonaparte, which
was kept for many years in the Jardin des Plantes-of which many p t ts extant-betrayed all the chief characteristics o the Barb. He came from Egypt, we know, wherever bred; out nis broad open heels, round barrel, and low set-on of the ock, as extant in pictures by Isabey, the elder Vernet, and otüers, are against his Arabian origin. Among the Maugrabins of the West, on the skirt of the
öahara Desert, is a renowned breed of Barbs, known as the bnrulzt-ur-reech, or " Drinkers of the wind." They are lean as greyhounds—a mere bag of bones—but their spirit and endurance of fatigue are prodigious. On one occasion the chief of a tribe was robbed of a favourite fleet animal of this race, and the camp went out in pursuit eight hours after the A fortres» on the coast of Africa, situated on a peninsula eastward of
anfc'ier, and opposite to Gibraltar, belonging to Spain, who, in 1860, has extended her territories, after a short war with the Moors, and at present "olds Tetuan. |
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theft. At night, though the horse was not yet recovered, it
was ascertained that the pursuers had headea his track, and would secure him before morning. The messenger who returned with this intelligence had ridden sixty miles in the withering heat of the desert without drawing bit. These animals are stated by Mr. Davidson to be fed only once in three days, when they receive a large jar of camel's milk; this, with an occasional handful of dates, is their only food. These animals, we are told by Jackson, are principally
employed in hunting the antelope and the ostrich. This author says nothing about the dates, but informs us that he will eat nothing but barley or wheat; oats are unknown to the African horse. The account is yet further embellished by the state- ment that if he is taken from the Desert, and can no longer get a supply of his favourite camel's mille, he loses speed and wind, and perishes miserably. Credat Judcens ! Yet farther in Central Africa, we are told by Mr. Tully [Sistory of Tripoli), is a grand breed, of noble stature, uniting the qualities of the Barb and the Arabian with superior height. II.----THE DONGOLA, NUBIAN, AND ABYSSINIAN HORSE.
Travellers in Dongola, Sennaar, Nubia, Abyssinia, Darfour,
and the north-eastern countries of the African continent, agree in the existence of an indigenous horse of superior stature and coarser form than either the Barb or Arab. The degenerate Egyptian horse is probably. a descendant of this race, which very possibly may have figured in the heavier chariots of the Pharoahs. Bruce, in his Travels in Abyssinia, bears testimony to their stature and their distinctness from the horse of Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. He says—"What figure the Nubian breed of horses would make in point of swiftness is very doubtful, their form being so entirely different from that of the Arabian; but if beautiful and symnietrical parts, great size and strength, the most agile, nervous, and elastic movements, great endurance of fatigue, docility of temper, and, beyond any other domestic animal, seeming attachment to man, can promise anything for a stallion, the Nubian is, above all comparison, the most eligible in the world. Few of them stand less than sixteen hands high." Ludolph, who travelled in Abyssinia in the 17th century,
bears the like testimony. He says that "the horses of this country (Ethiopia) are powerful and active, spirited and mettlesome, and most of them of a black colour. They are used only in war and for hunting. They are not fatigued by travelling long journeys, for the lab our of drawing loads and of carrying burdens devolves upon the mules." A native of Abyssinia, who accompanied Ludolph to Europe, was both astonished and pained when he saw, for the first time, a horse ir a heavy cart, and loudly expressed his disgust at the cruelty of degrading so noble an animal to so base a drudgery. He was surprised that the animals should submit to it, saying that in his country they would rebel against such cruel tyranny, and rond those who endeavoured so to ill-use them. Bosman, another intelligent, and more modern traveller,
expresses his admiration of the horse of these regions :—" The |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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32
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seldom pass out of a walk into a gallop for more than a
hundred yards or so, most of them are foundered; and none, if quickly trotted for ten miles, would be able from want of wind and stamina to go farther." Since Sir Eobert wrote, however, a new era has d&,vixed in
Egypt. Mehemet AH, seeing the importance of a judicious liberality in encouraging the improvement of the horse, not only imported many Barbs and Toorkman horses, but in 1828 established a veterinary school at Abou-Zabel, of which an interesting account will be found in The Veterinarian, (vol vii, p. 549, 1834,) and subsequent numbers. A haras, or breeding establishment, was also founded, both under the care of French veterinary surgeons. An anecdote of an exploit of an Arab robber in Egypt, from " the Adventures of Giovanni Finati," shall close this brief account of the Egyp- tian horse. "While some of the Mamelukes were encamped about
Minieh, a thief set his mind on carrying off the horse and robe of one of their Beys. With this intent, at dead of night, he contrived to slip unperceived into the tent, where, as it was winter time, embers were burning, which showed him the rich clothes of the Bey lying close at hand. The thief, as he squatted down by the fire, drew them softly to him, and put them all on; and then, after rilling a pipe and lighting it, went deliberately to the tent door and tapping a groom, who was sleeping near, with the pipe end, made a sign to him for the horse, which stood picketted in front. It was brought; he mounted and rode off. On the morrow, when the clothes of the Bey could no where be found, none could form a con- jecture as to what could become of them, until the groom, on being questioned, maintained to his fellow servants that their master was not yet returned from his ride ! and told them how he had suddenly called for his horse in the night, which at last seemed to give some clue to what really happened. Upon this the Bey, anxious to recover his horse, as well as curious to ascertain the particulars, ordered it to be published abroad, that if the person who robbed him would, within two days, bring back what he had taken, he should not only be freely pardoned, but should receive also the full value of the animal and of the suit of clothes. " Relying on the good faith of this promise, and possibly,
too, not a little vain of his exploit, the Arab presented himself, and brought his booty; and the Bey also, on his part, punctually kept his word; but since, besides the loss, there was something in the transaction that placed the Bey in rather a ludicrous light, it went hard with him to let the rogue depart so freely, and he seemed to be considering what he should do; so that, to gain time, he was continually asking over and over again fresh and more circumstantial accounts of the manner in which the stratagem had been conducted : the other was too crafty not to perceive that no good might be preparing for him, and began to feel anxious to get safe out of the scrape. He showed no impatience, however, but entered minutely into every detail, accompanying the whole with a great deal of corresponding action; at one time sitting down |
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Dongola horses are the most perfect in the world, heing beau-
tiful, symmetrical in their parts, nervous in their movements, and docile and affectionate in their manners. One of these horses was sold in 1816, at Grand Cairo, for a sum equivalent to one thousand pounds." He further describes them as usually black, though there are a few bright bays and sorrels. Some of these animals, which were at that time brought
northwards by way of the Nile valley to Cairo, were seen by Europeans travelling in that country. They are agreed upon their noble appearance and fine lofty action, their ele- vated crest and high withers; but there is a deficiency of snbstance in the quarters, and an undue length below the hoek —sure indications of a lack of stoutness and of sustained speed. Nevertheless, as modern intercommunication with these once mysterious countries is now comparatively facile, some attention to the horse of Dongola might repay the trouble. That he has many of the requisites of a grand horse for show or state purposes, and perhaps for a charger, seems probable. The reason why his endurance is not tried more severely in his native land is, perhaps, that they have not the art of shoeing. Ludolph says, when they come on stony ground they dismount and get upon mules, leading their horses, that so, having no burden to bear, they may tread the more lightly.* Mr. Salt, for many years English Consul in Egypt, and one
of the most diligent collectors of antiquities in that ancient land, made a joumey towards the sources of the Nile. He also describes these horses as of noble stature and action, their accoutrements as good, and the natives as first-rate horsemen. III.—THE EGYPTIAN HORSE.
We need not here repeat that Egypt was of old the source
of the supply of horses to the countries immediately adjacent. Foremost in arts and arms, her chariots f were renowned five centuries before Herodotus wrote of the royal haras of Babyion, and its 1,400 horses, which were undoubtedly derived from the northern breeds. The modern Egyptian horse, like the modern Egyptian himself, has wretchedly degenerated. The cruel tyranny of their oppressors and conquerors, Arab and Turkish, led the wretched tillers of the soil to avoid as a danger the possession of a handsome horse, suited for war purposes, inas- much as the least evil that might befal him might be its seizure by the Mamelukes or by the Turkish ruler of the district. "We are further told by travellers, that so strongly did this fear operate on the mind of the wretched fellah, that it became a custom to disfigure and mutilate the horses used by them, lest they should be robbed of them by the Pasha or his followers. The effect of this system in "the land of the horse," is borne testimony to by General Sir Eobert "Wilson, who tells us, in his relation of the expedition to Egypt under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, that the body-guard of the Pacha were so miserably mounted, that " although their horses * Berenger's HorsemansMp, yól i.
f There is not more than a single representation of a mounted man in the Egyptian frescoea and relievi. There are warriors in chariots innumerable. |
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VAMETIES OP THE HORSE.
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Mr. Surtees, a good authority, tells us, that at the time of tho
capture of the Cape, in 1806, the breed of horses there was probably a cross between the Barb of North Africa and the Persian or Arab : the latter must have been introduced by the Dutoh East India Company, but as to the time of introduction of the former there is nowhere any record; stül there can be no doubt that the Cape horse was in many respects Barb-bred. In many points he yet resembles the horse of Spain, which partakes of an African origin, and in no respect does he more approximate him than in his paces—the amble and the easy canter are in both alike. It was during the administration of Lord Charles Somerset as governor that the English horse was first imported to any extent; and, owing to the interest which that excellent sportsman took in the matter, much good has been the result, not only in the immediate improvement of blood, but also in the general interest that was then created on the subject, and has never since subsided. In May, 1844, Middleham, the winner of the Liverpool St. Leger in 1840 arrived at Cape Town ; and where could be found better blood, or stouter, than that of Muley Moloch ? He has been foliowed by a large number of blood and half-bred English horses. The roan—or skimmel, as it is termed at the Cape—was a
colour scarcely, if at all, known before the days of Lord Charles.
It is now very common, and whether the blue or red, it is
supposed to be the healthiest and hardiest colour for horses.
The skimmel—or Lord Charles's colour, as it is also called—
is usually attended with black legs, and the hue (if such a
term is allowable) is generally extremely vivid; but as every
why has its wherefore, and every beauty some drawback, so is
this colour either sure to be accompanied with ragged hips or
clumsy head, or in some way a want of symmetry Another
singular colour to be met with at the Cape is the flea-bitten
bay, or bay with white spots, which are in most cases on the
quarters ; but what is especially curious respecting this is, that
all horses possessing it are natives of the same place. The
flea-bitten bay is known as the bay of the Burg river. It is
in shape and make, or, what are termed the good points of a
horse, that the Cape horse is so far inferior to the English.
Such a thing as good fore-legs are very rarely seen in the
colony; yet this might easily be amended were more care
taken of the horse when young. A most detestable practice is
in vogue at that time of his life of tying one of his legs and
his head nearly close together, to prevent escape from the
large tracts of pasture in which he feeds: the consequence of
this is that, when first taken up for use, he is crippled in his
fore-legs, and to the end of his days wül be a stumbler. To
add to this defect before, the probability is, he has a heavy,
straight shoulder—nothing is more common amongst all, even
the best, Cape horses. The principal imperfection of those
animals is, without doubt, their fore-legs: a good-thighed
horse may often be met with, but a long arm, with a short,
good leg, rarely. A flat, open foot, too, is a thing unfrequent;
yet foot-lameness is not common unless from thrushes; and
these are engendered by the shameful way in which the horse
is neglected when young, and the nuwshy state of the pasture
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hy the fire, and making believe as though he were slyly
drawing on the different articles of dress, so as to throw the Bey himself, and all who saw and heard him, into fits of laughter. When he came at last to what concerned the horse, ' It was,' he said, ' brought to me, and I leaped upon his back;' and so in effect flinging himself again into the saddle, and spurring the flanks sharply with the stirrup-irons, he rode off with all the money that he had received for the animal in his pocket, and had got much too far, during the first moments of surprise, for any of the bullets to take effect that were iired at him in his flight, and nothing further was ever heard of him or the horse." The country to the south of the great Sahara, we find a
kindred race to the Barb among the Foulahs, Jaloffs, Daho- mans, Ashantees, and inhabitants of Benin. As we approach the torrid zone, however, the horse much deteriorates; and although we are told by authorities that the single nation of Foulahs can muster sixteen thousand cavaky, the horses are undersized. Bosman, in his account of the Coast of Guinea, says, " they are ill-shaped, and that they hang the ear and head like the ass, that they are slow and obstinate, and so low that a tall man sitting on their backs can touch the ground with his feet." At Elmina, on the Slave -coast, he bought half a dozen of these, but they were of little use in hisinland journey. In these wretched and savage regions, desolated by the feroclous passions engendered by the slave-traffic, man and the useful animals are equally debased and degenerate. It is, however, certain that tropical heat and the lack of wholesome grasses are barriers to the due developement of the horse, and that m temperate climes alone does he combine grandeur of stature wüh beauty 0f form, couragej spiritj and endurance. |
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IV.
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-THE HORSE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
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The onginal horse of South Africa would appear to have
been a hardy, undersized, strong animal, presenting few quali- ties beyond endurance and slow strength. Montgomery Martin, in that part of his history of the
Bntish colonies which treats of the Cape of Good Hope, has the following observation respecting its horses:—" The horse is not generally large, but it is extremely hardy. I have ridden one upwards of twenty miles without ever going out of a canter—the usual pace of the animal." A much fuller account of the Cape horse might have been given than this, and certainly something far more interesting. In its breed, in its shape, in its colour, and in its temper,
the horse of the Cape is very different from the English horse of any kind. A century ago, possibly, the difference was greater even than it now is; but, since the time when Lord Charles Somerset was governor of the colony, the old Arab blood has been more mixed with English than it was previously; and, now that the best of English blood is being yearly imported there, it may be expected that in time the peculiarities of the Cape horse wül disappear, and, as has been the case with English horses, from an admixture of blood, something excellent in its kind will be at length obtained. |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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during the rainy seasons. In the distant parts of the settle-
ment, and amongst the farmers, who are the principal breeders, such a thing as a horse-shoe is seldom used; but in the vicinity of Cape Town this is not the case—the horse is shod there as elsewhere, and, not unfrequently, he is shod all round. Of the diseases and unsoundness which the Cape Horse is
subject to, the writer of this lately gained much information from an officer of the 7th Dragoon Guards, who preceded his regiment to the Cape to purchase their regimental horses. No one could have been more indefatigable than this gentleman in his duties, and when the price to which he was limited (£26) is considered, no one could have been more suc- cessful. Eor some weeks he scoured the country for horses far and near; he had, therefore, many opportunities of picking tip many useful hints, and improving them by his own observation. A species of glanders has been occasionally very prevalent; but, as an epidemie, it is nothing now to what it has been. A few years back, several thousand horses feil victims to its ravages; these have been partially stopped, but the disease has not been eradicated. Such a thing as a spavined horse he never once saw, but curbs often; and yet—will it be believed ?—the removal of such things by the iron is unknown : and as to firing, if it has been ever heard of by the farmer, it has assuredly never been attempted. Such a thing as a pied horse is not to be met with in the colony. But great is the want of veterinary knowledge, and most lamentable is the ignorance of every- thing connected with the modern treatment of the horse as practised in England. The temper of the Cape horse is its great recommendation:
it is rarely vicious, and this is best proved by the fact of geldings being unfrequently used, as compared with the number of entire horses. Now, as in the days of chivalry was the practice in Europe, mares are kept for the stud, and no one thinks of riding a mare. As, too, in those good " auld days lang syne," the amble is a common pace; that and the canter are the best paces of the Cape steed.—the latter is particularly easy, yet it |
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is not so graceful to an English eye as the canter of the English
horse ; the step is shorter and the pace is more shuffling; but, were the animal properly broken, his paces of course might be greatly improved. Although the English groom would have much to teach the
Hottentot, yet the former would be much surprised if he saw a team driven by the latter. When the word team is used a team of six and even eight in hand, as well as four, is intended. The ribbons are tolerably handled, but it is in the use of his whip that the Hottentot coachman is mainly a proficient: with a whip-handle of a long bamboo, sans the pliant top that in a good whip^is so serviceable, will a Cape Jehu completely manage his foremost leaders, and, avoiding uneven ruts, drive over extremely bad roads with great adroitness. Captain Brown, in his " Biographical Sketches of Horses,"
gives the following interesting account of a ciicumstance that occurred at the Cape of Good Hope. In one of the violent storms that often occur there, a vessel was forced on the rocks, and beaten to pieces. The greater part of the crew perished miserably, as no boat could venture to their assistance. Mean- while a planter came from his farm to see the wreek, and know- ing the spirit of his horse and his excellence as a swimmer, he determined to make a desperate effort for their deliverance, and pushed into the thundering breakers. At first both disappeared, but were soon seen on the surface. Nearing the wreek, he caused two of the poor seamen to cling to his boots, and so brought them safe to shore. Seven times did he repeat this perilous feat, and saved fourteen lives; but alas! the eighth time, the horse being fatigued, and meeting with a formidable wave, the gallant fellow lost his balance, and was overwhelmed in a moment. He was seen no more, but the noble horse reached the land in safety. The importation of English thorough-bred stallions at the
Cape, and the institution of the Cape Town races have rapidly improved the breed of first-rate horses, which now furniahes many fine animals for Indian service. |
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35
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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CHAPTER IV.
L—THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE : II.—THE HORSE OF SOUTH AMEKICA : III.—THE HORSE OF NORTH AMERICA,
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THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE.
The sporting spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race has not dege-
nerated at the antipodes; and the vast continent of Australasia, but yesterday boasting no quadrupeds more important than the dingo, the kangaroo, or the ornithorynchus, now shows what can be effected in the way of improving the ordinary imported breeds of the horse, under favourable circumstances of soil, climate, and treatment. On the discovery of Tasmania, or New Holland, and after-
wards of the larger continent, part of which was long designated New South Wales, there was no indigenous speci- men of the larger quadrupeds. The first horses in Australia were procured from the Cape of Good Hope and a few from India. These animals appear to have been got without selection, and to have been but sorry brutes. Atkinson, writing as recently as 1824, says:—" They are but nags in size, and bred without much care; by no means sightly in appearance, being narrow-chested and sharp-backed, as well as deficiënt in the quarters. They have an incurable habit of shying, and are by no means surefooted." The unfavourable description of Atkinson might, it seems, up to that period, be applied to "Van Diemen's Land and all other parts of Australasia where the horse had been introduced. Adelaide, in South Australia, seems to have been about the earliest place in which regular races for public money were advertised in this land since so famous for its "diggings." Up to a comparatively recent period, says a local writer, the whole of the racing stock in the colony might be traced to three or four imported horses: an Arab—Abdallah—brought from Calcutta by Mr. Gleeson; the stallion Actseon, bred in France by Lord Henry Seymour; and Kiah-Khan-Kreuse and Forlorn Hope, both imported from England by Mr. Phileox in 1841. These, with one or two horses from Sydney, at a later period, complete the then Hst of South Australian stud horses. The Arab's stock has proved but moderately good, and showed to little advantage as young ones; being deficiënt in stride they were easily cut down by the produce of the English thorough-bred horse.* This was soon found to be the case here as well as at Calcutta, for a few "whalers," as the sporting men in Adelaide call horses trom New South "Wales, being sent there, took all the crack stakes from the Arabs. Cattle, especially sheep, thriving so well, made the Aus-
tralian farmer soon ashamed of his horse, and the sporting instinct carried bim farther in the career of improvement. The ordinary saddle and gig horse, too, shared in the advance:' Bay Cameron, an English stallion standing near Sydney, netted for his owner, for the first season or two, more than six |
hundred pounds per annum, and good horses rosé twenty per
cent. in value. Two hundred pounds were given in the capital for a horse of fine figure and power, and nothing good for saddle or harness could be got for less than fifty pounds." The colony of West Australia seems to be peculiarly adapted for the breeding of the horse, and seems likely to prove the nursery for the supply of our cavalry in India; an import- ant stud formed by the now defunct East India Company has been removed from Yan Diemen's Land to that colony. Mr. Peter Cunningham (Two Years in New South Wales),
says of the native bred horses that they are remarkably hardy, and can undergo considerable fatigue. " The greatest fault is a heaviness of the head, with a considerable degree of obstinacy and sulkiness—as much, however, the fault of education as of natural disposition." Mr. Barton in his Excursions in New South Wales, adds,
speaking of a heavier animal for draught, "the breed is rapidly improving, from the importation of some of the Cleve- land breed from England." The true dray-horse, however, was yet to be found, and could not be procured from any of the native horses, not even with the assistance of the Cleve- land. The mixture of English blood had not lessened the endurance of the native breed; for at the hottest time of the year, with the thermometer at times as high as ninety-six degrees in the shade, the writer says he has ridden the same animal fifty miles a day for three successive days. " They will all go through a vast deal of work, but they would have more endurance if they were not broken in for the saddle and for harness so young. It is no unusual thing to ride them sixty miles in less than seven hours, and immediately turn them out to piek up what scanty herbage they can find." Mr. Widowson (State of Van Diemen's Land, p. 194) tells us
that there are some diseases to which the horse is subject in England, which are as yet unknown in New South Wales.. Glanders has never made its appearance there. Greasy heels, the almost peculiar disease of Britain, have not been seen. Strangles, however, are prevalent, and, the author of the present work learns from a communication to the Vetermanan, unusually severe. In Van Diemen's Land the breed of horses, originally
derived from India, is good. A valuable race of cart-horses is beginning to be formed. The riding-horses are small, but they are hardy. Horses of every kind are sixty per cent. dearer in Van Diemen's Land than in New South Wales ; because the colony is smaller, and the number of horses that are bred is comparatively small. Their treatment is not se good as in the larger colony. Many of them know not the taste |
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By a Pilgrim Sportsman.- In The Sportsman
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of corn, and, when it is given to them, it is usually in the
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* The Turf in Australia.
for May 1857, p. 317. |
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straw.
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36
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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The formation of race eourses throughout Queensland, in
the vicinity of Melbourne, Sydney, and all other consider- able towns, indeed wherever the requisite support is offered, is yearly progressing. Steeplechasing, too, is extending in popularity. The importation of English thorough-breds is increasing, so that Australia is yearly making a turf history of her own. The great Australasian continent seems destined to become the breeding stud of our new Indian Empire. |
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It would appear from a few sentences in the series of papers
contrihuted by Admiral Rous to Baüy's Magazine* that the gallant Admiral is an advocate for a less tender and luxurious treatment of the horse, as tending to improve his hardihood and stamina, and to render him less susceptible of disease from slight vicissitudes of temperature and weather. The experience of Australia and of America would appear to support this opinion. A writer in The Sportsman, already referred to, says,
apropos of the racing stock in Australia, and the encourage- ment to breeders:—" £350 was given in 1852 in Van Diemen's Land for a horse to run for the Adelaide Town Plate. This very horse, Swordsman, was, however, beaten easily by an Adelaide colt." South Australia, also seems to be well adapted for a feeder for our Indian empire in respect of this noble and useful animal, it being, with the exception of Swan River or the Sound, the nearest point for importations; while the poisonous grasses which exist in these two last named quarters must always be a bar to their being brought into any com- petition for this object. The course at Adelaide is situated on the park lands to the
south of the city; it is an oval in shape. It boasts of a com- modious stand; always sure to be well-filled, as the inhabitants are " racing mad," and on the day of a meeting, business is almost suspended. " When the Queen's guineas were run for the first year, there was a great sensation, and a very laudable ambition to have them. It was not with men alone, however, that this exhilaration was evident; for the winner, Minna, went to the post for the last heat as drank as a lord, or rather as any young lady might hope to be, having taken at least two bottles of sherry to the health of Her Majesty." By way of giving some notion as to the pace at which the
imported Australian race-horse can travel, we give a tabular summary of a year's meeting. |
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-THE HORSES OF SOUTH AMERICA.
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ii.
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Although the vast American continent has been destitute,
during the historie period, of the horse, fossil remains prove him to have been a denizen of those regions at some remote era—most probably one preceding the introduction of man upon the earth. Professor Owen, in his " British Fossil Mammals," remarks as follows on Fossil Equidae:—"The species of Equus which existed during the Miocene periods of geology in both North and South America, appears to have been blotted out of the Fauna of those continents before the existence of man. The aborigines whom the Spanish conquistadores found in possession of Peru and Mexico had no tradition or hieroglyphic indicative of such a quadruped and the horses the invaders imported from Europe were viewed with astonishment and alarm. The researches of Mr. Darwin and Dr. Lund have indisputably proved that the genus Equus was represented during the Pliocene period by a species {Equus curvidens), which is shown to be distinct from the European fossils, and also from the existing species. Fossil remains of the horse have been found also in North America. The geographical range of the genus Equus was therefore more estensive at the Pliocene period than that of the Rhinoceros, of which both the fossil and the existing species are confined to the Old "World of the geographers. The horse, in its ancient distribution over both hemispheres of the globe, resembles the Mastodon, and appears to have become extinct in North America at the same time with the Mastodon giganteus, and in South America with the Mastodon of the Andes and the Megatherium. Well may Mr. Darwin say, ' it is a marvellous event in the history of animals, that a native kind should have disappeared, to be succeeded in after ages by the countless herds introduced with the Spanish conquerors.'" The New World is indebted for the myriads of wild horses which swarm upon the Pampas of the South and the Prairies of the North, to the Spanish stock carried by Cortez to Mexico, and to Peru by Pizarro. In genial climates it was natural that, with abundant herbage and few dangerous enemies, animals of such power and intelligence should increase and multiply with great rapidity. Dr. Rengger notes the iirst horses in Paraguay to have been imported from Spain and the Oanaries in 1537, and Azara found, in the archives of Ascension, a document, proving that Irala, in 1551, bought a Spanish horse for the sum of fifteen thousand florins. According to Herrera, the Spanish historian, horses were
objects of the greatest astonishment to the people of New Spain. At first they imagined the horse and bis rider, |
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Jangler ran second to Mr. Penny's Nimrod for the third heat of the Hack Stakes,
bilt the latter bein» disqaalified, the stakes were given to Jangler. 3 £ee Baüy's Magazine of Spsrts and I'astiines, for April, 1860.
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VAïtlETIES OF THE HORSE.
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front. He then hitches the lasso so that the three legs are
bound together, then sitting on the horse's neck, he fixed a strong bridle, without a bit, to the lower jaw. This he does by passing a narrow thong through the eyeholes at the end of the reins, and several times round both jaw and tongue. The two front legs are now tied closely together with a strong leathern thong fastened by a slip knot; the lasso which bound the three together being then loosed, the horse rises with difficulty. The Guacho, now holding fast the bridle fixed to the lower jaw, leads the horse outside the corral. If a second man is present (otherwise the trouble is much greater), he holds the animal's head, whilst the first puts on the horse cloths and saddle and girths the whole together. During this operation, the horse, from dread and astonishment at being thus bound round the waist, throws himself over and over again on the ground, and till beaten is unwiüing to rise. At last, when the saddling is finished, the poor animal can hardly breathe from fear, and is white with foam and sweat. The man now prepares to mount by pressing heavily on the stirrup, so that the horse may not lose its balance; and at the moment he throws his leg over the animal's back he pulls the slip knot and the beast is free. The horse, wild with dread, gives a few most violent bounds, and then starts off at full gallop.* When quite exhausted, the man by patience brings him back to the corral, where, reeking hot and scarcely alive, the poor beast is let free. Those animals which will not gallop away, but obstinately throw themselves on the ground, are by far the most troublesome. All travellers, who have crossed the plains extending from
the shores of La Plata to Patagonia, have spoken of the numerous droves of wild horses, the descendants of the Spanish horses of Cortez, Pizarro, and their successors. Some aflirm that they have seen ten thousand in one troop. They appear to be under the command of a leader, the strongest and boldest of the herd, and whom they implicitly obey. A secret instinct teaches them that their safety consists in their union and in a principle of subordination. The panther, the tiger, and the leopard are their principal enemies. At some signal, intelli- gible to them all, they either close into a dense mass and trample their enemy to death, or placing the mares and foals in the centre, they form themselves into a circle and welcome him with their heels. In the attack their leader is first to face the danger, and, when prudence demands a retreat, they follow bis rapid flight. In the thinly inhabited parts of South America it is dan-
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like the Centaurs of the ancients, to be a horrible animal of a
compound form, and supposing that their food was that of men, brought ilesh-meat and bread to propitiate them. Eren after they discovered their mistake thcy believed the horses devoured men in battle, and, when they neighed, thought they were demanding their prey. A curious incident occurred when Pizarro was on one occasion in great straits, being hemmed in by a body of ten thousand men of resolute bearing, and eager to drive the invaders into the sea. As the Spaniards were malcing their way, hotly pressed, one of the cavaliers was thrown from his horse. This, which at first sight might seem an untoward event, was the salvation of the party, for the Indians were so astonished at this spontaneous separation of what they supposed to be one and the same being, that not knowing what would happen next, they instantly took to flight, and lcft the coast clear for the Spaniards to reach their ships. The inhabitants of the Isle of Peten listened attentively to
the preaching of the Franciscan friars who accompanied the expedition of Cortez, and consented to the instant demolition of their idols and the erection of the Cross upon their ruins. How far these hurried conversions were founded on conviction is shown by the following anecdote. Cortez on his departure left among this friendly people one of his horses who had been disabled by an injury in the foot. The Indians feit a reve- rence for the animal as in some way connected with the mys- terious power of the white men. When their visitors had gone, they offered flowers to the horse, and, as is said, prepared for him many savoury messes of poultry, such as they would have administered to their own sick. Under this extraordinary diet tüe poor animal pined away and died. The Indians raised his etügy in stone, and placing it in one of their temples, did homage to it as to a deitj. ln i618> wlien tw0 pranciscan tnars came to preach the Gospel in these regions, then scarcely better known to the Spaniards than before the time of Cortez, one of the most remarkable objects which they found was this statue of a horse, receiving the homage of the Indian worship- pers as the God of thunder and lightning ! The admirable skül of the South Americans as horsemen is
everywhere acknowledged, and has been described by many writers ; the following account, however, by Mr. Darwin, is so spirited that it conveys the best idea of their exploits. " One evening a ' domidor' (subduer of horses) came for the purpose of breaking in some colts. I will describe the preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been mentioned byother travellers. A troop of wild young horses is driven into the corral or large enclosures of stakes, and the door is shut. We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and mount a horse which as yet had never feit bridle or saddle. I conceive, except by a Guacho, such a feat would be utterly hnpracticable. The Guacho picks out a full grown colt; and, as the beast rushes round the circus, he throws his lasso so as to catch both the front legs. Instantly the horse rolls over with a heavy shock, and whilst struggling on the ground the Guacho, holding the lasso tight, makes a circle so as to catch one of the bind legs just beneath the fetlock, and draws it close to the two |
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* The manufacture of the Guacho's boots is somewhat singular s—« The
boots of the Guachos are formed of the ham and part of the leg-skin of a colt reeking from the mother, which is said to be eacnficed for the sole purpose, juat at the time of bearing, when the hair has not begun to grow. At this stage the skin strips off easily, and is very white and beautiful in texture and and appearanee. The ham forms the calf of the boot; the hoek easily adapte itself to the heel; and the leg above the fetlock constitutes the foot j the whole making a neat and elegant half boot, with an aperture sufficiënt foi the great toe to project through."—Andrew's Joiwney in South Amertca, vol. i. p. 26. |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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88
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grand breaking-in, they drive a whole herdof wild horses into the
corral. The corral was quite full of horses, most of which were young ones, about two or three years old. The capitar (chief Guacho), mounted on a strong steady horse, rode into the corral and threw his lasso over the neck of a young horse, and dragged him to the gate. For some time he was very unwilling to leave his comrades ; but the moment he was forced out of the corral his first idea was to gallop away: however, a timely jerk of the lasso checked him in the most effectual way. The peons now ran after him on foot, and threw a lasso over his fore-legs, just above the fetlock, and twitching it, they pulled his legs from under him so suddenly that I really thought the fall he got had killed him. In an instant a Guacho was seated on his head, and with his long knife, and in a few seconds, cut off the whole of the horse's mane, while another cut the hair from the end of his tail. This they told me was a mark that the horse had been once mounted. They then put a piece of hide into his mouth, to serve for a bit, and a strong hide halter on his head. The Guacho who was to mount arranged his spurs, which were unusually long and sharp, and while two men held the horse by his ears he put on the saddle, which he girthed extremely tight. He then caught hold of the horse's ear, and in an instant vaulted into the saddle; upon which the man who held the horse by the halter threw the end to the rider, and from that moment no one seemed to take any further notice of him. "The horse instantly began to jump in a manner which
made it very difficult for the rider to keep his seat, and quite different from the kick or plunge of an English horse: how- ever, the Guacho's spurs soon set him going, and off he galloped, doing everything in his power to throw his rider. " Another horse was immediately brought from the corral,
and so quick was the operation, that twelve Guachos were mounted in a space which I think hardly exceeded an hour. It was wonderful to see the different manner in which different horses behaved. Some would actually scream while the Guachos were girding the saddle upon their backs; some would instantly lie down and roll upon it; while some would stand without being held—their legs stiff, and in unnatural poeitions, their necks half bent towards their tails, and looking vicious and obstinate ; and I could not help thinking that I would not have mounted one of those for any reward that could be offered me, for they were invariably the most difficult to subdue. " It was curious to look around and see the Guachos on the
horizon, in different directions, tryrng to bring their horses back to the corral, which is the most difficult part of their work; for the poor creatures had been so scared there that they were unwilling to return to the place. It was amusing to see the antics of the horses—they were jumping and dancing in different ways, while the right arm of the Guachos was seen flogging them. At last they brought the horses back, apparently subdued and broken in : the saddles and bridles were taken off, and the young horses trotted off towards the corral, neighing to one another." |
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gerous to fall in with any of these troops. The wild horses
approach as near as they dare: they call to the loaded horse with the greatest eagemess, and, if the rider he not on the alert, and have not considerable strength of arm, and sharpness of spur, his beast will divest himself of his burden, take to his heels, and be gone for ever. Sir F. B. Head gives the following account of a meeting with
a troop of wild horses, where the country is more inhabited. Some poor captured animals are supposed to be forced along by their riders at their very utmost speed:—" As they are thus galloping along, urged by the spur, it is interesting to see the groups of wild horses one passes. The mares, which are never ridden in South America, seem not to understand what makes the poor horse carry his head so low, and look so weary.* " The little innocent colts come running to meet him, and then
start away frightened: while old horses, whose white marks on the flanks and backs betray their acquaintance with the spur and saddle, walk slowly away for some distance, then, breaking into a trot as they seek their safety, snort and look behind them, first with one eye and then with the other, turning their noses from right to left, and carrying their long tails high in the air." The same pleasing writer describes the system of horse-
management among the rude inhabitants of the plains of South America. They have no stables, no fenced pastures. One horse is usually kept tied at the door of the hut, fed scantily at night on maize; or at other times several may be enclosed in the corral, which is a circular space surrounded by rough posts, driven firmly into the ground. The mares are never ridden, or attempted to be tamed, but wander with their foals wherever they please. Miers, in his " Travels in Chili," thus describes the lasso,
simple in its construction, but all-powerful in the hands of the Guacho. " The lasso is a missile weapon used by every native of the
United Provinces and Chili. It is a very strong plaited thong of equal thickness, half an inch in diameter, and forty feet long, made of many strips of green hide, plaited like a whip- thong, and rendered supple by grease. It has, at one end, an iron ring above an inch and a half in diameter, through which the thong is passed, and this forms a running noose. The Guacho, or native Peon, is generally mounted on horseback when he uses the lasso. One end of the thong is affixed to his saddle girth : the remainder he coils carefully in his left hand, leaving about twelve feet belonging to the noose-end, in a coil, half of which he holds in his right hand. He then swings this long noose horizontally round his head, the weight of the iron ring at the end of the noose assisting in giving it, by a continued centrifugal motion, of sufficiënt force to project it the whole length of the line. " When the Guachos," says the same writer, " wish to have a
* An Englishman once attempted to ride a mare, but he was hooted and
pelted by the natives, and thought himself fortunate to escape without serioua ürjury. Sir John Carr, in his " JSorthera Summer," states that it is only in more modern times that mares began to be ridden in Bussia. |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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39
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When the Guacho wishes to take a wild horse, he mounts
one that has heen used to the sport, and gallops over the plain. As soon as he comes sufficiently near his prey, " the lasso is thrown round the two hind legs, and as the Guacho rides a little on one side, the jerk pulls the entangled horse's feet laterally, so as to throw him on his side, without endan- gering his knees or his face. Eefore the horse can recover the shock, the rider dismounts, and snatching his poncho or cloak from his shoulders, wraps it round the prostrate animal's head. He then forces into his mouth one of the powerful bridles of the country, straps a saddle on his back, and bestriding him, removes the poncho ; upon which the astonished horse springs on his legs, and endeavours by a thousand vain eiforts to disencumber himself of his new master, who sits quite com- posedly on his back, and, by a discipline which never fails, reduces the horse to such complete obedience, that he is soon trained to lend his whole speed and strength to the capture of his companions." These animals possess much of the form of the Spanish
horse, from which they sprung; they are tamed, as has been seen, with far less difficulty than could be thought possible; and, although theirs is the obedience of fear, and enforced at first by the whip and spur, there are no horses who so soon and so perfectly exert their sagacity and their power in the service of man. They are possessed of no extraordinary speed, but they are capable of enduring immense fatigue. They are frequently ridden fifty or sixty miles without drawing bit, and have been urged on by the cruel spur of the Guacho, more than a hundred miles, and at the rate of twelve miles in the hour. Like the Arab horses, they know no intermediate pace
between the walk and the gallop. Although at the end of a day so hard their sides are horribly mangled, and they are com- pletely exhausted, there is this consolation for them—they are immediately turned loose on the plains, and it will be their own fault if they are speedily caught again. The mare is occasionally killed for food, and especially on occasions of unusual festivity. General San Martin, during the war of independence, gave a feast to the Indian allies attached to his army, at which mares' flesh, and the blood mixed with gin, formed the whole of the entertainment. On such dry and sultry plains the supply of water is often
scanty; and then a species of madness seizes on the horses, and their generous and docile qualities are no longer recog- nized. They rush violently into every pond and lake, savagely mangling and trampling upon one another; and the carcases of many thousands of them, destroyed by their fcllows, have occasionally been seen in and around a considerable pool. This is one of the means by which the too rapid increase of this quadruped is, by the ordinance of Nature, prevented. In Chili a horse is not considered perfectly broken till he
can be brought up standing in the midst of his full speed on any particular spot; for instance, on a cloak thrown on the ground; or again, will charge a wall, and, rearing, scrape the surface with his hoofs. I have seen," says Mr. Darwin, " an animal bounding |
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with spirit, yet merely reined by a fbrefinger and thumb, taken
at full gallop across a court-yard, and then made to wheel round the post of a verandah with great speed, but at so equal a distance that the rider, with outstretched arm, all the while kept one finger rubbing the post, then making a demi-volte in the air with the other arm outstretched in a like manner, he wheeled round with astonishing force in the opposite direction. Such a horse is well broken; and although this at first may appear useless, it is far otherwise. It is only carrying that which is daily necessary into perfection. When a bullock is checked and caught by the lasso, it will sometimes gallop round and round in a circle, and the horse being alarmed at the great strain, if not well broken, will not readily turn like the pivot of a wheel. In consequence many men have been killed; for if a lasso once takes a twist round a man's body, it will instantly, from the power of the two animals, almost cut him in twain. On the same principle the races are managed. The course is only two or three hundred yards long, the desi- deratum being, to have horses that can make a rapid dash. The racehorses are trained not only to stand with their hoofs touching a line, but to draw all four feet together, so as at the first spring to bring into play the full action of the hind quarters. In Chili I was told an anecdote, which I believe was true, and it offers a good illustration of the use of a well broken animal. A respectable man riding one day met two others, one of whom was mounted on a horse, which he knew to have been stolen from himself. He challenged them; they answered by drawing their sabres and giving chase The man on his good and neet beast kept just ahead; as he passed a thick bush he wheeled round it, and brought up his horse to a dead check. The pursuers were obliged to shoot on one side and ahead. Then instantly dashing on right behind them, he buried his knife in the back of one, wounded the other, recovered his horse from the dying robber, and rode home! Animals are so abundant in these countrics that humanity
is scarcely known. Mr. Darwin was one day riding in the Pampas with a very respectable " Estanciero," when his horse being tired, lagged behind. The man often shouted to him to spur him, when I remonstrated that it was a pity, for the horse was quite exhausted; he cried: "Why not?—never mind. Spur him—it is my horse V' When, after some diffi- culty, he was made to understand that it was for the horse's sake that the spurs were not used, he exclaimed with great surprise : " Ah ! Don Carlos, qui cosa f" The idea had never bcfore entered his head. In England the powers of horses in swimming are but
little tested, but in South America the case is different, as shown by an incident mentioned by Mr. Darwin. " I crossed the Lucia near its mouth, and was surprised to observe how easily our horses, although not used to swim, passed over a width of at least six hundred yards. On mentioning this at Monte Video, I was told that a vessel containing some moun- tebanks and their horses being wrecked in the Plata, one horse swam seven miles to the shore. In the course of the day I was amused by the dexterity with which a Guacho forced a |
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VARIETIES OF THE HOUSE.
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10
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compact, and grows a furry coat in winter time, when his shoes
are "roughed" by the insertion of two or three steel screws to give him fbothold. The Canadian horse is most willing at collar, and altogether a serviceable and staunch animal. He is generally supposed to be of French origin, which is pro- bable, as he shows no remarkable "points." He is much neglected, fares hardly, and is seldom groomed, in the English scnse. "With a cross of the English horse this breed has produced some of the celebrated trotters, with which the Yankees have challenged and beaten the world in that peculiar pace. But this we shall defer speaking of at length till we come to " The Paces of the Horse." The Conestoga horse is a tail and somewhat leggy animal,
light in the carcass, found principally in Pennsylvania, where he is bred for carriage-purposes. Some of these horses stand 17 hands high. "We suspect them to be originally an English, Flemish, or Dutch importation. As some of our readers may remember Mr. Carter " the Lion King's " mammoth horse, " General "Washington," standing nineteen hands, exhibited in London a few years since, we may observe that, to the writer's knowledge, the " General" was bred in this country at Northampton. "When of good form and close ribbed up, the Conestoga horse fetches a long price, and has been used in the hunting field. The horses of the United States present every variety of the Old
"World; crosses of the English thorough-bred and of the Eastern horse being frequent. Much attention is paid in the States to the improvement of the breed. In the northern States horse races have been established and the usages of the British turf adopted. Indeed, our American cousins have improved their racehorses to a degree equal to our own, by sticking to the same blood. The renowned Shark is ancestor of many of the best Yirginian horses; Tallyho by Highflyer figures in the pedigrees of the racers of New Jersey; while at a later period they had the discrimination to buy the best produce, as well as some of our very first stallions, such as Precipitate, Diomed, Priam, Trustee, Glencoe, &c. They adhere too to the principles adopted by our earlier turf-men, of breeding only from stallions who .could stay a distance; "and very naturally," says Admiral Bous, " seeing that all their great prizes and matches vary from two to four miles. "We did the same until the commencement of the present century, when, the great stakes being made for shorter distances, it was soon ascertained that the sons of the stout old stallions could not win a 2,000 guineas stake against the blood of Bubens, Castrel and Selim. But if the Americans have bred for stoutness, we cannot blind ourselves to the fact, that though the American mare Prioress was the best four-mile mare in England in 1859, one half of the American racers brought to this country to do a good thing cannot last more than three quarters of a mile: such is the lottery of breeding race-horses. The com- parative stoutness of the American and English racehorse has yet to be decided." An attempt was made by Mr. Ten Broeck to win the Derby with the American horse Umpire, but failed for lack of quality and unskilful preparation. |
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restive horse to swim a river. He stripped off his clothes and
jumping on his back, rode into the water till it was out of its depth; then slipping off over the crupper he caught hold of the tail, and as often as the horse turned round, the man frightened it back by splashing water in its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the other side the man pulled himself on, and was flrmly seated, bridle in hand. before the horse gained the bank. A naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle. I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other. The tail of a horse is a very useful appendage. I have passed a river in a boat with four people in it, which was ferried across in the same way as the Guacho. If a man and horse have to cross a broad river, the best plan is for the man to catch hold of the pommel or mane, and help himself with the other arm." We have alrcady said that the wild horses of South and
North America retain the size and form of the well-bred horse, after three centuries. A collateral testimony against the theory of an entire change, such as we see in the extreme varieties of this animal, having been the result of domes- tication on the one hand, or a relapse to a state of nature on the other. The French introduced the horse into the Falkland Islands
in 1764, and since that period they have wonderfully multi- plied. The horses in these islands are always found on the eastern side of East Falkland, although there is no natural boundary, and that part of the island is by no means more fertile than the rest. The predominant colours of these horses are roan and iron grey. Mr. Danvin says they are rather small-sized, but are generally in good condition. In South America the horse was first landed at Buenos
Ayres in 1537, and the colony being for a time deserted it ran wild. In 1580, forty-three years after, horses were found wild at the Straits of Magellan; horses, too, that showed plainly their Spanish origin. Of the multitudes now ranging the Pampas we may form
some estimate by the fact that in 1850-1854 Monte Video and Buenos Ayres exported annually 90,000 lbs. of hides, and 9,500,000 lbs. of horsehair. The natives of Terra del Fuego are now well-stocked with horses, each man having six or seven, and all the women and children each their own horse. The horse is now found over the whole continent of America. Sir John Bichardson, in his Fauna Boreali-Americana, says it is numerous among the wandering Indians who hunt the buffalo in the Paskatchewan and on the Missouri III. THE HORSES OF NORTH AMERICA.
Of the several varieties of the horses of North America, the
most prominent are:—the Canadian, the Conestoga, and the English horse. The Canadian is a hardy animal, and found, as its name
denotes, in the northern states. It is an excellent sledge-horse, |
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and well adapted for light-wheeled vehicles. One of them
has been known to draw a light waggon over the ice a distance of ninety miles in twelve hours. He is small of stature but |
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VAEIETIES OF THE HOESE.
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41
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The breeds of the "West Indies are from England or the
mainland, those of Cuba from Spain. Professor Low,* incidentally speaking of the horses of North
America, observes:—" North America seems as well adapted to the temperament of the horse as any similar countries in the old continent. The Mexican horses are derived from, but somewhat deterioratod by, a less careful management. Mexican horses have likewise escaped into the woods and savannahs, and although they have not multiplied, as in the plains of the Plata, thence they have descended northward to the Eocky Mountains, and the sources of the Columbia. The Indians of the country have learned to pursue and capture them, employing them in hunting, and transporting their families from place to place—the first great change that has taken place for ages in the condition of the Eed Man of the North American woods. The highest ambition of the young Indian of these northern tribes, is to possess a good horse for the chase of the bufFalo. The Osages form large hunting parties for the chase of horses in the country of the Eed Canadian Eiver, using relays of fresh horses, until they have run down the wild herds. To steal the horse of an adverse tribe, is considered as an exploit almost as heroic as the killing of an enemy, and the distances that they will travel and the privations they will undergo in these predatory excursions are scarcely to be believed." Among the North American Indians the Camanchees held
the first rank as equestrians; racing was with them a constant and almost incessant exercise, and a fruitful source of gambling. Among their feats of riding is one described by Mr. Catlin, as having astonished him more than anything in the way of horsemanship ; and it is a stratagem of war familiar to every young man of the tribe. At the instant he is passing an enemy he will drop his body on the opposite side of the horse, supporting himself with his heel on the horse's back. In this position, lying horizontally, he will hang, whilst his horse is at his fullest speed, carrying with him his shield, bow and arrows, and lance, fourteen feet long, all or either of which he will wield with the utmost facility, rising and throwing his arrows over the horse's back, or under his neck, throwing himself up to his proper position, or changing to the other side of the horse if necessary. The actual way in which this is is done is as follows :—A short hair halter is passed under the neck of the horse, and both ends tightly braided into the mane, leaving a loop to hang under the neck and against the breast. Into this loop the rider drops his elbow suddenly and fearlessly, leaving his heel to hang over the back of the horse to steady him and enable him to regain the upright position. The followingverysingular custom prevailed among the tribe
of North American Indians known as the "Foxes." Of it Mr. Catlin was an eye-witness: " When," says he, " General Street and I arrived at Kee-o-kuk's village, we were just in time to see this amusing scène on the prairie, at the back of his village. The Foxes, who were making up a war-party to |
go against the Sioux, and had not suitable horses enough by
twenty, had sent word to the 'Sacs' the day before, ftccording to ancient custom, that they were coming on that day, at a certain hour, to ' smoke' that number of horses, and they must not fail to have them ready. On that day, and at the hour, the twenty young men who were beggars for horses were on the spot, and seated themselves on the ground in a circle, whero they went to smoking. The villagers flocked round them in a dense crowd, and soon after there appeared on the praririe, at half a mile distance, an equal number of young men of the Sac tribe, who had agreed each to give a horse, and who were then galloping them round at full speed, and gradually, as they went around in a circuit, coming nearer to centre, until they were at last close around the ring of young fellows seated on the ground. Whilst dashing about thus, each one with a heavy whip in his hand, as he came within reach of the group on the ground, selected the one to whom he decided to present his horse, and as he passed gave him the most tremendous cut with his lash over the naked shoulders : and as he darted round again, he plied the whip as before, and again and again with a violent ' crack,' until the blood could be seen trickling down over his naked shoulders, upon which he instantly dismounted, and placed the bridle and whip in his hands, saying, " Here, you are a beggar; I present you a horse, but you will carry my mark on your back.' In this manner they were all, in a little while, ' whipped up,' and each had a good horse to ride home and into battle. His necessity was such that he could afford to take the stripes and the scars as the price of the horse, and the giver could afford to make the present for the satisfaction of putting his mark on the other, and of boasting of his liberality." Mr. Catlin gives an interesting account of his faithful norse
" Charley," a noble animal of the Camanchee wild breed, which had formed as strong an attachment for his master as his master for him. The two halted generally on the bank of some little stream, and the first thing done was to undress Charley, and drive down the picket to which he was fastened, permitting him to graze over a circle limited by his lasso. On a certain evening, when he was grazing as usual, he managed to slip the lasso over his head, and took his supper at his pleasure as he was strolling round. When night approached, Mr. Catlin took the lasso in hand, and endeavoured to catch him, but he continually evaded the lasso until dark, when his master abandoned the pursuit, making up his mind that he should inevitably lose him, and be obliged to perform the rest of the journey on foot. Eeturning to his bivouac, in no pleasant state of mind, he laid down on his bear-skin and went to sleep. In the middle of the night he awoke whilst lying on his back, and, half opening his eyes, was petrified at beholding, as he thought, the huge figure of an Indian standing over him, and in the very act of stooping to take his scalp! The chili of horror that paralysed him for the first moment held him still till he saw there was no need of moving; that his faithful horse had played shy till he had filled his belly, and had then moved up from feelings of pure affection, and taken hig |
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* Domestic Q.uadrupeds of the British Ielands. Longmans.
F |
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VARIETIES OF THE HOKSE.
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42
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position with his fore feet at the edge of his master's bed, and
bis head hanging oyer him, in which attitude he stood fast asleep. When sunrise came the travelier awoke and beheld his
faithful servant at a considerable distance, picking up his breakfast among the cane brake at the edge of the creek. Mr. Catlin went busily to work to prepare his own, and having eaten it, had another half-hour of fruitless endeavours to catch Charley, who, in the most tantalizing manner, would turn round and round, just out of his master's reach. Mr. Catlin, recollecting the evidence of his attachment and dependence afforded by the previous night, determined on another course of proceeding, so packed up his traps, slung the saddle on his back, trailed his gun, and started unconcernedly on his route. After advancing about a quarter of a mile he looked back, and sa-w Master Charley standing with his head and tail very high, looking alternately at him and at the spot where he had been encamped, and had left a little fire burning. Thus he stood for some time, but at length walked with a hurried step to the spot, and seeing everything gone, began to neigh very violently, and, at last, started off at fullest speed and overtook his master, passing within a few paces of him, and wheeling about at a few rods distance, trembling like an aspen leaf. Mr. Catlin called him by his familiar name, and walked up with the bridle on his hand, which was put over Charley's head as he held it down for it, and the saddle was placed on his back as he |
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actually stooped to receive it. When all was arranged, and his
master on his back, off started the noble animal, as happy and contented as possible. Many of the American prairies swarm not only with buffaloes,
but with numerous bands of wild horses, proud and playful animals, rejoicing in all the exuberanee of freedom, and sweep- ing the earth with their flowing manes and tails. The usual mode of taking them by the North American Indians is by means of the lasso. When starting for the capture of a wild horse, the Indian mounts the fleetest steed he can get, and coiling the lasso under his arm, starts off at full speed till he can enter the band, when he soon throws the lasso over the neck of one of the number. He then instantly dismounts, lcaving his own horse, and runs as fast as he can, letting the lasso pass out gradually and carefully through his hands, until the horse falls half suffocated, and lies helpless on the ground. The Indian now advances slowly towards the horse's head, keéping the lasso tight upon his neck until he has fastened a pair of hobbles upon his fore feet; he now loosens the lasso, and adroitly casts in a noose round the lower jaw, the animal, meanwhile, rearing and plunging. Advancing warily hand over hand, the man at length places his hand over the animal's eyes, and on its nose, and then breathes into its nostrils, on which the horse becomes so docile and thoroughly conquered, that his captor has little else to do but to remove the hobbles from bis feet, and ride or lead it into camp. |
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CHAPTER V.
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THE HORSES OF ETJROPE.—TURKEY, GREECE : SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA : HUNGARY : POLAND, PRUSSIA : DENMARK AND
HOLSTEIN: NORWAY, SWEDEN, FINLAND AND LAPLAND : AUSTRIA, BAVARIA: HOLLAND, BELGIUM : FRANCE : ITALY : SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. |
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We shall not dweil at great length on the horses of Europe,
inasmuch as the original races of that quadruped are, except in some few isolated instances, almost without a history; and in more modern times, the continual intercourse among the more civilized countries of the continent has so blended and toned down the distinctive charaeteristics of race, as to make absolute and clear lines of demarcation impossible. Never- theless, a few brief paragraphs, arranged systematically, and travelling westward until, in our next chapter, we shall reach our own " tight little island," are necessary to our plan, and we begin with TURKEY IN EUROPE.
Our general notice of the Barb, Toorkman, and Arab, in
" the Horses of Africa and Asia," dispenses with the necessity of much remark on the Turkish horse. The term " Turk" for two centuries was a general one, meaning any horse that came from the Sultan's or even the Shah's dominions. The Byerley, Helmsley, Acaster, Belgrade, and other " Turks" |
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thus came from Buda (in Hungary), Belgrade (Servia), Con-
stantinople, Syria, Tunis, Tripoli and Morocco; a sufficiently wide range to have furnished us with horses bearing the same name, but of widely different parent stock. The modern Turkish horse originally, would be the Greek
horse of the countries oncecomprised in the Lower Empire. The irruption of the Turks into Europe in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries brought with that nation of cavalry the Asian horse in myriads, while the African horse, in like way, made, under the fierce followers of Islam, a similar invasion of the Spanish peninsula. Though fine and stately horses are seen in various parts of Turkey, they are, from the neglect of the European Turk of the first principles of breeding, generally importations from Asia or Africa. The horses of the Northern provinces—Wallachia, Moldavia, and on the banks of the Pruth—partake more of the Cossack character, though oi better size and roundness, owing to superior and more persistent natura! pasturage. |
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43
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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extensive pasture-grounds, divided into equal compartments,
and all of them having convenient sheds, under which the horses may shelter themselves from the rain or the sun. From these studs a larger kind of horse than that of the Cossacks is principally supplied, and more fit for the regular cavalry troops, and also for pleasure and parade, than common use. The remounts of the principal corps in Germany are derived hence; and from the same source the great fairs in the different states of the German empire are occasionally supplied. The stud of the Russian Countess Orloff Tshesmensky, in
the province of Yalonese, contains thirteen hundred and twenty horses, Arabs, English, natives, and others. The ground attached to it amounts to nearly eleven hundred acres; and the number of grooms, labourers, and others, is more than four thousand. The sum realised by the sale of horses is of considerable annual amount; and they are disposed of not only on the spot itself, but in the regular markets both of St. Petersburgh and Moscow. Of the most recent improvers of the Russian horse, foremost
stands Baron Ippolyte Petroffski, who with Mr. Aveson as his stud-groom, and George Dockeray as his trainer and jockey, has given of late years an immense impetus to racing among the Russian nobility. A recent writer thus sketches the Baron and his stud:— Sixty-three summers have done little to blaneh his hair,
dim his eye, or bend his light wiry frame erect, as becomes a captain of the Imperial Gruard. The English Stud Bookis his Koran, and in his library may
also be found every Racing Calendar and Sporting Magazine that has ever seen the light. He is himself an author, and has been at the pains of publishing, in the Russian language, a most complete synopsis of the celebrated stallions in England from 1811. It enters with the greatest accuracy into the number of years they were in the stud, the price at which they covered, and the dams of their most celebrated winners. Upwards of 135 paintings or engravings of racers and sporting subjects adorn his rooms; and if there was an alarm of fire, we are afraid that his gallery of old Dutch and Italian masters would bo left to take their chance, till those well-loved forms of Derby and Leger renown were safe out of harm's way. His views upon racing are best told in his own simple way;
but we must premise that Elliot, Robinson, Dockeray, Ford, Yates, &c., have wrought a wondrous change in training, and have no greater admirer than himself. " You like the horses of old stock," he says, in writing to a friend, " and old form, which I also prefer to the new-fashioned, who win great prizes on a short distance. Our Russian men are quite ignorant in training. The English who come here are mostly grown-up boys, too heavy for riding, and also inexpert. They cannot understand yet the difference between our climate and the English. "We have only two months to prepare horses for the races, that is May and June. The horses are led 500 versts,* with all the road inconveniences. They change water • A verst is two-thirds of a mile.
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GREECE.
In ancient times the horses of Greece stood high in esteem;
witness the numerous representations of horsemen on friezes of their temples : that of the temple of Minerva, in the Acropolis of Athens, is the best known. "We may observe, en passant, that while the sculptured representations of the men are perfect, if these horses are faithful, they were heavy animals, with poor quarters as compared with their forearms, preternaturally heavy forehand, the shortest of short necks, and a long barrel. They bear a resemblance ia many points to the German horse of the middle ages. It is probable these were exaggerations of the bad points of the Thessalian horses, so much lauded in ancient writers. The modern Greek horse has not kept pace with his improvement in other countries, and has merely the credit of being a surefooted animal with con- siderable strength. SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RUSSIA.
Of late years the indigenous breeds of this portion of the
empire have been greatly improved, especially in the charac- tenstics of blood for the saddle, and size for the heavy cavalry of the "crack" regiments; this has been effected by the importation of stallions from England, Prussia, and Holstein— the two latter furnishing the cross for the heavier animal, and England the blood, speed, and bottom. he kmperor Nicholas of Russia established races in differ-
en parts of his vast empire for the improvement of the Cos- ract ♦ n ^^ 0n the 20th of September, 1836, the eiKhtee }&k took Place- The distance to be run was rather morTth °r ^^ f°Ur &Ild a nalf Frencl1 leagues—
stud of the C an 1 m^es" Twenty-one horses of the military which was w0rni t;e°l0fiUral Started f°r <*». ** *""* "f
bv a W. v mtweMy-five mmutes and nineteen seconds |
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The second race
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ngmg to the Cossack Bourtche-Tchurunief.
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was disputed by twenty-three horses of the
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Kirghese Cossacks, and wWv ■ a a n
a„A r. , ,' uu wnicb was won m twenty-five mmutes
and five seconds by the horse of the Cossack Siboka-Isterlai.
for T w! y tHe Wrs of the two first heats strove
tor the pomt of honour T>,Q „ - i «.„~ -cf t. i ne c°urse was now twelve versts—
three French leagues, or about six miles and three quarters.
It W.TO1H fifteen minutes by the horse of the Cossack Bourtche-Tchurumef. The Russian noblemen who were Present, admirmg the speed and stoutness of the horse, were anxious to purchasehim; butthe Cossack repHed that "AU the |
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goldl
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m the world should not separate him from his friend, his
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brothe:
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In Southern and Western Russia, and in Russian Poland,
the breeding of horses has lately occupied the attention of the land proprietors, and has constituted a very considerable part of their annual income. There is scarcely now a seignorial residence to which there is not attached a vast court, in four large divisions, and surrounded by stables. In each of the angles of this court is a passage leading to beautiful and |
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* Journal de» ïïaras, Jan. 1837, p. 266.
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VAUIETIES OF THE HOUSE.
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is very little betting, and that has been principally introduced
by the English jockeys, who are too true to their old Tatter- sall's instincts. The Toola Meeting is on July 8th, and on August 18th the one at Crenavoy begins. Here the Baron has lately beat the Government on their own ground; but the advantage of home training is always so great, that the Emperor has generously refused to avail himself of the slightest advantage. Since 1863 these races have come off at Tsarskoe Selo, to gïve the private studs a better chance to compete. Lebedan, on September 12th, is the fourth and last meeting ; and here, in 1859, the Petroffski " boy in yellow" literally carried off every prize. Russia may well rank George Dockeray as the worthy servant
of a worthy master; 11,654 silver roubles were their spoüs of 1859; and the future young "Uiflemen" are not likely to lessen the score. HUNGARY.
The immense plains watered by the Theiss and the tributaries
of the Danube have always possessed a serviceable and valuable race of horses, light-spirited and active. "We are told (credat Judceus) it was the practice of the Hungarian cavalry to slit their nostrils to prevent their neighing, which often proved troublesome in war. In the early part of the present century, a wealthy noble-
man named Count Hunyadi, of Urmeny, commenced breeding horses with great zeal; and having formed a stud of the very best the country could produce, he sedulously improved it by importations of the best foreign blood. He likewise established public races, and a Racing Calendar. At first these races had only the Count's own horses as competitors, but other neigh- bouring princes and noblemen soon saw the advantages which he had derived from his plan of breeding, and foliowed his example. Bright, who travelled through Hungary in 1814, saw the Hungarian Uacing Calendar, and I shall give my readers a specimen of its first page, from Dr. Bright's work. " This meeting took place May 22nd, 1814, between three
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and food, and suffer much before they come to the racing place.
All that is not easy for a racing horse to endure. Our prizes are not worth carrying food and water, and the horse itself in equipage. It would be supportable yet, for once, to travel 500 versts, but they go again 200 versts and run, and then again 500 versts, and then 200 versts, and run again." The Baron breeds his horses at one of his estates, and
trains at another, where his string do their work in the winter, without shoes, on frozen snow, regularly harrowed for the purpose. The ground is, however, mostly flat, without any extent or variety of gallops. The breeding farm is bordered by a noble river of great width, and in summer, when the flies teaze the young foals to distraction, they dash in and swim, while their dams watch them placidly from the bank, and occasionally join in the sport. If a ten-stone by five-feet-eight figure is seen standing by, in a blue tunic, and trowsers tucked inside his boots, it is even betting that it is the Baron himself, meditating on Moscow or Crenavoy Meetings to come. Many of them have excellent hind-leg action, and their owner invariably attributes it to their early swimming habits. The brood mares alone number about 160, some of which are still unbroken, and most of them never trained. The blood is, strictly speaking, a cross between the Uussian and Asiatic mares, and the English horses imported by Government— Memnon, General Chassé, Van Tromp, Andover, &c.; and the stock are generally browns, of great length and on short legs, having all the Arab deficiency of shoulder, but catching the Eastern character in their fine eye and small nostrils, and hearing the Sir Hercules crest. The Baron also rather prides himself upon his breed of
trotting horses, and he gave for Barklay, one of the best sires of that stamp, 11,000 roubles*. "We believe that one of his best, once trotted eight versts under the sixteen minutes; and they are also used for racing in droskies on the ice, where the courses are marked out by bushes, and range from 15 to 25 versts. A Surplice and an Irish Birdcatcher brood mare have gone
out to the Baron's, along with Rifleman, who was purchased by his son for the Government. In 1859 his racing stud consisted of seventeen horses in training, fifty brood mares, twenty-five two-year olds, nearly as many yearlings and foals respectively, while Signal, Granite, and Bombardier are the principal sires. The Signals are his best racing stock. One of them out of Minerva is christened Maxfield after an English iriend; but its half-brother, a four-year old grey, of singular beauty, out of Vesta by Barefoot, has never yet been trained. The spring opens for training in April, and on June 7th the
racing season begins at Moscow, where the Baron gives 500 silver roubles in prizes. The Moscow Meeting then lasts for a month; they race for three days out of the seven, and have four or five races per day. The Jockey Glub, of which Baron Petroffski is an active member, have a stand of their own, and the horses are entered the night before at their rooms. There |
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" In this case, Yictoria and Capria ran the length of one
English mile, or eight hundred and forty-nine Vienna klafters, in two minutes and eleven seconds; but Cocoa remained the length of six horses behind. " That the ahove-described horses of this size and age, and
carrying this weight, did really accomplish the distance in the time stated, we testify by our names." (Here follows a long list of signatures of noblemen and others
present at the race.) |
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° The rouble ia 3j. 2d.
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VARIETIES OF THE HOESE.
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45
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inp^Sdi?erSeLered^d eT<3n increased his exertions
inpursuitofthis important object. "In the Burin», nf irir Je »n thirteen three-year-old mares o f C^8 before an assemblage of several thousand perso^ In tr' case the whole were divided into three aUotmen s 2h f a separate race. In the first, Justina Ï the WhTS course, which is one thousand and eiehtv Jv ,, , he in three minutes and fifty-eightstonds^ T* ^^
an hour, the three snccessrUxnarerat' ^ ^T reStmg f°r Lodoiska went over the ^se "t <*' ^ seconds." m tijee minutes and three
The Croatian Lorses are vp Ti
asserts that they retain th i Hungarian. Buffon than those of anv othJ . °n their teeth much hmger
Count Hunyaü Zl ' ™t7' 'PoIand 6XcePted-
whose name on the V„ r t. successor ^ Count Batthyani, belton, is famüraer tof Vf' and iQ the "first %W' ^ The Count sent to w g earS as a "Gehold word." Races are now run -„^ some first-rate English blood. a^d in other nart, S 7 nah°nal fasWo11 near Buda-Pesth, Put Hungary £ .1p, ?^ ^ the ^P0^ blood h™
8 ry m possesswn of a breed of first-class horses. P^ahasbvnoP°LANI)'PRUSSIA-
m*nt of the horse ° "T\ ^ in the race of imPro™" lead- During thé w ■ rather in this resPect taken a superiority 0f the O™ "* * She con1uered trance, the
pe»*any has estabHslT^ ^^ ^ """^ ImPerial las bo"ght a number 7f ^ ^^ breeding Studs> and large prices. 0t the Winners of our great races at a heavy, laTgef^" at°ut the mouth of the Vistula there is
draught aud agricultn , g breed of horses; wel1 sui*ed for
Of late yea?s*ra P-poses. «assia. our very best racers have gone to
«««c^ AND HolsteiNi
Ihe horses of Denmark Tr
the largest stature, especiall ÏTiem> ani Mecklenburg are of 16, and often 17 to 18, hand V tW°latter' '^ are USU&U^ the neck is too thick, the sh 8 u' They are heayily made : and the croups are narrow heavy'the backs to° 1(>ng, tut their appearance is so nobTI1IT ** ^ their fore Parts:
18 so high and brilliant, and tb" commanding, their action evident in every motion, that thi /^ and ^ are so potten, and they are selected Z * &T& Par<W and state and ceremony. GVery occasion of peculiar Before, however, we arrive at «,Q ,•
-a^eent horses we muTgW^^ C^ry °f *» ^vadual to improve the L!S v ,attemPt of one noble 18laud of Alsen, separated fr0m f ^ °f Ws- In ** ^ow channel s thfni fT ' duchy of S1eswick by a W*- His ^i1^*1^/ the Duke of AugusL- -^ementof thrnifot^ ^ ^ ^ ^^
____________ ^er- Xt contams thirty mares of |
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pure blood, and fifteen or sixteen stallions of the same grade;
and all of them selected with care from the best thorough-bred horses in England. Notwithstanding this selection of pure blood, or rather in its peculiar selection, it has been the object of the duke to produce a horse that shall be useful for the purpose of pleasure, commerce, and agriculture. Some of the stallions are reserved for his own stud ; but with regard to the others, such is the spirit with which this noble establishment is conducted, and his desire to improve the race of horses in Sleswick, that he allows more than six hundred mares every year, belonging to the peasantry of the isle of Alsen, to be covered gratuitously. He keeps a register of them, and in the majority of cases he examines the mares himself, and chooses the horse which will best suit her form, her beauties, her defects, or the purpose for which the progeny is intended. It is not therefore surprising that there should be so many good horses in this part of Denmark, and that the improvement in Sleswick and in Holstein, and also in Mecklenburg, should be so rapid and so universally acknowledged. Bae "VVilson, in his Travels in Denmark, gives the following
on the royal stables :—" The floors of the king's stables at Copenhagen are not laid with smooth pavement, but rough stones, on an inclined plane. This is said to prevent lameness,* which often happens when the animals stand in their own litter. The mangers are high and semicircular. The cribs are of iron, and the name of «ach animal inscribed over his stall. The horses of the king are calculated at eleven hundred. The skin of a horse is suspended from the ceiling of the Museum, in the act of flying. These animals are |
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" -----------of mighty power,
Compact in frame, and strong in limb.'"
There is another circumstance which should not be forgotten
■—it is that by which alone the preservation of a valuable breed can be secured—it is that to the neglect of which the deteriora- tion of every breed must be partly, at least, and, in many cases, chiefly traced. The duke in his stud, and the peasants in the surrounding country, preserve the good breeding mares, and will not part with one that has not some evident or secret fault about her. There is, however, nothing perfect under the sun. This
determination to breed only from horses of pure blood, although care is taken that these horses shall be the stoutest of their kind, has lessened the size and somewhat altered the pecuhar character of the horse in the immediate districts; and we must go somewhat more southward for the large and stately animal of which previous mention has been made. The practice of the country is likewise to a certain degree unfriendly to the full development of the Augustenburg horse. The pasturage is sufficiently good to develope the powers of the colt, and few things contribute more to his subsequent hardihood than his living on these pastures, and becoming accustomed to the vicis- situdes of the seasons: yet this may be carried too far. The Sleswick colt is left out of doors all the year round, and, except • Wo should 3»7 its effect would be just the controrj.
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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46
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highly amusing to observe the frequent altercations between
them; each endeavouring to spare his own horse. Their affec- tion for their horses is so great that I have seen them shed tears when they have been driven beyond their strength. The expe- dition, however, with which these little animals proceed is sur- prising, when we consider the smallness of their size, which hardly exceeds that of a pony. The roads being universally good throughout Sweden, they frequently do not relax from a gallop, from one post-house to another." The Finland horses are yet smaller than the Swedes; not
more than twelve hands high. They are beautifully formed and very neet. They, like the Swedes, are turned into the forests in the summer, and must be fetched thence when they are wanted by the traveller. Although apparently wild, they are under perfect control, and can trot with ease at the rate of twelve miles in the hour. Fish is much used, both in Finland and Lapland, for the
winter food of horses and cattle. Kerguelen tells us in his Voyage to the North, speaking of
Iceland, that there are numerous troops of horses in this cold and inhospitable country, descended, according to Mr. Anderson, from the Norwegian horse, but, according to Mr. Horrebow, being of Scottish origin. They are very small, strong, and swift. There are thousands of them in the mountains which never enter a stable ; but instinct or habit has taught them to scrape away the snow, or break the ice, in search of their scanty food. A few are usually kept in the stable; but when the peasant wants more he catches as many as he needs, and shoes them himself, and that sometimes with a sheep's horn. The Lapland horse, according to Berenger, is small, but active
and willing—somewhat eager and impatient, but free from vice. He is used only in the winter season, when he is employed in drawing sledges over the snow, and transporting wood, forage, and other necessaries, which in the summer are all conveyed in boats. During the summer these horses are turned into the forests, where they form themselves into distinct troops, and select certain districts, from which they rarely wander. They return of their own accord when the season begins to change and the forests no longer supply them with food. AUSTRIA, BAVARIA.
The remarks made on the horses of Poland and Hungary
will apply in a great measure to those of Austria proper. Bavaria has, especially, a valuable, but rather sluggish descrip- tion of horse, answering in some respects to the old German " destrier," whereon the armour-clad knights of the middle ages were mounted: this is suitable for heavy dragoons, but would be all the better for a little more " blood." In 1790, a very superior Arab, called Turkmainath,* was
imported for the imperial stud, and his stock became cele- brated, not only in Hungary, but throughout most of the German provinces. In 1859, the Archduke Maximilian, brother to the emperor, purchased some valuable racers and * We shrewdly suspect, from other reasons than the name, that this was
no Arab at al], but a Toorkman. |
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when the snow renders it impossible for him to graze, he is,
day and night, exposed to the cold, the wind, and the rain. "We are no advocates for a system of nursing laborious to the owner and injurious to the animal, but a full develop- ment of form and of power can never be acquired amidst neglect and privation. NORWAY, SWEDEN, FINLAND, LAPLAND, ICELAND.
The horse of Norway is larger than the Swedish or Finland,
but is equally hardy and manageable, attached to its owner, and its owner to it. The roads in Norway are the reverse of what they are in Sweden: they are rough and almost impas- sable for carriages, but the sure-footed Norwegian seldom stumbles upon them. Pontoppidan speaks of their occasional contests with bears and wolves, and chiefly the latter. These occurrences are now more matter of story than of actual fact, but they do sometimes occur at the present day. When the horse perceives any of these animals, and has a mare or foal with him, he puts them behind him, and then furiously attacks his enemy with his fbre legs, which he uses so expertly, as generally to prove the conqueror; but if he turns round in order to strike with his hind legs, the bear closes upon him immediately and he is lost. Of the horses of the islands of Faroe, which belonged to the
Danish crown, Berenger speaks in terms of much praise. He says that " they are small of growth, but strong, swift, and sure of foot, going over the roughest places with such certainty that a man may more surely rely upon them than trust to his own feet. In Suderoe, one of these islands, they have a lighter and swifter breed than in any of the rest. On their backs the inhabitants pursue the sheep, which are wild in this island; the pony carries the man over places that would be otherwise inaccessible to him—follows his rider over others—enters into the full spirit of the chase, and even knocks down and holds the prey under his feet until the rider can take possession of it." TJie Swedish horses in general, says Mr. Lloyd (Field Sports
of the North of Europe), "arehardyand capable of considerable exertion; their manes and tails are usually left in a state of nature ; they are seldom cleaned, and when in the stable, even in the most severe weather, are rarely littered down. This treatment of their horses arises as well from ignorance as neglect, on the part of the peasants. In saying this, however, I am willing to admit that many of them are almost as fond of these animals as if they were their own children. The average price of a good horse of the description I am now speaking of, may be taken at from five to eight pounds." Sir Capel Brooke, in his Travels in Sweden, thus speaks of the
country horse: " He is nimble and willing, almost entirely fed on bread composed of equal parts of rye and oatmeal. To this is added a considerable quantity of salt, and, if he is about to start on a long journey, a little brandy. While changing horses we were not a little entertained at the curious group formed by the peasants and their steeds breakfasting together; both oordially partaking of a large hard rye cake. The horses sometimes belong to three or even more proprietors : it is then |
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VAEIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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47
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muiters in England, and senHhe^Au^Tl J7~~
went to the imperial establishment of whthmen* .
after made, and the others contribute^ JS? "* T
mrprovement of the horses wherever hev 7 t0 ^ -K-aces liam V,™„ „_i_T.i-.i i • . •>
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army at a price almost incredibly small. For a horse of
the light cavalry he pays only one hundred and ten florins, for the dragoons one hundred and twenty, for the cuirassiers one hundred and forty, for the train one hundred and sixty, and for the artillery one hundred and eighty. It is a great element of power to possess at home such an immense resource against a time of war, at an expense so far below that which the powers of the west and south of Europe are compelled to incur. The facility with which the large bodies of Austrian cavalry,
their numerous and comparatively clumsy artillery, and enor- mous waggon-train were horsed and moved during the disas- trous Italian campaign of 1859, was due to this organised system of breeding for the army. The German running horses were probably Hungarian
horses, with an Eastern cross. HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
Though these countries possess good horses for harness and
saddle purposes, it is by their " long-tailed blacks," with their arched crests, profuse manes, and clumsy fetlocks, used in the funeral cortége, or, by their ponderous dray and waggon horses, that they are best known in England. The fleshy, broad, and roomy " Flanders mare" has been
proverbial for centuries. " Bluff King Harry's" unpolite exclamation in relation to his fiancée, Anne of Cleves, will be remembered. From some of the lighter of this stock we have had stately coach-horses ; and the cream-coloured Hanoverians in the royal state-carriage owe their origin to a kindred race. FRANCE.
" The horses of France are of all descriptions—but few of
them handsome, and fewer still fast-goers," says a recent sporting traveller. This is easily accounted for. There is not, and will not be, except in the very rare instances of imme- diate descent from imported blood, animals of that high class which result in England from a liberal and judicious expen- diture in every part of the country on procuring the best stock to breed from. Baron Charles Dupin says " Comparant ensuite la France avec les contrées voisines pour la richesse en chevaux et en troupeaux, il s'arrête devant la deproportion qu'elle présente sous ce point de vue avec la Grande- Bretagne." And it is probable this will remain so as long as we have the law of primogeniture, and France is without it. The expenses of the turf will never be supported in France in the same way as in England on that very account. In a country like France, where property is so divided, and in a country like England, where money is in such masses—the turf being a luxury as well as pleasure—becomes the enjoy- ment of the nobility of the land; the law of primogeniture preventing the division of estates, secures at once the expe- rience and the means of perpetuating the breed of horses of the first quaüty, from generation to generation. And to this may be added the long engrafted love of the horse among our yeomen, farmers, and all engaged in rural pursuits. In fact, |
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domrmons, and particularly at Buda in S ° Austmn
good effect which this will have on t^ Tf^' 0f the
can be no dispute, provided the - - h°rses there |
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race does not degenerate into
animal that, from his extrem° ^f' ^ exhibited m an injured or ruined in the struggle*3 y° mUSt meYltably be In Austria proner there is ü'
at Mezöhogyes, near Carlsbur |
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works of the Duke of Ra„ g' °f whlch we read in the
ment m the A„s*rianEwSar~ 'S the finest establish- ItstanTo;^/11!^6^ "* imPro-
,JT, °n forty ^nsand acres of the best |
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quaüty; and is surrounn1^ ; -. ,----------- —•-
kagues, by a broad andT ,? 7 °h extent'wHdl ü ^een
8^y feet wide. ft !Z f* ***» a*d ^ » broad plantation re/^t the cavalry a ™ ^d^ed to supply horses to of a good breed, which * ltS °tject is to obtain sta^ns |
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^ the provinces i? I ^ t0 Certain deP°ts &r the supply
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«* 4-eighT sipnr:d
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---------mares
are kept; two hundred additional
oxen are employed in cultivating the |
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ground.
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xne m • .
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«f these subdiS L mt° f0Ur e(lual Parts> and each
At the age of four VZ P°rtl0ns resembling so many farms.
tbe centre of the if w-r y0Ung horses are aU colleeted in ö* best animals J'f™^. A selection is first made of mfnt)inord suPPly the deficiencies in the establish- selection is then raad\f T * °U ihe Same io0^- A second
Zwever, are sent ° *>r the use of the other: none of these, borses that are not of l 7 ^ are five 7*™ °ld 5 but the by auction, or sent to TClent Talue to be selected are sold errcumstances may requi amy t0 remount the cavalry, as Thewhole number■ 0M,
stallions, brood-mares u at Present here, including the Tbe persons employed Z S, ^ fiUies' * three thousand. care of the animals, and th Cültivatio11 of the ground, the generally, are a major dir* Jttana8eiQent of the estabHshment eloven hundred and seven^ nrJ-Welve subaltern officers, and Theimperialtreasur^aXr^
year one hundr-ei and ei^hfp110?!.t0 the estabHshment every dollar or florin is in value ab + oUSand fiorins (the half rix"
« reimWsed by the sale ou 2* U EngHsh money)> and which are sent every year to th ed and m? staUions'
bousaad floiins ^e provmees at the price of one
to the cavalry. The other LT ° °f the borses supplied
f-d for byle pro^iff^ ? ^ ^scription'are todefr^ and dls d ray aÏ ï^* Ü re^red
estate-a fana 0Q ^ƒ' ,Tlus ls' ^refore, an immense ^aged on accoun TT ^-T^ a ^ in proportion,
°°asiderable revenue Vf 'T^ and which produces a ^chis attained7i :f ependen% «f the principal object best Wds of horses PT?pagatr ^ nrultipHcation of the 8' lt Can always supply the wants of the |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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48
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Frenchmen generally, though a few rare exceptions may be
found to prove the rule, do not understand, and therefore do not admire thorough-bred horses. Beyond the army and the court, there are not many Frenchman but would be content with a moderate priced horse; and would rather avoid, we believe, the extra care and attention which a higher-bred animal might subject him to. The French, as far as our experience goes, are an economical people, not likely to encou- rage any expense which they possibly could do without; and therefore are in the main content with their present breed of horses. There are no hounds kept in the provinces, because there are no primogeniture estates of twenty thousand pounds a year to support them; there are no subscription packs for the same reason as there is no private one; property is so extensively divided, that if it secures comforts, they are satisfied, and are too wise to embark in any thing which they deern extravagant. There is no encouragement to stimulate the breed of hunters, and the breed of blood horses will, we suspect, stül remain in the hands of the French Govern- ment, rather than be taken up by private breeders. From the time of Napoleon I. the practice has prevailed in
France for the government to send stud horses into the different provinces to assist the French farmer in the improvement of his horses, but with little advantage, as we shall note here- after. This is absolutely necessary, for the French farmer employs so little capital that it would interfere too much with his economy to pay a price for a good stallion. Louis Philippe, albeit no sportsman, at the earnest soli-
citation of his eldest son the Duke of Orleans, founded the great hippodrome, or race-course at the royal demesne of Neuilly. Though personally without taste for the pleasures of the turf, as a national recreation, he could not fail to see the importance of encouraging the breeding of horses upon a better principle than that of merely crossing the soft-boned and heavy Flanders mare with the hardy but clumsy Norman stallion. With an eye to war and to commerce, the astute " old Ulysses "— whose cunning however overshot the mark, and sent him wandering like the old Greek whose name was aptly applied to him—saw that this branch of rural pursuits must be advantageous. Accordingly, the royal stud in Nor- mandy was conducted on an immense scale. A writer in 1840 says, " The stud of stallions here is enormous; and when such horses are found in it as Lottery, Oadland, Pickpocket, Dangerous, Juggler, Teetotum, Mameluke, Young Emilius, Cleveland, and an endless et cetera of minor stars, it will be owned they have gone the right way to work. These horses during the season are sent all over the country." If they have gone "the right way to work " in procuring such stallions, they have gone "the wrong way to work" in the use of them, in thus travelling them like our cart-stallions. In this we are confirmed by an incidental remark of Admiral Rous, which we have this instant stumbled over in Baily's Magazine of Svorts and Pastimcs for April 1860. The gallant turfsman gayS:—«In France they order things differently : in addition to liberal prizes, the Government has purchased our best |
stallions, whose services are given to the public at a cheap
rate. If in this country we pursued the latter policy, we should deteriorate our breed, because it would induce persons to breed trom ordinary mares with a view to obtain a valuable marketable article by a crack stallion. The first-class horses would be overworked, and an inferior animal would be the natural production." This then is one of the " things" they do not manage
better in France. The Duke of Orleans—whose melancholy death, by being thrown from his phaeton, in 1842, probably was the turning-point which led mainly to the expulsion of the Orleans dynasty, and thence to a republic, an empire, and a military despotism—was an ardent admirer of the race-horse. His visit to Goodwood, and his victory with Beggarman, for the Goodwood Cup, took place in 1840: a feat twice since performed by French horses—by Jouvence, in 1853, and by Count Lagrange's Monarque, in 1857. Since then a French horse, Gladiateur, won both Derby and Leger in 1865, and a French mare, Fille de F Air, was victrix in the Oaks in 1864. The ex-emperor of the French, during his twenty years reign, gave an immense impetus to the breeding of a better class of horse. The most sedulous attention was given in all the imperial haras to procure the best crosses which money could obtain, with the view of propagating in France an animal of blood, bone, and symmetry, to rival our best chargers and hunters; while thorough-breds for the turf were not neglected, though, on the whole, treated as a sub- sidiary desideratum — substance being preferred to speed. According to a recent survey, France possesses 2,750,000 horses, of every description; of which 1,440,000 were mares; a great proportion of which were used in breeding mules. Besides these, there are annually 30,000 horses imported into France for sale, or with the express purpose of improving the breed. Most Frenchmen of fortune are ambitious to have first-rate English horses, and will give high prices for them. Two-thirds of the French horses are devoted to purposes of
light work, and possess a certain degree, and that gradually increasing, of Eastern blood. There is room, however, for a great deal more than the French horse usually possesses. One-third of the horses are employed in heavy work; 70,000 in post work; and about the same number are registered as fit for military use, although not more than half of them are on actual service. The ascertained number of dcaths is about one in twelve or thirteen, or leaving the average age of the horse at twelve. This speaks strongly in favour of the humanity of the French, or the hardihood of the horses, for it exceeds the average duration of the life of the horse in Eng- land by more than two years. Calculating the average value of the French horse at 400 francs, or 16Z. 13s. 4d,, there results a sum of about 160,000,000 francs, or rather more than six millions and a half sterling, as the gross vab?« of this species of national property. * It must be supposed that so extensive a country as France
possesses various breeds of horses. Auvergne and Poitou produce good ponies and galloways; but the best French |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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49
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market, instead of being one of the most uncertain and
unprofitable modes of using the land, it yields more than an average return. The establishment of races in almost every part of France
has given a spur to the breeding and improvement of the horse which eannot fail of being exceedingly beneficialthrough- out the whole of the French territory. Nor has the Republic been slow, considering the terrible devastation of the recent war and the exhaustion occasioned by the ruinous indem- nity to Germany, in re-establishing the public breeding establishments. The English thorough-bred horse has been preferred to the native Arabian. A great many of the best English stallions have been purchased for the French studs, and have been beneficially employed in improving, and often creating, the hunter, the racer, and the better class of horses. It has been stated that the most valuable native horses are
those of Normandy; perhaps they have been improved by the English hunter, and occasionally by the English thorongh- bred horse ; and on the other hand, the English roadster, and the light draught horse, have derived considerable advantage from a mixture witb the Norman ; not only in early times, when WïUiam the Conqueror was so eager to improve the horses of his new subjects by means of those of Norman blood, but at many succeeding periods. A certain number of Normandy horses used to be purchased
every year by the French government for the use of the other departments. This ied occasionally to considerable trickery and evil. None of the Norman horses were castrated until they were three, or sometimes four years old; and then it frequently happened that horses of superior appearance, but with no pure blood in them, were sold as belonging to the improved breed, and it was only in their offspring that the cheat could be discovered. The government now purchases the greater part of the Normandy horses in their first year, and brings them up in the public studs. They cost more money, it is true; but they are better bred, or become finer animals. It is stated in the journals that the Norman horses,
which were encouraged rather from political considera- tions, are to be proscribed from the national haras ; many of them now find their way to Tattersall's establishment, and are bought by a number of the dealers and livery-stable keepers to be used as carriage and saddle horses. They are not of the very first class in either capacity. The necessity of a stud-book, whenever horses are of sufficiënt
value to deserve a record of their descent, is self-evident. The first work of this kind in France was drawn up as late aa 1837. This fact alone warrants what to some persons may consider as savouring of insular prejudice in some of our pre- cedent remarks. This book contains the names of 215 stallions, of pure English blood, imported into France, or foaled there; 266 Barbs, Arabs, Turkish, or Persian horses; 274 mares, of pure English blood; and 41 Barbary or Turkish mares. Their stock is also registered. This work forms an epoch in the |
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M. Houel has published an interen™ ^. i
™netiesofthe horse in France. rTsS^L ï °? ^
the Romans there were w %o****J**» the W of W and the suxnpter or pack-horse The o7 ™~
draught-horse, was comparativelv or mriE i agG' °r personsof theHgheststationsufere, .f ^^ 5 and 6Ten
drawn by oxen. Oreat ca^t^™tol» M^ the strength and speed of th Jt f PreS6rTe °r to renew blood was diligently sou^ht 7ar-horse> and Afirican or Arab Hsh Cleveland breed thfï* , ammal' tüe *JTe of the Eng- ofthecoach-horse wa«l mest and st™ngest description was found too valuabW ^T^ By deSrees> this ^se
for a long journev -J °F a hacW, a^ too high-trotting gradually introduced QnïT f100^ movinS animal was of fasHon, and in ]W , ï argCT ^ not Srw 1uite out aQ object of muoh 2 ï Y rearinS of this animal became ^ed too slowTJ ™ t0 the fermer- A* ^ they were <*tained of ICLT^T' ^ by degreeS a W *as
without much sacrifi 77er actl0n and considerable speed, most valuable 2 ^tT^' and ^7 ™w constitute a Houel, "seen^iT' Ve not elsewhere," says, M. ^ póst-car^f0rT f ** "^ ^ *» «^ *
^ergetic bevond' J th.Vam-cart- They are enduring and fciver, or at the dr Tf^ At the ™ce of the ^rutal P^t forth their strenÏh ^ff ^ ™™-c™s™S ^p, they otter horses wo^lf? , d they keeP their COIldition when litöe Norman cart h n6gleCt and W treatment." The TheNonnan horses"-^' .?'PerhaPs> the best for farm-work.
northern provinces of p Same observation applies to all the Hcking or vicious one i V^CQ—ave very gentle and docile. A with few exceptions t * unknown there > but they are, first to last. The re! ^f^ ^^ tyranny and cmelty from
necessary where there ie>n0T may to a cert£"n degree be principle of cruelty s^ulT ^^^ Perfect h°rSeS' but the the treatment of everv ti a^ extend» as it too often does, to We.however.give™^110^.
Widely propagated by Mr ^ age for tüe admirable system so case of Cruiser, Eng of' QaJey' feelillg convinced, by the horses, which have been subdued\aUd * d°Zen 0Öier entire
that terror produced by suffere that gentleman's system, create or confirm vice, than reaL^ ^^ is more ^ely to
general treatment of the horse tW ^ ^ In regard to the Prench than the English Jl^^ humanity among Wd, there are horrible scènes 7^1^ °* the other a^ng place in the streets of Z Xw^ h°™Wly sedbtr:r^&\ not be
Wh of agtuitl^Z^8 T ^^ *"- a
0 be . wh§at l7a^el°U and sPe^ation than it used totHscause-ithasWrf * a ? attri^aWe principaUy
P^per kind of pie "f ^t0 ^ '« that> ^ the - P ^ and mthl11 a ^ «üstance of a proper |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE,
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ÖO
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improvement of the horse in France. Of necessity, leading
French turfites have extensively patronised English trainers and jockeys, as Frenchmen neither understand training nor riding racehorses. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
In early tïmes, the Iberian Peninsula was celebrated for
a noble and high-couraged breed of horses, which owed their origin to African blood; and, in the days of Roman power, the' district near Calpe, our modern Gibraltar, was renowned for a breed of horse superior to any other European variety, even that known as Arabian. The trae Spanish horse is extremely handsome, well knit, clean-jointed, and easy in his paces. His disposition is playful, free from vice, and affectionate to his master. Rut, like his master, he has degenerated. Pliny's description of the " thieldones" or " tellers of their steps," applies accurately to the jennet of later times. Cordova, in Oatalonia, was once famous for its horses, but
their glory is departed: indeed, the taste of the Spanish breeder is so depraved that he prizes a horse for those very points which would make an English sportsman reject him from the stud, viz.:—forelegs far back, almost under the belly; shoulders, consequently, heavy and forward; and tail set on so low that it appears squeezed close to the hams. The Spanish grooms do not suffer their horses to He down, but keep them chained to a clean pavement by their feet. Within a few years, however, a healthy reaction has taken place, and some attempts have been made, by introducing in the various provinces Andalusian stallions, to check the degenerating progress so manifest in this mule-breeding land. Solleysel, in his " Parfait Mareschal" has left us a florid
description of the Spanish horse as he found him:—" I have seen many Spanish horses; they are extremely beautiful, and the most proper of all to be drawn by a curious pencil, or to be mounted by a king, when he intends to show himself in his majestic glory to the people. There will not be found any kind of horse more noble than they, and of their courage; I have seen their entrails hanging from them, through the number of wounds that they have received; yet they have carried off their rider safe and sound, with the same pride with which they brought him to the field, and after that they died, having less life than courage."* It is delightful to read accounts like these, and we know not which to admire most, the noble horse or the writer who could so well appreciate his excellence. Berenger, (Horsemanship, vol. i., p. 151,) whose judgment
can be fully depended on, thus enumerates their excellences and defects :—" The neck is long and arched, perhaps some- what thick, but clothed with a Ml and flowing mane; the head may be a little too coarse ; the ears long, but well placed; the eyes large, bold, and full of fire. Their carriage lofty, proud, and noble. The breast large; the shoulders sometimes thick; the belly frequently too full, and swelling; and the loin a little too low; but the ribs round, and the croup round and full, and * Solleysel, part i. p. 211i
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the legs well fonned and clear of hair, and the sinews at a
distance from the bone—active and ready in their paces—of quick apprehension; a memory singularly faithful; obedient to the utmost proof; docile and affectionate to man, yet full of spirit and courage." The common breeds of Spanish horses have nothing extra-
ordinary about them. The legs and feet are good, but the head is rather large, the forehand heavy, and yet the posterior part of the chest deficiënt, the crupper also having too much the appearance of a mule. The horses of Estremadura and Granada, and particularly of Andalusia, are most valued. The modern Spanish horse is fed upon chopped straw and
a little barley. When the French and English cavalry were there, during the Peninsular war, and were without prepara- tion put upon this mode of living, so different from that to which they had been accustomed, they began to be much debilitated, and a considerable mortality broke out among them; but, after a while, those who were left regained their strength and spirits, and the mortality entirely ceased. There was a time when the Lusitanian or Portuguese horses
were highly celebrated. The Roman historian Justin com- pares their swiftness to that of the winds, and adds, that many of them might be said to be born of the winds; while, on the other hand, Berenger, who lived at a time when the glory of the Spanish horse had not quite faded away, says, that " the Portugal horses are in no repute, and differ as much from their neighbours, the Spaniards, as crabs from apples, or sloes from grapes." (vol i., p. 308), He thus accounts for it. When Portugal was annexed to Spain, the latter country was pre- ferred for the establishment of the studs of breeding, and the few districts in Portugal which were sufftciently supplied with herbage and water to fit them for a breeding country were devoted to the rearing of horned oattle for the shambles and the plough, and mules and asses for draught. Hence, the natives regarded the horse as connected more with pomp and pleasure than with utility, and drew the comparatively few horses that they wanted from Spain. The present government, however, seems disposed to effect a reform in this, and there are still a sufficiënt number of Andalusian horses in Portugal, and Barbs easily procurable from Africa, fully to accomplish the purpose. ITALY.
There are some comparatively fast horses in Rome, the
descendants of Spanish jennets, or small Barbs. They are kept for racing on the Corso. These races take place during the Carnival, and commence about dusk. So soon as they are announced, the coaches, cabriolets, and carriages of every kind are drawn up in lines on each side of the street, leaving a space in the middle for the racers to pass through. Five or six horses are specially trained for this diversion. They are drawn up abreast in the Piazza del Popoio, exactly where the Corso, or race-street, begins. Balls with little sharp spikes are hung along their sides,
which serve as spurs; pieces of tinfoil dangle against their |
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VARIETIES OF THE HORSE.
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51
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Wtocks, which make a hissing noise as th^^d^
Col rea:lSPeed- A ^ " Str6tched ™ th"
^orso to prevent them startmg too soon, and the dropping of this is the signal to start. When all iS readv a trol S f
goons gallop through the street to clear the « Tt ^ sounds-the rope is droPPed-the grooms loo^iAS"S away g0 the nderless horses. The harder the poor devUs ™ the more they are pricked. Theunhmlr,, ■ i 7 '^ to comprehend the cause of ^ ^ TÏ'^ 6 ^
Plunge at each other, and a i^Tf' >ï' ^ and shouts and cries. of the excited! %^ ^^ The Some horses from fear cunnW PT ^ ^ t0 the UProar- and are shoved and 'goaded*' Tf "^ Stand St0ck-StiU' Astrong canvas screen is nt 7ï 7 ^ fOTCe and CrUelt^ This is the goal T h T ^ the b°tt0m °f the stre<*' of the horses in fhP aPPea™ce of a wall; but some Ml against it tear thT?8 °f ** ^ and terror> ^art
T^e Prize;afterahrgh * °ï °"* ** aWa*
marlet cloth or a ï ' f- T^7 a pieCe of fine PurPle or ™ing animal bv^ n " PïeSented t0 the 0Wner of the -^us Keimre-,nd ia s°ppoaea
do whh thTr f SUCh a ra°e' howCTer, can have little to
aspect tVp ï r°r ^f"^ or value of the h°««» ™ «™y their charaotP • ♦• ' however> en*er into the affair with all eve^kÏdof "fC eagemeSS °f feeHng' and are ^tj of
carnival thP t traVa§ance- During the first six days of the I-igH dZTv "e.fair1^ cWd accOTd-g to the age,
*e Wse? 0° au6 Tg' t- bUt °n the tW° kSt **
country fair SOrts and sizes, üke a Welsh race at a At Ancona, a eun i= « t
wam those at the f Start the norses>in order to way and to be read T ^ °^ tbe course to Set out 0I< tüeir
half-way another 7 eceive tliem5 when they have reached passing the goal. ^ IS fired' and a tnird on tne Tictor Macgill, in ]^g
very curious and lau ^vi118 ■a°°^ °f Travels, mentions a these races, which tooki °ircumstance in connection with this nature. He says « t at "A-ncona on an occasion of of Roman soldiers, under ° SUaid tHe °°UrSe' a great numl3er side of it. The morning *?*' &™ generall7 ranged on each from the north and WM „a ^ fast race>the wind blew rather coH. I Was sitting with his |
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Excellency the Governor, Signor Vidoni, when a messenger
arrived from the General, with his compliments, requesting that the race might be deferred till another day, as he thought the weather too cold to put his troops under arms. The Governor replied to him, that, ' As the weather was not too cold for the ladies, he thought it was not too much so for Roman soldiers.' I have seen, on a day which only tkrealened rain, a guard of Roman soldiers turn out, every one of whom had an umbrella under his arm, the drummer only excepted."* Shades of Caasar and Brutus! could ye have witnessed this, what would have been your emotions? could ye have fore- seen such effeminacy among the descendants of the K masters of the world," what would have been your dying pangs ? This of course refers to the soldiers of the former papal states, now absorbed in the kingdom of Italy. The Corso here is about 856 toisesf in length, and it has
been satisfactorily observed by means of a stop-watch, that the horses, usually small Barbs, have run this distance in 141 seconds, or about the rate of 37 feet in a second; a rate of going by no means despicable, consideriug the small size and consequent short stretch of the racers, and which places them on a par with a second-rate English racer. The length of the Italian course is, however, under an
English mile, while the Beacon at Newmarket is four—a space too long for any horse to run at the same speed at which he started; and yet this has often been run at the average rate of 42 feet in the second. Childers ran a mile in a minute, which is at the rate of 87 feet in a second! so was Stirling said to do; and these were mounted, while the Italian racers have only to carry themselves. Of the indigenous horse old Blundeville tells us, " The
horsys that come out of Sardygnia and the isle of Corsica have shorte bodyes, and be very bolde and corageouse, and unquiet too in their pace, for they be of that fierce and hot cholericke complexion, and therewyth so much used to running in theyr countrie that theye will stand still on no grounde. And therefore this kynde of horse requireth a discreete and patiënt ryder, who must not be over hastie in correcting him, for fear of marring him altogither." The original Welsh horse was of this stamp. |
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f A toise is six feet.
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1 MaogiU's Travels in, Italy, vol. i. p. 22.
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CHAPTEB VI.
I. THE HORSES OF BRITAIN.—HISTOEY AND VARIETIES.—II. GALLOWAYS AND PONIES: III. THE DEAUGHT HOESE :
IV. THE CLEVELAND BAYS ; THE COACH HOESE: V. THE HACKNEY. |
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I.—THE HORSE OP BRITAIN.
The character of the indigenous horse of Britain, though
not capahle of definite description, can he fairly deduced from numerous incidental observations of ancient authorities and circumstantial evidence. "We have already notedf that at the earliest of our written
historie period, when Julius Caesar landed near Dover, that the Britons in their scythed chariots, drawn by " weü-trained horses," struck terror into the veteran legionaries of the oonquering Roman, who had subjugated Gaul without encountering any similar force. "We are told further that he took on his return to Bome some of these war-horses to cross with his own breeds. Surely the most strenuous sticklers for a common original will not maintain that the " Foresters " of Exmoor or Dartmoor, the Cornish or "Welsh pony, the Scotch Sheltie, or the Irish Hobby—supposing any intercourse at that early period had subsisted between what now forms the United Kingdom—could have amazed and awed the serried phalanx of the Boman army, or have tempted the world's conquerors to covet them as chargers? We may here inci- dentally notice that the Latin writers divide the horses of Imperial Bome into three classes, adapted for war, the circus, and the saddle. " For war," says Vegetius, " the Huns, Thuringian, Burgundian, and Frisian horses excel; next those of Epirus, Sarmatia and Dalmatia; for chariots, the Cappa- docian. In the circus the Spanish horse excels all others, and also the Sicüian, although the African horses of Spanish blood are the swiftest of any. For the saddle above all the Persian horses, being the easiest in their carriage and most soft in their step; afterwards come the Armenian and Sappharenean ; nor should the Epirotan and Sicüian horses be despised, though not equal to them in carriage, manner, and form." And this people—possessing all the norses of the Gauls and |
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Belgae—are said to have coveted a breed of horses that had
no original qualities ? The horse figures upon the most ancient coins of the British
Kings: the rude effigies of the monarch occupying the obverse and the clumsy figure of a war-horse the reverse. That the horse was then remarkably numerous in this island is shown by the fact that Cassibelaunus retained " four thousand war- chariots to harass the Bomans," after disbanding a large portion of his army. As the Boman horses were crossed with those of Spain and Greece, and those again with a strain of Barb or Arab blood, there can be little doubt, although subse- quent neglect led to thsir degeneration, that the English heavy horse was improved during the long occupation of Britain by the Bomans. That the ponies (or mannii) of Britain were a distinct race
of animal, may also be assumed from the fact of notice being taken of their intelligence, docility, and small size, which specially fitted them for the performances of jugglers and strollers. Passing from the Boman to the Saxon times, we find Athel-
stan celebrated for his attention to the " improvement of the horse," and, in order " that this advantage might be kept in this realm," he prohibited the exportation of English horses. Athelstan seems to have placed considerable value on some of his horses ; for he bequeaths, in his will, the horses given him by Thurbrand, and the white horses presented to him by Lisbrand. These are apparently Saxon names, but the memory of them is now lost. In the laws of Howell the Good, Prince of "Wales, a.d. 890,
there are some curious particulars of the value and sale of horses. A foal under fourteen days is to be sold for 4<#.; at one year and one day it is estimated at 48rf.; at three years at 6(W. It was then to be tamed with the bridle, and brought up either as a palfry or a serving horse, when its value became one hundred and twenty pence. That of a wild or unbroken mare was sixty pence. |
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• See Sporting Meview, No. cclviii, June 1860-
t See ante, page 8. |
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53
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THE HOESES OF BEITAIN.
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Even in those early days, the frauds of dealers were too
notorious, and the following singular regulations were estab- lished. The buyer was allowed time to ascertain whether the horse was free from three diseases. He had three nights to prove him for the staggers ; three months to prove the sound- ness of his lungs; and one year to ascertain whether he was infected with glanders. For every blemish discovered after the purchase, one-third of the money was to be returned, except it should be a blemish of the ears or taü, which it was supposed to be bas own fault if the purchaser did not discover. The seller also warranted that the horse would not tire when on a journey with others, or refuse his food from hard work, h?nd;;:dtt^L;rry a load °r *- a -**• ^ - d°-
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employed in England, as in other countries, for this purpose;
but about this period—the latter part of the tenth century—- some innovation on this point was commencing, and a "Welsh law forbade the farmer to plough with horses, mares, or cows, but with oxen alone. On one of the pieces of the Bayeux tapestry, woven in the time of William the Conqueror (a.d. 1066), there, however, is the figure of a man driving a horse attached to a harrow. In "William's reign the heavy horses of Burgundy, Picardy,
and Flanders were imported largely. Boger de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, we are expressly told, brought over "Spanish stallions," and Giraldus Cambrensis, and Drayton {Polyolbion) speak in high terms of their fire, vigour, and fitness for the tilt and tourney. We have in another place noticed in the-reign of Henry I. (a.d. 1121)—the importation of |
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the
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-6ttiag WS fOT ^ «ben existed; and
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t
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éxacted,
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T, , semces of the poor hack were brutally
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the first so-called Arabian, presented by Alexander, King
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the protecK !Ufolent H(>weU disdains not to legislate for
ever shall h abuSed and Taluable servant. " Who- back A 11 T a h°rse' and rub the hair so as to Sal1 the
eiffht T ^IT Pence; if the skin is fOT°ed mto the flesh, «ght pence ; rf the flesh be forced to the bone, sixteen pence." animaT™ Ï'T1,' W' be Was to forfeit «» ™^ «f **
he w»,\ ,. WaS suPPosed to We killed a horse, Pu Jat ^^ 6lf by the 0aths of twenty-four oom-
a Uttfc fo J°W; * W0Uld appear ttat some y°UQg me* ™
wereLves in ^WarraUtable »*«*** OT PeAaPs «hare «nsn^c^eTen so soon after Aifred's ^
frequent occurenr H a W* ^ seems to have been of
tHsportirSthel T^V* dwwB tbe estimatioQ in ^ the hair from a horsïslail 7" ^^^that he wh° Cut off
grown again and Z th! V° m™ta™ him untü * ™»
another L^ j^fT ^ t0 "* the °™ ^
Weant who inflLted ht T "" "* *f *" ^ tbe service. S6 WaS deemed unfit for future
Br^lw'Vv^ br°Ught imp°rtant Cr°SSeS t0 the
chieflv ÏTw ., , fPm0nty mcaT% tlle Conqueror was cWr f t1rfOT ^ ^^ °f Hasti^s- Thefavourite WT Vï^m TOS a Spaniard- His followers, both the count" ** C0™ «oldiers, principally came from a hanbTS1^ T^^ ^ made more raPid FOP»
WaTd S 1 ^ C°nsideraWe portion of the kingdom £* aTg tbf6 ^5 and * —t be doubted that,
WfiS ^f TVhe,US^ati0n of «he Norman, England the 1 m * hUfand^and P^icularly in its horses, by the change of masters. The historians of those times, how- ever-prmcipally monks, and knowing nothing abont horses- give us very Httle information on the subject. One cnrcumstance deserves to be remarked, namely, that in
&PW 1 Ï6 ea?6St hiSt0riCal reC°rdS °f the ^glo-Saxons or
lul TT13^6 ^ aUUSi°n t0 thG USe °f the horse for the
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cotland, to the Church of St. Andrew. This solitary
ase, however, recorded as something extraordinary, may be assed over in considering the general stamp of horse in se at this time. The Crusades, which foliowed this period, must have intro-
uced many Eastern horses, though no particular esteem seems o have attended them or their progeny. The jennet of Spain is spoken of with approval, rather as an ambling palfrey than comparable with the heavy German horse. Improved agri- culture and commercial labour caused the importation of heavy draught horses from the Low Countries, but the prin- ciples of breeding were little regarded and less understood. The price of horses was singularly uncertain, In 1185, temp.
Henry II., fifteen breeding mares sold for two pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence. They were purchased by the monarch, and distributed among his tenants ; and, in order to get some- thing by the bargain, he charged them the great sum of four shillings each. Twenty years afterwards, ten capital horses brought no less than twenty pounds each; and, twelve years later, a pair of horses were imported from Lombardy, for which the extravagant price of thirty-eight pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence was given. The usual price of good handsome horses was ten pounds, and the hire of a car or cart, with two horses, tenpence a-day. To King John, hateful as he was in other respects, we are
much indebted for the attention which he paid to agri- culture generally, and particularly to the improvement of the breed of horses. He imported one hundred chosen stallions of the Flanders breed, and thus mainly contributed to prepare our noble species of draught-horses, as unrivalled in their way as the horses of the turf. John accumulated a very numerous and valuable stud. He
was eager to possess bimself of every horse of more than usual power; and at all times gladly received from the tenants of the crown, horses of a superior quality, instead of money for the renewal of grants, or the payment of forfeitures belonging to the crown. It was his pride to render his cavalry, and the horse for the toumament and for pleasure, as perfect as he |
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pwugn. Untfl a comparatively recent period, oxen alone
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were
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could. It was not to be expected that so haughty and over-
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s m\\
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PMPMÏOGBNS lïF ir do e TMMGJM-lMi aki od ef ttdoïe (SMMMSEq
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THE HORSES OF BRITAIN.
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64
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monarchs. A more enlightened policy has at length banished
such absurd interferences. In the same reign, in 1356, at the glorious victory of Poictiers,
wherein the Black Prince took John, King of France, prisoner, we read in Bonnechose's Hlstory of France: " but the French knightes could not contend against the great horses of the English, and the arrows of their archers."* And on the tri- umphal entry of the Black Prince into London, Stow tells us that the captive John was " mounted on a beautiful wyte steed, in royal robes, while the victorious Prince of "Wales rode by his syde on a htel blacke pal/re, like an attendante, not a conqueror." The wars of York and Lancaster now devastated the land,
and we can collect but little of the histoïy of the horse until the reign of Henry VIL, at the close of the fifteenth century. He continued to prohibit the exportation of stallions, but allowed that of mares, when more than two years old, and under the value of six shillings and eightpence. This regula- tion was, however, easily evaded; for if a mare could be found worth more than sis shillings and eightpence, she might be freely exported on the payment of that sum. The intention of this was to put an end to the exportation
of perfect horses; for it is recited in the preamble " that not only a smaller number of good horses were left within the realm for the defence thereof, but also that great and good plenty of the same were in parts beyond the sea, which in times past were wont to be within this land, whereby the price of horses was greatly enhanced," &c. The exception of the mare, and the small sum for which she might be exported, shows the unjust contempt in which she was held. In the time of Henry VIIL, we find from the writings of
Sir Thomas Chaloner, who nourished at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, horses were imported by that despotic monarch, who was " a great lover of the chase and sportynge," from " Turkey, Naples and Spain." The means adopted by Henry to enforce the breeding of full sized horses were arbitrary and characteristic in the extreme. He made a law, which remains in the statute book till this day, (32 Hen. VIIL cap. 13), by which it is enacted:—" That no person shall put in any forest, chase, moor, heath, common, or waste (where mares and fillies are used to be kept) any stoned horse above the age of two years, not being fifteen hands high, within the shires and territories of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Bucking- ham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, South Hampshire, North Wilts, Oxford, Berks, Worcester, Grloucester, Somerset, North Wales, South Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Northampton, York- shire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Salop, Leicester, Hereford, and Lincoln; nor under fourteen hands in any other county, on pain of forfeiting the same;" and it proceeds, " It is lawful for any person to seize any horse so under size, in manner following:—he shall go to the keeper of such forest, or (out of such forest) to the constable of the next town, and require him to go with him to bring such horse to the next |
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hearing a tyrant would concern himself much with the inferior
kind; yet while the superior breeds were rapidly becoming more valuable, the others would, in an indirect manner, par- take of the improvement. One hundred years afterwards, (a.d. 1311) Edward II. pur-
chased thirty Lombardy war-horses, and twelve heavy draught- horses. Lombardy, Italy, and Spain were the countries whence the greater part of Europe was then supplied with the most valuable cavalry or parade horses. Those for agricultural .purposes were chiefly procured from Elanders. EdwardlII. (1328) bought fifty Spanish horses of such value,
that he negociated with the kings of France and Spain to give them safe convoy. These were probably of a lighter and more active form; the prevailing taste for the heavy war horse being on the decline among the courtiers: the ponderous armour of the cavalry, however, still kept the " destrier" in esteem for several succeeding reigns. These horses were bought in order to enable the king
successfully to prosecute a war against Scotland, and to pre- pare for a splendid tournament which he was about to hold. Entire horses were alone used for this mimic contest, and
generally so in the duties and dangers of the field. It was rarely the custom to castrate the colts; and the introduction of the female among so many perfect horses might occasionally be productive of confusion. The mare was at this period com- paratively despised. It was deemed disgraceful for any one above the common rank to ride her, and she was employed only in the most servile offices. This feeling and practice was then prevalent in every part of the world. When, however, it began to be the custom to castrate the young horses, the worth and value of the mare was soon appreciated; and it is now acknowledged that, usually, she is not much, if at all, inferior to the perfect horse in many respects, while she has far more strength, courage, and endurance than the castrated horse. Edward also prohibited the exportation of horses jealously.
It is, however, recorded that he allowed a German merchant to export some Low Country horses which he had brought here on a venture, but prohibited his taking them to Scotland. It was for several centuries a felony to export horses from Eng- land to Scotland. In many points the English horse is already spoken of as
superior to those of neighbouring countries, and his price was so enhanced, that the breeders and the dealers, then as now skilful in imposing on the inexperienced, obtained from many of the young grandees enormous prices for their animals. This evil increased to such an extent, that Richard II. (1386) interfered to regulate and determine the price. The proclama- tion which he issued is interesting, not only as proving the increased value of the horse, but showing what were, four hundred and fifty years ago, the chief breeding districts, as they still continue to be. It was ordered to be published in the counties of Lincoln and Cambridge, and the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire ; and the price of the horses was restrictcd to that whvh had been determined by farmer |
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* Bonnechose, Sistory of France, anno 1356
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55
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HOESES OF BEITAIN.
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pound, there to be measured by such officer, in the presence of
three honest men, to be appointed by the omcer; and if he
8hall be found contrary to what is above expressed, such person
may take him for his own use."
Also, s. 6, " all such commons and other places shall within
fifteen days after Michaelmas yearly, be driven by the owners
and keepers, or constables, respectively, on pain of 40s., and
they shall also drive the same at any other time they shall
thynk meet; and if there shall be found, in any of the said
dnfts, any mare, fflly, foal, or gelding, which shall not be
thought able, nor like to grow to be able to bear foals of a
reasonable stature, or to do profitable favours, by the discretion
a? !fS' °r the Swater number of them, they may kill
and bury them." J Even infected horses are prohibited from being turned into
such commons—(s 9Ï «t^ v -i • j. j ix.i.
shall b wnereby it is enacted that no person
infected^th'tnV1! v ^^ ^ W' ^^ °r m*re'
fields • 0r man8e» ™- any common or common leet ' T?8"1 °f 10S' and the offence sha11 be en1uirable in the
Y,« l " o1fer c°mmon annoyances are, and the forfeitures shaU beto the lord of the leet." arew, rn his History of Cornwall, supposes this act of par-
ament to have been the occasion of losing almost entirely me smaü breed of horses which were peculiar to that country; and no doubt the same effect was produced in Wales. This |
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elegant kind, mostly of a small size, and broken in to the use
of ladies, and aged or infirm people of rank. Sobys were strong active horses of a small size, and are
supposed to have come originally from Ireland. This breed being at one time in high repute, gave origin to the phrase, by which any favourite object is termed a man's hobby. The clothsek, or "male horse," was one that carried the
cloak-bag, or portmanteau. Chariot horses, (derived from the French word charotte,
from which again the English word cart), were waggon-horses.
A gret doble trottynge horse, was a heavy, powerful horse,
whose pace was a trot, being either too unwieldy in itself, or
carrying too great weights to gallop.
A curtal was a horse whose tail was cut or shortened.
A gambaldynge horse was one of show and parade; from the Italian word gamba, (leg), gambado, (a curvet.) An amblynge horse was one of much the same description,
but whose more quiet ambling pace adapted him especially to the use of ladies. In the reign of Edward VI., horse stealing was made a
capital offence. By the lst Edward VI., cap. 12, we find it enacted, " that no person convicted for felonious stealing of horses, geldings or mares, shall have the privilege of clergy." But this enactment being in the plural number, caused a doubt whether a person convicted of stealing one horse, mare, or gelding, was entitled to benefit of clergy, and two acts were |
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iace.
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tó^Kby tke race o£ larse and power"
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reS\fnPl ^ï^011 °f the Ws of E-g^d in this
1 *£ ^ *» Begolation. and Establishments of löS \ 7' ^ ^ Earl of Northumberland, begun in " This is the ordrp nf fkQ „v
the h»reys „f my iord°' l?^1»"1 »f "« nombn, of all be in the' chaj ££e hlX^f" » "W" *> *irst, jentf» Amys> to stand in
ïrrss;my ladiv° * «-f- ^^ £
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subsequently passed in the same reign, to remedy this defect.
We have every reason to believe that the country derived
much benefit to its breed of horses in the reign of Elizabeth; as it is more than probable that great numbers of Barbs, and Spanish horses descended from Barbs, were taken on board the numerous vessels captured by Lord Howard of Effingham, the British admiral, on the defeat and dispersion of the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth, though herself a great horsewoman, does not seem to have patronised racing, as we shall note when we come to the history of that pastime. We do not find it men- tioned as forming part of the amusements with which the Earl of Leicester entertained his royal mistress on her visit to Kenilworth; and Comnenius says, at this day, 1590, tilting or |
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or ner gentülwomcn, and oone for her chamb
*%« and nags for my lordys oone saddill, - |
erer. Four
oone for my |
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lorde and oone to stay at home for my lorde.
seJn ; ttot h7't0 stond * mylordis statle y^iy.
&*» gret trottynge horsys to draw in the chariott, and a nag
tor the chano t man to ride, eight. Again, hors for Lord W ^lords^/on a?* heir. A gret doble trottynge Zli 2lu ' ^ ordslüp t0 ride on out of to^i
Another trottynge gambaldynge hors for his fordship to ride on
when he comes into townes. An amblynge hors for his lordship to joumeye on dayly. A proper amblynge little nag for his lord- ship when he goethon hunting and hawking. A gret amblynge gelding, or trottynge gelding, to carry his male."* |
the quintain is used, when a ring is struck with a truncheon,
instead of horse racing, which, he adds, is grown out of fashion. That this was not on account of any gambling or improper practices being attached to it, we may gather from the writings of John Northbrook, a puritan, who, though very severe against cards, dice, and plays, allows horse-racing, classing it with hunting and hawking. It is remarkable that such was the large falling off in the
number of cavalry-horses between the reign of Edward VL, in 1547, and the middle of Elizabeth, that in 1588, when |
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England was threatened by the Spanish Armada, no more
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It is proper to explain that the gentill hsuperior cattle, and made the best chargers.
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was one of
Palfreys were an |
than 3,000 cavalry could be mustered in the whole Hngdom,
to suppress the invasion. |
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Towards the close of this reign coaches were introduced by
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* Fr. malle, a leather trunk, whence our English mail, the letters being
«aveyed on horseback in a malle. The Prench mail is called the malie-voste. |
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Fitzallen, Earl of Arundel, their inventor, and such was the
demand for horses thus occasioned, that a bill was actually |
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56 THE HORSES
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OF BRITAIN.
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introduced into the House of Lords, to restrain the excessive
use of coaches. It was, however, lost on the second reading. Before this the Queen was, on state occasions, accustomed to ride behind her Master of the Horse. But for a considerable period after the introduction of coaches, saddle horses con- tinued in use at state ceremonies; for so late as the Resto- ration, Eng Charles II. made his entrance into London, May, 1660, riding between his brothers the Dukes of York and Gloucester, with a splendid cavalcade. We shall here pause in our general history of the English
horse: the subsequent periods being so intimately mingled with the history of racing, as to class it more fitly under a History of the British Turf II.—GALLOWAYS AND PONIES.
The name galloway, is said to be derived from a handsome,
hardy, and much prized breed of horses, indigenous to the South of Scotland, on the shores of the Bolway Firth; they have now, however, disappeared from the place of their origin, the agriculturists of the district having sought to breed an animal of larger stature, better fltted for draught purposes, such as the Clydesdale horse. There is a tradition, by no means warranted by physiology or probability, that the original galloway was descended from a cross with a horse escaped from the wreek of a ship of the Spanish Armada, cast away on the neighbouring coast. "We have a record, indeed, of hardy horses supplied to the army of Edward I. from this district three centuries before. The original galloway was between thirteen and fourteen
hands in height, of a bright brown or bay, with a neat head, black legs, peculiarly deep and clean. It had a remarkable surefootedness and stoutness, with a fair amount of speed. Dr. Anderson thus describes the breed:— " There was once a breed of small elegant horses in Scotland,
similar to those of Iceland and Sweden, and which were known by the name of galloways; the best of which sometimes reached the height of fourteen hands and a half. One of this description I possessed, it having been bought for my use when a boy. In point of elegance of shape, it was a perfect picture; and its disposition was gentle and compliant; it moved almost with a wish, and never tired. I rode this little creature for twenty-five years; and twice in that time rode a hundred and fifty miles, without stopping, except to bait, and that not above an hour at a time. It came in at the last stage with as much ease and alacrity as it travelled the first. I could have undertakeu to have performed on this animal, when it was in its prime, sixty miles a day for a twelvemonth running, without any extraordinary exertion." A galloway in point of size, whether of Scotch origin or not
is uncertain, performed in the year 1814, a greater feat than Dr. Anderson's favourite. It started from London with the Exeter mail, and, notwithstanding its eighteen changes of horses, and the rapid driving of that vehicle, it arrived at Exeter (one hundred and seventy-two miles) fifteen minutes before the mail. The well-known Professor Youatt, who saw |
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this animal about twelve months after his wonderful perform-
ance, describes him as being wind-galled, spavined, ring-boned, and a lamentable picture of the ingratitude of some human brutes towards a willing and faithful servant. Other instances of endurance, equally remarkable, are recorded. In 1754, Mr. Corker's galloway went one hundred miles a
day for three successive days, over the Newmarket Course, and without the slightest distress. A galloway belonging to Mr. Sinclair, of Kirby-Lonsdale,
performed at Carlisle the extraordinary feat of one thousand miles in a thousand hours! The galloway, or small stout horse known in England by
that name, is often from "Wales, or the New Eorest. The "Welsh pony is a beautiful little animal. He has a
small head, high withers, deep, yet round barrel, short joints, flat legs, and good round feet. The Welsh ponies are said to be indebted to the celebrated Merlin, for an improvement in their form and qualities. They will live on any fare, and can never be tired out. This has arisen from a misconception. The "Welsh pony
was called " a Merlyn," as will be seen by an extract from the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, which follows:— " Pony-hunting used to be one of the favourite amusements
of the "Welsh farmers and peasantry, a century and a half ago, and it has not, even now, fallen altogether into disuse. The following story of one of these expeditions is founded on fact:— A farmer named Hugo Garonwy lived in the neighbourhood of Llweyn Georie. Although he handled the tilt plough, and other farming tools in their due season, yet the catching of the merlyn, the fox, and the hare, were more congenial pursuits ; and the tumbles and thumps which he received, and from which no pony-hunter was exempt, served but to attach him to the sport. Rugged, however, as the Merionethshire coast and its environs were, and abounding with precipices and morasses, he sometimes experienced worse mishaps—and so it happened with Garonwy. " He set out one morning with his lasso coiled round his
waist, and attended by two hardy dependants and their grey- hounds. The lasso was then famüiar to the "Welshman, and as adroitly managed by him as by any guacho on the plains of South America. As the hunters climbed the mountain's brow, the distant herd of ponies took alarm—sometimes galloping onwards, and then suddenly halting and wheeling round, snorting as if in defiance of the intruders, and furiously pawing the ground. Garonwy, with the assistance of his servants and the greyhounds, contrived to coop them up in a corner of the hills, where perpendicular rocks prevented their escape. " Already had he captured three of the most beautiful little
fellows in the world, which he expected to sell for 41. or 51. each at the next Bala fair—to him a considerable sum, and amounting to a fourth of the annual rent which he paid for his sheep-walk. There remained, however, one most untame- able creature, whose crested mane, and flowing tail, and wild eye, and distended nostril, showed that he was a perfect Bucephalus of the hills; nor indeed was it safe to attack him |
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HL S H F LI I E .
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N LW F O
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1N '
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H 0 R S E P 0 N Y
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E DS (E DJ P ©F IP (ü) K ïl E S
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WILUAM HACKENZIE, LONDON, EDINBURGH 8 6LASGOW
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HORSES OF BRITAIN.
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57
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in the ordinary way. Many of the three-year-olds had been
known to break the legs of their pursuers, and some had been dismounted and trampled to death. " Garonwy was determined to give the noble fellow a chase
over the huls, and so overcome him by fatigue before the lasso was flung. The dogs were unslipped, and off they went, swift as the winds, Garonwy fbllowing, and the two assistants posted on a neighbouring eminence. Vain was the effort to tire the merlyn. Hugo, naturally impatient, and without waiting to ascertain that the coils were all clear, flung the lasso over the head of the wild horse. The extremity of the cord was twisted round his own body, and tightening as the animal struggled, the compression became unsupportable, and, at length, in spite of every effort to disengage himself, Garonwy was dragged from his horse. " The affrighted merlyn, finding himself manacled by the
rope, darted off with all the speed of which he was capable, draggmg poor Garonwy over the rocky ground and stunted brushwood. This occurred at some distance from the men. Ihey caUed in their dogs that the speed of the merlyn might not be mcreased, but ere they could arrive at the spot at which ™afeï taPP^ed, the horse and the man had vanished. wl.TT f* SUfferingS °f the Wer were protracted, or he
was dashedagamst some friendly rock at the commencement W ?°rr?lr ?!' WaS neVCT kno™ ! Imt ^e wüd animal,
frenzxed and bhnded by terror, rushed over a beetling cliff, at a consrderable distance, overhanging the sea-shore, and the unter and the horse were found at the bottom, a mis-shapen semblance of what they had been when living." Uld Marsk, the sire of Eclipse, is reported to have given
an ïmprovmg cross to the New Foresters* nevertheless, these are generally ill-made, large-headed, short-necked, and ragged- aipped, but hardy, safe, and useful; with much of their ancient spmt and speed, and all their old paces. The catching of these ponies is as great a trial of skill as the hunting of the wüd horse on the Pampas of South America, and a greater one of patience. A great many ponies, of Httle value, used to be reared in
ïncomshire, m the neighbourhood of Boston ; but the breed hasbeen neglected for some years, and the enclosure of the lens will render ït extinct. The Exmoor ponies, although generaUy ugly enough, are
hardy and useful. A well-known sportsman says, that he |
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rode one of them half a dozen miles, and never feit such power
and action in so small a compass before. To show his accom- plishments, he was turned over a gate at least eight inches higher than his back; and his owner, who rides fourteen stone, travelled on him from Bristol to South Molton, eighty-six miles, beating the coach which runs the same road. There is on Dartmoor a race of ponies much in request in
that vicinity, being sure-footed, and hardy, and admirably calculated to get over the rough roads and dreary wilds of that mountainous district. The Dartmoor pony is larger than the Exmoor, and, if possible, uglier. He exists there almost in a state of nature. The late Captain Colgrave, of Dartmoor prison, had a great desire to possess one of them of somewhat superior figure to its fellows, and having several men to assist him, they separated it from the herd. They drove it on some rocks by the side of a tor (an abrupt pointed hill); a man foliowed on horseback, while the Captain stood below watching the chase. The little animal, being driven into a corner, leaped completely over the man and horse, and escaped. The horses in the southern and western districts of Devon-
shire, called " pack-horses," from their former use, are merely a larger variety of the Exmoor or Dartmoor pony. There is one description of pony, however, truly and
unmistakably aboriginal in the northern parts of Britain—we mean the unmistakable little Sheltie, or Zetlcmd pony; an animal which loses every characteristic if an attempt or accident should lead to an increase of their general size. The strength of these little animals almost surpasses belief. Seven, eight, nine, and at the outside ten hands high they are full of vigour, strength, and beauty of a peculiar stamp. There are some which an able man could lift up in his arms; yet will carry him eight or ten miles, and as many back. Summer or winter they never come into a house, but run upon the mountains, in some places like flocks; and if at any time in winter they are straitened for food, they will come from the hills when the ebb is in the sea, and eat the sea weed (as likewise do the sheep). Winter storms and scarcity of food brings them so low that they do not recover their strength till about the middle of June, when they are at their best. They will live to a considerable age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight, or thirty years. They last to be good for riding at twenty-four; especially if they are not put to work until they are four years old. Those of a black colour are judged the most durable. The pied often prove not so good. They have been more numerous than they are now. The best of them are to be had in Sanston and Easton; also, they are good in "Waes and Yell. Those of the least size are in the northern isles of Yell and TJist. The coldness of the air, and the barrenness of the mountains on which they feed, and their hard usage, may tend to keep them little; but if bigger horses are brought among them, their progeny degenerate. Mr. Youatt says:—" A friend of mine was not long ago
presented with one of these elegant little animals. He was several miles from home, and puzzled how to convey his newly-acquired property. The Shetlander was scarcely more |
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* Marsk was sold at the death of the Dufco nf n__u i j • , »„,
farmpi. ^, « * ■«• v ■ ■, Cumberland, in 1765, to a
tarmer for a trlflmg 8mn> bemg con8ldered ft >
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17rrv„ j ~ , " r „ --------very indifferent stallion
ybb heeoyered country mares m Dorsetshire at 10* Gd TT» „,„ ft j
bought by Mr. Wilkinson (first owner of Eclipse) Lt^ ^T
considering himself quit of a bad bargain. In 1767 hf co" 7'. ^ <*
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n
I1
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creeping into fayour.
5 guineas j in 1770 at fc~ofth7fame^^
consequence thereof purchased by the Earl of Abingdon for T(T V™ ™
tnd sent to his Lordship's stud at Kycot, in OxfordLe 1ÏT gW^
H
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THE HORSES OF BRITAIN.
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58
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910 lbs. for shorter distances.* This is the stamp of animal
required by the Baxendales, Chaplins, and Pickfords; anothei sort is yet the pride of our great brewers, distillers, and London waggon owners. The remarks of a gentleman "frae north o' Tweed" on these horses are so genuine and apposite that we transcribe them:—" A prevalent error of strangers is that these magnificent horses are merely meant as an advertisement of the firm to which they belong. The large and opulent brewer has less occasion for this kind of publicity than any other trader. His customers are compelled to come to him : a chance sale is a rara avis. He has these horses because extraordinary exertion is sometimes required, and he can command it when necessary: at the same time they are too valuable to be use- lessly worn out, and pay better in the long run for the attention bestowed upon them. This has led many into the error of supposing these splendid animals cannot do the work of such as, from want of proper points to command the higher prices, get into the more laborious employments ; and you will hear the owners of these inferior horses constantly remarking on one of these beautiful teams, as not only the pride of the drayman, who beckons them to him like old acquaintance, and which they answer with the sagacity of bipeds, but they are also the pride and admiration of all Englishmen, and the astonishment of most foreigners. A Scotchman is certainly not a foreigner, being but an Englishman of a distant portion of Great Britain; but I cannot help noticing, that, when yisiting the Land of Cakes, I have always feit elated at the animated description of their feelings at first beholding these noble creatures. They were full of astonishment, and could not teil which made the greatest impression, their extreme beauty, vast size, sagacity, or docility, amounting beyond parallel. One gentleman remarked, ' I have been óver most of the globe ; I have seen many of its wonders; but the greatest I ever saw was in London. I saw a brewer's team lowering some butts of beer. The horse that performed this office, without any signal, raised the butts, and returned and lowered the rope : not a word or sign escaped the man at the top of the hole, who only waited to perform his part as methodically as his four-footed mate did his. Two others were sometimes playing at intervals in apparent converse. The cellaring finished, the horse took his place by the team: the other loose horse, that had been going wherever he pleased, also came, and was hooked on. The man adjusted his dress, then walked away ; the team foliowed. Not one word has passed, not even a motion of the whip, or any other intimation of what was to be done next.' He added, be had never seen the same number of men work in such unisofl with the various changes: it was wonderful, and if it was not reason, he thought the greater portion of mankind had better give up some part of their reason to learn sagacity from a dray- horse. He continued: ' I foliowed some distance to see how it was that a man, who seemed as if he could be crushed at any moment by these monsters, had such control over them. I ob- served he never touched them: between carriages where therö 8 Touatt, p. 258.
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than seven hands high, and as docile as he was beautlful.
' Oan we not carry him in your chaise ?' said his friend. The strange experiment was tried. The Sheltie was placed in the bottom of the gig, and covered up as well as could be managed with the apron; a few bits of bread kept him quiet; and thus he was safely conveyed away, and exhibited the curious spectacle of a horse riding in a gig." The same writer adds: —" He is often exceedingly beautiful, with a small head, good- tempered countenance, a short neck, fine towards the throttle, shoulders low and thick—in so little a creature far from being a blemish—back short, quarters expanded and powerful, legs flat and fine, and pretty round feet. These ponies possess immense strength for their size; will fatten almost upon any- thing, and are perfectly docile. One of them, nine hands (or three feet) in height, carried a man of twelye stone forty miles in one day." Her present Majesty has, on more than one occasion,
purchased some interesting and perfect specimens of the Sheltie, for the use of the younger members of the Eoyal Family; and they have always been very much prized for the use of ohildren, alike from their smallness of size and docility. The Highland Pony is far inferior to the galloway, and is
not pleasant to ride, except in the canter. His habits make him hardy, for he is rarely housed summer or winter. The Rev. Mr. Hall says that when these animals come to a boggy piece of ground they first put their nose to it, and then pat on it in a peculiar way with one of their fore-feet, and from the sound and feel of the ground they know whether it will bear them. They do the same with ice, and determine in a minute whether they will proceed. As to the English pony, almost every district has its breed,
more or less, commingled; and the variety would appear to be most suitable to the circumstances of pasturage and soil. Owing, however, to the average large stature of the English horse, any thing under thirteen hands has, in horseman's phrase, come to be called " a pony." Many of our best trotters have passed under this name. III.—THE DRAUGHT HORSE.
Up to within these few years our principal employers of
draught horses in the metropolis aimed almost exclusively at ,the procuring of those grand, stately, and immense animals which judicious crossing with the Flemish and old Suffolk Punch so often produced. Of late, however, the immense demand for a horse of higher activity and handiness, for the service of the railway van, has given the waggon horse a stamp more approaching to the Cleveland, or the " machiner" —a smart trot, as well as a sheer-strength pull, being a deside- ratum. When the old " sumpter," or carrier's horse, was used in England, for the conveyance of loads in packs or panniers, some of the Yorkshire sumpter horses have been known to oarry 7001bs. weight sixty miles in the day, and to repeat this journey four times a week, while mill horses have carried |
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EOfEESiALE STALUM'S^AM© WAT O ©MAL"
Winner of First Prize, Class SI, at the Royal Aéricultural Sooiety's Windsor Show.
Bred by the K.eir Trustees, Dunblane; exhibited by Mr. David Riddell, Blackhall, Paisley, |
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BRITAIN.
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0* touching aSS ^r8 vt0 SqUeeze throu^ be wen* wiih-
0n the end of MoT^ °',J mCTely WavinS a bit of whipcord ^teastounld. i a^ nL" He finisbed ™th-<Iwas tbe aight withtT ^y^^erful; andI alwaysrecollect ^titwJS^5 and Can har%Prevaü upon myself ^ fess on°mde ne.Cr°r*cer ™nS - -« rod.'» 0^rvati0ftS\i1SmT?' We ^ P™*ed to show that the kin*> of Cork Jïï iK, TeS Cannot d0 the mOTe labo™™
TWe j, 'in r ™y that of town carmen, is a mistake. «"»** part of Th 1 °PP0rtlmity of F™ing the fact, the
servants fü hTrm beblg too liheral to their old |
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The true SufFolk Punch, which did much for our best
short-legged dray-horses, is not found now in its purity. It stood from fifteen to sixteen hands high, of a sorrel colour; was large-headed; low shouldered, and thick on the withers ; deep and round chested; long backed; high in the croup; large and strong in the quarters; full in the flanks ; round in the legs; and short in the pasterns. It was the very horse to throw his whole weight into the collar, with sufficiënt activity to do it effectually, and hardihood to stand a long day's work. The present breed possesses many of the peculiarities and
good qualities of its ancestors. It is more or less inclined to a sorrel colour; it is a talier horse; higher and finer in the shoulders; and is a cross with the Yorkshire half ©r three- fourths bred. The excellence, and a rare one, of the old Suffolk—the new
breed has not quite lost it—consisted in nimbleness of action, and the honesty and continuance with which he would exert himself at a dead pull. Many a good draught-horse knows well what he can effect; and, after he has attempted it and failed, no torture of the whip will induce him to strain his powers beyond their natural extent. The Suffolk, however, -would tug at a dead pull untü he dropped. It was beautiful to see a team of true Suffolks, at a signal from the driver, and with- out the whip, down on their knees in a moment, and drag everything before them. The immense power of the Suffolk is accounted for by the low position of the shoulder, which enables him to throw so much of his weight into the collar. Although the Punch is not what he was, and the Suffolk
and Norfolk farmer can no longer boast of ploughing more land in a day than any one else, this is undoubtedly a valuable breed. The Duke of Richmond obtained many excellent carriage
horses, with strength, activity, and figure, by crossing the Suffolk with one of his best hunters. The Suffolk breed is in great request in the neighbouring
counties of Norfolk and Essex. Mr. Wakefield, of Barnham, in Essex, had a stallion for which he was offered four hundred guineas. The Clydesdale is a good kind of draught-horse, and par-
ticularly for farming business and in a hilly country. It derives its name from the district on the Clyde, in Scotland, where it is principally bred. The Clydesdale horse owes its origin to one of the Dukes of Hamilton, who crossed some of the best Lanark mares with stallions that he had brought from Elanders. The Clydesdale is larger than the Suffolk, and has a better head, a longer neck, a lighter carcase, and deeper legs; he is strong, hardy, pulling true, and rarely restive. The southern parts of Scotland are supplied from this district; and many Clydesdales, not only for agricultural purposes but for the coach and the saddie, find their way to the central and even southern counties of England. Dealers from almost every part of the United Kingdom attend the markets of Glasgow and Rutherglen. Professor Low (in his Illustrations of Britüh Qnadrupeds)
says, that " the Clydesdale horse, as it is now bred, is usually |
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^efore W hT^V^111 WHeU Wom out: most of them,
ih«y ««'iXSf^J1^from old age or accident>
rate corafort T m PerformmS their work with mode-
^takeaLf ;lWealtlly g™ih™*> *F> «"* ladies too,
booWen Z l reSpect' at least' out of the brewers' and even rZTJ ^T0^6 h™ter, charger, ladies' pad, hack,
Cabs and cost™ f SaV6d the t0rture °f dra^n? street"
Sfled shoSt gf" Carts ^ acMnS hmbs, crippled feet,
pochet 0f Z ii ' for the sake of Putting into the W would fetch r ^ PedlapS ^ ^ What the °ld *"*"
and Cfe? l5j ef'P00118 of hrewers gelling their horses, fo^d C Cf w. a\th°Se Wh° W b0u§ht them have a§e : we half the °rdinaiy Ws at the same 8uPPosed to b!l!n0WI1i.maily- °ne was sold out from keing
h< includint T \ ^ tT* °Ut S°Und- Tbree to*s and a tkis he went „7 Cart'became bis ^dinary load, and with Uever had or Wei\London and the neighbourhood, and brid8eS,orunhüïrS T- assistance> not evea over the and kept up Hs fat «S °ertauü/was a remarkably fine horse, brewhouse. G ^ some years afe leaving the » W cnSytthe018-;!' ff0Urite ^ the coa^erchants,
^shireto aaffiwuT^!? """^ W &e fens of L^ |
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^oderately untiHhev t^? yearS °U; and> b^g worked
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^e, they are then JT ^ ean™S tbeir keeP ^ *he
Pr°fitoften or twelve ner ^ on parket, and sold at a Jvl0^^ —theb'ede
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^ ar^t for tTwIwoï^fS purPose to keeP them untü
f- his farm for everv™ , haS plenty of fiUies and mares **> ^ C to 7pePrTe ^ ^ °an "^' be'the-
^6y a'e graduaUy Sed aT t0 ^ metr0poHs' by whom proba%wonderedWf andPrePa^d- The traveUer has t,8ht<* horses Cd have T ^^^ S°Ü' and wbere ^
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not requiring the".7^ ""T a6Stmy; and he d<
^ ^y4iZtZ0&]lt}:t-StKn^ ^theirhones
£ *** them t f^jTt n°r ?eiT fQts ^ -d -re he
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18 P-PaHng tnetfe ^"*** «^ ^2?^
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c°har
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which
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nd equable pïft 'the
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!s afterwards so necessary
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60
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THE HORSES OF BRITAIN.
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sixteen hands high. The prevailing colour is black, but the
brown or bay is common, and is continually gaining npon the other, and the grey is not unfrequently produced. They are longer in the body than the English black horse, and less weighty, compact, and muscular; but they step out more freely, and have a more useful action for ordinary labour. They draw steadily, and are usually free from vice. The long stride, characteristic of the breed, is partly the result of con- formation, and partly of habit and training; but, however produced, it adds grcatly to the usefulness of the horse, both on the road and in the flelds. No such loads are known to be drawn, at the same pace, by any horses in the kingdom, as in the single-horse carts of carriers and others in the west of Scotland. IV.----THE CLEVELAND BAY; THE COACH HORSE.
Though horses are bred in every county of England, Yorkshire
has the credit of producing the greater number of good ones. It has, or rather had, in the old " Cleveland bays," a particular race, combining peculiarity of form, a certain cast of coun- tenance, and high qualities of utility. This powerful and active breed have, by many writers, been considered as owing their valuable properties to early crosses with the race-horse of those times; it is probable that those qualities marked the indigenous Yorkshire horse. The large London carriage horses are of this stock, though the demand for a harness-horse of lofty size has much decreased; other qualities, which are to be had combined with more grace, lighter action, and less of the " farm " horse stamp, being now in request. A century ago, however, the carriage-horse had not even the form of the Cleveland—he was a round-barrelled, hollow-backed, clod-shouldered, thick-legged brute, with long tail, full mane, and hairy fetlocks, something between a hearse-horse and a dray-horse, full of flesh, pride and pawing, and capable of six miles an hour for three hours three times a week—not that he ever got half of it. The later coach-horse, though too large, was a great improvement on this Netherlandish animal. The points of a good coach-horse, are, depth in the body, good bone under the knee, moderately long pasterns, and sound tough feet, well open at the bars. Though differing respectfully from Professor Low, as to the origin of the Cleveland Bay, yet agreeing with him as to its more modern form, we take the liberty of quoting his descrip- tion:— " It is the progressive mixture of the blood of horses of higher
breeding with those of the common race, that has produced the variety of coach-horse usually termed the Cleveland Bay ; so called from its colour, and the fertile district of that name in the North Riding of Yorkshire, on the banks of the Tees. About the middle of the last century this district became known for the breeding of a superior class of powerful horses, which, with the gradual disuse of the heavy old coach-horse, became in request for coaches, chariots, and similar carriages. The breed, however, is not confined to Cleveland, but is cultivated through all the great breeding district of this part of England. It has been formed by the progressive mixture of the blood of |
the race-horse with the original breeds of the country. To
rear this class of horses, the same principles of breeding should be applied as to the rearing of the race-horse himself. A class of mares, as well as stallions, should also be used, having the properties sought for. The district of Cleveland owes its supe- riority in the production of this beautiful race of horses to the possession of a definite breed, formed not by accidental mix- ture but by continued cultivation. " Although the Cleveland Bay appears to unite the blood of
the finer with that of the larger horses of the country, to combine action with strength, yet many have sought a farther infusion of blood nearerto the race-horse. They are accordingly crossed by hunters or thorough-bred horses, and thus another variety of coach-horse is produced, of lighter form and higher breeding; and many of the superior Cleveland curricle and four-in-hand horses are now nearly thorough-bred. The bay colour is in the most general estimation, but the grey are not unfrequently used." Such is unquestionably the " Cleveland" horse of our day;
from a thorough-bred of moderate stature, and a Cleveland mare three-quarters blood, we obtain a horse fit for the small pair-horse brougham, the curricle-phaeton, or the four-in-hand. A pleasant and most popular writer, who adopts the nom de
plume of " Harry Hieover," thus agreeably contrasts the modern and antique carriage-horse:— " The great alteration in the form and breeding of the
carriage-horse has partly arisen from the alteration of the vehicle he draws, but still more from the improvement in the paving of the streets and the state of the roads round the me- tropolis. The heavy, old-fashioned machine that was built to suit the pavement over which the royal Hal and his fat friend were jolted to Eastcheap, became no longer necessary when, if a hole was found in a street, the paviours were set instantly to work; and when the two miles and a-half from St. Paui's to Hyde-park Corner, barring stoppages, became a work of fifteen minutes, instead of a long mortal hour, the heavy old coach- horse found the pace so unpleasant—indeed, impossible to him— that it became necessary to infuse some quicker-flowing blood into his veins; yet perhaps this necessary change, though it improved speed, would have made the more high-bred animal refuse to fetch a heavy load out of a slough or hole that let the vehicle in axle-deep. Each was fitted for a different purpose, and each had its distinct merit. "Doubtless the old coach-horse was little better bred than
the light cart-horse ; and I should think it more than probable that Lincolnshire and Suffolk mainly contributed to the early supply of coach-horses, for in those days the Yorkshire horse was the hunter, and would have been thought too light for harness-work. When roads got better, and gentlemen became charioteers, with their phaetons-and-four, and when this waS foliowed by the barouche, then Cleveland sent up its stock for carriage-horses, and they began to get those higher bred. Greorge the Fourth, as Prince of Wales, aided by his friend Sir John Lade, was perhaps the first who showed the public the ne plus ultra of the carriage-horse, as regards size, breeding» |
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T" M ö) A E) t T E OS „
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■' ■ MACKENZil . N
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■■■■■■■ v i - v ....
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HORSES OF BRITAIN.
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61
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beauty, pace, and action all combined. They made me stare
as a boy, and made many stare as men, to see them go down Constitution-hill. I have them as distinctly before my eyes now as I had them then. These horses only wanted their 'switch' or 'barouche'-tails (as they were then called) cut off to h Leicestershire stump, their manes pulled to about an mch long, and they were very fair specimens of hunters, and were quite as highly bred as the generality of hunters then used. "Partly, perhaps, to favour the kindof horse that had become
w vogue, but much more in consequence of good roads, small carriagei, became in vogue also; all sorts of vehicles, with aU sorts of names, shapes, sizes, and construction, were, and are, seen in the streets; and all the ingenuity of man was called forth to produce something new. But the ultimatum °f all this ingenuity appears to have been to enable a family, constituting in itself a host, to avail themselves of the con- venience of one carriage and one horse. The large old-fashioned tamily-coach is no longer seen; this was a capacious, lumbering looking vehicle, it must be allowed; six inside, two footmen, and coachman, made nine in number. This was thought enough for two large coach-horses." since the days of Harry Hieover a very great change has
taken place in the size and structure of London carriages; or instead of being constructed to carry six, or even four, they are mostly built only to carry two inside; at least there are more broughams than larger carriages, excepting always open barouches, which carry four inside. But it is the roads rather than the carriages that favour horses. Bring back the roads as they were a century ago, and you must also get back the old coach and coach-horse; though, it is to be hoped, we have seen the last of both. V.—THE HACKNEY.
A capital judge in equine matters has well said, that a per-
fect hack or roadster is the rarest phenomenon in horseflesh. J-o judge the just properties, we must have an accurate per- coption of the end for which the animal is designed, for accordmg to the end the proportions vary. Thus, there is one set of proportions for the racer, another for the hunter, another for the hackney, another for the coach-horse, and another for the cart-horse ; and, as each of these merges into the other's qualities, so is it inferior for its special objects. -kach too possesses its own style of beauty. Why should that common-place animal, ashe appears to the
unmitiated, the roadster, be more difficult to be met with in perfection than even the hunter and racer P There are many reasons for this. The price of the hack, or
the horse of all work, is so low, that he who has a good one wül not part with him; and it is by mere accident that he can be obtained. There are also several faults that can be over- Jooked in the hunter, but which the road horse must not have. The hunter may start, may be awkward in bis walk, or even nis trot; he may have thrushes or corns; but if he can go a good slapping pace, and has wind and bottom, we can put up |
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with him, or prize him: but the hack, if he be worth having,
must have good fore-legs, and good hinder ones too; he must be sound on his feet; even tempered; no starter; quiet in whatever situation he may be placed ; not heavy in hand • and never disposed to tumble down. The hack, like the hunter of the present day, is always a
horse with some portion of racing blood, the whole English race, even to the cart-horse, being more or less imbued, and equally improved by it. Thus our road horses are half, three- parts, seven-eighths, orthorough bred. The two latter degrees are, in several respects, less fittad for the purpose of travelling the roads than the former : chiefly on account of the tenderness of their legs and feet, their longer stride, and straight-kneed action, not so well adapted to the English road pace, the trot. Nevertheless, well-bred hackneys are elegant and fashionable, and, when good canterers, pleasant to ride ; insomuch that, a certain colonel of the Guards of former days insisted, there was the same difference to be feit in riding a bred hack and one without blood, as between riding in a coach and in a cart. One good property in the thorough-bred road horse is, that he seldom shies, many of them never. The road horse should have a considerably loffcy yet light
forehand or crest, a deep and extensive shoulder, well raised at the withers, straight back, with substantial loins and wide fillets, the croup not suddenly drooping, nor the tail set on low. The head should not be thick and fleshy, not joined abruptly to the neck, but in a gradual and tapering form ; the eye full, clear, and transparent. The fore arms and thighs, with plenty of muscular substance, should be of reasonable length, but the legs should, at no rate, be long. Much solid flat bone beneath the knee, is a great perfection in a hackney; and the feet, standing straight, turning neither in nor out- wards, should be of tough, dark, shining hom, the heels wide and open. The saddle-horse's fore-feet should closely approach each other, the wide chest being rather adapted to the collar. Nor need any apprehension be entertained from this near approximation of the fore feet, of the horse's cutting in the speed, or knocking his pastern joints, since those defects arise almost invariably from the irregular pointing of the toe, inwards or outwards, and for which, neither a wide chest, nor the most skilful farriery, has ever yet provided a sufficiënt remedy. A saddle horse of any description can scarcely go too close before, or too wide behind. Perhaps the best pedigree for a road horse for general
purposes is, that he should be bred from hackney stock on both sides, more particularly for a trotter. In the hackney, says Blaine (Outlines of the Veterinary An)
"we look with as much anxiety to his fore parts, as we do to the hinder parts of the racer or hunter: and as in them the fore parts are rather subordinate to the hinder, so in the hackney, on the contrary, the hind parts may be regarded as of less consequence than the fore; for, though speed is diminished, yet it is subordinate to safety. The head should be small, well placed, and well carried on a neck of due length ; the withers high, the shoulders muscular but not heavy; and above all, |
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BREEDING FOE GENERAL PURPOSES.
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62
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The action of the hack shall be examined when we treat of
the paces of the horse, especially the TeOT, and the choice of a horse for saddle. A hackney is far more valuable for the pleasantness of his
paces, and his safety, good temper, and endurance, than for his speed. We rarely want to go more than eight or ten miles in an hour; and, on a journey, not more than six or seven. The fast horses, and especially the fast trotters, are not often easy in their paces, and although they may perform very extraordinary feats, are disabled and worthless when the slower horse is in his prime. |
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they should be deep and oblique placed. The fore-legs must
be perfect throughout, and stand straight and well forward under the horse; and what in the hunter or racer is of less consequence is here indispensable, that the elbows should be turned well from the body. The feet also, it is requisite, should be clean, open, and perfect, and the limbs, especially the fore ones, free from all stiffness. The height in the hackney is not so esential as in the racer and hunter; indeed the best hackneys are from 14-3 to 15-1. He should be equally set, without being in the least clumsy; and with such a form the more blood he shows, short of full-blood, the better." |
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CHAPTER VII.
BREEDINa FOE GENERAL PUEPOSES.—EAELT SUBJUGATION OF THE HORSE: THE BIT, THE BRIDLE, THE SADDLE.—
BREAKING FOR SADDLE AND HARNESS.
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The produce from such a connection does not, as might be
expected, possess the strength of the cart-parent, lightened by the thorough-bred throughout his general formation, but is mostly a brute with light legs and body, with the head and shoulders of the cart-horse; or, at all events, in some parts or other of his form he will be this kind of nondescript; at least, all we have seen bred by such a cross have been so. The fact that the produce outwardly more resembles the sire than the dam, leads many people into the very great error of being care- less in their choice of mares. It may, perhaps, be justly afErmed, that there is more diffi-
culty in selecting a good mare to breed from, than a good horse, because she should possess somewhat opposite qualities. Her carcase should be long, to give room for the growth of the foetus, and yet with this there should be compactness of form and shortness of leg. The mare is capable of breeding at three or four years of
age. There have been injudicious instances of their being made mothers at two years, which may be passed without comment. The mare comes into "season" about February, and continues "horsing" at intervals until the end of June or middle of July. The term of gestation of the mare is between eleven to twelve months; these periods forming its ordinary limits. According to M. Tessier, who observed the result in 582 mares, who had copulated but once, the shortest period was 287 days, the longest 419, making the extraordinary difference of 132 days, and of 89 day beyond the usual term of eleven months. It is a mere supposition that the mare carries her flrst foal longer than subsequent ones; neither does the term vary on account of the offspring being a filly or a colt. With race- horses, who take their age from the flrst of January, and who are brought to their post at two years old, early foaling is of the first importance. With other breeds, who do not figure in Weatherby'sregister,the beginning of May is the most desirable time for stinting them. The foal will then be dropped in the |
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"Like produces like," and the progeny will inherit the
qualities or the mingled qualities of the parents. It is proven that in respect of diseases there are few which affect either of the parents constitutionally that the foal will not inherit, or, at least, a predisposition to them. Even the consequences of ill-usage or hard work will be entailed in the progeny. We have proof upon proof that blindness, roaring, thick wind, broken wind, spavins, curbs, ring-bones, and founder, have been bequeathed, both by the sire and the dam, to the offspring. It should likewise be recollected, that although these blemishes may not appear m the im- mediate progeny, they frequently will in the next generation. Hence the necessity of some knowledge of the parentage both of sire and dam. Peculiarity of iorm and constitution will also be inherited.
This is a most important 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 form, or want of blood, of the mare. When breeders are careful that the essential points should be good in both parents, and that some minor defect in either shall be met, and got rid of, by excellence in that particular point in the other, the result is creditable to their judgment and highly profltable. The unskilled or careless breeder will often so badly pair the animals, that the good points of each will be, in a manner, lost; the defects of both will be increased, and the produce will be far inferior to sire and dam. In breeding the half or three-quarter bred horse, different
men go on different principles. The generality put a half-bred mare to a thorough-bred sire, a mode that is mostly attended with the best success. Some use the thorough-bred mare and half-bred sire, while others breed from sire and dam half or three-quarters bred. In several instances we have known the experiment tried of putting a cart-mare to a thorough-bred sire, and vice versa; but have never yet seen this answer. |
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63
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BREEDING FOR GENERAL PURPOSES.
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taught to haü him as a friend. • The mare should be taught to
come up to man the moment he enters her paddock or pasture, from always gaining caresses and indulgence when she does so. A little corn from a sieve or a carrot from the hand wül soon teach her this; and if, when laid hold of, she gets this and caresses, and is never suffered to be alarmed, she wül come as readüy and wülingly as a favourite dog. What, then, is the result of the tameness of the mother ? The foal naturally follows her either to or from you, and, from constantly approaching man, he becomes famüiar; and, as a matter of course, never being hurt or alarmed, he in a few weeks has no more fear of him than of his dam, and wül suffer himself to be handled in any way you please. As soon as he is able to eat, he should get something from the hand, and wül from this watch for the approach of man, instead of (as most colts do) gaUoping away to avoid him. A flock of sheep foüow the shepherd from habit, and finding him their friend. A herd of deer, from want of habitual intimacy with man, avoid him, but a tame deer is as tame as any other pet; and so wül mare3 and colts be, if properly treated. Even supposing there was an inherent vicious propensity bom with a colt, by beginning thus early with him it would in most cases be eradicated; if not, it would to a certainty be most materially softened. To return, however, to the new-born foal:—It is not gene-
raUy known thut the refusing to suck, which is the cause of the death of many foals, as weU as the scouring, which about the third day küls many more, are both produced by imta- tion, and consequent inflammation of the bowels, from the retention of a few smaU hard feeces in the rectum. These are generaUy more in quantity in proportion as the keep of the mare has been high. The cure is simple; a few hours after the foal has been
dropped, a taUow candle should invariably be passed into the rectum, and when the passage has been sufficiently softened, the feces can easüy be extracted by the finger. In cases where scouring küls foals at a subsequent period, it
is generaUy attributable to the foal heating itself by violent exercise; consequently the mare, for the first day or wo that she is let out (supposing her to be housed,) ought only to be walked about with a halter, and the same practice pursued at the time of her first horsing. Some mares wül not aUow their foals to suck. This nnses
from the tenderness of the teats ; and in this case they _ should have their heads tied up, and if necessary be «,- vented from kicking, whüe they are müked by hand, and the Zk should be rubbed over the teats for some short time, after which they wül aUow the foal to suck. , , n ... . Should the mare's mük be obstructed and faü, either from
coid caught, or other cause, if out she should immediately be taken up to the house, and enticed to he down upon a largo and deep Uïtered bed of fresh strawin a loose box, and every method taken to comfort her, and te, encourage the secretion of mük To promote this end, as much warm müd ale should be aüowed as she would drink ; or should she refuse it, she may be drenched with a couple of quarts, to be repeated as may |
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following April, wben tbere is pleasant air, and natural food
for dam and offspring, and tbey need not be so much in stable. "Wien nearly half the time of pregnancy has elapsed, the
^are should be petted and varied in her food. This is about tae period when they are aeaustomed to slink their foals, or ^ben abortion occurs: at this time, therefore, the eye of the °^ner should be frequently upon them. Good feeding and J°derate exercise wül be the best preventives against this. Tfle mare that has once slinked her foal is ever liable to the 8ame accident, and therefore should nevel' be suffered to be Wlta other mares about the time that this usually occurs, ^bich is between the fourth and fifth months; for such is the P°^er of imagination or of sympathy in the mare, that iï one of them suffers abortion, the greater number of those in the Same pastore wül share the same fate. The mare gives a day 0r so notice of the "event," by the appearance of adbesive matter about the teats. Even up to this time gentle work wül n°t hurt her. If a mare has been regularly exercised, and apparently m
bealth whüe she was in foal, little danger wül attend the act °f parturition. If there be false presentation of the foetus, or ^culty in producing it, it wül be better to have recourse to a ^ell-informed practitioner, rather than injure the mother by "ie violent and injudicious attempts which are often made to relieve the animal. ■^ soon as the mare has foaled, she should be turned into
8ome weU-sheltered pasture, with a hovel or shed to run into |
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^en she pleases: and as, supposing she has foaled in April,
*he grass is scanty, she should have a couple of feeds of corn JJaily- The breeder may depend upon it that nothing is gained ty keeping the mother and foal on " short commons " at this !^e- It is the most important time in the life of the horse; and tf> from false economy, his growth be arrested now, his puny foröi and want of endurance wül ever afterwards testify the f^or that has been committed. The corn should be given in a tr°Ugh on the ground, that the foal may partake of it with the |
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other. xne mare wiii usually oe iouiui au u»i <•» "* ">*-""
«ie expiration of a month from the time of fbaling, when, if she be kept principaüy for breeding purposes, she may be put |
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aSaüito the horse
O |
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°ne of the great things to be desired in a brood mare, after
llavingproperly selected her, is to render her perfectly famüiar ^ luiet: she should be brought to be as tame as a pet sheep. JNearly all mares by kind and gentle treatment may be brought t0 this. The being perfectly free from alarm produces a jjeneral placidity of temper that is highly desirable in any feeding animal as to their weU doing: fright, we aU know, ^en ih this state, has often most fatal effects both on mother ^d offspring. re'asoning, therefore, on analogy, if absolute g^t is often fatal, constant alarm or apprehension must be
PreJudicial. Independent of this, mares gaUoping about to ^v°id being caught whenever they are approached is highly Jaagerous; and, after the foal is produced, he naturaüy foüows ^e mother: if she is wüd, the colt becomes so, and learns &om W to avoid man as his enemy, whereas he should be |
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64
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BITS, BRIDLES, AND STIRRUPS.
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submissive to the will of his rider have not descended to us.
The Jews fiercely denounced and despised the grandest and most useful of animals; and equally despised, adding perse- cution to their prejudice, the faithful dog. The heathen nations more liberal and enlightened, zealously patronised the horse. The period at which the horse was first subjugated has been
a matter of curious rather than useful inquiry. Sir Gore Ouseley, from examinations of the sculptures at
Persepolis, inclines to the opinion that they were first used in chariots, and in this he is countenanced by many antiquaries. Homer describes all his heroes as fighting from chariots. Palaephatus says that men were first drawn in chariots. It would seem, however, more probable, that mounting the horse, with the skin of a wild beast for a saddle, would be the earliest method. Those interested in such enquiries, may consult Berenger's work " The History of the Horse." It is in some of the Grecian sculptures that we first see the
bit in the horse's mouth, but it is not always that we do see it; on the contrary, there is frequently neither bridle, saddle, or stirrup. It, however, was frequently necessary to make use of cords or thongs, in order to confine the horse to the place at which it suited the rider to leave him. These cords were fastened round the animal's neck, and may be seen in several of the ancient figures. According to some writers, the occa- sional struggles of the animal to escape from these trammels, and the strength which he exerted in order to accomplish his purpose, first suggested the idea of harnessing him to certain machines for the purpose of drawing them; and it is evident that soon after this it must have occurred to the horseman, that if this rope was put over the head and over the muzzle, or perhaps in the mouth of the animal, he would be more easily fastened or led from place to place, and more securely guided and managed, whether the man was off or on his back. Hence arose the bridle. It probably was at first nothing more than the halter or cord by which the horse was usually con- fined. An improvement to this was a detached cord 01 rope, with prolongations coming up on both sides of the mouth, and giving the rider much greater power over the animal; and after that, for the sake of cleanliness and to prevent the wear and tear of the rope, and also giving yet more command over the animal, an iron bit was fitted to the mouth and rested on the tongue, and the bridle was attached to each end of it. This was the common snaffle bridle of the present day, the iron being jointed and flexible, or often composed of a chain. There were, however, no cross pieces to these bits at the mouth, but simple knobs or bulbs, to the inside of which the bit was attached. Bits and bridles of this kind occur frequently in the Athe-
nian sculptures of the time of Pericles, about four hundred and thirty years before the Christian era; but the headgear of the bridle had not long been introduced, the bit being sup- ported, in some figures, by the buckling or tying of the bridle about the nose, a little above the muzzle. These, however, soon disappear, and we have the present snaffie with very little alteration, except a straight leather or cord from the head to |
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appear necessary; her food being the finest and most fragrant
hay, sweet grains, with mashes of corn and pollard. In cases of chili and great weakness, the old well-known articïe, cordial ball, may be given in warm ale. Should, however, the case be inflammatory, from previous
high condition and fulness of blood, cordial ball and all stimulants should be strictly avoided, and the regimen confined to warm water and gruel, in as copious quantities as can be administered. Should further measures of similar tendency be indicated, a mild solution of Glauber's or Epsom salts (ten or twelve ounces in a pail of warm water,) may be given, which she may be induced to drink by means of being kept short of water. A moderate quantity of blood may be drawn, should the symptóms demand it, not otherwise. Daily walking exer- cise abroad, the mare being clothed if necessary, should succeed, until she be sufficiently recovered to be returned to her pasture. During the inability of the mare to give suck, the foal must
be sustained on cow's milk. This alien milk will generally disorder and gripe the foal, for which the best remedy is two or three spoonsful of rhubarb in powder, with an equal quantity of magnesia, in warm gruel. This medicine should be given to the foals of working mares, vhich are often griped by sucking pent milk. The disorder arising from wet and cold, a table spoonful eacn, of the best brandy and syrup of white poppies, may be given several feies. Mares having dead ibals, ought to lose a little blood, be fed
moderately on cooling mashes with a little nitre, and on no account be allowed corn. Moderate walking exercise is very desirable for mares before foaling; and alternate mashes of plain and of scalded bran are much to be recommended. It should be observed that geldings should not be admitted
among the brood mares, as by leaping them, or harassing them about, abortion may be occasioned. In five or six months, according to the growth of the foal, it
may be weaned. It should then be housed for three weeks or a month. A rick-yard in good weather is a capital place for the foal, as affording, without trouble, both food and shelter. One or two urine balls, or a physic ball, will be useful, if the milk should be troublesome, or the mother should pine after her foal. There is no principle of greater importance than the liberal
feeding of the foal during the whole of his growth, and at this time in particular. Bruised oats and bran should fbrm a con- siderable part of his daily provender. The money is well laid out which is expended on the liberal nourishment of the growing colt; while, however, he is well fed, he should not be rendered delicate by excess of care. A racing colt is stabled; but one that is destined to be a hunter, a hackney, or a general horse should merely have a square riek, under the leeward side of which he may shelter himself, or a hovel, into whic h he may run at night, or out of the rain. EARLY SUBJUGATION 07 THE HORSE.—THE BIT, THE BRIDLE,
THE SADDLE, THE STIRRUP. " The noblest conquest ever made by man was that of the
horse," says Buffon: the earlier methods of rendering him |
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THE BIT, THE BRIDLE, SADDLE, AND STIRRUP.
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85
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he military art; and at this period the Greek word aeXKa
(sella) occurs Vegetius, who wrote on the veterinary art, speaks of saddle-horses; and the saddle-tree is mentioned by Sidonius Apollmaris. It is considered probable that the invention of saddles belongs to Persia, not merely from the circurostance of Xenophon's mentioning the people of that country as being the first to render the seat on the horse more convenient and easy, by placing more covering on their backs than was common in other parts, but also because the horses of Persia were chosen for saddle-horses in preference to any others. The ignominious punishment of' bearing the saddle,' had its origin in the middle ages, and was alone worthy of those times. That the word saddle is derived from the Latin word sedeo, to sit on, there can be no doubt. That the saddle, however, was unknown in this country until the reign of Henry the Seventh is, I believe, equally certain; and in Ireland also, it is conjectured, from the absence of any representation of it in the last three centuries. The first mention of side-saddles is in the time of Richard the Second, when his queen rode upon one." With all due deference to Nimrod's assertion, that the saddle was not used in England until the time of Henry the Seventh, we must cite the testimony of the venerabie Bede, who informs us that the English began to saddle their horses about the year 630, during the Saxon struggle for the ascendancy. Their harnessing the horse is certified by their use of
chariots, even for war purposes, when first visited by the Roman invader. The stirrup was likewise unknown. The adoption of that
convenient assistance in mounting the horse was of singularly late date. The first mention of it occurs in the works of Eustathius, about the 1158th year of the Christian era; but it was used in the time of William the Conqueror, nearly a century before that. Berenger gives the figure of a horse saddled, bridled, and with stirrups, copied from the Bayeux tapestry, which was embroidered in the time of the Conqueror by his wife, and describes the circumstances preceding and attending his descent into England. The heroes of ancient times trusted chiefly to their own agility in leaping on their horses' backs (corpora saltu subjiciunt in equos), and that whether standing on the right side or the left. They who fought on horseback with the spear or lance
had a projection on the spear, or sometimes a loop of cord about two feet from the bottom of it, which served at once for a firmer grasp of the weapon, and a step on which the right or the left foot might be placed, according to the side on which the warrior intended to mount, and from which he could easily vault on his courser's back. The horse was sometimes taught to assist the rider in mounting by bending his neck or kneeling down, especially in Persia and Eastern countries. Cxsar's horse, who knelt for his master to mount, is facetiously alluded to in Hudibras (see quotation, ante, page 9)- The magnates had their slaves by their horses' side to assist them in mounting and dismounting. Some made use of a short ladder; and it was the duty of the local |
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fce nose-band, and that not always found. The chain under
the chin is occasionally observed, probably for the sake of teeping the bit steady in the mouth. In no period of Grecian history was the severe curb-bit
Wn. This was an invention of after-times. The only instrument of punishment which was then attached to tüe bit was found in the knobs at the corners of the mouth: tney W sharp or rough points on their inner surface which by a turn or twist of the bridle might be brought to bear pam- fully on the cheeks and angles of the mouth. A bit so constructed was termed a Iwpatwm, from the supposed resemblance of these sharp projections to the teeth of awoli. It would seem that this was, among the Romans, almost foeval with the introduction of the bit, for the poet attributes it to Neptune, the fabulous parent of the horse* We also find, even at this early period, that horses were
*oved in circles to supple them, and render them ready to tl"-n any way they might be required. Lucan, m nis "Pnarsalia," praises the Massylians as being ableto dispense ^ith saddle and bit in the management of their war horses. He says— " Et gens qme nudo residens Massylia, dorso
Oralevi fiectit fraenorum nescia virga. " Without a saddle the Massylians ride, ^ And with a bending switch their horses guide.
No mention is made of saddles, such as are used in modern
tittes; by way of ornament, and partly of convenience too ** horses were often covered with beautiful cloths, or with *« skins of wild beasts, secured by a girth or surcingle. ^us the horse of Parthenopsusf was covered with the skin of a lynx, and that of iEneas}, according to Virgil, witn a lio*'s skin. In their religious or triumphal processions the h°usings of the horses were particularly magnificent, being frequently adorned with gold and silver and diamonds. Rich collars were also hung round their necks, and bells ai*orned their crests. The trappings of the young knight in the days of chivalry did not exceed those of the Grecian warnor 00 days of ceremony. " It is conjectured," says Nimrod, in the Sporting Magazine,
No- cxxxviii., " that saddles having any resemblance to those now in use, were invented in the middle of the f°nrteenth century, and were generally covered with cloth; but previous to this period, in the fifth century, artic es °earing something of this stamp were made so extravagantly, töat a prohibition was issued by the Emperor Leo the First against any one ornamenting them with pearls or precious stones. In the sixth century the saddles of the cavalry had large coverings of fur, according to Mauritius, who wrote on * " Neptunus equo, si certa priorum
Fama patet, primus teneris lsesisse lupatis Ora, et littoreo domuisse in pulvere fertur." "Neptune, if we may credit give to fame, ^ First taught with bits the generous horse to tame.'
t See Statius. + Quemfulva konis pellis obit. |
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66 HORSE-BREAKING.—RAREY, TELFER, ETC.
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conceit, practising on the ignorance which is prone to take
omne ignotumpro rnagnifico, and this was possibly more profit- able to the professors of the "mystery." Foremost among these stand the celebrated "horse- whisperer," James Sullivan, and a Yorkshireman called Jumper. We give them on the authority of Mr. James Castley.* " When a very young man," says Mr. Castley, "I remember
purchasing a horse at a fair in the north of England, that was offered very cheap, on account of his being unmanage- able. It was said nobody could ride him. We found that the animal objected to have any thing placed upon his back, and that when made to move forward with even nothing more than a saddle on, he instantly threw himself down upon 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 in Ireland. We put this animal into Jumper's hands, who took him away, and in about ten days brought him home again, cer- tainly not looking worse in condition, but perfectly snbdued, and almost as obedient as a dog; for he would lie down at this man's bidding, and only rise again at his command— carry doublé, or any thing. I took to riding him myself, and may say I never was better carried for six or eight months, during which time he never showed the least vice what ever. I then sold him to a Lincolnshire farmer, who said he would give him a summer's run at grass, and show him, a very fine horse, at the great Horncastle fair. Hap- pening to meet this gentleman the following year, I naturally enough enquired after my old friend. ' Oh,' said he, ' that was a bad business; the horse turned out a sad rebel. The first time we attempted to mount him after getting him up from grass, he, in an instant, threw the man down with the greatest violence, pitching him several yards over his head: and after that he threw every one that attempted to get on his back. If he could not throw his rider,' continued my informant, ' he would throw himself down. We could do nothing with him; and I was obliged at last to sell him to go in a stage coach.' Jumper, like the celebrated Whisperer, Sullivan, was supposed to possess some charm, by which this wonderful effect was produced. There appears to have been a great similarity between these two men; and those who recollect Jumper, will easily recog- nize the similitude in the following account of the Whis- perer, extracted from the Rev. Mr. Townsend's Statistical Survey of the County of Cork:—' James Sullivan, the Whisperer, was a horse-breaker at Cork; an ignorant awk- ward rustic of the lowest class. He gained this singular epithet by an extraordinary art of controlling in a secret manner, and taming into the most submissive and tractable * Mr. James Castley, Veterinary Surgeon to the 17th Lancers, and
the contributor of many valuable papers to the early volumes of the Yeteriiiarian. The following anecdotes are from the Veterinarian, volume iii., pages 671—676, whenoe they were copied by Mi Youatt. |
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magistracy, both in Rome and Greece, to see that con-
venient mounting-stones were placed at short distances along all the roads. The boot for the defence of the leg from the dangers to
which it was exposed was very early adopted, and the heel of it was, occasionally at least, armed with a spur. BREAKING THE HOBSE FOR SADDLE AND HAKNESS.
In every art there seem to be periods of enquiry, thought-
fulness, and awakening, with intervals of stagnation, routine, and slumber. This appears to have been the case with the art of horsebreaking. For generations, with some few exceptions of men with a genius for taming and instructing animals, and these so few and far between as not to affect the general principle, pretended secrets, coercion, cruelty, and fear was the rule; kindness, patience, and gentle firmness the exception. Drugs, whisperings, and other delusions, invented by knaves and believed in by simpletons, were pretended to effect what they never did or could do, and druggists sold oil of rhodium, oil of cumin, and other delusive nostrums, to the pront of the vendors and the disappointment of the credulous. About five years since, however, a rumour was wafted across the Atlantic that a wondrous discovery had been made in the art of taming vicious horses, and it was foliowed shortly by the arrival of the so-called "discoverer of the art." We would not rob Mr. J. S. Rarey of one iota of his well-deserved earnings, or of his credit as a skilful demonstrator of his system. If the pretensions by which it was heralded and supported will not bear close investigation, it is certain that he roused the public mind from long apathy, and by directing enquiry to the true principles of horsebreaking, served essentially the interests of humanity, and enhanced the value of the most valuable servant of man. There is no doubt that Mr. Telfer, of Northumberland, Mr. W. Cooke, of Astley's Amphi- theatre, and others, had long practised portions of the plan promulgated by Mr. Rarey, but they kept their secret till Mr. Rarey disclosed his, and, pro tanto, were merely " dumb oracles, that opened not their lips." We do not claim for Mr. Rarey the " invention " or " discovery " of a system, but he is fully entitled to the credit of being its promulgator, demonstrator, expositor, and teacher, and this is enough to earn our grateful thanks. A horse of Lord Dorchester's, the noted stallion " Cruiser," a four-footed fiend, to our personal knowledge, was tamed by Mr. Rarey as a first sample of his skill, in two hours, so as to be ridden " as quiet as a sheep," as the groom expressed it, although no man had been able to mount him for three years previously. He was afterwards led on the high road from Murrell Green to London, behind a dog-cart. Before entering on the practical portion of our subject, we
shall digress for a few paragraphs to introducé a few words relating to celebrated horse-breakers, who certainly performed equally astonishing feats in this line, probably by similar methods; though they preferred, as more flattering to their I |
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HORSE-BREAKING.—SULLIVAN, THE WHISPERER.
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07
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disposition, any horse or mare that was notoriously vicious
aod obstinate. He practised his skill in private, and without any apparent forcible means. In the short space of half an tour, his magical influence would bring into perfect submis- sion and good temper even a colt that had never been handled; and the effect, though instantaneously produced, was generally durable. When employed to tame an out- i rageous animal, he directed the stable, in which the object i of his experiment was placed, to be shut, with orders not to °pen the door until a signal given. After a tête-a-tde between him and the horse, during which little or no bustle Was heard, the signal was made, and on opening the door the horse was found lying down, and the man by his side playing familiarly with him like a child with a puppy dog. From that time he was found perfectly willing to submit to any discipline, however repugnant to his nature before*. " 'I once,' says Mr. Townsend, ' saw his skill on a horse,
which could never before be brought to stand for a smith to shoe him, The day after Sullivan's half-hour 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 seemed afraid whenever Sullivan either spoke or looked at him: how that extraordinary ascendancy could have been ob- tained it is difficult to conjecture; he seemed to possess an instinctive power of inspiring awe, the result perhaps of a natural intrepidity, in which I believe a great part of the art consisted; though the circumstance of the tête-a-tête shews that upon particular occasions something more must have been added to it. A faculty like this would, in other hands, have made a fortune; and great offers have been made to him for the exercise of his art abroad, but hunting and attachment to his native soil were his ruling passions- He lived at home in a style most agreeable to his disposition, and nothing could induce him to leave Duhallow and the fox-hounds." Mr. Castley remarks on this, very sensibly, " The days of
miracles and of magie are gone by; and however necro- mantie this may look, it is nevertheless quite true. There are so many living witnesses of the extraordinary power this man possessed, and his mystical art was practised for such a length of time, and on such a variety of subjects, that there is no such thing as doubting the fact. It is a fact, be it recollected, of the nineteenth century. My friend, Mr. Greorge Watts, of Dublin, who is a man not at all likely to be swayed by superstitious notions, has told me that he had more than one opportunity of witnessing the wonderful effect of Sullivan's art. ' And if I had not seen it myself,' he always observes, ' I would not believe it.' One remark- |
able instance in particular he relates, which, as it affords
another practical example illustrative of the point at which I wish to arrive, I shall take the liberty to repeat. This in- cident took place at the Curragh of Kildare, in the spring meeting of 1804. Mr. Whalley's King Pippin was brought there to run. He was a horse of the most extraordinary savage and vicious disposition; his particular propensity was that of flying at and worrying 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 in what is called a sword, which is nothing more than 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 t<? manage and dangerous to go near; 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 principally of the neighbouring peasantry; and one country- man, more fearless than the rest of the lookers-on, forgetting, or rather perhaps never dreaming, that the better part of courage is prudence, volunteered his services to bridle the horse; but no sooner had he committed himself in this operation, than King Pippin seized him somewhere about the shoulders or chest, and, says Mr. Watts, 'I know of nothing I can compare it to, so much as to a dog shaking a rat.' Fortunately for this poor fellow, his body was very I thickly covered with clothes; for, on such occasions, observes my friend, an Irishman of this class is fond of displaying his wardrobe, and if he has three coats at all in the world, he is I sure to put them all on. This circumstance, in all pro- bability, saved the individual who had so gallantly volunteered the forlorn hope. His person was so deeply enveloped in extra tegument, that the horse never got fairly hold of his skin; and I understand he escaped with but little injury beyond a sadly rent and totally ruined state of all his holi- day toggery. The ' Whisperer' was then sent for, who, hav- ing arrived, was shut up with the horse all night, and in the morning he exhibited this hitherto ferocious animal, follow- ing 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 a race, and his docility continued satisfactory for a long time; but.at the end of about three years his vice retumed, and then he is said to have killed a man, for which he was destroyed.
" Sullivan used to say he got his secret from a soldier who
chanced to be passing by his cottage in a state of exhaustion, and to whom he offered aome refreshment, and that he was bound by an oath never to reveal it. Here then, indeed, was a secret well worth knowing. But whatever it was, it | |
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* We are strongly inclined to believe that Sullivan practised the
larey systera or something closely akin to it. |
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68
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HORSE-BREAKING—BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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Among the books in our list occurs the name of Gryson,
who performed, d la Rarey, in public, about the year 1570. In an address to the reader of his treatise, we find the following :— "What his judgment was in the said art (of horse taming)
may appear to all those who list to look upon the rules and |
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seems to hare perished—to have descended to the grave
with James Sullivan. His son pretended to some knowledge of it, but he certainly does not possess the right secret: of this I had myself an opportunity of being convinced by ocular demonstration, a few years since, when quartered at Cork." One other paragraph from Mr. Castley's amusing paper
and we have done. It relates to the failure of the younger Sullivan, whom his cunning parent had evidently left ignorant of his pretended "charm." "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 ; in which I believe consisted the secret of his having been sold at any thing like troop price. 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; he was fain to make his escape from so unruly a customer. Time, however, and a long perseverance in kind and gentle treatment, together with the exercise of a little tact, have effected what fórce could not. The horse is now pretty reasonable to shoe.—Qua Leonina pellis non perveniet, Vulpina est assu- menda. " The lion's skin, too short you know,
(As Plutarch's morals finely shew,)
Was lengthened by the fox's tail,
And art supplies where strength may feil."
In a former part of this work (pp. 36—38) will be found,
under The Horses of South Ameeica, some account of the horse-breaking of the Guachos; and under The Hoeses of Noeth America (pp. 41-42), a reference to Mr. Oatlin's experience. Those curious in the bibliography of the art of horseman-
ship may find how well-versed were our ancestors in most of the " systems" and " new methods," which are from time to time trumpeted forth as " discoveries" by charlatans, or men ignorant of what has been done before them*. * We pass over Xenophon, the great historian and warrior, who
wrote the earliest treatise upon the art, 300 years before Christ, and other ancient authors, some of whom will be found referred to in the earlier chapters (L to VII.) of this volume, when treating of the Histoet and Varieties of THE Horse ; merely noticing those writers who are aecessible to the English rule, in good libraries or at the reading-room of the British Museum :— " Horsemanshippe." By Frederick Gryeon: Lond. 1571. This
author was an Italian professor of horsemanship in Naples. He was considered the most famous in Italy. " Horsemanshippe." By Claudio Corte : eirca, 1660. Also an
Italian professor of the art, who wrote upon the subject during the same century. |
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" The Art of Eiding, &c." By T. Bedingfield : 1584. An excellent
and useful book.
" The Fower chiefest Offices of Horsemanship." By Master Thoma»
Blundevill. London, 1609, 4to. Black letter. A most elaborate
treatise : the text of numerous subsequent writers. The " Fower
Offices" are the "office" of "breeder," and those of the " rider," the
" keeper," and the " farrier."
" The Gentleman's Accomplished Jockey." By Gervase Markham, author of "The Masterpiece." Markham's books went through many
editions between 1620 and 1700.
"Horsemanship." By Nichs. Morgan, 1609. This again has fur-
nished much of our later treatises with matter. This author, speaking
of an English knight, hight Alexander, takes occasion thus to allude to
Alexander of Macedon :—
" Great Alexander deerly lou'd his horse;
The horse lou'd him, and auffered none to ride Vppon his backe by flattery or by force, But his dread lorde, that halfe the world did guide, This knight did beare that Alexander's name, Who brought the proudest coursers to his becke, And with his hand, spurre, voice, and wand, did tama The stately steedes that never brookt the checke. ### * * * * •* ;
Not only he in England was esteemed,
But eke in forraine countries for his art, And yet to me (that honoured him) it seemed His fame's report was less than his desart. This knighte (the mirrour of all knights for riding) Had many men of worth and great renowne That were his scholiere, by whose happy guiding They in this art did put all others down." William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. " Methode et Invention
Nouvelle de dresser les Chevaux," with a frontispiece and forty-two plates of the ménage, 1631. Originally written in French, and trans- lated into English. There were numerous French and German writers upon ménage riding and horsebreaking about this period. " The Compleat Horseman and Expert Farrier." By Thomas de
Grey, Esq., 1650. A clever book, but full of conceits in its veterinary portion. In 1686 appeared a cyclopoadic work in two divisions, called " The
Gentleman's Becreation." By Bobert Blome, Gent. The second division treats of horsemanship, hunting, hawking, &c. It embodies much of the knowledge contaiued in more recent treatises. Solleysel's " Parfait Marechale," translated by Sir William Hope, and
Michael Baret's " Hipponomie, or Vineyard of Horsemanship," about 1750. " Military Equitation, or a Method of Breaking Horses and teaching
Soldiers to ride." By Henry Earl of Pembroke. 4to., with numerous plates. This book, with its motto, " Scientia et Patientia," may well be consulted as to feeding and shoeing, as well as horsemanship The Earl of Pembroke furnishes the text of the statements of half our modern professors. " Berenger's History and Art of Horsemanship." A comprehensive
work. In .the writings of Clark, Morecroft, Osmer, John Lawrence, D. P. Blaine, Goodwin, Miles, and Darvill, may be found much relating to the Horse in general. |
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PRINCIPLES OF HORSE-BREAKING.
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a horse does wrong, and the trainer has to go and fetch a
whip before administering the chastisement, it is un- reasonable to suppose that the horse (which is not gifted with the power of reasoning) can know for what purpose the chastisement is administered; therefore correction should never be resorted to at any other time than the instant the horse commits a fault. An impatient man is totally unfit for the art of training colts. First advances to the Colt.—We have already said, when
speaking of the thoroughbred colt intended for racing purposes, that it cannot be too early handled and made familiar with the presence of man. We will, however, for our present purpose suppose the colt to be wild and shy, and running loose with others in the field. In this case the first step is to get the whole of them into a small enclosure or a building, and patiently and without hurry separate the one you intend for immediate " schooling " from the rest by letting the others pass out of the gateway or door until your "pupil" and a quiet broken horse are the only ones remaining. As to getting him into stable for the first time we will quote " Rarey " as the most recent instructor. He says :_" One wrong move may frighten him, and make him think it necessary to escape at all hazards for the safety of his life—and thus make two hours' work of a ten minutes' job; and this would be all your own fault, and entirely unnecessary—for he will not run unless you run after him, and that would not be good policy unless you knew that you could outrun him, for you will have to let him stop of his own accord after all. But he will not try to break away unless you attempt to force him into measures. If he does not see the way at once, and is a little fretful about going in do not undertake to drive him, but give him a little less ro'om outside, by gently closing in around him. Do not raise your arms, but let them hang at your side, for you might as well raise a club: the horse has never studied anatomy and does not know but that they will unhinge hemsl'es and fly at him. If he attempts to turn back,
walk before him, but do not run; and if he gets past you, lircle him again in the same quiet manner, and he will oon nnd that you are not going to hurt him; and hen you
an walk so close around him that he will go into the stable
for more room, and to get farther from you. As soon as he in remove the quiet horse and shut the door This wil Vhls first notionV confinement-not knowing bow^he go
into such a place, nor how to get out of it. That he may ake Tas quietly as possible, see that the shed is entirely
free rom d'ogs, chickens, or anything that would annoy Z Then give him a few ears of corn and let him remain iZe fifteen or twenty minutes, until he has exammed his apar ment, and has become reconciled to his confinement Ind now, while your horse is eatmg those few ears of corn t the proper time to see that your halter is ready and all right and to reflect on the best mode of operations; for m , t. i -r^r \t is highly important that you should be ÏEÏÏftM ^ And yo„ -«l/k».. b*e |
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Precepts so perfectly set forth by him in writing. What his
Practice was in the said art openlie and dailie in the said citie, and what his praise was there, doth appear in that n°ble Caracciolo's writings, the Duke of Martina's brother, ^nich he intituled Gloria de CavaUi, where he says of Gr7son and another, ' These be the eyes of our toong.' For hesides the true knowledge of this art, and the great Practice they both had thereof, they with a most perfect j^dgment ha(j thig special grace given them, that every horse at the flrst riding seemed to obey unto them even at their °ecke, so as the standers-by were astonied thereat; ^hereupon all others studious of this exercise would unto ^ese two persons as to the oracle of Apollo verie often resort, to be resolved in all their doubts." Ancient writers upon the subject of horse-breaking one
an<ï all declare, that in training the horse, so as to make it bedient and useful to man, there must be a combination oi an<i regard to three distinct principles-nature, art and reason. In the absence of any or either of these, the efforts of tbe trainer will be unsatisfactory, if not useless. Tbe secret in the art of horse-breaking consists in a
c°rrect knowledge of the nature of the horse; and when th-at is understood, the trainer finds his whole efforts must be devoted to improvement of the natural intellects of the animal; no other method can ever succeed. It is impossible [° give a horse either an artificial intellect or memory A horse is naturally well-disposed to man, though fearful ol aQd obedient to him. No human art can effect anything <=°*trary to the nature of the horse, though the animal may be easily imposed on. Therefore, in training, there must be a reason for every artifice employed; and a practicabie, nat«ral, and beneficial result looked for, or capable of being Scheed through the means employed. If the trainer can ëlVe no substantial reason for any particular stratagem he ^Ploys, whatever the result produced, it can have no ^sting or beneficial effect upon the horse. But if Nature be °t>eyed, and her order strictly kept, it follows as a Certainty that the end desired will be attained. So that if Jf* be employed with reason, it must be in accordance with ;he instinct of the animal; for nothing in the art of horse- ja-ming is reasonable that is contrary to the nature of the £0rse- And these, the first principles of the art, should be TePt constantly in mind; for nothing is easier than to lraPose on a horse, because the animal is naturally un- c°nscious of imposition, and is. besides, fearful and obedient to man. Neither force nor violence should be used in training
c°lts; they must be won by gentle treatment, for violence is ?Pposed to the three fundamental principles of the art. ^hatever a horse does by violent compulsion is of no avail *n training, because the horse knows not what is required of hlQï, or how to obey; therefore no useful impression is made UP°n the animal when the teaching is accompanied with violence. Correction should be administered without ^ence, and immediately after the fault. For instance, if |
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PRACTICE OF HORSE-BREAKING.
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70
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you attempt to do anything, just what you are going to do,
and how you are going to do it. And, if you are ex- perienced in the art of taming wild horses, you ought to be able to teil, within a few minutes, the length of time it would take you to halter the colt, and teach him to lead." In 1814, one Willis Powell published a book called " The
Art of Taming Wild Horses," which contains some practical and clear instructions. At the risk of a short iteration, we will give them in the writer's own words, as containing the kernel of the preliminary steps in horsebreaking. Mr. Powell says : " Having your horse in a stable or room, which should be sufficiently large to move him about with the halter before you lead him out, see if he belongs to that class which appear only to fear man. If so, introducé yourself gently and silently into the stable or yard where you have left the horse awhile. He will instinctively run from you, and frequently turn his head from you ; you must walk about very slowly and softly, so that he can see you whenever he turns his head towards you, which he never fails to do in a short time, say in a quarter or half an hour. I never knew one to be much longer without turning towards me. " At the very moment he turns his head, hold out your
left hand towards him, and stand perfectly still, keeping your eyes upon the horse, watching his motions, if he makes any. If the horse does not stir for ten or fifteen minutes, advance as slowly as possible, and without making the least noise always holding out your left hand, without any other ingrediënt in it than what nature put in it." * He says, " I have made use of certain ingredients before people, such as the sweat under my arm, &c, to disguise the real secret, and many believed that the docility to which the horse arrived in so short a time was owing to these ingredients; but you see from this explanation that they were of no use whatever. The implicit faith placed in these ingredients, though innocent of themselves, becomes 'faith without works.' And thus men remained always in doubt con- cerning this secret. If the horse makes the least motion when you advance towards him, stop, and remain perfectly still until he is quiet. Remain a few moments in this condition, and then advance again in the same slow and almost imperceptible manner. Take notice—if the horse stirs, stop, without changing your position. It is very uncommon for the horse to stir more than once after you begin to advance, yet there are exceptions. He generally keeps his eyes fixed on you, until you get near enough to touch him on the forehead. When you are thus near to him, raise slowly, and by degrees, your hand, and let it come in contact with that part just above the nostrils, as lightly as possible. If the horse flinches (as many will), repeat with great rapidity these light strokes upon the |
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forehead, going a little farther up towards his ears by
degrees, and descending with the same rapidity until he will let you handle his forehead all over. Now let the strokes be repeated with more force over all his forehead, descending by lighter strokes to each side of his head, until you can handle that part with equal facility. Then touch in the same light manner, making your hands and fingers play around the lower part of the horse's ears, coming down now and then to his forehead, which may be looked upon as the helm that governs all the rest. " Having succeeded in handling his ears, advance towards
the neck, with the same precautions and in the same manner; observing always to augment the force of the strokes whenever the horse will permit it. Perform the same on both sides of the neck, until he Iets you take it in your arms without flinching. " Proceed in the same gradual manner to the sides, and
then to the back of the horse. Every time the horse shews any nervousness, return immediately to the forehead as the true Standard, patting him with your hands, and thence rapidly to where you had already arrived, always gaining ground a considerable distance farther on every time this happens. The head, ears, neck, and body being thus gentled, proceed from the back to the root of the tail. "This must be managed with dexterity, as a horse is
never to be depended on that is skittish about the tail. Let your hand fall lightly and rapidly on that part next to the body a minute or two, and then you will begin to give it a slight pull upwards every quarter of a minute. At the same time you continue this handling of him, augment the force of the strokes as well as the raising of the tail, until you can raise it and handle it with the greatest ease, which com- monly happens in a quarter of an hour in most horses, in others almost immediately, and in some much longer. It now remains to handle all his legs ; from the tail come back again to the head, handle it well, as likewise the ears, breast, neck, &c, speaking now and then to the colt. Begin by degrees to descend to the legs, always ascending and descending, gaining ground every time you descend, until you get to his feet. " Talk to the horse in Latin, Greek, French, English, or
Spanish, or any other language you please ; but let him hear the sound of your voice, which at the beginning of the operation is not quite so necessary, but which I have always done in making him lift up his feet. 'Hold up your foot'—at the same time lift his foot with your hand He soon becomes familiar with the sounds, and will hold up his foot at command. Then proceed to the hind feet, and go on in the same manner; and in a short time the horse will let you lift them, and even take them up in your arms. " All this operation is no magnetism, no galvanism; it is
merely taking away the fear a horse generally has of a man, and familiarising the animal with his master. As the horse doubtless experiences a certain pleasure from this handling» |
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* Mr. Frederick Taylor, author of an interesting little tract on
" Horsebreaking," recommends a piece of carrot, or biscuit soaked in aniseed. |
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HORSE-BREAKING—HALTERING THE COLT.
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71
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he will soon become gentle under it, and shew a very
marked attachment to his keeper." The Halter, and Haltering the Colt.—A leather halter
should be invariably used, and take care that it is so made that when he pulls on it it shall not draw tightly round his nose, but sit on his head easily with the noseband not too low. Never put a rope halter on an unbroken colt under any cir- cumstances whatever. Rarey says, and we believe him right, that they have caused more horses to hurt or kill themselves than would pay for twice the cost of all the leather halters that have ever been needed for the purpose of haltering colts. It is almost impossible to break a colt that is very wild with a rope halter, without having him pull, rear, and throw himself, and thus endanger his life ; and I will teil you why. It is just as natural for a horse to try to get his head out of anything that hurts ït, or feels unpleasant, as it would be for you to try to get your hand out of a fire. The cords of the rope are hard and cutting; this makes him raise his head and draw on it, and as soon as he pulls, the slip noose (the way rope halters are always made) tightens and pinches his nose, and then he will struggle for life, until, perchance, he throws himself; and who would have his horse throw himself, and run the risk of breaking his neck, rather than pay the price of a leather halter ? But this is not the Worst. A horse that has once pulled on his halter can never be as well broken as one that has never pulled at all. You may now proceed to shew him the halter; allow him
to approach it with his nose so as to feel and smell it, for reasons assigned under the next heading. We would recom- mend that the old horse should stand by all this time, which will give him more confidence than if he were alone; and, having convinced him that you mean him no harm, he will allow you to handle him about the head and ears. Before you attempt to place it on his head, let him again smell it and touch it, but above all things do not hurry the business, but by fondling with him, and using him to the feel of the band and the halter, there will be no difficulty in placing it carefully on his head. The assistant will now lead on the °!d horse in the direction required to go, and taking hold °f the halter shank, about a foot from the colt's head, lead hlm after, and close behind the old horse, now and then faressing him with the hand until the most perfect goodwill ls established. % a violent method of first haltering a colt, he is so
terrified, that it will take weeks of kind treatment to con- Vlnce him that it is not the intention of every man, who aPproaches him, to inflict pain or punishment. At this stage of training, the colt cannot be too much
nandled, and accustomed to the sound of the human voice; commencing first very gently about his head, as before halter- ee, pass the hand along his neck, down his near shoulder, by ne front and back of his near fore leg, along his withers nd back, about his ribs and under his belly, over his loins, j"id his quarter to the hoek joint, shank, and heel, finishing side by again and again picking up his hind foot. |
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Then, returning to his head, pass the right hand all over
his off-side in the same way. This treatment repeated a few times, will reconcile the colt, and establish more confidence between him and his trainer than a montb/s flo<™-ino- him round a lounging circle with a whip. Familiarising the Colt to surroundmg Objects and to
Sounds.—By patience and allowing him to examine it thereby giving confidence to the horse, he will allow with indifference any object, however frightful, to approach, come around or over him, provided it inflicts no pain. Fear in the horse appears to the hasty observer as a mere unreasoning paroxysm. A log or stump of a tree by the roadside does not alarm reasoning man, and the ignorant and unenquiring breaker too often endeavours to conquer what he assumes to be and calls " shying." In a state of nature the horse will examine this, or any such unaccustomed object, and having satisfied himself of its innocuousness, never after trouble himself at its appearance. The horse domesticated and under restraint is often prevented from this investiga- tion, and punished for his first startled movement. Take the colt up to the object of his fear, let him touch it with his nose, and he will care no more about it. The same process will have the same effect with any
other object, however frightful in appearance, from which he experiences no harm. Take a boy that has been frightened by a false face, or any other object that he could not comprehend at once; but let him have that face or object in his hands and examine it, and he will not care any- thing more about it. The same principle governs both cases. The horse is never so well satisfied when he is about
anything that has frightened him, as when he is standing with his nose to it. In nine cases out of ten, you will see some of that same wild look about him again as he turns to walk from it. And you will, probably, see him looking back suspiciously as he walks away, as though he thought it might come after him yet. In all probability he will have to go back and make another examination before he is satisfied; but he will soon familiarise himself with it, and, in a few days, such an object as a bearskin, or coloured blanket, that frightened him so much at first. will be no more to him than a familiar stump. " "We might naturally supp'ose," says Mr. Rarey, " from
the fact of the horse's applying his nose to everything new to him, that he always does so for the purpose of smellmg these objects. But I believe that it is as much or more for the purpose of feeling, and that he makes use of his nose or muzzle as we would of our hands; because it is the only organ by which he can touch or feel anything with much susceptibility. I believe that he invariably makes use of the four senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling, in all of his examinations, of which the sense of feeling is, perhaps, the most important. I think that, in the experi- ment with the robe*, his gradual approach and final touch |
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' Practised by Mr. Rarey in his system of taming: see nis little treatise.
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HORSE-BREAKING.—THE CAVESSON.
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72
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other degree, it becomes a much more acute angle or kind
of skeleton wedge in the animal's mouth, and pinches the bars laterally like a vice; in short, by passing the off-side rein through the near-side ring of the bit, and the near-side rein through the off ring, and puiling both reins, we make the bit actually a pair of pincers ; and if the force employed was great, the jaw of the horse would be compressed by a mechanical force that would crush it like a nut in a pair of nutcrackers. Do not forget to show the bridle and bit to the colt as
you showed the halter, and hereafter submit the saddle to his examination. Never buckle up the bitting rein tight at first. The Cavesson—Lounging.—The application of the csvesson
is the first active restraint applied to saddle-horses. Before putting it on, it is prudent to boot racing colts, and indeed all others of value, to prevent them knocking their legs against each other while they are lounging. Darvill says— " On their first being taken out, a steady lad should walk in the rear, in case any colt should hang back, to urge him quietly on by flourishing his whip or ash plant, but not to strike him. Colts with their cavessons and boots on, and thus attended, may be led out to the downs or into a large paddock. At either place they may be accustomed to be led quietly about. As soon as they become tractable in this way, attempts may be made to lounge them, by first walking them in a small circle to the right or to the left, and when they know how to go steadily round at this pace, they may be quietly urged on into a trot, gradually in- creasing the size of the circle by giving them more length of rein. In three or four days, or when they go boldly and freely at full length of the rein each way in the lounge, for fifteen or twenty minutes, having by degrees been brought to this pace and time of lounging, the mouthing bits, rollers, and cruppers may be put on them. Lounging is an exercise very frequently carried on to a
most unconscionable extent. Introduced originally for the purpose of subduing animals that had been neglected till they arrived at an age when their tempers became resolute, the custom of severe lounging has become one which many persons concerned in the management of young horses look upon as of paramount necessity, without any regard to the consequences which follow, or the motives which originally led to its adoption. One of these was evidently with a view of saving time. A resolute uncultivated creature four or five years old, that would neither lead nor drive until brought to subjection by fatigue, probably might appear to require such usage as the only alternative, unless an unrea- sonably lengthened period could be appropriated to render the animal tractable. " Lounge him till he is tired " is the usual exclamation and practice of the provincial colt- breaker, whenever he meets with a colt who is a little difficult to manage; but by such men more horses' tempers have been spoiled than improved. Harassed and overcome, the poor brute submits sullenly to the coercion of the |
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with his nose was as much for the purpose of feeling as
anything else, his sense of smell being so keen that it would not be necessary for him to touch his nose against anything in order to get the proper scent; for it is said that a horse can smell a man at the distance of a mile. And if the scent of the robe was all that was necessary he could get that several rods off. But we know from experience, that if a horse sees and smells a robe a short distance from him he is very much frightened (unless he is used to it) until he touches or feels it with his nose; which is proof positive that feeling is the controlling sense in that case." "We need hardly add that the use of scented oils, recom-
mended by old farriery books, is utterly exploded and rendered obsolete by modern research and experiment. The Bit and Bitting.—Every horseman knows, and those
who are not horsemen will soon learn (if they ride at all), that on the properly bitting the horse, the comfort, safety, and appearance, both of horse and rider, most materially depend. However good may be the natural carriage of the horse, if an unsuitable bit is put into his mouth, it will greatly counteract both the inclination and ability of the horse to carry himself handsomely. It must be borne in mind that this proper bitting must
not only relate to the mouth of the animal, but must be arranged with reference to the hands of the rider; for that bit which is the very one to suit a particular mouth, when given to a man with fine hands, would be quite an improper one to give to one whose hands are only fit to lug at the mouth of a donkey. The mouths of some colts are naturally more sensible, or
insensible, to the touch than others; and here the judgment, or the want of it, is shown in the colt-breaker, by the selection of the bit best adapted to the colt's mouth, and afterwards on the goodness of the breaker's hands and temper depends whether he turns out the colt with a good or bad mouth. In a general way the colt's bit is the large heavy snaffle
with a ring in the centre, from which hangs some loose tackling which hangs on the tongue, and by producing probably somewhat of a tickling sensation, induces the colt to keep his mouth more or less in motion. With the gene- rality of colts their first bit cannot be too easy; but if the mouth be naturally callous, it must be rendered amenable to the bit by using a severe one, or by using the easy one with a severer touch. Whether for the colt or mature horse, the snaffle is the
simplest. It is true there are various forms of snaffles, some of them so made as to become an engine (if the expression may be allowed) of great severity; the plain large sized one, with a ring instead of joint in the centre, is the easiest, inasmuch as the ring, allowing of, say an inch in width, in the centre, does not convert the bit into an acute angle when acted on by the reins, whereas, when the centre is a joint, without going into the mathematical demonstration of the angle being forty-five degrees or any |
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HORSE-BÏLEAKING—THE CAVESSON—LOUNGING.
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73
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mdividual whose duty it should be to obtain by kind
treatment and patiënt attention that which he vainly at- ^einpts by ruffianism. Thus a temper characterised by gloomy cowardice is formed instead of cheerfulness and courage. Such ought never to be the treatment of any stock, much less that which is thorough bred, or intended tor the purpose of racing. Their young and delicate limbs WlH not sustain the rough exercise of severe lounging, öeither is it at all necessary for any beneficial purpose. A uttle now and then is all very proper; it teaches them the Use of their limbs, renders them supple and active, and as an exercise discreetly regulated is very desirable; but, JUdging from the effect it produces when practised upon ö°rses of mature age and in hard condition, it is the most severe work a horse can be subjected to ; that is, when it is c°ntinued for any length of time, and the poor animal is ttiade to go at a fast pace on heavy ground. We have seen ^d hunters put through this manoeuvre, under the impres- 8i°ö, that in consequence of there not being any weight on their backs their legs sustain no injury. But it is a most Mistaken idea. Constantly working on a circle horses are extremely liable to hit their legs, and for this reason boots or bandages should be invariably used whenever horses are lounged. , The action of some horses is such, that they scarcely move
11 certain paces without striking their legs, yet there are
«lany who scarceiy ever d0 S0) and others who never touch
üeir legs except by accident. With those of the first class
here is but one alternative,—their legs must be protected
0r inflammation will speedily be established, and eventually
««neness. The second class will be very likely to labour
Under the same infirmity unless means are adopted for their
security; and the third class will scarcely require protec-
l°n to their legs, unless some particular exercise, such as
inging, entails the probability of an accidental blow.
After these premises it may naturally be inquired what
^Jection can be started to the use of boots ? Simply this;
„ .at they are productive of some heat in the leg by the
riction which they occasion. Much it is true depends upon
üe fittings, and the way in which they are put on; but
owever well they may be made, softly lined, and properly
JUsted, they will to a certain extent produce heat in the
Jgs. When very nicely put on, bandages are preferable, but
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too fast: they are often hurried by the whip into a canter,
and thence into a gallop. A trot is the proper pace, and should not be exceeded. It is a general practice to lounge colts on the most level surfaces: this is an error, especiallv with horses intended for hunters or hacks. Such animals have much to learn when they leave the
breaker. All horses calculated to make hunters or steeple- chasers should be taught, while under the control of the breaking tackle, to leap small fences; there is no necessity for practising them over dangerous places, or where the ground is hard; but low hedges or stiles, open ditches, and narrow water courses, may always be selected for their tuition. It appears almost unnecessary to observe that the reins attached to the bit should be lengthened to an extent capable of affording the colt sufficiënt liberty. The dumb jockey is an apparatus which fin ds favour in
the opinion of most persons having the direction and management of young horses, and is no doubt a very useful agent, especially before the living rider is put up; but great caution must be used that the animal is not alarmed on the first introduction of what must appear to the astonished creature a wonderful production; and here the injunction as to halter and saddle must be observed. These inventions are usually made with soft pads at the lower branches to protect the back of the colt from injury; if, however, they are not so provided, a saddle becomes necessary; and that appendage must likewise be placed on the back in due course of time, whether it be intended as a seat for the dumb jockey or not; at any rate, the young animal should be perfectly accustomed to it before any attempt is made to put a rider up. The dumb jockey is provided with two adjustments on
each side for the reins, designed for the purpose of regulating the position of the head : thus, if the horse carries his head too high, the lower reins are to be brought into action, and if the reverse, the upper ones; the carriage of the colt may be very materially altered by these means. When sufiï- ciently accustomed to it, the dumb jockey may be left on two or three hours while the colt is by himself, either in a large loose box or in a small paddock. This will very materially improve his mouth, and as an auxiliary, a palate or slabbering bit may be introduced instead of the snafHe already mentioned. It is made with a straight mouth-piece, having three moveable ports or arches, all of which may be adjusted so as to hang down, or two may be allowed to hang in that position, and one placed upwards, in case the horse does not play upon them sufiiciently without. This bit possesses one very great recommendation, that of creating an even mouth, and is the best remedy for correcting that defect sometimes occasioned by the common breaking snaffle. A crupper may be attached to the dumb jockey with good effect, and eventually some loose straps running through it, to fall over the loins and down the sides, especially with such horses as are intended for harness ; in fact, they should be accustomed by degrees to all sorts of appendages. Pocket-handkerchiefs may be tied to the |
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18 so seldom that they are so that we hesitate in recom
ending them. If they are bound on too tight of course Uch mischief and inconvenience arises; and if not suffi- j-iently tight, they will of course come undone. When
fndages are required for exercise, they are best made from
<* blanketing; it wears better than common serge, and
altords better protection.
Arways in lounging begin with setting off the colt to the 8 t, so that in case of his breaking out of the trot he may Wh °ff Witl1 the left leg' and althougl1 he must be lounged
ways, ^ork him to the right first time and most " en%- The pace at which colts are lounged is usually
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HORSE-BREAKING—SADDLING AND MOUNTING.
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74
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against him; each time getting a little farther backward,
and finally slip it over his shoulders on his back. Shake it a little with your hand, and in less than five minutes you can rattle it about over his back as much as you please, and pull it off and throw it on again, without his paying much attention to it. "As soon as you have accustomed him to the saddle,
fasten the girth. Be careful how you do this. It often frightens the colt when he feels the girth binding him, and making the saddle fit tight on his back. You should bring up the girth very gently, and not draw it too tight at first, just enough to hold the saddle on. Move him a little, and then girth it as tight as you choose, and he will not mind it. " See that the pad of your saddle is all right before you
put it on, and that there is nothing to make it hurt him, or feel unpleasant to his back. It should not have any loose straps on the back part of it, to flap about and scare him. After you have saddled him in this way, take a switch in your right hand to tap him up with, and walk about in the stable a few times with your right arm over your saddle, taking hold of the reins on each side of his neck with your right and left hands, thus marching him about in the stable until you teach him the use of the bridle, and can turn him about in any direction, and stop him by a gentle pull of the rein. Continually caress him, and loose the reins a little every time you stop him. " Always be alone, and have your colt in some light stable
or shed, the first time you ride him; the loft should be high, so that you can sit on his back without endangering your head. You can teach him more in two hours' time in a stable of this kind, than you could do in two weeks in the common way of breaking colts, out in an open place. Take him a step at a time, until you get up a mutual confidence and trust between yourself and horse. First teach him to lead and stand hitched ; next acquaint him with the saddle and the use of the bit; and then all that remains, is to get on him without scaring him, and you can ride him as well as any horse. "Mounting the Colt.—First caress him on both sides, about
the saddle, and all over, until he will stand still without holding, and is not afraid to see you anywhere about him. As soon as you have him thus familiar, get a small block, about one foot or eighteen inches in height, and set it down by the side of him, about where you want to stand to mount him; step up on this, raising yourself very gently: horses notice every change of position very closely, and, if you were to step up suddenly on the block, it would be very apt to scare him; but, by raising yourself gradually on it, he will see you, without being frightened, in a position very nearly the same as when you are on his back. " When he will bear this without alarm, untie the stirrup-
strap next to you, and put your left foot into the stirrup, and stand square over it, holding your knee against the horse, and your toe out, so as to touch him under the shoulder with the toe of your boot. ^lace your right hand |
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upper branches of the dumb jockey, a hat placed upon it,
and other similar devices patiently and gently introduced : by these practices much future trouble and many accidents will be avoided. The greatest caution must, however, be ob- served not to alarm the animals, or the object will be defeated. It would be unjust here not to break a self-prescribed rule; we mean, to omit all mention of the Gutta Percha Jockey. The various advantages of this well-made break- ing and exercising apparatus will be found fully set forth in the advertisements and testimonials of the patentee, Mr. Blackwell. We can bear testimony to their valu- able action in producing an easy mouth, and checking that tendency to resistance produced by the common leather rein and clumsy w.ooden apparatus. The yielding nature of the reins and checks is admirable. They are excellent, too, for preventing led horses from falling. They yield, too, if the colt should fall and roll over, avoiding thereby another great danger and inconvenience of the old wooden apparatus. They are also serviceable in frosty weather, in loose boxes, to teach easy and graceful carriage. The figure and con- struction of this useful contrivance will be seen from the subjoined illustration. |
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Saddling and Mounting the Ooit.—We would recommend,
unless the " casting" system of Rarey be adopted, that the saddle should be first introduced to the colt while he is lying down ; and be drawn gradually over his withers, back, and hind-quarters, after he has had his feel at it. Turn the head of the colt to the right hand (when he lies on his near side), and he will partially rise, place his two fore feet flat on the ground, which he will permit you to do, and he has a good leverage for rising. We shall here transcribe Mr. Rarey's directions for sad-
dling, as the plainest and most succinct that have fallen under our notice :—" The first thing will be to tie each stirrup- strap into a loose knot to make them short, and prevent the stirrups from flying about and hitting him. Then doublé up the skirts and take the saddle under your right arm so as not to frighten him with it as you approach. When you get to him rub him gently a few times with your hand, and then raise the saddle very slowly, until he can see it, and smell and feel it with his nose. Then let the skirt loose, and rub it very gently against his neck the way the hair lies, letting him hear the rattle of the skirts as he feels them |
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HORSE-BREAKING.—RAREY'S SYSTEM.
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7ö
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°ö the front of the saddle, and on the opposite side of you,
taking hold of a portion of the mane and the reins, as they hang loosely over his neck, with your left hand; then gradually bear your weight on the stirrup, and on your right hand, until the horse feels your whole weight on the saddle: repeat this several times, each time raising yourself a Httle higher from the block, until he will allow you to raise your leg over his croup and place yourself in the saddle. " There are three great advantages in having a block to
^ount from. First, a sudden change of position is very apt to frighten a young horse who has never been handled: he WlH allow you to walk up to him, and stand by his side Without scaring at you, because you have gentled him to that position; but if you get down on your hands and knees and crawl towards him, he will be very much frightened; and upon the same principle, he would be frightened at y°Ur new position if you had the power to hold yourself °Ter his back without touching him. Then the first great advantage of the block is to gradually gentle him to that ne"w position in which he will see you when you ride him. kecondly, by the process of leaning your weight in the stirrups, and on your hand, you can gradually accustom him to your weight, so as not to frighten him by having him feel l' all at once. In the third place, the block elevates you so that you will not have to make a spring in order to get on the horse's back, but from it you can gradually raise yourself »»to the saddle." The colt is now mounted ; but before we proceed to perfect
ftim in his paces, we shall advert for a moment to the ^lethod of " casting " a colt, which is the remarkable feature ot' horse-taming claimed by Telfer, Rarey, Mr. W. Cooke, °t Astley's, Mr. Sanger, and others. ' Casting" a Horse or stubborn Ooit, and Cure for
Ktcking.—Take up one fore foot and bend his knee till his loof ïs bottom upwards and nearly touching his body; then silP a leather loop over his knee, and up until it comes above "■v pastern joint, to keep it bent, being carefdl to draw the 0oP together between the hoof and pastern joint with a second strap to prevent the loop from slipping down and °oming off. This will leave the horse standing on three .e§s; you can now handle him as you wish, for it is utterly |
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a horse's foot he will sometimes get very mad, and strike
with his knee, and try every possible way to get it down ; but he cannot do that, and will soon give in. This will conquer him without any danger of hurting himself or you : for you can tie up his foot and sit down and look at him until he gives up. When you find that he is conquered, go to him, let down his foot, rub his leg with your hand, caress him, and let him rest a little; then put it up again. Repeat this a few times, always putting up the same foot, and he will soon learn to travel on three legs. As soon as he gets a little used to this way of moving, put on your harness, and fasten him to a carriage. If he is the worst kicking horse that ever raised a foot you need not be fearful of his doing any damage while he has one foot up, for he cannot kick, neither can he run away to do any harm. If he is thewildest horse that ever had harness on, and has run away every time he has been hitched, you can now do with him as you please. If he wants to run, you can let him have the reins, and the whip too, with perfect safety, for he can go but a slow gait on three legs, and will soon be willing to stop; only hold him enough to guide him in the right direction, and he will soon be tired and willing to stop at the word. Thus you will effectually cure him at once of any further notion of running off. Kicking horses have always been the dread of everybody; you always hear men say, when they speak about a bad horse, ' I don't care what he does, so he don't kick.' This new method* is an effectual cure for this worst of all habits. There are plenty of ways by which you can hitch a kicking horse, and force him to go, though he kicks all the time; but this doesn't have any good effect towards breaking him, for we know that horses kick because they are afraid of what is behind them, and when they kick against it and it hurts them they will only kick the harder; and this will hurt them still more, and make them remember the scrape much longer, and make it still more difficult to persuade them to have any con- fidence in anything dragging behind them ever after. " But by this method you can hitch them to a rattling
sulky, plough, waggon, or anything else in its worst shape. They may be frightened at first, but cannot kick or do any- thing to hurt themselves, and will soon find that you do not intend to hurt them, and then they will not care anything more about it. You can then let down the leg and drive along gently without any further trouble. By this process a bad kicking horse can be learned to go gentle in harness in a few hours' time." Akin to this process is that of " casting;" it of course
adds another operation, that of making the horse lie down at the pleasure of his master. Bend his left fore leg and slip a loop over it so that he cannot get it down. Then put a surcingle around his body, so as to keep the strap in the right direction ; take a short hold of it with your right hand; stand on the left side of the horse, grasp the bit in your |
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th
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possible for him to kick in this position. There is some-
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lng in this operation of taking up one foot that conquers a
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orse more quickly than anything you can do to him.
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Th
for |
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ere is no process equal to it for breaking a-kicking horse,
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several reasons. There is a principle of this kind in the
Ure of the horse, that by conquering one member you nctuer to a great extent the whole horse. Th •
J-nere is a plan to make a bad horse stand to be shod, by
enmg down one ear. Rarey says he tried it several
^es, and thought that it had a good effect. " The benefit
sing from -this process is, that by discomforting his ears
raw his attention to them, and he is not so apt to resist
Pri l^' ^ tying UP one f°ot we operate on the same
nciple to a much bitter effect. When you first fasten up
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* It is claimed by many horse-taniers.
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HORSE-BREAKINGK—RAREY'S METHOD.
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76
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gently and encourages him by his voice and hand. Patting
him frequently, and especially when he thinks of dis- mounting, 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 him. His education will now be nearly completed. The Horse having thus far submitted himself to the
breaker, pattings and rewards should be gradually diminished, and implicit obedience mildly but firmly enforced. Seve- rity 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 thë servant of man, and that we have the power, by other means than those of kindness, to bend him to our will. The edu- cation of the horse is that of the child. Pleasure is as much as possible associated with the early lessons; but firmness, or, if need be, coercion, must, if necessity arise, confirm the habit of obedience. Tyranny and cruelty will, more speedily in the horse than even in the child, provoke the wish to dis- obey, 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 nature. None but those who will take the trouble to try the experient are aware how absolute a command the due admix- ture of firmness and kindness will soon give us over any horse. The breaker should keep in his mind continually the proverb, " Quod factum est, bis factum est" (What is well done, is twice done). |
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left hand, pull steadily on the strap with your right; bear
against his shoulder till you cause him to move. As soon as he lifts his weight, your pulling will raise the other foot, and he will have to come on his knees. Keep the strap tight in your hand, so that he cannot straighten his leg if he rises up. Hold him in this position, and turn his head towards you; bear against his side with your shoulder, not hard, but with a steady, equal pressure, and in about ten minutes he will lie down. As soon as he lies down, he will be conquered, and you can handle him as you please. Take off the straps, and straighten out his legs ; rub him lightly about the face and neck with your hand the way the hair lies ; handle all his legs, and after he has lain ten or twenty minutes, let him get up again. After resting him a short time make him lie down as before. Repeat the operation three or four times, which will be sufficiënt for one lesson. Grive him two lessons a day, and when you have given him four lessons, he will lie downby taking hold of one foot As soon as he is well broken to lie down in this way, tip him on the opposite leg with a stick when you take hold of his foot, and in a few days he will lie down upon the mere motion of the stick. As these last described practices form the keystone of the
" system" of breaking and taming, as practised by our trans- atlantic "gentier," as he delights to term himself, we have preferred to let him state the processes in his own words. A few parting words, and we will proceed to treat of The
Pages of the Horse. The rider is now on the road. He feels his horse's mouth
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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.—THE WALK.
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77
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CHAPTEE VIII.
THE FACES OF THE HORSE, AND RIDING TO THEM.—THE WALK : THE TROT : THE RUNNING TROT : THE CANTER : THE GALLOP
LEAPING : THE STANDING LEAP : THE FLTING LEAP : THE BUCK LEAP : TIMBER, WALL, AND WATER-JUMPING. |
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The mode of progression of the horse comprises five distinct
modes of lifting the limbs : 1, the walk; 2, the trot, of which there are two varieties ; 3, the canter ; 4, the gallop ; 5, leaping, which is akin to galloping, and exhibits several modifications, according to the obstacle to be surmounted. The Walk.—The slow walk (Horse, Plate VII, fig. 2), is the
simplest of the paces of the horse ; but, if accelerated, breaks either into the amble, or an approach to the trot, whereby the succession of the movement of the limbs is varied. In the true walk, one foot only is lifted at a time, three remain- ing on the ground; increase the pace, and the two legs at opposite sides, that is, the near fore leg and off hind leg, or vice versa, are raised together. This, also, is the true trot, although the muscular movement in the walk is very different in degree and character. Borelli, the celebrated Italian mathematician,* says that the walk is begun by lifting a hind foot first, and gives an imaginary reason, to the effect that if a fore foot were first lifted, it would disturb the true centre of gravity of the animal. We have observed that the walk is just as often begun with a fore-foot as a hind one ; the philosopher and professor may, therefore, be left undis- turbed by any attempt to distrust their centre of gravity theory, inasmuch as the facjs are against them. Old John Lawrence, in his " Structure and Economy of the Horse," thus describes the walk : " The walk consists of four motions, thus exemplified: the horse having advanced the near fore leg, and placed it again on the ground, the off hind leg is elevated and advanced under the body; but before it reaches the ground the off fore leg is raised and advanced, in order to make room for it, as is particularly the case when a horse oversteps the print of his fore foot with his hind foot. When the off hind leg has reached the ground, the horse stands upon three legs, forming a triangle. When the off fore leg alights on the ground, then the near hind leg com- mences its action, and is advanced in the same manner as before, and the horse is again supported upon three legs/' A careful writer on horsemanship, Strickland Freeman, differs, however, from the author quoted; but it is clear that the difference is more apparent than real. Lawrence's is the slow walk, Freeman's is accelerated. The latter says :— " I found that, supposing the off fore leg to' begin, it was * Quoted by Professor Kennis.
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immediately succeeded by the near hind ; but the off hind
leg seemed not to follow the fore leg at the same time as before (in the slower walk) ; but this was owing to nothing but the alteration in the poise of the body, when either the one walk or the other took place. For when the off hind leg began, it was succeeded by the near fore leg being lifted up : and when the off hind leg was set down, the near hind leg was lifted up. But the off fore and the near hind leg seemed so connected together by the poise being on the same side, that it was the near hind leg which seemed to begin the action. The poise being altered by the will of the horse, the off fore seemed to begin, and not to be succeeded by the off hind foot being set down at the same time after it, as in the walk of the pace.* The near hind leg is in both cases taken up after the off hind foot is set down ; and when the off fore foot is set down, the near fore foot is taken up, to make room for the near hind foot to be set down." To walk well is a valuable property in any horse, but
particularly so in the hackney. Such an one can compass his five miles in an hour with ease. Where a horse walks well, the necessary harmony and accordance in the form of the limbs are such as to make it almost a rule that he is good in his other paces. The racehorse can stretch along in his walk, so as to get over much ground in a little time; but it is not often that he does it either pleasantly or safely ; his stride is too great, and the elevation of his limbs is naturally curtailed by his training. It is a very great acquisition also to the hunter to walk well The walk as a pace should be performed harmoniously, whether it is quick or slow, each foot being dropped flat on the ground, and not, as is too often the case, the toe being placed first and then the heel. The breaking of the horse will have much influence on his method of walking ; the angles of his limbs will have much more; and not a little will depend on the hand of the rider. One horseman, by seat and hand, will force the horse to carry his head in the right place, and to elevate and extend his limbs the one in unison with the other; another rider, by his bad seat and worse hand, will bring the horse he rides to step short and irregular, and so to mix the trot with his walk as to do little more than * Mr. Freeman divides the walk into the"common walk," and the
" pace," or pacing walk. |
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üorse Plats
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Hg. 5......TTie &alloj
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ïig. 4. Th e Pa.cL.ng or imerican Trot.
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ut nu^> u ut uru
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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.—THE TROT.
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78
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shuffle over the ground. The maximum of speed in the
true walk of the horse is under six miles per hour; there are but few can do thus much, but it has been done. Five miles pei hour is the common pace of a fast walker. Charles "Westhall, the pedestrian, who can or could clear seven miles' walking in fifty-eight minutes, would dead beat the best walking horse, and break him into a trot before fifty yards were covered. Of all the paces the walk is the easiest to the rider,
provided he sits in the middle of his horse's back, as it consists of an alternate elevation and depression of the animal's fore and hinder quarters. The motion may be compared to the vibration of the beam of a pair of scales. It is difEcult to confine young and high-mettled horses to a walk; good temper and a iirm light hand are requisite to accomplish this. When such horses change to a trot, stop them for a minute or two; then walk them on again. If the horse carry his head well, ride him with a moderately loose rein, raising the hand when hè tries to break into a trot. The Trot.—The trot is also a mixed pace; it combines the
true trot, and the running, pacing, or American trot. In what may be called the true trot (Plate VII., fig. 3), the legs are lifted diagonally, and brought down simultaneously. This motion is repeated more or less rapidly, the off hind foot and near fore foot being in the air together, and vice versa. Accelerate the trot to ten or twelve miles the hour, and a spring will have been imparted to the pace, by which the off fore and near hind leg, having struck the ground, the near fore and off hind leg not only are ready to elevate themselves, but have actually left the ground, and all four feet are in the air at the same time, as in the racing gallop, or flying leap. In a sprint race, you may easily see that a man at speed is completely off the ground; how this self- evident fact could have been so much discussed is proof of how much more ready to theorise than to observe for them- selves. In the man's running, a spring is made from one leg; in a horse's extended trot, from two diagonally taken. The result is the same ; a propulsion of the body forward, and a necessity of bringing up a leg in one instance, or two in the other, to save the fall of the body forward. Thus, a series of impulses is kept up, and, by a series of driving bounds, the weight of the body is rapidly driven forward. It is to be observed, that the quadruped is here much safer, from his diagonal line of gravity being distributed over the space from fore to hind foot, while in man the centre of gravity lies so forward, as to place him at the risk of a fall from the slightest mistake or mischance. We have spoken of irregularities in the trot; Mr. John
Lawrence thus speaks of the conformation which induces such irregularities: " When a horse, whose fore legs are much shorter than his hind legs, or whose shoulders are very upright, trots fast, he is obliged to go with his hind legs very wide, so that his hind feet may come on the outside of his fore feet. By this means he sinks his croup, and brings it more on a level with his fore quarters, and at the same |
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time he avoids striking his fore feet with his hind feet.
Horses of this conformation sometimes go in the same form as dogs generally do, namely, with their fore and hind legs in two different lines of direction, by which one hind foot comes on the outside of the fore foot, and this is done with the same intention as in the former instance. They are, however, very unsafe to ride, for the hind foot is always more or less in danger of catching the fore foot, in which case, except the shoe is torn off, they must inevitably fall with great violence." Mr. Lawrence gives a figure of what he calls " the elongated
or darting trot;" it is too near to that depicted in the pictures of Tom Thumb, Rattler, Ethan Allen, and other American trotters, to deserve distinction from what we call the running or pacing trot, of which we have more to say presently. Training a horse to trot is not a difficult process; when
lounging in the circle the horse instinctively falls into this pace. Fast trotting, except in harness—for which work, by the
way, it is the only pace that almost any horse can try either safely or pleasantly—is not so much practised by sportsmen or those who ride for mere pleasure; by this we should be understood to mean the maximum sixteen or seventeen-mile- an-hourproceeding. The race-horse may take two or three fine delicate steps in this pace just previously to his jockey sending him up the preparatory gallop; and hunters will thus jig-jog along to or through a cover ; but with either of them it is never thought of when business begins. The man of fashion, so proud of and particular in the choice of his thorough-bred hacks, is content with a good walker and easy canterer, adopts high ports and long cheeks to his bridle, gets (if clever and lucky) a good mouth with a light hand, pulls his horse well back on the haunches, and sails along with an idea that the fast trot is a vulgarity confined to east end fanciers and butchers' boys, fast corn-dealers, jobbers, sport- ing publicans, with a turn for matches and bets, and the like Yet this is the true, best, and most serviceable pace of the saddle horse. Harry Hieover thus speaks of breeding the trotting hack :—" If a man wishes to breed hacks, there are two sores to breed—the blood-like galloping hack, and the trotting hack. By the first, I should say, a man must lose money, because there is seldom merit enough in them to command remunerating prices; for the really clever galloping hack seidom has high action, and most people (be it right or be it wrong) prefer those which have; conse- quently, the latter are safest to breed for market. Good action in a hack will always sell him; and we certaïnly run a much greater chance of getting this if we breed from trotting stock, independent of sometimes getting something uncommon as to pace, when of course he will bring a very long figure, and is a trump card. We must also consider that if the trotting bred colt has good action, his pace is to be wonderfully improved by practice ; and provided we do not deteriorate that action, the more we increase his speed the more valuable he becomes. This is not the case witb |
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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.—THE TROT—TROTTING MATCHES. 79
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the galloping hack ; if he goes smoothly, safely, and hand-
somely, we can make him no better ; he is fast enough for a ' hack ; and if by training we increased his speed, he would be worth no more, nineteen times in twenty not half so much; for we should spoil him as a hack, and as a hack °nly we want him. To breed hacks I should select a low compact high-bred mare, a trotter herself, and put her to a regular trotting sire ; not that we insure a trotter by this, but we put ourselves in the way of it, and then trust to our good luck ; and I am quite clear that good luck and chance have much more to do with getting goers in any pace than is generally supposed. It is of course always wise to do that which is most likely to produce what we want, and to breed from going blood; but we all know how frequent is the dis- appointment when all this is done. " I think trotting in a general way is more perpetuated in
its breed than galloping; for in breeding from a certain strain on both sides we may pretty nearly insure a trotter more or less; and trotting being (at least I consider it so) a more artificial pace than galloping, if we get the action we can always increase the pace of the trotter in a greater degree than we can that of the race-horse. The speed of the latter is increased by training more in reference to speed as to a distance than for a few hundred yards. This is practice, and consequently wind and condition. It is not impossible that a two-year-old in fair state as to flesh might be able to go a quarter of a mile as fast before he went into training as he could afterwards, some perhaps faster; but even for that distance the speed of the trotter may to all but a certainty be very greatly increased; in proof of which, all butchers' horses get faster than they were when they bought them, not only for a distance, but for two hundred yards. A very fast thorough- bred hunter in fine hunting condition will be made some- what faster by training; that is, he will be able to go a greater distance when quite extended than he could before; he will also go two miles somewhat quicker than he could before; but training will not increase his speed in the same ratio as practice will that of the trotter. This induces fcie to call extraordinary speed in trotting more an artificial capability than that of speed in the gallop, where each have the natural gift of going in their different paces; for this reason, with under-sized horses, which the hacks should always be, aim at getting a trotter by breeding from trotters. Should they not ride quite as we wish, they are worth long Prices for harness; if the galloping sort do not ride well, tfley are worth literally nothing." With respect to trotting in saddle, this pace is but to attain
a secure seat, combined with confidence and firmness. The rider has more control over the motions of his body in this Pace than any other: in this the body is well brought down *nto the saddle by its own weight, and finds its true equili- ^yium. "When the rider wishes to make his horse trot, let blm ease his reins and press the calves of his legs gently; ^aen his horse is at a trot, let him feel both his reins, raise 0ls horse's forehand, and keep his haunches well under him. |
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MATCH-TROTTINQ.
The sport of match-trotting, so popular thirty or forty
years since, has utterly degenerated, and fallen to a few
outside sporting betting men and tradesmen, who " fancy"
they have " something very fast," and post three, five, ten,
or twenty pounds to "back their opinion." Across the
water, however, in the United States, the trotting-match
substitutes for tens of thousands the race-course with its
thorough-bred flyers. Though the Americans, however, may
claim a superiority in speed in the trot, it must be borne in
mind that their pace known by this name is more or less the
running trot. Again, in estimating "time," which they
record carefully in their great matches, the horses are
driven up to the starting-point, and pass it at full swing,
while in England the horse must walk to the start. Never-
theless, our go-a-head cousins, having paid attention to
breeding and training for this special pace, have carried
their peculiar animal, the " Morgan " horse, to a perfection
with us unknown. Many of these horses can trot (English
fashion) a mile in two minutes and a half; while " pacing
trot," they can cover the same ground in 2 mins. 12 secs.
On this side the water some remarkable instances of stout-
ness and speed are recorded. Old John Lawrence has
collected some early performances. He says, " I have met
no account of trotting-matches in early writers, nor at what
period the rising in the stirrups in riding came into vogue.
Speed in the trot, as in the gallop, cannot be taught or
acquired, although both may be much improved by training.
As a man must be bom a poet, so a horse must be bom a
trotter, or he certainly never will make one of any con-
sequence in a racing view. The utmost speed of the trotter
yet ascertained by stop-watch is a mile in a few seconds less
than three minutes; and sixteen miles an hour, with a
weight of twelve stone, seem the utmost that has been
performed, unless the match in Lincolnshire in 1792, with
fifteen stone up, when 16 miles were done, is to be depended
upon." These standards have been surpassed. Tom Thumb,
(an American trotter), a galloway of 14 hands high, did 18
miles within the hour, and 100 miles in a few minutes over
ten hours in harness, in a match against time; time allowed,
10 hours SO mins. Driver, 13J hands high, did 17 miles
within the hour. Sir William, a half-bred horse, did 18
miles in the hour at Manchester. In the older volumes of
the Sporting Magazine, there are some extraordinary
accounts of trotting performances scattered up and down;
of the performances of " The Norfolk Phenomenon," and
numerous animals claiming blood relationship to that
wonder, which must be received as doubtful, not from mala
fides in the writers of the accounts, or the spectator's
testimony, but from the imperfect method of timing, and
the inferiority of the watches used. A grey mare, called
"The Locksmith," in 1782, trotted, we are told, 72 miles in
six hours. Phenomena, a brown mare, trotted in July,
1800, 17 miles in 56 minutes on the road between Hun-
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80 THE PACES OF THE HORSE—MATCH TROTTING-.
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excellent plans of Mr. England, who, having been appointed
referee, rode the whole of the match before the American, in a gig, having been supplied with excellent relays of horses for the purpose. Mr. E. foresaw that, to perform so long a journey, the wisest plan would be to prevent over- exertion at first; and, although he knew the speed of the horse was equal to fifteen miles an hour, he resolved to keep him to a steady pace of about ten miles an hour, thus husbanding his strength for the last, if it should be neces- sary; and, in order to effect this, he further resolved to drive before him himself, with his watch in his hand, so as to regulate his time. This plan had the additional advan- tage of encouraging the animal, and checking that desire to increase his speed, which, if the road had been clear before him, and horses were travelling on each side of him, he would have evinced, and which to check, would only have produced fretfulness. A stable was prepared for the reception of the American, close to the five mile-stone, into which he was taken at the end of every twenty miles. Gruel was his only food, but he occasionally took a snap of hay, and never once showed a disinclination to feed." " The distances were thus performed:—First twenty miles in one hour and fifty-nine minutes; taken out, and in stable eight minutes; second twenty miles in one hour and fifty-nine minutes; taken out, and in stable eight minutes ; third twenty miles in one hour and fifty-eight minutes ; taken out, and in stable eleven minutes; fourth twenty miles in one hour and forty-two minutes ; taken out, and in stable eight minutes; last ten miles but one, fifty-two minutes; stopped to wash mouth with gruel, which he took with good appetite, two minutes : last ten miles, in one hour. The whole in ten hours, seven minutes." From this it will be seen that this game little horse won, and had twenty- three minutes to spare of the allotted time, and that without being in the smallest degree distressed. The celebrated American trotting-horse Rattler, when the
property of Mr. Osbaldeston, was matched against Mr. Payne's famed American horse Rochester, Mr. O. backing Rattler i?l,000 to ^500, to trot five miles in harness, which was performed in thirteen minutes, fifty-eight seconds. Mr. Osbaldeston came in first by the length of his carriage; but the match was however declared void, because Mr. O. had neglected to pull up when his horse broke into a gallop. The match between Rattler and Driver is thus recorded
in the Old Sporting Magazine for August, 1832. The conditions were that Rattler was to carry eleven stone, and Driver nine stone; and should either horse break into a gallop, to turn round at the call of the umpire. Driver was formerly in the possession of the Duke of Gordon, and subsequently became the property of Macdonald, of whom Mr. Lawton purchased him. The day fixed by the articles was Friday, in the July meeting. Rattler, since his match with Rochester, remained in the neighbourhood of Wew- market; and Driver, after being in close training at Smitham Bottom, was conducted in the same direction in the early |
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tingdon and Cambridge, and afterwards the same distance
in 53 rainutes, when her owner, Mr. Robson, offered to back her to trot nineteen miles and a half within the hour, but the challenge was not accepted. A little before this there was a dispute in sporting circles " as to whether weight told upon the speed of a trotter," which John Lawrence set at rest by proving that it did ! The American trotter's time we have already alluded to. Lady Hampton, Jerry, Con- fidence, Grey Eagle, Ethan Allen, and many others have supported the credit of the American trotter, and covered the mile in 2 mins. 12 or 13 secs. Reverting to stoutness and the sustained exertion of the
trotter, we will give two matches on English ground: that of Tom Thumb's 100 miles, already alluded to, and the match between Rattler and Driver, concluding with an account of an American trotting-race as a picture of a national sport. On Monday, Feb. 29, 1829, Tom Thumb performed the
feat of trotting in harness 100 miles in 10 hours 7 minutes; time allowed, 10 hours 30 minutes ; for the sum of i?200 to dé?l 00. The scène of action fixed on was a mile piece of road, commencing at the fifth mile-stone from Staines, into that town and back. " At four o'clock in the morning, the American groom, who seemed to regard his horse with the affection of a relative, was on the alert. He slept in the same stable, and roused him from his slumbers to give him a substantial feed At six, accompanied by Mr. Harry England and Mr. Frederick Smith, who rode as umpires for the horse, all set out for the five mile-stone, where the other parties had assembled. The distance from the Red Lion was about a mile and a half, and although not yet light, it was evident that the little horse was all life and spirit. He was driven by the groom, who weighs about ten stone. The match-cart, which was made in America, was one of the lightest we have ever seen, not more than one hundred and eight pounds, and decidedly the most compact, although not the most elegant, that has met our notice. The shafts ran level with the body of the horse ; and the seat, which was lined with leather, was as near the axletree as possible, so as to give room for the driver to stretch his legs. The principle seemed to be, to place the weight close to the draught; and, in fact the slightest exertion set the machine in motion. *xhe horse was unseemly in his aspect, rough in his coat, and, at first sight, slouching in his gait; in truth, anything but what an English eye would select for such a performance. He had four good legs, however, and a brightness in his eye, which led the connoisseurs to calculate there was something more than common in his qualities, and many began to ffuess that he would vindicate the fame of the Yankee breed of trotters, which are acknowledged to be the best in the world. Two watches having been regularly timed by the umpires, were now produced, and having been stopped at the same moment, half-past six, were at a given signal started at the same instant, and with them the horse; and we must here pay a compliment to the |
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THE PACES OF THE HOBSE.—TROTTING.
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81
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part of the week, as it had been mutually agreed that the
match should come off in that direction. The horses started from the sixty mile-stone, out of Newmarket, to the forty- third mile-stone, through Chesterford, and back. Odds, previous to starting, six and seven to four, and two to one on Battler. There was much betting on time; several persons backing the distance to be done in two hours. The weights having been adjusted, Mr. Osbaldeston mounted Rattler, and Macdonald Driver On the signal being given, the horses went off at a steady pace, the Squire rather in the rear, a position which it was understood he intended to preserve throughout till near home, when he purposed taking the lead, if in his power The road was alternately up and down hill, in some places the ascents and descents being rather precipitous, between chalk hills, which rendered it extremely warm and oppressive from a want of a free circulation of air. In going towards town, the horses were met by a gentle and refreshing breeze; but this being at their backs on their return, the disadvantage was obvious. As the horses proceeded Macdonald increased his speed, but Mr. Osbaldeston kept close to his quarters, and waited upon him with persevering industry. The first three miles were done in twelve minutes, and the first fourteen in fifty minutes. At the turn of the seventeen miles Driver was in front about a couple of lengths, and without puiling up they came on in the same relative position till within about a mile of home, near the Ditch Gate. Both horses were now greatly distressed; the pace, though not rapid, was fatiguing from the heat of the atmosphere. Macdonald tried his little nag towards the conclusion; but he always found Mr. Osbaldeston close upon his haunches. At last the Squire, finding the period for the push arrived, went forward, and in spite of all Macdonald could do, came in first by about fifty yards; performing the thirty-four miles in two tours, eighteen minutes, fifty-six seconds, or at the aggregate rate of a mile in four minutes throughout. In many parts of the road this pace was exceeded, as the trot for the last few miles did not seem to exceed twelve miles an hour. Mr. Osbaldeston was loudly cheered He immediately dis- öiounted and weighed, apparently little fatigued. Battler, however, was greatly distressed, and was led into the White Lion Stable, where every possible care was taken of him, but he was stated to be in a very precarious condition. ■Driver was also greatly distressed, but was conducted into the town and bied. , Ae refused his food for some time, but gradually recovered his spirits, and was pronounced in a " fair way," though acknowledged to be " dead beat." The death of Battler, the winner, two days afterward, was
stated to be a loss of <£4,000 to "the Squire;" owing to engagements for a renewed match with Bochester, and its forfeit. Driver, we may observe, was 13 hands 3, and had recently trotted 17 miles within the time at Smitham Bottom. To return to the saddle, we may note two distinct methods
°f riding the trotting horse; 1, that of rising in the stir- h |
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rups— the civilian mode; 2, the military style. The first
saves an immense amount of fatigue to the horse and un- pleasantness to his rider. The second is a sacrifice to uni- form appearance in a body of horsemen ; as the effect of a number of men bobbing up and down synchronously with each horse's step would be something almost ludicrous : for it must be remembered that the man must here take his time from the horse, not the horse from the man. Accordingly your dragoon bumps away upon his sheepskin as he best can. The civilian style is thus carried out: at the very moment when the near fore and off hind foot (or vice versa, according to the foot the horse starts with) have struck the ground in their effort to throw the horse forward in his stride, the body of the rider is propelled into the air, by hard and high trotters, to such an extent as fearfully to dis- compose an entire novice. Having reached the utmost height consequent upon this unpleasant propulsion, down comes the seat, reaching the saddle just in time to catch the next impact, and so on as long as the trot lasts. Now it is by performing each of these motions so as to rise and fall the instant before you are bumped that you ease yourself and assist the animal. In this way the horse absolutely carries no weight at all during half his time, and the action and reaction are of such a nature that the trot is accelerated rather than retarded by the weight. No horse can fairly trot above 12 or 13 miles an hour without this rising, though he may run or pace in the American style ; so that it is not only to save the rider, but also to ease the horse, that this practice has been introduced, and has held its ground in spite of the want of military sanction. It is here, as with the seat, utility is sacrificed to appearances : and whenever the long and weak seat of the barrack-yard supplants the firm seat of the civilian, the rising in the trot may be abandoned, but certainly not till then. The military length is not now what it was 30 years ago: and perhaps some time or other they may adopt the rise. In the trot, the foot should bear strongly on the stirrup, with the heel well down, and the ball of the foot pressing on the foot- piece of the stirrup; so that the elasticity of the ankle takes off the jar, and prevents the doublé rise, which in some rough horses is very apt to be produced. The knees should always be maintained exactly in the same place, without that shifting motion which is so common with bad riders, and the legs should be held perpendicularly from the knee downwards ; the chest well forward, the waist in, and the loins nearly upright, but slightly forward, and as easily as can be effected without effort on the part of the rider, rather restraining than adding to the throw of the horse. The military style, without rising, is effected by leaving
the body as much as possible to find its own level. The knees should not cling to the saddle, the foot should not press forcibly upon the stirrup, and the hands should not bear upon the bridle. By attending to these negative direc- tions, the rider has only to lean very slightly back from the |
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THE PACES OF THE HOESE.—THE CANTER.
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82
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horses always to lead on the same leg, but frequently change
the centre, and gallop, canter, and trot, sometimes with the right and sometimes with the left shoulder forward. The right foot is usually employed in the lead, when a horse is ' breaking in' as a canterer; and it is proper so to commence the breaking-in. If the horse is awkward, or strikes off falsely, tighten the near rein, which, inclining his head to the left, naturally advances his right shoulder, and produces the disposition, when he is pressed forward by the hand, the whip, or the heels, to canter with the right shoulder forward. But we revert to our caution, to avoid the continued use of one leading leg, which the reader may rest assured will suffer greatly, and become eventually contracted in the foot, gorged in the pastern, or lamed by splints. Some professed horsewomen use a screw crutch for their saddle, by which they can shift their seat; and to those who ride very much this is a very salutary custom, as the constant use of one posture has drawn the figure of the rider herself a little awry." Such are the remarks of that experienced and emi- nent veterinarian Delabere Blaine ; Nimrod, however, as we have noted while on the subject of the trot, does not con- sider this pace injurious to horses. " A canter," he observes, " is much more easy, as well as safer, to the rider than a trot; the horse having his haunches more under him in the canter than when he trots, is thercby more likely to recover himself in case of making a mistake, which the best are some- times subject to. Fast trotting also distresses a horse more than cantering, because in the one he is going up to the top of his speed, and in the other much below it." In riding the canter, the rider should have a light and
firm feeling of both reins to raise his horse's forehand; at the same time, with a pressure of both calves, to bring the animal's quarters well under him, having a doublé feeling of the inward rein, and a strong pressure of the outward leg, to cause him to strike off in unison. At all times the horse should be taught to iead off with
either fore leg; by doing so his legs will not be so much shaken, especially the off fore leg, which is the one he most generally leads off on. This must be the case when he is continually throwing the greater part of his weight upon the leading fore leg, as it comes to the ground, which causes lameness of the foot, and strains the back sinews of the legs. Being thoroughly taught to change his legs, the horse is better able to perform long journeys with facility and com- fort both to himself and his rider. Should the horse show a tendency to cross the canter, rouse his mouth with a slight reminder, and speak sharply to him; he will soon under- stand what is required, and behave accordingly. The QaUop.—This is a natural pace, common to every
description of horse in a state of nature, from the diminutive sheltie of the north to the onager (wild ass) of the African deserts, the ponderous Flanders cart-horse, and the flying thorough-bred of Eastern lineage, though their other paces may differ entirely. All these move by a succession of leaps in which the hind
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perpendicular, and preserve his balance, when practice will
do the rest We have already described the trot as performed by the
feet, 1, 2, 3, 4, diagonally; those who have pinned their faith on the fidelity of ancient sculptors—who certainly in most instances diligently studied nature—have been wofully misled in this matter, so far as the action of the horse in trotting is concerned. A visit to the British Museum, and a contemplation of the Elgin marbles, will show us two trotting horses with the legs of the same side raised at the same time, the other two being firmly planted on the ground—a mode of progression known to us only in the ungraceful trot of the bear. These are the only four horses, out of nearly two hundred, represented as trotting ; the others are all cantering or galloping. The Romans, we may observe, condemned the trot, They called horses with this pace cruciatores or tortores (crucifiers or torturers); from which we may fairly infer that the art of riding this pace with ease was unknown to them, or at least not practised. Nimrod is severe on this useful pace : he says, " A very fast trot is a most ungentlemanlike pace, and only fit for a butcher; besides which it wears out a horse much sooner than a canter, from the weight being all thrown upon one fore leg at the same time, whereas in the canter it is equally divided between both." This opinion is controverted by experience and our best writers. The Canter.—The canter, as we see it in the park hack
and lady's horse, is an artificial pace. The exertion is less than the gallop, the pace slower, the spring less distant, and the feet come to ground in almost regular succession. In the gallop of speed the legs are simultaneous in their move- ment ; in the canter, the reverse. In the slow gallop, too, there is a period when all the legs are in the air; in the canter this never occcurs. He has always a point of contact with the ground. The " canter" in our plate will show this. First, the horse puts his off hind leg a little in advance of the near leg; at the same time he lifts the fore hand and then drops the near fore leg on the ground, and throws the off leg forward and beyond it, following the near leg instantly, by bringing the former to the earth. Blaine thus describes the movements of the canter: " In the second movement the hind legs are thrown in, and, while elevated, the off fore leg becomes raised from the ground, but the near fore leg is not elevated until the hinder ones are replaced; and this, as remarked above, constitutes the grand difference between the canter and gallop. The sensation to the rider is as different as possible, and so is the action to the eye also. If this be established, it will call to mind that the whole weight of the body must at one time rest completely on the near fore leg : and that this does take place in the canter is evident from the effects observed; for it is a remarkable fact, though seldom observed by old writers, that in all cantering horses the near fore leg is more deteriorated, and exhibits more of the effects of work than the off. Judicious horsemen, sensible of this, do not therefore permit their |
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THE PACES OF THE HOESE.—THE GALLOP.
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83
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qUa.rt.ers. are the propellers. There are three distinct
vanües in the gallop: the hand or slow gallop ; the three- quarter gallop; and the full-gallop—the last capable of a yet urther extension in the racing "finish." These are all h °\a .at*ons 0I" *he same mode of progression. We do not "with those who class the canter as a gallop ; for in the n .er one f°ot is always on the ground, not so in the suc- cession of leaps called galloping. -The Hand-gallop, with the right shoulder forward, is thus
escnbed by Blaine, than whom we can find no cleverer, . etter> or more practical writer on this topic : " At the instant the horse elevates his fore quarters by means of the muscles of the loins, he throws his fore legs also forwards, |
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great an effort to raise the fore parts at once from a state of
rest by means of the loins, and to throw them forwards at the first action, to a considerable distance by means of the haunches and thighs. This fact is well known to jockeys and other sporting characters, and they often derive profit from the circumstance, by wagering with the unwary that no horse shall be found to gallop one hundred yards while a man runs fifty, provided each start together; in which case, so much time is lost in acquiring the due momentum that the man has often won : make but the race for one hundred and fifty yards and the horse would beat; for, now the impetus being acquired. he arrivés at sufficiënt momentum to overtake his antagonist. In the extended gallop the fore parts, when raised, are forced forward by ^he alternate flexions and extensions of the angles of the hinder parts; and as both of the fore and both of the hind legs, in the racing-gallop, become opposed to the ground in succession at the same moment, that is, as the two fore feet at once beat the ground together and then the two hind, so it is evident that the gallop of full speed is nothing more than a repeti- tion of leaps. Quickly as these leaps are repeated, yet the surface of ground passed over at each of them must neces- sarily be great, to accomplish the pace at which the good racer goes. Hambletonian, in his match against Diamond, is said to have covered eighty-three and a half feet of ground in a second ; and by the calculations of Monsieur St. Bel, Eclipse covered eighty-five feet of ground in the same time, when at the top of his speed. Every turf amateur must have remarked the horizontal position of the body in the racer at the momentous struggle. Every departure from a rectilinear form of the body would detract from the rapidity of its flight; and therefore even the head and neck are carried so as to fall within the line of the trunk. As a compensation, however, for the loss of the power sustained, the limbs are more extensively flexed, that the circles they form may be more extended." The maximum of the speed of the race-horse appears
admitted to be a mile in a minute ; but few, if any, horses can retain the full velocity of this rate for even that time. It has, however, been run at Newmarket, by a stop-watch, in one minute and four and a half seconds It is said, but was never proved, that Childers did run at Newmarket one mile in the minute : certain it is that this celebrated horse, when carrying 9st. 21bs., ran over the Round Course, which is 3 miles, 6 furlongs, 93 yards, in 6 mins. and 40 secs. Bay Malton ran 4 miles at York, in 1763, in 7 mins. 43£ secs. Eclipse also ran the same distance on the same course in 8 mins., with 12st. In 1848, Surplicewon the Derby and Cymba the Oaks (both
3 year olds, 8st. 71bs.), in the same time, 2 mins. 48 secs., 1£ mile; the fastest of those races up to that year,* being at the rate of 14 secs. the furlong, 1 min. 52 secs. per mile. |
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should
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*1 tne aSency of the muscles distributed to the
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ers and arms: but it appears that he does not
a
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elevate
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tle moj"e, and it is likewise carried a little further for-
a*d than the left, which makes the action a pace, not eaP- During this elevation, and in some instances Preparatory to it, the right or off hind foot moves slightly orward, but only sufficiënt to gain a true centre, and to orrespond with the increased forwardness of the right oulder: the near hind leg, it must be remembered, yet remams fixed. The fore extremities now reach the ground, the near fore a little before its fellow, the off fore doubling °^er it, and placing itself a little beyond it; and the slower e gallop the more considerable will be the distance be- ween the placing the fore legs. As soon as the near fore eg nas met the ground, and before the off fore has yet |
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foll
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n x*s ^u^ hearing, the hinder legs are moved in the
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owing manner,—the near hind elevates itself, and, as it
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reaches the ground, the off hind passes it and becomes
P aced also. It is now that the horse begins to be all in air
n this pace; for, on the next spring that the hind quarters
jnake, the fore quarters being already elevated from the last
nipulse, the animal is of necessity completely detached
rom the ground The next period when he is likewise so,
_ > when the fore quarters, meeting the ground, gain a new
nipulse by their rebound, the haunches are again thrown in
. ta^e their share in the support, and also to give their
"npelling power to the mass."
n the Three-quarter-gallop, though it is merely an acce-
ration of the hand-gallop, the horse, by describing a much
Ss curve in each leap or bound, and lengthening his stride
f°?or.tlonate^ri changes much the stretch and increases the
iquity of his pasterns as the feet reach the ground; which
ls visible in faithful pictures of running horses by com-
ent artists. The pace is the one generally seen in hunting-
pnes, and steeple-chasing, (not a "finish,") the racing-gal-
°Prjing mostly incompatible with the nature of the ground.
Ihe Full-gallop is the most simple of all the paces.
in tmi>le aS ** iS'J' SayS Blaine' "Jt cannot> however, in any
stance, be commenced without the intervention of the ^ ower gallop, in Wüich 0ne of the hinder legs is first
vaneed to establish a new centre; for it would require too |
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* In 1861 and 1864 Kettledram and Stockwell covered the Derby course fci
2 minntes 43 seconds. |
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84
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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.—LEAPING.
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extension of the hinder limbs after bringing them well
under the animal by the action of the flexor tendons. The body is then, as it were, projected forward s in proportion to the force of the impulse. Hence the importance of the hunter possessing powerful loins, muscular thighs, wide and well let down hoeks, and oblique shoulders for landing safely. Though Aveight-carrying hunters must be large framed, it does not follow that a large animal can leap a greater distance than smaller ones; the length or height of the leap being measured by the force in relation to the weight of the body projected thereby. The varieties of leap proposed to be noticed are—1, the
standing leap; 2, the flying leap; 3, the buck leap; 4, timber, wall, and water jumping. The Standing Leap (Paces or the Horse, Plate VIII., fig. 1)
is, as the figure will suggest, only suitable for slight obstacles, such as a horse can easily surmount by rising at them with bent fore legs, and his head at liberty. In the standing leap the horse rises on his hind legs by bringing them well under him, his rise being more or less perpen- dicular according to the height of the obstacle. Some horses are remarkably clever at a standing leap, while others (often they have been spoiled by bad riders taking them too close up to the obstacle, and then not letting them have their heads) will scarcely rise unless allowed a run. The horse being thus in a rearing attitude, except that his fore legs are flexed to enable him to rise more easily, he springs, after a second or so of balancing, upward or for- ward, throwing out his fore legs and landing with a drawing action, and bringing the hinder feet well in undsr his quarters on landing, ready for another spring forward. It may be easily guessed that to keep your seat in a standing leap of good height requires some skill from the great change which the horse's position undergoes in regard to his rider. A judicious equilibrium and a good hold with the knees are quite as necessary in this style of leap, slqw as it is voted by Meltonians, as in the more showy flying leap. Nimrod tells us of a splendid horse bought of the Earl of Stamford, which, after being a good flying leaper, changed his style, and could not be brought to jump any way but standing, except at water, when he would carry his seventeen stone master over any brook the width of which was at all practicable. Mr. Waite, the riding-master, in a little concise treatise,
entitled " Graceful Riding; a Pocket Manual for Eques- trians," thus summarily directs the movements in the standing leap:—"Let the rider take up his horse at an animating pace, halt him with a tight hand upon his haunches; when rising at the leap, the rider should only just feel the reins, so as to prepare for slackening them» when he springs forward yielding them without reserve; as, at the time, the horse must be left quite at liberty. As the horse's hind feet come to the ground, the rider must again collect him, resumé his usual position, and move on at tbe same pace. His body must be inclined forward as the horse rises, and backwards as he alights." |
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Sir Tatton Sykes's Leger Race (3 years, 8st. 71bs.)
was faster (1 mile 6 furlongs and 132 yards), run in 3 mins. 16 secs., at a rate of nearly 13^ secs. a furlong, 1 min. 48 secs. per mile. West Australian (4 yrs.), in 1854, ran over the Ascot Cup
Course, 2J miles, in 4 mins. 27 secs., or 13y secs. per furlong, or a fraction less than 1 min. 47 secs. per mile. In this race Kingston ran "West Australian to a head. From the above authenticated timing of the speediest racehorses on the British turf, the " mile-a-minute" tradition of the last century may be set down as too absurd a fiction to excite more than a smile at those whose credulity can cling to it. In some " time matches " in America, the best pace made was at New Orleans in 1855, when Lexington (4 years old), did 4 miles, with 7st. 5lbs. up, in 7 mins. 19J secs. And in the same year Brown Dick (3 years old, 6st. 2lbs.), and Arrow (5 years, 7st. 121bs.), ran 3 miles over the same course in 5 mins. 28 secs. (13f secs. per furlong). The heavier weight carried, and greater speed, of the modern English racer are here evident. The gallop is ridden in two ways: the one seated in the
saddle, the feet in the stirrup as far as the ball of the great toe, in the usual manner of riding throw paces, or with the stirrup home to the waist and instep of the boot—the ordinary hunting seat. With this the body is slightly bent backwards, in an easy posture; the knees press firmly against the saddle flaps; the hands low, with a gentle draw on the mouth ; the position of the hands, however, must be higher or lower, according to the horse's mode of carrying his head when galloping; that is, raised if he hangs down- ward, level if he does not bear on the bit, and absolute low if he " sniffs the wind with upturned nostril." The second way is the jockey's rising in the stirrups and standing. The weight is then on the irons, steadied by a moderate pressure of the knees. The seat is more backward than when down in the saddle, the loins and body leaning forward; the head not too low, and the knee slightly flexed to press the foot backward as well as downward. This seat is rarely used except in racing. It relieves the horse in bad ground, and over deep plough or fallow, and might be more frequently adopted with advantage. It, however, soon fatigues the muscles of the rider, if it saves those of the horse. LEAPING.
Leaping is a mode of surmounting obstacles common to
most hunting quadrupeds, and to the horse tribe, though the style of jumping varies greatly in different animals. The kangaroo, which has no pace but jumping, is the most abnormal, his jump being effected by the base of his muscular tail and squatting hams. The trained horse alters his style of leap considerably, according to the nature of the obstacle to be surmounted, and hence, "fencing," as it is called in hunting countries, presents several well-known varieties. The jump is effected by a sudden and vigorous |
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THE PACES OE THE HORSE.—LEAPIN G. 85
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In many places where a stile or low gate, with a branch
°f a tree overhanging, has to be crossed, a perfect hunter will gather himself together and tilt himself over with a safety which a flying leap is far from insuring. Yet, as we have before said, the standing leap having been voted slow " by modern " fast" men, we will pass to the next.
The Flying Leap.—This is of two classes: the rushing one,
adopted from necessity in the jumping race known as the steeple-chase; the deliberate or hunting one, in which the norse is ridden steadily, and the fence, hedge, bank, or rail taken by a true leaping stride. The flying leap (Plate VIII, Fig. 2) , is performed with all the limbs more or less extended, and the whole line of head, neck, and body nearly hori- z°ntal, more so in proportion to the width of the brook, °vke, or other space to be cleared. As in the flying leap tne hinder limbs are the main instruments of propulsion, out the fore legs certainly take a greater part in the operation than is generally supposed, the last stride before the take-off °f the leap the fore feet will be found to be violently thrown against the ground, to assist in lifting and propelling the ai*imal, almost synchronously with the grand effort of the hinder limbs. The horse, having carried himself over the °°ject, lowers his head, throws his fore legs yet more horizontally, and lands so as to offer the least resistance aildjar: while his hinder limbs, which had been gathered UP towards the belly to clear the leap, are brought under him, as in other cases, to again gallop on. Some hunters can rise well for a flying leap from the trot, but a steady hand- gallop is the best pace to rise from in the field; in that pace, 0r a canter, the horse is more under control, and can be more readily stopped. In the steeple-chase the jumps are aH known, previously examined, and " eye-measured," both ln "take-off" and "landing." In the field it is otherwise ; aild therefore rushing at fences is merely tempting mishap to horse and rider. At water a good pace is best, as it must Usually be taken in stride; but a horse leaps better at a height from a steady pace, enough to secure a propulsive spring, than at extended speed. Double-posts and rails, and stone walls, require gathering together and " rousing ;" and never forget that the horse gathers courage from the confidence of his rider: a good horse, steady at his fences and straight at his Work, may soon be spoilt by a nervous and irritable rider. We again resort to Mr. S. C. Waite's manual. He directs
the flying leap to be made thus:—" The horse must not be hurried, but taken up at a brisk pace, with a light and steady hand, keeping his head perfectly steady and straight t° the bar or fence. This position is the same as in the standing leap; and the aids required are the same as for ^aking a horse canter. If held too tight in the act of leaping, the horse is likely to overstrain himself, and fall. ■If hurried at a leap, it may cause him to miss his distance, aiid spring too soon or too late; therefore his pace must be regulated, so that he may take his spring distant enough, ^ proportionate to its height, so that he may clear it. *hen nearing the leap the rider must sit perfectly square, |
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erect, pliant, and easy in the act of leaping; on arriving at
theopposite side of the leap, throw the body well back, and again have the horse well in hand." The Buck-jump, or doublé leap (Plate VIII, Fig. 3), is most
remarkable in Irish horses, and among such of our own as are accustomed to banks and wall enclosures rather than water, hurdles, wattles, or quickset hedges. In the buck leap a second impetus is obtained by the horse striking the top of the wall or fence with his hind feet. Blaine has some sensible remarks, evidently based on close observation, on this peculiar repetition of the impulse in the act of leaping. He says, "Our experienced hunters, when facing a rasping leap, or when, after bounding over a ditch, and having reached the centre of a quick hedge, they get sight of a second ditch on the other side, will often be observed thus to doublé their leap, by applying the hind feet to the top of the hedge, and with such additional impetus, slight as it may appear, they carry themselves and riders over the whole. It must not, however, be supposed by this statement, that we consider the hedge itself to offer a fulcrum equal to the required propulsion. No; we consider that the horse himself makes a second extensile effort by the stimulus within, but instinctively put into action by this point dappui. This doubling of the hind legs is almost always seen in the greyhound when covering, not only a timber leap of the most trifling height, but also that of a low hedge in coursing, &c, &c, which we consider as bearing us out in our principle. It was by observation first made on greyhounds in our younger days, that we became apprised of this secondary effort in leaping, which led us, by attentive observation of every case of the kind that occurred, to detect the same in horses. Having also had much oppor- tunity when in Ireland, of remarking the ease with which the common horses of the country, under Pat's fcram and shout,' cleared the stone walls so numerous there (we bef pardon, we ought not to have said cleared them, for it was by always going over, and so seldom clearing the wall, but, on the contrary, invariably displacing a ridge stone or two), that we were led to a more minute inquiry into the matter, both practical and theoretical. The result of this inquiry satisfied us, that this doubling of a leap is instinctively implanted in all quadrupeds, whose form and arrangement of organs fits them for extensive saltation. Having often, in the company of sportsmen, when we have noticed this capability, been met with doubt, and not unfrequently with a direct contradiction of the possibility of it, we cannot but be gratified when we meet with such an authority as Mr. Apperley bearing us out in our statement of this secondary effort to extend the leap:—' Yet after all,' says this talented writer, ' the most extraordinary fact relating to the act of leaping in horses, is the power they have of extending themselves by a second spring as it were, when, on being suspended in the air, they perceive something on the further side of a fence, for which they were not prepared. That they occasionally do this under good horsemen. all good |
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86 THE PACES OF THE
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HORSE—LEAPING.
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horsemen of experience can vouch for; but whence the
fulcrum is derived, it would be difficult to determine.'" {Encyclopcedia Britannica, vol. xl, p. 627.) We need hardly say that the buck-leap is not made at the
top of speed. The horse must not be at extended stride. The canter, trot, or short hand-gallop, are the most common preface, but we have seen it made under sudden alarm from a standing position. The buck-leap is made from the ground by the simultaneous action of all four legs at once ; but the superior strength and more favourable angle of the hinder ones throw the horse forward, as well as up. When the wall or bank is topped, the horse, striking with his hinder feet, the fore legs doubled, comes down by gathering his hind legs up and throwing out the front in such a way as to land them all togéther—a most dangerous and unpleasant concussion follows. Blaine says of a fatigued horse, under these circumstances:—" The horse in such case not being able to bear the jar of a secondary effort of the joints to relieve himself, the attempt often brings him down, and thus it is that buck-leapers are seldom safe ones. We would caution the nervous rider against the dangerous custom, which some have at every downward leap, of grasping the cantle of the saddle with the whip hand; for it not only displaces the body, and consequently unsteadies the seat, but it has likewise dislocated the shoulder. We have seen others elevate the whip hand at every flying leap; and the action appears to have become so natural to them as not at all to discompose their seat. In Ireland this is very common, and among the regular Pats it is accompanied with a vociferous ' hough!' the rise of the hand and voice being synchronous ; neither is it improbable that, from custom, both the action and sound are inspiriting to the rider—perhaps to the horse also." In leaping much depends on the manner of bringing the
horse up to the leap. He should be taken up straight and steady to the take-off, with the reins held in each hand ; the hands low, the curb-rein held loosely. The rider's body must be erect, pliant, and easy in its movements. As the animal rises, the body must be well thrown back; and so at landing. The sitting a leap well is entirely dependent on the due poise of the body. The weight then accompanies the horse's movements, and the rider and his steed " keep time/5 Titnber, Wall, and Water-jimping.—Candour compels the
admission that in these important points of cross-country riding the late Mr. Apperley has in various works; in his " Tours," " Riding to H.unds," " The Chase," &c.; well-nigh exhausted the subject, and to his pages, in the main, are we indebted for what we have here gathered. Timber-leaping is of various kinds—posts and rails; a
stile, with occasionally a foot-bridge; park-paling; double- posts and rails, and swing gates, are the most common obstacles in this category. Sheep-hurdles and thorn-fences, with or without binders, are included in the timbef-jump. As a preliminary caution we may note that many of the |
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falls which occur in timber-leaping are attributable to the
want of " catches " on the outer side of the shoes. These should be slight, and only on the outer side, as we shall note when we come to speak of the shoeing of the hunter. When the horse has not these as a foothold he is apt to slip his hinder quarters too far under in the attempt to stop the impetus of his gallop, and thus baulk his spring. Horses jump, however, as well as gallop, in all sorts of forms ; and the judicious horseman will know that it is better to accommodate himself to his horse's habit, and cultivate his talent, than to interfere with his style; which is like an attempt to force a man to alter his settled opinions. The authority we have already referred to thus practically sets forth his opinion :—When you know your horse to be a safe fencer, be his fashion of performing his leaps what it may, do not try to force him to alter it; and whatever you do, by no means hurry such a horse, however prudent it may be to do so with others. Some horses, although sufficiently eager to get over, will always pull up at a timber-leap.. particularlv if it costs an extra exertion. In such a case, if you know your horse will clear his leap fairly, let him take it his own way; forcing such a horse will probably be very unsafe. Never, however, attempt such a leap merely to show off either yourself or your horse during the run ; for several others of a similar kind may be inevitable, and every such leap takes so much out of your horse that if he receives much shock on landing he will, perhaps, refuse a repetition. Never follow another rider when he is taking a timber-leap; for should he fall you may maim or kill him, or at any rate, lose your own credit. Do not force your horse at timber when he is distressed; for should he then fall it may be with great force, and he will hardly rise, to say nothing of your own probable injury. Once more would we caution the aspirant in field riding against taking such leaps at the gallop : au contraire, it is good riding to pull up at some leaps, as we have already said, and to take them either from a walk, or at most from a canter. The late Mr. Assheton Smith—prwclarum et venerabile nomen—never rode hard at any kind of leap whatever, with the excep- tion of brooks. We know " fast" men who would denounce much of this as savouring of " the slow." The Stile—especially when it has a foot-bridge on one or
both sides—is often a very ugly leap. If on the take-off side most horses will sooner face it and clear the whole; should this be impracticable or doubtfttJ, an experienced "fencer" will, if the bridge is strong enough, take it at twice, and do it cleverly. A slip, however, on the bridge is apt to hang the horse's stifle in the top rail, and keep him till the timber gives way ; or, by getting a leg between the bars, the unlucky animal and his rider " come to grief." A good way—don't fear the vulgar imputation of " slow,"—is to turn the horse over solus, if you have a friend to catch him for you. The Gfate, like the posts and rails, should be steadily ridden
at: but rcmember that the foothold in these places is often |
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THE PACES OF THE HORSE.—LEAPING.
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87
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very treacherous, owing to the ground being " poached " by
the passage of neat-cattle and sheep at each side of the obstruction. Never ride at a gate that by probability is unfastened ; to
do so when it is actually on the swing would be madness ; for as many good leapers measure heights and distance so accu- rately as almost always to brush the former, and exactly span the latter, so a gate on the swing, or even unfastened, would in all probability fly open, and the horse, instead of topping it, would first find himself swinging on it, and next rolling rider and all headlong from off it. In such case it would be not unlikely also that the legs of the horse might, at the same time, become entangled in the gate rails; should this happen, first hold the head of the horse firmly down, and then let some one unhinge the gate, which is best done by putting the back against it. In these and other such like cases, wherein timber is concerned, we may remind the steady rider of the advantages which attended the heavy hunting whip of former times, with its hook and hammer mountings, as well as the sporting knife, with its cutting and sawing blades. Some good horsemen always ride briskly at a gate, which they say it is prudent to do; first, because your horse ■will at once distinguish between your purpose of merely going up to open it, and your intention of going over it; next they observe, that by rushing at it, if the horse does not clear it, there is the greater chance of his breaking it by the impetus of the rush. The rider of a tired or blown horse, however, ^ould do well to avoid timber when in his power, for such falls are usually serious ones to both parties : but when cir- cumstances strongly urge the leap, let him push his horse at *t with energy, lifting him by hand, and pressing him with the heel at the moment of the spring. Park-paling is an ugly kind of timber to take, from the
zig-zag forks at the head of the pales occasionally locking the hinder foot, where it is strong enough not to fly before the Wow. Doublé posts and rails, where too yawning for a clear- aQce, must be taken " in and out," or " on and off;" at this, some Irish jumpers are very clever. Where there is a bank öiost English hunters lift themselves on to it, then, dwelling a moment, extricate their forelegs and drop into the next field, with just spring enough to clear a ditch if there be one. ^ouble hurdles are an identical jump. Be careful to "give the horse his head," in rising, and in his second spring, feeling his mouth and lifting him when he touches ground. Sheep-hurdles are generally too weak to occasion a fall,
and may, therefore, be "rode at any how,"' as we have ^eard it expressed. They are a good means of teaching _ he colt, and impressing on " the young idea how to" Junip. Three feet to three feet six is their usual beight. water-jumping.—In going at a brook, lake hold of your
! 0rse well, and ride him at a good striding pace straight at ; choosing as good a " take off" and sound " landing " as
P°ssible. A horse to be good at brooks must be practised smallish ones at first, which he must take in his stride
the three-quartergallop. Few horses take water-jumps
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kindly unless early instructed. A wide low-banked brook,
if fordable, should be so taken. Strains and overreach are often the result of the other practice, to say nothing of a rotten bank and a return by rolling over. It is superfluous to say that an overreach spoils your sport for the day ; and that if you cram your horse at a water-jump he will not take, he may either stop dead—in which case it is fortunate if you do not first taste the quality and sound the depth of the ditch, and so afford mirth to the field—or, if you have him not well " feit by both reins," he will swerve to right or left, and carry you a circuitous bend homewards ; to repeat the gyration as many times as you bring him up to the leap. Stone-walls are noticed under the buck-leap.
The author of "The Horse and the Hound" tells you
" how to fall from your horse;" and quaint as is the precept, it is well worth study, as " falls," like " offences, needs must come." In all falls, the horseman should roll away from his horse as soon as he possibly can, lest in his struggle to rise again he strike him with his legs or head. It frequently happens that the horse himself rolls after he falls, and if in the direction in which his rider lies, is apt to crush and injure him. Indeed there is scarcely any hard rider who has not been thus served; but here, again, self-possession often stands his friend. When he sees the body of his horse approaching him, he frequently saves himself by meeting it with one of his feet, and, by obtaining a fulcrum, shoves his own body along the ground out of his reach. Coolness in this hour of peril likewise serves the sportsman in another way. Instead of losing hold of his reins, and abandoning his horse to his own will, as the man who is flurried at this time invariably does, he keeps them in his hand, if not always, perhaps in nine falls out of ten, and thus secures his horse. Of the wonderful leaping «powers of the norse we have
innumerable recorded instances. Some years ago, a wager of 100 guineas was made
between Lord Alvanley and Mr. Maher, that each did not leap over a brook of six yards width, without disturbing the water. Both riders leaped the brook handsomely; but, unfortunately for Lord Alvanley, his horse threw back a bit of dirt into the water after he had landed, which made him the loser. Blaine witnessed a jump over the river Roding, in Essex,
made by Sir William Rowley's huntsman, 24 feet in the clear. The next is an example of sustained leaping powers and
pace for a small animal. Sir Charles Turner's leaping match, made with the Earl of March, for 1,000 guineas, was performed on Feil, near Richmond, Yorkshire. " The con- ditions of the match were, that Sir Charles Turner should ride 10 miles within the hour, in which he was to take forty leaps; each leap to be 1 yard, 1 quarter, and 7 inches high " Sir Charles performed it on a galloway, with great oase, in 36 minutes. |
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88 THE PACES OF THE HOESE—IMMENSE LEAPS.
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half-bred mare, that she leaped a wall of 7 feet high, built
for the purpose, in Phcenix Park, Dublin." The feat of leaping over the wall of Hyde Park is well known* It was to have been performed by an Irish mare, the property of Mr. Bingham, but the trial was frustrated by her having passed into other hands: merely for the honour of Ireland, the leap was nevertheless attempted and achieved, on February 24, 1792, by a bay horse in his possession, whose per- formance of it, it is said, was done merely to show the possibility of the thing. This was a standing leap; the height of the wall was 6 J feet on the inside and 8 on the outside, where a bed of long dung was laid to receive the horse in his descent. The willing animal, it must also be remarked, did it twice, merely displacing a few bricks at the last jump. Well-authenticated brook and fence leaps of the steeple-
chasers of later years have far beaten these. Charity, winner of the Newport Pagnel Steeplechase in 1841, cleared 28 feet and a bank; while Peter Simple leaped the artificial water-cut, opposite the Grand Stand at the Liverpool Steeple- chase, and left his measured foot prints 32 feet from bank to bank. Lottery cleared 29 feet with Jem Mason up; and The Chandler jumped 32 feet at Liverpool, across a water- course, measured in presence of the writer. We propose to speak of the accidental "Paces of the
Horse "—such as rearing, jibbing, shying, backing, cutting, lying-down, running-away, &c,—when treating of the sub- jects of " Vices" and " Riding." |
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The Trial Leaps, as they are called, of the Irish horses, are
however much more extraordinary. They are made over stone walls 6 feet high, and built firm throughout by coping and dashing: however, it is not expected that any other than a first-rate horse can top such a fence; but several instances have occurred where this has been done, and that even by the common horses of the country. In the county of Limerick, one of these walls is shown which was ridden over by Colonel O'Grady. When Mr. Blaine, already quoted, was with his regiment in Ireland during the rebellion, he saw many such. " Over these walls it was a very common occurrence for their crack fieldsmen to ride; but it was owned that some of the stones were usually displaced in the leap. Indeed, it was this very circum- stance that deprived the enterprise of half its danger. A good horse there, when hunting, seldom balks such a leap; for he is aware that either his knees or his breast will displace the first tier of loose stone; the next rider who follows does the same; and then each one who succeeds is in more and more peril from the loose stones, which very frequently give horse and rider an awful somersault. That high fencing horses are almost, as it were, indigenous to Ireland, we might conclude from the circumstance, that, at one of the great horse fairs held at Ballinasloe, the parish pound, which is 6 feet in height, forms the trial leap for the high priced horses bought there, each of which, we are told, is expected to leap it ere the bargain is concluded. It is also recorded of a descendant of Old Pot-8-os from an Irish |
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89
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BÜYING A HOESE.
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CHAPTEE IX.
SETTING A HORSE : PREFATORY REMARKS : TRICKS OF DEALERS : CHOICE OF A " GENERAL PÜRPOSE " HORSE : " A GOOD SOKT :'
EXAMINATION FOR PTJRCHASE : EXAMINATION FOR DEFECT AND DISEASE : CONCLUSION. |
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No one who has mixed much in general society but bas
found, from peer to peasant, tbat one of tbe tenderest points of an Englishman's self-opinion is toucbed by tbe bare supposition that be " knows nothing about a borse;" yet how few really have studied tbe subject, and bow many less have possessed the opportunity of a tecbnical acquaint- ance even witb the leading points necessary to form an approximately just judgment of a horse's capabilities, powers, and suitableness for the purpose for which he is required. Next to choosing a wife, buying a horse to carry you " for better or for worse " is the affair in life that requires most deliberate circumspection. True, the former is proverbially "a lottery," but tbere is no reason tbat the latter need be. We will not be so ungallant as Lord Bacon, who likened wife-taking to a blindfold dip in a bagfull of snakes to draw forth tbe single eel; but however heaven may make matches, and "another place" dip them, tbe man who ■will study tbe subject need not, in suiting bimself with a borse, buy one with such serious defects as may make him feel he is " sold again, and the money paid." A dissertation on tbe various ways in which a horse may
be bougbt in London or in any other of our great commercial centres, such as Manchester, Liverpool, or Dublin, either at Well-known auctions which are held periodically througbout the year, or from the livery-stable keepers and jobmasters who flourish wherever horses are bought and sold, or of a breeder, farmer, or "friend"—the last not the least dangerous— ^ould waste too much of our space and of the reader's time. Much of this matter, more especially of tbe " stud " class, ^ill be found pleasantly gossiped over in the small volume by " Harry Hieover" entitled " Precept and Practice," and similar works; our object bere is to write for the " general" purchaser, who wants a " general" horse for " general" purposes, which is just the sort of person nine- tenths of writers on this subject consider it would be beneatb them, and a derogation from their character for sPorting vovtr, to write for at all. They will insist upon showing you what a thoroughbred should be, according to tbe highest Standard ; that, we opine, is not what an every- ^ay buyer of a horse for his pleasure, comfort, business, or ^ealthful exercise, wants. He may find it, in its right place, Under the respective headings—the EACE Horse, and the -ÏÏUnter, and the article On Breeding ; also, and more to 'be point of our present topic, under The Hackney, pp. |
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61, 62, ante. We have there described the best of tbat
most useful class of horse as half or three quarter bred, and from 14-1 to 15*1 in stature, yet galloways and cobs under this height are often to be met witb of undeniable utility, stoutness, and constitution. And here we would say to the " gentlemen in search of a horse," look rather for the good qualities, as you would in a friend or trusty servant, than mere beauty. " Whoe'er expeets a perfect' horse' to see,
Expects what never was, or is, or e'er shall be; " therefore, as all things have their defects in " this best of all
possible worlds "—even you and I, gentle reader, included— we will just take a glance at a Standard animal; the nearer to which Standard tbe borse you can buy approacbes, the better for the fortunate man who becomes his owner. An amusing, but, to our thinking, useless chapter or two
might be given, studded witb anecdotes of the various tricks of "copers," "chanters," "sharps," "flats," and "wideawakes;" witb illustrations downward, from the aristocratie cavalry officer who " sells " the ricb Cornet Greenhorn in the little matter of the 120 guinea cbarger, and the gentlemanly "friend" you met in the bunting-field—who has "the splendid fencer," and will part with, " to you only,' for ï?250, because he is just tbe thing to carry you"— througb all the gradations, till you come to the bide-and- seek-rascals who advertise a horse, "tbe property of a gentleman;" inquire of the groom, No. 6, Backslum Mews, " ring the right-hand bell." Each of these has its horse- dealing story, proving tbe axiomatic truth that " No man is bonest in selling a horse." Our old friend Nimrod speaks to this. He says : " The moment a man has a horse to sell he becomes a suspicious character. Now, if the sale of one horse places a man in such an equivocal situation as to character, what must that man be who becomes a dealer in horses ? Why, by common consent, be is placed out of the pale of respectability; and if his conduct were to be in parallel with his character, he would be simply a systematic cheat." Again, " The horse seems a conductor to all sorts of villany; even friendship itself is no security in this matter, in which all the ordinary principles of bonour and fair dealing, by common consent, are placed in abeyance, and a laugh is the rejoinder to the recital of acts which, if a horse were not in question, would expel a man from good |
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90
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BUYING A HORSE.—"A GOOD SORT:
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society." There is quite as much fallacy in this as truth.
The vendor is always the defendant in this moral court of inquiry ; but in many—we had almost said most—instances the purchaser is a self-deluder, who querulously complains of the bargain he himself sought, and laments, in possession, the object he so earnestly coveted when another's. The better class of our London horse-dealers are quite as upright and fair in their dealings, as wine merchants, auctioneers, advertising jewellers, and a score of dealers in articles of a "fancy" description. This, many will say, is but poor praise; be it so. It is nearer truth than the senseless outcry about horse-dealers which fills the pages of light- reading periodicals, and points the pencil of the caricaturist. If to-morrow we wanted an animal, such as we shall pre- sently describe, and distrusted our own experience and judgment, we should apply at once to an established dealer, on the same principle as we should to a respectable silver- smith, and should not doubt to get fair value in one case as in the other. It is a gratifying fact, and we speak from observation and
experience, that those tricks and dishonesties which used formerly so extensively and constantly to disgrace the repositories, are now of rare occurrence, if not quite gone down into desuetude ; although, of course, caveat emptor cannot be flung to the winds when one is buying anything, but more especially in such an extremely delicate under- taking as purchasing a horse. The "knock-outs " are now confined to a few of the very needy and characterless cads. All the more respectable members of the trade repudiate the practice as beneath them. Improvement has also given the guinea-hunters the go-by; and here and there only, a crown or half-crown cad is tipped. Respectable agents, too, are not the rara avis they used to be. To return. "We will suppose you are not over-particular as to colour,
and that the venerable saw, " a good horse is never of a bad colour," has its due weight with a sensible man. Grey, chesnut, roan, bay, brown, or black, there are good ones of all. Bay or brown, with black legs and hoofs, are usually most obtainable, and, all other points being equal, most desirable. Greys are handsome, but as they grow older and white, stain themselves so frequently by lying down that much more washing is necessary; add to which, their hoofs are often white, and softer and less dense than those of black- footed horses. To describe a " good sort" of horse is, perhaps, not a
difficult matter. A really good sort of horse cannot well be put quite out of his place; he is capable of all services that can be required of him, with the reservation of the two extremes—racing, or the waggon. Even for these, if he is well bred, he would make a tolerable good fight for the one, and his pluck and courage would, to the extent of his strength and weight, make him a most willing rival of " Gee woa," if the ingratitude and cupidity of man should destine him to such degradation and suffering: by no means an improbable ending of his career, and that |
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often under circumstances at which the humane sportsman
revolts. There can be no doubt but that "a good sort" is a
valuable acquisition to any man who wants a horse to perform well any purpose for which such sort is necessary or desirable ; but he may not get what performs a particular kind of work in a superior manner notwithstanding; and we may sometimes, and under peculiar circumstances, show our tact and knowledge of horses, by purchasing one for a given purpose, which our judgment may teil us is really of a good sort, even for that purpose, or indeed any other. , A really good sort of horse is fit more or less for any
purpose to which we may apply him, and will do that purpose moderately well; but it by no means follows he may be more than moderately good in any of them. A good sort of horse has so often been described by abler pens than ours, that we will not enter into the minutiae of description here. We are told, and with truth, that a tnin, clean, good
head, and cheerful eye, are indicative of goodness, and (if we may use the terms in speaking of the horse) indicative also of an amiable and generous temperament and dis- position ; a head well put on, with a yielding and somewhat arched neck, denotes the head capable of being carried in the right place ; and further, we may infer such a horse has a good mouth, it not having been hardened or spoiled by useless endeavours to bring the head in the place we wish it to be. Long oblique shoulders usually betoken freedom of action, so far as the fore parts are concerned. A deep girth and long back ribs show strength, as do good loins; wide hips, freedom of action; long good thighs and large clean hoeks, with hind legs well put on, show strong propelling powers. With these points (as we shall go more particularly into
the subject in " Examination for Pukchase"), we may say a horse has got what indicates goodness of temper, cheerful- ness and courage, carrying himself handsomely and plea- santly to the rider or driver, goodness of action, strength, speed, and safety. Yet, with all these good points, he may only be enabled
to perform any of the purposes to which we may put him moderately well. In a general way such an animal cannot be a bad horse; but if we want perfection, or something like it, we must tie ourselves to special rules as to formation, and should show our tact in buying what our judgment must in a general way condemn, if we determine to have something uncommon in a particular way : such as a flyer for racing purposes, a jumper up to fifteen stone for steeple-chase or the hunting field, or an animal for the exclusive purposes of draught, all of which have their special conformations and characteristics. The most perfect mechanical forms are not always the
most speedy or the most powerful: good conformation may give the power to perform extraordinary feats of endurance, activity, or strength; but it must never be forgotten that |
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fche vigour of motion depends not upon the form alone, but
the will to exert its powers. This will, or energy in work, is Proportionate to the excitability of that portion of the brain and nervous system which governs the muscles exerted in the desired action. Thus, oftentimes, a plain horse with a Willmg temper is far superior to a perfectly formed one who °as not that virtue. "How can I teil," asks the reader, 'anything about all this? I must trust to the seller."
Arue, but not to the extent you suppose. A close and intelligent examination of the postures, countenance, eye, lostril, ear, movements, and carriage of the animal, will teil y°u more than you would believe until you try such a ftoughtful inspection. The energetic horse has generally a large eye, is attentive 0 ^hat is going on about him, fine muzzle, large nostrils,
ttiall ears, thin skin, and clean limbs; he rarely carries
•üuch flesh ; and lastly, it has been frequently observed that •ftany energetic horses have thin manes and tails. "he sluggard has usually a small sunken eye, in a large
eavy head ; the ears are large or sloping, and seldom move;
he nostrils are almost always small, muzzle fleshy, ribs flat,
belly
pendent, and the tail drooping and not unfrequently
Very full.
A small horse is capable of greater exertion than a large ,ne ; the vital principle seems to act with increased activity
11 small animals; in one, it is diffused, and in the other c°ncentrated : again, like us, some have better constitutions
ftan others; in one, the texture of the organs may be °^pact, and in another weak and relaxed. Horses with ülck skins are more predisposed to attacks of grease and anker. In proportion as the legs are hairy, the skin is ül°k and spongy, feeble in vital energy, and incapable of baring changes of temperature. With these preliminary remarks we will proceed to the EXAMINATION FOR PURCHASE.
Unless proper precaution is used in the examination of
0rses for purchase, the law will not protect a man from the
°nsequences of his own neglect; and it has been held that
Warranty against apparent defects is bad in law, the
^chaser being expected not only to possess ordinary
,l^> but to exhibit ordinary caution; we shall, however,
((ave more to say on this subject when we come to
Warranty and TJnsotjndness."
, A defective horse is dear at any price; yet, though the
ƒ er be ever so good a judge, and his inspection ever so
lQute, he must take some things on trust. A perfect
°wledge can only be obtained on trial, which should
Ways ke takeil} jf possible, but which is not, under many
cümstances, to be had. For instance, some horses, when
Q6d six or se ven years old, are subject to a dry chronic
_§h, which comes on at uncertain times, perhaps twice or
i Ce a day, sometimes after feeding or drinking; or
j , n§es of temperature may induce it, when he comes
0r goes out of stable. Occasionally a dose of physic,
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and in some cases a little attention to his diet, will prevent
recurrence of this cough for two or three days, or even weeks, when it will re-appear. With a respectable dealer, after using your eyes and
discretion, you had better depend on the warranty and the vendor's character, than by any unnecessary display of suspicion, offensively question his honesty. Nevertheless, as the trade is taken up by needy gentlemen of good standing in society, and broken down black-legs of respectable connexions, who are ever ready to give a warranty not worth a dump, or satisfaction if you are dissatisfied thereat, if you have reason to suspect the horse, or his master, the directions here laid down will be found useful. Always bear in mind that the observation of one symptom should induce the examiner to follow up the inquiry into those other symptoms which are characteristic of the suspected disease, defect, or unsoundness. We would also recommend, when you have made up your mind that a horse is such as you would wish, to take with you, not as your dictator, but as your adviser and friend, a respectable qualified vet.; for, depend on't, he must be a wonder of incompetence and of the rarest dishonesty, if his judgment and disinterested advice are not superior to your unaided acumen, and perhaps prejudged decision. The fee is well saved in after satisfaction. The best time to view a horse is early in the morning,
in the stables; as if there is any stiffness in the joints, or tendency to swelled legs, it will then be most apparent. The horse should always be examined from a state of
rest. If there are any symptoms of his having been previously exercised, such as sweat about his withers, or his legs have been recently washed, it is advisable he should be left in his stall till cool. There is more than one species of lameness, which becomes less apparent after exercise, and where there is a tendency to swelled legs, a smart trot and grooming will fine his legs, and render them clean. This precautionary measure is more especially to be
taken when you suspect your man, for in horse-buying you must expect to deal with gentry who are adepts in the science of imposition. A stable examination is the best for observing indications of wind-sucking, crib-biting, chronic cough, the state of the respiration, and for discovering vice. For this purpose, always have a horse shown quietly.
When there is much noise and bustle, there is generally something wrong; and when the animal is agitated, slight lameness will escape the eye. In going to look out for a horse in a dealer's stables, you will no doubt soon attract the notice of an attendant, who will endeavour to put the horses into a fidgety state by his presence, in all probability with a whip in his hand. Object, in limine, to this ; your object is to see the animal in a state of repose, and as far from any exciting cause as possible. It may be diflicult to take a quiet survey; for the attendant is not always obedient to you, but often will persevere in exciting what you want to see in a quiescent state, and you are |
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minute, average six in the day time; during sleep it is
seldom more than four. If quicker than ordinary, it betokens present fever or defective lungs. Should it arise from present fever, other symptoms will be developed, such as increased pulse, heat of mouth, and dulness, while the delicate pink appearance which the membrane covering the partition of the nostrils assumes in health will be increased in colour. But if none of these symptoms of ill health are present, and yet the horse heaves at the flank more than ordinary, if the weather be moderate, and the stable not oppressively hot, it is probable such a horse is thick winded. When inspiration appears to be performea readily and
quickly, as in health, by a single action, but expiration with difliculty by an irregular and prolonged movement, or doublé action, the respiratory muscles appearing as if interrupted in the act of expelling the air, and then the flank drops suddenly, it is a symptom of broken wind. His cough should then be tried. The cough of a broken- winded horse is a peculiar low hollow grunt, difficult to describe, but when once heard easily recognized. Cough.—The cough can generally be elicited by pinching
the larynx or trachea. This, however, is not an infallible test. We have met with sound as well as broken-winded horses that cannot be made to cough at all. In these cases, when there is any irregularity in the movement of the flank, which would lead to the suspicion of broken wind, and there is unusual hardness of the windpipe, which does not give way on pinching, it may be taken as a symptom of disorganization in addition to the probability of broken wind. Matige.—Should the hair be rubbed off in some places,
especially about the head, flanks, and tail, or he is observed rubbing himself against the sides of the stall, there is danger of his being mangy. In this case his coat will be found rough and staring. Temper.—The absence of the vices of kicking and biting
may be inferred from the manner of the groom when entering the stall, and by the quiet method with which he unclothes and dusts him over, and combs out his mane and tail. If he be a biter, his head will probably be tied short to the neck, or the groom will seize hold of him short by the halter or bridle, sometimes giving him a shake, or looking sternly at him. Desire to see his hind and fore feet, and by the manner in which he permits the groom to lift them, a guess may be made as to his quietness to groom his heels, or in shoeing. The Eyes.—While the horse is in the act of being led out of
the stable to the light, closely observe his manner and action : if the ears move in quick changes of direction, as if alarmed at every noise, and he hangs back on the halter, raising his feet higher than ordinary, and putting them down as if fearful aud uncertain of his step, it leads us to suspect his eyes, though sometimes these symptoms will be observed when the eyes are perfect, if the stable has been a dark one. Standing, Grogginess.—When the horee is shown out,
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driven to leave the stable in disgust. Old John Lawrence
has some sound cautions and remarks on this point, which ■we cite. He says:—" Suffer no person belonging to the seller to be with you in the stall (unless you know and are well satisfied with the dealer's character) during your inspection, that the horse may not be rendered unquiet, either designedly or at the mere presence of an habitual tormentor. A short time since I had occasion to examine a horse, for a friend, at the stable of a considerable dealer; it was a very beautiful and well-shaped nag, but, as is commonly the hard fate of such, he appeared to have done too much work. The attendant, from a superabundant share of regard to my safety, must needs hold the horse's head whilst I examined his legs, still assuring me he was perfectly quiet; nevertheless, every time I attempted to feel below his knees the horse started, and flew about the stall in a strange manner, to the no small risk of my toes and shins. Whilst I stood musing and wondering what beside the devil could possibly ail the animal, I discovered a short whip under the arm of the jockey, with which he had, no doubt, tickled the neck and chest of the horse whenever I stooped down with the intent of handling his legs. I wished this adept good morning. " A good quiet stable survey is a material prelude, the
horse being under none of that excitement which will probably have place in him when abroad upon the show. Unless, indeed, he should have been previously subject to that most barbarous stable discipline which I too often witnessed in days of yore, but which, I hope, does not in the present days, at least not in so great a degree or so usually disgrace the conduct of our dealers. I refer to the daily, too probably almost hourly, attendance of a fellow with a whip, who flogs and cuts the horses up and down in their stalls, causing them to jump and fly about as if mad, keeping them in such a constant state of miserable appre- hension, that they dread the approach of any human being. The motive of this was to render them active, ready, and lively on a show, and to hide defects ; and, as an exaggera- tion of this monstrous barbarity, the unfortunate cripples had even an additional share of this discipline, being whipped and beat most cruelly for putting out, in order to ease, a crippled limb." The f eet and legs.—The first thing to be observed is,
that when standing evenly the weight is thrown equally on both feet. If there be any complaint in the fore feet one will probably be " pointed," that is, extended before the other, or he will frequently alter the position of them, taking one up and setting the other down ; or the hind legs will be brought under the body to relieve the fore feet of some portion of the weight. Any of these symptoms will direct your attention to the feet when you see him out. Respiration.—To judge of his respiration it is necessary
to be acquainted with the indications of health. Observe if the flank alternately rises and falls with regularity. In health the respiration of the horse is from four to eight per |
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notice if he stand firm on his feet, with his weight thrown
boidly^on his back sinews and pasterns. If there is any appearance of shaking or tottering of the fore limbs indicative of grogginess, it will be endeavoured to be disguised by the groom continually puiling at the bit, to make him shift his egs and stand advantageously. A lame horse is never
permitted to stand still a moment, and the groom, though Pretending to soothe, is in reality agitating him, while the shrewd and crafty seller will most probably endeavour to ^ithdraw your scrutiny from the defective point, by calling your attention to his spirit or playfulness. If any of these öianceuvres are apparent, be upon your guard. The groggy horse inclines a little forward at the knee, or it is readily bent by the least touch behind, he rests his weight on his °es, and when standing undisturbed brings his hind legs
under him Some young horses, before they have been oacked, have this deformity, from malformation of the knee; Dut if, in addition to this bending forward, there is any tremulous motion of the limbs, it is a decided proof of the existence of that most destructive affection, navicular disease ; for an account of which the reader is referred to the Veterinary portion of this work. Io return, the horse being led out, he will most probably
°e placed upon rising ground, for the purpose of showing his fore quarters to advantage, which also affords the buyer an opportunity of another examination in a good ight. The shoulder is by this position made to appear more
s|oping; and dealers, to give that appearance, try to make tQe near-leg to stand before the off-leg. Now is the time *°r perceiving whether his " understanding " is sound; for bough the dealer may declare that he is as sound as a bell,
stal we should disregard what he may say on that subject, and judge for ourselves. Though the dealer is perfectly justified in these little
Manoeuvres to show off his goods to the best advantage, more especially in so fancy an article as a horse—being no more ban is done and allowed by every tradesman—the prudent
Purchaser will not please his eye at the expense of his judg- ^ent, but see the horse on level ground and with his feet Placed evenly. If one foot is more upright than the other, that foot is
iseased ; the same weight is not thrown on it, and remember
^bat the horse never shams a complaint. If the foot is of iöerent temperature, active disease is going on ; if an old
landing complaint, the feet will be found of different size, .nd Possibly the muscles of the arm and shoulder diminished ln volume. J-he purchaser should take his position in front of the
orse, and examine his fore legs—that they are in proper
ion ' ^at there is no weakness in the pasterns, or
eiÜargement of the fetlocks; and that the feet are of the,
same size, and stand square to the front. In brief, the fore legs
üould descend in a straight line from the bottom of the
uicier, ie., in a lateral view; but when seen in front
mcline gently inwards. If the elbow projects directly back-
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wards, and the toe points with precision forwards, we may rest
satisfied that the horse is not twisted in his fore leg* Turning the toe in or out, in standing, is apt to be accom- panied with distortion or deformity of the /imb; this circumstance, therefore, is seldom seen without materially lessening the value of a horse. Of the two faults, turning them out is the greater; for the pointing inward is seldom carried to extreme. A good arm is broad and thick ; long, when compared to the leg, and marked exteriorly by muscular prominences; the elbow cannot project too fai back, and the plumper the muscle immediately above it, the greater may we conclude to be the animal's powers. General Health.—We may judge of the general state of the
animal's health by his breathing condition, the brightness of his eye, the colour of the membrane lining the lid, and that of the membrane lining the nostril, which in health is of a pale pink. If it is a rosy red, there is excitement of the system ; and if it is pale, approaching to white, it is a sign ofdebility. Each nostril should be alternately closed by the hand, to
ascertain that the air passages are not obstructed by polypus, or enlargement of the turbinated bones. Nasal Discharge, Glanders.—Should there be any undue
discharge from the nostrils you will. probably be told it proceeds from slight cold ; in that case an accelerated pulse and affection of the eyes are usually present. Nevertheless, as a precautionary measure, the branches of the under jaw should be feit for enlargement of the glands; if, although enlarged, they are moveable and tender, it is probably nothing more than a catarrhal affection. And here it may be necessary to observe, that in deciding upon the disease with which the horse is afflicted, it is requisite to bear in mind the age of the animai In examining the head of a young horse, should the space between the branches be hot, tumid, and tender, the membrane of the nose intensely red, with profuse discharge from both nostrils, and cough and fever present itself, we may more than suspect strangles. Where, however, there is neither cough or fever, but one nostril, and that the left, affected, the discharge lighter in colour, and almost transparent, yet clammy and sticky, and the gland on that side adherent to the jawbone, glanders is indicated. In this case, should the lining membrane of the nostril be found pale, or cf a leaden colour, with small circular ulcers, having abrupt and prominent edges, there can be no second opinion on the subject. We caution the inexperienced examiner ,not to mistake for an ulcer the orifice of the nasal duet, which is situated in the inner side, just within the nostril on the oontinuation of the common skin of the muzzle, and which conveys the tears from the eye into the nose. And yet more seriously would we wam him, in all suspicious cases, to be careful he has no chaps or sore places on his hands or face. There is, unfortunately, no doubt that this dreadful disease is communicable to the human being. As few persons will buy a horse with any symptoms of actual disease, however slight, if they can help |
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94 BÜYING A HORSE.—TRIAL AFTER EXAMINATION.
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self; his head will then be entirely unconstrained, and any
irregularities in his action are easily detected. The action should be scrutinized most attentively imme-
diately he steps off, as defects are then most visible ; for, not unfrequently, lameness disappears after few moments' exercise. Should one of the fore feet be much affected, it will be
evident, by the up and down motion of the head, and the different degree of force with which he puts his feet to the ground. Horses that are lame before, drop their heads when stepping on the sound leg, and raise it when the weight is thrown on the lame leg; but when they are lame behind, the action (though not so perceptible) is reversed; they throw up their head a little when the sound leg comes to the ground, and depress it when the lame leg propels the body, and the motion of the lame leg is slow, while the sound one is jerked quickly forward to sustain the weight. "Beaning" the Foot.—When both fore feet are equally
tender (which is not uncommon in groggy horses) it is more difficult to judge of his action—it is not uneven, and the limp is not perceptible, but he steps short and tenderly with a general appearance of contraction. Dishonest dealers at fairs and auctions resort to a scheme by which groggy lameness in one leg is disguised by making the action even. This bar- barous trick is known in various parts by the slang terms of "diamonding," "beaning," "balancing," or "wedging;" and is performed by removing the shoe of the sound foot, and paring out the sole, until it yields to the pressure of the thumb. The shoe is then replaced, and a wedge of wood, a pebble, or bean, is driven in between the sole and shoe until sufficiënt pain is produced to make the horse equally lame on both legs. Although the lameness is less evident, yet a person accustomed to the action of horses will easily detect it; and if the animal is allowed to stand undisturbed, it will be shown something is wrong by his repeatedly shifting his legs. Another trick of these rascals to conceal lameness, or
to give an appearance of energy to the sluggard or worn-out horse, is the torture of the lash, termed " firing." The poor animal, previously to being shewn, is so barbarously fiagel- lated, that, under the influence of terror of the further application of the whip, his attention is withdrawn from the disease, he feels not the lesser pain, but trots off heedless of his lameness, or at least showing it much less. Whenever there is much punishment, or the threat of it, while showing a horse, be sure there is something to conceal. The Trot.—If his trot is good, the foot is boldly delivered
with an easy, light, and springy movement. lts course is straight forward and downward, not dishing to either side; the motion should be from the elbow as well as the knee; the hind legs gathered well under the body, following with regularity and precision; the toes fairly raised from the ground, and spread pretty accurately in the impress of the fore feet; if they pass beyond they are likely to overreach. In the trot he should go lightly with the fore feet; but |
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It, the inquiry is better left to a professional man, in case
any of these symptoms make their appearance after purchase. The Grest, Gondition, Age.—His crest should feel hard
and full, and firmly and closely attached to his neck ; if it be lax, he is out of condition. His skin should feel kind, and look glossy, and the muscles of the body feel hard and elastic to the touch. In the old horse, the head grows lean and fine, and the features more striking and blood-like, the neck fine, withers short, and the back sinks; the lips exhibit a lean and shrivelled appearance, and the lower lip hangs considerably below the upper. In youth they are round and plump, and meet together, and the ridges of the roof of the mouth will be found prominent. In age, the middle of the nose will sometimes be found indented by the long-continued pressure of the nose-band of the head-stall. The Teeth and Mouth.—In lifting his lip, if the incisor
teeth shut close, even, and are perpendicular, he is young. As he grows older, they project forward in a horizontal direction, and the upper and under edges do not meet with evenness, the upper projecting over the under teeth. The longer his teeth are, the gums being dry and shrunk from them, the more advanced he is in age. This appearance of his teeth cannot be altered by the arts of the dealer. In youth, the teeth are flattened at front and rear, and long from side to side ; at eight years old they are oval; as age advances, they become round, and in extreme old age triangular, yellow, and incrusted, and the tusks become blunt. If there are any marks of extraordinary wear in the central teeth, there is reason to suspect crib-biting, and in old cribbers the outer edge of the front teeth are worn away, and litle pieces are sometimes broken off by the attrition against the manger ; if such is the case, look to the neck for marks of the crib-biting strap. Dishonest dealers attempt to disguise age by reproducing the mark in the corner teeth by means of a hot iron or caustic ; the fraud is easily detected by a judge, as it is usually overdone, and the marks do not correspond with the length, shape, and duration of the teeth, and the " bishoped " horse is usually loth to have his mouth meddled with. In our chapter on the Age of the Horse as indicated by
the Mouth, this subject is more fully treated. TRIAL AFTER EXAMINATION.
Having attentively looked over the horse as he stands,
and discovered nothing objectionable to the eye, it is prudent to see him through his paces before proceeding to ascertain, by careful examination, what defects, blemishes, &c. which may have tendency to produce unsoundness, he is afflicted with; as the action of a horse, when closely observed, guides us to his defective points. Action, Lameness.—He should be first walked, and then
trotted, without any whip near him, slowly down the ride, allowing the animal to have the whole of the halter to him- |
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strike the ground energetically with the hind, taking a long
darting stride, and shooting, as it were, the body forward. ■Ine horse that throws his legs confusedly about should be rejected, -for though most young and uneducated horses nave an ungraceful and disorderly action, the sluggard is never precise and uniform in his trot. In criticising action, attention must be paid to breed, but
it should be sufficiently high in a hack to clear all ordinary lrregularities on the ground; if it is very high, look out for trace of having worn a knee cap. Be careful to observe that he does not occasionally drop ; a casual giving way on either leg, in the trot, is a sufficiënt hint to reject the animal, for such a horse is a constant danger to his rïder's neck. Though the best horse may stumble, yet, until after
tripping, he springs out as if he feared the whip or spur ** he does he is an old offender. Look again well to his nees and head. Observe that he goes clear in all his paces, and that one leg does not interfere with the other horses that go very near are more likely to cut when tired. The Tail.—The " set-on " of the tail is not to be over-
ooked ; a horse that " carries two good ends," (of which the
Qead forms one and the tail the other,) always looks grand
aild showy. Above all others, the charger should possess
~ls point in perfection, to coincide with the character of his
lsplay in the parade of a field-day. The tail, in most
0rses, should form when elevated a straight line, or nearly
°» with the back ; a gentle declivity of the croup, however,
r°öi the summit of the rump, denotes the blood-like
•luarter, and adds much grace to this part in the thorough-
*ed horse. Should this line, however, decline very much
üe quarters lose much of their beauty as well as their
^tural power. Nothing is so ugly in a full-quartered
°rse as to see the tail set on low down, and issuing
Druptly from the rump. The old-fashioned dealers figged
* horses indiscriminately, which was injudicious, for those
üo naturally carried a good tail came under the same
SUspicion as those who were " gingered" for the dealer's
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legs, well lifted up and tucked well under him, should
should follow his fore legs with regularity Jand if in running him up hill he goes without dragging his toe, you may infer the same behind. In the gallop, if he takes up his legs quick and dashes in his haunches, not bringing his hind legs after him, his action is good. During this display of action, the examinant will have an opportunity of judging of the goodness of his wind; if he does not ride the animal himself, he should stand close to the horse at the moment he comes into the gallop. The thick-winded horse breathes with difficulty, and is soon distressed. The flanks heave much and rapidly; there is some little noise; but the laborious heaving of the flank is the principal indication. A horse unused to exercise, or if fat, or exercised on a full stomach, will show symptoms of thick wind; and it has been observed of great feeders who never breathe freely until they have gone a mile or two, or begin to sweat, that they are able to do more work than others that do not labour under the same difficulty. " Wheezing" is a sound like an asthmatic person when a
little hurried. Wheezing may frequently be heard while at rest in the stable. " Whistling," or piping, is a shriller sound than wheezing,
but it is only heard after exercise, and that of some continuance. A short gallop up hill is sometimes necessary to develop it, but the whistier is soon distressed. " Never buy a whistier, he cannot improve on your hand, and he is almost sure to get to worse," said Sir Henry Peyton to Nimrod; and the same advice may be given in respect of all these affections of the air passages. " Roaring " is not heard when at rest. In the majority it
is only developed by exertion, which quickens the breath- ing, and the noise is increased in proportion as the pace is accelerated; though in a few it is audible as soon as put into the trot. Knowing dealers, who wish to prevent the noise from reaching the ears of an inexperienced purchaser, when showing a " buil" of good action, start the horse a considerable distance before putting him to the gallop, and in returning, slacken the pace, so that the breathing becomes tranquil before the horse reaches the examiner; this is called " coming the long trot." Many of these lesions are consequences of inflamed lungs, or diseased alterations of the air passages, and most of them are modifications of the same disease. Sometimes they exist in so slight a degree as to be discoverable only by quick and long-continued exertion : but, when they are suspected, they should be tried by a brushing gallop, though this is not always allowed. "We next proceed to search for blemishes and those
indication s of unsoundness which are apparent to external examination, bearing in mind, any symptoms or suspicious appearances in his action, that may lead us to suspect particular parts, which should then be subjected to the severest scrutiny. Any scars about the head should direct attention to the
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thi,
th,
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P°se. Hackneys were often called " cock-tails" from
circumstance, in contradistinction to those of the
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°rough-bred, who never carry any but a drooping-tail. A
. cked-tail would be incompatible with a blood-quarter, yet
a generation some of whom yet survive, the detestable
**actice of "nicking," and even " rat-tailing," hunters of
* °d blood, though not stainless, prevailed, so potent is
shion over common-sense and humanity.
■Viseases and Unsoundness.—Satisfied with the tail in the
awed or tan-ride, he should next be mounted, and the
ai be repeated on the pavement or road, for there are
n7 cases of defect which do not show on soft ground, at a
King pace, or when the horse is unburdened. If he step
fa' / ^> *he toe in a direct line with the body, the knee
on ? *> and his foot up and planted firmly down again
jji ^ ground, fearlessly and flat, without any dropping of
head, you may conclude him sound in action. His hind
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BUYING A HORSE.—BLEMISHES.
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96
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knees, or they may lead one to suspect there may have been
an attack of stumbling or staggers. The neck should be searched to ascertain that both
jugular veins are perfect. This is discovered by pressing on the lower part of the neck, with sufficiënt force to stop the return of blood from the head; if the vein be perfect, it will fill and swell from that point upwards towards the head. The loss of one of them, if recent, predisposes the horse to staggers or apoplexy, and he cannot be turned out to grass or straw yard -without risk. The withers should be examined for bruises from the saddle, as he will be unserviceable as long as the infiammation or swelling continues. The slightest tendency to sore back makes a horse
unserviceable for many months, and not unfrequently causes him to rear and plunge on mounting. The shoulders should be examined for tumours. If there
are any marks of setons or blisters about the points, it is probable he has been treated for shoulder lameness, and the attention of the examiner will be directed to the foot; which, ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is the seat of lamenesi forward. If that is found narrow, upright, and strong, -with the heels high, we may suspect navicular disease. The chest and breast should also be searched for marks of
rowels, setons, and blisters, for the remains of them render it probable that the horse has been under treatment for inflamed lungs or chest affections, and should, in prudence, direct the purchaser to ascertain by a smart gallop whether the mischief is of a permanent nature. The knees should be examined with the utmost care, first
that they correspond in shape, and secondly, to ascertain whether the skin has been broken by falls ; but it does not follow that a mark or scar indicates a stumbler, and an accidental blemish should not induce us at once to condemn a well-formed animal. A broken knee may happen from a variety of causes. The
safest horse may fall by an unavoidable accident, such as a false step, from something giving way urider the foot, as a round stone, from fatigue and over-exertion, or from a bad rider. But a broken knee is a suspicious circumstance; it may be taken as an indication of existing or recent unsoundness, and the slightest mark calls for careful obser- vation of every part of the horse, of his make and action, and suggests the narrowest scrutiny of the legs and feet. A tight shoe, a nail driven too close, or from bad shoeing; the toe being left too long, causes a horse to trip ; tenderness in the feet, contraction, corns, and thrush : a scar on the head» above the eye, (for a forward fall of the horse leaves unmistakeable marks there) is a suspicious sign; when no tracé of local disease can be found to account for them, the enquiry should be foliowed up into the horse's constitution, for the staggers or colic may have occasioned the accident. When a scar on the knee is observed in connection with
low withers, a thick and upright shoulder and pasterns, with the legs inclined under the bone, he is unwise who does not |
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take the hint that the faulty formation has not produced its
natural consequence. To discover the normal state of the knee is not so easy as some suppose, as occasionally the hair grows so well over the wound as to leave it hardly discerni- ble ; but on minute inspection, when there has been a scar, an interception of the gloss is apparent, as if the hair grew in an oblique direction ; should this be observed on bending the joint, the secret will be exposed. The shank should be examined for splint, strained or enlarged flexors, and the marks of firing or blisters. In inspecting the leg, the eye alone should not be trusted,
particularly in hairy-legged horses; but after minutely comparing the appearance of the two limbs, the hand should be deliberately passed down both shanks before and behind ; any difference before or behind, points to a deviation from health. In the sound flat-limb, the tendon is well defined, perfectly
distinct, and has a hard ten se feel that resembles the touch of a cord tightly strung. If the back sinews feel thick, the fiexor tendons and their sheaths swelled and rounded, leaving no distinctive marks as it were between the one and the other, but all swelled into one mass with the bone, great mischief has at some time happened; either some of the ligaments have been ruptured, or there has been infiammation, effusion, and adhesion of the synovial sheaths of the fiexor tendons ; or such relaxation has taken place from strain and subsequent infiammation as will always keep him weak. When the injury is recent, it is accompanied with more or less swelling, heat, and lameness ; by time and treatment the first are removed, but the swelling remains and the thicken- ing of the tendons shows the mischief that has been done- Whenever there is manifest alteration of structure here, and yet the animal is apparently sound in action, the purchaser should bear in mind that the soundness is often the effect of rest; and should the animal be again put to work, he will become lame. Bear in mind, in such case, you cannot return him, for no man in his senses would give a special warranty against it. Splints.—These, if large, are visible in the deviation of
the outline of the leg ; if small, the hand discovers them. Every excrescence on the cannon bone, in horseman's
language, is termed a splint. The true splint is in fact a conversion into bone of a part of the cartilage connecting the large and small metacarpal bones. The infiammation is set up by concussion or strain. Horses are lame from them while there is infiammation in the cartilage, and the tumour is growing and distending the membrane covering the bone and cartilage. But when the tumour is formed, the infiamma- tion has subsided, and the periosteum has accommodated itself to the enlargement, the horse is no longer lame, nor more likely to become lame from that splint, than one without; the same causes that produced the first, may produce a second. j The splint, if so large as to interfere with action, rendering
the horse liable to strike, is objectionable, or so near the |
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BTJYING A HORSK—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNES& 97
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knee or ligaments as to interfere with their freedom of action;
otherwise it is of little consequence, beyond the blemish destroying the line of beauty. The worst splints are those discernible only by the lameness they produce. Any marks of firing or blistering should make the
purchaser cautious, and endeavour to ascertain the cause of the treatment: after blistering, the hair is sometimes a shade different in the colour, and stares a little, is shorter and bristly, and wants the natural gloss. The fetlock joint, from being the principal seat of motion
below the kaee, and from its complicated structure, is Particularly subject to injuries. The fetlocks should be Suhjected to the strictest examination for enlargements, *hich are best ascertained by carefully comparing them with each other, as any difference in size is indicative of strained °r even ruptured ligaments, and consequently permanent weakness of that important part. If the injury be recent, there probably will be heat and
Pain on pressure ; and any signs of blistering or other "'eatment, though no enlargement or lameness is apparent, should induc° the buyer to view the animal with increased Sv,spicion. Should there be any sores or callous places about the fetlocks
°r pasterns, he is a cutter, and possibly the marks of the J°ot may be visible. If there is no malformation to account °r it, it may have been done when fatigued, or it may have arisen from improper shoeing; his feet should then be aga'm examined. If an old offender, he may probably have a peculiar shoe,
rather thicker and narrower in the web on the inside than
'"e outside, and nailed only on the outside of the foot, and
•^und the toe; or the opposite shoe is found filed away or |
«evelled off, with the hoof projecting a little over the shoe.
the feet, though well formed, are placed closer than
"^sirable in narrow-chested horses, and therefore apt to cut,
Particularly when tired, we sometimes find a shoe which is
"inner on the inside than the outside.
At
other times various ingenious devices, calculated
ather to increase than remedy the evil, have been resorted
0 > sucb. as putting on shoes narrower on the inside of the
001> and the iron within the wall of the quarters reduced in
^ckness by the rasp. If none of these schemes have been
esorted to, to obviate the defect, the horn of the opposite
°ot -wi.11 sometimes be found polished by the attrition ; for
ls Hot the shoe that cuts once in a hundred times, but the
°°£ In horses that interfere, we generally find the inside
yiarter lower than the outer, or the toes turned outwards—
le fault being in the leg that receives the mischief while
staining the weight, not in the foot that gives the blow.
le tired horse throws his legs about, and frequently cuts
lrnself; and it is a fault of most young uneducated horses,
P^cially if they have been backed inconsiderately, or
W°rked too early.
t there are any symptoms of " knucking over " or inclina-
°i the fetlocks forward, serious injury has happened. N |
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The Fetlock joint—The hair above and below the fetlock
joint should be carefully searched for the scars left by the operation of neurotomy. For the nature of this operation, see plate of " Horse's Foot" and article " Neurotomy " in Veteri- nary part. Pricking the fetlock, if you have reason to suspect it has been performed, will show whether sensation has been destroyed. About the fetlocks are frequently found little puffy tumours, absurdly denominated windgalls, from a supposition of farriers that they contain wind. The Tendons.—Wherever parts move and press on each
other, and between tendons, particularly about the extre- mities, there are placed vesicles, termed bursce mucosce, containing synovia, a lubricating fluid to prevent joint friction. When a horse has been compelled to undergo excessive exertion, an increased supply of synovia is secreted, which distends the sac; this sets up chronic inflammation of the synovial membrane—tnorbid secretion and visible enlargement follow. There are few horses that have done much work without these thickenings. Though rest and pressure will diminish them, when once
enlarged labour will reproduce them ; they are of little consequence beyond the blemish, unless very large, and in most cases may be regarded as mere indications of hard work. Ring-bone.—The pastern is the seat of a bony tumour
termed ring-bone; it is the result of inflammation and partial conversion into bone of that portion of the cartilages of the foot which rises above and nearly encircled the coronet. These cartilages, extending backward considerably beyond the coffin bone, form the elastic frame of the posterior parts of the foot; they here take the name of the " lateral cartilages." When ossific inflammation is set up in this part, from its tendency to spread round the pastern joint it has taken its name of ring-bone. When, however, the ossification appears only at the quarters, it is termed " ossi- fication of the lateral cartilages." It is discovered by their prominence and rigidity when pressed between the finger and thumb. Upon the soundness of these parts depend the elasticity and consequent usefulness of the foo^,. However trilling the apparent alteration of structure, it is a serious detraction from the efficiency of a hack ; though, on soft ground, at a slow pace, the draught horse will work appa- rently sound. If '\i fee^ng first one leg and then the other we discover any dmerence between them, disease more or less is present; he may not be lame, but he is not clean upon his legs. Splints, windgalls, and ring-bones, may be present without occasioning lameness ; but they are all unnatural, are considered blemishes, and are to be regarded with a suspicious eye, as either denoting past hard work, or betekening future evils. On the same principle, a horse may have a spavin, and be only stiff from it at starting, or he may have a curb, or a thorough pin, and be perfectly sound; but these are still blemishes, and as such detract from the intrinsic value of the animal. Tlte Fooi—Vte now arrive at the foot, the foundation of
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BUYING A HORSK—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNESS.
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98
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pressed ; the foot small, and the heels upright; altogether
the foot much resembles that of the mule. Contraction.—But though a contracted foot is often an
indicator of past disease, and there is a diminution of elas- ticity, it is not necessarily consequent that it is such unsoundness as incapacitates a horse from work. With care, such feet will work soundly to the end of life; for this change in shape has been effected by gradual and slow absorption and deposit; so that nature has had time to adapt the internal parts, and accommodate itself to the change, and elongation of the foot has taken place. When such feet feel hotter than ordinary, suspicion should be awakened, more especially if there is a marked difference between the temperature of one and the other. If there is indisputable pointing, then the horse is unsound. Occult or partial contraction is not obvious externally,
but there is diminished cavity of the horny box, from in- crease of the sole in thickness. In this case we usually find the foot of a circular figure, more upright than natural, and display ing an unusual appearance of compactness and strength, the soles unsually hard and thick ; and if you have a firm unyielding sole, in a circular foot, it is dangerous as the forerunner of navicular disease.* Sand-crack.—The inner quarters of the hoof must be most
minutely inspected for sand-crack; and it is not always easy, without minute scrutiny, to detect sand-crack, where an attempt has been made to conceal it. A month's run in marshy ground will close it up; and low dealers, particularly at fairs and markets, and otbers who gain a livelihood by dealing in " screws," have a knack of neatly covering the crack with pitch, and oiling the foot to conceal the crack. Any oily appearance about the hoof should excite suspicion, and any fissure at all resembling sand-crack should cause the horse to be peremptorily rejected. Cracks indicate a dry and brittle hoof. The heels should be examined for any cracks, or appearance of heat and tenderness, as they are exceedingly troublesome to cure. The Frog.—Thrush.—The healthy frog is firm, yet pliable
and elastic. Should there be a faint smell, or if on squeezing the frog matter exudes, there is thrush. By many people thrush is considered of little importance ; but when it is remembered that where there is purulent matter there must have been inflammation, and that when a horse with a thrush steps on a stone he frequently drops with the pain, to the peril of his rider and the ruin of his knees, it must be admitted it is a serious objection in a saddle horse. If it can be ascertained that it is not of long standing, or that the horse has been placed in a situation to favour its approach—such as confinement on hot, moist litter—it is of no more consequence than so much diminution in his price as will cover the expense of keep and attcndance while |
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the horse; too much attention cannot be paid to it. The
best way of judging whether there is malformation of the feet, either natural or the result of disease, is to face the horse, and compare the two feet together. The Iloof.—" No foot, no horse," is a trite but very true
adage. First, we should look to the size of the hoof; a small foot is not only objectionable in itself, even though it be a natural formation, but is often a characteristic of disease. A small and upright hoof is a morbid structure. White hoofs are to be eyed with suspicion, for they are really weaker, and more liable to disease than black ones ; and if a horse has one white, and the other dark coloured, and he is lame, in nine cases out of ten, it is the white hoof that is affected. Other considerations now engross our attention. Is it contracted ? i. e., is its circular form destroyed by narrowness at the heels? A good hoof is circular in the tread, or nearly so, measuring as much from side to side, as from toe to heel; but we frequently find those that are morbid measuring as much from toe to heel as twice the lateral diameter. See plate of Ilorse's Foot, figs. 3 and 4. On the other hand, the wall of the hoof, which should, at all times, be perfectly smooth and free from ridges (the contrary indicating disease), may be very oblique, in which case, it is not only circular, but spreads out, even to an abnormal degree, in the tread. lts wall should be round, smooth, level, and of a slnning dark colour; full in front, of a proper obliquity, free from ribs or seams, and perfectly cool. lts proper obliquity is an angle of forty-five degrees with the plane of the shoe. If the angle is materially less, the sole is flat, or perhaps convex; if the angle exceeds it, the foot is contracted. Shape.—When the outward line of the hoof is irregular,
it marks what is called a " shelly foot." This is decidedly bad. If there are any protuberances or rings round it, they indicate that the feet have suffered from inflammation to such a degree as to produce unequal growth of horn. This frequently leaves injurious consequences in the internal parts ; such as a deposition of lymph between the horny and cartilaginous processes which connect the foot and hoof together. If there be any depression or cavity, it betrays separation of the foot from the hoof and shrinking of the coffin bone ; the sole will then be found bulging. A superficial examination of the foot is not sufficiënt;
the shape of the foot may be good, yet there are other things to be considered. It may be well formed, yet tliin and weak; and those feet, externally the most perfect, are some- times contracted internally, and liable to the insidious affection termed navicular disease. Contraction is a serious defect; it is apparent and general, or hidden and partial. When apparent externally, which is common among high-
bred horses, with light heads and necks, high in the withers with sloping shoulders, and that go near the ground, the foot presents an oblong rather than a circular shape; the curved line towards the heels becoming straight, and the heels approaching each other. The frog is hard, dry, and com- |
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* See "Navicular Disease," in Veterinary Diviaion, poel, "Dissiasss
of the House." |
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BUYING A HOUSE.—EXAMINATION FÖR UNSOUNDNESS.
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99
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healing ; but when thrush accompanies a foot smaller than
usual, the heels bend in, and the frog is soft, he will not long remain sound. The Sole.—The sole should be subject to close examin-
ation ; in its healthy and natural state it is inclined to be concave, but if, in connection with high heels an extra- 0rdinary concavity is present, it is a sign of internal c°ntraction. If the sole is unusually thick, and does not give way during exertion, the elasticity of the foot must be ^ttninished. If the sole is less concave than natural, or aPproaching to fiat, the foot is weak. Undue Paring.—If the foot appears to have been lately
cut unusually deep at the angle where the shoe meets the mside heel, or if there is a peculiarity of shoeing at that Part, the examiner may infer that all is not right, and that he has corns ; send for the farrier to remove the shoe. Firing, Blistering, &c.—The stifle is very rarely diseased,
but it should be examined for enlargement, or any marks of ^welling or blistering: and the groin should not be over- *°oked for rupture. The Hoek—The hoek is one of the most important joints
111 the animal machine, and should always undergo the most rigid examination previous to purchase, as from its compli- Cated structure, and the work it has to perform, it is the 8eat of lameness behind in nine cases out of ten. When landing behind the horse, if one of the hoeks is diseased, '°e observer •will perceive the bone does not incline Sradually, as in the sound limb, but there is an abrupt Prominence. Though to the unpractised eye this is not a*Ways perceptible on comparing them, yet by passing the hand down the inside of both hoeks, this abruptness will be elt. Xf there is any tenderness or heat on pressure, or the ^arks of recent cutting on the inside of the fetlock, or Unequal wear of the shoes, especially at the toe, you may Aspect spavin. Sometimes both hoeks present an enlarged aPpearance, though there is neither heat, pain, or lameness \tor hoek lameness is frequently intermittent), such hoeks ^hould always be looked upon with suspicion. They are in act unsound; for though the animal may, with natural ^alformation or morbid bone-growth, discharge his usual nctions through life, in careful hands, without a return of
auieness, yet the probability is he will fail, if called upon |
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which surround the tendons inserted into that part. It is
produced by blows, lying on rough stones, or kicking in the harness or stable. It is therefore frequently an indication of vice. Curbs.—Curb is a longitudinal swelling at the back of the
hind leg, three or four inches below the hoek, seen best from the side; the enlargement is the result of a sudden strain of the ligaments, or inflammation of the sheaths of the tendon. It is attended with a good deal of lameness and swelling at first; but when that has subsided, and if time has elapsed without a recurrence of the lameness, it is of no more consequence than the unsightly blemish; but it should be remembered that curby hoeks are liable to spavin. Thoroughpin is situated above the hoek joint, between the
flexors of the hoek and foot, projecting on each side; it is of the same nature as windgalls, being an enlarged mucous capsule, and is indicative of severe work or over-exertion. Spavin.—Bog-spavin is a swelling situated in front of
the hoek, towards the inside of the joint; it is also an enlarged mucous capsule, but deeper seated, over which one of the subcutaneous veins passing, the blood in it becomes obstructed in the return, and thus increases the size of the tumour. The shanks should be scrutinized for any symptoms of
weakness, and the fetlocks for marks of cutting and wind- gall. The Eind Feet.—The front of the hind feet should be
examined for fissure; it is a most serious defect, and geherally produces lameness. Nitiee the way in which he is shod, as it leads to the discovery of lameness and defects in action ; in dealers' stables, however, you will rarely see any peculiarity in shoeing. If the toe of the hind foot is found to extend a little over
the shoe, it is to prevent " hammer and click " from being audible. If the toes of the hind feet drag, or we find the shoe squared off or worn, we may suspect disease of the hoeks ; and if the inside of the shoe is bevelled off, he is probably a " cutter." The Spine.—He should now be " backed," to ascertain if
he has received any injury of the spine; if he backs with difficulty, his hind quarters swaying from side to side, and when compelled to retrograde suddenly appears as if about to fall, he has received some injury. Some horses cannot be made to back, but when urged rear on their hind legs. His loins should be searched for marks of setons, or blisters. Among stable-men it is termed " chinked in the chine," or, ricked in the back. A remarkable indication of diseased spine sometimes
shows itself; the horse dropping when turned suddenly in the trot, the hinder quarters appearing paralyzed. There are many blemishes and defects that render a hack
unserviceable, which are of little or no consequence in harness. The greatest virtue in a gig horse is steadiness, which can only be ascertained by trial, and do not trast to the steadiness he evinces while the reins are in his owner's |
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* Unusual exertion, and one day's violent exertion may
*n him for ever. In this case, the examiner must be « Jded by circumstances; if the horse has excellences which unterbalance the defect, the price is correspondingly low, u the work required but moderate, he may be serviceable r years, and worth his maney. ^ertain forms of hoek are prone to disease. Those
Pproaching each other are predisposed to spavin and curb;
. se in which the point of the hoek inclines too much
ck\vard, are liable to spavin ; and when the hoek is too
** xght, narrow, and straight, it is subject to thoroughpin.
Pped hoek is a soft fluctuating tumour on the point of
ïock, it is an enlargement of one of the muuous sacs
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100 BÜYING A HORSE.—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNESS.
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very small and near the circumference, they are of little
consequence ; but if large, or near the centre they interfere with distinctness of vision, and make the horse shy. If opaque or milky lines are traced on its surface, it indicates the remains of former infiammation. But it is necessary to observe that horses, before they are
six years old, have not that transparency in their eyes which they display aftenvards, because while young and growing the vessels of the eye are full, therefore before that age it is not the brilliancy of the eye that denotes its goodness. If there is excess of tears, it denotes debility, and should occasion a more than ordinary scrutiny ; in fact, all horses with weeping, dull, cloudy eyes, should be rejected. It may be remarked, as a general rule, that diseases of the
eye are incurable. Have nothing to do with a horse when the tracé of disease of the eye is visible. It is impossible, in a brief examination, to distinguish between simple ophthal- mia and infiammation of the conjunctiva—the cause of which may have been a blow, or the introduction of some irritating matter, which is curable by simple means—and the specific ophthalmia, a spontaneous affection, which ultimately cul- minates in cataract and blindness. Viewed in front, the depths of the eye should be looked
into; then sideways ; which will assist in ascertaining the clearness and absence of specks on or within its surface. Floating in the aqueous humour (which preserves the
convexity of the cornea) is the iris, a muscular membrane the dilatation and contraction of which form an oval aperture termed the pupil, which varies in size according to the quantity of light which falls upon the eye. The iris varies very little in colour in the horse, though it bears some analogy to the colour of the skin. It is rarely lighter than a hazel, or darker than a brown ; except in milk white, cream coloured, or pied horses, when it is white, and they are termed wall-eyed. If it is of a pale variegated cinnamon colour, it is good. The pupil or aperture of the iris, is that horizontal oblong bluish opening, which admits the light to the posterior chambers of the eye. It is important that the oval shape of the pupil be perfect, for if any irregularity or unevenness is perceived, it is a symptom that the organ has received partial injury. In looking into the depths of the eye, through the pupil, in a strong light, it should exhibit a lively bluishness; in a moderate light it should be perfectly transparent; if milky or turbid, that is the remanet of former infiammation, which will probably recur. In bringing the horse out of the stable to the light, if the
pupil is large, it is a bad sign ; by alternately shading and admitting light, if it enlarges and lessens under its stimulus, the eye is good. But if the retina is immoveable, the pupil large, and of an invariable size, whether shaded or exposed to intense light,—though no disorganisation is apparent, the eye appearing bright, of a peculiar glossy aspect, and of a greenish colour,—the animal is blind frona the disease termed " glass eye," i.e., palsy of the optie nerve. A decided cataract, or opacity of the crystalline lens, ia
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hands. The author of that capital work, " The Adventures
of a Gentleman in search of a Horse," truly says, "whoever buys a stanhope horse without first driving him himself, is a fit subject for a commission of lunacy ; it is not enough to put him in the break, he should be harnessed at once to the stanhope, and it is prudent to observe how he bears the ceremony of harnessing, and what kind of a start he makes. Much may be predicted of his qualifications for draught, or at all evcnts his familiarity with the collar, by the degree of quiet ■with which he allows himself to be put to. If the ostler runs alongside of him at setting oiF, as is often the case, you may be sure the horse is distrusted ; if you distrust it yourself, have nothing to do with him." The Eyes.—The examination thus far completed, the horse
should be returned to the stable for the purpose of examining his eyes, the most favourable position for which is about half a foot within the stable door. There should be no back or side lights, or the rays falling between the eyes of the examiner and those of the animal will interfere with distinct observation. The head should be so placed that a moderate light may fall on the eye of the horse, and the quantity of light can be easily regulated by bringing the horse's head more or less forward until placed in the most favourable angle of incidence. Though any one may detect absolute blindness, yet the
eye of the horse is susceptible of so many diseases, in which dcfcctive vision or partial blindness is present long before the sight is lost, that it requires more observation than most people imagine : indeed, a person unacquainted with the structure of the eye, and the different appearances it assumes, will not perceive it at all. There are certain forms of the eye, and structural peculiarities, that show a constitutional predisposition to disease. Small sleepy eyes, of a bluish gray colour, or which have a flat, retracted, and sunken appearance, or those of a longish oval figure, are predisposed to ophthalmia. AVhen the eyes appear full, with a fleshy circle round them, these are symptoms of bad eyes, and often the forerunners of blindness, particularly in the heads of coarse and fleshy horses, with heavy countenances, who frequently go blind with cataract at seven yearsold. Slight thickenings of the lid, or puckering towards the inner corner of the eye, a difference in size, a cloudiness or dullness of the iris, are indications of disease. In examining the eyes, both must have an equal degree of
light; should any difference be apparent between them, one is diseased. The transparent cornea should be, as its name implies, perfectly clear. Specks are best detected by standing at the shoulder; if
one is evident, and it can be clearly proved to be no more than the effect of accident, no importance need be attached to it. But it is impossible to ascertain this, and therefore the safest course is to assume that natural irritability and consequent infiammation of the eye is the cause. Specks on the transparent cornea are generally the result
of external injury ; there is seldom more than one. When |
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BÜYING A HORSE.—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNESS.
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101
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easily detected ; but when very small it may escape obser-
vation. It appears as a cloudy or pearly white substance within the pupil, towards the bottom of the eye. If the Pupil be round instead of a flat oval, it is an indication of cataract. When there is deep-seated cloudiness, the eye should be condemned ; but if there is any -white object before it, such as a -white hat, neckcloth, waistcoat, or wall, the reflection on the cornea produces a mark having so much the appearance of a cataract as to have misled many an fcbserver. Therefore, before deciding, hold the crown of a Wack hat against the eye, and observe at the same time if the mark disappears, which it will if it is only a reflection. " ïlarry Hieover " says, upon the subject of defective sight, ' I consider the eyes to be a part of the anatomy the most
difïïcult for the non-professional to become competent judges °i; and any disorder of those delicate organs in the horse ïs> generally speaking, of a more fatal nature to him than the same affliction is to the human being. This arises from overal causes: among them are the following:—We can ask the horse no questions; consequently, if his eyes become oiseased, we can only judge of the extent of the disease by the appearance of the organs themselves, and by the acts of the animal. If he runs his head against the stable-door lnstead of walking into it, we are made aware that he is hlind, or very nearly so. If he bucks, or starts at things he s^es on the road—for instance, a small pool of water, astone, piece of white paper, &c.—we may fairly judge his eyes are fnore or less affected (even should their appearance be healthy); for, it must be observed, there is a wide difFerence between a horse shying at carriages, or at common objects °u the road, or by its side, and starting at things he suddenly c°tties on at his feet. Many horses, in the first case, shy or start from timidity, and this grows into a habit When they ^° this, it will be found, that long before they actually come üPon the object, they will prick up their ears, slacken their Pace, veer a little from the object, and, by various acts, show Us they are getting alarmed. They may be more or less so as they approach the object, depending on its nature, and ™hether3 on nearing it, they find it one of terror or the everse. The evincing fear when at a distance (from what-
ever cause it may arise) shows us, however, at once that **ey see it. Whether their alarm arises from confused sight
r Hatural timidity on seeing any unusual object, we can
nV judge by the nature of the object creating alarm.
' The horse starting or bucking at objects when nearly nder his feet is all but an infallible symptom of bad sight;
°r !t shows that till actually on the object he did not see it
a" •• and if it should be a pool of water, or a stone, or
toe such trifle, it would further show that, when close to
> oe was either a greater fooi than horses usually are, or
at he could not distinguish clearly enough to see whether it as an object of alarm or otherwise. It is only by attention
these acts on the part of the horse that we are enabled Judge of the correctness of his sight; that is, before their Ppsirance demonstrates disease. The human being can
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complain, if he finds his vision defective ; the horse cannot:
and this accounts for the numbers of horses that are at this moment going with defective eyes, without their owners knowing or suspecting anything of the matter. " Nearly all the diseases of the horse either arise from
or are attended with inflammation to a very considerable extent. There are operations performed on the human eye with good effect, that, supposing they could be performed on the horse, would produce inflammation to a degree that would render the remedy, or rather the attsiDfted remedy, an aggravation of the disease. " Nothing is more deceptive to the casual observer than
the first look at a horse's eyes. I have frequently been surprised at the very cursory glance dealers give them. It is true, that in a general way a fine healthy eye speaks for itself; such a looking eye does not, however, always speak the truth. A fine, very dark, clear pupil, and a fine darkish brown or hazel iris is very handsome—in fact, a great beauty in a horse—and such looking eyes are, perhaps, mostly sound ones ; but such appearances are by no means proofs. I have seen dealers walk up to such eyes, just look at them, and say "they're good enough ;" when the fact is, they might be quite bad enough : for though, on looking at eyes in this hasty way, an experienced judge would not, probably, buy a half-blind horse, still there are little defects that even the professional man will not be able to detect in the glare of open day. "Slight temporary inflammation, if known to proceed
from great excitement of the system, though it would quite warrant an examiner in rejecting a horse brought to him in such a state, need not cause the purchaser to decline him altogether, if, in a few days, the eyes became healthy; but I certainly would not make the purchase till they were so ; and even then, only on ascertaining that the disease had not been one to which the animal had been subject before. " Of course, in this disorder, as in many others, a great
deal would depend on the value of the horse, and the purpose for which he is intended. If buying a horse as a wheeler to a coach, you might do so, though having suspicion of his sight being good, or likely to last so; because, if he went stone blind, it would only deteriorate his value a few pounds, and, with a little attention on the part of the horse-keeper and coachman, his utility would be but little diminished. A horse of great beauty, and with very splendid action, would, of course, be much diminished in value to sell again if bought for a nobleman's carriage, and his eyes failed him : still, he would be valuable for such a purpose : but, if a hunter got so afilicted, it would bring him down from two hundred to thirty or forty, indeed, to still less, unless he had harncss action, which few hunters have: in fact, for the purpose of a hunter, he might as well break his neck as become in any way defective in his sight." The reader who has carefully perused these minute
directions, first, for the general examination, as buy er, of the |
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102 BÜYING A HORSE.—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNESS.
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animal he desires to possess,—and, secondly, for the more
frequent causes of unsoundness, will thank us for the following summary recapitulation, by Professor Stewart, of the points to be attended to :— " The head.—For the eyes ; for cataract, glass-eyes, and
specks. The nostrils ; for glanders, tumours, and cold. The glands between the branches of the lower jaw; for enlarge- ment. The throat; for mark of crib-biting strap, and the tenderness which accompanies cold. The teeth ; fortheage, and marks of crib-biting. The veins of the neck; to see that both are entire. " The f ore-leg and shoulder.—The seat of the collar ; for
tumours. The point of the elbow ; for tumours. The knee; for blemishes and stiffness of that joint. The shank; for speedy-cut, splint, and strain. Thefetlock-joint; forenlarge- ment, windgalls, neurotomy, stringhalt, and marks of cutting. The pastern ; for ring-bone. " Thefoot.—For side-bones; sandcrack, contraction, thrush,
corns, and flatsoles. The shoe ; for signs of cutting. " The trunk quarters.—Each side of the chest; for marks of
blisters and rowels. The space between the fore-legs; for the same. The stille; for enlargement. The groin; for tupture. " 'The hoclc.—For capped hoek, thorough-pin, bone-spavin,
and bog spavin (not blood spavin). Then the horse should be mounted, and ridden a few hundred yards at a gallop, in order to quicken his breathing, and thereby display the presence or absence of roaring, thick-wind, or broken- wind." This brief summary will assist the memory, bringing, as it
does, the seat and causes of unsoundness into one point of view. It includes, however, some objectionalles, which, properly speaking, do not constitute unsoundness; such as windgalls, thorough-pin, capped hoek, and string-halt. The first two are objectionable, indicating that the horse has been severely exerted, and may be otherwise more seriously injured. The two last are eyesores, and to be avoided as such. We will remark on a few of the points here specified,
which relate to fraud and warranty. The eye is a point difiicult to decide upon, and often a subject for fraud, particularly amongst the lower order of dealers, who used formerly to have very bright white walls, against which they showed their horses, when the reflection concealed cataracts, which are in themselves white. But this important organ is difiicult to judge of even in its healthy state, by reason of the varieties in its organisation; and still more so to detect the extent of disease which may have, at some time or another, attached to it. Even the best judges of horsefiesh have purchased horses without having detected deeply-seated cataracts, which shows the necessity of caution; and the best security is the inspection of a professional man, who is alone equal to form a correct opinion on the subject, which will be at once apparent on perusal of Mr. Percival's lecture, "On the Eye," Part III., p. 131. |
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The foot is now so generally understood, that it may be
needless to say more than to remind the buyer of the proverb—"No foot, no horse." "The hoek" is the most complicated, therefore most difiicult, joint for the uninitiated to form a judgment upon. It is not in every person's power to detect the absolute presence of disease in this part, still more so to foretell the probability of it in future; but there is a certain conformation of this joint which almost ensures disease, and consequently it should be most minutely examined as to its shape, substance, &c. Broken wind is easily discoverable; and it is only
amongst the most disreputable of the fraternity that it is ever attempted to be concealed, which can be done for a few hours, by administering a certain quantity of lead, which, by its pressure, checks the violent action of the abdominal muscles, or what is called heaving of the flanks. But " roaring," " wheezing," and " thick wind," are by no means always discoverable in a common trial of a horse, such as a dealer is disposed to give, on a good sound road. Nothing but a gallop over soft ground, or against a hill, can be depended upon in certain stages and degrees of either of these complaints. Your examination having proved satisfactory, you decide
on purchasing; but before you part with your money, pray learn something of the seller. For should your bargain not turn out as you expected, upon further acquaintance, trial, and second examination, you will be aware what chance of satisfaction or redress you have against the vendor. The horse, if returned, must of course be in the same
condition in which he was received, except so far as the disease for which he is returned may have progressed in the mean time. It is advisable to inquire of the seller how he has been
accustomed to diet and clothe the animal; whether his feet were stopped; and the same treatment should be pursued till his soundness is ascertained. Note the temperature of the stable; if his new habitation
should be hotter, you may probably induce an inflammatory attack of the lungs. Beware of putting a saddle on a new horse that does not
fit him. "While the question of soundness is still doubtful, it is far better to use the saddle he has been accustomed to, for if his back becomes galled while trying him, which is not unusual, the dealer will object to take him back unless full compensation is made ; and reasonably so, for he is unfitted for sale or for work till it is healed, which is not to be efiected in a day. It is also a point for calculation, whether he may not chance to fall sick while standing in high condition in stable—in which case the dealer is subjected to loss. As we intend to devote a chapter specially to Unsoundness
and Wareanty, with the leading ancillary points in law and practice, we shall here break off, as we commenced, with » few general observations. The horse trade, as now conducted in London, or we va&f
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BUYING A HORSK—EXAMINATION FOR UNSOUNDNESS. 103
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rather say in these days of facile and rapid railway communi-
sation throughout England, is a business in which as much
capital, skill, and activity are embarked, as in any other
trade of this great commercial country. Agents from all the
great London dealers' establishments are constantly travel-
lng through the breeding districts, and competing with the
country dealers for every good-looking horse reared, as soon
as !t has completed its fourth year. To breed a well-bred
C(Ht> break it, and maintain it until it is four years old,
cannot cost less than £60. Before the animal sold at a fair
or that sum reaches the London dealer's stable it has to
Pass through the hands of one or two agents or intermediate
ea'ers, who all require a pront on its sale; its travelling
exPenses and its keep must be paid for; losses from accident
and sickness must be provided against; and the maintenance
the London dealer's establishment, and his fair profit,
Ust be duly considered. It is not, therefore, easy to see
0TV a colt bought at Horncastle or Rugeley for £60 can be
0l(* to a customer in London much under £100. But if the
't be extraordinarily handsome, or if it possess remarkably
ë0°d action, the breeder will be much more likely to require
J00 than £60 for it; and the buyer, knowing his business
e^> will have no objection to pay that sum—being well
are that for extraordinary beauty and action almost any
^ lce demanded can be obtained in the London and foreign
ai'kets. For first-rate saddle-horses, able to carry high
eignts, from £150 to £200 are every-day prices; and the
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Remember, too, to have clearly in your mind the sort oi
horse you want. And never forget that every horse is adapted to some particular purpose; for horses not only differ in kind, but, like men, in courage, temper, intelligence, stamina, &c.; and the selection of them, in regard to these particulars, constitutes the most arduous and nicest duties of the buyer. He should be able readily to acknowledge good or bad conformation ; tracé breeding in the outline, and discover what indicates good or bad in instinctive oi* in constitutional qualities. It requires some experience, but more attentive observa-
tion, to be what is termed a "judge" in horse-phraseology. To know at once, almost by a cast of the eye, whether the nag is likely to suit. Is he cut out for a hackney, or is he calculated for harness ? Does he look like a hunter, or has he serviceable stoutness, a quiet eye, and look likely for the road ? Does he show blood, or is he all over a " cross bred 'un?" Some persons, though accustomed to horses all their lives,
and anxious to become judges, never can select from appear- ances; while those differently gifted can swear to a good one, to a considerable extent, the instant they behold him. And the questions that suggest themselves to a judge on purchasing the first description of horse, are,—if he can ride him? if he will not prove too much for him? if he will be sufficiently under his control with hounds? if his energetic disposition will suffer the trammels of harness ? There is an observation, common among horsemen, thatit
is all nonsense about the make and shape of horses ; for, say they, "the best horse I ever possessed was the worst shaped;" but, on inquiry, you will and must find, that he possessed in a great degree the will and the power—they must accompany each other—the one is of little use without the other. What avails it if he is willing without the power, or if he has the power and is not willing? If it were possible to mould a horse in perfectly symmetrical form, in every way formed for speed,—still, without that great essential, that peculiar ner- vous excitability, he would at best prove but an indifferent animal. Remember, therefore, that, however important a good judgment of the outward indications of qualities may be, what he will prove in continuous exercise is more than the most skilful and experienced can fairly pronounce. Those who do are presumptuous or dishonest pretenders to a knowledge not attainable. Appearances are so deceitful, that those most skilful in the subject will find themselves occasionally mistaken, and, even after the best advice, much must be left to the operation of chance. If you can answer the questions submitted in this chapter
to your own satisfaction, buy a horse for yourself. If you cannot, and distrust your own opinion, get some more experienced horseman to look over the animal you desire to purchase, before you part with your cash. In the next chapter we will, as connected with the subject
in hand, take a look into The IIorse's Mouth for indications of his age. |
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'arge bay and b
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carriage
when well-bred and well-actioned, more
Ladies' horses cost from £80 to £100, |
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e<Npag
Valuabl
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?es are,
still. |
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°rding to the weight of the rider and the training the
'ttial has received ; brougham-horses, from £100 to £120 ;
*'ght harness-horses for broughams and sociables, from
" to £200 the pair. Inferior horses may, of course, be
ght at inferior prices, but the first-rate dealer in first-rate
Wals -will ask and get the sums we have named.
ord "William Lennox, a good practical writer, sets his
ö res on a much lower scale : and we can safely indorse
ein as nearer the mark than those in the last paragraph.
^lordship says-
i-e l n Settin§ out to purchase a horse, it would be as well to
to d V^'°n a **xecl Price> from which you must resolve not
u eviate easily. The following I should say would about fit.
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scri
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^ hunter of the best de
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£150. [The
more or less, as seems worth it.] |
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odd fifty
the horse |
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cUnftl0n (counting the cir-
*££?of ks bdnsin a
iersPossession), say,
(c°^tLikcrsandiikeiy
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£40to£C0. [Butgiveno
more. You can always get good ones at that pricc.] £60 to £80. [This is as
nearly as we can guess about
|> the price, though it may be
advisable to give a little more
or a little less.]
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"A
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(when I
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Seneral ? ^nen 1 sa?
^uidL7!eanahorsethat
<*Wttotate the field
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104 THE AGE OF THE HORSE FROM HIS MOÜTH.
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CHAPTER X
THE' 4QE OF THE HORSE FROM HIS MOUTH.—PRELIMINARY REMARKS : TRICKS OF DEALERS : THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEETH :
THE INMCATIONS OF AQE: THE TEETH AT BIRTH: AT SIX TO SEVEN MONTHS: FROM ONE YEAR TO TWENTY YEAUS : IN EXTREME OLD AOE. CONCLUSÏON. |
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should be. This may be seen in three parts of the young
horses brought into the market in the spring of the year, as four and five years old, which are in reality only three and four. This deception is accomplished by puiling out the sucking-teeth at an early period. The mouth thus altered is comparatively easier of detection than the One which has obtained this forward appearance in its natural development. The case is different in racing, or thorough-bred stock,
inasmuch to some the object would appear of more advan- tage to make them, if possible, appear even younger than they really are. But " query," are not the peculiarities of nature so much altered in these young animals, by the early period in which they are foaled, the manner in which they are fed, and the early age at which they are broke and trained, as to occasion them to be more early matured in their general organization, and consequently their teeth to appear at a much earlier period (in many instances in colts) than if bred as common stock ? Examples of this forward growth of the teeth have occurred, whereby the age might be doubted. We have also seen the reverse of this, though a rare occurrence, where the colt had arrived at the age of three, and not moved a tooth. These variations are commonly considered the result of early or late foaling, but as likely to occur from peculiarity of constitution. The horse, as noted in natural history, ante, pp. Ü—11»
has twelve incisors or nipping teeth in the upper and lower jaws, opposed § ; four tushes or tearing teeth, placed \, i, °n each side of the cutting teeth; and six molars or grinding teeth, in the branch of each jaw above and below. The mare not having the tushes or canine teeth has but thirty- six, while the full-mouthed horse has forty. A reference to the coloured maps, I. and II., entitled " TnE Ages of the Horse " (Anatomy Plates III. and IV.) will, we trust, give a clear idea of the progress, perfection, and decay of the dental system of the horse, and thus furnish a chart for the guidance of the reader to a true decision on that oft-debatea point, the age of the horse, should such question come before him in his own interest or as a refcree. In ordinary cases, the teeth will be found a sufficiënt
criterion of the animal's age, if examined by one who cao properly read their criteria. There i3 a prevalent notion about, that dealers can make horses appear of any age that |
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TnE knowledge that the teeth of the horse indicate the age
of the animal seems to be a part of the transmitted " wisdom of our ancestors," and as an axiom is certainly not controverted by modern research. Common observation of the natural mouth tells us that the colt of two years and a half old, or thereabout, will be putting up his two per- manent incisor teeth of the upper and lower jaw, indicating his becoming three years old ; and between three and four the two adjoining teeth in each jaw; and between four and five the two last, or corner teeth, in each jaw; and the tusks appear between four and five: but there are variations from this general rule, and we must not hastily conclude in this, any more than most other branches of human know- ledge, that infallible and exceptionless rules can be laid down, and unerring accuracy attained. There is no magie spell, except in puerile romance, by which nature's mysteries can be commanded; " her ways are regular, but they are not uniform—her laws are fixed, but they cannot be defined by rule and compass. The veterinary practitioner knows, from repeated trials and long experience, that the teeth of the horse are a worthy study; he feels that their indications, attentively read, will seldom mislead him; but he does not regard them with a reverence resembling that originating from an antiquated superstition, or look on them as the exemplification of a principal which admits of no exceptions." * In the generality of common bred stock, foaled between
the bcginning of April and the end of June—that are living pretty much in a state of nature, on succulent food, to the end of three years old before they are handled—a con- siderable uniformity in the approach of their permanent teeth, and the age in general may be told without contra- diction. But man, for his own ends and purposes, has used such artificial means in the rearing and treatment of the young horse, that he has in a manner subverted nature s laws in this particular ; and it is not an uncommon occur- rence to see a two, three, and four years old colt, showing a three, four, or five ysars old mouth; that is, the teeth indicating thoso particular ages will be up, and nearly matured, a full year before nature seems to ordain they |
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* Mayhew on the Horse's Mouth, p. 3.
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THE AGE OF THE HORSE FKOM THE TEETH.
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105
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—
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« desired by torturing their mouths, and this idle belief is
iostered by those who pretend to extraordinary acuteness in
discovering and exposing the " tricks of horsedealing." We
Have several of these catch-pennies now before us, in the
guise of " Confessions of a Copcr/' " The Mysteries of Horse-
chaunting," " A Guide to the Horsebuyer, with Exposures of
the Tricks of Dealers/' &c, &c, and such-like taking titles.
-they are, we need scarcely say, as rank impositions on the
credulous purchaser as the swindles they pretend to exposé.
^r. Mayhew sensibly says, upon this point, and gives in an
a»ter part of his book full practical proof of "speaking as one
hoving authority,"* that the credulity of the public in this
Jatter of the teeth has no foundation. " A colt cannot be
^ade by any barbarity to look like a horse, nor a horse be
^ade to exhibit the rnouth of a colt. That attempts are
made to disguise the teeth, and that such attempts occasion-
aiv impose upon the buyer, is not denied; but all of such
Practices are shallow in the extreme, and so easily detected,
«at the person deceived by them is not an object of pity.
A' people will presume to judge before they have learnt to
recognize, their temerity is more to be blamed than its
c°nsequence is to be commiserated. No one goes to buy a
^Oïse unwarned of the dangers that will surround him ; and
1 Jn his conceit he rather prefers to hazard these than to
seek protection, what right has he to murmur at a result
hicb. it needed no conjuror to foretel ? Is there any
parket iQ the world where ignorance is secure from imposi-
ïon ? f^g wori,j is not, yet so honest that the affairs of the
°rse-mart are a subject worthy of its special wonder; and
öiay be doubted if the principles which regulate the
c°nduct of the horse-dealer, are not those which influence
e transactions of the most honourable traders. There are
en of the highest character living by the sale of horses;
nd it is creditable to humanity that, after all of a certain
ass have been unscrupulously stigmatized and openly
,eproached, there may still among its members be found
eings preserving honour for the sake of itself alone. The
cral public, however, in its wisdom, has pronounced the
aracter of the horse-dealer ; it has rejected his attestations,
a refused to listen to the testimony of those with whom
has communication. The age of a horse is not taken
0tn the mouth of its owner, but looked for in that of the
Rial. TJj{s mocje 0f procedure is convenient—the record
i hand, the evidence brief, and the decision to which it
s is that to which the purchaser by choice appeals. The
Th ^ stan<^s ky an<i knows that his voice is to be restrained.
. teeth denote the age, and when the word of the owner
to be accepted, there is no other evidence at hand.
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Were additional proof to be required, in some instances it
could not be procured, and in the majority its production would be attended with an expense perhaps equal to the price of the horse which it concerned. The expense, the seller of course could not be expected to bear, and the buyer equally would resist its infliction. Nothing is more high priced than absolute proof of any kind; and there is always a further difficulty in the difference of opinion which prevails, as to what constitutes absolute proof. A cursory glance at the matter is enough to convince us, that the custom of inspecting the teeth of the horse to ascertain the age of the animal, is one which has had its origin in necessity. Expe- rience has taught that the mouth of the horse affords the most satisfactory evidence, and the author's investigations on this subject have convinced him that the public need require no better or more conclusive testimony." With these preliminary remarks we shall proceed to
a description of the teeth—their structure, growth, and changes, as auxiliary to the determining of the age of the animal by their inspection. THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEETH.
Each tooth is divided into three parts for the purpose of
description, the crown or table, which is its upper surface, the neck, which is the part surmounted by gum, and where it usually begins to diminish in size, and the fang, or root, which is the part out of sight in the alveolar cavity. The teeth are contained in the upper and lower jawbones
(or maxillaries), in small bony cups or holes, each tooth being contained in a separate cavity, called collectively alveolar cavities; and in the molars, where there are more than one fang, each root has its separate cup, with bony matter intervening between itself and other fangs. The teeth are organised bodies; as is shown by the
absorption of their substance, in case of the roots of the temporary teeth; their sensibility to pain upon application of extreme heat, cold, or strong acids; their growth and changes of form; and their resistance of decay, while possessed of vitality. They possess, for their supply and sustainment, arteries, veins, and nerves. The teeth are built up of three distinct substances,
distinguishable from each other by the naked eye, and differing materially in density, hardness, and composition. They are known as the ivory, the enamel, and tha crusta petrosa (or stony crust). The ivory (called bony or homy substance, by old writers),
constitutes the larger portion of the bulk of each tooth, and has numerous small pores or cavities. Like the small canals in the substance of bones they seem to contain some colourless fluid> which nourishes or maintains the part in which they are situated. The ivory is by no means so close and hard as the next noticed substance, the enamel. In Map II. the delineations of the tables of an upper and lower molar will give a clear idea of the arrangement of these two substances. The dark parts there delineated show the ivory of which the |
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* Tl
of ^ -16 rea<ler -who would go fartber into the subject of the " Tricks 'ol0 e^>" ** referred to pages 123 to 138 of Mr. Edward Mayhew's
ther * ^*e Horse's Mouth," published by Messrs. Fores. He will
of «, ^ exposure of the wretched trash of these pretended guardians
^(-•ti > againat frauds that exist chiefly in the scribblers' own
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THE AGE OF THE IIORSE EROM THE TEETH.
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106
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of the jaws of the foetus, as small bags jf jelly-like con-
sistence. As these grow they harden and press towards the surface of the gum, forcing their way through it; so that, about the time of birth, three of the grinding teeth are discoverable in each jaw; and generally two front cutting teeth, in the colt called nippers, which are placed almost laterally (see figure), and are remarkably large in comparison with the size of the animal. In a less developed colt the nippers will present themselves as in our drawing, at the end of a week or nine days. In the next two months, two more cutting teeth in each jaw, above and below, will bring the number up to eight. And now the jaws having widened, as is seen more fully in our second figure (six to seven months), the two nippers, which filled all the forepart of the narrow jaw, will have taken their proper places in front of the mouth. They will now begin to wear a little, and the outer edge, which was raised and sharp, will be brought on a level with the inner edge. The mouth, toq will alter little now until it forms as in our second figure, when yet two more nippers begin to be feit, and then seen, making up six below, and a like number above—thus filling up the " colt's mouth," as shown in the third drawing, inside and outside being figured. The name of " nipper " is peculiarly applicable to the front teeth of a colt's mouth. Those of incisor or cutter, adopted by professionals and anatomists, do not so well convey the idea of their action. The twitch of the head in the act of browzing or grazing is rather the act of " nipping," and partly snatching, than merely cutting off. It may be noted at the seventh or eighth month, that
though the corner milk teeth are up, their edges do not meet, except at the front corners. This may be seen by our drawing, where the two outer teeth are remarkably low to the gum at the hinder part, towards the gape. One Vear old.—Ilere we see the four middle teeth level,
and the two outer ones becoming so. The mark in the middle teeth is wider and fainter; in the two next it is somewhat darker, longer, and narrower. By this time two pairs of the permanent teeth, the fourth molars, have made their appearance. A yearling has, therefore, twelve incisors and sixteen molars, or twenty-eight teeth in all. Of the molars we may here remark that they offer little guide as to the age of the animal. Indeed, it is not easy to get a fair look at them ; yet a few particulars are good to be known. They are covered outside with enamel, but not at the top, though several pieces are incorporated, if we may so term it, in the substance of their ivory—not being infundibula or pits as in the incisors, but forming grinding edgjs of irregular form in the face of the table (see Molars, Map IL). The grinders in the lower jaw (see Plate) are much smaller in surface than those of the upper. The wisdom of this provision is evident. The upper molar is fixed, the lower is movable by the lateral grinding motion of the lower jaw. Hence it is passed over the larger surface in the act of triturating the food; the peculiar action of the horse's jaw in this opera- tion is open to the most superficial observer. |
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body of the tooth is composed, the lighter convoluted lines,
the enamel. In the " Colt's Incisor," back view, in the same plate, the enamel is shown, with the ivory sunk in the centre, in a cavity called the infundibulum (funnel, or pit). It is lined with enamel, and presents ivory filling up to the table of the tooth. The second substance, the enamel, is so close, hard, and
homogeneous, as to seem without animal matter. It is thin, white, and somewhat transparent, and so hard that it will strike fire with steel, like flint. The third substance is the crusta petrosa or stony coat.
This forms the outer covering of the tooth, and having a dirty-yellowish or dark appearance, was mistaken by ig- norant farriers for a deposit of tartar, or " fur." It contains a great proportion of animal substance, and, under the microscope, is full of small vessels or tubes. It is plentiful in the alveolar cavities, and is there yellowish-white; but when at the neck of the tooth, above the gum, it becomes exposed to the chemical action of the air, the animal juices, and the food, it receives a dark stain, and looks like an accumulation of tartar. The crusta petrosa will be found filling up the pits (infundibula) of the grinding teeth of the upper jaw, and lining the top cavity of the incisors. It is full of vessels for nutriment and increase. Let us now consider the use of these three structures of the teeth, of various densities, cutting capabilities, and power to resist friction. The outer coat, or crusta petrosa, which at first covers
the tooth, is soon rubbed away from the greater part of the sides, so as to show the enamel. It is not reproduced there, but remains round the neck of the tooth, and appears to enact a part within the alveolar cavity, in which the fang or base of the tooth is situate. It is with the ivory and enamel, however, which build up the substance of the tooth, we have most to do. Upon the ivory, and its wear in relation to the enamel,
depends the great criterion, the presence, in a greater or less degree, or the absence of " the mark in the mouth/' The ivory in the molars will be found generally nearly on a level with cutting ridges of enamel, in spite of the greater attrition which the substance forming the larger portion of the surface of the table must receive. There is, however, sufficiënt projection of the enamel ridges to enable you to feel that the latter material is the great resisting power, and saves the destruction of the ivory by the grinding wear, to which, but for such support, it would be inevitably exposed. TLTE MAPS OF THE MOUTH DESCEIBED.
MAP I., FROM BIRTII TO FIVE YEARS OLD. We will next proceed to give a description of the two
Coloured maps entitled " The Acies of the ILorse." At Birth—Many months, at least seven, before the foal
ie produced the germs of the teeth are visible in the cavities |
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Ana tomy, Platf, til.
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BIRTH
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6 TO 7 MONTHS OLD.
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i Y EA R OLD
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I Y E A R OLD.
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2 Y EAR S O
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Y E A R S OLD.
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Y E A R S OLD.
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3 Y E A R S OLD.
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4 YE ARS OLD.
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5 Y E A R S O L Li.
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5 Y E A R S 0 L D .
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4 Y E A R S Li L [,
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ïï DÖ E AffiES II I DO E Gfl i ÖB § E u
MAFi I--------FROM BIRTH TO FIVE YE.AR8 OLO INCLOSiVE.
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WiLLIAM MACKENZIf., LUNDON, EDINBUBSH & GLAbGUW.
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THE AGE OF THE HORSE FROM THE TEETH.
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107
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Two Years old.—About two years old a fifth grinder
's out. The incisors in forwa.-i animals show considerable wear. Some care is required now, for the " milk-teeth " are Vei7 like the " horse-teeth " at five years old. The teetb nv are ncw being spoken of; for of course the colt is not furnished" to the horseman's eye. And now an impor- tant process is about to begin. J-he first teeth were adapted to the size and wants of the
young animal; and sufficiently large to occupy and to fill the
Colt s jaws ; but when the jaws expand with the increas-
ng growth of the animal, another and larger set is
required. Evident provision is made for these, even before
ne colt is foaled. In cavities in the jaw, beneath the first
nd temporary teeth, are to be seen the rudiments of a
econd and permanent set. These gradually increase, some
ïth greater rapidity than others, and, pressing upon the
°°ts or fangs of the first teeth, the consequence of this
pressure is, not that the first teeth are forced out, but the
P°rtion pressed upon gradually disappears ; it is absorbed—
aken up, and carried away, by numerous little vessels,
"°se office it is to get rid of the worn-out or useless parts
the system This absorption continues to proceed as the
econd teeth grow and press upon their predecessors, until
üe whole of the fang is gone, and the crown of the tooth,
"r that part of it which was above the gum, having no
°nger firm hold, drops out, and the second teeth appear,
arger and stronger, and permanent. In a few instances,
°wever, the second teeth do not rise immediately under
öe temporary or milk teeth, but somewhat by their side.
nd then, instead of this gradual process of absorption and
isappearance £rom ^e p0int 0f tne root Upwards, the root
eing compressed sideways, diminishes throughout its whole
>u'k; the crown of the tooth diminishes with the root; and e whole is pushed out of its place, to the forepart of the
•fst grinder, and remains for a considerahle time, under e name of a wolf's tooth ; causing swelling and soreness of
le gums, and frequently wounding the cheeks. These
^ould be gradually quite absorbed, but the process might
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those of the lower jaw coming out first It is often asked,
cannot this mouth be given to a forward two-year-old ? We are told so; and here is the process, which we insert for what it is worth. The central nippers are punched or driwa 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. The first set mccha- nically oppose their rising, and that opposition being rn- moved, it is asserted their progress will be more rapid. Three or four months will be gained, and these three or four months may enable the breeder to term him a late colt of a preceding year. To the observer accustomed to horses (although it is long practice alone which could give this facility of judgment), the general form of the animal—the little development of the forehand—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 forcing 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 swelling under it, and preparing to get through—any or all of these circum- stances, carefully attended to, will be a sufficiënt security against deception. It is so unusual to look at the teeth in the upper jaw of a
young horse, that the dealer who wishes to give a falso appearance of age, frequently confines his operation to the lower jaw; and, in consequence of this, when the teeth of the lower jaw are thus made to push out, they are still below the gum in the upper jaw, although, in the natural process, they are cut a little sooner in the upper than in the lower jaw. It may, therefore, be good and cautious policy to examine both jaws. A horse then at three years old ought to have the central
permanent nippers growing—the other two pairs wasting— six grinders in each jaw, above and below—the first and fifth molars level with the others, and the sixth protruding. The sharp edge of the new incisors, although it could not be well expressed in our drawing, will be very evident when compared with the neighbouring teeth. As the permanent nippers grow, and press upon the teeth at their side, those teeth will begin gradually to diminish. Not only will the mark be wearing out, but the crowns of the teeth will be considerably smaller. 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, and, previous to this, will be the attempt of the dealer to give to his three-year-old an additional year, |
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_______________[annoyance wouiu De great;
ls proper to get rid of these diminutive teeth, either by
caing them out, or drawing them as soon as they are Perceived. fïïn
J-Uree Years old.—At three years old the two centre
se-teeth are so defined in their appearance, indeed ^ell-grown as to be unmistakeable. The superior length 0 squareness over the colt or milk teeta (see Two Years
J is manifest; outside, too, they are darker in colour, the
coating of the stony covering (crusta petrosa) being
off" Partially removed at the front edges. At "three
the side milk teeth are shed, and horse-teeth take
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Uo* places.
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In
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of a three year old
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drawing
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our
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th
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this has not yet occurred; but the inflammation of
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gums, visible, though it does not appear painful to the
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j^'"al, S11CWS itself_ The milk teeth are finaüy ghed about
seventh month after the completion of the third year, |
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108 THE AGE OF THE HORSE FROM THE TEETH.
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imbedded in the inferior maxillary, the tooth penetrates tuQ
process of the superior maxillary at the union of thoso bones. At four years and a half, or between that and five, the
last important changc 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 beginning to show marks of wear. The tush has now protruded, (see our drawing, Five Years Old,) and is generally a full half inch in height; outside it is rounded, with a groove on each side (see drawing), and within it is hollowed. From the period of the rising of the corner nipper, the animal changes its name. The colt is called a horse, the filly a mare, thenceforward. Five Years old.—At five years old the horse's mouth is all
but perfect. The whole of the incisors are there; the edges of all the teeth meet fairly, and the whole apparatus looks more powerful and larger than in the fourth year. The tables of them all are, however, not yet formed, the two outer- most displaying the bean perfect. The tush shows a mark of wear, the grooves, already spoken of, are disappearing- The outer edge is bulging, but the inside hollowed out and sharp. The sixth molar tooth is quite up, and the third grinder is wanting. This circumstance, with the genera! aspect of the horse—the wearing of the centre incisors—the growth and shape of the tushes—will prevent a late four year old from being substituted for a five. Though the incisors may be got up a few months before their time, and the tushes a few weeks, the grinder is with difficulty displaced. The three last grinders, as well as the tushes, are never shed, but come at once permanently. At " five years old off," the corner teeth are still but slightly worn, and the margins inside are rounding. Much of the original stony crust (crusta petrosa) is remaining, and the enamel, where bare, is transparent and pearly. The corner-nippers are so clean id their coat and mark as to procure them the name of " shell' teeth." The fifth year " off," ends our first map. MAP II., FROM SIX YEARS OLD TO EXTREME OLD AGE.
Six Years old.—At six years the corner teeth seem set
more firmly, the enamel mark is irregular, and the edge uneven. The teeth, too, are getting more square on the external surface. All the edges (as seen by the second drawing in Map II.) meet with accuracy. The semicircle which the teeth formed in the fifth year is widen-ed out The mark in the centre incisor is now growing indistinct- There will still be a difference of colour in the centre of tbe tooth. The cement filling the hole made by the dipping *D of the enamel will present a browner hue than the other part of the tooth; it will be evidently suirounded by an edge of enamel, and there will even remain a little depreS" sion in the centre, and also a depression round this case ° enamel; but the deep hole in the centre of the tooth, * A the blackened surface which it presents, and the elevatefl |
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but the fraud may be detected by an examination similar to
that which we have already described. Four Years old.—Here the two lateral horse teeth are
seen with the full " bean" in them, the two front incisors doing the principal work, as is shown by their surfaces and the inner-enamel edge. We have here four pairs of horse- teeth well up (in the two jaws), the two outside milk-teeth in each remaining. In the outside view the gum is swelling, and the corner milk nippers are about to go. The horse incisors will soon come in their place. The surface of the teeth is clearly delineated in our dental map. You here perceive the central nippers fully developed; the edge somewhat worn off; the mark shorter, and wider, and fainter: the next pair will be up, but they will be small, with the mark deep, and extending quite across them; the corner nippers, larger than the inside ones, yet smaller than they were, flat, and the mark nearly effaced. In the back part 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-year-old colt, and a five-year-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 or no growth of the tush—the smallness of the second grinder—the low fore-hand—the legginess of the eelt, and the thickness and little depth of the mouth. will, with the man of experience, detect the cheat. The tusnes (see Map II. Tush) 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 lower jaw than in the upper, but this distance increases in both jaws with the age of the animal. In shape they somewhat resemble a cone, protruding about an inch from the gum, and having their extremity sharp-pointed and curved. At the age of which we are now speaking, the tushes are almost peculiar to the horse, and castration does not appear to prevent or retard their development. All mares, however, have the beginnings of them in the chambers of the jaw, and they appear externally in most old mares. Their use is not evident:—perhaps in the wild state of the animal they are weapons of offence; so that he can more firmly 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 extent he succeeds. He may possibly gain a few weeks, but cannot gain more; for the resistance of the gum is not like that of a solid and firmly fixed tooth, and is much more easily overcome by the regular process of nature. 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; for, while its fang is deeply |
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IA ; üm
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8 Y E A R 8 OLD
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7 Y E A R 'S OLD
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7 Y E A R S 0 L I!
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Y E A R S 0 L D .
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12 Y E A R S OLD.
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8 Y E A R S' OLD
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12 VEARE7 0 L'D
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8YEARS OLD.
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V*>
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ErM
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m
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•
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Tü S H
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T A B L E O F
LOWER M O E A R
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TABEE. O F
O P P F. R M O L A R |
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COLTS I.N-G I S O R
F R O N T. BACK
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20 Y'EARS OLD
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E X T R E M E O L C A G E
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ï 00 E A IS !.E § ö TJ' 00 E DO Ë OS § E
MAP, 2—FROM SIX YEARS 'JEE TO EXTREM! II Lu AGE.
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WÜUAM MACKENZ' LJMS II :' ! :' : '
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THE AGE OF THE IIORSE FROM THE TEETH.
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109
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edge of enamel, will have disappeared. Persons not much
accustomed to horses have been sadly puzzled here. They expected to find a plain surface of an uniform colour, and knew not what conclusion to draw when there were both uiscolouration and irregularity. In the next incisors the mark is shorter, broader, and
fainter ; and in the corner teeth the edges of the enamel are more regular, and the surface is evidently worn. The tush has attained his full growth, being nearly or quite an inch m length, convex outwards, concave within, tending to a point, and the extremity somewhat curved. The third grinder is fairly up, and all the grinders are level. Mr. Youatt says : " Now, or perhaps at a period of six months hefore, the horse may be said to have a perfect mouth. All the teeth are produced, fully grown, and have hitherto sustained no material injury. During these important changes of the teeth the animal has sufFered less than could be supposed possible. With children, the period of teething is fraught with danger. Dogs are subject to c°nvulsions, and hundreds of them die from the irritation caused by the cutting or shedding of their teeth; but the horse appears to feel little inconvenience. The gums and Palate are occasionally somewhat hot and swollen, but the shghtest scarification will remove this. The teeth of the horse are more necessary to him than those of the other atumals are to them. The child may be fed, and the dog Will
bolt his victuals, but the food of the horse must be well
ground down, or the nutriment cannot be extracted from it.
Seven Years old.—At seven years, although the corner
teeth do not decidedly show age, they give further proof of
wear. The teeth are yet whiter, the tushes are fully up,
the merk is disappearing from the four central nippers,
and is on the go in the corner teeth. The tushes, too, are
phanging shape, rounding at the point, at the edges, and
'flside ; and the teeth generally seem beginning to " crowd
0ne another."
■Eight Years old.—At eight years the processes above
^ted are still in progress. The " beans" are gpne from
fte bottom incisovs—in short, as the phrase goes, " the
mark i3 out of the mouth."
And now steps in the most common and vulgar of frauds,
'at of " bishoping," as it is termed, from the name of the
iascal who invented it, or was its most extensively known
Practitioner.
■There are two modes by which this is effccted. The eight
.nine year old is thrown, and the teeth are simply touched
ü a red hot wire, which makes a black mark at its point
^ontact. This is a very clumsy and inartificial imitation.
e ruore general one is to gently scoop the softer ivory in
e cavities with an engraver's tooi, and then to darken the
Paces thus hollowed. Remember, however, that the shape
°e table of the old tooth, with its inner edge of enamel,
ot be altered, nor can the line of enamel which surrounds
hnes the infundibulum (or pit) be preserved. This
se expediënt cannot impose upon a veterinarian, or an
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experienced horseman. It will be as well to look at tho
upper nippers as there the very marks; which, without fraud, would be found strongest and best defined, will be found weakest. The diffusion of the " black " too at once strikes the practised eye as unnatural. Of the better class of dealers Mr. Mayhew justly says, " they will not, knowingly, allow the character of their stables to be injured by the presence of a ' bishoped' animal. The dealers are not the rogues the enlightened public are fond of believing—many among them are as honourable as all men should be—some of the class, however, never let a horse escape out of their hands unmutilated. The teeth invariably receive the primary attention : if long, they are, by the application of a file, reduced to the length which the self-taught equine dentist supposes proper to youth. An acid is also applied to the enamelled surface, in order to render it white. No vast good is efFected, but, if the means were not designed to impose, no great harm would perhaps be done. The acid is not allowed to corrode the tooth, and the diminution of the length may possibly in some degree benefit the animal. The welfare of the creature, however, is not the object sought—the hope is to cheat; but no person who ought to be trusted, or even to trust himself to purchase a horse, should be so imposed upon. Whiteness is no sign of youth in the tooth of a horse, and the file cannot make the tables assume the juvenile figure. Horses '' at show such mouths, may be easily recognised— perhaps they are quiet while their legs are handled, but shy when the head is touched—they are not vicious, but timid, and the teeth teil the reason of their fear. It is well to pass them by, and dangerous to accept them at any price. If the teeth have been tampered with, what tricks may not have been practised to conceal other defects ? " (On the Horses Mouth). Twelve to Twenty Years old.—It is a generally received
opinion that after the disappearance of the mark from the outer incisors, at the eighth year, all certainty with regard to the horse's age is over. As to the marks, this is true; as to other criteria, enlarged research has shown it to be only partially so. The teeth increase in obliquity, and apparently in length, and the " crowding " which renders them more and more misshapen is clearly perceptible by a reference to the drawings of eight, twelve, and twenty year old mouths in Map II. From birth to six years the study of the regular progress of the development of the mouth has almost the character of an exact science, and the age to a year can be pronounced. At the period we have now arrived at, mere generalities supply the place of particular marks; and further then the fact that the horse is old, growing rapidly old, prematurely old, or on the contrary sound and good, his years being taken into account, our chart-knowledge does not exactly guide us. We think, however, with M. Girard, that the characteristics of the mouth at twelve and say twenty years (see Map), are sufliciently distinctly marked to enable an approximate judgment, if not a confident and exact one. Some Continental writers of eminence resort to |
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THE AG E OF THE HOUSE FROM THE TEETH.
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110
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the upper nippers as showing the " mark " from the ninth
to the twelth year, but we must confess we have little faith in their guidance in this respect. We may, however, note incidently that the " bars," * (rough palate) of the mouth become lcss and less prominent as age draws on, first losing rugosity about the ninth or tenth year and becoming less prominent with advancing age. We may note that stabled horses kept on hard meat do not, as might be expected and has been asserted, show an earlier diminution of this rugosity of the palate than grass or softer-fed animals ; this may be due to the active stimulation of a part well calculated to keep up its bulk and healthy renewal by its numerous bloodvesscls and its protected position. As a pendant to these remarks, we will present the reader
with a brief summary of the observations of some of the leading Continental and English writers on this important and interesting branch of horse-knowlcdge ; beginning with St. Bel, La Fosse, &c., and passing to Girard, Blaine, Percivall, Goodwin, and Mayhew. M. St. Bel, of whom a notice will be found under the
article Eclipse, ante, taught a system averaging two years between each marked change in the horse's dentition ; and he carried on his periods at which the " dental funnel," or mark, was obliterated from each pair of nippers at two years' intervals Ten years for the front (upper and lower); twelve years for the middle; fourteen years for the corner nipping teeth ; were fixed for them to present plane surfaces. These prolonged criteria of M. St. Bel are now entirely repudiated. The successive changes wrought on the substance and general form of the lower or posterior nippers, after the central funnel is worn out, were early notcd as characteristic of the age to a very prolonged pcriod. La Fosse many years ago described indications of age to be gained by examining the figurc of the nipping surface of the lower incisors, long after it has bccome plane. M. Pessina, professor and director of the Vetcrinary Institution at Vienna, carried out a similar examination to an cxtraordinary length, and his dcscriptions are givcn with much minuteness of detail. He explains the gradations of years, beyond the age of eight, uniformly, by the shapes that the incisors assume in consequence of their wear ; which has led him to distinguish four successive periods, "the oval, the round, the triangular, and the biangular." After the disappearance of the central enamel, the table presents a coloured point, that appears before the wear of the funnel is completed, and takes different shapes ; it is not even uncommon that, in very old teeth, this gives place to a small black cavity. M. Girard—who published a capital treatise on the teeth,
in French, which has been translated by Er. Ganly, V.S., and published, with very poor copies of the plates, in New York and in London—generalises the criteria of age up to a late * The term " bars " ia applied to that firm and dense furrowed sub-
gtance which lines the roof of the mouth, and is known as the hard palate. Its ridges are called the "bars." See $ost, Anatomy (The I'alate), in Part II. Veterinary Surgery. |
period. If we do not quite agree with the professor up to
the last, his observations are worthy of respect and con- sideration, from his extended experience in the greatest veterinary school and haras in France. They may be thuS summarised from eight years. At this age there is usuaÜy complete obliteration of the mark in the nippers, the dividers, and the corner teeth ; in the lower jaw the central enamel becomes triangular, and nearer the posterior than the anterior edge of the tooth; the termination of the cavity next the root appears near the anterior edge in the form of a yellowish band, extending lengthwise from one side to the other. At nine years old the nippers appear rounded, the dividers oval, and the corner teeth have become narrow, the central diminish, and approach the posterior edge. At ten years old the dividers are become rounded ; the central enamel is very near the posterior edge, and rounded. At eleven years old the dividers have become rounded; the central enamel is hardly any longer apparent in the teeth of the lower jaw. At twelve years old the corner teeth are rounded ; the central enamel has completely disappeared; the yellowish band is of more extent, and occupies the centre of the wearing surface ; the central enamel, however, still remains in the teeth of the upper jaw. At thirteen years old all the lower incisor teeth are rounded ; the sides of the nippers extend length- wise ; the central enamel is found to remain in the teeth of the upper jaw, but it is round, and approaches the posterior edge of the tooth. At fourteen years old the lower nippers assume a triangular form, the dividers become long at the sides ; the central enamel of the upper teeth diminishes, but still remains visible. At fiftcen years old the nippers are triangular, and the dividers likewise are beginning to become so. At sixteen years of age the dividers are triangular, and the corner teeth begin to be the same; at the same time the central enamel of the teeth of the upper jaw also will, in many instances at this age, be found to have disappeared. At seventeen years old all the teeth of the lower jaw have become completely triangular; but, as we have before noticed, the sides of the triangles are all of a length. At eighteen years of age the lateral portions of the triangle lengthen in succession, first the nippers, then the dividers, and afterwards the corner teeth; so that, at nineteen, the lower nippers are flattened from one side to the other. At twenty, the dividers are of the sarnc shape. Finally, at twenty-one years of age, this shape appears in the corner teeth also. We think the reflective reader who peruses these lines
with an eye to the 8, 12, and 20 figures of our second map, will see much worthy of remembrance in M. Girard's " History of Dental Changes." Thus far of the teeth; we will no* pass to other criteria of age. The indications of age connected with decay are not
equivocal, but show themselves in the sunken eyepits and dimmed eyeballs. In such an one the lips will also be thiö and pendulous, the under or hinder lip extremely *°5 |
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WHAT IS " AGE " IN THE HORSE. 111
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Qe anus, not wedged up by interstitial matter heretofore,
ftQd not sufficiently retracted by its weakened muscles, now
Prqjects considerably. The grey horse becomes -white, and
«e darker colours become intermixed with grey, particularly
aoout the head ; the bony processes in every part of the body
are °nt, and give a rigidity of appearance which well
accords with the actual state of the body. So much greater
ls the absorption of parts now than their increase, that even
"e diseased deposits of more youthful times, as windgalls
and bony exostoses, are lessened or disappear altogether;
n6 mouth likewise will present some appearances beyond
those noted by the French writers. The incisors are sloped
°utwards and project, the upper corner one is often sawed in
"^ó parts by the action of the lower, which, in turn, loses
"3 outer edge by the wear; the whole of the teeth become
yeJlow and stand wide apart at the roots, which are gradually
beir-g thrust up out of the jaw by the filling up of the
veolar cavities with bony deposit.
lt is an absurd piece of pedantry, as every horseman
t n°ws, to date the decay of a horse from his becoming
aged " in professional phrase. At seven and eight he is in
ls full bloom of his strength and fully matured powers, and,
ut for inordinate or premature hard work, is at a point of
Penection which will last in full vigour for a period
°rresponding with the more extended manhood of the
Ulïian being. A short parallel will elucidate our meaning,
d show the error of allowing the idea of eight years as
lng the period of decay in the horse. Blaine is here our
uthority: " A very considerable attention to the subject,
.er a wide field of observation, has impressed the writer
llh the propriety of drawing the following comparison
ween the ages of horses and men; that is, at these
Veral periods of comparison, the constitution of horses and
^en may be considered as in an equal degree of perfection
nd capability for exertion, or of debility and decay, ac-
r<"ng as youth or age preponderates. Thus, the first five
rs of a horse may bc considered as equivalent to the first
enty years of a man ; or thus, a horse of five years may
. Cotïiparatively considered as old as a man of twenty; a
se of ten years, as a man of forty; a horse of fifteen, as
an of fifty; a horse of twenty, as a man of sixty; of
nty-five, as a man of seventy; of thirty, as a man of
* lty 5 and of thirty-five, as a man of ninety. So far from
comparison being too much in favour of the horse, we
re chsposed to think it too little so. Horses of thirty-five
t , s °5 age are as common as men of ninety, provided it be
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simply interested in horses on the score of their utility, and
are not called on to certify the exact age for sale, purchase, or matching, the indications yiclded by the teeth are in many cases less important than those offered in the 1 appearance of the wear and tear of t'ae limbs. The practical juige, instead of refusing what is conventionally termed 'an aged horse,' provided he has limbs undeteriorated, on th» contrary, hails an opportunity of possessing himself of such an one, conscious that the reputed age has produced only the best effects, by condensing the solid parts of the frame, and rendering them capable of continued exertion. Such an age is also usually accompanied by a steadiness of tempel and disposition, that teaches him to employ his powers judiciously. Where is the foxhunter who fortunately has met with a nine, ten, or twelve-year old horse fresh on his limbs, that would exchange his hardihood, his judgment, steadiness, and method of husbanding his resources, for the impetuosity, and consequently more early tiring, of the young horse of five ? What is eight years in the life of a horse that has been used as he ought to be 1 It is, on the contrary, not too much to afiirm that all his ' points,' that is, all those external appearances or characters on which his most valued qualifications depend, do not show them- selves until, according to the conventional notion of age, he is unfit to be looked at! Regard the well-marked head of the horse at ten or twelve, how angular! His fine eye, divested of much cellular matter, now stands out without a foil; his thin and thinly clad crest carries itself into withers which seem to rise to receive it. His circular carcass, trussed up by exercise, unites with hind quarters, square and muscular, supported on limbs equally well furnished. Would you refuse such an one because he had lost a mark from his teeth, when he had gained so many superior marks all over ?—marks which make him at once an interesting and most picturesque object. It is true, premature age is apt to overtake our horses, because we use them as though they could not wear out." There is no rule laid down by man which nature will
submit to be strictly bound by,. either in the material or the moral world. She will have her wise irregularities, her apparently wilful exceptions, her " proofs " of the rules laid down by his lirnited judgment. Constitution in one horse is less robust and fails earlier, acute disease levels the strongest and handsomest, as it takes the best and bravest among men. Premature old age has come, and will come, upon the most promising colts ; and the cleverest actuary in calculating risks in life assurance would find aa many disturbing influences calling for his " averages " among horses and their "chances of life." The excellence of our roads enables the horse not only to be put early to work, but to be called upon for " pace ; " and thus it is that nature, stimulated inordinately, seeks with her vis medicatrix to strengthen the overtaxed organs. How she does this is the subject of veterinary inquiry. Inflammation comes on, the cavities between the tendons and their slieaths are destroyed, |
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, ?n lnto the account that there are at least fifty human
fo . ^or every horse; and, unquestionably, a horse of |
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j-live is less rare than a man of a hundred and ten."
öa .0lnci(ling entirely with this most experienced veteri- fü ,an' We may be excused for pursuing the subject a little p . r the eight years currently received as the incipient ve °* degeneration should be removed another seven lat orward> as regards the powers of the animal in their state. We again quote Blaine :—" To those who are |
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112
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WHAT IS "AGE" IN THE HORSE.
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and they become filled up by hurtful deposits ; parts take on
a bony structure whose original formation was cartilaginous ; as the lateral cartilages of the feet, and the articular processes of the vertebrae. A greater quantity of ossific material is deposited on the surface of some bones than is natural, by inordinate exertion. It is thus that splints, epavins, ringbones, &c., are formed ; and, to counteract the unnatural waste, other secretions are likewise preternaturally augmented producing, in the mucous capsules windgalls, and blood-spavins in the obstructed veins. But where horses are suffered to attain their full growth and the complete development of their organisation, if they are afterwards put to full exercise, not altogether inordinate, they become competent to the exertions expected of them, and reach old age sound and vigorous. Many good judges will not purchase a horse for hunting earlier than eight years old, and regard him only in his prime at ten or twelve. It is too little considered that the period of a horse's life, with moderate care and good usage, is protracted to twenty- five, thirty-üve, and forty-five years ; and an instance lately occurred of a horse dying at fifty. The accounts of their being vigorous and strong at thirty and thirty-five are very numerous, and nearly as frequent as activity in men of eighty and ninety. Blaine speaks of an acquaintance of his at Dulwich, near London, who had three monuments of three horses, who severally died in his possession at the ages of thirty-five, thirty-seven, and thirty-nine years. The oldest, it is to be remarked, was in a carriage the very day he died, |
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strong and vigorous ; but was carried off in a few houra b?
spasmodic colic, to which he was subject. At Chesham, in Buckinghamshire, there was a horse thirty-six years old, which exhibited no symptoms of uebility, nor any external signs of age, except being nearly covered with warts. It was remarkable, with regard to this four-footed Nestor, that when an unusually hard day's work was required he was always chosen, as never failing in what was expected froni him. A horse named Wonder, belonging to the riding school at Woolwich, may be quoted as living to forty years. Mr. Culley, in his " Observations on Live Stock," mentions one he knew which lived to forty-seven years, having during all that time a ball in his neck, received in the battle of Prestonpans, in the rebellion of 1715, which was extracted at his death in 1758 : thus, judging him to be four years old at the time he received the wound (and it is probable he was more), he must, at his death, have been forty-seven. But even these venerables were mere babies to the barge- horse of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, which was well known to have been in his sixty-second year when he died. It is true that these are not very cominon instances, but it is not the natural economy of the animal which makes them uncommon; it is, on the contrary, the circumstance of horses being so early brought into hard work, and so unremittingly continued in active labour. The subject of Warranty and Unsoundness, will propcrly
follow these chapters of examining and buying the Horse, and the Criteria of his Age. |
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11b
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HORSE-LAW.—SALE.—DELIVERY AND ACCEPTANCE.
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CHAPTER XI.
BOKSE-UW : SAIE: DELIVERY AND ACCEPTANCE : EARNEST : SIGNED NOTE: WARRANTY : SALES BY ATJCTION : LIEN : ERENCH LAW ;
CONCLUSION.
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Ibe law, as it relates to the buying and selling of horses,
either at the hammer, by private contract, or in market °vert, seems to be totally overlooked in most works relating to the horse. Lawsuits, it has been justly remarked, originate less
lrequently in the positive dishonesty and bad faith of the uölucky litigants, than in their gross misconception of each other's rights and liabilities. We therefore conceive that an occasional purchaser would
°ften, by a very slight acquaintance with the first principles
°* the law of sales and warranties, be not only delivered
trom much anxiety in negotiating this delicate bargain, but
also, in many instances, would escape the misery of being
üriven to contend for his rights in the dreaded arena of a
c°urt of justice. Our observations on warranty shall be
P^eceded by a cursory survey of the general contract of sale
Jtself. What is Sale.—A sale is defined by Blackstone to be " a
ransmutation of property from one man to another, in c°nsideration of some price or recompense in value." -*-0 enable society to enforce the obligations resulting
0öi such an engagement, some marks are obviously
, quisite of the mutual consent of the contracting parties
avmg existed in a serious and deliberate form. By the
'atute of Frauds it is enacted, " that no contract for the
*e of any goods, wares, or merchandize, for the price of
l0 or upwards, shall be allowed to be good, except the
uyer shall accept part of the goods so sold, and actually
ceive the same, or give something in earnest to bind the
rgam, or in part of payment; or that some note or
. ^orandum, in writing, of the said bargain be made and
ti . ky the parties to be charged by such contract, or
heir agents thereunto lawfully authorized."
tV> T AND Acceptance.—I* ia necessary to observe
. t a manual transfer, or " actual" delivery and acceptance,
Qot m every case essential; for the law will often, from
^ertam acts, "imply" a delivery to satisfy the statute.
us, m a case where the plaintiff, who kept a livery stable
dealt in horses, was in treaty with the defendant for
sale of two horses, and the defendant offered a less sum
han was demanded, but at length sent word that "the
st \^S Wete ^S' ^ut t*iat' as he had neither servant nor
a Ie, the plaintiff must keep them at livery for him;" the
int ' uPon *kis, removed them out of his sale stable
° another stable; and it was held that there was here a
P
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sufficiënt delivery to satisfy the statute. The key to this
and similar cases seems to be, that the vendor, by the terms of the bargain, is converted into an " agent for the vendee," and thus occupies the doublé character of principal during the sale, and servant upon its completion. It is also sufficiënt evidence of a delivery, if a purchaser, with the privity and approbation of the vendor, exercises any act of ownership over the goods, though their local situation remains unchanged; as by selling (or even showing the animal out for sale) to a third person, or marking the animal in any manner. Delivery to a servant or agent is equivalent to a delivery to the employer himself. Earnest.—It would seem that giving a piece of money,
however low its value (supposing it to be " altogether parted with "), is sufficiënt to bind the bargain. Signed Note or Memorandum.—It may be useful to
observe that, although the names of both parties must appear upon the face of the memorandum, or, at least, in some writing capable of being connected therewith by sound legal inference, yet the signature of the party sought to be charged, or of his agent, is sufficiënt ,~ ,And this term " signature," be it observed, is not here used in the limited sense of subscription, so as to require the party to sign his name at the end of the instrument, but is equally applicable in whatever part the name is written. Whether sales by public auction are within the Statute of Frauds has long been a disputed point; the later opinion is in favour of their being so; and it, therefore, becomes necessary to mention here that the auctioneer is, in such sales, the " agent" of "both" parties. Upon the regular completion of the sale, the property in
the article is transferred to and absolutely vested in the vendee; and the purchaser thenceforward stands by all risks, and is the sole sufferer from any injury which may happen to the animal, otherwise than through the negligence of the vendor. As in the example given by Blackstone : If A sells a horse to B for £\Q, and B pays him earnest, or signs a note in writing of the bargain, and afterwards, before the delivery of the horse or money paid, the horse dies in the vendor's custody, still he is entitled to the money, because by the contract the property is in the vendee." But although the right of property is thus absolutely
transferred by the contract, yet, unless payment be expressly postponed to a future day, the buyer will not be entitled to " possession " without tendering the stipulated price. |
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114
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HORSE-LAW.—WARRANTY.
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Warranty.— We now come to the important doctrine of
Warranty, which is thus summed up by Coke: " By the civil law, every person is bound to warrant the thing that he sells or conveys, although there is no express warranty; but the common law binds him not, unless there be a warranty, either in deed or in law, for caveat emptor: the meaning of which Latin expression is, that the buyer takes the article sold with all its defects, and must not look to the law for any redress if its intrinsic worth do not corre- spond with its outward appearance. It cautions the buyer, therefore, according to the Italian proverb, 'that he has need of a hundred eyes, but the seller of only one.'" By the law of England, warranties are divided into
" express " or " implied :" the latter, however, differ in no respect from the former except in the circumstance of "proof." The intention to warrant is collected from the whole circumstances proved, and as a legitimate deduction from them, like the presumption of any other part not established by direct evidence; while the " express" war- ranty is proved by direct and express testimony to the fact itself. To give a single instance: In Jones v. Bowden, it was proved to be the uniform course and habit of dealing in a par- ticular place, if the article were sea-damaged, to state that fact on the sale of it: a sale was made without any such state- ment, and it was therefore held that the article was war- ranted not sea-damaged, This was an " implied " warranty. A warranty can only exist as a term and condition of
the contract of sale, into the very essence of which it so completely enters, that a breach of it entitles the buyer to treat, if he pleases, the whole contract as a nullity. It constitutes part of the inducement or consideration for the purchase. ït follows that, for a warranty to be valid, it must exist or be made " at the time" of the sale; or, at least, that, being agreed to be made before, there should be an understood reference at the actual sale to that agreement. As, for instance, if previous to the time of sale, the vendor says he " will" warrant the goods, and having named his price, gives the vendee two or three days to consider of it, and the vendee then agrees to purchase, the warranty, though only made hypothetically, is tacitly incorporated into the terms of the sale, and is a valid warranty. But a warranty made " after " the completion of the sale
is of no value whatever, being without any consideration. From these premises also, coupled with the rule that
where a contract is reduced to writing, the writing is the sole legitimate evidence to prove its terms, we may further deduce that an oral warranty made previously to a sale by written contract, but not inserted in the instrument, will not be valid. Thus in Pickering v. Dowson, Gibbs, C. J., says, " I hold that if a man brings me a horse and makes any representation whatever of his quality and soundness, and afterwards we agree in writing for the purchase of the horse, that shortens and corrects the representations; and what- ever terms are not contained in the contract do not bind the seller, and must be struck out of the case." |
It is also a rule of law, that where a commission is given
to execute any work, every power necessary to carry it on will be implied. A servant, therefore, employed to sell a horse, has an implied authority to warrant that it is sound; and in the case of a "general" agent—-for example, the servant of a iivery-stable keeper—this warranty will bind the master, though made contrary to his express directions; and, in every case, the warranty of a servant or agent, so entrusted to sell, will bind the principal, if he do not expressly prohibit it being made. With respect to what declarations of the seller will amount
to a warranty, the primary rule for the interpretation ol contracts in general is applicable. It depends upon the " intention " of the parties. Thus, a simple affirmation of the goodness of an article is
a warranty, provided it " appear to have been so intended; whereas the sublimest epithets that seller ever employed to recommend his goods to a credulous buyer, will be regarded as the idle phraseology of the market, " unless an intention to warrant actually appear." For example, when the vendor declared at the time of sale, that he " could" warrant, i* was held to mean that he " would " and " did " warrant. So when the seller affirms that the goods are his property» he is held to " warrant the title." And, on the other hand, when at the time of sale the seller showed the buyer a written pedigree, which he had received from the person of whom he bought the horse, and said he sold him according to that pedigree, the mark being out of his mouth when he bought him, and the pedigree was proved to be false; it was held that this was no warranty. No general rule, therefore» can be laid down further than this—that it is from the " intention" of the parties, as collected from the whole transaction, and from the meaning they appear to attach t0 particular expressions, that the existence or non-existence of a warranty is to be inferred. But the most important part of our investigation relateS
to the " extent" of the warranty. We must here observe, i° the first place, that although a warranty may be made t° extend to temper, freedom from blemish, age, aptitude f°r particular work, and many other similar qualities, as well as to soundness ; yet, unless expressly so extended, it will be construed to apply to soundness alone. Thus, when a° ambiguity arose from the insular position of the word " warranted " in the following notice :—" To be sold, a black gelding, five years old; has been constantly driven-^ •warranted," the warranty was held to apply to soundness alone. " Unsoundness " is a term the exact limits of which are
not very clearly defined. According to Lord Ellenborough' any infirmity which renders a horse less fit for present use or convenience, is an unsoundness. This doctrine was lal down by his lordship in a case which turned upon an alleged lameness, and wherein it was admitted by a witness for tbe defendant, that one of the fore legs had been bandaged' because it was weaker than the other: upon this admissio11» |
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HORSE-LAW.—WARRANTY.
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115
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e verdict in favour of the plaintiff seems to have been
n«ed; and it was then observed by the court, " to
^nstitute unsoundness, it is not essential that the infirmity
ouiQ be of a permanent nature ; it is sufficiënt if ' it
. nder the animal for the time unfit for service :' as, for
stance, a cough, which renders it for the time less useful,
Diay ultimately prove fatal." Now this decision appears
°. COntradict a prior one, in which Eyre, C. J., held, that a
§nt lameness occasioned by the horse having taken up a
, u at the farrier's was not an unsoundness. This learned
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positive tender is said to be necessary. No notice of the
unsoundness need be given to the vendor to entitle the vendee to maintain the action ; nor is it necessary to bring the action immediately on discovering the unsoundness. As in a case where a mare was warranted to be sound, quiet, and free from vice and blemish, the buyer, soon after the sale, discovered that she was a roarer, had a thorough- pin, and also a swelled hoek from kicking, yet kept her after this for three months, gave her physic, and used other means to cure her. At the end of that time he sold her, but she was soon returned to him as unsound. He subsequently sent her back to the seller as unsound, who refused to receive her, and in returning to the stables she died. He recovered the full price. But although such notice be not essential, yet it is always
advisable to be given, as the omitting to do so will furnish at the trial a strong presumption that the horse, at the time of sale, was free from the defect complained of, thus rendering the proof of a breach of warranty more difficult. Common justice and honesty, it has been remarked, require that the commodity should be returned at the earliest period, and before it has been so changed by lapse of time as to make it impossible to ascertain, by proper tests, what were its original qualities. To entitle the buyer to the benefit of the warranty, he
must, of course, strictly fulfil the conditions stipulated to be performed on his part. Thus, if, as is frequently the case, a condition be introduced into the warranty, that the horse, if objected to as unsound, shall be returned within a limited time, no action can be maintained for the unsoundness without the strict performance of this condition. So where the warranty was qualified by the vendor by an under- taking to take back the horse, if, on trial, he should be found to have any of the defects mentioned in the warranty, it was held, that the buyer must return the horse imme- diately upon the discovery of them. When the contract is rescinded by the buyer on account of the warranty being broken, the seller has a right to require that the horse shall be returned in as good condition as he was when the defect was discovered; and, therefore, " if the animal fall into a worse state subsequently to such discovery, the buyer cannot then return him, but must rely on his action to recover back a proportional part of the price." There being no warranty, but the purchaser having been
imposed upon, and entrapped into a losing bargain by the artifices or wilful misrepresentations of the seller, his remedy is an action " for the deceit;" to support which " he must prove a fraud " to have been committed by the seller, and also " that it was such as might well impose upon a person of ordinary circumspection;" or, in other words, that " he was deceived and misled by relying upon the integrity of the seller/' in a point where he might reasonably have placed trust and confidence in hin "Any wilful misrepresentations by the vendor of the
qualities of the commodity to be sold, whereby the vendee |
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•J Se, in his observations to the jury, remarks
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-A horse
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lab
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°uring under a temporary injury or hurt, which is capable
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of be
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1Jig speedily cured or removed, is not for that
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an
If |
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öSound horse within the meaning of the warranty.
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ese decisions are not to be regarded as conflicting, one
ec*uction ought possibly to be, that such slight injuries as
V °ceed from external causes, and are with moral certainty
°e speedily and eifectually cured, do not fall under the
ead of infirmities, which term properly comprehends such
^seases on^ as may "^vitlioxit much improbability hang by
e animal through life, while they impair his present
Useftdness.
vrib-biting," in its incipient state, has been held to be "no
soundness " ; but when inveterate (and interfering with
e health of the animal) it then falls within the meaning
ot the term.
At is commonly asserted that a warranty will not bind
ei* it is obviously false. The instance given being that of
,,. orse warranted sound, when it is apparent that he is
"d; and for this doctrine, the venerable argument, which
«es so conspicuous a figure in legal logic, is usually
^e<^—for that it is his own folly. "For that it is the
erg roguery," might, we think, be an argument of
ater cogency the other way, unless knaves in this coun-
j are to be regarded with peculiar favour, like idiots in
• ^ey- We apprehend that this rul e—if any such
eed exist—is one of presumption only, it being inferred
„ ooth parties meant to exclude the particular defect
i the warranty. The case of Shillitoe v. Claridge,
ever, goes far towards disproving the existence of such
4 ïule. et us now consider how the rights of the parties are
tea by the horse being unsound at the time of warranty.
. contract being thus broken on the part of the seller, it
at +"K i,
r , ine buyer's option either to treat it as a nullity, and brj n horse, or to retain him notwithstanding, and
Pri a°. ac**on on the warranty. In the former case, the
eHt*+l ^ai<^ *S *^e measure °f damages which he will be bet to recover in an action ; in the latter, the difference fes • ^n *üat price and his real value. If he offer to
rec tbe contract, and return the horse, he may also r the expenses of his keep; but in order to this a |
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* See under heading Vicbs, post.
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116 HORSE-LAW.—SALES BY AUCTION.
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bound to mention any of his imperfections." Nor does
either the owner, or the auctioneer for him, ever do such » silly thing. Undeserved praise does not lay grounds for an action. Simplex commendatio non óbligat: the buyer ought not to be such a fooi as to believe in laudations, and he consequently cannot in law procure the sale to be dissolved on any such pretext—in the absence, of course, of a war- ranty, either expressed or implied—for there are " construc tive " warranties. All this goes to show the advantage which accrues to sellers by auction; to buyers the disadvantageS are obvious. It is buying a pig in a poke. To dealers and such like, who are not a bit better judges than other people, it is quite a different thing; for they are the familiars of the yard—the depositories of the repositories, obtaining through the servants of the sellers and other channels the information that enables them generally to know all about every horse to be brought to the hammer. Then, as to a trial, of course that's quite out of the question: the animal is only run up and down a few yards—perhaps, all the while with a long whip at his quarters; and all that the most practised eye can possibly determine with absolute certainty, is the animal's style of going, with his visible symptoms of age, of soundness and unsoundness, of shape and make. But it must, nevertheless, be allowed that "the eye," as Tom Carlyle philosophically and justly remarks, " sees what it brings the power to see ;" and, accordingly, a man who is an observer of horses will form a correct opinion of a horse's value and capabilities almost in a minute: supposing, though, all's right and aboveboard in the selling of the subject shown out and run down the auction-ride a dozen yards. But this presumption of honesty clearly implies too much. The law (through Lord Kenyon) said, in a case °*
Mesnard v. Aldridge, where the plaintiff brought an action against the auctioneer because the latter refused to receive a horse as unsound after the lapse of a second day, that the action could not be supported. Mesnard was nonsuited- But no lapse of time bars redress, and an action against the "owner" is maintainable on good and sufficiënt grounds. An action would lie against Tattersall, Aldridge, Dixon,
Grower, or any other auctioneer, for the amount of the horses or other property confided to them for sale, if they let the lot or lots go out of their possession without first receiving the price of them from the purchaser. The law was lai°- down to this effect in the case of Brown v. Staton, as on many other occasions. An action is also maintainable where any deceit is practised, or misrepresentation is made respecting the ownership. To sell a horse as a hunter which has never been ridden with hounds, or to describe a horse as the property of a man to whom the animal does not belong—against both of these dishonesties an action will lie. In all clear cases, both of misdescription a~ regards the horse, and of misrepresentation as to ownership> the law has provided a remedy for the injured purchaser. It was observed, some twenty years since, that " many °
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is induced to purchase, falls within the legal idea of fraud,
and will vitiate the contract," as being a breach of that good faith which ought to reign throughout every commer- cial transaction. This is called " fraud in words." Thus, if A, knowing his horse to be broken-winded or lame, induce B to purchase, by an assurance that he is sound in wind and limb ; then, although A may have expressly refused to warrant, B will nevertheless be entitled to recover from A in an action for the deceit. It is obvious, however, that this action could not be here maintained upon mere proof of the abstract falseness of the representation made by the seller ; but that evidence of the moral falsehood is requisite —the seller's " knowledge " of the falsity, which is called in technical language, the scienter. And herein it is, princi- pally, that this action is distinguished from actions on breach of warranty; for the warranty extends to " all" faults, " known or unknown " to the seller. The other kind of fraud may be termed " fraud in deed."
An instance which may serve to exemplify the nature of those acts of the seller which would fall under this head. " I remember," says Gibbs, C. J., " the case of the sale of a house in South Audley Street, where the seller, being conscious of a defect in the main wall, plastered it up, and papered it over; and it was held that, as the vendor had expressly concealed it, the purchaser might recover." To extend this principle to our subject-matter :—it is conceived if the vendor were to deceive the purchaser, either as to colour, which may be easily done by chemical means ; or as to age, by bishoping the animal; he would be liable for the deceit, although no verbal representations had been made. Thus far on the specially dry ground of the law; we
cannot, however, quit this subject without a few illustra- tions, which may be of value as not being within the reach of a ready reference by those " perplexed in the extreme " as to their " rights " or their " liabilities " in the matter of sale or purchase of a horse. And first of Sale by Auction.—In selling your horses by auction you
avoid not only a world of trouble, but obtain immunity from many prospective responsibilities. This security (al- though not absolute) against an action at law is something; since the judges, a quarter of a century back even, were getting stricter and stricter in their construction of general warranties of soundness, and qualified ones do not answer the purpose of sellers, as they necessarily diminish the prices obtained. " The owner of a good horse," observes Mr. Surtees, "has the same advantage of warranting him sound as he has on a sale by private contract, without incurring the risk of having him returned at the end of five or six weeks, or perhaps as many months (unless, indeed, it can be proved that the cause of the breach of warranty existed at the time of the sale), while the less fortunate owner of a bad horse puts him up for public competition, and though he may expatiate as largely as ever he likes on his good points, still (if he does not warrant him) he is not |
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HORSE-LAW.—SALES BY AUCTION.
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117
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the owners of horses sent to public auctions are persons
whom fortune has placed in such a situation, that the
difference of price obtained by selling their horses with
warranties and without them is of no importance, and that
öiany would prefer giving them away to running the risk of
having them returned at a subsequent period as unsound."
what is the case now ? A horse put up at either Tattersall's,
Aldridge's, or elsewhere, is seldom or ever warranted sound.
What was imagined a-t that period to be a luxury, in which
the rich alone could afford to indulge, is now discovered to
°e a profitable course for the million. Hence 'the univer-
sality of its adoption. Exemption from the plague of
warranty is referrible to this plain cause: that all the
parties concerned do better at the horse repositories without
a warranty of soundness than they would do with it.
^gain, as to " the difficulty," if we may use the diploma-
tist's slang, doubtless a great number of desirable horses are
n°t to be picked up at the repositories—or, for the matter
°* that, perhaps, anywhere else hardly. But the number of
eally nice animals, sound and fresh, bears a very small
Proportion to the number of brutes of screws, used up, stale
things, Farther, you may go every sale-day for six months
0 every repository in London, and during the whole time
°* search after the right sort, see scarce a really good goer
e^en; or if you do find one, the odds are high that he has
«one his work, and is not worth a straw to you. Success,
"°Wever, it is not altogether impossible, may crown your
earch, Still, caveat emptor: it is not all gold- that glitters,
ad every stable, as well as every garden, has some weeds.
Ahe latter are occasionally barrowed off—the former drafted
° " the Corner;" care sometimes, perhaps, being taken
«at they are accompanied by other horses in the same
taMe much too good to be sold. Therefore, it happens
8o»ietimes, that when the stud of a nobleman is duly stabled
n<l catalogued, the real thing, in point of fact, is that it is
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to auctioneers as to the price for which they are to sell a
horse. An action does not lie against an auctioneer for sell- a horse at the highest price bid for him, " contrary to the owner's express directions " not to let him go under a larger sum named. But an action will lie if an auctioneer is told by the seller to put the horse up at a certain specified sum. This is the law; and to some persons, perhaps, it will be suggestive of a distinction without a difference. Bexwett v. Christie is one of the precedents cited as a case in point. Mr. Espinasse, in his " Treatise on the Law of Nisi Prius," says, " It was resolved in this case, that when a person sends an article to an auction which advertises to sell to the highest bidder, with orders not to have it sold under such a price, an action will not lie against the auctioneer if he sells it at a price less than that so mentioned, as ' such dealings are a fraud on buyers,' who suppose the lot to be knocked down to the best ' real bidder.' But it is otherwise, had he ordered it not to be set up under such a price." Connected with the point of buying in, is that of " run-
ning up" the animal to be sold; and here we have legal protection for the purchaser beyond what is ordinarily supposed. Where a horse is bid up by a " puffer," and one condition of the auction is, that the highest bidder is to be the purchaser, the vendor cannot recover the price (Pilmore v. Hood, 5 N. C. 97). The law on this point was fully considered by the Court of Common Pleas in the following case : An action was brought by the plaintiff to recover the value of a horse sold by him to the defendant, at a public auction at Aldridge's Repository. It appeared that it was one of the conditions of sale, " that each horse should be sold to the highest bidder;" that the plaintiff's groom attended at the sale on the part of his master for the purpose of raising the price; that the last bona fide bidder had bid £\2; after which, until the horse was knocked down to the defendant for =(?29, he and the groom were the only bidders; and that when the defendant discovered against whom he had been bidding he refused to take the horse. Upon these facts Chief Justice Best said : " I am clearly
of opinion that this action cannot be maintained. I have long been surprised that the objection has never been taken. A man goes to a sale, and is told that if he is the highest bidder he shall have the article. He bids a certain sum, and a person (employed by the seller) whom he does not know, attends and puffs against him, and in consequence of that he is compelled to pay a much larger price than he would otherwise have paid. Is not this a gross fraud? I am prepared to nonsuit the plaintiff." It was then proved for the plaintiff, by the evidence of the auctioneer, that the defendant was in the habit of attending sales of horses, and that he knew the plaintiff's groom was present; and it was stated that there was a case deciding that a seller has a right to have one person to bid for him at the sale, if he does not do it in order to impose. Chief Justice Best then aaid : " I agree that he has such a right, but then he must |
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th
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e weeds only, the refuse of the stable, and not the stud
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that
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is really to be parted with; the cracks are only
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ourable candidates for a new master, their old one causing
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th
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en* to be bought in.
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T
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return to another " bit of law." If a man is so " infirm
Purpose " as to bid for a horse, and the moment after his |
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of
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b
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üing desires it to be considered as no bidding at all, the
** Will stand his friend. It will be to him "faithful ngst the faithless;" for who would not be ashamed of g seen beside such a fellow, with his shabby backing |
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Ihe loophole of retreat, according to law, is open to
ider, and " his bidding may be retracted at any time |
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th
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re the lot ïs actually knocked down ;" supposing, of
a .S6> t the conditions of the sale do not provide co + *^e contingency. The reason assigned is this: a a , ract to be binding must be agreed to by both parties, . ne auctioneer not having signified his by knocking a the hammer, there is no contract.
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v
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rerr nice
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"bit of law" will surprise not a few. It involves a
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point with respect to the instructions given
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HORSE-LAW.—SALE ON SUNDAY.
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118
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upon breach of that warranty." The cases upon this point
may be found in Mr. Oliphant's book, and fully prove the Frenchman's satire, avec Ie del il a des accommodemens— even in the matter of keeping holy the Sabbath day. From this digression we will return to warranty, un-
soundness, and vice. The most definite of legal dicta to be found on the
general nature of unsoundness are contained in a couple of cases. The first was an action of assumpsit brought on a warranty ; and under the direction of Mr. Justice Erskine, at the trial, averdict was found for the plaintiff. In refusing a rule for a new trial Mr. Baron Parke said, " The rule I laid down in Coates v. Stephens is correctly reported; that is the rule I have always adopted and acted on in cases of unsoundness: although, in so doing, I differ from the con- trary doctrine laid down my by brother Coleridge in Bolden v. Brogden. I think the word 'sound' means what it expresses, namely, that the animal is sound and free from disease at the time he is warranted sound. If, indeed, the disease were not of a nature to impede the natural usefulness of the animal for the purpose for which he is used, as for instance, if a horse had a slight pimple on his skin, it would not amount to an unsoundness ; but even if such a thing as a pimple were on some part of the body where it might have that effect, as for instance, on a part which would prevent the putting a saddle or bridle on the animal, it would be different." * * * " An argument has, however, been adduced from the slightness of the disease and the facility of cure; but if we once let in considerations of that kind, where are we to draw the line ? A horse may have a cold which may be cured in a day ; or a fever, which may be cured in a week or a month; and it would be difficult to say where to stop. Of course, if the disease be slight the unsoundness is proportionably so, and so also ought to be the damages : and if they were very inconsiderable, the judge might still certify under the statute of Elizabeth, to deprive the plaintiff of costs." * * * ' But on the question of law, I think the direction of the judge
in this case was 'perfectly correct, and that this verdict ought not to be disturbed. Were this matter presented to us now for the first time, we might deem it proper to grant a rule, but the matter has been, we think, settled by previous cases: and the opinion which we now express is the result of deliberate consideration." Upon the same point Baron Alderson said, " I am of the
same opinion. The word ' sound' means ' sound,' and the only qualification of which it is susceptible arises from the purpose for which the warranty is given. If, for instance, a horse is purchased to be used in a given way, the word ' sound' means that the animal is useful for that purpose: and ' unsound' means that he, at the time, is affected with something which will have the effect of impeding that use. If the disease be one easily cured, that will only go in miti- gation of damages. It is, however, right to make to the definition of unsoundness the addition my brother Parke |
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declare it by the conditions of sale. I am of opinion that a
person acts in opposition to the conditions of sale where the highest bidder is to be the buyer, if he employs a person to bid for the purpose of enhancing the price. In this case the other person at the sale did not go near the ultimate sum. It is impossible under these circumstances to say that £2$ was the highest price contemplated by the conditions; for the defendant, under them, was entitled to have the horse at the next highest bidding to that of the only fair bidder" (Crowder v. Austin, 2 C. & P. 208). The Court of Common Pleas, on a motion for a rule, confirmed Chief Justice Best's ruling at nisi prius ; and Justice Park said: " I entirely concur in the opinion expressed by Lord Mans- field ;" as to which Lord Kenyon, in Howard v. Castle (6 T. It. 634), said: 'The whole of the reasoning of Lord Mansfield in Bexiuell v. Christie is founded on the noblest principles of morality and justice,—principles that are calculated to preserve honesty between man and man. The circumstance of puffers bidding at auctions has been always complained of. If the first case of this kind had been tried before me, perhaps I should have hesitated alittle beforeI determinedit; but Lord Mansfield's comprehensive mind saw it in its true colours, and made a precedent which I am happy to follow." And this decision has been further confirmed by a recent case in the Court of Exchequer (reported in the Law Journal, vol. xv. N. S., Exch. 230), where it was held that in " a sale by auction without reserve, if a puffer be employed without notice of his being there to protect the interest of the seller, the sale is void." It is necessary here to warn the horsedealer that there is
one point in which the luminaries of the law have decided he must not act " like a gentleman " if he would not lose his horse or his money. Thus, in Fennells v. Ridler (5 Barne- wall and Cresswell, 406), the plaintiffs, horsedealers, sold defendant a horse on a Sunday, and Mr. Justice Bayley said, under the 27th of Charles II. c. 7, the plaintiffs could not maintain the action.* But if you are not a horsedealer the case is different. Sabbath-breaking is an indulgence extended exclusively to "gentlemen," in so far as horse- mongering is concerned. In Drury v. Be la Fontaine, it being shown that neither of the parties was " exercising his ordinary calling,"—and were merely cheating each other as "gentlemen," en amateur,—Chief Justice Mansfield declined to apply the statute of the pious Charles. There is another case in confirmation of this view, reported in the books as that of Bloxsome v. Williams. In this case, Justice Bayley said : " When neither of the parties is a horsedealer, a con- tract between them for sale of a horse is good, though made on a Sunday. But if a party take a warranty on a Sunday from a person he knows to be a horsedealer, he cannot sue |
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* The statute of that exemplary monarch is " An Act for the Better
Observance of the Sabbath," and forbids any tradesman, artificer, &c.» to " pursue his ordinary caüing on the Lord's Day." |
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HORSE-LAW.—UNSOUNDNESS.—SERVANT'S WARRANTY.
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119
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"&8 made, namely, that the disqualification for work may
nse either from disease or accident; and the doctrine laid own by him on this subject, both to-day and in the case of oates v. Stephens, is not new law; it is to be found eeognised by Lord Ellenborough and other judges in a series of cases."
■■•he rule as to unsoundness applies to cases of disease and
°ciaent, which from their nature are only temporary, it not
. eing necessary that the disorder should be permanent or
ncurable. This is laid down as law by Lord Ellenborough
fflton v. Brogden, and Elton v. Jordan; also by Mr.
aron Parke in Coates v. Stephens, and by the Oourt of
.XCQequer in Kiddell v. Bumard, although Mr. Justice
°ieridge in Bolden v. Brogden was of a different opinion.
**■ vice is a bad habit, and a bad habit to constitute a vice
Ust either be shown in the temper of the horse, so as to
ake him dangerous, or to diminish his natural useful-
ess; or it must be a habit decidedly injurious to his
iaealth.
■*-he soundness or unsoundness of a horse is a question
J^culiarly fit for the consideration of a jury, and the Court
u* not set aside a verdict, on account of there being a pre-
1 °nderance of evidence the other way; and they should
°°sider whether the effect said to proceed from the alleged
Soundness, is such an effect as in the eye of the law
nders a horse unsound. It is also a question for them,
ether a horse warranted sound was at the time of delivery
ndered unfit for immediate use to an ordinary person, on
c°unt of some disease. And in case of vice they should
Slder, whether the effect alleged to proceed from a
. rtain habit is such an effect as the law holds to be a vice
m a horse.
nti ner curbs, crib-biting (see ante, p. 259), or some
er drawbacks, do or do not, according to law, constitute
°undness, are vexed questions which conflicting verdicts
, .e *eft sticking in the clay of litigation, the law all the
rp e looking on, but doing little or nothing to settle points.
address ourselves to the ventilation of such debateable
ers would take up too much time and space. All we
say on the subject is, that the law in relation to the
st + ^ an<^ se^mg °f horses is by no means in a satisfactory
ahl ' glorious uncertainty is, perhaps, partly attribut-
a , ° tae profound ignorance of most of our judges of the
j. * status quo of the animal economy of horses, and of a
Hot a *^n§s besides, of and concerning horses, that can-
°cca!rSibly-be learned either
in chambers, in banco, by an
onal ride in Rotten-row, or even by a run now and
yo tn "ie beagles of old Sir Peter, or the harriers of goor) ■ e^- But whether or not our law judges are
abni t ? °^ ^orses> knowing all about, or nothing at all
it j ' e *"s to which the animals are heirs and heiresses,
eau r aintüat no person, learned or unlearned in the law, a&d ^n°n' Precisely say how the judge will direct the jury, defend her the verdict wiU be for the Plamtiff or the
nt> As prevention is proverbially better than cure, |
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it is prudent never to warrant a horse either by word of
mouth (and mind, if your groom does, it is just the same as if you yourself did it; for the law says, Qui facit per alium facit per se), or by a written receipt. The mentioning a receipt recals one framed by Mr. Surtees,*
who observes, that if a buyer cannot induce a seller to be nailed in black and white, after the stringent fashion pre- scribed in his formula, he should get as much of it put in as the seller may be soft enough to insert! The form recom- mended by the learned " gentleman " is this:— "Horncastle, Jan. 1, 1862.
" Received of A. B. the sum of------pounds for a chesnut
gelding, which I hereby warrant to be only six years old last
grass (sic in orig.); and also that he is sound and free from vice, restiveness, and fkults (particularly---------) ; and that
he is quiet to ride and drive, without blemish."
As we have mentioned Surtees' book, we will revert to
the question as to how far the servant's warranty binds the master. In the case of Pickering v. Bush, Mr. Justice Bayley said—" If the servant of a horse-dealer, with express direc- tions not to warrant, does warrant, the master is bound, because the servant, having a general authority to sell, is in a condition to warrant, and the master has not notified to the world that the general authoritv is circumscribed." However, in an analogous case of Fenn v. Harrison, where the above opinions were quoted, Lord Kenyon doubted the propriety of a master's being bound by his servant's warranty, and said he thought the maxim of respondeat superior applied. In Helyear v. Hawhe, Lord Ellenborough said— " I think the master having intrusted the servant to sell, he is intrusted to do all that he can to effectuate the sale ; and if he does exceed his authority in so doing, he binds his master." The circumstances of the case- were these:—The horse had been inserted in Tattersall's catalogue, but was not brought to the hammer, and Helyear afterwards, having the catalogue in his hand, inquired of Hawke's groom, who had the care of the horse, if the horse was but seven years old, and if free from vice ; to which the latter replied " Yes, if you have him." And upon an objection to this evidence being received to bind the master, Lord Ellenborough said— " If the sefvant is sent with the horse by his master, and the horse is offered for sale, I think he thereby becomes the accredited agent of his master, and what he has said at the time of sale, as part of the transaction of selling, respecting the horse, is evidence; but an acknowledgment to that effect made at another time is not so: it must be confined to the time of the actual sale, when he was acting for his master." It afterwards appeared that nothing had been said about the price; and his Lordship was of opinion that it could not be deemed a complete contract for the sale of the horse, and would not support a warranty at alL Who shall |
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* In a work On Warranty, now superseded, by lapse of time, by
Oliphant's Law of Horses, of which there is an edition brought down to recent times, in respect to the adjudged cases in the Courts. |
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HORSE-LAW.—VETERINARY CERTIFICATES.
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120
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to a regular medical investigation, and no company would
act in so unbusiness-like a manner as merely to take a person's own " warranty" that he is sound in health and constitution, and so be put to the proof, in case of his death, that he was not so at the time he gave the warranty, for this would lead to endless disputes. The best rule for a man therefore to follow, in selling a
horse is, this: where the horse is of no great value, to refuse a warranty altogether, and such a horse is best sold by auction. Where the horse is of great value, if sound, but that appears doubtful, then to let the purchaser be satisfied by a veterinary examination, and so take the responsibility upon himself. Where, however, the seller is confident that the horse is perfectly sound, and that with a warranty he would fetch a much larger price than without one, he should have him examined and certified as sound, &c, by one or two veterinary surgeons of respectability and experience, and then, knowing on w.hat grounds he goes, he may take the risk of warranting him sound. The vexation and difficulty experienced in horsedealing
arise, in a great measure, from the loose manner in which such transactions are conducted, and from the thoughtless manner in which people give warranties ; and we generally find that the smaller a man's knowledge may be with regard to horses, the more ready he is to warrant, little dreaming of the responsibility he is thus fixing upon himself. ' Mr. Oliphant* thus remarks on
Veterinary Certificates.—When a horse is in the possession
of his natural and constitutional health, and is also in such bodily perfection as is consistent with his natural formation, a veterinary surgeon will of course certify him to be sound. But as there is in most horses some slight alteration ifl structure, either from disease, accident, or work, a veterinary surgeon in giving his certificate had much better describe the actual state of the horse, and the probable consequences, without mentioning " soundness " or " unsoundness " at all» and so let the purchaser buy him or not as he may be advised- Because in such a case a straight-forward statement would be made, and a man in the Veterinary profession would not be called upon in an ofF-hand manner to decide questionS which are of the greatest nicety, being full of uncertainty> and upon which no conclusive decisiou can safely be arrived at. For we find the greater the difficulty, the more likely is a decision (if come to at all), to be the result of a sligM preponderance of one over each of many conflicting opinionS- A man will sometimes warrant a horse in consequence ot
a veterinary opinion given in an off-hand manner, either without a sufficiënt examination of the horse having bee» made, or sometimes in the face of actual disease; for tbe giving a warranty seems to be considered quite a trifli"^ matter. Thus, in the case of Hall v. Rogerson, tried »* |
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decide when judges disagree? The best way is to write
down the instructions, if the master either cannot or does not choose to be referred to. From all that is here set down the common sense
deduction seems to be that warranty should be given only in very exceptional and rare cases, and that soundness is so indefinite and complex a thing that it is courting trouble to guarantee it. Indeed there seems no reason why a person buying a horse should not act as he would in any other transaction where there is risk. For instance, a man buying a house does not merely examine it himself, and then, because he likes it, buy it with a warranty ; but he takes his surveyor with him, who points out all its defects, and then, the purchaser being aware of these, buys it or not, according to the opinion he forms of its value after they have been taken into consideration.* In all cases where a risk is run and an insurance effected,
there are regular rules laid down by which such transactions are governed Where too a person insures his life he submits |
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* In The Veterinarian, vol. vil, N. S., pp. 108—116, and pp. 162—
167, is the translation of a lecture on Veterinary Jurisprudence, by Professor Renault, of the School at Alfort, from which a view of the law in Trance as to "warranty and unsoundness" may be obtained. Our neighbours d'outremanche are quite "as much to seek" as we are, though their written law looks plain. The Code Napoleon, arts. 1641 —1649, chapter ii., § iii., of the Code Civil, attempted something; but the "anarchy of the law," ys the Professor terras it, is complete in the practice of the Courts. The laws of Sale and Warranty in France are as follow :—
"Art. 1. The vendor (providing he gives a warranty} is held respon-
sible for all unapparent defects that may render the vended article unfit for the required purposes, or bo diminish that fitness that the purchaser, had he been aware of their existence, would not have bought it at all, or else not at so high a price. "2. For self-apparent defects, such as the buyer could not fail to
discover, the vendor is not responsible. " 3. But for such as are not perceptible, even though he was ignorant
of their existence himself, still is he amenable, unless stipulated that he would not hold himself chargeable with any warranty. " 4. In a case of false warranty, it is at the option of the purchaser
either to return the article and claim back the price of it, or to retain it and claim the restitution of such proportion of the original cost as shall by judicious arbitration be awarded. "5. If the vendor possessed a knowledge of such defects, he is
responsible not only for the return of the price of the article, but for any damage or inconvenience sustained by the purchaser in conse- quence thereof. "6. But if the vendor was unconscious of them, he will be only
liable to refund the price of the article, and reimburse the purchaser for any expenses attending the sale. "7. If such defective article becomes lost in consequence of its
defectiveness, the loss belongs to the vendor, who will have to return the price paid for it, as well as make good other expenses incurred by it: should the loss, however, be the result of accident, it will remain chargeable to the account of the purchaser. "8. Any action intended by the purchaser, in such cases as these,
should be instituted with as little delay as the particular case demands, and as is consonant with the customs of the place. " 9. No such action will lie when the sale is one ordered by judicial
authority." |
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* A Treatise on the Law concerning Horses, Rating, Wagers,
Qaming. By G. II. Hewit Oliphant, Esq. |
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HORSE-LAW.—LIEN.
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121
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_e Newcastle Spring Assizes, 1847, it appeared that a
ess, who was a veterinary surgeon, had taken off the
se s snoes, and examined his feet, when he found a slight
vexity of sole. The owner then asked him if he would
justified" in warranting the horse as it had been
yranted to him ; the witness then asked him if he was
atisfied the horse " went sound;" he replied, " Perfectly so;"
"en said he was justified. On cross examination, the
ess said, " I pointed out a slight disease in the sole, but
ugnt he would have been justified in warranting him ; if
u taken the precaution to see him go, things might have
, n different." So that a veterinary surgeon finding that
rse has a disease in the sole, and without taking the
• aution to see him go, tells the owner he is "justified"
thalarrantin& Nowthe
use of the word "justified" shows
. neither of the parties fully knew the amount of liability
ired by giving a warranty, and it seems as if they had
1(lered it rather an afFair of conscience or honour than
egal responsibility.
in a at t^le vetermary profession feel the greatest difficulty
eahng with the question of unsoundness when called
a _or a certificate on that point, will appear from part of
p rticle on "Soundness as opposed to Lameness," by Mr.
d"ffi°1V ^e wr^tes> " Reluctantly as we enter on this
cmt and much debated question, we feel it our duty to
e some observations on the subject, though these obser-
ns wül be rather of a general than of a particular
. e' and have especial reference to soundness, regarded
rjfi ^ converse of, or opposite state to, lameness. No
to tv,ö ^s or se^s a Borse without feeling some concern as
s- ® s°undness of the animal; the purchaser is apprehen-
est his new horse should from any cause turn out
^.ï . lceable or unequal to that for the performance of
ej., ^e has bought him; the vendor is apprehensive,
j, Jest the animal, in other hands, should not prove
^ °und and effective servant he conceived or represented
def ° °r ^es* some unrepresented or concealed fault or
°e is aware the animal possesses, may now, in his
« master's hands, be brought to light.
undness, as opposed to actual or decided lameness (or
stoodn°nyrn°US With g°°d health)'
is a state too well under-
how ° nee(^ any definition or description ; when we come,
the' v"' *° ^raw a ^me between soundness and lameness in er,A lstinguished form—to mark the point at which one |
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which is accounted to be the precursor of lameness, or have
a tendency at some period proximate or remote to produce it; all which differences are best got rid of by reference to the ablest veterinary advice. There will be less diversity of opinion among professional men than among others, and the more skilful and respectable the professional persons are, the greater will be the probability of a happy unison in their views of the case." (Veterinarian, vol. xviii. p. 366.) Mr. Goodwin, Veterinary Surgeon to the Queen, makes
the following sensible remarks on the certificates given by veterinary surgeons to the vendors and purchasers of horses. He says, "it is to be regretted that the members of the Veterinary profession have not been taught to adopt some rules for rendering the certificates they are required to give upon examining horses as to soundness, at least somewhat similar in the construction and expression of their opinions. so as to render them more intelligible to the persons who have to pay for them. I am quite aware of the impossibility of attempting to reduce professional opinions to one common Standard; but I think that our leading practitioners might meet together, and agree upon some general principles for their guidance, that would make their certificates less liable to the censure aud ridicule they both merit and incur. The occurrence is by no means uncommon for a buyer to send a horse to be examined by a veterinary surgeon, and, not feeling satisfied with the opinion he obtains, to send him to another; and then comparing the certificates of the two, and finding them diametrically opposite in their statements, he finally trusts himself to the warranty of the dealer, purchases the horse, and at the end of six months has had to congratulate himself upon the possession of a sound animal, and the escape he has had in avoiding two unsound certificates." {Veterinarian, vol xix. p. 88.) Lien.—A look at "the law of lien"—as it is a kindred topic
to the law of warranty—may not be amiss. A livery-stable keeper, then, has not a lien on horses standing with him; an innkeeper, on the contrary, has ; the latter being entitled by law to keep the horses in his stable until paid for their keep. The reason assigned by the lawyers for the difference in favour of the innkeeper is this :—The livery-stable keeper can refuse to receive the horses of any person; he is a free agent in the business ; but the innkeeper has no choice. Willing or unwilling it is obligatory by law upon him to take a horse in to stand at livery, even though neither the owner nor his servant lodge at the inn. Of course, horses, like all other chattels, are liable to be seized at a livery-stable, under distraint for the landlord's rent; and the processof recovery is not seldom extremely unpleasant, although the result is pretty certain if people only go the right way about it. Again, if a horse be stolen from the stables of an innkeeper, its proved value can be recovered from him. In the case of Wallace v. Woodgate, Lord "Wynford, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, told the jury that a livery-stable keeper had not, by law, a lien for the keep of horses, unless by special agreement with the owner of them ; and that if they were |
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diffi u . otner begins—we meet a difficulty, and this
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mcreases when we find ourselves called on to
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-< under our denomination of unsoundness, that which
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ls iikelv or *,
b8 • . a tendency to bring forth lameness. It will
^aine\1S \tkeref°1'e, for us to say, not simply that every
that K rSG X-S unsouna) but to a^ tnese words, or who has Tjjjg . . lni which is likely on work to render him lame. ajiij p .' ls true> open the door to difference of opinion t\vo 0 • • Ocatlon There may, as we have seen, spring up ïhere 'K™8 Concerning the presence evsn of lameness. * ln more cases be two opinions concerning that |
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IIORSE-LA W.— WARRANTY.
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122
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chesnut hunter, sold by the plaintiff to the defendant o°
the 26th of July, 1861. The defendant paid ,£50 into court, and, as to the residue, pleaded " never indebted." The horse, whicn was the subject of dispute bet ween Mr-
Richard Botterill, of Garton, in the East Riding, and Mr- John Batty, of Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, appeared to have been a remarkably fine animab Mt. Botterill bougbt it in November, 1860, for £75. It was worked a little i» a light chaise during the winter, and was broken in during the spring. On the 15th of July, 1861, there was a shot? at Leeds, and the horse carried off the second prize. On the 26th of the same month there was a very large show &* Driffield, and the horse carried off three prizes—as a four- year-old, as a hunter, and as the best horse on the ground- In the interval between the two shows a little hair had been knocked off one of the bind legs, either in the rail^a7 truck or by some slight blow from shying at the station- But the material question did not turn upon the injury» which was noticed by the vendor and vendee at the tiffie of the bargain at Driffield, but upon the question whethe* the horse was naturally sound or not. Mr. Botterill arranged to sell the horse to Mr. Batty for £250, and to deliver it i* a day or two. Mr. Botterill sent it over to Malton on the 8th of August, and in a day or two it was taken thence to Bishop Monkton. Within a very few days Mr. Batty sold it for £260 to Mr. Chinnock, near Reading, and Mr. Chinnock subsequently sold it for £270 to Mr. Collins, a dealer, i° London. Mr. Collins, however, returned the horse, and s» did Mr. Chinnock, and Mr. Batty desired to return it f°r unsoundness, or to reduce the priee to £50, which he haü paid into court, as its full value. The case for the plaintiff was that the horse was perfect!/
sound on the 26th of July, and that any defects now visiW3 had arisen from subsequent causes, particularly from tbe effects of epileptic fits and a wound on the head. It wa9 not denied that the horse was warranted sound to M'* Batty, and Mr. Botterill relied upon the evidence of Pr°" fessor Spooner, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Holmes, and other big*5 authorities on horses who saw the animal at Driffield, &n proved that at that time there were no indications of üü' soundness. Mr. Holmes had a horse competing with the chesnut at Driffield for the prize, and if there had bee° any sympton of disease it would have been a disqualifi08' tion. Mr. Holmes's horse took the second prize, and k8 said he should certainly have called attention to any detec* in the chesnut had any been distinguishable on the day ° the show, which was also the day of the sale. The case for the defendant was that the horse was o*
turally unsound or affected with hereditary disease ™ne° Mr. Botterill sold it at Driffield, and Mr. Field, Mr. Ma*?* Mr. South, Mr. Varrei, Mr. Cox, Mr. Greenway, Mr. Chio] nock, Mr. Brewster, and other witnesses declared most »D;> equivocally their opinion that the chesnut was a " whistier» had splints inside each hind leg, showed enlargement of tia hoeks, commonly called spavin, on both hind legs, and &^ |
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satisfied that there was an agreement to that effect, and that
Wallace had removed the horses to defraud Woodgate of his lien, then their verdict must be for Woodgate, which they accordingly gave. It appeared that Woodgate was a dealer, and had sold Wallace three horses, and taken his bills of exchange in payment. As well as being a horse-dealer, Woodgate kept a livery-stahle, into which (out of the sale stable) he removed the horses in question ; but there was no evidence to show that there was any agreement made that they should remain there until their keep was paid for. Wallace was in the habit of using the horses whilst they were kept by Woodgate, and one day, under pretence of using them, took them entirely away to another stable. Woodgate, finding out where they had been removed to, in the absence of Wallace, repossessed himself of them, upon which Wallace brought his action ; and the defence was that Woodgate had a right to retain the horses until the keep was paid for, he having a lien by agreement. There is yet another phase of the law of warranty we had
nearly overlooked. We give it in the subjoined paragraphs:— " As to resale by a purchaser with a warranty, where a
purchaser, relying upon his warrant)' sells the horse to another, giving a similar warranty to tho one he received, and upon its failing an action is brought against him, and he gives notice of such failure and action to the original seller, who gives no direction for defending or abandoning the cause, the costs sustained thereby will be added to the amount of the original damage accrued by reason of the false warranty, and the second seller will be entitled to recover the sum from the original vendor. It must, how- ever, be proved that the horse was unsound at the time of the first sale. " Where a horse is delivered to a smith to shoe, and he
injures him, an action can be brought. So if he delivers him to another smith, the owner may have his action against the latter. And it is said that an action lies for not shoeing according to promise, if the horse is injured from the want thereof. " Formerly it was understood, if a veterinary surgeon
undertook to cure a horse of any malady, and through negligence or unskilful treatment he died or was injured, that the owner could recover the value of the horse in an action against the surgeon, without proving any express agreement, on the ground that whoever undertakes a duty is bound to exercise proper and competent skill in his occupation. This doctrine, according to Professor Coleman, was reversed in an action wherein he was a witness, and bore testimony to gross mismanagement on the part of a veteri- nary surgeon ; notwithstanding which the jury, under the direction of the judge, returned a verdict for the defendant." As a good typical example of the perils of warranty we
may relate the details of the case of Botterill v. Batty, which lasted three days in the Court of Queen's Bench, before Chief Justiee Cockburn and a special jury. The action was brought to recover £250, the price of a ftrar - year - old [ |
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HORSE-LAW.—" UNCERTAINTY."—CONCLUSION.
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123
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th X \ a °Urb °n tbe off~nock- Great stress was laid on
had rgement °f the h°cks' and Mr' Field Said the disease
probably existed for some months. No very great point tll S made of the curb, and that blemish was attributed to
GolraCCident bef°re the horse arrived at Driffield. Mr. th° V*' °" discovering tne " whistling," sent it at once to « er*naï7 College, and it was there pronounced unsound, "wtiistler," and having enlargement of the hoeks, of y g stan<üng, a little below the usual seat of spavin. Mr. not 6 ' t ass^stant professor, admitted that the horse was th i.->W a " wkistler," an(i the enlargement of the bones of t>l a S was *ae unsoun(^ness upon which reliance was st a- or (m reply to his Lordship) said that under-
^ nS that this horse had never done any hard work, he stit • °Pln^on the bony enlargement of the hoeks was con- tha -°n and wou^d therefore take more time to develop the V, animal had been hard-worked. He examined tnü T"Se °n tile 28th of October, and he thought the disease
st have existed for at least three months.
<tir r'- **ard Barker, of Malton, to whom by defendant's sa.id ^s the horse was delivered on the 8th of August, &cc ln b*s °P^ni°n the horse was not deliverable on Wk ?* °^ unsoun<iness. The hair was off the leg and the
f0r lo°ked large. Mr. Botterill bought the horse of him hj ' and promised him if he was lucky with it to give |^e ,Something more. When the horse took the prizes at
Pla* •a ■^rimel(i, witness thought that as a gentleman tim SQould have given him £5, but he had not found 0ri ,,' • Rookes, of Exeter, and other witnesses, said that
Wo , assumption that the horse was spavined it was not thei m°re than £i0' Plaintiff's witnesses said that in
Cotlj. pPlnion the horse was worth i?100 in its present rjelieltl0.n' °r £80 even if sPavined. though they did not ^ • They admitted that the horse went lame to-day, jury rou§at down to Palace-yard for the inspection of the
aftep !f tbey attributed it to the state of its feet. The jury, agr ree bours' deliberation, declared their inability to Lqj.1 a verdict, and were accordingly discharged. The ^e m Justice said that in this case every effort should Wouij ,e to arrange matters, because it was very likely it
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with anything like certainty what the verdict will be ?
unless, indeed, a dealer happens to be the defendant; then it is easy enough to give a shrewd guess that the poor devil will get his "gruel" from a jury of jewellers or drapers. For our part, we must think that this same "glorious uncertainty" is signally inglorious and unsatisfactory. We say, it is rather a serious fact that the hazy state of the law relating to the warranty of horses leaves a larger portion of the public, like so many foot-balls of fortune, to be kicked, and to be made the sport of chance and its thumbscrews. Every man in the kingdom who either buys or sells a horse may be robbed "according to law." He may be plundered owing to the prejudices of a jury, pushed out of court by a crowd of stout swearers, and victimized by the contradictory dicta of veterinary surgeons—who often sell opinions not worth a straw. Sometimes, though rarely, the party is sacrificed to the caprice of counsel, together with the indifference of a napping judge, who sees plainly enough that the little " law " there is in the case is entirely smothered by the matter of " fact," and that por- tion exhibiting such a mass of agglomerated contradictions as not only to disgust him, but to defy all ordinary perception to distinguish truth from falsehood. Now, no system of law, it is clear, can entirely prevent the patent wrong against which public opinion is roused. What, then, is to be done in order to get rid of this incubus—of this morbid, most mischievous excrescence on the law of war- ranty relating to horses ? This has now become a very serious question. Sporting men especially ask, " How is such a thing to be remedied ? " For purity of administration, there is no place in the
world like an English court of law. But who will deny that the law itself—always impartially, and, on the whole, admirably administered—is susceptible of some simplifica- tion in horse-warranty questions ? Surely there is sagacity enough at bar and on bench to make itplainer to understand —to render it more uniform in its results, and less exposed to the scandal against which the public are in arms. The fraud and the folly, the clashing and the discord,—the exhibition of knaves making a harvest of fools, the con- flicting opinions and contradictory statements that startle one's common sense almost every day, the chaotic and unseemly confusion revealed—this state of things, we think, supplies a valid argument for that reform in the law of warranty which the public urgently requires, and which has no practical effect but to favour the fictions, the anomalies, the ambiguities, and we may safely add the frauds, on which the low attorney fattens. |
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This
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e tri&^ again with the same result.
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*hich « aSe aP^v illustrates that " uncertainty" against
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The nh ^ ous " as it may possibly be, we must protest,
&Ware 6S * a norse-case may exhibit, we are perfectly
P^dict tU Pretty well known beforehand ; but who can
e result, we sbould like to learn? Who can aver
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COüfSTRUCTION OF THE STABLE.
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V24
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CHAPTEE XII.
THE STABLE : CONSTRUCTION : VENTILATION : LIGHTING : DRAINING : THE HUNTING STABLE, THE LOOSE BOX : STABLE-FITTINGS "'
THE HABNESS ROOM.
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The regular hunting and training stables of large establish-
ments are usually substantial and well-built edifices, and not a few, such as those at Goodwood (Duke of K,ichmond's)i at Badminton (Duke of Beaufort's), at Billesdon Coplow, late (Mr. Lyne Stephens's), in Norfolk, and other places, exhibit great skill in design, and lavish outlay in construction. As a town stable, that of the Earl of Shelburne, in Bruton Street, though necessarily irregular in its form, from its adaptation to existent surrounding buildings, is a good example of plain and judicious arrangements, and comfort- able provision for horse and man. However, as it is prepos- terous to suppose that all stables can be brought to theif Standard of excellence, we will proceed to generalize on the desiderata of a horse's dwelling. As stabling the horse is primarily a deviation from nature,
it follows, as an inevitable sequence, that it often paves the way to disorders unknown, or varying in character from those of the animal in its aboriginal state. This tendency can best be obviated by judgment, care, and sedulous attention. Space is an important element in stable arrangements-
" Single-headed " stables, that is, those that have but one ro^ of stalls, should never be less than twelve feet wide; whüe " double-headed " ones should be twenty-four feet, with si* feet six to seven feet each stall, by six feet wide. " Stable architects," says Mr. Stewart, in his clever work called " Stable Economy," " have not much to boast of. Their sole ideas are limited to shelter and confinement. If the weather be kept out, and the horse be kept in, their objects are attained. If light and air be demanded, the doorway triU admit them. If the horse has room to stand, it matters little though he have none to lie; and if you can get bh0 into the stable, what consideration is it, though his loins he strained, or his haunch bruised in getting out of it?" Nar* row stalls are highly prejudicial to horses; back-sprains are often produced by them in the attempt to turn the horse in his stall: whenever this is less than six feet wide, cautie-11 the groom always to back the animal out of it. Swingt bars or bails are highly objectionable, from the temptati°B to horses to play with each other, and to kick under or ovei them, according to height. They are also objectionable» inasmuch as horses vary as much as human beings & quickness of eating, and the tardy masticator gets robbed o his food by the rapid swallower. |
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Modern research and enlightened experience Dring us back
from the artificial to the natural—nay, more, prevent us from confounding two things so essentially different. Our fathers—those at leastwho could afford such a luxury to their quadrupedal servants—baked and starved their "terrible high-bred cattle " in a compound of their own effluvia, con- sisting of hydrogen, ammonia, vaporized water, with even small doses of carburetted hydrogen and other agreeable air- poisons—and then pointed to their " blooming coats " as proof positive and irrefragable of their success in producing " high condition." How often they shortened life, how they destroyed the respiratory organs, how they filled their stables with inflammatory disease, let the old farriery books show ; w.e have, however, less reliable statistics on this point than on the frightful loss of human life in the miasmatic dens of our great cities at the same period. We have scarcely yet, except in the stables of the wealthy and the enlightened, entirely overcome prejudice and tradition in this and other respects ; but we hope yet to see thorough ventilation, light (without which there is no true cleanliness), effectual drainage, and moderate temperature, in the abodes of our most valuable of servants. At any rate these desiderata should form parts of the new " Health of Stables Bill; " of which we propose to place the rough draft before the reader, and which we hope, for the sake of the horse- constituency and their masters, will soon becomë the general " practice '' if not the " law " of the land. We are not about to treat, in this place, of the special
racing stable, in which the first favourite for the " Derby " or "Sellinger" is brought into form and fettle at three years old—to fly over about one mile and a half that he may show his nose first to Judge Johnson, Judge Marshall, or old White of Nantwich*—but talk about the fit dwelling in which the serviceable saddle-horse, or park hack, the useful carriage horse—and, where worldly wealth blesses the owner, the stout hunter, with as much blood in him as there is any use for—may be brought out, each and all, " up to their work," and the last-named animal fit for a " long day." |
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* Since writing this, "Old White, of Nantwicï" has left his
" ehair " for ever. |
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THE STABLE.—TH
Heat and cold should be graduated by the thermometer:
the feeling of a groom or owner is a very fallacious guide. In summer 65° to 68° as a maximum, if possible, and in Sinter never below 50°, With horses, however, that must be kept up to the bright coat, we may spring a few degrees, and say 68° as an average. As temperature is intimately Diixed up with ventilation, and that with light, it is desir- able to have the stables sufficiently airy without cold or draughts. It is taught in the eld books that the horse, and the blood-horse especially, being originally the denizens of a torrid country, require not only warmth but heat in this Northern latitude. This notion was formerly carried to a öiost mischievous extent. Moderate warmth is doubtless congenial to all horses; but a high temperature is only permissible in a stable to produce and maintain the artificial state to which our summer-flyers of Oriental descent are otought for their few speedy strides over the turf, on the rare occasion of their carrying the silken jacket and its light-weight wearer. Such animals have their clothes on when led or ridden to paddock, or tan-gallop, close to the door of their country seat whereat they train and exercise. ^evertheless, even in this exceptional class, the excessive heat, especially in stables where there are several horses, is °y no means necessary or beneficial even to the horse of 8tainless blood. Many of these have we seen—the more the pity t—who, worn by age, lameness, or accident, or per- cnance rejected for vice, engaged in the meanest and hardest service; exposed in all weathers, working in a Hansom cab ! °r that heavy town cart known to Cannon Street and Cheapside travellers as "the phee-a-ton," wherein your -Manchester or Bread Street warehouseman packs his pat- tern-boxes, his samples, and his goods. Yet do such unfor- tünate outcasts from aristocratie horse-palaces adapt them- selves to circumstances, and live to the average period of the fashionable racer; proof positive that the respiratory and secretory organs had kept their efficiency under all the variations of temperature of our variable climate. In con- hned stables, where the same air is breathed over and over a£ain, and where the heat exhales unwholesome effluvia *rom every excrementitious matter, to clog the lungs and Prevent the due oxygenation of the blood, where, too, the Very f00d js deteriorated by these exhalations, we have a arge percentage of the diseases which go to swell the *"eatises and lengthen the bills of our veterinary professors. Aüe improvements in the ventilation of the stables of our ^avalry horses have, of late years, wonderfully diminished nüamed lungs with its perpetual v. s. (venm sectió) in the eterinarian'? diary. Grease, glanders, and farcy, too, have ecreased in a like ratio. When any epizootic is raging, it s always found to be most severe and intractable in crowded ables. Thus, when on board a transport during a storm, e standings of some cavalry horses were of necessity attened down, acute glanders immediately broke out among them, and carried almost all of them off; the PnaciDal cause of the mortality arising from their own |
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E TEMPERATUBE. 125
exhalations. With a f'ul'1 conviction, then, of the prime
necessity of rendering stables moderately warm, but yet more of the importance of their thorough ventilation, especially where the standings are numerous, we pass to the general construction of a stable. Although stables have not alwoys choice of situation and
aspect, these are often neglected where they are at com- mand. A south-eastern aspect for doors and windows is preferable: as dampness of the walls, too, is a fruitful cause of disorder, some of the methods adopted in dwelling-houses are worth consideration. Rising damp is a great generator of miasma, and may be checked by a course of stone laid in cement, a sheeting of zinc laid on thick plank, or in coal districts by a quantity of coal ashes or dust, the least expensive of all. This is for the footing of the outer wall. We need hardly dweil on the advantages of a dry stable when the evils of a damp one are so apparent; coughs, swelled legs, a rough staring coat, that defies the wisp and the hissing of the groom, are its constant con- comitants. In some cases a stove-pipe passed through, or strewing the stables •sdth sawdust or sand, may palliate the mischief. Nimrod recommends that there should be no more than
four stalls in a hunter's stable, and that these should have three horses, being on one side only; the centre partition of two being removable, so as to make a loose box 12 feet by 7 feet; the stable itself 16 feet wide. A pair cf carriage-horses, in like manner, should have three stalls : the spare one will be found as useful as a spare bed in a house, in case of emergency; one of the partitions also shifting so as to form a loose box for an invalid. Coach- horses, however, are generally in a doublé row, which takes a general width of 20 feet from wall to wall. Each stall 6 feet 6 inches to 7 feet, by 6 feet wide. Large cart-horses will need yet more room. The walls should be stone or brick, the latter the best,
and 9 inches thick at the least—13 inches are better. They may be plastered or boarded, the latter the best, up to 3 feet from the manger, and plastered above: although a smooth-dressed wall is as good as either for utility. The stable should be lighted from above if possible, or if it is a single-headed one, from behind the horses' standings: this avoids glare. If the hayloft is above, lighting from the roof will of course diminish its capacity, but this is of minor importance. The ceiling must be plastered, firstly, to prevent the impure nitrogen and ammoniacal gases from ascending to the hay and vitiating it; and, secondly, to prevent the hay-seed and dust from falling into the horses' eyes. White, the veterinarian, approves of an unplastered tiled roof (where there is no loft above); but Stewart, a much better authority, condemns this for any but the commonest of agricultural horsos. Where there is a loft above, 8 to 9 feet are a good height for the ceiling ; which when too lofty is cold, when too low requires draughts and currents to too great an extent to be safe for the horses |
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THE STABLE.—VENTILATION.
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126
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theory of the Professor. It must, however, be admitted
that the renewal of the air in a stable is indispensable to the well-being of the inmates ; and the question is—ho^ this can best be effected ? Whatever difference of purity may be attributed to the
air of cities and of the country, the degree of agitation of the air has a marked influence on the extent to which the chest dilates itself. The slightest agitation of the air, when its state of dampness, dryness, and temperature are properly adjusted to the system, produces such a feeling of relief and of pleasure as to dilate the chest immediately, so as to drink in, as it were, a larger volume of the grateful and genial air- The operation of heat upon the living animal is always stimulating; the operation of cold (or more accurately the absence of heat) is tonic or debilitating, according to its application. The animal frame, like inanimate matter, is liable to have its calorie extracted—abstracted externally— by the application of a colder medium; but its inherent powers of life quickly restore the equilibrium when the cold has been moderate and of short duration. Indeed, the evolution of heat generally exceeds the previous reduction of temperature, as is shown when the body is immersed in water. The pores in this case are strongly closed, and so are the extreme vessels on the surface of the body. The blood is impelled with increased momentum by the heart, and if the body be now emerged the reaction of the vit»* circulating fluid determines it to the surface, and a genial glow succeeds; but if the pores be too long closed—** nature be not thus relieved—and the cold is unduly pro' longed, the effort to throw off the mischief assumes the character of general inflammation. Pure air, then (and, as an accessory, cleanliness), being a
prime necessity to the health of domesticated animals, those who desire a healthy steed will see to these most important points. As a simple mode of attaining a full supply of pn*"e air, two sets of apertures are necessary: one set in the upper part of the stable, for the escape of the impure and heated air; another close to the floor, to admit the p«re and unexhausted air. These latter openings must be s<> contrived that the air on entering shall not be directed in a current on any part of the horses, but diffuse itself gra' dually throughout the stable. The same rule must be observed in the upper ventilating apertures; and, as tke air which has been expired ascends in a direction perpeD' dicular to the horizon, these apertures should be place" upright. When this is not easy to effect, then they shoul<* be as near the ceiling and as far from the horse's nostrils a9 possible. They may be made oblique, which will give ex* to the current of heated air, and protect the stable froflJ rain and wind. But as, owing to the construction a° confined situation of some stables, or from floors above» these openings cannot be made, then small tubes may "6 opened into the stable, in the ceiling, or as near its heig*1 as possible. These may be carried into a flue to the top 'J the building, or outwardly with perforations in the w*^ |
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Iung3 and skin. Where there is no loft, the height should
be greater, or the stable ceiled, otherwise the tiles and slates will make the stable an oven in suramer, and snow on the roof convert it into an ice-house in winter. The importance, then, of avoiding sudden anó extreme
alternations of heat and cold must be one of the points studied in the construction of a healthy stable. We have seen of late years, at the new Palace of Westminster, and in our Law Courts, how our scientific men have alternately chilled and baked the persons of our peers, the " collective wisdom " at St. Stephen's, and the frequenters of our Courts of Justice. Sometimes this has been effected by hyper- borean blasts through pierced floorings, or ascending currents through cocoa mattings, and the like permeable contrivances. Then, by way of per contra to these draughts of "cold without," up the trowser-legs of auditors and jurymen—not forgetting the inflation of the judges' robes—they have changed the tap, and turned on their " warm with," from ingeniously contrived furnace-flues, to such an extent, that it is only a few weeks since a learned judge in one of our Courts, finding that " science" had fastened up all the windows of the reeking Gourt during the blowing of this sirocco, ordered an attendant to resort to a primitive mode of ventilation, by smashing the window-r ines. We fear the remedy was about as bad as the disease. There is a Spanish proverb— " Wlien the wind blows through a hok,
Make your will, and take care of your soul;'' and if this is sound advice to the biped, it is no less so to
the keeper of the quadruped. Change from one extreme to the other must be carefully guarded against. The late head of the Veterinary College, Professor Coleman, however, inculcated this error in his teaching, on purely " scientific principles;" which had only one drawback—that such " principle " was utterly erroneous. He says :—" In the formation of stables, let the rack be in the centre; two apertures, about 3 inches by 2 inches, or 3 inches by 4 inches, should be made on each side, as close to the horse's nostrils as possible; and two similar holes at the bottom." The Professor then assigns as a reason—that " the oxygen is in largest quantity in the lowest or heaviest stratum;" therefore, there will be no draught inwards at the upper holes. We know differently. The theory reminds us of the old story of the Merry Monarch, who gravelled the savans of the Royal Society with the problem of the fish and bucket of water, which the royal mystifier suggested added not to the weight of the vessel and contents while it supported itself therein by the motion of its fins, but made so much the heavier, by its own specific gravity, when it lay at the bottom. The courtier-sages were seeking a solution for the royal problem, when one boldly said, " I deny the fact." " And so do I," said the king, laughing. The holes near the horse's nostrils are in the same category; the wind will blow where it listeth, in spite of the stratum |
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THE STABLE.—VENTILATION.
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127
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A plan adopted by Mr. Brett, V. S. of the 12th Lancers, at
^e barrack stables at Manchester, is described in "The
eterinarian" (vol. vii., p. 483), which may afFord some
iöts in the case of stables unfavourably situated ; we shall,
erefore, transcribe it in the writer's own words:—" Sup-
Pose a stable to be blocked up by other buildings on all
^es except at its two ends; in that case I propose to have
arge wooden tunnel, two feet square, running the whole
ngth of the stable under the mangers ; and if it should be
doublé stable, one tunnel under each row of mangers.
"ese conduits are to come through the end walls of the
a°le, and to be open at both ends on the outside, for the
P^pose of admitting a thorough draught or body of air
. ough them. This main stream of air is to be equally 'sPersed about the stable by means of perpendicular wooden |
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expense would be inconsiderable, and the benefit from a
thoroughly and equally ventilated stable great. In a troop stable of sixteen horses the air admitted by the half-door or window is very unequally distributed : the coats of those horses next the doors are staring, while the centre horses can scarcely get a breath of fresh air to inhale. The mode of air by direct holes in the bottom of stables, though certainly better than none, is a rude contrivance. The air rushes in on the animal as he is in his stall, which the groom perceiving, nevers fails to stop them up with bedding; and thus the mischiefs to eyes, lungs, and thence to the. blood> go on increasing." One of the best methods, where not precluded by some of
the circumstances above noted, is as follows:—Revolving ventilators, as a general rule, we do not approve. A centre funnel, of large dimensions, should be let into the ceiling, its larger end downwards : at top of this should be an overhang- ing lantern, cap, or dome, having at its sides louvre boards moving on a centre horizontally. These may be regulated by two cords—one on each side of the lantern—so acting that the two opposite sides may be opened or closed to any degree required ; and, if necessary, the windward one inde- pendently of the leeward, and vice versa. Air may then be admitted by the upper parts of the windows, as in hospitals, &c, and will discharge itself upwards : the apertures to be regulated by season, circumstances, the health p ""d number of the horses, &c.; extra warmth being indispensable when horses are shedding their coats, or under physie. We cannot quit the subject of ventilation without en-
deavouring to impress on the reader the importance, nay, the indispensable necessity of a clear comprehension of its in- fluence on the animal economy. The respiration must not be considered, as is too often taught in elementary hand- books, as a mere chemical process—a simple combustion in the lungs, in which the oxygen of the inspired air unites with the carbon of the blood, to form carbonic acid, and then be expelled from the system. Respiration is a function much more complex: it consists of absorption and exhalation —the attributes of all living and breatbing beings; and, farther, in -the assimilation of two constituents of the air, oxygen and azote. The living principle is, then, par excellence, the breath, and through that the blood. The vital principle, then, is more readily acted on by the lungs receiving impure air, instead of its natural food, pure air, than by any other circumstance what- ever. The lungs, let it never be forgotten, are a second stomach, and the respiration but another form of digestion. When food enters the stomach its nutriënt parts are separated and converted into chyle ; when air enters the lungs its vital properties are separated to repair the waste and purify the blood which builds up the animal system. If the stomach receive impure and unwholesome food disease is induced; if the lungs receive effluvia from decayed animal or vege- table matter, instead of pure atmospheric air, then also tbs system becomes diseased. |
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°ots or chimneys, six inches square, emanating out from
Is niain tunnel, one at the head of each stall partition. |
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th
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Th
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ey should be seven or eight feet high, so as to avoid a
•"aught on the horse's eyes, and open at their tops like
'tttney-pots, and should stand out two feet from the wall.
e rarefied state of the air in the stable will cause a
ttstant flow of cool air through this main tunnel and up
ese chimneys; and will equalize the temperature of the
. aWe, and entirely obviate the draught of wind that blows
at the horizontal holes in the walls of our stables, as at
esent ventilated. These perpendicular chimneys may
, v_e °ne or two other apertures in them besides the one at
eir tops, at different heights, that may be opened or closed
P'easure, to admit air by means of a door with a hinge
ü button opening on that side next the wall, whereby a
eet current of air on the horse will be averted. If these
air n Passages should not be thought sufficiënt, other horizontal
. ,ne*s> branching from the main one, might run from it at
aQt angles under each stall partition, and terminate in a per-
( dicular wooden chimney, six feet high at each heel post.
•, supposing the stable not to be blocked up on any
j _ Dy other buildings, I would then dispense with the
i SUudmal main horizontal tunnel altogether, and break a
• ' tw° feet square, through the wall, under each manger,
ach stall, and in a line with the stall partitions. These
t rtu*"es should be fitted with square wooden tunnels, each
, teet long, exclusive of the thickness of the wall, and
of i. a* ^le'1T en<^s which are inside the stable : out of each
ese short horizontal tunnels a perpendicular shoot or
„i ney> in height six or seven feet, and open at the top,
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ascend for the admission of fresh cool air. In the
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ceili,
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th ^' ect^y over each horse's head, a hole is to be broken
. gh for the exit of the contaminated air, and a passage
w ° ^ through the roof by means of perpendicular
pre 6n c^'mneys sheltered at the tops by curved tiles, to
pff ^le descent of rain on the horses: this could be
roo notwithstanding that either a loft or a soldier's
a Were °ver the stable. The whole being of wood,* the |
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" e should prefer the tunnels of a fire-proof material.
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128
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THE STABLE.—VENTILATION.
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performance it was 21 parts oxygen, 76^ nitrogen, 2| fixed
air. Hence in the hospital the vital air had been diminished as 21 is to 27, or nearly one-fourth. Thus, in all badly ventilated stables the air contains three fluids instead of two. the third most deleterious to life and health. The relative gravities of these gases may be seen in any good chemical work. " As there are a number of bodies constantly abstracting
oxygen from the air, it might be imagined that its relative quantity would decrease ; but no such diminution takes place, except in instances, even from some local cause, where carbonic acid gas is evolved much faster than it can be removed. The fact is, that, if oxygen be absorbed from the air by one class of bodies, it is supplied by another. Plants yield it in large quantities. Thus, by the respiration of animals, a portion of oxygen is withdrawn, and a correspond- ïng portion of carbonic acid gas is substituted in its place. By the respiration of plants the carbonic acid is withdrawn, and an equivalent portion of oxygen substituted ; so that, by the mutual action of the members of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the balance of the constituent elements of the atmosphere is maintained. " The blood requires pure air as its food; the first effect
of the air is to remove the carbonic acid, which the venous blood takes up in the circulation, and when this is effected the properties of the blood become instantly changed. In the commencement of this process the air is the active agent, and removes the carbonic acid from the circulation; but when this is effected, the blood then becomes the acting power, and attracts a portion of the atmosphere. The pure air, or at least it ought to be so, then occupies the place of the carbonic acid, which is just removed." We shall conclude this subject of ventilation in the words
of Mr. Karkeek, from whom we have quoted the above : " Against the influence of noxious agents the living body
is endowed with a power of resistance, which affords it security as long as its vital energies continue vigorous; but when these decline, the very causes which before made r>° impression upon, it, now prove fatal. Hence, the weaker the body, the more susceptible it is of the influence of physical agents, and the less it is capable of resisting the influence of those that are noxious. " Air, moisture, and heat are the principal agents which
a living system has to contend with, and it is found capable of resisting them in proportion to the degree of vitality which it possesses. When the vital energies fail, putrefactioH ensues, and it is soon resolved into the ultimate element of which it was first formed. By this process, the stately oa& and the bramble, the creeping insect and proud and imperious man, pass back to their original and primeval elements. Thus, to put an animal into ' good condition/ *s to increase the preserving powers, which, as it were, presi^e over its economy, repel the attack of injury, and guard J* from the dangers with which it is incessantly surrounded. Light.—Immediately connected with the subject of veoti'
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Glanders and farcy may be adduced as proving this fact.
Both these diseases are originated by breathing aerial poisons, and the disease of the blood is the cause of the disease of the solids. When a horse is infected with the disease called the glanders, he will be found also farcied. The poison at first develops a local disease, which after a time travels through the system. In the case of direct inoculation with the virus, how is the poison conveyed to the other parts from the original sore but through the agency of the contaminated blood ? Quitting, however, a strict medical view of the evils of a
want of judicious ventilation, we would ask any sensible man to enter one of these hot and pestilential stables at early morning—when the breath of its quadrupedal occu- pants has become an almost putrid exhalation, and the reeking atmosphere damps and saturates the walls—and ask him whether such an atmosphere must not impair vitality, deprive the blood of red colour, and thereby.render it unfit to stimulate the heart and feed the other organs through which it circulates. Reflect too on the deterioration of the stimulus to the energy of the brain, and thence its evil effects on the digestion, circulation, secretions, and eventually on the wind, endurance, soundness, and temper of the animal, and you will surely see to this important element in the con- struction of your stable. Mr. Karkeek, whose researches on aerial poisons are worthy perusal by every one who loves and values his horse, says on this point:—" We have frequently observed a kind of balance between the respiration and the digestion; and he who is a careful observer of horses in a healthy as well as a diseased state, must have noticed that there is a certain balance between the quantity of vital air received into the lungs, and the quantity of food which can be digested in the stomach." We have spoken of the expulsion of carbon from the
system, and the results of some of the experiments of skilful investigators are too curious and instructive to be passed over. An animal of the ordinary size, in a good state of health,
gives off 27^ cubic inches of carbonic acid gas in every minute ; in 24 hours 39,600 cubic inches (in round numbers 40,000). 100 cubic inches of this gas weigh 46^- grains, 40,000 then will weigh 18,532 grains. A volume of carbonic acid gas weighing ] 00 grains contains 28 grains of carbon; 18,532 grains will contain 5,190 grains of carbon or nearly 1] ounces, so that two-thirds of a pound weight of carbon is daily expelled from the blood and carried off by the process of healthy respiration. Lavoisier, the eminent French chemist, gives a striking
proof of the sensible deterioriation of air, where a number of animals are confined in small space. When the air out of doors contained 27 parts of oxygen and 73 of nitrogen = 100, the air in the lowest ward of the Central Hospital in Paris centained 25 parts oxygen, 71 nitrogen, and 4 of fixed air = 100. Before the play in the theatre of the Tuileries the air was 27 parts oxygen, 73 nitrogen ; towards the close of the | |
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THE STABLE.-LIGHT.
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r.'i»
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ahön is the kindred topic—light, on which we now propose
to say a few words.
■Uid the reader ever emerge suddenly from a dark cellar,
or cave, or some place whence the sun's rays being excluded,
tfle " palpable obscure," the " darkness visible," had dilated
üe eye to its utmost, in the endeavour to distinguish surrounding objects? Let him recal the painful giddiness
the distressing interval when the eye was suddenly called
n to contract, and to accommodate itself to the bewildering
§ are. Now suppose, farther, at that instant a stranger, or
Ven an old friend, had saluted you with a hearty clap on he shoulder, and an exclamation such as " Halloo, old e«ow, you seem all abroad ! " Should you consider your- eit highly to be reprehended, nay, more, deserving of orporal punishment, if, under such circumstances, you arted with surprise, mingled with some alarm and bewil- eirnent? Well, then, we have often seen this very thing uone to an unfortunate horse. Confined for hours in a stable,
ltn just so much light as will suffice to render the outlines
of u* °bjects visible after the eye has fully adapted itself to the
b oom ; the principal aperture for the admission of light—
e door—is suddenly opened, the groom enters, and the ach-horse or hackney is led forth to be dressed. Tbe rse is, for a few seconds, nearly blind, and painfully so. e strikes his haunch or stine against the bar or the door- SS and instantly is sworn at for his awkwardness; next °ment he starts from nervousness, at the approach of (< ^e to-him-indistinct object, and he is pronounced a
arter," " uneasy to groom," &c, &c.; this character abhshed, he is, upon such occasions, in the absence of e roaster's eye, treated to various little kicks and cuffs,
aiid sly
knocks, with a running accompaniment of objurga-
Can there be imagined a more efficiënt course of
cation to produce " starting," a threatening or vicious
. «ude, or any of the other abominable habits to which
Perfect vision and its attendant panic fear are calculated
togiverise?
Tl len, again, the darkness of the stable is, we need hardly j> a cover for and a promoter of uncleanliness. A good
8e glazed window or two, in every middle-sized stable,
la show the inattention or the neatness of the attendant.
Kness also greatly encourages the fermentation of the
r. and the evolution of the pungent ammonia so inju-
s to the eyes of the horse; leading often to inflamma-
°n' thence to blindness.
th ' °U *^e otner hand, the stable have plenty of light,
f., Part of the wall which is opposite to the horse's
th ' • *ch from either side throws its refracted rays on
refl aUlmals eye, should not be of a glaring colour. The
Su 1.on °f a whitewashed wall, where, from its aspect, the
sud 1 meS ^nt° a staDH ^s as injurious to the sight as the
rj, alternations of which we have just now spoken.
is s • m *s m°st mischievous, as the unfortunate animal
a , 6 aS to ^e unab^e to relieve itself by a glance over
ant landscape, or have the comforting sight of a
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brown or drab road, rock, or
ago, for instance, at a seminary |
comnron. Not many years
connected with a certain |
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religious institution, one of the inmates, a young woman,
was, as a punishment for sundry real or imaginary breaches of discipline, sentenced to sit opposite a blank white- washed wall for a certain number of hours per diem. The result was not exactly what was intended; the poor girl's eyes inflamed, the white wall became blood-rcd to her tortured vision, and she went incurably blind. This is an extreme case ; but how many horses may owe their loss of sight to a want of care in this respect by their masters and their grooms ? The fading light of day will usually bring the hour of rest. When, however, the hours of the horse's labour are at night, something approaching the dimness of twilight seems most grateful and natural to the animal, and to induce feeding and repose. The Floor.—As to the slope to be given tothe floor of each
stall, many of the older stables have an undue declivity to the drain ; although the rapid carrying off of the urine is cer- tainly desirable, yet too rapid a slope strains the back sinews, and is not an unfrequent cause of occasional lameness. Mr. Lawrence illustrates this by a clear example, founded on a just observation of the horse's foot as campared with the human leg. "If the reader," he says, "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 acress his stall, or else as far back as his halter will permit, so that his hind-legs may meet the ascent on the other side of the channel." Blaine, too, judiciously remarks :— " In the stables of dealers in carriage-horses, an ascent in
the standings of nearly two inches in the yard is sometimes made, to give a greater appearance of height to the yet unfurnished four-year old horses, which are thus often passed upon the unwary as horses of five years old Ts bo strain put upon their legs ? Our experience, which has been some- what extensive in these matters, convinces us that the inequality in the standings of horses is a fertile source of contraction of the feet. What but the pain and inconve- nience which follow an uneven position occasions horses, when not feeding, to be so frequently found standing across instead of lengthways in their stalls ? How frequently also will the horse boxed in a stall be found with his croup turned towards the manger ? To avert these evils, and yet to prevent the retention of the urine, the smallest possible slope should be allowed, which should proceed uniformly to the bottom of the stalL A central grating with a cess-pool is an imperfect remedy for the evil; for there must still be a general inequality of surface to carry the urine to the centre. It is farther injurious by retaining the urine we wish to avoid, and moreover it promotes a draught of cold air from without, if it be so constructed as to carry the urine out of doors. It may also be remarked that a central cess-pool is utterly useless for mares. It is therefore the best plan to |
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UUJSTLXU STABLES A^'D THE LOOSE BOX.
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130
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ease to his wearied limbs ; and if put into one the nigh*
before he is to go hunting, it ensures him a sound night S rest undisturbed by other horses, or persons passing through the place. It is true that this luxury of stretcbing thetf legs is not required constantly or generally by horses ; for> though, after a hard day's hunting, a horse may, at times, be found lying on his side, with his legs stretched out at full length, he must be very tired or very ill to have recourse to such an unusual position. The reason for this is that the roundness of a horse's ribs is such that it is & most uncomfortable and unnatural position for him to lie on his side for any length of time. A horse in good health, under ordinary circumstances, will never be found on his side ; he is either ill or lias had an accident, when you find him so. Harry Hieover bas some very sensible remarks upon the subject of boxes, which we shall take the liberty of condensing. Having said so much on the formation and structure of boxes, and having pointed out under what circumstances they are most needed, let us see how far they are applicable and usefal in general stable practice. We need not insist upon the fact that the habit and
disposition of the horse are those of a very social animal; and although being quiet and alone may at times be good for him, as it is to a sick man, yet solitude, if long continued, is a severe and irksome punishment to him- Any one who has watched the "knuckering" of a horse when his companions return to him after an absence—his silence and uneasiness when left alone, and beyond earshot of some signs or sounds of their whereabouts, is remarkable; and equally so is the general disposition of the animal whea at liberty to indulge in that rough sort of amusement which has obtained the proverbial appellation of " horse-play. Of his desire for mutual amusement you may soon have a proof, by placing him in a loose box, with the upper part of the door of iron rods, so that he can watch passing objects, or be on the look out for them. You will find him, when not in the act of feeding, with his nose close to the bars, and taking as good a peep as he can get of the outside world: and if you open the top-door entirely (don't do this if you don't know your horse intimately) he will be found for half the day with his head and neck thrust out of fo surveying so much of the moving scène, and of man's doings* as his horizon will take in. That he is amused and observant, if not reflective, any one who watches his action and eye can see. Some one may remark that racehorses live constantly t°
boxes, and do excellently well; but a racehorse is an exceptional animal. He is bred, trained, and treated in a way peculiar to the high caste to which he belongs, and though we have had a Derby winnei in a street cab (test* Youatt), the racehorse, while he is a racehorse, is kopt in a box. He is aecustomed to such quarters from his colthood, and his instinctive social qualities are deteriorated thereby» whatever may be done for his speed. Instead of associatiög with his species, he has no real companiona He does o0* |
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furnish each stall with a grating placed over a small
trapped drain, at the foot of each stall, which will carry off both the urine and the washings into one general cess-pool out of doors, and from which, being stopped by the trap, nothing offensive can pass up through the gratings." HÜNTING-STABLES AND THE L00SE-B0X.
A short look into the hunting-stable will properly intro-
ducé the subject of the loose-box, and prevent repetition elsewhere. Of course, we do not mean here to enter upon the vexed question with which " Nimrod " so long agitated the equestrian world, as to " summering the hunter " on the " hard-meat," or on the " green-soiling " system, but to say a few words on the hunting-stable and its occupants. The humane sportsman desires and delights in the good treatment of the gallant animal that bears him in the chase, and the arrangements of the best stables in the kingdom—those of the Queen, the Billesdon Coplow, the Craven, Mr. Lyne Stephens, and the late Thomas Assheton Smith, Esq. (see " Diary of a Huntsman ")—shall furnish the bases of our hints. The Billesdon stables (See Ground Plan on Plate)
were built by Lord Suffield to accommodate forty-one horses, and contain thirteen boxes, each nine feet by fourteen, with four feet space beland, and twelve feet high. There are twenty-four stalls, each six feet two inches wide, by eighteen feet deep, and twelve feet high. There are, besides the hunters' stalls, four stalls for hacks, a coach-house, hay and straw-rooms, a granary, a forge, a saddle-room, dressing-room, and a covered ride. The mangers are divided into two parts, one for corn, and the other for hay, that intended for corn does not reach the wall by more than half a foot—that which receives the hay, on the contrary, extends to the wall, or is bottomed with a grating, which Iets the hay-seeds, dust, &c, drop through. This is valuable to the owner of grazing land in the neighbourhood, who is thus benefited by a large saving of useful seed. The general width of the stable being eighteen feet, and the depth of the boxes fourteen, a passage of four feet is left around the inner area; but the doors of the boxes are so made that, in cases of sickness, or much ventilation being required, they can be made to continue the sides of the box up to the whole eighteen feet, an advantage in many instances. The benefits of a forge on the premises in large establish- ments are obvious, the horses are saved from colds, so often caught while waiting in the open forge of the blacksmith; it farther prevents that ill-treatment and teasing at the smithy, which oftens ruins the temper of many a valuable horse; and, lastly, the excuse of the servants for often absenting themselves on these gossiping, and often drinking or skulking expeditions, is taken away. This last advantage is more important than at first sight it may seem. The Loose Box.—A loose box is an immense comfort to a
horse after a day's hunting, or a hard journey in saddle ; he can lie in any position that he may find gives the greatest |
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THE STABLE.—MODERN STABLE-FITTTNGS.
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131
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iss his playfellows—he never had any. Instead of missing
em or welcoming them, he is kept aloof from them; he is, IS a clever writer, in a purposed Hibernicism, " a sort of ^esticated wild beast, kept to run for money." Though
e is not a " wild horse," he is a " solitary horse." He is b*°ught up upon the " separate " if not the " silent" system
> Pnson discipline; the desire for companionship is dead
'bin him—he is a quadrupedal anchorite, and does not
re n*s kind. Horses, in general, do better in stalls
an jn koxegj unless in boxes with racks only between
em and their next neighbours. Whatever rural sight or
und cheers the spirit of man, seems to cheer the horse
°- Again, horses feed much better from hearing others
1 > and in many instances where a horse, especially afte*
ar<l run, would not touch his corn, if in solitary confine-
e^t, he will set to grinding when he hears others masti-
lng their provender. There are strong advocates among
, öy of our practical men for keeping valuable horses in
Xes; they certainly permit the animal to stand or lie VVa at pleasure. There is no danger of their getting cast _ getting loose; in which case, though horses are social iiïials, the intrusion into the stall of another horse, by the ltnal who has got loose, has often produced not only Qiusion% out the most serious accidents. The term *x>xes te.
ïh
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answer every purpose. Some horses are fond of rubbing
their heads with the bind foot; the doublé shank or rein is more likely to entangle these gentlemen in this feat of scratching than the single, and risks are as well avoided. MODERN STABLE-FITTINGS.
The furniture and fittings of the stable, keeping in view
the comfort of the animal, which is no small aid towards "good digestion waiting on appetite, and health on both," comes next into consideration. The neatness, cleanliness, and convenience of the various articles and appliances which modern ingenuity and constructive skill have placed at the disposal of horse-owners, are not their least recom- mendations. Many varieties of these may be seen by the visitor to the
Crystal Palace, in the carriage, harness, and saddlery depart- ment of that monster glass-case ; at most of the agricultural gatherings; and at the establishments of their several manufacturers and patentees. The leading ones are figured on the accompanying Plate. Although handsome, serviceable, and really good fittings
are made throughout town and country of sound hard wood and hammered iron, yet there can be no disputing the superior patterns, the greater cleanliness, durability, healthi- ness, and convenience of the galvanized, enamelled, or componized iron mangers, water or gruel troughs, racks. &c, now advertised- in all parts of the kingdom. We need hardly repeat that the old sloped hay-rack of the
farmer's stable, filled from above, and from which the horse so wastefully dragged his provender, to the damage of his eyes and nostrils, is utterly condemned, and should be cast forth wherever it yet lingers, and its place supplied by an under-feeding square or corner rack. The obvious defects of the first-named vile contrivance are that the horse acquires the habit of puiling down the greater portion of his hay, with the view of culling, with his fine and sensitive upper lip and his delicate organ of smell, the sweetest and most succulent locks. Hence, much of his provender is trampled under foot; and, though a hearty-feeding horse will afterwards piek up a great deal of what he has thrown down, a large quantity must be soiled and spoilt. We have seen a third of the whole amount thus lost by slovenly and capricious horses. These defects led to the abolition of the high rack in all well-contrived stables, and the substitution of manger-feeding, in which chafT, composed of equal quantities of clover or meadow hay, wheat, oat, or barley straw, were mingled with the corn or beans. The animal is thus compelled to masticate his food, and cannot, especially with such well-made contrivances as those under notice, waste his hay, while the sharp strav? compels a more complete chewing of the oats. We shall answer our old friend Fenwick de Porquet, who so persistently asks us.. under the feminine pseudonym of Mary Wedlake, " Do you bruise your oats yet ?" in another place, when we come morp particularly to the question of food. |
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6se should be made seven feet high at the rack and
, nger, and for a yard from the wall, then five feet
the rest of the side, and merely of bars, so closely
jp^ed that a horse's nose could not be put through them.
, n«se should be of iron. A space for passing should be left
md these compartments—we should say of five feet.
, e railing at the end should be of wood or iron, so as to
e a convenient view of the horse. It may seem super-
°Us to say that the door should open outwards, and be
üe so as to fall back, close on the other railings; this will
e the horses from bruises in passing in or out. There
many elegant and useful designs for these "compart-
ts now in the market, and to those who have cash to
Tv.re' an^ room) the plan here laid down may be adopted.
, stable with a proportion of two boxes to four stalls will
sufEcient for the comfort and health of the horses.
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a connexion with the loose box and its advantages in
r- ttlng the horse to lie down and rise easily without
of injury, and the immense luxury to the wearied
al of having his head at liberty as conducive to his
y restoration, we shall presently note an important
;„. Sh apparently trivial addendum to the fittings reeen tly
ltUroduced.
in e. orse naay be pievented from getting cast by a simple
lo • Q' wn^cn may be easily procured, while. his getting eaddi1S prevented by tne safety " head collar," which any a„ er yil"- suPply; and nothing but sheer carelessness can witnUn* f°r a horse SettinSloose- DouMe. head-collar shanks, rems, look more stylish than single ones, but the latter |
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E HAKNESS-ROOM.
the horse arise from harness badly made or carelessïy
adjusted and put on. The cleanliness of every part of a horse's clothing is only secondary to its goodness. A peep into a well-ordered harness-room is a pleasant sight; well- kept leather is always supple, soft, and pleasant to the feel, and how important is dryness and " elbow-grease" to preserving this useful material in that condition we need not say. If the harness and " fixins " of the horses are in prime order, we may almost safely trust that man with other details of management with confidence, as it shows he does not shirk labour or spare trouble. He must, however, be liberally supplied with the proper means of doing his work as it should be done. As a peep at a picture is no small aid in quickly conveying through the eye an impression of what a thing should be, we give a sketch (Plate " Stable/') of the fittings of a model harness-room for four saddle and four carriage horses : the fittings being left bare, that their form may be more readily understood (fig. 5). Foremost of these articles we may note in the centre the
stove, in conjunction with the airing and drying horse, an admirable appendage to the stable for drying and airing harness and saddles after use, and also for drying and airing horse clothing and the cloths in general use about the stable. An enlarged drawing of this apparatus is given as fig. 6, It will be observed that this stove, besides warming the harness room, will supply hot water for the use of the stable. for cleansing the horses, for equine foot-baths,* bran mashes» gruel, and other purposes. Along the side walks of the apartment, on the right hand are two saddle-brackets an« two harness-holders; the form of these, and especially the former, will be readily understood by inspecting the enlarge" figures 9 to 13 in the plate. It will be seen that a saddle placed upon this sort of
bracket bas no tendency to go out of form, but, on the contrary, is kept in shape, and will not be torn or chafed in its padding by removaL Harness also can be placed on the hooks without disturbing the saddle, and the longer jointeu ones turned up out of the way when the shorter ones are i° use. The ceiling and wall hooks, figs. 7 and 8, do not require explanation ; they are for the purpose of cleaning, and are made of iron covered with gutta-percha. On the left side o* the room are harness, saddle, and bridle-holders; these are of iron either galvanised or japanned, and are vastly prefe1" able to the common bracket, keeping the harness in 'lii proper shape—an advantage too often overlooked. Mor® mountings are damaged and broken by the want of su0*1 conveniences than would soon pay their first cost. The front flange, which prevents the article falling off, may °8 inscribed with the name of the horse to which the harnes3 belongs, figs. 9, 10, 11. Two specimens of saddle brackets are given in the plate'
the one boarded over (fig. 12), and the second of wrougk* |
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THE STABLE.—T
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"We have mentioned a " fitting " intended to prevent the
horse from striking himself when rising; it is represented in our plate (fig. 3), under the name of the ventilating manger- guard, and includes the rack and water-trough. We have seen stables in which, with the same object in view, the rack bas been boarded in. This is highly objectionable. It tends to foul the food, and worse, to make the rack-place dark; and we need scarcely repeat that darkness is the parent of dirt. The guard, it will be seen, consists of a light wrought iron rail, fastened at top to a bar following the curve of the rack-manger and trough, and at bottom to a bar which rounds off the angle of the stall. This ventilating manger-guard fulfils every purpose, ensuring the horse's safety from a blow against the edge of the fittings, while it keeps the fodder sweet and well-aired, and the corner in full view and accessible. We have already remarked upon the danger of a mere
swing bar between horses, recommending in all instances a boarded partition. The iron ramp-rail, grooved to admit 1 ^ inch planking, with the stable-stall-post, is a neat and most desirable division, whether boarded or open-railed; its appearance is shown in fig. 4. The hexagonal enamelled tiles are used in several of the drawings to line the walls. Thus much of stable-fittings; we will now step into the harness-room. THE HARNESS-ROOM.
" Everything in its place and a place for everything " is a
motto which should be inscribed over every place where horses are kept, or at any rate be ever-present to the groom or horse-keeper. It is amazing how much needless ex- penditure of labour, oaths, or ill-temper—how much con- fusion, how much loss of time may be avoided by regularity method, and a use of those convenient appliances which modern mechanical skill and ingenuity have placed at the command of every one whose means allow them to fit up a stable properly; and surely no other should pretend to keep horses of a good class than such as can supply them with those conveniences which are necessary to keep them up to the highest point in cleanliness, food, warmth, clothing, and even ornamental appointments. How much of a horse's comfort depends on a well-made well-fitting saddle, a properly adjusted rein, bit, and bridle, and the true setting of his harness horses alone can teil; and we doubt not, had they been gifted with speech, their " tailors in leather" would have heard of many a cruel misfit, whence " galls," " raws," " sitfasts," from saddles, abscesses on the tongue, and injuries of both upper and lower jaws by the barbarous tightness of the bearing-rein, aud the ill-made, ill-seated " post" of the bit* These and many minor ailments and discomforts damaging to the health, beauty, and temper of |
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* See Mr. Edward Hayhew's work, The Hlustrated Horse Doctor,
page 61, &c, for the injuries to the mouth by ill-made aud severe bita. |
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* See article " Lammitia'' in YmBRiNARr Division, poli-
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THE STABLE and STA BIB FITTINGS.
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FI6 13.1 RON SADDLE BRACKET
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FIG. I2.W0ODEN SADDLE BRACKET.
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FIGS.9.I0.II.COLLAR&HARNESS HOLDERS.
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Ü-
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FIG 7. WALL HOOKS
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FI6.8. CEI LING HOOKÏ
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F!G.6. STOVE & DRYING HORSE
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FIG. 4. TH F RAMP-RAI L
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POST &r DIVISION
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FIG. 3. MANGER GUARD with RACKJROUGH & MANGER.
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THE STABLE.—THE HARNESS-ROOM.
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r°n, with the great advantage of ventilating and preserving
"e shape of the saddle, and allowing all moisture to escape. °me of this pattern (fig. 13), covered with gutta-percha, are _ne neatest and best things for the purpose that can well be
imagined.
■'■he stable appendages always required, are buckets,
nalebone-brooms or besoms, forks, body and dandy-brushes, CUrry-combs, mane-combs, bandages, leathers, rubbers,
sPonges, foot pickers, and scissors. If for harness horses and
0r cleaning carriages, there will be wanted also spoke- fushes, mops, jacks, harness-brushes, and brushes for the ^ning.
ihe lodging room for the groom or coachman is generally
0ver, or near, the stable ; and it should, at all events, be so
öe&r as to allow of any unusual noise being heard by him,
011 sometimes, when a horse is cast, or has the colic, he dies
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for want of that assistance which could be readily given il
his state were known. The carriage setter, sack-truck, or barrow, pull, jerk, &c,
in our picture of the harness-room, are merely suggestive of those necessaries : they require no description. We should lay ourselves open to a charge of unduly favouring one or the other tradesman did we specially recommend from our own experience, or that of others, any of the numerous blackings, pastes, compositions, &c, used in the cleaning of harness; we shall, therefore, merely advise that the purchase of the required detergents or polishes be made of respectable oilmen, or better still of harness-makers : all are good, though some unquestionably better than others. That we may avoid a charge of pufFery we specially mention none of them. The succeeding chapters will deal with the subject of Stable Management, and its ancillaries. |
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i miiiiiiiiiiiiihiin
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STABLE MANAGEMENT.
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134
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CHAPÏEK XIII.
fiTABLE MANAGEMENT : THE GROOM : THE SÏRAPPER : STABLE-BOYS : RACKINO AND DRESSINO : CLIPPING AND SINGEING : FEEDING :
EXERCISE : CONDITIONING.
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A good groom is as indispensable to the well-being of the
inmates of a stable as a good whip is to their driving, good harness to their comfort, or good food to their health and condition. No gentleman can be well-carried, no family be well-appointed in their equipages, but \y care in the selection of the groom or horsekeeper. Nimrod sensibly says:—" The principal duties of a groom may be said to consist of cleaning—strapping, as it is called,—feeding, and travelling horses. A man should have a certain degree of substance to strap a horse properly; but we do not agree with those who think an herculean monster, whose blows would almost feil an ox, a necessary article. I have seen light lathy fellows full of muscle and sinew that would kill one of these plummy, lumpy gentry There is a wide difference between what John Warde used to describe as & man fit ' to strip a horse and starve him/ and a clean made light-limbed active fellow. Beyond grooming and feeding, I do not wish for much science in a servant—your pedantic, iufallible-recipe fellows are no men for my money- Good strapping, and food proportionate to work, is the grand secret."' The "helper" is an adjunct in many stables. He is
generally a hardworking man, or lad of eighteen, who is able to strap a horse well, and do all the mechanical work of the stable; but is wholly incapable of taking the manage" ment, or is so uncouth in his person as to forbid his employ' ment in livery. The last is a very common reason for some helpers always remaining understrappers; they are ex- cellent in that capacity, but so unwieldy in their move- ments that they would disgrace a neat livery, and would si* beside their master with all their native clownishness. **» however, they are honest, civil, and industrious, they ^e often very desirable acquisitions to a large stable, an" frequently do all the hard work of these establishments- These men often do four horses well, and in livery yards <>r omnibus establishments more than doublé that nuniber> though, in this latter case, the horses are of course not s° well dressed as in private establishments. " Stable-boys" must learn as boys somewhere or otber,
because it is a trade which is seldom learnt after this age' Nevertheless, no master who really looks to his own affair will encourage their employment, knowing how frequent y they play tricks with or neglect his horses. Under a stea 7 and strict coachman they may be made useful, but tb . |
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We shall not treat of the hierarchy of stable dignitaries in
the crack establishments of our great public trainers, where strings of thoroughbreds go through an education to fit them for "competitive examination" for "public honours," at the post of a T. Y. C, but confine ourselves to the useful and practical treatment of the horses of the gentleman and sportsman. The groom has several distinctive epithets indicative of
tne description of horse he attends, or of the class of duties expected to be fulfilled by him. The " pad groom" is employed in the hack stable and to follow his master, to whom he also in many cases ofhciates as valet. If his master sports blood nags, and particularly if he occasionally takes a turn with the hounds, the importance of his servant augments, and he borders on the next grade. The " hunting or stud groom " ought to be a very clever fellow ; he should already know much, and be ready to learn as much more; for his is truly an important office, particularly if he have either a confiding or an idle master. It is necessary that he should have a full knowledge of training, with all its important bearings and dependences. He should be fond of the chase, and yet sufficiently manifest attachment to his horses and respect to his master, that he should be able to go to the field without making himself one of the company, or attempting, when in chase, to " ride to" hounds. We, however, to make our subject complete, must quit the field, and glance at these necessary and indeed important aids on the sod or turf. The regular " training groom " is a still more important personage than those already noticed: to him is entrusted the care and management of the racing stables ; it is he that regulates the whole discipline of the racers ; and he has likewise the direction of the subordinate grooms and stable-lads. The " trials" are conducted by him, and on his fidelity and judgment immense sums are dependent. The " training groom" is also a person of no mean consideration, for much of the future reputation of his employer's racing establishment depends upon him. He superintends the crossings and breedings, and on him devolves the care of rearing the young stock. Much likewise depends on his management whether they enter on their training in highform and vigour, or whether they are helow par. Having said thus much, we will proceed with the duties of the groom generally, wherever good horses are kept and good grooming is required. |
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STABLE MANAGEMENT—RACKING AND DRESSING.
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135
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«hould seldom be trusted to do anything of importance out
°f his sight. When first put under him, he will, of course, show them everything they have to do by example ; and, if naturally quick, they soon learn to carry out the ordinary stable operations in an efficiënt manner. RACKING AND DRESSING.
The first morning duty of the groom is " racking and
dressing." The first operation immediately follows the °Pening of the stable-door. The hay should be first shaken *° clear it from dust, and then but a small portion given to *eave the horse his full powers for the digestion of his corn; mdeed, were it not from a fear that the eagerness of the early appetite might make the horse swallow his corn Without sufficiënt mastication, we should prefer giving the °ats first ; and when two morning feeds are allowed, we strongly recommend to commence with the corn. When *his is not the case, after racking, give the usual feed of c°rn, which should be first well sifted and looked over, to separate any extraneous matter. The morning aliowance °f water is usually reserved until after dressing, but we "ave known some horses who would not feed until they had ^runk. We therefore advise that this time of watering be n°t obstinately adhered to ; but that it be made to suit *he appetites of the horses themsclves. A careful groom ^ill study the peculiarities of each horse, and then his own Judgment will be his best guide. You may now give his stable a slight " set fair : " that is>
throw the dung off the litter, but do not disturb that just
üfcder him to raise the ammonia from his having staled
thereon. We are supposing that you mean to give the horse
a thorough "dressing" before he goes out. If, however,
tirrie does not serve, or there are other reasons for post-
poning this till his return to stable, you may " muck out "
as hereafter described. We will now describe the important
°peration of " dreesing," and would first impress upon the
i reader the fact, that it is not'only to remove soils and make
' '"e coat glossy that we " dress" a horse, but that the
Process is most important, when diligently carried out, for
ensuring the health of the animal, by the life-giving excite-
^ent of the whole exhalant surface of the body. Scales of
8curf—(JandrïfT—are constantly in process of generation
°ver the whole surface of the animal's body ; and the act of
CUl*rying, brushing, and dressing clears off those scales, and
scirjiulates those exhalant and inhalant pores by whicb
-^cretory and noxious particles are thrown out, and air and
Misture imbibed. Itching, irritation—and consequent in-
laöirnation—surfeit, and thirst, with a train of minor evils,
are kept aloof from well-fed and warmly clothed horses by a
^hgent application of " elbow-grease;" for able physi-
, °gists have shown that the skin not only throws off
mpurities, but absorbs pure water and atmospheric air, at
eed, when kept in healthy condition. The observant
Orse-owner may easily satisfy himself of the fact that a
e**-groomed horse has more spirit, cheerfulness, and
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endurance than an undressed one, by a few days' experi-
ment. With horses much in stable, too, periodical friction is exercise without f atigue. The curious reader may find in The Book of the Farm an account of the superior thriving of some pigs who were regularly curried, over those in a stye left to their own nasty ways. The writer, however, obsorves in defence of poor piggy, that he contracts many of those bad habits from confinement and domestication; and that the wild pig is as cleanly an animal as need be—currying himself daily by drawing himself through bushes, brambles, &c, and industriously rubbing himself against trees. On the continent, too, stall-kept cattle are in many places regularly curried night and morning, to the great advantage of their working capabilities. There are two capital books on the subject of grooming, so little known to the gcneral public, that we shall be thanked for an extract or two. The first is "Hipponomia, or the Vineyard of Horsemanship/' by Michael Baret, 1720—a curious work, of which Mr- Bracy Clark says: " It contains more learning and reasoning (on horse-subjects) than any book of its time." The other is a little treatise by one Jeremiah Weal, callc? The Young Groom's Guide "—a practical book, by a practical man. The old writer, Michael Baret, shows that the approved method of " dressing" a horse has not varied, except in a few details of fashion and in improved imple- ments, for the last two centuries. "Having tyed up your horse's head," says Baret, " take a currie-comb and currie him all over his body, to raise the dust, beginning first with his neck, holding the left cheek of his headstal in your left hand. Then currie him from the setting-on of his head to the length of his neck, where comes the setting-on of the shoulder. Thence go all over his side to his buttocks ; and so down to his cambrel-hough. Then change your hands, and currie him before, on the breast; and laying your right arm over his back, place your right side against his left, and thus currie him all under his belly, near to his fore-bowels; and so all over very well, from the knees to the cambrel- houghs, upwards. After that go round to the far side, and do that in like manner. Then take a dead horse's tayl, or a dusting cloath of cotton, and strike that dust away which the currie-comb hath raised. Then take a round brush made of bristels, and dress him all over, both head, body, and legs, to his very fetlockes ; always cleansing the brush from that dust it gathereth by rubbing it upon the currie-comb. Thus currying and brushing over, take a hair-cloth, with which rub him again all over very hard, to take away the loose hairs and help to lay his coat. Next wash your hands in fair water, and rub him all over with your wet hands, as well head as body, for that will fresh him, and take away any hair the hair-cloth hath left. Lastly, take one other clean cloth, and rub him all over till dry, when his coat will be smooth and clean. Lastly, take another hair-cloth (for note that you should have two, one for his body, the other for his legs), and rub his legs exceeding well, from the knees to the cambrel-houghs, downwards, to his very hoofs, picking, |
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136 STABLE MANAGEMENT.—DRESSING.
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the minds of all who are concerned in horses, that friction to
the legs is both a preventive and a cure of disease. The eminent veterinarian, Delabere Blaine, thus bears testimony on this point:—" Leg-rubbing prevents gorgings, which are the forerunners of cracks and grease, and disperses such accumulations as are already made. Few actions relieve the tired horse more than well rubbing his legs ; and it 13 remarkable, that whatever else a horse resists, he very seldom resists this. Further, whenever a horse comes home in a dirty condition, it is prudent first to attend to his legs and feet, which should be well washed: but when the weather is frosty, it should be don e in tepid water; it is essential to his health, and it also affords him much comfort and refreshment. We know how grateful it is to ourselves to put our feet into water after great fatigue ; and we cannot but observe by their manner, also, that it is the same to them- The feet of horses require also daily examination; they should always be well picked out whenever they come in, to remove stones and dirt, which may have lodged between the shoe and the sole; and which, if suffered to remain but a few hours, might do irreparable injury. The state of the shoes should likewise be looked to every morning, not only as to their actual wear, but also to see that the clenches do not protrude to cut the legs, or that the shoe may not have gotten awry, or become loosened. Whenever a set of shoeó has been on three weeks, particularly where the hoofs gro'W fast, even if such shoes be not worn out, they should be removed ; for in every instance, as soon as the horn of the foot grows too high, it begins to contract; and there are more horses ruined by standing too long without parmg down the hoof than by all the bad shoeing that lS practised." Watering should follow dressing, and then a second feed
of corn, where four feeds per day are customary: but, if not going out to work, merely put hay in the rack. Jeremiah Weal shall again speak for us, as to " setting the stable fair," as he is in this matter certainly " the right man in the right place :"—" Shake the horse's bed three or four fee<; behind him, if the stable will admit of it; put some stra* under the manger; lay the straw high near the sides of the stall, and rather high behind the stall-post; leave the stra^ somewhat hollow and thin in the middle, and behind tb e horse. Shake the sides well, and lay them level and smooth- The platted mat looks neat laid down in front of the beds, but it is more generally seen in dealers' stables than gentle- men's : it, however, looks neat in all." A few words about " litter." We have already mentioned
the pungent ammonia which arises so rapidly in a close a»d heated stable, to the detriment of the respiratory functio»s of the animal, and the damage of the hay in the loft abo^e. As much of the litter as has been wetted and softened by the urine must be removed every morning, a little being left f°r the animal to stale on, as some animals object to and ar« uneasy at the splashing which takes place on the bricks ° cobble-stone pavement. No heap of fermenting dung sbou1 |
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and dressing them very carefully about the fetlocks from
gravel or dust, which will harbour in the bendings of his joints." From this it will be seen t'hat our great-great-grandfathers
knew and practised a thing or two in dressing a horse. There is here, however, a remarkable omission. The wisp— the great implement of the modern "strapper"—is not even mentioned. Ordinarily the wisp follows the curry-comb; but where the brush replaces the curry-comb, the wisp follows it. The best wisp is made from about two feet and a-half of a hay-band of fine twist. Loosely untwist and doublé it, moisten with a little water, and then slightly retwist it: the damping shapes it, and fits it for more effectually cleaning away the dust. As the time required thoroughly to dress a high-conditioned saddle-horse is about an hour, in very cold weather the horse should have a cloth on the loins while cleaning other parts. Stains from litter should be removed by the sponge, and from the tail by the water-brush. When the dust has quite settled, comes the " finishirig-off," in the direction of the hair and the clothing. And here we will resort to the little book of Jeremiah Weal, above alluded to :—"Observe that whatever clothing you put on is put on in a workmanlike manner. Take the horse-cloths in both hands, with the outside of the cloths next you, and with your right hand to the off-side throw them over his back, not hang them over his tail. Place them no farther back than they will be straight and level, which you will find to be from a foot to eighteen inches from the tail. Put the roller round, and the pad-piece under it in the proper place, which is from three to eight inches from the fore-legs." So far Jeremiah. Now loosen the horse's head, and turn him about in the stall, and give his untied head a thorough rubbing and brushing in every part —ears, throat, and channel—with the dusting-cloth. Finish by manipulating his ears o la Rarey. This is called "pulling his ears;" however it should be nothing of the sort, but, what all horses so much enjoy, a passing through and through the hands of the animal's auricular appendages— accompanying their passage by gentle intermittent pressures, and an occasional soothing, coaxing utterance. This over, comb out his mane and foretop, and pass over them a damp sponge; place your horse-napkin at the near side of the upper part of his mane, pulling it over to the off side, and pressing the mane smooth at the root of hair from behind his ears to his withers downwards. Turn him round once again to his manger, buckle on his stall-collar, comb his tail, and wipe his doek with a wet sponge. Don't use a cloth for this purpose, as a hanging-down end may make a ticklish horse kick, as we have seen. Piek out the foot, and wash if necessary, and once more rub the legs down with cloth and with hand. At the risk of repetition, we must once more impress on the mind of the groom, and therefore of the master, the paramount importance of leg-friction. Although Michael Baret, above quoted, has told us "to rub the legs exceeding well," we cannot forbear from pressing on |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CLIPPING AND SINGEING.
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137
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ever be allowed in any corner of the stable; upon this point
the master should be inflexible. Whether horses should be allowed to stand upon litter at
a" during the day is a subject on which opposite opinions have been entertained by practical writers. When the litter *s suffered to remain, it certainly encourages the horse to lie down, which is favourable to the recovery of strained or °verworked limbs, and prevents extreme pressure on tender *eet, if the stable should be bricked or paved. But, per contra, foul-feeding horses are very apt to eat their litter, and the other mischiefs from acrid exhalations, elsewhere spoken 0r> are multiplied. With some horses, too, the very disorder *t Would seem to alleviate is produced or aggravated by it— narnely, swelled legs, which have been found to return to their proper size when the stimulus of warm litter was removed. Litter, when neglected and allowed to heat, is ^ischievous to the horny hoof, which is contracted by the lncreased temperature. We would recommend a little only °f the litter to be left under the fore-feet during the day, a*id in the summer that the bricks should be lightly watered to keep them sweet and cooL Eresh green rushes, if they can be procured, make an excellent day litter. In many 8tables on the continent, and some of our racing establish- 'öents, the floor is of wood, cut across the grain ; this, and hard " compo," are not bad for the purpose, with tan, a coat °f sawdust, or a thin layer of straw, spread upon the floor of the stall. CLIPPING AND SINGEING.
Clipping, which for many years was the only method of
klieving a horse of his winter's blanket, has now been almost entirely superseded by singeing. Dandyism, as much as utility, produced the general adoption of the former practice, a*id inflamed lungs, swollen legs, and a host of inflammatory diseases were the consequence. It was all very well to ^eprive a valuable hunter, who was never exposed to the c°ld air without his body clothes, except when hunting, of his coat, but it was dangerous in an extreme degree to such horses as were not so carefully attended to. Clipping has ^ow had its reign, Singeing having dethroned it. The cutting of the hair, each of which is a hollow tube, gives the whole surface of the body an exposure to the cold air by ttullions of orifices. Singeing, on the contrary, seals up these as it proceeds, and is no more than a man taking off an upper coat. When clipping was the practice, it was Jarnentable to see carriage horses standing shivering with c°ld at the doors of great people, or when conveying some *ashionable physician on his visiting round. Before an owner "as his horse singed, let him consider what he is going to use hua for, and whether he is likely to be kept standing still, exposed to the inclemency of the season ; if not, let it be t*°ae. Singeing has this advantage over clipping, that to iook well a horse must be clipped close. In singeing you 'öay regulate this. The coat may be once gone over, and t"is will remove but a moderate portion; if more is desired s |
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a second singeing must be resorted to. After the horse is
singed, he should be well washed over with soap and warm water, with an extra dose of soda in it: this will cleanse the coat and make the skin comfortable. Then, in a few days, if you want it shorter, repeat the process; and after- wards give the horse a gentle sweat, just as much as will enable you to give him a scrape. This, note well, is after the second sinsreing : with the coat left on after a first going over, it might be somewhat difficult to dry him, and risk giving him cold. The soap and soda, and the after-sweat and scrape, will immensely relieve the skin. When clipping was in vogue, all the pretty bays, browns,
and chestnuts, and many blacks, were made of an unsightly mouse or slate colour. Now we can singe a horse nearly as short as close-clipping without this unseemly effect There are some capital lamps made nowadays for this special purpose. The hair being charred as the operation proceeds prevents the light hue from prevailing. Grey, dun, or roan horses look as well, however, clipped as singed. No sooner does the horse's coat begin to shoot in the autumn, than the groom will urge you to have your horses clipped or singed; and will, when he has your consent, get as much coat off them as he possibly can, for the sake of saving trouble, and, as he thinks, of improving their appearance. Let the master, then, consider what work his horses are likely to get during the winter. If he is a saddle-horse, merely to be used as a park and town hack, cantered or galloped the length of Rotten Row, or to carry his master from his country seat to his town house—or, if a harness-horse, to be kept standing at doors, while business or pleasure detains his owner within—leave his coat on, or moderately thick. If, on the other hand, he is to be used as a cover-hack, ridden possibly ten or a dozen miles to the meet, at a rattling pace, get him into hunting condition—and a short coat. In a word, the coat should be made lighter according to the fast work the animal is called upon to perform ; and he will thus be in a better condition to go through his allotted task with comfort to himself and owner. If you are fastidious as to the appear- ance of your horses, get a man used to the business to singe them ; the charge is small, and it will be more judiciously done than by a general groom. FEEDING.
Feeding is a matter of observation, and requires study and
attention. Most servants are so fond of stuffing themselves that they think horses must be equally so. Stuffmg may do with a cart-horse, but will not answer with a hunter, or a horse required for quick strong work. A groom should study each horse's appetite and constitution. Some horses require farmore meat than others, but this truism never enters the head of most of the fellows calling themselves grooma Having ascertained the "maximum " quantity of corn masteï allows, they forthwith prepare for getting it down the horses' throats in equal proportion. A half-finished feed conveya no hint to them : they add a whole feed to it next feeding |
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MANAGEMENT.—FEEDING.
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hour: then horses get cracked heels and swelled legs, and
the fellows wonder how it happens. They perhaps have recourse to their antediluvian book, or some horse-leech in the neighbourhood, who cannot even write out a bill for the medicine he professes to give. Bleeding and physicking should be included in a groom's catalogue of qualifications; but never allow either to be done ■without an order. Some grooms say they cannot keep horses in high condition
without high feeding ; but many masters would ride much more pleasantly if their horses were not in such high condition. What is the use of having a horse capable of doublé the exertion the rider is equal to ? We are not all Osbaldestons, to ride two hundred miles in nine hours; and whether on the road or in the field, a horse above himself is a great nuisance. Lord Pembroke truly observes, that " it is a matter of the
greatest consequence, though few attend to it, to feed horses according to their work. When the work is hard," says he, " food should be plenty; when it is otherwise, the food should be diminished immediately, the hay particularly." That sentence should be placed in every stable and saddle- room in the kingdom. Hay.—The principal food of horses in the stable is hay and
oats, and consequently it behoves every master of horses to be a good judge of their quality. The hay given to your horses should be old upland meadow hay, bright, greenish, fragrant, and not too dry and crisp : it ought indeed to be, in a trifling degree, tough, and not to crackle when twisted in the hand, thereby denoting that it has preserved its juices and nutritious qualities. Many people are in the habit of never giving any other than meadow "hay to their horses, but this is not at all necessary. Provided the quantity of hay you allow your horses in the day be not too great, they will be gratified by a slight change in their diet now and then; and you may with great propriety let them have an occasional handful of sainfoin hay, or of white clover and bents (rye-grass), though most grooms will assert that by so doing you will ruin your horse's wind. Those who say so, however, have never made the experiment themselves, or have made it improperly, by allowing their groom to stuff a horse with hay until he is surfeited, or by giving it in too new a state, when it will produce acidity and flatulence. The allowance of hay for each horse is, in most stables, two trusses per week; one-half this quantity is sufficiënt. Eight pounds of hay per diem is as much as any horse should be allowed to eat, and those who give them more go the right way to breed listlessness, dulness, and disease. Of all animals the horse, in comparison to his size, has the smallest stomach, and consequently his food, when hard work is required of him, should contain as much nutriment as possible in the smallest compass ; for remember that the origin of impaired digestion, and consequently the cause of most diseases, is distension of the stomach and bowels, by which they become debilitated, and their secretions vitiated; the natural and inevitable result of which is general weakness of the whole system. |
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How can any horse possess vigour and sprightliness who tó
allowed to swallow as much hay at a time as he will eat, when a large quantity of this species of food does not contaiu sufficiënt nutriment of itself to keep a horse in condition • The food of horses, whatever it may consist of, should at all times be small in quantity, and of the very best quality ; f°r as we require great exertions from them, so must we take the best means to provide them with the most nutritious sustenance without over-taxing their powers of digestion. Hay that is at all mow-burnt is liable to produce gripes
or flatulent colic; as Kkewise is that which has been recently made, and has not, as it is called, completely " sweated" in the stack. Indeed horses that are expecteo to perform hard work should never be allowed to eat hay less than eight months old. Some people like it better when two years old ; it is then, however, little better than so much straw. Oats.—Your oats should be at least a twelvemonth oli
bright, clear, full, without smell of any kind, and weighiug at least forty pounds per bushel. Many people prefer black oats to white ; provided the weight of both be equal, and they be equally well kept, it matters little which of the two you use—horses will work as well when kept on the one as on the other. Nevertheless it is certainly a difficult matter to obtain black oats of as fine a quality as the white potato oat, inasmuch as they will generally be found to contai» more " heads " and " tails " than the latter ; and therefore those who are not simply satisfied with good oats, but wiu procure the very best, will be more likely to find the great desiderata of weight and plumpness in some species of t*10 white than in the black oat. A horse of good constitutioO> and in regular and moderate work, should not have lesS than four quarterns of oats (weighing forty pounds per bushel) in the course of the day. Oats of the above weigk* may be thus given by measure, and they are by far better than a larger quantity of oats of less weight. It is the mosi absurd plan to feed a horse by measure without referenoe t° the weight of his corn. It has frequently been found. BD examination, in the stables of gentlemen who never choose their own corn, but sulfer a corn-chandler to send thee0 what he pleases, that their horses have been feeding upoD oats that to all appearance were little more than the Hgn seeds blown aside by the winnowing machine, and only D for poultry. No horse can of course be expected to thnve and stand his work upon such diet: therefore be particulaf> when you purchase oats, to see them weighed ; and for t^1 purpose turn out one-third of the oats in the sack, a° weigh a bushel from the middle, for here you will ofte» find them of an inferior quality, both as regards weight a° cleanliness. If you work your horsed hard they must be allowed eitö
a larger quantity of oats than here specified, or you &ü mix with them a few handfuls of old and sweet beao • This is good hearty food for a horse of strong constituti°°' but some horses of a foul habit of body will not en^o1 |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—FEEDING.
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139
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ölng fed for any length of time on beans without exhibiting
/öiptoms of heat of body somewhere—generally by greasy or
acked heels, or by scurf and surfeit. With a horse of this
escription you must every now and then—say three times
°rtnight—adopt the plan of giving half a pailful of bran
ash instead of a feed of corn, giving him at the same time
i an ounce of nitre in his water; or you may add a
"ble handful of dry bran to his oats every day, or when-
er the state of his bowels requires it.
"eas.—Peas are a very good substitute for beans, and,
; Cording to the analysis which has been made of both/contain
oer more nutritious matter than oats in a given quantity.
ey are not, however, in general use. A small quantitv of
^arley added to oats is by many recommended as excellent
t for horses; we can say nothing respecting it from
Pe*sonal experience.
nariep.—Barley is still a common food or the horse on the
otinent, and, until the introduction of the oat, seems to
Vp constituted his ordinary stable food. It is more nutri-
us than oats, containing nine hundred and twenty parts
Qutritive matter in every thousand. There seems, how-
T> to be something necessary besides a great proportion of
tritive matter, in order to render any substance wholesome
strengthening. Exöept where horses are very hardly
,, rJied, barley does not seem in our country to agree with
eöi so well as oats : they are more subject to inflammatory
and particularly to surfeit and mange. When
* iey is given, the quantity should not exceed a peck daily.
üould be always bruised, and the chaff should consist of
4. al quantities of hay and barley straw, and not cut too
If spotted barley is given, it will probably produce
°us illness among them. For horses that are recovering
illness, barley, in the form of malt, is often serviceable,
, einpting the appetite and recruiting the strength. It is
, given in mashes ; water, considerably below the boiling
> being poured upon it, and the vessel or pail kept
°^red for half anhour.
r(tins.—Grains fresh from the mash-tub, either alone, or
to n W^k oa^s or chaff, or both, may be occasionally given rses slow at work; they afford very insufficiënt nourish- |
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whose tendency to purge it may be necessary to restrain by
the astringency of the bean. There is no horseman who is not aware of the difference in the spirit of his horse if he allows or denies him beans on his journey.--. They afford not merely a temporary stimulus, but may be daily used without losing their influence, or producing exhaustion Beans are generally given whole. This is 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 whole, and drops much corn from his mouth in the ineffectual attempt to break them. Beans should not be merely split, but crushed ; they will even then give sufficiënt employment to the grinders of the animal. Tares.—Of the value of tares, as forming a portion
of the late spring and summer food of the stabled, and especially the slow-worked agricultural horse, there can be no doubt. They are nutritive, and they act as a mild medicine. When surfeit lumps appear on the skin, and the slow-worked horse begins to rub himself against the divisions of the stall, and the legs are turgid, a few tares cut up with the chaff, or given instead of a portion of the hay, will often afford relief. Ten or twelve pounds may be given daily, and half that weight of hay subtracted. It is an erroneous notion, that, given in moderate quantities, they either roughen the coat or lessen the capability for work. Lucern is by some agriculturists considered preferable to
tares, and sainfoin superior to lucern. Although they contain but a small quantity of nutritive matter they are easily digested and perfectly assimilated; they speedily put both muscle and fat on the horse that is worn down by labour, and are almost specific for hide-bound. Some farmers have thought so highly of lucern as to substitute it for oats. This may do for the agricultural horse of slow work, but he from whom speedier action is required, and the horse of all work, must have hard meat within him. Garrots.—The virtues of this root are not too greatly
esteemed. There is little food of which the horse is fonder. Nutriment contained in ihefollowing vegetables—1,000 parts
of wheat contain 955 parts of nutritive matter ; barley, 920; oats, 743 ; peas, 574; beans, 570; potatoes, 230; red beet, 148; parsnips, 99; carrots, 98. Of the grasses, 1,000 parts of the meadow cat's tail contain,
at the time of seeding, 98 parts of nutritive 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; Swedish turnips, 64; common turnips, 42; sainfoin, and broad-leaved and long-rooted clover, 39 ; white clover, 32 ; and lucern, 23. Thus much of the articles of the horse's food; we will now
return to the subject of feeding him. When horses are worked very hard, the practice of giving
what is called manger-meat alone has been adopted, and with great success, according to the statement of those who |
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6Ht
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tor horses who are called on for smart exertion
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Wh
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leat is in Great Britain rarely given to horses. It
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aiW
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ays be bruised and given in chaff. Wheat contains a
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§reater
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proportion of gluten than any other kind of grain;
°bst .k°rse it is difficult of digestion, and apt to form
the r^Ctions in the bowels. This will often be the case if
Wh °rSe *s suffered to drink much soon after feeding.
give ^ ur> boiled in water to the thickness of starch, is
^ith i,1 ^°°d e^ec* *n over-purging, especially if combined
see * and opium. There is no grain, however, that
thp J\t0 agree so well with the constitution of the horse as
c oat. 3e
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are T* add materially to the vigour of the horse. There
beails T* hoTfes that will not stand nard work without
-e*ng mingled with their food, and these not horses
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140
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—FEEDING.
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This last may be made by putting half a pint of linseed into
a gallon of water, and placing it close to the fire for some hours, after which set it aside to get cold. On hunting days this should be prepared while you are out, and be ready for use on your return. The linseed tea on cooling gets very thick and glutinous, and contains as much nourishment as with the oatmeal is sufficiënt for a horse whose powers of digestion are for a time enfeebled. If your horse drink this mixture, you may put a lock of sweet hay in his rack, a few handfuls of oats in one corner of his manger, and as much beans in another, with perhaps a couple of chopped carrots, and it is ten to one, unless he be severely overmarked, that he will soon nibble sufficiënt of one or the other to sustain him until his appetite completely' returns. Water.—Soft water in all cases is better for horses than
hard: home water from a brook or pond is preferable to that raised from a well by pump or bucket. Valuable horses, who are apt to be heated, should not, however, be allowed to slake their thirst at pond or brook, but have water given them but little below the temperature of their stable, say 65° to 70°, and this may be done by mixing a little hot water with the cold. Observe, extremely cold water will often produce staring of the coat, colic, and rheumatism- It is by no means an uncommon notion that if horses are to be got into condition for work, they should be allowed to drink but a very small quantity of water Ou what physiological basis this opinion is founded is a mystery. Nevertheless as many persons adopt this treat- ment, it is fitting to notice it. It is a bad plan to stint a horse in his water. Of course it is not asserted that when a horse comes in heated from exercise he should be suffered to drink, or should have a bellyful of water just prior to being ridden; but, if a horse be watered ad lib. in the morning, he will not require to drink again for some hours, and should never be allowed to do so then unless perfectly cool. Those horses that are only supplied with a limite» quantity of water at a time, and are never permitted to slake their thirst fully, will be much more liable to be griped, if at any time they by chance should drink their fiH> than those who are ahvays suffered to take as much as Nature dictates to them; but, should a horse have been hard- worked, and come into his stable very hot, after having see» him well dried, only at first give him a small quantity, for t*0 reasons : first, because his eagerness for water may lead hn° to drink more at a time than is good for him; and seconde' because a large quantity of water will probably cause kiöj to break out into a cold sweat, in which he may remain aU night if not looked to. After having taken a third, or lesS' of a stable pailful of water, he should be kept without an7 for some time, and then be allowed to take what he pleaseS' When, however, you intend to stint your horse in this W»y> do not suffer your groom to offer him a pailful of water, an to take it from him when he has drunk a small porti»11 ° it, but let just the quantity you wish him to have, and |
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have given this plan most trial. Manger-meat is nothing more
than a mixture of corn with hay cut into chaff instead of being put into the rack. The advocates of this plan assert that a horse required to go through much work finishes his food quicker than with rack-meat before him, lies down sooner, and consequently has a longer period for rest than he would if treated in the usual way. This may he very true as regards some horses, hut there are in fact very few who lie down directly after feeding; and a great proportion of horses, after having finished their manger-meat, will piek over their straw, and eat such parts of it as are not much soiled, in preference to lying down. The Americans, in addition to chopping up their horses' hay, grind their oats coarsely, and mix the whole together. For farm-horses while baiting such a plan may be a good one; but horses used for pleasure are generally allowed plenty of time for feeding, and there can therefore neither be any necessity for adopting this system. Horses again that have weak stomachs, and are shy feeders, take a long time before they will eat a sufficiënt quantity of food to keep them in condition: and, if a large mess of hay and corn be placed before them, will take a few mouthfuls perhaps, and blow upon the rest, until they take a disgust to it, and refuse it altogether. There is many a hunter of this description not fit probably to take the field more than once a week, but who, when out, does his work in a style that makes him invaluable to a man that can afford to keep a large stud, and is therefore worth nursing. If you cram his manger with food, the animal will, in all probability, not touch one partiele of it; you visit him hour after hour, and find his corn untouched, and himself dispirited from want of nourishment. What is to be dohe with such a horse ? You have over-taxed his powers—you have thought of nothing but keeping the lead; and when your horse has flagged under you you have roused him with bit and spur; and, despite the warning voices of heaving sides and shaking tail, of which some brother sportsman has perhaps given you notice, you have crammed along to the finish, and found that you had just killed in time, for your horse had already cried "Hold, enough !" You have your fears of " having come it rather too strong" confirmed by finding your trusty steed refuse his corn and show other evident symptoms of distress. If you are enough of a veterinarian to be able to judge of the state of his pulse, and no symptoms of congestion of the lungs betray themselves, it may happen that a little warm ale and ginger may be advantageous to him ; but as there is risk in giving stimu- lants after hard work, unless you have "good store of veterinary science" to guide you, after having seen him made pretty comfortable, give him (and this drink you should accustom him to take lest he refuse it when you wish him to take it) half a quartern or more of oatmeal made into porridge or gruel with a small quantity of boiling water—stirring in the oatmeal in small quantities, and keeping the whole simmering, diluted with linseed. tea. |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—EXERCISE.
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141
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ai°re, be given to him ; he will then feel to a certain degree
satisfied with what he gets: whereas, by taking from him
nat he expects to have, he becomes fretful and discon-
^nted. In the first instance he makes up his mind to slake
18 thirst with a short allowance of water; -whereas in the
econd his just expectations are baulked in mid career, and
18 imagination cheated as it were in the height of his
nJoyment: there is much more in this than may be
Senerally supposed. Physiologists are well aware of the
onnexion existing between the stomach and brain; and
iose who have not inquired into this fact must either do so
et°re they attempt to refute it, or take what is here stated
as Proven.
What is said with respect to giving a horse water while
e is hot applies equally to his food. Never suffer a horse
0 feed until he is cool. After fatigue of body, the stomach
aU other parts is perhaps the least capable of exertion;
ü although in some cases of severe exertion a slight
§ree of sustenance may be requisite to support the
rength and stamina of every living animal, it should
ways be administered in moderation; and for this purpose
ere is nothing better than the gruel already recommended.
18 a light species of diet when not given too abundantly,
§amst which the stomach will seldom rebel, and it is
^ays proper that this organ, like any other, should be in
? 0c* tone before its work—that of digestion—be required of
> and as, when a horse is violently heated the blood is
°Pelled by the heart in a much greater ratio than usual,
e stomach, being consequently supplied with a greater
antity of blood within a given time than it would have
°eived without undue excitement, is as unfitted to per-
fti its task while under the influence of that stimulus, as
. _ eye would be to bear a strong light after having been
«ated by some heating application. Let your horse then
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to his work—say from a quartern to a quartern and a half
of oats—four hours are the very least period that should be allowed to elapse before your horse is again fed; and during this time (unless he has been worked so hard that you wish him to lie down) his head should be fastened so that he may not be able to get at his straw, which very many horses will eat, no matter how soiled it may be. A horse in regular and fair exercise should have but very little, if any, hay in the middle of the day; but a small quantity may be given in the early part of the morning, and a sufficiënt portion at night to make up his daily allowance of about eight pounds —not more. Although corn is certainly more nutritious than hay, yet if you increase your number of feeds of oats, and deprive your horses entirely of hay, it is surprising how quickly some of them will lose flesh. Business of various kinds will sometimes compel you to
alter your hours of feeding, but regularity should always be adhered to as strictly as possible ; for, after having been for some time accustomed to be fed at a certain time, nature will crave food at the usual hour, even though the previous meal may have been more than commonly abundant. A horse that is generally taken out in the forenoon, if fed twice in the morning, should have the larger portion of his food at his first meal; and if he be required to work on most days from about nine till one or two, the better plan is to divide his corn into three feeds instead of four. This is preferable to working him on a full stomach, than which few things in time are likely to prove more injurious. EXERCISE.
Exercise, the prime necessity of animal health, is an
instinct wonderfully active in the horse, when free to indulge his own will, and at leisure from the restraint and servitude of man. The benefits of exercise, as a preventive of disease and as a promoter of the working condition of the animal frame, are equally self-evident. If it be true then that in a state of nature horses instinctively play with each other, and that to such an extent as to produce perspiration and violent breathing, may we not infer that when we stable them, subject to restraint, and then neglect to exercise them, their health must be injured ? In all great cities the evil of want of exercise sadly prevails among the better class of horses. We shall quote here a clever sporting writer, the late Mr. Bingley, " Harry Hieover," who says that he verily believes as many horses are ruined for want of work as from too much of it. It is true that the better sort of horses of the better sort of owners are ordered to be exercised, but how, where, and when they do not condescend to inform them- selves, or to inform their servants. Well, the men have too much to do, and gentlemen object to boys riding their valuable horses. So they rub the dirt off them ; give them a brush over ; make the stable clean, ventilate it by opening door and window, and are satisfied that they have done their duty. Or, perhaps the animals are ostensibly brought out and led—observe, not even ridden—up and down a covered |
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ain quiet for some time after he has done his work, and
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ie
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,. wul not only feed the better for it, but will likewise
'gest what he eats. Th
uere are not a few masters of horses, who, from a
aken feeling of kindness, like al ways to see a good
^ tttity of food before their animals, so that they may never
<j Ungry; not stopping for a moment to consider the
/-gree „f
injury they occasion by this perpetual cramming,
s Vainly imagining that every extra mouthful a horse
^y. °ws is so much added to his strength and condition.
j, ,. Canöot, of course, expect the brute creation to act as
^ °nal heings, or to be able to resist the temptation of eat-
öiore than is good for them ; and therefore the first
0j. P °m of loathing food, which is the necessary consequence
8t0^erPetual repletion, is a proof that the powers of the
tes, acü have been overtaxed, and that it requires the same
geö~~~. ^ f°r a much longer period—as does the body
qUa,. alv after severe exercise. Next to the quantity and
so q ? °f y°ur horse's food, there is nothing that will tend
b.0Ur y to Put him into condition as giving it at stated
aQtt at regular intervals. After a meal proportioned
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—EXERCISE.
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142
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cularly exemplified in the human subject; for, let a man
forego the use of one of his legs for twelve months, the muscles of that leg will fall away, though they will in some measure recover on his resuming the action of the limb. Horses lame in the fore-feet are generally seen to have the muscles of the chest fallen away, because such muscles are not called into their proper action, which a crippled horse has not the power of dóing, although he may work every day." This gave rise to the vulgar, but now nearly exploded, opinion of chest-foundering in horses ; whereas such a complaint does not exist; the evil lies in the feet, and the wasting of the muscles of the chest is the effect and not the cause'. In strong work, when a horse is sound, every muscle, and indeed every fibre, of the body is braced, as it were, untü the frame becomes a firm mass as a whole, but possessed of vast contractility in the separate portions. Exercise greatly improves the wind, by promoting an
absorption of the surrounding fat from the viseera of the chest, and thus allowing the lungs to expand uninterruptedly: it also enlarges the air cells of the lungs themselves; and hence, by the imbibing of more air, the animal can remain longer between his inspirations. The pearl-diver by practice, it is said, can remain under water between two and three minutes, while insensibility follows our own immersion after fifty seconds. And thus the colt in training is first able to take a gentle gallop, next a brushing one, and lastly he stretches over the gróund at the top of his speed without distress. The benefits of exercise as a preventive, and in many cases
a curative, need not be further dwelt on, except to urge on owners that they should insist on its systematic and periodical observance. The owner of a single horse should order his groom, as
soon as the stable has been cleaned out in the morning» while the horse is eating his first feed, to brush him over, and put on his exercising saddle and bridle; in cold weather, if only intended to be walked, keep the cloth or sheet on him under the saddle; in warm weather, though a horse s coat may be something the finer by being kept warm, yet he is certainly the more liable to take cold when he is necessarily deprived of it. "We need hardly say that the most open and airy places should be taken for exercise, and this is the most favourable opportunity to improve a horse's walk, two hours of which he should get, and it is a great thing to endeavour always to make him step longer in his walk, and thus exercise the horse and improve him at the same time. I' convenient, while out give him his water. If a horse is inclined to flesh, the like exercise may be taken in the after* noon, where persons have time and convenience. But every one cannot allow the time to be so taken up, for it would be nearly equal to training, and may not be thought necessary; it is more than the generality of horses require, and many inferior-bred horses, who look well to the eye, cannot for * continuance stand the ordinary work that a horse has ï*» training. If you inquire of training grooms, in charge ot |
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ride perhaps fifty or sixty yards long, littered with strong-
sraelling, half-saturated straw, aided by the fine ammonia of the dung-pit itself, quite " convaynient" as our Irish friends would say. Ought an own er to feel astonished at "influenza," or any other disease which assumes an epizootic form, should rage in his stable ? Of course he will hear from the " Vet.," according to his enlightenment, an extensive amount of prate about " contagion, great prevalence of disease at this season," &c, while he is positively brewing his own miasma, and expösing his too-much-favoured animals to circumstances which must produce the visitation -which exercise, involving change of air, would as assuredly prevent. Broken wind, incipient ophthalmia, sandcracks, grease, contracted heels, hide bound, and digestively-disturbed functions, staring coat, and general constitutional disturbance are among the mis- chiefs which physic and " horse-doctrine " will substitute for horse-exercise and horse-play: which is the more economical, which the more satisfactory, we leave the reader to judge. The spring and autumn shedding of the coat, too, is never properly gone through by hordes who have not frequent and strong periodical exercise. So necessary is exercise to the health of the horse, that, unless prevented by sickness, lame- ness, hard frost, or a previous severe hard day's work, no day should be missed. The quantity, frequency, and pace, must, however, depend upon circumstances. Where horses work two or three days in the week, the resting days require no more than airing exercise; for every horse should have, at least two days in the week, such work or exercise that will give him a moderate sweating. This throws out through the pores of the skin, what might lodge in the system and create diseases ; it likewise frees the horse of scurf adhering to the skin, and makes the coat fine. Those days, therefore, that the horse is not wanted for work, he must be exercised for thé fresh air, which is bracing and strengthening to his limbs, refreshes the body, and creates appetite. The early part of the day is preferable for this, but in wet weather embrace the best opportunity. Exercise enlarges the muscles, by forcing more red blood
into them : thus the arms of the blacksmith, the legs of the pedestrian, the sword-arm of the fencer, greatly increase by use ; which is well fabled in the account that Milo, by every day carrying his calf, became insensible to its increasing weight, and bore it also when it had grown into a buil. The athletse of Greece and Rome braced their limbs by constant exertion, and the gymnastics of the forum were the produce of much previous exercise. The boxer also is forced to submit to close training, which is principally composed of strong exercise. Our hounds take their training gallops preparatory to hunting ; our hawks their training flights ; and game-cocks were brought into wind and vigour by similar means. It is well observed by Nimrod, " That the ill effects of rest, and the good effects of work, on the powers and energies of a horse, are astonishing. In long-continued rest his flesh becomes soft and flabby, and the muscles lose thèir elasticity, and even their sulbstance. This is parti- |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CLEANING.
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143
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When horses in returning from exercise show any heat or
inflammation from saddle, girth, or harness, have ready a wash of Goulard water—that is, four draehms of sugar of lead diluted with water to a wine bottle full of fluid. Bathe the part with it, and you will give comfort to the animal, and perhaps prevent further and more troublesome and pain- ful consequences. This cold lotion should always be at hand. CLEANING.
Removing the Mud.—There are two ways of removing the
mud. One may be termed the dry, and another the wet mode. The first is performed by means of the scraper and the curry-comb, or a kind of brush made of whalebone, which answers much better than the curry-comb. In the few coaching stables now surviving, the strappers are never allowed to apply water to a horse that has come off the road. The usual practice is to strip off the mud and loose water by the sweat knife ; to walk the horse for about ten minutes, if he be warm or wet, and the weather fair, otherwise he stands a little in his stall, or in an open shed ; then the manbegins with the driest of those that have come in together. Much of the surface mud which the scraper has left about the legs is removed by a straw wisp, or a small birch broom, or the whalebone brush ; the wisp likewise helps to dry the horse, The whalebone brush is a very useful article when the coat is long. That and the curry-comb, with the aid of a wisp, are almost the only implements coaching strappers require in the winter season. It clears away the mud, and separates the hairs, but it does not polish them. A gloss, such as the coat of these horses requires, is given by the wisp. The whalebone brush is sometimes too coarse, and many horses cannot bear it at any time, while others can suffer it only in winter. After the mud has been removed with this brush, the matted hair parted by the curry-comb, and the horse dusted all over with the wisp, his feet are washed, the soles picked, the shoes examined, the legs and heels well rubbed, partly by the hand, and partly by the wisp, and the mane and tail combed. In the best stables he is well dressed with the bristle brush before he goes to work. In other stables the usual mode of removing mud is by— Washing.—When the horse is very dirty he is usually
washed outside the stable; his belly is scraped, and the remainder of the mud is washed off at once by the application of water. Some clean the body before they wash the legs, but that is only when there is not much mud about the horse. They do so that he may go into the stable quke clean. He soils his feet and legs by stamping the ground when his body has been cleaned. It matters little whether the dressing commence with the body or with the legs; but when the legs are washed the last thing, they are generally left undried. In washing, a sponge and a water brush are employed. Some use a mop, and this is called a lazy method ; it is truly the trick of a careless sloven; it wets the legs, but does not clean them. The brush goes to the roots of the hair ; and removes the sand and mud, without |
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Bome terrible high-bred colt, why he is not " brought out,"
they will answer, " he would not stand his training." This is mere cant. He has been over-trained and galloped too fast, not judiciously and reasonably exercised. Should the horse's work be so moderate as not to occasion
a sweat, then, about twice a week, he should have exercise strong enough to sweat him ; this may be done in the pace he is mostly ridden in, that he may be praetised and improved' in it; if he be admired for his trot, it would be wrong to gallop him, which might unsettle him in his esteemed pace; therefore, trot him out for the space of two miles, to bring him to a comfortable sweat, and walk him back ; thus will his limbs be rendered supple, his muscles developed by red blood, and his ligaments and tendons strengthened. In- activity debilitates, and over exertion may sprain and weaken, but moderate exertion is good both for man and beast. Sweating horses increases the labour of cleaning. Indolent
grooms, and those who have several horses to look after, avoid this part of their business as much as possible: let no such grooms be trusted. When a horse comes in from work or exercise, if perspir-
ing, wet and dirty, he should not be left until completely dry, clean, and comfortable. Some horses, in good condition, ■will rub dry and clean in a short time, but others, with long coats, and some from constitution or ill condition, are a long time getting dry; hence clipping and singeing, which may be rendered unnecessary by diligent grooming. But these points will be remarked upon presently. In some hunting establishments grooms only open the
stables twice a-day instead of three times if the horses are öot at work. Instead of sending the horses starving out the first dawn of the morning, they generally remain in the stables till the men have had their breakfasts, and are con- 8equently not shut up till a little before mid-day. They then remain quiet for six hours. The late Lord Kintore's 8table was conducted on this principle, and Nimrod, in ^scribing it, said, " I must own that, although I never tried *t> I see sound argument in favour of this stable management Zuring the three dark and dreary months of winter, with horses that work hard, from a knowledge of the restorative P°Wers of undisturbed rest both with horse and man; as a*so of its sedative effects in allaying excitement by whatever C£tüse produced." The hours of exercising might be advantageously left to
the weather. Cold, damp, foggy mornings, the horses would
°uhtless be better in their stables; fine bright mornings
should be taken advantage of, lest the day should change for
*e worse as it advances. There is no use in getting horses
, ut in winter before day-break, unless indeed the men (which
not at all improbable) have fixed a particular hour for
eir own breakfasta ' That breakfast is one strong argument
. r exercising at a later period, the men having no interest hurrying and shortening their work in order to get home
t0 their morning meal. |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CLOTHING.
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144
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doing which, it is worse than useless to apply water. The
sponge is employed for drying the hair, for soaking up and wiping away the loose water. Afterwards, the legs, and all the parts that have been washed, are rendered completely dry by rubbing with a straw wisp, the rubber, and the hand. Among valuable horses this is always done ; wherever the legs have little hair about them, and that little cannot be properly dried after washing, no washing should take place. For ourselves we are advocates of the " dry" method ; for none but the best of stablemen, and they are of course rare, conscientiously rub them free from moisture. Hence imminent danger of cold and fever. Evaporation com- mences; after a time a process is set up for producing heat sufficiënt to carry on evaporation and to maintain the temperature of the skin. Before this process can be fully established the water has all evaporated; then the heat accumulates; inflammation succeeds, and often runs so far as to produce mortification. When the inflammation is slight and transient, the skin is soon completely restored to health, and no one knows that it had ever been inflamed. When the process runs higher, there is a slight oozing from the skin, which constitutes what is termed grease, or a spot of grease, for when this disease is spread over a large surface it is the result of repeated neglect. When the inflammation has been still more severe, mortification ensues ; the horse is lame, the leg swollen, and ia a day or two a crack is visible across the pastern, generally at that part where the motion is greatest. This crack is sometimes a mere rupture of the tumefied skin, but very often it is produced by a dead portion of the skin having fallen out; what is called "a core" in the heel arises from the same cause ; it diflers from the crack only in being deeper and wider. The reason why cold produces such local injury of the skin covering the legs, and not of that covering any other part, is sufficiently plain. The legs, in proportion to their size, have a very extensive surface exposed to evaporation, and the cold becomes more intense than it can ever become on the body. To avoid these evils, the legs must either be dried after washing, or they must not be wet. With this train of evils " looming in the future," the owner must indeed be unworthy of being master of a horse if he neglects to assure himself that his animal's legs are properly rubbed dry. When you wash the legs with warm water to cool and refresh them, it will also at the same time relieve the feet, which of course must have undergone a considerable quantity of labour. The uses of the equine footbath are dwelt on in Mayhew's " Illustrated Horse Doctor," already referred to. Water is beneficial to the feet; we find the feet less injured by travelling on wet roads than on dry ones; and the hoof at grass, being continually wet with the dew and moist ground, is in a better state than when kept in the stable. The casual wet you meet with in exercise on the roads, or the moisture of the turf or grass you exercise on, contributes to preserve the foot from the injury which continually standing in a hot and dry stable occasions. |
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CXOTHINGL
The advisability of clothing for the " general purpose *
horse has been the subject of controversy in times by-past. With racers and high-bred hunters clothing is indispensable. The " old English gentleman's " cry of " sticking to nature "
is mere nonsensical obstinacy and prejudice. We have adapted the animal to an artificial life, and artificial means are needed to keep him in the required condition. In winter, clothing warms the animal and improves his coat; in summer (lighter), it keeps the skin-temperature more equable, and prevents the irritation of flies. We do not recommend, however, the complete suit of the racer to the service of the hackney. Where stables are dry and cross-draughts avoid ed, a
horsecloth is, to our thinking, enough. Much of the heavier clothing may be dispensed with advantageously where the " dry-rubbing" so often insisted on in these pages is con- scientiously carried out. Good grooming is the surest prevention of sudden alternations from heat to cold ; and we once again recommend that no stable should ever be without a registering thermometer, that its temperature may not be the subject of guess. The clothing for private stables is composed of strong
serge, made for the saddler's purpose, cut, and bound with galloon. Economy and smartness are best answered by having a suit of " best clothes," of finer and closer serge or kersey, for day wear, and a warm rug or even two for night- A roller with doublé straps is required to keep them iB place. The best or day clothes will look much cleaner and smarter by this method. In warm dry weather a thin clotb is enough. In the stable you^ horses should always have clothes
enough to keep them warm, but not hot. Grooms are generally too fond of heaping rugs and blankets upon their horses, for the purpose of improving the appearance of the coat; but depend on it that too warm clothing not only renders a horse more susceptible of cold than he should be, but also diminishes the size and firmness of his muscles- Employ then the " just mean ;" and however pretty may »e the appearance of a smart and thick rug, covered by a g»? body-cloth, and this again surmounted by a hood throW11 over the quarters, with the ears neatly peeping up behi»d the rollers, do not sacrifice your horse's well-being t0 appearances, which may be all very well in the show-stable9 of a London dealer, but are uncalled for in those of * sportsman. If your horse be clipped or singed, he will o course require additional clothing, for a time at least. The hunter's clothing in cold weather is a kersey-snee
and quarter-piece with roller, and usually a breast-pieC also. To these, particularly where well-bred horses &r employed, a hood is sometimes added; but, however Pr°Pe, it may be to exercise in a hood (which indeed sho« always be worn when walking only is allowed), we should not constitute a regular part of the stable ^re |
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CONDITIONING.
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145
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«ven breast-cloths have the effect of keeping a part in an
uadue state of heat, which, the moment the horse goes out to nis regular work, is the most exposed to the wind and tain- The day clothing of the hunter is commonly ex- changed for the rug and roller at night. The clothing used for the better sort of hackneys is much
'be same with that worn by the hunter; even the hood and weast-piece are often employed; and, indeed, the general Weatment is now much alike for both: but it must be allowed, that, however it may tend to improve the appear- ance of the hackney, or even increase his spirit, it must nevertheless subject him to cold on a change of stable. The clothing in use for racers varies much, in quantity,
luality, and fashion. The full set comprises the hood, 8heet, quarter-piece, breast-cloth, pad-cloth, and fillet-cloth, *ith rollers to secure them; these form a complete suit °* clothes. The suits vary in their manufacture; they are> however, usually made of kersey-check, like those of °ther horses, but of a lighter kind. There are likewise in acing stables heavy suits, particularly employed for the Purpose of sweating. The first hood of the sweating cleth- ^g should be made without ears, that additional hoods, ^hen necessary, may go over it, the last only being furnished ^th ears. The body-sweater should be large enough to ~nVelop the whole carcass, and to wrap round the neck ^ewise; and the breast-sweater, or breast-cloth, should be equally
capacious. When the sweat is intended to be a
Pfofuse onG; 0ther large blanket pieces are usually added.
11 summer, racers usually wear suits of white serge for
^othing. In Darvill's work some judicious improvements , the clothing are recommended; one of which is, that nstead of the stiff leather used to attach the breast-cloth
traP (and which, when hard-pulling horses are galloping,
'eQ chafes the knuckles of the riding boys seriously) °fter leather should be substituted, as that of which the
^ddle-seats are made. He further proposes to substitute
*°ops on each side of the centre and back part of the
i^a-rter-piece and sheet, so that a portion of binding might
e attached to those loops, in the way of a crupper, with
üch horses as would bear it."
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perfect state of body and limbs, in which the whole system
is at its highest vigour, and capable of great exertion, whenever called on. This cannot be obtained or kept, without strictly adhering to three things, viz., proper food. proper grooming, and proper exercise; neither of these must be omitted, or injudiciously administered; for, like medicine properly administered, each does goed, but is capable of doing much injury if misapplied. Wine, in moderation, cheers the spirits and invigorates the body of man, but taken to excess debilitates the constitution and prostrates the nervous energy. " Nimrod," whose victorious controversy on ' Summering
the Hunter," led to such oceans of " inkshed " some thirty years ago, is yet the first authority on preparing horses for the hunting field; and some of his directions are so generally applicable that we may adapt them easily to ordinary stable practice. He supposes, in this case, that you take your horse from grass on the lst of August. "If you intend," says Mr. Apperley, "to physick him in the stable, give the purgatives hereafter mentioned : but if you prepare him at grass, give mild doses of not more than five drachms of aloes, and two and a half drachms of ginger, on the 24th of July, and repeat it on the lst day of August, and again on the 8th day of August; take him into the stable on the lOth or llth of August, but do not bleed; give a mash once or twice a day, as it is not right to put him on dry food too suddenly, at least for a week; let him have three or four hours' walking exercise every day for the first fortnight, then bring him by degrees to take regular stretching gallops. Let old oats and meadow hay be his food till he comes to severe work, then add a few old split beans, and give about a quari ui slicod carrots or SwedïsïïTurmps clean washed, once or twice in twenty-four hours. The beet- root is excellent in colds or coughs. Do not clothe him too heavy, nor keep the temperature of your stable too warm Let all corn be bruised ; give a small feed every morning before watering, and do not follow the plan of galloping afterwards ; four times in twenty-four hours is often enough to feed, and do what is requisite in the stable; do not disturb him oftener. A change of diet is good for all horses, particularly bad feeders. A small quantity of bruised wheat and malt with chopped clover is nourishing food, and boiled beans and some dry bran mixed with them and the water they are boiled in is an excellent mash. I have frequently given it after a hard day's work. Be careful not to give too much hay ; it is a good plan to shake up some fresh oat or wheat straw with it, they must masticate more thoroughly. Giving large quantities of corn at one time is improper, many eager horses will grasp such mouthfuls that it is impossible for them to grind it; they swallow it whole and dry, which swells in the stomach, causes obstructions, and the confined air originating from indigested food produces acute pain, convulsions, and frequently sudden death. It is certainly an excellent plan to give chopped clover, saintfoin, and any seed hay with corn. When you go out in the |
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CONDITIONIHG.
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le word condition is variously applied to the horse,
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th
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^Ugh widely different from what is here intended: thus,
üen We say a horse is in " condition for sale," we simply
eari " dealer's condition," ie., he is in flesh, his legs clean
j.1(* fresh, his coat fine, his eye clear, and his movements
Vev- A horse may be all this, but not in condition for
ork. Another horse is said to be "in good working condi-
. ®n'>" such might be said of a cab-horse, bare of flesh, with
lts enlarged, and his legs puffed with windgalls, yet this
rse may be capable of doing much work. His being
, r*ed more than was requisite to keep him in condition,
' a^ Put him " out of condition."
Condition, therefore, without an expletive, implies that
T
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CONDITIONINGk
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146
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morning leave orders for half a gallon of barley, well sifted
clear of dust, to be put into a clean pail, to it pour two gallons of boiling water, let it be covered close over, it will be cool enough in six or eight hours, and give it altogether when your horse has been thoroughly dressed ; he will eagerly take it. " You can judge of a horse's condition by his coat, and
firmness of flesh ; his crest and his spirits or animation, in case of colds, being dull and feverish, use the following alterative powders :— " Antimony, in powder, one pound; nitre, one pound;
mixed together: give one ounce every night, either in their corn or made into a ball; it will greatly promote condition. It is a good plan when you buy a horse always to begin to get him into condition with the above alteratives. It is a most excellent cooling medicine for horses hard- worked in summer." Leaving Nimrod, we will return to general treatment for
conditioning. ( We have already spoken of exercise, as ensuring the
health of the stabled horse, or as preventing the acces- sion of acute or chronic disorders by means of the lungs, the skin, and the hardening and strengthening of the muscles and lungs by promoting healthy excretion. We are not about to encourage quackery in grooms and horsekeepers— far from it—nor to give such advice as might interfere with the legitimate province of the veterinary surgeon. Yet, as a horse in precarious health, or whose exertions, exposure, or other causes of common occurrence may threaten to disable, must often be under the care of his stable attendant, it is as well that a few simple directions should be given in ar-saEÏtóry_sense. Now some grooms physic or bleed the horses entrusted to them at their own discretion. This should never be allowed by any judicious master. Proper feeding, due exercise, diligent grooming, will often preclude the necessity of physic.; Sloth and neglect are the parents of disease in an animal so artificially treated as the stabled horse. Well fed, and not exercised, what can be expected but a train of evils, for which the drenching-horn, the balling-iron, and the fleam are to be the panacea! We have personally an intense aversion to unnecessary drugs and the use of the fleam or scalpel. A few plain directions, not to supersede but to obviate the dire necessity of the instrument case and the battery of the pharmacopceia, shall here be set down. We will first speak of the treatment of a horse who has been newly taken up from grass. Grass is cooling and aperient to the horse accustomed to hard meat; it will also fill him with flesh; but observe, this is not flesh of a description fit for a horse to work upon: nay, if you tried him a hunting gallop you would find him faint and weak, and the fat accumulated on his cellular tissue would work out in a white lather. This checked will probably produce inflammation of the lungs, and send, as it has sent, many a fine animal to the knacker's yard. We will suppose your horse coming from grass or the
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straw yard* to the stable, with its systematic diet and coiv
responding work; observe if he has irritation of the skin and heat. If so send for the veterinary surgeon, who wih bleed him or reduce his fever, as he is a disciple of the " venesecting " theory or the " alterative." By the way, the first thing is to get the horse shod, as he is best with his shoes off when turned out, otherwise they become loose before being taken up. While he is full of grass he will not drink much water, but if you give him dry food he wi" become thirsty, and you need not stint him till he has bad his physic. A good method is to give him a cold bran mash or two before the medicine. We will suppose then he has had his dose: tie him up and put on the muzzle, and in the morning gentle exercise will assist its operation. 0» returning to stable, give him a lock of the sweetest hay and a little chilled water, then a bran mash moderately warmed- More solid food may lessen the benefit to be derived from the aperient. After the sixth or seventh day a second dose of medicine is recommended by most practitioners, when the stable treatment before and after may be similar. With respect to removing fat by purgatives, if you are not
yourself a good judge of the operation of these medicines, you should first take the opinion of some good veterinary surgeon ere you attempt to meddle with them.v A round- barrelled, trussy horse of a hardy constitution will bear a dose of medicine which would be destruction to a slight an" narrow-gutted one, and you should therefore be extreinely cautious how you administer such quantities as you may occasionally see prescribed as "cathartic, &c, ball," or "mi^' ture," in veterinary works, without previously ascertaining; as far as you can, the capabilities of your horse for sustaininë their operation. For the purpose of taking off fat, and &• the same time of improving your horse's stamina, acti^e purgation is seldom required, and therefore you must never think of giving such doses as would be prescribed for the treatment of inflammation. Such a practice, so far from doing good, would render your horse weak and languid f°r several days, and prevent him only from taking any bi" the most moderate exercise. Generally speaking, from threft |
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* The Straw Yard affords another mode of restoring the legs of ^e
overworked horse, and he is turned into it during the winter, with a shed to run into, and the soft manure or litter in the middle of tbe yard to run upon. Hay is given, but seldom more than enough w keep the stomaeh in order, and barley-straw affords the chief s«^' tenance in most cases ; vsometimes a little hay is given cut as chaff ^J straw, and in some cases also mixed with a feed or two of corn per aw' When a suitable winter pasture cannot be obtained, the straw-yard * often efficacious for inflamed legs and feet; and, as its small ex*60 precludes all galloping about, it is often even more suitable than vm open pasture. Tips may be entirely dispensed with, and when the t°e are pared down close, as in the " seedy toe," or when the horny '°° has eome off, as in inflammation or fever of the foot, the straw-y81 affords the very best chance of a speedy growth, especially if ^. regular application of pitch, &c, can be depended on,—Stewart's SC** Management. |
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147
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STABLE-MANAGEMENT.—CONDITIONING.
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0 tour drachms of aloes are quite sufficiënt for your purpose ;
and they may be occasionally repeated as circumstances may
require. Previous to giving physic, keep your horse for half
a "ay at least on bran-mashes, which species of food, with a
"tle hay, must be all that is allowed him until his dung
^cornes tolerably firm, or, in stable language, is "set."
Wrthout this precaution you will run the risk of inducing
SriPes. Water with the chili taken off should also be given
Uri»g the operation of a purgative, and the horse be kept
°lerably warm. Walking exercise will at first be all that
e "will comfortably endure after his ball has left off working
lrn> and this must be increased by degrees.
'laving by this means brought your horses into such a
state as to enable them to stand hard work, it should be
y°Ur care, by regular exercise and careful attention to their
iet, grooming, and other matters connected with their well-
0lng, to see that they are not suffered to fall off in strength
an^ condition.
, °e training of the hun ter and the race-horse is con-
cted on the self-same principles, for which the reader is
e*e*red elsewhere under Training the Racer, and Train-
ö THE Hunter. The grand arcana of training and
odition are comprised in a knowledge of their constitu-
ttal treatment in the article of diet, and in giving them
.SUlarly as much exercise as their strength will endure
t, . a(ivantage to themselves. We speak not here of what
ir legs wj]i }jear jn t}je way 0f work • forj if they are so
,, ty as to be an impediment to active exertion, the sooner
y are put out of training the better.
e shall conclude this subject by the sound advice of one . he best and most practical of sporting writers. " Trainers seneral are too fond of employing physic, of the operation
T i *n n*ne ^mes ou* 0I" *en they are grossly ignorant, j., öe convinced of this, you have only to listen to the jargon y will run over to you of the action of the simplest
edies—a liniment, for instance, which they frequently,
[ a invariably, use for a strain of any kind, and that
bp . lately after it has occurred, when its application may
Jghly injurious. There is, however, in mankind in
a , ra* a hankering after being thought sldlled in medicine,
~ ew people will be found who have not nostrums for
of t seases> and of course recommend a similar mode
a atment for every case. We are quite as convinced that
fe ,.rse °nce put into condition may be kept so by good
as , 8» good grooming, and good exercise, unless he fall ill,
te * the less medicine a man in good health and of
^ kabits takes the better for him. A horse's habits
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and mode of life, while under the direction of man, must or
ought to be more regular than those of a human being, and consequently the perpetual physickings that are prescribed in many first-class stables, cannot fail to be prejudicial. " Let then your horse's woïk be proportioned to his powers
of endurance; pay strict attention to his diet, to cleanliness, &c.; do not allow your groom to tamper with medicine, and to fancy himself an Esculapius, a Percival, a Blaine, or a Sewell: so shall the work you get out of your stud be pro- portionally increased, your veterinary surgeon's bill be diminished, and your purse the weightier by the prioe of some few horses, which by a different mode of treatment might have been either rendered useless, or have graced the kennel coppers." The handling of the horse by rib and neck, to determine
the state of his condition, is a very ancient practice. Xeno- phon and other old authors notice it; and we find one of these writers on the horse asserting, "that there are out- ward and inward manifestations of fat, some being out- wardly fat and yet inwardly lean," which, although it seems to imply a contradiction, is yet in some cases true. Another denies the possibility of this, and a third thus discourses on the subject:—"Some horses feed outwardly, and carry a thick rib when they are inwardly thin, as may be; whereas others appear lean to the eye, when they are all grease within. In this case, the feeder of the horse has two helps to advantage his knowledge, the outward arrd the inward one. The first is the outward handling and feeling the horse's body all over his ribs, but particularly upon his short and hindermost ribs; and if his flesh generally handle soft and loose, and the fingers sink therein as into down, he is foul without all manner of question: but if he be hard and firm, and only soft upon the hindermost rib, he has grease and foul matter within him, which must be voided, whatever comes of it. And for the inward help, that is only sharp exercise and strong scouring; the first to dis- solve, and the latter to bring it away" The same author, with much truth, gives the retraction of the testes to the body as an useful criterion of condition. Our next chapter will treat of Vices in the Horse:
firstly Stable Vioes, then those of The Road and Harness. The Treatment of a Horse on a Journey, Care of the Feet, Shoeing, a Chapter on Riding and Driving,—while an outline of what a Gentleman should know of the first steps and general outlines of horse-medi.cine, shall con- clude this division of our work. Veterinary Science and Practice will follow. |
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THE VICES OF HORSES.
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148
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CHAPTEE XIV.
THE VICES OP HORSES AND THEIR REMEDIES.—STABLE VICES : RESTIVE WHILE CLEANING : KICKINQ : CRIB-BITING : WIND-SÜCKIHG '-
PAWING : REARING : GETTING LOOSE : ROLLING : HANGING BACK : CASTING : RESTIVE WHILE SHOEING : EATING LITTER, &C.! VICES ON THE ROAD. |
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tion of strength, and the animal will be found incapable of
endurance. On the other hand, if the muscular powers are greatly in excess of the nervous energy, the horse is of little value except for purposes in which sluggishness is unim- portant. The ordinary means adopted by sportsmen and others
connected with horses, and which have been for ages more or less successfully the means of subjugating them, have been eclipsed by the performances of Mr. Rarey. Whatever scepticism may exist as to the permanency of his treatment with horses confirmed in vice, very great and important results are most unquestionably manifest in the facility with which he is enabled to reduce to quiet submission wild, unhandled, unbroken colts. Those who ride and drive for health and amusement, although their wealth may enable them to purchase horses perfectly tractable, cannot fail to enhance their pleasures by the confidence which a knowledge of this art must establish. It is an unfortunate fact for creatures of instinct only»
that their tuition is mostly entrusted to that class who have but a small share of the reasoning faculty themselves; and what they have, bad temper and worse feeling frequently prevent their exercising. There can be no doubt that the less reasoning faculty the pupil is endowed with, be i* man or brute, the more enlightened should be the preceptor. If a master improperly chides or corrects a boy, the latter has reason to call to his aid, and sees the folly or injustice of the chastisement; thus, his progress in learning anything is not stopped or thrown back by the folly or ebullition oi temper of the master; but the poor brute is confused by i* > and no doubt that intemperate and misplaced correction often undoes far more in one quarter of an hour than caö be rectified by a week's subsequent tuition. Parents woul" be figuratively "up in arms" if a boy was improperly °r illadvisedly corrected; yet owners will look with perfect apathy or carelessness on the treatment their more-to-be- pitied animals undergo at the hands of their teacher* More to be pitied, because the boy can complain; the p°°r brute cannot, whatever may be his sufferings. The horse comes next to the dog in point of acuteness o»
instinct, the highest-gifted of those animals we have in * domestic state, or at least from the tuition we bestow ofl him, his instinct is the most developed. The ox, cow, sheep» and swine are left all but in a state of nature; the co* |
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The Vices of the Horse offer a tempting subject to the
essay-writer ; the idiosyncrasies of this valuable quadruped presenting almost as many leading features as those of erratic human nature herself; yet of the horse's "original sin " in the respect of " temper," we are somewhat sceptical, believing that, although horses of violent and even furious temper may be found, the "vice" is far more frequently attributable to improper, harsh, or ignorant training, and to tiïcks taught him by the folly or mischievous propensities of his groom or keeper, than to temper. The neglect of early kind treatment and association with
mankind is the most prolific source of obduracy in the horse. Much of the disposition which characterises the animal at a mature age is established in his youth. The seeds of rebellion, obstinacy, and strife are readily sown by the hand of ignorance and indiscretion; like noxious weeds, they thrive more vigorously than those of obedience, docility, and cheerfulness. As that of the child, the education of the horse should commence at an early age, and both should be treated with kindness. Pleasure should be associated with early lessons, obedience inculcated by firmness, not by brutal severity; upon these points we refer the reader to our chapter on " Breaking and Training." Few there are who adopt the happy medium. In the horse, a dogged, sullen, spiritless submission may be enforced by the cruel brutality to which the breaker too frequently has recourse; but that prompt and eager response to the rider's will, that manifest alacrity to accord with every wish, which give to the horse so much of his value, can only be founded on habitual confidence and attachment. Temper is a property, a virtue it may be aptly termed,
when rightly directed, deserving the utmost attention, not only with reference to docility, but in a more extensive sense, in connection with the nervous energy of the system and corresponding physical power. This energy is affected by the amount of nervous excitability of the brain, in conjunction with the nervous system, influencing the muscles of locomotion. If that be in proportion with the physical power of the animal, he will be capable of mani- festing great superiority, providing his physical powers are in a healthy state, and cultivated by proper work or training. Extreme irritability or impatience of reasonable control,
by overpowering the muscular system, will occasion prostra- |
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STABLE VICES.
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149
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c°mes to be milked—the others to be fed; these are all the
emands made on them; the labouring ox is a little more
ught, but nothing more than the commonest instinct
öices to effect. The fact is, we want, in a general way,
° more services of such animals than instinct enables
fm to perform. Even as regards the horse, highly as we
r lze him, but little pains are taken with his education, if
. e *erin may be used; he is mostly broke to carry or go
üarness by very rude hands; but no further pains are
cen with him. He will sometimes show considerable
everness in fencing; this is only the effect of instinct and
ctice. The dray-horse will quietly approach the trap-
0r of the cellar, wait till his tracé is fixed to the
i cotning cask, lean sideways, as it may be called, against
collar, and on the cask reaching the pavement well
°Ws that what was wanted of him is achieved, and if
ed on will willingly repeat the service. This is instinct,
, "P°ssession, and practice. Even with amphitheatrical
Ses " docility " is the one thing wanted. The " dancing "
, Grilles, as it is called, is not by " ear," as is pretended,
Dy the hand and heel of the rider synchronously used
" the cadences. The horse learns to obey a signal or a
l0», and instinctive obedience does the rest, With these
feutnents for a gentle system we come to the subject of
VlCEs, so-called.
I. STABLE VICES.
Estive while cleaning.—We need hardly remark on the
erence of " temper" displayed by different horses under Qand of the groom. Horses that are steady and quiet
i ne road and in the field cannot be dressed without Seï t0 *^e straPPer or groom, as well as risk to them- se ^&. ^is w^ often be found to be owing to a highly
«ive skin, in which case the remedy should be the
in t 10Q °^ °^er iniplements and a lighter method. For (.• nce> to discard the ordinary curry comb, at least for a > and substitute stout linen rubbers, horse hair gloves,
s nexible backed brush. Of the latter we can safely abl ^ are *n a^ cases °f fine-coated animals prefer- jjji ° tae curry-comb, and searching enough if the horse is
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Kicking is too often caused by the teasing, tickling, or
pinching above noticed. The habit becomes confirmed, and the illtaught animal is voted incurable. An inveterate kicker is to be very carefully approached
by all parties, and sometimes requires even more than ordinary caution, in which case a chain is run through a pulley in the stall-post, and from that to his head-stall, so that by pulling it his head may be drawn round towards the post, and by the same action his heels drawn from it, so as to allow the groom to go to his head, when he is safe from the heels. Most good grooms, however, are able to take care of themselves, and by constant practice they learn to keep the proper distance, either near enough to make the kick a mere push, or far enough to be out of reach. Kicking the stall-post is injurious both to the kicker
and his next neighbour, who may come in, under a bail, for the knock intended for the post. We have known horses do this for hours together in mere idle play. Hard work cures it, and if that does not, or is not available, a branch or two of furze-bush nailed against the post will generally stop it. Mares are stated to be addicted to this bad habit far more than horses. A log of wood strapped to the leg most used in mischief has been advised. We think them very dangerous, and not heavy enough to be efficacious. A broad strap fastened round the pastern and the weight, about five pounds, attached, so as to avoid bruising the coronet, will be found an improvement. Biting.—This dangerous and unpleasant habit which is
often a mere indication of playfulness, is a decided vice in many horses. Watch carefully that your stable boys and grooms do not promote or encourage it, which they often do and then exclaim against it and punish the animal for what is caused by their own provocation and folly. Various methods, some very cruel, have been proposed as cures for a biting horse, "Harry Hieover" has an amusing paper on the subject in his "Stable Talk," from which we shall here make an excerpt. The writer says :—" Supposing a horse to have that abominable vice of biting people, he gets well flogged for it: this may deter him in some measure from doing so : but if it does, it only prevents his doing it when we keep an eye on him ; it does not cure his inclination to do it; nor would anything but finding he actually hurt himself by the act itself. A somewhat curious mode of curing this appeared in the public prints; namely, the giving such a horse a hot roast leg of mutton to seize. Absurd as this appears, it is really not so much so as many things that are done towards horses : in fact, if a horse was addicted to biting legs of mutton, it would be a rational and certain way of curing him of the propensity; but as legs of mutton do not often come in his way, and arms of men frequently do,—unless he was stupid enough not to be able to distinguish the one from the other, the mutton plan could not avail much. Now, if we could cover a man with a coat of mail, with invisible spikes standing from it, two or three times seizing the man would, I doubt not, radically cure the |
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In the majority of instances, how-
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fVer,thi
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usly groomed.
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}j ' ls Vlce has arisen from teasing the animal; or a heavy-
Uu *ellow with a broken-toothed comb, or a worn and As t ~SUrfaced brush, literally knocking the animal about. (jei- , easing, we have watched many strappers who took a bis + 1D ^king t^e animal lash out at random, or show ÉVw, -,6 ' can we wonder then that this "vice" is con- "^as • ° anSe °f groom, perhaps, takes place, and what ^eat a evi0Us^ done partly in play, by the stranger is ïec j . as a nianifestation of anger—or " vice." If the ne\v an an^mal should inflict injury on the unsuspicious Vei'di f Gr' ° C0Urse " confirmed and dangerous vice " is the prac-. .' "jough the poor unreasoning brute was merely enCoulSln? his rekearsed " horseplay." Gentle handling and ^>U So ^ words, with a firm and unhesitating approach, 011 ren(ier such a horse quiet and steady. |
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THE VICES OF HORSES.
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150
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effect, it was forbidden, and by putting the muzzle on when
she was being dressed, any serious consequences were avoided. The way she cured herself was singular. She had been out to exercise, and the boy was washing her legs and feet, her head being racked up, and the muzzle taken off to allow her to eat a little hay. She turned her head suddenly» with the intention of seizing the boy, by which act she caught the stirrup-iron in her mouth, and, being racked-up, she was fixed as flrmly as if she had been in the stocks. She plunged violently, and in doing so her hind-quarters slipped and she feil sideways, her head still held fast by the rack- chain. By loosing the girths she was released from her perilous position, as she was almost strangled; but she never attempted to bite afterwards. Crib-biting is one of the vilest habits a horse can acquire,
and one of the most intractable. The horse seizes the manger with his teeth while he stretches his neck forward, and, after some spasmodic action of the throat, a slight grunting sound is uttered, which appears to be accompanied by a drawing in of air. The cause of this trick is not well understood; and whether it proceeds from a bad habit, or a defect in the formation of the soft palate and back part of the mouth, remains a question. One serious effect of this trick is the wearing down o'
the teeth ; and instances have occurred where they have been broken. It has likewise been found that crib-biters are more liable to colic than those without this vioe- Whether this proceeds from the loss of saliva occasioned by the wearing down of the teeth is also an unsettled point. It has been found that crib-biting is acquired by horses
being in the stable with one which has the trick. Among the expedients which have been resorted to for the cure oi crib-biting, the edge of the manger has been lined with iron ; also with sheep-skin besmeared with aloes, tar, and other disagreeable substances, but all with little effect- The ordinary preventive is the use of a strap buckled round the neck, which has the effect of slightly compressiög the windpipe, and rendering it impossible to resort to it > but no sooner is the strap removed, than the horse recom- mences his old habit, so that it must be constantly worn to be of use. Unfortunately the continual use of it is apt t° produce irritation in the trachea, and this will terminate i° the affection termed roaring. A five or six months' run i" a field has also been tried without proving a remedy. Cri°" biters are generally in low condition. A muzzle barred across the bottom will prevent crib"
biting. This must be made only of sufficiënt width *>° allow full action to the lips, so that the animal may Puli his hay from the rack and eat his corn, but so close as n° to admit of him grasping the edge of the manger. CnD' biting is legally considered " unsoundness." Wind-sucking has such a strong family likeness to crib-
biting that it may properly be considered a modification ° it; as it is accompanied by a want of condition, and tö same bending of the neck, with the head drawn inwaru»1 |
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horse—not of his disposition to bite, but of attempting to do
so. But as we cannot well do this, I believe a short stick, and keeping an eye on him, in approaching or quitting him, is the only thing to be trusted to. Flogging him after he bas bitten will tend to increase his propensity to do it, for this reason : it is either dislike to man or fear of man that makes him bite: he seizes us to prevent our hurting him, or in revenge for having been hurt; consequently, punishing only confirms his fear and hate ; so probably, if we do this, and he flnds he dare not bite, he tries the efïicacy of a kick. "A friend of mine had a favourite mare that was ex-
ceedingly troublesome to dress, and bit terribly What made it worse was, she would on no occasion bear to be rack-chained up; she would rush back and throw herself down. When she had the muzzle on, she would run at the manger, rack, and man, so that the blow was nearly as bad as the bite. It happened the groom had killed a hedgehog the day before: seeing this in the stable, it struck me I could turn him to some account; so I got him skinned, and fastened the skin to the bottom of the muzzle, of course on the inside. I put it on the mare, lengthening the head-strap so as to allow about three inches between the skin and the mare's lips, and offer her no inconvenience but of her own seeking. I begged the groom to strip and dress her. The moment he touched the roller-strap to unbuckle it, she rushed at the rack-staves as usual, but not the usual result did she find. She ran back to the end of her collar-rein, snorting; he commenced dressing her : she went at him as usual: he was quick enough to meet her muzzle with his arm, giving it a hard blow against her nose: she did not try that game again : she had a go at the manger; this was worse: after a few trials, she contented herself with squealing as usual, kicking and flying about the stall: but she kept her nose from coming in contact with the man or anything else. She found she punished herself, and had sense enough to leave offdoing that which produced punish- ment by the act. The man punishing her never had, or never would have, produced the same effect. Could the groom have worn a hedgehog strapping-jacket or shirt, no doubt she would have been cured of attempting to bite him. The lesson, of course, only prevented her biting, or trying to bite, when the muzzle was on: when off, she would do as she always had done, for then she well knew a man's skin was not a hedgehog's. This we will call 'practical edu- cation/ and is in accordance with the system of education I advocate." The following is confirmatory of the views taken by the
writer just quoted:—An instance of a mare viciously addicted to biting being cured of the habit by an accident, occurred to us a short time since. Her former owner had foolichly taught her to do this by teazing her, and she had contracted the habit to such an extent, that whenever any person went into her box, unless her head was tied up, she would assuredly run at him. Knowing that beating her, or adopting anv harsh measures, would have only a prejudicial |
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STABLE VIOES.
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151
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exhibited, and the horse alternately opens and closes his
^Ps, and a sound is produced similar to sucking air. The
. orse presses his muzzle against the manger, quietly sucking
_ the air, without the noisy gulping which accompanies
crib-biting. The remedies attempted have been, tying up
• e head of the horse, except when feeding; and the
Pphcation of a muzzle with sharp spikes bending towards
e neck, which will prick him when drawing in his head.
"awing is a continual working away of the litter by the
re *eet. ' A simple remedy is at hand in a pair of padded
ackles with a connecting chain, 12 inches in length.
ese are placed round the smaller pastern bone, and must
e taken off at night, or the horse will be afraid to lie
down. Weaving is a restless habit of swaying the head from
e to side, somewhat after the fashion of a polar bear in
nhnement. It is unsightly, and evinces a restless dis-
. slt!on. " Weavers " are generally poor feeders, and low
ttesh. The remedy indicates itself; a short head-rein,
a a Httle relaxation of the restraint while feeding.
UETTiNQ Loose is a very troublesome vice, and many
Ses are so cunning as almost to defy the efforts of the
°om and saddler. If, however, a head-stall is made with
trong throat-lash, and this tightly buckled, no horse can
? lt off, because the circumference of the head at the jaw
ways greater than that of the neck from the back of the
rs to the throat. If the horse bites his halter, a chain
st be substituted; but as this makes a constant noise, it
>Tud De avoided if possible, as other horses are readily
ePt awake by it.
Ui NöINÖ Back ^s an attempt to get free, by bursting the
°at-lash or collar-rein, and in some cases great force is
jPued in this way, so much so that many horses have
*en tlieir hips from the sudden giving way of the halter
. , lng them back, so that they fall over and irremediably
J re themselves. The only cure is a strong chain, and a
, . stall that no force will break; after trying to burst
ch a few times the horse will almost always desist. If
Qianger is not very firmly placed, another ring should be
th 1,1U ^e wa^> ky piercing it, and screwing a nut on at
ai a° ^^e Srooni should watch for the trick, and give
a snaart lash from behind the moment he tries it on.
°lling.—Horses that roll in the stable are apt to be
ti i ^rom want °f sufficiënt room, and also to get en-
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even a longer period. When this is the case, they are
generally liable to swellings in the limbs, and seldom able to go through much work. Such horses should, if possible be put into a stable by themselves and left at liberty, and a well-made bed will sometimes tempt them to lie down. No means can be adopted to force the animal to take rest by lying down. When it is not possible to place him in a stable alone, an empty box should be constructed so that he may be left for the night unhaltered in it. We had a remark- ably fine harness-horse that never was known to lie down, and yet he kept in good condition, and was not troubled with swelling in the limbs: but this is a rare occurrence. He sometimes feil down on his knees while asleep, but the groom always found him on his legs before he could reach the stable, although his house was next door. Casting.—This is the result of a sportive inclination in
the horse to roll completely over in his stall, as though at liberty in the field. It is a trick fraught with danger, as the unwieldy animal in so confined a space gets completely over on his back against the wall or ramp, and there, unable to roll back again, struggles to his death by rupturing the colon, "ricking" his spine, or some other mortal injury. The prevention is difficult; but, if the horse is within hearing of the groom, a prompt attendance will usuall) prevent unpleasant consequences. We have known horses lie all night in such distressing positions that it was a miracle they lived till morning. By throwing a halter over both legs, or three or four straps buckled together, the cast horse may be readily drawn over on to his side, when he will gladly get on his feet, unless seriously injured. Halter-casting is occasioned by the animal getting one of his fore-legs over the halter and throwing himself. Whether with rope or chain the animal is in danger of badly wounding himself, Horses addicted to pawing are most liable to accident, though we have seen it arise from a habit of scratching at the head with the hinder-foot—the drop weight of the halter or collar rein not acting so as to prevent it getting loose. A couple of collar reins should be used to prevent the paw- ing accident; for that with the hinder leg, a ring in the head wall, about seven feet from the ground, with a rack chain about three feet long, may prevent the oalamity. Lying under the Manger is obviated by the manger and
rack-guard we have figured (3) in our Plate of Stable Fittings; it is described ante, p. 132. Restive while Shoeing will be included in our general
remarks on this vice. Where a horse, otherwise docile, exhibits a peculiar aversion to the smithy, and we have seen such, make an investigation as to his treatment there. It is only a month since we attended at a police investiga- tion, where a shoeing-smith had struck wantonly a valuable saddle-horse on the stifle with his hammer, by way of preliminary to taking up the foot. The poor animal was irrecoverably injured; had he been less so, he might have been set down as "vicious to shoe." With a young horse great caution is necessary, and the gag or twitch should be |
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tangipj .
alth ln halter; and, strange as it may appear,
th i!* ^e may §e* severety hurt, and be nearly choked by
halter, he will repeat it night after night. The only ju ^ which will prevent him from rolling, is to give him that Gf?u£h °f collar to enable him to lie down ; but so short •lïn . fiead will not touch the ground, because it is the S üe can roll over without resting his head upon and n<^- If a horse is in a field, rolling is a harmless Neyeu healthful amusement. Con , LYlNQ down.—Horses are sometimes prone to standing
UStaatly
> and some only lie down once in a fortnight, or
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THE VICES OF HORSES.
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152
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only resorted to in extreme cases. It is the biped, not the
quadruped, that is generally the aggressor in these instances. Mr. "Y ouatt, whose humanity shines in all his writings, says on this point—" 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 depart from their usual habit of obedience; but if the remembrance of corporal punishment is connected with shoeing, they will always be fidgety, if not 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 even whose life being in jeopardy, may be forgiven if he is sometimes a little too hard-handed. Such 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, andit at length becomes necessary to cast him, or to put him in the travis, the owner may be assured that many years will not pass ere some formidable and even fatal accident will take place. If, therefore, mild treatment will not correct the vice, the horse cannot be too soon got rid of/' We have seen recently a very simple method tried to make a horse still while shoeing. It is merely fastening down one ear. The reader will find more on this point at page 370, ante. Eating Litter.—The rack-rein and muzzle at once indicate
the mechanical means of preventing this pernicious habit. For this purpose, we would recommend a rack-rein and muzzle, to be alternately used ; when the one is taken off, the other to be put on. For instance, you put on the muzzle when you wish or expect the horse to lie down; consequently you put it on at leaving the stable at night. Some horses will eat the litter even when it is very foul: and when fresh litter is given, others will prefer it to hay; and though clean straw is not injurious to horses that are not required to gallop much, yet hunters and racers must not be permitted to eat it. The rack-rein is an iron chain fixed at the head of the stall, which passes through a ring sewed in front of the nose-band of the stall-collar; it is fastened in the same manner as a dog's chain to the ring in the collar, and, when dressing the horse, you can, after passing it through the collar, fasten him as short as you think proper; but, at other times, the chain must be long enough to permit the horse to feed out of his rack or manger, though not to let his head reach down to his litter. Some horsekeepers place a piece of rock salt in the
manger to wean the horse from his foul feeding, and satisfy his rnorbid appetite. It is worth a triaL |
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II. VICES ON THE ROAD.
Restive TO mount.—In connection with this subject we heg
to refer the reader to pages 66—76, on Beeaking, Training.. &c, where the methods of " gentling " the animal are fully set forth; in this place our remarks shall be generaL The term " restiveness " may be said to include plunging, reai- ing, kicking, bolting, and general impatience while being mounted. As we have already said, the suaviter in modo is indispensablo here. Even if one resolute or strong person has brought the animal into subjugation, he is alvvays dangerous to the next man who mounts him. When the difficulty of mounting arises, not from eagerness to start, but from unwillingness to be ridden, the sooner such a horse is disposed of the better, unless the owner is determined to try his hand at horsebreaking. When the restiveness, °n the other hand, merely amounts to eagerness to start (very unpleasant, indeed, at any time, 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," says Youatt, " in which, while the elderly and inactive and fearful man has been making more than one ineffectual 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 effort, and then restrain him for a while, patting him, and not suffering bm1 to proceed until he becomes perfectly quiet. These horse9 should not be too highly fed, and should daily have suö1' cient exercise. Shying.—Whether this arises from fear, vice, or playful'
ness, it is equally important to check its earliest display* Shying is one of the worst of habits, and more accidents have resulted from it than all other vices or defects. 0fle cause of shying is defective vision, timidity stands next, and it often proceeds from a frolicsome disposition. Shying lS less common among high-blooded horses than half-bred ones, although it is occasionally found among our first-clasS racers. When shying proceeds from playfulness, it is diflicult t*
judge what mode of cure is best to be adopted; because, » corrected for it, he will associate with any object tb» diverts his attention the infliction of punishment, "ffbic J will tempt him to run away, under the dread of a flogging' and if caressed for the fault, it is liable to induce him * repeat it. But, of two evils, gentle correction must ^ adopted, and rather to pass by the object than to take W up to it. He should also be spoken to sharply. If shying proceeds from fear of new objects, the v,s^
correct him of this, is not to force him up to them, but pat him and soothe him; avoid beating, and take care |
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VICES ON THE ROAD
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153
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Pass the objects of his fear again and again, always going
earer to them every time you pass. This will familiarise
1Qi to them. Seeing that these are harmless, he will soon
arii to pass by unnoticed any novel object which he may
meet with upon a road.
when an animal is given to shying from defective sight,
. e °nly method to effect a cure is to take him up to it, and
'he act of doing so he must be coaxed to approach it, and
Qo account must he be beaten; and although it some-
"les happens that the horse will manifest great reluctance
00 so. he should be persevered with, and not allowed to
i\°ceed until he has seen closely and smelt at the object of
® fear. After he has been a few times thus treated, he
• soon learn to pass with indifference any object which
may meet. Many of Rarey's remarks, already referred
» Riay be remembered and applied with advantage. We
.* take here an illustration, from Blaine's book, of the
Pri«cipleS laid down.
(< " e once purchased," says that experienced veterinarian,
horse with an excellent character for steadiness, except
l^t he was always much alarmed at a passing carriage,
ether it was coming towards or overtaking him. A tilted
§gon or a stage-coach on the approach were such objects of
, ad as no power could get him to face. We knew it would
ln vain to oppose human physical force to brute fears,
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portentous : his fears even in this case, however, soon gave
place to confidence, by the tact displayed by a groom to whom he was much attached. This man mounted the waggon, and, resting on the tail-board, offered the oats to the horse, at the same time calling and encouraging him. This worked wonders; nor shall we readily forget the knucker of acknowledgment with which the confiding brute foliowed the groorn's call as the wagon moved on, occasionally dipping his nose into the sieve. After a few more lessons of a similar kind, one or two of which were varied by giving him hay from the window of a stage-coach, he lost all fear of carriages, and his former owner would willingly have taken him back at a very considerable increase of price. We introducé this merely as an instance of the truth of an opinion entertained by most observant sportsmen, but often acted against by grooms, that the punishment of blows will very seldom cure vicious habits originating in fear. Al] startings and fears of every description are only increased by them, for the horse in these cases associates the dread of two evils instead of one, that of the object itself, and that of the punishment which is to follow; the consequence of which is, that his resistance is doubled. How common is it with thoughtless persons, when a horse shies at an object, to force him up to it by blows; by which means we are confident that no horse was ever cured of shying, but, on the contrary, he has always been rendered doubly timid. It is, however, not amiss, when a horse shies principally at any one fixed object, as a tree, milestone, &c, to coax him towards it by every mark of encouragement. If he will not readily approach it, use no force, but dismount, caress, and incline his head from the cause of his alarm, gradually drawing him nearer and nearer to the object itself, which having approached, he will invariably closely examine him- self by smelling it. If this be practised with gentleness, it is more than probable that such horse will shortly be cured of shying at that particular object or its like." That amusing instructor, "Harry Hieover," has a "wrinkle"
of stuffing a horse's ears with cotton which may find a place here. He tells us, what we all know, that " horses in any way nervous or high-tempered are much affected by sounds and noises, particularly when arising from any object or cir- cumstance they cannot see. I have had two remarkable in this particular, the one a mare. Whether in harness or out, a horse or carriage behind her drove her almost mad; let either come alongside of her, she was quiet directly. When in harness, if she but heard a horse behind her, up went her head and tail, and she would bound something as we have seen a fallow deer do in passing us; and, though at other times possessing a fine mouth, on such occasions it was difficult to hold her. The other horse was a hunter, as placid and steady as horse could be when alongside hounds in chase ; but, while they were finding, or, what was worse, running in cover, the cry of the pack would cause him to tremble with anxiety or some such feeling, and he would burst into a sweat ten times more profuse than any run |
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, _ that it was only by introducing favourable recollections
lved from those very objects, greater in degree than the
... s hitherto entertained of them, that we could conquer
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uangerous propensity
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We began by leading the horse,
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Prev"
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iously exércised and fasted, towards a cart filled with
erhay; the smell of the hay was irresistible, and
Boon A' • j, aissipated all dread of the stationary cart; but when as purposely moved gently onwards, he became rather
a little coaxing, however, induced him to „ . ^ Jt> and we had the pleasure, at this his first lesson, of y § proceed confidently with the cart round a farm- har) ' an<^ ^na^y into the road. To vary the effect, after he
tj steadily walked by the side of the carriage a certain he ' ^6 restraine(i him> so that it got ahead of him; when bad n reacnecl it» slight indications of fear appeared as he Co ° make his way up to the side of the cart, for we had a rea i et Purposely drawn over the back, that he might not ggj.1 ^e hay from behind. We next passed the cart alto- r0 ' "ut it was a few paces only, and then turned him intp + ° e °ther s^e °f it j tmt ^is whole mind was so oöj °n the clover, that, with the most trifling symptoms les alarm, he feil to again on the hay, which finished f\jji e nrst. Our next attempt was made with a sieve
he „ corn» presented to him on an empty stomach, which an „ „ onV reach from the tail-board of a tilted wagon— alSo i U 0DJect! After a few snortings and sniffings, here with ^er 0Vercame his fears, and he munched the oats his dr T* re^s^> ^ut when the waggon was put into motion, the fla . a ^ttle time got the better of his appetite, and ^P ng of the covering of the tilt appeared to him most |
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VICES ON THE ROAD.—JIBBINGh
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154
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ing by forcible means ; and if the driver is resolved to use
compulsion, we would recommend that it 'should not be attempted unless there is a wide space, where by tight reining the driver may back him in the particular directioo which he wishes, and it would be very desirable to do so up" hill if the ground inclines in the neighbourhood. But still there is danger in the attempt. Rarey is of opinion that the horse often jibs, or, as he calls
it, " balks " at starting from hearing, or fancying they hear, something coming up behind them. He is speaking of such an occurrence in an American pair-horse trotting " waggon, but his remarks are as applicable to any pair of horses or to a single horse in harness. He says :— " Almost any team, when first ' balked/ will start kindly
if you let them stand five or ten minutes as though there was nothing wrong, and then speak to them with a steady voice, and turn them a little to the right or left, so as to ge* them both in motion before they feel the pinch of the load- But if you want to start a team that you are not driving yourself, that has been 'balked/ fooled and whipped f°r some time, go to them and hang the lines on their hames, ot fasten them to the waggon, so that they will be perfectly loose; make the driver and spectators (if there are any) stand off some distance to one side, so as not to attract the attention of the horses; unloose their check-reins, so that they can get their heads down if they choose* let tbei» stand a few minutes in this condition until you can see tb»* they are a little composed. While they are standing y°u should be about their heads, gentling them ; it will make them a little more kind, and the spectators will think th»* you are doing something that they do not understand, »n will not learn the secret. When you have them ready *° start, stand before them, and as you seldom have but oD balky horse in a team, get as near in front of him as y°u can, and if he is too fast for the other horse, let his n°se come against your breast: this will keep him steady, for be will go slow rather than run on you; turn them gently *° the right, without letting them pull on the traces as fa* aS the tongue will let them go ; stop them with a kind vr<>r&> gentle them a little, and then turn them back to the left, W the same process. You will have them under your contro' by this time, and as you turn them again to the right, steady them in the collar, and you can take them where y°u please. "There is a quicker process that will generally start »
balky horse, but not so sure. Stand him a little ahead, s° that his shoulders will be against the collar, and then ta*® up one of his forefeet in your hand, and let the driver sta* them, and when the weight comes against his shoulders, will try to step ; then let him have his foot, and he wiH & right along. If you want to break a horse from that has long been in that habit, you ought to set apart half-day for that purpose'. Put him by the side of sOIf steady horse; have check-lines on them; tie up all •** traces and straps, so that there will be nothing to excl |
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would call forth. Being both good horses and pleasant,
except in these particulars, I was determined to try and palliate them. I had a pair of thick earcaps made for each of them. This I found produced a wonderful alteration for the better; but it struck me these earcaps must heat the horse. Why not try cotton ? I did ; stuffed their ears well with it when using them; and found no inconvenience from sounds afterwards." A thousand pages of advice could not add to these practical
experiences. Backing or Jibbing.—It is by no means unfrequent for
harness horses to back instead of drawing when first started, and others combine with this curious obstinacy the practice of other vices. When the backing is mere skittishness, which we have known it, an encouraging word and a smart smack of the whip have cured the inconvenience. Where the determination is more manifest take the thing coolly. Satisfy yourself by examination that the harness and its " fixins " are all right. Sometimes the withers are wrung, and the shoulders galled; and the pain, which may be moderate on level ground and with a fair draught, becomes insupportable when going up a steep acclivity. These things should be seen into, and, if possible, rectified; for, uiider such circunistances, severe punishment produces obsti- nacy and vice. A horse, whose shoulders are raw, or have frequently
been so, will not start with a cold collar. "When the collar has acquired the warmth óf the parts on which it presses, the animal will go without reluctance. Some determined jibbers have been reformed by constantly wearing a false collar, or strip of cloth round the shoulders, so that the coldness of the collar should never be feit; and others have been cured by keeping on the collar night and day, although the animal is not able to lie down so completely at his ease as without it, which a tired horse ought always to be able to do. When a horse jibs at his work, it has been some- times useful to line his collar with cloth instead of leather ; the perspiration is more readily absorbed, the substance which presses on the shoulder is softer, and it is more readily eased off at a tender place. With horses which have this habit at starting, one method
to break them of it is to place a large heavy stone behind the wheel; and the horse, feeling he is unable to back, will generally proceed forward, finding it more easy to do so; and by carefully continuing this practice, the horse will gradually be broken of the bad habit. Another plan, nearly as good, is to start the horse, if it can possibly be managed, with the back of the machine placed towards a rising ground; and as it is more difficult at all times to force it backward than forward, besides the hill being against him, he will prefer going forward to backward. Sometimes it will be necessary to lead the horse for a short distance, and when the groom has quitted the reins, a gentle touch with the whip will make him proceed. If, however, he is determinedly obstinate, there will belittle chance of succeed- |
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VICES ON THE ROAD.
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155
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ein; do not rein them up, but let them have their heads
ose. Walk them about together for some time as slowly
1 lazily as possible; stop often, and go up to your balky
0I-se and gentle him. Do not take any whip about him, or
aöything to excite him, but keep him just as quiet as you
**• He will soon learn to start off at the word, and stop
Jenever you teil him. All ' balked' horses can be started
e and steady in a few minutes' time; they are all willing
Pull as soon as they know how, and I never yet found a
«ed horse that I could not teach to start his load in
®enj and often less than three, minutes' time."
Ti • -^espite this last dictum of Mr. Rarey, we believe many Ses are such determined jibbers that they can never be
red. When this is the case they should be sold to the nei"s of a vehicle in which four-in-hand or unicorn
e driveilj and if placed as near wheeler they will be forced üo their work. Some have also been worked in a team by
rs : but nobody would think of keeping an animal |
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may be used, which circumscribes the use of the hind
limbs, and prevents the horse from raising them for an effective kick. Still, rely not too much on this ; for, if the horse should once break the strap he is worse than ever, indeed incorrigible. The uninitiated are not aware of the very slight things
which will cause a horse to kick on being first put into harness. The mere putting the crupper on, if done sud- denly, in putting on the harness, will sometimes cause him to kick. Probably, with the harness loose on his back, his kicking on first feeling the crupper sends it off him, or partly so. The horse gets seriously alarmed at this; a scène ensues ; and then there is (to use the desgination of a farce) " the devil to pay." Backing a horse into the shafts (which should never be
done) is very likely to set him kicking. He comes suddenly in contact with the shaft in some part, and either he rushes forward in alarm, or sends his heels at it. This might be termed lesson the first in virtually teaching the animal to kick. If in doublé harness, the very turning a corner incautiously will cause many a horse to kick, from feeling the pole or tracé suddenly come in contact with his thigh. Even throwing the driving rein to be buckled over the
young horse's back, instead of that of the break horse, which a stupid or careless fellow might do, will probably alarm a horse new to harness. He rushes forward, is checked by the traces, then backs himself suddenly, is then checked by the pole-piece and collar, feels himself hampered in every way, gets alarmed or angry. Here, probably, is "the devil topay" again. Mr. Bingley gives us, among others, the following incident
of his horse-experience :—" An instance of an inveterate kicker in harness occurred under my notice. An elderly relative, with whom I at that time resided, made a pur- chase of a remarkably good-looking horse, for the twofold purposes of working on the farm and running in harness. On the following morning he was attached to a plough on the gee-ho principle, and when required to ' move on' responded by kicking most violently. I was summoned to the scène of action, but for some time he would allow no person to approach him, and struck at those who attempted to go near his head with his fore feet, as viciously as he did with his hind ones; at length, by strapping up his near fore-leg they succeeded in getting him released irom the plough. His gearing was taken off, and replaced by some strong harness, when he was placed between the shafts of a substantial roller, such as is commonly used for rolling the land. When properly secured at all points, a powerful and steady horse was put before him, and he was kept moving in a fallow field till night. He kicked the roller furiously and repeatedly, but in doing so he hurt his own legs, and, finding he got the worst of it, he left off. The next morning his hind legs were very sore, and he was again attached to the roller, but he did not evince much inclination to commence hostilities, and in the course of that day he was |
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^hich
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can only occasionally be rendered serviceable.
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In
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c°nnexion with this subject the reader is referred to
'uer part of the work, where breaking and familiarising a |
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colt
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with usual sights and sounds are treated of.
^ 7~ICK;iNGr.—Elsewhere we have noted this as a Stable Vice; t0 fr sa<ldle or in harness, however, it is far more dangerous of il- ' ^river> an& the public. In saddle, get well hold - ls head, lift it firmly and determinedly, then bring '«'hip smartly down the shoulder. Mind his head is
, up wüen j0U deliver the blow, or he may get his nose • and lash out again. When the animal proves an ij, erate kicker, a gag-snaffle will serve to keep his head up.
§ag-snaffle is not, unless the horse wilfully hangs on it,
severe than a common snaffle, while, if he will have it
lv-, acts through the pulley-like attachment of the rein
augmented power, drawing the angle of the mouth
^•,, e the usual seat of the bit. It is valuable, too,
h "pullers" who "bore" in the hunting-field.
dn arness, as we have said, a kicker may be yet more
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j «er°us and mischievous. Horses that are fidgetty in
^table are most apt to do this on the road. |
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e shghtest touch on such animals' quarters, even by
ins, eins touching, will set them kicking; and in many gig °es *^e fr°nt of the carriage will be driven in, or a 0g. y be battered to pieces, the horse frequently coming inj 1 a broken limb, or the driver may sustain serious kicking horses, the greatest care should be m0 °t *° allow the harness to pass under the tail, as the |
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dow ,"*" y ^"eeI it the tail is pressed suddenly and tightly
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so
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ftiuch so, that it is difficult to extricate the reins,
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m°re the driver pulls the more the animal kicks
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a»d m°
entnv, i11^68- When the driver finds that the reins are so
therQ ? e ' e should on no account attempt to extricate
uftin ?[ ** n& Dut quietly get down, and release them by
^8 the tail gently. ^ey m6 I>ersons cannot afford to part with such horses, as
be sold at a great loss, a strong kicking-strap |
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156
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VIUES ON THE ROAD.—" BOLTING.'
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scrape him off the saddle. We once had a little Welshman
who had a genius for this when he had a youngster on hlS back; we cured him by mounting him ourselves, and wheö he tried this lateral movement (which is easily overcome by putting out the foot as he sidles towards the object), v!e found a sharp pull of the near rein (it seems almost universaliy tried on the off-side), coupled with a most unmistakeable simultaneous slash over the off ear, brought him clear away> Three or four of these lessons, in an orchard well
studded
with old trees, made him pass as clear of them as could be
desired. Htjgging the Pole.—" Harry Hieover " thus proposes *°
deal with an animal exhibiting this not uncommon propeB' sity. " A horse having this vile habit I should strongv recommend others to sell, unless they were disposed to try a plan that I found effectually cure one of my own. I drove him at wheel on the off-side ; but, whichever side he was put, he 'hugged the pole' the same. I had a piece of board) about ten inches in width, screwed to the off-side of the pole On the off-side of this surface I nailed some strong greeö furze, clipping it till it did not project more than three inches on the side the horse went. I took care to give him a hole in the pole-piece, the same with the near side tracé, aö" lengthened his coupling rein; so he had not occasion *° approach the pole thus armed. This being merely a lessoD to the horse, I took care to manage the drive so as only t0 have occasion to turn the carriage to the off-side during tbê lesson : as usual, he began or attempted hugging the p°^> but he started from it as if a tarantula had stung him. suppose in a few minutes the smarting went off, when b tried the same game with the same result. I conclude tb second application of the furze, acting on the first, produce increased effect, for it was a longer period before he tra»s' gressed again, and before my drive was finished he too^ especial care not to approach the pole. Though this bid fa1 as to curing him of a bad habit, I in no way expected lesson or two would cure him; but ten days' driving effectuabj did, and afterwards it was somewhat laughable to see, if _ forgot himself, or attempted pole-hugging, with what
alacrity
he jumped back into his proper place."
Seizing the Cheek of the Bit.—When horses are $°
cunning as to get the cheek of the bit into the mouth, they have immense opportunity for displaying any impatieo0 of control they may be inclined to : any moderately sku* saddler and harness-maker will show you how to preve» this being done a second time. Running away—vulgo, "Bolting."—This, in its comm°Dfs
form, is merely a sign of a hard mouth, and self-will in rna1 taining the gallop. Its other phase is a most dangerous vic • |
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put to a gig. I drove him constantly, and he never repeated
his vice. It was afterwards discovered that he had been in the possession of a post-master, and that he had kicked the boot of a gentleman's carriage to pieces, for which he was Bold as incorrigibly vicious." It will be found that brute force or brutal violence rarely
succeeds or produces the desired effect with horses, or, indeed, with any animal. Brute force subdued Van Amburg's lions, but it did not tame them. They were too much subdued to attack him while his eye was on them, he knew ; but if he had turned his back or shown he had fear of them they would have pulled him down and torn him to pieces. Brute force may compel a horse to do a particular act at the time—it may even make him fear to commit one at variance with our safety; but, and let opportunity occur, we shall soon find that fear alone will never eradicate a bad propensity. Plunging is akin to kicking, though very differently
performed. The animal makes a bound or spring with his back bowed upward, with the apparent intent of unseating his rider. Sometimes he " tucks," i. e., springs with all four feet off the ground suddenly, an experiment very likely to answer his unpleasant intention. When a horse has this habit, hold his head closely, as for kicking, with which it is often complicated or alternated. A modern writer recom. mends that a horse-cloth rolled up, strapped to the front of the saddle like a soldier's cloak, will greatly add to the safety of the rider. The general treatment must be, as so often said before, the " soothing system," with firm but very moderate punishment. Rearing is a common trick with young horses, and is
oftener playfulness and mere animal spirits than anything like " temper." It is, however, alarming, and may be very dangerous to the timid or unskilful rider, when it is a decided risev involving also the unintentional danger to the animal itself of a roll over. Generally, however, it is in colthood a series of wanton gambolling skips, which some- times go off like the freaks of a kitten ; but lest they become a habit, and partake of an attempt to get rid of the rider, severity and hurry must be avoided. Use for a time, it may not be permanently needed, a martingale, with a running rein commencing at the breast strap of the martingale, and then, running through the ring of the snaffle, bring it back to the hand. This will give you a full power oVer the horse's head when its exercise is called for, and will not distress him while he behaves himself. When the horse rises, lean well forward and hold by the calf and inner thigh, loosening the bridle a little when he is in the air, and then bringing his head in as he descends. A rough remedy lor rearing has been tried by some horse-breakers—we do not recommend it: the process is to provide yourself with a bottle of water, and when the horse rises break it between his ears by a smartish tap. Shouldering.—Some obstinate ponies and ill-taught horses
have acquired this ugly trick. It consists in trying to squeeze the rider's leg against a post, paling, or wall, and to |
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the
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When it is consequent on nervous excitement or fear,
usual expedients for " gentling" or calming irritabib- J already recommended are to be adopted. All sorts of sev bits have been devised to prevent horses running aV/ ^ Some excellent authorities recommend the "Bucepba noseband," a contrivance which keeps the mouth ot |
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157
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VICES ON THE ROAD.
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b°rse closed, so that the "port" of the mouth-piece acts
gainst the upper part of the mouth, in a manner it cannot 0 when the animal has the power of opening it to ease the pressure. This noseband will be found useful with hard
Pullers, and « borers " in the hunting-field.
ihis dangerous propensity generally shows itself in nervous
young horses, who, at the least noise behind or beside them,
econie alarmed, break from a trot to a gallop, and, terrified 7 the impotent struggles of thefr riders to stop them, or ^e still pursuing sound of wheels behind them, become ^addened and dash on in their perilous career. When a
°rse finds or thinks he has succeeded in these efforts to ^Scape danger, on a recurrence of the noise or cause of fright
°e will pursue the same course, to the peril not only of rider
* driver, but of himself, and whatever he may meet with in |
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but loosing the mouth again for a time, and then trying
again. Sometimes, however, there is no room for this, and then the only plan is to try and bring the head round, either with a view of galloping in a circle, or to run the head again st a fence or even a wall or strong gatü. Sometimes anything is better than a straight course—as, for instance, in a crowded thoroughfare, where there would be an almost positive certainty of mischief: in such a case it is better to do anything than to persevere in the course which the runaway is taking. A driver of good nerve may in this extremity pull or drive
the horse straight for anything that is insurmountable and that must stop him—say a thick hedge, or even a wall, at all risks of damaging the animal. With judgment and coolness this is the best chance for rider or driver; indeed, a few bruises or loss of life may be the alternative. We will give an illustration. A friend of the writer's, a civic magnate, well known in connexion with the removal of the horse and cattle market from ancient Smithfield to its present site, was driving a high-couraged horse, a new purchase, in a dennet, down Parliament Street. He had a life-long experience in horseflesh as well as fat cattle, and was a match for any coper that ever chaunted a " screw" in the departed market for " blind 'uns and bolters" which for more than seven centuries was held " in the Smethfelde on the outer syde of Newgate." Our driver then, who had with him his wife, was no cockney with the ribbons, albeit his calling was exercised within the sound of Bow bells. At the corner of Charing Cross his horse took fright, and bolted along the somewhat crowded thoroughfare. Desiring his better half to hold fast in her seat until he should bid her jump, he got the animal well by the head, and guiding his frantic speed direct for one of the strong iron gas columns near the Horse Guards, the animal came flush with its forehead against it, feil instantly, as if shot, and rosé no more. And how fared the worthy deputy and his better half? The one jumped out, at the word " Jump!" and got off with a graze and possibly a bruise ; while the wealthy carcase butcher, as he told us cheerfully, was none the worse—except the repairing of the chaise, which was his own; and the dealer, who lent him the horse on trial, he added, "I have since learnt, knew he was a bolter, so he'11 never get a farthing—though I don't.think he'11 have the face to ask me." With this example of how to deal with a bolter in the last extremity we pass on to Reding and Driving, and Teeatment of a HOKSE ON A JoUBNEY.
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his
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impetuous flight. The vice becomes confirmed, and it is
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*% by the utmost nerve, coolness, and command of temper,
ashed with kindness, and the " rational" treatment of the ■^ania jfor panic-fear in horses is madness), that we can
°Pe to check the disease. When a horse is known to have
tendency to running away, be extra particular that all
P°rtions of his " furniture " be sound and strong, particularly
ridles, reins, and bits : get a firm, steady hold of him at arting, and speak to him soothingly and encouragingly. "*■* the very first symptom of a bolt check him sharply and
Peak to him in a firm voice; never allow him to increase |
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his
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pace of his own accord, or fear will augment it and he will
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reak into a gallop. Keep the reins in driving evenly in
ai*d, but do not by a constant pull deaden the mouth. Be eady to catch him well by the head quickly, and you may °et him under command without frightening him. Ju the saddle, on a determined brute, it is a good manoeuvre
^° select a hill, and, giving him his head, urge him an up-hill
^ster; this has " taken it out" of many a " bolter," by
Rating him go hi3 hardest for your pleasure, just as he was
j^nking of doing it of his own wilfulness and vice. In this
116 horse resembles not a few of our reasoning race, who will
°rk hard for pleasure, but will do nothing in the shape of
0ïS either for utility or to serve another. These customers
te have found, when fresh, will try it on again; but a good
cler, and none other should mount or drive them, will
ake them tired of their little game ; and then such animals
aerally prove first-raters. As we have said, a dead pull is
Use with such bolters; it is better to let them go when
ere is plenty of room, and then to try what a sharp and
vere pull will do ; not keeping it up too long if ineffectual,
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ftlDING.—MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING.
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158
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CHAPTEE XV,
RIDING.—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS : PROPER POSITION OF SADDLE, BRIDLE, &0. : MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING : MANAGEMENT OF
THE REINS, AND SEAT ON HORSEBACK : RIDING TO HOÜNDS : LADIEs' HORSEMANSHIP. DRIVING.—GENERAL OBSERTATIONS ! HARNESS : FOUR-IN-HAND : A PAIR : SINGLE HARNESS. |
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the muscles, to recover himself, and falls to the ground ; i°
many cases he has been known to fall as if shot. |
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In former chapters of this work the reader will have found
numerous things necessary to be known and remembered as aiding the formation of an accomplished rider. A reference to these will enable the reader to refresh his memory upon these essentials. Historical and antiquarian lore, relating to the saddle, bridle, stirrup, &c, will be found at pp. 64—66. Hints upon riding will be found scattered through the chapter on Breaking, pp. 69—76. But more especially, when treating of the Paces of the Horse, will be found how to handle the animal in the Walk (p. 78); the Trot (79—81), civilian and military; the Canter (82), and the Gallop (84). The mode of keeping the seat, and of lifting the horse in leaping, will be found as follows:—The Standing Jump (84), the Flying Leap (85), the Buck Jump (86); while Timber Jumping, and Taking Gates and Stiles, will be found at pp. 86, 87. Lastly, not a few " wrinkles " for the horseman are contained in the chapter preceding this, which treats of Vices, their correction and cure. With these references, by which repetition may be avoided, we proceed to the— POSITION OF THE SADDLE, BRIDLE, AND STIRRÜPS.
The Saddle, which ought to be wide and roomy, sbouldbe
placed in the middle of the horse's back, a hand's breadth (four or five inches) from the point of the withers, but so as to give free play to the action of the muscles of the shoulders. Lay the girths evenly one over the other; draw them only so tight as to admit comfortably the fore-finger to be placed between the girth and the horse's belly. Fit the surcingle neatly over the girths, and do not buckle it tighter than they are drawn. The large ring of the breast plate or martingale, when worn, should be placed two inches above the breast-bone, and should allow of the hand being laid flat between it and the horse's shoulders. The malposition of the saddle, particularly in horses with
upright shoulders, is the cause of many horses falling, from its pressing too much on the shoulders, and by that means confining the action of the muscles, which thus become benumbed, and lose their elasticity. A partial deadening of the limbs having taken place, the horse, from want of vitality in the legs, stumbles, and is unable, through the torpidity of |
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THE STIRRÜPS.
The length of the stirrups should be so adjusted that the
bottom edge of the bar hangs about three inches above the heel of the boot. This length will be found most convenien* for the horse and his master in hack-riding The method oï determining the best length for the stirrup is thus given by Mr. Waite in his little book called " Graceful Riding:" " Take up the stirrup-iron with the right hand, at the same time placing the bottom of the stirrup-iron under the left arm-pit» then extend the left arm until the fingers of that hand easily touch the stirrup buckles ; this is a sure criterion with mos* people." The Bridle is put on with the curb bit so placed that the
mouthpiece in horses is no more than an inch above the tus» of the lower jaw; in mares two inches above the corner teeth is the distance. The bridoon should just touch the angles of the mouth, so as to sit easy, With drawing them up' The headstaü should be parallel to the projection of tbe cheek-bone, and not lie over or upon it. The noseband lS better placed low, and should not be buckled tight. ^^ curb, when properly fitted, should lie flat and smooth in t^e hollow of the lips, so as to allow the finger to be easily introduced between. MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING.
Directions for mounting must always be taken with a»
allowance for the different relative heights of the horsei»an and the animal he is to ride. We shall therefore merel; give such general instructions as apply to the medium &z in both biped and quadruped, and the average activity aD; weight of gentlemen of the present day. When a horse i intended to be mounted he should always be approache quietly on the near (or left) side, and the reins gathered UF in the hand steadily. The snaffle rein (or bridoon) hrS ' then pass this rein along the palm of the left hand, betree the forefinger and thumb. The curb rein must noW drawn over the little finger, and both reins being held ota |
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MANAGEMENT OF THE EEINS, AND SEAT ON HORSEBACK. 159
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MUal length, and having an even pressure on the horse's
°uth, must be laid over each other, and held firmly in the
and; the thumb pressing upon them to prevent them
ippmg through the fingers. Be particular that the reins
e ftot taken up too short, lest it should cause the horse to
ear or run back; they must be held neither too tight nor
0 slack, but having an equal feeling of the horse's mouth.
^xt take up a handful of the mane with the right hand,
lng it through the palm of the left hand, and twist it round
he thumb, Take hold of the stirrup with the right hand,
e thumb in front. Place the left foot in the stirrup as far
, fle ball of it, placing the right hand on the cantle (or
c« part of the saddle), and, by a spring of the right foot
111 the instep, the rider should raise himself up in the
, ruP> then move the hand from the cantle to the pommel,
uPport the body while the right leg passes clearly over
norse's quarters; the rider's right knee closes on the
<ne, and the body drops gently into it. The left hand
. luits the mane, and the second stirrup must be taken
Jj^ut the help of eye or hand.
.üe left hand (the bridle hand) must be placed with the
st rounded outwards, opposite the centre of the body, and
ut three inches from it, letting the right arm drop uncon-
rJjaed hY the side of the thigh.
j °Unting without stirrups while the horse is standing still
a ected as follows:—The rider stands opposite the saddle
(.1 . s hold of both the pommel and the cantle, keeping
eins in the left hand at the same time, and in the same
fr er as in ordinary mounting. Now spring strongly
a ground, and by means of the spring, aided by the
o^ > raise the body above the saddle ; then twist the leg
er> ïvhilst the right hand is shifted to the right side of the
int and ky means of both the hands the body is steadied
a ,. fte saddle. Mounting without stirrups may, by very
the G Ölen' be effected while the horse is going on, much in
ru " D(le way as is seen constantly in the circus. The rider
the ^ s*de °^ *ne horse, laying hold of the pommel of
dj, , . ^ith both hands strongly, and allowing him to
8Pri 1Rl a^on§ f°r *w0 or three very long steps, he suddenly
fea. . trom the ground and is drawn into the saddle. This
eas- Setuom achieved by the ordinary equestrian ; but it is
gre an it looks, and in riding to hounds is sometimes of
5 ^, service with a fidgety horse.
stariJ °Unting is effected by first bringing the horse to a
on ti ,' then shorten the left hand on the reins till it lies of ^ ethers, with a steady feel of the mouth, twist a lock |
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of the stirrup on the hands, and dropping to the ground by
their aid alone. Dismounting without stirrups requires the horse to be
brought to a standstill, then holding the reins in the left hand both are placed upon the pommel, and by their aid alone the body is raised out of the saddle; the right leg is now thrown over the cantle, and in doing so the right hand seizes it and with the left lowers the body to the ground. MANAGEMENT OF THE EEINS, AND SEAT ON HORSEBAOK.
Our horseman at ease in his seat, and looking forward
between the ears of his animal, adjusts the reins, which we will suppose to be bridoon, or snaffle and curb. The reins should hang untwisted from the bits. Mr. Waite gives the following minute practical directions, which we transcribe, for holding the reins with one or both hands. " Holding the reins in one hand.—The rider must take up
the bridoon reins with his right hand, and pass the second and third fingers of the bridle or left hand between them, draw up the reins with the right hand, until the horse's mouth can be feit, and then pass them between the forefinger and thumb. Next take up the curb reins (again with the right hand), and pass the little finger of the bridle hand between them, draw them up, as before directed, with the right hand, until the rider perceives there is an equal length and feeling with the bridoon reins; the latter having rather the strongest pressure on the animal's mouth. This done, lay them also over between the forefinger and thumb, and press down the thumb firmly upon them to keep them from slipping ; the hand to be held with the wrist rounded out- wards, opposite the centre of the body, and about four inches , from it. The right arm should hang without restraint, and slightly bent, by the thigh; the whip being held about twelve inches from its head, with the point turned upwards. " Riding on one rein.—Take up that particular rein with
the right hand, and pass the second and third fingers of the bridle hand between them, then draw up the reins, but be careful, in doing so, not to hold the horse too tight in hand; the other rein should hang down, having the little finger passed between them, and the thumb also over them, so that they may be caught hold of, and drawn up quickly on any sudden emergency; the loose reins are to hang between those in use. " Using both hands.—Take the bridoon reins between the
second and third, and the curb reins between the third and fourth, fingers of each hand, each rein having an equal bearing on the horse's mouth ; the hands are to be held about six inches apart, with the wrists rounded outwards, and the thumbs pressing firmly upon the reins, the elbows well down, and held near to the sides, the whip held as directed above. " A tight rein should always be avoided, because, if he
carries his head low, it tends to deaden his mouth, and teaches him the bad habit of depending upon the bridle for support; in which case, he always goes heavily in hand, and |
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'"ane on the finger, and hold it with the reins,
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1 earin
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&
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§ also on the pommel with the heel of the hand.
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e^t tb
body' , w the right foot out of the stirrup, and lift the Uïltil'it adie.d by the left haud' and bome hj the left foot'
*eS ove \raised out °f the saddle; throw gently the right ^e riebt i? cant*e> anc* as it passes it grasp this part with by ^ . a ' then lower the body gently to the ground Very sh * °*" tbe two hands and the left foot; or if it is a Person and a tall horse, by raising the body out |
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BIDINGK—REINING BACK, STOPPING.
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160
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the saddle, and by their ready and skilful application of the
bridle, hands, and legs; such being indispensable to the skilful guidance and control of the horse. It will not be necessary here to describe the marked
characteristics exhibited by the jockey, the huntsman, the whipper-in, the groom, the postboy, the soldier, the dealers lad, and the butcher. These have all different seats on horseback, each best adapted to their several occupations; for the man who all his life is accustomed to one particular style of riding and to one particular kind of horse, will adopt a natural style, which marks the whole class of those adopting it. In acquiring a good seat, there are four things necessary
to be attended to—first, the position of the weight, so as to be sufficiently forward in the saddle ; secondly, the fixing of the knees on the padded part of the flap ; thirdly, the proper length and position of the stirrups; and fourthly, the carriage of the body. The weight of the body should be well forwards, because
the centre of motion is close to the middle of the saddle; and as the weight is chiefly thrown upon the breech, if the seat is far back it is not in that part, but near the cantle that it is placed, But by sitting well forwards the weight is distributed between the breech, thighs, and feet; and the horse is able to rise and fall in his gallop without disturbing his rider. The knees must be well forward to effect this seat, and
also well in front of the stirrup-leathers ; for if they are placed behind them the body is thrown too far back, and the hold is insecure. The object of all young riders
shouU
be to get as far forward as possible, so that the knee is »ot
off the saddle; and they can scarcely overdo this part of the lesson by any effort in their power. Hiding well upon tbe fork, with the knees upon the padded part of the flap, ^ ensure a good position if the stirrups are not too short. These should be about the length which will touch the projecting ankle-bone, when the legs are placed as abo^e directed, but out of the stirrups ; and when they are place~ in them, the heel should be about one inch and a ba' below the ball of the foot. This latter part receives the pressure of the stirrup in road-riding, but in hunting ° any other kind of field-riding the foot is thrust " home " aD the stirrup touches the instep, whilst the pressure is take1* by the under part of the arch of the foot. The reason ° this is, that in leaping the pressure on the stirrup is ald0^ lost; and if the toe only is placed within it the ft>ot ' constantly coming out. Besides this, in the gallop tb attitude is of that nature that the spring of the instep is nC!, wanted, the weight being too much thrown upon the foot» standing in the stirrups ; and if sitting down in the sado the feet should scarcely press upon the stirrups at all, a therefore the best place for them is where they will be m° secure. The body should be carried easily, balancing hac ward and forward or sideways, as required, but not forci" i Instinct is here the best guide, and the rider should fou |
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on his shoulders. The horse should at all times be taught
to go on his haunches. " If the horse naturally carries his head well, it is better to
ride him with a light hand, only just feeling his mouth. " Turning.—In the turn either to the right or left, the reins
must be held quite evenly, so that the horse may be imme- diately made to feel the aid of the rider's hands; he (the rider) must then have a doublé feeling on the inward rein, also retaining a steady feeling on the outward; the horse being kept up to the hand by a pressure of both legs, the outward leg being the stronger. "Reining Back—The rider should frequently practise
reining back, which is of the utmost service both to himself and his horse: by it, the rider's hand is rendered firm and materially strengthened ; and the pliancy of wrist so essential to the complete management of the horse is achieved, like- wise causing the body of the rider to be well thrown back and his chest expanded, thus forcing, and preserving, an erect position in the saddle. Also, the carriage of the horse becomes greatly improved; his head is maintained in its correct position, and he is compelled to work correctly on his haunches. " In ' reining back/ the horseman requires a light and
steady feeling of both reins, a pressure of both legs, so as to raise his horse's forehand and keep his haunches well under him, at the same time easing the reins, and feeling them again after every step." " Stopping.—None are thoroughly taught until quite au
fait in the stop. It is of far greater importance than may be usually imagined. In the first place, it shows the horse to be well under command, especially when the rider is able to do so instantaneously: it saves, in the second place, many serious and inevitable accidents from carriages, horsemen, &c, such as crossing before, suddenly puiling up, turning quickly round a corner, or coming unawares upon the rider. " Care must be taken to make the stop steadily ; not by a
sudden jerk upon the bit; by doing so the horse, if "tender mouthed," will be made to rear and plunge. To make the horse stop properly, the bridle-hand must be kept low, and the knuckles turned down. The rider's body must be well thrown back ; he must have a steady feeling of both reins, and, closing both legs for a moment, so keep his horse well up to hand. The rider's hands always must be eased as soon as halted." As to Seat on Horseback, there have been small volumes
written on it in sporting magazines, works on the manége, and books on " The Noble Science" of Foxhunting. With the haute ecole, as our neighbours call the teaching of horses to astonish the beholders by capricoles, demivoltes, lifting their feet in a manner to render them useless and unservice- able, and other tricks of the circus, we have nought here to do, confining ourselves to the modern English school of riding. It is easy to discover the riders who have been taught in
a good school, by their firm, graceful, and uniform position in |
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MANAGEMENT OF THE REINS, AND SEAT ON HORSEBACK.
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161
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8 precepts rather than attempt to follow any preconceived
e* If the horse rears, he will feel called upon by nature
iean forward, and may even grasp the neck if needful, or
ything but the bridle, which will only bring the horse
ack upon him. The body should not be held stiffly upright,
> short of this, it can scarcely be too still, the loins being
btitly arched forwards. The legs also should be as motion-
s as possible, and nearly perpendicular from the knee
^nwards; but, if anything, a little forward, the heel being
^ * depressed and the toes very slightly turned outwards.
e shoulders should always be square—that is, at right
pes to the road taken ; and whether trotting or galloping
her of them should be advanced before the other.
If
, a man contemplates becoming a perfect horseman, he U1d consider in what way his riding will be chiefly re-
red, and make himself master of that. If he only con-
piates road riding, if he acquire a neat, easy, and firm
. > with good hands, he will do well enough ; and having
, ^d these, he may be satisfied. If he means to be a
ting rnail) he w*ji gn(j Jt yfin reqUire a stiH firmer seat,
nger arms, and far stronger nerves, without which he
Qever become a " workman" across country ; and, as to
riding, no man need hope to arrive at any perfection
,, J°ckey, unless from a boy he has been more or less in
flabit of riding race-horses.
, ftere are two things all but indispensable to the man
■Wishes to become perfect as a horseman—good nerve
, good temper: without the first, he will want confi-
Ce > and without the second, he will neither have
lence to be taught himself or to teach his horse.
fo ° as sea* *s concerned, a great deal depends on the
c. ^ation of the man. With very few exceptions, short
Dy-made men never make neat horsemen; and without
„ exception, such persons can hardly possess an easy and
th'^ Seat' ^uc^ men are usua% verv roun(i in tne
^,*? ' a formation much against a firm seat, without n no man can be a good horseman.
tle Untsinen usually sit more down in their seat than gen- 0 ^ do. This aris-js from their keeping a constant eye ^ eir hounds, which they can have with that seat more jj tiley could standing in their stirrups as a jockey does. Th* SXnen are apt to sit a little oblique on their horse. ha ,ls Caused by their riding much with the rein in one oth ' n fland is usually held rather more forward than Co men hold it, so as to enable them to have more
Ula nc* over the horse; which is quite necessary for a rjsi «ave who has to get through thick covers at the kno V avmg his own and his horse's eyes cut or
Way . 0ut by brambles, thorns, or hanging boughs. The the ^ ^hich both learn to avoid these is extraordinary: ever e so when the man's whole attention is devoted to thj0w Urn üis hounds make, and to every hound he hears of a tongue. "We will suppose a huntsman in the middle view h 11 c°ver of perhaps a hundred acres; he hears a oo ou which he can depend, and also hears his x |
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hounds making to the point from whence the halloo comes.
Get to them he must; and that over newly-cut stubs like harrows reversed, or through underwood where half his time he is forced keep his arm before his face to save it. All he can do is to trust to his horse; and the way in which those accustomed to it do gailop through and over such obstacles, no man but a huntsman, and no horse but a huntsman's can imitate. He gets to the cover's skirt; no matter how awkward the fence to get out, he has no time to piek a safer place. " Come up," and with a haul at his horse's mouth, and a whack with his whip on the shoulders, over they come somehow. He has then to rattle along over any ground, not merely at a chasing but a catching pace. He comes up with the crowd in a narrow lane, with half a hundred gentlemen trotting up the centre ; these he cannot command to get out of his way, though every good sportsman would voluntarily do so. " By your leave, gentlemen," is the utmost he dare say; and with a " hark forward, hark! " or "hoick together, hoick !" and the occasional use of " by your leave," he rattles by them with a wagon-rut for his horse's path. He gets to the hounds, and with a half-blown horse has to face a country that others begin with one quite fresh. It is not to be wonde^ed at, therefore, that half- tired man and horse get on, in such a case, just as they can, but most huntsmen now-a-days are provided with a second horse, otherwise they could not get through their work. Connected with the seat, is what is called in horse language
" hands." When a man inquires what kind of bit he should use, he generally means what sort would suit his horse's mouth ; it is of more importance to inquire what will suit his own " hands." This is to say that a man with " good hands " can ride with any bit; while it is most important, where the rider has "no hands at all," that the animal should not be punished and confined by a cruel piece of ironwork. The bridle with which, in the first case, he would go pleasantly and gracefully, would, in the latter, become neither more nor less than an instrument of torture, under the effects of which he could go neither pleasantly, gracefully, or even safely to himself or rider. One would naturally suppose that any man in the habit
of riding would be anxious to acquire so necessary a part of horsemanship as good hands. Daily observation, however, shows that it is not so; and this inattention or indifference arises from various causes. The first is, the man knows nothing about " hands," consequently does not know that he has bad ones; again, if he does know this, as he merely rides an animal for health and exercise, and having found one who has no more " mouth" than his master has " hands," the latter has probably found himself safely enough carried, and wants no more. Bad "hands" are much more frequent causes of bad
riding than even defects of seat. Indeed, the things act and re-act, and an unsteady seat will produce bad " hands." Should a friend, then, ask you candidly about bits and bridles, and so forth, be equally candid with him. Ask |
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RIDING TO HOUNDS.
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162
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great secret of coaching, is to keep your time ;" so in riding
to hounds, the chief and indispensable accomplishment is to know how to gallop. This is not, as might at first sight be supposed, a mere matter of " horse ;" on the contrary, it has a good deal to do with the biped who bestrides him. One man will get across a field in half the time it takes h18 friend, though mounted on a faster animal, to accompüsn the same distance; and this facility is a sort of knack» which it is impossible to teach and almost hopeless to explain. It is an accomplishment compounded of hand> eye, and seat, with a considerable allowance of nerve ; f°r» strange as it may appear, men are far less shy of fences than they are of galloping; and many a bruising, daring rider» with good hands, undying pluck, and a first-rate eye *° hounds, finds that, although in a hunting run he can gene- rally go first and foremost, yet for want of this gift of gallop" ing he is always beaten, he cannot teil how, in the first three fields of a really quick thing. The man cannot of course " carry the horse," though young gentlemen often thioK they can " lift" him. We do not mean to say that the best hunter in England, if slow, will bear his owner satisfactoruy through a burst, but that the quick man on the slow horse will go in a good place (supposing he wishes to show in tbe front rank) till his steed stops ; whereas the slow man °D the fast horse will be nowhere throughout, though doubtles3 of the two he will have the pleasanter ride home. We will suppose, however, that man and horse are bot»
of the " going sort"—the one devotedly fond of hounds a»d determined to be with them, the other sharing his master attachment to the chase, and trained to that state of win and condition which enables him to undergo the severes exertion, not only without inconvenience, but with positie enjoyment. This is but the foundation of the science : ho much skill and judgment is required in its superstructure • The knowledge of hunting, necessary to place every turn ° the hounds to account; the choice of ground, which makeS all the difference between gliding smoothly down a furro^' or labouring uneasily athwart a ridge; the quickness ° eye, which, on landing in a field, spies instantaneously ^e weak place at which to get out, and makes directly for tha spot without deviation or delay ; the accuracy of ear, th»*' when hounds are necessarily unseen, can be guided by tbel notes; the experience, which tells as it were intuitively ib direction they are likely to take ; and lastly, the dauntlesS nerve, that, among rasping fences, is determined to forward, and prepared to run its chance of what there beyond the obstacle. " Eternal misery on this side, my Lord, and certain dea
on the other," said one of the best of our steeple-cbaf riders to a nobleman who was almost his rival; and another instant he was in the air. To put in prae the intellectual qualities essential to clever hunting, ^ essential to possess likewise the physical advantage of & horsemanship, of which more is required in cross»1*? country than the uninitiated are apt to suppose. H0'9, |
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him, " Has your horse a good mouth ?" that is, tender, and
' Does he often throw up his head ?" Is his mouth, temper, and disposition such that a curb-bit
can be dispensed with ? If it is, ride your horse, by all means, in a plain snaffle and martingale (not a nose one). If he requires a curb, use an easy one, and only make use of it occasionally. We would recommend all men with bad hands to use martingales; not exactly to keep the horse's head down, but to counteract the effect of their hands getting up, which is nearly always the practice with bad riders. Martingales, too, are advisable, because with one it matters less where the hands are ; they do not affect the horse's mouth as respects the elevating or lowering of the head. All they can do is to use such force in pulling the reins that the horse cannot advance. Probably the rider will take the hint, and moderate his pull at the reins. " Hands " may be considered the refinement of horseman-
ship, without which no man has any pretensions to the character of a horseman ; he may ride boldly, and sit fast This does not make him a horseman. "The difference between riders," says " Harry Hieover," is—" the one sits on the back of a horse, crossing a country in such form and style as the animal likes ; the other causes the horse to do the same thing, but in a proper manner." Good " hands " are to a man of fortune worth a diadem ;
in virtue of them, he is carried as no man wanting them can be. It may be said his money could purchase horses that want no hands to make them do their business handsomely. He might; but if they wanted no hands to make them go in such manner, still less do they want bad ones to thwart them when they do. They are invaluable to the poorer man. They enable him
to purchase horses hitherto thought little of from a bad style of carriage, and raise the price of the same horse, while in his possession, from, perhaps, eighty to a hundred and fifty. Finally, "hands " are of the utmost importance to the horse
himself, particularly in hunting; wanting them, beats many a good horse before his time. Permitting a horse, in techni- cal phrase, to " make a spread eagle of himself," and go sprawling along over a deep fallow, " sows him up " at once. It is quite a fallacious idea to suppose that a horse knows the easiest way of going to himself. He, perhaps, would do so in a state of nature ; but nature is not crossing a hundred- acre holding pasture, with twelve (or more) stone weight on his back. RIDING TO HOUNDS.
We have, in various subsidiary branches of the subject of
Riding, forestalled so many points of the present subject, that we can almost deal with it by way of reference to the opening part of this Chapter. To keep on terms with a modern pack when running
hard, neither man or horse, whatever other faults they may have, must be troubled with "the slows." As an old-world enthusiast in the art of driving once told us, "the |
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RIDING TO HOUNDS.
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163
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Vs> " the horse's ear is in his mouth ; " and you need only
eprive him of his bridle, to render the finest rider in
ngland utterly helpless on his steed. " Harry Hieover"
^s an anecdote illustrative of this quality, which we must
Preserve. " A gentleman in Northamptonshire was run
Way with some few years ago. His horse having got his
et through his reins in a scramble at a fence, and tore
eiïl completely from his head, away went the pair—the
XInal frightened out of its wits, as is the custom of the
Pecies when anything extraordinary happens; the biped
°* and unmoved, as if he sat in an arm-chair. Fond,
^ever, as he was of going fast, it was necessary on this
casion to stop ; so, being a long-armed man, he leant well
, fward, and placing his hands over its eyes, completely
löded his horse, and brought him to a standstill, if we
may be allowed the expression, in a twinkling. We are
. t all, however, gifted with such long limbs as this
?mPerturbable equestrian, and must make up, if we can, for
Qciency of arm by increased fineness of hand; and here
it down as an established rule, that no horse can go
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particularly should the bit be made to slide up and down
for an inch or so on the cheek aforesaid, will be found admirably adapted to three hor*as out of four ; but then it may render the fourth totally unridable: so, as we have already said, it is impossible to lay down any rule on the subject. But that it is absolutely necessary to find out the bridle in which he goes most pleasantly, to get a horse quickly along over a country, it needs but little argument to demonstrate. For mere galloping, we should be able to turn and twist
him any where. The very fact of pulling up short to open a gate, and consequently keeping up the steam till within a few yards of that friendly egress, will give one man an immense advantage over another, who, although riding a second Eclipse, cannot quite command him, and, should he mean to stop at all, must begin hauling long ere he is half-way across a forty-acre field. What, too, can be more provoking, when jammed into a
lane amongst a hundred dear friends, than to spy a weak place in the fence, through which, if you could but hustle, you might be alone with the hounds; and to find that, pressed as you are by the galloping crowd around you, it is impossible to pull up or turn, till several hundred yards past the only practicable gap for miles ? Though the hounds are running at right angles to you, it would take more time to tiirn round than to keep forward, and you are carried on by the tide till you find yourself in a turnpike road, from which, as we all know, there is no escape. All this is rec- tified by having horses what is called "handy,;" and to make them so, should be the first object of any man who wishes to ride well to hounds, more particularly in the grass countries, where the crowd of his fellow-sportsmen is one of the greatest difiiculties he has to encounter. A fast slug, if he has courage enough to face large fences, will generally slip away quicker than any other desoription of hunter; and it is extraordinary how many horses that have been ridden by good men become so quiet and temperate that we might almost call them slugs. When thus mounted, and in a good place with hounds, a really fine rider seems to glide over a country, almost like a bird upon the wing. It is beautiful to ride behind such, and watch his perform- ance. How quietly he sits down in his saddle, giving and taking with every motion of his horse; how judiciously he selects the soundest ground, and at what a rattling pace he makes play when its inclination is at all in his favour. With what patience he waits at a slow canter, or pulls completely to a trot in the ploughs; what skill he shows in angling the ridge and furrow, or avoiding it altogether by making at once for the headland; how he seems to anticipate every turn of the hounds, and thereby gains a timely pull almost whenever he stands in need of a moment's breathing-space; and above all, with what determination he crosses the severe fences, which in every good run we may be pretty sure it will be his lot to encounter. |
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ly with hounds if he pulls. Let him lean upon his
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bit
colL
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*° that extent which enables us to draw him into a
ected form; let him get his head up, or down, or |
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8idew
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ays, or into any other position he pleases, with a
Per feeling of resentment at undue interference with his
uth, and we freely forgive him; but for a boring, dead,
1Haecked pulier, we confess to an insuperable aversion."
^ttion riding, as Oolonel Greenwood's book truly points
'ls but common sense, and the whole object of bitting
. bridling is, after all, to get the horse's hind legs
° their proper place under his quarters, through the
, mm of his head. " The animal is so formed, that when
, °ends his neck and tucks his nose in, he brings his
, *s and hind feet well under his body, and vice versd;
i Ce it is that horses with well-made, powerful quarters,
e for the most part light mouths. Should that sensitive
^ °at>, however, have been hardened by a bad education or
usage, it must be our study to apply such an instru-
j fl. as> by giving us additional power, or, in other words,
Qng a severer pressure, shall make up for this want of
!eilsitiV(
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eness without giving pain, and thereby causing
Th" . °n at the time, and increased callousness afterwards- 8t ■, ls the whole art of bitting, and on this depends the 0v touch we term " hand." That such power is obtained ■ty » e horse by an almost innumerable diversity of bridles, &Ud •Ve. °n^ to ^°°k mto anv saddler's window to observe ; ijj ls impossible to establish any of these as the best, tCuch as the
grey horse will only go pleasantly in one
t}je i °u*d drive the chesnut mad, while that which brings ijj ,, Wn instantaneously on his haunches is a mere halter the mouth of the bay. Different men, too, would ride tneti '"le_ animal in different bridles, so various are the handi S ln which people deern it safe and expediënt to thick K • 1T norses- The large plain double-bridle, with a 1 00n» a low port, and a very long cheek, more |
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LADIES' HORSEMANSHIP.
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164
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There is, in our opinion, ample scope for what Tom Hood
punningly called sAe-questrianship, without following the hounds. Within the last quarter of a century, the maids, matrons,
and widows of England have taken to the saddle in numbers unprecedented in former days, and far be it from us to wisü it otherwise. A fine woman on a fine horse is a most grace- ful combination of beauty and power. Horse exercise lS conducive to the health and spirits; and how it enhanceS the charms of the lovely Amazons, many a captivated youth can avouch with a loving sigh. It is, then, that he may understand the principles of graceful riding by the faire* sex, as well as for the lovely horsewomen themselves, that we pen a few practical lines on the subject. Dress.—And here, upon the very threshold, we feel the
danger and delicacy of our task. "We have to advise the ladies on that subject most eminently within their province —dress. We shall not trespass on matters of fashion and taste, but hope they will agree with us that a habit cannot be too plain, if well made, well fitting, and well put on- Observe, we stipulate for light "ladies' cloth," strictly 8° called, which will tear easily. The skirt, too, shnnld be as short as is at all consistent with appearance. It need hardly be pointed out, what danger there is in the prepoS" terously long skirt: we have seen it become entangled wit'1 the stirrup, a passing a rail, hedge, or even the horse's leg3> and then the helplessness of the fair rider when unseated; for should the horse himself fall, the rider is involved wit»1 him in a peril from which she cannot be easily extfl' cated without injury. A dangerous fashion, now happ1^ on the wane, is that of wearing " habit-brooches," as the tradesmen who deal in these dangerous devices call tbei°- This mode of confining the skirt of the habit is utterv superfluous to a graceful horsewoman. The position ot lady on horseback is much more constrained than that ot man. The " habit-brooch" deprives her of the chance () escape when an accident happens. A very slight fall J»a/ prove serious or fatal, where, with full liberty of the skirt, i would have been harmless or trivial. The arrangement ° the skirt, without this impedimentum, is thus directed oj Mr Waite He strongly advises a lady never, under aiv circumstances, to tuck her skirt tight over the crutch ° " Alarm and fear come upon us," said they, " when we consider tb»
we must live in this country. In the first place, because we baV deprived you of your parents, and, in the next, have committed gre depredations in your territory. Since, therefore, you think us wort J to be your wives, do thus with us: come let us leave this country > and, having crossed the river Tanais, let us settle there!" " So," observes Herodotus, " the youths consented to do this al3° '
and, having reached the country in which they are now settled, took up their abode there. From that time, the wives of the S»u mata? retain their ancient mode of living, both going out on ho back to hunt with their husbands and without their husbands^ joining in war, and wearing the same dress as the men." The ree of Sir Cresswell Cresswell's court show that the Sauromatae have descendants among modern wives. |
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lADIES' HORSEMANSHIP.
Albeit we do not expect lady-readers to con the pages of
" The Book of Field Sports," yet do we esteem it a serious omission that the art of riding, as practised by lady-pro- ficients, should be passed over without mention in such works; for surely a brother, father, friend, or, better still, a lover, may desire the knowledge which would enable them to speak, or, if need be, to instruct in these matters, " as one having understanding." "We are not going to advo- cate the " first-flight" as an accomplishment; or torn veils and rent skirts, got in charging a "bullfinch," or rising, mermaid-like, bedraggled from the depths of a soft-banked brook, as a triumph becoming our British fair. We rate too highly their precious limbs and beauteous faces, to desire to see them exposed to the risk of injury. Yet who can assert that pain ter or poet can have a more beautiful subject for pencil or pen than a fair Englishwoman on a handsome horse, as she passes in the power of her charms, her eyes brightened, her colour heightened by the health and spirit- giving exercise, her hair floating, and her lithe figure sway- ing and bending in graceful pliancy to every movement of the glossy steed she manages with a womans tact and a woman's pride ? All this may be delightfully enjoyable in "the ride" in Hyde Park, or on the greensward of the avenue of the " old house at home;" or the ten or twelve miles an hour may be enjoyed on the road, through bridle- lanes, an occasional hand-gate and grass-field, as, with spirits gay, they repair to "the meet" they so radiantly adorn. But here, as we have said before, we pause, though perhaps some of our youth—for human nature is ever the same— may yield to the modern Sauromatae, of whom Herodotus tells the story so quaintly. This Scythian tribe of female warriors, says the old Greek, were called " manslayers ;" but this was in a more literal sense than we would apply in the present day. How the Greeks fought with them in the field, intermarried with them, and were conquered at home, the reader may seek in the ancient historian referred to,* |
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* These antetypes of the "pretty horse-breakers" and heart-
breakers of the 19th century, argued with their husbands in a style and with an effect that 4,000 years have not cast into oblivion. The husbands proposed a settling down to the calm duties of domestic life; to which the Amazons replied, " We never could live with the women of your country, because we have not the same customs with them. We shoot with the bow, throw the javelin, ride on horseback, and have never learnt the employments of women. But your women do none of the things we have mentioned, but are engaged in women's employments, remaining in their wagons, and do not go out to hunt, or anywhere else. If, then, you desire to have us for your wives, and to prove yourselves honest men, go to your parents, claim your share of their property, then return, and let us live by ourselves." Need the result be wondered at ? The story is repeated daily to
this hour. A determined, though soft-spoken Amazon pleads, a youngi or a fond old sportsman listens, and the cause is won But the ancient Sauromatge went further : they proposed elopement to their tusbands; and thus these wily syrens went about it. |
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LADIES' HORSEMANSHIP.
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165
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er saddle, but take pains to have them so easy as to be
enabled on the instant to disengage both skirt and knee.
^- iacility in this can only be acquired by constant practice;
n<t it is of far greater importance to the lady equestrian to
ttain than may appear at the first glance. Had this ap-
Parently slight attainment been a matter of moderate con-
1(leration, many a parent need not have to deplore the
ore or less disfigurement or maiming of a beloved child.
When a lady has her habit drawn over the crutch of her
ac*dle, and tucked tightly in under her leg (for the purpose
keeping the skirt in its proper position), she denies
erself the full liberty of her knee, and, in case of accident,
0 °e quickly off the horse. On the slightest warning, though
öloreseen, whatever the danger, the tightness of the lady's
ress will not allow her to get her leg out of its place in
010 to make any effectual effort to save herself; it is also
Pr°bable that the habit may get entangled in the pommel,
™ she, frightened of course, will become unable to dis-
. §age her foot from the stirrup or shoe, in which case she
evitably experiences the most appalling of all accidents—
ilng, and being dragged powerless by a terrified horse.
'Mounting.—Preparatory to a lady mounting her horse,
her steadily and without bustle approach his near
°ulder. ^The quietest animal will occasionally start or
ei* kick when suddenly approached from behind. It is
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allow the right knee to rise and fall well home into the crutch,
and holding it there firmly. This will be much assisted by drawing the heel backwards, by which the muscles of the calf and the tendo AchiUis come to the aid of the position. The left leg should hang easily, not resting the weight of the body on the stirrup; if this is done, the foot naturally turns outward, inclines the body to an insecure balance, and gives a wavering and ungainly appearance to the rider. To avoid this, keep the left knee pressed against the saddle, depress the heel, and turn the toes slightly inwards. The position of the stirrup has much to do with the seat
of the female equestrian. The stirrup must be correctly adapted to the length of the lady's foot when seated in a square and exact position in the saddle. The modus operandi is as follows:—Let the stirrup-foot hang down freely from the hip-joint, the knee slightly flexed, the toes raised and turned towards the horse's side. Then, while the foot is immovable in the stirrup, let the strap-holes be taken up and permanently kept at the approved length. The pressure of the foot in the stirrup should come alone from the toes to the arch of the foot, which will give the desired elasticity of movement in the quicker paces of the horse. Should the lady be impelled to the endeavour to retain her foot in the stirrup, her weight must preponderate on the left side. On the contrary, if the stirrup be too short, it necessarily gives a rolling motion to her body, destructive alike to grace, elegance, and security of seat, and will prevent her seating korself sufficiently back in her saddle. Thus much of seat and stirrups. The arms should be held freely and unconstrainedly, but near the sides. The motion of the bridle hand must be, like that of skillcid pianoforte players, confined to the wrist. From that alone must its action be derived; and here Mr. Waite's little " Manual" shall again instruct us. "The motion of the lady's hand should be confined to the wrist, the action coming from it alone. By the management of the reins, in concert with the yielding or retraction of the wrists, the horse is guided in his paces. By this mode the sensibility and goodness of his mouth is preserved ; the beauty of his action is developed; steadiness is combined with security in his paces; and the safety of his rider is secured. The degree of command which the animal can be placed under, entirely depends on the degree of proficiency acquired in this branch." There are four motions requisite in guiding a horse.
" To go forward.—Lengthen the reins, and give the animal
his liberty. Por this purpose the lady's hand must be guided by the action of her wrist, and, at the same time, she must apply gently her whip. Here, it is proper to remark, the lady's bridle, or left, hand must never be left inactive, but, by practice, she must endeavour to understand the art of feeling the horse's mouth ; should the bridle hand not be kept in constant use, this will never come easy to the rider, the hand will be unsteady, and the horse will become the same. |
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0 to the advantage of the animal, to see his rider as much
possible; though some would seem to think otherwise, by
e*r coup de main mode of " getting hold " of the animal.
^ this point the reader may refer to our chapter on
Reaking and Training, ante.
*o assisting a lady to mount, two persons are necessary.
e groom to keep the horse quiet, which he should do by
anding in front of him, with one rein in each hand,
olding the bridle-rein close to the bit. The other at-
dant-—a proud privilege for the favoured cavalier, or a
°ving duty for the brother or friend—has to assist the fair
to mount. This he does by placing himself near to and
°st in front of her. Having joined his hands by inter-
,, ng his fingers with each other, he stoops, and putting
, near the ground receives the lady's left foot, which
should place lightly but firmly in them, taking care
^ a, n° Part of her skirt is under it. The left knee should
i , ePt firmly straight, to give a safe purchase while she is
Befog Ufted
perpendicularly and springily into her seat.
jj ,. e this lift, however, the lady having regulated her
i must stand perfectly erect, and taking the bridoon- t, toosely over the thumb of her right hand (holding „ ., *P hetween the thumb and forefinger), she lays t; i ^ hold of the upright horn of the saddle. Her ac S1^e being now close to it, the lift is easy of pj • PllSüment; a spring from the instep, simultaneously latl ■, ° ler left hand on the assistant's right shoulder, will 3 .the lady safe in her seat.
habfo ^ now in the saddle, the lady should lay hold of her "^th her right hand close to the knee, lifting it so as to |
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LADIES' HORSEMANSHIP.
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1G6
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Mr. Waite winds .up by justly observing that an elegant
and accomplished equestrian becomes an equally graceful pedestrian, from the improved carriage acquired from pro- ficiency in the former accomplishment. To become an elegant pedestrian is no mean task, nor
easy to accomplish. Yet it is of the utmost importance to a lady to achieve it. How often, in our experience through life, have we met with a lovely face and perfect figure,—' everything that could constitute the perfection of female beauty, while at rest: but once in motion, the illusion is dispelled by a bad carriage and shuming gait, and the per- fect form becomes common-place. These two detractions to beauty can be entirely eradicated by attention to the follow- ing directions, which apply equally to walking and riding- Keep the bust and head erect; the shoulders well thrown
back. The motive power to proceed from the hips alone. Perseverance in these directions will soon give all that is
required for a graceful and healthy carriage. Finally.—At all times trust to your reins for security in
cases of danger. Never grasp the pommel of the saddle; and never use a " habit-brooch." Choosing a Lady's Horse.—The general ideas in BuyINö
a Hokse are found under that heading ; the special merits of a lady's horse are worth considering. It should be re- membered, and oftener than it is, that a " weed" should never be selected to carry our " fairest flower,"—that hov^ ever sylph-like and fairy-formed our Venuses may appear, they are mostly ten stone, "horseman's weight," despite their affectation of slimness; and this, with habit, bat» gauntlets, whip, a spacious side-saddle and crutch, extra girths, shoe stirrup, &c, adding twenty pounds at the least, asks something more than a Queen Mab's grasshopper steed- We are not going to dilate on a horse for the huntinê Amazon we have already spoken of, or we should say a fout" year-old hunter, with good mouth, great action, steady at fences, and up to thirteen stone, was wanted; just such a horse as is not to be had for the catching. Lord Maynard, a great man across country in the last generation, used to say, when he heard a horse mentioned as excellent to carry a lady, " I'll buy it: if he will carry a woman well, he ** carry me better." As elegance must be studied in a park hack, a lady s
horse should have a considerable show of blood, and should seldom exceed fifteen hands in height; the paces
should
not be rough ; and an easy slow trot, the pace of healtb, lS
a valuable qualification. The canter is, however, of tfte chiefest consequence, and that it be formed naturally an handsomely, the neck gracefully curved, and the inouti1 having pleasant and good feeling. There are natural caO" terers, they will last at it, taking to it, and on the prope signal dropping into the trot or walk, without rougbnes»' boggling, or changing of legs. But the first and graI1 consideration is going safely; for a horse deficiënt in tb* respect is, perhaps, always most liable to fall in his cante The most graceful canterers may be observed to lead geQÖ |
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" To go backward.—The reins must be shortened a little,
the back of the hand turned down, the little finger next the body ; the weight of the rider should be thrown back, with the little finger slightly j>ulled in towards the waist, then the horse will readily step back. " To turn to the right.—The hand must be turned upwards,
which will direct the little finger to the right. Throw the balance of the body into the turn, by inclining the bust to the right and applying the whip, which will cause the horse to move forward as he turns, obey the hand, and cross his legs one over the other correctly. " To turn to the left.—Let the hand be turned down, so
that the little finger may be directed to the left; the bust must also be turned to the left, and the hand up, with the left heel applied to his side, and the whip to his right shoulder." Dismounting.—The remarks on mounting should be re-
membered here. Should hired servants only be at hand, there is some skill required to avoid the désagrémens or inelegance of a lady being iifted from the saddle in the arms of.a groom. Previous to dismounting, the attendant must stand by the
horse's head, holding the reins close to the bit, to keep him as steady as possible. The lady, having removed her foot from the stirrup, and
passed her hand down to free her skirt, &c, from the chance of catching to the saddle or stirrup, should remove her knee from the saddle-crutch ; at the same time taking the pre- caution to disengage the habit from that side. Then holding the crutch with her right hand (the rein hanging loosely on the thumb), and placing her left hand on her attendant's right arm, near the wrist; his arm being extended for the pur- pose, she must spring lightly and clear from the saddle, slightly inclining the bust towards the horse's shoulder. By this method the lady will cleverly disengage herself,
and descend gently to the ground. The following are Mr. Waite's "Maxims:"—"Beparticular
to avoid nervousness and hurry, either in mounting or dis- mounting. " Take time, and have everything correctly arranged be-
fore starting; serious accidents have occurred from haste in starting off. " Arrange the habit and length of stirrup, and have the
saddle-bands and buckles properly examined before the journey is begun, to prevent having to stop on the road. " Be careful to keep the hand active, and watch the move-
ments of the horse; by this means the rider will never be thrown off her guard, and will be prepared for every emergency. " Keep the horse's mouth always in play, so as to keep up
its fine feeling, indispensable to his correct guidance. " Never allow the reins to hang loosely on the horse's neck,
crutch, or pommel of the saddle. This oversight frequently causes serious and fatal accidents. " Always use doublé reins. Should one become useless,
there is still another to rely upon." |
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LADIES' HORSEMANSHIP.
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167
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ri% with the off leg; but no doubt there is such an error
88 a horse, both in his canter and gallop, going with the rong leg first, to the considerable uneasiness of the rider ; |
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ment, whereas out of doors it is more than divided by other
objects. Independently of this, there is a confinement feit by a horse when encircled by four walls, that he of course does not feel in any open space, that makes him obedient. In a school there are found guns, flags, drums, trumpets.
umbrellas, and every other monstrosity to which a lady's horse should be subjected: it therefore follows that in such a school a horse would be placed in a situation to see more strange sights in six weeks than in ordinary situations he would see in six years. For instance, a lady might ride her horse about Bath and not see the colour of a regiment once in seven years; in London it might happen she never rode at an hour when regiments were moving; consequently years might elapse, and the first time her horse saw such a sight he would start at it; and so on with any unusual thing that came across him; but in the school a day makes him conversant with everything of the sort. Let a man walk fifty yards distance from him round the school with a banner, he hardly notices it; get nearer to the man by degrees, and in an hour or two the horse will walk with the banner fiuttering before his face (so with anything we wish to accustom him to see) without alarm. The great mistake people make, is in thinking that by doing too much at a time they accelerate what they wish, when, in fact, they retard it by such means. If, for instance, we wish to teach a horse to stand fire—if
we let off a gun, we should alarm him to such an extent that it would perhaps take a month to reassure him, if we even did it then. A more judicious man might let off a small pistol with a little powder in it. This is ten times too much. A flash in the pan is too much, except at a great distance. First burn a few grains of gunpowder so as to show no flash, while he is eating his corn in the stable; let him smell that; even this will arouse his attention, but, while it accustoms him to the smell, will not alarm him. Begin by clicking a pistol twenty yards from him ; then put powder enough in not to make more ignition than the light of a rushlight; go on by imperceptible degrees, and in two days he will hear a musket go off without the least fear. Alarm him by the report of a gun at first, it will take years perhaps to reconcile him to it, if it is ever done; but by never creating alarm, he may in a week be brought to stand by a cannon without wincing. Absolutely hurting or absolutely alarming, produce nearly similar results in brutes as in the humanrace. A person that has been pursued by an infuriated oxhas the same dread of an ox as another who has been tossed on his horns—perhaps more, if the latter was not much hurt, the anticipations of the former being probably much more terrific than the tossing of the latter; as, in the ordinary circumstances of life, the dread of an event is often more horrible than the realization itself. Many a man, who has worked himself into a fever and high state of nervous irritability during the night from the apprehension of an operation in the morning, has borne that operation firmly, and allowed that his fears had greatly exceeded the |
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this
ch,
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is most feit upon worn and battered horses, which
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aD-ge their legs to procure a momentary ease.
■o- naturally timid, nervous colt, however we may lessen
e mfirmity by proper treatment, will never be a perfect
dy s horse. He should be naturally bold and fearless, and
°m being properly educated, should not know fright; for as
öles are naturally more easily alarmed than men, so in pro-
P°rtion should their horses be bolder, for if both get alarmed,
e danger is imminent. Many ladies would fear to be put
a high-couraged horse. Fair ones, your fears are mis-
Ppbed. jHigh courage, in man or horse, is your best safe-
Süard, and will induce both to bend with cheerfulness to
f ?Ur slightest will; while the timid, actuated by fear, seeks
3 own safety, nor heeds the danger of his fair mistress.
öonae masters teach their lady-scholars to ride on either
Sm
Qe of the horse, and recommend to have the pommel of
e saddle made very low, that the knee may not be thrown
o high ; and also that the pommel be made with a screw,
De taken off in case of a lady wishing to change sides on
y particular account. Ladies' riding-shoes should be
■^ays straight soled, as, in case of accident, there is the
* °f the foot hanging in the stirrup, when the sole,
Cc°rding to the old fashion, is hollow next the heel. A
y s horse should be particularly accustomed to walk off
H letly • and with respect to his improvement in that pace,
ls accomplished by touching him gently with the whip.
Harry Hieover" has some pertinent though diffuse re-
rks in his " Hints on Educating Horses," from which we
' ect some relating to the training of a lady's horse.
■^■Ithough by no means advocating a riding-schooi edu-
lon for a hunting man or a hunting horse, yet it is the
ij, y place where a lady's horse can be properly made.
(( ere is a peculiar style of going that is only to be acquired
ere —a handiness that cannot be taught on the road;
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lln
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safely and easily cannot
ging voluntarily the leading leg, so indispensable for |
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Chan
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„ ^ üorse, must be practised by the figure of eight, to per-
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et Vi
öitn in it; and till he is perfect in this, he cannot
y a lady safely. She will find it necessary, if riding in
in *° *urn ^er norse 0I"ten suddenly, to avoid coming q • act with different objects. Suppose a horse going a
s , canter, leading with the right leg, something coming jf ti y UP may oblige his rider to turn quickly to the left. Vb i, se aoes n°t change his leg, it is an even chance tw , . er ne does or does not let his legs interfere, and come |
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11 k«» head.
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Here he may be taught that quite necessary
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?ualifi,
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by ,"acation in a lady's horse, to moderate his pace, stop
<lire j=re®s> or stop short, in accordance with the voice that the ^ ' a ^a<ly's borse should be perfect in this with jn0r lns resting on his neck. Why this is learned so much
s.ttenf a • *Q a sck°°l than elsewhere is, that the animal's 11 ls s°lely occupied by his rider's voice and move- |
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DRIVING—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
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168
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field, the declension of the Four-in-hand Club, and the extinc-
tion of our fast four-horse coaches. Spasmodic efforts for i*8 revival have merely led to a pleasant procession to a pic-nic» or a suburban " spread " on the banks of Father Thames, above or below the great city. We shall not, therefore» dweil on the glory of departed days, but address ourselves t° the practice of the present. In our picture of pair-horse and single harness these will be found, and below such a description as will render them intelligible. The harness horses here to be noticed are the gig, or single"
harness horse, usually adopted for light or two-wheel wor» in dennet, tilbury, or dog-cart; the carriage, brougham, ot cab-horse, for a heavier and slower vehicle; and ponies» whose uses are as various as their form and stature. The general gig-horse is too often merely the cast-off of the hunting stable, or even of the racing stud; the clumsy» unsteady, or slow being put into harness. A well-bred horse for the lancewood shafts is, however, too valuable an aninw to be thus slightingly considered. Others are merely under- sized carriage horses with the Cleveland or Clydesdale blood in them, and these, if got by well-bred or throughbred sires» are useful and handsome animals. Of the cab, broughaiö» or carriage horse there are several varieties. In oldeo times, before the idea of elegance was attached to lightness» we had a horse which truly deserved the name of tbe coach horse, rather than the more modern one of the carria9e horse; for as we have already said, when treating of this variety, the old coach horse was merely the modero lighter cart horse, as we see him in the wheel-plough °r in the unicorn railway wagons of London streets. ^ transition period brought another animal, which sor»e writers of that middle age styled " the barouche horse, upon the scène ; this was in the " Onslow Phaeton " age> which dovetailed with the " mail" age and the Oxford au0 Cambridge tandem. The drivers of the white "upper benjamin " became fast, and gentle and noble coachmansbip at the zenith of its glory, drove very " leggy " animals, whicI1 the " short-legged machiners " " tied up " when the stage ^aS ten miles. An agreeable writer thus chronicles the change* " When anything, say the philosophers, arrivés at the sumB11 of perfection, by the law of nature it retrogrades. Perhaps the perfection of the teams of 1820 worked their downfal • Such horses were then put into them, that, to outdo, or a all events vie with each other, men began putting tbei hunters into harness, and many that had breasted a bulfi»0 in Leicestershire, in spring breasted a collar in Hyde Par Sadly infra dig. all this; but so it was. " ' Fashion in everything bears sovereign sway,
And' nags 'and periwigs have both their day.' " This was perhaps the first inaovation on the diflerefl
metiers of the horse: this the firss blow at the root of exclusiveness of the hunter and his master. Whether * hunter going in harness, or the master riding the harne* horse with hounds, was the greater degradation, we do » say. There is something aristocratie in the sound ot |
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rcality. Fear is a most powerful agent, and, where it is once
awakened, a most difficult one to tranquillise. With horses, a minute awakens fear that years will not eradicate. We cannot reason with them, or explain away the cause of their alarm ; so, if any irrational animal is once hurt by anything he sees or hears, or is seriously alarmed by it, hearing or seeing the same thing without sustaining any injury from it a hundred times afterwards barely suffices to reassure his fears of it. Frighten a boy by the appearance of a ghost, and let that ghost strike at him, he is alarmed; throw off the sheet, and let him see it was his sister dressed up, his alarm is gone ; nay, he would probably think less of ghosts in future. We cannot do this with animals; so, in educating them, nothing but length of time can overcome terror ; and till terror is assuaged, they have not even the instinct nature gave them. Ladies may fancy that if a horse has a tender mouth,
there can be no fear of his going off with them. He would not on any ordinary occasion or under any ordinary excite- ment; if, however, he gets frightened, mouth will avail nothing ; he becomes totally insensible to pain. The more timid, therefore, he is, the more dangerous he is; and, vice versa, the more courageous, the more safe. Why are veterans more to be depended on than raw troops ? Mainly because the former, from habit, are more collected in moments of danger than the latter Thus far of schooling. Any green field that is not too
hard, forms an excellent practice-ground; and should it be varied by what is termed in the Midland counties "ridge and furrow," it will additionally improve the general ac- tivity of the pupil, his action, and the use he makes of his shoulders. Cantering him continually in small circles, and, as he is meant for a lady, chiefly to the right, will teach him to lead with his off leg, and will bring his head into the right place, and his weight upon his haunches better than any other discipline we can adopt. Observe that no horse can have a good mouth unless he has powerful and well-shaped quarters ; also, that his lightness in hand is in most cases pretty exactly proportioned to his strength be- hind the saddle. The hardest pulier of all is the brute that pulls from weakness; if you could stop him, he cannot stop himself; and having given you half his weight to carry in your arms all day, it is lucky if he does not finish by. putting the whole of it on your neck and shoulders in one of those complicated somersaults that a bad one is so expert in making DRIVING.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.—HARNESS HORSES :—PUTTING TO.—
PAIR HORSE.----SINGLE HARNESS. Akin to the subject of Driving, and as a preface there to, we
would advise the perusal of pages 66—76 ante, and The Carriage Horse, pp. 60, 61. The palmy days of charioteering passed away with Sir Henry Peyton, Sir John Ludd, Sir St. Vincent Cotton, Lord Molyneux, the youth of Lord Chester- |
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DRIVING—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
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169
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hü
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nter s stable and the coach-horse stable; but to see a
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may be compensated for by other qualifications, for he is
wanted to be fast and lasting. We may put up with many serious objections in such horses, for the sake of pace and style of going. Impatience would, to many persons, be a very serious fault in a horse for single harness. A clever driver of gig or dog-cart will not mind a hasty-tempered one for this purpose ; but this would be intolerable in the cab-horse. He must be, or should be, singularly handsome, of com-
manding size; must be fast, or at least, extremely quick in all his movements; be able and willing at one moment to go fourteen miles an hour, the next be as willing to walk, if wanted, at the rate of three. He must stand motionless while his aristocratie owner enjoys his colloquy at the coroneted carriage-window ; must not want the application of the toy-whip, or pull so as to stretch or twist the fingers of the white, lemon, or pink kids. To want holding at a door would render him useless, for who is to hold him ? he must know by instinct that minute piece of humanity, yclept " the tiger," is before him, for seeing him is out of the question to a horse in harness. In going, the slightest indication on his mouth must suffice. He ought never, if a well-taught cab-horse, to voluntarily stop or attempt to stop at doors because he has often stopped at them before. This is the habit of butchers', bakers', and such plebeian horses; for though our scion of nobility or aristocracy may also at times stop at the same doors, it might be extremely incon- venient that his horse should indicate that his master did so. Having stated some actions that the cab-horse must not
perpetrate, we must look to the action he must have. This is precisely that which, some fifty years since, would have caused him to be rejected by any good judge as a " clam- berer"—a style of going then considered as of the very worst sort; and so, in fact, it is for use, for such goers must tire. But the cab-horse is wanted for show; so the more parade he makes about what he does, the better he is thought of. One animal of this sort, not long since, was actually bought at seven hundred guineas, solely from his lofty action. The learned and facetious author of "Adventures of a
Gentleman in Search of a Horse," whose sportive pages contain more law, wit, and practical advice, than scores of more pretentious volumes, observes, " It is marvellous how few people keep fixedly in mind the nature of the work which they will require the horse to perform. Not one horse in fifty that is good under saddle is equally so in harness, and vice versd. I once had a galloway that rarely stumbled in harness, though he could not have carried the best rider, of feather weight, half a dozen miles without a sorry fall. Yet he was perfectly sound, and continued sound for the five years he remained in my possession.* Many horses do |
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colli
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.ar ln a box is something, in my idea, about as anomalous
Would be to see a maid of all work drawing a cork of
caampagng. The wine might be good> and the Hebe ty. and each might be worthy attention from the most
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fastid
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mus, but it is to the disadvantage of both to introducé
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them together.
°me one may ask what has become of the sort of horse
Jf.Cla% hred for the fast coach. Like other articles for
a remunerative demand has died out, they are not
Produced on a grand scale. The nearest horse to the
P> is that used in our horse artillery, and a very good
« is. These horses, bought when young, though they
hick and strengthy, learn such habits of activity, that
one who has watched their evolutions at Woolwich,
sniouth, Chatham, or elsewhere, can help admitting that
j, strength and great activity are contained in them.
^ e there is want of " blood," sustained speed must
,. e looked for. Doubtless, where mere activity for short
nces is wanted, the less highly bred horse may seem not
'tier from the comparison, but a speed kept up is not his
i Heavy as a loaded omnibus looks, if you wanted it
j, ed along at great speed for a long distance, four
f °ughbreds would beat four of these artillery horses ; but
a , or* on London stones or in a bad road, where stopping
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arting would fret the high-bred cattle, specific gravity,
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str,
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fca
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0/- §tn> and short legs, carry the day. The wind and game
a e thoroughbred carry him through his task better than
th °} h°rse, but it is only where these are called upon
fle shines so pre-eminently.
h ere ls> however, another perfection that the highly-bred , e nas: he does any work with more willingness and pu ess than the coarse horse ; and this is why, for any 0tl ^0se to which his strength is adequate, he will be found,
jt. average, so much pleasanter than the coarser animal. h rue> the inferior-bred horse is quite as free, and per- t}j even more inclined to frisk about while quite fresh, Wh"l thorough or higher-bred one ; but this only lasts hjj^ *ork is play to him. At real labour, his energy leaves
°ee ' / °nce ^re(^' the game is up. This has long since pac ouad out; so, as our expectations as to distance and ë°od aVe Iïlore tnan §one hand in hand with the increased f0unr)e.Ss °^ r°ads and improvement in vehicles, we have the i lmPr°vement in breed absolutely indispensable—hence |
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§e m the carriage-horse.
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ur
b°rse. tliat |
other harness horse is now the brougham or cab-
*or a perfect cab-horse, he must now be kept to |
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^ficaf °a onty- To be perfect, he requires many qua-
are j. ' n°t easily met with; indeed, some of them he a i-, . ° Set combined. In double-harness a horse may aWay. 6 awkward or lazy, inclined to bolt, or even to run |
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ion.
>«mac |
somewhat restive, or a little unsafe in his
> with a good partner, a man anything of a |
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^en
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can make him do his business at least tolerably.
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iiia
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ë^-hors^. there are many little imperfections that
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* Sir George Stephen.
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DRIVING.—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
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170
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He was about half-bred, and inclining in form to a cob.
My relative rode him for about two or three months, during which time either he or the horse so contrived it as to fa-U every ten days ; the last fall was a very serious one, and tbe knees were much blemished. He would not have produced ten pounds, though I had given nearly forty. I obtained permission to break him into harness, which I did mysel'» without any trouble or difficulty. His owner would not take him back again, but gave him to me. A year or tw° afterwards I refused sixty for him. It is a singular fack that, for the first two years that I had him (he remained with me nearly five), he would allow nobody to drive bu11 but myself. If other hands held the reins, he would swerve and shy, and at last perhaps fairly bolt; but in mine be never committed a fault. I used to drive him with a sharp curb, and very little whip ; but my command of him was s° complete, that I have urged him to his full speed, throw» the reins on his back, and stopped him in an instant by w voice! The inference which I would draw is, that a p111' chaser should always try a new harness-horse for himseU> and not trust to the steadiness evinced while the reins are in his owner's hands. "I cannot dismiss my little horse without mentionio^
another incident connected with him, to me particularly 1IJ' teresting. Like most Cantabs, I acquired at college an u&' lucky taste for tandem driving. I have driven my tandena far many thousand miles in safety, and used at times to
exbibit
at once my folly and my skill, by threading the narrowest °
most crowded streets in London. It is scarcely necessaryf add, that eventually I broke my head ; though, in justice * my skill, I must declare that the fault was not mine, but Uv coachmaker's. The splinter-bar had been morticed into tB shaft at the very point where the latter was rendered uD sound by a knot in the wood. One day, after a long journw into the country, and within a hundred yards of my °^ door, the shaft broke, and I was precipitated over the sba»' horse, under the heels of my old favourite.- There I lay>l0' sensible. The awkward hands who came to render assistaoce' wanted (as I was afterwards infbrmed by my servant) _ move the horse away from me, at the risk of putting ^ heels upon my face ; but move he would not; nor would allow a foot to be raised, till at last I was fairly lifted ÜV from under him, and then, though not till then, he read1; changed his position, and moved wherever they pleasea lead him. I have no inference to draw from this, excep caution even to the most experienced whips against tan^ , I mention it as a tribute of gratitude to my poor horse, ^ showed at least as much sense as his master. Young geI^ men, however, who disregard my caution, as doubtless Bl < teen out of twenty will, may thank me for a hint of wbic have experienced the advantaga Tandems are rarely s , now; but those who still drive a leader, generally »W» his traces to an eye in the traces of the shaft-horse: , looks better, but is not so safe as the old-fashioned w8^ ^e hooking them to the end of the shaft. By the first plaö' |
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well in harness that are totally unsafe to carry weight:
in fact, few of the most ' showy' and ' splendid' harness horses of the dealers' stables are so broken until they have proved their inability under saddle. For myself, I make it a rule not to put a horse in my stanhope that I have not taken a short trial of in saddle. When on his back, I am his master; when at his tail, he is mine; and I like to know something of his temper before I put myself in his power/' Harness-work is, of course, at the .same pace, much less
severe than weight-carrying, with a modern-built trap or earriage, and good roads. It follows, therefore, that many defects, unpardonable for saddle, are comparatively imma- terial. Harness-work, too, is done usually on the trot; hence it is of less consequence that he should walk or gallop well. Still there is no doubt that in proportion as the animal is sound, and good in all his paces, his value is greater for whichever service he is designed. Few people are very particular about driving a horse in a
boot, or with a blemished knee, while the blinkers will hide any obvious defect in the eyes. Thus other serious obstacles that occur in the purchase of a saddle-horse are removed. Subject to these preliminary observations, we would sug-
gest that the form of a horse for single harness should be carefully considered; a full shoulder and a well filled-up loin, are of consequence; the action should be free, and rather high than otherwise ; the body should be compact and close, the legs short, and rotundity the character of the whole. Steadiness is a great virtue in a gig-horse ; for his duty is
in the streets, where every provocation is given to the con- trary, and where the least swerving from the direct line may cause infinite mischief. It is quite impossible to decide whether a horse deserves this character till he has been tried ; but a single drive down Oxford Street and Holborn Hill, will put him sufliciently to the proof. A man who buys a harness-horse, without first driving it himself, is a fit subject for a commission of lunacy It is not enough to put him in the break ; he should be harnessed at once to the gig or dog-cart; and it is prudent to observe closely how he bears the ceremony of being harnessed, and what kind of a start he makes. Much may be predicted of his qualifica- tions for draught, or at all events of his familiarity with the collar, by the degree of quiet with which he allows himself to be put to. If the ostler runs alongside of him at setting off, as is often the case, you may be sure that the horse is distrusted : if you distrust him yourself, have nothing to do with him. Sir George Stephen, in his little manual, already referred
to, gives the following illustrative anecdotes. " One of the best horses which I ever had in my life, as a
gig-horse, was a little animal scarcely fburteen hands and an inch high, which I bought of a dealer named Thompson, an excellent judge of a horse for harness. His case was in some respects peculiar, and worth mentioning. I bought him for a relative, of very light weight, but a timid rider. |
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DRIVING.—PARTS OF HARNESS.
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171
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«mbling of the shaft-horse is aggravated into a decided
> tor the animal is actually pulled down by the continued
^jotion of the leader; by the old plan, the shaft-horse is
owed time to recover a casual trip, and is even assisted ;
e yeight of the carriage being relieved by the shafts being
ained by the leader's traces in a horizontal position.
e greatest ianger in tandem-driving arises from the
s*umbling 0f the shaft-horse; it therefore follows that if
ner of the team is distrusted in his feet or legs, he should
be <iriven leader."
, ^° man, if he can help it, should ever buy a mare for
rriess : no dependance whatever can be placed upon them:
ey may be temperate and steady for months, or even years,
. ^ yet when the season arrivés, will kick your chaise to
ces. " j drove a little mare for nearly a year with the
°Way that I have just been mentioning; the following
^ lng she kicked herself out of harness three times in the
_rse of as many weeks. Purchasers are often tempted by
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kicked away, only the week before, by the horse warranted
' safe in harness!' About a month after, not having yet found what I wanted, I read an advertisement in the paper of' a horse, stanhope, and harness, to be sold together ; the stanhope almost new, and very recently from the coach- maker's shop; the horse possessing the grandest action imaginable, and making, altogether, the most elegant turn- out in London ; bond fide the property of a gentleman that might be referred to.' I went to the place, and at once recognised my old acquaintance, whose action, a posteriori at least, had been as ' grand' as could reasonably be desired; and as for the stanhope, the most practised eye in Long Acre could scarcely have discovered the true cause of its having so recently quitted the coachmaker's loft! Another striking specimen of gentility in horse-dealing transactions !" So much for the horses, now for the harness. Fig. 1
of our Plate presents us a single suit of the most modern pattern, of which the several pieces bear the following names:— PARTS OF HARNESS (SEE PLATE).
Fig. 1.—Single Harness. |
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rior price—a mare, cceteris paribus, being generally
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ahveir inferi
^ 0r ten pounds less valuable than a gelding; but they
get that it is this very capriciousness of character that
uces their value, because it unfits them for the collar."
; ' can scarcely be necessary to remind a purchaser that
. y scar on the shoulders, or even under the tail, should
. a to a suspicion of tenderness in those parts, not very con-
eQt with length of service in harness ; and in the same
th ^ ^at a blemished hoek should excite a doubt whether
spUnter bar is not equally damaged. If it can be
naged, it would be prudent to see a horse driven in his
ster's trap, were it only to take the opportunity of
erving whether the dashing iron or the floor retains
s °f the shoe, or has been recently repaired in order to
eff^them.
<, ere is one more of the experiences of the author, of
aveat emptor." " I once was trying a harness horse, in
}j Pany with his owner, but not in his owner's chaise: I
a , n° suspicions, for I was to receive a warranty of' sound
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A. BMDLE.
a, Head-piece.
b, Front, or Brow-piece.
c, Winkei- and Cheek of Bridle.
d, Nose-band.
e, Throat-band.
ff, Bradoon bearing Rein. ff, Curb Bit and Chain. k, Bradoon Bit. i i, Driving Eeins. k, Nose-band Martingala B. COLLAR.
I, Ring or Fore Waie.
m, Housing.
n, Cap.
o, Hame.
p, Tng.
q, Fipe.
r, TugBuckle.
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C. SADDLS.
t, Bearing Hook.
u, Territ.
v, Surcingle.
*w, Skirt. *x, Back-band. *y, ShaftTug. s, False Belly-band.
£>. CRUPPER,
1, Doek.
2, Hip Straps.
E. BREECHING.
3, Seat.
4, Tugs.
*5, Shaft Strap.
*6, Breeching Ring. F. TRACÉ.
*«/. Martingale Ring.
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ate in harness/ but he appeared to me to show a great
01 Work: and therefore, I wished to see the stanhope |
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^eal
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th.
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at
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ke had been accustomed to draw. 'It was at the
sK ^^er's.' I offered to go there, and proposed that we |
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Fig. 2.—Pair-horse Harness.
Difference for Pair-horse Harness. *G. PAIR-HORSE PAD. *H. POLE-PIECE.
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°tW ,-7lve t0 the sllüp'
„ J* side 0f the water.'
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'It was a long way off, on the
I replied that my time was of no |
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for whenever I perceive hesitation, I always
' It was taken to pieces to be fresh painted.' |
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Hornat,
lji sh
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**, Short Tug.
*7, Point or Tug-strap.
*8, Trace-bearer.
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*9, Pole-ring.
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*ƒ. COUPLING OF REIN.
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tli
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' ^ found that the chaise was not to be seen; and
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refor
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e, see it I would. When we returned to the stables,
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The whole of the parts mentioned are used in each class of
harness, exeept those marked with a * ; these take their respeetive places according to the nature of the harness, as arranged in the above scheme. The harnessing and putting to come now to be consi-
dered. The horse is dressed, and turned round in his stall; when ready, the first thing to be put on is the collar. This is to be turned the large end upwards, an inversion rendered necessary by the fact that the top part of the head |
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took
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I ti """ an opportunity of saying privately to the ostler, that
to «"tthe horse had been over weighted, and I wished it i kPare his owner's stanhope with mine,—' When would tefe6 at home again?' He could not teil, but at once Pr0- j Öle to ^e coachmaker's: this was all I wanted. I by 0 , there without delay, and anticipated his customcr ^}'8elf ï 6n m^nutes: this was enough, however, to apprise y ocular inspection, that the dashing iron had been |
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''ïm
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SINGLE H A R N E S S
(see , ■ ;ri: tidIL.1
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PAIR H O R S E. H A R N E S S
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DRIVING A PAIR.—DRIVING A SINGLE HORSE.
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172
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horses so well together that they may draw equally, and
step in time with each other. This latter, however, can only be effectively done when the animals match in action and temper, and in height of step. We note temper as au important ingrediënt, because if one is a fast-goer and the other a slug, the amount of whipcord necessary for the sluf will urge the free-goer to take all the work upon himselt A partial remedy for this is giving more length to the coupling-rein of the slow one. In "Vices on the RoaC pp. 300, 301, ante, will be found some remarks on pole' hugging, which may throw light on a remedy. In watchm£ the working of the two horses, the pole-pieces should always be the guide; and if both are slack, with the end o» the pole steady, and neither horse shouldering it, the drive1" may rest contented that his horses are each doing their share. If, however, the pole is shouldered by either, that horse is a rogue, and is making the other to do more than his share, keeping the pole straight by the pressure of "lS shoulder, instead of pulling at the traces. On the other hand, if either horse is pulling away from the pole, ai" straining at the pole-piece, he is doing more than his share( and his coupling-rein must be taken in accordingly. Some' times both shoulder the pole, or spread from it, which are equally unsightly habits, and may generally be cured "f an alteration of the coupling-reins of both horses, lettiDg them out when they " shoulder," and taking them up f°r straggling. In Driving a Single Horse, the near rein is passed over
the forefinger of the left hand, and the off rein between tb middle and fore fingers. The thumb presses the near rei fast against the forefinger ; and if both reins, instead ° being allowed to fall over, are passed between the W*J finger and the third or " ring-finger," it will much impr°r the grip, especially when the muscles are tired with l00" driving, and the attention is slack. We protest against tb bearing-rein as a general piece of harness; it is merely cover for careless driving. It can only be allowed whe an old horse has been so accustomed to hang upon it, that is unsafe and uncomfortable without his habitual tornie tor. The cab-horses are as hard-worked as ever, yet tb ' are now scarcely half as often down as when the be ing-rein was the rule and not the exception. With tb legs and a swinger, while their head is free, they selo° make a mistake. Why, then, put on this useless restrai to a vigorous and spirited animal? Do not, however, * into the error of holding too tight a rein yourself. I* >v gag your horse and lead him to unsure footing, while a i0 , rein is bad at the opposite extreme. " Feel the k0l[ mouth " so as to guide him on either hand, and assist in a difficulty should he make a fault in going down-h^ • |
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is the widest part, and hence requires the larger end of the
collar ; before the collar is seated in its place the hames are put on and buckled. This being done before the collar is reversed, their own weight prevents them separating, and helps the drawing of the hame-strap. They are now re- versed together and the pad placed in its proper place before buckling the belly-band, the crupper being slipped over the tail by grasping up all the hair in the left hand, while the crupper is adjusted by the right. See that no hairs are left engaged in it, for this is oft-times a cause of kicking. Next draw the pad forward a little and take up the belly-band moderately tight; then put on the headstall and bridle, adjust the curb, slip the reins through the terrets, and buckle them on the outside only for doublé harness, on both sides for single. The horse is " put to " for going in shafts in an entirely
different manner than if to be driven with a pole. If single harness, the shafts are tilted up and held there by one man, -while another backs the horse until he is under them, when they are dropped down, and the tugs slipped under or over the ends of the shafts, according to the form- ation of the tugs, some being hooks, and others leather loops. Care must be taken that they do not slip beyond the pins on the shafts. The traces are now attached to the drawing-bar, the breeching or kicking-strap buckled, and the false belly-band buckled up pretty tightly, so as to keep the shafts steady. In four-wheeled carriages it should be left tolerably loose when a breeching is used, to allow it to have free play. The reins are untwisted from the terret, and the horse is put to. For doublé harness, the first thing is to bring the horse round by the side of the pole, and put the pole-piece through the sliding ring of the hames, the groom holding it, or else buckling it at the longest hole while the traces are being put to; as soon as this is doue the pole-piece is buckled up to its proper length, each coupling-rein buckled to the opposite horse's bit, the driving- reins untwisted from the terret, and the two buckled together, and the horses are ready. The leaders of a tandem or four-in-hand are easily attached, and their reins are passed through the rings on the heads of the wheelers, and through the upper half of the pad terret. Unharnessing is simply the reverse of the above, every-
thing being undone in the same order in which it was done. The chief errors in either are—in doublé harness, in not attaching the pole-piece at once in putting-to, or in un- buckiing it altogether too soon, by which the horse is at liberty to get back upon the bars, and often does consider- able damage by kicking. Driving a Pair has one grand leading principle, without
which the others are all but uil. It is the "putting" th« |
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173
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TREATMENT OF A HORSE ON A JOIJRNEY.
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CHAPTEE XVI.
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aEATMENT OF A HOESE ON A JOÜENEY.—CUTTING.—CAEE OF THE LEGS AND FEET.—GENEBAL MEDICAL HINTS.----CONCLOTING
OBSEEVATIONS.
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ai*.roads have not only consigned the " last four inside"
the lumber room of the past, but with them entombed
e fast trotter of the natty bagman, and the stout sure-
°ted roadster of the gentleman, the sportsman, and the
°^ntleman farmer. Yet is a good hack called upon by those
° love the saddle for a long ride home or out; and the . sdom and experience of our fathers is still worth treasuring
a matter so eminently practical as the treatment of a rse on a journey. -•-he maximum which a good hack (such a horse we have all'eady described, ante, pp. 60, 61, and 78, 79), should
Perform; is fifty to sixty miles in the day or night; but if
ls is to be continued, thirty to forty is fair work, and
°uld not be exceeded. But let no man ride his saddle-
01 se a long distance, unless sure that he is in full condition
°i the " hard-meat" system we have advised under
j^Ditioning, ante, pp. 145—147. Should, however, any
• Verdant Green try a journey on a horse fresh from
. etl fodder, with a burthen of grass flesh upon him, let him
„ ..^ ^oderately, and see that he has good corn, or a month
öot be too much to get him into condition. llT.
- any persons ride long stages, we have heard of thirty or
. , 7 miles, without baiting; but it is inconsiderate, and is
JUrious to the horse. Moderate feeds at the different
§es, and an ample one at the last, are most beneficial; a
rtern of oats, with a handful or two of beans, are suffi-
1 quantities during the day; at night, half a peck of
. and a few handfuls of beans; so that a hack upon a
ney of considerable length, may be allowed from a peck
a quarter to a peck and a half of oats. Hasty travellers
„ , . n& an advantage in starting at a very moderate pace,
i lri finishing the last three miles of a stage, especially in
s , eather, as leisurely as their haste will admit; since by
th" •IIleans they will save time, as their horses, on reaching
r nn> will be the sooner dry and ready to feed. On the
, > tne horse may be indulged, every eight or ten miles, if
equire it, with a few go-downs of water; and in hot
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values his own neck and his horse's knees, he will do
the same. When a hack of willing disposition and quiet temper does
not start readily, or stops on the road, the rider may safely conclude that he is suffering from some bodily affection, or something galling, or misplaced in his furniture. Let him dismount instanter and examine him carefully. It may be colic, it may be strangury, and if so, urging him onward is as barbarous as it is useless. Should his nostrils become dilated, his ears sweat at the roots, and his flanks stare, with an attitude as though attempting to stale, the case is clear. Lead him about gently, and the strangury will probably cease, and urination will follow. At the risk of a few repetitions, we will append the
" treatment of a horse on a journey " as given by the author of the clever little volume entitled " How to Buy a Horse." " As I have promised, I will add a few words respecting the
treatment of a horse on a journey. The main points for consideration are, ' What is the distance you have to go, and the time in which you are to accomplish it ?' Presuming that you are one of those who will rather ' take time by the forelock,' than distress your horse by forcing him to make up by pace for the hours you have consumed in the enjoy- ment of creature-comforts, let him be fed full two hours before the time of starting, and that you begin your journey very leisurely, and proceed at an easy pace, well within your horse's powers, for the first ten miles ; after which, as old Markham somewhat quaintly says, ' In God's name begin your journey.' If you have a strong, active, and hardy animal under you, step out moderately for another ten miles, ever taking advantage for this purpose of the level parts of the road, and easing your beast both up and down hill; for a declivity occasions almost as great a strain on the forelegs as proportionally rising ground will upon the hind. Having ridden thus far, pull bridle, and walk your horse for a couple of miles or so, that he may recover himself in some measure, and get tolerably cool. Now put him into his stable, or a box if you can get one, and trust not to the tender mercies of an ostler to rub him perfectly dry. These gentry are too much accustomed to the rough treatment of farmers' nags and post-horses to pay any extraordinary degree of attention to a valuable hack with- out supervision. Moreover, if your horse be of full blood, it is ten to one but he will have the common trick of lash- ing out behind while being cleaned, which almost all these horses have, and which to me is ' right pleasant to behold.' |
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er> over hard roads, and with fast travelling, when the
acquire a burning heat, it is most refreshing to the
an -~ ' r^e k™ over tis pasterns, momentarily, through
ater that may be accessible. But a caution of much
a nt raust have place here : be the weather not or cold,
sta ,.se ln a state of perspiration should never be kept
jq § any length of time in water.
^. ast travelling, every horseman of common sense, e his hack up the hills; in going down also, if he |
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174 TKEATMENT OF A HORSE ON A JOURNEY.
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with in saddle-horses are set forth in a preceding cnapter
(Vices on the Road). The defect of Stumblinq, here finds its place. Mr. Bingley says on this subject: " There is a mode of keeping our present roads in order which is called ' darn- ing.' It is effected by filling up a part somewhat lower than the general surface by broken pieces of granite, left to be crushed by the wheels of carriages, while the old smooth road forms the general surface. The substratum of ground is not picked up, but is left hard, and four or five-cornered pieces of stone are left to be trodden on by the first or any horse that is obliged to go over them. The hardness of the under surface prevents their sinking with any weight on them, so a horse might as well tread on an iron peg fixed and left an inch or two high. Let the rider, above all abominations as to ground, avoid a piece that has been thus ' darned;' for unless the sole of his horse's foot is as hard as the granite itself, the chances are, if he is not exceed- ingly on the alert and quick on his legs, that he comes on his nose, though on all other occasions as safe as a cat on a carpet. Not to wince from the pain the pressure on such a surface occasions, is impossible ; and if after doing so he keeps on his legs, all the credit he gets is being accused ot having made a stumble ; and perhaps a blow is the reward he gets for his activity in not, as a dull horse would have done, coming down headlong. " One of these ' darned' roads led, while I and a friend
were out together, to a conversation on stumbling. On h's horse making a false step, he gave him a stroke with bis stick, and in a somewhat stentorian voice bid him 'hoW up.' Whether my friend did this to show how resolute a horseman he had become, and his proficiency in stabls terms, or thought that what he did would prevent his horse wincing when hurt, I know not; but it set him cunfëttmg about in a way that would insure his not being strucU while he continued doing so ; for my friend had occasion i°r all the hands he had for his bridle, and would have wanted a third if he wished to strike his horse. " Let the rider call to his reflection the causes of stum-
bling," says our author, " he will then judge how far cor- rection will remedy these. The usual causes are infirmity? peculiar formation, gait, indolence, and bad roads. " If he blunders from Aveakness or infirmity, a blow wit"
the stick will not render the infirmity less. Keeping suc» a horse a little on his mettle will in many cases make hun go safely to a certain extent,—that is, it may, by preventmg him dwelling long on either weak limb, also prevent i giving way under the weight imposed on it; but hitting him when it has so given way as to cause a stumble, canu° recall the stumble, but will very probably increase its effects. " If blundering arises from malformation, no stick or spui 1
apply them when you will, can alter that; and if from ma " formation the horse cannot put his foot.fairly on the grouo > blunder he will and must; he cannot help it,—so how can correction do anv good in this case? |
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I love to see their little waywardness of temper disdainfully
displayed in this manner ; more especially as it very rarely arises from vice, for they constantly kick with the leg that is farthest from the person cleaning them, and seems to be only done as a vent for feelings which they cannot control. Your ostler, however, who seldom handles an animal of this stamp, sees broken ribs and legs in every kick ; and, unless you stand by and assure him your horse, with gentle usage, will not kick him, either bullies him and knocks him about ' to make him quiet,' or leaves him to dry as he best may. Having, then, superintended the cleaning of your horse, water him moderately if perfectly cool, and give him about a quartern and a half of corn and beans, not more on any account, for that would only distend his stomach, and do him harm : then leave him to himself for a couple of hours ere you resumé your journey. I confess I am one of those •who never could admire the feats that are occasionally recorded, of riding and driving horses enormous distances in the course of the day, and that, too, in a short space of time. A journey of forty or fifty miles per diem is as much as any humane man, fond of his horse, ought to perform. Let those who choose to go doublé the distance boast of their exploits in this way if they please ; to my mind it is anything but creditable to them : and I can never forbear the thought that with respect to horse-flesh they are as ignorant as they are cruel. " While a horse has any work to be done during tht day,
he should not be allowed any hay ; and if fed four times, the extra half-quartern allowed him will make up for any deficiency in this article of diet. At night let his feet be stopped, and all the other rules which I have laid down for his comfort be attended to. It is a very bad plan so to divide your work as to complete the last stage at night. Always, if possible, let your horse be housed early, that he may have plenty of time to rest before his next day's work : and this also will give you an opportunity of looking to him oftener than you otherwise could, and of having cloths properly aired for him, if, as is frequently the case, you find the ostler prepared with a set that has been put on another horse because he was wet, and that are now destined for your horse because they are wet, and require to be dried. At almost all inn-stables a horse's back is the drying ground for damp cloths, but it will be your own fault if you suffer your hack to be used for this purpose. The main point is to endeavour to obtain for your horse as much care and as many comforts as he would experience in your own stables. If he be distressed, you may give him gruel; but no hack in good condition ever ought to be too severely pushed. It is only in the chase that this may happen occasionally; for the man who has time enough, as he may have by starting early, to go a certain distance with a horse well prepared for work,—and no other should be used,—must ride him very unfairly or very injudiciously if he require nursing instead of taking solid food." In travelling the road, the vices and defects usually met
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TREATMENT OF A HORSE ON A JOÜRNEY.—CÜTTING.
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176
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«Vhen arising from gait, correction with the whip or
jc«> when he stumbles, will not alter gait; but the hands,
*tn the whip and spurs as aids, may, if properly used
en he is not stumbling. Correcting the cause may do a
8leat deal of good; but correcting, or rather punishing, the
nimal, will not prevent or remedy the effect, which is
stumbling.
Should he blunder from sheer indolence, correct the in-
olence as much as you please. If he will not be roused to
ergy, or, at all events, to quick motions by a switch, lay
TOUgh ash plant about him; and if a touch of the spurs
lu not stimulate, give him a pair of good new rowels,
nd they will, by making so lazy a brute move more
luickly, make njm move more safely. We often find
«safe horses tolerably the reverse in their fast paces.
üy is this ? If we make a lazy horse trot three miles in
Wve or fifteen minutes, he must move his legs quickly ;
ls causes such horses going more safely in fast paces.
they would also step quickly in their slower paces,
ey Would be safe in them. If a horse will walk cheer-
v fotir miles and a half an hour, we generally find him
Safe in a walk as a trot. The lazy horse has not energy
°ugh to do this, nor are pains enough taken with him in
^alk to make him do it; he must, when the whip and
P rs force him into a fast trot. But no longer pipe, no
Sor dance; and as these cease so soon as he is allowed to
_> all his energy ceases also, and then he blunders
^ ln>—-and so he will as long as he is a horse.
. -ihere is yet another and very frequent cause for a horse
^Pping, blundering, or even falling—which is fatigue. In
s case, striking him for doing what he cannot avoid, is
°iute cruelty and injustice, and done, as on all other occa-
vj- s5"when he has tripped or blundered, is perfectly useless.
. doubt the whip and spur, plied when he is not blunder-
c> rorce the poor brute to increased action, and from that
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themselves up, if they make a mistake or unavoidable
stumble, shows that such is the case. Now a trip merely occasions a horse to bring the foot that he has not tripped with sooner to the ground than he would have done had he carried the tripping foot forward to its regular length of step, be that more or less ;—something has stopped it in its pro- gress, so instead of putting it forward, say fourteen inches, it is stopped at ten. This produces a somewhat unpleasant sensation to the rider, and an unequal step in the horse. This is a trip. If the horse is light and airy, he catches him- self up; and, as the more spirited he is, the more quickly and energetically will he do so, this very often leads an in- experienced horseman into the belief that he has narrowly escaped a most serious fall, when, in fact, it is only the spirit and activity of the horse that have induced him to make a considerable effort to remedy a very inconsiderable mistake, and one that a more indolent horse, not noticing himself, would scarcely have been noticed by the rider. It will therefore be clear that, with a horse who has spirit enough to do of his own accord all that we could make or wish him to do if he does make a trip, any check on his mouth would only confuse him, and could do no possible good ; and if a horse happens to be at all ' a loose-necked one/—that is, one inclined to throw up his head on any strong pull on his mouth,—we can do no good by checking such a horse, however bad a blunder he may make; but by doing so the rider would run great risk of bringing his horse's head in contact with his own. " I have generally found (singular as the assertion may at
first appear to the reader) that very light-hearted, cheerful horses are more apt to make trifling mistakes, or trips, than more steady and methodical steppers; and the reason they may do so I take to be this—such horses are constantly looking about them ; the least thing attracts their attention ; and if that is fixed on different objects, it is called from looking at the road, or where they are going ; so they come in contact with inequalities, stones, and so forth, on the ground, that the more staid, sober, and plodding goer care- fully avoids." The " Speedy-Cut," or the horse cutting himself from
faulty action, is a serious defect. It is sometimes occasioned by over-reaching the forelegs with the hinder toes, at others, by turning the toes much out, cutting the inside of the opposite foot. Indolence, or a long loose leg, produces this slovenly style of going, for which one remedy is to " get hold of his head," and make him trot briskly. We have seen this, mirabile dictu, alter a horse's style of " handling his legs." It is sometimes difficult to decide with what part of the
hoof or shoe the horse strikes the standing leg. A little careful observation will decide this. The method is " Harry Hieover's,"—palmam qui meruit ferat. The original letter was in The Field newspaper, from which we have condensed its contents. Take the horse into some clean place—a hard dry
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do
so such |
ably prevent his tripping as often as he might othervvise
°ut to ride a willing, good horse till he requires this, is
Gjustifiable, that if I knew anything that would save
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a rider a severc fall, I should glory in concealing it
from him. i irippmg is a habit or fault common to multitudes of
es who are nevertheless perfectly safe. It usually arises
on i. rïkmg the toe against some surface ; and a horse well
j Is "aunches may do this ad infinitum without once being
, nger of coming down. He would, naturally enough,
ho Person not used to ride him, for he would not know •,. ar it might go ; and even supposing a stranger to be
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1 , g SUcü a horse in company with his master, though the
a m Bttlgn* say, ' Don't pull him about,—he is quite safe,' tyi . must be an experienced horseman, a good judge of 0f., ls 0r is not unsafe, and must also have a good opinion " rni0'Wner's JU(lgment, to feel confidence on such a horse. Has 6 ri(^er may °e quite sure that a horse of any spirit ij0- Sreat an objection to falling as his rider has to his 0; and the quick way in which such horses catch |
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CARE OF THE LEGS AND FEET.—GENERAL MEDICAL HINTS.
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176
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moving or passing leg, that produces the failing. We can-
not alter nature; we can only bring art to remedy, to a certain degree, the natural defect. Smiths are very apt, on being told or seeing that a horse
cuts, to shoe him, as it is termed, " thick-heelcd" on the inside, or to make his shoe altogether thicker on the inside than the out. They teil you that by this mode they turn or twist the ankle further out of the way of the passing leg- They do; but they are not aware that if they do remove the ankle of the standing leg—say an inch further out ot the way—they bring by this method the passing leg three inches nearer the standing one. Our author proceeds to teil us of the success of an exactly
opposite practice. He had a horse with this failing shod with a shoe thick on the outside. This did not remove the standing leg further out of the way, but gave the passing one a direction far away from the one it formerly struck- It succeeded, and three or four other horses that cut in th« same way, were shod with similar beneficial results. We doubt if this plan would have any efficiency in the
case of cutting by the hinder foot. To the above gossipping but sound remarks of "Harry
Hieover" we may add that the remedy of making a shoe with a narrower web on the inside, so as to leave a portio» of the sole overhanging, is merely temporary in its effects- When the cutting or "interference" is from a defect ot structure, the cure is only apparent. When on wet roads» you will quickly find that the portion unprotected by tbe iron will be worn and spread, and that rawness will ens«e' If you suspect inflammation in the foot, a simple plan nw
detect its presence. Wet the hoofs thoroughly, and watc11 whether the suspected foot does not dry more rapidly thal| the others. If there is inflammation, the affected foot ^vli always dry first, and resumé its unnatural warmth in a fe _ minutes; the sound foot will dry cool. Should a disp°sl' tion to rest the heated foot be observed, let it be carefaW looked to. Never neglect stopping the feet every nig^ Clay and cow-dung is the readiest and most generally ava1*' able substance. We have already spoken of the expediency ° giving gruel or bran mash to the tired horse; but occasionaU/' if the animal has been too severely taxed, cordials may ® administered with advantage. Should your animal exbi"1 signs of being "done up" by exertion, do not hesitate * give him half a bottle of good sherry; but this certaiö** would be wrong after any of the inflammatory symptoms ° a chili have shown themselves. In that case prompt aD, free bleeding only can save the horse, and any cordial decidedly injurious. The state of the pulse will usua' * indicate the existence of inflammatory action. It is ne<>e sary to inform the inexperienoed, that the only place wöC the pulse can be feit to advantage, so as to discriminate sensation with accuracy, is under the jaw, where the su maxillary artery can be pressed against the bone. As position of this artery is only known with certainty by anatomist, it may guide the touch to direct the finger ai° |
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road is the best; smear his hoof and shoe with a little
white paint if the legs are black, with black paint if of any other colour. Cause him to be walked for a quarter of an hour; if he has struck, or even brushed either leg, the paint will be disturbed or wiped off from the precise part he hits with, and it will further show (in cases where he does not actually cut) the spot he hits, for on it the paint rubbed off the other leg will be visible. If during his walk the paint remains undisturbed, we may fairly infer it is not in that pace he hits his legs. Trot him; if he hits, you will see where the offending leg has struck, and where the struck one is hit. As in his walk, if the paint remains as it was put on, we must infer it is in his canter or gallop that the collision takes place. Having ascertained this most indispensable fact, we must then endeavour to prevent it, or, at least, palliate its effects. People attach a far greater degree of inevitable danger
and likelihood to horses coming down from cutting than —objectionable as the failing is—is absolutely the case. When the horse cuts or hits his leg, the pain occasioned by it causes him to wince, falter, and, indeed, I have seen a horse go a step or two after the occurrence, absolutely on three legs ; but the fear of failing is greater than the pain of the hit leg, and he mostly saves himself. This is when he cuts or hits his ankle only. But if he hits just below the inside of the knee, which he never does but in a quick pace, he will then sometimes come down as if shot. 'This is appropriately called " speedy cutting "—the worst and most dangerous failing among all cutting, and one that is in- curable, for this reason : it proceeds from a particular direction of the offending leg when in action, which not once in a hundred cases can be altered. We have no resource but defending the part hit by a proper boot or leg- ging for this express purpose, a most inconvenient and unsightly thing at best, and, moreover, all but certain to gall and chafe the leg to which it is applied. Put the horse to a description of work where the pace in which he is apt to cut is not required. Cutting or hitting the hind legs is, of course, far less
objectionable than the same failing as regards the fore ones, not alone from its not subjecting the rider to danger, but the hind parts being lighter than the fore ones, we can take greater liberties with the hind legs as regards shoeing, and can throw them by such means more out of their natural position than we can the fore ones, and still interfere but little with the horse's power, action, or safety. Horses are decidedly more apt to cut behind than before
when in harness, and vice versa when under the saddle. Much may be done towards preventing cutting by judicious shoeing; but this is not always to be trusted to. We only prevent by this the sharp edge of the shoe coming in contact with the standing leg, which would otherwise be wounded by it." There are many horses that would still hit if they had no shoes on them. It is the position in which the standing leg is placed by nature, and the direction of the |
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177
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GENERAL MEDICAL HINTS.
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Wside jaw, a little above the edge where it begins to
cime downwards, gently pressing it against the jaw till Pulsation is feit. By doing this two or three times, any n will soon discover the exact spot where he should feel the pulsation. , In a healthy horse, the intervals should about forty or fifty per minute. When it exceeds this by °r twelve pulsations, the horse is not well; but the culation may be momentarily accelerated even to that ent, by sudden alarm; it is, therefore, expediënt to rproach the horse quietly, and to caress him for a minute t\vo first, if he shrinks from approach. If the pulse ex- s sixty, prompt and skilled attention is required. t °ften happens, however, that no veterinary aid is at hanó., ,, °n'y a groom who knows no more of his business than horse itself. In such cases all that can be done is to erve some obvious principles, which, at all events, can do . little harm. If the horse betrays great pain, and espe- v a difficulty of breathing, copious bleeding should be 0rted to without delay, and it is far better to bleed once J freelyj than several times at intervals. Inflammatory . °n is often arrested by bleeding largely in the first ^tance; and when once arrested, all the distressing Ptonas are speedily relieved ; but so rapid is the secre- o °f the blood, especially in inflammatory disease, that se °r ^ve times the quantity abstracted, if taken away in at successive operations, will produce little or no effect > Pared with the loss of four or five quarts at one time. ^. ay safely be assumed that wherever acute pain is in- e<i, inflammation obtains; and as the symptoms of are very unequivocal in a horse, an easy guide is thus as to the necessity of bleeding. , li' febrile symptoms appear, the same step may be taken, , °t to the same extent. The symptoms of fever are not j acteristic of pain, though the breathing is often affected. ey r^e affection the horse is languid, his coat loses its « \§*ossy appearance, and becomes what the grooms call
ing; ' j.üe |egg an(j £ee£ are co\^ an(j the appetite is 0j , ' 'be bowels are usually confined, and the general look
tha orse is what one would describe as miserable rather &ie j 6S an<^ uneasy- In sucn cases we should recom- sho °iUent> hut not copious, bleeding, and the bowels of ï opened by purgative medicine; two drachms
ttyel 6S 1S a su;öicient dose, to be repeated every ten or
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case as hopeless when he sees his horse spontaneously lying
down. This is a great mistake; a horse in great pain will lie down and roll himself about; but, unless to relieve him- self, where the legs or feet are injured, a horse that is ill will continue standing as long as his strength will permit; it is considered a favourable sign if he lies down on the litter without being compelled by actual debility; and it follows, of course, that instead of relaxing exertion, all the remedies should be pursued more actively to save him. In cases of recent local injury, fomentations, poultices,
and local bleeding, are generally serviceable; this is parti- cularly the case in strains of the back sinews or accidents to the foot. It is very important in such cases to watch closely the operations of the country farrier. Fomentations, and even poultices, are troublesome, and therefore not con- tinued, even if first adopted. To a recent wound in shoeing or treading on a nail, Friar's balsam may be usefully applied ; but where the wound is severe, this or any stimulant will increase the inflammation to a mischievous extent. The I horn (if the wound is in the foot) should be pared away, and the place poulticed. Lameness occurring soon after shoeing should always excite a suspicion that the sensible sole has been pricked, and in such a case it is obviously impolitic to consult the smith by whom the horse was shod. In apply- ing a poultice, it is a common practice to tie it tightly round the foot or leg with strings. This is injurious; a worsted stocking is a very convenient bag, and may easily be kept on by applying another stocking to the other foot, and passing a roller over the withers to connect the two. Any tight ligature round the leg is injudicious, if it can be avoided. Where any place is galled or swelled by the saddle or the
harness, fomentation is the best of all remedies ; should any abscess be formed, it should be opened and kept open by a seton, till the matter is entirely discharged. A kick or a bruise should receive the same treatment, if the contusion is considerable; and especially in the case of broken knees In this case a horse is often more blemished by the treat- ment than by the accident itself. If the joint is much injured, a cure is generally hopeless; it would be more humane, as well as more prudent, to destroy the aniraal at once. But if the wound does not affect the joint (and on this point the farrier alone can give certain information), it should be carefully and tenderly washed out with a sponge and warm water, and then poulticed for two or three days ; after this the inflammation will probably have subsided, and ointment should be applied—not günpowder and grease— every country blockhead recommends this, to promote the growth of the hair; it has no such effect, on the con- trary it often irritates and retards the cure of the wound. Lard alone, or with a little mixture of alum, will be much better; care, however, should be taken to apply the ointment in the direction of the hair, otherwise, when the cure is effected, the hair will grow in an uneven or re- verted form, and will make the blemish more apparent In all cases of strains, local bleeding and rest are indis- |
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hours, and if they fail to operate, a clyster would
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th
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y prove of service; the stable should be cool, and
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ehc
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^ell rSe P* warm by extra clothing. His legs should be
ubbed, and bandaged with flannel rollers,
or f never the severe symptoms, whether of inflammation the i 6r' are subdued, anxious attention should be given to bo<(v , rses diet. Gruel and bran mashes will keep the 8bow . S^tly relaxed, and should be continued till he be SnffSl^nS °^ returnmg appetite; but some time should Jood ere<* to elapse before he is indulged with his usual It is
Uncommon thing for the owner to abandon the
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GENERAL MEDICAL HINTS.—BROKEN KNEES.—INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE.
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178
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by sound judgment, We should advise to lay the flap down
as neatly as possible, and retain it in its proper position by a single point of suture at its least supported part, where the cut portion was large and but loosely attached, or by strips of adhesive piaster, together with a compress and bandage. These latter keep constantly wetted with goulard lotion. Where the skin is entirely removed, the best applicatioöi
after fomentations with hot water, is a soft and warm linseed-meal poultice, which should be removed every fo^r hours until the inflammation subsides. You may also, lD every case, give a gentle dose of physic, and no other ïooa for the first few days than bran-mashes and hay. When the inflammation has been subdued, and granula-
tions appear, apply strips of adhesive piaster, neatly one over the other, so as to make some pressure on the wound» and bandage the leg very carefully with a linen bandage from above the knee to the coronet. Several stimulatie applications may be requisite during different stages of the cure, among which Friars' balsam and nitrate of sil^er lotions, varying in strength according to the state of the parts, are perhaps as good as any. Whether the wound have penetrated to the joint or not»
and whether the skin be hanging to the wound or cut off» in every instance of broken knees, apply a splint of wood» of the whole length of the leg, to the back of the limb, a»d confine it by a bandage. This a precaution un
attended
to by many veterinary surgeons; but, as it prevents tb*
injured part from being bent or moved, should never °e omitted ; for the quieter the state of the wounded limb, tbe less will be the consequent inflammation, and the speedie the cure. Where the injury is great, the splint should " kept on for at least six-and-thirty hours without removal- Cold lotions and warm poultices have been mentioned a
applicable to different degrees of broken knees. Poulti°e rather tend to hasten the process of suppuration, without alight quantity of which, granulations will not be fori»e# They are therefore to be used where there is no flap of sk1 left. But if you wish to effect immediate union of the cU parts, which should always be attempted when practica^' |
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pensable. Where the back sinews are affeoted, rest can only
be secured by a high-heeled shoe : after all inflammation has disappeared, absolute rest, even for a considerable time, is requisite to a cure. If the part is enlarged, stimulating lotions, such as hartshorn and oil in equal proportions, and even blistering, may be beneficially applied. This, of course, is incompatible with continuing work. Indeed, some strains, accompanied as they often are by a fracture of some liga- ment, seldom admit of a permanent cure. In the early stages, an emollient poultice of linseed and bran should be applied to strains of the leg, whatever part of it may be injured, and the horse's diet should be changed. If by this treatment the horse apparently recovers the use of the limb without pain, the high-heeled shoe may be removed, but he should not be put to work for some weeks; he should be turned into a loose box, or straw yard, and indeed this should be done in every serious case of local injury or internal disease. Let it borne in mind, that these general hints are not
intended to supersede the calling in of a qualified veterinary surgeon, but in order that, in extreme cases, an intelligent promptitude in the horseman or rider may take the place of helpless inactivity. We will now say a few words respecting the treatment
of Beoken Knees, an accident which may occur at almost any moment, and which requires immediate attention. The first thing to be done is carefully to wash away with a soft sponge and warm water every partiele of sand or gravel which may have insinuated itself into the wound, of which you will then be better enabled to ascertain the depth. It occasionally will happen in a very severe fall, that the capsule of the joint is lacerated, and in this case an effusion of alimpid and somewhat glutinous liquid, called "synovia" or "joint-oil," will take place. This may not be very per- ceptible at first, particularly if the opening into the joint be small; but so soon as your attention is directed to it, you should lose no time in sending for the best veterinary surgeon within reach, as you will scarcely be able to manage the case by yourself. Where the laceration of the capsule is extensive, the probability is that the subsequent inflam- mation will ultimately produce abscess, ulceration of the cartilages of the joint, and, if the horse live long enough, destruction of the bones which compose it. But should the opening into the joint be small, the object you must keep in view is to preserve it accurately closed until nature shall have had sufficiënt time to effect its union by granulations. For this purpose a heated iron, of proper dimensions, is usually employed, and the edges of the opening being cauterised, the eschar thus formed and the subsequent swelling contribute to close the opening for some days. When the capsule of the joi.nt is uninjured, and the flap
of skin which covered the wounded part still remains, some veterinary surgeons have recommended that it be cut off, and the wound dressed with friar's balsam, which is a etrong stimulant. This treatment can scarcely be vindicated |
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r-5
to |
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suppuration is not to be promoted, and therefore cold loti°
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are preferable. It requires great care and nicety so
apply strips of piaster and bandages as to prevent the sv' ling so often consequent on a bad broken knee, and ^rlllC blisters and stimulants nine times out of ten fail to reduce' Farriers will teil you that the common adhesive plaste
will not do for a horse, and would fain induce you to u slips of leather covered with pitch ; but where your plab i perfectly encircles the wounded part, as the knee-joint, a° _ is cut sufficiently long, one end overlaps the other, and c° sequently it adheres to itself. Where this is not the ^s the hair will prevent it from sticking. Inflammation of the Eye sometimes makes its appear*0
suddenly, either from irritating substances, as hay, seed», "" making their way into it, or from blows with a brusb *ö |
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GENERAL MEDICAL HINTS.—GREASY HEEL&
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179
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clea:
*ho |
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iög the head, or a rap with a stick from a brutal groom,
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putty, placed over and close to the diseased part, will, by
taking its form and accurately making pressure upon each portion of it, materially conduce to the cure. It must be applied directly after the lotions recommended, and must not only be kept on by a neatly-applied bandage, but the hollow in the back part of the fetlock-joint must also be previously filled up by a pad of tow, or some other soft sub- stance, in order that the joint may thereby be rendered less capable of motion. The heels being the farthest removed from the heart, the
circulation of the blood in them is less active and vigorous than elsewhere, and consequently their restoration to a healthy state is achieved with more than usual difficulty. Some horses that have cracked heels are in too high condi- tion, while others in a debilitated state are equally or perhaps more prone to the same disease. These different states of body of course require opposite constitutional treatment; the first demanding low diet with purgatives and 'liuretics; the second, generous food with tonics. Of all the preventives of grease there is none—setting
aside the avoidance of those causes already mentioned as conducing to the disease—so effective in its operation as bandaging the legs regularly with flannel rollers. We advo- cate their employment at most times in the stable, as they materially tend to fine the legs when properly applied, and also, when not put on too tightly, evidently keep up the circulation in the extremities, a point of much consequence. Those who are not shown the proper method of applying
a bandage, generally do more harm than good with them. We do not in the least exaggerate when we say that we never yet knew a groom who could put on a bandage as it should be. They fail about the pasterns and fetlocks, and leave the bandage there loose and bagging, so that, when pressure is requisite, the circulation between the pastern- joint and the foot is impeded, and the latter will be found cold, and the part between the coronet and fetlock perhaps somewhat swollen. Bandages, to be neatly applied, should not be so wide as
grooms generally make them. You will hardly be able to put them on properly if of more than four inches in width. Begin by applying your roller just under the knee, pass it round in rather a slanting direction, keeping your finger on the extremity until you find it has taken firm hold of the limb ; then let each turn of the bandage cover one half of that above it, taking care so to direct it that its under edge does not bag, but lies closely on the leg When you come to the hollow behind the pastern, the bandage must be half folded on itself, so that what was its upper border shall be undermost, and this must be repeated whenever it cannot be otherwise made to lie smoothly and closely to the leg. By bandaging from above downwards, you in a great
measure avoid leaving any marks of the roller on the hair. In the veterinary portion of the present work, will be found engravings of the various kinds of bandagings and their applications by the professional man. An eye-acquaintance |
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] Js m the habit of striking a horse over the head while
lng him, and perhaps accidentally hits the eye by the
, shifting of the horse's head when he expects a blow
re. We naye seen a very severe injury of the eye, where
Presented the appearance of a mass of blood, from this
Very cause.
n this case you must bleed from the vein running just
0yr the eye, and which is usually very easily distinguished,
give physic and bran-mashes. Cold lotions of goulard
er are to be constantly applied to the eye, and the stable
,,. e darkened while the inflammation is excessive. When
ls reduced, and the membrane of the eye still remains
ued, you may inject night and morning with a syringe a
k solution of nitrate of silver, beginning with four grains
an °unce of distilled water, and gradually increasing its
ength as the eye appears to improve under its application.
^tle speek will frequently remain on the membrane which
n°t be removed. Indeed it is occasioned by the abrasion
at tv» ne moment of injury of this most delicate part.
. rEasy Heels you will have few opportunities of treating
}ou follow the advice given under the head of Stable
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^ash
exen |
§ement. They are most frequently occasioned by
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lng the legs with cold water while they are heated from
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|
Clse, and suffering them afterwards to dry ; the conse-
* reaction after the application of cold being excessive,
,. running into inflammation. Nature then seeks to re-
e 'he gorged vessels by a discharge of ichorous matter
• tfle inflamed part. Bringing a horse into a hot stable
he winter, when his legs are chilled with standing
rp, e "ine, perhaps in the snow, will produce a similar effect.
Se Üls are easily to be avoided with a little careful
j v Vision: by accustoming your groom to pay particu-
k attention to rubbing the heels dry at all times, and
^Pmg them perfectly clean.
hen the disease has appeared, all causes inducing it
ai v" avoided ; and of these we may mention draughts of
i owing upon a horse from behind ; and if the pain and
a V ° t^le Par* be great> warm and soft poultices must be
PPhed in the first instance.
soon as stimulating remedies are applicable, you can
sjl . £ ketter or cleaner than a solution of nitrate of |
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t0
|
the
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ln distilled water, beginning with eight or ten grains
|
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re.
|
°unce. Sometimes, however, the diseased parts will
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Viire i.
jQi a change of stimulants, and you may then apply a sticV ^ ° blue-stone in a strong decoction of oak bark. A
Pas mtr&te of silver or lunar caustic may be lightly
tap- °Ver ^e cracked part occasionally with great advan-
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ever
|
• -out there is one circumstance which, although in
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of fi ase neglected, you must not overlook. The motion
Ever ,lseased part must, as much as possible, be controlled. pj.0 1Iïle the horse bends the fetlock-joint, he disturbs the to ür ° nature in effecting a cure ; and as it is necessary Wil} fi j *^e crack in the heel from being disturbed, you hat any moderately soft substance, as bees' wax or |
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CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.
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180
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would-be-learned groom, who deerns nothing easier than the
cure of all diseases of the horse; taking the old saying o* " as strong as a horse" as his authority for essaying upoo his unfortunate carcase every kind of dose of every sort of medicine which it pleases his conceit or his ignorance to assume that he must require. It is a difficult thing to treat the simplest form of disease
on really scientific principles, as experience is constantly demonstrating the errors of our previous practice ; but it ïS by no means an arduous task to acquire that degree ot knowledge which will enable us to strip ignorance of itS cloak, and confound the empirie who is incapable of assigo* ing a good reason for his plan of treatment. We here close the general, the historie, and the preceptive
division. What follows will be more strictly of a medical, scientific, and practically surgical character. |
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with these will enable the proprietor of an animal to judge
of the manual competence of farriers or grooms who may pretend in an emergency to understand the best modes of applying them. We here close the treatment of some of those accidents
and diseases which will occasionally call for our attention ; repeating, what cannot be too strongly impressed upon the reader, that the intention here is merely to notice such cases as will every now and then occur in every stable, and which call for immediate remedy. Those who would go more deeply into the subject here touched on, may proceed with advantage to the studious perusal of the Second Division of the work, and make themselves masters of the principles on which the treatment of disease is founded. This will be found the best safeguard against being imposed upon by the ignorance of a country smith. or the officiousness of a |
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STRÜCTURE AND ANATOMY OF THE HORSE. 181
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DIVISION II.
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A COMPENDIUM OF YETEMNARY KNOWLEDGE,
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THE STRUCTÜRE AND ANATOMY OF THE HORSE.
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CHAPTER XVII.
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TflE
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sony strücture.—components of bone.—growth of bone.—the skeleton.—bones of the head.—the spinaï,
vejttebr.ae.—the ribs.—the sternum.—bones of the forelegs and feet :—the scapula, humerus, radius, ulna, cirpüs, metacarpus, pastern, lower pastern, sesamoids, coronary and coffin bones, the navicular bone.—bones ^ the hinder extremities :—the femur, patella, tibia, fibula, and tarsus.—periosteum.—medulla (marrow).— syh°via.—cartilages.—ligaments. |
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Nes form the framework and support of the animal
chine, give it dimension and figure, preserve the situation
'ae several viscera of the brain, chest, and stomach,
°rd fixed points for the attachment of ligaments, and act
^ evers in the various movements of the body and limbs.
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cal bones are hollow and contain medulla (marrow), and a
sheathing membrane called the medullary membrane. These cavities lighten the bones without detracting from their strength, and are most remarkable in birds. The marrow was long thought to nourish the bones : this is an error ; it is a mere store of superabundant fatty matter, Though furnished with bloodvessels for nutriment, and nerves, bones possess little sensibility in health; but in an inflamed state they are acutely tender. The bones are variously articulated (jointed) with each other: by cup and ball; by furrowed surfaces forming, as in the small bones, phalanges, which are hinged, bound firmly together by ligament and cartilage; or fixed closely into each other by notches, ridges, teeth, or spines, forming sutures (seams). An examination of the plates, The Skeleton (Plate I.), and The Head (Plate V.), will exhibit these jointings of bones. The following description of the bony, muscular, and internal strücture of the Horse, will be found calculated to assist and elucidate the figures and page references, printed to accom- pany each of the Anatomical Plates of the present work. The bony strücture we shall divide into nine sections. § I. BONES OF THE HEAD.
The Skdll (cranium), which contains and defends the
brain, consists of twelve bones; four pairs (eight), and four single bones. These are, two frontal (forehead) bones; two pairs of temporal (temple) bones, distinguished as the squamous (scaly), and the petrous (hard—stony) temporals; |
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8lbst;
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are the hardest, and, in health, the most insensible
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Ph
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0sphate of lime, fluate and carbonate of lime, soda, mag-
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la> and a small proportion of common salt, and in the full-
, *n animal contains about 33 per cent. of cartilage ij,, atlne and membrane), with the earths above mentioned. bones of the horse are much harder, and proportionately . Cft stronger, than those of man. They are covered hi i,i S called the periosteum (bone-surrounder); it is j-°. y sensible when diseased, white after death, red in the |
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? «* fiat
beComi:
|
This membrane appears to be first formed
s, and within it a gelatinous fiuid, afterwards |
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^ng cartilage, is deposited.
|
This becomes vascular
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ej- .aiIllng vessels), and these pour out the earthy matters
j öated from the blood, until the bone is consolidated. gro ^°ns°Hdating process is not entirely completed till full t}j „ ls attained, and those bones most indispensable to |
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iw, "™o 01 me are me eamesi iormeu. j.ne eariny
og> i r °^ tfle bones is continually changing, being carried stiöi 1 aDsorbents, while the arteries deposit it. The |
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thüs Tas °^ tüe circulatory system in the higher-bred horse
of b s to the deposit of a more solid and harder quality tnan in the heavier and lower breeds. The cylindri- |
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE BONES.
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182
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The lower, or hinder part of the head consists of a single
bone, the lower jaw (inferior maxillary). The head is divided by anatomists into two parts, the skull and the face. The bones of the skull, as we have said, are joined together
by indented seams, called sutures. This kind of junction is owing to the manner in which ossification takes place in these bones ; for in the foetus the bones of the skull are per* fectly distinct from each other, and thus calculated to allow the growth of the brain they enclose. The ossification begins in the middle of each bone, and proceeds gradualty to the circumference. Hence this process, and of course the increase of the head, is carried on from a great number oi points at the same time, until the growing edges of the bones meet, vvhen the projecting fibres of one bone force themselves between those of the opposite bone, and constitute tha" indented line which we perceive on most skulls. The skull of a horse is much smaller than that of a rnan>
its capacity for containing brain being not one-fourth aS great; but the bones which compose it are thicker and stronger than those of the human subject, and consequently better able to resist blows and other accidents. The Bones or the Face.—The face consists of nine pairS
of bones and two single ones. These are inter-maxillary (°)> supra-maxillary (2), nasal (nose) bones (2), lachrymal (2)> malar (2), palatine (2), pterygoid (2), inferior turbinated (2), superior turbinated (2) = 9 pairs, or 18 bones. '>The single bones are the vomer and the lower jaw, already mentioned, making 20 in all. Of these bones we may remark—that the two nasal ave very unlike those of töe human subject, being of a wedge-like figure, sharp belo" and broad above. They also differ from those of the hui»aI1 face; they are considerably larger, for increasing the capaciv of the organ of smell, which is much more acute in tD horse than in man. The lachrymal bones are situated at the inner sides of t*1
orbits, which they help to compose. Each of these bo»e has an opening through it for the passage of the tears. The malar (cheek) bones are each connected in the or»1
to the lachrymal bone just described, and to the superl° maxillary; and its zygomatic (Gr., yoke-shaped) proces bends over to join that of the temporal bone, and form * bony arch of the cheek. The superior maxillary bones form, along with the i»a
bones, the ridge which is observable on the cheek of * living subject, and are connected with most of the ot» bones of the face. The inferior maxillaries are connected, on the np"
edge, in a curious manner to the superior maxillaries a nasal bones. They help to complete the bony palate, a afford sockets for some of the teeth. They are separate the young animal, but completely joined in the adult. The palatine bones are situated uppermost of the D ^
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and two parietal (wall) bones; the single bones are the
occipital (hind part of the head) bone; the ethmoid (Gr. sieve-like) bone ; the sphenoid (Gr. wedge-like); and the os triquetrum (Lat. triangular bone). The frontal bones (two), form the arches of the orbits of
the eyes. The arch is pierced by the supra-orbital foramen, and there is a hollow below for the lachrymal (tear) gland. The frontal bone in the horse also forms half of the lateral foramen of the nose, and enters into the framing of the top of the nose. Internally, one part of the face belongs to the nose, the other to the skull. The outer and inner plates of bone separate, and thus form the frontal sinuses. These are strengthened by little bony pillars between the plates of the forehead. The orbits in the horse are merely bony rings, one on
each side, not perfect cups as in man. The squamous temporal bones (a pair) are in front of the
petrous temporal. The projectingpieces on their outer sides are called the zygomatic (Gr. zygos, a yoke) processes. On the under edges are the cavities for articulating with the lower jaw. The petrous temporal (a pair). These are the hardest
bones in the -whole body. A canal in these is the meatus auditorius, or opening to the internal ear, and along its bottom during life is stretched a fine membrane. The os hyoides of the tongue has its large horn attached to the internal side of this bone. The two parietal (wall) bones are placed at the sides of
the skull. They are smooth and convex on the outside, and are covered well by the temporal muscles. On the inside they are concave, and furrowed for receiving the arteries of the brain. The occipital, the first of the single bones, is propor-
tionately much smaller in the horse than in man, the greater bulk of the horse's head lying forward. At the back of the occiput is the large hole {foramen magnum) of the skull. On each side of the foramen magnum is a projecting smooth bony process called the condyles, which form a joint with the atlas. The ethmoid, a single bone, is somewhat concealed in a
view of the bones; it has on its wings holes called the optie and nasal foramina. Towards the nose two fine flat pieces of bone are pierced with numerous apertures, and are called the cribriform (Lat., cribrum, a sieve) plates ; these give passage to the nerves of smell. The sphenoid bone has been often compared to a bird,—
two wings, a body, and two legs, but the head is wanting. It has sinuses and holes for numerous nerves, the superior maxillary, the optie, the third pair, and the orbital, supra- orbital, and maxillary arteries. The os triquetrum, the last of the single bones, is angular;
smooth on its outer surface, but indented inside for various nerves. Itjoins the occipital bone and lies before it. It has a projection which is called the tentorium, dividing the cerebrum, or larger brain, from the smaller, or cerebellum. |
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iiner»
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palate, and are connected to the superior maxillaries, vo
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sphenoid, and ethmoid bones.
|
differe
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The vomer (Lat, ploughshare), or share-bone,
|
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE BONES.
|
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|
183
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|
°h from the human vomer, being much longer in the
orse ; it is concave anteriorly, for the insertion of the cartilage (septum) which divides the nose. J-HE Lower Jaw differs from the upper in this, that the
' nier is movable, being articulated at each extremity
^ith the temporal bone of that side.
in young animals it is divided between the fore teeth, so
at the bones may be easily parted. This bone affords
s°ckets for the lower teeth.
§ II. BONES OF THE NECK. (CERVIX).
■•■he Neck consists of the atlas dentata and the seven
^vical vertebrce. This number, seven, is the same in
iimals with the longest or the shortest necks. The num-
* °f bones which form other divisions of the back are not
itorm. The tail, for instance, varies from thirteen to
eigateen bones.
*»e may here note that the spine, which here begins,
<;0nsists of 7 cervical (neck), 18 dorsal (back), 6 lumbar
ln)> 5 sacral (rump), and ordinarily 13 caudal (tail)
rtebr;E) forming, in the whole, what is termed the spine.
-ihe neck-bones are the largest of the spinal chain, but
Ve not the upper projections; but on each side are
ftsiderable prominences, at the base of which is seen a
e (foramen) for the passage of the vertebral arteries and
ns- The bones of the neck are strongly united by
Psuxar ligaments, articular cartilages, and all the usual
PPendages of a joint. Each vertebra has a round head
a corresponding cavity below, to receive the next, so
t uislocation of the horse's neck cannot easily take
,, °e ' wben it does, the animal dies from compression of
sPmal marrow, and is said to have " broken his neck."
§ III. THE BONES OF THE CHEST (THORAX).
■*■ hese include the sternum (breastbone); costce (true ribs),
the five first vertebrce of the back. üe breastbone is composed of several pieces of bone,
edded in cartilage. To it are attached the lowermost
°i the ribs. It is called the cariniform bone, from its
tnblance to the keel of a ship. lts hinder part is spread
TJke the tail of a fish.
: . e ribs (costa3) are narrow half-rounded pieces of bone
,j, ed above to the backbone, below to the breastbone
7 are not, however, bone throughout, the lower portions
ormed of cartilage. The eight first ribs are called
rih » ri"s/J and are joined to the breastbone. The " false
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observe the fifth has the longest spine of the back-bone.
They slope downwards, from the sixth to the thirteenth vertebra, which last is usually the most upright. § IV. THE BONES OF THE LOINS.
The Loins (the lumbar region). The six spines of the
loins are thicker than the others, they slope decidedly for- ward, and, the ribs having ceased, they have projecting transverse processes. § V. BONES OF THE SACRUM* (RUMP).
The five spines of the Sacrum, which lean considerabiy
backward, leaving a large open space between the top of the last lumbar (loin) spines and the first of the sacral (rump) spines, forming the great hinge of the rump and loins. The sacrum consists of five pieces, but is viewed as one bone. § VI. CAUDAL (TAIL) BONES.
The nine bones called the coccygeal bones ; they are so
named from the Greek coccyoc, a cuckoo; in man, the pointed bone which ends the spinal column is supposed to represent the beak of the cuckoo. The tail-bones resemble vertebras, but diminish down to
short round pieces of bone with a little hollow. They have a remarkable formation ; instead of the cup and ball of the neck-bones they have each a rounded projection, giving the utmost play possible. Two small rounded surfaces moving on each other, so that, up and down, or in any conceivable direction, the tail can be switched by its flexors without chance of dislocation. § VII. THE PELVIS.
The pelvis (from the Latin, pelvis, a basin). This consists
of the three ossa innominata (nameless bones) on each side. The iliumf; the pubis ; the ischium (loin-bone, ischion, Gr., the loin) ; these three bones form one cup to receive the head of the thigh-bone. The pelvis is almost circular, open before and behind and
at the top, where the sacrum fits on. Its forward part forms the projecting hip of the horse. A little lower, behind the joint of the spine, is the cup for the reception of the head of the femur (thigh-bone), called the "round-bone" by farriers. There are some important vital organs contained in the pelvis, second only to those in the skull:—the rectum ; the urethra of the male and vagina of the female; the bladder; and, in the mare, the womb. § VIII. THE BONES OF THE HINDER LEO.
These are the thigh (the femur), the patella (Latin for
a little dish), or stifle-bone, the tibia (pipe-bone), and fihula |
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are merely connected with the breastbone by being
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J
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* to each other. The ribs are fastened to the breast-
Te V lig8 |
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joint' .a^ow it more motion. All the ribs, however, are
art- e<~ lnto the spine with a regular synovial (joint-oiled)
. ation, and have a backward and forward motion. The
^6 rih«
ea0i, move forward, and the false ones outward at c0yesPiraw
e five vertebrce included in this section, we may
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* From sacer, Lat. holy. This part being specially offered in animal
sacrifices by the ancients. f From the Greek, eileo, to turn about: a name givea to the
intestines from their convolutions. |
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STilUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE BONES.
|
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184
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|
a bulging-out head containing a shallow cup to receive the
head of the arm-bone. Its upper surface is covered with strong ligamentous fibres, and its mode of attachment is beautifully contrived to give power without receiving con- cussion. The humerus (or arm-bone) is strong and short; it forrns
an angle with the scapula from the joint of the shoulderand the elbow. It has a round head, with an indentation t° receive a capsular ligament, like the thigh-bone. It terrni" nates in two of the rounded bodies called condyles, whicb joint with cavities in the upper end of the radius. The radius (spoke-bone) is the front bone of the arm, the
hinder one the ulna. These are known in general as " the arm " and " the elbow." The radius is long and cylindricah and flat at the upper end, with depressions to receive the projections of the arm-bone (humerus). It has some tube- rosities in front for the attachment of tendons, and behind a place for the ulna. At its lower end it has eminenceS covered with cartilage, which are connected with the upper bones of the knee. The knee-bones, called carpal bones—the fore knee of the
horse corresponding to the wrist (carpus) in man. These bones are seven in nuniber in the prepared skeletons ; "n an eighth bone, of diminutive size, of the shape of a pca, '9 always found just behind the trapezoid, to which it lS attached. The names of the bones are the same as those i° the human wrist. The carpal bones articulate with each other, and have but one investing capsular ligament; hence the smallest wound of the knee which penetrates this h£a' ment opens the whole joint; hence, also, the excessive escap of synovia (joint oil), and the unpleasant consequences ° " a broken knee." The metacarpus (Gr., meta, beyond, carpus, the wrisv»
cannon, or shank-bone, consists of one large bone and t'ff
small ones, called splint-bones. The cannon-bone is plal
i and cylindrical, enlarged at the two ends, the upper °
! which articulates with the second or lower row of the knee
bones. Behind its head it has two indentations to receiv
the two splint-bones, one on each side. Below, it ^a
two condyles (knots), by which it articulates with tb
great pastern and the sesamoid bones, in such a way as
give them remarkable freedom of action in a forward °
backward direction, but almost prevents any lateral acti°
at this joint. The splint-bones, as we have said, are place
one behind each side of the cannon-bone; they are eac
jointed to the lower carpal bones and have also a syno?1
jointing with the hinder part of the cannon. They tape
downwards, and end two-thirds down the cannon-bone, i°
.t.0
button-shaped extremity, which is unattached. In age
ligamentary attachment of the splints hardens into b°D/ substance. The purpose of this mixture of fibro-cartilag^ to allow of motion, yet limit its extent. It gives t f elasticity which is necessary to the animal's (and his rider safety. A strain from extra weight or effort is apt to p duce inflammation in these ligaments, when they beco |
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(clasp or brooch-bone); the bones of the hock-joint—the
astragalus (the ring or ankle-bone), the os calcis (Latin, calcar, a spear), or heel-bone, forming in the horse the joint of the metatarsals (meta, beyond, tarsus, the hoek): the cannon- bones, or shank-bones; the splint-bones. The bones of the pasterns—the sesamoids (sesamum, millet-seed, oidos, like), the large pastern bone, the smaller pastern bone, the pedal (foot), or coffin bones. The femur (thigh-bone) is the largest and strongest bone
in the skeleton. Yet it is shorter in the horse than in most other animals. It has projections and cavities for the inser- tion of most powerful muscles. lts upper part is called "the neck," and its rounded top " the head." In this there is a cavity, in which is a strong flat ligament holding it in the cavity at the end of the pelvis, and lower down is the capsular ligament. The lower end of the thigh-bone has two large round surfaces, called condyles (Gr. condylos, a knot). The stifle-bone (patella) slides over the front of two projections, called trochlea (Gr. trochlea, a pulley). This bone is very loose in structure, and full of fibres; its outer surface is roughened for the insertion of several tendons and ligaments, which hold it on all sides. The tibia (leg-bone) is a long triangular bone, connected
on its outer side with the fibula, which, in the horse, is merely rudimentary. The top of the tibia has two hollows, divided by a ridge, upon which the two rounded cartilages of the stifle are supported. Its lower end has three pro- minences, between which two projecting parts of one of the j hoek bones neatly fits. (See Plate X., fig. 4.) The tarsus, or hoek, is a most important joint. The
astragalus, or knuckle-bone, is seen well in the enlarged figure just referred to. When we come to the Muscles, and to Veterinary. Treatment or Injtjries, &c, we shall have more to say of the hock-joint and of the foot. The bones of the last-named we defer to the next section. § IX. THE BONES OF THE FORELEQ.
These are the scapula (blade), or shoulder-bone, with its
sliallow cup to receive the head of the humerus (or arm- bone); the radius (spoke-bone), and ulna (the cubit), or large bone of the fore-arm ; the carpus (knee-joint), consist- ing of the trapezium (Gr., a little tablé), the table-bone which gives security to the great flexors of the leg; the cannon, or shank-bone; the splint-bones; the sesamoid, large pastern, small pastern, and pedal, or cofiin-bones. The bones of the fore extremities of the horse present but
little resemblance to those of the human arm, especially in respect of the limb ending in a single solid hoof or toe. The shoulder-blade is a broad triangular bone applied to
the outside of the ribs, so that its point reaches downward between the first and second ribs, and its lower part as far back as the seventh ; standing obliquely with its broadest part above and its narrow below. It is slightly hollowed and smooth on its inner side, and outwardly divided by a projecting ridge or keel. Its lower part ends in a neck, and |
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|
STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE—THE BONES
|
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|
185
|
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|
scular, hot, and painful, and are converted into bony
rmations, called, after the bones themselves, "splints."
°e mner splint-bone is more liable than the outer (see
" st> Splints). At this point the comparative anatomist
°tes that the wide palm of the human subject and the paw
the toed animal is converted into a simple solid cylindri-
.ai bone and two small additamentary ones—the splints
JUst described.
Ahe bones of the pastern are four : the large pastem, the
sser pastern or coronet, and two sesamoids.
, ne large pastern bone is the first of the oblique group of
öes that form the extremities of the horse. It is cylindri-
> and on its length and its obliquity depend the elasticity
, ease 0I" the animal's motions. Nevertheless, as its length
ows greater strain upon the tendons and ligaments to
tore it to its position after each effort, very long pasterned
ses are most liable to strain and break down, although
^ " springy " in movements within their powers.
he lesser pastern, or coronary bone, supports the lower
°f the great pastern, and then expands to a large surface.
!ts upper end is a projection which fits into a hollow
the great pastern. It has two projections on its sides,
j eceive the perforans tendon. It rests upon and articu-
s into the coffin and navicular bones, which end the
8eHes. Th fle sesamoids are a couple of small wedge-shaped bones , ^e hinder and upper point of the fetlock, just behind the
er end of the cannon-bone, to which they are attached,
and ï , also to the upper end of the great pastern-bone, and j, s SuPport a portion of the stress and weight imposed on
Se npright and sloping bones. They are placed side by
th' Vil^a- their smaller portions upwards, and by their
, Ser and lower ends they are firmly held to the pastern
j. es by stout tendons, in addition to the great suspensory
«ïent. The use of these small bones is obvious. They are
strongly attached to the pastern, but admit in action
th Certain amount of downward motion when pressed by
, cannon-bone; the flexor tendons keeping them from
^, 8 too far displaced. In horses with very oblique pasterns
te annoil~bone is always resting on the sesamoids, which
ha ƒ t0 ^at^gue and weaken the springs. On the other
se- ' . rses with very erect pasterns do not have these
°ids duly depressed by the cannon-bone; hence a
acc l ela-sticity in motion and danger when their pace is
Th
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coffin-bone serves a threefold purpose : it gives lightness with
solidity to the fcot; it affords protection to the nerves and vessels which ramify through its interior ; and lastly, gives a strong hold to the laminse and structures on its outer side, thus giving strength and durability to the whole machine. The navicular-bone (Lat. navicula, a little boat), called
also the shuttle-bone, the nut, and the quiltor, is situated behind and beloAV the coffin-bone, and between its two wings. Its upper surface is continuous with its articulation with the coffin-bone; its lower rests on the perforans flexor tendon, that tendon on the insensible frog, that on the sensible frog, which has the tough and flexible hom of the external frog below it. The upper surface of the navicular-bone receives much of the weight of the animal, with synovia only to relieve the pressure, but below its elastic yielding is evident. It also forms a point of attach- ment for the perforans tendon. As Navicular Disease is one of the most ruinous scourges of horseflesh, we shall have more to say thereon in the proper place, where the hoof, also, will come to be considered. The Teeth we have considered of such general interest,
apart from the general structure of the bones, as to bestow upon them, in a former part of this "Work, a separate chapter. (See Age OF THE Hokse, ante, pp. 104—112.) Their diseases and the operations upon them will come in the veterinary part hereafter. There are also some internal bones, which shall be else-
where noticed. These are the os hyoides, or tongue-bone, so called from its resemblance to the Greek letter v (upsilon); it is situated at the base of the tongue, several of the muscles are connected with it, to which, in its several movements, this bone serves as a fixed point: it also supports the muscles acting on the larynx and fauces. The bones of the internal ear (figured in Plate V.) will
be described in the proper place. The Appendages of bone are periosteum (bone covering),
medulla (marrow), synovia (joint-oil), cartilage, and ligament. The Periosteum is a strong, fibrous membrane, covering
the bones, and serving for the insertion of muscles and their tendons. It has few nerves, and is consequently scarcely sensible in a healthy state; but when diseased its sensibility becomes increased, and the most acute pain is produced. This is the case in splint and spavin ; for, in these diseases, the bone beneath enlarging, presses forcibly against the periosteum covering it; and this membrane being inelastic, and consequently incapable of expanding, violent pain, attended with lameness, takes place. This membrane, when covering the bones of the skull, is
called pericranium; and when on cartilages, perichondrium : it is of a white colour in animals after death, but in the living subject it is red, and much more vascular than tendon. Medulla (marrow), is found in certain hollow bones, and
throughout the spinal column. It is enveloped in a mem- brane which lines the cavities of bones, and which is secreted |
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I
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Coffin-bone is peculiar to the horse and his congeners.
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Mtli ^6 Xt corresponds with the shape of the hoof, which,
b0ll US aPPendaSes» i* almost fills. (See Plate IX.) Its
Us r are P^ace(i perpendicularly in rough lines, and
^hi \ S nce *s very porous. In front is a projection to
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°ïver
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üe tendon of the extensor pedis is attached ; its two
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c0gjn ? ^ateral processes are called the " wings " of the
Vhj i °ne' ^n these wings is a groove to receive an artery the 4N8ends
off branches, as explained in detail hereafter in
atomy of the Foot. The porous character of the
«■ A |
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE BONES.
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186
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the rest, and is intended to prevent friction between the
ends of bones, by being interposed where they form joints- In this case, the cartilage itself is covered by a firm mem- brane, called perichondrium, which performs the office of * gland in secreting a fluid termed synovia. This fluid prevents friction in the joints. Continually covering the membrane by which it is secreted, it necessarily prevents the surface of that membrane from coming into contact with the opposite one. These cartilages are, as we have said» yielding and elastic ; they carry no red blood, nor has any fluid been yet injected into them. They have, however, a small number of vessels, with a transparent fluid, and this is seen in the jaundice of the human subject, when the cartilages become yellow. They neither ulcerate nor exfoliate» nor do they ever granulate. They possess no sensibility > their nerves, if they have any, not being discovered; but the membrane covering them is both sensible and vascular- These properties are peculiar to this last kind of cartilage only; for the other classes are subject to disease, in con- sequence of which they become ossified. Cartilage is pop11' larly called " gristle." Ligaments are dense, white, fibrous substances whi°
connect and tie the bones together. They are inelastic> and but little vascular; they, however, are covered "J a membrane, which has several vessels, and which l similar nearly, in structure and use, to that of the cartilageS of joints. The ligaments of a horse are not so liable to disease as those of the human subjecf are, but they frequently meet with injuries by the ends of the bone forming a joint pressing forcibly upon them when tn animal makes a false step ; in this case the horse is sal to be sprained. The ligaments of the horse are liable to be wounde >
which often proves dangerous, from the synovia of t1 joint escaping, and the air insinuating itself into tn cavity. The object, then, should be to shut up the openin» that has been made into the joint; for so long as it remal° unclosed, the synovia will escape, friction will ta* place, and, the inflammation increasing, the pain will at length become so violent as to produce a symptomat1 fever, which frequently ends in death. |
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from arteries which are seen entering the bone for that pur-
pose. Formerly it was supposed the marrow possessed sensibility, but that idea is exploded, it being impossible to tracé nerves into it. But though the marrow is itself perfectly insensible, this is not the case with the membrane contain- ing it, which is supplied with nerves, and is consequently sensible. The marrow was at one time thought to serve as nourish-
ment to the bones, but this opinion is now also abandoned. It is supposed, with more reason, that it performs the same offices as the fat, in being absorbed when there is occasion for it to supply animal waste. Synovia, popularly termed joint-o il, is not an oil, bat a
fluid similar in appearance to white of egg, secreted by the membrane lining the interior of the joints. lts service in lubricating the joints is immense. Indeed, but for its inter- position, the grinding at the extremities of bones would render movement intolerably painful: with this slippery addendum the joints are made to slide over each other pleasantly and smoothly. When an excess of secretion of synovia takes place, the joint swells and " dropsy " follows. When this happens on the hoek of the horse, it is called " bog-spavin." In other joints it is recognised in what is called by farriers " wind-gall." Cartilages are of four kinds: articular, inter-articular,
non-articular, and temporary. They serve many useful purposes by their smooth and elastic properties. First, they form the extreme and prominent parts of the body; such as the nose, ears, &c. ; which, from being composed partly of cartilage instead of bone, are better enabled to resist injuries. The ribs, also, are cartilaginous in that part of them connected with the breast-bone, and which is most exposed to injury and violence. Secondly, in the foetus, cartilages supply the place of bones. Young animals, being very liable to falls and other accidents, have a material of an elastic and yielding nature in place of bone. Hence we seldom meet with fractures in the bones of the young, because they are still, in great part, cartilage. There are cartilages in the foot of the horse, which act as a spring, and, by their elasticity, serve to prevent concussion. The third kind of cartilage is more universal than any of
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE MUSCLEa
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187
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GHAPTER XVIII.
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^TEVtNAL STRÜCTURB OF THE HORSE, CONTINUED.—THE MUSCLBS AND TENDONS.—MUSCULAR MOTION.—1, MUSCLES OF THE
DEAD AND NECK.—2, OF THE TRUNK.—3, OF THE FORE-LIMBS.—4, OF THE HINDER-LIMBS.—5, OF THE ANUS AND TAIL.— 6> THE SKIN AND HAIR. |
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scle is the part of an animal popularly termed the
Sü^ or meat. It consists of collections of fleshy fibres,
rming bundies, which are connected together by cellular
fn rane > ana these bundies are again connected to others,
the whole muscle is produced. Each muscle is attached
\ *ts extremities to different bones. One of these extre-
les is called its origin; the other, its insertion. A
Scle accomplishes motion by expanding its belly, or
, ^e part, and contracting its ends towards the centre;
fn the parts to which those ends are attached must neces-
i xiy be made to approximate. Thus, when we wish to
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Of Muscular Motion.—Numerous and complicated as
are the motions of the horse, they are all reducible to two kinds—voluntary and involuntary. Each of these is effected by the contraction of the muscular fibre, which constitutes the fleshy portion of every vertebrated animal, and is the immediate agent of motion in them all. This contraction of muscular fibre is induced by the presence of a stimulus, which, acting on the irritability of the fibre, forces it to contract; and here we arrive at the immediate cause of animal motion. Contractility, then, is that power in muscular bodies by
which their actions are directly executed. These actions are called voluntary when effected by the contractility at the instigation of the will: involuntary, when accomplished by the same contractile power, but at the instance of some stimulus different from that of the will, and wholly inde- pendent of it. Thus, the blood, acting as a stimulus to the heart and arteries, causes these organs to contract, by which the circulation is sustained independently of volition. So also is it with the stomach, intestines, and indeed all other involuntary motionary organs ; they are forced to contract by the presence of a stimulus different from that of volition, and consequently perform their functions like- wise independent of the mind. But the case is different with the voluntary organs. Here no single movement can take place but by the command of the will. Thus, for instance, do we wish a horse to walk, trot, or gallop ; or that from any of these paces he should instantly dis- continue and remain at rest; before the act we desire can be accomplished, it must first be known and determined upon in the mind of the animal. This subject, however, will be more fully explained when we come to speak of the brain and nerves. Whether this contractile power of muscles, by which the
motions of animals are executed, be derived from the nerves, or is a property wholly distinct from them, is a dispute amongst physiologists yet to be determined. All that is certain is, as we have seen, that whilst some muscles perform their functions wholly independently of the mind, and are therefore termed involuntary muscles; there are others called, in contradistinction, voluntary muscles, be- cause they are unable to accomplish the smallest motion without the interference of the nervous influence. We will therefore avoid a subject yet veiled in uncertainty, with an observation on the close dependance of muscular motion on the atmospheric air. |
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y- the hand at the wrist, the muscles engaged in this
l0ö, by expanding their middle part, contract their ex-
i _lties, and consequently shorten their lengths; and
„ lnS one set of ends fixed in the bones above the joint
the wrist and the other in the bones of the hand
°^ it, the attached parts are piflled towards each other,
, the flexure we desire is produced. In this manner are
. «e niovements of the frame accomplished ; and for this
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nt every animal designed for motion is supplied, more
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ess, with muscles, which constitute its flesh.
b t, muscles differ greatly in size and shape, being fitted „ to the degree of force required of them, and the figure
e part they help to form. Thus some are long and
^> as are most of those that move the limbs; while the
_ cles of the trunk of the body are generally broad and
ij, " Muscles often terminate in tendons for insertion-
si K °ns consist °f a 'white, inelastic, insensible, and hard
j, ance; and, as they require less room than muscles,
j are well calculated to preserve the shape of the limbs
^ther parts.
of tl,S u^ De observed here, that the muscles of one side
aft, lrame have corresponding ones on the opposite side; the i *^e^ ta^e their names generally in the horse, as in tb . nian subject, either from the functions they perform, jjvj "gure and shape, or from the parts which they act be + most convenient way of considering these will ^ividetheminto-
2 JJe Muscles of the Head and Neck.
3. it6 Muscles ©f the Trunk of the Body.
i. ml]6 Muscles of the Fore-limbs, or Anterior Extremities.
Uiitie Musdes of the Hinder Limbs, or Posterior Extre- 6" ïhe Muscles of the Anus and Tail.
* iHE Skin and Hair. |
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STRUCTÜRE OF TUE HORSE.—THE MUSCLES.
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188
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tion under violent exertion. The blood flowing, during the
period of exertion, in greater abundance to the brain» excites that organ to impart a larger supply of that mysterious energy, without which the increased action of the muscles would flag and be no longer sustained- As the blood, then, is the medium which contains the properties which the brain separates for the purposes ot exertion, and as these properties are greatly derived from the atmospheric air in the process of respiration, we find the breathing also accelerated, by which a more rapid oxygenation of the blood is also effected. 1. MUSCLES OF THE HEAD AND NECK..
As there are a great number of motions peculiar to the
parts belonging to the head and neck, they are supplied witö numerous and some special muscles and ligaments. Some c-i these have their origins at a greater distance from their inser- tions, such as those which sustain the head, and give forward, backward, and sideway, or occasionally partially rotary ta°~ tions to the parts. Of these two are common to the head and neck, and eight pairs pertain to the head only. The muscles, strictly so called, have some of their origins from the breast- bone, and also from the vertebrae of the neck and chest» These are inserted, some into the occiput, others into the processes of the two temporal bones. Those of the neck which act in concert with the muscles of the head also take their origins from the breast-bone, the spines of the vertebr* of the chest and the lateral processes of the same ; these are mostly, some higher or some lower, inserted into the trans- verse processes of the neck bones, and compose the bulk ot flesh on those parts. Muscular power alone would be insufficiënt to constanw
sustain the head of the horse; nature has therefore sup" plied a provision as simple as it is efficiënt. At the bac of the occipital bone, immediately below the crest, a rou» < cord of ligamentous fibres, called the ligamentum c0_ (ligament of the neck), or "pack-wax," has its origin. "&1 has some remarkable peculiarities. It passes over the »rS vertebra of the neck (the atlas) without any attachmen , but is fixed firmly to the second vertebra, so that, w^"e supporting the head at this point, it leaves the head free i0 turn on the first or second vertebral joints. The princlPa stress is on the dentata. It then sinks deeply, and lS attached to all the other vertebrae of the neck; each of tfief6 attachments forms a separate point of support for »" l front of it. Thus, when in a state of rest, the animal's hea > without the fatigue of muscular tension, is supported J this great ligament. But the head of the horse was not intended to be c°n
stantly carried high. In a state of nature the horse's too lies on the ground, or nearly so. This ligament varies, in ° respect, from all others—it is elastic ; that is, will yield W" force is applied to it, and retract to its ordinary dimensi so soon as that force is withdrawn ; thus, this ligarnen some inches longer when the horse is grazing than when |
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That certain properties, absorbed by the blood from the
air taken into the lungs in breathing, are absolutely essen- tial to the continuance of those movements called involun- tary, and which directly support life, is demonstrated by numerous experiments. Thus, for instance, if an animal be confined to a certain quantity of air, it will continue without feeling change while it has a sufficiency of that fluid to respire ; but the vital portion (oxygen) of the air being at length consumed, and no fresh supply admitted, the creature begins to gasp. His circulation becomes languid, convulsions follow, and all the vital movements gradually ceasing, death, to all appearance, shortly follows. And, in fact, if no means of recovery be promptly used, the creature absolutely must die. If, on the other hand, the apparently lifeless body be removed from the foul air in which it expired, and fresh oxygenated air be forced at proper intervals into its lungs, the heart will, probably, after a short time, be stimulated into its usual contractions, the circulation restored, and with it the life of the animal. Thus we see, that a constant supply of fresh atmospheric air is absolutely essential to life ; and that, where it is denied, the muscular power must soon cease. Hence the necessity, which we have already urged, of preserving to horses in stable a sufficiency of pure unrespired air; for if its total absence suspends, in a few minutes, life altogether, surely the partial corruption and diminution of this fluid must, in proportion, impair their strength, and exposé them to disease. Again, we observe the great dependance of muscular
motion on the atmospheric air, in the increased quantity of this fluid which a horse, and indeed any other creature, respires when under violent exertion. This may be easily seen in the changes which a race-horse exhibits when running. Prior to commencing the race, his breathing is but little increased, and he respires not much more air than usual. As his exertions increase, his nostrils expand; he breathes quicker, and his blood is made to circulate much faster than before, owing to the additional stimulus it has received from the air in the lungs. He is now pushed by the rider, and his own generous and noble spirit urges him to surpass some rival. They rapidly approach the goal— both animals exert themselves to the utmost. At this mo- ment all the appearances already described are at their height. The race being ended, and the horses allowed to walk gently, the increased breathing and circulation still continue, but not so violently as before. By degrees both subside to their ordinary degree of action, and the animal recovers the normal condition he exhibited prior to the race. Now racing being a rapid movement of the animal,
wholly performed by the voluntary muscles, and these muscles depending on the nervous energy to enable them to act, the increased motion which is necessary to the speedy gallop, requires additional energy from the nerves ; hence, in fact, the increased velocity of the blood's circula- |
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE—THE MUSCLES.
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189
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ea<l is elevated. The thickness of the occipital bone im-
j^ediately below the crest is to adapt it to receive this ^ament, which is carried down to the spines of the back, an<i there firmly secured. -the Eyélids have three pairs of muscles ; one pair opens,
n°- the other two pairs shutthem. The pair that retracts is
P^cuhar to the eyelid only, while the two others are inserted
to both, to bring them together, and to shut the eye.
** of them rise from the edge of the hole in the bottom of
e orbit, through which the optie nerve passes to the eye.
-Ihe Eye of the Horse is moved in its different directions by
Slx Muscles, which take their rise from the bottom of the
*Dlt, and are inserted into the sides of the eyeball, as in
Qe human subject. There is, however, in the horse a
^enth muscle, called the retractor oculi; it arises from
he bottom of the orbit, and is inserted all round the ball of
**e eye. It is very strong, and is intended to draw the
§ °be of the eye into the orbit from injury, at the same time
at the haw is forced out for the better defence of the eye.
the JVose has four pairs of muscles, for widening and con-
acting the nostrils; they arise from the upper jaw and
0111 under the eyes, and are inserted into the cartilages of
e nostrils, and part of the upper lip. The action of these
uscles is very perceptible in horses that are much heated
y exercise, in broken-winded horses, and in cases of fever,
^en the nostrils open and contract in proportion as the
lm-al is oppressed with disease.
J-he Lips have five pairs that are proper, and two common
0 the mouth and cheeks, some of which compose the fleshy Part of the cheeks. The chief use of these muscles is to enable the horse to gather his food. the Upper Jaw being of itself incapable of motion, all the
üscles that serve to open and shut the mouth, belong pro-
perly to the lower jaw. The chief of these are the temporal
uscles, which make up the fleshy part of the temples;
the muscles already mentioned as belonging to the chin
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ment (or bridle) of the tongue; by which means they are
suited to all its various motions. The muscles common to the tongue and os hyoides act chiefly in concert with the others, and give the tongue such motions as forward the aliment into the gullet, when it is sufficiently chewed and prepared to pass into the stomach. The Larynx, or head of the wind-pipe, has six pairs of
muscles for moving its different parts. The epiglottis, which serves as a valve for opening and shutting the wind-pipe, has its muscles very small, excepting in animals that chew the cud. These muscles are all more or less liable to be affected with colds ; which is the cause of that soreness of throat observable in some horses, hmdering them from drinking and swallowing their food. The Pharynx, or head of the gullet, has also its muscles,
which are often affected in colds: their office is chiefly to widen and contract the upper orifice of the gullet. The Muscles of the Ears in horses are very distinct and
perfect, and may be easily traced from their origins to their insertions. In man they are small, because in the human ear there is little capacity for motion; while brute crea- tures, being without hands, make use of their ears to drive away flies and other offensivo things. The motion of the ears is also necessary to brute creatures for the reception of sounds, and to avoid danger. Therefore we may always perceive somewhat of the intentions of a horse by the motion of his ears. When a horse sees any remarkable object before him, he pricks up his ears, and points them forward, with an intention to hear, especially when the object is attended with any noise. When the noise or sound comes on one side, he turns his ears that way, to take the sound. When the noise is behind him, he lays his ears backwards; which is most observable in hot or timid horses. The ear is properly distinguished into the outward and
inward ear. The outward ear has four muscles; the first lifts the ear up, and points it forwards; the second pulls the ear backwards; the third draws the ear forward, and points it downward; and these act together, and move both ears, when a horse looks steadfastly to anything lying on the ground. The fourth assists the second, and pulls the ear backward and downward towards the neck. When a horse is wanting in a quick and sprightly motion of his ears, it is, in great measure, owing to the weakness of these muscles. For this defect is always more or less mani- fest in those that have their ears uncommonly large and thick, in which case the muscles are not fully adequate to the weight they are to move; and these horses are commonly the most dull and sluggish. The internal ear has two muscles for moving the small
bones it contains, which are employed in hearing; as will be explained when we come to treat of that organ. From this mechanism of the muscles of the head and
neck, and particularly by their remote origins of the breast and spine, it appears how well they are suited to the |
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and
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_ upper lip, and which have a considerable share in
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ung down the jaw, so as to open the mouth; while the
Poral muscles have the chief share in pulling it up, and
., '«ug the mouth. There are other muscles for moving
jaw several ways in chewing, which are called the
sseters ; besides these, one pair thrust the jaw forwards
n£ another pull it backwards.
fih ™°ngue is itself a muscular substance, made up of
es variously combined together, and in such a manner as
j best suit and correspond with all its different move-
s- The tongue has five pairs of muscles proper to it
call !i a two Pa'rs *nat are common to it and the bone
a , os tyoides. Some of them arise from the lower jaw
. °f hyoides, and others that rise from this bone have
On lnfertions into the apertures of the lower jaw-bone.
tem ^aU" Pu^ tüe tongue backwards arise from the
ton<f°ral bones' and are inserted into the sides of the
fü 1i e' anc* another pair from the lower jaw, near the
ermost grinding teeth, and are inserted into the liga-
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STRTJCTURE OF THE HORSE.— THE MUSCLES.
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190
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several articulations of the joints, so as to secure them
from harm in all their various turnings. Otherwise, in parts abounding with articulations, though well connected and tied together by strong ligaments, the horse would easily be injured by quiclc motion or a trifling accident. II. THE MUSCLES OF THE TRUNK.
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by a motion contrary to the former on e, called expira'
tion. The Abdomen has five pairs of muscles, which arise fron*
the ribs, haunch-bone, share-bone, breast, and other con- tiguous parts, and are mostly inserted into the white hne that divides the abdomen in the middle. One pair pass obliquely downwards ; another pair obliquely upwards; a third have a straight direction from the breast to the share- bone ; a fourth pair assist the straight muscles in pullmg down the breast; the last are the transverse pair, which take their course from the loins and lowermost ribs on eacü side to the white line. This partition, or white line, of the abdomen, is formed by the tendinous junctions of the muscles of both sides, and is particularly well adapted to so large and roundish a surface ; for had these muscles not been determined in the middle, but been stretched over the whole abdomen, it would have been impossible for them to have acted with such force and energy. The use of the abdominal muscles, besides completing the cavity of tbe abdomen, and supporting the bowels, is to assist the muscles oi the chest in respiration, and also in expelling the fceces. The Back and Loins have four pairs of muscles, comrnoQ
to both. The first are remarkable for their great lengtb» extending from the haunch-bones and os sacrum, and reacb- ing to the two temporal bones. These being attached to the spines in their passage, are a great security to the back» and assist the other three pairs in all their motions. When al* the muscles of the back and loins act together, the who*e back is extended ; but when the muscles of either side act solely, the body is inclined to that side only. III. MUSCLES OF THE FORE-LIMBS.
The Shoulder-blade bones are carried through their
different
movements by four pairs of muscles; they arise from the
hind part of the head, from the transverse processes of the neck, and from the uppermost ribs, and are inserted i»t° the blade-bones at different points. By these muscles the shoulder-blades are moved forwards, backwards, upwards, and downwards. The Shoulder—i. e. that part which reaches from the
point of the blade to the elbow—has nine muscles f°r performing its several motions. The first arises from the first rib, and, passing over part of the blade, is inserted int° the shoulder-bone about its middle: this muscle helps t0 raise the shoulder upwards. The second rises from the spine or ridge of the shoulder-blade, and is inserted int" the neck of the shoulder-bone ; this also helps to raise the shoulder upwards. The two depressors pull the shoulder downwards. The first has its origin from the os sacrum, from the haunch-bone, and rack-bones of the back, and, with its fellow on the other side, spreads over a great par of the back, from whence it is called latissimus dorsi, or tn broadest muscle of the back. The other rises from toe lower side of the shoulder-blade, and is inserted into t upper and inner side of the shoulder-bone The two pairs |
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The muscles of the trunk include all those employed in
respiration and other important functions. They may be divided into those of the breast or chest, and those of the abdomen (belly), and the muscles of the back and loins, most of which are endued with great power. But first it will be necessary to describe a muscle called
panniculus carnosus (the fleshy pannicle), or subcutaneous muscle, which is peculiar to quadrupeds ; at least it is not found in the human subject. This muscle may be said to belong to the skin, its actioh
being wholly on this part. It serves, by throwing the skin into folds, er rugaa, to remove any offending matter, as insects, &c, that may lodge upon it; and, for this purpose, it is closely connected with the skin covering the ribs, shoulders, and hinder parts of the body of the animal. It has also attachments with the muscles lying beneath it, and which serve as so many fixed points during its motions. The Breast has four pairs of muscles for widening and
dilating the chest, and two pairs that straiten and compress it. These make up that portion of flesh which covers the brisket and the breast from its upper part downwards to the pit of the stomach, expanding over most of the foremost ribs. Some of them have their derivations forwards, and from under the shoulder-blades and rack-bones of the neck and chest, and some backwards from the spines of the rack- bones of the loins, and from the os sacrum; and are most of them so inserted into the ribs as to render their action of elevating and depressing the chest easy and complete. The intercostals are the external and internal small muscles which are situated between the ribs, and these also assist in widening and compressing the chest alternately in inspira- tion and expiration. The Diaphragm, Midriff{pv skirt, as some call it, in horse
or bullock), is a muscular substance which divides the cavity of the chest from that of the abdomen, and is a principal agent in the act of respiration. Its fleshy fibres arise from the internal circumference of the chest, and, converging like rays to a centre, are all inserted into a tendinous flat sub- stance at the middle. This muscle not only serves to divide the thorax from the abdomen, but also greatly contributes to the act of breathing. When its fibres contract, its convex side, which is turned towards the chest, becomes gradually flat, and, by increasing the cavity of the breast, affords room for a complete dilatation of the lungs, by means of the air which is then drawn into them by the act of inspiration. The fibres of the diaphragm then relax ; and as it résumés its former state, the cavity of the chest becomes gradually diminished, and the air is driven out again from the lungs |
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STRUCTÜRE OF THE HOUSE—THE MUSCLES.
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191
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at bring the shoulder forward, are the pectoral muscles,
another which rises from the interior part of the blade- |
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from the ground by the flexors, it is neither so strong as
these, nor so liable to injury. The flexor muscles, from having to support a part of the
animal's weight, are necessarily very strong and powerful; their tendons constitute what are vulgarly called the " back- sinews;" and from the peculiar arrangement of these tendons, the muscles are themselves distinguished into the " perforating " and the " perforated." The first arises by three distinct heads; viz., two from
the lower end of the shoulder-bone, and one from the ulna ; and descending fleshy, till approaching the knee, each portion here becomes tendinous; when the whole, uniting, form one strong broad tendon, which passes at the back of the knee, under a ligament, the inside of which secretes an oily liquid for keeping the surface of the tendon moist, and thereby preventing friction with the neighbouring parts. The tendon now descends along the posterior side of the cannon-bone, till having arrived within about two inches of the fetlock-joint, it perforates the tendon of the other flexor muscle, and runs within it as in a sheath, until both reach as low down as the lower end of the large pas- tern. The perforating tendon now passes over the navicular bone, and is inserted into the inferior and posterior concavity of the coffin-bone. The second, or perforated flexor, arises from the posterior
and inferior end of the humerus ; and becoming tendinous as it approaches the knee, continues its course downwards to where it divides to form a sheath for the other tendon. After this it still descends, passing behind the pastern, and is inserted partly in the heels of the frog, but principally into the lower side of the large pastern, where it forms lateral ligaments to the pastern joint. The suspensory ligament, of which we have already spoken,
arises from the head of the large metacarpal bone, and dividing into two branches about two inches above the sesamoid bones, both branches are inserted in those bones, and serve materially in keeping them in their right place during violent motion of these parts. IV. MUSCLES OF THE HINDER LIMBS.
These are not only more numerous about the hips and
loins than those about the shoulders, but they are of larger volume ; a necessity imposed by the fact that they not only have to take their share of the animal's weight, but are also the organs of propulsion. For this purpose, therefore, the hinder part of the horse's skeleton is filled up to roundness with large and powerful muscles. Those giving motion to the thigh arise, some from the hinder part of the spine, others from the pelvis: these are inserted into the thigh-bone to effect its several movements. Some of these muscles form the fleshy part of the hip, whilst others pass over the whirl- bone, and form an additional security to the hip-joint. The Leg, comprehending that part usually called the thigh,
reaches, in the horse, from the stifle to the knee-pan, or hoek. It is carried through its several motions by powerful |
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bone
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near its brim, and is inserted into the middle of the
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ov"der-bone. The pectoral muscles are so called because
e7 cover most of the breast, and are inserted into each
0ulder-bone, a little below their round heads. The re-
aUung three muscles move the shoulder backwards. The
st has its origin from under the spine of the blade-bone,
^ !s inserted into one of the ligaments of the shoulder-
°ne; the second is placed between the shoulder-blade and
s> and is inserted into another ligament of the shoulder-
bone. ^-ae motions of the shoulders of horses and most quadru-
*, as are more limited than in man, their chief action being
^ards and backwards, wherein they have a capacity of
lng raised higher or lower, according to their several
re<Mrements.
■J-he Fore-arm, extending from the elbow to the knee, is
rried through its motions by powerful muscles, arising 0la the blade-bone; some of these muscles are inserted, by nainous ends, into the olecranon, or point of the elbow, ** extend the fore-arm, while the arm itself is bent. uers are inserted into the bones of the fcre-arm for eilding this part of the limb. , ue Shank, which reaches from the knee to the pastern,
s two muscles that bend the knee, and two for extending
The flexors arise from the inner and upper part of the
8tl°ulder-bone, and, passing beyond the knee on the inside,
inserted into the hinder part of the top of the shank.
6 extensors derive their origins from the external and
Perior part of the shoulder-bone also; and their tendons,
Slag over the knee, are inserted into the fore-part of the
au of the shank; and, together with the ligaments of this
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Tl
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aelp to secure and strengthen the knee-joint.
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ie Fore-pastern and Foot have also their flexor and
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i. erisor muscles; which, from their arrangement and
. 1^1ty to injury, deserve particular notice. The extensor ■-es from the external and inferior end of the humerus,
also from the ontward and lower extremity of the lUs; and descending fleshy to within about two inches
. ae knee, it here becomes tendinous. From this point j. tendon descends along the knee, under an annular 8i° J0611*» ana> continuing its course down the anterior ace of the cannon-bone, it passes over the fetlock,
8t.,,re ^ is also bound down by another annular ligament; Da Scon(üng, it receives, about the middle of thi large su 6rn' two S^PS °*" ligament> from what is called the Pensory ligament, which shall be hereafter explained.
in Ö°W tne tendon of the extensor muscle expanding, is k» e partly into the anterior and lower end of the
Se na .
sui ïi ^astern; in part, into the anterior surface of the
pro Pastern; and, lastly, into the superior and anterior
sitn ^ *^e C0^nn"D0Iie' ^he use °f tnis muscle being
the f extend the lower part of the limb, but principally
> ana carry the leg forward after it has been raised
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE MUSCLES.
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192
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compressor coccygis, attached to the edge of the os innorM'
nata, to the first, and next three bones of the tail, on the under side ; 2, the levator, which lifts; 3 and 4, the curvd' tors, which bend the tail right and left; 5, the depressor, which lowers the tail. These muscles are contained in a sheath as far as the last vertebra of the loin, and fastened to all the following bones down to the end of the tail. Internal muscles will be noticed under the several viscera»
VI. THE SKIN AND HAIR.
Under the general name of Skin is comprised two exterior
layers of the covering of the body, the cutis vera, or trus skin, and the epidermis, or scarf skin. Connected wit" these are the fatty cellular membrane and the muscle, already mentioned, the panniculus carnosus, which gives the motion to the skin, so remarkable in the horse. The epidermis, cuticle, or scarf-skin, is the outer thiD
and tough, and somewhat transparent, integument. The cuticle is composed of thin flexible scales, somewhat
resembling the scales of a fish, and similar to them in arrangement. The cuticle is produced by the cutis vera (true skin), and is perforated by both its exhalant and absorbent pores. In almost all parts of the body the cuticle is thickly clothed with hair; but that of the nose, the lips, and the interior of the ear, the borders of the eyelids, and the inside of the superior portion of the thighs> is naked, and in all those places is thinner in substance than on the other parts which are invested with hair- The colour of the cuticle is the same in all horses, whatevef be their hue. But it is a known fact that the skin of the silver grey Arabian horse is of a bluish black ; but whethef this colour is in the cuticle or in the rete mucosum has n°" been decided. The rete mucosum is merely the first secretion of the
cuticle, which is deposited in minute oval bodies, contaiwn& a small quantity of colouring matter. This pigment diS' appears as the secreted skin is pushed outward ; the °v01 particles being flattened till they become colourless har scales, which fall off in the form of dandriff or scurf. Whe» a blister is applied, it irritates the true skin, which exude serum, and the cuticle, being impervious, is raised into bla ders (vesications). The cuticle is everywhere perforated by minute hole ,
corresponding in situation, size, and number to those of » cutis. First, there are the sebaceous glands, nourisbi11» the hairs; secondly, the perspiratory, or exhalant poreS > thirdly, the absorbent, or inhalant pores ; and lastly, large sized pores, through which unctuous secretions in van0 parts are emitted. The cuticle is destitute of both neTV and blood vessels, and consequently devoid of sensibility- The cutis, or true skin, is that portion which is conver;
into leather. It lies immediately under the scarf-sK ' and is attached to the under parts by the cellular a adipose (fatty) membranes, and in some places fits tensely that it is incapable of motion of any kind. |
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muscles, some of which take their origin from the bones of
the pelvis, others from the thigh-hone, and, descending, are inserted partly into the patella, or knee-pan, partly into the tibia or leg-bone. These muscles extend, bend, and move the leg a little to the side; and they, together with the muscles remaining to be described, compose the fleshy por- tion of the hinder limbs. The Instep, including that part which reaches from the
hoek to the pastern-joint, and commonly termed the small of the leg, has its motions performed by means of a few powerful muscles. It is bent, or brought forward, by two muscles chiefly, which arise from the superior part of the leg-bone, and descending along its anterior surface, are in- serted into the fore part of the cannon-bone, a little below the bend of the hoek. But the muscle extending this part, being that which is principally concerned in effecting the progression of the animal, deserves a more particular de- scription. This muscle corresponds with that called gastrocnemius
in the human subject, and which forms the calf of the leg; in the horse it is a single muscle, but arises by two heads from the posterior part of the thigh-bone. These heads, de- scending thick and fleshy, soon unite, and form a very strong and powerful (tendon called the tendon of Achilles), as in man ; this tendon, continuing its course downwards, is inserted into the point of the hoek, which, by its projec- tion, enables the muscle to exert a greater force in sending the animal forward. The remaining muscles of the posterior limb, which
move the pastern and foot, being nearly similar in arrange- ment and action with the corresponding ones of the fore extremity, we shall refer to the description of them for a knowledge of the former ones. V. MUSCLES OF THE ANUS AND TAIL.
These consist of four principal muscles :—
1. The sphincter (Gr., sphingo, to contract) ani, which
encircles the opening of the anus, and enters it to the depth of four or five inches. It has, unlike other muscles, neither origin nor insertion. Its contraction, like the string at the mouth of a bag or purse, is powerful in health, and its relaxation in disease, or its loss of voluntary con- striction, is a bad symptom. 2. The retractor ani inferior is fixed to the os innominala
(see Bones, ante), and inserted into the rectum, or straight gut. It mixes its fibres with the sphincter ani, and pulls back the gut after the animal has voided dung. 3. The retractor ani superior is attached to the under side of
the sacrum, and corresponds with the last-described muscle in mingling with the fibres of the spincter ani, but on the upper side. It co-operates with it in pulling the anus in and upwards. 4. The levator ani consists of two slips ot muscular fibres,
which lift the anus, as their name implies. The Muscles of the Tail may be taken as five : 1, the
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE SKIN AND HAIR.
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193
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°ther situations it is more loose, and can be pulled into
°las. In the blood-horse it is thin and highly sensitive;
nile in the cart-horse it is much thicker and far less
ensille. The texture of the hair seems to depend in a
great nieasure upon that of the cutis, for we find that of the
filck-skinned black horse much coarser than in the racer
atld other high-bred varieties.
•'•he cutis is beautifully adapted for giving strength as
eü as protection to the muscles; for we find in those
Parts that require to be firmly bound together, such as the
. 0lles of the knees, the pasterns, and tendons of the limbs,
adheres with such tenacity that it cannot be raised from
°Se places, acting the part of a powerful ligature to the
" rts which are subjected to the greatest degree of stress;
. öl'e, in those situations where its being tight would
terfere with the action of the animal, it is loose.
AI1e cutis is of a strong fibrous texture, very tough, yet
Pple, elastic, very vascular, and sensitive. lts fibres are
. ri°Usly interwoven in almost every direction, and so
. eriaced as to give great strength to its texture, making
aittiost impenetrable by a knife in the living animal, and
Ssessing extreme elasticity. It is this quality which
Pts it so closely to the animal, whether he is plump and
Scular, or reduced to skin and bone. In man and most
er animals, where, from disease, a great reduction of the
scular fibre has taken place, the skin becomes loose
aki *velled. It owes this great elasticity to the inumer-
e larger and smaller glands which penetrate its entire
stance, furnishing that unctuous matter, preserving the
. s°ft and pliable, maintaining that greasy moisture
ch its surface possesses, and giving a sleek appearance
, °e hair. When the animal gets out of condition, and
skin is diseased, the coat assumes a rough appearance,
„ «airs refuse to lie down, and it is said that the coat
stares "
c skin at the bend of the knee and hoek is bountifully
n>ued with this excretion, to give them suppleness, and
Preserve from friction those parts which are subjected
. c°nstant and active movements. Sometimes this
ion exceeds the quantity necessary for due action, from
co]] attention and cleanliness becomes inspissated, and
t . ab°ut those parts. If this hardness is permitted to
in 1 n' ^ w*^ become a watery sore, which will terminate
h sness, stiiTness, and pain in the joint when the animal
it i lt- ^hen this is situated in the bend of the knee,
hoct .6ïime^ mallenders; when it is seated in front of the
Qö. > ^ is called sallenders; diseases hereafter treated
B B
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The skin of the heel has numerous glandular pores,
through which the unctuous secretion oozes. Sometimes these are unduly excited, the secretion becomes altered in its substance and odour, producing the disease called grease. The cutis, when destroyed by any means, does not
regenerate quickly. Great care should therefore be taken not to allow any portion of it to be broken. Many think that it is of little consequence for horses to have the skin of their back rubbed off by friction from a saddle. Such parts as have lost their cutis have it but slowly reproduced; and even when it has been restored, its vital power is much weaker than it was originally; for, although it appears at first to be very vascular, its vessels after a time either shrink in calibre, or some of them become altogether obliterated. The Hair.—Each hair of the horse is a minute tube,
having a bulbous end inserted in the cellular membrane which lies just beneath the cutis. From this little gland each hair penetrates the cuticle, or outer skin, and grows ot various lengths and sizes. The hair covering the body and part of the legs is fine and soft, that which invests the ridge of the neck, crown of the head, and the tail, is of coarser texture and considerably lengthened. Each hair, as we have said before, is a tube; the outer covering is derived frem the cuticle, within which a horny substance is en- closed; this horny portion being so disposed as to make each hair an elongated cone. The coat is of a uniform thickness all over the body, excepting upon the inner parts of the thighs, under the arms, &c. It varies in quality, colour, and length in different breeds. The thoroughbred racer, the Arabian, Barb, and Turkish horses are re- markable for the shortness and sleekness of their coat; while the cart-horse, the Shetland pony, and horses of all northern climates, are distinguished by its length, rough- ness, and coarseness. The lighter the shade of colour, the finer the hair; and it has been found that in chestnut and light bay horses there are more hairs in a square inch than in black and other dark-coloured horses. The coat is shed twice a year, in spring and autumn. In
a state of nature this commences with great regularity as to time ; but in a state of domestication this process is much influenced by the temperature and stable management. The hair of the mane and tail is never shed, except in specific diseases of a mangy character. The treatment of a horse when shedding his coat will be found in its proper place, under Stable-Hanagement, Clipping, Singeing, Cloth- ing, Conditioning, &c., in the First Division. |
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it)4
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STRÜCTUEE OF THE ÏÏORSE.—THE BRAIN AND NERVEN
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CHAPTER XIX.
TKE BRAIN AND NERVES.—THE ORGANS OF SENSE :—I. THE EYE AND VISION.—II. THE NOSTRILS, THEIR MEMBRANES AND SINÜSES:
SMEXL.----III. THE EAR, AND ITS CONSTRUCTION : HEARING.----IV. THE TONGUE AND ITS ORGANISATION : TASTE.----THE PALATE. |
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the brain, it is commonly described as consisting of three
great portions, though in reality the separations cease loog before we reach the centre of its base. The first great division, called cerebrum, is placed above in man, but belo* in the horse, owing to the position of the skull of the latter» and to the same cause is to be attributed the elevation 0l the second portion of the brain, termed cerebellum, above the first in this animal. The third portion of the brain °* the horse also corresponds in name with that of the human subject. But in the former creature it occupies the hinde1 part of the skull, while in man it is situated below. It is a continuation, or union, of the white or medullary substance of the other two portions of the brain; and is partly °n that account, and in part from its figure, called the medulw oblongata. From this third portion arises what is generally terme
the spinal marrow, but which in reality is a continuation ° the brain. Its substance being, like that organ, partly ot * white and partly of a greyish colour, and being covered an defended by similar membranes to those protecting tft brain. This continuation of the brain passes out of * head by the great opening in the occipital, or hinder bone the skull, and running along the canal formed by the bon of the spine, or back-bone, in which it is safely lodge gives off several nerves to the body and limbs, as wil* presently seen. The Nerves are white fibrous cords, which arise eitn
from the brain or spinal marrow, and, passing off in pal .' |
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THE BRAIN AND NERVES.
The origin and scat of the nervous system is the soft -white
and reddish mass called the brain, contained within the cavity of the skull. lts membranes (or meninges) are three. or, more correctly, two. These, by lining the inside surface of the skull, prevent its inequalities from injuring that delicate organ. The first membrane is called dura mater, as in the human subject; it is of a strong tendinous nature, and serves to prevent concussions of the brain, by supporting its different divisions with the folds which this membrane sends in between the separated portions of that organ. The second (the pia mater), is strictly no more than soft cellular tissue. It dilfers from the first in being extremely soft and sensible. It lies next to the surface of the brain, dips into all its furrows and convolutions; and as this membrane is the medium through which the blood-vessels pass to the brain, for supplying its waste and recruiting the stock of mental energy, so it sometimes becomes the seat of disease. There is a very thin and delicate membrane lying between the two already described, but it does not enter the fissures of the brain, like the pia mater, or second membrane of that organ. The third, the membrana arachnoidea (Gr., spider-web-
like membrane), is a fine serous membrane, in connection with the inside of the dura mater. After investing every vein and artery, it is doubled back upon the surface of the brain itself. The arachnoid accompanies the spinal marrow out of the skull. It clings closely to the surface of the brain, and is said to facilitate the motion which is con- tinually going on during life throughout the lobes of the medullary mass. The brain of the horse, like that of most other animals, is
partly of a roundish figure. It is of a pulpy consistence ; and in colour is white internally, but greyish on the outside. As so soft a mass may be liable to concussion and injury from the violent blows and motions to which the head is frequently liable, the all-wise Creator has divided its substance for a considerable way from the surface in several places, and supported the divided parts by intro- ducing folds of the dura mater between them, so as to sustain each portion of the brain in its proper place, and prevent it striking against, or being struck by, the adjacent portions of that organ. In consequence of this partial division of the substance of
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are distributed to all parts of the body. Their texture
filamentous, and they are bound in a sheath of ce. |
lS
lar
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oi
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tissue called neurilema. They receive blood, but do D
become red. A nerve has no end; it passes round a Pa , and goes into another sheath. Nerves have the poiver |
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to
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reuniting. (See Neurotomy, post.) Some suppose nerve^
be transparent, from the bottom of the horse's eye ®el, discernible through that part of the optie nerve called- retina; but, notwithstanding this circumstance ot ^ retina's transparency, both in the horse, dog, cat, several other animals, yet that the other nerves oi frame are transparent is still unproved. The course o nerves is in company .with the arteries and veins, and, these, they communicate, or their branches run into other, and form what is termed a plexus. By this trivance sensation is carried on, notwithstanding ,, principal branches should be obstructed or destroy |
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE BRAIN AND NERVE&
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195
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*
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could not be the case but for this vicarious
°mmunication. That an accident or injury of this
0rt may be of the least possible evil to the creature,
d the soundness of the parts be again restored, the
"Wise Creator has endowed the nerves, like other parts
the frame, with the power of regeneration. This is
P °ved by dividing either branch of the eighth pair of
erves, called the par vagum, when it will be found that a
. a8ulable lymph will be thrown forth, which, after changing
t° a substance possessing all the qualities of nerves, will re-
'te the divided parts, and effect their regeneration as before.
this experiment also, it will be seen that while one branch
the nerve is totally divided, the other branch, by its com-
uincation, carries on sensation in the parts to which the
viued branch is distributed, and which, but for this com-
uiucation, must be rendered wholly without feeling by
e uivision of the nerve. For if both branches of the same
FVe (the pa»" vagum) be divided, the communication with
. e orain is entirely cut off. If this happen to a horse he
^ediately dies, though a dag will survive some time,
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portion of the spinal cord. The filaments of the upper part
only convey sensation to the brain. The lower ones merely effect motion (motory nerves), by carrying from the brain to the muscles the will (volition) of the animal. They form a ganglion (or knot) at a little distance, and thenceforward become of a mixed character, motor and sentient nerves being blended. The brain and nerves of a horse, like those of other
creatures, endow all the other parts of the animal with feeling or sensation. This is shown by tying or otherwise obstructing a nerve going to any part, so as to cut off the communication between this part and the brain, when a loss of feeling instantly takes place below the point of obstruction; this being removed, the parts recover their sensibility. Nerves are also the cause of all voluntary motion. As may
be seen by the loss of this motion taking place from the compression of the brain, either from an extravasation of blood or water, or from some other mechanical cause, when the whole body becomes paralysed, and the power of motion suspended. But on removing the compressing cause this paralysis will vanish, and the animal be restored to its capability of voluntary motion. If the spinal marrow be compressed, the same loss of feeling and motion will also take place, but only in the limbs and such parts of the body as receive their nerves from it; and the same return of both these powers will follow the removal of the com- pression. The obstruction of a nerve will, in like manner cause a loss of motion in the muscles to which it is distributed, but which will also be removed with the obstructing cause. Through what medium the brain and nerves cause the
voluntary motions, is as unknown as is the mode in which these organs effect sensation and perception. We know that the will, having determined on an act, sends its commands along the nerves from the brain to the muscles to be engaged ; these, irritated by the influx of the nervous energy, instantly contract (the mode in which muscles effect motion), when the act we desire is thus produced. This is the case in man, and also with the horse. Various and complicated as are the motions performed by this animal, independent of those termed involuntary—which are for the most part vital movements, carried on in the internal parts of the frame—yet are all the former ones the consequence of the will, nor can a single one of them be effected without this determination being first made. This appears evident from the obedience of a horse in performing such movements as we desire; and it is also illustrated in the resistance sometimes made by that animal to the ac- complishing of our wishes. For both the execution of the act and its refusal are the result of that prior operation in the mind which we term volition. Now where there is volition there must be perception,
otherwise the former faculty could have no objects for its operation, and would be useless. This perception, for sake |
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>lne pairs of nerves are counted as arising from the
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br
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a'n within the skull; a tenth pair, with the spinal marrow,
Sses out of the great opening of the head. The remaining
-six pairs branch from the spinal marrow, after it has
Scended into the canal formed for its lodgment. Of those
the brain (cerebral nerves), the first pair are called the
'foctory, because, passing through the ethmoid bone, they
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are
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spread in innumerable small branches all over the
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embrane lining the inside of the nose, for the purpose of
v 0ciucing the sense of smelling. -the second pair are called the optie nerves. They pass
°ugh the sphenoidal bone of the skull, and, entering each
_ of the eye, form at its back part that nervous ex-
sion called retina, a network to which the animal is
J^kted for vision. (See post, under Eye.)
, "e remaining seven pairs are distributed chiefly and
ost exclusively to the different parts of the head and
rp, • The seventh are the auditory nerves. (See The Ear.)
eighth pair are veculiar, and called on this account par
y wi, or pneumogastric nerves; they have branches running
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0
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The
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ost all parts of the body.
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tenth pair, arising from the spinal marrow just as
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tr'T, Su"stance leaves the brain, go principally to be dis
1 uted on the exterior of the head.
i . E Spinal Nerves, arising from the continuation of the
i c°ntained within the canal of the spine, are, as we
said, thirty-six pairs. They pass out from the spinal
dkt-M^ hetween the interstices of the vertebras, and are
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to , uted partly to the internal organs of the body, in part
jn tttuscles covering the frame, and lastly to the limbs, ich they may be seen descending in branches.
Pai te are ^ vertical, 18 dorsal, 6 lumbar, and 5 sacral
(see -D nerves- Each spinal nerve has a doublé origin
bUadl te V-> Fig. 5, Spinal Cord, &c), by filamentary
s> one from the upper, the other from the under
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STRUCTURE OF TIIE HORSE.—THE EYE AND VISION.
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196
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different impressions which these objects may make. A<5-
cordingly, we find that the eye is impressed by ligbt; the ear by sound ; that the nose is adapted to smell; the moutn to taste ; and the skin (already treated of) to feeling. I. THE EYE, AND VISION.
The horse has a very extensive field of vision. His eye
is lodged for its security in the orbit, formed partly by the bones of the skull, and in part by those of the face, as in the human subject; but it differs from the eye of the latter in some particulars. The horse, for instance, is without eyebrows, and the upper eye-lid alone is furnished with eye* lashes, excepting a few straggling hairs, which grow from the lower lid. There is also a seventh muscle for drawing the horse's eye inwards from injury, which is not to he found in man ; while the more effectually to protect th.19 tender organ in the animal, there is a cartilaginous sub- stance, called by farriers the haw, by anatomists membrana nictitans (winking membrane), which, when forced out o* the orbit where it is lodged, by the action of the retractor muscles drawing the eye farther into the socket, covers a great portion of the anterior part of the horse's eye. Tm9 provision against injury, which is unnecessary in man, wbo is furnished with hands, is very complete in birds : the haw in these creatures covering the whole fore part of the eye, and serving as an eye-lid during their sleep. In other respects the horse's eye does not differ materially from that of man, except that the transparent fore part of the former is considerably more extensive than in the latter, and consequently the horse possesses a greater range of vision- At the back part of the eye there is a large quantity °*
fat, for protecting that delicate organ from the inequalit'eS of the orbit, and also, by keeping it smooth and moisw to prevent friction in its different motions. Besides the protection it receives anteriorly from the eye-lids and ha^> this part is washed by the fluid called tears, which lS secreted from a small gland situated near the outer angle of the lids, and being spread by the action of the eye-ll(ls over the whole anterior surface of the eye, not only keep8 it moist and transparent, but also serves to remove dustan other injurious substances. The tears, having renderen these services to the eye, pass off by two openings at the inner angle of the eyelids, and are thence conveyed into the nose by a canal, the termination of which may be seen & each nostril. This canal, though not large, is capable o having fluids injected through it to the eye, or from the eye into the nose. But care should be taken that the fluids so injected are of a mild nature, otherwise the membrane lining the canal is in danger of becoming infiamed ; 1 which case, the passage of the tears being obstructed, they will be forced to flow over the face. Another fluid, of a mucous quality, is secieted from
surface of the membrane lining the eye-lids, for the defen
Thi8
of the eyes against the irritating saltness of the tears. ^ A membrane, called conjunctiva, not only lines the inside
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of clearness, we shall call the sense of the brain, as what we
term sensation may be said to be that of the nerves. These possess the power of being impressed by various substances in nature, and of sending their impressions onward to the brain ; which organ, having the power of being further affected by these impressions, perception or consciousness of the impressing object takes place in the mind. This may be ranked as the basis of all the other operations of the mind in animals, and is the medium through which they receive all the knowledge they possess of the objects existent in creation. This perception again is divisible in the horse, as in man,
into two kinds : 1, Direct perception, or such as is caused at the instant by the propagation to the brain of the impres- sions received by the external organs of sense—thus the eye, being impressed with the figure or colour of any object, communicates the impression by the optie nerve to the brain, where the perception or idea of the impressing figure or colour is immediately formed. 2, Perception by reflection, which is also the delineation in the mind of impressions, but such only as had been some time before conveyed to the brain from the organs of external sense, and con- sequently are now merely reproduced by that act of the mind called memory—or such as are created within the brain itself by the operation of the mind which we call thinking. And that the mind of a horse is capable both of recollection and thought, to a certain degree, is indisputable. The first is provable by a variety of familiar circumstances, known to every one conversant with the animal, therefore not requiring to be particularized ; the second is shown by the increased exertions made by the animal in leaping and clearing a fence, wall, gate, &c.; which unusual exertions must have been perceived and determined upon as necessary prior to his arriving at the place to be thus cleared. But merely seeing and knowing things through the
medium of sensation and perception, would not be sufficiënt to draw the animal from a state of inactivity. To effect this, the Creator has used the same means, but in a more humble degree, as in man ; namely, he has interwoven pleasure and pain with the existence of the horse, and so contrived both, that they have the power, not only of leading him into action, but also of directing him to the choice of fit actions afterwards. This capability of pleasure and pain is evinced in so many actions of the horse as not to require demonstration. We have now sketched the great outlines of the horse's
mental constitution. We shall next consider the Organs of Sense by which the animal ranks so high in the scale of organized creation. THE ORGANS OF SENSE.
The mind, as we have said in the general sketch, having
charge of the frame, and being in constant correspondence with material objects around, organs are requisite to receive and transmit to the mind, for its information, the |
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STRUCTÜRE OF THE HORSE.—THE EYE AND VISION.
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197
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n eye-lids, but is reflected over the whole fore-part of
e eye, and consequently serves to keep the eye in its
. °Pet situation, and prevents all extraneous bodies from
Slnuating themselves behind it. It varies in its structure
,Ccording to the nature of the parts it covers: the portion
Pread on the anterior part of the eye is transparent and
uttle vascular, while that lining the lids is full of
;els, as may be seen in inflammation of the eye. We
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the orbit, and follows a direction upwards, and towards the
inner side, and there, immediately under the ridge of the orbit, it passes through a perfect mechanical pulley, called trochlea (Gr. a pulley), and, turning round, takes a direction across the eye, and is inserted a little beyond the middle of the eye, and towards the outer side. Thus the globe of the eye is directed inward and upward. This is not all that is accomplished by this remarkable mechanism. That the eye may be completely defended, it is sunk deep in the orbit; but it may be occasionally requisite to bring the eye forward, and enlarge the field of vision. Under the influence of fear, the eye is positively protruded, and it is not only forced more forward, but the lids are opened more widely. It may be asked, how is it accomplished ? The pulley-muscle, or trochlea, readily effects this, while as the straight muscles at the same time do not oppose it, or only regulate the direction of the eye, it is really brought forward. The lower oblique muscle has its insertion just within the lachrymal bone, and, proceeding across the eye, is fixed into part of the sclerotica opposite to the other oblique muscle ; thus turning the eye in an opposite direction, and also assisting the upper oblique muscle in bringing the eye forward from its socket. The mechanism of the eye will be understood from an examination of the figures and reference to Plate VIL, Fig. 1, Anatomy. The globe of the eye is of a roundish shape, and may be
divided, for sake of description, into two parts ; the trans- parent and the opaque. The former constitutes the whole anterior portion, which is pellucid, for transmitting the rays of light, and is very extensive in the horse. The latter comprises what is termed the white of the eye; it com- mences at the circular edge, or termination of the trans- parent part, and, running backwards, covers the entire hinder portion of the eye-ball. The opaque part serves principally to enclose and defend the transparent and more delicate parts of the eye, and to limit the transmission of light. It is composed of the following parts ; viz., the ex- ternal, white, dense coat, covering the whole posterior part of the eye ; this, from its hardness, is named the sclerotica : it is but little vascular, and is seldom diseased. On the internal surface of the sclerotica is spread the
second coat of the eye. It is a delicate, soft membrane, and is well adapted for the expansion upon it of the optie nerve. This coat, called choroid, is also opaque, and differs in appearance in various creatures, being black in some, white in others, and variegated in several animals. This difference of colour depends on the pigment lining the surface of the choroid coat; and to this is to be ascribed the peculiar colour of the pupil of the eye in different creatures. In animals with white furs, as white rabbits, &c., the choroid coat being white, the eye0, appear of a red colour. This, also, is the case even in the human subject, with persons having very white hair and eye-lashes; the pigment covering their choroid coat being generally fair, the pupils of their eyes also have a reddisb hue. But the |
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shall
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ïiow pass to the eye-ball, or that part of the eye which
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oirectly engaged in vision.
lQe muscles of the globe of the eye are seven ; four ïïied recti or straight, two others are the óbliquus major d minor, and the seventh the retractor oculi. That they y act with promptitude, six nerves are directed to the ^e or to particular muscles. The four straight muscles lch rise from the back of the orbit are inserted into the |
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ball
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of the eye, immediately opposite, and at equal distances
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, ^ eacn other. One of these rises to the upper part of
e eye, immediately behind the transparent and visible
. rtion of it, the office of which is to raise the eye. When
c°ntracts, the eye must necessarily be drawn upwards.
other is inserted immediately opposite, at the bottom of
e eye> for t},e purp0Se 0f depressing the eye, or enabling
"orse to look downwards. A third is inserted at the
. er corner, -which turns the eye outward ; and a fourth is
erted at the inner corner for turning the eye inwards.
J means of these, the eye can be turned in any direction
ne will of the animal. Should the animal wish to look
ai"d and outward, then the outer and upper muscles are
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called
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into action, and can be modified in any manner at
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Avul of the horse. These muscles perform another duty,
. ey, keeping the eye in its place, for while grazing the
cipal weight of the eye rests upon them ; and to aid
, ln this, the seventh muscle, called the retractor, is
eu. rp^g arjgeg from the edge of the foramen through
Cn- the optie nerve enters the orbit. The use of this
e is to support the eye generally, or when it is
enly called into great action, and, aided by the straight
and •S' ** ^raws tne eye back out of the reach of danger;
Jn the act of drawing it back it forces the haw to
jfUde as ar» additional defence.
j ®se Muscles perform another important office in alter-
jj . e f°cus of the eye to accommodate itself to the exami-
ot distant or near objects. The straight and retractor
sub t 6S w back the eye, and force it upon the fatty
nce, and thus in a slight degree flatten it, brin£ it
oearep tli •
0o ne retina or mirror, and adapt the eye to the
^vation of distant objects.
the ^ e muscles are chiefly employed in supporting So . 1Snt 0I" the eye, they might not have power to turn it 0r . y and to such an extent as the animal might wish inu ^ lre > therefore the eye is furnished with two other ohlig^S' Wh0Se entire office is t0 turn {t These are the
cur^ niusc^s already mentioned. The upper one is
s y constructed. It emauates from the back part of
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STRUCTÜRE OF THE HORSE.—THE EYE AND VISION.
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198
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The pupil of the eye differs in shape in many creatures:
in man it is circular; in the horse, horizontally oblong > and in cats, perpendicularly oblong. Hence the sphere o* vision is different in the eye of each, owing to the capacity of its pupil. Thus the human eye, having a circular pupil» sees equally well at all sides, while that of the horse has a wider ranger of vision at each side, and the cat's frofli above downwards. The optie nerve descending from the brain, passes through
an opening in the bony orbit, and enters the back part °* the globe of the eye in a trunk tolerably large; and havin» penetrated the sclerotic and choroid coats, already described, it then expands upon the latter into a delicate and partly transparent membrane, for receiving the rays of light trans- mitted to it by the transparent parts of the eye. It is no* termed retina, and constitutes the third coat of the eye» on it are painted the various objects we behold, and it lS the seat of the sensation of light. We now come to the transparent parts of the eye, wbic"
constitute a most important portion of this organ. Tbey consist of pellucid membranes and humours arranged in the following manner:— First, the transparent cornea completes the globe of the
eye at the fore-part, its circular edge running all round t0 be attached to the sclerotic opaque coat, just as the glass °* a watch is joined to the case beneath. This membrane is ol a hard texture, and serves to confine the fluids of the eye> and also, by its convexity, to refract the rays of lig" passing into the eye. Immediately behind the cornea, lies the aqueous humoit>r >
it is a clear, thin, watery fluid, as may be seen on
cuttmS
the cornea, when this fluid will escape. This aqueo"3
humour occupies the space between the cornea and tö crystalline lens, and is partly divided into two portion by the iris, which floats like a circular curtain in thi3 humour. The use of the aqueous fluid is, first, to supP°rt the convexity of the lucid cornea ; and, secondly, to assi* the latter in effecting refraction. The crystalline lens is the next humour to be described'
It is partly of a globular form, transparent, and tolerably hard in consistence, particularly towards the centre. It ^ie immediately behind the aqueous fluid, and has the vitreo^3 humour (to be presently described) between it, posteriorl)'» and the retina, or optie nerve. The lens is retained in its situation partly by these
humours, and, in part, by the ciliary processes; which, a before mentioned, attach themselves all round to its an' terior surface, for the purpose of confining the passage ° the rays of light to the lens. The function of the lens * similar to that of the other transparent parts . but, owing its greater convexity and density, it accomplishes refract in a much greater degree than they do. Between the lens and the retina is situated the remaliaJ. °
humour of the eye. It is called the vitreous humour, fcota reseinblance to fused glass, and is a little hollow on its e& |
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pigment of the human eye being in general black, the pupil,
in most persons, also appears black, or nearly so. The use
of the black pigment, besides producing the various and
beautiful shades, from the soft light blue to the deep
sparkling black, which we see in the human eye, is to
absorb and render useless the superfluous and superabundant
rays of light transmitted to the bottom of the eye; which,
if not thus absorbed and rendered harmless, might irritate
and injure the retina, or optie nerve, or otherwise confuse
vision. Ilence we may know the reason why dark-coloured
eyes are generally stronger and better enabled to endure
much light than are the light-coloured ; for the black
pigment on these being less in quantity than it is on the
former, the light eyes have not an equal power of absorbing
and moderating the rays of light as the dark-coloured ones,
but, receiving them with comparatively little diminutiom
their force is too great for the retina to tolerate. Hence it be-
comes irritated, and the animal is forced to close, or nearly so,
the lids, to exclude the stimulus of the light, either in whole
or in part. In the horse this is partly compensated by the
change of shape in the pupil. (See Plate VII., Figs. 2 and 3.)
The pigment on the choroid coat of the horse's eye is black
at its lower part, but of a light green superiorly ; and from
the combined effect of these two colours arises the greyish
appearance of his pupils. The choroid coat, after lining, as
we have said, the whole posterior surface of the eye, extends
towards the anterior part of this organ. Here its edges are
thrown into folds for the purpose of occupying less space ;
and, inclining inwards towards the crystalline lens, these folds,
now called ciliary processes, attach themselves all round its
circumference. These also are lined with black pigment,
and serve to confine the passage of the rays of light to the
lens. But what principally directs and limits the rays of
light passing into the eye, is that circular curtain in the
transparent part of this organ, which we see extending
from the white part all round to the opening in the centre
called the pupil: this is the passage through which the
rays of light are transmitted to the nerve at the bottom of
the eye This curtain is termed iris, and bas a muscular
power, as may be seen in the enlargement and diminution of
the pupil, or central opening of the eye, but which in reality
is occasioned by the spreading towards the centre, or the
receding from it, of the iris. The pupil being simply the
opening formed at this part by the central edge of the iris.
In a strong light, or when we want to view some very
minute or near object, the iris contracts the pupil, by which
the rays of light passing into the eye are greatly limited.
On the other hand, the pupil is seen to be widely dilated
when there is but a faint light, or when the object to be
viewed is at a great distance. The iris, like the choroid
coat, owes its colour to that of the pigment with which it is
lined. (n the horse it is generally of a cinnamon colour,
which appears to be least liable to disease; but sometimes
the iris is white, which is the cause of what are called
wall-eyes in horses.
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSR—THE NOSE, &c.
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199
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T0r s"rface, for lodging the back-part of the lens. This
üiour consists of a fine pellucid fluid, contained in a clear
ular membrane, as may be seen by cutting the membrane,
t en the fluid will escape drop by drop. The use of the
1' i>e°US numour is to complete the refraction of the rays of
8"t just before they fall on the retina behind it.
1' v ISI0N-—The eye effects vision through the means of
ö * j for the rays passing from the objects we see to this
&an> enter its transparent part, and are transmitted back-
rcls to the retina, or expanded nerve, at the bottom of the
* ' Here the rays impress the nerve producing the sensa-
t, n °f light, and also of the figure, colour, and motion of
objects viewed; and these sensations being propagated
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barb downwards, B c, Plate VII. Fig. 1. From every part
of the arrow, rays of light will be sent forth in straight lines; and, in passing through the pupil, it is clear that those which flow from the under portion of the object, c, must flow upwards, while those from above, b, must pass down- wards; and pursuing this principle, all the intermediate rays, d e f, will intervene, consequently a reversed picture of the object will be formed upon the retina at E F. Paley makes the following observation on this subject:
he says, " In considering vision as achieved by means of an image formed at the bottom of the eye, we can never reflect without wonder on the smallness yet correctness of the picture, the subtlety of the touch, and the fineness of the lines. A landscape of five or six square leagues is brought into a space of half-an-inch in diameter; yet the magnitude of objects which it contains are all preserved, are all discriminated in their magnitudes, positions, figures, and colours. A coach passing at its ordinary speed for several minutes, passes in the eye only over one twelfth of an inch, yet is the change of place in the image distinctly perceived throughout its whole progress." II. THE NOSE, ITS MEMBRANES AND SINUSES.
The sense of smell in animals is of the highest import-
ance. It is with them one of the leading means of distin- gvishing objects. In the horse, the nose and its apparatus are extensive and beautifully contrived. The nose extends from the forehead down to the lower extremities of the nostrils, where it has two large Communications with the air; its breadth, too, is that of the whole face. Besides the nostrils, communicating with the outer air, there is an interior opening to the fauces (Lat., pi. of faux, a mouth). The openings of the nostrils end with the nasal and inter- maxillary bones. Just over the arch of the palate, the nose communicates with the frontal sinuses by a sort of valve or flap, which, however, cannot to any great extent admit air into the sinuses. The nose is divided down the middle by the cartilage called the septum narium (Lat., septo, to sepa- rate), or division of the nostrils. The septum rests in a bone called the vomer (Latin for ploughshare), which is grooved to receive it. The frontal sinuses are passages between the two tables
of the frontal bones. There is also a bony partition which divides them into two equal portions. These sinuses com- municate also with the nasal and the maxillary cavities. This conformation greatly increases the loudness and resonance of neighing. There are also important Communications from the eye, called the puncta lachrymalia (Lat., tear-piercings) ; these open into the canal within the lachrymal bone, called the nasal duet (Lat., ductus ad nasum) ; this is continued between the turbinated bones, and ends by an opening inside the nostril, easily perceivable. This duet, which carries off the superfluous saline fluid secreted by the lachrymal glands, is lined with the pituitary membrane, and therefore often clogged up in glanders. (See Glahdees, post.) |
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u]
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ar^s kv the nerve to the mind in the brain, there produce
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s °r images of the visible properties of the things so
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cfeat
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lng impression ; thus the operation and intention of
°_n are completed. The eye, then, is an apparatus for
eiving the images of visible things, in the manner of a
_0r> and for transmitting them to the mind for its infor-
lQn. I^ latter operation is effected, as we have said, by
erve passing from the back part of the eye to the brain ;
the former one is accomplished by the sensible or sus-
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CePtibl
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e power of the retina, or expanded nerve at the bottom
eye, which enables it to receive the images of objects |
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asth
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ey are conveyed to the retina by the rays of light pass-
th& ° lt; ^rom these objects through the transparent parts of ,j .. eye- Now, as the retina, the seat of impression, and • eation of objects, is extremely small—not being larger (jj an than the section of a hollow globe of an inch in eter, and being not greatly increased in the horse, in
ca rison to the vast range of vision of which the eye is a *e"—it follows that there was a necessity of making . . Vlsion in the eye for reducing that great range into a Pa" e size> otherwise the whole of it could not be th* as we Perceive i* is> on the limited retina. For
Purpose, then, are the transparent parts of the eye
Jpally given ; their great use being to refract and con-
iiïi rays °^ 1'ght passing from any object, so that the ge 0f tjje 0^,jecl mav De C0Ilveyed to the seat of im-
j., l0n in such a diminished form as is fitted to the size of £ ^art- This conveyance, and consequent diminution of the sitv • ^ °^ 0DJects> they effect by their convexity and den- refr ' • nS a law in opties, that these properties produce exj 10n in proportion to the degree in which these qualities of ' ^nus, the rays of light coming from some object strik ^nitU(ie' as a house or tree, at no great distan ce, ijje , st upon the transparent cornea; penetrating this deil • ane' they pass on, converged in proportion to the hUrn an(i convexity of the membrane, to the aqueous conv r ' e> in their transmission, they become further hu^ ^ ' lastly, entering the crystalline lens and vitreous figUr their convergence is completed, and the distinct tierve object, in miniature, falls on the expanded shall' and Produces that impression we call vision. We
SuPPose the animal looking at an arrow with the
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STRüCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE EAR, &c
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200
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The pituitary membrane, which is the highly sensitive and
delicate lining of the whole nasal passages throughout all their divisions, is the grand medium for the expansion of the olfactory or first pair of nerves, and with these forms the organ of smell. The pituitary membrane is part of the great mucous lining which begins at the eyes, nose, and mouth, pervades the stomach and intestines, and ends at the anus. It is furnished with a mucus, secreted over its whole surface, by which it is constantly kept moist, pliant, and susceptible. By this means insects are prevented from penetrating into the lungs. The design of this expansion of the olfactory nerves is to supply the place of touch, and what is acquired by experience by man. It is by this ex- quisite sense of smell that the horse selects such food as is best calculated for his nutriment, and is enabled to reject what is poisonous. By smell he judges of the quality of his food in a domestic state, and examines a stranger. The horse will recognise his master or favourite groom by the sense of smell, and frequently expresses such recognition by a neigh. These cavities are also the organs of voice ; the sound reverberates through them, and increases in loudness as through the windings of a French horn. All the air which passes to and returns from the lungs must go through the nostrils, as he can breathe through the nose only. The nostrils ought therefore to be large and ex- panded. The skin also which covers them should be thin and elastic, that they may the more readily yield when the animal requires a greater supply of air while trotting hard or galloping. In the race-horse the nostrils are wide and fiexible, while in the cart-horse they are confined, and surrounded by a quantity of cellular substance and thick skin. The common skin covers the nose and upper lip, but
without its usual accompaniment, the adipose (fatty) mem- brane. It has also some fine hair fringing the edges of the nostrils. The integument is turned in for a little distance up the nostril, being easily distinguished by its colour from the delicate mucous membrane. The well- known pouch called the false nostril, outside each nasal opening, is made by a doubling-in of the integument. The purpose of these false nostrils is to allow the true nostrils to enlarge without distorting the face. The openings of the nostrils are guarded on each side by cartilages, and these are acted upon by the muscles of the nose and lips. There are four distinct cartilages attached to the nostrils,
which are exceedingly elastic, and bring them back to their ordinary dimensions whenever the muscles cease to act. The bones, also, of the nose are tapered off to a point, to give a wider range for the action of the muscles ; while the carti- lages are so constructed as not only to discharge the office above referred to but also to prevent this tapering point of bone from injury. Blaine thus summarizes the physiology of the nasal
organs:—" Comparative anatomy shows that the sense of emell is in most animals placed at the entrance of the |
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respiratory organs; by which they are made subservient to
both purposes of breathing and smelling; and by the same means are rendered as well voluntary as involuntary agent8; for the action of respiration will carry all the effluvia from bodies, whether sought for or not, against the sensitive pituitary membrane. The herbivorous tribes smell vegetable matters, and have an abhorrence of all fleshy odours. 1° all the vertebrated animals, the parts connected with the organ of smell are, like the parts composing the other organs of sense, doublé. The cognizance taken of the volatile portions of bodies continually flying off from them, and impressed on the sensitive surface of the internal nostrils, is transmitted by the nervous expansion of the olfactory nerves to the brain ; where it produces the sensa- tion we understand by the name of smell." III. TUE EAR AND ITS CONSTRÜCTION.
The ear consists of an inner and an outer part, called the
external and internal ear The form of the outer ear, which shall be first considered, is adrnirably adapted to the habits of the animal; it consists of that part which is visible, from its root at the temporal bone to the point. I* is formed by a fiexible yet firm cartilage of an oval shape, hollow, and terminating in a point. It is varied in lts motions ; and as the horse is generally seen with the conch, or shell, of one ear directed forward and the other back- ward, there seems good reason to conclude that the sense ot hearing is the only doublé sense that is equally true when one side only is brought into use.* The hair within the shell of the ear is long and fine, guarding it from tne entrance of insects, dust, or foreign objects fioating in the air. The clipping of this hair is a silly and dangerous practice. There is a peculiar gland inside each ear, which secretes a scaly whitish and greasy substance. The cartilages of the ear are three. The concha, °r
shell, is the conical body which gives it form ; it is covered by the skin, and clothed with muscles. This cartilage 19 attached to the skull-bone (cranium), through the second, the annular (ring-shaped) cartilage, a small movable body- The third is the angular cartilage placed upon the f°re" head, and which moves with the other cartilages by mea»3 of the muscles of the ear. The muscles of the ear are twelve in number. They raise»
depress, and partly rotate the ears. A specific descript1011 of the office of each would be tedious and useless, save i° the dissecting theatre. The meatus auditorius (Lat. meo, to flow, to run), lS
partly bony, partly cartilaginous. It is lined with fine |
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* Dr. Arnott, ia his Element* of Physics, says :—" When horses
mules march in company at night, those in front direct their «■ forwards ; those in the rear direct them backward ; and those u* centre turn them laterally or across. The whole troop seeming th be actuated by one feeling, which watches over the general s»te (vol. i. p. 478.) |
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE.—THE EAR, &c.
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201
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eöuated skin, which is stretched across its base, and has
veral follicles (Lat, folliculus, a little bag), to secrete the ear-wax. |
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partly bony, conducting immediately to the internal mecha-
nism of the ear. This canal (the external auditory passage) has at its base, stretching across it and closing it, the mem- brane called the drum, or tympanum. The vibrations now reach the four little bones already described. In Mr. Youatt's popular volume, " The Horse" (pp. 68—72), pub- lished by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, is an amusing and fanciful account, borrowed from human surgery, of the functions of these bones. These speculations are purely conjectural as regards the horse, and may, there- fore, be passed over. What follows is more to our present purpose. The impression, then, has been conveyed, by the medium
of the bones, from the membrane of the drum to the mem- brane on which the stirrup rests, anu which closes the fenestra ovalis, opening into the labyrinth of the ear. . Passing the fenestra ovalis, we arrive at the seat of hear-
ing. A very irregular cavity presents itself, filled with an aqueous fluid, while the substance or pulp of the soft por- tion of the seventh pair of nerves (the auditory nerve) ex- pands on the membrane which lines the walls of this cavity. These interior chambers are filled with water instead of air, because it is not one-hundredth part so expansible, and, moreover, its powers of conducting sound are so much groater, that while sound passes through air at the rate of 1,132 feet in a second, it passes through water 4,000 teet in the same time. Sound, too, is propagated more intensely through water than through air. The fenestra ovalis opens into the labyrinth, which is
divided into three compartments. First is the vestibule; on the upper side are several foramina, or holes, which conduct to the semicircular canals, also containing fluid. The hinder one is a perfectly semicircular canal, with two openings into the vestibule. The other two run into each other in a part of their course, and have one common opening, and one peculiar to each; so that these canals open into the vestibule by five apertures. On the other side is another complex mechanism, of which
the use is not known. It is the cochlea, a spiral lamina, which at the top approaches the Eustachian tube. The cribriform plate extends beyond the base of the
cochlea to the vestibule, and those portions of nerve there enter which spread over the vestibule and the semicircular canals ; but the principal part of it seems to be given to the cochlea. What is the distinct and peculiar office of these parts, so curiously and yet so diflerently constructed, we know not. In the horse the cochlea is much larger, com- pared with the canals, than it is in the ox or sheep ; but for what especial purpose we are unable to determine. Nor can we account for the large pouch-shaped opening of the'Eusta- chian tube in the horse, nor for the small development of the mastoid cells in the horse, while they are exceedingly large in the ox. There are many parts of the frame, the precise use or function of which we cannot ascertain; but, as far as we do understand the mechanism of the Tarious |
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the
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ne membrana tympani is a delicate membrane covering
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e cavity called the drum (Lat., tympanum) of the ear, over
lch it is expanded, and separates the outer from the inner
r" The tympanum, which is roundish in form, is therefore
he first cavity of the internal ear.
Aöe mechanism of the internal ear is so beautiful an
a«iple of creative design, that a brief description is
^anded; the various parts here mentioned are figured
<* referred to in Plate VI., Fig. 1, and its accompanying
aes<*iption.
Tv, . * ae cavity of the tympanum contains four small bones,
lted to the membrane and to each other. These are called
teus (the hammer), incus (the anvil), stapes (the stirrup), a orbicularis (globe-like), from supposed resemblances to
ose objects. All these bones are moved by muscles,
lch it is here superfluous to describe. The internal ear sents several openings. The mastoid cells are small 'hes in the substance of the mastoid (Gr., mastos, the PP'«, oidos, like—nipple-shaped), processes of the hard
J^Pfe bone. They are lined by a fine membrane, com-
"icate with each other, and have a common opening
r to the entrance to the Eustachian canal.
Th |
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i ue fenestra ovalis (Lat., oval window), is an opening
^een the tympanum and the vestibule (Lat., a porch), a
tli '^ ^USt ^eyond that of the tympanum. Below this is
fenestra rotunda (Lat., round window). The semicircular
s are three bony passages leading into the vestibule ;
lastly, the cochlea (Lat., cochlea, a spoon), a spiral
al inside the opening of the vestibule into the tym-
patlUm.
Tv>
e Eustachian tube (from Eustachius its discoverer),
* s at the upper and front edge of the hollow of the
t^ Paöum by a small slit in the bony wall, and passes 0f ,Ce through the petrous part of the temporal bone, part int 6 SP en°i^) when it becomes cartilaginous, and expands etn G Suttural pouch. The guttural pouches are large and cel] ï ^s *n *^e h°rse> connected only by transparent 8e r tissue, and each closed by a valvular opening which out ** ^rom ^e nose- The nerves of the inner and Pair 6ar are fumished by the soft portion of the seventh
fei ' ne blood is supplied by the carotid arteries, and rt,, ^ tne jugular veins.
bod4 Sense of hearing is thus excited:—The collision of
are Pr°duces the phenomena called sounds, and these |
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Süfj. eries of waves or tremblings communicated to the
ester i me<^um,—air> water, &c.,—until they reach the CatcV,;^ efr' w^ich, in the horse, is remarkably adapted for |
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Th ^ ese sonorous waves.
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thr0vt i 0Un<i collected by the concha, outer ear, passes
^rou V, • ^ower or annular (ring-shaped) cartilage, and
it, Car 1're§ularities, which, while they break and modify
on to another canal, partly cartilaginous and
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k
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STRUCTÜRE OF THE HORSE.—THE TONGUE, &c.
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202
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food into their mouths, but in its preparation by mastication,
by disposing it under the grinders, again collecting it, and conveying it to the back of the mouth to be swallowed. I*3 use in discriminating flavours -we shall immediately notice. The Taste is originated or resides in the nervous papih®
of the tongue ; and the importance of these organs to quad- rupeds is evinced by their great number and length. By **> " what to eat, drink, and avoid," is a question of almost i** fallible solution ; deleterious or poisonous food being imme- diately rejected, unless disguised so as to prove the rule by the exception. Taste -would appear to be absent when the mouth and the food are completely dry: but in this case the saliva at once comes to the rescue. Liquids are therefoi"e much more quickly and discriminately tasted than solids; the latter requiring mixture with the saliva, and mastica- tion, for their due appreciation. The tongue in the horse, a3 in most vertebrated animals, is endued with high sensibiht/ in this respect; but its discrimination is heightened b/ the co-operation of the sympathetic nerves of smellinê- Who that has ever seen the loathing -with which a horse turns from a greasy bucket, before he has even touched the -water it contains, but must own the intimate connection °' these senses? Closely connected, too, with this organization, is the
action of the salivary glands. These are three in number on each side. The first and largest pair are called the parotidglands.\ (See Tlate VI.) These are situate on eaco side, in the hollow formed by the articulation of the head an" neck, extending from the root of the ear to the angle of t&e lower ja-w. It is formed of lobes (Gr., lobos, a rounded body)) connected hy celiular membrane. From each lohe issue9 a vast number of small ducts, which finally unite in a tube which empties the saliva into the mouth. This tube, the parotid duet, on leaving the gland, passes along t"e inner side ot the jawbone ; then, in company vrith the sub- maxillary artery, crosses below the bone, and then ente1"9 the mouth near the third grinding tooth. These ducts wi* discharge a pint and a half to a quart of fluid per hour Jfl the mastication of moderately dry food. . The next pair of salivary glands is called the submaxiUo^'
They are much less in volume than the parotids, and &te embedded in the channel between the sides of the lower ja*' They are also composed of a number of kernels, each havip£ its proper duet, which unite in one trunk, and penetrate the buccal muscle, and open in and upon the freenum or bn"]e of the tongue, about a couple of inches from the front teet*1- The terminations of these ducts are marked by small b«lbS or projections, -which, after the disease known as |
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animals which pass under our notice, all is admirable in
adaptation to its purpose. IV. TUE TONGUE AND ITS ORGANIZATION.----TASTE.----THE
PALATE.
The Tongue is the large fleshy body for the reception of
■which the cavity of the mouth seems to have been specially formed. It is composed of a bundie of small muscles, •which unite to form its body, mixed with glandular sub- stance and fatty matter. It is covered by the mucous membrane called the buccal (Lat., bucca, mouth), which also covers the gums and the palate. The top of the tongue has papillae* of considerable size at the sides; towards the tip they are smaller. The tongue is free from the lower part of the mouth for a short distance from its lower end ; thence it is fastened to the bottom of the mouth by a fold of the lining membrane called the frasnum (Lat. for bridle). At its base the tongue is fixed to the os hyoides (see ante, Bones and Muscles), and to this most of its muscles are attached. The tongue is a doublé organ ; that is, all its muscles are
in pairs. The fibres too, if traced, -will be found to cross each other net-fashion ; that is, those of the right side end upon the left side of the tongue, and vice versa. These muscles consist of five pairs and a small single one.f The nerves are the lingual, or mouth pair, which effect its
motions; the gustatory (tasting), a branch of the fifth pair; and the glosse-f haryngeus (Gr., tongue-tliroat) nerve, of -which. the olossal branch only goes to the tongue, and is supposed also to confer a peculiar delicacy of sympathetic sensation to the organ. The arteries of the tongue are derived from the hranch of
the carotids beneath the jaw-bone, and the blood returned into the jugular (throat) veins. The protrusion of the tongue is an action someWhat
difficult to explain clearly. If -we gire to the muscles of the tongue the single property ascribed to them by anatomists, that of contraction, -we shall be at a loss to account for a body "wholly of muscle being elongated and propelled out of the mouth, and, moreover, at the same time, moved in almost every direction according to the will. The glan- dular and the fatty matter interposed may account for some of this peculiar action, by their hardness, and partial resist- ance, acting in some measure like bone; but the question is too purely scientific to deserve space for its discussion in a work like the present. The tongue is of great assistance to animals, in place of
hands. It is not only engaged in the process of taking the |
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d
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by ignorant farriers are called Vives, and made the suhjf
of barbarous treatment. Barbs or Paps, in inflammatl°'! of the mouth, often sequent on catarrh, are also *ea,i* in these projections, and brutal torture is inflicted o» * animal with knife and cautery by the farrier. % Gr. from para, near, ons, otis, the ear.
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* From the Lat. papus (nipple of the breast). The papillae are ter-
minations of nerves. These minute projecting filaments are said each, -with much probability, to contain a separate branch of the nerves of touch. t These are called Ilyoglossus brevis (a pair), Ilyoglossus ïongus (a
pair), Accessories (two pairs), Genio hyoglossus (a pair), and the iingualis (single). These all attach in different ways to the os kyoides. |
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203
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STRUCTURE OF THE HORSE—THE TONGUE, &c
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^ "e sublingual glands are the third source of saliva.
üey are yet smaller than the submaxillary, but more
ümerous. They open by numerous little ducts, \vhich
ay be seen on each side of the mouth. The openings
resemble little folds of the skin of the mouth and under-
lue of the tongue. When inflamed they have the appear-
nce of small pimples, and receive a number of absurd
aïïles, as gigs, flops, and bladders, and the farrier cuts them
off or burns them down !
-oesides these six great sources of supply, there are little
^ ands scattered about the whole cavity of the mouth.
, Se are the labial glands on the inner surface of the Ups,
e buccal glands on each side of the mouth, folliculose and
nu^ous glands on the interior of the mouth, surface of the
°^gue, and soft palate. These all take part in or sympa-
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raise the velum palati. The horse, except in coughing,
therefore breathes through his nostrils. The soft palate has much glandular matter in its substance. It has one lifting muscle (levator palati) and two depressors. The last- named pair keep the soft palate in its place resting on the epiglottis. We shall have something more to say of this when we come to Swallowing (deglutition) and Respiration. The fauces merely designate a part at which several
structures join. Eight distinct parts open into the fauces, the two guttural pouches, two Eustachian tubes, the pha- rynx, the larynx, the mouth, and the nasal orifices, which have only one common opening—the nasal septum or divi- sion ending before reaching the fauces. The gums are a compact, elastic substance, surrounding
the neck of each tooth, and, adhering to its periosteum, support it firmly in all directions. The buccal membrane covers them and lines the mouth. The gums, in health, have little feeling; but when diseased they are intensely sensitive. The Ups of the horse are highly endowed with feeling. This
may be seen by the combination of touch and smell when the horse is gathering his food. As he collects it, the deli- cate sensibility of the upper lip, aided by the olfactory nerves, enables the animal to reject all poisonous or unsavoury plants, and receive only the grateful and nutritive food. Grooms and farriers are well aware of this sensitiveness, and accordingly screw on. the twitch. heTe, to paxalyse and dominate the animal. The internal parts of the mouth are supplied with blood
by the inferior and superior maxillary arteries, after passing through the foram'ma in the upper and lower jaws. The facial artery and the lateral nasal also pour in blood. Motion is derived from the portiodura (facial) nerve, and the sense of touch from the supramaxillary branch of the fifth pair. We here leave the cavity of the mouth. We shall con-
sider the pharynx and cesophagus with the stomach; the larynx and bronchice with the lungs and respiratioa. |
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th
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lse with the salivary secretion or its diseased retention.
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Th
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e palate of the horse has two divisions, the hard and
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t
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e soft.
, "e hard palate is full of vessels, and is formed of con-
er*sed cellular tissue. It lines the roof of the mouth, and
divided into ridges called bars. (See Anatomy, Plate V.,
* 3, and Plate VI., fig. 2.) The use of these is the
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ret
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injng of the food within the mouth in the act of
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th*
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tication. For an account of the barbarity practised on
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part, see Art. Lampas, post. Bleeding in the palatine
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, n for Staggers, &c, will be noticed under the proper
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<*ead.
*he soft palate (velum or -veil) falls down beuind the
nö«e, where it divides the mouth from the fauces. It is
eXpauded uvula (diminution of Lat, uva, grape orberry)
gering to the arch of the pakte hone, where the hard
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7
Slo
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lts lower loose edge rests upon the epi-
^ (Gr., epi upon, glotta the tongue), at the opening of the ƒ flx, called the glottis. Sloping in this direction, it is easily Sed by any substance or fluid seeking to pass from the |
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^outh
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, and is closed more firmly by anything coming in the
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°PPosite
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direction. Air itself has not body enough to
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.
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204
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CHAPTER XX.
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.—VISCERA OF THE THORAX (CHEST), THEIR MUSCLES, MEMBRANES, AND VESSEL&-—
THE HEART : ARTERIES : VEINS AND CAPILLARIES : THE BLOOU : CIRCULATION.—THE LUNGS : THE LARTNX : THE TRACHEA ; BRONCHIAL TUEES : RESPIRATION, CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL. |
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above, called auricles (little-ears, from Lat., auris, the ear)-
Each of these ventricles has two large openings, one into the auricle, or upper cavity, the other forming the mouth of a large artery. The cavities are separated by a muscular or fleshy partition called a septum. The right ventricle h»s within it curious fleshy pillars, called by anatomists carnet columnce, from which proceed tendinous cords (cortina te®~ dinea), attached to three valves between the right aurid6 and ventricle, shutting them off from each other wbeB closed. The left ventricle is longer than the right, bu1 smaller in size, and has much thicker walls. The rig«* auricle is irregularly round, and has two large openings f°r blood, each being the mouth of a vena cava. The Wl auricle is more muscular though smaller, and receives tbe pulmonary (lung) veins, five in number. It has also soifle fleshy and tendinous cords, or contractile braces. The valv&> too, are strong membranous appendages, and there are a'3 valves at the commencement of each artery, as well & between the auricles and ventricles. Those to the pulmonar; artery are called the semilunar; that of the right auric»e' the tricuspid (from having three flaps) ; that of the left, ^ mitral (from having two flaps). The use of these valves i to prevent the return of the blood ; for the aorta (Gr., aori ' coffer, ark) never being entirely empty when the ventnc' dilates, the blood remaining in the artery would be sucke_ back but for this contrivance—the pressure closing the se»11 lunar valves. The heart is furnished with blood for its o* sustenanceby the coronary arteries, it being returned by ti5 coronary veins. Its nerves come from the eighth pair—tlJ cardiac plexus, consistingprincipally of the^ar vagum a" sympathetic nerves. (See Brain and Nerves, ante, p- ^ [ Such is the main apparatus by which circulation is ii>itiat and carried on, with the aid of arteries and veins. The Arteries f are elastic tubes originating from tne ve
tricles of the heart by two great trunks, the aorta and t pulmonic, the subdivisions of which supply the whole "° ] with blood. They are mostly seated deep under muscle bone, for their better security. Some arteries, however> |
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.
The second great cavity of the body, the thorax, or chest,
contains the central organs of circulation and respiration. The first consists of the heart and the two great lobes of the lungs, with their appendages. When the chest is opened, a smooth bright membrane is perceived, lining its internal surface and covering its contents. Each side of the chest has its own pleura (Gr., pleura, the side), or lining membrane, and they doublé and join together in the middle of the chest into a strong septum (or division) called the mediastinurn;* besides this rib-lining (called pleura costalis), and lung- lining (called, pleura pulmonaris), there is a third for the heart, of smaller size ; they are all serous membranes, as such, secreting a fluid called serum, and preventing friction from the constant motion of the parts. The left pleura is smaller than the right, the right lung having an extra lobe, and therefore requiring a larger sac to hold it. The heart is farther continued in a bag called pericardium (Gr., peri, around, cardia, the heart), lined by the pleura just mentioned. This membrane usually contains about an ounce of pale yellow lubricating fluid. The use of the pericardium is to confine the heart in its situation, to sustain it in its reciprocal action with the lungs, to guard it from any undue collision, and to serve as a general protection to the heart. When the pericardium becomes inflamed, an undue secretion of this fluid is induced, sometimes to such an extent as to obstruct the action of the heart. (See Pericarditis, and Dropsy or THE Heart, post.) The great muscles and membrane of respiration, the
intercostals and the midriffov diaphragm (Gr., diaphragma, from diaphrasso, to separate by a partition), we shall speak of presently. The Heart itself is a large hollow involuntary muscle of
immense power: that is, its action is independent of the will of the animal, which is not the case with the organs of respiration, the action of which the animal can suspend for a short period, accelerate, or retard. There are four cavities in the heart (see Anatomy, Plate XII.), two below; called ventricles (diminutive of Lat., venter, a belly), and two |
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that of the lower jaw, run close to the surface ; and it is *
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sure
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this circumstance, and the jawbone resisting the preS
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fbe
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1
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f Artery, from the Greek arleria, signifying an air-vessei.
ancients, ignorant of the circulation of the blood, finding the »r alwaya empty after death, supposed they were tubes containing *•*' |
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* Formed from the Latin, quasi in medio stans, as standing in the
middle. |
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCÜLATION AND RESPIRATION.
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20b
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the finger, that the submaxillary artery is feit for the
se of the horse. The outer coat is condensed cellular
fp "Ue»so elastic as to keep the artery cylindrical when empty.
e middle coat is of a yellow elastic tissue, and the in-
nal coat a serous tissue, like synovial membrane. By
Conveying the blood to the different parts of the body, the
eries keep up the vital principle, bearing nutriment and
at; and as the heart is the first propelling power, so the
, ^ries, being distended by the column of blood, contract
eir muscular coats and drive the fluid continuously on-
r<*' The dilatation and contraction is called the pulse,
*s perceptible in the larger branches, but not in the
y small ones, except in cases of inflammation. It is
e^vorthy that the arteries of the horse have a much
»er proportion of the elastic coat than those of man, and
nce acute inflammations in the horse run their fatal
^rse far more quickly.
he principal arteries of the horse are :—the aorta divid-
e into posterior and anterior; the posterior aorta, whieh
ftisb.es blood to all parts except the head and fore-limbs ;
'voiliac; the inguinal (groin); the renal (kidney); the
senteric (intestinal); and the femoral (thigh) arteries.
j "e anterior aorta supplies the head and fore extremities.
ls continued to the near third rib, when it divides into
^ branches called arterioz innominatm (nameless arteries).
e 'e/i! branch supplies the dorsal to the back, and two verte-
, s to the spine. The right branch of the aorta is much
, £er and longer than the left. After giving off several
"ches (see plate), it becomes the common carotid, which
t, n ^ides into the right and left carotids* supplying
Öl0st important vital and sentient organs of the head
d train.
"e axillary artery, as furnishing the fore extremities
, blood, is next in importance. It gives branches to the
a era' (shouldeT), that again a branch to the brachial,
th ^e scaPu^a an(i ribs ; again behind the fore-leg to
0"eat of the " spur vein." A branch becomes the radial
ne, fore-arm) artery,Y/hich. proceeds downwards, now
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We have said that the contraction and dilatation of arteries
produces the pulse. The pulse of a middle-aged horse in health is from thirty-six to forty beats per minute ; when slower it indicates debility, when accelerated, inflammatory disorder. It is sixty in the colt at birth, but gradually de- creases till fuil growth. The smaller the horse, the more rapid the pulse, all other things being equal. The tho- rough-bred, from higher irritability, is quicker in the beat by five or six pulsations per minute than the heavy and coarse-bred animal. The pulse will receive due medical consideration when we come to treat of fever and inflam- mation. We may state that the arteries of the horse are seldom, if ever, found ossified, a circumstance of frequent occurrence in man. The Veins and Capillaries. Veins are the general ter-
mination of arteries, their extremities commencing from them, after the manner of two trees joined by the extremi- ties of their branches. They collect the remnants of the blood whieh the arteries had distributed over the body, and convey it ba«k to the heart, to be prepared for taking a fresh round over the frame. The veins are furnished wi'th valves on their inteunal surface, which are so constructed as to permit the blood to flow cowards the heart, but to pre- vent its return. These valves are in great abundance, being found at the distance of only an inch, or even in less space, from each other; they are folds of the internal coat of the vein, and are generally to be met with three toge- ther, in the horse. Valves are not equally distributed throughout the veins of the horse. In some parts, where the blood has to travel upwards, against gravity, they are numerous ; when it has to flow downwards, there are few or none. There are few in the viscera. In the jugular vein (Plate VI., Fig. 5) the valves are all placed opening towards the heart. Thus, when the horse is standing with his head elevated, the blood has only to fall through the vein, the valves being open, but when he has his head lowered, as in feeding, and the venous blood has to return upwards (or against gravity), the valves act and prevent its descending. All the branches of the veins, returning from the different
parts of the body, run into two great trunks, called cavas, which are inserted into the right auricle of the heart; the anterior cava conveys the blood returning from the head and anterior parts of the animal, whilst the pos- terior cava conveys that returning from all the hinder parts of the animal. Both empty their contents, as before observed, into the right auricle of the heart. Again, the blood distributed over the lungs, is also re- turned to the heart by eight pulmonary veins in the horse, but only by four in the human subject. These eight trunks are formed from the venous ramifications spread over the lungs, and empty themselves into the left auricle of the heart. The structure of the veins diflers from that of the arteries, the former being much more thin in their sides, and having no pulsation; and hence the blood is |
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n lng the flexor ïauscles ; yet lower, it is the metacarpal
tb • ^e wrist) artery, and goes down under the nerve on ïu T.ner s^e °f the leg; thence, at the lower part of the can- it divides just above the fetlock into two plantar a ," or sole) arteries, on the sides of the pastern bone, R ^ the back of the foot, where each sends a branch into 0f , ty frog. The main trunks continue along the wings th . Porous coffin-bone, bend downward, and, uniting, form sol lr°Un\flex artery, which runs round the margin of the subio x General Anatomy of the Foot will complete this |
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'Ject,
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öiajj "^-n examination of the anatomical plates will
ain0 arteries and their courses more clear than any
^Uof verbal description.
* p" —"---------------------------------------------■-----------—------------
^0llght th Greek car5° (to cause to sleep); because the ancients
taia to sle686 Vesaels suPPÜed the vapour or spirit which sent the |
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206
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.
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forced through them principally by the impetus occasioned
by the contraction of the heart and arteries, and which is communicated to it while passing through the veins. This, perhaps, is one reason why they are much more numerous in their branches than are the arteries, and also why they anastomose* more frequently ; for otherwise, the injuries these delicate vessels are liable to in their passage between the muscles must interrupt the circulation, and be produc- tive of bad consequences. This provision for guarding the circulation of the blood agamst obstruction, by multiplying the venous Communications, is particularly to be seen in the foot of the horse, Avhere a most beautiful net-work is formed by innumerable branches of veins running into each other. The Capillary Vessels (Lat., capilla, a hair) are so called
from their minute fineness. Small as they are, they are in- dispensable to nutrition, calorification, secretion; indeed, every great function of the living body is performed mainly by these little channels. The great blood-vessels known as arteries pump the blood from the heart, and the veins return it exhausted. The arteries are arborescent, and increase in number and diminish in size as they become more distant from the circulatory centre ; in like marmer the veins branch out and anastomose. Now between these dwindling terminations of the arteries and the begin- nings of the veins, coines the peculiar network of countless vessels called the Capillary System. Some of these are large enough to admit three or four red globules of blood, some only one, and most will pass nothing but the serum or fluid part. Minute research upon this subject would overload these pages; the functions and organization of the capillaries will be found in Schwann's Microscopieal Ob- servations of Animals, translated by II. Smith, and Paget's Supplement to Holler'8 Physiology. OF THE BLOOD.
Blood, in its primary or essential character, is alike in
all animals. It is red in the higher orders, though its in- tensity of colour varies much under different circumstances. Venous blood is almost purple, and arterial of a bright red colour, for causes we shall note when we come to respira- tion. The temperature of the blood of the healthy horse is about 100° (98-24° in Tiedemann's comparative tables), of man 98°, the ox 104°, the dog 101°, the cat and monkey 103°, pigeon, hen, and duck 109° to 111°. Arterial blood is one degree warmer than venous. In fever a rise of 3 to 7 degrees is not uncommon. The specific gravity of blood varies, as well as its tempera-
ture. Water being taken as 1000, blood may be estimated at 1050 specific gravity, and it has been found to bear the proportion of 1120 to 1000. Venous blood is heavier than arterial. |
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The quantity of blood in an animal, in proportion to its
size, also varies. Very fat animals have less in proportion than lean ones ; and it is said the domesticated horse has less than the wild animal of the Pampas. A middle-sized horse has had forty-four pounds taken from him. The blood, while circulating in the body, is composed of two
parts, a liquid and a solid. The one called by human ana- tomistb liquor sanguinis, the other, cellular in its character» blood-corpuscles, or globules. When blood is allowed to stand after being taken from the body, it separates into two distinct parts, one the solid portion, which contains the corpuscles and the fibrin or coagulable lymph, called the clot or crassd- mentum, the other the pale yellowish fluid called serum- The process of separation is termed coagulation. Tae proportion of red globules, fibrin, and serum, varies in different animals. The red particles seem connected Wit" the strength and excitability of organs, as the parts sub- jected to the greatest exertions,—as muscles,—have most of them; colour being attended with development ol flesh. Fibrin, however, appears the chief nutritive consti- tuent of the vital fluid. If the serum and red globules are separated from it, a tough, white, fibrous mass remams» which in general character and chemical composition re" sembles muscular fibre deprived of its membranes an" colouring matter. This forms the solids of the body, even to the callus of bones. It coagulates spontaneously, is dis* solved in alkalies, but not in oils, spirits, or water. Spon' taneous coagulation is much slower in the blood of tne horse than in that of man; the human blood " sets' lü seven or eight minutes in ordinary temperatures ; that ° the horse takes twenty-four hours to coagulate. The fluid basis of the blood (serum) serves to dilute i >
and forms almost one- half of its bulk. It is slightly saline' and less putrefactive than the coagulum. It remains fluid i» those degrees of heat between 30 and 160 degrees Fahrer) heit: with a less heat it freezes; in a greater it partia'; coagulates. It appears chemically composed of album^' gelatin, saline matter, and a considerable quantity of flul ' which drains from it, called the serosity. Serum appear not only the fluid base of the blood, but it also dilutes a the secretions : when morbidly increased, it gives rise1 dropsy. The blood, therefore, is viewed as a compounde fluid, made up of these several parts, and which, considere as an aggregate, is the most essential component of a animal. All parts of the body are formed of it; and a parts of the body can be resolved again into it, by means the absorbents; hence we must conclude that there lS very intimate connection between the solids and the fluids- The absorbents and excretories will come to be considere
presently. The practice and indications of Bleeding w1 find their place under Ikflammatory Disorders, and O^8* TIONS. ,
Minute analyses of the blood of men and animals, a
much curious information, may be found by those " would exhaust the subject, in Quain's Anatomy (by Sharpw ' |
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* Gr. ana (between), stoma (a mouth). The Latin word inosculala
means the same thing, the opening of one vessel into another, as do the arteries, veins, and lymphatics (capillaries). |
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.
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207
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J^penter's Physiology, Liebig's Animal Chemistry, Milne-
yards's article " Blood," in the Cyclopwdia of Anatomy an<t Physiology, &c. THE CTRCUIATION OF TUE BLOOD.
ouch is the apparatus,-—heart, arteries, veins, and capil-
,ries,-—by which the circulation is effected, and the compo-
1011 of the fluid which is circulated. Themanner in which
e blood is sent to every part of the frame may be thus
aescribed. There are two circulations : one the general or
y sater, the second, the pulmonary (hing) circulation. We
* take the first or greater circulation. The blood is now
aung the left auricle, which being stimulated contracts,
üthe left ventricle dilating, theblood is forcedinto the lower
^avity on the left side. The left ventricle is filled, and, con-
acting, sends the vital stream into the aorta; that also
_ ntracts upon the pressure from within, driving it into the
febt and left aorta, and so on into all the ramifications of
Mood-vessels and the capillaries. Having performed its
°e> it is returned from the capillaries by the veins ;
~> lastly, by the two great cavas (veins) into the right
(o e °^ tüe heart. This doublé pump acts synchronously
"■> syn, together, chronos, time), the right and left ven-
Jcle contracting and dilating at the same instant, and the
ricles following suit. Thus, at the moment the left ven-
cie pumps its contents into the aorta, the right ventricle
. Pties itself into the pulmonary artery. Therefore, as the
auricle receives the pulmonary blood at the same time
the right auricle receives the venous blood from the two
a veins, the dilatation and contraction are simultaneous.
atomists call these the systole (Gr., systolè, contrac-
. ■)> and the diastole (Gr., diastole, dilatation). The sys-
sends the blood into the aorta and the pulmonary
r)r> and produces what we call the pulsation or beating
,the heart.
"e second is the pulmonic circulation. This is carried
s iollows :—the two cava veins pour their stream into
right auricle, wht-i that cavity uilates after its muscular
eze. ~Vy"hen ^ contracts again, it sends it into the right
i . ric*e ; thence it is urged into the pulmonary artery,
g prevented from returning in each case by the valves
J^J described. By the division of the pulmonary artery
th . tlle lunSs (see Plate XII.,) the blood is exposed to
ir-cells, and is changed in the capillaries from venous
Th 6fla^ ^lood, in other words, is aërated, or oxygenated.
jj , l0°d, thus restored in colour and stimulus, is brought
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THE LT7NGS, THE LAKYNX, AND BROSCBIAL TUBES.
The cavity of the chest is filled by two soft and slightly
elastic masses called the Lunos. They are dividecl into two large sections, one on each side the body, which again are subdivided into lobes ; but the grand division is into the right and left lung; each lying within its respective side ol the chest; and, as well as the internal surface of the ribs, being lined or " varnished " with the thin membrane (the pleura) already described. The right lung has four lobes, the left, three only, as we have before noticed. The colour of the lungs varies with age ; in the colt they are pink, in the full-grown horse, darker red ; in the old horse, bluish- grey and granulated. The larynx (Plate V., Fig. 3, Plate XII., Fig. 5), which is
the commencement of the windpipe (trachea), opens in the fauces (see ante), forming a cartilaginous box, which is the seat of the voice. It has five pieces, connected with the os hyoides. (See Tongue, &c.) The larynx has six cartilages ; the thyroid (Gr., thyros, a sliield, oidos, like), cricoid (Gr., cricos, a ring, and oidos), two arytenoid (Gr., arytaina, a funnel, and oidos), and the epiglottis (Gr., epi upon, glotta the tongue). The larynx is further coated with muscles
within and without, giving it an immense range of move- ments. The lining membrane of the larynx is the most sensitive of the whole animal system. A grain of any sub- stance, or even a drop of water, passing on to it, throws the animal into an involuntary and uncontrollable spasmodic coughing. It is thus the sentinel and guardian of the passage to the delicate apparatus of the lungs. Its folds are called the ventricles (bags) of the larynx, and it also covers the various ligaments extended across the tube, called the voice-cords (cordce vocales). The arteries of the larynx are tho carotids, the veins
empty themselves into the jugulars ; the nerves, the recur- rents and superior laryngeal, both from the eighth pair (par vagum). The variations of sound emitted by the voice of quadru-
peds appear to be governed principally by the number and form of the sacs of the larynx. There are usually three of these ; one of them is seen under the vault formed by the anterior boundary of the thyroid cartilage, having its aper- ture near the root of the epiglottis. The other two are oblong sinuses contained between the lateral walls of the glottis and the thyroid cartilage. In the horse these sacs are very long and wide, and are not unlike the usual ven- tricles of the glottis. The aperture of the outer cavity is very large in the horse ; in the ass, the opening into each of the three sacs is a small hole, and the anterior sac forms a bag-like cavity. In the mule these organs differ, but their anatomical formation is in general blended between those of the horse and ass. Neighing appears to be produced by expirations, as are most
of the vocal tones from the horse. The vibrations produced by the resonance of different sized cavities, assisted by |
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^° the heart (the left auricle) by the pulmonary veins.
It is note-
7 that this is the reverse of the greater circulation, in-
v-^uch as h, vems |
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T
"
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be return arterial blood. These two circulations, it will
tne r,n' 0rm but one direct round for the transmission of °°d through the whole system. |
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THE ORGANS OF CIRCÜLATION AND RESPIRATION.
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2Ö8
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movements of the cartilages of the nostrils, produce the
compound sounds which are emitted. Knuckering, as it is termed, is only a lesser neigh, with
shorter, deeper, and less forcible tones, expressive of affec- tion and joy. The horse has one acute sound, produced by the act of inspiration, -which usually expresses either play or lust; but in most other instances sound is produced by the hovse by expelling air. The tongue, teeth, and lips are not much concerned in the voice of the horse. The trachea (or windpipe) is a large canal arising from
the ring-like (cricoid) cartilage of the larynx, and reaching down the front of the neck into the chest. It is formed of more than fifty rings of cartilage, tapering from the front, having a strong muscular band their whole length, which unites them but does not fix them in position, thus leaving the trachea perfectly flexible. Outside of it is fastened a cel- lular substance; inside, it is lined by a mucous membrane, the secretion defending it against changes in atmospheric temperature. At the third dorsal vertebra it separates into two branches {ilie bronchial tubes), the principal divisions of which again branch off before they enter the lungs ; and these again subdivide into numerous tubes, ending m small cavities known as the air-cells of the lungs. We have said that the broncliial tubes are branchings off
of the larynx They are composed of many pieces of car- tilage, connected together by fine ligament (see Plate XII.) ; the cartilages becoming almost imperceptible as the tubes grow fine or approach the air-cells. The right and larger branch of the bronchiae, given to the right lung, quickly divides into three trunks. The left, which is the longer, from the necessity it has to stretch itself under the poste- rior aorta, divides into two principal trunks. The bronchiae are lined throughput by the same mucous membrane as the larynx and trachea, furnishing a moisture that loads the expired air or breath. The extreme ramifications of the bronchiaj, as has been previously stated, end in minute air- cells ; over whose surfaces are spread, in exquisite minute- ness, the capillary ramifications of the pulmonary arteries, whose trunks accompany the bronchiae to the lungs side by side. The pulmonic veins receive the blood from the sur- face of the cells, whence it is by these last vessels returned. The lungs are themselves nourished by their appropriate arteries, whose blood is returned by bronchial veins, as ex- plained in the circulation of the blood. Their nerves are furnished from the sympathetic, and lymphatic vessels are distributed throughout them. The Diaphragm (see also Muscles, p. 190) forms a fleshy
and tendinous partition, dividing the cavity of the chest from that of the abdomen. It is of a broad circular form, flattened from before backwards ; its front surface is convex, and concave behind ; divided or forked above, and having two elongations or appendices extending backwards, with pointed extremities. On that side next the chest it is invested by the membrane which covers tne lungs, and towards the belly by that which covers the intestines. It |
adheres to the spine, the ribs, and the breast-bone by strong
muscular fibres. lts structure is fleshy and tendinous. Tfle fleshy parts are those which form the circumferent portions of the large muscle, and the principal part of the crura or appendices. The tendinous parts consist of a thin circular expansion, occupying the middle of the larger muscle, and uniting that with the lesser. Through the muscle are seen three remarkable openings, an upper one in the interspace between the crura, for the passage of the aorta; one a little lower, formed by the decussation of the crura, for the oesophagus; and the third, or lower one, perforating tbe cordiform, or heart-shaped tendon, for the reception of the posterior vena-cava. The diaphragm is the chief agent in respiration; it acts
in opposition to the abdominal muscles, which are the chiei expiratory powers. By the contraction of its radiated fibres, with the assistance of that of the crura, the cordiform tendoo is transformed to a plane surface, and the dimensions of the chest from front to back thereby considerably augmented- When this muscle acts, in consequence of the shortening oI its fibres, it loses its convexity, as above stated, and the chest being thereby enlarged as well as the lungs, the a1* rushes in, and inspiration is performed. This muscle als° assists in the natural constant motion of the bowels, lend' ing its powerful aid in expelling the faeces and urine; aD°> in females, facilitates the birth of the young animal. The membrane by which the diaphragm is covered is ver/
liable to inflammatory attacks. In all cases of disease ° the lungs and bowels, the diaphragm is almost certain t become inflamed andattended with considerableirritabiW/' and this is the cause of the breathing of the horse beiD» so much affected during inflammation of the chest aD abdomen. It is likewise concerned in coughing, ya*0 ing, and sighing. Sometimes it is ruptured by viole" over-exertion. We are, however, unable to give disti°c indications of this oondition ; but no instance is knoffn ° the animal surviving this injury. In cases of small ruptur some portion of the intestines insinuates itself into it, a°, there becomes entangled, so that an incurable obstructie»1 the consequence. In the event of a large aperture, tla |
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intestines protrude through it, and, by pressing upon ^
heart, totally suppress respiration. This organ perforins si* |
eb
be |
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an important part in the act of breathing, that it rr&J
easily imagined it is liable to be ruptured when the respira tion is strong and hurried. RESPIRATION, CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL.
Respiration is that function of the animal by whicö
various tissues of the body are subjected to the chei»lC influences of the oxygen of the atmosphere, and the carbo |
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acid thus formed expelled from the body. This is atte»
with the evolution of heat. In the higher animals, aS |
dea
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tbe
fe* |
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horse. this process is constant, its suspension for »
minutes causing death. When an animal thus ^ie9fpte deprivation of oxygen, he is said to be suffocated. |
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THE ORGANS OF CTRCULATION AND RESPIRATION.
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209
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aksorption of oxygen by the animal effects three great
öjects:—1. The preparation of the objects of food taken up y the glands and blood to the objects of nutrition. 2. The erïl°val of certain constituents which have performed their °lhce. 3. The production of heat, which produces the
accumulation in animals called " warm-blooded ;" any of
hese objects unfulfilled, the higher animals die more or less l^ickly.
Mechanically, inspiration is the act of drawing in the air
^ expanding the cells of the lungs to their utmost. This
lstends the walls (parietes) of the chest, presses back the
upon the stomach, liver, &c.; the expulsion of the
lr is expiration, the two movements respiration.
"he function of the lungs may be shortly stated. The
°°d, passing through the capillaries of the body, and con-
lQuting to the nourishment of the frame, and furnishing
the secretions, becomes, as we have described, changed.
13 no longer able to support life : it is possessed of a
P°isonous principle, and that principle is a superabundance
a- substance called carbon, -which must be got rid of before
. e blood can again be usefully employed. That ingrediënt
atrnospheric air called oxygen, has a strong attraction for
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are pressed into smaller compass, and a portion of the air
impregnated with the carbon, and rendered poisonous in its turn, is squeezed out. Presently the chest expands again, the lungs expand with it, and fresh pure air is admitted, which is shortly pressed out again, empoisoned by the car- bon of the blood. These alternate expansions and contrac- tions constitute the act of breathing. When the animal powerfully exerts himself, a more ample
supply of pure blood is required to sustain the energies of life, and the action of the muscles forces the blood more rapidly through the veins. Hence the quick and deep breathing of a horse at speed. Hence the necessity of a capacious chest, in order to yield an adequate supply, and the connection of this capacity of the chest with the speed and the endurance of the horse. Hence the wonderful relief which the mere loosening of the girths affords to a horse blown and distressed, enabling the chest to expand and to contract to a greater extent, in order to yield more purified blood. Hence also the relief afforded by even a short period of rest, during which this expenditure is not required, and the almost exhausted energies of these organs have time to recover. Hence, likewise, appears the necessity of an ample chest for the accumulation of much flesh and fat; for, if a considerable portion of the blood be employed in the growth of the animal, and it be thus rapidly changed, there must be provision for its rapid purification, and that can only be effected by the increased bulk of the lungs, and a correspond- ing largeness of the chest to contain them. As the diseases of these organs are among the most serious
to which the horse is exposed, and interfere most with his usefulness, they will occupy due space in the part devoted to Veterinary Practice. A few considerations on the aeration of the blood in the
foetus will be found under Gestation akd Foalino. |
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th
Th
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13 carbon, and will unite with it wherever it finds it.
e chest enlarges by the action of the diaphragm and |
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t
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e mtercostal and other muscles, as explained ; and the
n83 expanding with the chest, in order to fill up the
acuum which WOuld otherwise exist between them and the
es of the chest, these cells enlarge, a kind of vacuüm is
rtöed in each of them, and the air rushes down and fills
i.eill: being thus divided from the venous and poisoned
°°d by these membranes alone, it is enabled to act upon
e blood, and attracts from it this carbon which purifies,
^ders it arterial blood, and fits it for the purposes of life.
•ls being accomplished, the chest contracts, the lungs
D D
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THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION, &c
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210
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CHAPTEE XXL
THE OBGAHS O? DIGESTION, ASSIMIIATION, AND EXCBETION.—THE ABDOMINAL VISCEEA: THE STOMACH : THE INTESTINES.--"
MASTICATION, SWALLOWING, AND DIC3ESTI0N.—CHYME AND CHYLE.—THE ABSOBBENTS, THE EXCBET0EIE8, THE LIVEB, ÏBB PANCBEAS, THE SPLEEN.—VOMITING. |
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in man and fat animals, which occasions corpulency or p*°"
trusion of the belly. It is seldom so much loaded with iaI in the horse as in man and in the ruminant animals. The Stomach of the horse (see Plate XIV. Fig. 1), which
is remarkably small, lies immediately behind the liver, i" principal portion occupying the left hypochondrium ("*•> upo under, chondros a cartilage). The spaces in the abdo- men under the false ribs are called "right" and "left." T"e right and left central is called the epigastric region (Gr-> epi upon, gaster the belly), the middle the umbüical (Lat-, umbilicus, the navel) region. The hypogastric region *s behind an imaginary line drawn from the one side of t°e ilium to the opposite side, this is again divided into rig^1 and left iliac regions and the middle is called the pw>%c region. The central portion is divided by a white line calleCl linea, alba; a full explanation of these imaginary compart |
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THE ABDOMEN.
The external parts of the abdomen are, the common inte-
guments; the abdominal muscles (see ante, p. 190); the parts of generation in the horse, and the udder and mam- ma in the mare. The interior of the third great cavity, the abdominal,
contains :—the stomach, the intestines, large and small, the liver, and the urinary organs. The whole of these are enveloped in a strong, dense,
serous membrane, called the peritoneum (Gr., peri around, tonöo I extend), which forms not only a covering but a support to these organs, and facilitates their movements as they slide, press, or accommodate themselves and each other in the various actions of the living animaL It also secretes a moist vaporous fluid which prevents friction; and some physiologists have held, and with great probability, that the drjing up of this vapour in the heat of inflammation is the cause of the intense pain produced in that case by any motion of its contents. (See Inflammation.) The peritoneum, by its various folds, forms the rnesentery (Gr., meso8 middle, enteros an intestine), omenturn, &c, by which these organs are attached to each other or to the walls of the abdominal cavity. In front the peritoneum is connected with the diaphragm, partially covering its hinder surface; it also covers all the contents of the abdomen, except por- tions of the uterus, bladder, and rectum. In males it covers the spermatic cords and testicles, and also lines the scrotum (Lat., scroteum, a leathern coat). Some of its folds form ligaments, as those of the liver and rnesentery, and contain numeroüs small glands, through some of which the lacteals* (Lat., milk-bearers, from lac, milk) pass. The peritoneum is immensely strong as well as elastic, as may be seen in the distension, and " tucking-up" in flatulent and spasmodic colic. The omenturn, already mentioned as one of the folds of
the peritoneum, is a curious and delicate fatty membrane, facilitating motion of the viscera. It has a very low sensi- bility, hearing cutting or tearing with little or no pain to the animaL It is this " caul/' which is the seat of the deposit |
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but
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ments is convenient in strict anatomieal descriptions,
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would be superfluous here. The forward (convex) part of tfl
stomach lies upon the diaphragm and false ribs of the left si"6, lts hinder (concave) part is hidden by the intestines. •*_ lower surface is covered by the omentum-f or fatty c»ul' attached to its left extremity is the spleen, and its right beD is in contact with the left and middle lobes of the liver- The stomach may be compared to a sac or pouch, for01
for the reception of the food as it passes from the mouth the pfiarynx, and thence through the cesophagus, or gK^ .' by the cardiac orifice into its cavity. As we have sal before, it is remarkably small; the stomach of a ^ , stone man will contain more than three quarts, while horse, eight times his weight, will scarcely hold th gallons; like other hollow muscles, however, it is capa of considerable distension. The pyloric opening is the ° let by which the contents are discharged into the a denum.% The stomach has three general investing coats: the "
elastic, being a doubling of the peritoneum; the seco»d white muscular fibre in two separate layers; the last ° ' placed longwise, seems a continuation of the outer coa |
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f From the Latin omen, ao called becanse the Eoman sooths )
prognosticated trom the caul (omen-turn) in their sacrificea. .yg % Lat. duodeni, twelve; the ancieata supposing that it wa8
breadth of twelve fingera. |
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* Their office is to take up the chyle and transmit it to the heart;
see post, Diöebtion and Nutrition. |
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THE ORGANS OF DIGESTIQN, &c.
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211
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eoesophagus, strengthened by additional fibres; these pass
"hquely roun<i the stomach, and then twist themselves into "Wnirl or vortex, and seem intended to prevent the return of the food. -"•hewTier coat is mucous membrane, having a doublé cha-
rter : one, hard, called cuticular (skin-like); the other, soft, vered with numerous beautiful projections, like the pile velvet, is called the villous coat (Lat., villosus, shaggy). 116 cuticular coat is a continuation of the lining of the '°uth, pharynx, and casophagus, extending half-way down e stomach, where it ends abruptly and the villous coat Slns. Tt is folded in the cesophagus and perforated with excretory orifices, as we shall presently note. It is to the lcular coat that we have generally found bots adheren^ k°ugh they attack other parts. ■••he villous coat is soft, wavy, and covered with innumer- /e small bloodvessels ; it is full of folds, which expand öetl the stomach is filled. This portion of the stomach cretes the gastric juice, and within it the chyme is formed. e blood of the stomach is plentifully supplied from the fe ^trtc, splenic, and hepatic arteries, which are here very l. 'inê> to avoid distending the organ. The gastric lIls> which return the blood by the vense portas, are u^ar in being without valves. T rassmg through the pyloric (Gr., pyle an entrance, oreo ëuavd) opening we come to the Intestines (Lat., intestinus, j ^ intus inside). These are divided, in the horse, into ., $e and small intestines, and extend from the pylorus to anal outlet. The whole length of this irregular tube ^e Plate XIII. Fig. 1) is from eighty to ninety feet, of !ch the large intestines form twenty to twenty-four feet, the small intestines from sixty to sixty-six feet. It is easy, as we have said when speaking of what anatomists . ' regions," to describe in words the situation of the estines; the " large," however, may be said to fill the *ard and lower parts of the abdomen, the small to fill sPace above and farther back, but occasionally shifting 10n on accoun' of the peristaltic motion. They are , .Vented from going far out of place by the peritoneum, • Cn forrns bands, as already described, and moors fast the
• stjnes. The first (membranous) coat of the intestines
enved from the peritoneum; the second is the muscular, eötmg organic fibres—the lengthening and contracting c , e longitudinal, and the constricting of the cir-
^ r muscles, producing the peristaltic action. (See post,
th •Tl0N-) ^he circular muscles are the most powerful,
ntestines being found firmly contracted in cases of
nt death. The inner surface of the intestines is both
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of the horse is twenty inches, instead of twelve, so that the
term is a misnomer. The jejunum is attached to the mesentery, which follows
its convolutions, and has two smooth surfaces. Numerous lacteal glands are situate on the folds of the mesentery and mesocolon, which are, as we have said, mere folds of the peritoneum. The jejunum, when it passes into the iliac reyion, takes
the name of the ilium (Gr., eileo, I turn about), but there is nothing but an imaginary division. It then passes into the ccecum, protruding some distance into its cavity, to prevent the return of its contents. The ciEcum (from the Lat., blind-gut), is the first great
intestine. It derives its name from the fact that it is open at one end only. The ccecum rests on the belly (navel) portion of the linea alba, and is generally seen toward the right side upon opening the peritoneum. The head of the Cü3cum, in which the ilium terminates and the colon begins, is generally near the diaphragm and liver. There are here several muscular bands which pucker up the intestines into üttle purses called cells, in which water or fluid is generally found, scarcely ever solids. The colon (Gr., chcion, from chole, bil e), originates in the
csecum, and is the largest of all the intestines. It reaches across the abdomen from left to right, and having reached it, bends back upon itself at the sigmoid (Gr., sigma, the letter S, oidos, like) flexure. It is connected along this bend from the cascum to the flexure or turn, but is loose on the other side, so that, when the belly is burst, the colon may trail upon the ground without breaking the other intestines. The continuation of the colon is the rectum, or straight gut. The rectum is thicker in substance than the other intes-
tines, and has a longitudinal muscle on each side (for their action see ante, p.192, Muscles), the rectum is plaited with cell-like depressions, to prevent the too frequent expulsion of the dung. It is loosely suspended from the spine and rump-bone by a band called mesocolon, part of the perito- neum. The anus is opened by the force of the peristaltic action, and shut by the sphincter ani. (See p. 192). MASTICATION, SWALLOWINQ ; THE PHYSIOLOdY OF DIGESTION.
At the close of Chapter III., and incidentally elsewhere,
we have spoken of the salivary glands and their secretion, we shall here pass from mastication to the act of deglutition or swallowing. The organs engaged in this are, after the teeth and tongue, the pharynx and cesopliagus, with their muscles. The pharynx is a bag of a funnel shape, with its trumpet
end forward, lying at the entrance of the gullet and back part of the fauces, and held fast to the upper end and back of the larynx, or windpipe, by three pairs of strong mus- cular bands. These all join in a tendon at the back or upper side of the pharynx. The dilator muscles of the pharynx and their action will be described in the physiology of the act of swallowing. |
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Us and villous, extremely sensitive, and full of vessels,
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■ "«= mtestinal canal the first portion is the duodenum,
sid Smg loosely o» the right side and attached to the hollow |
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baoV x, liver, from which it rises, and is fixed to the
one, taking the name of jejunum* The duodenum
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i*t.
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Jejunue empty. It is generally foand empty in l'lie dead body.
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THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION, &c.
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21Z
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The cesophagus opens from the smaller end of the funnel-
like pharynx, and leads thence to the stomach, which it enters by the cardiac opening. It tends a little to the left side in its course,and goes behind the trachea, passing through the chest and along the dorsal vertebrae, inside layers of the pleura, thence through the diaphragm into the stomach. It has three coats: a cellular and membranous one; a second muscular (longitudinal and circular); and an inner one, cuticular (skin-like), wrinkled into folds. It has a remarkable power of muscular contraction and expansion, for the purpose of propelling its contents. The physiology of swallowing is thus summarized by the late eminent vete- rinarian Delabere Blaine. When a horse grazes, he first places with his lips a tuft
between the teeth; when, elevating his chin, the sharp edges of the under cutting teeth become applied to the grass, and cut it through, while at the same time the upper incisors help to nip it off. Oxen and sheep, wanting upper nippers, wrap a tuft of grass round with their tongue, and then apply it to the under incisors, by which it is held fast, while a movement of the head tears the grass up; and thus we find that they are obliged always to carry the chin forward in collecting their grass. "When a quantity of herbage is thus gained, it is carried by the tongue and muscles of the cheek to the upper part of the mouth, to encounter the action of the grinders' ./the matter being conveyed from side to side, to be placed in the most favourable direction for perfect mastication, by means of the tongue. During this process, it continues to be mixed with the salivary fluid, from the parotid, the submaxillary, and the sublingual glands (see ante), which pour out their secretions, e^cited by the pressure of the surrounding muscles. The vegetable mass having been thus completely masti-
cated, is placed at the back of the tongue ; when, by the pressure of that organ towards the palate, it is squeezed against the velum palati. The soft palate readily yielding to force coming from the mouth. The morsel is at the same time driven against the covering of the throat (epig- lottis), which, by its own elasticity released from the down- ward pressure of the velum palati, is raised, and covers the opening to the windpipe. The food is thus propelled into the fauces. Then the windpipe (trachea), protected by the epiglottis, rises and urges the mass into the funnel- shaped pharynx; the contractors of which transmit it to tbe gullet (cesophagus) ; and its muscular coats, con- tracting as it descends, ultimately lodge it within the sto- mach. The mouth remains closed during the act of swal- lowing, that these muscles may find a fixed point. The deglutition of liquids is not very different. The muscles of the tongue draw it downward, whereby a tendency towards a vacuüm is formed: to counteract this, the water is by atmospheric pressure forced into the mouth; when the entire agency which operated in the case of a solid is called into action, the raised velum palati closing the opening to the nostrils, and thus preventing the liquid from |
returning by that passage. We shall resort to the same
authority for an explanation of the function of digestion, feeling that we cannot improve upon his horse-knowledge on this point Digestion may be characterized as that power whereby
substances which are received into an animal body lose their own properties, and become endowed with those ne- cessary to support the constitution of the creature that imbibes them. To restore the tone of parts, rest is required; and to repair waste, food becomes necessary ; while hunger and thirst stimulate animals to take in solid and fluid ah* ments. That the stomach is influenced by the blind long' ings of inorganic life, is proved by the fact that the mere mechanical distention of a draught of water will, for a time, satisfy the sensation of hunger; but simple distention not satisfying an instinctive desire, instead of affording relief, *- only adds to the general prostration. It is probably by i*3 distending properties that food taken partly »nvigorates long before perfect chylification has taken place. This fact 13 however better established by no man having absolute power to quicken or delay his desire for nourishment. The mere want of food does not dissipate immediately the strength ; but the body can for some space support itseli, and desire, though feit before, be actually forgotten ; thus the inanition of a hunter long employed in reaching a dis- tant cover, is no bar to his after-exertions in the chase. T°e moment he hears the well-known sound, he receives a tenv porary supply of nervous energy ; which, acting on hi3 irritability, produces renewed muscular exertions : but the chase over, a doublé prostration is the consequence; for tbe nervous impulse being expended, it often happens that the stomach is sympathetic with the general frame, and the horse becomes " too tired to eat." Thirst diners from hunger principally by its impelling u9
to receive liquids instead of solids. The instinct, which a independent of reason, and superior to the will, calls l0 fluids often not required for repair : it is true, perspirati0 will produce thirst, and that diuretics will do the same ; DU these are artificial, not natural causes. Drink is also lD" stinctively sought, for no cause save that of fickle appetlt^ induced by long indulgence, which cannot be recko»e among life's necessities. Stimulated, therefore, by the se° sations of hunger and thirst, animals seek for matter3 which they are instinctively directed by their senses smell and taste. The mastication, insalivation, and swallowing of the i°° '
have already been noticed. To the saliva, however, by means is usually given its full merit as an important age |
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in the digestive process. When we consider the quan
secreted, the chemical nature of the fluid, its reina: |
tity
ble
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io-
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aflinity for oxygen, and that a complete masticatio
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of *be
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variably produces a direct change in the qualities
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food, it would be most unphilosophical to regard i* a
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the
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mere diluent. The masticated aliments received in*0
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stomach become subjected to the further action 01
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THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION, &c.
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213-
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gastric fluid, the produce of the secreting surface of the
Vlüous division of the stomach. The true gastric juice is
Possessed of a solvent power, which is shown in a remark-
a°Ie manner by the food being dissolved by its action.
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otherwise they are the same as common absorbents, all of
which enter and pass through one or more of the liftle reddish bodies called absorbent glands. The functional effects of this systera are aba-ndantly
active in the constitution at large ; we are certain that the various organs of the body are continually changing, wholly or partially. It appears to be the office of the arteries to build up new parts, and to repair the waste of others ; but the old ones must be first of all pulled down and removed by absorption, which is least active in youth, equal with the arteries in middle life, and predominatcs in age. By this won- derful power the roots of the temporary teeth are absorbed, that their crowns may give way; by this also the muscle which governs thetesticles, ha ving fulfilled its office, is absorbed, and the thymus gland (sweetbread) is likewise removed. It is thus cartilage is taken up, to make room for a bony deposit when the animal approaches maturity. By the absorbents the fluids as well as solids are continually changing, being taken up and carried back, but always in a fluid state, into the mass of blood ; it is by them that the dead parts are separated from the living in sloughing and ulceration By the super- ficial absorbents, even gases are received from without. The water held in suspension by the atmosphere is thus taken in; hence grazing horses require little or no water, more especially if not exposed to the heat of the sun, whereby evaporation or exhalation is promoted. The functional office of the absorbents is most important also in the pre- servation of life under casualties. Long fasting is thus borne ; their capability of displacing the animal oil or mar- row from the bones, and the fat from the body generally, is here employed to make up the want. Hybernating animals live during their torpidity by a slow absorption of the adi- pose matter ; thus it is found in the instance of the torpid bear, that, however fat he may enter his seclusion, he returns lean and emaciated. To our acquaintance with the power of the absorbents,
the practice of medicine is greatly indebted; and although we own few means of lessening absorption, we fortunately have many of increasing it. Mechanical friction is the most active and universal agent in stimulating the absorbents, as the hand-rubbing of horses sufficiently proves. Pressure, also, increases their action : thus we bandage the swollen legs ; we girth the bodies of our horses, to promote absorp- tion of the interstitial fluid. Exercise, by swelling the muscles, produces pressure; and thus exercise will remove swelled legs, and promote absorption generally. Blisters likewise exercise an influence over absorption. A still stronger stimulant is iodine ; which is especially useful in enlargement of the glands. Purgatives and diuretics, and whatever tends to lower the pulse, promotes internal ab- sorption. For, by offering an impediment to the circulation, removing the contents of the intestinal canal, and increas- ing the urinary secretion, an absence is caused in the mate- rials for building up, which the absorbents endeavour to re- pair by removing other parts. |
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The
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he ordinary process is after this fashion with the horse.
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masticated vegetable matter is first deposited in the
cuticular cavity of the stomach ; whence it is propelled for-
ard by muscular contractions of the organ, from left to
§ht, towards the pyloric opening; being, however, so
ürned and contorted in its passage that every portion of
he insalivated mass becomes first macerated with the cuti-
^u'ar secretion, and then receives the solvent gastric juice.
' Js thus that a mass of matter undergoes the chymifying
Process within the stomach, after which it is hurried on-
Vard to be converted into chyle within the intestines.
^hyme (Gr. chymos, humour or juice) is the masticated
u« undigested mass of food. It is a pulpy semi-fluid, with _sbghtly acid taste, creamy in appearance when the food is 'v> like gruel when farinaceous. Part of this is absorbed y the stomach itself, and goes direct into the blood; the re- ^ainder goes into the duodenum, and is mixed with the 1Je and pancreatic juice, forming a milky fluid. This is called— ^"■yle (Gr. cholos, juice), and passes into the jejunum
^ iliurn. and is there taken up by the chyliferous absorb- Kt8 and passed into the large vein of the heart by the 0racic duet. The remainder of the worn-out food finally Suoies the form of fasces, and is expelled. THE ABSORBENTS.
•*-he Absorbents, although we cannot easily tracé them,
e distributed over every part of the body. Injections °w them in some parts, but it is by their constant opera- ns and effects they are best recognized. Thus the hardest rts of bon e are removed by a natural process, or absorbed. °rganized cartilage is likewise taken away, to allow the fries and veins to enter, and bone to be deposited, when °Ssification ensues. i _os°rbents are minute, thin-coated, transparent vessels,
, lng numerous valves, like veins ; they are spoken of as
. P-seated and superficial; but as the difference of position
Cc°mpanied by no difference of structure, we shall here
è rel them as of one kind. Every absorbent conveys the
erials it takes away from various parts into the blood;
j, which their contents mingle, and ultimately become
tj j or they are emitted with the excretions. In starva-
H is by means of the absorbents that the marrow is
in u °U* °^ DOnes' ana-tne fatty matter from other places
e body is emptied into the blood, which in this
It " 6r Ps ^ support, or keep alive, the subject starved.
ft accounted for why a fat animal is longer dying
^starvation than one that is thin.
tfl „e aDSorbents, which take up the nutritive portion from tbe °0^ within the intestines, are called lacteals, because B«bstance they extract is at first white, like milk; |
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214
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THE OEGANS OF DIGESTION, &c.
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its under, the great bend of the stomach. We have said it
greatly resembles the thymus gland in its fleshy structure. In the ox the butchers sell the thymus and the pancreas indiscriminately as " sweetbreads." The bile and pancreatic fluid are both concerned in the
preparation of the chyle, to which duties they are specially appointed ; but over and above this it appears that the bue is useful in depurating the blood, and removing from i* certain noxious elements, which, if retained, would become highly injurious. The pancreatic fluid is only secreted during digestion, but the bile is poured out at all times; and, if not secreted, from any torpid condition of the liver» the blood becomes overloaded with noxious particles, head* ache follows, and, finally, fever and even fatal injury. Bde is a kind of soap, and appears to act specially in convertio£ sugar into albumen and the fatty compounds necessary f°r the support of life. The pancreatic fluid, on the other haiid» seems to render the fat taken as food fit for absorptio»» which it is not in its raw state. But not only is the Hvef useful by supplying bile, but it also directly purifies the blood as it passes through it, in the return from the intes* tines to the heart; and besides this, it seems to exert a powerful influence in assimilating the new material to the condition which it must attain as a part of the blood Here also fibrine is largely formed from albumen, and iat from sugar. THE SPLEEN.
The Spleen (Gr., air\i)v) is a spongy livid body of sot
structure, and having no excretory duet; its colour shade from red-brown to purple, and its size is various. It l triangular in shape, and so tender that its substance wou* be torn by the slightest violence, were it not for its me10 branous peritoneal covering. It is attached on its upPe and thicker edge to the left side of the stomach, but t» chief portion of it lies behind and rather above the stofliacI1' lts front part comes in contact with the left lobe of t*1 liver; its hinder is connected to the left kidney, and cov cealed by the convolutions of the colon. It is abundant»; supplied with bloodvessels, absorbents, and nerves, especi»1 ƒ the two first-named, yet the particular use of the splee» J still merely conjecturaL Great enlargement and also rupture of the spleen ha
been noticed after the death of horses ; but we know W / of the causes or the symptoms which indicate disease this organ. VOMITINQ.
Vomitinq.—A structural peculiarity in the stomac"
the horse remains to be noticed, by which, in all ord1" g cases, the animal is denied the power of vomiting- _ whole of the alimentary canal in that animal exnl , g uniformity of intention, unfavourable to vomiting- ^ soft palate closes all return of the contents of the stc-ö1 by the mouth; and consequently, if vomiting were to <>c |
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THE LIVER.
This ponderous secretory and excretory mass, the largest
in the system, is placed nearly in the centre of the body. The circumference of the liver (Saxon, lifer) may be taken as two to two-and-a-half feet, thick towards the middle, and thinner at the edges. It lies between the stomach and the diaphragm, with its right lobe in contact with the duode- num and the right kidney. It is kept in its place by what are called the ligaments of the liver, but these are merely pro- longations and thickenings of the peritoneal envelope already described. Besides the right and left ligaments, there is one in the centre, between the diaphragm and the middle lobe, called the suspensory ligament. Besides its lobes, the liver has several deep indentations, one of which separates the two large lobes, and is named the great fissure (Lat, fissus, a cleft); inside this, in mares, may be seen the remains of the umbilical vein which supplies the foetus, and in a smaller cleft about the middle of the concave surface, may be seen the opening for the vena portae. Numerous lymphatic vessels run over the surface of the liver, and the blood- vessels pass within a sheath called Glisson's capsule, a thin membrane, formed of white fibres, immediately beneath the peritoneum. The circulation of the liver, as we have noticed before, presents a remarkable peculiarity. The numerous veins of the intestines join into one common trunk which enters the liver as the vena portae. This trunk vein, having pieroed the liver, branches off once again into innumerable divisions dispersed through the whole substance of the liver, performing the functions of an artery, its con- tents being distributed for secretion. The blood circulated through the whole body of the gland is poured from the terminations of the vena portas and the hepatic (Gr., hepar, the liver) artery, into the hepatic veins, which empty their contents at the hinder cava. In the glandular capillaries a great change takes place in
the blood, by which the fluid called bile is separated ; the biliary pores end in small tubes, which, uniting, form the hepatic duet. As it leaves the liver, it accompanies the hepatic artery, and passing below the vena portas, empties into the duodenum, five inches from the pyloric, or lower, opening of the stomach. Unlike the dog and man, the horse has no gall bladder. As the horse in a natural state is continually feeding in small quantities, and often empty- ing his small stomach, an uninterrupted flow of bile to assist digestion, rather than a store of that secretion for a heavy meal, seems to point to the reason of this peculiar organisation. TUE PANCREAS.
The Pancreas (Gr. pan, all, creas, flesh) is a flat gland that
appears to have much in common with the salivary glands in its secretion. It is of irregular figure, in three lobes, and extends across the spine between the stomach and left kidney. Its upper side touches the top of the abdomen. |
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THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION, &c.
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215
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e rejected mass must come out by the nostrils. The next
üetural impediment may be observed in the oesophagus ;
lch, by having a different arrangement of its museular res to that of ruminants, evidently proves that regurgita-
rp n iorms no part of the natural economy of the horse-
e obliquity of its insertion, the number, strength, and
ection of its fleshy layers, must form a sufficiënt bar to
°rdinary tendency of the aliments to return. And the
Perior resistance offered by the greater volume of mus-
ar fibre around the cardiac extremity, must, in all cases, ectually prevent it. The dog and cat, which vomit
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rather freely, have the museular fibre much the thickest at
the pyloric orifice. Were the equine and the canine stomachs handed to a person perfectly ignorant of anatomy or phy- siological discussion, his sense of touch would be sufficiënt to decide the matter, so very marked and obvious is the differenee. Added to the above reasons, though not of much force, is the circumstance of the horse's stomach being situated far from the abdominal muscles : this pre- vents these last from directly acting upon the digestive bag in that animal, but certainly cannot prevent their action being feit through the pressure of surrounding paria |
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THE URINARY 0RGAN3. &c.
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216
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CHAPTER XXII.
T-HE URINARY ORQANS.—THE RENAL CAPSULES : THE KIDNEYS : THE BLADDER: THE URETHRA.—THE ORQANS OF REPRODUCTION
OF THE MALE : OF THE FEMALE.—GESTATION : FOALINQ.
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urine, and carrying off an ingrediënt which enters into its
composition, called the urea, a 6ubstance which, if allowed to circulate with the fluids, would prove poisonous. The urine varies more in its quantity and quality in the horse than in any other animal with which we are acquainted> and hence the necessity of attending to its appearance and composition during disease ; because attention to this enables the veterinarian to detect the disease, and als° to judge the quantity of medicine which may prove benen' cial to the animal. In the application of these, much good or much evil may be the result. The Bladder is a muscular and membranous sac of a
pear shape (pyriform), which, when distended, nearly fills tbe cavity formed by the great bones of the haunch, called tbe pelvis. (See ante, Bones.) In this undistended condition it1? wholly confined to the cavity of the pelvis; but, when fu' its fundus advances before the pubes into the abdomen, t» advancement being in ratio with the degree of distention- The bladder is provided with three coats. The outer one
covers the greater portion of it, and is part of the perit°' neum. The muscular coat consists of two layers of fibreS' the external running longitudinally, and the inner clf' cularly, which enables it to yield to the pressure of *ti urine as the cavity fills, and again contract to a small si^ when emptied. This contractile property also assists * expelling the urine from the bladder. The inner or muc°^ coat is white, soft in its texture, and highly organized- possesse3 numerous follicles, or little glands, from wh°s excretory pores issues a plentiful mucous secretion, to defe11 it from the acrimony of the saline and other matters c° tained in the urine. This mucous matter being perpetua1; washed off from the surface of the inner coat by the url11,' is kept constantly renewed, and it is sometimes i°l in considerable quantities. When this is the case, it m t be apprehended that the urine is unusually acrid, or tp calculi or other irritable matter is within the bla<lde.' About an inch before the cervix or neck of the bladder> the sides of the bag, the orifices of the ureters are pla°e which enter the bladder in an oblique direction, and P vent any reflux of the urine at the time the bag is c° tracting, which gives them the property of valves. bladder terminates in a small neck of yellow elastic tlSS ' round which is a powerful muscle, which keeps the paSS ° closed and retains the urine until the animal wishes |
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THE URINARY ORQANS.
The Renal Capsules are two irregularly-shaped bodies in
front of the kidneys. They are large in the colt, but de- crease in size as the animal grows. They consist of two substances, one yellow and vascular, the other paler and fatty: a fluid may be squeezed from these in the young colt. Their nerves come from the plexus called the renal ■plexus, Their functions and use are unknown. The Kidneys.—These are the most important glands
engaged in the urinary circulation. They are supposed, small as they are, to carry, by the renal arteries, one-eighth of the whole blood of the body. The kidneys are situated in the upper part of the abdomen and dorsal region. The right kidney, against the liver, is more forward than the left, owing to the latter being pressed backward by the spleen. The bean-shape of the kidneys is too well known to need description; their central notch is the entrance for their arteries and vessels, and the outlet of their veins and ducts. They are kept in position by their coating membrane, often ■well lined with fat. The kidneys He on the top of the peri- toneum, and are outside the peritoneal sac. Lying behind (or above) the intestines, they are cencealed by them in dissection, until shown by their removaL (See Plate XIII. Figs. 1 and 2.) When the kidneys are divided, two distinct structures are visible. The outer, called the cortical (Lat, cortex, bark), is of a dull dark red, and granular in structure : this is the web of emulgent capillaries, and the minute ter- minations of the urinary ducts. The second part is the medullary (pith or marrow-like), lighter in colour, and with a number of minute radiating tubes forming papillae (Lat., papilla, a small nipple). The urine is secreted from the capillaries of the emulgent arteries, coiled round the small ends of the renal ducts, thence it passes through the tubular portion of the kidneys, flows towards the cup-shaped mucous membranes called the calices (Lat., calyx, a cup), and falls into the infundibula, which are canals or grooves enlarging into the ureters (Gr., ouron, urine), which last carry the urine into the bladder. Each ureter passes out of its kidney, and, connecting itself with the broad ligament (ligamentum latum), travels with it to the upper side of the bladder. Each ureter goes obliquely through the coats of the bladder, -which thus perform the office of a valve. The chief function of the kidneys is the secretion of the
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THE REPRODüCTIVE ORGANS.
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217
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Pel it; or when the bladder contains a certain quantity
fill ^' t'le muscu^ar coat contracts, and, the lungs being
., _ 'with air, the diaphragm is rendered convex towards
, lntestines, and they are by that means pressed upon the
ttder, and by their united powers the fluid is forced
°ugh the sphincter* at the neck of the bladder, and
dpes into the urethra (Gr., ouron, urine), whence it is
lc,ed on tjje (rroun(jt The urethra we shall notice in its
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lying upon the spines of the ischium (haunch-bone). These
also seem agents in elaborating the seminal fluid, but how has not been yet discovered. The spermatic cord is covered by the peritoneum. It
commences at the internal abdominal ring, passes through the groin, and comes out through the external abdominal ring. The penis of the horse is a firm body, two feet in length,
formed of an elastic and erectile tissue. One of these occu- pies the under portion beneath the urethra. The other is above the urethra, and is flaccid when not distended by venous blood, which, when the animal is under sexual ex- citement, it becomes to an immense degree, increasing in bulk and becoming very firm. At the extremity is a bulb called the corpus spongiosum, which, though appearing dis- tinct, is continuous with the lower portion of the erectile tissue. The sheath, which encloses the penis from view, is formed
of the general integuments continued loosely from the scro- tum to the navel. The outer fold of the sheath owes its size to a ring of ligament which keeps its orifice firmly open, and from this the integuments are doubled back, be coming thinner and more full of vessels, again doubling back over the glans penis and forming the foreskin, or prepuce. The urethra is the canal continued from the bladder
through the body of the penis to its point. That part of the urethra encircled by the prostate glands is called the pres- tatie part, the other, the membranous part; and the part whereon the well-marked muscle, called the accelerator urinw runs, is named the muscular part. From the lower sur- face of the points of the ischium come two muscles, inserted in the crura, called the erectores, whose function is expressed by their name. The urethra is highly sensitive and full of vessels; it secretes a mucus, by which it is protected from the action of the urine. Several mouths of ducts enter it, called lacunce (Lat, lacunce, dots or pits). The nerves of the urethra rise from the loin (lumbar) and sacral fiexures. ORGANS OF REPRODÜCTI0N IN THE FEMALE.
The genital orifice of the mare is surrounded by two
roundish folds of loose, fatty, cellular tissue, covered with dark-coloured skin, called the labia majora (Lat., labia, lips, mujora, greater). Two other folds lie within these, called vulvce, or labia minores, moist, fleshy, and full of vessels. The vulva has within its substance a sphincter muscle, called sphincter vagina) (closer of the sheath). At the bottom of the valve appears the clitoris, a body of
erectile tissue, having a thinner extension of the same tissue on the vulva, and through the first or outer chamber of the vagina. The vagina (Lat. for sheath), which lies between the
bladder and the rectum, and extends from the labia minores to the neck of the womb, called cervix uteri (Lat, cervinh neck, uterus, cavity). |
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more
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important functions in connection with the generative
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8yste
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m.
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THE REPRODÜCTIVE ORGANS.
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THE MALE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION.
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*he male animal the organs are mostly external; in
finale, internal; in both, they are so connected with essory organs as to answer a doublé purpose. **e scrotum (Lat., scroteum, a leather coat), the testes |
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(Lat.
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> testis, a witness, q. d., evidence of virility), the vasa
erens (Lat., vasa, vessel, deferens, carrying), the penis, °a (Gr., sheath), prepuce, and urethra. he scrotum, or bag, is formed of the common integu- nts of the belly, and is outwardly smooth, thin, and
-antiiy
grown with hair. It has a peculiar muscular inner
> called dartos (Gr., daro, to excoriate), by which the
tutn is corrugated and drawn up. It has also an inter- Septum or division, visible outwardly, which separates °||Jpletely the two testicles. b J- tes^c^es> which fill the scrotum, are two glandular
^ les> first formed within the abdomen. The coverings of
Sn ^cles are a white fibrous coat, continued up to the
^atic cord, and another from the cremaster (Gr., sus-
er). The cremaster muscles arise from the oblique ab-
0e na-t muscle, and each support a testicle. The middle
_ e testes is divided by a mediastinum into separate
u °ös like the segments of an orange. The third coat of
bei 6Stes *s a vascular tunic (called tunica vasculosum),
v * tu^ nourishin0' covering of the gland, from which its
fill S . ancn into all tne divisions. These divisions are
j^ ^xtö the ends of the ducts called lobules (little lobes)
atl(j 1C *^e semen is secreted. The testicle is white, firm,
externally smooth
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vasa deferens, as the excretory duet of the semen,
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üjj . _e spermatic cord, and, passing through the abdo-
i^j • ln^s' Proceeas to the upper side of the bladder, ter- c]e ^f in the urethra in the opening of the seminal vesi- |
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Th
sPecial |
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ese membranous sacs {vesicuke seminahs) contain
mucous secretion, and have large excretory pas- |
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-'•os
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end
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llrig m the urethra close to the vasa deferens.
ks,r" frostate glands are three or four in number. The sige Prostates (Cowper's glands) are two small bodies, the shape of a chestnut, near the greater prostates, |
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* F
^ttth f Greek sphingo, to contract, or draw together, like the 0Ubagorpurse.
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GESTATION AND FOALING.
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ns
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their open fimbriated (Lat, fimbria, fringe) mouths over
these prominences, and, receiving the vesicles as they burst through the peritoneal covering of the ovaries, convey them» by the peristaltic motion before mentioned, into the womb. These germs are sometimes fecundated before they reach
their destination, when what is called extra-uterine con- ception occurs. In these cases the germ never reaches the uterus at all, but remains in the intermediate canal, and attaches itself to its surface. In this position the foetus may grow, expanding the tube as it grows, till at lengtb it gives way, and the foetus escapes into the general cavity of the abdomen. The mammary glands in mares are placed a little in front
of and between the hind legs. They are two in number, each composed of a bag and teat, with a muscular coating like the scrotum of the horse. The main substance of the gland is made up of bloodvessels and ducts for carrying on the secretion. The milk is secreted in minute glands, which empty into the ampullae (Lat., ampulla, a bellied bottle) or dilatations, whence it is carried by other ducts which com- municate with the milk-bearing tubes (tubuli lactiferï)> which last end in the point of the teat. Thus much of the organs of reproduction. The physiology of conception, gestation, and parturition come next to be considered. We may notice that although the male appetite is con-
stant, it is by no means uniform. Cold weather, low feeding» and the absence of the effluvium of the mare, greatly moderating it. During the period when the mare is in " season/' his desire is at its height It is at periods when the stallion is " cold," that the avarice of breeders and dealers sometimes leads them to the ruinous folly of admini9" tering stimulants, to provoke him to an act of itself exhaust- ive, and, in excess, fatal. Farcy, glanders, and wasting '»ve have seen consequent on this attempt to force naturs. GESTATION AND FOAIING.
Conception follows the copulative act Most mares
require but one " leap" of the horse, to conceive; which having done the " heata " cease, and the mare will refuse the male. As the " heats " recur at periods of nine days (as often eight), it will be as well, to make sure, to show the mare the stallion, and observe whether there is any sig" of sympathetic orgasm. If so, she may be again covered. We have already noticed that impregnation is effected by
the action of the semen upon the ovum; whether by actual contact and inoculation or by sympathetic influence, is y_et questioned, perhaps both. The evidence, we think, is i° favour of an actual flow of the impregnating fluid through the tubes and oviducts to the ovarium ; and this view 19 strengthened by the fact that in animals which produce several young at a birth, several of the fecundated ov» never reach the uterus at all, but remain in its " horns, and there mature, till expelled as living animals complet6 in all their functions. The ovum being lodged in the cavity of the uterus, '
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The erectile tissue of the vagina is covered by a structure
answering to the dartos of the male, and its mucous lining is thrown into numerous rugce (Lat., rugce, wrinkles), or irregular folds, varying in different animals, and remarkable for their want of uniformity. There is a contraction of the membrane lining the vagina near its middle, which divides it into two chambers. The hinder or outer of these is lined with erectile tissue, and is very full of vessels, the forward or inner portion is much less sensible and leads into the womb. A little way up the vagina, just within the vulva, r«i the lower side, is a small fold of membrane, easily feit by the finger. This is the opening into the urethra, or urine-passage, which is very short in the mare. The uterus, or womb, is a rounded body, having at its
fundus (Lat, bottom) two horns or wings. These are lined with mucous membrane, full of folds ; outside this is a thick white layer of muscular fibre, and outside this a thin cellular layer, and the common covering of the abdominal viscera, called peritoneum. Near the ends of the " horns " are two tubes, named after Fallopius, their discoverer, the Fallopian tubes. These are somewhat the shape of a cor- nucopia in the mare, small where they issue from the horns of the womb, and expanding at their extremities. They have been compared to a French hom, which they also re- semble in being convoluted. They have a curious ragged fringe at the larger end, called, fancifully, morsus diaboli (Lat. for the devil's bite), attached to the ovaries (Lat., ovum, an egg) at one point. The loose pieces of this fringe are violently agitated during coition, and, seizing the ovum as it falls from the ovaries, convey it to the Fallopian tubes; these are also lined with mucous membrane, and their muscular coat is continuous with that of the uterus. The whole apparatus is supported by the peritoneal thicken- ing known as the broad ligament of the uterus. The open- ing of the free end of the Fallopian tubes into the cavity of the abdomen, is a remarkable and solitary instance of a mucous membrane opening into a serous sac. The ovaries, like the testes of the horse, have three coats:
the outer, the peritoneum ; the middle, white fibrous tissue; the internal, full of blood vessels. Old anatomists compared them to the testes, but the similarity ends with their form. They are cellular internally, and in the cells are the germs of eggs, which, as they come to the surface, are matured, and in copulation burst the coats and are carried down the Fal- lopian tubes. Whenever an ovum escapes, a corpus luteum is formed, of a yellow spongy mass, at the spot where the ovum has escaped from. Before the period of conception, the Fallopian tubes be-
come more full of blood, and have a writhing or peristaltic motion, like that already described as impelling the food along the intestinal canal. Certain prominences are also observed at this time on the surface of the ovaries, produced by the swelling of vesicles (called, after their discoverer Graaf, Graanan vesicles) ; these are the germs of the coming foaL The Tallopian tubes then become attached by |
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GESTATION AND FOALING.
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2ly
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c°nsiderable change takes place in that organ. It gradually
enlarges so as to accommodate the contained foetus as it §rows. A greater quantity of blood is now also determined lnto its vessels for affording the proper nourishment. When the ovum has become sufficiently large to enable us to dis- ïlnguish the germ of the foetus, we find it consists of two ^embranes containing a Huid, in which swims the foetus, still gelatinous and without shape. Gradually increas- *ng in size, its parts are at length developed; and we see ** attached to the whole internal surface of the uterus of the mare by a thick spongy mass. This is called the placenta,, ail<i is the organ through the medium of which the future aömial receives its nutrition in the uterus of the mare. The placenta consists principally of bloodvessels, which
arti collected at the centre of its membrane, so as to form
a cord ; this cord is continued to the navel of the foetus,
^hich it enters; and a vein runs from it onwards, to empty
l*s blood into the venous canal, which further conveys this
Huid to the vena cava, contiguous to the heart. Having
e{Uered the right auricle of the heart, the blood passes by
ai1 oval hole (which is peculiar to the fcetal state, being
^°sed up after birth) into the left auricle, and a part finds
"s way by the right ventricle into the pulmonary artery.
öut as even this portion of the blood is not intended to
etlter the lungs of the foetus, it is conveyed by a canal (also
Peculiar to the foetus, being afterwards closed up), which
^0mmunicates with the aorta. From the left auricle the
*°od passes into the ventricle of that side, and thence into
**e aorta, to be circulated through the foetal system, for con-
Veying to it the principles of life and nutrition. Thus it
^U be seen that the blood does not circulate through the
Utlgs of the foetus; for, breathing being incompatible with
^e fetal condition, the lungs require no more of that fluid
, an is necessary to their growth. The blood, after having
«>lven out life and nutriment to the foetus, is returned to the
by two arteries, which, arising from the aorta, a
1*-tle after it has entered and divided into two branches in
^e pelvis, are called ;he umbilical arteries : these arteries
Pass out at the navel along the cord, and re-convey their
0ritents into the placenta.
. «ow the communication between the uterus and placenta
, carried on, is still a mystery. The supposition, however,
> that the placenta performs an office, with respect to the
t^s, analogous to that of respiration effected by the lungs
ter birth; and also, that it is the medium for supplying
6 blood with new materials for the growth of the foetus.
a e *s> i* ig true, an indirect communication between
e rnother and the embryo foal, in the attachment of the
ter membrane of the placenta; but the foetal vessels in
'Way communicate with those of the mother, and the
est injection fails to find its way from one to the other.
e vessels, however, pass near to the uterine arteries of the
.her, through the agency of two umbilical arteries and a
n> which occupy the membranous cord. This, when the
Us is fully grown, is an inch in diameter and three feet
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in length, and is called the umbilical cord, from passing into
the navel (umbilicus) of the foal. (See Plate XIV.) The membranes forming the placenta (or womb-cake) are
at first two : the outer, called chorion (Gr., chorion, protec- tion), the inner the amnion; * and at a later period of preg- nancy a third membrane is developed, called the allantoid (Gr., alla, a sausage, and oidos, like). The allantoid com- municates with the bladder of the canal called the urachus (Gr., urax, a mouse), which contains the urine of the foetus, and is always full of the contents of the fcetal bladder. The amnion, which immediately encloses the foetus, contains and secretes a fluid called liquor amnii, in which the embryo floats. The bowels of the foetus at birth are full of a yellow mass of pap-like consistency, called meconium (Gr., meconios, inspissated poppy-juice). The urachus, which reaches from the bottom of the bladder of the foetus, and the allantoid sac, break at birth, and that part which the foal keeps dries up, and forms the long ligament of the liver. The term ui gestation in the mare is between eleven and
twelve months. Blaine records, Cyclopmdia, p. 282, that of 582 mares, covered but once, and observed and registered, the shortest period from copulation to parturition was 287 days (78 short of twelve months), the longest 419 days (54 days beyond the year); thus making the extraordinary difFerence of 132 days, or four months and 12 days be- tween the extreme periods of gestation. Parturition.—When the period for foaling approaches, the
weight of the young animal rapidly increases, and the fluid of the amnion, which before was almost equal to its weight, decreases by absorption. The uterus, which was completely within the pelvis (Gr., basin) thrusts its fundus against the epigastrium and becomes painful from disten- sion. The udder enlarges, and sometimes milk may be squeezed from the teats ; if milking does not alarm the mare, it will give her ease. In most cases an adhesive matter appears about the teats some hours before foaling. At last, the vulvas (see ante), swell and protrude, and the tail is erected; some heaving of the flanks, acceleration of the pulse, and restlessness are generally observable, with deep drawings in of breath, constriction of the abdominal mus- cles, and a forcing of the uterine contents by aid of the dia- phragm (itself pressed by the inflated lungs) backwards, to effect the expulsion. The mouth of the womb dilating, and the attachment of the chorion breaking, the hind legs are now set wide apart, and the membranes protrude like a bladder. This bursts, the liquor amnii escapes, and in favourable cases brings down the foal with it. In more protracted births, the head and forelegs are gradually forced into the vagina. Severe spasms follow till the foal is bom; and the placenta (now called the after-birth) either comes |
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* From a Greek word (anvtov), which originally meant the vessel for
receiving the blood of the victims sacrificed, but was afterwards applied to this membrane, with its contained fluid. |
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|
GESTATION AND FOALING.
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Z20
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that situation they eventually make their way into tbe
scrotum. While in the belly, they are wrapped in the peritoneum, and attached to a ligament of almost triangula1 form : this ligament is called gubernacvlum testis (ruler oi the testicle), and is full-grown at birth. It then shrinks and draws down the testicle gradually to the abdominal ring, bringing with it the peritoneal covering, and thick- ening its substance. The gubernaculum absorbs when D° longer useful, and an open communication is formed with the cavity of the scrotum, the matured testicles descend to the purse destined to hold them. This peculiar descent of the spermatic organs takes place soon after birth; and until the fourth, fifth, or sometimes sixth month, the testicles are found outside the outer abdominal ring. After this they are drawn back again, and remain in the canal °* the groin (inguinal canal) till the tenth or eleventh month» when they again descend to occupy the scrotal sac for the remainder of the animal's existence, unless man should determine to render him more docile and useful as a gelding, which we shall come to consider under the heao of Castkation. Puberty in both horse and mare arrivés about the fiftb
year. The terms colt and filly are changed for horse and mare between the fourth and fifth yeara. |
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away at the same time as the foal, or is long and danger-
ously retained, the fall to the ground rupturing the umbili- cal connection of the newly-born animal. In ordinary cases, the lungs of the foal immediately begin to act, and, directed by his newly-awakened organs of smell, he seeks the milk of his mother. When the foal is weakly or torpid, it may be judicious to
hold it up to the teat. The first milk, be it remem- bered, has a peculiar quality. It is purgative, and clears out the meconium from the alimentary canal of the young animaL Should the mother be dry, or die, cows' milk, boiled, or better, asses' milk, where procurable, will support the foal. Some celebrated racers have been hand-reared. The udder of the mare is not fully supplied with milk till the fourth day. When the nippers of the foal become fitted to bite the young grass, the mare weans it; or rather the udder dries up and returns to its ordinary form. There is an interesting and remarkable point in the
economy of the foetus, with regard to the descent of the testicles. The inner and outer abdominal rings have been already described, and, it must be remembered, the walls of the abdomen are chiefly formed by four pairs of powerful muscles, joined in the middle by the linea alba, where it i& perforated by the navel (umbilicu8). Now, in the fcetus,, the testicles are placed just behind the kidneys, and from |
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221
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|
THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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|
THE PRACTIOE OF VETERINARY MEDIGINE.
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|
CIIAPTER XXIII.
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INTRODÜCTION.—HORSE MEDICINES AND REMEDIES, DOSES, FORMULE, AND PREPARATION.
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^Sorbents.—At the head of these stands chalk. Ithas a
üency to correct acidity of the stomach, and in sorae cases
check diarrhcea. A carbonated alkali is usefuL Cows,
> es> and sheep, being more subject to acidity than the
Se> are more benefited by chalk.
^•cetated Liquor of Ammonia.—Pour Acetic Acid (which
)> m the proportion of one ounce to seven of water, on
°nate of ammonia till effervescence ceases and a neutral
j,. u°n is made. This is what is called in farriery books,
dererus'8 Spirit It is diaphoretic and mildly diuretic
o v' It is useful in the weak stage of fever after in-
za- It is also advisable in the early stage of epizootic
rh. Eoee from five ounces upwards.
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prevent its evaporation, its action is directly the opposite—
stimulant, rubefacient, and on the human skin even blister- ing. Its drying qualities may be easily tested by rinsing a bottle with it, when drops of water obstinately adhere to the glass, and exposing it to a current of air; it will be completely dry in a few minutes. Sulphuric ether, mixed with ten times its quantity of water, is one of the safest of horse drinks. Nürous Spirit of dlther (see Nitre), com- monly called " Sweet Spirit of Nitre," is cheaper and more generally used as a febrifuge for the horse. jEthiops Mineral. See Mercury.
Aloes.—As this well-known resin is the sheet-anchor of
farriers, a few words on its qualities and action may be indulged in. There are three kinds of Aloes : 1. The Soco- trine (Aloë Spicata), or Cape Aloes ; 2. Common or Barba- does Aloes (Aloë Vulgaris); 3. Fetid or Horse Aloes (Aloë Caballina). Of these, Socotrine (or Cape) Aloes seem to be the purest, obtained by draining only; Barbadoes are less pure, and prepared by boiling or slight pressure; while Horse Aloes (to be utterly banished) are the dregs of the last-mentioned. Aloes are frequently adulterated with com- mon resin. This may be detected by dissolving a portion in hot water or alcohol, when the common resin will separate from the aloetic. Every veterinary practitioner should buy his aloes in the gourd in which they are cooled, and reduce them to powder under his own supervision. Aloes are pre- pared by boiling the leaves and inspissating the juice, then pouring it into gourds to harden. Socotrine Aloes are of a brown colour, inclining to red, and brittle. Barbadoes black, with a shade of brown, of a greasy feel, and a dull fracture. The Barbadoes Aloes are best, being, with the horse, more
certain in action. The Socotrine or Cape, which are the finest, are most approved in human practice. The Caballine or Horse Aloes (which Blaine and others confound under the name of Cape Aloes) we would banish from the dispen sary. Aloes are a bitter stimulating purgative, emptyinjr |
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"^CeTate of Copper.
|
See Copper.
their several |
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a 1Ds- See under
|
heads as Sulphuric
|
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|
Aci», «fee.
till °ETlC AciD (Pyrol'gneous Acid). The Acetic Acid dis-
üip ir°ni wood has properly superseded the ordinary fer- ^ C vinegar in : ledicine and the arts. Diluted with an, ,'*t forms an excellent lotion for various skin diseases, py )n *ts strong state is a remedy for warts. Impure ta ^neous acid, as it first comes over, impregnated with j^ ' e °ave found a valuable application in chronic inflam- jjj .. Q 0l" the eyes and edges of the eye-lids, and in pro- ün ^ digestion of ulcers. It is also a good injection 'fiat' nUses to produce healthy discharge or adhesive inflam- p]u * It is powerfully antiseptic; and decomposing meat ftxtlh ^ lnto it has at once its putrefaction checked. The actj _Utïlatic oil it contains is the cause of wood-smoke & ln the preservation of tongues, hams, herrings, &o ifcj '°0 ^cetas Cupri). See Verdigris, Copper. Of(]e . Rj Sulphuric.—An antispasmodic (q. v.) of the first Hijw, Veterinary practice. It is valuable as a diffusible |
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|
Col(j
|
and
|
an<i narcotic. It rapidly evaporates, producing
|
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|
ftü
|
yness, and is therefore, when applied externally,
|
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ftctiv,
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e refrigerant. I£ however, it be so confined as to
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222
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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understood by the farrier. They are supposed to act up°n
the system in a slow and nearly imperceptible manner. They form the excuse for that vile propensity of groonis to dose the unlucky horse on all occasions, to the injury ° his health and often of his constitution. These medicines are indicated in diseases of the skin, defective secretions, and debility of stomach. The alteratives in most repute am°n» farriers, are nitre, antimony, sulphur, mercurial prepara' tions, resins, and spices ; to these many add everv drug and compound in the pharmacopceia. For ourselves, w would fain abolish the word alterative altogether, as a vague generality and mystifying term for any remedy for any dis* order, and a cloak for ignorance; as, however, it is in con- stant use, we must retain it, confining it to medicines i° the amendment of the state of the skin and general excre- tions. The leading formulae for alteratives are :— (A) IN DISORDERED STATES OF THE SKIN.
Emetic tartar ..... 5 ounces.
Powdered ginger ..... 3 ounces.
Opium ...... 1 ounce.
Syrup enough to form 16 balls : one to be given every night.
(B) SIMPLY COOLINO.
Barbadoes aloes ..... 1 ounce.
Castile soap ..... IJ ounce.
Ginger ...... \ ounce.
fiyrup enough to form 6 balls: ene to be given every morning.
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the large intestines, without making the stools so thin as
many other medicines of the class. It is likewise a quickener of the circulation, "warms the system, and slightly promotes uterine and hsemorrhoidal discharge. Hence in irritable states its use may be unadvisable. lts general action as a purgative will be found under Pukqatives. As an alter- ative, aloes are sometimes given in doses of a drachm to two drachms daily. Barbadoes aloes powder best in frosty weather, when enough may be pounded and enclosed in stoppered bottles for a year's supply. A pound of the powder, warmed for a couple of hours, mixed with one ounce of powdered ginger and eight ounces of palm oil, and divided as wanted into proper doses, will be found a capital purgative for general use. Aloes are boiled by some practitioners, to render them
more mild. The great difïiculty of keeping aloes in an equal state of consistence, as a purgative mass, induced Mr. Bracy Clark to adopt the following method, by which, he informs us, these inconveniences are obviated. He places one vessel within another, exactly as carpenters melt glue, having water in the outer vessel, and aloes, with one- fifth of their weight of treacle, in the inner one, which is carefully covered with a lid. The apparatus being put on the fire, is sutTered to remain for an hour or more, or until perfectly melted, the aloes and treacle being now and then, but not too often, stirred to combine them. The inner vessel being now taken from the outer, the contents are expeditiously cast in paper moulds or tubes of the usual diameter of a horse-ball. When cold, Mr. Clark finds these balls flexible, yet solid, and they remain so. He gives an ounce to a saddle or carriage horse, and six drachms to a cart horse : but there is reason to fear that they do not prove so soluble in the stomach as when their particles are divided by oil, lard, or even syrup; but the last is a more objectionable ingrediënt than either of the others. No diuretic, such as soap or carbonate of soda, should be added to this mass ; and it is a curious fact that nut-galls will neutralise effectually the purgative action of aloes. "We may note here a recorded instance of the different action of the same drug on different animals. A horse will, under ordinary circumstances, be purged by an ounce of aloes; an ox by two or more ; a dog will vomit at the dose ; for a man the dose is five to eleven grains. A large hog does not require so much; and lastly, according to the experiments of M. Gilbert, a sheep which took two ounces was not purged, although it died seventeen days afterwards. And see Art. PüRöATIVES.
A water-s solution OP aloes should be kept by every
veterinarian, which will be found, in many instances, a very convenient form, on account of its quicker action. A spirituous tincture OF ALOES, made by digesting four
ounces of the powder in a quart of proof spirit, forms a common stimulating application to recent wounds, &c. Half an ounce of powdered myrrh is a good addition. Alteratives.—This is a class of medicines much mis-
|
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(C) IN STRANGLES.
|
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|
\\ drachm-
2 drachms. 2 drachms. &* |
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Barbadoes aloes
Emetic tartar Castile soap |
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(D) ALTERATIVE BALL FOR GENERAL USE.
Black sulphuret of antimony . . . 2 to 4 drachro3-
Sulphur .... .2 drachms.
Nitre . . . . . .2 drachms.
Linseed meal and water enough to form a ball.
(E) FOR OENERALLY DEFECTIVE SECRETIONS.
Flowers of sulphur . . . .6 ounces.
Emetic tartar . . . . . 5 to 8 drachm3-
Corrosive sublimate . . . .10 grains. i
Linseed meal mixed with hot water, enough to form 6 balls, oD
which may be given two or three times a week. (F) IN DEBILITY OF STOMACH.
Calomel ...... 1 scru?le-
Aloes ...... 1 dracht
Cascarilla, gentian, and ginger, of each, in powder 1 dracb10'
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Castile soap .... 3 dracbi»3'
|
of
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Syrup enough to make a ball, which may be given Wice a ^ee '
every other night. Alum (Alumen).—A well-known salt with a meta .,,
base. It is in general use with veterinarians, intern* ' and externally. It is used in cases of super-purgation the form of alum-whey ; two drachms of powdered alm0 a pint of warm milk. In doses of one or two drachms, |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
|
223
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|
'Uployed as an astringent in diarrhcea, diabetes, and other
Uxes. If alura be mixed with a vegetable astringent, such
.s °ak bark, instead of increased power, the action of both
18 diminished. As a wash for cracked heels, two drachms
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of tetanus. Opium may be said to be almost the only
anodyne in routine veterinary practice, and may be safely administered to the horse in very large doses. Its pervading use may be gathered from the following
prescriptions ; and a reference to Opium will show its gene- ral value and effects. Anodyne medicines, compounded.
(A) IN ORDINARY CASE&
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to
It |
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|
a pint of water and a scruple of white vitriol is useful.
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|
) ls also a serviceable wash in grease generally; and also
°r those forms of swelled legs attended with exudation , * Rioisture through the skin. Some add the Goulard 10o, forgetting the chemical decomposition that takes |
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|
Ce; the result of which is, that the alumina, possessing
"e astringency, is detached, and two salts with no astrin-
<=ency at all, the sulphate of lead and the sulphate of
P°tash, are formed. Externally it is by some used as a
. yptic to stop haemorrhage, by sprinkling it on the bleed
8 orifice, when its coagulating properties plug up the
°uth of the vessel. It is also esteemed to be a useful
cuarotic to destroy fungus, and a detergent for foul
ulcers. ■A-Mjionia.—Crude Ammonia, or Muriate of Ammonia, is
Called to distinguish it from the volatile or prepared
'ftonia which follows. It is, in general opinion, when
uted, one of our very best discutients; and, when in
, ture with acetic acid or vinegar, to which camphor is
. ed, it forms the favourite lotion of general practitioners
s«m disorders. From it are prepared Ammonia (Ammonia Subcarbonas). The gaseous
Qionia, fixed into a solid form by combination with car- lc acid, forms the volatile ammoniacal salt of the dru#- l> ,8- It is a good stimulant in the latter stages of fever.
an
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|
Opium
Castile soap
Ginger
Oil of caraway
|
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|
1 drachm.
4 drachms. 2 drachms.
1 ounce. |
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|
Syrup to form a ball, dissolve in half a pint of warm ale, and admi-
nister as a drench. (B) IN COLIO.
Pöwdered opium . • . 2 drachms.
Camphor . .. . . . .2 drachms.
Castile soap ..... 2 drachms.
Ginger ...... 2 drachms.
Mix with liquorice powder and treacle to the consistency of a ball,
and give every hour during the agony. (C) IN DIARRH03A OR SUPER-PURGATTON.
Tincture of opium (laudanum) . . .1 ounce.
Gum Arabic (dissolved in 1 pint of boiling water) 2 ounces.
Add Oil of peppermmt .... 25 drops.
A drench. Give night and morning while indicated to be necessary
(D) IN CÜRONIC DIARRII03A.
Tincture of opium ..... J ounce.
Powdered chalk . . . . .1 ounce.
Gum Arabic .. . .. . .1 ounce.
Peppermint water ..... 8 ounces.
Night and morning.
Anthelmintics. See "Worm-Medicines.
Antimony.—There are several medicinal preparations of
this metal. The Black Sulphuret of Antimony, a compound of sulphur
and antimony, is a good alterative. It is given with sulphur and with nitre, in varying doses, according to the disease and the slow or rapid effect intended to be produced. The maximum dose, and especially if it is to be continued, should not exceed four drachms. 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 arsenic may be detected by placing a little of the powder on a red-hot iron plate. The pure sulphuret will evaporate without the slightest re- sidue—so will the arsenic, but there will be an evident smell of garlic ; a portion of the lead and the manganese will be left behind. Tartarized Antimony (Antimonium tartarizatum). The
tartrate of potash and antimony, or a combination of super- tartrate of potash and oxide of antimony, called Emetic |
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|
eXcellent preparation.
V^ltONIA ACETATIS. See ACETATED LlQUOR OF AMMONIA.
, arbonate of Ammonia is called salt ot hartshorn ; car-
o ate(i water of ammonia is the spirit of hartshorn of the ~ Ps; It is convenient in veterinary practice, from its . uar property of uniting water and oil. Internally, it ad ^ _antispasmodic, in doses of six to eight drachms, , . lnistered in wan.» water. Externally, it is a rapid blis- y agent. |
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|
, ^«iAC.—A gum-resin ; the inspissated juice of the
a armeniacum, an oriental umbelliferous plant, com- jj , la Persia. This gum is sometimes given in obsti- Soi ^01,ghs and in farcy. It is a useful expectorant, dis- ^v. Jn the acetate of ammonia and rubbed with camphor, !s active in its effect on the horse.
ftiü ï,SE ^eed-—The powder of these seeds was formerly hor ÜSe<* ky farriers; and the druggists who make ter . P°'wders find it a profitable article ; for it is adul- be to °ne-third only of the genuine powder. It may c°rd" / ProPerly united with other warm aromatics when
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Peet' * are ad™ssible
|
It is also thought to possess some
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tial O'l . roPerties 5 tut they are very trifling. The essen-
A ls tüe most active preparation of it. See Oils.
^Heral KES'—^^s c^ass °f medicine ^s given to soothe the nervous system, or to relieve spasm, as in the case |
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224
|
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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|
Tartar, is a veiy useful nauseant, and has considerable
effect on the skin. It is particularly valuable in inflamma- tion of the lungs, and in every catarrhal affection. It is given in doses of one drachm, or one drachm and a half, and combined with nitre and digitalis. It is also beneficial in the expulsion of worms. Here it must be given in doses of two drachms, and with some mechanical vermifuge, as tin- filings, or ground-glass, and administered on an . empty stomach for several successive days. Although it may sometimes fail to expel the worm, it materially improves the condition of the horse, and produces sleekness of the coat. To a slight degree the emotie 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 pre- cipitate "when sulphuret of ammonia is added to it in solution. Vhloride of Antimony, formed by distilling corrosive sub-
limate with antimony, is called Butter of Antimony by farriers, on account of its butter-like (butyraceous) appear- ance. It, however, has a strong affinity for water, which it attracts from the atmosphere, and thus becomes fluid. The less water it is suffered to absorb, the more powerful its action, it should therefore be kept in close-stopped bottles. The test of its goodness is its density. It is 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 on the part; and the effect of the caustic can be fairly judged of by the degree of change. For corns, canker, indisposi- tion in the sole to secrete good hom, wounds in the foot not attended by healthy action, and for every case where the superficial application of a caustic is needed, the chloride of antimony is unrivalled. Antimonial Powder—Powder of oxide of antimony, with
phosphate of lime, is the factitious James's powder, and is used as a substitute for that medicine in many diseases of a febrile character. The dose is from one to two drachms. The late Mr. Bloxam used to trust to it alone in epidemie catarrh of the horse. It is decidedly inferior to the Emetic Tartar. Antispasmodics.—This is not a large class of medicines
in veterinary practica We may refer to the chief anodyne —opium—as the chief. They, as their name imports, are intended to suppress or counteract the excessive muscular action called spasm, or cramp. These attacks are rather secondary to other irritating causes, and therefore reme- dies to attack the cause are more to be relied on than com- bating the effect. There are, however, two or three as palliatives, which may be administered with advantage. Camphor, hyoscyamus (henbane), belladonna, oil of turpen- tine, and asafsetida have proved useful. Cold suddenly and continuously applied is a powerful antispasmodic, and has succeeded in subduing tetanus. |
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Antispasmodic Recipes.
(A) for colio.
Spirits of terpentine . . . .3 ounces.
Tincture of opium . ... 1 ounce.
Mix with a pint of warm ale, and give as a drench.
(B) ANOTHER DRENCH EOR COLIC.
Spirits of turpentine . . . 3£ ounces. Tincture of opium . . . .IJ ounce.
Earbadoes aloes ..... 1 ounco.
Powder the aloes, and dissolve in warm water ; then add the other iagredients, and give as a drench. (C) CLYSTER IN COLIC.
Spirits uf turpentine .... 6 ounces. Aloes ...... 2 drachms.
Dissolve in 3 quarts of warm water, and stir the turpentine ^e
into it. (D) ANTISPASMODIC DRENCH.
Gin . . . . . 4 to 6 ounces.
Tincture of capsicum . . .2 drachms.
Tincture of opium . ... 3 drachms.
Warm water . . . IJ pint.
Mix, and give as a drench, when there is no inflammation.
Aperients.—Aperients, laxatives, or purgatives, are "e
grees, quantities, or kinds of the same medicines. Laxative may be classed as milder purgatives, and as acting with leS irritation in inflammatory affections. In chronic cases, t°°' they can be administered more frequently, which is very ^e sirable. Calomel, with small doses of aloes, ranks hig among these. The laxatives proper in fever are Eps0l^> Glauber, or Cheltenham salts, 8 to 12 ounces, dissolved > thin gruel, and repeated every six hours until they opera1 • In some cases, the bowels being inflamed, 6 or 8 ounces castor or linseed oil, with a few ounces of the watery tin ture of aloes, will prove excellent; it is improved by bal drachm of chloroform. The action of these is much assist by bran mashes, gruel, and diluent drinks. It, must, h° ever, be confessed that most of these aperients are doubt and irregular in their action upon the horse. When inefficacy is apparent, a mild copious clyster, or " baC , raking" (soe post, in Veterinary Practice) should be resor to. t Some Aperients act solely by exciting the muscular c
of the bowels to contract; others cause a copious w& discharge; whilst a third class combine the action ot , two. The several purges also act upon different parts the digestive canal; some stimulating the larger b°fl while others act upon the small intestines; and ° , * again, on the whole canal. There is yet another class, combine with purging an irfiuence on the liver, siica , mercury and rhubarb ; which is effected by absorptio» e the circulation. Drastic purges are the violent extre^e the scale, as laxatives are the mildest of aperients. , these medicines will receive full notice in the &e treatment of diseases, we shall spare space here by Te ring to the 'article specially hearing on the subject, ^ |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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22.5
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>ill be found fully considered. Some of the most useful
Perient formulae are subjoined :— Aperient Recipes.
(A) ORDINARY APERIENT, OR " PIIYSIC " BALL.
Earbadoes aloes .... 3 to 8 drachms.
öard soap.....4 drachms.
1).Glnger.....1 drachm.
»lo "fS0lve in as sma11 a quantity of boiling water as will suffice ; then
»v 'a evaP°rat;e to the proper consistence, by which nieans griping is |
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(I) A VERY MILD LAXATIVE.
Castor oil, and Linseed oil . .of each 4 ounces.
Warm water, or Gruel ... 1 pint
Mix.
(K) USED IN THE STAGOERS.
Barbadoes aloes .... 6 drachms.
Common salt . . . , . 6 ounces.
Flour of mustard .... 1 ounce.
Water . . . . . .2 pints.
Mix.
(L) A GENTLY C0CLING DRENCH IN SLIGIIT ATTACKS OF COLD.
Epsom salts . . . . 6 to 8 ounces.
Whey .... 2 pints.
Mix.
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(B) A WARMER APERIENT BALL.
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"arbadoes aloes
Carbonate of soda .
■Aromatic powder .
"U of caraway
issolve as above, and then add the oiL
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3 to 8 drachms.
J drachm. 1 drachm. 12 drops. |
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(M) PURGATIVE CLYSTER.
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Common salt.
Warm water . |
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4 to 8 ounces.
8 to 16 pints. |
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(C) GENTLY LAXATIVE BALL.
Barbadoes aloes . . . 3 to 5 drachms.
Rhubarb powder . . . 1 to 2 drachms.
GinSer . . . .. . 2 drachms.
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Arnica has for a time disappeared from our prescriptions
and practice, to re-appear recently with good claim on our notice. It is the production of the Arnica montana, or Leopard's Bane, which grows plentifully on the Alps and other European high lands. In Germany all parts of the plant are used and esteemed,—leaves, stem, flowers, and root. It possesses through the whole plant an aromatic odour and a nauseous taste, arising from a volatile oil and an acrid resin. The roots contain a large amount of tannin; and " arnicine," as the chemists have called its extract, in small doses, accelerates the pulse, in large, irritates the alimentary canal, and causes faintness. It is diaphoretic and diuretic, and we have found the root in powder (20 grains 3 times a day), or the infusion (3 drachms of flowers and leaves and 1 pint of boiling water), given four ounces at a time, a good stimulant. In Germany they make a tincture and a vinegar of arnica, of which we would recommend trial to be made by the veterinarian. It is now applied by homceopa- thic doctors to wounds and bruises; with what effect it could be introduced in horse-practice we cannot at present with certainty say. Arsenic.—Were it not that some practitioners continue
to use it as a tonic, in doses of from ten to twenty grains daily, and others use 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 best form in which it can be administered is, the liquor arsenicalis, made by boiling its own weight of potash with arsenic and water (one ounce of water to every four grains of arsenic), in some glass vessel. It has some power in stay- ing the progress of glanders ; and is pretended to cure farcy when watched and continued. It also appears to have some vermifuge properties ; Blaine believed it to retard the march of the rabies, though not ultimately successfuL Astringents.—These are supposed te act on the living
fibres by producing increased contraction, in which point of |
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OU of
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15 drops.
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caraway
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Mi
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x> and form into a ball as in letter (A).
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(D) PÜRGING BALLS, WITH CAL0MEL.
f arbadoes aloes . . . 3 to 6 drachms. |
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kalomel
^oubarb .
Ginger
Castile soap
lx as in nrst prescription (A).
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J to 1 drachm.
1 to 2 drachms.
£ to 1 drachm. 2 drachms.
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(E)
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ST0MACH1C LAXATIVE BALL.
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Ba*badoes aloes
^ubarb
rjj&ger, and Cascarilla powder
0ll of caraway
Carbonate of soda
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3 drachms.
2 drachms. 1 drachm. 15 drops. IJ drachm. |
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of each
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°'ve the aloes as in (A), and then add the other ingredients.
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(l) LAXATIVE DRENCH.
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Ba«-badoes aloes
Canella alba Saltoftartar |
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3 to 4 drachms.
1 to 2 drachms. 1 drachm. 8 ounces. |
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M
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mt water
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Mix.
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(Gr) AN0THER LAXATIVE DRENCH.
Oastoroil
^badoes aloes '.
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6 ounces.
5 drachms.
achms. |
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M
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rbonateofsoda .
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. ^t water.....8 ounces.
»H<j j,' y uissolving the aloes in the mint water by the aid of heat,
eu a(Ming the other ingredients. |
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(H) A MILD OPENINCt DRENCH.
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Castor oil
^s°m salta m£t*1 •
|
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4 ounces.
3 to 5 ounces. 2 pints. |
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TilE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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226
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A mass for balls should be pressed down in a jar, anfl
covered with a bladder. Balls should not weigh ffiore |
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view they form a very numerous and important class ; but
in a more limited sense, they are considered as substances that restrain immoderate fluxes, as of the intestines and kidneys. Those that act by constringing the divided ends of bloodvessels are called styptics. Opium, chalk, alum, starch, and catechu, act favourably in restraining intestinal fluxes. Catechu, alum, and acetate of lead, operate as astringents on the urinary passages. Astringent Recipes.
(A) FOR DIABETES.
Opium ...... £ drachm.
Powdered ginger ..... 2 drachms.
Oak bark ...... 1 ounce.
Camomile infusion .... 1 pint.
Mix for a drench; or, if powdered oak bark omitted, substitute alum,
as much as the tea will dissolve. (B) FOR BLOODY URINE.
Catechu, powdered .... 1 ounce.
Cascarilla bark ..... 2 drachms.
Alum . . . . . .1 ounce.
Liquorice powder and treacle to form a ball, administered twice
a day. (C) EXTERNAL POWDER FOR ULCERS.
Alum, powdered ..... 4 ounces.
Bole Armenian ..... 1 ounce. Mix. Or, white vitriol ..... 4 ounces.
Oxide of zino ..... 1 ounce. Mix. (E) AN ASTRINGENT LOTION.
Goulard's Extract .... 3 drachms.
Water . . . . . • i pint
(F) ASTRINGENT OINTMENT.
Super-acetate of lead .... 1 drachm.
Lard ...... 1 ounce.
Mix.
(O) Or, for the same purpose :
Nitrate of silver, in powder . . • è drachm.
Goulard's extract . . . . .1 drachm.
Lard ...... 1 ounce.
Mix. (F) and (G) are good for sore heels.
Balls.—This is the favourite and most convenient mode
of administering horse-medicines. There are some circumstances, in the preparation of this
form of medicines, not in general sufiïciently attended to by veterinarians/ Substances that are volatile do not keep well in balls, and therefore should only be made when used. The same caution is also requisite "with such as liquify by the absorption of air. All hard substances entering into balls should be finely powdered, and the moist matter that is to form them into an adhesive mass should be of a nature that will not soon ferment or become mouldy. Hence, they are better compounded with oil than with honey or syrup. |
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11
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than an ounce and a half or two ounces, or they ^h
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pass down the gullet with difiiculty ; nor more than an inctl
in diameter, and three inches in length. The mode ot " delivering a ball" is not difEcult to acquire ; and tbe balling iron, while it often wounds and permanently injures the bars, occasions the horse to struggle more than he other- wise would against the administration of the ball. 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, bu by pressing the fingers against the side of the lower ja*> The ball, being now taken between the tips of the fingers o the right hand, is passed rapidly up the mouth, as near t° the palate as possible, until it reaches the root of tbe tongue ; it is then delivered with a slight jerk, and the hand being immediately withdrawn and the tongue liberated, th ball is forced through the pharynx into the cesophagus. *l passage should be watched down the left side of the tbroat; and if it is not seen going down, a slight tap or blow unde the chin will generally cause the horse to swallow, or a *e^ gulps of water will carry it down. If the gullet shoul be small, or strictured, and the ball should remain in soi» part of it, the tube used for " the hove" in cattle may °e employed to remove it. If the case be urgent, tracheotoflv |
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must be resorted to. (See Tracheotont, post.)
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ot
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Balsams are a kind of resinous juice, united with some
the extractive matter of the various plants they are obtaiöe from, in combination with an essential oil. All the balsafl1 are occasionally in use in veterinary medicine, and were i° merly in very high estimation, for their supposed salutar' action in chronic diseases. They were also considered aS _ sovereign vulnerary for abraded urinary passages. It the modern doctrine to think their efficacy overrate which is probably in some respects true, particularly regards their expectorant qualities ; nevertheless they a |
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|
far from being inert. They appear to act very favoural)'
in some instances, as a warm terebinthinated stii»u^aI1 /■ There are balsams of Canada; of Copaiba ; of Gilead; _ Peru; and of Tolu. What is called balsam of sulpüUr merely a compound preparation of sulphur in oil. Barbadoes Tar. See Tar. ,
Bark.—Several of the barks enter into the veterinai"ia
list of medicaments, and all act by an astringent Pr°Pef.fl on the animal fibre. Peruvian bark stands foreniost reputation ; but as horses are little subject to interir»itte fevers, we can therefore dispense with it. The elm a»d , oak barks, particularly the last, may be used in cases debility, with advantage. Cascarilla bark proves als valuable stomachic tonic. _ Barytes (Murias Barytce) has been tried with some D ,
fit in glanders. "It is," says Blaine, "a very P0*^^ medicament, but few glandered horses are able to bear quantity requisite for the cure." |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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227
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■^asilicon, commonly called " Yellow basilicon " (Ceratwm
ln<%), is a useful digestive ointment. Eans, in a medical point of view, are sometimes used as
°nic, and the flour of them as an astringent.
-belladonna (Nightshade).—An excellent sedative. lts
Pecihc action, however, appears to be expended upon the
roat. It is largely used in affections of the lungs, in
diseases where sore throat is a prominent symptom.
s *UH effect is shown by loss of appetite. lts effect upon e eye in horses is not at all correspondible to that in man. olistkrs.—The modus operandi and the application of lsters will be found under Operations, hereafter. The ading substance is the Cantharides or Spanish fly, though ri°us substances are used for the purpose of vesication. s a simple blister, none equals in certainty and mildness . e Spanish fiy. In acute infiammatory disorders, however, action is too slow, and caustic liquor of ammonia is
_sorted to, Euphorbium (q. v.) is also introduced as a sub- 'ute for cantharides. The tincture of croton is also used |
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|
Major's British Remedt, which is supposed to be com-
posed chiefly of sulphuric acid, but which sweats down bony matter very rapidly, though not without pain, and some- times foliowed by a blemish. (F) LIQUID BLISTER, WEAK ; SOMETIMES CALLED SWEATINa
BLISTER. Spanish flies, in gross powder. . . . | pound.
Olive oil . . . . . .3 quarts.
Steep the flies in the oil three weeks ; stram ofl", and bottle for use.
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(G) LIQUID BLISTER, VERY MILD.
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Of the above
Olive oil |
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. 1 pint.
. l£ pint. |
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|
The farrier's sweating blister is only a strong stimulant;
it occasions heat and swelling, without excoriation or loss of hair; consequently it is a very convenient application, when it is an object to avoid a temporary blemish, and when the case is not of a very desperate description. But there are also instances in which it is to be preferred to an actual blister, as in strains, where some remains of heat and inflammation are present, but without activity: in such cases the sweating blister is very often efficacious. The mode of application is to rub it in of sufficiënt strength to irritate in a mild degree only; repeating it every day, until considerable swelling is occasioned, when the application should cease and the enlargement be allowed to subside. Blue Vitriol. See Copper, Sulphate of.
Bole Armenian, vulgarly, " bole ammoniac," is an argil-
laceous earth combined with iron, and is supposed to possess some astringent property. The propriety of its being ad- ministered inwardly, is doubtful; for it may remain in the intestinal canal, and become the nucleus of a stone. On account of its supposed astringency, it is occasionally employed to give consistency to ointments. Borax. See Soda.
Bran. This valuable laxative is too well known to need
description. As a poultice, it is objectionable, from becoming so soon dry. See Poültices. Burgundy Pitch. See Resins.
Bdtter or Butyr of Antimony. See Antimony, Muriate
of. Calamine, prepared (Lapis Calaminaris). See Zinc.
Calomel. See Mercury, Submuriate of.
Camomile. 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, to ascertain whether the febrile stage of the disease is passed, and to prepare the way for a more powerful tonic—gentian. If no acceleration of pulse, or heat of mouth, or indication of return of fever, accompanies the cautious use of the camomile, the gentian, with carbonate of iron, may be safely ventured on; but if the gentian had been used first, and a little too soon, there might have been a considerable, and perhaps dangerous return of fever. Blaine |
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as
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|
a° economical substitute for the nies.
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(A) BLISTER FOR GENERAL TJSE.
|
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|
Powdered cantharides
Lard |
1 pound.
. 8 pounds. |
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|
. e ijquid blister is made by substituting eight pints of oil for the
j* pouuds of lard, and allowing the flies to digest for a fortnight, or
:. nS them in a water batb, A pound of camphor is a good addition;
°«s not lessen the action of the blister, but diminishes its irritation.
(B) A POWERFUL BLISTER.
spanish flies......1 pound.
^ard.......3 pounds.
fiesia.......2 pounds.
il of turpentine . . . . .1 pound.
be .e ttae resin with. the lard, after which add the turpentine. When
JXD^g to cool, throw in the powdered flies. (Cl
' A KERCüRIAL BLISTER, WHICH MAY BE USED WHERE DEPEN-
ENCE is pLACED ON THE ACTION OF MERCURIALS AND
BLlSTERS.
the former blister . . . . .4 onnces.
°»osive sublimate, powdered finely . . 1 scruple.
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(D) OR THE F0LL0WING.
|
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Stro
|
ng mercurial ointment
|
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|
. 2 ounces.
. 2 drachms. . 2 drachms. . 3 drachms. |
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Oil of
Corro
|
°riganum
sive sublimate |
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Canth
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—aarides, powdered
' ^d rub in With. the hand. |
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(E)
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|
STB.ONQ SWEATINa BLISTER, FOR SPLENTS, RING-B0NE,
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Q SPAVINS, ETC.
Bf . e 1!iuid blister marked (F) . .1 pint.
T°he wilndide°fmerpUry ' • " -2 drachms.
V the dirUl:>l5ed inthe leSs after cutting the hair short; and foliowed
to be ti •X ^ Use °^ arn' ca> in tlie shape of a wash, as follows, which is |
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crofamica-
Mix.
|
brush:-
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|
1 ounce.
12 to 15 ounces.
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THE PRACTiCE OF VEÏERINARY MEDICINE.
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228
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It is remarkable that these acrid insects are preyed upoo
by others feeding upon them; but as these only select the bright hard crust of the insect, the powdered residue i8 active as a vesicatory, although the contrary has been as- serted. Of their use as blisters we have already spoken- They have been much relied on in glanders as an injection, and Percivall recommends o grams of cantharides in * ball with copaiba in nasal gleet. It is useful as an injection in sinuous sores. Capsicum. The capsicum pod or berry may be taken as
a synonym for cayenne pepper, which is merely the ad- mixture of the dried and ground pods of several sorts ot capsicum, especially the bird pepper (capsicum baccatwm)- Observe, salt and red lead are often used to adulterate cayenne. For red lead, add to it some acetic acid, then dropping in a little sulphuret of ammonia, down will go the lead in a dark precipitate. Or boil a little of the suspecte*! pepper in vinegar, filter the extract, add to it a llttl« sulphate of soda (Glauber's salts), when a white precipitate will be thrown down, which, when dried, mixed with * little charcoal and exposed to heat, will give a metalUc globule of lead. In horse practice, the capsicum is a goo* remedy in flatulent colic. It is also a worm expellent. *■* is a convenient external stimulant; and lastly is a bette' stomachic in judicious compounding than most of the general peppers used. The tincture is the most convenien form, but not economicaL It mixes with water freely. Carawats (Carum carui). These well-known seeds ac
as a capital cordial and antispasmodic with the horse, Jïl conjunction with ginger and gentian. The cardamom seed alone are retained in the human pharmacopceia. Carbon. See Charcoal and Poultices.
Carbonate of Ammonia and Carbonated Water of AMi*0'
nia (Hartshorn). See Ammonia. Carbonate of Iron. See Iron.
Carrots.—This root, as an article of horse medicine, ist°
much neglected. It is excellent in cough, fattens
witho»*
heating the animal, is slightly laxative, therefore good »°
the coat. In incipient grease, farcy, &c, we would substitu carrots for corn. In the " Pharmacologia " of Dr. Paris, ca rots are recommended " as an antiseptic póultice, to allay * . pain in cases of ulcerated cancer, and to correct the fcstor ill-conditioned ulcers." Surely, we much overlook what at hand and cheapest, to seek remedies more difficult v procure ? The addition of hemlock leaves, 2 ounces, a»" tracé of opium, to the mashed carrot, makes an unsurpassa cataplasm whenever a póultice is desirable. Cassia is the fruit of a West Indian tree. The pods a'
about an inch in diameter, rough rinded, and contai" black pulp, easily dissolvable in water, but more readdy spirits. It is of a faint sickly smell, and is said to for"1 basis of the semi-fluid sold by some dishonest grocefS ^ " essence of coflee." It must not be given except i» c° pounded medicines. ^ Castor Oil (Oleum Eicini). The name comes hot&
|
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|
does not think so highly of camomiles as Youatt. He says,
es an aid to the other medicines prescribed for fever, or in the weak state of influenza, it is inferior to good sound stout. Camphor is extracted from the Laurus camphora and
-xrrives here principally from India. It is in the form of a white brittle substance, greasy to the feel, but so tough as not to be easily pulverised, unless a few drops of spirit be added to it. Camphor burns brightly with much smoke, and melts at 2SS°. Water will not dissolve camphor, but an equal weight of spirit will; this must be remembered in compounding. If camphor is first worked up with a small quantity of oil, and then with a solution of gum arabic, it can be readily mixed with fluid medicines, and also with the resins. lts efforts are transient, and therefore small doses at short intervals are advisable where its use as a stimulant or sweating medicine (diaphoretic) is called for. Camphor is decidedly active as a horse-medicine. In large doses (say half an onuce) it has been known to produce con- vulsions. In moderate doses (a drachm) it is antispasmodic (q. v), and sedative (q. v.). lts use in flatulent colic is un- doubted, opium being conjoined. It has been recommended by good practitioners in fever: and in the later stages of feb- rile disorders we have found it a gentle stimulant where the irritability has indicated such a remedy. It is, however, uncertain in its action ; and its want of permanency makes it difficult to estimate its amount of efncacy. Externally, camphor has a mild action in dispersing indurations and in rheumatic affections. Camphor may be mixed with advan- tage in the ordinary blister where there is a purulent ten- dency in the animal. Canada Balsam is the purest of turpentines. It is a
transparent white juice, extracted from the Pinus balsamea, a common Canadian tree. It is wrongly called a balsam, as it contains no benzoic acid. The old writers on medicine praised its virtues highly, as Balm of Gilead, Opobalsamum, Balm of Mecca, Venice Turpentine, Cyprus Turpentine, &c, &c. See Turpentine for its veterinary uses, Cantiiarides. (Cantharidis vesicatoria), the Spanish
Fly, is that well-known beautiful winged beetle abundant in Southern Europe. They are collected in June and July from the leaves of the trees whereon they delight to dweil (especially the ash), destroyed by the fumes of strong vinegar, and dried in the sun : when touched, the insect, like many beetles, shams death, and when injured emits a peculiar pungent odour. It is of a bright green colour, fine speci- mens are three-quarters of an inch in length, with the legs, antennse, &c. of a bluish-black. As the leading ingrediënt in making blisters, we would recommend every veterinary practitioner to buy the beetles whole and powder them himself, to guard against adulteration. A muslin handker- chief should be placed over the face during the pounding, or an unpleasant vesication of nose and throat may follow. A little sweet oil will prevent the fine particles flying. Eemember, the flies do not lose their virtue by being kept. |
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229
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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|
^ e<ls from which the oil is pressed resembling the insect
ed the tich, in Latin ricinus. It is by no means desir-
e as a purgative in horse practice. Youatt says, he
"les it " merely to warn the horse owner and practitioner
gainst its use. If it must be used," he adds, " the expen-
e and enormous dose of a pound to a pound and a half
t be administered." Its cathartic action on the horse is
l only uncertain, but it often produces griping. Chloro-
01 is said to have neutralised its evil effects; but why
ain a doubtful and, to the idiosyncracy of the horse, an
orrent purgative, "when we have so many better and
ctleaper, without its drawbacks ?
Cataplasms. See Poultices.
^athartics. See Aperients and Ptjrgatives.
. ^atechü, commonly called Japan Earth {Terra Japonica)
an extract from the Indian Acacia Catechu, common on
e ülHy parts of Bengal and Coromandel. There are two
ts> a light and a chocolate-coloured, the latter has more
tue astringent principle. It is more active with the
rse than with man, and is a useful and safe astringent.
ls given in super-purgation, in doses of one or two
achrns, with one or one and a half drachm of opium, as
j et more powerful astringent; four drachms of chalk, to
utralize any acid in the stomach or bowels, and two
Cnms of powdered gum, being also added, to sheathe the
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Fortis) may be applied by means of a camel's-hair pencil to
fungus on the foot. The Chloride or Muriate of Antimony, commonly called
the butler of antimony, is a caustic in very general use in veterinary practice. Applied to a raw surface it instantly changes it white, destroying a thin layer of substance; hence it is a very convenient application in cankered feet, as, by means of a small camel's-hair brush, it can be spread over as much or as little a portion of parts as is necessary. In sandcrack, when the sensitive substance protrudes, it may be applied in a similar way. In obstinate cases of grease, the buds are sometimes beneficially touched with it: but in quittor, poll-evil, and other sinuses, it is not so proper as some other escharotics. Nitrate of Silver {Argenti Nitras), popularly called
" Lunar caustic/' is a preparation from silver, which renders it expensive: it is, however, essentially necessary to the veterinarian's dispensary, from its being so completely under command in its action; not extending its effects beyond the immediate part it is applied to. It proves the most con- venient caustic for destroying the edges of a contaminated wound, when not too extensive, as the bite of a rabid animaL Dissolved in five, six, or eight times its own weight of water, it forms an excellent liquid caustic, peculiarly useful as a dressing for the foot-rot in sheep, and also to touch the protruded portions in sandcrack. Dissolved in twenty times its weight of water, it makes a useful deter- gent wash for foul ulcers, and to keep down too luxuriant growths. Lunar caustic consists of seventy parts of oxide of silver
and thirty of nitric acid, when fused and cooled it is in small cylinders of a dark grey colour, and of a crystalline fracture when broken across. The sticks should be kept in a stop- pered bottle covered with soft dry paper. Caustic Potass, called Fluid Fotass (Potassa Fusa), is
powerful but difficult to manage, as it runs about where it is not wanted. Mixed with soap it has been injected in the pipes of quittor. Blue Vitriol, the sulphate of copper, is a much milder
caustic than several others, and is used in powder, to destroy fungus, especially in cases of broken knee. A solution of one drachm to six ounces of water is a detergent wash for ulcers, grease, &c. White Vitriol (Sulphate of Zinc), is also a good escharotic
in a saturated solution. See Zing. Corrosive Sublimate (Oxymuriate of Mercury). See
Mercury. In powder it acts most energetically upon warty growths, but should be used with great care and discretion. It may safely be applied to small surfaces, but not without a regular practitioner to large ones. It should be washed off after remaining on a few minutes. The Nitrous Oxide of Mercury, called " red precipitate,"
is also generally used for similar purposes. Yellow Orpiment, not so strong as the corrosive subli-
mate, and may be used with more freedom, It will gene- |
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|
°ver-i
|
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|
nritated mucous coat of the intestines. It is not often
uiterated in this country, but grossly so abroad—fine sand
°- aluminous earth being mixed with the extract. It
. u*d not be given with any alkali, yet the prescription
, , recommended contains chalk. But although the chalk,
Sa kali, weakens the astringency of the catechu, it
, . a^y neutralizes some acid in the stomach or bowels,
lcu would have diminished the power of the catechu to a
ater degree. It must not be given in conjunction with
•> metallic salt, for the tannin or gallic acid, on which its
er chiefiy or entirely depends, has an affinity for all
tK an(^ w^ unite with them, and form a gallate of
, > possessing little astringent energy. Writing ink is
ïiion of this tannin principle with iron.
th nc*ure of catechu is sometimes made by macerating
°unces of the powder in a quart of spirit for a fort-
aj " It is very excellent for wounds; and, with the
> cORstitutes a remedy of a balsamic nature for the
p se of hastening the healing process of wounds.
t STics. Called in medicine escharotics, are external
vi 1CS aPP^e(i by cloth, brush, or sponge to the part
. tungous excrescence is to be destroyed, or indolent
|
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|
]jj , °^ stimulated to granulation. They are of two
pj- 7~Vlz-> first, the actual cautery, consisting in the ap- com °ö °^ t^le ^ot *ron> an<^ ca^e<^ nrmg> which will
|
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|
caut
as |
under notice elsewhere ; and, secondly, the potential
?> by means of the powers of mineral caustics, such |
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|
^s, lunar caustic, &c.
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|
^Min
|
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|
oil of
|
active caustics. Sulphuric acid,
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|
vitriol," is now seldom used. Nitrous acid {Aqua
|
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|
230
|
THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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|
becomes a useful application to the loins in rheumaüsm >
not only as it protects the affected part from cold, but also because of the resin proving a useful stimulant. Aiy strong adhesive, as resin, pitch, &c, melted with wax or ov sufficiënt to keep it from being too brittle, may be formed into a " charge," and applied warm on the part; and as l cools it should be covered with fiocks of wool or short to*- Another favourite and effective " charge" in ligamentary lamenesses, consists of common salt with the white of egg- The following mixture makes a good charge— |
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|
rally remove warty growths by picking off their heads and
rubbing it in. Caustic Preparations.
(A) IN CANKER OF THE FOOT.
Quicksilver ..... 1 ounce.
Nitric acid . . . . .2 ounces. Mix in an earthen vessel, and when cold put into a wide glass botUe,
and cork it. It may be mixed with lard, in the proportion of 1 to 3. (B) A SIMILAR APPLICATION, WHICH MAY BE USED ALTER-
NATELY WITH THE LAST. |
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|
Burgundy or commoa pitch
Tar . Yellow wax . |
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|
. 5 ounces.
. 6 ounces. . 1 ounce. |
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|
Copper filings
Nitric acid . Mix and use in the same way. |
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|
$ ounce.
. 1 ounce. |
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|
Melted together, and when they are becoming cool, half a
drachm of powdered cantharides well stirred in. This m«st be partially melted afresh when applied, and put on t»e part with a large spatula, as hot as it can be without giving the animal too much pain. Fiocks of tow should be scattereo over it while it is warm, and thus a thick and adhesive covering will be formed, which cannot be separated from tbe skin for many months. This is applied for old sprains ° the loins, and also strains of the back sinews. A newly-introduced charge is called the Arnica charg6,
It is formed of two ounces of Canada Balsam, and half a0 ounce of Arnica leaves, melted and worked together with a little spirits of turpentine. This to be applied over tbe whole by thinly spreading, and then the first-named charge placed outside and over it. Chloride of Zinc. See Zinc.
Chloroform is a peculiar compound limpid fluid, miscib'
with both alcohol and sether, and precipitated from them "J water. It will dissolve iodine, phosphorus, and sulphu ' The vapour of chloroform and of aither have wonderiu narcotising powers over the lower animals as well as ma Chloroform has the advantage over ajther that a far *e quantity will produce insensibility to pain, and the expeD" is much less; 20 drops on a sponge will have the desired
effect-
Chloroform may be thus obtained :—To 4 pounds of chlorjd
of lime in powder, add 12 ounces of rectified spirit, nü*e with 12 pounds (pints) of water. Its applicability in cas6 of extensive and severe operations is proven. It is a excellent remedy in spasmodic colic, in doses of a drad1 or two drachms in a pint of oil. It is also serviceable guarding oil, intended as a laxative, from producing grlPx effects. Cinchona. See Barks.
Clysters (Lat., clysterum, from Gr., clyso, to lave),
many farming books glysters,—are useful aids in veteri»*^ practice, being always safe and easy to administer. principal art is to avoid alarming the horse. The s}'?113» known as " Read's," with valves and a flexible tube, is best apparatus; but failing this, a large hog's bladder, better, that of an ox, with a smooth wooden pipe an inc^ diameter and sixteen inches long, may serve the occasi The pipe must be well oiled, and the process conduc |
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Mild Solid Caustics. Verdigris, either in powder or
mixed ■with lard as an ointment, in the proportion of 1 to 3. Burnt alum, used dry. Powdered white sugar. Mild Liquid Caustics. Solution of nitrate of silver, 5 to
] 5 grains to the ounce of distilled -water. Solution of blue vitriol, of about doublé the above strength. Chloride of zinc, 3 grains to the ounce of water. Quicklime sprinkled over ulcerated surfaces, is a con-
venient escharotic. Cerates. Ointments of a drying, healing nature. Cala-
mine ointment (Turner's Cerate). See Zinc. Chalk (Crcta). Carbonate of Lime. It is used as " pre-
pared chalk," being levigated and purified by washing and drying. It is antacid and absorbent, and good in diar- rhoea. With neat cattle it is more efficacious than the horse. It may be sprinkled over cracks and ulcers. The internal dose is half an ounee to two ounces in super- purgation. Charcoal (Carbo Cignï), when well-prepared, is black,
inodorous, insipid, and brittle; having the quality of ab- sorbing various gases, and of destroying the smell and taste of a number of vegetable and animal substances—especially mucilages, oils, and matters in which extracted and fer- mented principles abound. Hence its value. No fluid dissolves charcoal. lts antiseptic qualities are indisputable, and it is the real secret base of several "infallible" styptics. It is not duly appreciated (but it must be freshly prepared) for its excellent effects, when impalpably powdered, in cor- recting the discharge from ill-conditioned ulcers, or mingled in a poultice for general application in fcetid discharges. Charoes are thick adhesive piasters spread over parts
that have been strained or weakened ; they are applied warm, and Ie ft on while adherent. Charges are not much used by modern veterinarians. A more extensive acquaint- tance with the animal economy teaching us that there is but little activity in what are considered as external bracers. Nevertheless, there are some other points of view in which we may place this matter, to prove that " charges " may be of much service in some cases, if it is merely to act as a, bandage, or to protect from cold. In this way a " charge " |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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231
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gently. "\ye mav notiCe here that Back-raking- (see post),
&n operation often necessary before throwing up a clyster.
e clyster must not be suddenly forced up, but gradually ;
u its heat 96° Fahrenheit. Subjoined are several of
e compounds ordinarily used as clysters, from which it
*U be seen that the clyster may be made, not only laxative,
" nutritious and astringent. From the urgency with
bich relief of the bowels is required, and the length of
"*£ taken by purgatives given by the mouth, this class of
remedy is invaluable.
(A) A LAXATIVE CLYSTER.
Thin groei or broth ... 5 quarts.
Epsom salts, £ lb.; or common salt . 1£ pound.
(B) A CLYSTER FOR GRIPES.
Oil of turpentine . \ pint. |
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of water and starch, and is active in its effects, though apt
to disturb the digestion. Copper furnishes two combinations to veterinary practice,
1. Verdigris (Subacetate of Copper). 2. Blue Vitriol, or Sulphate. Verdigris (JSrugó), the common rust of copper; produced
by vinegar, or anything sour, or even common salt. 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 sublimate, with vegetable tonics, as recommended under Mercury, 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 regards both, to better remedies, which have been mentioned under the proper heads. Some practitioners use alum and oil of vitriol in making their Egyptiacum, forgetting the decomposition which is produced. Blue Vitriol (Cwpri Sulphas), is the union of sulphuric
acid and copper. It is a very favourite tonic with many, and has been vaunted as a specific for glanders; while others, and we think properly, have no very good opinion of it in either respect. As a cure for glanders its reputa- tion has passed by; as a tonic, when the horse is slowly recovering from severe illness, it is dangerous, and its in- ternal use should be confined to cases of long-continued discharge from the nose, when catarrh or fever have ceased. It may then be given with benefit in doses of from one to two drachms twice in the day, but it should be 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 acts as a gentle stimulant; but when 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 removes fungous granulations or proud flesh. The blue vitriol is sometimes reduced to powder and sprinkled upon the wound for this purpose, and is a good application for canker in the foot. Copperas (Green VitHol). See Iron, Sulphate op.
Cordials (and see Stimulants), are mixtures or simples
that invigorate by their stimulating property, usually through the medium of the stomach. Cordials have been so long the very stronghold of the ignorant and presuming that the very term sounds ill in the ear of the well-informed veterinarian. A horse, unlike a gin-drinking groom, has an undebauched stomach, and does not require a cordiai ball twice a week; nor on every evening after hunting; |
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Thin gruel
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4 quarts.
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(C) ANODYNE CLYSTER IN DIARRHCEA.
Starch, made as for household purposes . 1 quart,
Powdered opium ... 2 drachrus,
e opium to be boiled in water, and added to the starch.
(D) A N0UR1SHINO CLYSTER.
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Th
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Tv °LCHICUM (Colckicum autumnalis) the meadow saffron.
, ls celebrated remedy for human gout and dropsy does not „ r °ut its character for activity in horse complaints. lts , er is known as poisonous to cattle. It is diuretic with the . se, and is said to act upon the liver. In large doses, it t Serous purgative. The powder and tincture are the Preparations in use. It is said to be advantageous in
^thalmia. g ^yriums are washes commonly in use for the eyes.—
ee Lotions. nserve.—The conserve of red roses is a most con-
ent medium for forming balls, as it is adhesive, and,
^n ProPerly made, keeps well.
Ij •r,AIBA i^apivi Balsam).—This fragant and peculiar
ben •resin *s improperly called a balsam. It contains no
f0r c acid, but consists of resin and an essential oil. It
<ÜU "White soapy compound, soluble in water. Stimulant,
c> and laxative. It may be given in twice its weight
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nor on
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every morning his coat stares with the altered
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232
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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parent, with a powerful odour, resembling smoked mea
It is highly antiseptic, and therefore valuable in manV diseases of the horse. Creosote coagulates albumen, even when much diluted, and also the serum or watery Pa^ of the blood. It is decomposed and rendered useless i mixed or applied with sulphuric or nitric acid. It is a valuable medicine externally, or a formidable poison ïntro- duced into the body. Dropped upon the tongue it occasions intense pain, and if swallowed coagulates the albumen o the fluids and membranes it comes in contact with. 1° skin disorders and bleedings its usefulness is undoubted- It is administered in external ulcers, and, applied strongi produces an artificial skin by coagulating the albumen- It will also act as a powerful styptic in cases of extern» hemorrhage. Its use as an ointment in grease, thrusü» sallenders, &c., is evident. Croton Oil. The extract of the seeds of the Croton
Tiglium, a tree of Ceylon, China, Malabar, &c. The Croton Cascarilla furnishes the cascarilla bark. It is a violen purgative. All parts of the plant, leaves, root, &c, are cathartic. In veterinary practice the meal, which possesse similar proporties, is often used; but, unfortunately, by the arts of the druggist, it is often so adulterated as to deceive the expectations of the practitioner. "When it is pure, * may be given in doses from a scruple to half a dracbni) with linseed meal, in the form of a ball, to shield its acn nature. It is equally, indeed somewhat more, drastic than aloes, producing profuse liquid watery stools, often muc griping, and it occasionally takes as much time to exci purgation. It is also somewhat uncertain in its action, ®v > under a favourable operation, it is quicker than al°e > although our first accounts of it denied this. It ma)' therefore, when immediate purgation is necessary, be very properly applied to; and also in tetanus its diniinisn® bulk and great activity make it valuable. Dissolved * turpentine it forms a blister, only inferior to cantharides- Cubebs, or Java Pepper.—The effects of the powdere
cubeb are very similar to that of the Copaiba Balsam. "J a mucilage of gum acacia it is good to promote urine a allay inflammation of the kidneys. Cooling purgatives m11 be used during the time of its administration. Demulcents are medicines that act mechanically» _ '
surrounding acrid matter, and sheathing it from hurtin& sensitive and irritable parts. For this purpose oily prepar tions are used, also honey, gums, mucilages, &c. Diluen as warm fluids, mashes, &c, are also demulcents, becau they dilute acrimonious matter and render it less active- (A) DEMULCENT DRENCH.
Linseed . ... 4 ounces.
Water .. - . , . .1 quart
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temperature. To the animal, a cordial, as being unnatural,
must be hurtful, unless required by sorae very extraordinary exertion ; which, by calling forth too much of the con- stitutional powers, has expended the vital resources whence the stomach draws its tone. Thus, after a very hard run witb. hounds, this may happen; and then a gentle stimulant may excite the digestive sympathy artificially. Here a cordial may be proper and even necessary. A good one can, ' under such circumstances, be administered as follows:— |
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(A) CORDIAL DRENCH.
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Sulphuric ether
Laudanum Cold water |
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1 ounce.
J ounce. 1 pint. |
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Mix.
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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 stomachs left too long empty ; or, mixed with diuretic medicine, to fine the legs of the overworked and debilitated animal; otherwise they should never find a place in the stable, or be used at the discrction of the carter or the groom. The common cordial ball may be thus compounded :— |
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(B) CORDIAL BALL.
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3 draehms.
2 draehms. 20 drops. |
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Pounded caraway seeds
Ginger Oil of cloves Treacle to mak e a ball. |
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(C) AN0TIIER CORDIAL BALL.
Powdered aniseed ... .6 draehms.
Caraways ..... 6 draehms.
Cassia ..... 2 draehms.
Mix with treacle for a balL Should catarrh be present, add
powdered squills, 2 draehms, and use balsam of tolu with the treacle.
A quart of good sound ale, with some grated ginger,
almost everywhere procurable, is often the best available drench in an emergency. Coriander Seeds are a well-known stimulant, smelling,
when fresh, like a bug; whence their Greek name corianon, from coris, a bug. Corrosive Sublimate. See Mercury.
Cowhaoe, or Cow-itch, the hairs upon the pods of this
climbing bean-like plant {dolichos pruriens) have been used (mixed with treacle, &c.) to expel worms from the horse. We do not believe in their utility as a mechanical vermifuge. Many Indian plants of the mueuna tribe produce these irritating vegetable hairs, often employed in malicious practical jokes on newly-imported Europeans. Cream of Tartar. See Potash.
Creosote, or Kreasote, is a fluid compound found in
crude pyroligneous acid. It is nearly colourless and trans- |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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233
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(C) ANOTHER.
Marshmallows .... 2 handfuls.
Water ..... 1 quart.
olmmer the first and third of these until a niucilaginous decoction is ao-e, and administer when nearly cold. ■Uiaphoretics are rnedicines which increase the insensible
Perspiration, and open the exhalant pores of the skin. fiese remedies require smart exercise in clothing, to pro-
"tote their action. The horse afterwards to be carefully W1ped dry. Sudorifics (q. v.) are intended to do it more actively, and to occasion actual sweating. Vinegar will «ten produce a violent perspiration, but it is not a salutary
.ne; yet the same üquid, neutralized by ammoniacal salts lnto Mindererus's spirit, will often excite a favourable but "^"d diaphoretic effect. Antimonials in repeated doses, spsted by diluting liquors and warm clothing, will like-
"1Se commonly produce some diaphoresis. Camphor, in c°nsiderable doses, will also occasion a determination to the ^ln- Aloes, guaiacum, white hellebore, digitalis, &c, are
diaphoretics. |
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its active properties. It acts upon the heart, and diminishes
the frequency of the circulation and the general irritability of the system. The infusion is made by pouring a pint of boiling water on an ounce of the powder ; the tincture by digesting three ounces in a quart of proof spirit. One drachm of the powder, one and a half drachm of emetic tartar, and three of nitre, every four hours, will be found to reduce the heart's action remarkably. This is not done regularly, by lengthening the intervals between the beats, but by a number of pauses very alarming to the uninitiated. This is the proof that the digitalis is combating the disease. The action of this medicine requires watching; but an overdose is not so dangerous to the horse as has been pretended. When the administration of digitalis is pushed too far, laudanum or ether may take the place of the emetic tartar and nitre, as a tonic. The infusion is a good application in inflammation of the eyes, alternately with any of the eye-waters. It has also been extolled in mange; but it is inferior to other remedies in that complaint. Disinfectants have, of late years, come prominently into
notice. The foremost of these are the Chloride of Lime and the Chloride of Zinc. They are most important in cases of glanders in stables. An ounce of the chloride of zinc in two gallons of water is a sufficiënt strength ; and of the chloride of lime, one-tenth of powder to nine times its bulk of water is a fair solution. Diuretics are rnedicines which increase the secretion of
urine from the blood, thus depriving it of a large propor- tion of its watery particles, and enabling the absorbents to take up more water from the system. Some diuretics act directly upon the kidneys by sympathy with the stomach, while others are taken up by the blood-vessels, and in their elimination from the blood cause an extra secretion of the urine. In either case their effect is to diminish the watery part of the blood, and thus promote the absorption of iluid effused into any of the cavities, or into the cellular membrane, in the various forms of dropsy. They are a much-abused class of rnedicines, from their indiscriminate administration by the groom and favier. Turpentine and nitre, which see, are the leading diuretics in horse medicine. |
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(A) DIAPHORETIC BALL W " IIIDE-BOÜND,
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Emetic tartar
Camphor . Jinger |
2 drachms.
J drachm.
2 drachms.
1 drachm.
20 drops.
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Opium
Oil of caraways
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L
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toeeed meal and boiling water to form a ball.
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(B) ANOTHER.
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Antimonial powder . . .2 drachms.
Ginger . . . . . 2 drachms.
Caraway seeds .... 1 ounce.
Oil of aniseed . . . .20 drops. *1-1x with linseed meal and boiling water for a ball.
i -^igestives, in veterinary practice, are stimulant applica-
°ns, producing a tendency to suppuration. The gum resins e at the head of this class, and the turpentines. Myrrh, °es, resin, tar, «fee. are digestiver. (A) COMMOJT DIQESTIVE OIHTMENT.
Red precipitate .... 2 otmees.
v enice turpentine .... 3 ounces. Beeswax ..... 1 ounce. Hog's lard . . . . .4 ounces. . * the three last ingredients over a slow Cre, and when nearly
0Id stir in the powder. iQitalis. The leaves of the purple foxglove (Digitalis
PUrea) are directly sedative, diaphoretic, and diuretic
"e horse. When properly dried they have a slight
rc°tic odour, and powder a beautiful green. The leaves
°uld be gathercd just as the plant is coming into flower,
, irom plants exposed to the sun. They should not be
till ^ ^ t0 ^r^' as *s commonty done, but separately dried
, risP> and the powder preserved in opaque or very dark
Ss bottles in a dry place. Damp and light are fatal to
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(A) STIMULATING DIURETIC BALL,
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3 drachms.
3 drachms. 3 drachms. 1 drachm. |
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Powdered resin
Fused nitre (sal prunella).
Castile soap
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Oil of juniper ....
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Mix.
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(B) COMMON DIURETIC BALL.
Powdered nitre .
Camphor .....
Oil of juniper .... Linseed meal to form a mass.
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1 rnmee.
1 drachm. 1 drachra. |
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(C) DIURETIC TOWDEB FOR A MASII.
Pused nitre (sal prunella) . • i to | ounce.
Besin . . . . i to f ounce.
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Mix.
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234 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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CD)
Fused nitre
Camphor . |
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ANOTHER MORE ACTIVE POWDER.
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Embrocations.
(A) STIMULATING EMBROCATIOH.
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6 drachms.
IJ drachm. |
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Mix.
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Camphor .
Oil of turpentine Spirit of wine |
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J ounce.
IJ ounce. IJ ounce. |
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Drinks or Drenches.—Many practitioners and horse pro-
prietors have a great objection to the administration of medicine 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 acrid substance, £t is apt to excoriate the mouth or to irritate the throat already sore from disease, or the unpleasant taste of the drug may unnecessarily 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 purgatives 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 solu- tion, for the stomach may not have sufficiënt power to dis- solve the paper in which the ball is wrapped, or the sub- stance of the ball. An ox's horn, the larger end being cut slantingly, is the
usual and best instrument for administering drinks. The common method is thus described by Blaine :—" The noose of a halter is introduced into the mouth, and then, by means of a stable fork, the head is elevated by an assistant con- siderably higher than for the delivery of a ball. The opera- tor stands on a pail or stool on the off-side of the horse, 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 into the back part of the mouth ; the horn is now quickly withdrawn, and the tongue loosened, when the greater portion of the fluid must be swallowed. 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 swallowed, which a quick, but not violent slap in 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." Elder.—The elder leaf, boiled in lard, forms an emol-
lient ointment, usefully applied to inflamed and irritated parts. Embrocations.—External remedies applied by hand, fric-
tion, cloth, or brush. The following are the leading formuke. We may as well note that the various oils are retained : there is none of them, however, which may not be dispensed with, if the turpentine and olive oil are retained and proportionally increased in quantity. The " oils " are mere traditions of a superstitious and ignorant period. |
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Mix.
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(B) SWEATING EMBROCATION FOR WINDGALLS, ETC.
Strong mercurial ointment . . 2 ounces.
Camphor . . . . . \ ounce.
Oil of rosemary . . 2 drachms.
Oil of turpentine .... 1 ounce.
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Mix.
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(C) ANOTHER, STRONGER.
|
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Strong mercurial ointment
Oil of bay . Oil of origanum Powdered cantharides |
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2 ounces.
1 ounce. \ ounce. i ounce. |
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Mix.
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(D) STRONG SWEATISa EMBROCATION.
Biniodide of mercury . . . \ to 1 drachm.
Powdered arnica leaves . . . 1 drachm.
Soap liniment .... 2 ounces.
Mix. (E) MUSTARD EMBROCATION.
Best üour of mustard . . .6 ounces.
Liquor of ammonia . . . IJ ounce.
Oil of turpentine .... IJ ounce.
Mix with sufficiënt water to form a tliin paste. Emetic Tartar. See Antimony.
Emetics are not used in horse medicine, for reasoos
explained in the anatomical part of this work. Emülsions are serviceable in chronic cough. The
fol-
lowing is a
(A) SIMPLE EMULSION.
Honey ..... 3 ounces.
Linseed oil. . . . .3 ounces.
Subcarbonate of potass . . .1 drachm.
Boiled water . . . . 1 pint.
Melt the potass and honey in the water ; then add the linseed o
gradually, working it well in till a smooth milky mixture is obtatoe A fourth part thrice a day. (B) AtfOTHER, MORE ACTIVE.
Of the former emulsion . ... 1 pint.
Camphor and opium, in powder, each . J drachm.
Oil of aniseed . . . .20 drops.
Mix the camphor and opium with some white sugar in a mor '
dropping in the oil, then add the emulsion gradually, beating V as before. Epsom Salts. See Magnesia, Sülphate of.
Ergot of Rye (Secale comutum).—"Spurred rye," prese»
a long black diseased growth, possessing remarkable Pr perties. It is a long blackish horn or spur, from an iocü two inches in length. When fresh it is tough and fle^i ** |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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235
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^t soon becomes brittle and easily powdered. It will give
tts active principle to spirit or to water, but a little starch 0r treacle is the best thing to mix with it. lts power in strengthening and maintaining the uterine contractions in ^ares, is unquestionable. But it must never be admin- lstered except in desperate cases. Indeed, though parturition Proceed ever so slowly, it should only be resorted to by the advice of a skilful practitioner. Nevertheless, as cases do ^rise where it may be serviceable, we have included it here. ■*■' may be given in solution by infusing one drachm in half a pint of boiling water for a quarter of an hour; or in ^ostance, in doses of one scruple every fifteen minutes till lts action is apparent. Escharottcs. See Caustics. Euphorbium. This acrid gum-resin is used for blistering
PUrposes by farriers, to save cantharides. A piaster of six
Unces of pitch, and half a drachm of powdered euphor-
llim, with enough turpentine to soften it, has been recom-
j^nded as a stimulant and counter-irritant in internal
^tiammation ; we do not approve of it. When powdering
uPhorbium, the dispenser should wet the mass with vine-
|ai'> or it may rise and excoriate his face and nostrils. See
Bister?
■kxpECTORANTS. These are medicines which assist the
enioval of irritating mucus, formed in the windpipe and r°nchial tubes. Squills, with honey and vinegar, are the ading articles in this class. True, the horse does not . Pectorate, as we un derstand it, but the secretion can be Creased by these medicines, and he will cough out the ^us ; this is relief. |
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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 often used, and with more effect, when the inflammation is somewhat deeply seated, than when it is superficial. The effect depends on the warmth of the water, and not on any herb which may have been boiled in it. They are best applied by means of fiannel 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 fomenta- tions are conducted. They are rarely continued long enough, and when they are removed the part is left exposed and wet, so that the cold of evaporation often does more harm than the warmth of the fomentation does good. Blaine says, and we think the hint valuable, he, in many cases, fomented first and then applied a poultice or liniment. Gentian is, in our opinion, the best tonic bitter for the
horse. It should be combined with ginger, and is then valuable as preventing the griping of aloes. See Stimulants. Ginger is the most grateful spice to the horse. It is the
basis of the cordial ball and indispensable in the tonic ball. It may be occasionally given in doses of 2 or 3 drachms, and in flatulent colic, in doses of 4 to 6 drachms; it will also form a valuable assistant to saline and other cold remedies, given to tender stomachs and bowels. For horses, for cattle, and sheep, it is an excellent carminative, and should be always employed when a warm stimulant is want ing. It is, indeed, one of the most valuable cordials to invigorate the intestinal surfaces we know of. See Cor- dials. Glauber's Salt (Sodce sulphas). See Soda, Sülphatb
OF.
Gltsters. See Clysters.
Goulard's Extract, Gotjlard Water. See Lead.
Grains qf Paradise.—The seeds of the Ainomum Orana
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(A) EXPECTORANT BALL.
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■Powdered squill
Gum acacia |
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1 drachm.
1 ounce. £ ounce. |
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ÏJ.
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Castile soap
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°1ey or treacle to form a ball.
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(B) ANOTHER.
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Gum asafoetida
'-arbonate of ammonia Gum acacia Ginger ^ey to form a ball. |
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2 drachms.
J drachm. 1 drachm. 1 drachm. |
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(C) A P0WERFÜL EXPECTORANT BALL.
Calomel ..... 10 grains.
^igitalis..... £ drachm.
Emetic tartar .... £ drachm.
L; ^^dered squills .... 1 drachm.
^«•ef1 u6ed meal and treacle to form a ball. Tüe result t0 be watched
7 before giving another dose. ^TRAct OF LEAD. SeeLEAD.
tj IFüges, fever medicines, act by increasing the secre-
acti ° Ur*ne an<i perspiration, and by moderating the
8y8te ° *"e beart and the irritability of the circulatory |
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236
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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Paradisi, a plant common on the coast of Guinea, near
Sierra Leone. It is called Melligatta pepper in commerce. The properties are the same as cardamoms. They are a favourite nostrum with grooms, to produce a fine coat, and the animal is often injured in his digestive organs by their injudicious administration. As an addition to other sto- machics they are useful in veterinary prescribing. Gruel is an article of great importance in veterinary prac-
tice ; care should, therefore, be paid to its preparation. It must be thick when intended as a cordial or for nourishment; if as a diluent, it can hardly be too thin. Above all things let it be prepared in scrupulously clean vessels, and never smoked. A horse that has had smoky gruel offered to him will with difficulty again be induced to taste it. Bran -with boiling water poured upon it (bran tea), allowed to get cold and strained, is an excellent diluent. Gitaiacüm, Gum, is the product of a West Indian tree, the
stem of which produces that heavy, hard, black-green wood called lignum vitaï. The resin is a good stimulant, promot- ing secretions of the lungs and skin. It is combined with ammonia and other stimulants. See Stimulants. As it will not dissolve in water, and even a solution in spirit is precipitated by adding water, it is best in emulsions or pills. With potass water made hot, it forms a soap which may be worked into balls. GüMS AND GüM-ReSINS :----
Gum Ammoniacum is soluble in water, spirit, and
vinegar; water is its proper solvent. It is in the form of tears or fragments, yellow outside and white within. There is a cheaper sort of gum ammoniac in the market, called lapis ammoniaci, in lumps, adulterated largely with com- mon resin, and therefore to be avoided. It is a stimulant, and sometimes diuretic, and, dissolved in nitric acid, is a good expectorant. See Ammoniac. Gum Guaiacum. See Guaiacum.
Gum Myrrh. See Myrrh.
Gum Tragacanth. The inspissated juice of the Astraga-
lus tragacanthus, a plant common in Greece and Persia. It is cordial, stomachic, and tonic, like most of its class. Hartshorn. See Ammonia, Carbonate of.
Hellebore, White. The root of the Verairum album is
the part used. Its active principle can be extracted by water or alcohol. A new alkaline principle, called veratria, has been extracted by modern chemists from this acrid and poisonous plant. Those great veterinary authorities, Mr. Percivall, Mr. Blaine, and Mr. Youatt, hold white hellebore in high esteem, while Professor Sewell has little faith in its efficacy, and doubts its medicinal action. As the horse was not intended to vomit, nausea is difficult to excite. Blaine says, " the powdered root of the white hellebore is the most certain nauseant with which we are acquainted; but it is only safe under very watchful eyes and quick perceptions. It may be given to a certain point, and nothing but moderate nausea is observed : if pushed beyond this, the head droops in the manger, the mouth slavers, the |
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pulse sinks, the horse reels to and fro, and purging coines
on, which commonly proves a fatal symptom. It may be given in doses of a scruple every six hours, which may be increased to half a drachm ; but the horse must be care- fully looked to, and as soon as the pulse sinks and the mouth slavers, or any trembling appears, desist from "s further exhibition, directly combating its debilitating and sedative effects by active stimulants." Hellebore lowers the system more speedily than digitalis, but digitalis more safely, when there is time for its operation; at least so we have found: it is for the observant veterinarian to select the proper cases for both. It ranks high also with some veterinarians when used with setons, by smearing tbetn with the powder, but black, hellebore is superior for this purpose. An ointment of powdered hellebore, muriate °* ammonia, and lard, has been found a good applicatiou iB mangy affections. Hellebore, Black {Melampodium. Christmas
Rosé)-
The fibres of the root are the parts used : they are about the
thickness of a straw, rough, of a deep dark colour, hence
called " black," white or yellowish inside ; taste bitter aP"
burning. Choose the darkest, as the roots of the aconite
(monkshood) are often substituted for them, though mucil
lighter in colour. An ointment of black hellebore haf
'1
been successfully used in fistulous withers and poll-evl1, When the tumour has burst and been allowed to discharge
two or three days— being dressed with an ordinary digestive*
and the discharge being of the nature termed laudable-'
then take a few portions of the fibrous part of the root»
sew in the seton passed into the sinuses, and allow thefl1
to remain a fortnight or more. Under this treatmeI1
Mr. Morton assures us he has observed its salutary actiO"
in several cases.
Hemlock (Conium maculatum). This handsome poisonou
wild plant so much resembles several of its tribe which ar
destitute either of deadly or of medicinal qualities as
have led to very varied opinions of its activity iö "*
treatment of disease. The efficacy of the plant, too, depe»d
upon its place of growth, the season when collected, and t»
means taken to dry it or to make the extract; and lasw»
on the temperature and dryness of the place in which i*.x
kept, and the time since it has been gathered. The prl'*
ciple (conia) upon which its activity depends, is volatilised ^
time or heat, and the residue becomes inert. The r8ceIJ
leaves are the most active part of the plant. As helle^01
or digitalis are its equals in affections of the lungs, acüte
chronic, it is not desirable in a veterinary dispensary-
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drachm of the dried leaves, in powder, is a dose.
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.table
hot
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Infusions. These are watery solutions of vege
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matters, obtained by macerating the substance either i11 u"
or cold water, without boiling on the fire. Where vola oil is the active principle, cold infusion is necessary ; ^ mucilage, or astringent principle, warmth is requisite. The active matter of some vegetable substances is Pa, .j
or entirely extracted by water. Dried vegetables Yl |
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237
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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th
th |
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e*r properties more readily and perfectly than when in
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and also a lotion for canker and ulcers in the mouth. It
owes its power, if it have any, to the iron with which it is impregnated. Jalap. This famous human purgative is utterly useless in
horse medicine. Japan Earth (Terra Japonica). See Catechu.
Jesuit's Bark (Peruvian Bark). See Bark.
Juniper, Oil of. The essential oil of the berry is a
stomachic and diuretic. It is a pleasant aromatic to the horse, and enters into the composition of the diuretic ball. Hollands owes its flavour and diuretic quality to this essential oil. English gin is flavoured with oil of turpentine. Kali. See Potass and Soda.
Lard. We prefer palm oil to lard as a basis for making
up balls, simply because an animal substance is abhorrent to the horse as one of the graminivorse. Yet lard or palm oil is preferable to honey, treacle, or syrups, for making up balls, because the ball more readily dissolves in the stomach. It likewise renders a purgative less liable to gvipe. It is the principal basis of all ointments. Laudanum, the tincture of Opium, which see.
Laxatives. See Aperient,?.
Lead.—There are three products of lead admitted to the
veterinary materia medica. 1. The Acetate of Lead (Acetas Plumbi), is known popu-
larly as Sugar of Lead, on account of its sweet taste. Dissolved in water, it makes a turbid solution, unless a little acetic acid is first added. Two drachms of the salt to a pint of water makes Goulard's Lotion. It is in doses of 1 gr., guarded by opium, a remedy for internal hemorrhage. 2. The Subacetate of Lead, called also Extract of Lead,
or Goulard's Extract, and Solution of Subacetate of Lead. A drachm in a pint of water is a good eye-wash in early stages of inflammation. It is not so good, however, as opium or digitalis, and must not be used with them. It is useful in poultices in superficial inflammation, but is of no use in sprain or deep-seated injury. Alum has been added to increase its astringency, but the result is that it is rendered a totally inert sulphate of lead by the addition. Sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts), and white vitriol also decompose it. 3. Carbonate of Lead, Oeruse, or White Lead. This may
be used as a drier of ulcers by sprinkling it upon the sore, but the safety of the practice is questionable. Dry colic may be superinduced. Lime. Lime Water (Liquor Calcis) is a solution of lime
in cold water. It being a curious fact that lime dissolves more completely in cold than in hot water. Thus, one gallon of water at 212° (boiling point) will take up little more than half the quantity of lime that a gallon of water at 32° (freezing point) will hold in solution. Six pounds of lime infused in two gallons of water may, after standing three hours, be strained off, it must then be closely stoppered up, otherwise the lime will take up carbonic acid from the air, and become an insoluble carbonate. Lime water is a |
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eir green state. Boiling water is poured on the substance
°e infused, which has been previously grossly pounded or
P°wdered, the vessel is then covered and placed by a fire.
öve or six hours the transparent part may be poured off,
na is ready for use. In a few days, however, all infusions
ecotne thick and lose their virtue, from the decomposition
°* the vegetable matter.
-the infusion of camomile is used instead of water in mild
nic drenches ; the infusion of gentian is a fine stomachic ;
. !s the infusion of catechu in astringent mixtures; the
iusion of linseed for catarrh ; and in some injections
°nacco-water—the infusion of tobacco.
-Iodine. This non-metallic elementary body is a remarkable
'°nstituent in sea-water, sea-weeds, and marine molluscs,
na may be obtained from help, or sea-weed which has been
rnt for the purpose of making potash. Iodine is soft,
Paque, solid, and of a bluish-black colour and metallic
stre. When moderately heated it rises in a violet-coloured
Pour, hence its name, from the Greek iödos, violet-tinted.
, nas a strong odour and taste, and stains the skin brown,
,* not permanently. It readily dissolves in spirit, but
ltn difficulty in water. Iodine, long bef ore its separate
iscovery, was used empirically in " burnt sponge" and
any mineral waters. It is a valuable remedy in glandular
eüings, especially of the throat. It is reported, too, to be
antidote to poisoning with strychnine and veratria; but
e ao not know practically its claims in this respect. Its
^er over glandular enlargements in the horse is well
°ved, lts administration in doses of half a drachm to a
achm daily has overcome profuse discharges of urine in a
rked manner. The iodide of potass is a valuable medi-
rp e> and acts on the absorbents when taken internally.
e aose is from one to two drachms. The ointment called
9Uentum potassce iodidi is an excellent disperser of
ndular enlargements, in cases where the use of the knife
y °e dangerous.
°N-^The prepa-ations of iron are tonic to the horse;
(f ' ? these, two are adopted by veterinarians. The rust
t Tl carbonas) is a mild and useful tonic in doses from
° to four drachms.
j 0%; sulphate of, also called Green Vitriol, or Copperas, ore powerful, but should never be given in early stages t}( ecovery, and always with caution. The dose should be sul iSaiïle as that of the carbonate. Youatt says:—The fu] 6 ^as ^een recommended for the cure of that deceit- cj a§e or form of glanders, in which there is nothing to nost ., r*se the disease but a very slight discharge from the ^0 1 s" It is to be dissolved in the common drink of the *nu +' *s Worth a trial; but too sanguine expectations im " °^ "e encouraged of the power of any drug over this . tyjo ab^ malady. Iron should be given in combination nitre an and ginger; but never with any alkali, or |
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!,°rge
|
soap, or catechu, or astringent vegetable.
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"water used to be a favourite tonic with farriers,
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|
THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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238
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and nearly tasteless mucilage is obtained. Cold water
will not extract mucilage from the unbruised seeds. A thin infusion is a good substitute for water in cold and sore throat; a pail being slung in the stable or loose box. We prefer, however, thin gruel of oatmeal. The meal of linseed is the best and smoothest of poultices. Oil of linseed is a safe purgative, in doses of a pint to a
pint and a half; but is uncertain in its action Liquorice (Glycyrrliiza Qldbra).—The juice of the liquorice
root, or Stick Liquorice, enters into the composition of many horse-medicines. It is a demulcent, soothing to the mucous membrane, thickens and gives cohesion to powders or balls, and covers the taste of some nauseous medicines better than any other substance. Lotions, which are synonymous with washes, are noticed
under the several ingredients which go to their formation, as copper, zinc, lead, ammonia, acetic acid, &c. The comni°D lotions in use are :— (A) LOTION FOR EXTERNAL INFLAMMATION.
Goulard's extract .... 1 ounce.
Acetic acid (Vinegar) . . .2 ounces. Spirits of wine, or Gin . . . .4 ounces.
"Water ..... 1 quart.
Mix, and apply with a calico bandage.
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wholesome discutient wash. It is considered by many as
a remedy for stone in the bladder, and it appears likely to be beneficial, as it may loosen the cohesion in the mass occasioned by lithic acid in the bladder. Lime water externally is applied for mange, and internally has valuable antacid qualities. Chloride of Lime was known formerly as bleaching pow-
der, and was merely used to deprive various substances of their colouring principle. lts value in veterinary medicine is now found not only as a valuable disinfectant (q. v.), but as an external application to putrid ulcers, though inferior to chloride of zinc. It is purchased in the form of a dry white powder, having an odour of chlorine. Blaine gives the following case, which bears immediately on its effects as an antiseptic. "In a retention of the placenta, called 'not having cleansed/ in a cow, where the putridity had becomo so great as to produce larvae or maggots and intolerable fcetor, there was injected a wine-glassfull of chloride of lime, diluted with a pint of warm water, into the vagina ; which itself brought away, in two hours' time, several quarts of putrid matter, by which the cow was greatly relieved; but some fcetor returning, a second injection was passed the next day, which again sweetened the cleansirig, and pre- vented further putrefaction. But as the placenta was not yet ejected, two ounces of the chloride of soda was now given in a pint of gruel every hour; the consequence of which was, that after the sixth dose the placenta came away, much decomposed, but without fcetor ; and the cow was evidently saved by these means, though apparently before in a dying condition." Liniments are preparations of intermediate consistency
between ointments and oils. They are intended 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 camphorated spirit, an ounce of oil of turpentine, half an ounce of laudanum, and a drachm of oil of origanum, may be mixed together; or an ounce of camphor may be dissolved in four ounces of sweet oil, to which an ounce of oil of turpentine and a drachm of oil of origanum should 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. Soap Liniment, commonly known under the name of
Opodeldoc, consists of hard soap, 1 ounce; camphor, 3 drachms; oil of rosemary, 20 drops; oil of origanum, 10 drops; solution of ammonia, 6 drachms. This is the renowned Steer's Opodeldoc. A cheaper and simpler liniment will do as well. Linseed.—The seeds of the common flax contain a large
proportion of mucilage and one-sixth of their weight of fixed oiL By infusion in boiling water, a clear, colourless |
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Mix.
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Mix.
Lunar Caustic. See Caustics.
Magnesia, Sulphate of (Magnesice SulpJias). Ef^
Salts. A valuable medicine to the veterinarian. In eaW fever, in doses of six to eight ounces, it is preferable aloes, unless disease of the lungs or primse viae are presen_' The dose often requires repeating before it operates. I* , not, therefore, a certain laxative, but its operation shou be assisted by bran mashes. It is also an adjunct laxative clysters. The cathartic powers of Epsom salts a increased by dilution in abundance of fluid, and a h* common salt (muriate of soda) quickens its action. Tn is no such good and ready test as the taste in cases of a°u. between the crystals of Epsom salts and those of oxalic a° which so closely resemble them. The bitterness of the ° and the intense sourness of the other can leave no doubt- Malt. Blaine has a high opinion of malt, in which ^
coincide. He says : " It forms an excellent cordial in ca " of debility, and, when continued, becoraes a perman |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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239
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tonic: it has also some pectoral qualities; but in active inflam-
^ation of the chest it is too stimulating for use. Malt is an excellent alterative: in farcy, in grease, and in mange Wso, when accompanied with emaciation, it has been used ^th efficacy ; but, in such cases, it should be given in con- Slderable quantities without other corn, and with as little hay as possible, so that almost all the nutriment received may be .^alt This practice is not generally known, but it has Pfoved, in some cases, singularly efficacious: the best mode °* giving malt is by mashes." Maeshmallow (Althéa officinalis), is at the head of de-
^ülcents in horse-practice. lts leaves contain a bland
"heilage and starch (amylum), which can be extracted
by both hot and cold water. The root is carrot-shaped,
^hite and fleshy, about as thick as the thumb, and a foot or
^ore long. lts leaves are soft-stalked and heart-shaped, its
stems two or three feet high, and covered with soft down, as
are the leaves. The flowers are of the pale rosé colour lately
nown as mauve, and appear in short clusters from the
°s°m of the leaves. The demulcent lozenges sold in the
silops for colds and coughs, and called Pdte de Guimauve,
ïe an inspissated syrup of marshmallow.
. Mashes are a leading article in stable economy, and
stly SCè a masn given occasionally to a horse that is
herwise fed on dry meat, prevents him from becoming
ailgerously costive. To the overworked and tired horse
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below the boiling heat, or the malt will be set, or clogged
together. If owners were aware of the value of a malt mash, there would be much physic saved. Speared corn mash, often talked of, is nothing more than a malt mash. Meecuey, ob Qtjicksilveb (Hydrargyrurn). This peculiar
metal, fluid at ordinary temperatures, solid, ductile, and malleable at 40° below zero of Fahrenheit, furnishes some valuable items to the veterinary pharmacopceia. It boils at 656°, and throws off a volatile vapour, which, condensed by cold, is purified mercury. Mercury, in its metallic state, is not employed in veterinary medicine. It has, however, been employed in human practice to force a passage through the intestines by its specific gravity. Mercury is sadly adulterated by lead, bismuth, zinc, and tin : the methods of detecting these will be found in Dr. Paris's Pharmacologia, article Hydeaegyeum, but would take up too much space to detail here. Three forms of mercury will suffice for this compendium of Horse Medicines. 1. Calomel (Hydrargyri Submurias), the mildest pre-
paration, is in truth proto-chloride of mercury. It may be given, combined with aloes, in mange, surfeit, or worms; yet better alteratives and more efficiënt vermifuges have been described. It is admissible in some cases of chronic cough, in farcy, and in jaundice, but it is not a medicine that seems to agree with the horse. Alone, it has little purgative effect, but it assists the action of other aperients. It is given in doses from a scruple to a drachm, but must not be too often or too long repeated. As soon as the gums or bars become red, or the horse is seen to " quid " or drop his hay, the calomel must be discontinued. The name calomel is compounded of two Greek words, kalos, good, fair, melas, black—i. e., say the old writers, because it is good for black (bile); but, as its colour changes from black to white in the process of preparing it, is there not a less fanciful derivation ? 2. Gorrosive Suhlimate (Hydrargyri Oxymurias). This
is the bichloride of mercury according to the latest chemists. Its form is a crystalline mass, easily pounded, and becoming opaque on its surface when exposed to the air. Light has no effect upon it. Its fumes when thrown on burning coals are highly dangerous to those who breathe them. It is one of the most acrid and active of metallic preparations, yet numerous quack medicines are based on corrosive sublimate. As an alterative it may be given to the horse in doses of from ten to twenty grains daily. In glanders and farcy the quantity may be increased as far as can be borne. As an external application, the perchloride of mercury has good effects. As a caustic, it has been noticed under that head. As a wash for mange, it has adherents; we are not of the number. It appears to be taken by neat cattle in large doses with impunity, while a small quantity sprinkled on a wound has killed the animal. 3. Red Precipitate (Hydrargyri Oxydum rubrum). An
active mercurial, employed only as an external remedy. It is a good caustic, sprinkled on old sores. |
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all,
Pparent condition for sale, or giving him a round and
^P appearance, consists principally in the frequent
Petition of mashes; and from their easiness of digestion
. ^ the mild nutriment which they afford, as well as their
ative effect, they form the principal diet of the sick horse.
^ashes are made by pouring boiling water on bran, and
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8%
sufi
|
*lng it well, and then covering it over until it is
ciently cool for the horse to eat. If in the heat of ^er a cold mash is preferred, it should, nevertheless, be |
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. ^e with hot wa^sr, and then Luffered to remain until it
°ld. This is not always sufficiently attended to by the , tïl> who is not aware that the efficacy of the mash i PeQds principally on the change which is effected in the • ail(i the other ingredients by the boiling water render- jj üem more easy of digestion, as well as aperient. If the . e refuses the mash, a few oats may be sprinkled over it, de • r *° *emPt nmi to eat it; but if it is previously b» °ne<* that corn should be given in the mash, it should ^ calded with the bran, to soften it and render it more pi • Bran mashes are very useful preparatives for pL . c> and they are necessary during the operation of the
the V, nev very soon become sour, and the manger of be j ?rse 0I" "whose diet they form a principal part, should
aily and carefully cleaned out.
■^ill f*1 orses are weakly and much reduced, malt mashes \<jat ^n De palatable to them, and very nutritive: but the at is poured on a malt mash should be considerably |
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240
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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vive of the multitude of useless " oils" in which the
ignorant farrier and groom of the olden days placed their faith. Oilof Almonds, of Amber, of Anise, of Bay, of Camoinile'
of Caraway, of Fennel-seed, of Juniper, of Lavender, ot Peppermint, of Green Mint, of Origanum, of Pimento, of Savine, of Rosemary, of Rue, of Tar, of Turpentine, of StyraX, (benzoin), &c, &c. To these might be added a dozen ot filthy animal oils, with names as ridiculous and extravagant as their imputed virtues. Oils are fixed or volatile.
The fixed oils are so called because they are not
liable
to be vaporised under moderate temperature. They are
mostly obtained by expression from seeds, or by meltmg |
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Mercurial Ointment (Hydrargyri Unguentum fortius).
Blue ointment. The strength of this varies materially, from 30 grains of mercury in the drachm of ointment, down to 10 grains in the same quantity. Triturate the black oxide of mercury with lard (taking care there is no salt in it), in a cold place. It is employed with considerable advantage in preparing splents, 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, on the application of the stronger stimulant, when they have been thus prepared. Mercurial ointment in a more düuted form is sometimes |
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necessary for the cure of mallenders and sallenders; and in
very obstinate cases of mange, one-eighth part of mercuria |
0,-1
r
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rom animal substances.
The volatile oils are procured by distillation, and evap°"
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rate by moderate heat.
The fixed oils used by the veterinarian are :—
Castor Oil (which see).
OU of Olives.—The best olive oil may be substituted f°r
castor oil, when the latter cannot be obtained. It is the principal medium in the composition of liniments, an enters into many ointments. Oil of Zinseed.—It is a pretty certain laxative, and lS
more to be depended on than olive oil; and in ma»v instances more than castor oil. Oil of Palm.—This has the consistence of lard ; with the
addition of a fragrant smell. As it does not become rancid» it is to be preferred : it is also less noxious to the stomac of the horse than the animal oils. It is the produce of tüe kernels of the fruit of the Cocos butyracea, Mackau-tree> or Brazilian palm. The essential or volatile oils are :—
Oil of Amber.—An antispasmodic not much in use.
is said to have a peculiar property of hastening the acti° of aloes. Oil of Anise Seeds.—This is an excellent warm aromati -.
and may very properly be added to cordial balls. OU of Oaraways may be used in the same way, and c°
sidered in a similar point of view. Oil of Juniper.—This is often added to diuretic t>a '
to increase their effect: it acts, however, principally aS . warm aromatic. It is now mingled with mange apP cations. Oil of Tar is a cheap penetrating distillation from ta '
It may be employed in a mixture with whale oil» a suppling matter for the hoofs. See Creosotb. Oil of Turpentine.—See Turpentine.
Oil of Origanum.—This warm penetrating oil ^
formerly much used as an external stimulant; but i inferior to the purest turpentine (Canada Balsaw)> need not be retained. Oil of Vitriol (Sulphurie Acid). See Acid, Sül^büE|,, j
Ointments are greasy applications, consisting of a povre
drug mixed with lard, or some similar compound, and |
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ointment may be added to an ounce of flower of sulphur,
half an ounce of turpentine, and an ounce of train oil, and well rubbed down together. Ethiop's Mineral (Black Sulphuret of Mercury, Hy-
drargyri Sulphuretum nigrum) is a well-known black, tasteless, inodorous powder. It is an alterative. Blaine says, " it is less frequently given in horse practice than it deserves. There is too much fashion in our pharmacy, and too little experiment." In all skin affcctions we have found this a valuable alterative, and also vermifuge, in daily doses of two or three drachms. Mint, as an infusion or decoction, is not worth retention
in horse-medicines. See Oils. MüRIATE OF ANTIMONY. See ANTIMONY.
Muriate of Barytes. See Barytes.
Muriate of Soda. See Salts.
Myrrh. This gum resin is used as a tonic in the form of
tincture, combined with a warm bitter, as gentian. There are two tinctures of it; one simple, and one compounded with aloes; both of which are much used externally, as warm digestives, in wounds and sinuous sores, and the application is frequently attended with striking benefit: the aloetic tincture is by much the more stimulant. To cattle also it proves a stimulating tonic and antiseptic in doses of from one to two ounces. Naphtha, Petroleum, Rock-Oil. See Tar.
Narcotics. See Antispasmodics and Anodynes.
Nitrate of Silver. See Caustics.
Nitre (Potassce Nitras). See Potass.
Sweet Spirit of Nitre (Spiritus JStheris Nitrici), is a
fragrant, colourless, volatile and inflammable fluid, which will mix with either water or spirit. It is cooling, yet cordial, and mildly diuretic. Four ounces tvvice a day, or divided into three doses, is a valuable medicine in the more advanced stages of fever. An ounce in the cold fit of coming fever is to be recommended. Nitrio Acid (Aquafortis). See Caustics.
Oak Bark. See Astringents.
Oils. The following list contains the few which sur-
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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241
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|
aPpKed to the sore; they are described under the several
leads Astmngents, Anodynes, &c. Their number is much reduced in modern practice. Opium (the inspissated extract of the Papaver somni-
jerum), ig imported in solid flat pieces of compact texture,
covered with the leaves of the poppy. It is opaque, of a
reddish-brown or fawn colour, with a peculiar heavy nar-
c°tlc smell. It is dissolvable in water, spirit, wine, and
; iDegar. By boiling, its soporific powers are impaired, and
y continued, they are destroyed. The tincture, which is
.luaaniim, is better made with spirit; the watery solution
8 öiuch less efficacious, though spirit below proof is better
as^a solvent than that above. The narcotic principle of
°Pium is an alkaloid called morphia, which is easily dis-
SoW in olive oiL
Opium is a valuable drug in veterinary practice, though
_ere have not been wanting practitioners who have main-
aiöed it to be inert! True, it does not act as a narcotic,
xcept in very large doses ; yet it is powerfully antispas-
°uic, scdative, and astringent. As an antispasmodic it
Rters into the colic drink, and it is the sheet-anchor of
/^e veterinarian in the treatment of tetanus or locked jaw.
°uatt says:—" As a sedative, it relaxes that universal
Pasm of the muscular system which is the characteristic of
etanu.s; and perhaps it is only as a sedative that it has
. °h admiratle effect as an astringent; for when the
Station about the mouths of the vessels of the intestines
nd kidneys is allayed by the opium, undue purging and
j~ °'use staling are necessarily arrested. It should, however,
e given with caution. It is its secondary effect which is
. ative, and, if given in cases of fever, its primary effect in
. creasing the excitement of the system is marked and in-
rious. In the early and acute stage of fever, it would be
ac^ Practice to give it in the smallest quantity ; but when
e fever has passed, or is passing, there is nothing which so
pidly subdues the irritability that accompanies extreme
eakness, and it becomes an excellent tonic, because it is
a sedative.
1 the blue or green vitriol, or cantharides, have been
Süed too far, opium soonest allays the disorder they have
. asioned. It is given in doses of one or two drachms,
e* the powdered opium being made into a ball, or the
„ ,. 0Pinm dissolved in hot water, and given with its
mient. Other medicines are usually combined with it,
°rdmg to the circumstances of the case.
xternally, it is useful in ophthalmia. In the form of
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|
colour, and its weight; for it is the heaviest of all the
vegetable extracts, except gum arabic. Yet its weight is often fraudulently increased by bits of stone, and even lead. English opium is blacker and softer than Turkish, but not less efficacious in practice. Oxymel, Simple. Is made by simmering two poonds of
honey in a pint of vinegar. It is good in composition with nitre, digitalis, &c, in pneumonia and catarrh; dose, from four to six ounces. Palm Oil. See Ons.
Peppees.—Various kinds of peppers are sometimes used,
particularly in colic. Mr. B. Clark has written a treatise expressly on the virtue of the pimento berry. As a general remedy, any of them may be properly given in dc-ëös of three drachms to six; except the cayenne, which, as being very strong, admits of only a drachm as a dose. Peppers are sometimes used as stomachics, or to warm other more permanent tonics, such as steel, bitters, &c. Pitoh is used to give a consistence and adhesiveness to
piasters and ointments, and is also the basis of charges. It has a strong medicinal quality, as its relationship with terebinthinated substances shows. Ordinary pitch is as good as the more expensive Burgundy pitch; a pound melted with an ounce of yellow beeswax is a good piaster for sand- crack. Physic. See Cordial, Aperient, and Diuretio.
Potass (Potassa), is called the vegetable kali. to distin-
guish it from Soda, the mineral kali In its pure state it is a powerful caustic, and enters as a base into the com- position of salt. Two compounds of potass are used in horse practice. Nitrate of Potass {Potassw Nitras) or Nitre, is a very
common product, and is as useful as it is general. It is compounded of nitric acid and vegetable kali, whence its chemical name nitrate of potass. It is the most useful, powerful cooling medicine; greatly diminishes febrile action, and determines its depletory action more certainly to the kidneys than any of the saline articles. It is also antiseptic and diaphoretic, and therefore of great consequence in active fever, given two or three times a day, in doses of three or four drachms. As an alterative it is also well known ; but it is not a good plan, as practised by some grooms, to infuse it into the water which horses are to drink ; it is apt to dis- gust them with all liquids. Nitre, while dissolving, materially lowers the temperature of water, and furnishes a cold lotion for sprain of the back sinews, and local inflammations. The lotion should be used as soon as the salt is dissolved, for it quickly becomes as warm as the surrounding air. Fused Nitre is sold solid under the name of Sal Prunella. The Supertartrate of Pot-ass (Potassce Supertartras), ot
Cream of Tartar, is not a very active medicament in horse practice. It is, however, slightly febrifuge and miidly diuretic. It has some alterative powers, and unites with those medi- cines which are generally employed when horses are labour- ing under cutaneous affect iona. |
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'ction of the poppy-head it may constitute the basis of
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^. an°dyne poultice; but it must not be given in union
_ a^y alkali—with the exception of chalk, in over-
ging : nor ^h ^g SUperacetate of lead, by which its
ers are materially impaired: nor with sulphate of zinc,
^°Pper, or iron.
t0 r°m its high price it is much adulterated, and it is rare
Stn ii • yv'1^a- ** in a state of purity. The best tests are its
' rts taste, its toughness and pliancy, its fawn or brown
BH
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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242
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Powders.—Powdered medicines that have not much taste
may be given in a mash. Emetic tartar and digitalis i° fever; or calomel or the meal of the nut of croton tigliujn as " physic." The horse, however, often refuses them, and then the mash is wasted. A careful and competent grooffl will prefer the more certain method of ball or drench. Quassia.—The wood of the tree {Quassia excélsa) owes its
properties to a peculiar bitter principle of wonderful dura- bility. It is solid, and of a light yellow colour. It is a useful tonic : dose from six to ten drachms. Quinine.—This celebrated essential principle of the cin-
chona, or bark of the Cinchona lancifolia (Jesuit's bark)» is too expensive for veterinary practice. It may be joined (as disulphate oiKina), in doses of adrachm, with camphor, where its cost is not regarded. Raking.—This method of emptying the bowels by
hand
will be noticed under Operations, &c. Blaine thus directs
its performance :—" The right arm being stripped and oiled> with the left hand, the tail is drawn aside, when the rightj being made as small as possible, should be gently introducé» up the fundament, and any hardened excrement it niay meet be removed carefully." From this it will be seen that back-ralcing must be useful in a vast variety of cases. 1" should always precede a clyster (see Clysters), lest the fluld should be obstructed and thrown out again. It is useful U* colic and costiveness. Red Precipitate. See Mercürt.
Repellents.—Medicines whose action was supposed to
consist in driving back humours from one part to another- They are exploded by modern science: tonic action aio» can apply to the theory of repellents. Resin.—The several resins are noticed under their kind •
Yellow resin is that used in Charges (q. v). It is a usei» diuretic in doses of 5 or 6 drachms, made into a ball w1" soft soap. Rowels. See Operations, post.
Salts.—Common salt (muriate of soda) is useful 1
veterinary practice. See Soda. Salt of Tartar. See Potass.
Salts, Epsom. See Magnesia,
Sal Prunella. See Nitre.
Salt of Steel. See Iron.
Savine.—The leaves of the juniperus sabina, or savin
in veterinary practice, have had very opposite appreciat1011 as an internal remedy. This has arisen from faulty Prf paration of the medicine, not that we consider it ^oT retaining, except as an outward application. It is al»108 impossible to so dry and pulverise savine leaves as not lose the essential oil on which their activity depends. ' then, they are to be administered, an infusion of tflr ounces of the leaves in a pint of water, with a few drops opium and some syrup, or a tincture in proof spirit, shou be used. They are highly stimulant, hot, and acrimoniou > they act on the nervous system, and especially on theuter The ignorant still believe that infusion of savine Ie» |
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Poultxces, oe Cataplasms.—As bread would be expensive,
bran is generally used in veterinary practice ; which a little linseed meal improves in consistence. This is important, as otherwise the poultice runs through the cloth. Yet it must not be too thick, lest it dry too quickly; and its action is due greatly to its keeping moist. It should therefore be frequently wetted from without. In applying poultices to the legs, care should be taken not to tie them too tight, as is frequently done, and whereby the mischief is aggravated instead of relieved : a piece of broad list is, for this reason, very proper to fasten them on with. A poultice should never be applied too hot; very little good can be derived from it, and much pain may be occasioned. A hot poultice soon sinks to the heat of the part. Poultices are likewise, in many cases, applied cold. A convenient mode of applying a poultice to the extremities, is by means of an old stocking cut off at the ankle. The leg of it, being slipped over the hoof, is brought around the part, and secured below by means of broad list. The poultice is then put into the stocking by means of the hand, and afterwards secured above by another piece of broad list. In cases where it is found difficult to keep a poultice on any part of the extremities, from its in- clination to slip down, still by no means tighten the support- ing bandage ; but, instead, pass a long tape from it over the withers, if in front, or back, if behind, and attach it to the other side of the bandage ; it will then be effectu- ally secured from slipping. If too tight, it will prevent the return of blood from the foot; if too hot, it will inflict un- necessary pain. (A) COMMON POULTICE.
Bran, any quantity; pour on it boiling -water, to form a thick paste;
add linseed meal sufficiënt to make it adhesive. After this, stir in one or two ounces of sweet oil. (B) COOLING POULTICE.
Bran, any quantity ; pour on it a sufficiënt quantity of cold water to
form a poultice ; and, as it dries, moisten with more water. (C) CLEANSING POULTICES IN GENERAL USE FOR GREASE AND
ULCER0US W0UNDS. Oatmeal ..... \ pint. Linseed meal . . . \ pint. Powdered chareoal . . .4 ounces.
Stale beer and bran sufficiënt to make a poultice.
(D) OR,
Carrots, scraped, sufficiënt to make a poultice.
(E) OR,
Turnips, loiled and mashed, sufficiënt to make a poultice.
To either of these last two, four ounces of chareoal may
be added, if thought proper. Or, (F)
Linseed meal, or oatmeal, any quantity; mix with boiling water, and
ferment with a table-spoonful of yeast: as it rises, apply to the part |
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243
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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"1 procure abortion in women; in an overdose it will
certainly kill the mother. The infusion is an excellent ion for gangrenous sores, and the dried leaves are
f°°a for warts, soft ulcers, and caries. With lard or wax it a good ointment to keep open rowels or setons; and the
aves in a poultice stimulate foul sores to granulation.
oedatives.—This class of medicines is calculated to
finish the irritability of the system, to repress spasmodic
etl°n, and to deaden pain. Some sedatives act at first as
stlöiulants, but this stage soon passes off. In some cases
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more diffusible in water. Cheltenham salts consist of sul-
phate of soda, 120 grains ; sulphate of magnesia, 66 grains; muriate of soda, 10 grains ; sulphate of iron, | grain. Muriate of Soda (Chloride of Sodium), Common Salt.
While in a state of solution, common salt is muriate of soda, when it is dried, it becomes chloride of sodium ; " thus the same salt is chloride of sodium in the hand, and muriate of soda in the mouth ! " The effect of salt upon the animal system is striking and important, and has furnished the most interesting inquiries to the physiologist, the chemist, the physician, and the agriculturist. These, however, would lead us into digression here. Salt, in moderate quantities, promotes digestion in the horse ; an excess destroys it. It is tonic, and corrects that disordered state of the bowels which produces worms. lts use is corrective of the bad food which encourages the multiplication of bots. The value of salt to all herbivorous animals is fully indicated by their natural craving for it in cases of disorder of the system. The " salt licks " of North America and of the Pampas show the greed of the horse, elk, moose-deer, &c, for this mineral. Salt does not act diuretically, but passes undecomposed into the kidneys. It is purgative in solution in tepid water, and forms the ordinary clyster. It is the natural stimulant of the digestive organs. The doses are a drink of eight ounces of salt in solution, for a tonic. One ounce of salt and one ounce of water is a healthy antiseptic embrocation for sore back. Sprinkled on the hay, or in a mash, it is palatable to the sick horse. Indeed, the value of salt in veterinary practice can hardly be over-rated. Tartrate of Soda (Soda Tartarizatd) is a triple salt, formed
of an acid, soda, and potass. It does not differ in its effects from tartrate of potass, and need not be further described. Spanish Flies. See Cantharides.
Spurred Rye. See Eröot op Rye.
Squills.—The bulb of the scilla maritima, or wild onion,
is expectorant, diuretic, and very slightly laxative. It is excellent in disorders of the bronchial tubes, in conjunction with demulcents. The bulb loses about four-fifths of its weight in drying, but this does not seem to lessen its powers unless heat has been applied. Its bitter principle (called Scillitin) is carried, by the circulation, to the secretory vessel* of the kidneys, and thus stimulates them. The syrup, tincture, or dried root, is to be adapted to the form of the medicine, whether solid or fluid. Starch (Amylum), is given internally, mixed with chalk
and opium, and is used to guard acrid medicines. Starch clysters in diarrhcea are to be advised in preference to the ordinary gruel. Stimulants (see Cordials). Medicines that exert an in-
fluence on the system by increasing the power and action of a part; hence they may be considered as very numerous, and the term as of very extensive signiflcation. The fol- lowing article from Blaine contains a summary of the classi- fication of doses of these medicines. Local Stimuli are all |
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C.Q
oth
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ey act by enabling the system to resist irritation, in
ers they numb the nerves and lower the animal system |
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a narcotic or sleepy effect. In the horse we do not find
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ese medicines act as positive narcotics, as in man : they
erely lessen irritability and check spasmodic action. Digi- ls> opium, hellebore, hemlock, opium, belladonna, camphor, . 5 turpentine, act as sedatives with the horse: so also, in
. JUries and consequent fever, does the cold bath. Some
Uative states are best met by tonics, as the mineral Ws, &c> The sedative medicines will be found under eir several titles in this alphabetical list. oilver gives us that excellent escharotic known as Lunar ^stic. See Caüstics.
^oap..—The soap used in prescriptions is the hard or Panish soap, and soft soap, a compound of olive oil and tass. The latter is transparent, yellowish, with small |
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tion is
|
ke lumps of tallow dispersed through it. lts applica-
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noticed under the several heads. In large doses, soap
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is
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Purgative; in small doses, it determines to the kidneys.
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Th
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e Use of hard soap in forming diuretic and other balls is
el1 known.
i 0DA is the mineral kali, as potass is the vegetable. lts
e is the mineral called sodium. Soda is now generally
0cured by the decomposition of sea salt (chloride of sodium).
e salt is first converted into sulphate of soda (Glauber's
s)> then into crude carbonate of soda, and then by
Jting it into a lye (lixiviating), and evaporating, becomes
^ .crystallized carb nate commonly known as soda. Ofits
ta °US Sa^ts we ma^ note t^ie carDonate> the sulphate, the
rate, and the muriate (chloride).
arbonate of Soda (Sodce Carbonas), is a white gritty
Co ' a^aüne in taste. lts most familiar use is in the j, P°sition of soda-water powders, where half a drachm of _ carbonate of soda is placed in a blue paper, and 25
s of tartaric acid in a white one. lts medicinal uses
a , e same as the subcarbonate of potass, but it is milder
in 1 nauseous. It is easily soluble in water at 60°, and
s than its own weight of boiling water,
öiort 6 °f 8oda-—'Ihe well-known Glauber's salts. A i^g , ^Seful purgative. It is soluble in water, but totally
0f ., e ln spirits. Muriate of ammonia and lime, nitrate 8°da Ter> an<^ acetate or> lea<^> a^ decompose the sulphate of °iUaV • G wou^ recommend it to be mixed in equal whe 1GS .w*tü tne sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts) - °ne is prescribed. The compound is more active and |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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244
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sueh matters as either promote the vascular, the nervous, or
the absorbing energies; as friction, rubefacients, blisters, &c. General stimuli act on the sensorium at once, through the medium of the senses : the voice of the hounds stimu. lates the horse; the exertions of a rival racer -will likewise stimulate ; and the stallion's fire is drawn forth by the scent of the mare. Absorbing stimulants are heat, cold, friction, depletion, mercury, &c. StomacJiic stimulants.—Such may be called cordials as
are intended to have a temporary effect on the stomach; and those may be noted as stomachics whose action is more per- manent. Both the one and the other appear to act by a sympathetic effect they excite between the stomach and the brain. Warm spicy matters possess some efficacy; but, as might be supposed, such cordials (i. e. stomachics) appear to act best when they are received into the system at large, as generous food, malt, gruel, ale, &c. (A)
Gentian, powdered . . .8 ounces. Ginger, powdered .... 4 ounces.
Oil of aniae seed ... \ ounce. Make into a roass with lard, honey, treacle, or consei-ve of roses, and
give one ounce for a dose. (B)
Of the preceding mass . . .1 ounce.
Gum myrrh .... 1 drachm.
Balaam of Tolu .... 1 drachm.
(C)
Of the first mass . ... 1 ounce.
Camphor . . . . .1 drachm.
Opium . . . . .1 drachm.
Either of these may be given as a drink also, by infusing the
powders in a pint of ale. As stimulants, Mr. Vines, in his " Treatise on Glanders/'
enumerates the following articles:—Cantharides, Canella bark (Ganellm cortex), Capsicum berries (Capsici baccw), Cu- bebs, or Java pepper (Gubeba), Ginger root (Zingiberis radix). Grains of Par&dise (Grana Paradisi), Pellitory of Spain (Py- rethri radix); all the different sorfs of Peppers, as the com- mon black, Cayenne, Chili, long, and white; Pimento, or Allspice (Pimentce baccce), Sweet Flag-root (Galami aromat. radix), Winter's bark (Winter ai cortex). More permanent stomachic stimulants are such as act
not only by determining a greater quantity of blood to the stomach, but also by strengthening the muscular tone of that organ, enabling it to act with more energy in its digestive movements. The following formulae are inserted, and are proper in cases of convalescence, or recovery from debilitating diseases which have impaired the appetite :— (b)
Powdered canella bark (cinnamon) . 4 drachms.
Ginger . , . , . 1 drachm.
Sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) . . 1 drachm.
Make into a ball with conserve of roses. |
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(E)
Decoction of camomile .
Watery tincture of aloes . Ginger, in powder . Sulphate of iron (green vitriol) Mix and divide into four drinks. (F)
Gum myrrh
Mustard flour
Cantharides Gentian powder Make into a ball with thin Venice turpentine |
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3 pints.
1 ounce. ^ ounce. ^ ounce. |
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2 drachms.
1 drachm. 5 grams 4 drachms. |
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(GO
Powdered gentian .... 3 drachms,
Powdered quassia .... 3 drachms,
Powdered grains of Paradise . . 3 drachms.
Make into a ball with Venice turpentine.
Tonic stimulants are supposed to exert their influence oD
the muscular fibre, and to improve its tone : this the? do, in some instances, through the medium of the stomad1» and are then called stomachics; or they are received int° the blood. Tonics are, therefore, stimulants of permane» action ; from which we may learn that this class lS numerous, and is, in fact, diffused through the whol materia medica. A complete knowledge of their numhe" and effect can only be gained by an intimate aequaintance with the animal economy and the nature of the vario»s agents employed in acting upon it. Either of the subjoiae" may be given daily :— (H)
Gum myrrh . 2 drachms.
Sulphate of iron (green vitriol) . . 2 drachms.
Gentian powder .... 3 drachms.
Ginger powder . ... 1 drachm. Mix into a ball with turpentine or palm oil; or into a drink witD
pint of mild ale. (I)
Arsenic . . . . ,4 grains.
Gentian, powdered . . .3 drachms.
Caacarilla, powdered . . .3 drachms.
Mix into a ball with conserve of roses; or, like the above, i"1*0
drink. (E)
Gum myrrh . , . '.3 drachms.
Powdered gentian. , . .3 drachms.
Carbonate of iron. ... 2 drachms.
Make into a ball. As Tonics, Mr. Vines also enumerates Angostura "'^
(Cusparice cortex), Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), ^a carilla bark (Cascarillaï cortex), Camomile flowers (A . midis flores), Gentian root (Gentiance radix), Q«asS1 wood (Quassia} lignum). Stoppings are an important point in stable manage!*101^
When a horse's work is irregular and he stands in stable t |
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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245
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0ng, his feet are deprived of moisture, and the hoofs become
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tissues, will be found, by coagulating the serous portions of
the blood, and exciting the peculiar contractility of the blood-vessels of the horse, to check and eventually stop the loss of blood from severe wounds, and allow time for further remedial measures. Sublimate, Corrosive. See Mercdrt.
Sudorifics. See Diaphoretics. A relaxation of the skin
is produced in the horse by warmth, diluents, and diaphoretic medicines. A real sweat, however, is seldom excited with- out violent nauseants, and these are very uncertain in their action. Vinegar in half-pint doses will act as a sudorific, but is dangerous. A greater amount of clothing is preferable, but is very debilitating. Antimonials, as the acetated liquor of ammonia, will act as sudorifics in many cases. Sttrax, Storax.—Benzoin, commonly called Gum Benja-
min. It is the product of a shrubby tree, the Styrax benzoin, common in Italy and the Levant. lts name is from the Greek word styrax, signifying a reed, the gum styrax being preserved in reeds. It is a fragrant balsam, containing resin, and the peculiar principle called benzoic acid. It dissolves readily in spirits and aather, and is separated from them by the addition of water. It is good as a stimulant in lung disorders, and has been recommended in fevers. lts dose will be found in the eompounds where used. It is an ingre- diënt in fumigating pastilles. Sulphates.—A salt formed by the union of sulphuric
acid and a salifiable base. Sulphate of Copper. See Copper.
Sulphate of Soda. See Soda.
Sulphate of Zinc. See Zinc.
Sulphate of Magnesia. See Magnesia.
Sulphur. Brimstone.—A well-known simple combustible
substance found in the neighbourhood of volcanoes, in sublimed incrustations. It is extracted from pyrites, or fire- stones, by roasting them ; these pyrites are in vast variety and are eompounds of sulphur with various metals. When brimstone is melted at 228° Fahrenheit, and cast in cylindrical moulds, it is called rough or roll sulphur; when this is purified by sublimation, it is sublimed sulphur, called flowers of sulphur, a bright yellow powder. When melted sulphur cools in the air, it is yellow and very brittle ; when poured into water, white and tough. Flowers of Sidphur (sulphur sublimatum) is a common
remedy in veterinary practice. Internally, it is alterative, externally, a cure for eruptions of the skin. It is the basis of our applications in mange, and, combined with antimony and nitre, in surfeit, grease, hidebound, or want of condition. In doses of six or eight ounces, uncombined, it will open the bowels : but is not at all advisable as a purgative. When sulphur is internally administered, it exudes through the skin in the state of sulphureted hydrogen, and will blacken silver which is rubbed on the skin in a remarkable manner. Sulphur ointment is invaluable in mange. Observe, the black sulphur of the shops should never be used, as it often contains arsenic or mercury. Sulphur will not dissolve in |
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arcl and brittle, and have a tendency to corns, contraction,
a^d founder. In cases of wounds or bruises on the sole, stop-
P'^gs are yet more necessary. Clay is a bad stopping. It
nes soon and adds to the evil it is intended to remedy; the
a<Mition of three parts of co-w-dung to the clay will correct
bls- In -wounds, a little tar is a good addition : but tar, as
a general stopping, is too stimulant and drying. Oil of
UrPentine, one part; firm grease, two parts; and pledgets of
°w dipped in it, bound on with withy strips and list, make
11 extemporaneous stopping. There are now, however,
easijy procurable, thick feit pads made for the purpose,
^ cn fit to the sole of the foot; these being passed within
he shoe, and well wetted with water or cold lotion, swell,
n& thus are kept in their place by the shoe itself, and -will
e^ain their moisture throughout the night. Or, in case of
Prick of the foot, wet the pad liberally with chloride of zinc
otion to keep down inflammation. A good general stopping
°r keeping down fever of the feet, suppling the hoof, and
e*idering it tough, may be made of,—
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Linseed meal
Tar .
Sulphate of zinc (white vitriol)
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4 parts.
1 part. J ounce. |
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otyptics.—Such remedies as check bleeding internally or
ternally. Those used internally are—acetate of lead, Phate of zinc, catechu (terra Japonica), alum ; externally, essure, ligature, division of the blood-vessel, cold, the actual ^ty, cobweb, feit, down, oak-galls, powdered alum, or y substance or fluid that has the property of rapidly 0agulating the serum. , r- Paris (" Pbarmacologia," p. 117) has some judicious
J^vations on Styptics, especially as regards the horse and
■ ' He says : " The manner in which styptics act (on the
'nan subject) is sufficiently shown by the pallor they at
, Ce produce on the lips, in consequence of the blood-vessels
. °ming diminished in diameter, and their coats increased
°Pacity. Great popular error, however, still exists, as
o rds these local agents, which has arisen from deductions
si K^n ^rom *ne^r effects upon lower animals. Thus several
stances have obtained the reputation of Styptics from the
«ed result which has foliowed their application to the
i °ded and bleeding vessels in the extremities of the
Hat an ass' wnereas tne ^"ac* *s> that to these animals
j re has supplied an inherent power of contraction which act* D0* ex*s* *n man- Hence Styptics are of powerful }jej,"? 0n the horse." Several Styptics have, at times, been gall"1Q . ^ esteem> out galls, dissolved in spirit, or simple ta , aci") will be found as good as any. Filings of iron, JV ', an<^ a little brandy, form the favourite Styptic of
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Ijei . and German practitioners, under the name of
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^erely
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lus's Styptic. Eaton's Styptic, well-known here, is
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3 „ ,:. sulphate of iron and brandy, and Ruspini's Styptic
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hot 7 1C aC^' ^ran<iy) an(^ rose water. The application of a
n' not quite so hot as to utterly destroy the animal |
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246
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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be administered in this form, to say nothing of the great
expense. The spirit necessary as a vehicle for the drug, ba9 destroyed many a horse. Watery solutions, or infusions, ot powder, are therefore more available. As lotions, tinctures of cantharides, benzoin, myrrh, digitalis, aloes, and opium» are properly used. Tincture of catechu is an ingrediënt i° astringent drinks. A few of the tinctures kept ready compounded in tbe
shops, or sold as patent medicines, may be mentioned here- Friar's Balsam—this is composed of gum benzoin, styraXj and tolu, with aloes. It is a moderately good interna» remedy, diluted with water, to effect which it must "e beaten up with starch or the yolk of an egg. As a stypti°> or as a healing application to cuts and wounds, we consider it a mistaken remedy. It injures fresh wounds by *ts stimulant properties, and from the separation of the resiOs which follow the mixture of them with the blood. These combining form a solid mass between the lips of the wound, which mechanically prevents them coming together, and so setting up the healing process from the first intentie- The Tincture of Gum Guaiac is a solution of that gum i» aromatic spirit of ammonia, See Diaphoretics, Sn*117' lants, &c. Tincture of Myrrh, diluted, is a good lotion i°r spongy gums and sore palate, and a wash after reducmë lampas by bleeding. Solomoris Balm of Gilead is a t1IlC' ture compounded of cardamom seeds, brandy, and a tracé ot cantharides. A Tincture of Gentian and another of Ging61" may be kept handy for the purposes of dilution, but tne roots themselves and the infusion, as we have said before> are the cheaper and more potent remedies. Tincture OJ Muriate of Iron is a styptic, and an active preparatie»- In warm water it is advisable in strangury, given ever; quarter of an hour in doses of twenty drops. Tobacco is a remedy in costiveness and colic. It i's m°s
dangerous to the horse. " Two ounces," says Mr. Wbite> " was given by a groom, and occasioned almost insta» death." In the hands of the skilful it is a powerful remedy- We have seen it commended in farriery books as a ingrediënt in clysters. It would be as well to use a polea* or a pistol, on the score of humanity. The energetic acti° of tobacco, in solution, on the mucous membrane, tD tremor, and the deadly action, through the nervous syste°^ |
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water or spirit, but is soluble easily in linseed oil, which is
an excellent solvent of all the sulphurous substances. Boiling oil of turpentine also dissolves sulphur. Sulphur, when kept in drawers or places where the air has access to it, becomes acidified and is supposed to produce a griping effect; we believe this to be a mere fancy. However, we are directed to wash the flowers of sulphur " to get rid of any sulphurous acid;" this the practitioner may adopt or not, as he pleases. Despite its disgusting smell, sulphur deserves yet more general use in horse-practice. Sulphuret of Mercury (MMop's Mineral). See Mercury.
Supertartrate of Potass (Gream of Tartar). See Potass.
Tar is an article in much use by the veterinarian.
Melted with fish-oil, it makes a good external application, being brushed on the hoofs of the working horse when brittle or liable to exfoliate. Tar is also (see Stoppinqs), mixed with an equal quantity of grease, a slightly stimulant dressing for bruised or wounded feet, preventing the access of air, dirt, or water to the wounded part. From its drying properties it is the chief iügredient in thrush ointments. Alone, or mixed with oil of turpentine to increase its activity, it is used with advantage in pricks and bruises of the sole. Tar is advantageously mixed, in doses of two and three drachms, with cough medicines. The Spirit of Tar of the farriers is the rectified oil; but oil of turpentine is best substituted for it. Barbadoes Tar, called also Green Naphtha, has been employed as an internal remedy for coughs. Tannin is the astringent principle of oak bark. It is
prepared from oak-galls by powder and infusion. It is our most powerful astringent. The watery infusion possesses all the powers of the gall-nut. As an astringent in diarrhcea and a tonic in cases of fever, combined with aromatics and bitters, it is excellent. Also in washes. A gall ointment is specific in cases of protrusion of the rectum ; when, also, a fomentation of infusion of gall-nuts with some opium is excel- lent. Those nuts which are bluish, small, and heavy, are the best; and they should be gathered before the larvae have changed to flies, and have eaten their way out. Aleppo gall- nuts are best and most astringent, but the cheaper must serve for horse medicines. Tartarized Antimony. See Antimohy.
Terra Japonica, See Catechtj.
Tents are substances such as lint or tow, introduced into
wounds to prevent their closing too early. Tin is used to expel worms from horses. It has, however,
proved utterly inefEcacious in bots. It must be used as a mechanical remedy, in fine filings, and not levigated. Pewter filings are substituted, but their softness makes them use- less. Dose, three ounces, in balls with honey or the like, dailj It may be superseded by oil of turpentine. Tinctures.—Many substances yield readily their medi-
cinal properties to alcohol or spirit of wine. The tinctures, however, frequently require so much spirit to contain the dose necessary for the horse, as to make them impossible to |
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o»
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on the heart, will wam from a repetition of the practice
a second animal. |
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Tonics. See Stimulants and Cordials. They are valuat)
medicines when judiciously employed; but, like cordia > they have been fatally abused. Many a horse recover1 from severe disease has been destroyed by their too early too free use. The veterinary surgeon occasionally ministers them injuriously, in his anxiety to gratify , impatience of his employer. The mild vegetable t°Dl ' |
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camomile, gentian, and ginger, and perhaps the car
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d ^
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of iron, may sometimes be given with benefit, an
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are
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hasten the perfect recovery of the patiënt; but there
few principles more truly founded on reason and experl' |
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Z'kt
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HORSE MEDICINES.
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the horse, than that, disease once removed, the powers of
nature are sufficiënt to re-establish health. Against the 0re powerful mineral tonics, except for the particular
Purposes that have been pointed out under the proper eads, the horse proprietor and the veterinarian should be
011 bis guard. |
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to eight ounces; savine leaves, one ounce; cowhage, half a
drachm ; calomel, one scruple; arsenic, ten grains; aloes, till they purge; tartar emetic, a drachm for six successive mornings, and then a cathartic ball; and, last and best, oil of turpentine, two or three ounces. All worm medicines should be given fasting. The best-known and most certain symptom of worms is a dry yellow matter under the tail; worms, however, are often present without this appearance presenting itself. A proper attention to a supply of salt in the manger or food, is the best preventive of these annoying parasites ; and we need hardly repeat that prevention is better than cure. Clysters, with preliminary back-raking, will get rid of some sorts, such as ascarides (thread worms), tamia (tape worms), seldom found in the horse, and lum- brici (round worms), the special parasite of this animal The bots are not affected by our general vermifuges, and defy their action. The following clyster will often effect an ejectment of ascarides, taenia, or round worms: solution of aloes, 4 ounces ; tepid water, 1 quart; common salt, ] ounce. And give the horse at the same time 1 drachm of tartar emetic every morning in a ball, and after six of these doses of the tartar, a moderate dose of aloes, to expel the parasites, already enfeebled by the previous medicine. |
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(A) T0NIC BALL.
IWdered bark ....
Ginger ..... Carbonate of soda orm into a ball with linseed meal and water. |
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1 ounce.
2 draehms.
J dracbm. |
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(B) ANOTHER
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Sulphate of iron .
Extract of eamoraile ■^ix, and form into a ball. |
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J ounce.
1 ounce. |
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(C) ANOTHER, MORE POWERFUL.
Arsenic . . . . .10 grains.
Ginger ..... 1 drachm.
Powdered aniseed . ... 1 ounce. Compound powder of tragacantb . . 2 draehms.
Syrup enough to form a ball.
*ragacanth Gum. See Gums.
■^RPentine forms a leading article in the veterinary
, rnedica. The Venice and common turpentine are
.°Se most in use. Almost every tree of the genus Pinus
•> elcls some sort of turpentine, the distinctions of which
7 be seen in botanical works and medical dispensatories.
e best of turpentines is the Canada Balsam, produced by
e Jrina balsamea; the commoner, or Horse Turpentine,
jTebinthina vulgaris), is the juice of the Scotch fir (Pinus
* yzstris). It contains more of the active oil, and is in our p Qlon preferable, at any rate for outward applications. ftiinon turpentine is one of the best diuretics, in doses of
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a worm ball.
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Calomel
Barbadoes aloes Oil of turpentine Soap |
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1 drachm.
3 draehms. 1 ounce. 3 draehms. |
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Mix.
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WORM DRENCII.
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Linseed oil .
Oil of turpentine |
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1 pint.
1 ounce. |
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Vesicatories. See Blisters.
Vixriol, "White. See Zinc.
Vitriol, Blue. See Copper.
Vitriol, Green. See Iron.
Vitriol, Oil or. See Sülphuric Acid.
Vinegar. See Acetic Acid.—The ordinary acetous acid
is often used by the veterinary practitioner. lts purity is therefore of the first importance. It is, however, very liable to be adulterated with, or wholly made of, sülphuric acid, and then becomes very unfit for use as an internal remedy, being changed into an active stimulant instead of a refrigerant. Vinegar, not neutralized by salt or sugar, is capable of proving very noxious to the horse. We have instances on record of a pint of strong vinegar destroying life ; but, neutralized with carbonate of ammonia, it forms a most excellent febrifuge, under the old name of Min- dererus's Spirit. Neutralized with sugar or honey, it forms a valuable expectorant, called oxymel. As an external application, the acetous acid is likewise valuable. In strains, bruises, and other local injuries, it is the base of the best remedies; either in combination with acetate of lead when active inflammation exists.or mixed with crude |
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an ounce, and made into a ball with linseed meal and
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•^
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half
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a drachm of ginger. It is added to the calamine or
j other mild ointment, to render it stimulating and
sestive an(j from lts adhesiveness and slight stimulating
po-ro-p,. •, . . . cr> it is an ingrediënt in mange omtments.
j, le Oil of Turpentine is an excellent antispasmodic.
. the removal of colic it stands unrivalled. Forming a ure -with cantharides, it is the basis of the "sweating j er' used for old strains and swellings. As a blister, it , r mferior to the savine ointment; as a stimulant y " ently applied, it must be sufficiently lowered, or it may Hu" ""■* a^so ma^es> 'm a diluted form, a gently stimulant eöt for old sores and bruises.
"»Qübiït8. See Ointments. ^.Ei«>i«ris. SeeCoppER. RJüice is merely apple vinegar. See Acetic Acid.
. Rmifüges, or Worm Medicines. Tin or iron filings, not
f0r ' or powdered glass, are the mechanical remedies
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«■nthel
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r^ïls in the horse. This class of remedy is called
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mVflttc. The other remedies are—common salt, six
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THE PRACTICE OF VETEBINARY MEDICINE.
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243
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also as promoting healing in suppurating or sloughin=
wounds. It has the peculiar property of suppressie luxuriant granulations. It acts admirably also in tbe closing of open joints: preventing fetor, coagulating ™ synovia, and at the same time promoting the healing beneath or the stopping of the orifice. It is beneficia in thrush and canker. It is used as a solution of variou8 strengths,—a scruple to the pint, and a drachm to a plD and a half of water,—in grease, in thrushes or cracke heels with exudation. 3. Sulphate of Zinc (White Vitriol). In the proportie»
of three grains to an ounce of water, this is an excelle» application in ophthalmia, when the inflammatory stage * passing over. Quittor is successfully treated by a saturate solution of white vitriol injected into the sinuses. A sol* tion of white vitriol of less strength forms a wash for grea_ that is occasionally useful, when the alum or blue vitr1 does not appear to succeed. It is also used, in conjuncti° with opium, internally in diarrhcea and griping. It A1* always be dissolved in water, as spirit renders it insoluble- |
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gal ammoniac, or bay salt, to counteract the effects of
distension. Distilled vinegar is merely ordinary vinegar deprived of its fecula and water. Washes. See Lotions.—Of washes for the eye (Colly-
riwms), Mr. Percivall observes : " A good deal of change of opinion has taken place among medical men concerning the strength and proportionate efficacy of topical applica- tions to mucous membranes : at one time mere astriction or slight stimulation was considered to be all the effect that was requisite or safe to be produced ; nowadays, however, stimulation in the highest degree, verging even on an escharotic effect, is found to be, in most cases, both war- rantable and beneficial. Now, a surgeon will order a lotion for the eye, composed of five grains of lunar caustic to the ounce of water, and an ointment of doublé that strength, when, formerly, he would hardly have ventured to use such a potent preparation at all, or certainly not in above half that strength. In veterinary treatment we shall find it to be good practice to produce a highly stimulant, even an escharotic, effect on the conjunctival membrane, with a view of relieving the internal ophthalmia by derivation or revul- sion. The eye ,even in a state of ophthalmia, will endure and derive advantage from applications of much more potent nature than are commonly ventured upon in prac- tice, My favourite collyrium is a scruple of nitrate of silver to che ounce of distilled water." Mr. Cherry, Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the Cavalry, uses bichloride of mer- cury as a collyrium in the potent form of solution in spirits of wine—one darchm to the ounce—and touches eyes with the sublimate itself; his note, in regard to their effects, is—"It is of importance to remark how soon the very considerable effect excited by the injection of corrosive sublimate in solu- tion has subsided ; even the application of it in substance to the surface of the eye producing a scarcely perceptible effect. We learn, both from practice and experiment, that our eye- washes, to do good, have been in general applied in too weak a form ; we have" not dared to do even what farriers before us did, and this is one reason why our practice, in many cases, has not turned out so successful as theirs." Wax, "White and Yeixow.—The yellow is used to thicken
ointments and stiffen piasters. "Worm Medicines. See Vermifuges.
Zing, the Spelter of commerce. This well-known bluish-
white granular metal furnishes three remedies to the horse. 1. Oxide of Zinc. This has been occasionally added to
a ball as a tonic ; but its great utility is as an astringent ointment, known as Calamine Ointment. Three parts of palm-oil and one of resin are melted together, and when these are cool, two parts of the oxide in powder are stirred in. Calamine powder is a good application, dusted on cracked heels and superficial sores. It is well-known, too, as the ointment called calamine cerate (formerly Turner's Gevate) as a human remedy for scalds and burns. 2. Chloride of Zinc is valuable as a disinfectant, and
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CONCLÜSION.
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The above list, though far less extensive than the drugglS,
bulky Bispensatory, will, it is believed be found to conta > all the needful articles of a well-regulated veterinary surgeOI\ dispensary. We need hardly say how important order, clean ness, and care are to the proper preservation and availab* of the various drugs and chemicals; and how necessary : « that proper bottles, jars, and drawers adapted to each sb° , be provided. Above all, let the practitioner test for h^01^! or prepare, a few of the leading articles he prescribes. need hardly say that he should deal with a respecta druggist, and let him be aware that his customer «^ ■. what he is buying. The weights and measures throug13 are Troy and Apothecaries' Weight and Measure. Weights and Measures
weights. |
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ARRANGEMENT OF SÜBJECTS.
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249
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CHAPTER XXIV.
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TRODUCTOBY.—SYSTEMS OF N0S0L0GY REJEOTED.—ARRANGEMENT OF SÜBJECTS.—REVIVAL OF THE VETEBINABY ABT.—SPECTFIO
DISORDERS : FEVER, INFLAMMATION, INFLUENZA, GLANDERS.
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In
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Chapter VIL
Diseases of the Liver, Spleen, Glands, &c. Chapter VIII.
Diseases of the Urinary Organs.—Of the Organs of
Generation in the Male and Female. Chapter IX.
Diseases of the Skin. Chapter X.
Lamïnesbes and Diseases of the Forelegs and Feet. Chapter XI.
Lamenesses and Diseases of the ïïock, Legs, and Hinder
Feet.
The several diseases form sections under these headings ;
thus presenting a convenient system, while the remain- ing chapters are devoted to Surgical Operations, Instru- ments, Implements, and Shoeing. |
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a treatise like the present, any attempt at the systematic
sincation of diseases, aft er the manner of many veterinary
*s, which themselves merely imitate the learned nosolo-
i S °^ Sauvages, Cullen, Darwin, Copland, and other human
ysicianS) WOuld, in our opinion, tend to perplex both the
. er_ and the subject in a medical and practical view. A
ntific classification of horse-diseases may well be aban-
of v- w^en we see *üe foilure of the greatest men in a science
, üich this is but a collateral branch of modern growth—
• an pathology having claimed the exercise of the highest
VN *n *ts stu<^y ^or 2,000 years. The arrangement, then,
_ De such as recommends itself for simplicity and con-
eöce. We first say a few words on equine pathology;
. c^ pass to a general consideration of the symptoms of the
: sltion from a state of health to disease ; review the sub-
, °i specific diseases—as fever, inflammation, and glan-
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rs ;
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ald proceed to a local system of referring the several
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dis,
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Ses to the region or set of organs which are, or seem
^T e> most immediately affected by or involved in the ase- The appended table will afford an idea of this:— a&Rangement of diseases and their
treatment. Chapter II.
°ductory.—Systems of Nosology Rejected.—arrange-
Kt of Subject.—Revival of the Veterinary Art.— Ecifio Diseases : Fever, Inflammation, Influenza, ^anders. |
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In the early history of the horse, in theformer part of this
volume, we have noted the ancient writers on the animal. The ancient name Veterinarius, found in the classics of
the Augustan age, degenerated in the dark ages into that of Farrier (ferrarius, ferrier) from the iron (ferrum) in which he worked. About the period of the revival of learning in the sixteenth century we find also the old veterinary learn- ing following the awakening of the general buman mind. After the fashion of the ancients, in the early periods of our own history, all published directions relative to the treatment of the horse were mixed up with agricultural matters in general. We see this instanced in " The Boke of Husbandry," by Sir A. Fitzherbert, a judge of the Common Pleas, which appeared in the reign of Henry VIII. In later times the sanative code became incorporated with the arts of the manége, and farriery was either practised and taught by the professor of equitation, or it descended to the forger of shoes. Of these additamentary arts we shall say little; nor will our limits allow us to do more than to specify the most popular of the works dedicated to the medical treatment of the horse particularly, and to his non- |
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Chapter III.
kSEs and Injuries of the Brain, Skull, Eye, Teeth,
Tongue, Palate, Pharynx. |
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Dise
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Chapter IV.
of the Air Passages, Trachea, Bronchi.e, Lungs,
Pleura, and Diaphragm. Chapter V.
of the Heart, Pericardium, and Great Blood Vessels.
Chapter VI.
of the CEsophagus, Stomach, Peritoneum, and
Intestines.
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^ïseases
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Dl!
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Dist;
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A-SES
II
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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250
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the lowest empiricism, is but of comparatively modern
introduction into this country. Sixty years since, its prac- tice was wholly in the hands of a set of men who, from their want of education, and the mechanical nature of their occupation, were unfitted for anything that required science or art, save the handicraft which they practised at the anvu, of making horseshoes and nailing them upon the feet. Like the barber-surgeons of old, from the circumstance of their operative services being required, and so frequently in one way, on the body, they were called (there being either a total want or great paucity of medical practitioners) to exer- cise an art of which they possessed no other knowledge than such traditionary lore as might have been handed down to them by their forefathers. In such hands as these, it was not to be expected that the art could thrive—that it ever could sufficiently develope its utility and importance, to assert those claims on society in general, to which every year in the present age is adding some fresh ones. Such was the uncultivated state of the veterinary art
when M. Vial St. Bel, a French gentleman from the veterinary school at Lyons, arrived in this country. He it was that prompted the first effort to redeem this art from the abyss ot ignorance and superstition into which it had long and lowly fallen, and once more to set it on those pedestals of science and research upon which it had already rested during the ages of the Greeks and Romans. Such a strong hold, however, had the children of Vulcan got of the art (ot rather, so unknown and undervalued were the advantages it held out in practice for skilful or qualified hands), that when St. Bel arrived in this country, in 1788, and made public proposals to teach an improved practice of it on the prin' ciples of science, his offers met with no encouragement, and he was compelled to retrace his steps to Franco Un' daunted, however, by this one unsuccessful attempt, he made another visit to England two years afterwards; and this proved more fortunate ; for, on this occasion, aD agricultural society, " The Odiham," in proof of their goo" sense, and very much to their credit, gave ear to what Monsieur St. Bel had to propose; and finally resolved them' selves into a body, called the Veterinary College of London, with a view to the erection of a public school, over whic" St. Bel was to preside. That St. Bel was a man "ffho possessed some considerable store of medical knowledge, an who knew him agreed : at the same time, every one vrbo stood beside him at the time he was at the College, and ^° themselves had any knowledge of veterinary matters, were o opinion that, so far as a veterinary professor was wanted, n was not, to the degree that might have been expected ° desired, qualified to undertake such an office. However> he held it but a short time ; for hardly was the erection ° the college at St. Pancras (which was intended but as teöj porary, and preliminary to something better) complet^ > when St. Bel died, leaving the art in little better conditie than that in which he had found it. , That St. Bel, however, had he lived, would have place
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medical treatment generally. One of the first and oldest
works ón farriery was printed in 4to. by Wynkin de Worde about the year 1500, under the title of " The Propertys and Medyeines for an Horse." The next was published in 1609, during the reign of Elizabeth, in small 4to. black letter, entitled, "The four chiefest offices of Horsemanship : that is to say, the office of the breeder, of the rider, of the keeper, and the farrier, by Master Blundevill." Leonard Pascal, Gervase Markham, and other writers, foliowed them. Francis I. of France ordered the Collections of Con-
stantine to be translated from the original Greek into Latin, whence it was soon after translated into Italian, German, and French, and dispersed all over Europe. The works of Vegetius, too, were translated about the same period. In the seventeenth century, Italian writers open the period. Foremost among these are " Caesar Fiarchi's Treatise on Horsemanship and Shoeing;" and the great work of Carlo Ruini, entitled, " Infirmita è suoi Remedi." In 165é appeared the great French work, by SoUeysel and others, " Le Parfait Mareschal." This was afterwards trans- lated into English, temp. George L, by Sir Wm. Hope, and formed the basis of numerous books on horsemanship and farriery. Shortly after Solleysers great work, appeared a folio, dedicated to Charles II., by Andrew Snape, jun., farrier to his Majesty, called, " The Anatomy of an Horse/' with forty copper plates, copied from Ruini and Saunier.* The works of Michael Barret (Hippodomia), Gibson's " Far- riers' Guide," Bartlett's " Farriery." It was in France, however, in the eighteenth century,
that the Veterinary Art made the most important advances. D uring this period, Bourgelat and La Fosse wrote well on horse diseases and shoeing. In 1761, France set the notable example of founding, under royal patronage, a public veteri- nary school at Lyons, having the celebrated Bourgelat as its professor. In 1766, a second was opened at Alfort, near Charenton, and others subsequently at Montpelier, Strasburg, &c. Similar establishments have since been founded at Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Dresden, Leipsic, Munich, Hanover, Naples, and indeed throughout Europe. In Egypt, at Abou Zembal, in Australia, and the East Indies. Among English writers of the period were Osmer "On Lameness," foliowed by Morecroft, Clarke (of Edinburgh), Bracy Clark, White, Delabere Blaine, the Turners, Percivall, Castley, Youatt, Stewart, Spooner, and Mayhew, all of whom have written treatises, or systematic works, upon Veterinary Science and Practice. Notwithstanding the labours of the earlier of the writers
here enumerated, the veterinary art, as distinguished from |
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* The office of farrier is boasted of in the dedication of this curkras
book as being hereditary in the Snapes. " Being a son of that family 'ïhat hath served the Crown of this kingdom in the quality of Farriers for these two hundred years, and myself honoured in that capaeity." We may add that a really clever book by another Snape appeared subsequently. |
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251
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SPECIFIC DISEASES OF THE HORSE-FEVER.
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t le art upon a scientific basis, may be augured from a passage
a bis commendable work, entitled, "Observations on the Art
V eterinary Medicine." The passage runs as follows :—
■Ihe object of this art is therefore not only congenial with
nat of human medicine, but the very same paths which lead
0 a knowledge of the diseases of man, lead equally to those
* örutes. An accurate examination of the interior parts of
keir bodies ; a studious survey of the arrangement, struc-
Ure, form, connection, use, and relation of these parts, and
ot the laws by which they are intended to act; as also of
ae nature and property of the various foods, and other
gents, which the earth so liberally provides for their sup-
P°rt and cure: these form, in a great measure, the sound
^nd sure foundation of all medical science, whatever living
ndividual animal is the subject of our consideration." What-
eve*", therefore, may be said of the deficiencies of St. Bel in
Practical matters, his name must stand high in veteri-
Qary annals, not only from the fact of his having been the
ounder of the systematic teaching of the art in this country,
ut from having left behind him a series of observations
v^ith a plan, grounded upon them, for the education of
tudents), which at the present day are perused with admi-
^tion.
On the death of St. Bel, Mr. Coleman was appointed his
Uccessor in the Professorship During the many years Pro-
essor Coleman held this office, he greatly improved the
P°sition and teachings of the veterinary art. In Edinburgh
_ectirres on veterinary medicine were first given by Mr. Dick
n 1819, and at his death he bequeathed to that city the
°Uege which he had founded along with his entire fortune
0 be devoted to the teaching of veterinary surgery. Since
_°1 a veterinary school has also been conducted in Glasgow
Uh great success. At all the colleges a preliminary examin-
tlon is now reauired before a pupil can be enrolled.
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animal; its physiology, organs, textures, fluids, and their
functions—knowledge no more to be learned at the anvil of the forge than the practice of human surgery in the barber's shop, which for centuries was its theatre or university. The groundwork of the Veterinary Art is set in scientific study •, and he who would understand it, must possess himself of that science. Much has been said and written on the importance of the respectability of the veterinary profession. Its wtïlity should command a proper respect and position ; and it de- serves esteem as an art which involves the study of what have been styled the liberal sciences. The respectability or social status of the practitioner
will at all times and in all situations depend upon his quali- fications and his character. When the connection of Veteri- nary Science with general medicine—with the pleasures, and habits, and pursuits of the superior classes of society—with the interests of agriculture, and even the well-being of our country — comes to be better understood than it is at present; when the Veterinary Art shall be taught and cul- tivated with advantages equivalent to those under which medicine has so rapidly progressed, and due encouragement shall be given to its improvement; then will those who practise it assert claims on society, and assume the position to which by intrinsic merit they are entitled. |
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$$tï\h ïïmmw nf tïre %mt
§ I. FEVER.
Fever in the Horse was for long a subject of dispute by
many in the veterinary profession ; Professor Coleman and his disciples roundly denying its existence. Enlarged expe- rience and observations have, however, disposed of the question, and the existence of simple or idiopathic fever is no longer controverted. Upon this point too much stress has been laid upon the discoveries and researches in human surgery. The signs and appearances of health or disease vary in many important points in every animal. Hence the knowledge and theories of Sydenham, Boerhaave, Gullen, Bell, Copland, and others, are of little applicability to horse- practice. The several stages of fever, so marked in the human subject, do not appear in the horse, whose fever seems to be what Dr. Gullen calls synocka (Gr. synekö, to continue), or persistent inflammatory fever. Fever in the horse assumes hardly ever any other than a
mild, inoffensive form ; and is no less insidious in its ap- proach than (at least until it has made some advance) indeterminate its character. Now and then a cold and even a shivering fit is manifest: a sweating stage is rare, but not uninstaneed. To assume that either one or both these paroxysms is requisite to constitute a fever, is not only to show ignorance of the pathological nature of horse-fever, but to argue in opposition to established practical evidence. Inflammatory fever may be of two kinds; one idiopathic
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It
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!s not intended in this general work on the horse to
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SuPply a purely technical book for the special veterinary
etl* 5 such volumes are properly confined to the school
college: the object in view is to furnish a treatise of
y reference, and of such a character as will render a
*eman, or man of average education, independent of the
at10n 0£ ^e groom or horsekeeper; and further, so
*na* ne maJ beable to judge of the competence
acquiremen£g 0f the veterinary practitioner, and may
cal understand the rationale and principles of the medi-
snff r.ea*Iïlent °f his most valuable servant, whose dumb
a 1 ^l.nSs should plead stronger than speech to his humanity
!gher intelligence for their relief and cure.
lov a ^roun(lwork for this knowledge, which we hope every W °i norse will soon be ashamed not to possess, we already sketched out the structure and anatomy of the |
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252
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THE PBACTICE OF VEÏERINARY MEDICINE.
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of fever in the incipient stage, may continue and develop6
itself into a more perfect and decided form of fever; or w may prove only to have been the precursor of some other disease. The disturbed breathing in fever never amounts to the
hurried, laborious, and painful heaving of the flanks we find in inflammation of the lungs. It may be said the same symptoms are present in symptomatic fever, or fever arising from local injury, or where pus is forming. Bnt then there are always some other concomitant symptoms to guide us, such as cold, clammy sweats, indicative of pain■ or the pointing of a foot, if that be the seat of injury. Fever arising from external injury, or from local disease, is commonly more violent and active than any spontaneouS febrile attack. It assumes more the form of painful of distressing irritation than mild and progressive disease; and is altogether such as the experienced observer refers directly to its proper source ; ever keeping in view the previous history of the case. The most unfavourable and frequent termination of feve*
is inflammation of the lungs. Teeatment.—In speaking of the treatment of fever, we
confine ourselves to it in its simple form, every thoug
htful
practitioner being fully aware, that when it is the con-
sequence of local inflammation, that is the primary object to be attended to. We must be guided in the use of the lancet by the state
of the pulse ; for, though blood-letting is indicated under all circumstances that have reference to inflammation, stu here it must be done with circumspection. Older praeti' tioners, in every case and indiscriminately, let the disease be what it might, bied and physicked.* In the milder forms of fever the less we do the better, and allow Nature to act for us ; at least, our measures should be more palliativ than active. In the more violent forms, bleeding, regulate by the state of the pulse ; physicking in mild doses, so as * keep the bowels thoroughly open, without amounting * purging; acting upon the skin by the use of hellebore an digitalis; abstinence, green food, cool drinks, and cool aif» appear to be the essential parts of the treatment. When bleeding is resolved on, take at least three quarts>
and give the horse a mash before any purgative, lest tü |
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(Gr. idios, peculiar, pathos, affection), arising without any
manifest cause, or at least not dependant on any other disease; the other symptomatic, because it is the conse- quence of some manifest disease. Whether fever, however, arise from any local and evident
cause, or be self-creative, the phenomena observable seem in nowise to differ; from which we are led to the conclusion that in either case we may consider it the same disease. The horse is at first observed to have become spiritless and
heavy. In the stall he stands with his head hanging down, and manifests unusual disinclination to turn or move: out of the stable, he lias evidently lost much of his natural viva- city, and is found to sweat on comparatively trivial exercise. The extremities (the ears and legs) and the surface of the body grow cold; the coat becomes roughened ; actual shiver- ing, or an approach to it, may or may not occur. He refuses the next feed put before him ; or, should he piek at all, he prefers the hay, or even the new straw. By degrees the sense of coldness leaves the body : at length both the extremi- ties and it grow warm—perceptibly warmer than usual. The mouth, likewise, which was livid and cold before, now be" comes hot and dry; the pulse rises with the accession of heat: in all cases it becomes quick ; in most, also full; in others, also hard. Eespiration is visibly disturbed: the ani- mal draws his breath, though perhaps still but slowly, with a sign of labour or weight evidently unusual. By this time, the early dejection is often succeeded by an unnatural watchfulness : the horse will have his head raised and his ears erect, as if he were in the act of listening, when he proves still, in reality, listless of all around him. He has now no appetite. His dung, if he should have lately voided any, is high-coloured, and in small rolls. He stales but little at a time, oftener than usual, and perhaps not without some groan, grunt, or extraordinary effort. We find that debility is one of the first changes which takes
place; and in all the varieties and changes of appearance, debility is always a leading feature. Catjses.—Debility, over-exertion, customary evacuations
suddenly suppressed, cold applied to the body while hot. Horses that are kept in very warm stables, highly fed, and have very little exercise are peculiarly liable to febrile attacks. Like most other disorders, however, and oftener, indeed,
than most others, fever makes its appearance without any evident or determinate cause, unless we choose to ascribe it to those vicissitudes which are so common at the seasons when fever most prevails. Occasionally it assumes an epizootic (Gr. epi upon, zoon an animal) form, blended with catarrhal and suffocative (anginal) symptoms: under which type it has obtained various appellations, as " catarrhal, epidemie fever." Catarrh will be treated of under Diseases or tue Air-passages. The only disease liable to be confounded with fever, is
pneumonia. That disordered or deranged state which assumes the form
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* Sufficiënt attention is not paid to the state of the pulse of the b°r
by the veterinarian ; the quantity of knowledge to be ascertained by being limited to the quickness or slowness of the pulsations, this t>elt7 his chief guide in the use of the lancet; but the experienced pra° tioner well knows that the quality of the pulse will frequently in*° him of the nature of the case, and be to him what the tongue of human patiënt would be—his director. We may elucidate this by referring to the state of the p1"86 _
enteritis, where it has the quick wiry feel which it is impossiW6 mistake. . fi And again, the full hard pulse we always find when inflaniina
attacks membranous parts, as in inflammation of the membrane o* brain. |
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253
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SPECTFIC DISE ASES.- INFLAMMATION.
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c<~on be impacted with hardened fseces. If not time for
nis, giVe a warm clyster of simple gruel. Then, when the
b°"Weïs are moved, a fever ball (A, Febrifuges, p. 235),
a»d all
corn taken away ; the water should have the chili
aken off; warm clothing applied; the stable kept cool; and
11 abundance of litter given. In severe cold weather, the st_able should kept about 55° F. When the coat is staring, *1Ve'—sweet nitre fonr ounces, acetate of ammonia eight _ Ulices, watrr one pint; repeat at a quarter of an hour's interval. ■•Jiseases, no doubt, are often cured by obviating their
^ote causes ; and in this way strict attention to the state
the stomach, from its close sympathy with the brain, is a
atter of great importance, and to be attended to here.
nough we may not be able so readily to apply this to
. eterinary practice, still we may do a great deal; and con-
Joitiing this with our practical knowledge of the pulse, it is
ere our medical knowledge will assist us.
U nder every form of disease, simplicity of prescription is
sirable, more particularly while our resources and powers
6 abridged by the limited pharmacopcsia of the veteri-
narian.
. ^ the incipient treatment, one precaution is to be espe-
aliy attended to, and that is, that active purges must not
administered; for, in the early stage, it is quite impos-
e to say that the case may not be one of approaching
£neumonia; and should this happen, and active purgation
to
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ment of its complication till that is got under, as will be
found when treating of the lungs, liver, &c. The debility which follows is now met by a boldly stimulant plan, a generous diet, and the administration of bark and ammonia in a manner that would have been thought by practitioners of twenty years ago mere horse-murder. We now know better; hundreds of cures are effected by supporting the animal; by the early abandonment of the antiphlogistic measures borrowed from the Sangrado school of human practice, and preventing him from sinking into that state of exhaustion in which the poor animal dies of a disease closely allied to putrid or typhus fever. Malignant Epidemio, Ptjtrid, or Typhüs Fever com-
mences either as simple fever, or as common catarrhal fever; but this soon goes on to produce great prostration of strength, together with fetid breath, and discharge from the nostrils, and entire loss of appetite. Its course is much more rapid than in man. A congestive state of the vessels comes on, and they rapidly give way, by which life is soon destroyed. It is contagious, and few horses seized with it recover ; indeed, its nature is such that most proprietors determine to destroy the infected animal, in order to prevent its spreading. See Gxanders and Influenza. Treatment.—This should be stimulating and strengthen-
ing. Either (H) or (K), p. 244, will be found serviceable. And if the bowels become relaxed, a little powdered oak- galls (see Tannin, p. 246), chalk, or opium, may be added, with half a drachm of carbonate of ammonia, three times a day. Fever in the Feet will be found under Laminitis ; and so
of other local complaints to which the term is improperly applied. §11. INFLAMMATION.
Inflammation may be defined as a disorder of the capillary
blood vessels, that being its most visible symptom; this, however, goes no further than enabling us to recognize its presence by the heat, distension, redness, and pain which are so called. The blood passing through the capillaries, gives forth an abnormal amount of calorie, hence the part is hot; the increased quantity of fluid distends them, hence the swelling ; and from pressure on the nerves the tender- ness ; lastly, to the red globules of the blood, which, in health and its accompanying contractile power, are not admitted to the smaller vessels, but now enter them, the redness is ascribed. Although in the horse, his thick skin and hairy covering prevent the last sign from being so percept- ible, it is nevertheless always present. The pain is the more acute in proportion as the part is supplied with nervous fibres: e.g. the brain, eye, internal ear, &c. Inflammation is divided into diffused and local, exlernal
and internaL The first class,—diffused inflammation,—we shall pass over. It is, in fact, general fever, indicated by an excessive irritability, carrying the constitutional disturb- ance of a severe local inflammation to the brain, and thence |
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rUe a practice which has induced so much irritation of
,. EflUcous surfaces of the bowels in combination with
order in the lungs: the two, when present together,
lng found, invariably, highly prejudicial to the subject of
thej* attack.
oYMptomatic Fever being the result rather than the
se of inflammation, can scarcely be considered by itself.
• Slrnple fever often arises from exposure to cold, just as
e dog or in man ; but this species generally arises from
r-stimulation in some form, either by extra warmth or
0re food thanusual, or by over-riding or driving. What-
. ne precise cause, the effect is always to produce a con-
infl °Q *U some internal organ, generally foliowed by an
a , mrriation, and accompanied by symptomatic fever. Thus,
hot FSe *S ^rouênt UP from grass, and suddenly placed in a
stable, with a liberal allowance of corn. In a short
t^ne his
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Vlolent
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eyes become inflamed, his appetite fails, he has a
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cough, and he is what the trainers call " all to
" 6ces " Tvr all • "Wo'vv) this arises entirely from over-stimulation at beat i!n*S' ^or no* on^ *s üe ^eP* *n a sta*e °^ increase(i
°ft ' v ^le ^re *s ^"anne<l ^y feeding him with corn, and ac y giving him an arnount of work to which he is un- in omed. The symptoms are quick and laborious breath- the' 1 °n^ .co^ness of the legs and ears, if inflammation of hm. *=s ls present; yellowness of the eyes and mouth, if ^mationoftheliver. ■ ment.__This, as before said, is merged in the treat-
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICTNE.
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254
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vicissitude cannot be practised without such danger, and
especially with young horses. Cold, without wet, even thoug" alternated with heat, is not found to be nearly so prejudicial as when moisture is present too. Hence we are in the habit of viewing frosty weather as a season of health among horses; and hence it is that the spring and autumnal months are the most unhealthy, the weather then being moist and variable, and the wind generally in a cold quarter. Independently of these changes, there are condi- tions of the atmosphere not understood, which, when they prevail, are apt to produce an epizootic fever among horses, which has been called " influenza." Animal Poisons, as well as natural ones, are found to be
occasionally suspended in the atmosphere, and through its medium produce their effects. The air of a hot and iU" ventilated stable may prove an excitant of inflammation) not only from its high temperature, but also from the noxious effluviffi with which it has become impregnated by the dung, urine, and breath of many horses stabled to- gether. These poisons may also be conveyed through the medium of the secretions. Rabies and other diseases pr°* duced by the bites of venomous creatures, are transmitted through the saliva. Farcy and glanders may be transferred by inoculation with the matter of either disease ; and mange is probably conveyed in some peculiar exudation from the skin. 2. Spontaneous Inflammations are such as arise without
any assignable cause. That there are many of that de- scription, we have daily proofs. Were our knowledge °* structure and function perfect, and had we a thorougn comprehension of the relations subsisting between the body and the various agents and influences naturally or neceS' sarily connected with it, we should probably be enabled, 1IJ every instance, to link disease with its cause, and thus frame a full and satisfactory system of nosology. But » present we are much in the dark concerning internal causeg> and even lack knowledge about those that are externe' and, in particular, in respect to atmospheric influence oJ1 the body. 3. Sympathetic Inflammations are such as owe their
origin to disease or disorder already existing in the body* "We know, in human pathology, how apt is one set of parts * take on disease through what we call " sympathy," at the ttf° that another is suffering. In man, the digestive orgaI1 oftener than any other evince disorder; in the horse, tn respiratoryapparatus is the most common seat of disease* both which sets of organs, when disordered, may, in the1 turn, become the cause of disease in other parts of the body- The skin sympathizes readily both with the digestive an pulmonary organs; and so do the urinary apparatus ad the brain. Sympathy is also evinced in a remarkaD manner between fellow organs on opposite sides of body: one eye is no sooner affected with ophthalmia, tn v/e begin to entertain apprehensions for the opposite one- The Progress and Termination of Inflammation may
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pervading the system. It therefore comes under considera-
tion of diseases of the brain, nervous system, and heart, or circulation. NU est in corpore vivente planè sincerum: "Nothing in the living body," said Galen, " is ruled by in- variable laws ;" in other words, can be subjected to the same exact calculation as an inanimate machine; and this is par- ticularly true of inflammation. In inflammation of the eye, function is impaired or suspended, and the sight affected ; in the ear, deafness or preternatural and painful sensibility to sound; when of the liver, the faeces are clay-coloured, indi- cating absence of bile; in the kidneys, inflammation im- pairs or stops the secretion of the urine ; in the limbs, inflammation prevents motion or induces lameness. Although inflammation appears simple in the symptoms,
we have almost copied the quaint description of Celsus, two thousand years since, -vvho gives us its concomitants rythmically, as— " Rubor et tumor, cum calore et dolore."
" Redness and swelling, with heat and pain." Yet these
four points have furnished matter, for endless hypotheses and disputations : a summary of which may be found, with an especial view to veterinary science, in Mr. Percevall's " Hippopathology (Vol. I, section 2, pp. 53—63). CaXTSES AND VARIOUS ReSULTS OF INFLAMMATION.----These
subjects involve a vast proportion of the facts of veterinary
and surgical knowledge, and deserve the deepest study and consideration. Inflammation may arise from a variety of causes, some
obvious, others veiled from our view, and only discoverable by reasoning, experience, and investigation. Their origin may be conveniently divided into—1. Accidental; 2. Spon- taneous; 3. Sympathetic. 1. Accidental.—In this case the exciting cause is gener-
ally evident enough, and usually a foreign body, which produces mechanical or chemical irritation. Mechanical injuries comprise wounds and contusions
and abrasions of all sorts; sprains, dislocations, and frac- tures; undue exertion of any part or organ, or the body altogether which, in hunter's phrase, is called being " over- marked.' Chemicao esxitants comprise all such substances as pos-
sess properties of an acrid, or corrosive, or poisonous nature; these are the mineral acids, the caustic alkalies, the metallic salts, and every caustic or irritant which we are in the habit of using in practice. The state of the atmosphere, heat and cold, moisture and
dryness, all in their turn become excitants of inflammation ; their mischievous agency residing more in the vicissitudes from one state to its opposite, than in any obnoxiousness in our climate from their excess or continuance. Generally speaking, horses turned out from warm stables and exposed at once to the open air, even during the inclement seasons of the year, seldom " take cold," or experience any direct inflammation from the change; though the reverse of this |
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—INFLAMMATION.
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255
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rapid or may be slow, depending on its violence, its nature, the
Part it is affecting, its exciting cause, the condition of the ani- mal, and other collateral circumstances. In the horse it gene- a% assumes the violent form, and runs its course rapidly; r> in technical language, is of the acute character. At times, | °wever, it appears in altogether a mild, or sluggish, or lndolent form, taking then the epithet of chronic. It too often happens in veterinary practice, that, in con-
^e(luence of but trilling illness or lameness being manifested
y the animal, his master does not imagine it worth while
0 call in medical aid: the consequence is, that mischief is
Present, and by the time the " vet" is consulted, is out of
he range and power of medicine altogether.
No sooner does inflammation become established, than we
egin to look forward with more or less concern and appre-
^ension to its consequences, effects, or terminations. John
*"*nter affixed the name of terminations, from the circum-
^tance of the inflammatory action subsiding as soon as they
ac* taken place. The terminations of inflammation are—
; Resolution; 2, Suppuration; 3, Ulceration; 4, Deposi-
1071; and 5, Mortification.
Resolution is the term medical men employ to signify
at inflammation has declined and disappeared in a part
, ^hout occasioning any breach or material derangement
*ts organisation. A horse is brought to us with what is
^garly called " a sprain of the back sinews :" we examine
e *eg, and find it puffed or swollen at one particular part,
ftlcö at the same time manifests heat and tenderness on
Pfessure_
We apply a bandage wet with refrigerant lotion
Uöd the leg, and, perhaps, at the same time bleed and
rge. The swelling, pain, and heat gradually subside : in
üer words, inflammation is arrested by the timely employ-
ent of remedies, before it has effected any change of
Structure. The leg recovers its natural size or fineness,
^ then goes sound again. This constitutes termination by
^olution. But another horse, we will suppose, in reaching
s hay out of a high rack directly over his head, happens to
Ve a hay-seed faL. into his eye. Instantly the eye becomes
. °Sed, a flood of tears is discharged, and the animal twists
head about in every direction, to get rid of the annoy-
Ce and pain created by so irritative a body sticking in a
rt so highly sensitive. Some hours afterwards, the groom,
snowing what has occurred, or being unable to give
, et> brings the horse to a veterinary surgeon, who, on
. x^g and everting the upper eyelid, discovers the hay-seed
.. Klng fast to the conjunctive membrane, which by this
infl S become as rea as a piece of scarlet cloth from
aQiniation. However the hay-seed is removed, and by
tollowing day the eye is seen to have recovered its
. colour and brightness. Here is another instance of
^•ff lnation by resolution. There is, however, an evident
is en°e between this and the case of the sprained leg,
wj., . Ucü as in the one instance resolution was accomplished
te .n *üe space of twenty-four hours, while in the other it
eü a week—perhaps a month—to bring it about.
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Metastasis (Gr. metastasis, translation, moving from one
place to another) implies the sudden shifting or translation of inflammation from one part of the body to another. This is very remarkably the case in pneumonia. When Liflam mation in its acute form suddenly declines and quits the lungs, we may almost to a certainty predict that it will attack the feet—in the groom's phrase, " fall into the feet." In like manner, we find it often suddenly leaving one eye to invade the other. There are also instances of metastasis between the internal organs of the body—between the ali- mentary canal and brain, the liver and lungs, the stomach, and kidneys, &c. Suppuration denotes the production of pus, or matter, in
the inflamed part. It is the mode of termination we in general naturally look forward to when inflammation, resist- ing all we may do, runs higher, or even continues longer than the circumstances of the case permit us to calculate on resolution ; or where there is breach of surface or any sort of wound: suppuration in this latter case becoming the natural and almost inevitable consequence. This is fully instanced in the case of a horse having thafc tumour under the jaw which we call strangles. "We apply our remedies ; but the swelling, instead of diminishing, increases in size, grows daily more prominent and tense, and tender on pres- sure, and then gradually changes to a soft, impressible, fluctuating tumour. At this stage it contains pus; which, unless vent be given to it, will augment and accumulate in such quantity as to distend the tumour and burst it, leaving behind a vacuity or cavity in which the matter has been lodged. All unnaturally exposed parts—wounds and abra- sions of all descriptions—readily run into suppuration : to them pus seems to form a sort of natural shield from injury, and, at the same time, a salve highly conducive to their healing operations. Mucous membranes—the linings of the air-passages and alimentary canal—promptly under disease assume the suppurative action. In common catarrh we see pus mingled with mucus ejected from the nostrils; and in inflammation of the bowels we mav occasionally detect it coating the dung-balls. In abscess, there needs, however, preparation, and seemingly
a higher degree of elaboration, before suppuration becomes established; although it is apparently, from the very first, the end for which the local inflammation was set up. The cells of the cellular membrane in the beginning become filled and blocked up with solid matter, identical in appear- ance and nature with the coagulable lymph of the blood ; in the very centre of which solid mass, or at the point where the inflammation runs highest, is deposited at first a drop of purulent matter. This drop gradually augments, the sur- rounding solid substance being as gradually absorbed, until, at length, a cavity containing a collection of pus is formed; in other words, an abscess makes its appearance. Ulceration may be defined to be a loss of substance ap-
parent externally, or a consumption of substance internally, occasioned by the removal of parts by the absorbents. It |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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256
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all old sores to have: the middle of the scar, the part made
up of the new skin, being commonly bare, or at least possess- ing but a few scattered hairs, and those mostly grey or wbitt |
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is an effect of inflammation. External ulcerations are not
common in horses, although we have instances of them. We see them upon the membrane of the nose in glanders; and upon the skin in farcy. One of the best examples we have of ulcerative inflammation is afforded by the skin of the heels ; a part which, in consequence of its remoteness, from the source of circulation, and from the vicissitudes of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, to which, in the winter sea- son in particular, it is exposed, becomes very subject to in- flammation, and in that state very prone to run into ulceration: hence the origin of the foul troublesome ulcers we so often meet with in the heels in wet and cold weather. Some parts are more disposed to ulceration than others; a circumrtance ascribable, apparently, to tbvir relative degrees of vascularity. The skin seems to stand ik ui on this list; the mucous membranes certainly rank next; then come cellular membrane and bones; and, lastly, cartilaginous, ligamentous, and tendinous textures. Though compara- tively but rare diseases, yet, when they do occur, poll-evil and fistula too often afford us dreadful examples of the ravages ulceration may make among bones and cartilages. Spavin likewise, and also disease of the navicular joint, fur- nish us with specimens of ulcerative action in the same structures. Granulation is the process by which cavities occasioned
by ulceration or by external injury are filled up again with fleshy matter, out of which parts similar to those lost are reproduced: it being commonly flesh that is wanted to fill the wound. As soon as the ulcerative process becomes arrested, and the parts remaining recover their healthy action, we perceive springing up from the innermost recesses of the chasm little red pointed eminences, which, from their grain-like shape, have received the name of granula- tions. In the first instance, they consist purely of coagul- able lymph; soon after, blood-vessels, and nerves, and ab- sorbents shoot into them, and they then obtain the power of secreting purulent matter, which becomes very service- able in defending them from external irritation of any sort. When they grow beyond the level of the skin, which they are very apt in their exuberance to do, they constitute what is called proud flesh, and require caustic applications to eat them away. Cicatrization is the last stage of the healing process—the
ekinning over of the wound or ulcer. As soon as the work of flesh-making, or granulation is completed, and the chasm is become uniformly filled, the raw surface acquires a level, smoothness, and dryness—changes which, on close examina- tion, we shall find to arise from a filmy covering of glutinous matter deposited upon the granulations, and the consequent cessation of the secretion of pus, Skin is one of those parts it is in the power of the constitution to reproduce. The surrounding old skin contracts over the sore, so as to leave as little as possible of the surface remaining to be covered with new skin, which contraction it is that occasions the puckered appearance we may observe the scar or cicatrix of |
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ones.
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Hair is speedily regenerated so long as the skin con-
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tinues whole, and the bulbs that produce it (which are
lodged within the substance of the skin) consequently remain uninjured. Indeed, so long as this is the case, haii-3 will be reproduced even though they be plucked out by the roots. Where new skin, however, exists,—or where the injury to the old is such as to destroy or disorganize the pilous bulbs,—no hair at all will grow over the place, or, at least, not for a considerable time; for I believe, in the course of years, even the bulbs themselves are regenerated, thougf1) if we may reason from their produce, but in an imperfect manner. When we perceive weak, scattered grey hairs growing over the spot as soon as the part is healed up, *e may conclude that the bulbs have not altogether been de- prived of their organization. Attention to these circuni" stances will enable us to answer a question so frequently Pu to us in cases of broken knees :—" Will there be any scar left?" 4. Deposition includes adhesion, induration, scirrhus, he-
patizaticn, ossification, softening, and changes of structure- Adhesion is the mode of healing which the constitution?
in case of wounds, adopts in preference to the tedious one "vre have just described. It is a direct union of the divided sur- faces. Whenever a clean-cut wound is made througb the skin (as in operations with the knife), and the sides of *n wound are shortly afterwards brought together and main tained in apposition by plaister, suture, bandage, or otbe artificial means, the result, in ordinary circumstances, * what John Hunter called union by the first intention, J contradistinction to the process of granulation, which |
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designated union by the second
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intention. The bloed
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answers an important purpose in
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the case of the fr
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until
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wound; for it keeps the divided parts glued together
such time as the blood-vessels ooze forth the real and Fer manent agglutinating medium, which is coagulable lymPö""~ the same material as is thrown out in the form of granuia' tions, and which forms the swelling in strangles and otfi tumours by being effused into the interstices of the cellular membrane. The process of union by adhesion is not cora pleted until such time as this intermediate uniting substanc is organized—is furnished with blood-vessels and nerves ; a end which is brought about by the vessels and nerves pe longing to the parts divided shooting through the unitino material, and joining with one another. From the surfac of a fresh wound, not more than four hours are require0- produce the coagulable lymph ; and, in a few hours after» will be found to possess vessels capable of receiving inie tion. The granulating process in horses is carried on w»Q
rapidity and healthiness hardly known in human surgery- Induration, Scirrhus, Hepatization, Ossification. *■ ._
surgical terms express changes in the structure and orga |
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—INFLAMMATION.
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257
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zation of parts, one of which we may look for whenever
ln"ammation is of long continuance, and so low in charac- yer as not to rise into suppuration. On some occasions, 'Dflammation of an acute kind will run to a certain height, ai*d then, abating gradually, will leave the part swelled and nard, with diminished heat and sensibility ; in which con- ültiou it may continue for some considerable time, and then, "v a process of absorption, recover its natural state. Glands are especially subject, under long-continued or often recurring lnnammation, to what is called scirrhus, which means con- 8°Hdation, induration, and conversion of cellular and secret- lng textures. Hepatization denotes something of the same 80rt of change, only that the solidified and converted part "as a liver-like aspect: oftenest found in pulmonary cases. *n regard to bony formations, the horse is especially prone to them. He possesses hardly any structure but what, at °öe time or another, has been found partially or entirely changed into bone ; and where bone itself, or even cartilage, 18 concerned in the inflammation, we look for it as a sort of °atural consequence: hence the production of splints, 8pavins, ringbones, ossified cartilages, stiff joints, &c. Softening denotes a change the reverse of induration,
which has been occasionally observed to take place in certain Parts that have laboured under inflammation. In the horse, Qervous or medullary substance, the glands and the liver, lrequently exhibit softening, in which the finger may be Puslied into the substance with the same ease that it would Pe«etrate a rotten apple or pear. The farriers have caught at this similarity. Nothïng is more common for them to ^nd in the course of their post-mortem examinations, that the liver was as " rotten as a pear." Nortijication expresses the death of the inflamed part.
*•* is comparatively rare in horses. The inflammation that S'ves rise to it is of the acutest kind; we meet with it the °*tenest in thelungs; though now and then mortification °ccurs in the bowels. Wounds, also, of a violent nature, in b°rses with bad constitutions, now and then turn to morti- ücation. A part in which inflammation is running to this 'atal issue, turns from red to purple, and from purple to black in hue, losing at the same time its heat, as well as its ^anifestation of sensibility and power of motion. We may Jsnow that circulation and vital action have ceased in it by Jts deathy coldness ; its blackness; its soft and flabby feel; lts crackling sensation under the finger, produced by the air extricated within it; and, finally, by its putrid odour. ^hould it be an internal organ that is affected, the signs of Mortification having taken place in general observed are, a udden and almost total cessation of the symptoms of pain, 0 that, to a common observer, the animal would appear at rst to have experienced a change for the better. We have spoken of the dangersof inflammation, yet, under
ertain circumstances, inflammation is not only to beendured,
üt even encouraged. Were it not for inflammation and its con-
°öi]tant effects, no wound could be healed, no boneunited,no
each repaired. Apuncture into ajoint, alaceratedintestine,
K K
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is alike repaired by inflammation—the same process by which
the joint is anchylosed and the bowel mortified. Inflam- mation works good or harm, depending on the nature and circumstances of the case—on its degree, its duration, the cause that gave rise to it, the part affected, its character and tendency, &c, &c.; and the exercise of a sound discrimina- tive judgment in these several particulars it is that constitutes a scientific and experienced practitioner. We often excite inflammation on the principle of counter-irritation, to remove inflammation from some internal and more important part: blisters, rowels, setons, and artificial irritations of all kinds are practised in cases of sickness with this view; and the practice is found not only highly beneficial in relieving the patiënt, but also proves a safe one, inasmuch as the fresh inflammation, artificially excited, commonly exists in a harm- less and manageable form, although we have no reason for believing that it at all differs in its nature from that which it is designed to counteract. We frequently, too, excite inflam- mation by similar means, with a view altogether different; namely, to produce absorption of some deposition, such as spavins, windgalls, curbs, &c. Now and then we use means to stir up a fresh and more active inflammation in parts in which it already exists, but in too sluggish or unhealthy a form to accomplish the desired end. We act on this prin- ciple when we pour boiling dressings, or inject caustics, or introducé a red-hot iron into fistulas, poll-evil, quittor, or sinuses. Treatment.—In the treatment of inflammation obtain
the clearest insight possible into its seat, its kind, its causes, and its present and probable effects, both as regards the part immediately affected and the constitution at large. The degree and kind of inflammation must be taken into
account in the treatment. The more active or acute the one, the more prompt and bold should be the other ; though, where inflammation is of what is called a specific kind, ex- perience teaches us that we do but litt-le good in our treat- ment unless we can meet the case with specific remedies, such as are found peculiarly adapted for such anomalies. In specific ophthalmia, in mange, in farcy, and in glanders, we bleed and purge with but little comparative benefit. To be of real service to our patiënt, we must have recourse to something in the shape of a specific remedy. The first thing to be done in the treatment of inflamma-
tion, is, to remove the cause, supposing it to be still operating. In some cases, such as that of a hay-seed in a horse's eye, this is all that is required to be done. The cause being re- moved, the inflammation subsides, and ceases altogether. Should a horse piek up a nail in his foot, and that be found penetrating the hoof, and simply wounding the quick, its speedy extraction, with a little subsequent attention to the cleanliness of the wound, will be all that is commonly necessary to effect a cure. On the other hand, when, from the depth of the puncture, or from the irritability of the animal's constitution at the time, violent inflammation may ensue, the case will eall for every attention we can give it. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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25b
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It is of great importance, particularly in cases of inflam-
mation of the lungs, that the air of the box of the sick horse be cool, free from impurities, and frequently renewed. The medical treatment of inflammation consists in t'ie
employment of constitutional and local means. The con- stitutional are, bleeding and purging, with the assistance 01 sedatives and diuretics and alteratives. The local means are, bleeding, cold and warm applications, and counter- irritation. Bleeding.—When we consider the increased action main-
tained by the blood fiowing with greater rapidity and i° greater quantity through the vessels of the inflamed part, i" seems that abstraction of blood must be one of the rnos* direct means of subduing inflammation. In veterinary 't
practice, in many cases, it is the only remedy we have i
in our power to employ. In the acute stages of inflamma- tion of the lungs, and even other organs of importance, neither internal nor external medicaments will take effecI until we have succeeded in abating the inflammatory actio» by bleeding ; and in cases where we cannot purge, we com- monly effect nothing without the lancet. Although, as v° draw the blood out of a part, we reducethe inflammation iQ it, yet we do not by ^his cure the disorder, for no sooner are the vessels emptied than they are filled again ; in fact, time must be allowed for the inflammatory action to subsi"0- Under the head Bleeding, will be found the mo&llè operandi, Instruments used, quantity, and eflects of abstrac- tion of blood. Although the abstraction of blood rapidly from a l»rge
orifice is a check upon inflammation, it has some bad conse- quences, which in modern practice have been fully prove11- The olden practitioner was so convinced in this respeC ' that, as Mr. Mayhew says, " he drew blood with the sam complacency as he would draw beer from a barrel, and qul as often, even supposing him to be very fond of that e hilarating beverage. In the present day, however, eit'je the character of disease has changed, or it is perceived ^ practice alluded to was founded upon a mistaken
basis-
Horses could not now bear the loss of half that quantity
vital fluid which is, on good authority, believed to have bee formerly taken from them. Many an animal then, ha^m» influenza, has been bied into hydrothorax. Many an ani11"1 has been so reduced by repeated bleedings, that he ll . ultimately sunk, not from the disease, but in consequent the measures pursued for its reduction. Bleeding has ther fore lost its repute as the speciflc means of cure; for a . disturbance of the circulation is easier and more sate equalized by the administration of a stimulant, than °n ^ apparently tranquillized by the abstraction of a flui" which the animal'rarely has a drop too much. Purgatives, in the human subject, form the next ac*1
agents in combating arterial excitement; but there are so peculiarities in the structure and functions of the n°rr],' which render these medicines less eligible than in man. |
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When the eye is inflamed, the lids and the haw are drawn
over its surface to shield it from the light; which, though under ordinary circumstances a natural and healthy stimulus, now that the sensibility of the organ is augmented, becomes an annoyance to it: this teaches us to take care in cases of ophthalmia to exclude the light. It is important to put the diseased part, as far as lies in
our power, into a state of repose. And in no way can we better accomplish this than by plaeing the animal in " a loose box," with his head at liberty, in a pure and cool atmo- sphere, so as to lie down upon a comfortable bed whenever he feels disposed, and place himself in any posture that may afford him most ease. Inflamed muscles, and tendons, and joints, should always
be placed in a state of repose, if possible, and at the same time in that relaxed condition which leaves every fibre most at ease. We may commonly do much towards the attainment of this end in the limbs, by raising or lowering the heel or toe of the foot, as the case may require. Should the head or any part of the neck be the seat of inflamma- tion, it may be found beneficial to keep the head elevated and confmed: much mischief is done by suffering the animal to hang it down upon the ground. The principle by which we are to be guided in this respect is, to endeavour to maintain the part inflamed in that position which is most favourable to the return of blood from it back to the heart. The next step in a general way, is attention to clothing.
There are but few diseases in which it is not desirable to keep the surfao of the body warm, for which purpose we employ woollen clothing. The quantity or thickness of the clothes must of course be regulated by the season of the year, by the previous habits of the animal, as well as by reference to the disease under which he may at the time be labouring. In hot weather, clothing is com- monly required rather for the purpose of protecting the animal from the annoyance of fües than for warmth, and, consequently, linen clothing is mostly to be preferred. Where warmth becomes the object, rugs or blankets are preferable to cloths ; when both are used, the former should be placed next the skin. In no case should their quantity be such as to become burthensome. The common food of a stabled horse consists of oats and
hay. During the existence of inflammation or fever in the system, discontinue the oats, and substitute bran, in the form of mashes, which are laxative in their tendency, and good, as you cannot use purgatives. On this last account, green meat (whenever it can be procured) is to be preferred. Vetehes, lucerne, green clover, and also the various esculent roots,—carrots, turnips, potatoes, &c,—are all suited for the sick stable, because they are more grateful to the palate of the invalid than ais ordinary stable diet. During the height of inflammatory disorder, however, food is not only not required, but would by its presence in the stomach be apt rather to irritate than benefit; and as the disorder declines, the appetite commonly returns. |
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tittt'
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produce active purging in the horse, causes great cons
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—INFLUENZA.
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259
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_10nal disturbance, and lowers the powers of the constitution
111 a remarkable rnanner, to say nothing of the time required for their action. _ Sedatives and Nauseants are often valuable in inflamrna-
*°n ; as it is a law in animal economy, that whatever excites
öe sense of sickness, lowers the pulse in force and frequency,
nd so diminishes the flow of blood to the inflamed parts.
* these, aloes is the first, both as a purgative, a sedative,
nd a nauseant. Dose, half a drachm to a drachm every
°Ur) eight, or twelve hours. Hellebore root is another
^Useant (see list of horse-medicines), especially when, as in
lseases of the lungs, aloes are dangerous. In doses of a
£ruple to half a drachm every four or six hours, it lowers
e pulse and infiammation ; but is a poison in large doses,
nd therefore requires close watching. If saliva oozes from
e niouth, and the animal hangs his head down, or turns
^wards the upper lip, discontinue the hellebore imme-
lately. jt sbould be given only after bleeding has been
led. Of sedatives, digitalis is the favourite, in doses of
" a drachm to a drachm twice a day. This also is
dangerous poison, producing stupor, cold extremities,
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Paradoxical as it may appear, warm, applications are as
serviceable in many cases of infiammation as cold ones. When heat, however, is applied, it must always be accom- panied by moisture. Blisters (see list of medicines), with rowels, and setons,
and their appropriate instruments, will be found in their proper place under Operations. § III. INFLUENZA, EPIZOOT1C, OR CATARRIIAL
FEVER. This formidable disease has of late years extensively pre-
vailed throughout every part of the kingdom. Malignant epizootics are on record which so strongly resemble its symptoms and course, though imperfectly recorded, that there is no reason to consider it a new disease. It is as well to be candid in acknowledging that we are ignorant of its immediate cause, though it is easy to talk learnedly of "atmospheric influences" of the real constituents or malefic action of which we know nothing ; investigation having as yet shown no peculiar poison present in the air at the period or place of such visitations. Influenza spares neither young nor old, strong nor feeble, and neither regards scason of the year, nor situation, dry or moist, elevated or low. Sometimes it is mild in form and action, resembling much a common cold, at others accompanied with severe internal infiammation, and destroying like an angel of death passing through animal creation. The term influenza is that adopted by almost universal consent, and expresses its, tendency to spread. In ]836, horses in all parts of the kingdom were scourged with this epizootic disorder. Again, in the autumn of 1840, it made its appearance in various places. Olden farriers called influenza by the unmeaning name of " distemper," which may well be discarded and thrown " to the dogs." Mr. W. C. Spooner, of Southampton, in a paper contributed to " The Veterinarian," has given a clear account of the disease, of which we shall here avail ourselves. He says, in a paper read before the Veterinary Medical Association of London :— " The influenza made its appearance during the -aionth of
September, 1846, and has continued up to the present time. My first cases were few and isolated, but they gradually be- came more numerous and more cumulative. The symptoms were very similar to those of the epizootic of 1836, at any rate sufficiently so to justify me in denominating it the same disease. " Symptoms. —The first symptom that awakened attention
was the sudden failure of the appetite, which was either total or partial; the horse, perhaps, might have appeared perfectly well in the morning, and at noon refused his food. The mouth hot, the pulse quickened, varying, how- ever, from 40 to 80, being sometimes full and strong, but more frequently soft and weak. There was, generally, a somewhat dull appearance of the animal at first, althougb nothing to what afterwards supervened ; the coat was often staring, and, when so, the attack usually became mora |
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ammy mouth, vertigo, convulsions, an
tes the bowels less than hellebore,
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ïrri-
Percivall gives the |
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olWing formula :—
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"owdered -white hellebore root, or powdered
digitalis ..... -Liquorice powder .... Syrup to make a hall. |
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£ drachm.
$ ouuce. |
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.0
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wiretics (or " urine-balls," as the stablemen call them,)
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are
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jVe öiore active in their operation on the kidneys of the horse
aji the same class of medicines are with man, who depends
°^e on the excretions by the skin. The physician pre-
xbes diaphoretics to smooth-skinned man ; diuretics have
veterinarian's preference. Sweating a horse, except by
ercise,^and that will not do in infiammation,—is next to
Possible. Mow-burnt hay and fermented food act on the
. neys of the horse. Nitre is the leading diuretic ; and for
p. c°mhinations, and Sedatives, see those heads in List of
0rse-medicines, ante.
ttzratives, too, as antimony and mercury, are used in
Dating infiammation, as well as cold and warm applica- s- Cold water, or salt and water, or Goulard's lotion, commonly used. Evaporating lotions have onr prefer- • Vinegar and water, or spirits and water, answer the P°se well. In cases of much swelling, the following 'aPorating lotion can be recommended |
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Sal
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attmomae
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1 ounce.
4 ounces. 4 ounces. 1 pint. |
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Vi
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megar
SPirits of winé Water |
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6 sal ammoniac and vinegar, then add the water and spirits.
Or. |
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H or of acetate of ammonia and spirits of
J*^> each.....
•Vater
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4 ounces.
1 pint. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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2öU
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sults; the local inflammation generally subsiding in the
course of twelve or twenty-four hours, whether the patiënt had been bied generally before or not. "The treatment in the way of medicines consisted xo
administering the following :— Croton oil . . . .5 drops.
Nitre . . . . 4 to 6 drachms.
Tartarised antimony . . .1 drachm.
Spirit of nitrous ether . . . 4 to 8 drachms.
Spirit of Mindererus . . . 2 to 4 ounces.
Warm water, sufficiënt to form a draught.
" Sometimes 4 drachms of bi-tartrate of potash were added
to the above; and when the head appeared much affected, 1 drachm of camphor. This draught was administerea generally once, but sometimes twice a day, the croton <>U being omitted after the first dose. After the first day, lD by far the greater number of cases, 2 drachms of gentian were added to the draught; and after the second or thiru day a ball was substituted for the draught, consisting of: Nitre ..... 3 drachms.
Tartarised antimony . . .1 drachm.
Gentian ..... 2 drachms.
Pimento ..... 1 drachm. " In one case the above draught produced profuse perspi'
ration immediately after and each time it was administered- Although this effect may be principally ascribed to the idiosyncrasy of the animal, yet it proves the diaphoreti" properties of the medicine, though this may not generale be distinctly perceptible. " Counter irritation.—In by far the greater number o*
cases there was no inflammation of the air-passages; whenever it was denoted, I blistered the throat, the course of the windpipe, and the breast; or inserted setons or roffels, as the particular case appeared to demand. > " Such is a brief account of the treatment found successfa1'
not only in conquering the disease, but in restoring ^e health and strength in a short space of time. Althoughtlie majority of cases were not dangerous, yet many of thefl1 were so ; and it is notoriously the fact, that a great nuWDer of horses have died from the disease in various placeS' Indeed, in the establishment to which I have referred, three horses died from it under the care of another person, ^° a member of the College; and in several instances ff»ere horses have been treated by the owners, although the cas** was not dangerous, they recovered but slowly, and ffx great loss of condition." We have had occasional recurrences of this disease, thoug
not to the same extent as before, and have found the De° results attend the administration of calomel with tartanse antimony. Either a drachm each should be given o»ce day, or one-half this dose both morning and night, eontinuin.° for several days, adding occasionally Febrifuge and Diure , medicines. (See List of Hokse-medicines in Chap. XX* Mr. Spooner, found a greater disposition to codemat0
swelling of the extremities and sheath in the later epiz°° |
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severe. This symptom, however, was far from being uni-
versal. The extremities were rarely cold. In the course of six or twelve hours, the symptoms bteame more aggravated, the pulse increased in frequency, and the appetite more diminished, and probably the legs and eyelids considerably swollen. In some cases the respiration became quickened, and in others there was cough and sore throat; but in the majority of my patients, there was no bronchial affection whatever. " In a few instances, the disease quickly reached its acme,
but, generally, the symptoms increased in severity for two or three days, when, supposing judicious treatment had been employed, they gradually declined, and at length totally disappeared, the animal slowly regaining his former health and spirits. " The bowels, generally speaking, were not apparently
much deranged, but their mucous coat was particularly susceptible to the action of aperient medicines ; and the fasces were frequently enveloped in thin slimy mucus, and often softer than in a state of health. " In some cases the affection of the eyes was so violent as
to occasion temporary blindness; and in others pneumonia was present, but more frequently severe bronchitis. In many patients, the oedematous swelling of the legs was enormous, and continued obstinate when the other symptoms had abated ; but, commonly, in proportion as the legs and eyes were much affected, the internal viscera were free from disease, and vice versa. This rule, however, was by no means universal, for, in several patients, severe cephalic and thoracic symptoms were present in the same subject and at the same time " Treatvient.— vVhen the pulse was full and strong, I ab-
stracted blood, and with the best effect. The blood was slow in coagulating, and invariably presented a buffy coat. I took great care, however, not to abstract too large a quan- tity; and could produce the desired influence by half the quantity which, in ordinary inflammatory affections, it would be necessary to take away. The amount of blood withdrawn was always determined by its effect on the pulse, taking care, as soon as its character was materially altered—that is, softer and less perceptible—to pin up the orifice. This alteraiion was sometimes produced by the loss of only 41bs. of blood, oftener by 61bs., occasionally by 81bs., and in afew instancesbylOlbs. In two or three cases where there appeared to be severe inter- nal inflammation,Irepeated the blood-letting on the following d.iy, and in one instance on the same day; but, as a general rule, even in cases where the pulse had on the following day regained its strength and fulhess, I abstained from a second bleeding, trusting to medicine and the progress of the disease to soften the pulse, which I found to take place commonly on the second or third day. " Local venesection was more frequently resorted to than
general bleeding; indeed, whenever the eyes were much inflamed, or the lids swollen, Mr. Turner scarified the latter with a lancet, and opened the anglar veins with the best re- |
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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261
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an m that of 1836; and so obstinate, cccasionally, were
ï?ese enlargements, that they were reduced with much uhculty, and only after the frequent and continued employ- ent of diuretics, and the insertion of setons in the thighs. "ere likewise appeared to be throughout the attack a capa- inty of taking large and repeated doses of diuretic agents ^hout exciting the kidneys in any great degree. At least °uMe the quantity could be given, and with no greater actlon than half the quantity in a state of health. ln an addendum to this paper, Mr. Spooner discusses the
1 estion of blood-lettingand purgatives in influenza asfollows.
Meeding he says :—" I take it for granted that the chief
Y" Jö treating the disease is to know when to bleed, and
tleii to abstain ; being guided in this matter chiefly by the
ate of the pulse. Where, however, I have not bied gene-
vi I have witnessed the very best effects from local
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produce the disease in another animal (either of the equine
or human species), and which discharge is, sooner er later, accompanied by injection of the vessels and chancrous ulceration of the Schneiderian membrane, by tumefaction of the submaxillary lymphatic glands, and by farcy. There is every reason to believe that glanders and farcy are merely modifications of the same disease; or rather that farcy, in many cases, supervenes on glanders. The seat of glanders is in the pituitary or Schneiderian membrane—that mem- brane with which the respired air comes in contact, and which lines the nose, the sinuses of the head, the windpipe, and its branches. Snape was the first who declared Glanders and Farcy to be the same disease affecting dif- ferent parts. He calls glanders, in his quaint way, " Farcy in the head." The proofs of identity in nature between glanders and farcy rest upon—Ist, their reciprocity of production through inoculation ; 2ndly, their traceableness to the same causes; 3rdly, their termination one in the other, which almost invariably takes place, when they are suffered to run their natural course previous to death; 4thly, their frequent simultaneous appearance in the same subject, together with the similitude of the phenomena and course they exhibit. A clever paper written in 18S9, by M. Gerard, " Sur l'Identité de la Morve et du Farcin," in the "Journal de Médécine Veterinaire," seems to us to set the question beyond cavil as to the identity of these diseases of the lymphatics. The diseases with which glanders is liable to be con-
founded, or for which it may be mistaken, are catarrh, nasal gleet, and strangles. The signs of true glanders are with singular accuracy de-
scribed by old Solleysell in his "CompleatHorseman" (1679). No better diagnosis has been made since, with all our science. He says:—" The signs by which the disease may be known, are when a horse, already too old to be troubled with strangles, without a cough, voids matter by the nose, and has a kernel sticking to the bone; and besides, in glanders, the matter usually flows from one nostril, whereas in a cold it runs almost always out of both."—" Some cast the matter that is voided by the nostrils into water, and if it swim on the top, they conclude the horse to be free of this distemper; but if it sink to the bottom, it is a sign of glanders: the principal use of this experiment being to distinguish the pus."—" But you must not depend on the certainty of this sign ; for if the matter stick to the nostrils like glue, it is a bad sign, and you may conclude the disease to be the glanders, though the matter do swim on the top."—" When either the breath or matter that comes out of the nostrils stinks, the disease is almost always incurable."—"I have seen horses troubled with this distemper without kernels, or, if there were any, they were little and movable; and the only sign by which we could discover it to be glanders was by the glueyness of the matter."—Hope's Translation. Solleysell is well confirmed by a clever article by Mr. J.
Turner on what he calls Insidious Glanders, in Vol. III. of |
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t
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eeding. It has, in a few hours, relieved the tumefaction
the eyelids, and the heaviness of the head, to a great tent. One thing is most clear,^-we can produce a very & eat effect on the system by very moderate Meeding."
io the question, Is aperient medicine judicious? he
Phes;.—" This, too, is an old disputed point. I am in
°ur of a very moderate dose at the commencement, but
spinst its repetition. I have most commonly administered
e drops of croton oil, which has generally produced a
^ciently laxative effect. The addition of a few drops
°re I have known produce purgation. I am inclined to
!eve that a very moderate action on the intestines will
?ast<m the recovery of the patiënt. Additional experience
as so far modifled this opinion, that in ordinary cases the *^adual administration of a few drachms of the proto-chloride
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of
eff< |
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^ercury in small doses will have a sufficiently laxative
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ect on the system.J___________________________________
^ases of superpurgation, arisïng from the administration
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tit
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/Ml doses of physic in this disease by empirical prac-
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i^ers, often occur.
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e would recommend a drink compounded of sulphuric
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eth,
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er> laudanum, __ nd cold water, then wait an hour and
j ch symptoms. Repeat the drink at night; next day add
• * a scruple of calomel sprinkled on the tongue, and wash
°-o\vn -with the drink. Persevere with this daily till the
j Se is quicker and so soft as scarcely to be feit. Then
e off medicine and give a quart of the best stout night
öiorning, carrots chopped fine, fresh grass, and scalded
s* These will be found the best tonics when you have
eo- the corner upon the influenza.
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§ IV. GLANDERS AND FARCY.
|
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^olume
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, —«ïes upon this horrible and fatal malady have
n Britten. lts bibliography alone forms the subject-
2»9 er °f 28 pages of Mr. Percivall's third volume (pp.
r.e ^°fy; whereto the studious and curious reader is
referred. öo nde*s consists in a discharge, from one or both
s> of matter which by transfer or inoculation will |
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262
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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complication of this disease." The French term this " morve
charbonneuse." In 1843, acute glanders prevailed as an epizootic disease
in and around Paris to a terrible extent. Epidemie glanders ismerely acute glanders in its spread'
ing form. Sub-acute glanders is the variety of most ordinary occur-
rence. "It commences with the usual signs—slight or otbei"- wise—of indisposition ; and the disease may, though the ctf" cumstance is a rare one, in the first instance assume the acute type. Instead, however, of continuing its rapid course, even after ulceration has displayed itself, both the inflammatory and ulcerative processes subside down to a state almost ot total inactivity. The Schneiderian membrane grows palh"' acquires a leaden hue, and the ulcerations upon it lose thetf prominent red-streaked borders, and exchange their rugge(i bleeding bases for comparatively smooth and livid botton^ throwing up a glass-like reflection from the lymphy matters covering them. It is evident, the moment the nose lS inspected, that the disease exists in the sub-acute form ; hc-W long it may continue so is very uncertain It will not visibv impair the health, nor affect the appetite or spirits, so lonS as it does so remain. The moment, however, anythinë occurs to derange the health, or even after a certain time~" after a month or two, or three—without any apparent supe1" added cause, we may expect the acute disease to supervenej and then the destruction of the patient's health commenceSi and is speedily consummatedin death. Though there be an evident cessation of the external disease, we are by D° means certain that the imvard organs—the lungs in par' ticular—are not all the while forming a fomes for lts spreading. In most cases it is probable this does happe0' inasmuch as, whenever death has foliowed from the supeI" vention of the acute disease, we find those organs in a stat of tuberculous disorganisation. It is this apparent cessati0 of the glanders outwardly, and the interval during wblC the disease continues in abeyance, that has afforded opP°r' tunities to experimentalists and hunters after a cure make trial of their various nostrums. And it is tla topical influence some of their remedies have had upon tö secretion—and even upon the ulceration of the nasa membrane—that has led so many persons to delude theIïl selves at various times, that they have discovered the trUo |
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" The Veterinarian," page 694, in which he adduces instances
where a horse, being glandered, propagated glanders -with- out himself exhibiting anything more than a constant thin gleety discharge, without oifensive smell; having no visible ulceration of the nasal membranes, no swelled legs, or even anything resembling farcy; yet the chronic discharge was glanderous, and capable of propagating the disease in all its virulence in other horses. The forms of glanders, in modern books, are called acute,
sub-acute, and chronic. Acute glanders results from inoculation or contagion of
the virus. This runs its deadly course, and includes what the French veterinarians have termed typhoid or putrid glanders. The course of acute glanders cannot be better illustrated than by the following note from the " Cases " of Mr. John Field. " May 3rd.—An ass was inoculated in both upper eyelids,
both sides of the loins, the off side of the withers, and on the inside of the ala of each nostril, with the discharge from the off nostril of a grey gelding (purchased by Sir P------D------
three years previous), which was affected with this same
glanderous discharge at the time of purchase, and had so continued ever since. " 7th.—All the wounds suppurating, except those on the
nostrils, which appear to be healing. " 9th.—Absorbents inflamedfrom the ulcers on eyelids and
back. " Uth.—Absorbents much thickened, having diffused in-
flammation about them, and at different parts of their course circumscribed tumours suppurating; the inflam- mation from the ulcers of the loins proceeding to the groin, that from the off side of the withers to the breast, and, on the eyelids, producing small fluctuating tumours on the jugular vein, just below the ear: the als nasi were beginning to swell, and there was a snuffling in breathing, &c. " I9th.—The alce nasi much thickened, copious discharge
from nostrils, and the swelling increasing. " 22nd.—Respiration greatly embarrassed. He died on
the following day. " Examination.—Much frothy spume in trachea—general
infiltration of lungs, which were inflamed—considerable consolidation of the anterior and inferior portion of right lobe—warty exulceration of Schneiderian membrane of both nostrils to a greater extent than I had ever witnessed before." Mr. Ernes, of Bermondsey, relates a case in the " Veteri-
narian/' for 1842, of typhoid glanders, of which the autopsy was as follows :—" The effusion into the swollen parts of the membrane was of a black colour, resembling oil paint, sticky, and of considerable consistence. The membrane of the nose was one mass of gangrene, and in many parts covered with the same black substance that was found in the swellings. The lungs were a complete mass of ulceration, and of the same black hue. The abdominal viscera were all of a dark colour. The mucous membrane was healthy throughout, accounting for the absence of diarrhcea, which is a frequent |
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has
3d id sted
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antidote. No sooner, however, has the fire which
been smouldering within the lungs or head broken out,shown itself outwardly in the form of acute glanders |
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farcy, than the bubble of a cure has burst, and the boas
remedy shared the fate of those that have gone before ik Chronic Glanders consists simply in a discharge from l
nose, oftener from one nostril* than from both, accompaDl |
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tb"
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* Dupuy says, of eight cases of glanders, only one was affected i° j
right nostril. Percivall says, of 58 cases recorded from observatie > were in the left nasal cavity, 19 in the right, and 18 in both n<>str which shows no decided majority, hut nearly an average. |
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263
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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y enlargement of the correspondent submaxillary lymphatic
gland or glands. Symptomatically, it differs from the acute
nd sub-acute diseases in the absence of anything like in-
arnTOation or vascular injection, or chancre, or in fact of
ny perceotible change whatever in the aspect of the
Cüneiderian membrane denoting morbid activity : all is as
Usual in the appearance of parts, and in the animal's health
n(* spirits and appetite ; nothing "whatever seems amiss,
Save the flux from the nose and the submaxillary tume-
action. And in this state, as we have recently observed,
■Je horse may continue for years. Pathologically, also, it
,<itiers from the acute and sub-acute disorders in having for
s especial seat the membrane lining the sinuses of the
^a<i- It is possible a chronic discharge may proceed from
öe nasal membrane: however, it rarely does so for any
ength of time without some discoverable change in the
spect of that membrane. Although it is quite possible
Cn a case might-at first be supposed to be chronic
s anders, a little time would suffice to show whether it
.ea'iy were so or not. If it be chronic glanders, having for
s Seat the nasal as well as the frontal membrane, or to the
°iusion even of the latter, sooner or later we shall detect
e miliary ulceration, the only ulceration present in this
111 of disease, and therefore truly characteristic.
Tronic glanders appears sometimes as the sequel of
üer disease in the air-passages and lungs. It mostly
acks its victim in a mild and masked form. The horse is
ught to have caught cold ; and no suspicion, perhaps, is
°Used to the contrary until it comes to be discovered that
s " cold " is lasting a great while longer than it ought to
^ure, and ihat it resists all means of cure. The horse's
itiary spirits and looks and appetite are not in the
ehtest degree impaired: he works as cheerfully as ever;
all the time he has a discharge from one nostril, with
enlargement of the submaxillary lymphatic gland or
Qus of the same side. And although the nasal issue may
l a nature of itself to excite suspicion, and the enlarge-
, t may be such as appears to confirm this suspicion, yet
-ases incipient in their nature too often present them-
th S' ln wkich it *s impossible for any practitioner, from
of tl? aï)Pearances alone, to determine at once on the nature
e attack. Give time, and the veterinary surgeon, by
ning the progress of the case, will be enabled to solve
t, mystery, and at length to demonstrate beyond doubt
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the discharge commonly proceeds from both nostrils alike ;
whereas, the running in incipient glanders is often confined to the one nostril, and the gland of one side only is then affected. As the disorder proceeds, it affects both sides. Chancres
appear all over the pituitary membrane, occasioned by the erosive nature of the discharge. This assumes a different appearance as the fluids of the individual may have been more or less vitiated. The appearance or quality of the discharge differs also, according to the manner in which the disease may have been engendered or caught by infection, as is already shown in distinguishing the acute and sub- acute varieties. If it come of the first-mentioned, through a depraved system, the glands are harder, often smaller, and always adhere more closely, than in those cases which are derived from infection, at a time when the animal is other- wise in comparatively good health. Again, with the infected horse, the matter comes off copiously; it is curdled, and may be rubbed to powder between the fingers when dried. It subsequently hardens, and becomes chalky when submitted to acids ; whereas, the animal that engenders the disease without receiving infection, sends forth matter that is parti-coloured, less in quantity, blackish, watery, and mixed with bloody and white mucus. Finally, if the animal that receives the disorder by infection be previously m a bad state of health, those symptoms are complicated and more intense, the chancres are more numerous, the cartilages of the nose become rotten, and the bones likewise, in a shorter time. The creature seems to have combined the evils of its own system with that of the sufferer from whom he has received it. In both cases the swelled glands are simply hard tumours without any matter in them. In addition to the preceding tokens for discovering at an
early period glanders from other disorders, let the nostrils of the animal be examined,' and the running nostril will be found of a deeper colour than usual, whilst the other, or dry nostril, is of a paler colour than ordinary, or almost white. At this period the discharge is a white glairy fluid, and the diseased state of the sub-maxillary gland of that side is but just perceptible to the touch: but these being symptoms that belong equally to a catarrh, it is best to be guided by the varied colour of the two nostrils, re- membering that in catarrh, or cold, both nostrils run. Well worthy of remark is the fact that when horses in a
tolerable state of health first receive infection, they show mettle, and are full of freaks; as the disorder proceeds in its ravages this spirit goes off. Other acquired diseases have the same effects on animals—the venereal, for example, on man. A great stench accompanies the discharge in long-con-
firmed glanders, which increases during the latter stages of the disorder; and the stableman who has once scented it may presently ascertain whether glandered horses have been recently kept in any stable he may examine for the purpose of detection. |
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No
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al nature of the animal's ailment.
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cougb accompanies real glanders in any of its stages;
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tak 1S' ^Ouon a negative piece of information, should be
Uj , 1 as a criterion not to be neglected. A running may g] s appearance at one nostril in glanders, and the gj .s mav adhere to the jawbone, as they do in real
gi , rs' "ut no cough accompanies these symptoms of cata, ,rs' "hen cough supervenes, the disease may be a not ' a ?0nsumPtion, astlima, or strangles, but these are the 1* a°10Us> unless they last a long time, and adhesion of s takes place. In these last-mentioned disorders |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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264:
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have no means of testing its true nature save through an
operation, or by inoculation of an ass (or another horsej with the discharged matter. Mr. Percivall narrates the following :—" The good healtn
horses having chronic glanders in general enjoy, together with the condition and apparent aptitude for work they maintain, it is that has given rise to a fraud often success- fully practised in horse markets, in days when glandered horses were more common in the country than they are at the present time. Three knaves act in confederacy. The horse, who previously has been made by some sternutatory means to blow out any matter lodged in his nose, is by one of them led to the market for sale, where he is soon solu at a price much below his apparent value, the purchaser having been persuaded and urged on by a stander-by—a seeming stranger—who is the second confederate. Pleased with his bargain, the purchaser takes him away homeward, but has no sooner got clear of the market than he is met by another stranger—the third confederate—who happens to recognize the horse, and who at once expresses surprise an<l dismay that he should have bought an animal with such a foul and horrible disease upon him; adding that the horse ought to be, and must be, in obedience to Act of Parliament, shot without delay; and in order that the purchaser may not be at any further trouble or responsibility, offers at the same time for a small fee to take the horse of him 'at knackers' price.' In this way the subject of fraud finds b® way back into the hands of his former possessors, and *s offered again for sale ; not perhaps in the same market, bu in some other part of the country. The late Captair) Harvey—a gentleman well known as one of the best rider in the Old Surrey hunt—was cheated in this manner * Bromley Fair: in his case there was no third confedei'ate- The Captain thought he had got an excellent hunter for ver) little money, with the trilling drawback of his having slight cold in his head/ and brought him the following d*v to my father for his advice. The opinion sought proved sho* and decisive ;—the horse was * glandered.'" Cattle and sheep should on no account be trusted wit'1
glandered horse; and the mangers and racks in the staD which have been used by a glandered horse, after ~b°l ° washed with soap and water, should be thoroughly cle»nS with a solution of chloride of lime. Strangles is another disorder with which glanders may
confounded, but not by an experienced practitioner. Mr. James White, many years Veterinary Surgeon to t
First Dragoons, whose excellent work has gone throi'© nineteen editions, the last almost re-written by Mr. >'' r Spooner, paid the greatest attention to the subject glanders, and certainly had the greatest opportunities practical experience and observation. To that gentlei»a instances of the causes of glanders, the Editor adds:— _ "From the circumstance of horses having sonieti escaped the disorder, though they have been standing in same stall or stable, or drinking out of thfi same bucke |
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In duration, hardly any disease can be more uncertain
than chronic glanders. It may continue, simply as a discharge from one nostril, accompanied by submaxillary glandular enlargement, with very little or unimportant variation in either, for months—nay, for years: on the other hand, it may run into the acute in as many weeks. Any person, therefore, having a horse of this description in bis possession can at no period say how long it may be before the disorder may show itself in an active, nay, rapidly destructive form. In some cases the nasal flux runs for a long period with but slight or unimportant alteration ; in others, in quality as well as quantity, it exhibits most remarkable fluctuations—at one time appearing so scanty and trilling as hardly to be worth notice; at another, pouring forth in all the abundance of the eruption of pent-up channels, solid as Avell as fluid, from the admixture of lymph with muco or sero-purulent flux; and all of the most fetid nature, in consequence of having been shut up for a period, and so undergone a putrefactive fermentation within the sinuses of the head. lts colour, too, is very variable, depending upon the time it has been retained within the sinus. It may be white, yellow, green, brown, black, according to circumstances; its colour being often a sort of guide to us in respect to its composition and probable duration in confinement. êi. distinction must be made between chronic glanders
and what we are in the habit of calling nasal gleet; an affection some horses are known to have either all their lives, or at certain periods of them. We must not set down every horse that comes to us, having for any length of time had, either constantly or only at times, a flux from one or from both nostrils. The membrane clothing the nasal chambers and sinuses of the head is, the same as other mucous membranes of the body,t liable to derangements in its functions—to secrete too much or too little, or not of the proper quality. Therefore, like the membrane of the human urethra, it may become the source of gleet, and of gleet of so long duration that in time it becomes habitual to the secreting apparatus. This is the only way in which we can account for horses having, at times, discharges from the nose all their lifetime ; yet they work, never showing glanders; indeed, to those acquainted with them, causing little alarm. The important question for us to consider is, how are cases of nasal gleet to be distinguished from those of chronic glanders ? The discharge in gleet consists of an unusually white mucous or sero- mucous matter, and in several instances has been remarked to be lumpy. There is no enlargement under the jaw ; and this circumstance, as well as the white, mucous, and lumpy nature of the discharge, together with the history of its origin, which should be carefully inquired into, may be found pretty safe ground of distinction between nasal gleet and chronic glanders. Beyond any information we can glean from the symptoms,
and such as is to be derived from the history of the case, we |
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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265
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. ough, with a glandered horse, many have been led to doubt
3 bemg contagious; and the little care that some large
Pyoprietors have taken to prevent the spreading of the
isorder, in consequence of such opinions having been held,
as been the cause of very serious losses, many instances
which have come within my personal knowledge. That
ne glanders is contagious, has been clearly and indisputably
Proved by numerous experiments; and the manner in which
14 is propagated has likewise been satisfactorily deraon-
strated. At the same time, it is generally believed that the
g'anders takes place also independent of contagion ; but
r°m what causes or circumstances it is then produced, no
author has attempted to state precisely.
' It has been said, in a general way, that close unwhole-
s°rne stables, hard work, and bad provender, sudden changes r°ni cold and wet weather to hot close stables, hard work, an<l insufficiënt keep, and, in short, anything that will *eaken the animal considerably, is likely to produce glanders or farcy. There will be no danger in admitting this opinion if, at
lbe same time, we keep in view the contagious nature of the disorder, in whatever manner it may be produced. For if sUch cruel and foolish treatment of horses does not produce panders and farcy, it produces other disorders which are °tten more speedily fatal than glanders ; and if it does not actually produce a disorder, it weakens the constitution to such a deg ree that the animal is rendered more susceptible °* the contagion of glanders, as well as of other diseases. A' is from this cause that glanders spreads so rapidly amongst P°st and stage-coach horses, while among horses of a differ- eiit description, its progress is generally slow. ' It has been said that glanders has often been produced in
tfle cavalry by putting the horses, immediately after coming IrOQi camp, where they are constantly exposed to the ^eather, into warm stables, and giving them the full al- *°wance of oats. This, it is true, has often brought on ïn- aammatory disorders which were very destructive, and s°rnetimes of the ctarrhal kind, in which case they were accompanied with a discharge from the nostrils. The acrimony of the matter would sometimes even ulcerate the «ostrils, and the disease would then be considered as a ecided case of glanders. ' Later researches have fully proved that glanders may be Pr°duced, not only by contagion and the causes before enu- "^rated, but also by catarrh, either in its common or P'üemic forms, also by strangles, and by inflammation of öe lungs. In such cases these diseases are said to de- sperate into glanders. In the last three cases that came nder my attention," says Mr. Spooner, " one was preceded y strangles, another by bronchitis, and the third by . atarrh. That form of the disease called bastard strangles, n 'which the glandular swelling does not suppurate kindly, . ut becomes hard and scirrhous, is very apt to degenerate lnt° glanders." is a remarkable circumstance that glanders cannot be
H |
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communicated by applying the matter which is discharged
from the nose of a glandered horse to the nostrils of a sound horse, unless there be an open wound or sore, even though a piece of lint soaked in the matter be put up the nostrils, and kept in contact with the pituitary membrane for a short time ; or even if the matter be thrown up the nostrils with a syringe. But, if the smallest quantity of matter be applied in the way of inoculation, either to the membrane of the nostrils, or to any part of the body, a glanderous ulcer will be produced, from which farcy buds and corded lymphatics will proceed. After a few weeks, the poison will get into the circulation, and the horse will be completely glandered. The circumstance of glanders not being communicated by applying matter to the nostril, enables us to account for a horse escaping the disorder, as he sometimes does, after being put into a glandered stable, or standing by the side of a glandered horse. Glanders, however, is frequently com- municated by (accidental) inoculation; and there is only one other way in which it can be communicated, that is, by swallowing the matter which flows from the nose of a glandered horse. M. St. Bel, the first Professor of the Veterinary College, mixed some glanderous matter with flour, and formed it into balls. These balls were given daily to three horses for one week. The youngest of the horses became glandered in about a month ; the others were not affected till some time after. Glanderous matter has been rubbed on a sore place, or ulcer, that had a healthy appearance in a sound horse. It altered the appearance of the sore for a time ; but, after a few days, the healing pro- cess went on again, and the sore soon got welL From this it appears that, to communicate the glanders, the matter must be applied to a scratch or wound fresh made, and not to a sore on which matter has formed. A sound horse has been inoculated with glanderous matter that had been mixed with ten times its weight of water. This produced some degree of inflammation, and a small ulcer of a suspi- cious appearance ; but after two or three days it got quite well. This shows that glanderous matter may be so far weakened by dilution with water, saliva, or the watery secretion from the lower part of a glandered horse's nostrils, when he has the disease in a very slight degree only, as to render it incapable of communicating the disease. On the other hand, when a large opening is made in the skin of a sound horse, and a piece of tow or lint, soaked in glanderous matter, put into it, in the manner that rowels are inserted, the disorder is communicated in so violent a degree that the animal is generally destroyed by it in a few days. The same effect is produced when glanderous matter, mixed with a little warm water, is injected into the jugular vein of a sound horse. A horse affected with glanders may inoculate himself, and
thereby produce the farcy. This has happened to horses while at grass. The horse has an itching in the hind leg, which leads him to rub and bite the part, and, at the same time, rub on it the glanderous matter which flows from his |
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266
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICTNE.
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The disorder, too, would probably be more readily caught
by eating the glanderous matter mixed with oats or hay> than by drinking it with water, as in the former case itl9 so intimately mixed with the food by mastication. Having treated of the several ways in which glanders
may be propagated ; the modes of prevention almost sugges» themselves. The glanderous matter exposed to the gaS arising from a mixture of coramon salt, magnesia, and oil°* vitriol has been so disinfected, that it has become inert, eve when a young ass has been inoculated with it. This gas as a fumigation may be used when the stable is to be purified after glandered horses. Some persons advise the stables to be pulled down ; this is altogether unnecessary. Let every portion of the stable to which the animals could have had access be thoroughly washed with chloride of lime, the following day scrubbed with warm water and soap, and when thoroughly dry washed over with sulphate of zinC' Three days after, they may be occupied without danger. From these observations we gather that the precautio»3
against the generation and spread of glanders and farcy, are, lst, Ventilation of Stables; 2dly, Cleanliness, in which is included the draining of them ; 3dly, The immediate and complete Separation of the Sick from the llealthy. *° enter here, further than has already been done, into the sub' ject of ventilation is unnecessary, after the full treatment i1 has received in the chapters on Stables and Stable-managE' ment in the former part of this volume. It seems righ^ however, to remark, in regard to the segregation of a horse having or suspected of having glanders or farcy, that hlS separation can neither be too early nor too complete. "° satisfy every doubt respecting contagion, he should be place at such a distance from his associates in health, and in suc11 a situation, that no direct atmospheric communication ca exist between their habitations ; and his pail, halter, briole' even harness and saddle, perhaps, ought to be restrict6 to' the patient's use, or not used among other horses unt1 such time as they have undergone the necessary purificatie' Moreover the groom looking after the glandered subjec should be careful not to allow himself or his clothes to be' come the medium of contamination between the disease and the healthy animals. In large establishments, wher many valuable horses are stabled together, we can hard ; exercise too much nicety and fastidiousness on the occasl° of any contagious disease, and especially of such a o»e glanders or farcy, breaking out amongst them. Communication of Glanders to the Human Subject-^
Though for a long time disputed, the melancholy fact tO glanders is communicable by the horse to man has recei^ |
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nostril. The possibility of this circumstance taking place
may be easily proved by inoculating a glandered horse, in any part of his body, with some of his own matter. There are many ways in which a sound horse may be accidentally inoculated with the matter of glanders, for the slightest scratch in any part of the body is sufficiënt. Horses that are cleaned with a curry-comb are very liable to be scratched in those parts where the bones are prominent, such as the inside of the hoek and knee, the shank bones, and the head. To such scratches glanderous matter may be applied by the hands of the groom after he has been examining the nose of a glandered horse, or wiping off the matter from his nostrils ; or by the horse himself transferring glanderous matter from the nose of a diseased horse, or from the manger, or other part where any matter has been deposited; for horses are very fond of rubbing their noses against the manger or stall, and a glandered horse will generally try to rub off the matter from his nose against the manger, the rack, the stall, or against another horse. If a sound horse happens to stand by one that is glandered, they will often be seen nab- bing or gently biting each other, or rubbing noses. In short, having proved that glanders is thus communicated, we can conceive a variety of ways in which a horse may be acci- dentally inoculated. When a horse has been twitched, he generally rubs his nose and lips with considerable force against the manger, and may thus easily inoculate him- self with a glandered splinter. The parts where local farcy first appears are those most likely to be accidentally inoculated ; that is, the inside of the hoeks and knees, the shanks, the lips, the under jaw—where grooms are often trimming off the long hair with sharp-pointed scissors, or singeing them with a candle, and often causing an itching, which makes the horse rub the part against the manger. In this way the heels also are often wounded. Horses that are too highly fed and little worked are liable to prurient humours, which make them nab or bite their skin, and scratch the hind leg with the opposite foot; and we may often see them bite, rub with the nose, and scratch with the hind foot, alternately, the other leg. It is possible that in some cases where inoculation nas
failed, the virus was not sufficiently matured or was in too small a quantity to effect glanderous inoculation; it having been found that by introducing a considerable quantity of matter, the horse is speedily destroyed. The same rule will probably be found to hold good, in a certain degree, when glanderous matter is swallowed ; as the horse's stomach possesses a wonderful power of resisting the im- pression of poisonous matter. A fact proved by the large doses of arsenic, corrosive sublimate, sugar of lead, &c, that have at different times been given, by way of experiment, to glandered horses. A horse, therefore, may possibly swallöw one large dose of glanderous matter without being injured by it, while a repetition of smaller doses will produce the dis- order. M. St. Bel gave the virus internally daily for a week; and the same method has been pursued in other experiments. |
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oC>*'
or des
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ample evidence of late years. It is as well proved as illation in syphilis, the absorption of the vaccine vin*8
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the contagion of itch or mange multiplying the acari'
which produce those irritating skin diseases. Of the D»tu of the virus of glanders we know no more than we "° those of syphilis, rabies, smallpox, &c.; we can only sFe from observation of their effects. When glanders is coiB"1 |
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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267
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icated to man, the consequences are indeed horrible. The
Ie secretory and excretory systerns are affected, the glands
the armpits, the groin, and especially the salivary glands,
ell painfully and burst, and the sufferer dies pitiably.
r- Mayhew says:—" Three cases have come to the author's
nowledge. Two respectable gentlemen, moving in good
ociety, were contaminated, and both perished miserably of
e terrible disease. Mr. Gowing of Camden Town, informed
e writer of a boy who went out of a shop to hold a cus-
0Iner's pony. While the boy was so placed, the pony
eared its nostrils, and a portion of the ejected matter
ew into the lad's eye. The handkerchief removed the
u; and the accident was forgotten. The poor youth was
glandered, and died in the University HospitaL"
■Ihe treatment of glanders in the human subject is not
tfhin the scope of this work. Suffice it to say, that, 0ln some cases in the Lancet, it appears to be in human ** actice also an opprobrium medicorum. areatment of Glanders.—The general opinion of En-
s ish and French veterinarians has settled down into a belief
. at glanders is incurable, and that farcy is curable. This
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Agriculture in France gave a medal to Professor Collaine of
Milan who cured(?) glanders with sulphur; and Professor Sewell, of our own Veterinary College has been rewarded for his specific—sulphate of copper. Later still, common salt (chloride of sodium) has been highly favoured by the Royal Agricultural Society. That sulphate of copper, ad- ministered in a state of solution, in gum mucilage, two drachms in a quart of water, twice a day, has a peculiar effect in healing abrasions and diminishing nasal gleet, is undeniable. The sulphate of iron was Mr. Turner's favourite remedy ;
dissolved in the water the horse drinks, in his bucket " sus- pended in his box, and that he may drink whenever he pleases." Cantharides is the sheet anchor of Mr. Vines.
" This medicine I have found of the greatest service,"
writes this author, in his chapter on the " Treatment of Glanders and Farcy," section, " Remedies to be employed." " whether alone or in combination. Cantharides appear to me, when given internally, to act on the system in two ways :—first, by stimulating the vascular surface of the inner coat of the stomach and intestines, thus promoting the greater formation as well of gastric juice as of the other fluids ; and also increasing the appetite and digestion, and consequently forming a greater quantity of chyle, or new white blood. Secondly, by absorption, their active pro- perties being taken into the circulation, and producing in a very short time a material change in the mucous mem- brane, foliowed by ulcers of the nose as well as ulcers of the skin." Mr. Robertson, a surgeon, has published an excellent work on the efficacy of cantharides for gleets or affections of the urethral membrane, and for unhealthy sores in the skin; he (Mr. R), twenty years ago, recom- mended its use at the Veterinary College, where it failed, Mr. Vines says, " from its having been given in too large doses (two drachms)." The principal precautions to be at- tended to in using cantharides internally in the horse are, not to administer them either at the commencement or early stages of inflammatory diseases, or in too large quan- tities for a dose, or too frequently to repeat them. For they are only proper to be used when the symptoms of disease are of a chronic, or slow form and nature ; that is, when the system is either in a state of debility, or approaching to it." The doses are—" for a middle-sized saddle-horse, four grains; for a large carriage or dray horse, six grains, in fine powder,' made into a ball with ginger, gentian, &c " A ball may be given every day, or every other day, either in the even- ing or morning." Should the horse's appetite amend, and he appear to be going on well, after a week, ten days, or a fort- night, the dose may be augmented a couple of grains; but after another like interval the medicine had better be sus- pended for a few days or a week, when the first doses may be resumed, and after a week increased to ten and twelve grains. Iodine has been administered, and also the iodide of
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L
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not, however, a reason why investigation should be re-
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Xed or abandoned, although the long-sought-for and often-
Pr°claimed specific, or the successful plan of treatment, yet
ei*iains to be discovered ; we shall, therefore, run over the
Practice and remedies adopted with the most plausible
Ppearances of success, and which from time to time have
een asserted to have cured this feil disorder.
■^afosse's method was trumpeted to the world as a won-
erful discovery, and pictures of horses' heads " with holes
1 ln them," and syringes injecting " proper and convenient
teiïiedies into the nose," were engraved in his work, in that
bis disciple Bartlett, and in the Cyclopsedias of the last cen-
ry and the beginning of the present. Lafosse's work * was
translated all over Europe ; and, if the results did not answer
jXPectation, he contributed a good many facts to the know-
§e of the disease. A very few years of experience shewed
en Lafosse the ir iSicacy of his " trephine," and in an after
. rK we find him covering his defeat by confessing " there
, ° answering for the cure '■ owing to " the stubbornness of
■c ?. lsease;" and making, as a bridge to retreat over, another
<t . c°very," that besides " confirmed glanders" there are
lx other kinds of discharges, jour of which are incurable."
y this is admirable and solemn fooling. We may there-
dismiss the trephine and local scouring of the nasal
ages. Learned societies and colleges have been as cre-
°Us as the general public in their faith in cures, and
e rewarded the supposed discoverers. The Royal Aca-
" 7 of Sciences rewarded Lafosse for his " discovery of
Mature, seat, and cure of glanders;" the Royal Society of
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•vyj,, ~* ^reatise upon the True Seat of Glanders in Horses, together
*arri - 'MetIlod of Cure'" &c-> witi cuts- B? M' de Lafosse, Master
ler of Paris, an<l Farrier to the King's Majesty's Stables. 1751. |
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268
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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if creosote could be applied in this manner it would be
still better. An ointment of hydriodate of potash should be rubbed on
the enlarged glands ; and if the symptoms should disappear with the exception of the indurated gland, it would be ad- visable to excise it, as it generally contains glanderous matter, which may inoculate the system anew. All these are given merely as indications of the treatment
to be pursued: were any one of them generally, or even frequently efficacious, we should not still be driven to the stern necessity of passing sentence of death upon the glaQ' dered horse. FARCY.
We have already said that farcy and glanders are modifi"
cations of the same disease. Farcy was for a long time suP' posed to be a disease of the veins; a natural error, seeingthe lymphatic vessels along which the virus travels were the» considered as a sort of vein, if not veins themselves. Later writers regard the farcy-bud as the degeneration an<* coagulation of the lymph. Farcy may be said to have it3 seat in the skin ; that of glanders being accounted to be the pituitary membrane. Glanders and farcy together consti' tute one and the same disease of the lymphatic vessels and their glands. The disease originates in these vessels, and for a time confines itself to them ; in the course of its progress; however, it extends into the contiguous tissues, affecting l0 one case the true skin, in the other the mucous lining of the air-passages, and it is in these parts respectively that the phenomena of farcy and glanders are exhibited. ^° wonder, therefore, that the appearances in farcy (the loca symptoms) should differ so much from those of glanders > and that the buds and ulcerations of the one should "e found, in the course of treatment, so much more manage' able or more " curable " than those of the other forrn ° disease; or that one disease should be so much WoT dangerous to the animal affected, as well as to horse9 (in health) around him, than the other. Inflammation lD the cutis is a different disease from inflammation in a mucous membrane—productive of different phenomena', and requiring a different' treatment: hence the apparentjy wide differences between two diseases essentially or J nature alike. In general, in dissecting farcied limbs or other p»rts'
as soon as we have cut through the thickened and indurate skin, we appear to have bottomed the disease—to have reached its depth or profoundest seat; the subcutancou3 tissue everywhere around is infiltrated, apparently lö. state of local dropsy, but of the farcinous disease the sk1 has manifestly borne the brunt. In cases, however, of ï veterate or malignant farcy, in which the deep-seated well as the superficial order of lymphatics have taken disease, we meet with farcy-buds and pustules, and occasio ally with abscesses of large and irregular dimensie situated among the muscles. |
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'potassium by Professor Dick, with no appreciable effect.
We will notice diniodide of copper under Fakcy. Iodine and copper mixed (iodide of potass and sulphate
of copper), made up into powders, one grain daily, with green food ad libitum, were administered by Mr. Lord, V.S., of Parsonstbwn, Ireland, to a farcied horse on the 12th of August, and on the 4th of September. The treat- ment being persevered in, the ulcers of the nostril "had then dried up and the discharge and farcy-buds disappeared." Barytes was once insisted on by Mr. Percivall as having
effected cures, but he afterwards admitted, on extended ex- perience, that " its success must be regarded incidental or circumstantial." From an idea of its similarity to gonorrhcea or syphilis,
copaiba balsam, cubebs, and especially mercury, have been resorted to. " Recoveries" under the use of barytes, copaiba, cubebs, and cayenne pepper are confidently re- corded. Internally, mercurials may be said to have utterly failed with the horse, though some Italian surgeons have declared they have found blue ointment (ung. hydrarg.), one ounce, rubbed on to the inside of the thigh daily, cure farcy. Mr. Storry relates several instances of glandered horses
cured by him by fumigating the nostrils with carbonic acid gas, assisted by tonic medicine. Greosote has been used with success in glanders of the
human subject as a topical application to the ulcers; and it has in a few instances been tried on the horse with good effect. In a case of glanders it has stopped the nasal dis- charge, and healed the ulcers by its use. The combination of iodine and sulphate of copper, which
readily unite by adding a little proof spirit, has been recom- mended by Mr. Norton, and administered with excellent effect in doses of two drachms daily. It is preferable to the " powders " mentioned above. To snm up the system of treatment to be adopted in this
disease, it should first be repeated that there are but few cases in which the symptoms are sufficiently mild and the horse of sufficiënt value to justify the expense incurred in keeping and treating the animal, except by way of ex- periment ; we must therefore closely examine the horse previous to our attempts. If the pulse is increased, though only eight or ten beats in a minute, the lungs are probably affected, and it is better to destroy the animal. So likewise if the animal has been affected for several years, although the symptoms may still be mild. Should, however, the case be comparatively recent, and the appearances favourable, we would then administer daily the tonic recommended by Mr. Sewell, or that advised by Mr. Vines ; or what, perhaps, is still better, give the one for several days, and then try the other, or the iodide of copper in doses of one or two drachms daily. If there are any ulcerations within sight, a solution of creosote should be syringed up the nostrils daily; and if there are none visible, it may be well to try the effect of fumigating the nostrils with carbonic acid gas ; |
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269
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.—GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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Dupuy informs us he has met with " tubercles " (or farcy-
°uds) and farcy-pustules upon the mucous lining of the ali- "ïentary canal; and Leblanc, so far as having witnessed °ne case of the kind, confirms this account. On the same authorities also we may state that the liver, the spleen, and tne testicles have all been known to exhibit farcy. Whatever tends or operates to the production of glanders,
'ne same has the power of causing farcy. Contagion be- eomes no exception to this admitted truth, supposing its agency to be through the medium of the constitution. Con- aminated blood is quite as likely to emit its virus in the form °1 farcy as in that of glanders. Professor Coleman, however, aPpears to have viewed the operation of contagion in glan- ders as being local, upon the Schneiderian membrane ; and 'nat, to take effect, it must have a local operation also in 'he production of farcy ; since in his lectures, he informs us, 'hat, "of all three affections,"—;viz., acute and chronic glan- ders and farcy,— " farcy affords the most conclusive evidence °* the production of the disease in the absence of contagion." Undoubtedly, it is out of the range of probability—out, aliaost, of that of possibility—for the inside of the thigh °* one horse to come into contact with the nose of another horse, or, in fact, with any contagious virus, through ehance or accident; supposing, however, that the contagion enters the system before the local disease be produced, 'here is in that case quite as much likelihood of farcy fol- lowing as that of glanders. "We know that, by inoculation, 'arcy has been produced by the matter of glanders, and glanders by the matter of farcy, and that, consequently, there is every reason to infer a similarity, or rather an l(lentity in the viruses of the two diseases. In further Proof of this, as was said before, one disease, or form of "•"Sease, almost invariably terminates in the other prior to ^issolution. There can be no question but that the same c°ntaminated or miasmatic atmosphere of the stable or else- ^here which produces glanders may occasion farcy ; and vice versd: Mr. Percivall (" Hippopathology," vol. ii, p. 230), dis- P°ses, to our think' ig, of this question. , M. Rodet, Professor at the Veterinary School of Toulouse, 1,1 nis work on glanders (1830) gives the best description of arcy-buds we have met with. Detach a moderate-sized farcy- ud of recent formation, and before the softening process has 0lïinienced in it, and cut into this firm, indolent, rounded, ^erywhere-isolated, completely-formed bud, and its interior J" be found composed of a hard, fibrous, condensed, milk- nite tissue, and though exhibiting thoughout, in certain ases, a homogeneous texture, is nevertheless, in other in- lees found grooved and traversed by some sanguineous Capillaries. , At a rather later period than this, at the time hen it commences growing soft in its centre, and is about to ecome adherent to the skin, and sometimes before it has nered, -we may observe (providing the recent internal Pr°cess of liquefaction be not completed) that its circum- e£ent parts still retain the white fibrous indurated texture lcn formerly constituted the entire bud, and that within |
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its interior is inclosed a pultaceous matter of a yellow or
dirty-white colour, or else slightly reddened. At length, when the process of softening is completed, and before it is converted into abscess, we find within the bud several little morbid productions, united by lamina one to another —arranged in concentric layers, and resembling serous membranes slightly infiltrated, the raw interior of which gives the appearance of ulceration to its inner surface— forming the walls of the abscess, inclosing a white, thick, homogeneous matter, of a consistence at one time caseous, at another puriform, at another analogous to thick jelly. The peculiar well-known spheroid shape of the farcy-bud,
as well as that of the pustule which succeeds it, is proved to be owing to the existence of the valves within the lympha- tic vessel; these preserving their integrity while the coats of the lymphatics are vanishing through absorption. In very bad cases the valves, as well as the tunics, inflame and ulce- rate or become absorbed. In consequence, the farcy pustules run one into each other, and by such communication lose their characteristic shape, lengthening into fistulous ab- scesses, well known to farriers under the denomination of" farcy pipes," or spreadir-.g into abscesses of large and irregular shape, burrowing deep in the connecting cellular tissue. The skin itself undergoes changes, resembling thicken-
ing and induration of the farcy-bud. In time the " bud" becomes enormously augmented in substance, remarkably white, and unusually tough and hard, cutting like so much white leather rather than skin, especially in the immediate vicinity of the buds; several of the more superficial of which, that have become pustules, will be found embedded in its thickened substance. We, however, no sooner cut through the indurated cartilaginous-like cutis than we exposé chains of farcy-buds and pustules, immediately under- neath it, invested by cellular tissue full of infiltration of a jelly-like citron-coloured fluid, beyond which bed of effusion we appear suddenly to lose all vestiges of disease. In inve- terate farcy, however, the infiltration will sometimes be ob- served extending deep between the muscles, and every now and then abscesses, deposits of matter of considerable volume, will be discovered buried among the fleshy structures. Nor do the bones, any more than the muscles, escape the ravages of farcy and glanders. The turbinated, ethmoid, nasal, and maxillary bones have suffered in malignant cases of the former disease: and we are assured by Dupuy and others, that many of the bones of the limbs and body have proved extensively diseased in horses that have for a length of time been afflicted with farcy. Treatment of Farcy.—The system must be supported by
a generous and agreeable, but not too stimulating, diet, to which carrots and green food form useful additions. The horse must be exercised daily. If we determine on empty- ing the bowels, mix firstly a purgative and diuretic mass together (see Medicines), into a ball of moderate strength. Next administer tonics. Of these sulphate of copper, sul- |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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270
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beneficial in cases of farcy with enlarged limbs and cedetna-
tous swellings. Local treatraent in farcy is of as much consequence as
constitutional means. In glanders we are, in respect to the extent and nature of the disease, working in the dark ; we know neither the precise condition nor the exact situation of the ulcerations ; in farcy the local disease is under our eye, and we can apply topical remedies suited to the m- flamed, tumefied, ulcerated, scirrhous, or other condition oi the limb. In their inflamed condition, the best application to tbe
cords of farcy-buds is a refrigerant or evaporating lotion; with this they ought to be sponged often enough to keep the hair wet, the object being to repel or disperse the swellings. As soon as heat and tenderness have subsided in the
buds—supposing that, instead of softening and suppuratmg» they evince a disposition to diminish and grow harder-—^ must alter our treatment. We must use lotions of a discu- tient character, or, in fact, any applications, liniments or ointments having the effect of causing absorption of the swellings. Of this description are, mercurial ointment and camphor, iodine ointment, blistering liniment or ointment, «fee. Indeed, when there appear signs of hardening and ap' proaching insensibility in the buds, a blister is by far the best application. Mr. Percivall advises the acetum canih01' ridis; dipping a painter's brush in the blistering essence» and applying it, after the manner a painter does his pain*» upon the tumefactions; tying the horse up afterwards, ° putting a cradle on him ; and after an interval of twen*?' four hours sponging the blistered parts with warm water, an operation that should be repeated daily so long as any moisture or issue appears upon the surface. "SweatmS blisters," like this need not interfere with the patiënt^ regular exercise; and as soon as one has " worked °ö another may be applied; the repetition being regulated a well by the condition of the skin as by the demands of * case. The practice of Mr. Percivall seems to us so intelHg1,
and practical, that we shall not hesitate, with slight m0"1 cations, to adopt it entire. , In the majority of cases of farcy, it happens that, instea
of diminishing in size and growing harder in consisten the buds plump up and become soft, and at length turn in pustules; and once a pustule formed, it will ripen and bu and turn into an ulcer. As soon, therefore, as we perce1 that it is out of our power to prevent the suppurative stak > it becomes our duty to contribute all we can to its profliot1 For this purpose fomentations may be used to the P poultices likewise, if we can manage to apply them- patient's diet, also, must be improved in this stage, should no longer feed on mashes, but have scaldeu _ carrots, turnips, linseed, &c. When the pustules are V some practitioners make a point of opening them; ° suffer them to burst and discharge their contents sp |
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phate of iron (see Glandeks), in his drink; chloride of
barium, (muriate of barytes), in half-ounce doses at first, increased to one ounce daily, in a ball with meal and molas- Bes, have each their advocates. For ourselves, we advise the tonic to be varied, upon experience of its efficacy or the reverse. Blaine tells us that nearly all the mineral acids have been found useful, and some of the vegetable ones. All the different forms of mercury have been tried with some success, but corrosive sublimate appears to have answered best; and, when determined on, should be given to the full extent the stomach and bowels will bear without salivation or symptoms of inflammation being brought on. Ten or fifteen grains may be commenced with, ground very finely with sugar, and given night and morning in gruel as a drench. If this occasion no distress, it may be increased to a scruple, and from this to half a drachm, if it be borne with ease ; but the utmost care and watchfulness should be exerted when the dose is considerable. When the weakness and irritability of the horse are too great for the exhibition of the corrosive sublimate, give half a drachm of calomel twice a day ; or the blue pill, or the sulphuret of mercury may be substituted, still carefully watching the salivating process. Should the stomach suffer much under the use of these active agents, either join with them bitter tonics, or alternate them with each other. We would also recommend that they be in these cases given in solution, and further sheathed by some ingrediënt of a mucilaginous nature. After the trial of mercurials, arsenic ought next to claim
the attention, as that has also proved efficacious in farcy, and it may be given in the form of liquor arsenicalis, or Fowler's tasteless solution. Verdigris was for some time a favourite remedy at the Veterinary College, in doses of a scruple three times a day, increased to a drachm. We have witnessed also good effects from this preparation; but we have found it most efficacious when given in a ball in con- junction with the blue vitriol, half a drachm at a dose. Some practitioners choose to employ several articles in con- junction, and they assert the cure is speedier from the combination than from any one article separately. In this case, give the following:— Corrosive sublimate.....5 grains.
Arsenic...... .5 grains.
Verdigris.......5 grains.
Blue vitriol.......^ scruple.
Mixinto a ball with palm oil and linseed meal; give every morning.
In addition to the several acids, benefit may be derived from
the following drinks, in conjunction with the ball last men- tioned. |
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Sea bathing and daily doses of sea water have been found
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271
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SPECIFIC DISEASES.-GLANDERS AND FARCY.
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Oeously. The old or farriers' mode of opening ripe farcy-buds
s with the actual cautery—the heated budding-iron ; and it
ls a practice still in vogue with many very respectable
Veterinary surgeons. In this manner the contents of the
P^stule are, as it were, fried by the red-hot iron, while its
ase and interior are altogether destroyed, and the result is a
lOugh, foliowed commonly by a superficial ulcer of larger
iniensions than the original pustule, and presenting a
J ealthy granulating surface; this ulcer is in the end, under
Judicious management, very often got to heal. Should
] e suffer the pustule to burst of itself, we may still cauterize
s base with the budding-iron ; or, if we prefer it, we may
Uo it with a pencil of lunar caustic. At all events some
aUstic or strong escharotic dressing will be demanded;
^thout it we shall never obtain what we so much desire—
healthy granulative action. The bottom of the ulcer once
eaned out, dressings of various kinds, depending upon its
sPect (healing or spreading, sloughy, stationary, &c.) will
e required by it afterwards. Commonly, mild escharotic
PpHcations answer best, though, at times, stimulant or
stringent ones appear preferable ; in short, the selection of
dressing must be left entirely to the judgment of the
P^actitioner.
Water or spirituous dressings are better than greasy ones,
ad we have ordinarily observed the best effects from such as
ese:—Solutions of lunar caustic, of the sulphates of cop-
^er and zinc, and of alum ; the tinctures of benzoin, and of
yrrh -with aloes. The nitric acid lotion is an excellent
ressing for sloughy sores ; and the solution of chloride of
^e an admirable one for such as secrete fetid matters.
&e ulcers should always be cleaned, and have any hairs
°oting over their edges trimmed off, preparatory to their
eing dressed of a morning; and it tends to the preservation
them in cleanliness, and promotes their healing tendencies
. Well, to besprinkle their surfaces, immediately after dress-
8 them, with some powder that will imbibe the discharges,
rrect acrimony, and have some effect in restraining their
«" °duction; none «aiswers these ends better than common
} aker's) flour. It should be made as dry as possible before
lnS used, and may, when required to be additionally
nngent, have some powdered alum mixed with it; which
*!u sometimes have already. As a change, on occasions,
may employ for the same purpose powdered bark or
arnine. Mr. Turner recommends a strong solution of
Phate of iron plentifully applied over the ulcerations, and
l rubbed into the sound parts likewise. Mr. Blaine, as
flave already noted, found sea water and saturated solu-
c s °f common salt good dressings; he speaks, too, in
^irable terms of sea bathing for farcinous limbs, aided
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assurance of success in farcy, notwithstanding the notorious
failure of a like operation in glanders. For the disease in the hind limbs, M. Maurice, veterinary surgeon in the First French Artillery, directs us to cut out the inguinal glands. For farcy of the back, loins, or flanks, the glands in the flank ; and for farcy in the fore limbs, neck, and shoulders, the axillary glands. M. Maurice makes mention of three hundred case3 of farcy cured by such operations. And Renault informs us that the practice has proved successful at the Veterinary School at Alfort. On this Mr. Percivall remarks : " I no more doubt that
horses with farcy have recovered after such operations than I do that others have returned to health after taking copper, or iron, or barytes; between the post hoc and the propter hoc, however, there is all the difference in the world. It is absurd to think of extinguishing a disease proved to be con- stitutional by the extirpation or destruction of tumefied lymphatic glands and farcy-buds." The treatment proper for the enlarged glands is the same
in the various stages of disease, as has been recommended for the farcy-buds. Endeavour, in the first instance, by re- frigerant and evaporating lotions, to abate inflammation in them, and so to effect their dispersion; secondarily, when they come to lose their heat and teuderness, apply blisters over them. It is in vain to try to " bring them forward" to a state of suppuration, like the ripening farcy-bud ; they are hardly ever known to take on the suppurative action. By pursuing such a course of treatment we not very un-
frequently succeed in patching up the ulcerations and get- ting rid of the corded swellings in which they originate, and at the same time so far reduce the size of the limb as to render the patiënt (his general health and condition being good) capable of undertaking work. Indeed, it is advisable that he should do so, since under the operation of slow or moderate work it often turns out that his limb experiences, by degrees, further reduction, and that his health and con- dition, by generous feeding, improve. All, in fact, is likely to go on well so long as the animal experiences no return of his disease or fresh attack of it. Should he do so, in the same limb or part even, it will much lessen the chances of his second restoration ; and, if it recur in some other limb or remote part of his body, above all in the head, wearing the aspect of approaching glanders, we may bid adieu to all hope of recovery. The destruction of the animal is now the most merciful course. "We have known, however, kind-hearted masters object to this fatal sentence being carried out. Should, then, the season of the year be favourable, pasture may offer a resource, certainly pleasant to the animal, and one that the medical attendant will, with satisfaction to himself, if not with benefit to his patiënt, recommend. A change of diet, from dried to green and relaxing food, living in the open air, and the constant exposure of the farcinous limb to a lower temperature than that of the stable, together with the walking exercise the animal is from time to time taking upon it, all have a |
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Th
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da% doses of sea water.
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e mternal remedies and exercise are not to be omitted
^'count of the ulcerated condition of the swollen parts.
. e ■Fumefied Lymphatic Olands, in farcy as well as in
, ers, will require treatment. By some French veteri-
ns their extirpation has been recommended with much
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272
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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is desirable to soil the patiënt in his box; vetches or rye, or, u»
the winter season, carrots or Swedish turnips, hecome a desir- able change of diet. There arrivés a period, in this protractefl and indolent stage of farcy, when the resources of medicins seem to be exhausted; and when the disease is judiciously " left to nature," to take, uninterfered with by art, her spon- taneous course. Mr. Vines recommends cantharides in corfl- bination with vegetable bitters as a cure for farcy and glanders. |
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tendency to do good, and have sometimes proved of eminent
service. In particular, salt marshes have been regarded as beneficial, and apparently not without reason. Whenever and wherever the patiënt may be turned out to grass, he ought to have no companions save such as might happen to have on them the same disease as himself. It would be full of danger to suffer him to run with healthy horses. In situations where, or seasons when, pasture cannot be procured or resorted to, it |
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CHAPTEK XXV.
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DISEASES OF THE BEAIN, SKULL, EYE, TEETH, TONGUE, PALATE, AND PHARÏNX.
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it is, in itself, destitute of feeling. In operations on liviBe
animals it has been pricked, lacerated, cut, even burnt, wit*1' out any manifestation of pain. We remember having hear the late John Abernethy mention a case where a man lost tw° ounces of brain by an accident, and lived many years, at tne head of a mercantile establishment, with apparentlv umi*1* paired faculties. Pressure and Goncussion, however, have serious effects- ^
portion of bone depressed from above, prostrates the aninlil and destroys life ; not so laterally, or from the side: an pressure on the spinal cord produces paralysis behind tD part so interfered with. Injuries of the Brain are not frequent in the hor=
though backward falls and blows are not uncommon, o^'1"" to the immense strength of the parietes or walls of the sku Concussion, so fatal to man, with his higher organizat10
produces nothing more than fright or giddiness ; a bleedi o a cooling draught, and a warm fomentation to the occipü' will generally dispose of this apparently dangerous acciae Fracture of the Skutt, for the same reasons, is rarely see
unless at the base, or basilary process. There is in & cases more danger of bloodvessels giving way than "° ' even in these heavy concussions ; unless abscess of _ brain, of which we shall speak presently, ensue, extern*11 |
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§L DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NERVES.
INJÜRIES OF THE BRAIN.—C0N0USSI0N.—FRACTURE OF THE
SKULL.----PHRENITIS.—STAGGERS.—ABSCESS OF THE BRAIN.—
VERTIGO.----MEGRIMS.— HYDROCEPIIALUS.----PARALYSIS.----TETA-
NUS.----RABIES.—STRINGHALT.----SPASMS. When we observe the smallness of the brain of the horse,
we find physical causes for the animal's limited intellectual development. In treating of the Structure and Anatomy of the Horse (ante, p. 3S8), we gave a general anatomical view of the brain, its membranes and nerves. Insanity, in the sense of human medicine, does not exist in the horse, whose sensorium is not affected by causes of a social or moral nature; though his brain may be affected, as the centre of the nervous system, by wounds and irritating disorders, through what we now know as " reflex nervous action." lts sympathy and connection with the stomach is also clear. The brain is disordered by severe indigestion; and a violent blow upon the stomach, or that organ seriously overloaded, may give rise to what is called " sto- mach staggers"—a decided cerebral attack. Tetanus, or locked-jaw, from wounds, is also another example of reflex nervous irritation. A horse pricks his foot with a nail, and tetanus is sometimes the result. The spinal marrow, which is a continuation of the substance of the brain, exhibits clearly the same nervous mechanism. Division or injury of the marrow produces loss of sensation and voluntary motion in those parts only which derive their nerves from it beyond (or below) the part injured or divided. A perusal of the works of Sir Charles Bell, and of Dr. Marshall Hall, " On the Excito-Motory Nerves," will give a large insight into these interesting points of vital economy. Notwithstanding the brain is the source of all sensation,
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jury seems but temporary in its effects.
Bloodvessels are liable to give way in any part
brain ; those, numerous and large, about the basetiguous to the seat of the blow, are most likely to bruptured. The symptoms will of course vary in nature and intensity with the kind and degree of the |
0ftbe
con- ie their mis- ill t>e
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chief done ; the faculties of motion and sensation wi
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more or less impaired, should not death itself immedia
result; the senses also, one or more, will probably be l°s disturbed. By the parts affected, and by the exte» |
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INFLAMMATION OF THE BEAIN.
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273
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hich they are affected, must we form our opinion of the
nature of the case, as well as our prognosis. Commonly,
he animal is found down, unable eitktr to rise or stand
^ithout assistance. Should he still retain feeling, and be
n Possession of his senses, and there be means nigh or
hand of treating him, remedies may be tried upon him ;
ut when he has to be removed upon some drag or carriage
any distance, he will in general do himself so much
lschief by struggling before he has arrived at his place
^estination, that his case will probably be rendered yet
0re hopeless than it was in the first instance. Fresh
*Riorrage will be likely to ensue, and may prove fatal, even
enj before the struggling, hopes of recovery had been
^ertained: On this account, it is of importance, when
^ case holds out prospects for treatment. to house the
1Qial somewhere close to the place where the accident has
k°Urred. In general, bloodletting will be proper ; though
, e symptoms from loss of blood or nervous depression may
such as not only positively to forbid this evacuation, but
en to demand the exhibition of stimulants.
'inegar, muriate of ammonia, and spirit of wine, with
riïl water, should be applied to the head. A mild purga-
e' ^ the animal can stand, may be administered. Where
avsis is marked, death usually soon supervenes.
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Mad Staggers, Phrenitis. — This fatal termination is
ushered in by the animal waking out of his sleepy state, and staring about him with a fearful wildness and vacancy, his breathing becoming quicker and laborious, and the pulse rising with the respiration. Suddenly, he makes a frightful throe, dashing himself against rack, manger, or wall, or throwing himself down, and then lying breath- ing stertorously, his eyes looking as if starting out of their orbits; no light at the time affecting the dilated pupils, and the animal totally heedless of anything that may be done or said to him. On other occasions the frantic animal will rear both his fore legs into the manger, and in this posture stand, with his head erected, for several minutes, no per- son daring to approach, lest he should unexpectedly spring up, or reel and fall upon the intruder. In a word, our patiënt is now " mad ;" furiously so, in the worst sense of the word as applied to staggers; and how, or where, or upon whom he may in his delirious plunges precipitate his body, is so uncertain, that any approach without extreme caution, or in a way in which ready escape is at hand, is fraught with imminent peril. As the disease increases, instead of lying quiet as before, in a state of ap- parent insensibility after a throe, convulsions will follow so quickly upon one another that the patiënt will be kept in a continual struggle; panting and perspiring, and perhaps foaming at the mouth ; leading his attendants to believe he is not only phrenitic but actually rabid. This is a circum- stance engendering so much apprehension and alarm, that not only is a prompt and decisive opinion demanded of the veterinarian, but, at the same time, such a line of conduct on his part as will at once convince his employers that he is right in his decision. Mad Staggers must not be confounded vïth rabies—there
being no dog, or mad dog at least, visibly connected with the case, is prima, facie evidence. Further, the symptoms of the two cases are different: there being, according to Mr- Blaine, in rabid phrenitis, "not merely a frantic, but a decidedly mischievous disposition:" the animal purposely attacking everything, living and dead, all around him: rack, and manger, and stall—are all laid prostrate. In the true Staggers,. nothing of this kind appears; the
horse is wild and beats himself about, and endangers every- thing about him, but not with premeditated design. On the contrary, he merely labours under spasmodic contrac- tions of the muscles, which force him to these violent efforts: he rears, plunges, falls, and injures himself in the frenzy of pain." Veterinary authorities recommend the opening of both temporal arteries in mad staggers. Recovery is, however, scarcely to be hoped for, as a return of the dis- order is to be feared, or an entire loss of energy, without which the animal is almost valueless. Mr. Percivall's experience furnished him with several
cases of recovery from phrenitis. He says, after speaking of bleeding from the temples, " I have had several cases which were despaired of, until, as a last resource, wbile the |
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PHRENITIS ^INFLAMMATION OF THE BKAIN), STAGGERS.
üe farriers divide inflammation of the brain into three
°rders, called, in their peculiar phraseology, sleepy stag- viad staggers, and stomach staggers. |
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di:
9er |
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81
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eeW staggers (or coma) is usually no more than the first
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§e of mad staggers. The horse is drowsy and dull, and
s into a lethargie state. His appetite is rather inter-
. Pted than lost. The horse is found with his head hang-
& between his forelegs, or resting in the manger and
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ed against the wall of the stable ; or, if at grass, against
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tre
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sh
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e °r wall. The eyelids droop, and when forced open f
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th pupil unnaturally dilated ; the lining membrane of
öostrils is of a üull leaden colour (we have found them,
en as the conjunctiva, just the reverse, increased in red-
ab ^ostiveness is present; and the stupor extending to the
th j1-06 °^ a^ nervous irritabiiity. It is only in this stage of
ls°rder that remedial measures prove efficacious.
0 athent.—Copious blood-letting is urgently indicated. aw ^ Ju§ulars an^ le* the blood flow till the eye ey 6ns or tne animal sinks. Give purgatives (see List)
sed • e h°urs till the bowels are fully relieved : and 0f ■,. l.Ve lnfusions. Half a drachm of aconite, or a drachm and • W*tn a P*nt °^ ^ot water Poure<l uPon it- Cool,
8tü Ve tnis quantity every half hour till weakness, not
' suPervenes. He will then (if down) breathe more |
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tljjn °Pen his eyes and look at and perhaps recognize
con~ °r °kjects, Yy'hen this treatment fails, and the mere >n^». ■, SUes» then inflammation comes on, and we have the
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stage, o
M m |
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8econ(i
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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274
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Decoction of aloes
Calomel ....
"Warm the decoction, and stir in the calomel.
Or of Purging mass
Calomel ....
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animals were desperately struggling and throwing them-
selves about, I have contrived to plunge the lancet into their temples, and allowed them to bleed ad libitum, re- gardless of the quantity lost, paying attention, in fact, only to effects. In several instances, to the surprise of all around, the frantic patiënt, from kicking about in a pool of blood, jumped suddenly and unexpectedly upon his legs, and, after shaking himself once or twice, appeared, as it were, by magie, almost all at once restored to his senses. Mr. Rïck- wood, veterinary surgeon at Bedford, has likewise related a case in ' The Veterinarian' for 1839, which tells eminently in favour of preferring blood-letting from the temples. Mr. R. was sent for to attend a mare, who had just come in with the Leeds coach, and was seized with staggers. She was wandering about, with dilated pupils and laborious respiration, and symptoms of palsy of the hind extremities. She was bied to twelve pounds from the jugular vein, and had administered an aloetic drink and frequent clysters. The symptoms increasing, both temporal arteries were opened, from which she was bleeding rapidly when Mr. R. was compelled to leave her. The bleeding continued until she became so exhausted as to begin to make a noise in breathing ' as a roarer would make in his gallop.' At length she feil; after which the symp- toms began to subside, and in a few days she was sent home." A black mare, who was attacked with phrenitis after
concussion of the brain, had been bied copiously twice or thrice from the jugulars, without any very apparent benefit. When Mr. Percivall visited her she was lying upon her side, flinging herself about in a state of frenzy, surrounded by spectators, who were betting any odds she could never rise again. He promptly plunged his lancet obliquely into one of her temporal arteries, from which instantly issued such a stream of blood—spouting up like a jet d"eau—that it seemed quite unnecessary to endeavour to turn her to puncture the other temple. She lay, rapidly and profusely bleeding, for some minutes, when, to the astonishment of all beholders and despairers, she suddenly sprang upon her feet, gave herself a rustling shake or two, and immediately commenced eating some hay which happened to be in her manger. In fine, from that hour she was a recovered mare. Purgation for this disease has ever stood in such high
repute with farriers, that a common saying among them is—" purge a horse with staggers, and you cure him ;" and this, like many other veterinary adages, appears to have been founded in sound observation. In fact, it is a practice pursued by every surgeon in brain affections, with the two- fold view of removing any source of irritation or cause for the head-affection that may exist within the bowels, and of indirectly abstracting blood by derivation and discharge. No surer or more effectual cathartic is known than aloes, which is aided by the addition of calomel. It may be administered in ball or drench, as most practicable. |
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1 pint.
£ drachm. |
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j ounce.
\ drachm. |
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Mix into a hall. A drachm of the farina of croton seeds may be used
instead. Mr. Percivall concludes: " It would be futile to give
further directions, where so much must depend on the circumstances of each individual case, and so much rest on the nerve and discretion of the practitioner." Tbe French veterinary writers recognise a disease to whicb they attach the name of arachnoiditis, or inflammation of the arachnoid membrane. It is merely staggers in its inflammatory stage. Abscess in the Brain may be looked upon as beyond tbe
reach of veterinary skill. Abscess in its general sense ^u* be noticed under a separate head, and in the parts in whic11 it occurs. Abscess in the brain is the result of externe injury. It is usually the result of fracture of some of tbe skull bones. A small wound is sometimes seen after a runaway horse has dashed a vehicle to pieces. It heals, ao*1 there is no discharge. The mischief is within. Abscess is forming In the picturesque description of Mayb.ew-' " The horse becomes dull, as in sleepy staggers. It refuses its food, lies down, and after a time beats its head upon tbe pavement. Death ends its misery, and a small abscess» containing about half a drachm of healthy pus, is dis" covered in the superficial substance of the brain." Neitbe operation nor physic avail here. The only means of relie would be to afford an exit to the matter, but this is " P*8 all surgery " of a remedial character. VEKTIGO (MEGRIMS).
As apoplexy, in the sense of human practice, can scarce ;
be said to be a horse disease, though scientific veterinariaIJ have recognised a distinction between it and sleepy staggerS' which seems sufficiently marked, we shall consider vertig or megrims as its equivalent; and megrims as o1111 apoplexy, or rather epilepsy, in horse nosology. Megri* ' is known also to stablemen by the names of " sturdy " a° " turnsick." It frequently attacks horses during their work, partlC .
larly in harness: it is, however, now and then seen in |
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weather, in the stable or at grass. When it seizes a n
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lat*
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in exercise, he stops short, shakes his head, looks irreso
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and wandering; in this state he remains for a few nnnU
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teSi
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fall*
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and then proceeds as before. In more violent cases
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be i* \
at once to the ground; or first runs round, and then sl
senseless; or the limbs may continue to move after sciousness is lost, when the animal thus affected bec° very dangerous. In either case, the whole system aPP j agitated by strong convulsions. The horse may dung |
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PAEALYSIS.—TETANUS.—LOCKED JAW.
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275
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a*e insensibly; he sometimes is violent, at others more
Passive, hut is equally unconscious to everything around.
'ter remaining so a longer or shorter period, his faculties
eturn, and he rises. It is frequently hrought on by
echanical causes, which produce a momentary congestion
the brain ; as tight reining up, or the pressure of the
°üar in ascending a hill, which obstructs the return of
0o,i from the head. It may also be occasioned by a
orbid pressure produced by constitutional causes. Such
re found in the plethoric, over-fed horse; particularly
^en subjected to long confinement.
■"•he Treatment must be regulated by the cause. If it be
^chanicah remove it, or the affection may become habitual.
plethora be apparent, purge; or give a course of mer-
5la,l alteratives, foliowed by relaxing medicines. It is
lc* that covering the skull with a wet cloth will prevent
egriniS) where the horse is subject to their recurrence. Of
Urse a horse liable to megrims is most dangerous to drive
ri(le; the frontispiece of Mr. Mayhew's " Ulustrated Horse
octor " is an alarming example of the results of this dis-
order. ■Hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, is so rare a
Sease in the adult horse, that, though recognised by the eQch writers, it is not worth wasting space upon. Should exist congenitally, serous effusion in the ventricles of the ain may bring on mad staggers or megrims, or produce raysis. It is useless to try to make a horse so afflicted 8erviceable to his master. PAEALYSIS.
^alsy 0f the whole muscular frame is very unusual in the
Se> except from actual pressure or irritation of the sen- ium Dy biows on the skull, by portions of bone forced in, , 1y abscess in the brain : sometimes it is constitutionally ught on by unknown agencies. Paralysis of one side is e ery rare occurrence. Paralysis of half the body, most 'luently of the hinder parts, is sufficiently common, and |
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the skin, partial sweats present themselves, and the animal
remains utterly helpless, although he may fatigue himself with fruitless efforts to rise. These are, however, extreme cases. The treatment of paralysis must, in a great degree, follow
the causa If mechanical injury have occasioned fracture in any part of the spinal column, the case is hopeless. If the injury be less severe, it is possible that extravasated blood only, or serous deposit, or coagulable lymph, are effused into the spinal canal, and disturb the functions of the part; in which case, topical applications are requisite, to encourage an absorption of the obstructing deposit. When the paralysis can be traced to some visceral affection, or to disease of the stomach, kidneys, or bladder, the result is not necessarily unfavourable, although our hopes of a recovery are lessened. We should, in these cases, primarily attend to the exciting cause, if it can be discovered. But when there is loss of sensation without loss of motion, the limbs being cold and the horse insensible that he is in possession of such parts, and moving them only when absolutely forced—or otherwise, when they are entirely paralytic, and yet sensitive, it is probable that the nervous irritation originates within the spinal canal. Here, though we may with propriety use external stimulants, there will be but small prospect of success. Of internal remedies, strychnia has been found sometimes useful, in one grain, gradually increased to three grain doses ; and it may be united with other tonics, as gen- tian, or aromatics. This, with purgatives as required, blisters, sheepskins, or a charge over the loins, has occasionally effected a cure, when the paralysis has been confined to the hinder limbs only. TETANUS.----LOCKED JAW.
The spasmodic rigidity, hardness, and apparent tension of
the muscles in this formidable disorder, are indicated in its Greek name teta/tws, stretching, from teino, to stretch. When the spasm exclusively affects the muscles of the jaw it is called trismus, from trismos, gnashing [of the teeth]. Tetanus differs from other spasms in its permanency, its rigid contraction being rarely alternated with periods of relaxation. Lockedjaw, so called from the persistent closure of the mouth, is the result of a morbid irritation of the whole nervous system, acting on the brain, and thence by the excitor nerves reflected on the motory nerves.* As this irritation is capable of pursuing "a retrograde course along the spinal marrow," a wound in the hind-foot or hoek is almost as likely to induce a lockedjaw as one in the fore- foot. Tetanus is divided into symptomatic and idiopathic. The
first, also called traumatic (from the Greek trauma, a wound), |
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Th
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er primitive or secondary.
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e causes are often involved in much obscurity; in some
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of 'v- y are sufficiently obvious. Mechanical injuries are
ls kind, as casting in the stable, turning round in a ned stall, blows on the spine, sudden falls or slips may, a , them, luxate, or more likely fracture, the vertebrae, ba '1 ^. occasi°ning pressure upon the spinal cord, produce 0 ^Sls- Ulcerations of the bones, or exostoses, abscesses, j^ "lours within them, may be the cause of the affection. ,j J "e altogether secondary, as being derived from acci- [^ lesions of other organs, or from inflammations in them: bow ï a. ^oes occur from a diseased state of the stomach, ney ^' ilver, and more particularly from those of the kid- l0s ' a°-üer, and womb. The symptoms are total or partial part fei ^he mobility or the sensibility, or both, of some The • ^°^y» usually of the hinder quarters and limbs. the u . retlons are sometimes lessened or almost stopped, or
e üows involuntarily; convulsive twitchings affect |
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* The reader will do well, if hf desires to pursue this subject, to
peruse Dr. Marshall Hall's works on the Diseases and Derangementtof the Nervous System. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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276
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tress of continued convulsion. The circulation is, in moet
instances, at first not much affected ; but as the disease increases, the pulse quickens and becomes tremulous ano irregular. The respiration, also, gradually becomes hurrieo and intermittent; costiveness is usually present, and tbe urine is sparingly voided. In this state of suffering tbe animal may remain from six to ten days, when, worn DV inanition and irritation, he dies in convulsions. At otters, either from remedies or spontaneously, the contractions give way slightly; feeble attempts are made to eat, the limDS become gradually under the action of the voluntary muscles> and a slow recovery takes place. Post-mortem examinati°n shows no change from the healthy state, except some inflaï*1' matory appearances in the lungs or intestines, one or both- Treatment.—There are many cases narrated in veterinary
books in which some modes of treatment of very opposi" kinds, have been practised with success. Some bleed largety» that they may gain the full advantage of this sedative influence. This depletion is foliowed by strong purgativeg< and then the disorder is attacked locally by a blister, frob1 the poll down to the rump, the sides, and, in some cases, a» over the belly. By this system of counter-irritation, tbey teil us they have overcome the original affection of tbe spinal cord. Setons, too, have been inserted along t"e whole course of the spine ; but they have not proved effica' cious. Sheepskins, applied warm, from the poll to the tail» have been found to give more relief, and are certainly m°re humane. Docking and nicking being barbarities fortunatety out of date, we may forget the treatment given in the older veterinary books, so often called for by tetanic attacks fr0111 those cruel operations. For ourselves, we do not advocate the severe treatment as necessary. The pulse is not usualv accelerated in tetanus; bleeding, therefore, is not in ever/ case indicated. The bowels are not invariably constipated» and purgatives are not required. The benefit of viole0 counter-irritation is not demonstrated; its employme»1-' therefore, is not justified. The best practitioners doub* the efficacy of the active tortures of the old school, a»*1 think that perfect quiet is of more use than violent m^1' cine. If the horse be costive, administer a purgative, a»d a bold one ; because an ordinary purge will have no effeC during the existence of tetanus. Sedatives are now indicate"' Two drachms of opium, with one drachm of camphor, as * first dose ; and one drachm of opium and half a dracbfl1 camphor (with the same drugs as a clyster), have bee£! found serviceable. The subjoined will be found a power*u compound:— |
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is produced by extcrnal injury : the second developes itself
from various obscure or conjectural causes acting on the spinal cord and brain. Cold, caused by evaporation ; stand- ing still after a severe burst in the hunting-field; the dripping of water from an unsound roof, or the eaves of a hayrick or shed when the animal kas been at grass, have been known to produce it. Worms, severe visceral affections, and even bots (when producing solution of continuity in the lining membrane of the stomacli), are assigned as causes of the tetanic spasm. In traumatic tetanus, upon pushing our inquiries, we may
gain clearer information. There has, perhaps, been some slight injury ; a nail has been driven too close ; or a piece of glass has cut the foot; or a blow has been lodged just above the eye; or the knees have been recently broken ; or the stable fork has been used to strike the horse about the legs, and the point of it has only gone a little way into the back sinews. Sometimes an operation has been recently performed ; let not the proprietor blame the surgeon, if such should have been the case. Any puncture, however small, may produce tetanus ; but it may not follow the most severe and the largest wounds. No means we know of can originate it, no care or skill can prevent its appearance. We may learn, however, that the tail has been docked or nicked; the wound has very nearly healed, and it may look as well as could be desired; or it may all at once have assumed an unhealthy appearance; a thin ichorous fluid may be discharged from it, and there may be a spongy appearance around it. Most commonly the wound nearly heals, when this alarming affection bursts forth. .Castration, when performed under unfavourable circumstances, has sometimes produced tetanus. The fibril of some nerve has been injured; irritation ensues
it rapidly spreads along the various branches of that nerve, and, through the spinal marrow, affects the whole body. Symptoms.—One of the first observable is a certain stifF-
ness about the head, and a peculiar mode of standing. Upon raising the head, the haws of both eyes are pushed out, giving to the countenance of the animal a strange expression ; but sooner or later it extends all over the body By the tetanic action, the haw is drawn partly over the globe, at the same time that the tension of other muscles gives the eyes a vivid appearance which ill accords with the more placid effect of a protruded haw. The jaws are not invariably fixed, though from their being generally closed springs the popular name of the disorder. As the disease extends over the voluntary muscles of the trunk and extremities the appearances are distressing in the extreme. The head is raised, the ears pointed forwards, the nostrils dilated, and the nose is protruded ; the legs straddle wide ; the tail is c-ocked, and quivers; and the abdominal muscles are drawn tight over the belly, giving to the horse an appearance of having just completed some extraordinary exertion. The complaint presents a few moments of imper- fect relaxation, sometimes,.from the extreme contractions of jvor-strained muscles; while profuse sweats mark the dis- |
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Powdered opium -
Sulphuric ether Camphor Tincture of aconite
Spirit of Turpentine Strong ale |
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\ ounce.
1 ounce.
2 drachms.
1 ounce.
2 ounces.
1 pint. |
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Mix the turpentine with the yolks of two eggs, then the otJl i
ingredients, and give in two doses, at the interval of two hours; •" repeat if the symptoms do not mitigate. |
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RABIES.-STRING-H ALT.
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277
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Ihen place the animal where it cannot be disturbed, and
aKe care to visit it as seldom as possible. The door being ocked, the horse left alone, and every precaution taken 0 Prevent the slightest noise. The absolute quietude thus °tained, has been found to be of more service than anything lse; and the horse which has thus been shut up in silence as more frequently recovered than the one which has been °atinually annoyed under the pretence of assisting its restoration As for food—the horse is not able to take any solid
°arishment", hut he may have a mash more than usually
et in his manger, and a bucket of gruel may be slung in
otne part of the box ; from either or both of which he may,
Perhaps, contrive to extract a little nourishment. The
Ppetite of the tetanic horse rarely fails him; though he
av be unable to eat, he will, under the influence of hun-
*erj manage to imbibe enough for his support. Even if he
akes no attempt to touch that which is placed before him,
^e should be left some days before any effort is made to
rench him ; and if he takes only a little nourishment, a
rther period should elapse before he is annoyed by forcing
°d upon him. Should he, however, appear to be losing
streng^
and to be sinking, he must then at every hazard
e suPported. Should it be possible to insert a small horn
the neck of a small bottle between his tushes and his
« delers, almost any quantity of gruel may be given him ;
o, when he is in a manner starved, it is interesting to see
^ eagerly the poor animal will take the nourishment
!ch is attempted to be given to him in this way. The
eadful cramp of the muscles of his neck should not, how-
Ver. he forgotten ; and the gruel should be given to him as
? ntly as possible, and without elevating his head more than
absolutely necessary. Frequent injections of arrow-root
grael may also be thrown up. The ordinary horse
heter, with Read's pump attached to it, will enable any
°unt of gruel to be thrown into the stomach ; not only
4 ickly, but without the necessity of elevating the head.
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pens that the horse does not begin to amend until ten or
twelve days have elapsed ; and in one case a month passed without more than an occasional remission of the symptoms. The treatment was, nevertheless, persevered in, and the animal perfectly recovered. When the horse does begin to get better, not a partiele of
medicine should be administered. By giving tonic medi- cines much dangerous excitation may be produced. The best tonic is nourishing food, and even that should be supplied with caution. Green meat will in these cases be useful. If the weather, however, will admit of it, a run for t\> o or three hours every day will be of essential benefit. EABIES, OR HYDROPHOBIA.
The ymptoms of rabies in the horse are the only import-
ant points in the present state of veterinary knowledge. Curative means are unknown. It is never spontaneously developed in the horse, but induced by the bite of a rabid dog. Mr. /ouatt says, " The earliest and most decisive symptom of the near approach of rabies in the horse, is a peculiar spasmodic movement of the upper lips, and particu- larly of the angles of those lips." Close following this is a depressed and anxious countenance, and an inquiring gaze, suddenly lighting up, and hecoming fierce and menacing at a slight noise, or the approach of a stranger. Then comes an irrepressible desire to attack and bite at any person or animal within reach of the teeth. Then comes an almost systematic demolition of rack, manger, and stable fittings; and the poor wretch lies snorting and foaming amidst the ruins, paralysis of the hinder extremities incapacitating him from further mischief by kicking and plunging. The disease proves fatal in from three to six days. When the bite of the rabid dog is early known of, and can be found, of course thorough cutting out, and the actual cautery, will save the animal. Mr. Spooner relates several cases of this. When, however, rabies has developed itself, treatment is useless, and humanity dictates that the animal should be destroyed without delay. STRINGHALT.
This spasmodic contraction of some one or more oi the
flexors of the hinder leg, is, like most nervous disorders, of obscure origin. It is seldom seen in the fore-leg, though an instance is now under our own observation. It is not a lameness, as the other leg does not sink, and the rider can- not feel it as he does the " dropping " in hoek disease. The animal is useless as a racer, as he cannot control the volun- tary nerves for a start, till he has gone through his prelimi- nary jerks and whippings-up of his leg. It is not usually de- veloped except in the adult horse. Professor Spooner attributes it to a pressure or defect of the great sciatic nerve which supplies the muscles of the hinder extremities. It is correspondent to chorea, or St. Vitus's dance, in man. There is no treatment available. Stringhalt has been decided not to be unsoundness: and we often see instances where this |
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e catheter is simply passed up the nose, along the floor of
, nasal chamber, and, being pushed onward, it will enter lhe gallet öaid |
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may be injected. This plan answers admirably ; sub-
s the horse to little annoyance, and causes but small
" AfUr There is a good engraving of this method in
ayhew's Illustrated Horse Doctor," already referred to.
th 6 anima^s> however, are so irritable that any interference
ti TS ^lern into convulsions ; and, in such cases, perhaps
, . |nJection of nutritive liquids into the rectum is all
T tne symptoms will permit to be done
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a disease of this nature, the humanity and patience of
attendant must be exerted. These virtues will aid him |
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th
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»i the end than all his science, however learned he
kn 6 disease may terminate quickly. We have s °^n a h°rse to die of it in less than thirty hours. So
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^•., \ a close, however, is rather un
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The animal
It occasionally hap- |
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ldiopathic tetanus often lin
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igers.
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THE PBACTICE OF VETERINAHY MEDICINE.
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278
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supervene temporarily while the mare has been with faalt
which would seem to point clearly to a nervous origin. In gutta serena, local applications are of little service-
Bleeding from the jugular veins, calomel and opium, or i° some cases strychnia, may be tried. SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA.
This is common or accidental inflammation, and uaS
generally its origin in a mechanical cause ; as blows, injury of the conjunctiva from a whip-lash, hayseeds, or other matters within the eye-lids, not being removed by the nictitating membrane, and the like. It is occasionally tne consequence of a common attack of cold. Simple inflammation of the eye looks outwardly a°
affection of the conjunctiva only, whereas specific opb" thalmia involves the internal parts of the eyeball. Another distinction is, that in specific ophthalmia there is symp' tomatic fever, loss of appetite, staring skin, and coD' stitutional disturbance. Both disorders, however, are ali&e in impatience of light, in distension of the vessels of the haw, and sometimes in its extreme protrusion. Tfle cornea, too, is often opaque. From that sympathy which is found to exist between doublé organs, even when tbe affection has been entirely brought on by violence done t0 one eye, the other will by sympathy become affected als"» but in a minor degree. Such liability should be borne iD mind, as a mistake in this particular might lead the prac titioner into important error. Treatment.—First turn up the eyelid carefully, if tbe
cause is not apparent, and remove anything which hw have intruded itself. Wash the eye with tincture of opiulT1 and a pint of cold water, laying a wetted cloth also over tb eye. If the inflammation is considerable, lance the ej'e' branch of the angular vein, and give the horse some food ° which he is fond upon the ground ; this will encourage tb bleeding. If blood does not come freely, bleed also from tke neck, and give a dose of physic. If the case is obstinate» and a film appears upon the cornea, take two grains ° lunar caustic (nitrate of silver), mix in two ounces of water> and touch the eye over with a camel-hair brush. The oe* article will contain the treatment of the disorder in l constitutional form. SPECIFIC OR PERIODICAL OPHTHALMIA.
This destructive disease of the eyes, by which a valua"
animal is often reduced in price from a hundred guineas a tenth of the amount, is, as already remarked, distinguis*1 from the simple disorder by the constitutional disturba»c which accoir>panies it, and its attacking the inter11 structure of the eye, the outer covering being mere , involved by sympathy. Among farriers this disease uS to be termed moon-blindness, from a superstition that t periodical attacks were influenced in their monthly ret by the moon. The period of a monthly recurrence is> "° ever, merely imaginary. |
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singular spasm is merely momentary at going off, disappears,
and the horse has a more than ordinary amount of strength and courage. SPASMS.
What we have said generally upon tetanus, staggers, &c,
renders further remarks upon spasms here superfluous. Under Diaphragk, Urethra, Bladder, Intestines, the spasms of those several organs will be treated of. |
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§ II. DISEASES OF THE EYE.
GUITA SERENA (GLASS Eïe).—SIMPLE OPHTHALMIA.—SPECI-
FIC OPHTHALMIA (MOON BLINDNESS),—CATARACT.—PÜNGOID GROWTHS.—OBSTRUCTED LACHRYMAL DUCT. The eye of the horse is exceedingly liable to disease. lts
structure will be found described ante pp., 196—199; and figured in health and disease, Anatomv, Plate VIL The " haw " (membrana nictitans), at the inner corner of
the eye, is, in health, a thin slippery membrane, thicker or more cartilaginous towards its base, where it is embedded in fat; its action is to remove dust, insects, &c, which may have fallen on the cornea. It is no unusual thing for a thickening of this part to take place, and it will then protrude itself on the fore part of the eyeball. In this disease the retractor muscle pulls back the eye to protect it from the irritating effect of the light, and this thickening of the haw pushing it forward, and the adjacent parts being also thickened, no retraction can take place. The olden practice of cutting out this, is absurd, and ought
never to be resorted to. Ignorant farriers have, in this state, taken the enlarged haw for an extraneous excrescence, and cut it out; the eye, consequently, being left unguarded. Bleeding, gentle physic, and cooling applications, will effect a cure. GUTTA SERENA (AMAUROSIS).
This disorder, called by farriers glass eye, from the pecu-
liar greenish glassy appearance it assumes, is dependent on a paralysis of the optie nerve in its expansion on the retina. This, however, is disputed by some, who consider it to arise from inflammation, by which coagulable lymph is effused over the optie nerve, rendering the retina insensible to the stimulus of light. Both may be right in different cases. It is certain, however, that irritation of the brain produces amaurosis, and it often follows staggers. In this disorder the horse shows blindness in his actions rather than in his eyes. He lifts his feet high, moves his ears quickly, and shows himself anxious to supply want of sight by the exercise of other senses. A simple test is waving the hand pretty close to the suspected eye, when of course there will be no winking: we have, however, seen a cunning horse- dealer who could make a blind horse wink by the peculiar manner in which he drove the air upon the eyeball and lid whüe bringing down his hand. We have also seen amaurosis |
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279
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DISEASES OF THE EYE.—OPHTHALMIA
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oïmptoms.—These generally appear suddenly; in the
vening, perhaps, there may have been nothing amiss, but
11 the following morning sometimes both eyes, but usually
one eye only, is found nearly closed and suffused with
ears; there is great impatience of light. Indeed it is
soniewhat difficult to induce the animal to open the lids
^öiciently for examination, and when he does so, the pupil
s lound exceedingly small, so as to keep out the light as
^uch as possible. The cornea is not so opaque as when the
jnflammation is brought on by an external injury ; but on
°oking into the interior of the eye we observe that it has
0st its brightness. The attendants of the horse usually
ePort that some hay seeds must have got into the eye, or
a* he must have injured it in some way: but a proper
Xamination will detect the difference, and this will be
§reatly assisted if we can ascertain that the horse has had a
Previous attack.
J-he eye is remarkably retracted, and this retraction
orces the haw over a portion of its globe, where it is seen
Relied and preternaturally red, from its participation in
"e disease. The inner lining membrane of the lids will be
0litid highïy vascular and hot, pouring forth, in most
**stances, a flood of tears, which continually trickle down
ne face; and the whole conjunctiva will present a network
turgid red vessels over its opaque white surface. If the
°rnea be not too opaque or too much inflamed, we shall
iscover the aqueous humour thick and muddy also ; the
18 and choroid will likewise be found altered from their
atural colour. From this state it follows sometimes, that
CeiUral yellow patch is discovered at the bottom of the
"e > \a which case matter has formed, from the usual
SuPpurative inflammation, but it most commonly becomes
sorbed again, and sometimes very speedily. In very
cute cases, however, there is a large deposit of fluid, which
1Sorganizes the eye. The rapidity of the changes in the
, e of the eye is a very marked feature of specific oph-
lnnia ; and the transition from an almost opaque to almost
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remain very long sound ; but often are again subject to the
diseased action, and the complaint recurs with all its pristine violence. As these attacks are repeated, they leave the eye less and less transparent. The remaining opacity forms a nucleus for future and rapid accretion: sometimes, however, it will remain stationary for a long time, and now and then it never enlarges. But, usually, repeated inflammatory attacks succeed each other ; and the whole crystalline lens at last becomes opaque, when the disease takes the name of cataract, in which almost all these inflammations terminate. Caüses.—Plethora acting upon a weakness of the parts,
often hereditary, seems a cause of periodic ophthalmia, to which the horse is more liable than any other domestic animal. The fumes of ammonia in close, dark stables, stimulating food, or severe work and bad food, may equally induce the disorder, which seldom appears before the fourth year, or, for the first time, after the seventh. Har- ness horses are more often attacked than saddle horses; and it has been observed to be more frequent when many horses are kept together than in gentlemen's studs, which may be due chiefly to bettev ventilation. Tebatment.—Though the immediate attack may be re-
moved without great difficulty, its recurrence is not easily guarded against; resembling, in this, scrofula in the human subject. General bleeding, warm fomentations (one dozen poppyheads in two quarts of water) at first, and then the cold lotion. (See Lotions, Zinc, &c, in List.) Stimulants, as tincture of opium, or the nitrate of silver wash, may also be applied with advantage. The food should all be boiled, and of the most supporting
kind—roots of all kinds, malt, oats, ground beans, clover hay, linseed, &c, &c. This will probably sufficiently open the bowels; but should it not, avoid giving more ihan one drachm of aloes night and morning ; and even continue this quantity no further than is imperative to v^nder the bowels soft, yet by no means to induce watery stools. "With regard to physic, anything administered must be of
a soothing and supporting description ; therefore give, night and morning, during the violence of the attack, the follow- ing drink :— |
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the
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ear state of the cornea, and from a simple dimness in
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appearance to a perfect opacity, sometimes occurs in
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Remarkably short space of time. We have seen an eye
" que within and without, which was merely dim the
* t before ; and perhaps within twelve hours it would
S in have almost become transparent, without any apparent
^al agency.
Pecific ophthalmia commonly attacks only one eye in
onl e' leaving the other totally unaffected, or at most J sympathetically involved. Worthy of remark is the
di * te and sudden change which often takes place in this se. From Dejng jn a verT aggravated state of inflam- oth °n 1D °ne e^e' ** w^ suddenly shift its seat to the and •' ,v*n§ tne original much amended or nearly well; rna vi Dot on^ tnus cnanSe aD0Ut from eye to eye, but orn- Wlse either spring from, or be transferred to, other Th
eye or eyes, however, thus far recovered, seldom
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Sulphuric ether
Laudanum Powdered colchicum Stout |
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1 ounce.
1 ounce. \ ounce. 1 quart. |
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Should the inflammation run very high, the superior
branch of the angular or facial vein, called the eye-vein, may be opened as before directed. On recovery, remove the horse to a high, clean, cool,
stable, where there are no irritant exhalations from excre- ment. Listen to no quacks who pretend to infallible remedies for the remaining defects visible in the eye, should any remain. You may now and then strengthen the eye by a little cold lotion of crude sal ammoniac and red rosé leaves, or laudanum and rose-water, if you must |
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280
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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an animal of which such services are demanded, that a
speedy death is the more humane and advisable alternative. In lacerations of the eyelid, from a blow against a nan>
hook, or other projection, obtain union of the parts by a suture of thread, and it will generally heal from the first intention. Remember, in cases of laceration, simple cold water is better than Goulard's or evaporative lotions. In cases where the injury reaches the eye-ball itself, and
there is active inflammation, the activity of treatment must correspond. Bleed from the head ; give a strong purgative and cooling drench, apply anodyne fomentation (boiled poppy heads) to the eye with soft doths or sponge. \> heI1 the physic has operated, separate the eyelids and examina the extent of the injury. If the iris should protrude, touch it with lunar caustic or butter of antimony, to destroy the projecting portion, which causes agonizing pain, and to deaden the morbid sensibility of the parts. Apply the caustic till the protrusion is got level with the cornea, and use an astringent wash or unguent—(E) (F) (G), AsTR*11" gents, p. 370—to repress the discharge of pus and cleanse the sore. White vitriol, one ounce, twenty drops of laud- anum, and water at discretion, is a good eye-wash in sucn a case. OBSTRÜCTION OF THE LACHRTMAL DUCT.
This disease, called " watery eye " by the farriers, is occa-
sioned by the stoppage of the small canal leading from the eye to the nostril, at the inner corner of the upper and lowef eyelids, and ending in the dark skin of the nostril on the i11' ner side. This minute sinus obstructed, the tears flow ou* upon the face of the animal, excoriate the flesh, and ma*0 bald places and sores. A bougie, or, better, a thin elastlC probe of catgut a foot long, may be passed through the channel, an assistant holding open the eyelids, a mechanica cure is effected. (See, for detailed cases and cure, Percivalf = " Hippopathology," Vol. III., pp. 154—157.) WARTS.
The eyelids are sometimes affected with warts, which are
very irritating to the animal, in consequence of his rubbin£ them on some prominent object: this causes them to blee"' and increases their number. They should be cut off with a pair of sharp scissors, an
the roots touched with nitrate of silver (lunar caustic), ° blue vitriol. |
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be doing something; but don't let farriers put their ruinous
messes into the sore and sensitive eye. CATARACT.
Cataract is often the result of specific ophthalmia. Cata-
ract is total, partial, or consists of specks on the capsule of the crystalline lens. In the first the lens is quite -white. In other cases that have stopped short in their career, spots
only of an uncertain size are visible on the lens or upon its capsule ; a white opaque spot on either is called a cataract. Cataracts, however, can and do exist in eyes that have never been subjected to ophthalmia; and as they make their appearance without any apparent cause, so they occasionally will depart without any treatment. Blows sometimes pro- duce them; and when caused in this manner, they are for the most part stationary. However, in cataract following ophthalmia, there is generally much derangement of the other internal parts of the eye ; particularly of the iris, which sometimes adheres to the lens, at others to the cornea; and in some cases its pupillary opening is so reduced by con- traction as to render the cataract hardly perceptible. This internal derangement greatly prevents any benefit being derived from the operation of couching; added to which, a horse so operated upon, to have perfect vision, would require j to wear spectacles. It has, however, been suggested that, even without glasses, so much benefit might be gained from it as to prevent accidents, like running against posts, falling into pits, &c. This, nevertheless, would be greatly over- balanced by the imperfect vision, which would render the horse so operated on very dangerous from his liability to shy. Treatment.—Cataracts of all sizes and shapes are best let
alone. Should they cause the horse to shy, blind the eye or eyes in which they may exist. The measures generally pursued, with very doubtful success indeed, are the blowing of mercurial preparations into the eye, the application of caustics, either in powerful solutions or in substance, to the organ ; and, in short, all kinds of cruelties, more likely to favour the formation than to cause the dispersion of cataract. FUNGOID GROWTHS OF THE EYE.
Small polypous excrescences occasionally form on the globe
of the eye ; fungus-like projections are also met with on the transparent cornea, sometimes from injuries, at others apparently of spontaneous growth. When these are evidently of a polypous, or merely fleshy nature, the knife and a styptic takes them off and stops the hsemorrhage. If fungoid and Meeding, wash with chloride of zinc in solution; and red pre- cipitate ointment, thinned with Florence oil, may be painted over it daily with a camel-hair pencil. Observe, if the growth is within the ball of the eye (when a bright yellow substance will be visible on its interior base), extirpation of the eye is the only remedy. It has been often performed, is not difficult, but so barbarous, and withal useless in |
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§ III. DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE TEET&
PALATE, TONGUE, NOSTRILS, AND PHARYN^- The " dentistry " of the horse will not occupy much spaC '
Teeth disorders are the results of domestication, artincl diet, irregularities in feeding, and injury from the iron D1' The teeth are often troublesome to the domesticated hors ■
Sharp edges on the outer side of the upper molars and t inside of the lower—one wounding the cheek, the other t |
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DISEASES AND IN.TURIES OF THE TEETH, &c.
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281
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gue, and causing the horse to swallow his food unmas-
ated, or producing "quidding" (ie., throwing out his food
°alls from the mouth)—are a serious though apparently
rivial defect. The tooth-rasp, which requires no descrip-
' n> is the remedy ; and the same when one of the grinders
ands higher than the others. Sharp ragged teeth have
eQ often overlooked, and the poor animal physicked and
ct°red for all sorts of internal complaints, even ulcera-
°ns in the mouth and lampas, when a scrutiny of the teeth
., rasp were all that was required for the restoration of
e services of a valuable animal.
^arious Teeth.—Mr. Cherry, Veterinary Surgeon to the
i . ®uar(ls, and Mr. Percivall, relate cases where this coir-
" aint has occasioned a discharge mistaken forglanders. The
Dlell of the discharge being horridly fetid. The key, and
^xtraction of the tooth, is the remedy. The " key " will be
lmd figured in our plate of Instruments.
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driving or riding, " jagging," or " sawing" the animal's
mouth. The treatment is obvious. A lotion of chloride of zinc, and water, one quart, applied with a soft cloth, and dress with a little alum, honey, and water. We chiefly mention this because vile and disgusting animal fats as ointments are often applied, to the horror and nausea of the cleanly and delicate animal INJURIES TO THE TONGUE.
In the clumsy administration of a ball, the under part of
the tongue is sometimes lacerated, which renders feeding painful, and makes the horse slaver and froth at the mouth. This may be cured by a solution of alum, thrown in with a syringe. The practice of tying a horse's tongue to prevent him from
running away, may not be frequent, but it is done, and the loss of the tongue may be the consequence. Mr. White, in his " Farriery," says :—" Three cases of this kind I have met with ; one I was told of by the person who did it, and who cut off the swollen part of the tongue to relieve the animal from his intolerable sufferings, the ligature being buried in the enormous swelling that had taken place. Two others I have heard of, in which the tongue was luerally drawn out by the roots. The most common manner in which the tongue is wounded is, by the horse hanging back when he is tied up with a coil of the halter in his mouth and over the tongue; or, as it is vulgarly termed, with a " chaw" in his mouth. On this, Mr. Spooner remarks in a note : "The editor has met with many cases in which the tongue has been divided in this manner, and a good portion of it cut off; but though the horses for some time were unable to take their accustomed food, yet the remaining portion of the tongue gradually accommodated itself to the mouth, becom- ing natter and flexible, and at length capable of gathering up the food apparently as well as before." When the tongue is partially divided, sutures must not be used. Metallic sutures wound the mouth or cheeks, silk or thread soon sloughs out. The tongue must be left alone after cleansing with a styptic lotion (zinc is best), and the horse fed solely on grueL Fistula of the parotid duet, and glandular abscesses, will
find their place under Abscess, Fistula, and Tumours, in Chapter IX. LAMPAS.
We have here an opprobrium of farriery, not but that the
older practitioners of human medicine have their barbarities and blunders on record. Lampas is a swelling of the roof or bars of the mouth or palate, near the front teeth. Blaine, forty years ago, raised his voice against the barbarous practice of burning the horse's mouth with a red-hot iron for this " imaginary disorder," as he properly called it; Percivall, years afterwards, says in despair, that " in the army you can hardly prevent the shoeing smith burning for lampas." Mr. Mayhew in his book (pp. 58—60) has given a drawing |
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PAEROT MOUTH.
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fa
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■°J this appellation horse-people understand what dog-
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°ciers call " overhung;" i.e., a mouth so formed—or rather
öialformed—that the upper jaw projects considerably
! ev°nd the lower ; so much that the inferior incisor teeth,
stead of meeting the upper, come in contact, -when the
01*th is shut, with the bars of the palate, white the teeth
the superior jaw have no opposing surface whatever,
ntess the lower lip can be so regarded. This deformity is
ot of very common occurrence. The horse has less power of
yithering up his hay and corn with his lips, and of the re-
Qtion of the food while being transferred to the grinders;
8 *s seen by the animal, while feeding, wasting part of his
°rn> and slobbering. In grazing, the parrot mouth is yet
ore disadvantageous, much difficulty being experienced in
Pping off the grass; this seems the chief objection to the
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*
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for
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chase of such a horse. There is, of course, no remedy
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such a malformation.
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INJURIEL TO THE MOUTH AND TEETH.
^olts while breaking are often hurt in the mouth by pres-
e of the bit; and the lower jaw of many horses is injured
J the snaffle between the teeth and first grinder. When
ere damage is done, the bone exfoliates, or abscess is
^ed in the jaw. In this case mashes should be given,
' to prevent the formation of sinuses, the bone cut down
? n, and chloride of zinc, one drachm, water one quart,
a little essence of aniseed, syringed into the opening
eral times a day. Don't let the wound heal, but keep
n With the knife, so that the exfoliated bone may come
v Ireely when grasped by the forceps.
juries under the tongue, and on the roof of the mouth,
th6 S01ïletilïles occasioned by the " port" of the bit. If
üs 1S muc^ inflammation and tumidness, bleed locally,
U i ePtetory measures, and a weak lotion of alum and
laudanum.
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l\
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xooriated Angles of the Mouth.—These arise from bad
N N
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282
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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of a poor horse under the torture of the actual cautery, and
eloquently declaimed against the barbarity. Lampas occurs from an early age, throughout colthood up to
five years, when the horse's mouth is perfect. It arises from fever, the mastication of dry food, and, of course, with a sore mouth, the poor creature is " off his feed." The groom looks into the mouth of the animal, when, perceiving the bars to be almost on a level with the incisor teeth, he pro- nounces his charge to have the lampas, and takes the poor creature to be burnt within its mouth accordingly. It is true the animal has recovered its appetite by the time the effects of the burn have passed away, but so it would have done had no hot iron been cruelly employed. The fact is, the young animal is then cutting a molar tooth, and a day or two having elapsed, all the fever and pain occasioned by the process would have been over. " No man," says Dela- bere Blaine, " should allow his horse to be burnt for the lampas. It is a torturing and a wanton operation, and tends rather to do harm than good. In most cases a few mashes and gentle alteratives will relieve the animal, and a few slight incisions with a lancet across the bars will relieve inflammation, and never do harm. NASAL POLYPUS.
A pear-shaped body, filled with blood-vessels, which pass
through its stalk or peduncle, is often found on mucous tissues ; it is called polypus, from an erroneous supposition that it has many feet, or roots. Polypi should never be sliced off in the old way of farriers, but extirpated by a single cut, or by ligature or torsion. Torsion is a good method, and not so painful as might be supposed, for the polypus has little sensibility under the knife or scissors. A pair of scissors, with sharp curved claws, are sold by surgical instrument makers for this purpose. The polypus is grasped by these claws, which are then drawn down to get a firm hold, and twisted round several times; this twists the stalk, or peduncle, and ruptures it, when it comes away. The twisting should be done quickly, and the bows of the scissors secured together by a piece of soft wire as soon as a good grip of the tumour is got by the claws. Ligature is more tedious; but there is no bleeding. It is, however, doubtful whether it is less painful than torsion. The ligature is a piece of fine zinc wire, a yard and a half long, doubled, and the two free ends passed down a small tube, leaving a loop at the doubled end large enough to put over the polypus ; then draw the loop tight on the neck or stalk of the polypus, and secure it to a cross piece of wood at the bottom of the tube. The horse is to be carefully reined up, and next day the tumour will feel cold ; if not, give the cross piece another turn, and tighten the wire. "Watch the tumour, and, when it appears quite dead, twist the pedicle gently, and it will give way. |
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NASAL GLEET.
This distressing affliction must not be confounded vnth
glanders. Horses taken up from grass, are found with the bones of the face swollen and soft. A blow on the faci&l bones is sometimes the cause. Pus gathers in the cavities of the turbinated bone, and there corrupts. In extreme cases, these cavities may be cleansed by the use of the trophine, by which a circular piece of bone is cut out; au elastic probe, armed with a tape, inserted and brought out at the nostril, thus establishes a seton, or gives a passage to syringe out the pus. To describe such a purely professional operation in a compendium like this, would be out of place- La Fosse's work, and Bartlett's " Farriery," contain e»' gravings of the operation and instruments, as a supposed cure for glanders, where the inquirer may consult then1- When nasal gleet, however, will not yield to medicine, dilute injections of warm water and chloride of zinc, or of creosotej the animal is valueless, and should be destroyed. The ball recommended in this disease, is, copaiba balsatö»
3 drachms ; cubebs, half an ounce; powdered cantharides, 3 grains. Mix. A solution of sulphate of copper, blue vitriol, or the muriate of barytes, once supposed to be a specific for glanders, introduced in small quantities into the water the horse drinks—two drachms of the salt to a quarï of water—may be put in the pail or bucket. The steao* vaporiser, for steaming the nostrils, is also to be recoR1' mended. It is described under Catakrh, post. DISOKDERS OF THE PHARYNX.
Choking, and the methods of relieving it, will be notice
in Chapteb, VI., under (Esophagus. The organs of swallo^' ing may be injured by the practice of giving balls, especiaU; when they are large or hard. A morbid state of ^e pharynx is thereby induced, which renders deglutiti00 difficult, and sometimes impossible ; the lower part of t» pharynx acquiring a morbid irritability, which causes * to contract upon the approach of the food, and return J into the nostrils, or into the mouth, where it is ofte0 re-masticated, and at length thrown out into the mange like a quid of tobacco.* Such horses have been natf10 " quidders" by dealers, and are considered of little or D value : such cases are often incurable, and sometimeS because not understood. Were the horse, in the early sta° of the disease, kept a few weeks on gruel and bran-mashe ' and then turned to grass, the muscles of deglutition ^°u sometimes gradually recover their lost power. Mr. White states that he met with a case, in a m* ',
where both swallowing and breathing were much impe by ulceration of the pharynx, or upper part of the * phagus or gullet, produced probably by her having svr |
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d»
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* Sometimes there is a partial palsy of the muscles empl0^
deglutition, by which the animal has been gradually starved. |
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283
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DISEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES.—BRONCHITIS.
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°wed hastily some hard or sharp substance, such as a stub
wood, or the unchewed stalk of a doek, thistle, fern, or amble. "The pain and irritation which swallowing oc- asioned caused coughing, and some of the food to be
rown into the nostrils, and some into the larynx, where Produced a great deal of pain and difficulty in breathing, ftiuch so that they were about to destroy the animal. lef was afforded by making an opening in the windpipe, a passing a surgeon's probang into the opening, and up r°ugh the larynx, and then quickly withdrawing it. I lei* passed it up again, and withdrew it a second time, in
rder to remove completely, or as far as could be, whatever
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might be lodged in the larynx. I put two stitches in the
skin over the opening in the windpipe, and did nothing more. The mare was greatly relieved, and brought up a colt she had. When the colt was fit for weaning, the mare, being of little value, was destroyed; and then the ulcèration in the pharynx was discovered. I saw the animal just before she was killed, and found her breathing freely and looking tolerably well (considering she had been kept at grass, and on a common), and with a good udder of milk. But the owner informed me that she appeared sometimes much distressed, and coughed a great deal, probably by some food still getting into the larynx" |
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CHAPTER XXVI.
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^SEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES :—THE TKACHEA, BRONCHI, PLEURA, LUNGS : ROARING, THICK WIND, BROKEN WIND, SPASM,
AND RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM.
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N considering the important class of disorders which
'tack the organs of breathing in the horse, we shall divide üe inflammatory affections of the air-passages into three . ections ; a division justified by recent discoveries and the "ïprovements of modern practice, thus :— * ■ Bronchitis; inflammation of the mucous lining of
üe bronchial tubes and trachea. 2. Pleuritis (pleurisy); inflammation of the membrane
*> ae pleura) covering the lungs and lining the chest. 3. Pneumonia; inflammation of the substance of the
ngs (Gr. pneumori). |
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membrane of the nostrils and eyelids of a red colour, and
the discharge from the nostrils diminished or suspended. When bronchitis presents itself in this form, it is frequently fatal—the membrane of the nostrils becomes of a purple hue, and death too frequently closes the scène in the course of a week or ten days. The disease fortunately does not always exhibit itself in
this severe form. We often find the first symptoms are a loss of appetite, dulness, discharge from the nostrils, and cough ; it can only be distinguished from a common catarrh by the quickness of the pulse (advancing from 50 to 70) and the disturbance of the breathing. From common inflamma- tion of the lungs it may be distinguished by the warmth of the surface and the extremities which usually prevails, and by the more moderate acceleration of the pulse and respira- tion. It should, however, be observed, that it is by no means uncommon for this disease to be complicated with inflammation of the lungs ; and when such is the case it is the more dangerous. It is sometimes attended with costive- ness; the dung being often oflensive, and coated with mucus; and yet the membrane lining the bowels is so irritable as to be violently acted on if physic is administered. On applying the ear to the chest, instead of the healthy murmur, we generally hear a wheezing or sucking sound ; sometimes one resembling brickbats being rolled down from a considerable height is audible, owing to the air struggling with the mucus ; but this, of course, will depend very much on the quantity of secretion which is effused. The breath is warm, and the mouth usually hot and dry. |
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I. BRONCHITIS.
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bronchitis may be acute, chronic, or epizootic. The
, uses of bronchitis may be set down as the same which
Uce common catarrh or cold. Most frequently the ex-
. nsion of inflammation is from the throat downwards. It
°iten a very insidious disease; though sometimes slight,
<* free from danger. In many cases it creeps on so gradually
at it fails to attract attention until too late. It is not
common for a cough and a slight diminution of the appe-
e to be the only symptoms noticed for several days ;
ough, if the animal were examined at this stage, he
. d he found to have a quickened and a disturbed pulse
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from
nner for several days, sometimes exhibits on a sudden
. ^ost dangerous symptoms ; the pulse being exceedingly CJi and weak; the respiration greatly accelerated; the |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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284
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slightly showing his teeth. The nostrils are dilated, as &
pneumonia, to assist the difficult respiration, but their membranes are not much discoloured. Pain, on pressure ot the sides, is intense ; but the pulse is hard, full, and but slightly accelerated, until suffering has weakened the system- If the symptoms do not become aggravated by the fifth day> a recovery may be expected. If, on the contrary, a thiD» wiry, and rapid pulse, with sweats and restlessness come on, hydrothorax (or death) is at hand. Mr. Field thus enumerates the distinctive symptoms of pleurisy from pneumonia: " ln the former the pulse is hard and febrile, in the latter, oppressed ; the peculiar saw-like respiration in the one, tbe difficult and convulsive breathing in the other; the absence of intense redness of eyelids and nostrils in pleurisy, and its presence in pneumonia ; the extreme pain of pressure in tbe former, and the comparative insensibility in the other ; the coldness of the extremities in pneumonia, the variable tem* perature of those parts in the other. The frequent lying doW» and getting up in pleurisy, and the obstinate standing up lö pneumonia." The food should be mashes, and no corn. Treatment.—Mr. Field recommends the immediate abstrac-
tion of ten to twenty pounds of blood. A small dose of aloes (linseed oil is preferable), sedatives as prescribed in the laS article, seton or rowel in brisket, and blisters on chest a»d sides. Mild diuretics when hydrothorax is feared. PNEUMONIA (INFLAMMATION OP THE LUNGS)
When we consider how totally we have removed the horse
from a life of nature to one of art, in which the lungs, m°re vascular than any other organs, are subjected in an extra- ordinary degree to the extremes of exertion and temperature, we cannot be surprised that they should in a great measure become the seat of acute inflammation. The causes may be looked for in constitutional plethora,
occasioned by high feeding, hot clothing, stabling with big"
temperatures, and accelerated exercise ; all which rende'
the lungs more susceptible to congestion, and less able to
resist the effects of it. Among the various causes, altern»'
tions between heat and cold are probably the most comm°n >
and we have the more reason to believe that it is tbe
alternations themselves which provoke the disorder, as ^'e
find that horses bear the extremes of both heat and cold,Jö
different countries, with seeming impunity. Heat sudde»1?
applied may be supposed to heightenthe circulation generale'
and produce congestion immediately within the lung3'
Cold suddenly applied may act instantly also by driving ttx
blood from the skin to the deeper-seated organs. A veI^
fertile source of it is inordinate exercise, as regards qu^
ness of progression, which wears out the vital activl J
of the lungs; thus pneumonia frequently follows sevef
runs in hunting. Cold, moist spring seasons are °fteB
marked with pneumonie attacks, which rage in an epideIial'
form.
Symptoms.—This disease sometimes attacks the bor
. fit?» suddenly, and he exhibits, with one or two shivering D
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Treatment.—One of the sequelae of chronic bronchitis is
thickening and change of structure in the air passages from which decreased capacity follows, with "thick wind" and wheezing. There may be a seeming necessity for bleeding, yet, violent as the symptoms may appear, the patiënt will not often bear loss of blood; here, theréfore, more than in any other disease, will appear the propriety of the caution elsewhere recommended when treating of the operation of bleeding. No fixed quantity should be ab- stracted. The operation should never be left to the assistant, but should take place under the practitioner's own eye, in order that the bleeding may be stopped on the very first indication that the system is afFected. There is no rule which admits of so few exceptions as this; that a disease of the mucous surfaces (and this is one) requires prompt and decisive treatment, but at the same time very cautious reme- dies, from the rapid debility which is connected with all these affections. Perhaps, after all, it is better bleeding should altogether
be abstained from. Such a bloodletting as we dare hazard in bronchitis is not likely materially to affect the disease; while the smallest abstraction of the vital fluid is sure to teil with dangerous (perhaps fatal) certainty during the subsequent debility. Although it will be desirable to relax the bowels, aloes
will be dangerous, except in the quantity of one or two drachms, and not repeated; but it will be better to sub- stitute a pint, or nearly so, of linseed oil, guarded by a drachm of chloroform, and to assist its action by clysters if there is costiveness. Sedative medicine, such as the fever-ball, should be given
twice a-day; digitalis, calomel, and tartarised antimony, each half a drachm, with three drachms of nitre, is a good formula. Mr. Percivall prefers white hellebore to the digi- talis ; it is more active, but requires greater vigilance in the attendant. Counter-irritation by means of setons or rowels in the
brisket, or the liquid blister rubbed on the throat down the course of the windpipe, when the first acute symptoms have abated, are often attended with good effects. Mashes, gruel, and green-meat should form the food of the horse, but even these in stinted quantities. 2. PLEURITIS (PLEURISY).
It was formerly the practice to mix up this disorder with
pneumonia or inflammation of the lung: but, although in complicated cases the two are co-existent, yet in most pleuritis is marked and distinct, and examination after death shows that the substance of the lung itself is not involved. The pain of the inflammation of the fine smooth glistening membrane which invests the lungs is intense, every breath drawn or expired by the poor animal causing the irritated surfaces to crepitate in moving upon each other. Symptoms.—The suffering of the animal is indicated by
a constant pawing of the fore-foot and a looking round, |
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DISEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES.—PNEUMONIA. 28o
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the excited breathing which is symptomatic of the com-
pJamt; at others, it steals on, almost unobserved for two or
three days ; but whether the approach be sudden or retarded,
the general functions are disturbed. One that first shows
itself is the unequal distribution of heat; the legs and ears
being much colder than the other parts of the body. The
c°at stares; the horse loses his appetite; is evidently
uneasy, and occasionally looks gently round towards his
ri°s. In the early stages, the nasal linings look paler than
usual; but as it advances they become of a leaden hue ;
and although the general surface of the trunk may vary in
rts temperature, the extremities, as the legs, ears, and tail,
an°- sometimes the muzzle, are found uniformly cold.
'-'Ough is by no means a pathognomonic symptom; many
cases are without it; but when it does exist, it is at first
short, dry, and frequent, and becomes eventually heavy,
tnick, and painful; occasionally some mucus with bloody
striaj is thrown up in coughing, particularly when the
Dronchi participate in the affection. The respiration
0ecomes disturbed as soon as the disease is formed; the
nrst febrile attack will hurry it, but, the severity of
'hat over, it becomes simply laboured. The local inflam-
ttïation having pervaded the substance of the lungs, thick-
ened the lining membrane of the tubes, and lessened the
cahbre of the air cells, respiration now becomes permanently
quickened- Theflanks are found to heave, and the breathing
*s carried on with labour and irregularity; the inspirations
being delayed to retard the pain produced by the distention
°i the chest, while the expirations are more hurried to
reueve it from distress. The cavity is, however, no sooner
ei*iptied, than a new source of distress, in the stagnant
c°ndition of the heart, forces the horse to renew the
reathing. The state of the pulse is variable in this
di |
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although partial sweats may visit the carcass. The nostrils
change to a still more livid hue, and the air they expire is chili. The mouth now becomes cold and pale; convulsive twitchings affect the breast, neck, and face; the teeth grate ; and death ensues earlier or later, as the disease has been more or less rapid ; occurring sometimes as early as the second or third day, but more often between the third and seventh, being also sometimes prolonged to the fourteenth or fifteenth. The terminations of pneumonia are more varied than in
most other complaints. Resolution is that most to be desired; in which the symptoms gradually subside, either spontaneously, or aided by the curative treatment. Con- gestion is the termination to be dreaded ; which sometimes suffocates the patiënt on the fourth or fifth day, by filling up the air cells with thickened blood. In the epidemie pneumonia, where a considerable degree of malignance is occasionally present, instead of blood, the air cells often become choked with serum. Gangrene is not a frequent termination of true pneu-
monia. The irritation or the congestion usually destroys the animal before the tissues are completely broken up. Suppuration sometimes follows pneumonia ; in which case there is a deceitful remission of the symptoms, but not so great as in hydrothorax. It is further marked by an irritating cough, a purulent discharge from the nose, with a hard, hurried, and an irregular pulse. In these cases a speedy termination follows by suffocation, or a more protracted one, in which the animal dies emaciated. Hepa- tization (Gr. hepar, the liver), or degeneration into a liver- like substance, is also not an uncommon termination; in which the substance of the lungs becomes so blocked up and solidified as to make them, contrary to the usual state, sink in water. When the condensation is only partial, the affections called thick wind and broken wind are the con- sequence ; or an increased irritability of the lungs them- selves, or of the mucous membranes of the bronchii and trachea, may be left, which subjects the horse to a long- continued or permanent cough. It is also the parent of tubercles, which end in phthisis or glanders. On the subject of symptoms, it remains to guard against
mistaking pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs for such other affections as it may be confounded with ; as with influenza, bronchitis, or other diseases of the mucous mem- branes. In influenza, the extremities do not continue in- variably cold ; the distress of countenance is not so great; sore throat is commonly present; the breathing, though quickened is less laborious, and the pulse seldom oppressed. The cough in influenza is generally deep, sonorous, and very painful: a weakness, not corresponding with the violence of the symptoms, is very early seen in influenza ; and though the lining of the nostrils may be inflamed in influenza, it is seldom so much so as to present a purple hue. The princi- pal necessity which exists for making a careful distinction between the two diseases, arises from its not being found |
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sease, according as the lungs or the pleura bear the
Sreatest share in the complaint. It is, however, almost a*ways quickened, sometimes to 100 even, from the irritated tate of the arteria1 system; it is also in most well-marked ases small and oppressed, the pulmonary congestion pre- enting the free passage of blood through the lungs. We ave occasionally found it moderately full and bounding, ependent probably on the membrane being more diseased an the substance of the lungs. The horse is now seen to
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look
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more anxiously round to his sides ; the whole body
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al
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so
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eems stiff and sore. Partially elevating the head
ccasions great pain, and he is altogether disinclined to
'0Ve; on the contrary, he stands fixed with his head
^ ended forwards, his nostrils outstretched, his fore legs
ftiewhat apart but forward, and he seldom if ever lies
Wn> or if he dóes he rises «,gain quickly. The chest, if
Pped with the hand, emits a dead sound; while the ear,
Pphed to the side of the chest, will detect a dull but more
gent murmuring." As the complaint increases, the pulse
at +i,meS St*^ more oppressed and irregular, so as to present,
the region of the heart, nothing but the faintest nutter;
egs, ears, and muzzle feel still more intensely cold,
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICTNE.
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286
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cut. We next cover the part with cloths several tinies
folded, to prevent the ammonia from evaporating. This needs to be watched, but will often raise a blister in ten minutes, whereas, cantharides rarely has any effect before the next day. The ammonia is likewise more certain than the Spanish fly, and is altogether to be preferred, as in inflammation of the lungs in the horse there is no time to be lost before remedial measures are adopted. While this is doing, we procure four men if possible, and place one at each leg, to rub the part with their hands as hard and as long as they can. Four thick woollen bandages are then produced, and one wound gently, not tightly, round eacb leg. A hood is then put upon the animal's head, but the whole of the body left uncovered. " The next thing is to procure a cool loose box, not a
cold one, but a cool loose box, and to have the horse gently led into it; and then to look about and observe that n° draughts blow directly upon his body; this being ascertained, provided the weather be favourable, the door and windo^s may be left open throughout the day. " All this accomplished, order the following drink to he
prepared and administered :— |
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prudent to push the treatment so far in influenza as in
pneumonia; for if the two should be confounded, and the milder be treated as the severer case ought to be, then it is a thousand to one but disease of the chest supervenes, hydrothorax sets in, and brings the mistaken disorder to a termination. Inflammation of the lungs has also been mis- taken for Colic, from the horse sometimes expressing con- siderable uneasiness, and often looking round to his sides; but in colic the horse evinces acute pain, by kicking at his belly with his hinder legs. By turns, he lies down and rolls, and then suddenly rises, appearing quite well for a certain space, during which he will fall to eating; while, on the contrary, in pneumonia, he never lies down, but stands stupidly quiet ; except now and then, when he may look at his ribs, but without any of the impatient indications of pain, or intervals of perfect ease. It may also be added, that in inflammation of the lungs the pulse announces danger from the beginning, while in colic it is, at the com- mencement, of a healthy character. The Tkeatment must be prompt. The old practice was
to extract blood immediately upon entering the stable. The first blood-letting was to the amount of two gallons at least, the second of one gallon, and two, or even more, subsequent withdrawals of half or three-quarters of a gallon each; thus, at all events, four gallons of blood, or more, were taken away. A fuU-sized horse has but eight gallons of blood in his body, and one moderately fat has not that amount. Here, however, the veterinary surgeon withdraws half the blood from the poor horse's body, under the impres- sion that the animal's disease announced it had too much of that fluid, to regulate the quantity of which is the care of the whole system. After this, he used to look upon the subsequent signs of excessive debility as natural results. The antiquated notion about a horse having too much
blood, is now exploded ; many excellent practitioners do not bleed at all; but if you resolve to take any, watch the animal; never mind the pulse at this time ; and at the first sign of change, though it be ever so slight, pin up the vein, and on no account repeat the experiment. Blaine's practice in pneumonia cannot, we think, be
bettered ; we therefore extract it in his own words :—" The next point to be considered is counter-irritation, and most practitioners blister both the sides largely, choosing for their agent cantharides, which is uncertain and slow in its action. One of the signs of improvement in inflammation of the lungs, is the animal lying down, which during health it always does upon its sides. The rendering of these parts sore seems to be opposing an obstacle to the animal resum- ing the recumbent attitude. The better plan would be to reject cantharides, and spare the sides. A more active vesicatory, and a safer place for its action, can be found. We proceed to have the hair clipped from off the entire length of the back; ihen we take liquor ammonia, diluted with four times its amount of cold water, and with this we thoroughly saturate the place from which the hair has been |
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" Rub down the belladonna in a little of the water. The»
mix with the other ingredients. The aconite (wolfsbane; |
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If
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should be of the strength of a drachm to an ounce.
stronger or weaker, make the due allowance, so as to hav but the virtue of the fourth of a drachm in the drink. " Should the foregoing be rejected, either of the followinê
may be employed :— ïartar emetic (in the form of the antimomal
wine of the Dublin Pharmacopceia) . 1 drachm.
Digitalis, made into a decoction . . 1 drachm.
Nitre ...... 2 drachms.
Cream of tartar .... 3 drachms.
" Mingle with a pint of warm water and give; or ttJ
annexed may be tried :— |
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Powdered white hellebore
Powdered ipecacuanha |
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10 grains.
£ drachm. |
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" Make the last prescription into a. drink, with halt
pint of thick gruel. Either of the above drinks is to given four tirnes daily at the commencement, and to gradually lessened as the disease abates. " Great caution is required, in giving a horse with J
flammation of the lungs anything in the shape of a dn° f Time and patience accomplish wonders. Lower the hors the
the
to
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hih
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lungs, which the examination after death is certain
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DISEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES.—HYDROTHORAX.—CATARRH, &c. 287
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isclose. The best plan is to proceed with firmness and yet
gentleness, dividing the drink into four portions if necessary, and allowing the animal to take its time over each. All food should be removed. No trouble should be
fxPressed because the horse does not eat. The animal, with lnüammation of the lungs, generally has no disposition to eed, or if the inclination remain it should not be gratified.
larvation is one of the most active means of cure, and one
j™ the surest agents in cutting short the complaint. The florse will lose more flesh in one day from the wasting eöects of the disorder, than he can in seven days from actual abstinence. Warm mashes, not hot, however, may °e placed in the manger, because in inflammation of the iUngs it is dangerous to give any physic, lest the bowels sympathize, and the animal perish. Two ounces of Epsom a*ts may be dissolved in every pail of water, which should
"e ^epeatedly changed, and placed continually before the ft°rse. Enemas of simple soap and water, in conjunction *xth backraking, may also be tried, in order to excite the Wels into action. _' If debility should appear, tartar emetic should be
^ithheld. If, in spite of this, the weakness increase, the öorse may have linseed tea made thick placed before it, with Wo quarts of stout per day. The aconite, likewise, should
"e withdrawn, and attention paid to the legs, rubbing them *nenever they are cold. In extreme cases, brandy and arnmonia are admissible. ' When the disease abates, which it generally does in
orty-ejg}lt hours, the care must not lessen ; for the attack
18 likely to recur, or remain in a chronic stage as thick or r°ken wind, or even to degenerate into glanders. It is
Pt to involve other structures in its progress, as the
P^euraj, when the symptoms will be somewhat confused,
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aloes, calomel, digitalis, and tartarised antimony to be pei
sisted in; and after the tapping the following :— Blue vitriol ..... 1 drachm.
Digitalis . . . . • i drachm. Tartarised antimony . . .2 drachms.
Turpentine . . . . q. s. for a ball.
Mayhew, who gives drawings of the trocar and its stylet,
with the operation of drawing off the fluid, advises, after the process, carefully boiled oats and beans, and the following night and morning. Iodide of iron .... 1 drachm.
Strychnine ..... £ grain.
Sulphate of zinc . . . . | drachm. Extract of gentian and quassia (powdered) sufficiënt to mix the ball.
CATARRH, COUGH, COMMON COLD, SORE-THROAT.
Common cold is an inflammation of the mucous membrane
lining the nostrils and throat. It may attack the neigh- bouring parts, or be confined to one only; it may be so slight as to ask no treatment, or become so severe as to threaten suffocation. We have already noticed influenza or catarrhal fever. In the simple attack on the Schneiderian membrane, which shows itself by a thin watery secretion from the nose, or perhaps the eyes, wc have the first symptoms of common cold. In a few days the lymphatic glands become inflamed, swelled, and tender, and symptomatic fever is present, and the tendency of mucous membrane to form pus without ulceration begins to shew itself. Some cough is not unusually present. The discharge thickens, then ceases, and the horse is over the attack. The Treatment is very simple. Extra clothing, &c.,
warmer dwelling, with a mild purgative ball, bran mashes with nitre (six drachms) ; a drink of linseed meal or tea, with an ounce of ipecacuanha wine mixed in, should the cough be annoying, will suffice. If there be much fever (A) or (C) Febrifuges, p 235. When the discharge is con- siderable, infuse bran or hay in boiling water, and steam the horse's nostrils with a suspended nosebag. Read's patent Vapour Inhaler is a most convenient and effective apparatus where available. Professor Spooner recommends sulphate of iron, two
drachms ; ginger, one drachm ; and gentian, two drachms ; in treacle, as a tonic ball, once a day, when the discharge from the nose in catarrh seems obstinate. In Sore-throat, where the region of the gullet and fauces
is hot, and the salivary glands swollen and tender, a good addition to the practice is a blister or mustard poultice to the throat, with a fever ball, containing half a drachm of tartar emetic and a drachm of nitre, night and morning. Purgatives to be omitted, the food scalded, and the water chilled. |
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h
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eing between pleurisy and pneumonia. In such a case,
he terminations may be either those of inflammation of tfle lungs, or of the pleura. It is a bad sign when the flanks heave, and the horse's
ead is put out of the window; and a much worse one
Qen the head is withdrawn and the eye becomes amaurotic.
hen the animal keeps walking round and round nis box ;
^ breaking into partial sweats, sometimes raises its head
**■ neighs, proving he is delirious, and in imagination
swering the call of his species. In this last case be
Certain that death is not far off"
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HYDROTHORAX (WATER IN THE CHEST).
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Thi
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is is a result of pleurisy—or pleuro-pneumonia as the
°le disease of both pleura and lungs is called—it is
lc erally fatal. The only chance is by the operation called
Pping," which is effected by introducing a trocar (a
lng instrument with a canula four inches in length and
in frter °f an inch in diameter), when the fluid contained
__^s cavity punctured escapes. Percivall* recommends
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*Se,
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Hippopathology, vol. ii., pp. 112, 122, where operations and
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ïaccessful
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cases are detailed.
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288
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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blistered, while, from day to day, some sedative medicine 19
administered. In every case of roaring, however, exceptmS the acute, the cure depends quite as much upon chance as upon skill. Chronic Cough.—Coughing is a spasmodic effort of the
diaphragrn, intercostal, and abdominal muscles, producing a forcible expulsion of the air from the chest with such violence as is calculated to remove any extraneous
body
that may intercept the free passage of the air. Whenever
it accompanies a general affection of the constitution, it lS regarded as simply " symptomatic," and the original disease is attended to for its removal. Thus catarrh is accoffl' panied by a cough, but we attend principally to the general affection, as the best means of subduing it. A " chromc cough " is often symptomatic of some affection of the &ir' passages; it is also an attendant upon the state called broken wind. It likewise accompanies glanders ; and ap" pears when worms are in the stomach and bowels. But besides these cases, there exist at times, without any attendant difficulty of breathing (the horse at the same time eating well and thriving), a permanent cough, usuahy more consideratie in the morning and evening, after nieals» particularly after drinking, or on first going out to exercise > and it will remain in this state, without otherwise affectiflg the horse, for years; sometimes it will even be continueo with no obvious injury for his whole life. The Treatment of " chronic cough " must depend on oUr
view of its causes and consequences. When it appears t0 arise from a want of mucous secretion, give expectorants which excite such secretion (A) or (C) Expectorants, p. %3°' When a redundancy of the mucous secretion is appareflt» tonics are required. See Tonics and Stimulants in List' When the secretion is acrid, try a Demulcent, p. 232. The cough, which is the effect of an irritable state of the parts» is sometimes relieved by stimulating the throat externally» and by giving internally opium with bitter tonics. When worms in any large numbers are present in *D
stomach, or intestines, a continued cough generally exists> with irregular appetite and unthrifty coat, stools fetid an slimy, at one time loose and at another hard and dry; *° which turn to the head under which those parasites af specially treated of. In all chronic coughs the best eneC sometimes follow from feeding with carrots. Turnips, par neps, beet, and potatoes, may be beneficially used ^'ie* carrots cannot be got; and a mash with bran and linsee > or malt, may be occasionally given. Try the following evei"; morning, made into a ball with honey :— Powdered ipecacuanha . . • i drachm-
Camphor ..... 2 drachms-
Extract of belladonna . . .1 scruple. Thick Wind.—This is also a consequence of either acut^
chronic pulmonary inflammation. In some instances, * the immediate consequence of violent or long-contin exercise, and particularly if the exercise be taken up° .. distended stomach and bowels, or after full drinking ; ° |
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CHRONIC DISEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES :—ROARING, CHRONIC
COUGH, THICK WIND, BROKEN WIND. The artificial life of the domesticated horse occasions
numerous diseases and changes of structure in his respira- tory organs. Not only do the great lobes of the lungs suffer, but the passages to them are altered in dimension, and more or less obstructed, so that the sound produced by the passage of air is modulated, and " wheezing," " whistling," "roaring," &c, become familiar terms among horsemen. Thus, a horse " wheezes " when any obstruction exists in the nostrils; " whistles " when the obstruction is situated farther back, and near the opening to the larynx; and " roars" when the larynx is malformed, or the hindrance to the passage of air lies within the windpipe. Roaring.—The causes of roaring are of two classes, acute
and chronic. The acute are from obstructions accidentally formed, as cicatrices from wounds or injury, foreign sub- stances lodged in the windpipe, extravasation of fluid or coagulable lymph, which, once organised, forms a permanent obstruction : when this extends up to the glottis, it produces whistling. Whoever has handled the throats of many old horses must have observed a hardened state of the larynx, which almost resisted all attempts to what is termed "cough them." This ossification is not an uncommon cause; and a similar state in the cartilages of the trachea is productive of it also. A cause, also, of roaring is a band of lymph stretched across the tracheal tube ; at others, an internal ring of the same matter simply diminishes its diameter. The obstruction is sometimes so considerable as to excite the sound upon the slightest exertion ; in general cases, however, roaring is only exerted when forcible in- spirations and expirations are made. Mechanical obstruc- tions to free respiration may eventually be productive of roaring: the custom of tightly reining in our carriage- horses, especially such as run in pairs or doublé harness, there is reason to think, produces it; the practice of using tight throat-lashes or neck-straps may likewise induce it. In furtherance of which last opinion it may be recollected that horsemen have a very general supposition that crib- biting ends in roaring, in thick wind, or in broken wind. May not the tight collar, strapped around the throat, here tend to the former of these affections ? The custom of " coughing" horses, and so frequently as it is practised in fairs, may be readily supposed as a cause. A horse passes from fair to fair, having his unfortunate throat brutally pinched thirty or forty times each day. Is it to be wondered at if inflammation takes place, and adhesive deposit follow 1 Treatment. This must be regulated by circumstances.
When it is acute, and depends upon the diseased state of neighbouring parts, the inflammation of those parts must be relieved. When it can be discovered to be the consequence of recent inflammation of the laryngeal or tracheal carti- lages, a physic buil may be given, and the seat of the disease |
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289
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DISEASES OF THE AIR PASSAGES.-BROKEN WIND.
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may be brought on by the application of cold. It is often
Qnected with a plethoric state, and is therefore very com-
°n among pampered animals and gross feeders ; and more
Particularlj in low-bred and thick-set horses. The post-
1ortem examinations of such cases exhibit, in some instances,
sllght hepatization of lung, the consequence of repeated
°ngestions ; in others, the minute bronchial cells are filled
"n adhesive matter, or the general substance may be per-
a«ed with minute granulations of a bluish colour.
-the Symptoms of thick wind are sufficiently known to any
ne at all conversant with horses. The capacity of the air- ei*s being diminished, renders it necessary for the air to be °J"e frequently taken in, because, being acted on by a less ^unace, the blood is not thoroughly oxygenated; and a suf- C1ent number of air-cells not being expanded, the animal a^es hasty inspirations to remedy the default. The force Uh. which these are effected occasions the sound so well "ftown as the distinguishing mark of thick wind. In this ayection, the obstruction to both being equal, the inspira- l0Jis and expirations are alike, which serves to distinguish 1 frotn broken wind. Thick is however very apt to de- sperate into broken wind. ■the Treatment of thick wind can seldom be more than
Paüiative, for, once established, it remains permanent. The
ernedial means are more in the hands of the proprietor than
the surgeon. The food must be moderate in quantity,
ftd of such a kind as will occupy the least possible space.
0 bay should be allowed ; and as thick-winded horses are
gross feeders, the muzzle ought to be put on as soon as the
banger has been emptied.
Broken Wind.—This peculiar affection has long excited
;le attention of veterinarians. The older writers indulged ; the most extravagant notions respecting it. On the Con- sent it has occupied, in later times, the research of many "ttncnt veterinarians, but with little satisfactory issue. It s been attributed to external and internal causes; to a 'ect, and to a superabundance, of vital energy; to altered Ucture of the heart, of the lungs, of the diaphragm, the °niach, the liver, &c. It is injury with some, nervousness th others, and simple distension with a third. Among r own writers the discrepancy is equally great: Gibson ributed it to an enlargement of the pulmonary mass |
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the immediate consequence of pneumonia; but frequently
it results from those states of disordered respiration which succeed to it, as thick wind, chronic cough, &c. We are much in the dark about its origin : we see that it gradually steals on a horse, occupying months, and even years, with a slight occasional cough, which, ripening into a state of impeded respiration, at last ends in broken wind. We see it also follow one hard gallop; and we may leave a horse well one day and find him broken-winded the next. It is not by any means uncommon to meet with broken-
winded horses whose lungs after death are neither emphy- sematous or otherwise structurally deranged; and which, with the exception of their lighter colour, and greater bulk than natural, cannot well be distinguished from the sound lung, although they crepitate or crackle when pressed by the hand. It appears likely that rupture of the air-cells is the cause of broken wind, because it is not always sudden, but gives some years of a warning cough, or of thick-winded wheeze. There is another view of the cause of this disease, namely,
that it depends upon derangement of the digestive canal; and if the irritability of the larynx favours the opinion advanced with respect to the lungs, the constant passing oi wind supports the other conjecture. Horses with broken wind will eat almost anything, which again is opposed to the conclusion that the lungs are the sole seat of the dis- order. The belly is enlarged, the stomach distended, and its coats much thinned, which last-named facts would seem to decide the question. But the truth is, broken wind appears to be a universal derangement, and it is not one structure that suffers, but the entire body undevgoes more or less alteration. Symptoms.—These are well marked : the cough and the
manner of respiration may be considered as conclusive- The sound emitted by the cough is peculiar, and is often forced out with a kind of grunt, in a short but vibrating feeble tone compared with the usual cough of sound-winded horses. The respiration is conducted with a remarkable difference between the inspirations and expirations. Inspi- ration is effected quickly; and the lengthened laborious strain of expiration, is performed by two distinct efforts, in one of which the usual muscles operate, in the other the abdominal muscles come into violent action, to complete the expulsion ; after which the flanks fall with peculiar force, and the air is again inspired as by a spasm. An auxiliary symptom is the peculiar flatulence of every broken-winded horse ; this is strikingly characteristic of the disordered state of digestion common in *aese cases, and of the constant thirst which is invariably present. The Treatment of broken wind can seldom be more than
palliative. 'Whatever increases the distension of the stomach and bowels aggravates the complaint, by increasing the diffi- culty of expanding the lungs. Therefore, avoid stimulants, and promote regular evacuations ; abstain from over-dis- tension of the lungs by too violent and too sudden exer- |
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*
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but
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erally; Dr. Lower to a rupture of the phrenic nerve;
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m later times it has been mostly attributed to strucCural
ange. Tl
ne cause of broken wind is hereditary or constïtutional edisposition. A certain form of body is unquestionably
ourable to its production, and it is from this circum-
nce that it proves hereditary. The narrow confined
> an<i the pendent belly, which mark low-bred horses
gross feeders, predispose towards the affection. It
iy be the subjecting horses to a long-continued un-
^ l «y course of feeding on dry food, as chaff, bran, bar-
raill ' ^°" ^c* *^at brings it on ; as also working in
' Waere much dust is necessarily inhaled. It is seldom
Oo J
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THE PRACTICE OF YETERINARY MED1C1XE.
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290
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tions, particularly after eating. By carefully attending to
these principal indications, a broken-winded horse may be rendered comfortable to himself and useful to his owner. The food should be regularly given, in moderate quantities only; but most particularly it should be of such a nature as will contain much nutriment in a small space. Hence corn is more proper than hay, and, above all, a manger food composed of one part bran, one part bruised beans, and two parts bruised oats, agrees particularly well, if given somewhat moistened. On a quantity of this food no horse will need hay. When they can be got, give also carrots, mangold wurzel, Swedish turnips, parsneps, or cooked pota- toes, which feeding will be found to combine both medicine and nutriment, and render little water necessary. Turning out to grass commonly aggravates the symptoms of broken wind ; a neglect of moderate exercise also aggravates the complaint. Water should be sparingly given, particu- larly in the working hours; at night a moderate quantity may be allowed, but on no account let the broken-winded horse drink his fill at a pond or trough. Medicinally, benefit has been received from daily small doses of foxglove; under these circumstances it has been given to the amount of a scruple ; a piece of rock-salt place.d in the manger has seemed to do some good. Horse-copers have a mode of what they call "setting"
broken wind. Fat, shot, opium, in short any substance that will act as a sedative, is used; often with a fatal effect on the animal. The test is to take the horse to a trough or pond and let him swill at pleasure. The cough returns, the flanks heave, and broken wind reveals itself by all its ordinary symptoms. BRONCHOCELE.
Bronchocele is an enlargement of the thyroid gland in
the throat—in the human subject, goitre—and is a disorder of unknown origin. It is not very serious beyond rae- chanical inconvenience and unsightliness. The gland in its normal state is about half the size of a pigeon's egg; but sometimes, without showing active disease, as large as a hen's egg. It has, however, been known to grow so large as to press upon the larynx. It is a well-established observation, that certain countries and localities are favour- able to its production. In England, Derby and Nottingham shires have obtained this repute; on the Continent, Switzer- iand, the Tyrol, the valley of the Rhone, and others ; and to an extent to lead us at once to the conclusion that infiuence of soil, or climate, or both, must have much to do with its production. Old medical Avriters ascribe its ap- pearance in particular persons to that convenient fons et origo, " a scrofulous habit." Of late years the disease has been thought to be hereditary; and so strong has appeared the evidence of this in dogs, that Mr. Youatt's forcible expression on this point is, " I am quite assured that it is hereditary." In horses we know nothing further about it than that a
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tumour, seldom of any great magnitude, makes its appear-
ance in the throat, just below the part we grasp to excite coughing, either directly in front or inclining to one side, having a circular or an ovoid form, and feeling soft and puffy, and movable, without any flinching or sensibiMy being evinced by pressing or squeezing it, and without being the occasion of the slightest inconvenience or dis* paragement, save what may be considered to arise from its being regarded as an eyesore. Treatment.—Should the tumour, on account of i*3
volume, become the subject of medical treatment, iodine *s our sheet-anchor. Supposing the case to be recent, it migb^' in the first instance, be advisable to give a brisk purge > after which administer, daily, a ball composed of a drachm —which may be increased to two drachms—of iodide °* potassium and linseed meal, and, at the same time, ru" into the swelling as much of the following ointment as is equal in bulk to a small walnut. Take of:— Iodide of potass .... 1 drachm.
Simple cerate .... 1 ounce.
Or, if a drench is preferred :—
Iodide of potass ... • i drachm.
Liquor potassce ... .1 jiachm.
Distilled water . £ pint.
And after the drink rub in the ointment till no greass
remains. Should the part become sore, you may pause i° the rubbing-in treatment. as the disorder is not active, anJ the tumour is not morbidly sensible. STRANGLES.
Strangles, a name given when there was little ro°rB
known of this disease than its evident dangcr of strangl'^ the patiënt has come down to the present day. The disorder is peculiar to young horses between the second and fi" year. It is seldom met with in aged horses, It is evidenw of febrile origin, yet its proximate causes are not kno*°' It appears like smallpox or measles in the human subjeC ' but it is not contagious. Sometimes it is so mild as to con1 and go without remedial measures, and the tumour has bee absorbed naturally. Mr. Castley (" Veterinarian," vol. i'1"' p. 426) remarks, that " often when a young horse is looki11» sickly, delicate, or thriftless, farmers or breeders will sy> ' he is breeding the strangles,' or that ' strangles is hangin° about him, and he will not get better until he gets over t"a complaint.'" The explanation of which appears to be, & the animal is suffering more or less from " strangle-fever a fever, the disposition and tendency of which is to pr0(1 local tumour and abscess; and most commonly in that sit tion—underneath the jaws—from which it has obtained appellation of " strangles." . . Symptoms.—High-fed colts are moie liable to be seized w»
it at an early age than those which are kept upon a i0 diet. The first symptom is cough, differing but little f* . that of a common cold, only that there is a more abun |
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291
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DISEASES OF THE DIAPHRAGM.
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discharge from the nostrils, of a yellowish colour, and
unaccompanied by disagreeable odour : it is also in most cases slightly purulent. There is, besides, a discharge of shmy stringy fluid from the mouth. The membrane which "nes the nose is red. It will be found that considerable swelling has taken place under the jaws, accompanied "Y fever; which is distinguished by want of appetite, a ^uick pulse, a hot mouth, and a general weakness of the ^hole frame, producing a dejected appearance. There is 1kewise a quick motion of the flanks, and coldness in the
ears and limbs. The swelling is in the form of a tumour "etween the jaws, increasing with various degrees of rapidity, occupying nearly the entire space, and giving pain to the horse when eating; who also manifests a great ^isinclination to feed. This is accompanied by thirst, but the swelling prevents him from indulging in water; and "aving swallowed a mouthful or two, he desists. After ^'hich, and even after eating, he is frequently seized with a ^Pasmodic cough, with suffocating symptoms. The swelling ls one uniform body, and consequently differs from the SQiargement of the glands in catarrh and glanders. Treatment.—As the visible complaint consists in the
^veiling between the jaws, the first thing to be attended to ^s> to bring the tumour to suppuration. A sharp blister ls the first thing to be applied. This, administered in time, VviU facilitate the discharge a week or two earlier than it vould have taken place if allowed to come to a period
faturally. It will also have a tendency to draw out the nflammation from the mucous membrane of the throat, and
^msequently ameliorate the cough. The following stimu- ating ointment may be applied with advantage after the
ret»oval of the blister :— Camphor ..... 1 drachra.
Hog's-lard ..... 1 ounce. Oil of origanum J drachm. aortly after having been anointed with the above, a large
ot poultice may b^ applied, and both repeated twice a-day
ntu the tumour is full of matter and is quite soft. It fre-
M ently breaks of its own accord; but it is better that it
m ^e la^ open with a lancet, from the bottom upwards
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At this stage of the complaint, if there is no unusual degree
of fever, a gentle laxative and a tonic to follow may be administered. Cooling medicines will be beneficial should there be fever. If there is no fever, the animal will soon manifest a desire to eat. His food should principally be oatmeal gruel and bran mashes, with a supply of green meat, consisting of cut grass, or tares. Should these not keep the bowels sufnciently open—which is of great im- portance in diseases of this kind—then a laxative must be given. This will have the effect of preventing eruptions, which sometimes follow the strangles; and nothing more will be required, if it operates freely. If, however, the complaint is foliowed by weakness,
it will be necessary to have recourse to tonic medicine, which should be repeated daily until th<> horse recovers strength. In bad cases of strangles the parotid gland will swell to a
great size, and even become ulcerated; and in o-ther instances an accumulation of fluid will take place, and burst into the cavity of the mouth, being discharged through the nostrils. The Eustachian tubes, too, have been found full of pus. In some cases the tumefaction has been so great as to call for Bronchotomy (see Operatioks), which is explained else- where, and delineated in Plate XIV., Fig. 5. Strangles seems incidental to almost every horse ; and as
it is a complaint which is often of long continuance, foreign veterinary surgeons conceived the idea of inoculating to produce a milder degree of the disease. This they performed either with part of the discharge from the nostrils, or with matter from the tumour. In many cases this has had a beneficial result, the disease being both shorter in its dura- tion and milder in its effects. diseases of the diafüragm.
The g/cat muscle which divides the chest from the abdo-
men, or the organs of respiration and heart from those of digestion and secretion, is liable to two lesions, spasm and rupture. Spasm of the Diaphragm is marked by a loud thumping
noise, audible some yards from the sufferer. The pulse feit at the chest is feeble and rapid, and but scarcely perceivable at the jaws. The breathing is quick and laborious, and the animal shivers distressingly. Over exertion on a full stomach is often the cause. Bleeding, aperient medicines, and then a sedative, are the active treatment called for. Rupture of the Diaphragm, induced by the same causes
as spasm, is, if extensive, fatal. If slightly ruptured, the horse has been known to live with symptoms of broken wind. Extra exertion will be at once fatal, as the viscera would come through the fissure and become strangulated. There is no treatment for ruptured diaphragm. |
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ih
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* matter must be well squeezed out, and the lips of the
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the
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sion kept open with a piece of lint for several days, until
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matter is completely discharged; otherwise, a second
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our may be formed, which frequently proves difficult of
e- After the matter is dislodged, a small quantity of
lar s balsam should be injected into the cavity of the
mour daily. It -will be found that where tumours break
P°iitaneously} the lips of the wound, from having uneven
|es, will be more difficult to cure.
nv,'10 ^ie ne^ghhouring glands show signs of induration, ihem with an ointment of hydriodate of potass daily. |
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2W2
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THE TRACTICE OF VETERIXARY MEDICIXE.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
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DISEASES OP TUE HEART, PERICAKDIl'M, AND BL00D-VES3EIS.
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exciting lumself, and take care that he is not alarmed at ou
presence or proceedings, all of which any observer ca
quickly judge of.
Of course, we must expect a fat or a thick-made horse
give less sound than a lean one, with thin walls or pariete
the
to his chest. In lean and narrow-chested horses, too, x1 heart may be listened to on the right as well as the le
side, while in round fat ones it will be only well audible °
the left, and over a smaller extent just opposite the hear ■
Violent exercise, or fear, will often cause palpitation,
such violent beats as may be heard, not only in the reg10
of the chest, but in the abdomen and other parts of the bod;-
By hypertrophy, or enlargement of the substance of l
heart, the impulse to the touch is increased, but the souno
diminished; by simple dilatation, or increase of the si
without thickening of its walls, weakness and
diminutio»
of impulse is produced; and lastly, when increase of *
substance and dilatation of its cavities takes place, violence of the dead abrupt blows strongly repels the han The diseases of the heart divide themselves into tbr classes,—those affecting the substance of the heart; tta° of the surrounding membrane (pericardium); those ox lining membrane, and of the valves and coats of the gr' blood-vessels. |
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GENERAL OBSERVATIOXS.
Air, food, and exercise in good quality, and proper quantity
are the first requirements for good blood ; with these, the production of the fluid which huilds up every structure of the body—bone, sinew, and muscle—would remain in due propor- tion and quality, and disease (if nature did not scorn to be bound by our limited logic) would be unknown. The constituents of the blood are given already at Page 350, to which. the reader is referred. The organic functions of the other viscera may be summed up in two words, assimilation, and secretion. That of the blood, the product of assimila- tion, is to build up and renovate. Every part of the living animal is constantly running into decay from use, and requiring renovation ; a process which begins with birth and ends with death. The air and food, then, as we said in the lirst instance, fonn the blood, the residue of unassimilated matter being expelled as fccces. The blood thus supplied would soon over-nourish the system, and occasion what is called plethora, but this again has its escape in the excre- tories which throw off its useless or redundant portions. The blood is the medium through which all this is accom-
plished; but we shall here merely look upon it in connection with the organs which mechanically distribute it, its vitia- tion embracing the whole range of diseases. Until the application of the stethescope, and the genera!
practice of auscultation, disease of the heart was, as a rule, unrecognised by the veterinarian, and consequently treat- ment adopted for other and often non-existent disorders. So far as the heart itself was concerned, this was, perhaps, of the less importance, as heart-disease in the horse may be considered an organic and incurable defect. To form a correct judgment, however, of the true seat of a disease, is of the very high est consequence ; and a study and practice of auscultation is of the greatest use to this end. In the horse, the practised ear will readily discriminate between the natural beat of the heart and that accompanying disease. A reference to Circulation and Respiration, Chapter IV., in Structure and Anatomy, pp. 204—208, will show the mechanical action of the heart and pulsation. These move- ments in a state of health must lirst be well understood, especially as to the strength of the shock or beat, and to the time (or rythm) of its recurrence. We must also examine the animal when he is in a state of quietude and has not been |
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INFLAMMATION OF THE HEART (CARDITIs).
|
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ti»e
as
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French writers treat upon this disorder in the r°u
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style, describing its symptoms, causes, and treatment; bu
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it is clearly pericarditis they describe, further reference »
not be made to then? The signs of heart-disease s^l0.U,J
however, be known, as the animal so afflicted is a very rlS, „
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investment. " He may appear pleasing and even
skittis
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a,
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en1
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says Mayhew, " yet his existence shall at any moven*
be cut short." Auscultation is the surest means of &e tion. The visible signs, however, are sometimes sufficie e emphatic to admit of no doubt. The eye is expressiv^ anguish ; the countenance is haggard ; the pulse irreg" . the throbs of the heart visible ; and occasionally as vlSl, Q on the right side as on the left. The carotid artery cfn,ue seen to pulsate in the neck. The regurgitation within jugular vein is nearly always excessive—it often rea i almost to the jaw. It takes place by jerks, which &sC -j. higher and higher, each becoming smaller and weaker mounts upward. The appetite is sometimes ravenous» |
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2ü;<
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DISEASES OF THE HE ART, PERICARDIUM, AXD BLOODVESSELS.
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*ore often it is fastidious. The breathing is not accelerated
111 any marked degree, which distinguishes heart disease r°ni many other disorders. The animal suddenly stops,
trembles, and appears about to fall; but, often as suddenly recovers and proceeds upon the journey. Sometimes the •°rse will refuse to move, and is always very unwilling to
_urn in the stall. Occasionally he will open his mouth as 11 yawning, and then heave a long-drawn sigh. No peculiar "-Yuiptom, however, can be specified as heralding the final attack. Death is always at hand, and comes without any special -warning. Worse than all, it is most imminent when ttle horse is going at speed. I5TLAMMATI0N OF THE PERICARDIUM (PERICARDITIS).
■This is the disorder usually known as inflammation of
lle heart. The membranous envelope of the heart is by no
|neans unfrequently the seat of inflammation. In opening
°rses that die of pleuritic disease, nothing is more common
han to find effusions of lymph and water within the peri-
cardiac cavity, as though the one membrane had morbidly
synipathised with the other.
M*"- Pritchard, veterinary surgeon, of Wolverhampton,
_as communicated to "The Veterinarian" some interest-
ng cases of heart-disease, whence we may gather much
^lormation. The effused lymph is mostly disposed in
"•yers upon the internal surface of the sac, and upon the
xterior of the heart, giving additional substance to the one,
_nd often a complete coating to the other, and, in some
"stances, forming adhesions between the two. In this
anner, the pericardium may be increased in thickness to
11 snormous extent. The lymph assumes the same albumin-
Us character as it does in the chest, and on being cut into,
aue recent, displays a honey-comb sort of texture, having
s mterstices loaded with a yellow serous fluid; in fact,
Putting on the same appearance, only that it is more con-
e'e> as it does within the chest, and undergoing—should it
öiain—.the same changes towards organization. In process
^me, and when it exists as an additional lining to the
ricardium, it grows close and firm, and attenuated in sub-
b ^ftce, and turns of a white colour. It has been found
°nverted into a substance of the nature of cartilage, an
Shth 0f an inch in thickness.
-1- ericarditis may assume either the acute or chronic type.
Riay exist as an idiopathic affection ; but in most cases it * be found to be secondary—consecutive on inflammation tQe pleura. That it may, at least in a chronic form, nience by itself and run its course alone, is in some asure proved by the cases of heart dropsy which every v and then present themselves unaccompanied by disease * ot«er parts. |
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" The symptoms of this affection, apart from pleurisy and
pneumonia," Mr. Pritchard informs us, " are well marked. They are, palpitation of the heart; the carotid arteries beat forcibly, and are readily recognized on applying the finger to their course in the neck. There is a good flow of blood through the jugulars, a copious return of blood through the neck, when the state of the pulse is considered, the surface of the body and extremities is warm; and these latter symptoms continue until within one or two hours of the horse's death." " In addition to the above symptoms, there is such an expression of alarm and anxiety in the counte- nance of the animal as no other malady produces." " The respiration is but little disturbed." The fluid collected in most cases resembles the serum of
the blood. Sometimes it is red, from being tinged with exuded blood—at others, it is turbid from lymph floating in it—often it is sero-purulent in character, and looks like so much whey. Now and then we find pus in flakes mingled with it. In quantity it varies considerably—from a pint to a gallon or more. The horse generally sinks from other disease, or from constitutional irritation, before the cavity is filled. Mr. P. mentions the case of a cart-horse which occurred while he was a pupil at the Veterinary Col- lege, whose death, without any previous ilness, took place most suddenly and unexpectedly, in whom the pericardiac sac was found distended to that degree with water, that it was inundated and choked in its action. RÜPTURE OF THE HEART.
This is more frequent than is supposed. Where it takes
place, even from violent exertion, it is the result of previous enlargement, dilatation, or aneurism of the aorta. Mr. Percivall says (" Hipopathology," Vol. ii. p. 167), "During one of the racing meetings that used to be held annually at Woolwich, one of the horses, who had vehemently contested, and lost only by half a neck, a heat, suddenly feil and died just after he had passed the winning-post; I after- wards examined the body, and therein found the heart burst: I think it was the right auricle that had given way— the animal had literally died of ' a broken heart.' In my regimental predecessor's time, one of the troop-horses, intended to mount king's guard, from the same cause, dropped down dead on the parade." There are several cases of rupture of the heart in the " Veterinarian," and other works. As there is no treatment to be prescribed for such fatal lesions, we will not waste space upon them. Where disease of this important organ is suspected, atten- tion to the gencral health, and regular, moderate, and slower work than the animal has been accustomed to, may prolong life, and preserve the utility of the animal in a humbler capacity than the saddle, the fist trap, or the |
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I>ROPSr OF THE HEART, (HTDROPS PERICARDIl),
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Is that
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stage of pericarditis where effusion has taken place,
„ , e Membranous sac is supposed to contain both lymph *n(1 water. |
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294
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TUE PRACTICE OF VETERIXARY MEDICIXE.
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place within the cellular membrane, first treat by rest, and
frequent bathing with a cold solution of muriate of aW" monia and vinegar ; or apply a mild blister. If the tumour suppurate, as soon as fluctuation is feit, make a dependiflS opening, or introducé a seton through it. We will no"W consider something further than the mere integumental inflammation, and come at once to the point we set out at— the inflammation of the substance of the vein itself, which is either communicated from the integuments, or originates within the vessel from the puncture, which is supposed to occasion a peculiar inflammation of the inner coat of a wounded vein. The Symptoms of the injury appear about the third or
fourth day usually, when the lips of the cut begin to gape> and a little lymph is thrown out; the next day the edge9 are more cast back, as well as more red and expanded. -"■ sanious discharge issues, or perhaps hasmorrhage occurs- The tumefied vein now feels corded, hot, and tender; and i* the progress of the inflammation be not stopped, the tuuie- faction extends along the course of the vein. If in the jugular, it proceeds towards the head; and if it occur i° any of the other veins of the body, as the saphena and plate vein, it extends towards the heart, hardening the vessel into a cord-like substance. This appears to be the con- sequence of the inflammatory action, by forming the con- tained blood of the venous trunk into a firm coagulum, and therefore all attempts to save it afterwards fail. Suppura- tion of the tumour now often appears; though sometimes the punctured part itself will present little more than * spongy mass, from which a grumous liquid distils, wh^e abscesses form in various situations around the course ol the vessel. As the morbid aetion extends upwards, it fre' quently involves the whole neck, and often affects the side of the head, from which results hindrance to motion : and often some difficulty is experienced in eating and ariu*' ing. There is commonly constitutional disturbance. ^n some cases the symptomatic fever runs very high. T'ie pulse has been above ninety; and the excess of irrHa" bility brought on has destroyed life. Treatment.—The course to be pursued will depend °n
the state of the disease. It is of importance to keep *" horse as quiet as possible, and to restrain the neck fr0lïl movement; which latter is best effected by tying up tlie head, and giving him gruel for food. It is also rec°nl mended to apply a mild blister in the course of tne tuff1® fied vein, which seems to assist by lessening the gener inflammation : this, in fact, is an indication never to be l°s sight of. When, however, we have no hopes of saving the vel,
from obliteration, but, on the contrary, a disposition man fests itself to form abscesses in various situations. we uiu proceed to more active measures. The abscesses uiu be opened freely with a knife, or, if one appears to corava nicate with another, setons may be passed through sinuses by which they are joined. The head must be tx |
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ANEURISM OF THE AORTA.
The horse is by no means so subject to this fatal dis-
organization as man. It is, however, met with generally as a consequence of ulceration. A number of cases are given in the French veterinary books. The horse with this " weak point" in his main blood-vessel, (or in the iliac artery, which also occurs,) is past all treatment, and may be looked on as " a dead 'un " for any serviceable purpose. ÏNFLAMED VEIN (PHLEBITIS).
Inflammation of the vein is an affection now and then
met with in practice, and ordinarily a discreditable result of careless or clumsy bleeding, and the effusion of blood in the divided integuments and membranes. A dirty or rusty fleame has been known to produce it. The natural process by which the parts wounded in
letting blood are repaired, may be thus described:—As soon as the aperture in the skin is pinned up, the blood extrava- sated between it and the opening in the vein, into the cellular tissue, becomés coagulated. by which the latter is so completely plugged that all further escape of blood is effectually prevented. Soon afterwards, the lips of the wound in the vein take on inflammation, and adhesive matter is effused, which so perfectly restores their union, that, in the course of but a few days, it will be found to have assumed the appearance and texture of the parietes of the vein itself. In the interim, the coagulum between the skin and the vein is becoming every day less and less, until, by a process of absorption, it is totally removed. Lastly, the new-formed membrane—that which but lately was adhesive matter—occupying the site of the puncture, in time acquires such perfect identity, as to be with diffi- culty distinguishable from the coats of the vein them- selves. Should anything occasion a fresh separation of the lips of
the wound, and thereby destroy this natural adhesive pro- cess, suppuration will probably ensue, the parts will fester, but the hair will generally become matted over the external orifice, so that, until we come to disturb it, no matter makes its appearance. At the same time the parts become tumid and hot, and tender on pressure. In fine, everything in- dicates the approach, or rather the presence, of internal inflammation. Inflamed vein has also been observed to occur when the
lancet has been employed by operators not long used to that instrument, which has occasioned the integumental and venous opening to be not exactly opposed to each other. Whenever, therefore, an early extravasation of blood folio w s bleeding, first having removed the pin, care- fully press out the effused blood with the fingers; and, if there appear no likelihood of more haemorrhage, do not again insert the pin, but tie the horse's head up day and night. Should the swelling not be observed immediately, or when it happens that inflammation has already taken |
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295
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PLETHOItA AND AXjEMIA.
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UP) and blistcr follow blister; another being re-applied
oeiore the action of the first has ceased. In this fashion the life will be saved, although the vein will be lost; the norse subsequently may become equal to the severest service, though immediately after the loss of a jugular he may require some care. He must not be fed from the ground, or ridden hard, for twelve months succeeding his recovery. His manger ought to be elevated, and his water even lifted up, so as to prevent him from stooping his head. -At first, his food ought to be such as requires little mastica- twn, but in three months he may return gradually to hay aQd oats. At the termination of a year, he may feed off the ground. A marked morbid consequence of bloodletting arises from
Meeding in the plate or in the thigh vein ; in which the öeame often passes through the vein into the fascia that lies oetween the vessel and the muscles. In these cases the tascia inflames, and a formation of pus tak ds place within 1t, which, as it cannot escape, insinuates itself to some depending situation : an opening should, therefore, be made to evacuate the matter, or a seton may be inserted for this purpose, and the part be repeatedly blistered; the animal °eing taken good care of, and not put to hard work too soon afterwards. Mr. Percivall recommends the actual cautery. The
budding iron" "when haemorrhage takes place, should
°e introduced at a red heat, to sear the interior; our object
being twofold—to seal up the vein, and aftenvards to slough
the wound."
PLETHORA AND AN.EMIA.
Plethora, or richness of blood, is a condition premonitory
°* disease ; poverty of blood, also, may give rise to its production. We are now about to learn that the system may become vitiated or corrupted, and disease in that man- ier be engendered in it. There are various ways in which noxious matters may obtain introduction into the system, some of which are palpable and open to demon- s*ration; while others elude our observation so far as to °ecome apparent only through their effects. The channels through which they gain admission are, the alimentary canal, the air-passages, and the skin. An animal may eat that which is unwholesome, mingled
with his food, or he may drink water that is insalubrious; or he may, under some casual or incidental circumstance, l°k in and swallow, mixed with his saliva, matter of a con- 'anïinating or morbific nature ; in either of which ways he ay tay the foundation of disease in his system. "We know hat within the alimentary canal is elaborated the chyle; ^at the chyle feeds the blood; and that the blood nou- rishes and repairs every part of the body : consequently it ts natural to suppose that any hurtful or morbific matters gisting within that canal, will contaminate the chyle; the, yle, the blood ; and the blood, the system. In this man- er medicines, given internally, aiïect the constitution: |
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there are many whose presence, independently of their
effects, can, a very short time after their administration, be satisfactorily attested in the blood. Madder has been mixed with the food of hogs ; and some weeks afterwards, on their being killed, has been found tincturing with its scarlet dye even the inmost parts of the animal's bones. As pastures are known to have their degrees of nutritive- ness, so do they possess their salubrious and insalubrious properties, arising not only from baneful plants that may be growing among the herbage, but even from the quality of the grass itself. Blood may exist in the animal body to a greater amount
than is required for its economy, or is compatible with its health; in like manner the same fluid may, under parti- cular circumstances, exist in a less aggregate quantity than is natural or salutary: these conditions are vulgarly called its richness and poorness. In fact, in the one the blood is redundant, in the other, deficiënt in nutritive properties. In a general way, most domesticated animals consume more food than is required, or is converted into nutriment; a circumstance that, considered in connection with the customary mode in which horses at the present day are treated, renders a case of ansemia proceeding from lack of aliment of somewhat rare occurrence. Such a con- dition, however, may and does occasionally proceed from torpid or defective action in the digestive, or absorbent, or assimilating powers of the system. Anamia may give rise to disease, either from the insuffi-
ciency of the quantity of the blood for the purposes of the animal economy, or from the thinness or poorness of its quality. It is too prevailing a practice in the regimen of the stable, to keep horses "short of water," under the impression that much fluid is injurious ; a notion that pro- bably originated in the very proper custom of giving water very sparingly at the time the animal is required to exert himself. Hunters and racers are not allowed any, or but very little indeed, on the morning of the day they are to go to work. This, however, furnishes no good reason why the animal is to be debarred from quenching his thirst after his work is performed. The water the animal drinks may prove the vehicle for
the introduction of disease. It may contain some noxious impregnation, mineral, saline, or of other nature; or, it may, from being long stagnant, have become putrescent. Water forms an excellent vehicle for the exhibition of such medicinal substances as are almost or quite tasteless and inodorous. Mr. Percivall recommends the administering of arsenic and mercury in this manner. It is in the recollec- tion of all, that race-horses at Newmarket were poi- soned by the treacherous introduction of arsenic into their water-troughs. Morbid or contagious matter may likewise gain intro-
duction into the system through the alimentary canal, though we have not much apparent reason to believe such is often the case; nor are we by any means well advised io |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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296
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regard to its probable consequences -when such does, or is
supposed to occur. A horse running at the nose from glanders, will drop the discharge into the manger, and smear it upon the rack and other parts of the stable within reach of his head, from which situations the matter, become probably dry and encrusted, may subsequently be licked off by some other horse occupying the same stable. All this may, and no doubt does, occasionally happen ; considering, however, how much alive horse-owners now-a-days are to the danger of glanders, together •with other circumstances of improvement, it is by no means, a common or even very likely occurrence. Through the air-passages it is that disease finds the most
ready inroad into the blood of the horse. Considering how accessible, and at the same time how susceptible these parts are, and how much they in particular suffer by the change from a state of nature to one of domestication, it becomes no matter of surprise to us that they should prove so frail a medium. The air an animal breathes is a more common vehicle of the seeds of disease than the food he consumes. Miasms, influenza, animal and malignant effluvia, all by turns pervade the atmosphere, and exert their influences on the delicate and sensitive membrane lining the air-passages ; through it tainting the system, either by absorption or by direct effect on the blood itself in its course through the lungs. The natural stimulus of this membrane is pure air— at least air free from any irritating property ; whereas, the atmosphere of the stable is rarely free from animal exhala- tions, and but too often imbued with animal poison. The subject of atmospheric influences, in-doors as well as out of doors, is one on which we greatly lack information ; and he will be eminently serving the cause of veterinary science who successfully embarks in its investigation. Through the skin, densely clothed as almost every part is
with hair, disease finds a difficult entry into the system. We know, however, from experience that many medica- ments rubbed into parts whose skin is thin and almost hairless,—the insides of the thighs, sheath, muzzle, &c,— will take effect on the constitution. We therefore cannot doubt the possibility of disease being introduced in a similar manner, though we believe instances of it to be rare where there has been no abrasion of suriace. For, so long as the cuticle remains entire, there is an evident indisposition in the absorbent pores of the skin to imbibe any morbific or noxious matters : destroy, however, the cuticular covering, and the disinclination ceases to exist. Even upon the bare membrane of the nose, glanderous matter may be applied ■without ill consequences; although its effect has proved certain in any part of the body by inoculation. Such is the case, likewise, with the virus of rabies. So long as the inte- grity of the skin remains unbroken, there is little reason to apprehend any ill consequences, even though the saliva may have been resting upon its surface. |
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SANGUINEOUS AND SEROUS CONGESTION.
In those parts of the body in which the serum-bearing ves-
sels terminate,—many of them in exhalants,—through these terminations exhales a sero-albuminous fluid for the pul" poses of moisture and lubrication. Now it frequently happens that accumulations of this serous fluid take place, imperceptibly to us, as well as unconsciously, at least with" out producing any inconvenience, to the animal himseli» and without any previous or existent signs of inflamma- tion, such are called serous congestions. These cases can hardly be called inflammatory, seeing that they occur with" out the combination of signs mentioned before : viz. bea% redness, swelling, and pain, which all consider to mark the existence of inflammation. Indeed, often the only °ne among them that we can recognize is swelling, and
that
manifestly owing to the presence of the collected fluid. 1*
is by no means uncommon to meet with a circumscribed tumour in some part of the body where the skin is loose > which, on being opened, proves to be a collection of serous fluid in the cellular tissue, and which has come on without any antecedent inflammatory action whatever. In the internal cavities of the body, likewise, we occfl"
sionally find accumulations of serous fluid, without an/ accompanying traces of inflammation. In the cavity °' the pericardium; in the ventricles of the brain ; and, also> within the thorax and abdomen. In this respect there appears to be remarkable sympathy evinced between these several parts. Should a horse die from water in the ches» (hydrothorax), we find water collected in his belly, and like" wise within his brain; in which two last-mentioned cavitie9 the effusion may be regarded as the result of serous congeS' tion. Sanguineous and serous congestion may exist in coifl"
bination. When a horse's legs fill from standing in t*1 stable (which they do from serous infiltration into the een of the cellular membrane), the tumour is not the result ° inflammation, but of sanguineous and serous congestion,lJ1 consequence of standing long without exercise. Blood accu" mulates in these parts remote from the heart; the serifer°u3 vessels especially suffer from distension, and the easiest m°"e in which they can relieve themselves is to suffer the flui^ t0 exude through their exhalant terminations. A simna disposition of parts may pervade the whole limb, as well a any cavity, organ, or part of the body, and thus give rise * that condition which goes by the general name of dropsy- Windgalls of all denominations may be regarded rather a
the effect of congestion than of any inflammatory disor"e ' They are formed, generally speaking, without heat, and wit'10 causing lameness. They are, in fact, enlarged (hypertrop»1 bursse mucoste, originating in congestion and augmente secretion, induced by the frequent or undue exertion of parts and are simply indications of over-work. |
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DISEASES AND IMJURIES OF THE CESOPHAGUS.—STRICTURE.
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CHAPTER XXVIII,
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE CESOPHAGTIS, STOMACH, PERITONEÜM, AND INTESTINE3.
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gulp down the cause of his distress. Should he not succeed
his throat and neck become, through his ineffectual exertions, spasmodically drawn up ; and probably he gives every now and then a loud shriek, expressive of anguish. Should he attempt to swallow water, the fluid, together with the saliva abounding in his mouth, returns through his nostrils. The refusal of food, with symptoms of apparent sore throat, connected with circumstances of a suspicious nature, should induce us to examine the pharynx and cesophagus well with our fingers, to detect any prominence; also, to give the animal water, with a view of ascertaining whether there be obstruction of any sort or not. If the fluid is ejected through the nose, we should be warranted in intro- ducing a probang, than which, in case the obstructing body lie below the neck, we possess no other means so sure of discovering its seat, or so readily removing it. A pro- bang, however, is an instrument in the possession of professional persons only, and one which often happens to be at home when they want it abroad, and therefore they are frequently forced to seek a substitute. A stout cane might answer the purpose. In all cases no time is to be lost: water—often a great assistant—and the probang, are to be immediately had recourse to." A word about the probang for the horse. It should be
like that used for the human subject, consisting of a slip of fine whalebone, having a sponge at one end. When required, saturate the sponge with water or sweet oil, and sponge it dry before driving it down the cesophagus. The material will adapt itself to the diameter of the gullet without injury, and will not be difficult to draw back, even should it enter the cardiac orifice. Mr. Percivall suggests a perforated or tubular probang,
through which, when the obstruction had been sent for- ward, fluids might be injected without the irritation or loss of time of a fresh introduction. The patent stomach syringe is more effective, and, following the probang first described, will be found preferable. Mr. King, veterinary surgeon, Stanmore, has furnished
some cases to the " Veterinarian," which illustrate the subject by examples. The following shows how a ' practitioner may be led
astray by false accounts:—Mr. K. was called to a horse belonging to a coach proprietor. The owner said his horse " had a bad sore throat, and could not swallow." Mr. K. |
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§ I. DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE
CESOPHAGUS. STRICTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS.—CHOKING.—CESOPHAGOTOMV.
Y stricture, in surgery, is meant the contraction of some
ut>e or passage of the system. The three most common are 0se of the cesophagus, of the intestines, of the neck of the
adder, and (in the human subject only) of the urethra
nd vagina. There are two sorts of stricture—the spas-
m°dic or sympathetic, and the organic or mechanica! In
e "rst, the contractile or nervo-motory action is at fault.
> n the second, the lining membrane is thickened, and there s often an alteration in structure, almost or quite obstructing ft6 passage. Sympathetic stricture is owing to other than °cal causes, and is noted elsewhere under Strangles, &c, ne organic or mechanical stricture will be here spoken of. J-he gullet or cesophagus of the horse is a most delicate
rgan, yet barbarous violence is often practised on it by
pooms, carters, and farriers. lts lining mucous membrane
thrown into small folds or wrinkles, marking the amount
Of r\' • •
aistension intended by nature. lts outside is enveloped
' a large mass of cellular tissue, to ensure its independence |
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lotion, unembarrassed by the surrounding parts. lts
annel is small, but large and strong enough for an |
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ch
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lmal which masticates a long time before it attempts to
a"ow, and to which nature has forbidden the power to
lnit- Yet, when some foreign substance, ignorantly or
Cldentally administered, becomes impacted in this deli-
ev ~organised structure, the butt end of a carter's whip is
eiïiployed to drive the obstructing substance onward. In
e 'Words of Mayhew, " Should the obstruction be situated
down the gullet, the whip handle is neither small
°ugh nor pija-bje enough to reach the oifending object.
°uld it be high up, the mass is thrust partially onward,
rTffi reacQ of the human hand, and ultimate relief rendered
cult indeed. As the passage grows narrower, greater
0 ence is resorted to, and the thrust is persevered in till
whip moves onward, and the stablemen congratulate
«wther that a11 is risht at last"
{< When the whip seemed to yield," continues Mr. Mayhew,
wiething more than the obstruction gave way ; the mem- bl a^S Wa^ °*" ^e tu^e was ruPtureQl) anc* an almost inevita-
eath awaits the unfortunate animal. He makes every
ln his power to complete his imperfect swallow, and
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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21)8
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Mr. King was summoned to a horse that had had a bal
administered to him by the groom, wrapped up in writmo paper ; since which he had ejected everything he had eaten or drunk. A prominence appeared in the neck, a little above its middle, but all means to force the obstructing body onwards were without avail. At length he determined o» cutting down upon the cesophagus; having done which without opening the tube—he found the obstruction arose from the lodgment of the ball the groom had given. Feel- ing the tumour soft and compressible, he squeezed and kneaded it with his fingers and thumb for some time : after which he left it in statu quo. Shortly afterwards the bal1 was by natural efforts carried down into the stomach, a»d liquids were taken and easily passed. It was not for some time, however, that the animal became enabled to take solids into his stomach. They were rejected through the mouth and nose the moment they had descended as low as the place where the ball had stopped. Mr. King thoug'1* that this must have been owing to the presence of a striC' ture—an opinion he conceived warrantable from the circum- stances of the ball being in itself but a small one and ot soft composition, yet incapable of being stirred by the pr°" bang. |
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examined the throat and gullet, but, finding nothing, sus-
pected nothing. The horse was blistered and drenched ; but the liquids all returned, without any effort being made to swallow them. The animal died ; and, on examination, was found, within the thoracic portion of the cesophagus, a ball composed of the ashes of tobacco, enveloped in doublé paper. At first, all knowledge concerning this discovery was stoutly denied; but afterwards a confession came, that the ball had been administered for worms. Had not such delusion been practised, the probang would have been used, and, Mr. K. thinks, have proved effectual. Mr. King observes, there is a notion among grooms that
a new-laid egg will improve the condition of horses. lts administration has, in some instances, been the means of choking the animal. Mr. King says he was once called to a horse with
a reported " sore throat." The groom " swore " he knew no cause for it. Mr. K., however, had reasons for entertaining doubts of the mans veracity, and therefore proceeded at once to pass a probang. On the return of the instrument, the bulb was found covered with fragments of egg shell. The horse speedily recovered. Two similar cases feil under his notice in cattle practice. The following fatal case of the same description occurred
to Mr. T. Cooper, veterinary surgeon, Coleshill, Warwick. Mr. C. was called to Dunton Hall, to a bay horse that
was taken suddenly unwell. He found the animal " cough- ing violently, and stamping with his fore feet; with saliva running from his mouth, which he occasionally attempted to swallow, but the greater part returned through his nostrils." There was evidently obstruction. He was told the horse had been eating Swedish turnips. Mr. C. passed a whalebone probang down the cesophagus, " and a rounded substance could be distinctly seen driven before it. The , horse after this appeared to be relieved: he ate some hay / and drank some water, and was left for the night." " Next day he is much worse. He does not cough, but heaves very much at the flank ; refuses all food and drink ; is dejected; saliva with mucus runs from his nose, and much of it he swallows." He was bied ; took an aperient with digitalis ; and his throat was blistered, from a notion that "the substance might have injured his throat." Third day: much the same. " Takes gruel from a bottle, but will not eat." Mr. C. from the first had no hope of saving him, and early next morning he died. On dissection, a large-sized hen's egg, entirely whole, was found firmly impacted in the cesophagus, within a few inches of its cardiac termination ; the parietes of the tube around the egg being "much dilated, and ulcerated nearly through." The groom con- fessed he had given the egg a few hours before Mr. C. was sent for, with a view of improving the horse's condition. The balls which had been given must have passed the egg in a liquid state, probably along with the gruel. The following case shows a successful removal of a soft
obstruction without resortlng to cesophagotomy. |
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(KSOPHAGOTOMT.
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When the means detailed under the head of Choking prove
ineifectual for the removal of the foreign body obstructing the canal of the cesophagus, the operation of cutting infc0 the tube, " cesophagotomy," is our resource ; unless it happeD that the obstruction is below the neck, when no knife ca» reach it. The same operation may likewise be practise with a view of overcoming stricture, or for the purpose o injecting medicinal or alimentary matters into the stomach? when there is no possibility of introducing them through the mouth. In the hands of a competent veterinary surge°n there is nothing to dread in the performance of cesophag0' tomy; although, from the cesophagus lying behind the \vind' pipe, and much deeper, and there being the jugular veins a»d carotid arteries, the par vagum, and sympathetic and recuf' rent nerves by the sides of the trachea, the scalpel requires t0 be handled with caution as well as skill. Recollecting t°a the cesophagus, after proceeding down one-third of the »ecfc inclines to the left of the trachea, and before it reaches ^e chest gets quite round to the left of that tube, we shoul select the left side of the neck, and below the upper third o it, for the operation. Supposing we take the middle of tb neck, our first incision should be three inches in length, an directed along the inferior border of the jugular vei», which vessel had better be kept distended the while hf pressure from the hand of an assistant. The lïps of tbe wound being kept apart by the assistant, the operator care fully prosecutes his dissection through the cellular tissu with which this hollow abounds, keeping his knife fr° wounding the jugular on his right, and guarding against carotid artery and nerves which lie enveloped in the ceHu |
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DISEASE3 AND INJUBJES OF THE STOMACH.—GASTRITIS.
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299
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Substance contiguous to the windpipe, whose situation he
WlH best ascertain by feeling for the pulsations of the artery. Wis object now is to get behind the carotid, and there feel 0r the windpipe ; and this being found, will guide him to a nttn, cordiform, shining, red substance, in close apposition ^tn it; this is the cesophagus. In case any injection into 14 be required, the cesophagus must be drawn forward with a blunt hook, and opened by a longitudinal incision, and an aPpropriate tube introduced. But where the extraction of a foreign body is our object—a circumstance that willrender the operation much more facile, the tumour being our guide *°r incision—nothing remains to be done after this but to llberate the enclosed substance, and close the wound in the ^sophagus with a common suture of silk thread, and unite 'he lipS 0f the external -wound -with pins and tow twisted yound them, in the same manner as the wound after bleed- lllg is closed. Lastly, a compress upon the wound, confined by a roller around the neck, will give support, and, perhaps, be found serviceable. During the healing of the wound the aiUmaPs diet must be liquid, or nearly so : gruel, thick and ^utritive, and boiled roots, and mashes of semi-fluid consis- tence. Chopped green meat of any soft and succulent kind, and short-cut grass, are also admissible. § H. DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE STOMACH.
STOMACH STAGGERS.—GASTRITIS.—INDIGESTION.—DIARRH03A.—
C0ST1VENESS.—SPASMODIC C0LIC.—TYMPANY, OR WINDT C0L1C. —RUPTURED STOMACH.—PUNCTÜRED BELLY.----SWELLED BELLY,
(DROPSY).—WORMS.—BOTS.—CRIB-BITING AND WIND-SUCKING.
Stomach Staggers. The disorder known by this name
'ftay be referred to phrenitis or mad staggers, of which it is
lhe first or premonitory stage. See ante p 417. In this
Case, however, the mischief, if observed in time, must be
eheved by the unbinding of the stomach, whose oppression
las involved the brain by recurrent sympathy. Medicine is
*ten powerless from the gorged state of the intestines, and
| leeding is acceleraüng death, although the books recommend
"■ The first thing is to back-rake, administer a clyster of
a*t and water, and drench him with warm water, in which
, eouple of teaspoonfuls of the compound spirit of ammonia
s mixed with doublé that quantity of carbonate soda, to
0*ten the contents of the stomach. If bleeding is ventured
n> it should be in the sleepy stage, taken from the jugular
eins. The drenching and clystering must be assiduously
°Uowed up till their good eifect is visible. Some ease will
e given to the animal in the sleepy stage by giving him a
ask with a straw pad on it, to rest his heavy head upon. If a
P rgative is advisable after the above-mentioned treatment,
^lve the following drench :—
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Instead of the common drenching horn, the fluids may be
injected into the stomach with Read's syringe. White recommends croton oil, 20 to 40 drops, instead of the aloes, on account of its smaller bulk and more rapid action. GASTRITIS.
Inflammation of the Stomach (Gr., gaster), is unknown in
the horse, except as the result of poisons, acrid substances, or some powerful stimulant introduced into the stomach. However, it is sufficiently common from the above causes, and every case is attended with great danger, though un- marked by any characteristic symptom. It cannot be easily distinguished in its severe stage from twist of the intestines, stone in the bowels, &c. The mode of treating it has already been detailed under
Stomach Staggers. The symptoms from poison are extreme distress and restlessness, a loathing of food ; for if anything be given by the mouth it creates increased pain a long time afterwards. The animal breaks out into cold sweats; lies down and quickly rises again, as in inflammation of the bowels ; becomes early and greatly prostrated in strength ; and has a pulse usually quick and much oppressed. There may be purging, and generally is, though the opposite state may also exist. The signs are also materially shaped by the nature of the substance swallowed. The treatment will depend on timely detection of the true cause. All tests, however, are of more use to find out the reason of death, than to save life. The general treatment consists in a rejection of blood- letting, the administration of plenty of gruei, starch water, chalk and water, and abundance of opium. White gives a number of cases of death under this heading, from " a pint of vinegar," an " infusion of two ounces of tobacco in a quart of beer," " two ounces of ether," &c. They cannot be pro- perly considered as " gastritis " in the sense of a disease, but as cases of chemical irritants inducing inflammation of the stomach traceable after death. In cases where there is reason to suspect that the cause is an overdose of mineral acids, or an ignorant administration of an excessive quantity of a purgative drug—chloroform, ether, or opium, by produc- ing insensibility topain, may give time for the recovery of the system from the nervous shock. The following is advised, where the symptoms are doubtful, and what has been done to the animal cannot be ascertained.— |
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CHRONI0 GASTRITIS.
This affection is, in our opinion, more common than is
suspected. It is set down as merely " indigestion," and a consequence of a dyspeptic state of the gastric juice. This is plausible, but not all the truth. The disorder is said to be produced by rearing the animal on soft or sown land. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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3UU
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One of the above balls may be given iaily. When thei*
benefits seem exhausted, give, instead of a ball, half aI* ounce each of liquor arsenicalis, the same of tincture 0l ipecacuanha, with one ounce of muriated tincture of ir°n and of laudanum, in a pint of water. Also, damp the fo°a and sprinkle magnesia freely upon it. Then, as the strengt*1 improves, introducé sulphuric ether, one ounce; water, one pint, daily ; and ultimately change this last for a quart ot good ale or stout. INDIGESTION.
Indigestion, in a medical sense, is a phrase of much coffl-
prehensiveness. In man, whose digestive organs are in some respects differently constructed from those of horses, there is much reason for regarding the stomach as the grand ageDt of digestion; but in the horse, who is a graminivorous animal, one that is almost always feeding, and whose food is for the most part of a nature that occupies a large volume» notwithstanding his stomach is in itself but small, that organ appears to do less towards the completion of tfle process, leaving much to be done after the alimentary matters have passed into the intestines. To say, therefore> that indigestion is owing to some fault in the stomach alone» is taking too confined a view. Equally in error should W stand, were we to hold the stomach altogether without fault. The comparatively short time the aliment continues
within the stomach, and what remains to be perfbrme" to complete its digestion in the intestines, accounts for the latter being oftener the seat of indigestion than the former > though the stomach, as we have already seen, may, y being over-crammed with food or over-distended with ai > become the seat of what may be regarded as the mos dangerous kind of indigestion. The Symptoms of indigestion are:—the horse does o°
thrive as other horses in the same stable, nor is he capa" of the same work; though his appetite, so far from beine impaired, may be even voracious. Often it is fastidious—g°° at one time, indifferent at another. Sometimes it is deprave He will gnaw and even eat almost anything within his reach |
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Mayhew, whose account is the best, thus descrlbes it:—
Gastritis, in its chronic form, " is frequently first displayed at the period when the services of the animal are esteemed most valuable, or between the fifth and sixth years, long after the mode of rearing has ceased to operate. The symptoms are various, and hardly ever alike. The stomach may affect the nervous system; then, its complications become difficult to disentangle. The affection is mostly declared by an irregularity of bowels and a capriciousness of appetite. The animal starts off violently purging. The looseness stops as suddenly as it commenced. Obstinate costiveness then sets in, and each state can be traced to no obvious reason. The straw or litter may be eaten ravenously, but all wholesome provender obstinately refused. The dung shows the condition of the appropriating functions; it crumbles upon the slightest force being imposed ; it appears to consist of fibres not agglutinated together. Sometimes it is coated with mucus, and always smells abhorrently. A dry cough may be present; the visible membranes are pallid; the mouth feels cool; the breath is tainted; the eyes are sunken ; the respiration is catching; the belly is pendulous ; the anus is lax and prominent; the coat dry and ragged; while the body quickly becomes emaciated. " The slightest exertion produces a thick and copious
sweat. The symptom, however, which is most remarkable, when the cleanly habits natural to the animal are considered, is the peculiarity of the appetite. The rack and manger are generally neglected; but every unnatural or offensive sub- stance within reach of the extended jaws, is devoured with avidity. "Woodwork has largely disappeared. Soil and stones have been removed from the stomachs of creatures destroyed for incurable disease. Either of the substances last named, however, are usually spared, so long as a morsel of piaster, a portion of mortar or of brick, is within reach. Animals, when in the field, will leave the grass and enter any ditch to gnaw at bricks and mortar. When confined, they will, under the morbid influence of this affection, employ themselves for hours searching for a morsel of either amongst the straw." The old custom of purging and bleeding for a case of
this kind is positively injurious. It is better to administer bitters, alkalies, and sedatives;—the first, to amend the appetite; the second, to correat the acidity of the morbid secretion; the third, to destroy the uneasy sensation which provokes too many of the symptoms. |
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or
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dirt or stones,—a brick wall, and particularly the piaster
mortar from it,—his crib or rack, &c. His coat baS a, unhealthy aspect; it is what is called "pen-feathered " an arid, and, perhaps, scurfy; nor is it shed at the usual seas° ' He is hide-bound. His dung has not the appearance ought to have ; it is either darker or lighter than is natura > has an offensive odour, and, when broken, crumbles pieces, and appears to consist of lumps of loosely-compaC chopped hay, mingled with many entire or imperieC j changed oats. In the stable, the horse is mostly incil# , to be costive; but when taken to exercise is soon excl |
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Strychnia . >
Bicarbonate of ammonia
Extract of belladonna Sulphate of zinc |
i grain.
1 drachm. £ drachm. \ drachm. |
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Extract of gentian and powdered quassia, of each a sirffieiency.
Or,
Powdered nux vomica . . . 1 scrnple. Carbonate of potaah . . .1 drachm.
Extract of belladonna . . \ drachm.
Extract of gentian and powdered quassia, of each a sufficiency,
Give, morning and night. |
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to purge.
The Ordinary Seat of Indigestion would appear t0
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be
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within the villous membrane of the stomach, or els
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braocs
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which lines the intestinal canal; both these mem
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m
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE STOMACH.—DIARRHCEA.
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furnishing secretions indispensably necessary for the due
conversion of the food into alimentary and faeculent matters. Independently, however, of any derangement in these mem- branes, various other causes might be mentioned, sufficiënt °f themselves to account for the incomplete performance of the digestive process. Mastication may not have been duly performed ; the salivary secretion may be bad or defective; the Hver may not have done its duty; the bile may be faulty in quality or quantity, or the pancreatic juice; or there may exist some derangement in the peristaltic action, and consequent irregularity in the progress of the alimen- tary matters. Other causes may exist, although irritation, or inflammation, or disorder in some form or other of the ^embranous lining of the stomach and bowels appears to °e the ordinary one, and that to which our observations in this place are confined. Treatment.—The ordinary mode of dealing with these
cases is to administer two or three doses of physic, at intervals of a week or so. A preferable procedure to this, 18 the old one of dividing the ball into two doses, and giving them at intervals of three or four days. The bowels being, in many of these cases, in such a state of ^orbid susceptibility that a full dose of purging mass is Very apt to bring on diarrhcea. Besides, keeping up a very Moderate discharge from the bowels is, in the end, produc- 'lve of more benefit than giving full doses of physic. When scouring is actually present, without any medicine having been given, or in a case where ever so little aloes induces it, ^uch good may be effected by administering hydrarg. cum creta in doses of a quarter ounce once or twice a-day, made lnto a ball with common treacle. Cases in which, on the ^°ntrary, costiveness is a prominent symptom—there appear- Xng to be a deficiency of bile—are benefited by the exhibi- tlon of a scruple of calomel once a day, either in combination *xth a drachm or a drachm and a half of purging mass, or e*se foliowed up by a dose of physic. Change of diet will often much assist in the restoration
healthy digestive functions. When green meat can be
Procured, soiling in the stable will be advisable ; though in
"Uld weather, and when flies are not troublesome, a run at
grass is to be preferred. Breathing the open air all day
°ng, with the moderate exercise the animal takes of his
^ft accord, being both very conducive to his health. In
e "winter season, carrots are given with advantage. Swedish
rnips are also commendable ; and bruised or scalded oats
ay be tried. When simply the mastication is found
uity, mingling the oats with chaff often proves a pre-
ntive. Linseed and malt may be given in mashes, or the
, may ^e rna.de into tea; or hay-tea may be offered;
ugh the horse is not likely to drink either of them
untarily, unless he has been kept short of water. Drink
d be given ad libitum, the pail being so placed that he
Cai1 help himself.
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DIARRHCEA.
The leading symptom of diarrhcea is the voiding of the
faeces in a liquid state. In other words, an increased peristaltic action with a greater secretion of watery fiuid in the intestines, or a deficiency of the absorbent power as regards the fluid contents; or, lastly, an irritability or slight inflammation of the mucous lining of the stomach. It is distinguished from dysentery by the purging being
incomplete from the very first; by its being less copious, having all the fasces in solution without any glairy mucous matter; and, also, by being seldom accompanied with fever, or any great affection of the general health. Some horses are very liable to purging on exertion, and such are termed, by grooms, " washy;" having usually narrow chests and lank bellies, in which the intestines have not sufficiënt room for their natural processes; but are pressed on, and thus forced to a hasty expulsion of the unassimilated i contents. Causes.—Diarrhcea may arise from mechanical pressure
resulting from the last cause; thus, a light belly is often found with occasional diarrhcea ; or it may arise from a debility in the intestines themselves. A weakened state of the bowels, inclining to this affection, is often brought on by drastic purges. It may likewise spring from the intes- tines containing some offensive matter, which nature is striving to cast out, little dung being emitted at a time. It may also be occasioned by the sudden application of
cold, whereby, the exhalant vessels of the skin becoming checked, more fluid is necessarily thrown on the intestines; which operates nc-t only by increasing their quantity, but likewise by the addition of something foreign, hence irritating to them. In those cases which are marked with thirst and increased pulse, the restoration of the healthy action of the skin is necessary to a cure; diaphoretics, as antimony, warm clothing, &c, are advisable; and the use of outward astringents. The Treatment.—In general cases, when the motion is
copious, little need be done. Nature is then relieving her- self, and requires little more than warmth and a change of diet. If constitutional, we must palliate by a mild but constant check on the existing causes. A light-bellied horse should not be worked severely several days together; avoid too much water, or too early labour directly after meals. Let the fjoces be examined: if the food passes away un- digested, the stomach requires tonics; but if it be a recent attack, examine well for the probable cause. Has it foliowed any undue exposure, any violent exertion, any change ot food, any great difference in the warmth of the stable ? Is the water good in quality ? Are the oats, or is the hay, new ? If none of these causes operate, we must first make ourselves aware that it is the fiecal discharge which passes, for such appearances have concealed an obstinate constipation. Being convinced of the diarrhcea, commence the cure by mild astringents. |
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SÖ2
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TEE PRACTICE OF VETERIXARY MEDICINE.
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the alimentary matters onward from the stomach, untu
they arrive at their ultimate outlet. This muscular tunic» in common with other muscles, is liable to be affected witn spasm or cramp; when this takes place the intestinal canal is locally contracted to that degree that the aliment is arrested in its course, and the pain, while the cramp °r gripe continues, becomes poignant in the extreme. The best description of the Symptoms is that of Percivall-
" The symptoms of colic are the same as, with two or three notable exceptions, denote painful bowel-affections in gene- ral. The attack is sudden. The horse appears to be all in a moment seized with acute pain in his belly. He conv- mences violently pawing and stamping, and striking hlS belly with his feet. After a few times bending his knees and crouching his body, and advancing his hind feet under him in attempts to lie down, he at last drops rather than lies down, issuing a sort of grunt from the fall, and i»1' mediately commences rolling upon his back, endeavouring every time he turns to balance timself in the supine posi- tion; though often he is unable to accomplish this until bis legs, in rolling, happen to come against the side of the staü or box. When once he has got upon his back, he will, witb his feet drawn downward upon his belly, and his head and neck, perhaps, curved to one side, remain quiet for a minute or two together, this posture appearing to afford him teni- porary relief. On other occasions, after several ineffectual endeavours to roll upon his back, he will suddenly rise again, and, having given himself a shake, as it were to get rid of the straws or dust about him, stand so quiet for a time that h-e appears by his rolling and struggling to have got rid of his pain. Soon again, however, he averts his head and regards his flank, with his ears down and an ei" pression in his eye as much as to say, ' There lies my pa»1, and now I feel it coming on again.' Each successive fit °r paroxysm turns out commonly to be longer and more vio- lent than the one preceding. Early in the disorder, the remissions from pain, or intervals of ease, are evident enough; but as the case proceeds, the paroxysms growing longer, the remissions become shorter, and after a time alt°' gether unobservable. He heaves at the flanks, and breaks out into profuse perspiration : drops of sweat stand up°° his brows and eyelashes, and every hair in his coat becomeS wet through. The next change, should his torture continue unmitigated, is one bordering on delirium. He grows
heed-
less of all around him; his eyes turn wild and frantic; "i
violent motions render all approach to him perilous; c° sweats bedew his body; tremors succeed; he falls do^D' maddened and exhausted with pain, and in convulsions e*' pires. The pulse at the onset of the disease, and duri°e the remissions from pain, is but little altered; but "ffhi1 the paroxysm endures it grows frequent, and becomes C°D' tracted to a thread, and indeed, at times, is so indistinct a hardly to be feit at all. Under the extremity of suffering» its quickness, and with that its strength and perceptibüw' become augmented. The belly is tense, sometimes percep |
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In general cases of diarrhcea, give thefollowing drink once
or twice a day, according to the violence of the complaint:— Prepared opram . . . \ ounce.
Powdered catechii, ... 1 drachm.
Prepared chalk . . . .1 ounce.
Sulphate of iron (green vitriol) . , £ drachm.
Mix in thickish gruel.
Should the horse be weak, boiled starch, or arrow-root,
or boiled bean-meal, may be passed down the throat frequently. Give no cold -water to drink, but, instead, give thin gruel or rice-water, tepid. Clothe warmly, encourage a high temperature also, and carefully avoid exposure to sudden currents of cold air. The subject will again occur under Dysentery. COSTIVENESS.
Some horses are habitually costive, which arises either
from a defective secretion of the fluid of the bowels, or that the absorbents act too strongly, and take up too much of the liquid contents, by which the ftecal mass becomes dry, hard, and difficult to pass ; or it arises from a defect in the formation of the bile, either as to quantity or quality. This we know from what occurs in jaundice, in which, from a loss of the bile by extravasation, there is always present a strong disposition to a costive habit. Some food is prone to occasion constipation, as whatever is stimulating or heating. Corn of all kinds, therefore, has this tendency, but beans more than all. Habitual costiveness should not be counter- acted by purgatives, as they generally increase the evil; but attention should be paid to the habit itself, and the peculiar tendencies of that should be counteracted. Dry food should be remedied by occasional bran mashes. Green meat is particularly useful in these cases in summer, and carrots in winter. A costive state of bowels may sometimes be reme- died by placing a lump of rock salt within the manger. When costiveness arises from defective bile, treat as directed under jaundice. Occasional or accidental costiveness must be treated dif-
ferently. First, back-rake, next throw up a large laxative clyster ; and then proceed to give a mild purgative by the mouth. SPASMODIC COLIC.
Colic, "the Fret," " Stomach Cramp," or "Gripes" of
farriers, is divided by medical authorities into several vari- eties, of which only two seem worth notice in a general com- pendium of horse diseases; these are spasmodic, and flatu- lent or windy colic. We have preferred treating of it here, though the section on the Intestines, or Bowels, has fully as much claim to it. The pain of Spasmodic Colic is due (unlike enteritis, or
inflammation of the bowels,) to a contraction of some portion or portions of the intestinal tube. The tube, by virtue of its muscular coat, possesses a power of contracting its canal, which contractile property it is that enables it to press |
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303
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE STOMACH.—SPASMODIC COLIC.
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y swollen, and commonly very tender to pressure. The
°'Wels are constipated, though oftentimes dung will be Passed on the eve of the attack ; and in the height of his pam the animal will void his urine." ^n this Mr. Percivall remarks :—" To these symptoms, as
nabling us to distinguish colic from eateritis, great import-
nce, by the generality of practitioners, has been attached,
n the score of the remedies prescribed for spasm being of all
hers the most improper ones for inflammation; but I find,
8 I grow in experience, that my practice is becoming of a
md suitable to both cases, and consequently the distinc-
lon is losing much of its interest. I first made the experi-
ent of combining my antispasmodic with a cathartic, and
ecarne so satisfied at the result, that I have, from that
^e to the present, continued the practice, and with the
haPpiest effects."
■the cause of colic, ordinarily, is a draught of cold water,
specially while the horse's body is heated. "Water from
ertain mineral springs has been—apparently from its im-
pregnation s—notorious for having this effect. Sudden chili
the skin is said to have produced gripes. A common
°se of physic will now and then occasion it. Violent
Pasins have been produced from linseed or castor oiL
etches and other green-meats will at times gripe ; so will
e^ straw, and particularly that of wheat; and likewise
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administered. That which is given at the outset appearing
to have a decided advantage o^r anything exhibited later in the attack. Opium holds the first place among antispasmodics. A
very effectual antispasmodic ball, combining the three pro- perties, narcotic, stimulant, and terebinthinate, is composed of one drachm of opium, of two drachms of Cayenne pepper or half an ounce of ginger, and of a sufficiency of Venice turpentine and meal to make a moderate-sized ball. Com- bine with the antispasmodic a full dose of purgative medi- cine. Mr. Percivall advises, in a pressing case, to give, without loss of time, the following drench:t— |
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Decoction of aloes*
Tincture of opium Spirits of nitric ethe* Water, boiling . |
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12 oz.
2 oz. 2 oz. J pint. |
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Mix.
Should the decoction of aloes—that admirable formula—
not be at hand, we must co-ntent ourselves with a simple solution of aloes in hot water; bearing in mind that the dose is meant to be either ten drachms of Barbadoes aloes or twelve of Cape. Spirits of turpentine, in four-ounce doses, was Professor
Coleman's remedy, and is still in favour at the Veterinary College. It is dangerous without olive or linseed oil, as producing sore throat. Hartshorn, with tincture of myrrh, is open to the same objection Mr. White's formula is un- objectionable:—■ |
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£
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b
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as: in fact, any irritating or acidulous matters in the
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°Wels may have this effect. Now and then,
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spasm is
or |
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Dro«ght on by
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costiveness, and by hardened
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stony concretions.
Unless some decided check, if not a satisfactory stop, be
j to the progress of the disorder within the first half-a-
Zen hours, we may begin to harbour apprehensions. Ordi-
ry cases are relieved by a single dose of medicine; many
Jthout any medicine at all. Cases that run on unrelieved
ueath, seldom exceed twenty-four hours in duration.
in entire horses, particularly in such as have raced or
etl in training, or have been kept as covering stallions,
attack of colic or enteritic symptoms is on all occasions
be viewed as, possibly or probably, connected with
riHa. The scrotum shóuld be examined without delay,
a all inquiries made relative to the existence of rupture.
e^ Hernia, post.
. rEatment.—Every farrier and groom, horse-dealer and
se-keeper, fancies himself quite as competent to treat
c as the most skilful veterinarian; and, in point of
• providing the complaint be purely spasmodic, his
pff 6 *S likely to prove in the first instance quite as
. °tual. It being notorious that almost every sort of
s and aromatics possess antispasmodic properties. The
ni. being well convinced of their efficacy from experi-
upon his own person, as naturally runs for gin and
as h' °r PePPermint water, for his horse when " griped,"
self S -eS *"0r some agreeable spirituous compound for him-
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Turkey opium .
Cloves, bruised
Ginger, ditto . Brandy^ Eum, or Gin |
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1 oz.
2 oz.
3 oz.
1 quart.
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Exercise is often productive of a great deal of benefit
after the antispasmodic remedy; it increases the peristaltic motion, causes often the expulsion of air and dung; and, should he sweat, it tends rather to relieve than to augment the spasm ; however, he must go willingly, and not be urged. A clyster composed of two ounces of Cape aloes dissolved
in six quarts of soap-water or gruel, may be administered with a view of emptying the rectum ; or one in which a pint of oil of turpentine is substituted for the aloes may be given with a view of relieving the spasm. But what, in a case of any danger, is better than either, is the clyster of tobacco-smoke; and the best apparatus for conducting this operation is Read's enema syringe, furnished with a metallic box for containing the tobacco, with a pierced plate across the inside for transmitting the fumes. An |
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* Barbadoes aloes, powdered . . . 2 oz.
Carbonate of potash . . . . 1 oz.
Acacia, powdered . . . . IJ oz.
Boiling water . . . . .1 pint.
Should the decoction be required to keep, two ounces of some spirit
must be added. |
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;^ ' ^lven at the
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instant, it seldom does fail;
we give than when the remedy is
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lmP°rts less
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what
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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504
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or upset; delirium begins; weak neighs are uttered, i°'
reply to visionary challenges; the coat is ragged; copiou9 and partial perspirations break forth ; the beat of the artery is lost at the jaw ; an intermittent flutter is indistinctly tel at the heart. At last the limbs fail; the body falls; and a death struggle ensues, the creature dying in consequence o the distended abdomen compressing the lungs and prevent- ing the breath being inhaled." Mr. Mayhew recommends in extreme cases, puncture °
the belly with a trocar, sheathed with a canula. The ope- ration is thus performed :—Draw the skin up tightly ove the place selected for puncture, and nick the integunien with a sharp scalpel. Insert the trocar, push in the style*» withdraw it, and the gas will rush out, having a proban0 ready to clear the canula lest it become choked. The troca should not be larger than that used in hydrothorax. Wben the trocar is withdrawn, the skin, having been drawn asin in the manner above directed, at once closes the orifice by returning to its place. For ourselves, we think, so far a the stomach is concerned, that this operation is not advisable» though in inflation of the small intestines it may be ve»' tured on. It should be remembered, that when gases ar generated the intestines change their position, and, owingt the pressure, communication from one convolution to anothe is obstructed ; thus, the trocar empties only one cell, an one convolution holds so little that its evacuation does do give the relief sought for. It is otherwise with the " boven ruminant. ., We need hardly say that no food should "e given during the attack of windy colic, and that the grootn should sponge out the eyes, mouth, and nostrils. Mayne^ recommends the administration of tobacco-smoke per a»uT1* by the apparatus already described. It is worth a tri* • Should the animal recover, give gruel and bruised oats, an a ball compounded of extract of gentian, powdered quassia» and sulphate of copper. RUPTÜRED STOMACH.
This is sometimes the result of tympany or gorged sto
mach. Percivall gives several cases (" Hippopathology/' v° ' ii., p. 201), and others will be found in the pages of " ^ Veterinarian." Copious draughts of water on a full st_° mach have occasioned rupture. Another class of injürie —blows, falls, or strains—have lacerated this organ. ^ the lesion is past remedy, we shall not devote further spaC ' except to observe that the extravasated matters have "e known to be forced into the sheath, so that a has J examination might cause rupture to be mistaken f°r l guinal hernia. See Rupture, post. PUNCTURED BEIXY.
A stab by a pair of scissors, a pitchfork, or some sba V
instrument, in the lower, middle part, or side of the ab men, though a disgraceful, is by means an uncommon ocC rence. It is oftentimes the result of carelessness or temper in the person engaged in trimming or bedding do |
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apparatus for this purpose is figured in our plate of
Apparatus and Instruments. A -warm bath would certainly prove a most desirable
situatron for our patiënt, could one be procured. A sack- ful of hay, dipped in water nearly boiling, and bound upon the belly, may likewise relieve him. FLATÜiENT COLIC.
Tympany, or windy colic, is produced by the distension
of the intestines by gas. It is most frequent in summer, when horses are fed with green meat, but may be produced by indigestion of any description of horse fodder. A draught of cold hard water, having sulphate of lime in sus- pension, will often cause flatulent colic. It somewhat resembles in symptoms the inflated paunch of ruminating animals called " hove," " hoven," or " blown," which is induced by overloading the stomach with succulent herbage, especially clover, by the fermentation of which gas is gene- rated in such volumes as to distend the animal almost to bursting. The horse, however, unlike the cow, has no rumen (paunch), and cannot be, strictly speaking, " hoven ;" though it is by no means unfrequent for him to be affected by tympany, or windy colic. "Windy colic is frequently an aifection of the aged horse. The notion that tympany is produced by crib-biting or " wind-sucking," though enter- tained by such authorities as Blaine and Percivall, is now obsolete. It is not the en trance of atmospberic air (which does not pass down the cesophagus in any case, though a small quantity of air is found in the intestines), but the generation of carbonic acid gas, or sulphuretted hydrogen gas, the products of decomposition. Either of these gases will destroy life by asphyxia if drawn into the lungs. Symptoms,—Mr. Mayhew, in his lively and picturesque
style, has sketched the symptoms of flatulent colic so accu- rately that we make no scruple of substituting them for any description we could indite. He says :—" The horse which is to be oppressed by flatulent colic, exhibits uneasiness after feeding; it hangs the head; breathes laboriously; fidgets ; rocks the body, and rests first on one leg, then on the other. These symptoms are exhibited before any enlargement of the abdomen ie to be detected. With the swelling of the belly pawing commences ; that action is, however, far too leisurely displayed to be for an instant confounded with the same energetic movement which cha- racterises spasmodic colic. " The horse will stand in one spot throughout the day;
even the movement of the foot, before noticed, appears to be an exertion. The eye is sleepy, the pulse heavy, wind frequently passes from the body; and in such a condition the animal remains, slowly becoming worse. Almost in the same place the horse may stand three or four days ; then the abdomen is much increased in size; the- animal is rest- less; the pulse is extremely feeble ; the breathing is very fast; the pupil of the eye is dilated, and the sight is lost. A walk, as in a mill, is comnienced; obstacles are run into |
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DISEASES AXD IXJÜRIES OF THE STOMACH.—DROPSY, &c.
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305
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the animaL In the section specially devoted to wounds,
Iacerated, punctured, or contused, the treatment will be found. SWELLED BELLY, DROPSY, ASCITES, ANASARCA.
External dropsy, either in the form of swelled belly,
sheath, and breast, or in that of swelled legs, is a frequent consequence and an occasional accompaniment of constitu- tional disease. Hydrothorax (water on the chest) is denoted Dy dropsy of the breast, extending often to the belly, and Dy swelled legs. Ascites is strongly indicated, in combina- tion with certain other signs, by dropsy of the belly and sneath, such proves of an obstinate or permanent nature, or else speedily returns, after having been by remedy entirely dissipated. The swellings in these cases being the attendants or consequences of other disease, the treatment 01 them must form a part of that adopted for the original disorder, whatever it may happen to be. Occasionally, however, anasarca presents itself as a constitutional chronic disorder. The cellular membrane underneath the skin he- mmes filled with a watery fiuid, the result of which is one °r more diffused puffy swellings, having no defined limits, °ut most full in those parts of the body that hang lowest, tr°rn the circumstance of the fluid gravitating through the cells of the subcutaneous tissue into them. These swellings nave a soft, doughy, or flabby feel, and pit on pressure. The symptoms of a general attack of dropsy are, swelling of
'he belly, the sheath, the loose skin in the space between the arms, the breast, the sides of the face and nostrils, the arms, tülghs, and legs. These are the ordinary situations for dropsi- cal swellings ; though it does not always happen that all these Parts are affected. In general, the legs are only secondarily aöected ; the tumour in the first instance appearing in the body and arms and thighs, and from them gravitating into tne legs. At times the tumefaction is, when once it has c°nimenced, very rapid in its progress, and spreads to such n extent in the ^ourse of a few hours after its first appear-
ance, as to render the animal almost incapable of locomo- ion. Although the animal, when first attacked, evinces no
aPparent pain or uneasiness, and seems totally unconscious nd indifferent concerning what is going on, feeding and
ooking as lively as ever, yet, after a time, the pulse rises,
e respiration becomes acc-elerated, the mouth hot, the yes^ and nostrils reddened. A common accompaniment of
e irntation now necessarily excited in the skin, is a sym-
P tnetic inflammation of the air passages. The animal
ughs up, on occasions, a slimy straw-coloured sort of fluid,
? lnS like a mixture of saliva and mucus and sero-albu-
i&ous effusion ; at the same time there is, probably, a
t l-° ota issuing from the nostrils. Where anasarca
es this turn, unless an immediate and effectual check be
rp, *ne disorder, it is likely to end in farcy and glanders.
urine is scanty, and now and then it will happen that
*h' ST°US .as we^ as the mucous membranes will partake of
ropsical disposition ; and the animal consequently be
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in danger of losing his life from water in the chest or belly,
or even head. Causes.—Horses that are turned out to the strawyard in
the winter season, are the frequent subjects of dropsy. They leave a warm atmosphere for a cold and humid one; a generous diet for one that comparatively starves them; and they drink .ad libitum of water which may be, but most pro- bably is not, of the most wholesome description. The skin will certainly receive a check in regard to its perspiratory functions ; the air-passages, also, will feel the effects of cold and moisture; while the digestive organs will experience more or less alteration in their economy in consequence of the change of aliment. The Treatment of ascites promises little; because it is
rather a symptom of visceral disorganization than of simple irritation. We are warranted, however, in attempting the removal of the fluid by exciting the absorbents, as observed in Hydrothorax, and by strengthening the system generally by tonics. We must, however, use no depletion. It may also be observed, that purgatives are not admissible here : on the contrary, they may be expected to occasion much constitutional disturbance. Mild blisters, &c, external friction, frequent and long-continued, are best; with gentle, repeated exercise, aided by warm clothing. Mr. Mayhew sensibly recommends that the food should
be small in bulk, but nutritious in quality; no work should be imposed; he prescribes |
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Strychnia
|
A quarter of a grain, worked
gradually up to one grain. Half-a-drachm, worked gra-
dually up to one drachm- and-a-half. One scruple.
A suffic'ency.
A sufficiency.
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Iodide of iron
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Extract of belladonna
Extract of gentian Powdered quassia |
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Make into a ball; give one at night and at morning.
Should the fluctuation and tumidity not yield, we must
proceed to the operation of tapping, which offers the most reasonable chance in the complaint, when performed early. Tapping (paracentesis abdominis) is a simple operation.
The spot chosen for the opening should be upon the linea alba, midway between the umbilicus and the sheath : in the mare, between the umbilicus and pubes. This point should be chosen for the puncture, which ought to be made directly upwards ; and both this and the former operation for wind must be conducted and treated upon similar principles, with the exception that in ascites the whole of the fluid may be evacuated at once, and allowed further to drain off by the simple application of a linen bandage. Should benefit be derived, endeavour to prevent a recurrence, by strengthen- ing the general habit. Water farcy, general cedema, dropsy of the skin, and col-
lections of fluid within the cellular membrane, are disorders which, in their treatment, ask for no separate directions beyond those here given. |
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THE PRACT1CE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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306
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on the extreme ends of the hairs of the mane. But it is a
fact worthy of attention, that the fly does not place them promiscuously about the body, but constantly on those parts which are most liable to be licked with the tongue ; and the ova, therefore, are always scrupulously placed within lts reach. " The eggs thus deposited, I at first supposed were
loosened from the hairs by the moisture of the tongue, aided by its roughness, and were conveyed to the stomach, where they were hatched. But on more minute search I do not find this to be the case, or at least only by accident; i°r when they have remained on the hairs four or five days> they become ripe, after which time the slightest application of warmth and moisture is sufficiënt to bring forth in an instant the latent larva. At this time, if the tongue of the horse touches the egg, its operculum is thrown open, and a small active worm is produced, which readily adheres to the moist surface of the tongue, and is from thence conveyed with the food to the stomach. " At its first hatching it is, as we have observed, a small
active worm, long in proportion to its thickness, but as lts growth advances, it becomes proportionably thicker and broader, and beset with bristles. " They are very frequent in horses that have been at
grass; and are in general found adhering to the white insen- sible tissue or coat of the stomach. " They usually hang in dense clusters to this white cuti-
cular lining of the stomach, and maintain their hold by means of two dark brown hooks, between which a longi' tudinal slit or fissure is seen, which is the mouth of the larva. When removed from the stomach by the fingers by a sudden jerk, so as not to injure them, they will, if fresh and healthy, attach themselves to any loose membrane, and even to the skin of the hand. For this purpose they sheath or draw back the hooks almost entirely within the skin, till the two points come close to each other; they then present them to the membrane, and keeping them parallel till itli pierced through, they expand them in a lateral direction, and afterwards, by bringing the points downwards towards themselves, they include a sufficiënt piece of the membrane to remain firmly fixed for any length of time as at anchor, without requiring any further exertion. " These bots, as is also the case with two or three other
species, pass the autumn, winter, and spring months in the stomach, and arrive about the commencement or middle ot the summer at their full growth, requiring a twelvemontn fully to complete their structure. " The GEstrus Hcemorrhoidalis, or Fundament Bot.—™ "e
part chosen by this insect for the purpose is the lips of the horse ; which is very distressing to the animal, from the ex- cessive titillation it occasions; for he immediately a*te rubs his mouth against the ground, his fore-legs, or some" times against a tree, with great emotion ; till the animal a length, finding this mode of defence insufficiënt, quits tn spot enraged, and endeavours to avoid it by gallopi"» |
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Swelled legs shall receive separate consideration, for
obvious reasons. WORMS, BOTS, AND PAEASITIC ANIMALS.
Worms, most frequent in the stomach and bowels of the
horse, have been found in every part of his system. In abscesses, in the mesenteric glands and artery, in the sub- stance of the abdominal muscles, in the liver, in the wind- pipe, in the salivary ducts, and even in the pancreas. The worms most generally found in the stomach of the
adult horse are Bots. The parasite most inimical to colts is the tcenia, or tape-worm. Lumbrici ter es, or round- worms, most frequently found in the small intestines; Ascarides, a small worm infesting the large intestines; and Stronguli, found occasionally not only in the bowels but in the kidneys and cceliac artery of both man and horse. The groom always pronounces the symptoms of chronic
indigestion to be what he calls " a wormy condition." The consequence is, that the most potent " worm-powders," most of them so strong as to peril the life of the animal, are at once administered ; with what result, in hundreds of instances, Ave need not say. Ignorance, " with the best in- tentions," is the most charitable verdict. Bots. Our knowledge of the origin and habits of the
cestrus equi or stomach bot, before the investigations of Bracy Clark, was nü ; we shall, therefore, with this acknow- ledgment, condense from that author's " Essay on Bots in Horses," his account of this troublesome parasite. "When the female has been impregnated, and the eggs
sufEciently matured, she seeks among the horses a subject for her purpose, and approaching him on the wing, she carries her body nearly upright in the air, and her tail, which is lengthened for the purpose, curved inwards and upwards: in this way she approaches the part where she designs to deposit the egg; and suspending herself for a few seconds before it, suddenly darts upon it, and leaves the egg adhering to the hair: she hardly appears to settle, but merely touches the hair with the egg held out on the projected point of the abdomen. The egg is made to adhere by means of a glutinous liquor secreted with it. She then leaves the horse at a small distance, and prepares a second egg, and, poising herself before the part, deposits it in the same way. The liquor dries, and the egg becomes firmly glued to the hair : this is repeated by these flies till four or five hundred eggs are sometimes placed on one horse. " The skin of the horse is usually thrown into a tremulous
motion on the touch of this insect, which merely arises from the very great irritability of the skin and cutaneous muscles at this season of the year, occasioned by the heat and con- tinual teasing of the flies, till at length these muscles appear to act involuntarily on the slightest touch of any body whatever. " The inside of the knee is the part on which these flies
are most fond of depositing their eggs, and, next to this, on the side and back part of the shoulder, and less frequently |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE STOMACH.—WORMS, BOTS, &c.
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307
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Rway to a distant part of the field ; and if the fly still con-
tinues to follow and tease him, his last resource is in the *ater, where the cestrus is never observed to pursue him. -•■hese nies appear sometimes to hide themselves in the grass; and as the horse stoops to graze, they dart on the mouth or lips, and are always observed to poise themselves Qunng a few seconds in the air, while the egg is preparing °n the extended point of the abdomen. " When several of these flies are confined in a close place,
lhey have a particularly strong, musty smell; and I have observed both sheep and horses, when teased by them, to 'ook into the grass and smell to it very anxiously ; and if they by these means discover the fly, they immediatelj turn aside and hasten to a distant part of the field. ' I once saw in a meadow or field upon the cliffs at Mar-
gate, a fly of this sort teasing a horse that was confined to a small space by a spike stuck in the ground, to which a cord ^as tied. He could not get away from its attack, and be- carne quite furious, for in kicking at the fly with his fore- lo°t, which he did vehemently, he often struck the bone of the lowerjaw, creating excessive pain ; for in that direction, ^hile grazing, the fly comes to the beard of the lower lip. " The eggs of this species are diflicult to be seen upon the
Morse's skin or beard, owing to the agitation of the beast, a°d from the colour of the egg being dark like that of the ^kin of the horse. The animal has been generally too lInpatient, while undergoing this operation, to let me ex- arnine them very well. I ascertained, however, its form "7 pressing one of these eggs from the abdomen. " The larva or grub of this species inhabits the stomach
as the former, generally adhering to the white lining, and is ^sposed promiscuously in dense clusters, after the same Wanner; they may, however, be distinguished from them "7 being in general smaller, and longer in proportion to their bulk. " The larva of this species may be obtained from almost
aily horse that has been much at grass the preceding year,
aild exposed to these flies, and will be found during the
Sunvrner months sticking more or less within the verge or
°Pening of the anus, adhering to its soft lining, and pro-
^Ucing considerable irritation and uneasiness. Indeed, I
°Hce well remember being on a tour of pleasure in the Isle
°* Wight, and experiencing much annoyance from these
ai-vae. The little horse I had hired for the journey became
s° lazy and unwilling to go on, and moved so awkwardly,
"at I could not keep pace with my company, and I was at
a loss how to proceéd ; on taking up the tail, I discovered
'hree or four of these insects hanging to the rectum, and
heir removal instantly proved a cure."—Bracy Clark.
The tcenia, or tape-worm, is classed by naturalists among
^e entozoa (Gr. entos, within, zoon, an animal) ; modern en- "°inologists call this family of worms cestoidea (from Gr. Cestus, aband, eidos, like). "ae tcenia infesting the horse is a long, flat, jointed
orm, every joint of which, when broken, will from a new |
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animal. It bas been found from 20 to 50 feet in length
and an inch in breadth. The colour is dirty white. Its head, which is tuberculous, is placed at the slenderest end of its body, and is said to be always directed towavds, and sometimes to be actually within, the pyloric opening of the stomach. Percivall says he never met with the tape- worm in the horse, often in the dog; in the lraman subject it is common. The lumhricus is a round worm, found oftener in the
small intestines fhan in the stomach. Cuvier classes them among the Annelida?, on account of their blood being red, as in the leech and earthworm, and their bodies formed of a number of rings (annella, a little ring, and eidos, like)_ White and other veterinarians speak of a " fluke-worm," which is merely a lumbricus which occasionally penetrates living tissues, and differs nothing in its suctorial apparatus, which, under certain circumstances, seems to be used in a sort of mechanical boring through soft and permeable tissues. The " fluke-worm " is classed by naturalists as of the order Trematoda (Gr. trema, foramen, a little opening). The lumbricus is often found in the dung of horses, nearly as thick as the little finger, and from three to fifteen inches in length. Gibson says, "I have seen them eighteen inches long, and largèr than a man's finger." The worm is largest round its middle part, from which it tapers off to each end, where it is pointed. They are more generally white than red. A French veterinarian, Chabert, says he found four- teen pounds of them in a horse's small intestines ; and balls of them are often found in aged horses' small guts, compli- cated with bots (if the animal has been at grass) clinging to the vascular part of the stomach itself. They are always sheathed in mucus. Ascarides, of these, the most frequent of entozoa, eighty
species have been described, one, the small needle-like lively parasite which we find so commonly tormenting the rectum of the horse, is the only variety we are concerned with. It is thin as a stocking needie, inhabits the large guts, and is often found in the blind pouch of the ccecum. It is sharp at one end and blunt at the other, seldom more than half an inch in length, and of a dull white. It frisks or coils eel-fashion when immersed in fluid, and is often de- tected escaping from the anus. The strongylus, (Gr. strongulus, round), is an allied
worm to the ascaris, but is distinguished by the power of eating through or perforating important structures. It is slender, from two or four inches in length, consisting of two distinct portions :—a body, constituting not quite one-half of its entire length, rather smaller than a crow- quill; to which is appended a contracted thread-like part or tail, making up the remainder of its length. When first voided, the body appears black ; the tail transparent. No sooner, however, are they taken out of the dung than they vomit up their black contents, which have the appear- ance of writing ink; and then their bodies, like their tails, become transparent. This ejectment seems to be their last |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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308
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act of life, for they never move afterwards, but gradually
shrink and dry up to almost nothing. Numbers of strongyli were voided by a young horse, under the operation of physic, who had given no reason to believe he hgïboured worms of any sort. Symptoms.—The best-known symptom of worms in the
rectum or ccecum, is a dry yellow matter under the tail; but it is not invariably present even when worms are known to exist. When worms are irritating, there is unequal appe- tite and an irregular state of bowels; at one time costive, and at another loose, with glair or mucus around the dung- balls. When ascarides prevail, the horse is much disposed to rub the tail, to ease the itching of the fundament. The presence of bots is seldom detected by any distinct signs, except in the spring, when one or more may be detected half protruded through the anus ; the reason of its appear- ance being, that the time has arrived for it to quit the state of a grub for that of a fly. The lumbricus, or round worm, is probably the most generally found ; but it is only when it exists in great numbers, or itself becomes morbidly irritated to seek a change of situation, that it seems to trouble the animal. This symptom also applies to ascarides, in which cases both may interfere with digestion and the regular bowel discharges. The provender of the horse, although he eats heartily, does not digest healthily. The skin, also, sympathising with the stomach and intestines, occasions a staring coat and harsh feel of the hair. There are fre- quent attacks of slight gripes; the horse stands with his legs wide apart, and his belly hangs low. The breath is often hot and fcetid, and it is not unusual for a short dry cough to be present. Worms, however, exist without any of these symptoms. Whoever will take the trouble to visit a knacker's, and to turn over the dunghill in his yard, will find it to be composed quite as much of worms as of excrement. This dung is taken from the aged horses sent to be slaughtered, and is sufficiënt proof that worms are much more common than is generally supposed. Treatment of worms.—Nature has endowed these animals
with such tenacity of life, that no matters known to us will effect their destruction, though a few may answer the pur- pose of their expulsion. Bots are so hardy as apparently to survive immersion in oil, in alcohol, spirits of turpentine, and even powerful solutions of mineral acids. The con- tinued use of salt mixed with the food appears, however, obnoxious to them ; for sometimes under its use their hold gives way, and they are ejected. Bitters, purgatives, and the mechanical irritation of pointed bodies, as pewter, tin filings, &c, have no effect whatever upon bots ; but with regard to the other parasites, rather more success may be expected from medical aid, in the form of vermifuges. It has been attempted to effect the removal of worms mechanically, by dissolving the mucus they are supposed to be imbedded in, for which purpose lime-water, oil, solutions of aloes, &c. have been injected by clyster up the rectum, and which practice is most to be depended on for the ejection of asca- |
rides when in the rectum. This practice of washing away
the mucus of the intestine, and thus depriving the intes- tine óf the secretion given for its protection, is not to be recommended, though oil for this end would be harmless. Strong purges are given with the same intent, which may remove them also from the whole alimentary canaL Be" medies have likewise been exhibited to destroy them withm the body, by the mechanical irritation of their spicula; under which view tin, brass, iron, pewter, are thought remedial' The Indian caustic barley, and Indian pink, are reputed ver- mifuges against the teres and ascaris. The oil of turpentine has also been strongly recommended as an excellent general vermifuge ; but, except for the destruction of the tsenia, or tape-worm, it does not appear to deserve that character. The mode most in favour with modern practitioners, is to
give the horse having worms a drachm or two drachms of tartar emetic, for six mornings running. The tartar emetic is to be administered in the form of a ball, and to a fasting stomach. On the seventh, administer a sharp dose of aloes, to drive out the parasites, enfeebled by the previous medi- cines. Mr. Spooner recommends the following :— White arsenic . . . .5 grains.
Powdered cantharides . . .6 grains.
Sulphate of iron . . .2 drachms.
Tartarized antimony . . .1 drachm.
Mix with a handful of bran, and give in a feed of corn every evening
for a tortnight. Administer a dose of " physic " after two-thirds oi the medicine has been given, and, as soon as it " sets," the remainder. |
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Under Vermifuges, page 247, ante, will be found some
formulf» and remarks. Mayhew gives a scale of doses of turpentine adapted for the different ages of the horse :—e. g- for a three months' foal, half an ounce ; for a six months foal, an ounce; one year old, an ounce and a half; two years', two ounces; three years', three ounces ; four years', and upwards, four ounces. Take one pound of quassia chips, pour on them three quarts of water, strain, beat up the turpentine with yolks of eggs to make it blend with the infusion, add one scruple of powdered camphor, and give fasting in a drink before any food, in the morning. If the taenia are expelled, a tonic (see Tonics in List) tiU the coat is smooth. The tobacco smoke enema (see Apparatus in Plate of
Instruments, &c.,) is also used to advantage in the expul- sion of ascarides. CRIB-BITINQ AND WIND-SUCKINQ.
This curious and dangerous practice, which rapidly grows ;
into a confirmed habit, and is taught to, or initiated by, j animals who have the misfortune to be stabled with those con- j firmed in the vice, has been the subject of much extravagant speculation and wild theory. Ignorance has invested i* with mysterious significance, and a symptom of existing acidity of the stomach, or of its distension by gases, has been made, by a post hoc propter hoc sort of reasoning, into the cause of flatulent colic and other intestinal disturbances. |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE STOMACH.—COXCRETIONS AND POLYPITS. 309
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The premonitory symptom of a resort to crib-biting is
that of heartburn. The animal begins by licking the banger; and if there should be iron anywhere, which im- Parts a sense of coolness, that is particularly grateful. •'■he licking of cold substances is a sign of disordered stomach. The act of crib-biting is thus performed:—The incisor teeth are firmly pressed against any solid substance, Say the edge of the manger, he violently extends his neck, and then, after a convulsive action of the oesophagus, a portion °f gas is belched up with a grunting noise. This heated air expelled, the animal draws in his breath with a sucking sound, and the horse finds relief in the process. As the animal will leave the most tempting food to go through this Peculiar performance, we cannot look upon it in the light °f a mere habit, but as an instinctive mode of seeking relief, sotnetimes practised when the first motive has ceased, and hence becoming an inveterate propensity. We find, then, *«at crib-biting is most prevalent among horses that pass long weary intervals in the stable, consuming a diet of oats and hay, varied," as Dr. Kitchener facetiously says, by hay and oats, for a change." Such an animal, in a close and impure atmosphere, and without the slightest excitement for eye, ear, or brain, may well have a disordered stomach, and fall into a solitary and, to him, agreeable pastime. ^rib-biting has been cured in an early stage by a common stimulant, and this would point to a confirmation of our °pinion. A lump of rock salfr placed in the manger has stopped it, to which we would add another of chalk. or damp the food and sprinkle on it carbonate of soda. The name, "crib-biting," is a blunder. The horse does not
'bite" his "crib;" the manger is simply used as a point of pressure for the upper teeth, and thus the animal is enabled V pulling back to act on the muscles of the gullet, and to force a portion of the offending acid gas up a passage, which ls so constructed as to prevent vomiting. The human being ln a state of dyspepsia, is relieved, in like manner, by an eructation, but through a more open channel. Por the cure of crib-biting a turn out at grass is recom-
^ended. This arises from a misapprehension of the case. *he crib-biter will at once make for a gate-post or rail, as s°on as the fit comes on. Lining the edge of the manger ^ith iron is evidently inefficacious, as it forms nearly as S°od a fixed point as before. Sheepskins rubbed with aloes 0r spread with tar will not keep the inveterate crib-biter from his game. A muzzle with bars across the bottom, sufficiently open to enable the horse to piek his hay, but ^ot to fix his foreteeth on the edge of the manger, has been tried, and the horse, after some time, has been supposed to ftave abandoned his " habit." Let his stomach become dis- °rdered and it will be seen immediately that he is at his °ïd trick to relieve it. We would advise in every case the treatment of crib-
oiting as a case of windy colic, chronic gastritis, or of indi- gestion, according to the methods already laid down; and where it is evident that the practice has, which we doubt, |
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become a mere wanton pastime, to try the muzzle, not neg-
lecting to persevere with the medicinal remedies. Blaine says a strap which constricts the oesophagus has prevented crib- biting, which we can perfectly understand, though no cure. Although crib-biting has been declared to be unsound-
ness, we have known many horses work well and freely, and their usefulness, where their work has not been fast not perceptibly deteriorated. The injury to the teeth by crib-biting, though dwelt upon
by Youatt and other writers, is merely imaginary. Wind-sucking we take to be an imaginary variety of crib-
biting—a distinction without a difFerence. CONCEETIONS AND POLYPUS IN THE STOMACH.
Concretions, and especially calculi in the stomach, are not
so common as in the bladder, intestines, and kidneys ; and to the lesions of those organs we refer the reader. We are under obligation to Mr. Percivall for the following cases :— " It is no uncommon ciróumstance for hard substances to
be found within the stomachs of horses. I have seen seve- ral specimens. They were chiefly calcareous. The largest I ever saw was taken from a horse of my father's, that died of old age after having worked in a clay-mill for a number of years. I think this was nearly as large as an ostrich's egg, and not very dissimilar in appearance; it was of an argil- laceous nature, and was, doubtless, formed of the fine dust of the clay which the horse was continually imbibing with his food. lts nucleus was the large end (about half) of an ■ old nail. I believe they are always found to contain a nucleus." Thus much, on the subject before us, writes a correspondent, who signs himself J. F., of " The Hippia- trist" for 1830. In " The Veterinarian," vol. vii., is to be found the case
of an Andalusian horse—reported by M. Blavette, veterinary surgeon—who was, in addition to being a notorious crib-biter, a depraved feeder. " Neither manger nor rack, nor the frag- ments of the bars, escaped him : he gnawed his halter, and licked the walls, ate up all the earth he could get at, and was a confirmed roarer." For many years he had been sub- ject to violent colics, which became latterly more and more frequent. In one of these paroxysms, at last, he died. There was found in his stomach, after death, four pounds and a half of earth and sand. He had, as was learned afterwards, escaped from his groom on the morning of the day he died, and galloped to the riding-school, where he was found eating the earth and sand composing the floor. A brass wire, about the size of a knitting needie, and eight or nine inches long, was found sticking in the intestines, through whose walls it had penetrated and had run into the lumbar muscles. Polypus in the Stomach. Mr. Brown, veterinary surgeon
of Melton Mowbray, has a preparation of a polypus which was taken out of a horse's stomach. The subject—an old brown horse, named Sheffield—was
found, early in the morning of the 1 st of May, " labouring |
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310 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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wnder an attack of the bowels." The animal experienced
great pain, cold sweats, quick pulse, &c. No veterinarian attended. Oily purges and frequent clysters were exhibited ■without giving relief. The horse died on the fifth day from the first attack. About fifteen inches in extent of" the first small gut were mortified."—"The stomach was full, but its contents were liquid, and at the lower extremity there was a pendulous substance, which was plugged into the gut, totally obstructing the passage. I am informed that the animal was a remarkably healthy one, and appa- rently suffered no inconvenience from the polypus, until it formed a mechanical obstruction to the pylorus. The pedicle is rather tortuous, with an artery and two veins in the centre, having an expanded origin, which becomes con- verged into a firm cord, one inch in diameter and three long, terminating obliquely in the body of the polypus, which is a firm flat substance, weighing seven ounces and a quarter." § III. DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE PERI-
TONEUM AND INTESTINES. PERITONITIS.—ENTERITIS.----DYSENTERY.----TYMPANY.—INTUS-SÜS-
CEPTION.—STRANGULATION.----HERNIA : STRANGULATED, INGUI-
NAL, SCROTAL.----HERNIA OF CASTRATION, AND VENTRAL.—
RUPTÜRE OF THE INTESTINES. — CALCULI ETC. IN THE INTES-
TINES. PERITONITIS.
The three varieties of inflammation of the bowels are
called—Peritonitis, inflammation of the investing membrane (peritoneum) ; Enteritis, inflammation of the muscular coat (Gr. enteron, a bowel ); and Dysentery, inflammation of the mucous or internal coat (dys, bad, entera, the bowels), un- derstood in the horse as a flux, and synonymous in veteri- nary practice with human diarrhcea. Peritonitis is so little different either in its symptoms or
treatment from Enteritis that we may defer directions to that head. Acute peritonitis is seldom met with except as the result
of injury, such as accidents in castration, puncture of the belly, an overstrain in leaping, or over-exertion. Hence the peritoneum is found inflamed in hunters who die " over- marked." Accidents, too, in operations for stone in the bladder, hernia, &c, bring it on. After wounds, an access of cold will cause gangrene to supervene : see Enteritis. The tendency of chronic peritonitis is to dropsy of the belly (ascites) or of the chest (hydrothorax), which see. enteritis.
The intestines are composed of three layers of substance,
called coats, any one of which may become the seat of inflam- mation, to the exclusion—although all three are intimately connected—of the other two ; or, at least, so far to their ex- clusion, that the others appear to be but secondarily and |
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comparatively mildly affected. Enteritis consists in an in-
flammation of the middle or muscular coat—that which forms the principal substance of the gut. We have evidence of this when we slit open an enteritic intestine : although the exterior looks as red as scarlet, the interior is found to be hardly flushed ; even the aspect of the exterior is like- wise deceptive ; for, if we strip off the external or peritoneal coat we shall discover that the redness is underneath, the raised membrane being in itself translucent, with a red bloodvessel to be seen only here and there, instead of such crowds of them as appear in the muscular tunic. Enteritis is the " red colic " of farriers, under which name
they also include dysentery. There are, however, sufficiënt grounds for a division of the inflammations of the bowels into enteritis—or that which principally affects their middle coat, and is generally accompanied by costiveness—and that which primarily attacks their vibuus surface, and is produc- tive of diarrhcea or dysentery Between these states there is a sufficiënt mark ; but between inflammation and spas- modic colic the distinctive lines are familiar only to the experienced observer. When the gripes, or fret, as spasmo- dic colic is called among farriers, attacks a horse, it is usual and useful to give him powerful stimulants, active motion, and strong friction, all which would be extremely baneful in the red colic. A careful distinction should therefore be made between the two diseases, which may be readily done by attending to the characteristic marks of each, as parti- cularly detailed in spasmodic colic. Enteritis sometimes commences by a shivering fit, to
which succeed heat of skin, restlessness, loss of appetite; the mouth being particularly hot and dry ; the inner menv branes of the eyelids, and the linings of the nostrils, being rather redder than natural. As the inflammation advances the pain increases, so as to force the horse to lie down and get up again frequently ; yet, unless the pain be very acute, he seldom rolls on his back or remains stationary there ; but as he will occasionally do so. in particular cases, this should not be considered as a criterion between this dis- order and gripes. He will kick at his belly, stamp with bis feet, scrape his litter or stall with his hoofs, and look wist" fully round towards his sides. The pulse in most cases is frequent, as 90 or 300, and invariably very hard, small, and wiry. The breathing is accelerated : the belly is sometimes painful to the touch, which never occurs in colic ; it is als" hot to the feel, and the pain, instead of remitting as m colic, is constant; the extremities being cold, while the surface of the body is often warm. The bowels are usually constipated, and if any dung be evacuated, it is small, hard, and in dry masses. The anus, if examined, will be found very hot; and if the hand be intruded up, it will be fel* sometimes even internally inflamed ; it also, in many cases, quivers with the intensity of the general affection. Fre- quently, towards the later stage, there is some tympanitis or distension of the belly, which much aggravates the general tenderness evinced on examination. The urine *s |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE PERITOXEUM AND INTESTINES.-DYSENTERY.
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311
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painfully evacuated in small quantities, and very highly
coloured; sometimes it has much mucus suspended in it. ■la the progress of the disease these symptoms increase in *ntensity : the distress of the horse is expressed by his groans, his violent efforts to change his position, as if to fly from his malady; while perspiration, partial or general, hreaks out, and is then succeeded by a chilly state, with aiuscular twitchings; the pulse becomes more and more hurried, intermittent, and at last nearly imperceptible ; the respiration is as quick and irregular as the pulse, and occa- sionally interrupted by a convulsive sigh. The vital powers are now fast ebbing, and the animal sinks after a few feeble struggles, or he parts with life with more violent convul- sive movements. Treatmeüt.—The clearest and most judicious treatment
we have met with is that contained in an editorial addition oy Mr. Spooner in the last edition of White's " Veterinary «.rt;" and as it has the further merit of brevity we here transcribe it:—" Having properly examined the case, we should immediately have recourse to bleeding, and that as extensively as possible ; for this purpose, a large opening should be made in the jugular vein, or one on each side, and from six to eight quarts taken as quickly as possible, continuing the bleeding till the pulse becomes almost imper- ceptible. The bowels being costive, the dung should be re- ïftoved by back-raking, and a copious injection thrown up. «• pint and a half of linseed oil and one drachm of pow- dered opium may next be given, and a half pint of the oil, with half a drachm of opium, may be repeated every six hours, till the bowels are relaxed; the injections being also frequently repeated. " The abdomen should be fomented with very hot water,
which should be continued for some time; and it will after- wards be very useful to apply hot sheep-skins, just removed from the dead animal, to the abdomen, the woolly side °utermost. If these cannot be procured, the fomentations should be repeated, or the abdomen may be stimulated by a Wistering application.* The legs must be kept warm by «annel bandages, assisted, if necessary, by rubbing in a sti- mulating liniment, composed of oil and spirits of turpentine. During the continuance of pain the horse will, of course, take no food, nor is any desirable. He will most probably °e disposed to drink, of which circumstance advantage should be taken, by offering him oatmeal gruel, or linseed *ea, as often as he will take it. " If relief be not obtained in the course of six hours, our
Prognosis will be unfavourable, particularly if, on again re- sorting to bleeding, we find the blood very dark and thick, a*id with difficulty obtained. |
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" A second, and even a third, bleeding should be tried,
though in less quantity than at first. If the pain ceases, or greatly diminishes, the pulse becoming more distinct or mode- rate, we may then augur a favourable result, which opinion will be greatly strengthened by the bowels becoming gra- dually relaxed. If a favourable result should attend, great caution is necessary for some little time as to the diet; and soft food should be given for several days. " When death occurs, we find, on examination, the mus-
cular coat, particularly of the large intestines, quite black from inflammation, and the other coats likewise involved in a secondary degree." D7SENTERT (MOLTEN GREASe).
This disorder is an inflammation of the internal surface of
the bowels. It is caused by obstructed perspiration; the continued use of certain kinds of food ; but more frequently by the injudicious administering of improper purgatives, either as to quantity or quality, by which such irritation is brought on as ends in inflammation. Dysentery is com- monly accompanied with purging, whereas enteritis is almost always associated with costiveness ; neither is the pain so acute in dysentery, consequently the horse seldom expresses his uneasiness by rolling or stamping ; the pulse is also quick and small, but is seldom very hard, even from the beginning. However urgent may be the symptoms, and whatever the pulse may denote, no blood must be with- drawn in this disorder; for it is inflammation of the mucous membrane, and after all we can do to support the horse, he will hardly have strength to get through the attack. Stimulants should, however, be applied to the bowels, as in inflammation of the intestines, properly so called. The stable and the clothing also should be warm, and means should be taken to keep up the circulation in the extremities by hand-rubbing and bandaging. The fol- lowing drink may be given every two hours :— |
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Mr. Spooner's prescription is more simple.
Powdered opium . . . .1 drachm.
Powdered catechu . . . .2 drachms.
Prepared chalk . . . .1 ounce.
In thick gruel made from wheaten flour, or in boiled starch.
Throw up frequent injections of rice-water, and have a
pail of thin cold gruel in the manger, which, however, should be repeatedly changed, though most likely the poor animal will drain it almost as fast as it can be prepared. The reader is referred to the preceding section under the
heads Diarrhcea and Costivenes& |
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" Mr. Mavor has introduced some apparatus, whereby the steam
om hot water may be applied to the abdomen for an hour together ;
tas is likely to prove of great service in cases of enteritis, as well as in
lnÜamniationof thechest."—"Veterinarian," vol. xii., p. 198; "Veteri-
tory Medieal Association."
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312 THE TRACTICE OF VETERIXARY MEDICIXE.
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us to suspect that this has taken place, and, could we ascer-
tain its existence, there would be no cure. The Symptoms.—Internal stricture and strangulation of
intestine are, in general, violent to a degree, though the same in kind as result from colic, or, rather, enteritis. The poor sufferer paws, and lies down, and rolls, and looks at his flank, and pants, in horrible agony; his belly becomes tympanitic, tense, and enlarged ; and his pulse is quick and small, 70 or 80, but not thready. F°r the first three or four hours, all that we do appears ot no avail. Afterwards a calm takes place, and we are apt to think our remedies have worked it; if, however, we again examine the pulse, we shall find our patiënt evidently sinking; perhaps, at the time, all over in a tremor and cold sweat. This deceitful calm is nothing but the too certain precursor of mortification. The animal commonly dies in convulsions. HERNIA (RUPTüRE).
The signification of the Greek word, 'ernos, a branch, is too
narrow to express properly what we understand by rupture in its varieties. We shall here confine ourselves to a dis- placement of the intestines from the abdominal cavity, either through some of the natural openings, or through artificial ones, as the effect of accident. The places where these protrusions commonly take place
in the horse, are, the groin, the navel, the sides of the belly» and the diaphragm. It is these differences in situation that constitute the different sorts of hernia:—that protruding at the groin, called inguinal; the same extending through the canal and descending into the scrotum, called scrotal; that at the navel, umbilical; that apparent upon any part of the belly (the navel excepted), ventral; the one passing through the diaphragm, diaphragmatic. The parts protruded in hernia are commonly either the
intestines or the omentum, or both. Every viscus, however, even the thoracic and cerebral, is liable to hernia. Hernia is again divided into reducible, irreducible, and
strangulated. When the contents of the tumour adrnit of being returned into the abdomen, the hernia is said to be a " reducible " one ; when, either in consequence of their bulkiness, or their adhesion to the sac containing them, or to each other, that is found impracticable, the hernia becomes an " irreducible " one. Should there be constric- tion at the mouth or contracted part of the sac, which in inguinal hernia is at the internal abdominal ring, to that degree that the circulation is either impeded or altogethet' arrested, the hernia is said to be " strangulated." The hernia most frequent, as well as most important,
is inguinal. To which, on both these accounts, it will be necessary that we should give our fullest consideration- Many of the following observations become equally app^1" cable to the other kinds of hernia, a circumstance that wiU tend still further to abridge our description of the rest. The reader who would pursue the subject is referred to the |
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Tympany.—A reference to our observations on windy
eolb, r>. 448, will save repetition. INTTJS-SÜSCEPTION OF THE B0WEI.S.
Straegulatioo, intervagination, volvulus, or intus-suscep-
tion—for by these names a twisting, knotting, or unnatural torsion of the bowels is called—is more frequent than has been supposed. Fatal cases of this disorder having been often treated as colic, and post-mortem examination neglected. Intus oe Intro-susception means the slipping of one por-
tion of intestine into another—commonly into the one behind it. In the human subject, especially in children, this appears to be an accident by no means uncommon, and one that happens and rights itself again without any know- ledge on the part of the person in whom it occurs. The two most frequent descriptions of strangulation will be best understood by a drawing. We give them from Percivall:— |
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Fig 1. Fig. 2.
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The first represents a strangulation of the small intes-
tines, the second, a strangulation of the rectum. The spasmodic action of the ileum long continued, may be suc- ceeded by an inverted action from the ccecum towards the stomach, more powerful than the natural action ; and the contracted portion of the intestine is thus forced into a por- tion above it that retains its natural calibre ; and the irritation caused by this increases the action, until more is forced in, and an obstruction is formed which no power can overcome. • Even the natural motion of the bowels will be suf- ficiënt to produce intus-susception, when the contraction in 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. There is another 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 himself about, portions of the ileum become so entangled as to be twisted into nooses \nd knots, drawn together with a tightness scarcely credibie. Nothing but the extreme and lengthened torture of the animal can lead |
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DISEASES AXD IXJURIES OF THE PERITONEUM AND INTESTINES.—HERNIA.
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313
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franslation of M. Girard's treatise, by Mr. W. Percivall, and
to a paper on hernia, by Mr. Simonds, in the " Veterinarian," vol. xi. ■Inguinal hernia, as we have just said, is the most coni-
toon, of which the scrotal (when the bowel descends into the scrotum) is most frequently observed in the stallion. ■Kubonocele, or that of the groin, is a very rare form of tiisease, but is occasionally witnessed in geldings. In the ornier, the intestine accompanies the spermatic cord by the
lnguinal canal through the abdominal rings into the scro- tum : in the latter the bowel alone lodges in the groin. *he ruptures we have named maybe considered as the only
°nes common to the horse. Hernia is more frequently on the right than on the left side ; and scarcely ever appears ln mares. However, ventral hernia or rupture of the mus- jes of the abdominal sides, and protrusion beneath the skin of a portion of intestine, is sometimes found in either Sex, and perhaps occurs more frequently in the female. The causes which produce hernia are various, but all
arise from violence of exertion, or the effects consequent upon external injuries. With us the efforts used in racing, and the leaps taken in hunting, are causes, as we may readily suppose ; when we consider that the dilatation of the abdomen, restrained as it is by weight and tight girth- lngs, must press backwards the intestinal mass. Rearing aQd kicking also, and being cast for operations, particularly the rising up after castratiön, have all brought it on. Blows *ith a thick stick, or from the horn of a cow, may likewise induce it. The Symptoms of strangulated hernia are in this respect
Ve*7 similar to acute enteritis; there is the same uneasiness, shifting of position, getting up and lying down again. The korse rolls in the same manner, and in turning on his back ®°rnetimes seems to get a momentary respite from pain ; yet Jt is but momentary, for the suifering is not one of remis- S1°Q; it is constant. This serves as one distinguishing ^ark between it and spasraodic colic, with which it has °een confounded. In stallions, the testicle on the ruptured Slde is drawn up to the abdomen, and is retained there, with only momentary fits of relaxation, the scrotum often drops with sweat. Towards the last, the pulse is quick and wiry; the horse paws, looks at his flanks, but seldom kicks at his belly. We assure ourselves of hernia by an oblong tutnour in the groin, of larger or smaller bulk ; hard or soft, as it may contain either fseces or gas, in which latter case it ^11 also be elastic. When the tumour is raised by the j*and, or pressed, a gurgling sound is emitted; or if the "orse be coughed, it will be sensibly increased in dimen- Bions. The Schneiderian membrane is often injected, and ^e horse gazes at his groin or scrotum.
Treatment.—Supposing the animal to be a stallion, we
"rst examine the hernial sac. In this both hands are em- ployed ; one is introduced into the rectum, the other into .^e sheath. The one within the rectum must seek the ^ternal ring; while the other, pursuing the course of the
KR |
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cord on the side affected, is to be pushed up to the external
ring; and thus, in the natural state, the opposed fingers may be made nearly to meet, and so estimate the size of the opening. However small the protruded portion of gut, the practitioner will be able to detect, and even to reduce it. This exploration may be made in the standing posture ; but it will be conducted with more facility and certainty if the animal be cast, which is the preferable mode of pro- ceeding. Bleed and partially paralyse the parts by administration
of chloroform ; lessen the volume of distension by dashing the parts with cold water; or, if the horse be already cast, by spreading ice over the belly. Next, endeavour to return the displaced gut. The horse
is thrown upon the opposite side to that disordered; and after one hind leg has been drawn and fixed forward, as for castratiön, he is to be turned upon his back, and in that position maintained by bundies of straw, while other bundies are placed under him to raise the croup. With both arms well oiled, the operator will now commence his exploration, taking the precaution of emptying the rectum as he proceeds. As soon as he shall have ascertained that it is a case of hernia,—having assured himself the gut pro- truded through the ring is undergoing neither stricture nor strangulation,—he may endeavour to disengage the hernial part, by softly drawing it inward within the cavity, at the same time pushing it in the like direction with the hand within the sheath. Should he experience much difficulty in these attempts, he is to desist; violence being too often the forerunner of strangulation and gangrene. He must bear in mind that, although the reduction is effected, unless it be foliowed by immediate castratiön, it does not always prove a cure. The protrusion recurs after a time, and occasionally even the moment the animal has risen. If the hernia should be reduced by taxis,* and it is not intended to castrate the horse, apply a well-wadded pledget, or folded cloth to the part; this may be retained with a bandage crossed between the legs from side to side, and fastened by one part under the belly to a girth; and also, passing between the legs, it may be again made fast to the back portion of the same girth. The intention of this is, to pre- vent the protrusion of the gut by the exertion of rising; and consequently it should be removed as soon as that danger is over. Mr. Rogers (after M. Grirard) recommends a bistourie
caché as an operating instrument, and from his paper on " Hernia" we extract a description of the operation for scrotal hernia. We will suppose the horse thrown as described in the last
paragraph, and the examination made. The operator takes the testicle of the affected side in both hands, and, manipu- * Taxis (from the Greek taxis, order,) means merely the putting
back of the intestine in its place in the cavity of the belly: this is called " reduction by taxis." |
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314 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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scrotum to which the vaginal sheath is adherent, and to
push up the clams as close as possible to the belly; they are then to be closed, as for castration. Of congenital hernia, our limits allow of little more than
the mention ; nor need more be detailed, as its consequences are seldom injurious. It appears that inguinal hernia com- monly exists in the foetus in utero. Chronic ,or permanent hernia, our observations being limited to geldings, we see little of. Castration, however, with the armed clams, is the evident remedy. RÜPTTJRE OF THE INTESTINES.
There are a number of cases in veterinary books, of rup-
ture of the intestines, especially of the colon. A rent of the ileum nine inches in length, at the part where the me- sentery is attached, is recorded by Mr. Spooner. The me- sentery was also split. It has been said that rupture of the stomach or intestines is an effect of colic; we suspect that the rupture having taken place by some accident, or dis- organization of the parts, the symptoms of colic supervene, and hence the cause is mistaken for an effect. CALCÜLI IN THE INTESTINES.
Stones in the intestines of the horse are not unfrequent.
They are occasionally of enormous size. Mr. Spooner has one, round as a cricket ball, and weighing six pounds, found in the colon of a miller's horse. They often occasion dangerous colics, by accidentally altering their situations. Whenever, therefore, colics occur frequently without any apparent cause, they often prove, after death, to be refer- able to irritation from these displacements. It is evident that this is an evil we have little power to
combat; if a horse, by passing a stone with his faeces, indi- cates a constitutional disposition to separate chalky matter from hi3 food, and afterwards to concrete it by the mucus of his bowels, the removal of a stone actually formed is hopeless. The abdominal calculus generally has a nucleus, or centre, consisting of a nail or stone. It is composed of the triple phosphates, is generally round, and is easily re- cognized by its external surface bearing a polish so bright as to seem the creation of art. Otbers are composed of the fine hairs which cover the substance of the oat, and some, called dung-balls, are formed by the feces becoming impacted. The first is usually found within the small in- testines, the two last invariably in the hinder bowels. |
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lating it so as carefully to bring it in close contact with the
scrotum, leaves it in the left hand. Tightening the skin, and guided by the raphe, he makes a free incision through the integuments, and then through the tunic, which latter he dilates to the extent of three or four inches by means of the scissors or scalpel, first introducing one of his fingers as a guide. If the operator has a knowledge of the parts, he need not be afraid of opening the scrotum by free incisions, made with caution. On opening the scrotum, a quantity of serum, depending on the length of time the strangulation has existed, will escape. If the operator takes the testicle firra in his hand, there
will be little danger of wounding the gut. After having opened the scrotum, by putting aside the
testicle, he may generally obtain a view of the intestine. He next attempts to introducé the index finger of his
left hand into the stricture ; but this is sometimes difiicult, as the spermatic cord becomes occasionally enormously enlarged, the stricture preventing the return of blood by the veins, but allowing it to proceed to the testicle by the arteries. In such a case it is an advantage first to castrate, and so get this distension out of the way. Having carefully passed the finger into the stricture, he
then introduces the bistoury, and, having taken great care to avoid the intestine, very carefully dilates the stricture; but this is to be done with the greatest caution, so as just to enable him to return the gut and no more, for if he much enlarges the opening he will, in all probability, have a re- turn of the hernia, and lose his patiënt. Having reduced the hernia and removed the testicle, he dresses the scrotum with turpentine liniment, and allows the horse to rise. Treatment of strangulated hernia in geldings.—Inguinal
hernia taking the same course, is susceptible of the same terminations, and requires the same treatment, as in stal- lions. The operator (the horse lying upon his back) ex- tends the hernial sheath with one hand, while he mani- pulates with the other; or, should this fail, by instructing his assistant to hold up the hernial mass from the belly, so as to take its pressure off the ring, and thus give him an opportunity to renew his efforts with more effect. In some cases, the introduction of one hand into the rectum becomes necessary. The reduction of the hernia should be foliowed up immediately by the application of the clams, if we unite with the reduction an attempt at permanent cure of the hernia; taking care, at the time, to draw out the part of the |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE LIVER, &c
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CHAPTER XXIX
DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE LIVER, SPLEEN, AND GLAND3.
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one upon which we shall comment hereafter, that in liver-
complaint, the horse is often lame of the right foreleg, as if (which is the case in man) the pain extended to the shoulder. What does the inquiring reader think of the following case given by Percivall ? " The horse belonged to the Artillery, at Woolwich, and
was lame in the off foreleg, through which ultimately he became so disabled, that he with difficulty projected the limb even in walking. No cause whatevei being discover- able, and the lameness continuing in defiance of all that had been done by way of remedy, it was deemed advisable to destroy the animal. The limb was dissected; but every part appeared healthy. His body was then opened, and, strange to say, a thorn of considerable length was found sticking in the substance of the liver." Hunters kept in stable are subject to hepatitis ; which may arise from liberal feeding, injuries to the right side, gall-stones, and mischief in the immediate neighbourhood of the liver in which this gland sympathises. The brain is always disturbed when the liver is congested. Treatment.—In the first instance, four to six quarts
of blood should be abstracted; and this immediately fol- iowed by ten drachms of purging mass in a ball, or twelve drachms in solution ; the operation of which may be accele- rated by the occasional administration of a clyster. Calomel, and indeed every other preparation of mercury, being a sti- mulant to the liver, is to be scrupulously avoided. As soon as we perceive the physic to be setting, should there be occasion for it, we may take away another gallon of blood; and at the same time, after having had the hair shorn off, apply a blister to the right side, extending it from the borders of the ribs as far forwards as the place of girthing. The first dose of medicine once " set," we may resumé our operation on the bowels by giving daily the following ball, omitting it only at such times as purgation shall have recommenced :— Take of Purging mass . . . 2J drachms.
Powder of digitalis . . 1 drachm.
Powdered nitre . . . 3J drachms.
Soft soap, sufficiënt for a balL
Should the blister not have taken proper effect, twelve
hours after its application, it may be repeated. In case the disease appear to be merging into the chronic form, the |
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§ I. DISEASES OF THE LIVER.
BEPATITIS (lNFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER).—JAUNDICE.—EN-
1ARQBMENT OF THE LIVER.—RUPTURE OF THE LIVER.— BILIARY CALCULI.—WORMS AND HYDATIDS. Ihe Hver of the horse is less frequently diseased in
early and middle life than in man and many other animals. Oxen and sheep, having a gall bladder and cystic duet, which the horse has not, are more liable to bihary obstructions. Cows are specially the subject of uver disorder, called by herdsmen and cow-doctors by the cbaracteristic name of " the yellows." The liver of the horse, then, is seldom primarily affected
With inflammation ; but hepatitis is induced when this im- mense gland participates in other abdominal inflammations or injuries. When the liver is involved, there is the addi- tional symptom of the yellow or biliary tinge in the schnei- derian, the buccal, and the conjunctival membranes of Qose, mouth, and eye respectively. Blaine thus describes the disorder:—• The chronic or torpid state of the disease, which is very
common among high-fed and slightly-worked carriage and brewers' horses, may be unsuspected till the animal is sud- denly seized with gripes, or otherwise shows signs of being seriously ill. These symptoms are caused by the rupture of the fibrous case of the liver, called Glisson's capsule, and the escape of blood into the peritoneum or serous covering °f the huge gland. It is then almost too late to try calomel. A few days' quiet, and a dose to open the bowels, will be all that can be ventured; and the horse is returned to its owner, with a caution to work him gently and feed him sparingly for the future. Such cautions, however, are rarely long attended to. Nevertheless, the peritoneum stretches, and at the same time thickens in substance, con- taining, and at the same time restraining, the fluid that *s poured into it. Another rupture in time takes place, and the same measures are repeated ; however, the peritoneum ftt last gives way. If the rent should be large, the animal taay suddenly fall dead. If small, he is apparently labour- ing under a severe fit of colic, but the dilated pupil, the in- ability to bear the head lifted up, and the yellow tinge of all the visible membranes, declare the seat of the disorder; and the examination after death shows the cavity of the abdomen fall of thin black fluid. It is a curious fact, and |
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THE FEACTICE OF VETERIXAE.Y MEDICTXE.
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316
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rated to 100 or more, loud and thumping, and easüy mis-
taken for a primary affection of the heart. " The most effectual treatment will consist in a cautious
administration of laxatives, accompanied by diuretics and counter-irritants. To this tonics may succeed. In raj opinion, the ioduret of iron, in doses of half a drachm, two or three times every day, would be preferable to any other medicine. " One post-mortem examination presented the liver aboft
three times its natural size, and consisting of a mass of coagulated blood." EUPTUKE OF THE LIVER.
As there is no curative treatment for this lesion, we shall
dweil on it briefly. The age and habits and condition of horses disposed to this accident are such as conduce to and indicate some morbid condition of the liver. Enlargement and degeneration of substance alike conduce to rupture. Since the stall-fed ox is so prone to disease of the liver, is j it not reasonable to suppose the stall-fed horse should be subject to some similar disorder ? Chronic hepatitis is a dis- ease so obscure and insidious in its course, that horses iö general have it without any knowlege on our part of its ex- istence. In fact, we know nothing about it until the subject of it comes to die, perhaps from ruptured liver, and we find j the gland clay-coloured, softened, and so rotten in texture that it will hardly bear handling without falling to pieces. The rupture in most cases happens all at once ; but the
haemorrhage from it would appear as if it became partly— nay, in some cases perhaps completely—stanched, and then relapsed. In a case that occurred to Mr. Siddall, the horse had been ill, and subject to frequent faintings for upwards of three weeks before he died; which appeared afterwards to have been caused by small ruptures of the peritoneal covering of the liver in different places, of all which he rallied, not sinking until the grand rupture had happened. A grey coach-horse, belonging to his late Royal Highness
Prince Albert had been unwell the day before---heaving at the flanks, and off his feed—when Mr. Siddall was sent for to attend. His respiration was now short and accompanied with sobbings, and particularly when moved, though com- paratively tranquil while standing alone undisturbed, ex- cept now and then, when a sort of paroxysm came on- Extremities cold; pulse frequent and small, and easity compressed. Sclerotic coat and buccal membrane blanched; tongue covered with frothy saliva; breath stercoraceous ; fseces scanty and dry. Medicine and gruel were prescribed. The next morning the groom found he had eaten his mash> and thonght he appeared more cheerfuL Soon afterwards, however, while doing something upstairs, over the stable, the groom heard him fall, and in a very few minutes after he breathed his last. In the above case, the horse suxvived forty-eight hours
after the rupture. The immediate cause of the rupture appears to be eithet
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insertion of two or three setons through the skin of the
right side is a commendable practice. Mr. Cupiss, to whom we are indebted for a very clever
essay (" Veterinarian," vol. xii.,) on liver diseases in the horse, describes three other affections under the names of unnatural enlargement, decayed structure, and vjnhealthy secretion. The second may be included as one of the sequelae of hepatitis, the third as general biliary fever, or a form of jaundice. JAUNDICE.
The remarkable yellowness of the skin, eyes, and mouth
in this disease have obtained for it the name of " Yellows." The Stmptoms of jaundice are the same as those of hepa-
titis. It has been said that vetches and green food produce jaundice; we do not believe it. lts treatment is, like en- teritis, by alteratives. Try the following :— Calomel . . . . • £ drachm.
Aloes . . . . .2 drachms.
Powdered gentian . . .2 drachms.
Castile soap . . . .2 drachms.
Form into a ball, and give night and morning until the
bowels are actively purged ; then continue only so much of the same, for a week or ten days, as will keep the bowels lax, not in a purging state. If the symptoms be such as bespeak chronic inflammation or incipient consolidation, blister the right side. In cases where costiveness is not present, but, on the contrary, a relaxed state of the bowels appears, give the following:—■ Calomel . . . . .1 scruple
Blue vitriol . . . . £ drachm.
Gentian, in powder . . .3 drachm3.
Oak bark, in powder . . .3 drachms.
Make into a ball, and give night and morning, unless the
calomel should affect the mouth, in which case give only once a day. Should the looseness increase on this plan, add powdered opium, a drachm to each ball. In all cases of yellows, a change of food is proper, and generally neces- sary. In winter, spear the corn, or give carrots ; in sum- mer, soil, or give green grasses ; but, in such case, avoid exposure to the night air, making use of moderate clothing so long as the calomel is continued. ENLARGEMENT OF THE LIVER.
Mr. Cupiss says of enlargement of this gland :—
"Unnatural enlargement of the liver sometimes takes place. It is swollen to two or- three times its natural size.
It presents an appearance of general congestion; it becomes
gradually filled with a black bloody fluid. The progress of
this variety of liver disease is uncertain, generally slow, and
almost invariably fatal.
" The symptoms are, an enlarged and tense abdomen;
the bowels sometimes constipated, at other times relaxed ;
there is sometimes considerable thirst; the pulse is accele-
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SPLEEN AND GLANDS.—RUPTURE 317
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DISEASES AND IXJURIES OF THE
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excessive distension, or some effort of respiration or bodily
exertion, or some injury. In a case of enlargement fol- iowed by rupture, the liver had acquired the weight of sixty- two pounds; -was intensely black; and from a rent in its lower border three gallons of blood had escaped. BILIAET CALCULI, WORMS, AND HYDATIDS.
Biliary calculi, from the structure of the liver in the
horse, and his want of a gall-bladder, are not so frequent as ui the ox or cow. Urinary calculi will be noticed under the Bladder and Kidnet. Worms are said to have been found in the liver of the
norse ; we never met with any. In the sheep they pre not uucommon. Hydatids are sometimes hid in the horse's liver. In
sheep they are so common that rot was at one time attri- outed to them by the cow-doctors. § II. THE SPLEEN AND GLANDS.
SPLENITIS.—CANCER OF THE SPLEEN.—ENLARGEMENT AND
RUPTURE OF TÜE SPLEEN. Splenitis (or inflammation of the spleen), we know only
*Q post mortem examinations. In this compendium we have merely to record the fact that no veterinarian doubts that the spleen is the occasional seat of inflammation; but in ^hat its symptoms differ from ordinary colic, we know not. Mr. Cartwright, in the " Veterinarian " for 1836, describes a case which he confesses he treated " as obstruction of the howels," in which the spleen—the only viscus diseased— proved " doublé its usual size, gorged with blood, and black as jet. Its natural tough texture was quite broken down, and it was soft, and in a manner approaching to gangrene." ■Ihere appears the singular coincidence between this and |
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a case recorded by Mr. Blaine, that both patients died on
the fourth day. The French veterinarians elaborately describe splenitis
and its symptoms, but, as we said before, they do not differ from those of colic. Cancer of the Spleen has several cases recorded under
the name oïcarcinoma melanosis—black cancer. In one of the cases in the " Veterinarian" for 1837, Contraband, a dark brown stallion, eight years old, was treated for disease of the kidneys, and died. The spleen weighed, with the can- cerous tumours on the gastric side of it, 102 pounds, and was sixty-eight inches circumference: the portions of spleen re- maining were of all colours. Mr. Huntley, veterinary sur- geon, relates a case where " the spleen weighed fifty pounds, and was a mass of scirrhus ; and the pancreas in a similar condition, weighing more than thirty pounds. Emaciation was the only actual symptom of this frightful state till the animal, a mare, died suddenly. RUPTURE AND ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN.
This formidable lesion is occasioned by enlargement,
spasm, or accident; often the presence of the first renders an accident fatal that would not otherwise be so. Interest- ing cases are related in Percivall's " Hippopathology," vol. ii., p. 331, and in various volumes of the "Veterinarian," to quote which would overload our pages. One case, in which Mr. Cunningham, veterinary surgeon, found a rup- tured spleen weighing ninety-two pounds, is recorded in the "Veterinarian " for 1855, p. 72. Disorders of the glands, naturally, range themselves under
several diseases. specific and general, as glanders, farcy, indigestion, enlargements of structure. inflammation of tissues. &o |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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318
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CUAPT
BISEASES OF THE URINARY ORGANS, AND 0T THE
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SR XXX.
ORGANS OF GENERATION, IN THE HORSE AND MARB.
I horse than is to be accomplished in that of the human
being. The veterinary surgeon, in fact, must often effect that through the medium of the kidneys, which the human surgeon does through the agency of the skin and bowels. Nephritis (Gr. nephroi, the kidneys), or inflammation of
the kidneys, as a primary disease, is not very common with the horse; but by its fatal tendency, it becomes important- Small as these organs are, they are most essential to life, and the quantity of blood passing through them is very great; therefore, we cannot wonder at their aptitude to inname, nor the great derangement that inflammation occasions the machine. Inflammation of the kidneys is not now so common,
because horse owners are not so much the slaves of the groom's and their own ignorance. In the words of Mayhew: " Urine bal'ls are no longer kept in every loft. Nitre—one ounce of sweet-nitre (that is, an overdose of harsh saltpetre), may be yet permitted by some horse-owners, who regard it as a charm for every ill. It is true that such a dose of a powerful diuretic is four times the strength which science would prescribe ; yet certain people, we hope only in remote parts, yet are happy in the conviction that ' an ounce of sweet nitre can do no harm.' It is fortunate the urinary organs of the horse are so little disposed to take on disease, or half the horses in England would be disabled by inflam- mation of the kidneys." The causes are, exposure to cold, standing in the rain,
water dropping on the loins we have known bring it on; a heavy awkward rider by his motions, or even the action of the psoaï muscles in great exertion, may bruise the kidneys; and occasionally it may be caused by a sympathetic inflam- . mation. Mow-burnt hay, musty or even kiln-dried oats, in common with other diuretic substances, which under the name of staling or urine balls, are such favourites with every groom, may produce it. It may terminate in reso- lution, suppuration, or gangrene. Symptoms.—Dull appearance; pain, expressed by looking
at the flanks; urine made frequently and in small quantities, with much effort or groaning; often red or bloody, and as the inflammation increases almost wholly suppressed ; still attempts are made by the bladder to evacuate, and the mucous secretion from the organ and urethra only are pressed out with much pain. Pulse at first rather hard, |
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§ I. THE URINARY ORGANS.
NEPHRTTIS (iNFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS).—ABSCESS, SOFT-
ENING, INDURATION (SCIRRHUS), AND ENLARGEMENT.—DIA- BETES.—ALBUMINOtJS URINE.—BLOODY URINE (h^IMATURIa). ----CYSTITIS (iNFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER).----SPASM OF THE
URETHRA.----URINARY CALCULI.—TAPPING THE BLADDER.
The kidneys and bladder are the chief parts of the urinary
apparatus. The ureters and urethra being merely channels for the fluid, which is elaborated by the farmer organs, and re- ceived and retained by the latter until such time as becomes convenient for its ejection. The exemption of horses from venereal affections, and their less liability than men to generate stone, contracts the list of their diseases of these organs. Indeed, were it not for injury—inwardly as well as outwardly inflicted—we should probably hear but little of them. Over-exertion, particularly under heavy burthens, is one grand cause of kidney disease; medicine and food pos- sessing diuretic properties constitute another; hearing which in mind, it will at all times become a leading desideratum in the treatment, to take care to remove or avoid the repe- tition of such influen^es. The kidney of the horse is a pecu- liarly susceptible organ. It is easily acted on ; and many— indeed most—medicines that we are in the habit of using take some effect or other upon it. Mr. Percivall says, this is one reason why so very few medicines will purge horses; the majority of them being so readily carried out of the system through the kidneys. A fact strongly corroborative of this opinion, is that of a copious flow of urine of a dark colour being frequently observable in horses who have been but slightly affected by doses of physic they have taken, and who, notwithstanding the little or no purgative effect they have experienced, have shown afterwards quite as much temporary weakness and loss in condition as if the physic had worked their bowels. This the same authority sets down as a reason why mercury produces salivation with such comparative tardiness and uncertainty in horses. This susceptibility of the kidney, in veterinary medicine and dietetics must never Ie lo4 sight of. It is of vast import- ance in practice, and renders our treatment in many cases different from what surgeons would pursue under similar circumstances; we being able to effect so much more through the agency of these organs in the system of the |
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319
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE ÜRINARY ORGANS.—ABSCESS, &c.
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jrequent, and somewhat full; but, as the disease advances,
l* becomes smaller, oppressed, and intensely quick. The animal stands with his legs wide apart, as though going to stale, and shrinks when the loins are pressed. If it be an entire horse, the spermatic glands are alternately drawn close to the belly, and pendulous or relaxed. To distinguish *t from inflammation of the body of the bladder, or from spasm of the neck of that organ, the horse should be exa- ttuned by passing the hand up the rectum ; •when, if the ^flammation exists in the kidneys, the bladder, whether it contain anything or not, will not be hotter than the sur- pounding parts, or more tender : but should the affection be confined to the body of the bladder, it will be surely found ernpty, but very hot and painful to the touch; if, again, 8Pasm of the neck of the bladder, as sometimes happens, should be the seat the disease, no heat or tenderness will be *elt, but the bladder will be found distended with urine. *ne horse shows much disinclination to move, straddles *ide behind, and his back is " roached." Treatment.—This must be directed to the equalization of
wie arterial action. Back-rake, and examine carefully by inserting the hand up the rectum, and feeling for heat and turnefaction of the diseased organ. Throw up frequent cvsters, consisting of cold water, in every gallon of which °ne ounce of sulphuric ether, and one ounce of crude opium, are dissolved, both with a view to promote a soluble state °i bowels, and to act as a fomentation to the inflamed °rgans ; and if any costiveness be present, give a purgative Without any diuretic substance intermixed. It should, °ecause aloes contain resin, consist of linseed oil, a pint and a half, in which a drachm of chloroform is mingled ; and one nalf of this may be repeated in six hours, if the animal dis- play no improvement. It will be prudent also to endeavour
at exciting an external inflammation on the loins. The
administration of cantharides is here questionable, from a ^'sposition in them to stimulate the kidneys. Turpentine, *or the same reason, should not be applied; but no such ear prevents the use of liquor ammoniae, in the manner
°efore directed, when treating of enteritis; neither can any °Djection be formed to the application of a simple mustard P°ultice, which may be renewed every two hours ; and if a Hewly-stripped sheepskin be laid upon the place the liquor animonias or mustard poultice has occupied, the activity of ^ach will be increased. In acute pain, give belladonna extract, alfa drachm, and crude opium, two drachms, thrice a day, in ^seed meal and honey. Without giving violent sudorifics,
nich would increase the action of the heart and arteries, ^ should attempt to moderately determine the blood to the |
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tepid gruel should be kept constantly in the manger. These
cases, however, generally last some time, during the whole of which the efforts should be continued, and exertion only relax as death, from known and well-marked signs, appears certain. Percivall says: " should the inflammation not abate, keep
the bowels soluble and the skin supple by the following ;— Purging mass . . . .1 drachm.
Tartarised antimony . . .1 drachm.
Carbonate of soda . . .3 drachms.
Mucilage to make a ball. If this produces purging, reduce the purg-
ing mass to half a drachm) or discontinue. ABSCESS, SOFTENING, INDURATION, AND ENLAROEMENT OF THE
KIDNEYS
Most of these are preceded by acute nephritis. The first,
abscess, is sometimes the result of accident. The French veterinarian Hurtrel d'Arboval, relates the case of a mare who feil into a hole, and was got out with difEculty, it being supposed she had received a spinal injury. Her urine was tur- bid, with streaks of blood. After a time a tumour appeared in the right flank, which was opened, and discharged an immense quantity of pus : the wound did not heal, but a fistula formed. The horse sunk. After death the right kidney was found to be four times its natural size; the pelvis, greatly distended, contained three pints of pus streaked with blood. The left kidney was also enlarged, and its pelvis filled with a quart of limpid urine. The bladder was thickened and inflamed, and contained merely a sediment of urine. Mr. Cartwright, veterinary surgeon, records a case where
the kidneys were light blue, in a complete state of putre- faction, and " the finger would pass through their substance like so much mud." Induration, or scirrhus, also foilow on injuries or inflam-
mation. The symptoms of kidney disease are fcetid, bloody, or
filamentous urine; a small irregular pulse; recurrence of sweats, especially in the flanks; these ceasing, the patiënt falls, and convulsions close the scène. The gait of the horse, and his wide mode of standing, are characteristics of these disorders. The animal, too, can bear no pressure on the loins. In some cases he will resist in evident agony any attempt to press his back, at others he will sit down on his hinder parts like a dog, and there is obstinate retention of both urine and faeces. The treatment is included in that of nephritis.
DIABETES.
Diabetes, polyuria, or profuse staling, has been divided
into a number of distinct disorders according as the compo- sition of the urine exhibited different constituents or pro- portions. Thus we have diabetes insipidus (watery diabetes,) diabetes mellitus (sugary diabetes), &c. "We shall here merely speak of excess of urine, as inflammation is already mentioned as the cause of deficiency. |
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sk
tb. |
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m and the limbs by clothing, friction, and bandaging up
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^ extremities; as well also by nauseating the stomach
ith white hellebore. Injections of warm linseed tea may e thrown up every two hours, and a pail of the same Piaced before the horse; he will want no other provision |
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du
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rmg the attack. Diluting liquors are among the best
eans of lessening inflammation, for which reason a pail of |
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320 THE FRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
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to one-eighth of the fluid, and seven-eighths of water, maké
up the healthy urine of a horse ; but in simple diabetes the water forms more than ninety-five per cent. of the fluid. Treatment.—Should the animal be attacked during the
spring or summer season, a desirable change would be from the stable to the grass-field; or, when this cannot conve- niently be don e, soiling may be practised with advantage- Should the water appear to be the cause, and there be »° means, or very great difficulty of obtaining any other kind, we may put a piece of chalk into the pail with a view of neutralizing the obnoxious impregnation. The medicines most serviceable in this disorder are
astringents and tonics. Mr. Percivall's prescription is com- posed of sesqui-carbonate of iron and prepared chalk, of each half an ounce, made up with syrup, and given once a day. Mr. Castley gave powdered galls, alum, and bole armeniac, each one ounce, ginger one drachm, in a quart of beer : half at night and half in the morning. Mr. Stewart speaks in laudable terms of opium. He recommends daiv a ball consisting of three drachms of opium, and of catechu, gentian, and ginger, two drachms of each, made up with a little tar. Should fever exist, such medicines, of course, become
inadmissible. In their place moderate blood-letting and purging must be practised. In case the urinary disorder outlive the febrile one, which it will not often be found to do, recurrence may be had to the opiate and astringent medicines. A pail of linseed tea, made by pouring boiling water on
whole linseed, and letting it stand till lukewarm, should stand within reach. Attend to the skin, and employ frictio» if the horse takes it kindly. A ball daily of one drachm ot iodide of iron, with linseed meal and honey; or a drin* of phosphoric acid, one ounce to a pint of water, lS extolled, and rightly, by Mr. Mayhew. The iodide of iroD acts as a tonic, and reduces thirst. ALBUMIN0US URINE.—BL00DY URINE.—H.EMATURIA.
Albuminous or serous urine is a symptom of kidney
disease, which it is well to be acquainted with. The water becomes of a deep straw colour, and thick as a solution <>t gum water. With a test of bichloride of mercury it w»1 precipitate a copious milky flocculence, resembling white °' egg, which may be coagulated by heat or a little vinegar and prussiate of potass. The symptoms, as in other kidney disorders, are straddling behind and "roaching" the bacK- Though sometimes the straddle is made backward and the spine curved in, with an expression of intense pam- Stimulants, mustard piasters, sponged off before destroyin2 the hair, are first employed, then abstinence from exer- cise, and, finally, opium in repeated doses, are our onlj dependance. Hcematuria, er Bloody Urine, is a complaint often me
with, and our first suspicion is that a strain, blow, or otne injury should be looked for. The blood may come in clo" |
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Simple augmentation of the urinary discharges, without
any material change in the composition of the urine, is the effect of a multitude of causes, some alimentary, others medicina!, others again of a nervous nature. Every horse- keeper knows how certa-in kinds of hay and corn cause horses to stale more than they ought to do, and that drinking a large quantity even of plain water will produce the same result. Medicines called " urine balls," or diuretics, are given for the especial purpose of increasing the urine. But ner- vousness will likewise do it, fright, or anxiety of any kind almost, will make a horse stale inordinately. How fre- quently do we see hunters at the covert side, when the hounds are about finding, staling or continually stretching themselves out to do so; and a horse having wounds will commence staling the moment the twitch is put on, from the remembrance that some painful cutting or dressing had foliowed this, to him, unpleasant operation. Profuse staling can only be regarded in the light of
disease when it amounts to much more in quantity than is natural, and continues for that length of time that the well- being of the animal is evidently affected by it. The cause for this must in general be sought for in the
food or the water. Dark-coloured, highly fermented, or mow-burnt hay; kiln-dried oats, or such as have speared or become musty from lying long in heaps; barley that has malted, and water having some mineral impregnation, are each and all injurious agents, notwithstanding they are con- sumed in many cases with impunity. The kidneys, too, may be subject to this excess of secretion
from the tampering of the groom with diuretics. Mayhew advises the following test, in his amusing but practical style. " Take into the stable two slips of blotting paper. Dip the ends of one of them into the interspaces of the brick Hoor where some of the urine is retained. Smell the piece: if it smells like violets, that is proof positive that turpentine has been given to the animal. Dry the other piece after dip- ping ; should that, when dry, and a light is applied, prove to be touch-paper, the evidence is conclusive: sweet nitre has been given to the animal. Should both these tests fail, the groom is innocent; other diuretics are unknown in the gtable." The symptoms, in ordinary cases, attendant upon this
immoderate flux of urine are—insatiable thirst, with, unless this be satisfied, a refusal to feed as usual; unhealthy appearance of the coat, dispiritedness, inability to bear fatigue, loss of flesh, and debility. The quantity of urine voided in some of these cases is so
great as to be quite incredible. The stall is deluged with the fiow. In an account of the disorder as it occurred at one time in France, M. Lassange informs us, " the horses attacked voided five or six pints of perfectly clear urine every hour. The urine is thin, aqueous, and perfectly transparent.
Carbonate of lime, sulphate of soda, muriate of soda, ben- zuate of soda, and phosphate of lime, amounting altogether |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE URINARY ORGANS.—URINARY CALCULI. 321
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°r mixed with the urine, or show itself in its pure form
°aly upon coagulation.
The Treatment is guided by the circumstances of the
°ngin of the attack. Examine the kidneys by the rectum,
and sweat the loins and pelvis; then let the animal rest
Without any disturbance or irritation, and administer gently
t\vo drachms of acetas plumbi in half a pint of cold water ;
then, in a quarter of an hour, give the like dose of the
acetate of lead, 'with one ounce of tincture of opium.
Repeat these till four doses are given, when, if the patiënt
is not benefited, take four drachms of the ergot of rye, and
mfuse in a half pint of boiling water, when cool add one
ounce of laudanum, and four of dilute acetie acid. Throw
Pails of cold water from a height upon the loins, and inject
cold
water per anum. Should the hsemorrhage cease, and
the kidneys not be enlarged or hardened (scirrhous) give
the foliowing :—
Extract of catechu . . .1 ounce.
Oak bark infusion .... 3 pints.
Alum ..... 1 ounce.
Sulphate of iron . ... 1 ounce.
Muriatic acid . ... 6 drachms.
This quantity to last the day, administered at four. flve, o» aix
Penods, as most convenient. ÜRINARY CALCULI—STONE IN THE BLADDER.
We believe these to be much more talked of than seen.
Renal calculi are unfrequent, but vesical or cystic calculi (stone in the bladder) are more common. A reference to Percivall (" Hippopathology," vol. ii., pp. 356—373) will put the inquiring reader in possession of what English and * rench veterinarians have done in investigating the varieties °f calculi, and the diseases produced by them, or of which they are the products. Mr. Morton, late Professor of Chemistry, at the Royal Veterinary College, has published a volume on " Calcular Concretions," which exhausts the subject. The symptoms of renal calculus are not certain. The
urine may or may not become purulent, opaque, gritty, or Woody. The first of these symptoms occurring when we have convinced ourselves there is no stone in the bladder, 'uay lead us to suspect renal calculus, especially if the animal shrinks from slight pressure on the loins. Our only treatment is hydrochloric acid in the water, in hopes to arrest the increase of the deposit. The chemical composition of calculi in horses is nearly
Ufliform, consisting of carbonate of lime (common chalk,) and carbonate of magnesia in varying proportions, mixed UP with albumen and mucous secretion. There is in the Museum of the Veterinary College a stone found in the bladder of a horse as large as a man's head ; the animal loy many years had been accustomed to stale every ten toumtes, and was knoAvn by the peasantry through the country he lived in as " the Pissing Horse." otone in the bladder is denoted like other kinds of stone
ss |
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by altered conditions of the urine and difficulty and irregu-
larity in its discharge. The water, when flowing freely, will sometimes be stopped suddenly, and great pain come on, small emissions being effected by violent straining. The back is oftener hollowed than " roached," and in some cases the point of the penis is constantly exposed. The horse often stops short, especially in going down hill, from a sudden spasm, or in hopes to relieve the bladder. In order to make certain of the presence of stone in the
bladder, an examination by the rectum is necessary. A firm substance will be feit near the neck of the bladder, which generally contracts pretty firmly upon it. The size, form, and outline of the stone can be ascertained by the experienced surgeon. Lithotomy or lithotrity is the remedy for this disease, as
well as urethral calculus—the one being the cutting down on the stone (Gr., lithos, a stone, and temno, to cut), the other breaking or comminating the stone (Gr. lithos, and tero, to break). Of the first we have a large number of recorded cases from the time of Lafosse downwards. A single related by Percivall, will convey a clear idea of the operation, for further details of which the technical
class-books of veterinary surgery must be consulted. " On the 26th Feb. the animal appeared to be in a
favourable state for the operation of lithotomy, which was performed by securing him upon his back, with the hind legs drawn forwards to the shoulders. The penis being drawn out, a three foot whalebone staff was introduced as far as the perinceum, and the urethra opened by an incision about three inches in length; a grooved sound was then passed straight into the bladder, and the stone was most distinctly feit, and heard on being struck.- It was attempted to be extricated without cutting open the pelvic portion of the urethra and the neck of the bladder, being readily grasped with the forceps, assisted by pressure made upon the calculus by the left hand introduced into the rectum; but being too large, these parts were laid open by a lateral incision made with a strong, curved, and probe-pointed bistoury. It was then, by the same means, but with con- siderable force, brought gradually forward to the perineum, when it was forcibly contracted upon, and a further exten- sion of the external incision was necessarily made to effect its removal. The hsemorrhage was not very great or alarm- ing, but it was thought best to secure a perineal vessel with a ligature. " The calculus is of the mulberry kind, very rough, of a
depressed oval form, weighing nearly three ounces ; it has no distinct nucleus. Dr. Prout, having obligingly under- taken to analyse it, found it composed principally of the carbonate of lime, some phosphate of lime, and a little phosphate of magnesia. " The horse, immediately after the operation, became
tranquil and cheerful, and the pulse feil by evening to the healthy standard, of 32 per minute, and so continued until noon the following day, when, being rather agitated by |
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TERINAEY MEDICINE.
rectum, hot, tender, and contracted into a firm substance of
about the size of a cricket-ball. The treatment is the same as for nephritis, and equallj
as urgent; every precaution pointed out when treating of inflammation of the kidneys, should be rigidly adopted; m addition to which, warm water, in every gallon of which a quarter of a pound of gum arabic and an ounce of crude opium have been dissolved, may be injected into the bladder by Read's syringe with an elastic catheter attached. SPASM OF THE NECK OF THE BLADDER.
We have preferred the old name of this attack, though it
is not so correct as spasm of the urethra, inasmuch as it is not the neck of the bladder, but the urethra which acts in this case in the retention of urine. It is distinguishable from inflammation of the kidneys by the large secretion of urine held in the bladder, and the consequent endeavours of the horse to empty it. The true nature of the disorder is discovered by passing the hand up the rectum; the bladder will be found distended ; the distension may indeed be feit in the front of the pubes. The retension of urine, however, is the principal symptom, although in spasm of the neck of the bladder there may be a small quantity of urine evacuated at different times; for after the bladder is dis- tended, there will be, by the force of the accumulation, a few drops now and then squeezed out. But in this disease frequent or copious staling will not take place, whereas in the previous disease it will be continual. As to the Causes of this complaint we know littie; but it
may be reasonably supposed that the spasm of the part is occasioned by morbid irritation, and our opinion of the pro- bable termination must depend on our being able to empty the distended bladder, and restore the lost tone of the organ. Every effort must be made to accomplish this, or the animal may perish under irritation; he may sink through gangrene of the distended bladder supervening, or he may, as he usually does, die of rupture of the bladder, in consequence of the kidneys continuing to secrete urine but the spasm offering an obstacle to its emission. Attempt therefore to accomplish the ejection by introducing the hand up the rectum, and gently pressing the fundus of the bladder forwards, which may force the passage. If this faü> the urethra must be opened by a catheter. In a mare, the catheter may be easily passed up, and the water drawn off; but in the horse, to effect this, a flexible catheter must be introduced, and gently guided forward. When a horse is affected with spasm, the penis is generally much retracted, but with a littie patience, aided by a handkerchief wrappeo round the hand, inserted up the sheath, this may be over- come. The part is then given to an assistant to hold firmly> while the practitioner inserts the point of the catheter, which he pushes forward with his right hand, while h& places his left beneath the anus, in order to turn the tube by manipulation when it shall have reached the perinseum- The rest is straightforward work ; only be careful to make |
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322 THE PRACTICE OF VE
numerous visitors, it rosé to 38, and by night to 45.
Four quarts of blood were taken from the jugular vein, a mild purgative given, and frequent clysters. "Feb. 28.—Pulse 40 ; in the evening, 44. Bowels relaxed.
"March 1.—Pulse 44. Purgative and clysters repeated.
"March 2.—Pulse 42; and so contlnued until the 8th,
when it declined to 38, and subsequently to 32, at which it continued this day (the 18th), three weeks since the opera- tion. The bowels having been kept. open by aperient doses of aloes and by clysters. The urine was evacuated partly by the orifice until this time ; but the wound is now healed, and it flows through the whole length of the urethra without the least impediment. The horse is exercised daily, and is fit to be discharged." In cases of urethral calculus, that is, of a stone passing
from the bladder and becoming fixed in the urethra by its muscular contraction, it has been found possible to extract it without an operation, by the dilatation of the passage by mechanical means, aided by relaxing lubricatory injections and fermentations; in all these cases hydrochloric acid should be administered. Mr. Spooner observes : in the case of urethral calculus, "lithotomy consists merely in laying open the canal along its median line and from behind forwards : it is to be perforined with a bistoury directed by one of the fingers of the left hand. In this manner, M. Dufils, veterinary surgeon at Bourdeaux, in 1821, extracted a stone from a mare, which was lodged in part in the meatus urinarius ; whereby she, who was before the subject of fre- quent colics, became at once restored to ease, and speedily afterwards to health. In the centre of the stone was found an almond, forming its nucleus. At the time it was shown to us, M. Dufils agsured us that it had lost much of its weight and volume, proving thereby that these calculi contain a large proportion of fiuid, the evaporation of which evidently brings on this diminution." * CYSTITIS (INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDEK).
Inflammation of the bladder is said, but not proved, to be
more common among mares than horses; but of all the causes of this affection none can compare with the powerful diuretics in general use with every stable-man or groom. The symptoms are frequent—nay, continual—emissions of small quantities of urine, voided with much straining, during which the dung commonly is passed. The bladder will be feit by the greased hand passed gently up the |
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* A case has recently come under the attention of the writer, in
which a stone was removed from the urethra by operation with success. This case was complicated with perineal abscess and striotnre of the urethra, and was foliowed, as well as attended, by a remarkable disposi- tion of the horse to earthy depositions in the urine. This latter disposition was treated with hydrochloric acid, in doses of 2 drachms, given in solution, with much advantage. The stricture was removed by caustic, carefully applied to the part. When the calculus in the bladder is too large for removal, it may be softened or dissolved by acid injections. |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.
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323
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steady, continued, rather than sudden or violent pressure.
Alter the urine has been evacuated, inject a gallon of cold spring water, with which an ounce of tincture of gall-nuts has een mixed ; and if this last is at the time, or shortly after-
wards, ejected, no fears need be entertained about the lost one. If it is not cast; forth, draw it off, and inject another
gallon, and continue till the bladder freely contracts. At tne same time you may give a clyster, composed of two luarts of cold water, with two ounces of sulphuric ether, and the same quantity of laudanum, which may be repeated tor three times. Mild food and good water, both procured trom a new source, are all that is required to perfect the cure, excepting it may be thought proper to give a dose of P.bysic upon recovery. Strangury, Stricture, &c, may be passed with the
reniark that, to draw off a horse's urine, it was formerly thought that, in the male, you had no resource but to cut through the perinajum into the urethra. We now know that a flexible catheter can be passed by a skilful veterina- Wan. Should the cutting be thought necessary, it is per- 'Ormed by a full-sized whalebone staff, flattened and ground at the end, passed through the penis till its extremity is feit Dy the other hand protruding in the perinseum. In this situ- ation it is cut down upon sufficiently to admit the straight (°r female) metallic catheter into the bladder, when the ^istended bladder is emptied, and the desired relief given. § II. DISEASES, &c, OF THE REPRODUCTIVE
ORGANS. 8YPIIILIS NON-EXISTENT IN THE HORSE.—URETHRITIS.—PHYMOSIS
AND PARAPHYMOSIS.—VAGINITIS AND LEUC0RRH03A (WHITES). — SCIRRHOTJ S TUMOURS.— OBSTETRICS.— EMBRYOTOM Y.— CAS- TRATION. Extensive and important as the variety and modes of
treatment of the diseases of the sexual organs are in human siirgery, the absence of those vices in the lower instinctive animals to which proud reasoning man is prone, fortunately renders this branch of veterinary science comparatively ^eagre. The practice of castration, too, makes disorders of 'ne testicles nearly a blank, except to veterinarians prac- tlsing in breeding or racing establishments, where entire b°rses are more frequent. Even here disease is rare. Older liters, and especially Continental veterinarians, in love with systematising, have set down diseases akin to syphilis, and ttescribed cases to bolster up their theory. We may safely ^^miss them, and that too with the authority of one of their oivn greatest writers and practitioners. Hurtrel d'Arboval, 11 his veterinary dictionary—" Dictionnaire de Médecine,
cle Chirurgie, et de Hygiène Vétérinaire," Paris, 1838,—re- Pudiates with disgust the imputation that the horse is the Su^ject of syphilis, and expresses his surprise that the authorities at the College of Alfort should have admitted into their pathology. He shows that lues venerea is a *sease peculiar to man, and can have but one speciiic
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origin. If an animal could contract the disorder, it must be
from a crime of man of too revolting a description to be more than alluded to. D'Arboval continues, " I have not passed through a long course of practice without meeting with cases which biassed minds might have taken for syphilis. I have had occasion particularly to observe and to treat irritations, inflammations, paraphymoses, discharges, ulcera- tions, &c. I have even remarked an obstinacy in some of these genital affections, with sympathetic swelling of the inguinal glands, and of one or both testicles, without, for all that, entertaining any notion of the disease being syphilitic. So far from it, I have always been contented with simple antiphlogistic treatment, modified as circumstances required, and I never had cause to repent of not having introduced mercurials." To this we need only add, that although cases of urethritis (inflammation of the urethra) have occurred, with a flow, or gonorrhcea (Gr. gone, seed, reo, to flow), yet it has been what Cullen calls in his " Nosology," gonorrhcea pura vel benigna. D'Arboval declares its causes to be, foreign substances within the urethral canal, too frequent acts of copulation, diuretics or balls of cantharides often given by injudicious grooms to excite the stallion, ascarides within the rectum, and inflammation of the bladder, causing retention of urine. The treatment in all these cases is simply antiphlogistic,—
tepid, bland, and mucilaginous drinks, with nitre, green meat, and, if that is scarce, mixed with sound straw, together with fomentations and clysters ; and, if the pain be intense, both fomentations and drenches may be rendered narcotic In entire horses, leeches may be applied to the testicles, or local bleeding practised. If there be any foulness, dilute acetate of lead or dissolved alum may be used as an astrin- gent and discutient. Phymosis (Gr. phimos, a bridle) is a contraction of the
orifice of the sheath, which prevents " drawing," or protrusion of the penis. Paraphymosis (Gr. para, beyond, phimos, a bridle) is, on the contrary, a contraction of the sheath when the penis is protruded and swollen, preventing its being drawn back again, and thus bridling or strangulating the glans penis. Both of these occur from blows, kicks, contu- sions, or wounds. In the first, a troublesome disease ensues, from the animal urinating within the sheath. In the second, which has been seen after accidents in attempts at copulation, a kick from a vicious mare—or worse a blow from some human brute with stick or whip upon the yard while in a state of erection,—the treatment is similar. Cold lotions to abate inflammation; local scarifications, pro- ducing free evacuation of blood If there are concealed ulcerations, or purulent collections in phymosis, we must cut through the prepuce, and slit it far enough back to insure its retraction, then treat the disorder as in cases of abscess or ulcerations elsewhere described. In paraphymosis, remember, all cuts must be made lengthwise, and along the upper part and sides of the penis, to avoid the urethra, and that they cannot well be too long, as they shrink up on the part |
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VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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THE PRACTICE OF
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324
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the size of the foal, a natural birth is despaired of, the prac-
titioner, having introduced his arm, and having ascertained that the presentation is a natural one, should draw the feet gently forward, and then endeavour to place the hcad between them. If the head only is met with, seize it by the muzzle and draw it gently onward, searching for the feet, and drawing them one after the other in the line of the head; which manipulations are, of course, only to be attempted during the throes of the mother. So soon as the head and legs are got near the external orifice, enclose each foot within the loop of a rope, then, holding both ends so attached, endeavour to liberate the foal by steady not violent pulling, timing your pull with each throe or labour- pain, unless by debility or protraction they have ceased. When this is the case, try to revive them by the administra- tion of stimulants, especially infusion of the ergot of rye, in two-drachm doses every twenty minutes. Should this not effect the object within the hour, proceed to extract the foal, longer delay may lose both mother and offspring. The blunt hook is sometimes used on these occasions where the hand cannot be introduced : it is a powerful aid with those who can direct it skilfully." When the obstruction arises from an unnatural presenta-
tion of parts—that is, of other parts than the head and fore- feet, as of the loins, the croup, and one leg, the other being doubled backward—it is evident we should endeavour to change the position to the natural one (of the head) if practicable. If not, we must bring the hinder feet forwards, and endeavour to make the extraction by this method. Lastly, if all these means fail, we must proceed to lessen the fcetal mass by cutting out the embryo. Embryotomy.—When, from weakness, a very narrow pelvic
opening on the part of the mother, or monstrosity on the part of the foal, no efforts can bring the foetal mass away entire, it must be dismembered. A knife made for the purpose, having the blade concealed, with the haft lying within the hollow of the hand, is to be taken up into tbc vagina. We are told that, occasionally, hydrocephalus in the colt prevents the head from passing Such a case will detect itself by the volume that will be feit on examination, and which will be easily lessened by plunging the point of the knife in the forehead, and evacuating the contents by pressing the skull in ; when, laying hold of the muzzle, the head may be brought through the pelvic opening. But it iS usually the natural size of the head which forms the obstruc- tion ; in which case the head itself must be removed. When the head has been dissected oiF and brought away, it will be necessary probably to contract the volume of the chest, which will not be difficult, by cutting the cartilaginous portions of the ribs, detaching the thoracic viscera, and then crushing or kneading the empty chest together; after which, the rest of the body will offer üttle obstruction. When the head cannot be got at, the limbs must be de* |
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fecovering from its distension, and retiring within the
sheath. Amputation of the renis by ligature and the knife will be
found described, with cited cases, in Percivall's "Hippo- pathology," vol. ii, pp. 385—388. Vaginitis and Leucorrhcea.—These, to use the words of
Percivall, is no more than catarrh of the vagina, an inflam- mation of the same sort as may attack the nose, the bladder, or any other mucous canal. Mares who are not allowed the horse, invariably have derangements of this kind during the spring season, when " horsy." At times it is white like whey, at others yellow and almost purulent in character. The discharge collects, and comes away, when the lips of the vulva are opened, with a gush. A cooling drink, or a ball, as follows, may be given :— Acetate of lead . . 1 drachm.
Opium . . . . .1 scruple.
Linseed and turpentine to form a ball.
An astringent injection five or six times a day:—
Decoction of oak bark . . \ pint.
Sulphuric acid .... 1 draehm.
Mix.
Or,
Sulphate of zinc . . . .4 drachms. Distilled water . . . . 1 pint.
Sprinkle wheaten fiour on the external organ and the inside of the
thighs after the injection. Scirrhus of the Vulva is recorded in the books, but we
have never met with it. The treatment would be excision of the tubercles, and rubbing the parts with ointment of iodine. If it spreads to the udder, the animal should be put out of its suffering. Diseases of the Ovaries are too obscure, and hitherto too
üttle investigated by the veterinarian, to deserve more in a compendium like the present than a record of their occa- sional existence. OBSTETRICS.
Parturition with the mare is generally a natural and
unassisted act. Cases of protracted and difficult parturition do, however, occur; and in these instances the veterinary practitioner should be au fait to the position of affairs, and the intelligent horse-master should not be under the tutelage of the farrier or the often pretentious groom. We shall here quote the simple and practical observations of Blaine in his "Outlines of Veterinary Art," edit. 1854, p. 365. "The principal cases that occur arise either from weakness in the mare, or from a disproportion between the foetus and the mother. False presentations are also to be witnessed, but chiefly of the hack and croup : that of the back requires much labour, but the foal is to be delivered, the hind legs being presented, without turning in the womb being necessary. When, either from debility of the mare, or disproportion in |
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ORGANS.—CASTRATION. 325
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BÏSEASES AND INJURIES OF THE
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tached; after which the body, and at last the head, may be
drawn out entire, or reduced for that purpose. CASTRATION.
In England, the practice of castration may be said to be
almost universal; the exceptions being a small number of norses kept for racing purposes and covering, and a few entire horses used in draught and for " black jobs," where the stallion crestis considered to add to the majestic appear- ance of the animal. Length in the arms and wider-spread angles of the limbs are asserted to be obtained by early castration ; certainly the docility and steadiness of the animal are vastly improved. Hernia, founder, and some skin disorders are less frequent with geldings than entire horses. The best period for castration depends much upon the
breed of the horse and the class of work for which he is mtended. If there is no object in obtaining a heavy and arched neck and a prominent crest, then the earlier the animal is castrated, the safer and simpler is the operation. Erom the fifteenth day to the fourth month is the most ehgible period, and " foals castrated early grow larger than those cut later," says Mr. Brettargh a veterinarian of exten- sive experience. He adds :—" Colts are foaled with their testicles within the scrotum, which remain there, in ordinary cases, until the fifth or sixth month, when they are taken up bet-ween the internal and external abdominal rings, and there they remain until the eleventh, twelfth, or thirteenth •nonth, all depending upon the degree of keep, as in some that are particularly well fed the testicles can at all times be found within the scrotum." Colts, therefore, can be castrated any time between the
nrst and fourth month ; and this period is preferred by some persons, from the little disturbance it occasions to the con- stitution. Some breeders of horses castrate at twelve months; others object to this period, because they think the animal nas not sufficiently recovered the check experienced from Weaning, before this new shock to the system occurs. In the more common sort of horses, used for agricultural purposes, it is probably indifferent at what time the opera- tion is performed; this consideration being kept in view, that the earlier it is done the lighter will the horse be in his t°re-hand ; and the longer it is protracted, the heavier will be his crest, and the greater his weight before, which in heavy draught work is desirable. Eor carriage horses it 'Would be less so, and the period of two years is not a bad °ne for their castration. The better sort of saddle horses should be well examined every three or four months ; par- 'cularly at the ages of twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four Months; at either of which times, according to circum- stances or to fancy, provided the fore-hand be sufficiently ueveloped, it may be proceeded with. Waiting longer may "lake the horse heavy : but if his neck appear too long and nin, and his shoulders spare, he will assuredly be improved y bemg allowed to remain entire for six or eight months |
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later. Many of the Yorkshire breeders never cut till two
years, and think their horses stronger and handsomer for it. Some wait even longer, but the fear in this case is, that the stallion form will be too predominant, and a heavy crest and weighty fore-hand be the consequence; perhaps also the temper may suffer. In regard to season and weather, the operator should—
where he can—object to castrate either during very cold or very sultry weather, or while the horse is shedding his coat) or in the season when, or situation where, nies prevail. These precautions will especially demand attention when our subject is an aged horse, or one that has been highly groomed or fed. The time to be preferred is late in the spring, after the horse has shed his coat, and before the flies have made their appearance. The colt should be prepared for castration by being kept
on short diet for a few days and his system slightly lowered, but by no means to a state of debility. There are several methods of castration, the commonest
with us is that of castration by cauterization. On the Con- tinent, the general practice is by the " caustic clam," by two methods, the " covered " and " uncovered." Castration by torsion has also its advocates and practitioners, we shall therefore add it to our list. A preliminary observation should be made previously to
casting, to see that the horse is not suffering from a rup- ture : such cases have happened ; and as in our method we open a direct communication with the abdomen, when the horse rises it is not improbable that his bowels protrude until they trail on the ground. Hernia as a consequence of castration may easily occur by the uncovered operation, as it makes the scrotal sac and abdominal cavity one continuous opening. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if the vio- lent struggles of the animal should force a quantity of intestine through the rings into the scrotal bag. Should we be called on to operate on a horse which already had hernia, it is evident we ought not to proceed with it unless the owner be apprised of the risk, and willing to abide by it. As unbroken young horses are the most usual subjects of
this operation, and as such often have not yet been bridled, if a colt cannot be enticed with oats, &o, he must be driven into a corner between two steady horses ; where, if a halter cannot be put on, at least a running hempen noose can be got round his neck; but whichever is used, it should be flat, or the struggles, which are often long and violent, may bruise the neck, and produce abscess or injury. When his exertions have tired him, he may be led to the operating spot. Here his attention should be kept engaged while the hobbles (see Plate XX) are put on, if possible; if not, a long and strong cart-rope, having its middle portion formed into a noose sufficiently large to take in the head and neck, is to be slipped on, with the knotted part applied to the counter or breast; the long pendent ends are passed backwards between the fore-legs, then carried round the hind fetlocks; brought forward again on the outside, run under the collar- |
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expect some violent struggles, more particularly if he
attempt to restrain the contractions of the cremaster, and by main force to draw out the testicle. Preparatory to this, therefore, the twitch should be tightened; the attendants, especially the man at the head, must be on the alert; and the testicle itself, at the time of this violent retraction of the cremaster, should be merely held but not dragged in opposition to the contraction. If the clams (see Plate XXL) have been put on over the whole, according to Mr. Percivall's method, they will assist in retaining the retracting parts; but they must not be used with too much pressure. The resistance having subsided, the clams must now be removed; or, if they have not been previously in use, they must now be taken in hand, and having been prepared by some tow being wound round them, should be placed easily on the cord, while time is found to free from the grip of the pincers the spermatic tube, which is seen continued from the epidi- dymis. The Russians, Mr. Goodwin informs us, cut it through when they operate. Humanity is much concerned in its re- moval from pressure, because of the excess of pain feit when it is included. It is necessary, before the final fixing of the clams, to determine on the part where the division of the cord is to take place. Mr. Percivall says, " If it be left too long, it is apt to hang out of the wound afterwards, and retard the process of union;" on the other hand, if it be cut very short, and the arteries happen to bleed afresh after it has been released from the clams, the operator will find it no easy task to recover it. The natural length of the cord, which will mainly depend on the degree of the descent of the gland, will be our best guide in this particula*1 The place of section determined on and marked, close the clams sufliciently tight to retain firm hold of the cord, and to effectually stop the circulation within it. There are now two modes of making the division: the one is to sever it with a scalpel, and then to sufliciently sear the end of it so as to prevent a flow of blood. The other, and in some respects the preferable method, is to employ a blunt-edged iron, which is to divide by little crucial sawings, so that, when the cord is separated, it shall not present a uniform surface, but ragged edges, which will perfectly close the mouths of the vessels. This done, loosen the clams sufliciently to observe whether there be any flow of blood; gently wipe the end of the cord also with the finger, as sometimes an accidental small plug gets within the vessel; this had better be removed at the time. Retain a hold on the clams a few minutes longer ; and while loosening them gradually, observ- ing to have an iron in readiness, again to touch the end of the cord, if any blood makes it appearance; satisfied on this point, sponge the parts with cold water. No sort of external application is necessary, still less any resin seared on the end of the cord, which can only irritate, and will never adhere. On the after-treatment much difference of opinion has existed, and even yet exists. The powerful evidence of accumulated facts has now convinced us of the necessity and propriety of some motion for the newly cas- |
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rope ; a second time carried backward on the outer side of
all, and extended to the Ml length in a direct line behind the animal. Thus fettered, says Mr. Percivall, his hind feet may be drawn under him towards the elbows. It has been, however, often found that, at the moment the rope touches the legs, the colt either kicks and displaces the rope, or altogether displaces himself; but his attention can generally be engaged by one fore-leg being held up, Rarey fashion, or by having his ear or muzzle rubbed, or even by the twitch. The rope may now be carried cautiously round each fetlock, which then acts like a hobble; and the rope may be gradually tightened. This last, however, is a very questionable method, and the others, therefore, ought to be tried before it is resorted to. In either way, as soon as the rope is fixed, with a man to each end of it behind the colt, let them, by a sudden and forcible eflbrt in concert, approximate his hind- legs to his fore, and thus throw him. Before the colt is cast, however, it should be endeavoured to ascertain that he is free from strangles and hernia. Being satisfied that no hernia exists on either side, pro-
ceed to cast the colt, turning him, not directly on the left side, but principally inclining that way ; and if possible let the croup be very slightly elevated. It is usual to place him directly flat on the left side, but the above is more convenient. Next secure the near hind-leg with a piece of hempen tackle, having a running noose ; or, in default of this not being at hand, make use of the flat part of a hempen halter, which should for ,«afety be put on before the hobble of that leg is removed; as may be readily done if the hobbles having shifting or screw D.s are made use of. Every requisite being at hand, the operator, having his scalpel ready, should place himself behind the horse, as the most convenient way to perform his manipulations. Firmly grasping the left testicle with his left hand, and drawing it out so as to render the scrotum tense, he should make an incision lengthways, from the anterior to the posterior part of the bag. The resistance of the cremaster muscle has to be overcome before the testicle can be forced to the bottom of the scrotum ; and this is the more readily accomplished if the animal's attention be engaged. The incision may be carried at once through the integuments, the thin dartos expansion, and the vaginal coat of the testicles, with a sweep of the scalpel. But with one less dexterous at the operation, it will be more prudent to make the first incision through the scrotum and dartos only, tothe required extent; and then to do the same by the vaginal coat, thus avoiding wounding the testicle, which would produce violent resist- ance, and give unnecessary pain. Cases have occurred, when the tunica vaginalis was divided, that no testicle foliowed ; firm adhesions between this coat and the tunica albuginea having retained it fast. In such cases the scalpel must be employed to free the testicle, by dissecting it away from the vaginal sac. When no such obstruction occurs, the testicle, if the opening be sufliciently large, will slip out; but the operator must be prepared at the moment of so doing to |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.—CASTRATION. 327
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trated norse, as a preventive of local congestion ; such prac-
tice is common in most countries, and seems salutary in all. Hurtrel d'Arboval, thus impressed, recommends the horse, immediately after the operation, to be led out to walk for a& hour; and it is a general plan in France to walk such horses in hand an hour night and morning. Mr. Goodwin, m proof of its not being hurtful, informs us tbat whole studs °f horses brought to St. Petersburg to be operated on, are Hïimediately travelled back a certain portion of the distance, Ulght and morning, until they arrive at home. We have, therefore, no hesitation in recommending a moderate degree °f motion in preference to absolute rest. The French method of castration is advocated by Mr.
Goodwin, who quotes its description from Hurtrel d'Arboval.
' Castration by means of the clams is the method in general
üse, if not the only one now employed; it is the most
ancient, since it was recommended by Hierocles among
*he Greeks. It is performed in two ways, the testicle being
covered or uncovered. In the former, the exterior of the
scrotum, formed by the skin and dartos muscle, is cut
through, and the testicle is brought out by dissecting away
the laminated tissue, the gland being covered by the tunica
vaginalis; the clam is then placed above the epididymis,
°utside the external peritoneal covering of the cord. In
the uncovered operation, the incision is made through the
serous capsule of the testicle; the tunica vaginalis being
divided, the testicle presents itself, and the clam is placed
^ell above the epididymis, on the cord. The operation,
performed in either way, requires us to provide ourselves
^ith a scalpel, a pair of clams, a pair of long pincers, made
Purposely to bring the ends of the clams together, and some
^axed string. The clams may be formed of different kinds
°f "wood ; but the elder is considered the best, and generally
Riade use of. To make a clam, we procure a branch of
°ld and dry elder, whose diameter should be about an
lnch, and whose length should be from five to six inches:
°i course, the dimensions must at all times be propor-
tioned to the size of the cord we have to operate on. At
the distance of half an inch from each end, a small notch,
sufficiently deep to hold the string, must be made, and then
the wood should be sawed through the middle lengthways.
acn divided surface should be planed, so as to facilitate
the opening of the clams, either when about to place them
°n or to take them off. The pith of the Avood is then to be
aken out, and the hollow should be filled with corrosive
subiiniate and flour, mixed with sufficiënt water to form it
°to a paste. Some persons are not in the habit of using
. ny caustic whatever; then, of course, scooping out of the
S1de of the clam is not necessary: notwithstanding, the
caustic, inasmuch as it produces a speedier dissolution of
he parts, must be useful, and ought not to be neglected."
he addition of the caustic, however, Mr. Goodwin objects
3 Wltn great reason, remarking, that unless it be a very
*onS °ne, and therefore dangerous to employ, it cannot be
any use to parts compressed and deprived of circulation
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and life. He further informs us that he has operated in
six cases in succession with the same effect, without any caustic matter whatever. An experimental case of Mr. PercivaU's terminated fatally : by the use of caustic, the cord was greatly inflamed, as high as the ring, which unquestionably produced the unfortunate resulfc. " The covered operation," continues Mr. Goodwin, " is the one that I am about to advocate, and which differs only inasmuch as, that the scrotum and dartos muscle must be cautiously cut through, without dividing the tunica vaginalis. It was Monsieur Berger who was accidentally at my house when I was about to castrate a horse, and who, on my saying that I should probably do it with the cautery, expressed his sur- prise that I should perform the operation in any other way than on the plan generally approved of in France. Being a stranger to it, he kindly consented to preside at the opera- tion., and, after seeing him perform on the near testicle, I did the same on the right, but of course not with the same facility. After opening the scrotum, and dissecting through the dartos—which is very readily done by passing the knife lightly over its fibres—the testicle, and its covering, the tunica vaginalis, must De taken in the right hand, while the left should be employed in pushing back the scrotum from its attachments ; and, having your assistant ready, as before, with the clam, it must be placed well above the epididymis> and greater presure is, of course, necessary, as the vaginal covering is included in the clam." Mr. Goodwin further observes, that in Russia he has seen
hundreds of horses operated on, even after the human fashion, with safety ; and he remarks it certainly produces less pain, the animal loses less flesh and condition, and is sooner recovered than when operated on by the actual cautery. Castration by torsion is advocated, among others, by
Messrs. Daws, Simonds, and Wardle, and is thus described by Mr. Daws :—" The operation of castration by torsion is performed as follows :—An incision through the scrotum on one side is first made with the scalpel, sufhcierjtly large to admit the free escape of the testicle; the vasa deferens is then divided with the same instrument about an inch above the epididymis. By pursuing this plan, the resistance of the cremaster muscle will be defeated; and the testicle, with its vessels, will lie in a quiet state until the conclusion of the operation. "A longitudinal incision is now to be made through the
tunica vaginalis reflexa, and a portion of the spermatic artery laid bare, and freed from its adjacent attachments. The torsion forceps is then to be applied to the artery, which should be divided in that portion immediately below the grasp of the instrument, the thumb and index finger of the left hand pressing back the blood in the vessel, The artery is then to be twisted by the forceps, held in the right hand, until the elasticity is destroyed, and it will no longer recoil, but remain curled up in a knot. The torsion forceps may then be removed with safety, and the remaining portion of |
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and scrotum within ligatures until mortification occurs and
they drop off. It is practised by some breeders on their young colts, but it is always hazardous, and disgracefully cruel. The substance of the testicle in some countries is also broken down either by rubbing, or otherwise by pres- sure between two hard bodies: this is practised in Algiers instead of excision, and tetanus is a frequent consequence of it. In Portugal they twist round the testicle, and thus stop the circulation of the gland. Division of the vasa defe- rens has been performed, it is said, with success on many animals ; and is proposed as a safe and less painful process than the emasculation of the horse. It consists in a longi- tudinal section through the scrotum, dartos, and vaginal sheath, so as to exposé the cord, from which the vasa deferens is to be separated, and severed from the vein. |
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the cord should he divided, and returned within the scrotum.
Should the hsemorrhage from the artery of the cord prove at all troublesome, it may be arrested in a simllar manner. The number of twists will depend upon the size of the artery, from four to six revolutions being sufficiënt for small, and eight or ten for larger vessels. The effect which torsion produces on the vessel, independent of destroying its elasticity, is a laceration of its internal tunic, the edges of which become speedily agglutinated by means of plastic lymph : a clot of blood plugs up the end, so that the oblite- ration is rendered doubly secure." This description is fol- iowed by numerous cases, in which this method of operating has been practised by the three practitioners before men- tioned with success. Castration by ligature is a painful, barbarous, and very
dangerous practice; and consists in enclosing the testicles |
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CHAPTEfi XXXL
DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE SKIN.
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ing itch it creates, and the bare scabby places it occasions
on the skin. A mangy horse will rub himself against any part of the stable or yard where he may happen to be. He will even rub himself against his companions, should he be at grass or strawyard with others; and by frequent and violent rubbing, will irritate and excoriate the diseased places, and thus considerably aggravate the malady. Though no part of the skin can be said to be exempt from mange, the places it commonly occupies are the neck, shoulders, withers, sides, thighs, and head. On removing with a brush the incrustations, or rather the kind of scaly dust produced by the dried pustules, and examining it atten- tively in the sun or any warm place, a person may dis- tinguish, even with the naked eye, little organised, trans- parent, shining bodies moving about; these are acari— insects belonging to the same family as the sarcoptce o' human itch. There is almost always to be discovered, in places within the substance of the skin, more or less larvce of these animalcules. In the horse, the insect is large enough to be seen without the aid of a lens, in its travels over different parts of the mangy animal's body. Symptoms.—The symptoms of mange are seldom noticed
till the disease is established. They are very simple : t"e animal is observed to rub himself uneasily, and then, o° examinatïoii, the hair is.found loose and coming off: and |
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MANGE, ITCH, PRÜRIGO.—RINGWORM.—SURFEIT.—HIDEBOÜND.—
LICE.----LARV^i IN THE SKIN.----MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS.
—MELANOSIS. — WARBLES. — SITFASTS. — GALLS. — WARTS.—
WATER FARCY.—ABSCESS (PURULENT AND SEROUS).—ULCERS. Under this head we propose to consider the diseases and
injuries of the integument and the cellular membrane. The structure of the three coats of the skin and of the
hair have been described, ante, pp. 192—193. MANGE.----ITCH.----PRURIGO.
Mange, the form in which, in hairy animals, the itch
makes its appearance, is the most contagious of a loathsome class of diseases. The irritation has been shown by microscopic observation
to depend upon the presence of minute insects called acari. The mange insect of the horse is of a different species to that of the human itch-insect, yet it is abundantly proved that itch may be caught by man from a mangy horse, dog, or other hair-coated animal. Though mange is, in the vast majority of instances, the result of contagion, yet poor living, neglect of cleanliness, and a lowering of the vital system generally, will produce it spontaneously, and it will then spread ruinously, even to better-conditioned animals. The most remarkable characters of mange are, the annoy-
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE SKIN.—SURFEIT.
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329
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the multitude of minute pimples leave no doubt of the
nature of the case. Mange being suspected, its existence ^ay also be readily ascertained by inserting the fingers among the roots of the hairs of the mane, and slightly scratching the parts. The horse will extend his neck and head, and continue motionless so long as the hand remains upon its crest. Treatment.—Though mange is principally treated by
Jocal remedies, yet constitutional ones,—cleanliness, warmth, öialt-mashes, carrots, beet-root, speared corn, &c,—will materially assist and expedite the cure. As in human 1tch, sulphur is most relied on. When ointment, liniment, or wash is to be applied, should the weather be fine, place the animal in the sunshine for an hour; if not, put it in a warm stable, clean the coat sedulously till the scurf is rernoved, and allow nothing to be used for other horses that has touched the animal—brushes, combs, cloths, or even halter or harness. Then rub in, with the hand or a piece of nannel, either of the following, missing no part from the nose to the end of the taal. MANGE OINTMENT.
Sulphur vivum (yellow sulphur) . . 6 ounces.
Linseed oil (or Olive oil, 12 oz.; and oil
of tar, 4 oz.) .... 1 pound.
Oil of turpentine . ... 2 ounces. Mix.
If the colour of the horse is desired to be preserved, add
sorne soot for a black or brown animal, or bole armenian where the colour is bay or chestnut. Yellow sulphur and antimony, in a dose of six drachms the two, may be mixed with the food. ANOTHER OINTMENT.
Strong mereurial ointment . . 4 ounces.
Soft soap . . . . .2 pounds.
Mix.
LINIMENT FOR MANGE.
Glycerine . . . . .12 ounces.
Creosote . . . . .2 ounces.
Oil of turpentine ... .4 ounces.
Oil of juniper .... 2 ounces.
Soak the coat thoroughly, and the third day after wash
thoroughly off and dry the animal, letting him stand an hour in the sun, if possible. Rub down, and apply the uniment once again, washing off as before. Or a lotion °*ay be used as follows :— LOTION FOB MANGE.
Corrosive sublimate . . .1 drachm.
Spirits of wine . . . . 1 ounce.
Tobaceo-water, 1 quart, made from 2 ounces of tobacco,
Though mercurial preparations cure mange, they are not
so certain in operation as sulphur. Percivall says, Barba- does tar and linseed oil, simmered a few minutes in an old T T
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kettle, surpasses all more compound remedies. Some pow-
dered hellebore root, say half the quantity of the yellov.' sulphur, mixed with that mineral, is an improvement on our first recipe. A common prurigo or itchiness sometimes occurs in spring,
which makes the horse rub himself violently and remove patches of his coat. It is merely heat of skin, and may be relieved by a wash of glycerine and rosé water, or a lini- ment of creosote and oil, Avith a cooling drench of Liquor arsenicalis . . .1 ounce.
Tincture of muriate of iron . . 2 ounces.
Water ..... 1 quart.
In four doses. RINGWORM.
Ringworm, though not common among horses, does occa-
sionally present itself. Although we have little or nothing to apprehend from
"tetter," it often turns out a very intractable disorder when we try to cure it; and especially when it has become inveterate through negligence or long standing. It is ascribed to a variety of causes, constitutional as well as local. It is very apt to make its appearance, in the spring and autumnal seasons, among horses that have suffered from exposure and bad keep, and wil! attack many at the same time. Treatment.—Unacquainted with the specific organic dis-
turbance to which tetter owes its existence, our " remedies," as they are called, are empirical. "We must attend to the general health and condition of the animal, and take care that his diseased skin is well washed with soap and water, as often as required; without which the dressings cannot take proper effect. Should the bare places exhibit inflam- matory action, we must foment, and (if practicable) poul- tice them, and bleed and purge the animal. Sulphur ointment, empyreumatic oils, corrosive sublimate in weak aqueous solution, &c, are recommended. At the Alfort Veterinary School, good effects have been derived from the use of the liquor plumbi in combination with nitric acid. Creosote and simple cerate, and an ointment of the
nitrate of lead, with the liquor arsenicalis as a drink, may be tried. A solution of copperas applied with a sponge are known to have perfect success. SURFEIT.
The appearance of surfeit is a quantity of round, blunt,
heat spots on the skin, which occasionally proceed to exu- dation and form small scabs. The hórse has generally an unhealthy coat, or hidebound, or is in a plethoric state. It is a consequence of excessive feeding.^ Prurigo may be looked upon as the simplest form of surfeit. The Treatment must be such as tends to relieve plethora,
and to remove any inflammatory disposition that may exist in the system; at the same time the eruption itself should be as much as possible encouraged. In cases of simple |
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330 THE PRACTICE OJ? VE
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These annoyances are another result of turning an animal
out to grass, the fly whence the trouble is derived never entering the stable. The insect rejoices in the freedom oi the field; and man, by turning out his horse, finds the creature a fitting spot for the deposit of its eggs. The warmth of the animal hatches the larvae ; no sooner is i' endowed with life, than, with the instinct of its kind, it burrows into the skin. The integument of the horse, hoW- ever thick it may appear, is soon pierced by the active little maggot, which, thus snugly housed, retains its lodging untn the following spring. During the winter, a small lump denotes its abiding place; but as the second summer pro- gresses, a tolerably large abscess is instituted. The interior of the abscess, of course, contains pus. Upon that secretion the insect lives and thrives. Such swellings are acutely painful, and prove the sources
of much annoyance. They mostly occur upon the back- The saddle cannot be laid on one of these tumours ; and, as the spine supports much of the harness, the proprietor has the vexation of beholding his horse rendered useless; for suffering, should service be exacted, occasions the creature to excite displeasure ; besides, the pranks thus provoked by torture often continue after the cause has been removed. Upon the summit of the abscess appears a black spot. I'
is at this spot the larva receives the air needed to support a dormant existence. This fact being known to certain peo- ple, the knowledge is employed to destroy the parasite. The swelling is first slightly greased, and then a drop of melted tallow is let fall upon the breathing place. By such means, the insect is effectually suffocated, and assuredly dies. Others employ a darning needie as the instrument of
execution. The needie is thrust through the central spot into the swelling, for three-eighths of an inch. The larva thereby is pierced, and the life certainly is sacrificed. Neither methods occasion at the time the slightest pain to
the horse. In either case the maggot dies ; but the business, unfortunately, is only rendered worse by killing the source of evil. The dead body putrefies. A foreign and corrupt- ing substance, beneath the skin, may enlarge the abscess to many times its original dimensions. After all, the systeni has to cast forth the irritating matter ; and for that purpose inflammation, with its attendant fever, must be perfected- Much suffering is thus occasioned, and the proprietor is> for several weeks, forced to forego the employment of * valuable servant. The safest, the surest, and the quickest manner ot
eradicating these parasites is, with the point of a lancet, slightly to enlarge the central opening; and then, with the finger and thumb applied on either side of the swelling, to squeeze out the intruder. The abscess rapidly disappears ; and it only requires a few dabbings with the solution ot chloride of zinc, one grain to the ounce, to close the wound. However, the best manner to avoid such annoyances is, not to turn the horse out, and treat a domesticated as an un- tamed quadruped. |
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evanescent eruption, nothing more is required, in general,
Ihan the substitution of a mash for a corn diet—green-meat, if it can be procured, for hay—chilled water, -warm clothing and bandages, and additional walking exercise. Should the eruption evince a permanent character, or should it shew a disposition to relapse, it may become requisite to bleed and purge moderately ; and these evacuations may be foliowed up by cooling febrifuges—antimony and nitre— rningled in powdor with the animal's mashes. The follow- ing is good: Nitre ..... 3 draehrus.
Sulphur ..... 4 draehms.
Black Antimony . . . 2 draehms.
Mix with bran and give in the corn.
D'Arboval truly remarks, however, when the lumps on the
skin are bursting and discharging, the time for evacuating remedies seems to have gone by. We may then content ourselves with a cooling regimen, and the exhibition of alteratives; and sponge the surface with warm water. Though, " should the skin require excitement," the same author recommends " frictions with camphorated spirits." HIDEBOUND.
When a horse's hide or skin sticks to his ribs, as it were,
and cannot be drawn out or moved, as in the healthy state, he is said to be hidebound. It indicates great weakness and poverty, and sometimes a diseased state of the mesen- teric vessels, and consumption. It is generally occasioned by ill-usage, and bad or insufficiënt food, and cannot be removed without proper feeding and good treatment. One of the great causes is turning the animal out in a straw yard. The following powder may be given daily in the food,
the eifect of which will be, by stimulating the stomach and bowels, not only to assist digestion, but also to affect the skin by sympathy :— Cantharides, finely powdered . . 5 grains.
Pimento ..... 2 draehms.
Sulphate of iron ... .2 draehms. If the horse refuse this powder in his food, it may be
made into a ball with treacle, and given for a week or a fortnight. Or a tonic alterative drink may be given. See Tonics in List. LICE.
The vicinity of a henroost is often the cause of this
annoyance. These parasites cannot be destroyed by the same means as those of the horse, which die whan anointed with oil or grease, and washed off. When lice occur with hidebound, they generally disappear with the disease. IARVM IN THE SKIN.
Mr. Mayhew has given not only a verbal description but
drawings of this pest of horseflesh; and from him we condense the following :— |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE SKIN.—MELANOSIS.
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331
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purate, and were insensible to the touch. In a short time
all the cellular tissue was similarly affected, and the animal died. When cut into, a matter like the grease of a cart wheel flowed out. All the progeny of this stallion which had the same colour was similarly affected; those which were black, bay, roan, or iron grey escaped." The opinions of most writers as to the composition of the
melanotic substance, agree that its black colour is owing to the presence of a large quantity of carbon. Many persons are of opinion that the black principle is an aberration of the pigment destined by nature to be deposited elsewhere, as the rete mucosum, the choroid, or the hair. It is said that persons with light hair, and elderly persons whose hair is white, as well as light grey or white horses, are most com- monly the subjects of this disease. As horses thus affected are usually slaughtered, we may dismiss the subject by saying that a glycerine wash to cleanse the skin, and the administration of iodine to promote absorption, seem the most likely palliatives, where the animal is desired to be preserved. GREASE AND CHAPPED HEELS.
These important disorders we shall postpone from this
chapter to that where we treat of the diseases of the hinder foot. WARBLES, SITFASTS, AND GALLS.
Warbles are enlarged bursce inflamed by the pressure of
the saddle. Open them with a sharp-pointed knife, thrust in, and cut outwards. Then, to prevent inflammation, take a piece of lunar caustic, and apply it freely till the sac is burned out. Wash and sponge with chloride of zinc and water, and keep a rag wet with the lotion over the wound. Sitfasts are very annoying. They are a patch of horn,
somewhat like a corn on the human foot. They are not simple corns, however, as they have an ulcerated margin. They are tedious and sometimes obstinate. The knife and lotion, as above, offer the best chance: it is more humane, too, than the slow process of rubbing in blistering ointment. Bran-mashes and a tonic drink {Liqiior arsenicalis—see List), may be given. Harness Galls.—Poultice till the swelling has subsided
or suppuration come on. If the matter has not sufficiënt vent, open the channel of discharge. Dress Avith digestive ointment, and finish with an astringent application (O or E. in List.) WARTS
Are best removed by tying a ligature round them; or,
with scarcely any pain, by applying every day, with a camel's hair pencil, a small portion of strong acetic acid ; or they may be cut off with a knife or scissors, and the root touched with any caustic body. There is sometimes seen a sprouting luxurious species, whose roots are larger than their heads, so that a ligature is not easily passed around |
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MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS.
When a scurfy or scabby eruption at the posterior part of
the bending of the knee appears, it is termed mallenders : and -when a similar one appears at the bend of the hoek, it *s called sallenders. Neither of them lame or do much harm; but sometimes, when neglected, they degenerate mto a foul ichorous discharge, a little more troublesome, and always unsightly. Both of them are easily removed by washing with soap and water, and by applying the fol- lowing:— |
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Camplior . . . .
Subacetate of lead (sugar of lead)
Merourial ointment , |
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1 drachm.
\ draclam. 1 ounce. |
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Mix.
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Tonic and alterative drinks should be given. This is
Mayhew's ointment for the disorder:— Animal glycerine .... 1 ounce.
Mercurial ointment . . .2 drachms, Powdered camphor . . .2 draclims,
Spermaceti .... 1 ounce.
Mix and rub in gently.
Crown Scab, and Rat Tails.—These are of the same
nature as mallenders, and may be cured by the same means. Ihey generally, however, leave a blemish, consisting in a loss of hair, and a thickening of the cuticle. Crown scab °ccurs on the coronet, and rat tails in lines on the back Part of the leg, extending from the fetlock upwards. MELANOSIS.
This curious disorder, which seems exclusively to at-
tack horses that have once been grey, consists of a black
ueposit in the cellular tissue, and occasionally in other
P^rts of the body. In India it has been called "tail-
üisease," from the remarkable fact of a tumour or ex-
crescence being almost always present at the root of the
tail. Mr. "VV. C. Spooner gives a case in White's Farriery,
P- 258, of a white Arabian who was destroyed with
jftelanosis. Melanosis is defined by Laennec as " a patho-
°gical production deposited upon the surface, or in the
ubstance of an organ, of a darkish or blackish colour,
having no analogy with the healthy tissues of the body."
he disease, which was described by Brugnini in ] 781, as
eing hereditarily transmitted among the horses of Chevasso,
. d which he termed hemorrhoids, was evidently melanosis;
Was usually developed around the root of the tail and
toe anus.
oorne years later, in 1784, the same disease was observed
£>resse Gollety. Latournelle transmitted an account of I m 1809. He says, "there supervened in ayoung stallion
II the second year of his covering, black 'boutons,' or buds,
r°und the anus. They soon extended to the scrotum and eath. They were placed bet ween the skin and muscles
urst as large as a small nut, and they increased until
ey attained the size of a pullet's egg; they did not sup-
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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them ; these are best removed by touching their surface
daily with the following paste. The following application •will seldom fail to remove such as cannot be conveniently got at by the knife or ligature, dressing with it once a day:— |
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the following process takes place. An injury, generally a
bruise, is received : part of the vital body is crushed or dies, and nature is desirous to repair the loss, and to cast off the dead substance. The minute vessels of the part are stinw- lated to effuse coagulable lymph within the cellular tissue ; the consequence of which is distension or swelling; that here, as elsewhere, produces tenderness and heat, and, when the hair allows us to detect it, a reddened blush. The effusion around the immediate part which is dead, thickens, grows vascular, and ultimately forms a closed sac. Arrived at this state, the tumour may take on various changes by peculiar processes within it. The suppurative one is sup- posed to ensue all over the internal sides of the sac, where, by a change in the action of the inflamed ves- sels, pus begins to be secreted. It then presses against the adjacent muscles, causing these structures to be ab- sorbed : and it is fortunate that, by an apparent conserva- tive law of animal life, such absorption is most active towards the surface of the body, thus aiding the eva- cuation of its contents, which can be effected without prejudice to the constitution. The treatment of abscess.—In the early stages of such
tumours, endeavour to forward them, through the applica- tion of warmth and moisture, both of which are gained by a poultice. A blister may likewise be applied to the surface, and a poultice over that, when it is very important to draw the abscess forward. Horse poultices, on account of their magnitude, are generally formed of bran, upon which boil- ing water is poured, and the whole well stirred together; or a very good poultice may be formed of hay, soaked in hot water, any excess of moisture being squeezed out after- wards. About a gallon of substance is sufficiënt for one application. Being assured that maturation is completed, the thickness of the integuments, and the fear of the exten- sion of the suppurative process inwards, make it always prudent to form an artificial opening in the more dependent as well as prominent part of the tumour. This may be done by direct section. Incision is effected by the abscess knife : but in every case the opening should be sufficiënt to give a ready exit to the matter which has formed, and that which may subsequently be secreted. In some situations, as where the natural outlet has appeared on a place we do not desire it should point in, or where the abscess does not point upon the precise spot we could have wished, it may be prudent to make an incision in the natural prominence, and insert a seton through the place we could desire the fulness should have occupied. It is, however, necessary to be careful in making the incision when it dips downwards, that it is made in the course of the muscular fibres, and not in the direction of considerable branches of nerves or blooo- vessels. Nothing further need be done for the eradication of an
abscess than the establishment of a free depending orifice. Putting the finger into the opening and stirring it round, is unnecessary, to say the least of it. All injections are o»* |
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Sulphuric acid
Powdered sulphur |
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t a sufficiency of each.
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Make into a paste, and apply a little to the wart. Blaine
recommends :— |
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Muriate of ammonia
Powdered savin Palm oil . |
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2 draolima.
1 ounce.
2 ounces.
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WATER FARCY, C3DEMA, ANASARCA.
Water farcy is quite another disease from farcy (already
considered, p. 412, Specific Diseases), in causes, symptoms, or effects. Gibson thus describes it:— " Water farcy is of two kinds ; one the product of a fever-
ish disposition ; the other is dropsical, and of that kind which in man resembles the anasarca, where the water is not confined to the belly and limbs, but shews itself in several parts of the body, with soft swellings which yield to the pressure of the fingers, as is usual in all dropsical habits. This last kind usually proceeds from foul feeding, or from the latter-grass and fog, that often comes up in great plenty with long-continued rains, and breeds a sluggish viscid blood." Treatment.—However much practitioners may differ on
the questions of the origin, specific nature, and organic seat of this disease, there exists little variation of opinion con- cerning the most efficiënt mode of treatment. Gorged with blood, distended—to bursting even—by internal effusion, hot, tense, and tender as the limb evidently is when first attacked, nobody can hesitate for a moment to draw blood : and this ought to be done to an amount that will sensibly impress the system. Abstract two gallons from a horse in condition; one even from a subject not so ; and follow the bleeding up by the immediate administration of the follow- ing ball:— Take of Purging Mass . . .9 drachny
„ Calomel .... 1 drachm.
Mix and make into a ball. Anasarca is noticed under Swelled Belly, &c, p. 449,
ante. (Edema will fall naturally under Swelled Legs. ABSCESS.
As connected with the skin, we here consider abscess
generally : its particular treatment will be found under Poll Evil, Strangles, and other diseases wherein it occurs. By abscess, in its most extensive sense, we mean any col-
lection of fluid which interposes between parts in a kind of sac. In its limited sense, the word represents a collection of pus formed by a quick process of suppuration, and con- tained within a closed sac. When a purulent abscess forms, |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE SKIN.-FISTULjE.
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333
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jectionable, to speak of them in the mildest terms. Should,
nowever, the sac of an abscess display an indisposition to contract after its contents have been evacuated, apply a blister over it, and when the effects have somewhat abated, support the pendent parts by means of bandages. Serous Abscess.—As a termination of inflammation, and,
'n the form of Strangles and Poll-evil, purulent abscess is considered. There is a second kind, called serous abscess. The ordinary situations for these swellings are upon the
outer side of the quarter or thigh, in front of the stifle, and upon the breast, the shoulder, and the arm. They are occasionally of considerable volume. They areusually egg- shaped, flattened upon the surface, and have a soft, elastic, fluctuating feel. When punctured, they emit, with con- siderable force, a limpid, straw-coloured, aqueous fluid, like the serum of the blood. Treatment.—Percivall's practice is clear and decisive.
He says it is time lost to set about attempts at dispers- ing or resolving these tumours. The most summary mode °f getting rid of the swelling, is to plunge a lancet into it and evacuate it. Were we, however, to do nothing beyond this, we should find in a day or two that the tumour had become as large as ever. Evacuate it a second time, and the fluid still will speedily re-collect. To make a cure, we must either follow up the evacuation by throwing into the cavity with a syringe one of the following injections, or else pass a seton through the sides of it. Take of White vitriol . .1 scruple.
„ Distilled water . . .1 ounce.
Mix.
Take of Lunar caustic . . .5 grams.
„ Distilled water . . .1 ounce.
Mix.
After the injection, or even after the withdrawal of the
seton, -which should only be retained until a laudable pus is Produced—a compress and roller (should they be applicable) wdl be found .nuch to assist the granulation and cohesion of the sides of the cavity. ULCERATION.
An ulcer is a sore arising from imperfect granulation,
Secreting an unhealthy, impure, thin, irritating (sanious) Pys; these imperfect granulations cannot fulfil the purpose °f building up muscle (flesh) or tissue, while absorption goes on and a loss of substance ensues. Granulation ceases to build up regularly; absorption removes irregularly, and °ence comes an uneven surface, more or less a hole, with hard irregular edges, called an ulcer. In most cases, ulcers are attended with great irritability of system, which must °e attacked by opium or generous digestible food. The general treatment of ulcers is to cleanse by means of a P°ultice, then stimulate, and keep up the system by a lutritious diet. Ulcers are often found of a greater extent internally than
externally, when the fluid which is secreted by them |
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absorbs in different directions, forming narrow pipes, the
sides of which are scirrhous, from which issues a glairy dis- charge. These pipes are called sinuses by the surgeon. In general case3, the longer an ulcer has lasted, the more diffi- culty there will be to bring it back to a healthy state. The external means employed for this purpose are usually stimu- lating injections, or incision. Ulcers are apt to be treated by farriers erroneously, by plugging up the sinuses. When the caustic penetrates farther than was intended, sloughing away the diseased and the healthy parts, the true remedy is equally simple and effective, namely, to slit them up, and then to lay within the divided pipe a piece of tow, saturated with some caustic solution. By this means the scirrhous lining will be cast forth, and that which was a sinus will be converted into a simple wound. FISTULJE.
There are three fistulous disorders in the horse, which
more particularly demand notice, and to these we shall confine our attention. ], Fistula of the Parotid Duet. 2, Poll-evil. 3, Fistula of the Withers. FISTULA OF THE PAROTID DUCT.
The outward sign of this disease is an unnatural outlet
for the saliva in some part of its passage. A recent wound of the duet itself shows little more than an opening wet with moisture, except when feeding, at which time the saliva will pour or spirt from the aperture like blood from an artery. The edge of the opening becomes ulcerous and soon changes to a true fistulous ulcer, the pipe itself, in old cases, becoming as hard as cartilage. The digestion, too, becomes deranged, from the loss of that valuable secretion the saliva, which is squirted out through the fistula instead of being conveyed, as when the duet is whole, into the mouth to be mixed with the food and conveyed from thence to the stomach. The position and function of the parotid gland have been already described. The fluid expelled is semi- transparent, afterwafds tinged with pus from the ulceration, and occasionally coloured with thin blood. The causes of fistula of the parotid duet are generally
accidental injury, or abscesses resulting from strangles; hay seeds, and particles of hard food entering the open- ing of the duet during mastication, have produced it These afterwards swelling, obstruct the egress of the saliva, which accumulates; the confined secretion produces agony, inflammation, and abscess, which nature relieves by burst- ing; the pent-up secretion pours forth, and fistula is esta- blished. Treatment.—In olden times the horrid torture of the
" budding iron " was resorted to. The late Professor Cole- man and his disciples proposed to apply the iron " at a dull heat over and over again, to create an eschar" which should " plug up the orifice;" and the " heat starting up reparative inflammation beneath it," the opening " would be effectually closed," by the time the roasted living flesh would |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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334
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begets a mangy affection of the skin about the nape of the
neck, from the itchy annoyance of which the animal en- deavours to relieve himself, by rubbing his poll against the manger, occasioning that part to inflame, swell, become excoriated, and generate among the roots of the hair foul ulcerations. Or, it may happen that the roof or beams of the stable, or the threshold of the door, may be so low, that the horses are daily hitting their heads against it. Or, worst of all, the brute who drives the team may be fond of exercising the butt end of his cart-whip in preference to the lash. Hanging back in the halter (to which stalls with a great slope from the manger to the drain much dispose the animal), by impeding the circulation, produces numbness and itching. The horse rubs his head violently against the travis or division of the stall, a bruise of the fleshy sub- stances, between the hard woodwork and the bones at the base of the skull ensues, and a deep-seated abscess results. The first cause, therefore, of poll-evil is wilful, neglectful, or purely accidental external injury. Tenderness on pressure on the poll or nape of the neck,
and the peculiar stiff and crouching manner in which the animal carries his head, indicate poll-evil. The symptoms of course depend upon the extent of the disease and the stage the inflammation and abscess have reached. You may find a solid tumour, or a matured abscess, or it may have advanced to the ulcerative stage, exposing cavities and sinuses horrible to behold. Treatment.—The knife and caustic tents of chloride of
lime are our great resources in poll-evil. In the early stage of abscess, whether deep or superficial, open the parts freely, and then we may hope to induce the healing process in due time. Should the abscess not be fully formed, we should use our best endeavours to ripen it; which will be best attained by a mild blister rubbed in as often as required, till the fluctuation is feit either on one side or the other. The next object is to procure a speedy evacuation of the contents, and a depending orifice for its future passage, that no sinuses may form. This may be done by the introduction of a seton, first inserting the needie in the middle of the tumour, and passing it out at the most depending part In case the tumour is a central one, and its limits extend equally over the neck, do exactly the same by the other side. But when, from improper management, matter has not only formed, but has been suffered to remain, or has only evacuated itself by a superficial opening, either natural or artificial, and not from one in a depending situation, in such cases the healthy secretion of pus always ceases, and, instead of it, a thin ichorous discharge succeeds. The ulceration also extends further; sinuses form in every direction, and even the bones of the cervix (nape of the neck) become absorbed. The ravages which this disease makes are truly dreadful. It has been known to disease the occipital and parietal bones, burrowing around the ear, and has insinuated pus into the parotid gland, as well as into the spinal canal, or the brain itself. Under any |
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be sloughed off! We pass from these useless barbarities to
the modern practice. This we greatly owe to Mr. Gowing, veterinary surgeon of Camden Town, who£e name we feel proud to record in connection with this painful disease and its cure. Mr. GoAving's treatment may be thus described :— A firm, agglutinating liquid is formed by dissolving gun cotton in sulphuric ether, -which is called collodion. Upon applying this liquid to the surface of the body, the vital warmth occasions the ether rapidly to evaporate, leaving the cotton in an altered form, sticking firmly to the part. Mr. Gowing first applied some mild caustic to the wound,
till the orifice presented the reddened appearance he desired it should assume. He then places above the opening a bulky pledget, sufficiently large to thoroughly close the wound, and sufficiently solid to resist the solvent powers of the saliva. A piece of cork, cut to the required shape, answers the purpose admirably. Over this, to bind it to the part he wished it should close, he passed some cotton thread, the ends of which he fixed to the hair of either side by a liberal allowance of the liquid we before alluded to. This he repeated several times, till the plug was held firmly to the place by the cross bands of cotton. He repaired this dress- ing from day to day as it was necessary, having the horse's head tied up, and supporting the animal entirely by fluids. After a few days had elapsed, the horse was allowed to lie down; and a short time subsequently the bandage was removed, when the orifice was effectually stopped. This is a far better, and a far more effectual plan than any of the old measures once fashionable, but now we trust, on account of their barbarity, discarded. Treated after the above method, should the first trial not succeed, a second can be made; and this plan may be repeated an indefinite number of times, without infiicting suffering amounting to positive torture. Should ït be more convenient, a solution of gum mastic in
spirit of wine, or a solution of India-rubber in sulphuric ether, will answer the same purpose as the collodion. We may add that the horse should be allowed no food that
requires mastication, and his head should be fixed by pillar- reins during the process of cure ; and make bi* bed of tan, not straw, lest he should eat it POLL-EVIL.
This loathsome and troublesome disease consists in a
deep abscess, with sinuses or pipes, working outwardly to an ulcerous sore, preceded by swelling and inflammation in the poll or nape of the neck, just between the ears, towards the mane. The causes of poll-evil mark it as discreditable to the
stable where it occurs. Mechanical injury from blows, bruises, &c, are the ordinary origin. Farm horses and cart horses are most frequently the subjects of poll-evil. Their coarse, ill-made, stiff and hard head-collars or bridles chafe their polls, and cause them to be continually rubbing the part The halter or bridle, from constant friction, |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE SKIN.—FISTULA OF THE WITHERS.
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335
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appearance, a very strict examination must be made, which
is best done when the horse is cast, having his head elevated by a bundie of straw, and turned towards the %ht. Enlarge the lateral opening so as to admit of a free examination, by means of the finger, of every part liable to be mjured. Carious bones must be laid bare, scraped, and then exposed to the caustic effect of a strong solution of chloride of zinc. Hardened callous edges must be removed, and the smaller sinuses laid open, so as to form one con- tmuous cavity. If all this be not thoroughly done, it will happen, that, when the whole seems on the point of healing, a new tumour will suddenly appear, and frustrate all our hopes. In this way the expert operator, well acquainted -with the anatomy of the parts, will combat the worst cases. We have mentioned caustic tents ; these are recommended
Dy White and other practical men, and denounced by May- hew, who relies solely on the knife. We have many well- authenticated cures by means of caustic pledgets of chloride of lime ; the sinuses being examined carefully from time to time with a probe, carious bone freely scraped, and, if there be exostosis, the piece removed. The horrors of boiling mjections, of forcing hot irons up the sinuses, and plugging them with arsenic—for these are among the tortures of country farriers' " remedies "—we hope never again to see or hear of. In the fifth volume of the " Veterinarian," Mr. A.
Gray relates a case of successful treatment of poll-evil, m which pressure by means of splints greatly aided the cure. He thus describes their application and the result:— "When the mare was sent to me, I proceeded to examine the extent of the disease. I found two deep sinuses, one on each side of the neck, the bones of which could be dis- tinctly feit with the probe. After cleaning away the mat- ter, I took a scalpel, and laid both orifices open in an oblique direction downwards; then, having fomented the Parts with warm water, I dressed the wounds with tincture of myrrh and aloes; and, in order to apply pressure to the parts (for in this I founded all my hope of success), I had two pieces of wood prepared, about twelve inches long and three broad, thicker in the middle than at the edges, which were rounded off, and also a long flannel bandage, four inches broad. I then placed two pledgets of tow next the wounds, putting on the pieces of wood one on each S1de, and then applied the bandage over all, and as tightly as I could, without impeding deglutition. It is neeessary, while putting on the bandage, to keep the nose extended, in order to adapt the bandage more perfectly to the part, and &pply it more closely. I removed the bandage |
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night and morning, and had the parts well fomented and
dressed with the tincture. In the course of four weeks the mare was well." PISTÜLA OF THE WITHERS.
Continuous and undue pressure of the saddle, either by
its misfit or the improper management of a careless groom or incautious rider, and this evil repeated day by day and at frequent intervals, establishes an inflammatory tumour This generally originates in one of the bursse in connection with the tall dorsal spines (see Skeleton, Plate I.). This should be immediately laid open, and subsequently treated after the manner explained under the head of Warbles. When this is not done, the whole hardens, suppuration generally takes place within the part, and the strong fascia on the back prevents the pus escaping. The pus becomes virulent, being confined : it absorbs, thus creating numerous pipes, and a case of fistulous withers is established, Should the attention be called to a case that has proceeded to a fistulous state, treat exactly in the same manner as with poll-evil Instances have occurred where the matter has penetrated under the scapula, and made its way to the point of the elbow or the front of the breast. In these cases a depend- ing orifice should be made, and a seton introduced through the whole extent of the sinus; for which purpose seton- needles of sufficiënt length, with their points guarded, to prevent them inj uring important vessels, are manufactured (see Plate of Instruments). Occasionally the disease ex- tends and involves the dorsal spines. The stench will offer disagreeable proof when the bones are affected. When the bones are diseased, slit up the fistula, and scrape them, until a healthy surface is exposed ; after which, the milder lotion of chloride of zinc and water may be used. But when the cartilage that tops the spines is affected, without delay saw it off, leaving a healthy surface of bone. When the sinuses, likewise, are slit open, to cut from within out- wards produces less pain, which in surgery is a considera- tion. After the incision has been made, lay into the opened sinus some tow, saturated in the strong solution of chloride of zinc, which, after twenty-four hours, may be removed, and the wound subsequently dressed with the milder lotion. Mr. Mayhew recommends, when the sinuses burrow from
the withers towards the chest or elbow, and cannot be opened up by the knife, that an elastic probe, having been passed down the sinus, should be dipped in a small quantity of powdered bichloride of mercury, and repeatedly pushed down it, until you have used up the whole of the salt. |
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336
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CHAPTER XXXIL
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LAMENESSES, DISEASES, AND INJURIES OF THE FOEEIEGS AND FEET.
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of sprain of the shoulder. lts causes are a side fall, or »
wrench, by which the forelegs are suddenly stretched apart so widely as to sprain either the muscles or ligaments, pro- bably both. In this case the animal cannot move down the slightest declivity without intense pain, from the weight being thrown upon the shoulders; and, in the attempt» swings round the leg in a peculiar manner, endeavouring so to accomplish the movement as never to call upon the shoulder muscles to elevate the scapula. If the fbot be laid hold of, raised, and brought into a straight line, the seat of pain will be indicated by the sufFering animal. Again, pressure on the serratus muscle* will cause the horse to shrink. Oi course, if lameness has its seat in the arm or foot, neither of these tests are even noticed by the patiënt. A decep- tive appearance of shoulder sprain occurs when, viewing a lame horse from the front, we find the muscle of one shoulder wasted, imparting an appearance of swelling to the sound limb ; this resulting from the lame limb having been saved from exertion by the suffering animal, and there- fore diminished in volume. In this case the sound limb is condemned as the seat of lameness, and treated, or ill' treated, accordingly. Never, therefore, omit both the tests above mentioned. White says: " There is one kind of shoulder lameness
which is consequent on an injury of the great synovial cavity, or bursa mucosa, through which that great tendon passes which arises from a protuberance on the lower part of the shoulder-blade and slides over the large grooved pro- cess at the head of the shoulder bone. This large grooved process is covered with a slippery cartilage, as in othef |
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TEE SHOULDER.—THE ARM AND ELBOW.—THE KNEE.-
LEG.—THE PASTERNS.—THE FETLOCKS.—THE FEET. |
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-THE
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Before entering on the diseases and injuries of the foreleg,
the reader may refer with advantage to the description of the hones {ante, pp. 184, 185), and of the muscles (pp. 190, 191); and Anatomy, Plates VIII., X., and XL, with their letterpress descriptions. The causes of lameness in the horse are so various, and
often so obscure, that we may almost say that a hasty and confident opinion on the nature and origin of lameness is a sign that the man consulted has little judgment or know- ledge of the difficulty of the question before him. Rashness, self-conceit, and a desire to obtain an undue reputation for acumen, may be almost invariably assumed as regards these positive gentlemen, who deliver oracular opinions on mat- ters which demand sound knowledge, careful investigation, and deliberate reflection, even from the most experienced. Above all things we would warn the horse-owner against people who have " secrets " for curing lamenesses. They are generally ignorant and dishonest barbarians, with neither humanity nor principle, and we always look with extreme suspicion on those who recommend their advice or services to be called for. Shoeing, as a cause of lameness, is now hardly known, however convenient a stalking-horse the farrier's shortcomings may be to a drunken or careless groom. Where the smitb is really in fault, the mischief is obvious enough ; where the causes lie deeper, the skilful veterinarian or the well-read anatomist alone can tracé them. In the present chapter we propose to arrange the several
disorders and injuries as foliows :~The Shoulder: The Arm and Elbow. The Knee: The Leg: The Pastems: The FetlocJcs : The Feet. THE SHOULDER. — SPRAIN OF THE SHOULDER. — BLOWS.—
SHOULDER LAMENESS.—RHEUMATISM. Sprain or Strain of the Shoulder.—When the farrier
finds himself at a loss to point out the exact seat of lame- ness, he generally takes refuge in the convenient generality of " sprain of the shoulder." The occurrence is rare, but when it does occur is easily detected. The tenderness of the muscle itself, inside the shoulder, and its inflammation, together with the peculiar action of dragging the toe along the ground, then dropping the knee suddenly, are indications |
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* The shoulder-blade is united to the chest by muscle alone. Here
is a large muscle, with 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 is sustained. Had there been a bony union between the shoulder and the body, the vital parts con- tained in the chest could not have endured the shock which they would occasionally 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, ii°" mediately regain their former situation.— Youatt. |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE FORE LEGS AND FEET.—SHOULDER LAMENESS.
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synovial cavities, to prevent any friction while the limb is
m motion. I have seen shoulder lameness that appeared to depend upon a rheumatic affection of this part. The marnier of the horse's going, when this part is the seat of lameness, !s very remarkable. In endeavouring to trot, and some- times even in walking, the fore leg suddenly gives way °r bends, and it is only by a considerable effort that the horse can save himself from falling. I had a filly under my care for this lameness, which feil down several times in walk- lng- The remedies I employed were, passing a seton over the point of the shoulder, and blistering all round it pretty freeïy. This, and confining her some weeks in a box, effected a cure." The general Treatment of shoulder sprain should be to
bleed freely from the plate vein (see Bleeding, post), just opposite the elbow joint. Three to five quarts is not too great a quantity. Bathe frequently and copiously with a lotion consisting of half-a-pint of tincture of arnica in a gallon of water. Should the case be recent, and the symp- toms not violent, bathe with cold water only ; and in either case, when the inflammation subsides, change the cold water for hot. In this manner, keep the shoulder wet for a week or
Jonger, when, every sign of active disease having departed, a klister may be applied. With regard to the manner of aPplying the blisters in these cases, the late Mr. Blaine sPeaks very confidently ; he says :—" I would recommend the following practice, which I have long pursued in these cases with invariable success. As soon as the more active inflammatory symptoms are abated, I proceed to raise an artificial inflammation by the free use of stimu- lants, generally of the liquid blister, in the following manner :—Mix six ounces of common oil with two or three ounces of liquid blister, and with this rub the whole affected part twice a day until the swelling and inflammation it will hring on prevent the use of more. In two or three days these will subside, when it should be repeated, until the same effects again prevent the application. In this way keep up a mild inflammation for a week or ten days, accord- lng to the original violence of the affection: in general oases, the subsiding of the second swelling will leave the horse sound. This will be found a much more eflïcacious ttiode of practice than the common blister; but it must be more particularly remembered, that I know of no affection so liable to return as this; consequently, although the horse may appear sound, it will be very dangerous to put him to immediate work." There are awful barbarities in old books, professing to
relieve this or the next-mentioned affection—rheumatism; among them, "swimming the horse," as it was called. Amagine a horse plunged in river, pond, or sea, with a sprained shoulder, and called on to " swim " with a rufEan °n his back. Hinds, in his " Veterinary Surgery " (Whit- taker, 1829), tells a story of one Dennis Lawler, a Dublin tarrier, who was great in this line of " cure." He tells us, U u |
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" His method was to ride his horse to a convenient depth of
water in the bay, and then, jumping forward suddenly on the animal's neck, thus souse it head-foremost to the bot- tom. The feat caused great marvel at the time ; but not so the total disappearance, upon one occasion, of the performer. Poor Dennis is supposed to have'received a kick to the bot- tom, and that his body drifted out to sea. At any rate his Howth friends saw no more of him." Without quite wish- ing the fate of poor Dennis to every horse-swimmer in shoulder-sprain, we trust never again, as we have done, to witness this cruelty. SHOULDER LAMENESS.—RHEUMATISM.
To this head we have preferred to refer Rheumatism, a
disease which many writers have denied as existent in the horse. lts presence, however, in the muscles of the shoulder, and occasionally of the loins, is too often recognis- able not to place its existence beyond doubt, if not beyond controversy. Of acute rheumatism, well-marked cases are occasionally
encountered, which are traceable to the effects of cold or moisture. The leading characters are alike in all; the attack being ushered in by universal stiffness, but more particularly of the fore extremities. Sometimes the case is attended with considerable tumefaction in front of the breast. Rheumatism is remarkable for " flying about" (metastasis,
as it is termed by the surgeon). Sometimes it attacks one or two joints, then another member, shifting from the shoul- der to the knees and hoeks, and back to the shoulder. These being its favourite points of attack in the horse. The Treatment consists in first decreasing the food to so
much only as will support life and diminish fat. Then give the following ball night and morning, until the bowels are freely opened, when it is to be withheld till purging has ceased, and then recommenced : Powdered colohicum . . .2 drachnis.
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1 scrivple.
1 draclim. 1 draclim. J drachm. |
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Calomel
Opium . .
Aloes
Powdered capsicums
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In the mean time the swollen parts may be freely fomented
with very hot Avater, and afterwards well rubbed with soap liniment, to every pint of which a quarter of a pint of liquor ammoniae has been added. Should the above ball not succeed, try the following
drink, which, in some cases, is even more effective:— Iodide of potassium . . .1 drachm.
Sulphuric ether . ... 1 ounce.
Cream of tartar .... 4 drachms.
Give night and morning in a pint of gruel. Ohronic Mheumatism may be the sequel of the acute ; in
some cases it appears as the immediate consequence of ex- posure to cutting winds, humid atmosphere, &c.; and ia |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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338
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indicated by stïffness and tenderness of the parts it attacks.
When the extremities suffer, it is not unusual to observe some tumefaction, but always great disinclination to move. It occasionally visits the loins, but is most common in the fore quarters. Sometimes one extremity and occasionally both are affected, when sudden metastasis will often remove it to the other parts; these cases were well characterised by the old term of " flying lamenesses." The Treatment of chronic rheumatism does not materially
differ from that recommended to be foliowed in cases of the acute description, excepting that strychnia, in doses of a grain, gradually increased to three grains, has occasionally been attended with benefit. THE ARM AND ELBOW.
FRACTURES.—PUNCTURES.—CAPPED ELBOW.
The arm extends from the elbow to the knee, and consists
of two bones; the front long bone, the radius; and the short hinder bone, the ulna. The elbow joint is sometimes punctured, either acci-
dentally, or through the brutality of the groom or carter. The swelling is often rapid and extensive, and fatal inflam- mation may ensue. Rest, and the closing of the wound, are the most important considerations. The elbow is sometimes fractured. If the animal be
placed in the hands of a skilful veterinarian, although the chances of cure are certainly against the horse, yet the owner need not despair. Absolute and long-continued rest, and that produced by means of slinging (see Plate XXL), will be indispensable. Capped Elbow, or capulet, is in its treatment similar to
capped koek. These enlargements about the elbow are either the consequence of a violent blow, or from the calkins of the shoes inj uring this part when the horse sleeps with his legs doubled under him. If a seton be passed through the tumour, it will sometimes rapidly diminish, and even disappear ; but if it be of considerable magnitude, the skin should be slit open along the middle of the swelling, and the tumour dissected out. THE KNEE.
BROKEN KNEES.----OPEN JOINTS.
This important and complicated joint is the seat of the
most frequent and the most deteriorating of accidents to which this powerful animal is liable; in most instances from the incautiousness, the severity, or the incompetency of the driver or rider, or the requirements of ostentation and fashion in severe bearing reins, monstrous blinkers, and the like, rendering the horse comparatively helpless and blind, and punishing him for every false step, hesitation, and blunder. We will suppose the horse has fallen, no matter how. the
question is the treatment of the injury. Treatment.—If called in while the wound is recent, the
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first thing is to sponge the knee clean from any grit, dirt, or
extraneous substance; and even in this simple operation there is much difference in the right and wrong way ol using the sponge. Slopping, smearing, and wiping should be eschewed; the immediate wound not touched in ordinary cases, but the sponge saturated with warm water squeezed dry above the laceration. The sponge will thus not become charged with dirt, and do the very mischief it is intended to relieve, nor will the water in the pail be fouled with grit (most important trifles are these), but the foreign matters clean washed away, the animal saved much pain> and the parts cleared for surgical examination. Let the horse get easy and calm after the washing, take him to his stall, give him a feed of corn, and water him. Place the palm of the hand over the joint, and ascertain
if there be much heat or swelling. Should no synovia appear upon the surface, it is prudent to avoid probing; it can " merely gratify curiosity," says Blaine, " and a surgeon has no business with any such meddling impulse; the welfare of his patiënt should be his single thought, and experience should teil him that the dimensions, depth, and magnitude of the wound are not at first to be ascertained. Such knowledge is not to be acquired till the slough has taken place." In this we agree ; we have often seen the probe recklessly used; we believe to the aggravation and extension of the injury. When the joint is ascertained to be open, the injury must no longer be treated as a common wound. Our prognosis in such case will depend on the extent of the wound, particularly that in the capsular liga- ment, and on the circumstance as to whether inflammation has been set up in the cavity of the joint. Our object must now be to close the joint as quickly as
possible, and thus prevent the escape of synovia, or joint oil j unless we succeed in doing this, the inflammation of the knee will greatly increase, and the discharge of synovia become augmented in quantity, partly coagulating as it escapes from the knee, and hanging in large flakes from the wound; the animal, from the pain experienced, keeps the knee in a bent position, or paws with the foot continually. A vast deal of fever is excited in the system, which in some cases wears out the animal, and produces death. In other cases, bony substance is thrown out round the joint, which at length closes the wound, but destroys the motion of the joint and renders the animal useless. It is, of course, important that the animal should be kept
perfectly quiet, and the leg as straight as possible. If the horse can be slung conveniently, it will vastly facilitate the cure ; for he must not lie down, lest he opens the wound. Mr. Turner's method is excellent in severe cases of open joint. The wound being cleansed, he prepares a paste of wheaten flour and table beer, mixed with a little bole armenian, which he spreads thickly above and below and round the knee. A pledget of tow is then wound round the joint and covered with some stout brown paper, and over all a cotton stocking. Outside the stocking is another layer of the paste, |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE FORE LEGS AND FEET.—SPLINTS, &c.
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339
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a»d a calico roller bandage, six yards long, is passed outside,
all wound round with a gentle and continuous pressure; then another bandage of the same length the contrary way. -the horse having been dressed is then bied, and a laxative is administered ; the dressing is not removed until the joint ls closed. It is understood that the horse is slung. If the kg swells from pressure of the bandages, he makes small cuts m each layer on each side the knee, but never in front. •in six or seven days, should there be a great accumulation °t fluid within the bandages, an incision will afford it a way out, and another dressing of the paste, with a similar bandage, applied. The horse is to be kept suspended a week aiter the joint is closed, when the paste is removed, the knee washed, and the usual wound dressing applied. If there is stül swelling above the knee, bathe with cooling evaporating lotion, but don't allow it to wet the dressings. A very superior splint or knee-cap may be now made by moulding gutta-percha, softened in hot water, to the shape of the knee. With respect to concealing the after blemish, no power of
earth can make the hair grow on a scar. It is not skin, and !t cannot be covered with the appendage only to be seen upon tl-ue skin. But the cicatrix will with time become less. Uiten the wound, which on first healing appears rather large, in the course of three months will be all but imper- ceptible. Any application of blisters, be they mild or strong, can but increase the blemish it is their intention to remove, ■^et the scar alone. If you have thrown down a horse, no veterinary surgeon can be sure he shall afterwards stand upon Perfect limbs. You must, therefore, take the consequences Without complaint, and be grateful that you have, in the euects of time, some hope left when science has abandoned you. Broken Kne.es without opening of the Synovial Cavity.—
^ccasionally broken knees prove to be mere skin injury, with
shght contusion. Undue and too early exercise may force
these into permanent thickening of the part, with injury to
^e free motion of the joint, whereas an extra rest and
Oöientation would complete a cure. When, therefore, a
cut has taken place without injury to the cavity of the joint,
he wound having been washed, bring the edges of the in-
egument as closely together as possible by strips of adhesive
Piaster, as already directed; or, if the wound be extensive,
*t would be well to sling the horse. A cure by the first
Qtention, or adhesive process, can only be hoped for in this
Way- If heat and tumefaction come on, use the lotion
c°öiposed of arnica and water, two ounces of the tinc-
^re to a quart; and, after applying the arnica and water
blght and day for forty-eight hours, if the skin be broken,
e^cnange the lotion for one composed of chloride of zinc
and water, in this way a cure may often be established,
without injury to motion or blemish to the animal
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STRAIN OF THE KNEE-JOIHT.
The knee-joint is seldom strained, so well is it secured by
ligaments. It, however, occurs to young horses and colts in training, the seat of injury being the side of the knee, by slipping outward on the turf. Bleeding from the arm, warm fomentations foliowed by cold lotions, and a little iodine ointment when the inflammation has gone, are advis- able. THE LEG.
SPLINTS.—HWïGftlES.—SPRA1N OF THE FLEXOR TENDON.—WIND-
GALLS.
This we eonsider as the part between the knee and the
fetlock, consisting of the cannon-bone in front, and the two splint-bones behind, and is the seat of that common calamity of the horse— Splints.—These are exostoses or bony tumours, formed
by inflammation of the periosteum, and are found in three positions: on the inner side of the leg, close under the knee- joint ; half way down on the inside; and sometimes on the front of the cannon-bone, in which last position they would more properly be called " nodes.", Splints are formed by the animal being worked too soon or too severely. Inflammation follows, and a bony instead of a ligamentous deposit takes place. A bony union, too, is set up between the two smaller bones and the cannon-bone, and hence the ease of motion is impaired. In the young and vigorous horse, however, other elastic principles are called into action, and the Jease of action is not strikingly deteriorated; though at some dis- tant period the mischief will erop out in stiff joint or splints in an aggravated form. The disposition to bony deposit, moreover, seems a spreading complaint, and is not confined to the space between the larger and smaller bones of the leg. A tumour, at first callous, afterwards bony, is formed, with a part of its base resting on the line between these bones. This is a simple splint, and is invariably found outside the small bone and inside the fore-leg, and outside the hinder one. When a splint is not situated immediately under a tendon,
or contiguous to ligamentary matter, it occasions no lame- ness. The veterinary practitioner should, therefore, in bis consideration of the consequences in these cases, be guided in a great measure by the situation of the splint. If placed in front, it is productive of much less injury than when placed behind; for, as already pointed out, in this latter case, the swellings may press on the ligaments, or interfere with the flexor tendons. For the same reason also, a splint placed at the lower end of the cannon is still more preju- dicial than when situated higher up the leg. It is not un- common to attribute that lameness to a splint which is dependent on other causes. A fully developed splint never lames, unless it interferes with a tendon or ligament A splint, in the course of formation, however, may produce the most acute lameness, and often does so in young horses |
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540 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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where the muscles of the foreleg are described, and to
Plates II. and VIII., Anatomy, where they are delineated. There are, of course, degrees of this injury, and the ternis
a strain of the flexor tendon, a sprain of the back sinews, a " clap" of the back sinews, a bad break-down, may De taken as mere progressive expressions of the degree of inis- chief inflicted by one and the same kind of accident. 1Q the case of " break-down," however, it is a rupture of the suspensory ligament, as will be noted hereafter. When the strain is slight, we may not discover the injury
for some hours, when the animal, without being positively lame, will go in an unusual manner, as if slightly cramped or stiff. Pass the hand gently down the affected limb, and a small swelling will be feit, and tenderness on pressure be shown. Do not listen to any fellow who tells you " Oh ! he will work sound." As Mayhew shrewdly says, " The many horses seen in the London cab-ranks with fore-legs perma- nently contracted, bear witness to the result of such very knowing treatment." To which we may add the thousands of cases where complicated and permanent disease destroys the wretched animal from first neglect. Where there is strain, bind a linen roller round the leg tightly, and wet it diligently with cold water day and night ; examine the limb every morning; give four drachms of aloes and a very small suggestion of nitre, to cool the system. Pressure may be gently and conveniently applied by a broad vul- canized India-rubber band, and a wetted piece of spongio- piline. Of old, the farrier was ready with his firing-iron even in cases of sprain : the veterinary surgeon has in the interest of humanity driven him out. When the sprain is more severe, bleed copiously from the
arm ; put the horse where he may be quiet, and have a high-heeled shoe placed on the foot of the affected leg; a good form of this is figured letter H, Plate XIX. Cold applications, in the very early stages, particularly when the swelling is considerable, will tend to unload the vessels; and the same indications will be foliowed by immersing the whole limb in spring water. In two or three days, change this plan for formentations or embrocations. Any treat- ment more stimulating than this in the early stages tends to increase the deposit of lymph, and to organizè it into a permanent tumour. But when the active stage of the in- flammation has subsided, then mildly stimulating applica- tions are proper; and they should be accompanied here with due friction and bandaging. The recovery from a severe case is usually very slow ; the parts being ligamentous, do not readily reinstate themselves; the after-treatment must, therefore, fully accord with this view, which is that of giving sufficiënt time; and in moet cases it ought to be some weeks after the horse may seem sound before he is put to fuU work. It is better, in the most favourable cases, to give » few weeks' rest, using, as already recommended, a vulcanized India-rubber bandage and spongio-piline, saturated with water, A lotion of muriate of ammonia, 1 oz., pyroligneou3 acid and spirits of wine, 2 ozs. each, camphorated spirit> |
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A splint, also, by its situation, may excite imflammation in
the ligaments and tendons themselves. As a splint is neither more nor less than a conversion of fibro-cartilage into bone, once formed, it can never be entirely removed; nevertheless, from the absorption common in later periods of life, the splints often diminish in bulk, or, as farriers call it, " wear away." Treatment.—As we have just said, " a splint once is a
splint always." Periosteotomy, or division of the skin which covers the bone, is the modern treatment for splints. It may be thus described. The horse is cast, and the leg straightened and properly secured. A small opening is then made just below the splint, sufficiënt to introducé a long, narrow, convex, probe-pointed knife (see Plate XXIIL> Instruments), the edge of which is on the convex side. This knife is passed under the skin, and by drawing it backwards and forwards the periosteum is completely divided. A small opening is then made through the skin above the splint, and a narrow seton passed from one orifice to the other, after which a bandage is placed on the leg and the horse released. The seton is moved daily and dressed with digestive ointment, and at the end of a week removed and the wound allowed to heal. Our own dictum on splints which do not involve lameness, is to let them alone ; or, if the horse goes slightly stiff, to apply a little tincture of cantharides, which may be repeated if benefit is derived from it. In the olden time, dreadful measures were adopted with
splints, most of which left matters worse than before; of these we may speak when we come to spavin and ring-bone. Among these were " thumping with a hammer, rubbing the swelling with a stick, piercing it with a gimlet or hot iron, and pressure by means of sheet lead, blistering, ' sweating' with acrid ' oils/ "* &c, &c. We have mentioned nodes in conjunction with spiints;
of these Mr. Spooner says :—" Bony tumours form on various parts of the cannon bone; but, though sometimes large and offensive to the eye, they rarely produce lameness. They are more frequent with hunters than other horses, from blows in leaping. Iodine ointment is the best treat- ment. They also occur by the side of the sesamoid bones. When near the suspensory ligament they often cause scvere lameness. Should they arise from strains of the ligaments they are more obstinate, and blistering or even firing becomes necessary. In the latter case, persevere with the iodine ointment. STRAIN OF THE FLEXOR TENDONS, OR "CXAP " OP THE BACK
SINEWS.
This serious injury is of frequent occurrence, owing to
the violent exertions to which the horse is too often urged. The structure and relation of the parts implicated in the injury will be understood by a reference to page 191 ante, |
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* Blaine, Outlines of Veterinwy Art, edit. 1854, p. 411.
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE FORE LEGS AND FEET.—RINGBONE, &c. 341
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" drachms, and cold water, 1 quart, may be applied. Where
the induration remains obstinate, repeated blisters, applied as recommended by Mr. Blaine in shoulder lameness, are the °est means of reducing the tumours. SPEEDY-CUT.—OVERREACH.
The inside of the leg, immediately below the knee, and up
to the head of the inner splint bone, is liable to the injury called " speedy-cut." A horse lifting his legs high in a fast trot, strikes this part with the hoof or edge of the shoe. Occasionally, bony enlargement is the result, preceded by great heat and tenderness ; and sometimes the pain from the blow is so great that the horse drops as suddenly as if shot. Care is necessary that with such horses no part of the shoe projects beyond the foot. In our plate of Shoes will be found a special shoe to prevent speedy-cut, and ünder Shoeing the subject will again occur. The term overreach is also applied to a blow inflicted on some part of the fore leg by the hind foot; frequently it strikes the flexor tendon, and produces inflammation and tumour. We shall have something more to say of this when we come to the pasterns, to which we shall also defer the subject of " break- down." THE PASTERNS AND FETLOCKS.
BREAKINQ-DOWN (RUPTURE OF SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT).—CUT-
IINQ.—RINGBONE.—GROGGINESS.—SPRAIN OF THE COFFIN-JOINT. BREAKING-DOWN.
This accident, as already observed, is not strain of the
hack-sinews, though that is bad enough as a disablement. The distinction should be made, for the sake of the accurate ">cal application of remedial measures, and the correct ob- servation of the progress of amendment. " Break-down," then, is a rupture of the suspensory ligament of the leg, or °f those passing from the sesamoid bones to the pasterns. "he treatment is the patten-shoe, as already mentioned u*ider sprains—or, more commonly, a pistol-shot. With valuable racehorses, where work is hot demanded, breaks- down have been foliowed by a stud-life, and nature has Partly repaired the rupture, the intervening space of the severed ligament filling up with granulations- • Sprain of the fetlock-joint arising from injury to the liga-
^entous and tendinous connexion of these parts, has some- unies been mistaken for a common swelling, and the horse exercised to " take down the enlargement." Hence in- curable deposits of coagulable lymph, forming stiff joint. ■'■«e treatment should be the same as in other cases of sprain. CUTTING.
We have already mentioned " speedy-cut" as a blow in-
^icted on the inside and lower part of the knee joint, when
Qe animaY is urged to a very fast pace. Some carriage-
°rses (the bearing rein must with these be dispensed with)
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strike the fetlock of the fore foot, and produce lameness,
often without external wound : when fatigued or weak, the lameness is increased. Mr. Morecroft advises the raising of the outer side of the shoe so as to make it much higher than the inside. He says :—" When a horse is at rest, he supports his weight equally on both feet; but having the inner heel and quarter raised when one foot is elevated, he must be supported obliquely on the other, and hence have a tendency to fall outwards ; to prevent which, he brings the moving foot nearer to the supporting one, by which he strikes it; but by raising the outer instead of the inner branch of the shoe, we necessarily give it a disposition to lean inwards, which will induce the horse to throw or in- cline the moving foot farther from the supporting foot." Mr. Goodwin describes an improvement of the common
boot, as it is termed, for defending the fetlock joint, when cutting cannot otherwise be prevented, which may be had at Mr. Long's, veterinary instrument maker, Holborn, London. Mr. Spooner adds on this point: " The best boot for cut-
ting the leg, is made with leather fitted to the leg and laced, the leather being doublé at the part struck by the other foot, " In some instances it is found that a boot buckled round
the hoof that cuts, and softly stuffed, prevents injury from the blow, when other methods fail. " For cutting the fetlock, a piece of clotïi tied round
above the joint and doubled down over it, answers the purpose." RINGBONE, OSSIFICATION OF CARTILAGES.
This is a formation of bone (or exostosis) surrounding the
whole or a part of the circle of the coronet, and in volving the joinings of the large and small pastern bones. The situation of ringbone is marked on Plate VIII. From the great mobility of the pastern joints and the shocks to which, despite their admirable contrivance, the ligaments are exposed when man overtasks the animal machinery, inflammation is induced, foliowed by the deposition of bony matter. Sometimes ringbone begins as high up as the superior articulation of the larger pastern bone ; oftener about the joint formed by the two pastern bones; and sometimes it involves only the lower pastern bone. The lateral or side ligaments are those that are oftenest or soonest affected ; ringbone is then discovered, in its earliest state, by a rounded hard projection on each side, imme- diately above the coronet. The hind legs are not so subject to ringbone as the fore legs. Ringbone is always accompanied by lameness at the com-
mencement: but the extent of the after lameness depends on the degree in which bony tumour interferes with the action of the joint. In some cases it goes off altogether, pariieularly in the hind feet, where the concussion is not so great and the inflammation is not generally so intense. In the fore feet, which support more of the weight of the |
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THE PEACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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342
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body, and are liable to severer injury, the bony deposit is
usually greater, and commonly involves one or both of the pastern joints. Lameness, and of an incurable nature, is the result if side bones also exist, or the ring should extend under the cartilages ; and it not unfrequently happens that the coffin joint, being surrounded by unyielding bone, is entirely lost. Treatment.—Local bleeding (from the toe), and evapo-
rating lotions, should be first employed ; the inflammation being removed, setons should be inserted, or the part should be stimulated. All, however, will often fail; for the inces- sant action of the parts, and the pressure on them, render it very difficult to arrest the progress of the inflammation. In a confirmed case of ringbone, especially when the joint is lost, it would be the height of cruelty to subject the poor animal to the useless torture of the iron ; and when side- bones and ringbones exist together, neurotomy (see post, " Operations ") is the only means to afford relief. Professor Sewell recommends periosteotomy in case of
ringbone, as well as splints; which refer to for method of effecting. Ossification of the lateral cartilages is known as " false
ringbone.' It is produced by concussion, and is most frequent among heavy horses driven on London pavement. When unattended with lameness, leave alone; when it appears in lighter horses, blistering, iodine ointment, a cessation from active work, and sometimes firing, may be necessary. GROGGINESS.—KNUCKLING, ETC.
This is a frequent tremulous motion of the fore leg, with
a bowing of the knee, and some degree of knuckling of the fetlock ; while upon the slightest tap behind the knee the joint yields. There is an evident loss of power and energy in the limb ; and though in some measure a natural defect, it is often a proof that the horse has been hardly worked, and it is probable that he can endure little more exertion. The various structures which compose the limb have
been overtaxed; they have become weak; their debility preventing the animal from giving to the leg that fixed position which the member otherwise would assume. There is little remedy for it but stimulation, or the constant appli- cation of cool lotion with comparative rest, while the horse enjoys the salutary and bracing, and not sufficiently appre- ciated, influence of cold on weakness of the legs and feet. SPRAIN OF THE COFFIN-JOINT.
The lameness is sudden, and the heat and tenderness just
about the coronet. Bleed at the toe, physic, and foment; blister if obstinate. This accident is often confounded with shoulder-lameness, and consequently wrongly treated. It is then the precursor and cause of ringbone. |
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THE FEET.
LAMINITIS.—FEVER IN THE FEET.—ACUTE FODNDER.—CHRONIO
F0UNDER.—PUMICED FEET.—SAND-CRACK, SEEDY-TOE, FALSE QUARTER.— QUITTOR. — CONTRACTION. — TREAD.— PUNCTURBD SOLE.—CORNS.—THRUSH.—CANKER. The sensible laminae, or fleshy plates on the front and j
sides of the coffin-bone, are full of blood-vessels, and there- fore, like other highly vascular parts, liable to inflammatory action. When it is recollected what the laminae, which are inter-
posed between the hoof and the coffin-bone, have chiefly to sustain, the violent concussion to which the feet are ex- posed when in rapid action, it will not appear surprising that intense inflammation of these parts sometimes ensues. Besides this, there is no structure in the body of the horse so exposed to other causes of inflammation as the foot. After the animal has been ridden far and fast, while he is reeking hot, he is occasionally plunged up to his belly in pond or river. Almost every groom immediately washes the feet of his horse; while very few of them take the pains carefully to dry the dripping members. What is so likely to follow as inflammation ? A horse may have been travel- ling many a mile up to his coronets in snow; and when he arrivés at his journey's end, instead of having the warmth gradually restored to his feet by half-an-hour's good hand- rubbing, he is put up to his knees in straw, or his legs are immersed in warm water. Is it not reasonable to expect that fever in the feet will follow this sudden change of temperature? In other cases, there may be a metastasis,or change, of the place of inflammation : the animal is recover- ing from inflammation of the lungs, and suddenly the feet j are attacked; and that without any fault of the surgeon or ! the groom. Inflammation of the lammee can scarcely be mistaken, j
The horse is continually shifting his posture ; yet without | violent action. The feet are constantly moving ; but they j are moved as gently as possible. When the hand is passed | down to them, the heat of the feet is evident enough. ; Grenerally, however, the horse, tired of shifting his place, j and yet retaining the pain, lies down, and can with difliculty | be induced to rise again. All the characteristics of general j inflammation are exbibited. The pulse is hard and fast— | the breathing sharp and quick—the skin harsh—the mouth hot—and the ears cold. But there are also signs which indicate the seat of the disease ; for, besides the hoofs being unnaturally hot, the arteries of the legs throb ; while the horse often points to his feet as the seat of pain, by looking at them, and resting his muzzle upon them. The treatment of inflammation of the feet must be
prompt. Other inflammations may possibly, to a certain degree,
brook delay; but here not a moment is to be lost. The in- |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE FORE FEET.—FOUNDER.
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flammation must, if possible, be made to terminate in
resolution ;" for, if the next process, and in some inflam- raations, a salutary one, commences—if pus is thrown out within the foot—the hoof will inevitably come off. Without a moment's delay the horse must be bied, taking
blood from the toe; but it is not always safe to wound a part during the existence of acute inflammation within it. The jugular may in that case be opened, and the stream allowed to flow till the pulse falters. If in five or six hours the pulse regains its inflammatory character, the coronet may be punctured in several places. A third Meeding, but *f a local character, may be justifiable; yet it should be remembered that such excessive depletion retards the recovery, although it may check the primary disease. A full dose of physic should be administered; and in-
jections should be thrown up to quicken its action. Seda- tives and febrifuges combined should also be freely given ; Dot only to allay the general fever, but also to subdue the vascular excitement as well as to deaden the pain. The following ball should be repeated every second hour until the pulse intermits :— |
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thrust through the diseased frog, seems to be attended with
benefit. The practitioner will carefully look out for the worst
symptoms, as well as those of amendment. When sepa- ration begins to take place at the coronet, between the hoof and the hair, it indicates that the process of sup- puration is established by exudation ; and, that process once thoroughly set up, it will go on, in defiance of all that can be done to stay it. It will be useless further to punish the horse ; but some relief may be obtained by surrounding the feet with poultices. Another hoof will in process of time be produced ; but it will be smaller and weaker than the first, and liable to inflammation. It is seldom that intense inflammation of any kind ter-
minates without effecting some change of structure. Dis- union to a very considerable extent between the horny and fleshy laminffi is a frequent consequence ; and the result of that is, that the coffin-bone is no longer retained in its place ; but sinks backwards and downwards. A malforma- tion which no surgery can remove is the result. The sharp edge of the coffin-bone rests upon the sole, and often pierces through it. This is an incurable state of the foot. The attempt at forcing up again the coffin-bone betrays ignor- ance of anatomy, and of the progress of disease. When the coffin-bone begins to recede from the crust, the hoof follows it to a certain degree; but its structure limits this, and another process commences in order to fill up the vacuüm : an unnatural quantity of plastic matter is secreted by the sensitive laminae; the crust thickens, and inclines inward as the coffin-bone retires: it has sometimes been observed more than two inches in thickness. Nature is, as it were, attempting still to maintain the union between the parts. What power applied to the sole can force back the coffin-
bone, pressed upon and kept down by this thickness of horn ? or what power can be applied to the external sole without bruising the internal and sensitive one ? Lameness, which no art can relieve, ensues; it is lasting and incurable. The horse should be destroyed ; but many animals in this state are forced to do slow work ; and, by the whip, compelled to move in agony. CHRONIC FOUNDER.
Lameness often appears in a chronic form, but is always
distinguished, no matter in what state it may exist, by the peculiar manner of going which it induces. The horse with inflamed lamince endeavours to cast all his weight upon the heels ; in order to spare, as-much as possible, the wall with which the diseased part is connected. The gait is peculiar, and the toes pointing upwards denote the condition of the animal. Chronic laminitis may be the consequence of the acute
disorder; more frequently it comes on gradually; and is at all times difficult to remove. Setons through the frogs, with repeated purgatives, and a course of alterative medi- |
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We would desire to do something to the feet, but often
the horse obstinately stands and will not suffer them to be raised or touched. If the shoes can be removed, they ought to be taken off; and the soles, should it be possible, be pared. The feet then should be put into poultices; or constantly fomented. If, however, the horse resists, these things had better not be attempted. Moisture is necessary to soften the horn of the hoof, so as to allow the inflamed Parts to expand; and the low temperature is required to reduce the inflammation. Ice is of great service, if it can °8 constantly applied ; but if only for an hour or two, with aQ mtermission during the night, it does more harm than g°od. It should only be applied when the inflammation is high ; but when that is the case, and the foot is very hot, a lump or two of ice constantly kept in the poultice will be of great service. Wet cloths can be placed upon the legs; and these can be kept constantly moist with the coldest water. The straw should be removed ; and its place supplied with ^mp tan, or even sawdust, which may' be moistened, and ^ill be less heating to the animal's feet. The body should he clothed—a sheep's skin placed upon the loins; even if the horse will eat, only a few spare bran-mashes should be allowed ; but water ought to be constantly before him. When the first symptoms abate, the coronets and legs
may be blistered; but this ought not to be done until the acute stage has passed A seton, however, may at the commencement be placed in the chest; and often, when |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE,
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eine, have answered best, although too often this form of
the disease resists every treatment. Laminitis may appear in one or all of the legs.
Most frequently the two fore feet are attacked, and the
animal then brings his hind legs under him, as much as possible, with the intention of taking the weight from the affected members. When only one foot is attacked, the other is always ultimately the seat of poignant lameness, and what once was the healthy limb becomes the most diseased ; because the animal, to spare the lame leg, con- tinually casts his whole weight upon the sound one. The horse with laminitis in one leg, should be destroyed. With all four limbs attacked he may recover, but when laminitis appears in one only, he has no chance of being relieved, and it is mercy to shorten his sufferings. PUMICED FEET.
When, from infiammation, the sensible horny little plates
which were separated by the heat and swelling do not unite again, their elasticity is lost, and the coffin-bone, no longer supported, comes down and renders the foot convex, or rounded outwards : this is a " pumiced foot." The crust of the hoof also falls in at the front, leaving a hollow of a remarkable character in the middle and front of the fore foot. The treatment of this disorder can only be palliative, and
no skill is competent to effect a re-union between the separated fleshy and horny leaves, or to restore to them the strength and elasticity of which they have been deprived, or to take up that hard horny substance which very speedily fills the space between the crust and the receding coffin- bone. Some efforts have been made to palliate the disease, but they have been only to a very slight extent successful. If horses, on the first appearance of " flat foot", were turned out in a dry place, or put into a box for two or three months, sufficiënt stress would not be thrown on the leaves to increase the evil, and time might be given for the growth of hom enough in the sole to support the coffin-bone ; yet we much doubt whether these horses would ever be useful even for ordinary purposes. The slowcst work required of them would drive the coffin-bone on the sole, and gradually the projection would 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 pro- jecting and pumiced part. If the projection be not great, a thick bar shoe is the best thing that can be applied, but should the sole 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 tem- porary, the disease will proceed; and, at no great distance of time, the horse will be useless. |
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SAND-CRACK.—SEEDY-TOE.—FALSE QÜARTER.
Sand-crack is a well-named disorder. It is a solution of
continuity of the horny fibres of the hoof in the direction oi their growth, that is from above downwards. It is con- sequent upon a dry, brittle state of the hoof, and attacked the horses of the British cavalry and artillery when W Egypt to a great extent. These fissures are much more frequent upon the fore than the hind feet; but they are sometimes seen on cart-horses in front of the hinder foot, from the violent strain put upon this part in drawing heavy loads. They are mostly on the inner side of the fore foot, where the weakness of the quarters, when accompanied by brittleness, renders it liable to separation. As a sand-crack generally extends to the sensitive parts, it requires that the horse should be taken from work for a time. If the sand- crack shows no signs of active suppuration, although it have completely penetrated the horn, and a little blood or serous moisture shows itself at the edges, but only under the effects of motion, proceed to pare away the horn around it; and next, by means of a camel's-hair pencil, introducé withm the edges a small quantity of the solution of chloride of zinc, as recommended for thrush. Bandage the hoof up moderately tight for two days, then again examine
the
fissure; when, if the oozing be altogether stopped, and n°
infiammation appear, proceed to draw lines of a moderate depth with a sharp firing-iron; one very little above the upper limit of the crack, another just beyond the lower limit also, and afterwards bandage as directed below. If preferred, these lines of separation may be made with a rasp, or fine drawing-knife; but the iron is best, as the seared line of distinction is stronger or more perfect, while the melted horn binds the edges together. But in case no moisture at all has appeared at the crack, then the insertio» of any caustic matter is unnecessary, and the treatment for this kind of fissure is very simple. The measures necessary for such an injury will be as follows. The horse being shod with a bar shoe, and the hoof either pared away in a line with the crack ; or otherwise the shoe chambered, so that the horn immediately under the fissure may not be pressed on : proceed to bandage up the foot, so as to fulfil the fol- lowing intentions. Bring the divided edges of the fissurc together, and completely retain them there, in such a manner as totally to exclude moisture from entering the opening. Whatever mode will answer these purposes best may be adopted: some shoemaker's wax, melted and applied- all over the hoof, may be bound round, while yet soft, wit'1 some three yards of tape, fastened with a hard knot, tne knot again covered with wax. Then smoothe off to an even surface, and rub over with lard or grease. In all cases o* simple " crack," pare away the divided edges so as to cut out the crack, and then with a hot iron draw a line above and below the place where the division has been. Seedy-toe.—We are indebted to Mr. Mayhew for the
most lucid and practical notice of this variety of sand-cra')»- |
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THE FORE FEET.—QUITTOR.
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF
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It consists in a separation of the two layers of hom -which
compose the crust of the hoof. These layers have a separate ongin. The outer, which is harder, darker, and thinner than the inner, is secreted from the coronet. The inner, wnich is softer, lighter in colour, and thicker, is built up by the sensible laminse, elsewhere described. When the loot is sound and the animal healthy, these two are one substance, and together make the "hoof" to which the shoe is naüed. When overwork, interrupted or disordered secretion, or unobserved injury affects the functions of the parts, the mischief begins, and the two kinds of horn begin to separate, as the human nail does from the " quick " as it is popularly termed. This beginning is always at the front, hence the term seedy-toe." On gently tapping a foot with this affection, a peculiar hollow sound is perceived if the mischief is exten- Slve; and upon removing the shoe a cavity between the two layers of horn is visible, up which a piece of soft wood may be passed, to ascertain the depth of the lesion. Treatment.—Put the horse in a loose airy box, and feed
nim with sound, dry, food, and give a mild dose of cooling Riedicine. Then gradually cut away so much of the outer Wall of the hoof, beginning at the toe, as is clearly detached from the inner. Examine from time to time, and cut away the crust as far as the detachment, should it not have been already completely removed. The new solid hoofwill be found to be growing downwards from the coronet, and in a month or two rapidly forming and hardening. Rest and good feed- ing accelerate the secretion ; the cure is in most cases complete. FALSE QUARTER
is the absence of a portion of the outer crust of the hoof,
and the sensible laminae are consequently exposed at the point where this deficiency occurs ; the spongy inner wall, spoken of in the last article, alone covering them—an in- sufficiënt protection, and liable to painful injury and rup- ture, when Meeding and frngous growths follow; the latter being squeezed painfully between the edges of the remain- mg hoof, and laming the sufferer. The treatment of sand- crack is to be foliowed ; but as the hoof will not grow again m false quarter, owing to a portion of the secreting coronary band being absent entirely, theïe is no remedy but a pallia- tive. This is found in the bar-shoe (Plate XVIII. E), with a clip at the toe, the bearing of the foot being eased off at the place where the want of hoof is visible. Then place a piece of softened gutta percha of the required thickness to öll up the hollow between the foot and the upper face of the shoe, and mould it up the side of the injured part. This will keep on for several days, when it may be renewed. The part being thus relieved from pressure, the horse—at öioderate labour, on fair ground—has long preserved his usefulness. |
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QUITTOR
is the serïous consequence of a severe wound of the coronet.
The injury, whether from an accidental tread, a side slip in frosty weather, or a blow upon the inside quarter, should be carefully and immediately attended to ; because if sand or gravel get into the wound, it is likely to produce those deep- seated ulcerations and sinuses which constitute the disease called " quittor." Quittor may also proceed from any wound of the foot; and
there is much difficulty in the matter proceeding from ulcera- tion finding its way from under the hoof, which covers the foot with its various complicated parts. The consequence is, it accumulates under the hoof until it has increased to such an extent that it forces itself out in all directions, separating the little fleshy plates from their connection with the horny ones of the crust; or disuniting the fleshy sole from the horny one; and in extreme cases eats its way deeply into the internal parts of the foot, forming pipes or sinuses which run in all directions. Treatment.—White's practice is as follows :—The extent
and direction of the sinuses must be ascertained with a probe. Then spread some powdered corrosive sublimate on pieces of paper smeared with lard : cut them into narrow slips, and twist them up to a point, insert them into the sinuses and push them to the bottom with the probe. It often becomes necessary to remove the greater portion of the horny sole, and thereafter restore the healthy state of the tender sur- face beneath. When this has been effected, the horn will quickly be reproduced. But in cases where much of the sole has been removed, it will take at least six months to restore fully the deficiënt part, so that the horse may again be subjected to labour. If it is found, when the probe is inserted into the fistulous
openings on the coronet, that the direction of the sinuses is backward, it is probable a cure may be effected ; but if the direction of the fistulas be forward, and more especially if the probe touches bone, the case is of great difficulty and doubt. Mr. Spooner objects to White's "severe treatment" with
caustics ; and says there is danger of destroying the lateral cartilage and producing false quarter, in which we agree. Mr. Newport, in the " Veterinarian," reports cures by inject- ing a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc every twenty- four hours, poulticing also the foot. This is much less pain- ful, and we believe quite as efficacious. In severe cases, setons from the lower parts of the sinuses and brought out at the heels, or between the bars and frog, are often serviceable. CONTRACTION.
This disorder or defect, to which such prominence and
space has been given in many veterinary works, especially Continental, may be couveniently referred to two articles : that on " Shoeinö," and in its clironic form, to Navicular- joint. Disease. Oontracüon is produced by bad shoeing. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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346
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in the after stages becomes no more than warm. Moreover,
the consequences of this disease are absorption, which it takes years to effect; not deposition, which is accomplished in a few days. All internal structures of the foot lessen, till the hoof becomes visibly small and contracted ; for it is a law in nature that, in the living creature, the contents should govern the covering. Thus, the brain controls the skull; the lungs regulate the chest, &c, &c.' "With these views the treatment of Mr. Mayhew corresponds, and has our fullest assent. Feed liberally on crushed oats and old beans. Soak the
foot in hot water for one hour every night for fourteen days; put tips on the hoofs, which part smear over with animal glycerine. Put the feet in a sponge-boot (see Plate XIX. L), and wrap the shank in flannel. Remember Professor Coleman's " remedy "—a frog-pressure shoe—is the provocative of the disease, if not often the cause of its incurable aggravation. A leather sole, applied when the horse is shod, is of the utmost importance to his more permanent utility. Never use clay as a stopping, as the cold is apt to yet further enfeeble parts already deficiënt in blood-stimulus. Neurotomy, in extreme cases, is resorted to- lt affords in these cases the only chance of the horse being serviceable for a time. Of course it does not cure the disorder, but it destroys sensibility. Hence, the animal often ruptures the tendon, or fractures the bone by a violent contact of the insensible foot with the ground. The animal must then be destroyed. TREAD.
This, which often results in quittor, will be noted under
disease of the hinder feet, in which it is more frequent; and see Speedy Cut and Overreach. PUNCTURED S0IE, OR WOUNDED CRUST.
The sole is obviously very liable to wounds by nails,
flints, pieces of glass, and the like. Frequently too, but not so often as in former times, 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 carefully 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 feit in some part of the foot will point out the seat of injury; or, if the crust be rapped with the hammer all round, the flinuhing 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 permitted to wrench it off, but each nail should be drawn separately, and examined as it is drawn, when some moisture appearing upon one of them will not unfrequently reveal the spot at which matter has been thrown |
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NAVICULAR-JOINT DISEASE.—" GROGGY " LAMENESS.
In stable-phrase, the horse afflicted with what some
modern veterinarians have called " navicularthritis," is not inaptly described by the grotesque term "groggy." The learned compound term " navicularthritis "* is simply pedantic nonsense, and expresses what the disease is not. The perforans tendon is inserted in the hinder part of
the coffin-bone, and to reach that part it passes under the navicular-bone, which rests upon it, with the interposition of a small synovial sac, for facilitating the motion of the little bone upon the tendon. It is on the upper side only of this sac that the appearances of navicular disease are found after death. The sac above the navicular-bone, and between it and the lower bone of the pastern, is never found partaking in the disease. The cause of the disorder, which is direct injury, is
obvious. The immense weight of the animal has been placed with an impetus on some hard substance, which has taken the foot at a disadvantage, and bruised the navicular- bone—the first solid substance receiving the extreme con- cussion. True, that the fleshy frog and the body of the dense perforans tendon lie between the face receiving the blow and the injured bone ; but the fleshy frog is, by nature, highly organised, and adapted by its secretory powers to recover its tone ; while the tendon, less organised) is "wonderfully elastic and yielding in the living subject. The bone, then, the first unyielding substance, receives per- manent injury from the concussion, forced downward as it is from above by the coronary-bone. When the injury is recent, the horse is found simply lame. The foot is examined, but it is generally quite cool, There is no apparent reason to be assigned for the lameness; indeed, it often goes off, and the circumstance is forgotten. After a period of three to six months, during which unseen mischief has been going on, the lameness reappears. It is relieved, comes back again, and the horse is lame for life. As one foot is painful, greater stress is thrown upon the sound member, which is often injured in consequence, and hence both feet are found, in so many instances, with disease of the navicular-joint. We may observe that a sure sequel,—we might rather
gay a symptom,—of navicular disease, is contraction. The foot is thrown out of use, or " saved by the animal," indeed he will be found "pointing" it in the stable; hence the quarters draw inwards, the heels narrow, the frog hardens and diminishes in size and plumpness, the sole thickens, the hoof itself grows higher, and is marked by ridges. In short, "contraction " marks navicular disease. Navicular disease is of an ulcerative tendency, and most
seriously affects the adult and the aged animal. Mayhew remarks,—which is confirmatory of the view we have already taken,—" the foot in the first instance exhibits no heat, and |
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* Inflammation of the navicular joint. Navicida (Lat, navicida, a
little boat) arthron (Greek, a joint), and itis, the affix for inflammation. |
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DISEASES AND INJÜRIES OF THE FORE FEET.—CORNS.
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347
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°ut. In the fore-foot the injury will generally be found on
tne inner quarter, and on the hind-feet near the toe, these being the thinnest parts of the fore and hind-feet Sudden lameness occurring within two or three days
after the horse has been shod, will lead us to suspect that the smith has been in fault; yet no one who considers the thinness of the crust, and the difEculty of shoeing many feet, ^Jll blame him for sometimes pricking the horse. His tault will consist in concealing or denying that of which he ^ill 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 driving of the nail. When the seat of mischief is ascertained, the sole should
"6 thinned round it; and, especially at the nail-hole or the Puncture, it should be pared to the quick. The escape of sotne matter will now probably teil the nature of the in- JUly, and remove its consequences. If it be puncture of the sole by some nail, or any similar body picked up on the road, aU that will be necessary is a little to enlarge the opening, ald then to place on it a pledget of tow dipped in Friar's balsam, and over that a little common stopping. If there be ^uch heat and lameness, a poultice should be applied. The part of the sole wounded and the depth of the wound
ölUst be taken into consideration. A deep puncture towards the back part of the sole, penetrating even into the sensible *rog, may not be productive of serious consequence. There is no great motion in the part, and there are no tendons or D°nes in danger. A puncture near the toe may not be tollowed by much injury. There is little motion in that P^rt of the foot, and the internal sole covering the coffin- bone will soon heal; but a puncture about the centre of the s°le may wound the flexor tendon where it is inserted into the coffin-bone ; or may even penetrate the joint which unites he navicular-bone with the coffin-bone ; or pierce through the tendon into the joint which it forms with the navicular- D°ne ; and a degree of infiammation may ensue, which, if neglected, may be fatal. Many horses have been lost by the SRiallest puncture of the sole in these dangerous points. 7*-W the anatomical skill of the veterinarian should be called Qto requisition, when he is examining the most trifling ^ound of the foot. It the foot has been wounded by the wrong direction of a
ai* m shoeing, and the sole be well pared out over the part 11 the first appearance of lameness, little more will be ecessary to be done. The opening must be somewhat larged, the Friar's balsam applied, and the shoe tacked on,
ith or without a poultice, according to the degree of lame- ness or heat, and on the following day all will often be well. may, however, be prudent to keep the foot stopped for a
_ days. < If the accident has been neglected, and matter gins to be formed, and to be pent up and to press on the
ighbouring parts, the horse evidently suffers extreme
Pain> is sometimes scarcely able to put his foot to the - oundi and much matter is poured out when the opening |
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is enlarged, further precautions must be adopted. The fact
must be recollected, 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 ; and, as directed in Seedt-toe, &c, the separation must be foliowed 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. The exposed fleshy sole must then be touched, but not too severely, with chloride (butyr) of antimony, some soft and dry tow placed over the part, the foot stopped, and a poultice placed over all if the infiammation 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, touched again with the caustic; but if there be an appearance of fungus sprouting from the exposed surface, the application of the butyr must be more severe, and the tow 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 ex- tensive openings the Friar's balsam will not often be suc- cessful, but the cure must be effected by the judicious and never too severe use of the caustic. Bleeding at the toe, and physic, will be resorted to as useful auxiliaries when much infiammation arises. In searching the foot 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, while some months must elapse before the horn will grow down sufïiciently far for the shoe to be securely fastened. Youatt adds:—" 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 the' crust extends for a considerable space above the sole." CORNS.
A corn in the human subject is a very different thing
from that of the horse, although both arise from pressure. In the horse they are ordinarily seated in that part of the horny sole which is situated between the inner quarter and the bars. When violent pressure is applied, even for a short time, it produces infiammation and extravasation from the secreting sole, the vessels of which becoming ruptured, a " sappy " or " bleeding " corn, called a " new corn," makes its appearance, presenting a blood-marked spot. The sup- purating corn we will notice presently. The sensible sole thus injured, unless immediately relieved and not again sub- jected to pressure until perfectly reinstated, takes on a per- manently diseased state. Ever after, instead of perfect horn, a morbid secretion is deposited, and in some cases a semi-purulent matter, or pure pus, fills up the place, the inflamed vessels retaining an exquisite sensibility. |
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348 THE PRACTICE OF
Corns are usually found upon the inside of the foot,
because the inner wall and heel are weaker, and also bear a greater portion of weight than the outer. The coffin bone not reaching to the heels, is the reason why these structures are the seats of corn, for the coffin bone is the active agent in its production. This bone is moved upwards and down- wards at either end, as the weight rests upon one extremity or the other of its articular surface. It is the wings of the coffin-bone which cause corns. The descent of these wings squeezes the sensitive sole bet-ween them and the shoe in open feet, the shoe in this case being the passive agent; but in the contracted foot, the high, thick, hard, and unyielding sole becomes the passive agent, and between that and the wing of the coffin bone the sensitive sole is bruised. Too little horn subjects the feet to corns, because a slight pressure will indent weak feet. The best shoe, suffered to remain on a foot too long, -will produce a corn or corns. Neglecting to prepare the foot for the shoe is also a fruitful source of corns; for in preparing a foot, this angular portion should be so pared as to remove it from contact with the iron, without weakening the horny covering of the sensible sole. Another common cause is the neglect of removing or renewing the shoes at proper intervals. When a shoe has been long worn, the growth of the hoof carries it forwards, by which the parts originally opposed to the heels are carried beyond them, and now press on the sole, often becoming indented within the line of the crust, and producing a most injurious pressure. Sometimes, also, either from the original form of the shoes, or by long wear, they become loose or " springy " at the heels, as smiths call it; in which case gravel is apt to make its way between the shoe and foot, which, by the pressure of the heels during action, is indented into the substance of the horn; other gravel is received in the same manner, which presses still onward, until at last it harms the sensitive part of the sole. Extravasation of pure blood ensues, and forms a corn, or it may proceed to suppuration Corns, when new, are deeply seated, and of a bright
crimson colour, requiring much digging with the drawing knife to be found. When old they are black and near to the lower surface of the sole, which has then only to be scraped clean to perceive them. A corn, however, should be foliowed with the paring knife to its source in the sensitive part; for horses with old corns only go well when fresh shod and newly pared ; and as soon as the portion of sole between the bars grows to a level with the surrounding horn, the sensible sole receives a fresh bruise, and kmeness again appears. Tkeatment.—When a corn of moderate extent first ap-
pears, it is not difficult by proper means to remove it com- pletely : but when it has existed some time, the injured part becomes weakened, and the diseased action established. As soon, therefore, as it is discovered, the cure should be im- mediately attempted; first, by removing the shoe, then with a fine drawing-knife cutting away every portion of horn |
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/"ETERINARY MEDICINE.
around; avoiding, however, wounding the sensitive sole
underneath. If any contraction of the heels be present, the sole should be thinned till it yields to pressure ofthethumb, and the blood appears like dew upon the surface. A unila- teral shoe should be then applied, chambered opposite the weak part. Every third week remove the shoes, and pare the horn away from the seat of corn. In this way corns may be cured at their outset. But having become habitual and per- manent, a palliative treatment only can be pursued. In the first place, the pressure of the horn must be guarded against by a regular and frequent paring out of the sole; and if the hoof be very strong, and at all disposed to contract, the quarters also should be attended to, and not allowed to be- come too thick. We have also in very strong feet found the short shoe or tips sometimes of the greatest possible service- To a weak foot, a chambered shoe is preferable. When the weakness is very considerable, or the corn a very bad one, a bar shoe is the most proper support; more particularly remembering, in these very aggravated cases, to remove occasionally all the surrounding horn likely to press on the injured part. Animals that could not wear tips or bear a bar shoe upon the foot, have gone well when shod with leather, and with a shoe shortened at the quarter, which is the seat of corn. By regularly attending to this, horses, before useless, have been able to perform work with comfort to themselves and satisfaction to their owner. In slight cases of corn, the shoe proper to be used is one of rather more substance than common, with the web a little wider than usual, and its width equal throughout, that is, as wide at the heels as the toe ; it should also extend rather farther back than it generally does, and present a perfectly level surface to the sole. This afibrds ease and protection: future pressure must be avoided by keeping the seat of corns clear from offending horn. Thiiüsh. See Diseases of the Hinder Feet, post.—When
thrush occurs in the fore-feet it may be considered indica- tive of navicular disease: by inserting a piece of tow in the suspected frog, the characteristic odour will be at once discovered. CANKEE.
Canker is distinguished by the growth of a fungoid
substance, instead of healthy horn, over the surface of the soft parts of the sensitive frog and sole, exuding a thin and offensive discharge, which has the property of deconv- posing horn. In mild cases every portion of diseased horn must be
removed ; otherwise the confinement of the fungus will not only exceedingly torture the horse, but, by the irritation which it produces, will prolong the disposition to throw out the unhealthy substance. The owner must not be terrified at the extent to which the foot is laid bare: not the slightest good can be effected while there is any portion ol fungus confined. Having laid the unhealthy part perfectly open, the
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DISEASES AND INJÜRIES OF THE FORE FEET.—CANKER.
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349
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Pr&ctitioner will consider what kind of surface it presents.
■" there is much fungus, he will probably resort to the knife. The fungus must be destroyed, and it cannot be Q°ne too soon, or with too unsparing a hand. A level surface being thus produced, the muriate of antimony may De lightly applied over the whole of it. There is no disease for the relief of which there are more
nurnerous remedies, all strongly recommended, than for canker. All and each of these will sometimes be successful; out on other occasions every one will fail. Solutions of the various caustics; the different acids, either diluted or of the full strength; powders in which the sulphates or chlorides are mingled with chalk, bark, or charcoal, and compounds of all kinds of things have their advocates, ^itric acid and tar is in great favour with some parties. Others employ verdigris, mixed with tar and treacle, or honey, to which is often added a portion of sugar of lead. In fact, the recipes are too numerous to be repeated; but they all have one and the same intention, namely, to act as a caustic and astringent; reducing the fungus, and stimu- lating the part to take on a healthy secretion. No recipe can strictly be given in a case of this kind. The strength °f the agent should be suited to the state of the disease, and in this particular no two cases will be alike. Let, therefore, the judgment be exercised; and at the same time let it be remembered that it is better to change the application than to continue its use when it appears to produce no marked or beneficial effect. A rapid succession °f different agents employed in different forms will often do that which a pertinacious adherence to a favourite nostrum will too frequently fail to accomplish. When not judiciously employed, the more potent remedies for canker not only destroy the surface to which they are applied, but deeply and injuriously eat into the foot. The whole cankered surface being exposed, sprinkle it with the fol- lowing powder :— Chloridr of zinc . ... 1 drachm.
Resin . . . . . 4 ounces.
or,
Chloride of lime .... 1 ounce.
Alum and resin .... 2 ounces.
Observe, neither of these powders will keep dry, and, therefore, must ^e made fresh for use. A layer of lint and dry soft tow must be spread over
the whole of the exposed surface, and made firmly and equally to press upon it by thin strips of spring-steel slid ander the shoe, the horse must be put into a thoroughly |
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dry box, from which the urine will immediately run off,
and where no kind of moisture can reach the diseased part. A cankered foot, however, must not be dressed too frequently. The two or three first dressings may be given on succeeding days ; but, when the fungus has been in some degree sub- dued, the bandages should only be removed every fourth day, or even once a week. Every time that the foot is exposed it should be carefully examined, in order to see that there is no portion of unhealthy horn; for if there is, it must be immediately removed. The appearance of the exposed surface must also be inspected with great attention. Fresh fungus will require a fresh application of the powder, or possibly of the knife. Every little pellicle of skinny matter or soft and porous horn must also be pared away: the healthy horn which has been secreted must be lightly run over with the knife : and then the butyr of antimony applied to the whole of the surface; the quantity used on the different portions of it varying with the pro- gress towards a cure. After this the foot must be bound up as before. A few days having passed—if the sprouting of the fungus
has been quite checked, but yet the horn does not grow so healthily as could be wished,—a pledget of tow may be dipped in the solution of the chloride of zinc, and spread over that portion of the foot, with more dry tow placed upon that. A sudden change will thus often be effected; but, should not this take place to the desired extent, try muriate of antimony, laid on with a brush. The secret of the treatment of canker consists in the use
of superficial caustics or stimulants ; pressure as firmly and as equably as it can be made ; and the careful avoid- ance of greasy applications or of moisture, either applied immediately to the foot, or suffered to penetrate to it through the dressing. The solution of chloride of zinc is an exception to this last rule, for it corrects the exudation from the foot and stimulates the sensitive parts to the secre- tion of healthy horn, while the small quantity that need be used will be far from supplying constant moisture. If wet can certainly be avoided, a horse with a cankered
foot will, immediately after the first apparent growth of good horn, do much better at work than standing idle in the stable. As canker, however, is a constitutional disease, local
applications must not be singly depended upon. It is often connected with grease (see Gkease), and with grossness of body. The condition of the horse must be considered, and measures adopted to improve the system. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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350
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
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IAMENESSES, AND DISEASES AND INJÜEIES OF THE HOOK, LEQS, AND HINDEK FEEI.
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by cold lotions; and, if the lameness continue, the joint
should be blistered, or setons inserted over it. Dislocation, or Fracture, of the Patella.—This injury,
also included under " lameness in the stifle," is often mis- taken for " cramp," as farriers term it. The signs of a dis- located patella (knee-pan or whirl-bone) are the rigid thrust of the hind-leg backwards, where it remains fixed; the head is erected, and the muscles quiver, while the pastern of the injured leg is bent upwards. An unusual swelling will be perceived at the outer and lower part of the buttock. By grasping the condyles (knobs) of the thigh-bone, the dis- placement of the patella can be feit, and the absence of the protuberant patella from its proper position, and its shift to the outer edge of the thigh, are visible, though not so to the unskilful observer in coarse, fleshy horses. The bone, is always dislocated outwards; the form of the
lower end of the femur, the strength of the ligaments, and the power of the muscles on the outward side, all prevent the bone from being dislocated inwards. It sometimes happens from weakness, when mere motion will be sufficiënt to reduce it. Nevertheless, in other instances, surgical aid is needed. In such cases proceed as follows. In the first place, have the leg drawn forward, if necessary, by means of a rope passed over a beam or rafter, and around the fetlock; then push' violently against the dislocated bone, the position of which will be accurately told by the swelling it produces. It will generally fly back, with some noise ; and having got it in its proper situation, partially release the drawn-up leg, and have an assistant to hold the bone justly, by pushing against it for several hours ; afterwards blister the part, to render the animal averse to using it. Fracture of the Patella is occasioned by a violent kick or
blow. When the action of the tendons inserted into its sur- faces disunites the fractured portions beyond the power of veterinary surgery to bring them together, the limb is use- less, having lost the antagonism to undue flexion. It will be, therefore, of no avail to attempt a course of treatment. In human surgery, the treatment of dislocations and
fractures forms a most important branch of practice. In the horse, though these separations sometimes occur, the immensity of the muscular resistance is such, and our sur- gical machinery at present is so little calculated to make resistance to the power thus exerted, that the subject may be briefly dismissed in such a treatise as the present. |
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THE HAUNCH.—THE STIFLE.—STEAIN OF THE " EOUND-BONE."—
DISLOCATION AND FEACTUEE OF THE PATELLA.—ANCHYLOSIS. The bones of the haunch and hinder leg are described, ante,
pp. 183, 184, and the muscles, pp. 190, 191. The Plates (X. and XI.) of The Foot and Neueotomy, and Plate IX., representing the hinder extremities and their diseases, should be referred to. The haunch consists of three bones : the ilium, which is
joined to the spine, and, when projecting at its wings, pro- duces the appearance called " ragged-hip;" the ischium, or hip-bone, behind and below the ilium, and which projects on each side under the tail; and the pubis, which unites the two last-named. Fracture of the projecting part of the ilium or haunch-
bone occasionally occurs. When it is of a simple kind, adhesive inflammation is set up, and the parts re-unite; owing, however, to the action of the muscular fibres inserted in the loosened portion, the piece is sometimes drawn aside, and no surgical application can keep it in its proper position. In these cases the horse is what is called " let down in the hip." Although the " stifle," in comparative anatomy, corres-
ponds with the " knee" of the human subject, yet the different proportions of the bones of the horse cause the parts below it to be called the "thigh," instead of the "leg." As in old books of farriery " chest-founder " was the cloak
for almost every obscure lameness in the fore-limbs, so to a " strain of the round-bone" or of the " stille," the lame- nesses of the hinder-limbs were conveniently referred. Violence, doubtless, occasionally injures the ligaments, especially of the inside of the thigh. The deep situation of the part presents difficulty. Cold applications, where tumefaction and heat are present, foliowed by stimulant fomentations, a mild blister frequently repeated, and local bleeding may be tried with good effect. What is called " lameness in the hip" proves, however, in most cases, on careful examination, to have the "hoek" for its true seat. Strain or Injury of the Ligaments of the Stifle, or Patella,
is shown by the difficulty the horse feels in putting forward the hind leg; also by swelling and tenderness of the part. The Teeatment should consist of bleeding, either generally
or from the thigh ; warm fomentations to the part, foliowed |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE HOCK.—CURB.
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351
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which, in the horse, tie down the tendons at the joints;
these, by sudden extension, are injured, and hence a curb. An enlargement at the back of the hoek, three or four inches from the point (see Plate IX., Fig. 5), is visible. Horses are found to " throw out" curbs after a severe race, an extraordinary leap, a fast gallop over heavy ground, or a sudden pull-up. Youatt thus describes the usual treatment of curbs :— " The first object in attempting the cure 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 application. It will be almost im- possible to keep a bandage on. If the heat and lameness are considerable, it will be prudent to physic thé horse, and to bleed from the subcutaneous vein. Whether the injury be 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, which should be allowed to subside, and then the liniment again resorted to ; or, which 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 horse goes sound, and the swelling has disappeared. In severe cases it may be necessary to fire, but we cannot recommend the indiscriminate recourse to the hot iron in every case of curb, and we would uniformly give a fair trial to milder measures. If the iron be used, the strokes should be in straight linea. " There are few complaints in which absolute and long-
continued rest is more requisite than in curb. An injury so serious leaves the parts very materially weakened, and, if the horse be 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 resumé his former habits. " A horse with a curb is manifestly unsound. A horse
with the vestige of curb we should regard with much suspicion, or generally condemn as unsound; for although the neighbouring parts may have accommodated themselves to the slight enlargement that remains, they are not in their natural situation, and have lost a portion of their natural strength. Some latent disposition to relapse may continue, which extraordinary exertion may rouse to action; and, besides this, it should be remembered, that curb is an hereditary complaint, and that there may be some constitu- tional weakness of these parts." ENLARGEMENT OF THE HOCK-JOINT.—CAPPED HOCK,
The point of the hoek is sometimes swelled, and a soft
fluctuating tumour appears. This is an enlargement of one of the mucous bags (bursse mucosse), which assist the |
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ANCHYLOSIS (STIFF AND BENT JOINT).
When bony matter is deposited within or upon the car-
tilaginous extremities of bones, or upon the capsular and investing ligaments, so as totally to destroy the motion of a joint, it is called anchylosis, from the Greek word ankyloö, to bend. This tendency is remarkably shown in the horse. Few of the joints of the animal escape anchylosis, as none of his bones are out of the ordinary reach of bony deposit. The joints of the spinal column, particularly of the dorsal and lumbar vertebrae, are frequently the seat of this affec- tion, which seems to be occasioned by heavy weights. It is anchylosis which renders old horses stiff, and in some in- stances unwilling to lie down, or when down averse to ris- ing up again/ When anchylosis of the knee or hoek occurs, it usually follows injuries extending into the cavities of those important joints. The treatment is of course merely palliative, promoting absorption where possible by iodine and stimulants, and soothing pain, where present, by wet bandages, warm and cold. THE HOCK.
STRAIN OF THE LIGAMENTS.— CURB.— ENLARGEMENT OF THE
HOCK.— CAPPED HOCK.— BOG-SPAVIN, BLOOD-SPAVIN, B0NE- SPAVIN.—THOROTJGH-PIN.—WINDGALLS. Strain 'of the Ligaments of this important joint is by no
means unfrequent, and, as we have said before, the injury is supposed to be higher up. If taken early, the horse rested, and the case treated on the principles before laid down, we shall generally succeed in effecting a cure. When inflammation can be detected at the hoek, bleeding, from the thigh or saphena vein, will effect great relief. By violent and long-continued exertion of the hoek joint,
so great is the consumption of synovia, in consequence of its peculiarly extensive motion, that the synovial membrane becomes at length incapable of supplying any more, and in this exhausted state is itself the subject of friction. The joint then becomes inflamed and ulcerated, and the lame- ness is " past all surgery." CURB.
This, which is, in fact, extension of the ligaments of the
hoek, is usually brought on by some violence offered to the sheath of the perforans tendon, passing downwards at the back of the hoek. It is often the effect of leaping, rearing, kicking, &c, and as such is usually sudden in its appear- ance. A kind of predisposition to curbs from conformation is apparent in horses with " sickle hoeks/' For the con- firmation of this fact the public are indebted to the dissec- tions and observations of Mr. W. Percivall, a writer whose diligence and research cannot be too highly commended. The lameness arising from curbs is not, in general, severe : occasionally, however, it may and does prove considerable. We have already noticed under Ligaments the ring-like bands |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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352
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The Treatment of bog-spavin may be briefly given in the
words of Youatt, to which we will append the shrewd and lively observations of Mr. Mayhew :—" Uniform pressuro will sometimes cause the absorption of the fluid contained in cysts or bags like these, but in a joint of such extensive motion as the hoek, it is difficult, or almost impossible, to confine the pressure on the precise spot where it is required; and could it be made to bear on the enlarged bag, it would likewise press on the vein, and to a great degree hinder the passage of the blood, and increase the dilatation below the obstruction. The old and absurd method of passing a liga- ture above and below the enlarged portion of the vein, and then dissecting out the tumour, is not, in the advanced stage of veterinary science, practised by any surgeon who has a regard to his reputation. The only method of relief which holds out any promise even of a temporary success, is by exciting a great deal of inflammation on the skin, and thus rousing the deeper-seated absorbents to carry away the fluid effused in the enlarged bag. Repeated blisters then will aflbrd the fairest prospect of removing the tumour, or firing may be tried ; but in the majority of cases, the disease will bid defiance to all our means, or will return, and baflBe our hopes when we had seemed to have been accomplishing our object." Mayhew's advice is worth the space we here give, as a
contrast of the "difference of doctors." He says:—"The regular treatment is to purge, give diuretics, bleed, blister, rowel, seton, periosteotomy, neurotomy, fire, and punch. The bleeding may be great or small, local or general; the blister, mild or severe, applied over half the joint at a time» or rubbed in after the limb has been scored by the iron. Rowels and setons may also be simple, or they may be smeared with irritants, which are made of different strengths. Periosteotomy may be single or may be made compound by the addition of a seton and a blister. Neuro- tomy is very unsatisfactory, and very often a most tedious affair when employed to cure spavin. The fire may be down to the true skin ; it may be through the skin and on to the tumour ; or it may be inflicted by means of a blunt- pointed instrument, which, when heated, burns its way into the bone itself. The punch also admits of variety ; it may be with or without a blister; it may be holes made in a living body, which holes are filled with a corroding paste. Or the operation may consist of the exposure of the bone, and cutting 'off the offending portion with a saw, or knock- ing away part of a breathing frame with a chisel and » mallet! " All these tortures have for centuries been inflicted;
they have been practised upon thousands of animals, only for men at this day to doubt whether the cruelty has been attended with the slightest service. Flesh, as capable of feeling as our own, has been cut, irritated, burnt, and punched for hundreds of years, and now, at the twelfth hour, such operations are not discarded, but their efEcacy is mildly questioned. |
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motions of the os calcis, and surround the insertion of the
tendons in the point of the hoek. It is very unsightly, and sometimes becomes of a great size, particularly when it is occasioned by the practice of kicking; in which case not only is there an immense increase of the secretion, but the integuments also thicken, and accumulations take place about the capsule, which become of semi-cartilaginous consistency. It has been punctured occasionally with partial success, and the contents have been drawn off by setons, but the inflammation raised has endangered life. It has also been opened, and its contents, which in the enlarged state are partly fluid and partly semi-solid, eva- cuated, but after-irritation has endangered life; and no great advantage has been gained, for the incision made has united, and the sac has filled again. Hand-rubbing, almost continuously applied, has done more good with regard to diminishing the size, than all the puncturing, blistering, and firing put together. The hand is also as- sisted by an India rubber bandage made to fit the part, and worn at such times as the friction is stayed. When, however, opening the sac is insisted upon, it is best to dissect away the lining membrane, or to destroy it by the application of caustic. It is exceedingly diiïicult to apply a bandage; and
puncturing the tumour, or passing a seton through it, would be a most injudicious and dangerous practice. Blis- ters, repeated as long as may be necessary, are the usual means employed. Sometimes the tumour will disappear of itself, but at others it will attain a very large size, or will assume a callous structure that will bid defiance to all curative appliances. BOG-SPAVIN.—BLOOD-SPAVIN.—BONE-SPAVIN.
Bog-spavin is the commonest form among young horses,
chiefly at the time of breaking. Bog-spavin may be termed " wind-gall" of the hoek.
From over exertion, the bursse mucosaï, which lubricate this complicated joint (see Plate IX. Fig. 4), become inflamed and enlarged ; hence the subcutaneous vein, which passes over these bags on the inside of the hoek, is compressed, and the blood interrupted in its flow; blood-spavin is thus produced, but bog-spavin may exist without it. Blood- spavin is a mere fanciful distinction, which may be dis- missed without further comment. Spavin and splint in their most advanced stage are the
conversion of ligament into bone ; yet when spavin is found, though it may be small, no one can teil where it may stop. It is alarming to find them in young horses; but in old animals they are often perfected, and will not only grow no bigger, but often decrease, and become partially absorbed. The bones locked together by exostosis never become loosed, though the swelling may disappear. As a general rule, we would say, when spavin does not produce lameness, let it alone. However unsightly, do not risk setting up a new action where the disease is quiescent. |
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DISEASES AND INJURIE8 OF
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HIND-LEGS, fcc.-SWELLED LEGS. 353
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" Reader, if you have a horse which is lame from spavin,
and your calculations teil you it will not pay to nurse the Cripple, have it slauglitered. Do not consent to have it tortured for a chance ; do not sell it to the certainty of a terrible old age and of immediate torment. " The cure for spavin is good food and rest,—perfect rest.
Such rest or stagnation as a healthy horse .submits to in the stable. This enjoined for months, with the occasional appli- cation of a mild blister, with the best of food to enable nature to rectify man's abuse will do more good, cost no ftïore money, and occupy no more time than the devilries üsually adopted, and very often almost without success. •A-s an additional motive on the side of humanity, it may be stated that the horse suffers much more when disease is '°cated in the hind, than when it is exhibited upon the fore- legs. The ravages which in the first case would endanger the life, in the last would be borne with comparative tran- quillity. The posterior parts of the animal seem to be en- dowed with exquisite sensibility ; yet, in spite of this, the so-called cure for spavin and the boasted treatment of ages °nly consists in torturing the hoeks of the animal. " While inflammation exists, apply poultices, and well rub
the part with a mixture of belladonna and of opium ; one °unce of each drug rubbed down with one ounce of water. Or place opium and camphor on the poultices ; or rub the enlargement with equal parts of chloroform and camphorated °il. The pain having subsided and the heat being banished, aPply with friction some of the following ointment. It may reduce the disease by promoting absorption, at all events it "Will check further growth by rendering further deposit almost an impossibility :— Iodide of lead .... 1 ounce.
Siniple ointmeat .... 8 ouuces.
Mix.
Bone-spavin is an exostosis, or deposit of bone on the
5nner side of the hoek, which, when low, is called by the «orsedealer a "jack ;" it corresponds to splint in the fore- 'eg, and originaws at the head of the splint bone. The "high- spavin" is the most mischievous, as it locks the joint, or renders the motion of the hoek excruciatingly painful, the tendons having to move over the rough bony deposit. The ^ode of lifting the hind leg in the trot will show spavin ; the foot, instead of being freely raised from the ground and s^ghtly rotated outwards, drags, with the toe pointed stiffly *°rward, describing a much less curve in its passage through the air. The toe being thus brought forward, is worn "lunt with the shoe. Look then at the horse's shoes (if ^°rn), and see the horse when first brought out of the stable; when warm, the stiffness, in less severe cases, will ^'sappear. Horses with " sickle " or " cow-hocks," i.e., with the great joints of the hinder-limbs approaching each other ^ke the knees of a knock-kneed man, are most liable to sPavin, thorough-pin, and splint. On Plate IX, Fig. 5, will "e seen represented the locality of spavin and other diseases °* the hinder extremity. T Y |
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THOROUGH-PIN.
This is of the nature of bog-spavin, and allied to the
"wind-galls" of the farrier. We have more than once mentioned the bursaa mucosaa as the seat of disease ; there are two situations in which thorough-pin appears, one rather above the point of the hoek, the other below it. Thorough-pin derives its name from the circumstance of its appearing as a round swelling on both sides of the hoek, between the flexor of the tendons of the foot and the exten- sor of the hoek, and is a sign of heavy work, though often not accompanied by decided lameness. Thorough-pin, when not interfering with work, is not unsoundness, though a serious diminution in market value. Thorough-pin and bog-spavin often exist together, and
then the fluid can be pressed from one to the other, though not readily. These thorough-pins are generally produced by the sudden violent straightening of the limb, whilst bog- spavin is probably caused by its sudden bending. Mr. W. Spooner says :—" I have, however, known a
troublesome and obstinate lameness produced from the upper thorough-pin, or perhaps rather from some strain of the tendon which attended it. It gave way, however, at length, to a seton placed over the part,— not through it. I have also succeeded in removing a very large thorough- pin in the lower situation, in a high-class race-horse, by the long-continued application of equal parts of iodine and mercurial ointment, previously, however, stimulating the part with a mild liquid blister. The subject was a race- horse of great value, and the thorough-pin entirely dis- appeared in about ten weeks. In some cases the synovial fluid in the thorough-pin coagulates, and becomes organised and firra." THE HIND-LEGS, PASTERNS, AND FETLOCK-JOINT.
MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS. — SWELLED LEGS.----GREASE.----
WEED.—SPRAIN OF THE FETLOCK-JOINT.— HALTER-CAST.—■
TREAD.—RINGBONE.----WINDGALLS. Mallenders and Sallenders.—On the inside and front of
the hoek, or a little below it, is often found a scurfy erup- tion called Sallenders ; and a similar one on the back part of the knee bears the fantastic name of Mallenders ; words of which the derivation is unknown. Their treatment is identical, and will be found, ante, p. 331, under Diseases of the Skin. swelled or " filled " legs.
This common grievance of the stable is commonest among
coarse and heavy horses ; though the exactions of the ani- mal's hard taskmaster, man, render the bcst-bred ones sub- ject to the visitation. The hinder-limbs, below the hoek, are the most affected, though the fore-legs, below the knee, come in the same way to grief from undue exertion. De- bility is also the constitutional cause of swelled legs. Some |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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first colourless, and a thick coat of buff afterwards. If the
cause is debility, and the horse has had too much moisture in his food, Meeding is improper, and if a diuretic is given, follow it by a tonic. "White recommends, if the swelling ex- tend much above the hoek, that we make some punctures with a lancet, which will produce great relief, particularly u the leg be afterwards fomented with warm water. Care, however, must be taken to rub the leg dry afterwards. Place the animal in a good roomy box; give no hay-
Sprinkle a handful of ground oak bark on each feed of oats, which should be damped to prevent the powder being lost. Walking exercise should be given twice or three times a day. It will be necessary to repeat the diuretic medicine every alternate day ; and if the animal is debilitated, give in addition the following tonic : — Powdered ginger , . . 2 dracTims. r'
Sulphate of iron .... 3 drachms.
Either as a powder or iu a hall, If in the course of two days the leg is not so materially
reduced in size as to lead us to infer its speedy restoration to a normal state, we may insert a rowel or seton in the thigh. If abscesses should form in the thigh or leg, we must take care to distinguish the case from farcy, to which it then bears some resemblance ; but in the latter disease the abscesses are usually smaller, and lie in the course of the absorbents, which are enlarged, wluist in cedema the abscesses are larger and more independent in their position. These abscesses being opened, usually heal with little difficulty ; but if the skin should slough, as it sometimes does, the cure is much more tedious. There is, however, a difference in this respect between the human and the equine subject; for whilst, in the former, the cure of ulcers is tedious and pro- tracted, in the horse it is generally speedily accomplished. GREASE.
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horses are liable to swellings in the limbs in the spring and
fall of the year. This can be accounted for by the principal activity of the circulation being employed in preparing a fresh covering of hair at those periods, so that the vital influence in the extremities is somewhat diminished; and the same eause produces swellings in the legs. Frequently, wlien a horse seems to be affected with no
other disease, the hind-legs will suddenly swell to a very great extent from the hoek to the fetlock, in some instances even from the stille downwards. This is accompanied by heat and tenderness of the skin, inducing lameness of a peculiar character. A quickened and hard pulse are usual concomitants of this seizure, with a considerable degree of fever. This complaint is acute inflammation of the cellular substance of the limbs, sudden in its attack and violent in its degree, consequently attended with the secretion of fluid in the cellular tissue. Young horses, and those which are over-fed, with little exercise, are most liable to be thus attacked, and without having had previous inflammation. Swelling of the legs is common to horses which are used
for hunting and pleasure only. This, it will be seen, arises from irregularity in their habits; one day having a more than sufficiënt exercise, and probably standing for days or weeks in a stable, and only walleed out or trotted for a short distance. In such cases the limbs should be well hand-rubbed, to stimulate the vessels. Bandaging judi- ciously isadvisable : but do not allew the groom toadminis- ter diuretics, as he says, to " cool the animal; " the remedy is ruinous to the constitution, and aggravates the tendency to " rilling." The most troublesome, as well as the most frequent swell-
ing in the limbs, is that caused by inactivity, from high feed- ing, and want of due exercise. One kind is accompanied by local or comparative debility, or loss of power in the part affected. Those horses which are over-fed, without exercise, are liable to swellings in the limbs from the capillary vessels having sent forth an over-supply of fluid to the extremities ; and in consequence of the want of muscular exertion and the perspiration naturally connected with it, the fluids accu- mulate in the extremities, the vessels not having sufficiënt power to return them. The heart is thus acting upon an additional quantity of fluid ; while, by the want of exercise, the limbs are deprived of that power by which the fluids are returned. Here " physic " a little soft food, exercise, and a mild diuretic are indicatea, with active hand-rubbing. Horses taken in from grass are often seized with swelling
in the legs. This is occasioned by the difference of food, owing to its containing a greater proportion of nutriment, which increases the quantity of the blood, and the want of muscular and respiratory exertion necessary to carry it off by the skin. Exercise and a little opening medicine will effect a euro. Treatment.—This, of course, must vary as the cause of
the complaint varies. If from fatness of condition, bleed moderately ; you will find the upper surface of the blood at |
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This offensive disease is consequent on a morbid alteratioD
of the quantity and quality of the fatty matter secreted by the sebaceous glands of the heels. Its sign is a white discharge from the skin of the heels, sometimes extending as high as nearly to the hoek or knee. There is usually dropsical en- largement of the legs, the skin is red, and the hair staring, with pain and stiffness of the part. Horses with much hair on the leg are most subject to grease. Dr. Jenner supposed grease to be a specific disease, communicable by inoculation ; but the idea has not been confirmed by experience. In the simple form of grease, the stiffness and pain of the
limb go off after a while ; but if the disease is neglected, the discharge increases in quantity, the skin becomes thickeneJ, and large excrescences,— called from their shape "grapes,"--" cover the heels and back of the legs, while ulcerations form about the heels, and slough large portions away. Mayhew says, with proper indignation, " Grease is a filthy disorder and a disgrace to every person concerned with the stable i° which it prevails ; it proves neglect in the proprictor, want |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OE THE IIIND-LEGS, &c—GKEASE. 355
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°f fitness or positive idleness in the groom, and culpable
'gnorance or the absence of the slightest moral courage in all people entering the doors of the stable. It is one of those disorders which it is easier to prevent than to cure. By an ordinary regard to cleanliness, and by an average attention to the necessities of the animal, this taint may be avoided; wherever it is witnessed, it not only argues the human being to whom the building belongs to be in the lowest stage of degradation, but it also testifies to the sufferings endured by the poor creatures which are com- pelled to drag out life in such custody." There is so much honest and just indignation here, that
We forgive a little exaggeration. Grease is not always produced by mere neglect, though hand-rubbing, free ventilation, and cleanliness have almost banished it from our cavalry horses and well-regulated stables. Swelled legs, cracks, and grease are so much more common in winter» that grease has even been called a winter disease, and the " chilblain " of horses. Moisture is likewise favourable to the complaint, for it first produces a determination to the parts, and then, as a parent of cold, it weakens the already distended vessels. Grease sometimes follows injuries; as halter-casting. The disease may become serious when it occurs under other circumstances favourable to its produc- tion, as in moist, cold, and particularly frosty or snowy Weather ; or when, from previous illness, a horsa has been thrown out of condition; and, more than all, when such a case has been maltreated by the idleness or ignorance of those around, who, finding a swelled heel, immediately fly to urine balls, or purging balls, whereas a little local atten- tion will cure the surfaces at once. Colour, likewise, as it marks debility, so it influences grease ; thus, it has been remarked that white-legged and light-coloured horses gene- rally are more liable to cracks, to grease, and to diseases of the feet, than others which are darker, or whose legs are black. After all, however, the grand origin of grease is— bad stable management. No matter of what breed, or how °ld the horse may be, the groom is to blame if the animal becomes greasy. In all well-regulated stables, the appear- ance of this loathsome disorder should be a signal for a change of attendants therein ; for as the affection is now banished from the army, what earthly reason can be urged why it should be found in private stables ? Treatment.—In the older veterinary books, pages are
devoted to this opprobrium of the stable. Our directions shall be simple. Clip off the hair; it can only heat the skin and retain the discharge. Wash the leg with warm water and curd soap. ' Thcn take a soft cloth saturated with the following lotion :—animal glycerine, eight ounces; chloride °f zinc, one ounce ; water, one gallon ; and lay it on the hot skin. As soon as it is warm, change it for another left ready *o the lotion, and persevere in this till the temperature is lowered. Two men should be employed, and four cloths, eacr ac removed being thrown over a line to exposé as large B surface as possible to the cooling action of the air. The |
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chloride of zinc deodorizes the discharge. When the cracks
are ulcerated, a stronger lotion is to be used, of the perman- ganate of potash, one pint to a gallon of water, or:— creosote, four ounces ; chloride of zinc, two ounces ; and a gallon of decoction of oak-bark, cooled. A good powder to sprinkle grease is made thus:—chloride of lime, one ounce '> chalk, four ounces, powdered gall nuts, two ounces. A drink of tincture of muriate of iron, one ounce ; liquor
arsenicalis, one ounce ; and one quart of sound beer, may be administered. Blaine recommends sound ale, one quart; carbonate of ammonia, half a drachm; extract of gentian, one ounce ; tincture of capsicum, half a drachm ; but we prefer the first, with the addition of the gentian if the animal is low and lymphatic. It is, moreover, essentially necessary to the cure, that all
sprouting luxurious granulations should be reduced to the level of the surrounding integuments. Caustics only render the " grapes," as they are termed, of greater size. The mode best adapted for their removal is the knife. Cast the ani- mal, having a flat piece of heated iron ready to pass over the surfaces, in case the hsemorrhage is profuse ; as the horse having grease can but ili afford the loss of blood. Employ the strongest lotion into which chloride of zinc enters, and sprinkle the legs with either of the powders before men- tioned, only rendering each weakcr as the symptoms abate. In this manner a cure may be accomplished. Moderate exercise is of the utmost importance; indeed, the pain of grease goes off greatly during gentle motion of the parts. The disease, however, is apt to return. Should it display this disposition, discharge the groom, and procure one that is less sparing of bis labour. WEED.
This name is applied in the north country to a disease
simulating cedema, or swelled legs ; yet is quite distinct in its nature, and should be looked for. It consists in a swell- ing of the thigh vein, extending sometimes from the hoek up to the groin, very hot and tender. It is not mentioned by Percivall, Blaine, Mayhew, or in ordinary books ; but is important, as its other symptoms are similar to ordinary swelled leg. When this afliictión of the vein is found, bleedings, fomentations, and mild purgatives, to lower the system, should be adopted. SPRAIN OF THE rjTI.OCK-JOINT.
This we have noticed, ante, p. 341. When occurring in
the hinder feet, it may be mistaken by a superficial observer for cedema. Put the limb in a bucket of hot water, bleed from the leg, then apply a cloth wetted with muriate of ammonia, one ounce; pyroligneous acid, two ounces ; cam- phorated spirit, half-an-ounce; water, one quart; and if much lamed, apply a patten shoe, and give absolute rest— which is the reverse of the treatment for cedema. An Overshot Fetlock-joint sometimes renders a horse use-
less; he is only just able in this case to bring the toe to tbe |
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356 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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be remembered, that upon a repetition of the original cause
(hard work), they are apt to return ; the dilated capsule seldom regaining, with its original size, its original strength. It may be necessary here to warn the practitioner never to puncture a windgall. Most of those of great bulk and long continuance actually communicate with the cavity of the joints they surround; and the others of themselves excite similar efiects with open joints, when they are laid open; and even if no mischief foliowed, no good could result; the cyst would be only momentarily emptied ; for its capacity would commonly remain the same, and it would almost im- mediately fill up again. Such an operation is, therefore, not only useless, but usually produces such inflammation as destroys the horse, or ends in stiffness and anchylosis of the joint." Youatt recommends iodine and mercurial ointments. RUPTURE OF THE BACK-SINEW.
This, which in racing parlance is called " breaking-down,'
is a tearing asunder of the suspensory ligament, causing the fetlock to come to the ground. A patten shoe, rest, and a good constitution have got over this frightful lesion in valuable animals. The treatment will be found, ante, pp. 339—341, under Fore-leg and Pasteuns. Ringbone (ossification of cartilages) is described and
treated of ante, p. 341. Si'LlNTS, Sprain OF Teni>ONS, &c. under Fore-leg, p. 339, &c. THE HIND-FEET.
CHAPPED OR CRACKED HEELS.----TREAD.----INJUUIE3 IN SH0EINO.
Chapped or Cracked Heels are, like grease, penaltics
suffered by the poor horse for man's mismanagement or neglect. They are most prevalent in winter, and with horses that are entirely denuded of nature's hairy covering, (the "fet4ock"), by fantastical or oftener lazy grooms, who fancy because thorough-breds have clean (not naked) legs, they must trim up their roadsters or harness horses equally fine. The skin does not get dirty under this small mat of hair; and if masters would see that the servant ruhs the horse's fetlocks dry, instead of drenching the poor brute's heels with water and leaving them to chap in the wet and cold, prescriptions for chapped heels would be out of date- The milder remedies for Grease are resorted to in this dis- order. Forbear exercise, give bran mashes; and, should ulceration come on, the advice given under the head just referred to will need to be carried out. ïf in lower-bred horses,—or in better animals, from laziness
or unpardonable neglect,—an ulcerative process should have been set up, creosote or pei-manganate of potash must super- sede the chloride of zinc for a time ; this must be mixed in proportions of half an ounce of creosote, or pcrmanganate of potash, with two ounces of animal glycerine to a quarter of a pint of water, and the state of the general health attended to; the system however, must not be reduced, or depletory measures resorted to. A drink composed of the liquor |
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ground. There is but one remedy—division of the flexor
tendon. The divided ends recede, and the intervening space is filled with granulations. The operation will be described hercafter. HALTER-CAST.
The horse often injures himself by entangling hishind-leg
in the halter, and injuring his fetlock or his heel. Wrap the part in a large linseed poultice, and then apply an astringent paste ; pipe-clay mixed with water in which a piece of alum has been dissolved, is a cheap and useful application. When this is taken off, soften the cicatrix with a little Florence or palm oiL WINDGALLS.
The similarity of Avindgalls to bog-spavin and thorough-
pin,—the two latter, however, being looked upon as hoek diseases, and the former as affecting the fetlock joint and the sheath of the flexor tendons,—renders detail altnost unnecessary. They are almost always on the bind legs. There are two situations in which they most usually appear; one on each side, and at an equal distance from the front and back of the fetlock joint; the other on each side of the flexor tendons. The former communicates with the fetlock joint itself; the latter, which are larger and more frequent than the others, with the sheath of the flexor tendons. Thus connected, there must be considerable danger in opening them. Windgalls are, therefore, neither more nor less than a distension of the synovial bags with synovia, and sometimes an extension of these bags by a rupture of their connections. Blaine says:—" In the treatment of windgalls we must attend to three particulars ; the removal of any diseased alteration they may have occasioned in the neighbouring parts; the removal of their own distension; and the prevention of its recurrence. Stimulating appli- cations are the most likely to produce a removal of any coagulating deposit; these are likewise still more proper, as they will tend to effect a removal of the contents of the windgall itself. The " liquid blister " will be very proper for this purpose. But simply to promote absorption of the contents of the windgall, continued pressure will be found the most convenient and efheacious remedy. A calico or a flannel roller may be prepared, of two, three, or four yards long, according to the part affected: four inches is a proper width, and, from its superior elasticity, flannel is pref'erable to calico or linen. In addition to this, be furnished with one or two pads, stuffed with horse-hair or other elastic matter. ~ Begin to apply the roller, and after having made a turn or two below the swelling, place the pad exaetly upon the windgall; if in the pasterns, one should of course be placed over each side : continue the roller firmly and evenly over all, and fasten off. It however must not be forgotten, that but little benefit can be expected unless this be con- tinued as a constant application for a considerable time, during day and night, when not in exercise ; also, it must |
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DISEASES AND INJURIES OF THE IIIND-FEET.—TREAD.
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357
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arsenicalis, half an ounce ; tincture of muriate of iron, an
°unce ; and -water, half a pint; should be given once a day. Rut never forget that leaving nature's covering on the heels, merely—if the master is so fantastical as to require it— trimming off the ends of the fetlock, and diligent cleaning, first with cold water, then drying them thoroughly with toore than two cloths, and lastly, diligent hand-rubbing, will prevent, in animals thus stripped and exposed, a return of chapped heels. Where there is a marked predisposition, from light colour and tender skin, to this and similar disorders, after the drying and rubbing already directed, smear the heels with glycerine, and stop the feet now and then, in cold Weather, with corroborative stopping of tar and linseed meal, wetted with chloride of zinc. We have found one of the convenient feit pads, slipped into the shoe, smeared ■with tliin tar, after the washing with the white vitriol, a good preventive. Mayhew pleads so eloquently against the practice of
öenuding the fetlocks of their ornament, that we are sure the reader will be pleased with his earnest appeal. He says :—" The liability to disorder, induced by removal of the natural covering, exemplifies the folly of those practices, which have lately become so very fashionable as, at the present time, to be almost universal. But there has always aPpeared to exist in the human mind a restlcss desirc to llnprove the beauty of the horse. Now, the tail has been docked ; then the ears have been cut. A short space prior to these amendments, the skin was tampered with, to pro- uuce a star, as a white spot upon the forehead was termed. ■A-t the passing hour, almost every man who owns a horse must have the body clipped or singed. The length of hair ls given in this climate as a necessary provision. Nature Oever forms anything without its use; though man, in his ^norance, may not always be able to comprehend her inten- tion. * • * * * Were the legs of norses allowed to retain that adornment which Nature gave,
and were the parts not shorn of their shaggy beauty,—were 'ften not inclined to confound the different breeds of horses, and, because the thorough-bred has clean legs, to imagine the cart-horse can be artiiicially made to display members e(lually fine—were masters more resolute in resisting the selfish suggestions of lazy grooms, who love to have the bUshy heels clipped—were the stable-keeper not afraid of doing his duty, but would go down upon his knees and rub fte fetlocks dry, instead of drenching them with water, and llen leaving them to chap in moisture and in cold—were nese things attended to, there is no reason why cracked eels should not speedily become a thing which has been, but no longer is. However, if animals are exposed throughout the wintry !
ason, under the pretence of being placed in a straw-yard, |
the proprietor must expect to take the creatures up with
some defect. The worst case of cracked heels the author ever looked upon, was produced after the last-mentioned method ; the skin was much thickened and deeply marked by fissures. In places it had sloughed, and, where the in- tegument was absent, fearfully deep ulceration was estab- lished. Fortunately, the absorbing process had reached none of those important structures which are situated about the heel of the horse; and the animal, after lengthened treatment, was cured." TREAD.
This is a wound inflicted on the coronet of the hinder
foot by the act of crossing the feet when the animal is fatigued. In some cart-horses it happens in comin<r down hill, the calkin of the one foot striking its fellow in front, and tearing away a portibn of the coronet. In light fast horses a very similar injury is produced by the inner part of the hind foot striking the outer part of the fore coronet, when it is called " overreach." Quittor or false-quarter results from this tearing away of the part which nourishes the hoof. Cut away the separated pieces of fiesh, and wash with chloride of zinc, and give the animal generous diet. If a slough takes place, dress as for ulceration, but do not poultice. In slight cases a pledget of tow moistened with Friar's balsam; inserted in the wound, after wrashing carefully with wai m water, will suffice to effect a cure. In the first instance, all cases of " tread " are to be con-
sidered as simple wounds, or rather as bruises, which if' extensive have produced death in the surface and adjacent parts of the hurt; in which some inflammation must occur and be follow-ed by slough of the edges thus injured. Some- times the injury is so great as to cause slougliing of the extensor pedis tendon and opeuing of the coffin joint. In no instance, therefore, should an early application of irritat- ing or caustic matters he made, by which more extensive inflammation and an increase of slougliing are produced. On the contrary, wash with water to remove dirt, &c., and if the wound bc considerable, wrap up the foot in a poultice; if not, apply over it simply the mild lotion of chloride of zinc. Should the injury be slight, it may heal at once; but if not, slougliing and suppuration will occur. Under some circumstances, however, more extensive mischief will follow, as " quittor," or " open joint;" the treatment of which, will be found under the proper heads. INJURIES IN SIIOEINQ.
These, arising from carelessness in nailing the shoe to the
foot, or " pricking" him in the operation, from ill-shaped shoes, and the like, will come to be considered in the ! Chapter on Shoeinö. |
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CI1APTER XXXIV.
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, ETC.
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is easily reversed by placing the hobble with the fixed end
of the rope on the opposite foot, and pulling in the contrary direction. Mr. Gloag has introduced some improved hobbles which
possess all the advantages of the ordinary apparatus, and are far more convenient. Each of his hobbles he advises to be furnished with a buckle, as well as with a D at each end, of unequal sizes, so that one D can be passed through the other. Thus, by means of the buckle, the size of the hobble can be varied so as to suit different legs, as well as to unloose any one leg that may be required during an opera- tion ; the D.s will enable each separate leg to be free the instant the screw is withdrawn. The safety of the horse and of the operator requires the
use of the improved hobbles, by which any leg may 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. 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 the head and firmly holding the snaffle 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— are evidently needful to a proper and safe position of the thrown animal. After all, however, this is a method of securing the horse to which we should not resort except necessity compelled, for reasons which we will briefly state, and on account of an improved practice having been in" augurated. If the horse is to be thrown with the hobbles, he should have his eyes covered before they are put on, and in some instances the " twitch" may be necessary, but should be removed before he is thrown. The men who pull the rope should not be more than two yards from the horse, as the power of lifting the legs from the ground is doubled by being at this short distance ; and observe, above all, they must be silent. The man who has charge of his head should stand directly in front of him, holding the halter, steadily and without bustle throwing himself on the neck, and must lift the halter so as to raise the horse's nose the moment he is over on his side. M. Girard, in his Traite du Pied, proposes an improve-
ment in throwing horses, which is very simple. If the horse is to be thrown on the right side, a long piece of web |
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CASTING TUE HORSE.—HOBBLES.----THE TRAVIS.—SIDE-LINE.----
SLINGING THE HORSE.—THE TWITCII.----CHLOROFORM.—BLEED-
1NG.—ROWELS.—SETONS.—TRACIIEOTOMY.----CESOPIIAGOTOMY.—
LITIIOTOMY.----PERIOSTEOTOMY. — NEUROTOM Y.----DIVISION OF
THE FLEXOR TENDON.—FIRING.----NICKING AND DOCKING.----
BLISTER1NG, POÜLTICIKG, AND BANDAGING.
CASTING TnE HORSE.—THE HOBBLES.
As a preliminary to the more serious operations of veteri-
nary surgery, the mode of casting the horse has far more importance than is generally attached to it. To avoid awakening resistance from fear or suspicion of injury, is most important in so powerful an animal. Yet to see the violence and force with which a horse is too often brought down, what is emphatically termed, "a burster," by a set of hard-handed clumsy clowns, is a sorry sight. Terror, exciting to stubbornness and resistance, possesses the ïll— used horse, aggravates the pain, and half maddens the firmly- bound sufferer, who, with his four legs drawn into a cluster, and with a heavy-sterned stable-helper sitting on his head, and another with his knee and fists upon his cheeks and jaws, is held down amid exclamations, confusion, tugs, threats, sly punches, and oaths. Let us, aft er a brief mechanical descrip- tion of the improved hobbles, devote a few paragraphs to a more rational and humane method of securing a horse, especially for the less severe operations. The Hobbles, as represented on Plate XV., are of the sim-
plest construction. Four straps of strong leather, a yard long, are doubled to eighteen inches, one end having sewn strongly into it a stout iron buckle. Five inches from this buckle is a streng iron D, consisting of a half circle of iron and a flat iron pin on the inner-side of the straps. Through these passes the rope or chain with which the horse's feet are to be drawn together. The rope in our picture is first fastened to the hobble on the fetlock of the foreleg, thence threaded through D of the near forefoot, so running to the near hind foot, the off hind foot, and thence the loose end comes out at the D on the off forefoot. Puiling at this, the near fore- foot is first brought home, foliowed by the hind-feet in the same order, and these, being brought up to the forefeet, the whole are together, and the animal gently but quickly pushed down on his near or left side, on a number of trusses of straw, neatly arranged, The side for throwing the horse |
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&c.—CASTING THE HORSE. 359
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS,
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°r a rope is to be fastened round the right fore arm, close
up to the elbow. The other end is then to be passed over the withers, and held at a little distance by one or two men. The force which is applied in this way will cause the horse to fall more readily, and with more certainty, and exactly in the situation where he is required to be thrown. -ihis contrivance, therefore, is extremely useful in confined places, where there is just room enough to throw a horse, and no more. Rarey's method of securing the fore legs, presently noticed, is yet superior to this. The horse being thrown down, and hls legs closely drawn together, the end' °f the hobble rope is to be passed under the hobble rings, between the fore and hind legs, and secured with a hitch, as *t is termed, so that he cannot separate them again until the hobbles are unbuckled, and then they all may be taken away at once, and the horse suffered to get up. A suspicious affectation of mystery, the outward and
v'sible sign of quackery, attended the introduction, in 1858, of the system adopted and partly invented by Rarey, and con- sequently its immense merits and advantages have been de- cried by prcjudice and rejected by conceit and ignorance. J-he "grand secret," for which the original subscribers paid their ten guineas, and which the general public were ad- mitted to see practically illustrated for a shilling, lias suffered from the " showmanship" with which a really important process was accompanied. Resolution, firmness, gentleness, and apparent kindness, with a simple securing °f the animal, enabled the American horse-trainer to pro- duce by the simplest means almost miraculous results. The horse thrown by Mr. Rarey's method (which will be found fully described under " Breaking," ante, page 75), instead °f being in the usual state of fear, will be found entirely quiescent. Indeed, for minor operations, the strap which doubles the fore-foot up to the elbow will be found sufficiënt security. The extent of influence which this simple process has over the hind-legs of the most vicious horse, might have been known before, but was never so convincingly illus- trated as by Mr. Rarey. The " gentling" of which he makes so much, and at which brutal conceit is so tempted to scoff, ■will be found by no means over-rated, when applied with nerve and coolness, and directed by an enlightened feeling °f humanity. It was thought, before the system was divulged, that some
drug, the smell of which was pleasing to the horse, was em- ployed to produce that disposition to follow the operator about, which almost every horse exhibits on being sub- mitted to the process; and even now there are obstinate Persons who insist upon some such influence being used to mduce the horse to follow the operator. We have found no such trick necessary for this purpose. The Tiïavis* is a frame of heavy bars of wood, into
which, on the Continent, the quietest horses are placed to be |
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shod ; even when padded, it is a most dangerous apparatus,
and horses have been known to kill themselves in their struggles, when confined in it. A picture of this clumsy contrivance, formerly used here for cropping, docking, nicking, and other blacksmith barbarities, may be seen in Bourgelat's "Essai sur les Appareils propres aux Quadru- pèdes." The term travis is now applied to the separation between the stalls of a stable. The Single and Doublé Side Lines are also used to limit
the capability of resistance. The single side-line is thus applied. A soft collar is put over the horse's head, and a hobble is fastened to the foot it is desired to have elevated. From the collar is dependent a metal loop, ring, or other contrivance. By the side of this a strong rope is attached. The cord is then passed through the D of the hobble ; after- wards, it is brought back and run through the side ring or loop. A man then takes hold of the end of the rope, and, by gradual traction, causes the leg to be ad vaneed. It is neither wise nor humane to drag the foot off the ground. The side line is most useful when the hoeks or hinder parts are examined. Many unbroken horses, though quiet in other respects, will not allow these portions of the body to be touched. By causing one leg to be advanced, the other is deprived of all power as a weapon of offence. The horse would obviously fall, if he were to project the only free hind member. The Doublé Side Line consists of a rope fixed to a loop
on either side. The loop or ring is attached to a soft collar. The rope is afterwards threaded through a hobble on each pastern. Both legs are then gently pulled forward, and the animal, having its posterior supports drawn from under it, comes to earth. The ropes are held tight, while the horse is turned upon its back. The instant it is in that position, a man seats himself upon the head, while the body of the animal is propped up by numerous trusses of straw. For every minor operation, and even for many that are of
more importance, this mode of restraint is sufficiënt; especi- ally if the operator has active and determined assistants: and we confess that we are no friends to the ordinary casting of horses if it can possibly be prevented. When both legs are included in the hobble or rope (as in another way of using the side line), the horse may appear to be more secure, but 'there is greater danger of bis falling in bis violent struggles during the operation. Slikginq is clearly represented in Plate XV.; it is a
restraint which horses submit to with great impatience, and not without much inconvenience, from the violent ex- coriations occasioned by the friction and pressure of thf bandaging around his body. Graver evils are also brought about by the abdominal pressure. Some horses stale and dung with difficulty when suspended, and inflammation of the bowels has not unfrequently come on during slinging. The slings are, however, forced on us in some cases, as in fractured bones, the treatment of open joints (the horse slung in our picture is thus injured), and some other wounds |
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The French term traves, merely means the space between two
beams or pilkrs. |
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E1 QflJ il I F § IL 11 N fB O N (B ïï DÜE DO QD 08 § 'E
SHOWING ALS O THE HO BB LES EOR CASTING.
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WILLIAM MAGKLN/.ll-, LONDON, EDINBURG'H & QLA8G0W.
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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360
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where motion would be most unfavourable to the curative
treatment. Suspension may be partial or complete. Sus- pension of any kind will require the application of pulleys and ropes affixed to the beams, that the whole body of the horse may be supported. A sling may be formed of a piece of strong sacking, which is to pass under the belly, the two ends being fastened firmly to pieces of wood ; each of about three feet long, and which are to reach a little higher than the horse's back. To the pieces of wood, cords and pulleys are to be firmly attached, by which means the sacking can be lowered or raised at pleasure. To the sacking, also, are to be sewn strong straps, both before and behind, to prevent the horse sliding in either direction, without carrying the sacking with him. Upon this so formed-cradle he is to re- cline. If horses when they are fresh should be placed in this machine, most of them would either injure themselves, or break through all restraint. However, by tying up their heads for three or four nights, their spirit is destroyed. The slings may then be applied without the fear of resistance. It is best not to pull the canvas firm up, but to leave about an inch between the horse's belly and the cloth, so that the animal may stand free, or throw bis weight into the slings when he pleases. In this fashion a horse may remain for months in the slings, and at the end of the time display none of the wear and tear described by old authors. Among the older " Vets," several other restraints are
common, among them The Twitcii. When too frequently used, it lias the evil effect of making many horses violent in resisting its application. The Twitcii consists of a noose of cord passed through a hole in the end of a stout stick of wood ; in this noose the muzzle is held and pressed in the most cruel manner ; and as every turn of the stick follow- ing a struggle aggravates the pain, he ordinarily becomes quiescent, though we have seen cases where the madness of agony produced frantic resistance. The barnacles is a name given to the handles of the smith's pincers placed over and compressing the muzzle or upper lip, and torturing the animal, lik e the twitch, into submission. In many instances blindfolding will do more than the
twitch ; and some horses may be quieted, when the pain is not excessive, by holding the ear in one hand, and rubbing the point of the nose with the other. A soothing manner will often engage the attention and prevent violence ; but it is seldom that either threats or punishment render an unruly horse more calm. Inexperienced persons guard themselves only against the hind legs ; but they should be aware that some horses strike terribly with their fore feet. It is prudent, therefore, in all operations, to blindfold the animal, as by this he becomes particularly intimidated, and if he strikes he cannot aim. When one of the fore ex- tremities requires a very minute examination, it is prudent to have the opposite leg held up, or even strapped ; and when one of the hinder feet is the object of attention, the fore one of the same side should be held up, as by this means the animal is prevented from striking. |
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CHLOROFORM.
This important agent has been recently experimented
upon with the horse with marked advantage in severe operations. The inhalation of the vapour of sulphuric ether or of chloroform is easily effccted. A sponge wetted with chloroform being applied to the nostrils of a horse, the first effect is a certain degree of excitement; this is foliowed by insensibility, and the comatose state is found to continue during the severest applications of the knife and cautery. The stupor remains for some time after the operation is over. The utmost care must be taken that the vapour does not escape externally, and at the same time that the animal is not wholly deprived of atmospheric air. Castration and the extirpation of tumours have been effected under its influence. The horse, unlike man, being little subject to heart-disease while in ordinary service, is a safer subject for the action of chloroform. BLEEDING.
The modern instruments used in takingblood from the horse,
are figured and described in Plate XVI. B 1, B 2, B 3, B 4, and the accompanying letterpress. The olden instruments, the common fleam and blood-stick (a piece of hard wood loaded at the end, to drive the fleam into the vein by a blow on the back) should be dismissed to the limbo of obsolete contri- vances, and superseded in skilful hands by a large and strong lancet (B 1); or better still, with so strong-veined and thick-skinned an animal, the abscess-lancet (B 2); or, best of all, either of the two patent fieams (B 3 and 4), with their regulating machinery and powerful and steady depth of incision. The two latter may now be procured, by order, of any surgical-instrument maker. Bloeding is of two kinds, from a vein, called phlebotomy
(Gr.pldeps, a vein, tomos, section), or from an artery (arteri- otomy). Some bleedings (as at the toe-point, division of the vessels of the eye, &c.,) combine both these operations. Blood- letting is further divided into "general," and "local," or " topical"; the first being intended to act on the constitution, the second, very near to the affected part, is intended to act more rapidly and directly than general bleeding, and to pro- duce more effect with less abstraction of blood. Local bleeding is usually practised on the lesser branches of arteries or veins, as the temporal artery, the " plate" vein, the thigh (saphena) vein. In inflammation of the eye, bleeding is effected by scarifying the inner surface of the eyelid and opening a small vein which is seen passing from the inner corner of the eye towards the nose. Cupping and leeches may be left to human surgery, though the latter may be useful in affections of the eye. We shall first notice " general" bleeding. Bleeding from the Jugidar Vein.—The near side m
ordinary cases will be found most convenient for the fleam » the off-side for the lancet. Elevate the head so as to stretch the vein, which should then be pressed with the fingers of |
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361
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, &c—BLEEDING.
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the left hand, to stop the blood. It is advisable to blindfold
the horse, or to turn away his head from that side from
w'uch blood is to be taken. The hair is smoothed along
t] . . .
U1e course of the vein with the finger, which bas been
Previously moistened ; then with the third and little fingers of
the left hand, in which the fleam must be held, sufficiënt Pressure is applied to the vein to bring it completely into Vlew, taking care, however, not to distend it too much, as the too rounded surface is apt to roll or slip when the lncision is about to be made. Never forget that immaculate cleanliness in lancet or fleam is a duty to neglect which is an atrocious crime. The particular part from which the °'ood is taken lies three to fuur inches below the union of the two branches of the jugular vein at the angle of the jaw. Farriers sometimes tie a cord round the neck, to raise the vein;" it is unnecessary and dangerous. The nearn or lancet must be placed in a direct line with the c°urse of the vein, and over the precise centre of the vein w'th its point as close as possible to the skin, without touching the vein. A large-bladed fleam should always be Preferred, which will make a greater opening, and thus iacditate the operation; besides, what is of greater import- ance, blood drawn speedily has far more effect on the system than doublé the quantity taken slowly; and the wound, although larger, will heal as fast as a smaller one. "■ slight pressure on the neck with the pail, or other vessel used while blood is taken, will be enough to cause the blood to flow sufficicntly fast. Some persons introducé the finger lnto the mouth between the tushes and the grinders, when, uy gently moving it about, motion in the jaws is induced, and the stream of blood flows more rapidly from the action °i the muscles surrounding the vein ; but by keeping the *lngers of the left hand firmly pressed on the vein, so as to °Dstruct the reflux of the blood, the stream will flow freely. •The blood should be received into a vessel the dimensions °' which are exactly known, so that the operator may be ahle to judge from time to time of the quantity that has "een taken. A graduated tin can, holding six or eight ^luarts, is most convenient; pints being marked on the l»side of the vessel. The blood should flow in a regular stream into the centre of the vessel; for if allowed to trickle down the edges, it will not, when cold, exhibit those changes necessary for ascertaining the degree of inflammation. "hen it has been necessary to repeat the bloeding, if more than three or four hours have intervened, it will be hetter t° make a fresh incision lower down than to open the old ^o-und. The blood coagulates soon after it is drawn. That P°rtion of it which is coagulable is composed of two sub- stances—that which gives colour to the blood, and the thin- ner part in which the red particles float.* By degrees these SeParate, and the red particles sink to the bottom. If coagu- lation takes place slowly, the red particles have more time The composition and properties of the blood are treated of ante,
PP- 350, 351. z z
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to sink through the fluid portion, and there appears on
the top a thick, adhesive, pale, yellowish-orange substance, called the buffy coat. In proportion to the slowness of coagulation and the thickness of this coat, the degree of inflammation is determined. In the healthy condition. coagulation is more rapid, and consequently the red par- ticles have not time to sink, and the buffy coat is thin- Whèn the horse is much exhausted, and there is a general decay of his constitution, coagulation will not take place at all, but the blood will exhibit a uniform blackish colour, with a thin and loose consistence. When blood is drawn from a large orifice, coagulation is slowcr, and from a small wound it is more rapid ; so that the difference must be care- fully considered, and the changed condition of the pulse attentively marked. Some persons consider it unnecessavy to pin up the orifice
after bloeding. These bleedings may not renew, but we would advise the cdges of the wound to be brought close together and kept in their place by a small pin being passed through the contiguous skin, with a little tow wrapped round the extremities of the pin, figure of 8 fashion, so as to cover the entire wound. The pin should not be large, and care should be taken that no hairs are between the lips of the cut. In bringing the edges of the wound together, care should be taken not to draw the skin too much from the neck, otherwise blood will insinuate itself between the skin and the muscles, and cause a swelling which some- times proves troublesome. The edges of the wound will heal in twenty-four -hours, after which the pin may be withdrawn. For affections of the head, as vvell as extended inflamma-
tory action and fever, the jugular vein is decidedly the best. Blaine has some cautions and cases which should be present to the practitioner's mind ; for common as the operation is. and qualified as every one thinks himself to perform it, very serious accidents occasionally arise. " It has occurred that the carotid artery has become penetrated. When the punc- ture has been made through the vein, the accident is known immediately by the forcible and pulsatory gush of florid arterial, and dark venous blood together. In one instance of this kind, which occurred to a French practitioner, he immediately thrust his finger into the opening, through the vein, and thus plugged up the artery, intending to wait for assistance. In this state he remained, we believe, an hour or more ; when, removing bis finger, to his surprise, he found the hamiorrhage had ceased, and did not again re- turn. In another case, where an English practitioner ac- cidentally opened the carotid, he placed a compress on the orifice, and had relays of men to hold it there for eight-and- forty hours, when it was found the bleeding had stopped. The adrnission of air is also another serious accident that now and then attends bleeding. It sometimes happens from the sudden removal of the fingers or blood-can, or whatever was used to distend the vessel by obstructing the return of the blood. This being suddenly taken away, allows the escape |
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362 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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grasping the hoek with his left hand and pressing the vein
with the side of the right, he punctures the vessel with his adjusted fleam. It is a troublesome vein to pin up. Bleeding by the Toe.—This is practised in acute founder,
or laminitis, in our opinion most mischievously. We have here, however, only to do with the mode of effecting it> should it be deemed necessary. A searcher, or drawing- knife is driven down between the crust and sole at their line of union, then, by puncturing the part with a lancet, an immense flow of blood will follow. If the blood should not flow with sufficiënt freedom, place
the foot in warm water: the bleeding finished, cover the puncture with some tow and a little tar, and lightly tack on the shoe. There are, however, other methods of bleeding from the toe. Mr. Mavor uses a drawing-knife with a long curve, so that one sweep of the blade may cut a piece out of the foot. This seems dangerous, as it leaves a space to be filled, instead of a mere cut to heal. Others take away none of the horn, but merely make a slit through the outer covering on to the vascular portion of the foot. The flap of horn they hold up so long as they desire blood, by the insertion of a piece of wood; and when they have obtained blood enough, they take out the wood, so as to let the horny flap down. The last method appears to us the easiest and best. Sometimes the plantar vein is opened as a substitute.
Scarifications are also occasionally practised, which, of course, divide both venous and arterial branches. As it was the practice of our fathers to bleed themselves,
their wives, and horses "for everything and for nothing," of course the horse-doctor foliowed the fashion, and the poor patiënt, temperate servant of man, without his vices and their consequences, was murdered or debilitated, secundum artem, his life-blood drained, and even the "constitution of a horse" ruined, by what doctors called " antiphlogistic remedies." We must not, however, err on the other side and reject bleeding, when a judicious diagnosis indicates its necessity. In order to reap the advantages of general bleed- ing, we must continue to draw blood, when once a vessel is opened, until such time as some visible impression is made on the system. Some horsea will bear to lose a much larger quantity than others, without our being well able to explain the reason of the difference. In a general way, the quantity an animal can afford to lose will depend on his condition at the time ; his age ; and on the nature of his disease, should there happen to be any present. Horses that work hard and live well, will bear bleeding best: fat, bloated subjects, worst. Under acute inflammatory disease, especially of the brain, an animal will support the loss of a much larger quantity than if he were in health. Under or- dinary circumstances, a gallon is reckoned a moderate bleed- ing : under pressing disease, take three gallons: four have been taken. By way of a rough estimate, a gallon of blood may be reckoned equal to the loss of about a pint in man. Though under conditions of health and forms of disease of no great consequence, we are in the habit of prescribing so |
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of the blood towards the heart, and occasions a momentary
vacuüm, the air being heard to rush with a gurgling noise into the vein through the orifice ; it then mixes with the blood, and occasions, in some instances, almost immediate death. The animal begins to tremble ; he next staggers, and finally falls in a state of convulsion. If the quantity of air taken in has been considerable, death ensues. The remedy must, therefore, be instantaneous, and consists in again opening the orifice, or making a new one, to gain an immediate renewed flow of blood, which will, in most cases, renovate the horse, who has been found afterwards to be tormented with an intolerable itching. Local, or Topical Bleeding.—The leading operation in
local bleeding is the puncture and division of the temporal artery in infiammation of the brain. These vessels do not supply the brain, it is true; butby opening them an artificial drain is made, through which much of the blood escapes that would otherwise have gone to the brain ; besides which, a large quantity of blood is abstracted in a short time, when, perhaps, it would have been difficult to have bied from the neck at all, owing to the violence of the animal. The lancet is here vastly safer than the common fleam. The spot for its puncture or division is where the vessel leaves the paro- tid gland, to curve upwards and forwards round the jaw, a little below its condyle. It affords much blood, and when the desired quantity is taken, divide the vessel, then the parts will recede, lessening by their own contractility, and the bleeding will stop. Bleeding from the Palate.—This is a favourite spot with
ignorant farriers, who recommend it in spasmodic colic and stomach staggers, or megrims. Fatal haemorrhage has often resulted from the incomplete severance of the palatine artery. This artery and its vein run near each other on each side the roof of the mouth, so as to divide the inner surface of the hard palate into three nearly equal parts. The vein only should be divided by plunging a lancet across the ridges, one inch inside the mouth, betwcen the middle and second nippers. If the artery should be wounded, it must be coraplctely severed so that its retraction may check the flow of blood. Bleeding from the palate, except under extraordinary circumstances, had better be avoided. Bleeding from the Plate Vein.—This is resorted to in
affections of the shoulder, fore-leg, and foot, and sprain of the back sinews. The principal trunk of the swperficial brachial vein ascends along the inner side of the radius or arm- bone. If, when taking blood from these veins, a difficulty is found in making it flow, lift up the other foreleg, which will call the muscles of the punctured one into action, and force the blood in greater quantity. The extemal thoracic (plate vein) is best opened just as it emerges from behind the fore-arm. as it is here easily got at and readily pinned up. Bleeding from the Thigh Vein.—The saphena is a
prominent vein, continued from the inner part of the hoek. The opposite leg to that to be operated on having been raised, the practitioner places himself in front of the thigh ; |
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, &c.—ROWELS AND SETONS.
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S63
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many pounds or quarts of blood to be drawn, yet, when it
becomes necessary to make a sensible impression on the system, our only safe and true guide, as to quantity, is a steady observance of the effects produced on the animal as the blood flows from its vessels. The effects of bleed ing ■will depend on two circumsrances.
The fuller and more rapid the stream, the greater will be the effect created by any given quantity ; when we are desirous, therefore, of producing what is called " an impres- sion on the system," and to do this at the least possible ex- penditure, we make a large opening into a large bloodvessel, and draw away the blood as quickly as we can. In order to know when this impression is made, we keep our fingers, during the time the blood is flowing, steadily upon the pulse, with pressure just sufficiënt to feel its beats distinctly; the declining force and perceptibility of which, with their subsequent total failure and simultaneous shrinking of the artery from beneath the fingers, indicate to us that the required effect is accomplished: this we call " the sinking of the pulse." About the time that the pulse sinks or fails, the animal himself commonly evinces signs of uneasiness : he becomes restless and fidgety; jerks his head up and down; and moves step by step backward, feeling, as it were, tor support, until he has backed himself against the side or corner of the stable, where, finding a rest for his hind ^uarters, he becomes once more tolerably tranquil again for a time. Should the bleeding be continued beyond this (which, by the bye, it ought not to be), the respiration be- comes disturbed ; the animal heaves at the flanks and puffs at the nostrils, sighing, as it were, deeply for want of breath. ■His strength also now begins to fail him ; his body rocks ""om side to side ; if he lifts a foot, he quite staggers in putting it down again: in fine, things are now arrived at that pitch that there is danger every moment of his falling headlong upon the persons about him. These symptoms of distress are quickly foliowed up, if not accompanied, by a profuse sweat all over the body ; and this is often succeeded Dy a sort of rigor or shivering fit. In some instances, these symptoms make their appearance some little time afcer the operation of bleeding is all over, and even in cases in which we hardly expected their supervention. After the animal bas been tied up for a time, on returning to him, we find him heaving and puffing, and wet with sweat. When we Perceive exhaustion approaching, we may often succeed in arresting its further progress by turning the animal's head towards or (if possible) into the open air, and suffering him to drink three or four go-downs of cold water; and with the same water afterwards sponging out his nostrils and his eyes ; all which will so refresh him as probably to arrest the fainting fit altogether. In bleeding horses that live idle and pampered lives, it
Rot unfrequently happens that this puffing and blowing comes on even as early as during the flowing of the second or third quart of blood. When this happens, take away the blood-can, and suffer the blood in the vein to circulate for |
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two or three minutes, by which time the animal will com-
monly have recovered himself. The operation may then be resumed, and the required quantity generally be obtained. ROWELS AND SETONS.
These are merely different modes of applying the principle
of counter-irritation ; thus drawing away the inflammation from the point attacked in the form of purulent issue. In this point of view, blisters, rowelü, and setons are merely three methods to attain the same object, and their applica- bility is merely governed by circumstances; the blister being the most expeditious in acute cases, the rovvel and seton more certain and permanent in chronic affections. A Rowel can only be formed where the skin is loose, as in
the chest. The instruments for rowelling, and the rowel itself, are figured on Plate XVI., II, H, II. Ilaving prepared a round piece of leather, with a hole in the centre, and about the size of a crown piece, wrapped with a skein of fine tow (see II 3), smeared with digestive ointment; we cut the skin with the rowelling scissors, and with the fore- finger, or the " cornet" (a piece of crooked hom made for the purpose), or the handle of the improved scissors figured in our Plate (II 2), separate the skin from the underlying tissue for the space of an inch. The circular leather is then introduced, the opening plugged up with tow, and in four or five days suppuration is established. The rowel should now be turned every twelve hours, the matter allowed to flow out, and the rowel be kept scrupulously cleansed every twenty-four hours. We do not think the digestive oint- ment, or any ether application beyond the tow, at all necessary. Setons are tapes, threads, or lamp-cottons passed under
the skin by needies made for the purpose. (See Plate XVI., I 1, 2, 3, 4.) Setons may be introduced in almost every part of the body : the side or front of the face, the poll, the throat, the neck, the back, the loins, the arms, and feet are all available for this counter-irritant, which can be made longer or shorter, deeper or shallower, as skill may dictate. The skin should first be punctured with a lancet, which
will much facilitate the subsequent insertion of the needie, whether the sharp or the blunt one be used. The latter will be found preferable in every situation where it is possi- ble to make way with it through the subcutaneous tissue : in fact, the sharp-pointed needies are but seldom used. It would be idle to pretend to give any specific directions for using these needies : the operation can be learnt only from actual observation. The best material for setons is the coarse brown or beggars' tape, as it is called ; which will admit of being medicated (if thought necessary) in any manner the operator may fancy. The practitioner must not tie the ends of the seton, making a bow of it. From its liability to hitch against anything and be torn out with risk of laceration of the skin, this becomes objectionable, and even dangerous. The ends had better be made into knots, and left hanging out of the extremities of the wound. |
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THE PRACTICE CF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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364
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The tube will require to be taken out from time to time,
and clcansed. A weak solution of sulphate of zinc is best. The animal ought to be continually watched ; and as he will be unable to swallow any solid food, he should be abundantly supplied with well-made gruel and malt-mashes, which (providing he be kept without water) he will, after a time, drink with avidity. Should the case take a favourable turn, the breathïng tube is to be removed as soon as the natural passages become sufficiently cleared to carry on free respira- tion. Mr. Gowing's tracheotomy tube, with its trochar, figured in Mr. Mayhew's work, is a most efficiënt and inge- nious contrivance. LITHOTOMY.
Cutting for the stone in the bladder of the horse is rather
a curiosity of veterinary surgery than a part of customary practice. In Ilurtrel d'Arboval's Dictionary, art., " Litho- tomie," and by othcr Continental writers, minute accounts of this operation may be consulted. At p. 321, ante, under the head Urinary Calculi, will be found a general descrip- tion of these abnormal deposits, with a case relieved by lithotomy. PEKIOSTEOTOMY.
This term is applied to an operation which has grown
into much favour Avith modern practitioners for the reduc- tion of splints and ringbone. It is, as its name implies, a cutting of the periosteum, or membrane surrounding the bone, and is effected with a curved knife, having a blunt probe point, and sharpened on the inner or scythe edge The late Professor Sewell, of the Veterinary College, has strongly advocated periosteotomy for the removal of bony tumour, and it proved highly successful in the cases he thus treated. The horse is thrown upon his side, and tne leg to be
operated upon released from the hobble, and extended on » bag of straw. A piece of webbing is passed round the hoof and given to a man to hold, who pulls the foot steadily fof ward. The operator kneels and examines the splint or node; then, with a pair of rowelling scissors (Plate XVI-j II 1) he snips the skin just below the exostosis. He then forces a blunt seton-needle,—fixed in the shifting handle (Plate XVL, I ]), and armed with a tape—through the cellular tissue, under the skin covering the tumour. H° then makes another cut with the rowelling scissors above the splint, pushes the needle through it, and then draws it back. The probe-pointed knife is then introduced, and turned with its cutting edge downwards, and the periosteum cut through and through ; the tumour being sliced in pieces, when not too solid, as it sometimes is in older animals. Th'3 cutting down over, the seton-needle, armed with a tape with a knot at the end, is passed through the opening, knotted at the other end, and treated as an established seton, being moved daily. A blister is sometimes applied over all» which is considered more likely to defeat than to assist tne |
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When a seton is placed in a sinuous track for the pur-
pose of infiaming, it is moved twice a day frequently, and moistened each time with some stimulant, as oil of turpen- tine, tincture of aloes and of benzoin. All setons require daily clcaning and moving. When they are required to act more quickly, the tape is infused in turpentine, with pow- dcred cantharides ; or small pieces of black hellebore are sewn within it. An old material composed of woollen, flax, or cotton and hair, is also used instead of tape. The frog-seton recommended in navicular disease (see I 4),
is to be inserted through the heel. The animal being secured by the twitch, an assistant holds up the foot. The needle is then plunged into the heel, and by a second push brought out at the cleft of the frog (prcviously thinned oiffor the pur- pose). Then draw the tape through and knot the ends. If the horse is down, insert the seton-needle from below upwards. (ESOPIIAGOTOMY.—BB.ONCIIOTOMY.—TRACHE0T0MY.
A wound or division of the cesophagus or gullet, was long
supposed to be a fatal injury ; this is now known to be a fallacy. The operation is described under Choking, p. 293, and need not here be repeated. Bronchotomy.—Tracheotomy.—Cases occur when this ope-
ration is the only hope of saving life. It consists in making an opening into either the larynx or the windpipe, through which the animal is enabled to breathe with ease; and is an operation practised in some cases to the saving of the animal's life, in others to the affording him instantaneous and eifectual relief, at a time when he has difficulty in drawing his breath through his nose. The animal's head being kept elevated by an assistant, the windpipe may be plainly feit projecting underneath the skin, as it proceeds in its course along the anterior and inferior part of the neck. About one-third of the length of the neck from the head will be found a convenient place for operating. Make a longitudinal incision, three or four inches in extent, through the skin, and carry the point of the knife at once down to the windpipe, which must be laid bare nearly to the same extent by lateral dissection. The surface of the pipe being freely exposed, the point of a double-edged scalpel is to be thrust through its substance in a direction to make a cross- section of two of its rings; the object being, to excise either a square or circular portion of the substance of the tube, of about an inch in diameter. This done (in order to prevent the skin from closing over the opening, as well as the aper- ture itself from becoming plugged by lymph, or obstructed by secretion) it will be necessary to introducé a canula, or tube, into the windpipe, and confine it there by carrying tapes or strings from it around the animal's neck. A piece of elder, about three inches in length, with a notch cut around its middle, will answer the purpose; though an ivory or bone tube with shoulders to it, and holes through the shoulders, will be found still better adapted. After the performance of the operation, and the introduction of the tube, the animal will appear as in Plate XIV., Fig. 5. |
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, &c—NEUROTOMY. 365
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°bject in view. When periosteotomy is successful, it is
generally so at the first start; if not, the seton may be abandoned, to avoid a certain blemish for an uncertain benefit. NEUROTOMY.
This important opcration lias been the subject of the
fiercest polemic among veterinary writers and practitioners Like most discoveries, vehement partisans have obscured Jts real merits by their indiscriminate and unmeasured praises of its value, -without allowing a qualification or draw- back. It has restored innumerable useless animals to useful- ness, and has occasioned destructive injury to others ; but !t is probable, as these were diseased subjects, it merely somewhat hastened the inevitable end. No neurotomized norse goes with the same freedom and safety; and from the loss of sensation he has battered the feet to pieces, or frac- tured his legs. On the other hand, hunters and hacks have gone " as well as ever " in horseman's phrase, after division °t the nerve. Improvement in the constitution of the ani- mal has also marked the relief from pain which neurotomy confers. Elaine tells us, that " an aged and crippled stallion, from constant and painful irritation, became so emaciated as to be unable to fecundate ; but being rclieved from a con- stant state of suffering by neurotomy, he improved in health and condition, and was again used to cover. It happened, a'so, that a mare similarly circumstanced ceased to feel "oestrum;" but after neurotomy it returned, and she re- sumed her character of a brood mare. It appears to act with most certainty when a piece of the irritated nerve is cut out. One case has actually occurred where tetanus, occasioned by a wound in the foot, was arrested and removed by neurotomy. It also promises much in the painful state of severe cankers, where the irritation has rendered the appli- cation of dressings almost impossible. Here, by depriving the foot of sensibility, we deprive the horse of that which is injurious to him. The sore itself is often amended by it; out in every instance the dressings can be effectively applied, and the healthy processes cannot be at all suspended- When, however, the sole of the foot is convex (pumiccd
toot), neurotomy is mere destruction. The sole of the foot, scarcely able to bear the pressure of the coffin-bone, which has fallen below its natura! situation, having now no feeling, Will be battered against hard substances, worn through, and oestroyed ; and this will be aggravated should any tendency to ulceration exist among the ligaments or cartilages. Never- theless, neurotomy, dependent as it is on the judgment and experience of the surgeon, is the most important and valu- aole discovery in veterinary practice of the present century. ■tt would, therefore, be unjust to omit the name of Mr. Sewell, then Assistant Professor of the London Veterinary College, who first communicated the modus operandi and its results 111 a paper contributed to the Royal Society. It has been asserted that Mr, Moorcroft and others had previously per- tormed neurotomy : if so, they never published their success |
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or non-success, or recommended it to their professional bre-
thren. To Professor Sewell, then, belongs the credit of this invaluable discovery, of which Mr. Spooner truly and can- didly says in his work "On the Foot:"—" Although it is vilified by a few veterinary surgeons, and often condemned by the ignorant as a cruel and barbarous operation inflicted on a dumb creature, yet, for my own part, having fairly tested its merits, I regard it as one of the most merciful and humane operations that surgical science has ever invented for the relief of suffering quadrupeds." "Nerving," "unnerving," or "neurotomy" signifies the
cutting out of a piece of the metacarpal (or pastern) nerves on each side, to the extent of an inch or more. From Plates X. and XI. (Anatomy), the reader may form a clear idea, not only of the structure of the parts, but in the latter (Fig. 6), a clear representation of both the upper and lower operations is given, with letterpress references. For our- selves we would recommend the lower one, for the reason that in this case the coronet and front of the foot will still retain a certain degree of sensibility, which (if those parts are not involved in the disease), will greatly improve the style of going and safety of the animal. Mode of performing the Nerve Operation.—The horse
being thrown as directed {ante, p. 358), and having decided as to whether the upper or lower incision would be ad- visable, examine the part to be operated upon. Remember, the hair should be clipped from the part. A piece of tape tied tightly round the leg just below the knee or hoek will be found to deaden sensation. The instruments being in readiness,* the operator kneels over his subject. An ac- curate acquaintance with the course of the nerve is indis- pensable. It descends in two main branches from the knee, one on each side of the leg. It proceeds in eompany with and behind the artery and vein on the inner side of the fore leg, while on the outer side it has no blood-vessel near it. About the middle of the leg the two nerves join by a branch, which goes over the perforans tendon, and connects the fibres of nerve on each side. The "high " incision is better, therefore, " below " this. At the pastern the nerve divides; the hinder branch runs to the frog, the front travels in front of the artery a little way, then divides into several branches, in which reside the sensibility of the foot. We will suppose you are operating on the inside. Ascertain the exact course of the artery by its pulsation ; then make a cut close to the edge of the flexor tendon. Let the in- cision be near to but rather behind the artery ; if below the fetlock joint, an inch in length. The cellular substance being cleared away will bring the vessels into view, and the nerve will be readily distinguished from them by its white* ness. In horses of very clean legs there is little cellular membrane to remove. Having clearly distinguished the nerve and artery, elevating it from the vessels and its mem- |
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* See Plate XVI., where the nerving knife, D 1, for makinc the
incision, and the curved knife for dividing the nerve, I 2, are deUneatsd. |
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366
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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branous attachments by means of a tenaculum, or crooked
needie, armed with some small twine, pass the needie under the nerve, withdrawing it, leaving the twine be- hind, and tie its ends firmly together. Inserting your finger in the loop, raise the nerve, and insert the curved nerving knife (Plate XVL, D 2), turn it, and the nerve is instantaneously severed by a drawing stroke, as near to the upper angle of the section as possible. The violent spasm the division of the nerve produces may be somewhat lessened by pressing the nerve between the finger and the thumb, when the opportunity may be taken of uividing it; then, taking hold of the lowermost portion between a pair of forceps, clip out about three-fourths of an inch of its trunk. Havhig finishcd, if both feet are affected, proceed to operate upon the con- trary side of the other leg ; after which turn the horse, and repeat the operations on the like parts of each leg as they come in succession. The reason of dividing the nerve at the upper part of the
incision, is, that from the moment of severance all below the cut is deprived of communication with the sensorium, and the after-dissection and cutting is upon a substance deprived of feeling. The nerve should be always dissected out to the length of the incision, about an inch, or it will probably reunite and restore sensation. The skin may be closed with a single stitch ; no bandaging is required, but a compress or linen roller may be applied, as looking more surgical and neat. For the first three days, sponge the leg with luke- warm water; and, if there is any heat, change this for cold water, with cloths frequently changed. No dressing is required, and the wounds should be healed in three or four weeks. White says, in his excellent practical "Farriery," the
horse may be "turned to grass after three weeks." To this we positively object. The animal, relieved from pain, gallops wildly about the field, and is apt to injure the tendon opposite the navicular bone, if not to produce a mechanical rupture of the parts. Of the success of neurotomy under his own eye, Mr. Spooner says :—" We have collected no less than sixty-three cases of the successful performance of neurotomy, ncarly all being on horses that stood sound a considerable time afterwards; some of them having been hunted, and others severely worked. Of these cases we find twenty-seven in which it is not mentioned whcther the operation was performed above or below the fetlock ; and there are eight cases of the low operation on one leg, and two in which it was thus practised on both legs. We have thirteen cases of the high operation, nine out of which are on one fore-leg, two on both fore-legs, one on one side of the leg only, and one on both legs, but one side of each. Besides which we have six cases in which it was performed on one or both bind legs. There are many other cases mentioned, though not related ; and there are two instances in which the operation failed." |
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DIVISION OF THE FLEX0R TENDON.
" Clap of the back-sinews," already treated of, and sprains
of tendon, are the cause of that " knucking over" seen 1» many horses that have been overworked to so disfiguring and disabling an extent. Some look ready to fall forward on their knees, while others can only put the toe of the hind foot to the ground. In these cases, division of the tendon is both humane and serviceable. The operation consists H1 making a longitudinal incision of about three inches 10 length along the inner lateral edge of the tendon ; dissecting each portion from its cellular attachment, so as to exposé the nerve, artery, and tendons. A stout curved knife, with a probe point and a blunt back, cutting at the inner edge, is used, when the above-cut has been made. The leg is then bent. This opening will allow the perforans to be freed from the perforatus, when a division should be made by a scalpc* applied to its surface. It is evident that this should take place below any thickening or adhesions which may have permanently connected the tendon with the neighbouring parts. Any lesser attachments will be broken through by forcing back the foot to the just position. By Mr. Dick this was done "by placing his knee against the front or projecting part of the pastern, at the same time laying hold of the foot with one hand and the upper part of the leg with the other, and using considerable force; and this appears to be neces- sary, in order to break any adhesions that may have formed." To return: We will suppose the leg bent; the knife is inserted behind the nerve and artery, and under the tendon ; the back is towards the former, when by a simple turn of the wrist the operator brings the cutting edge to the tendons, and an attendant forcing the leg straight, the perforans is brought against the knife, while the suspensory ligament and blood- vessels are safe behind it. If the tendon resist the edge, the curved knife is brought out with a drawing cut. Sometimes, on the division of the flexor tendon, the extensor pedis muscle, relieved of its antagonism, brings the fetlock joint straight. The wound is then closed with a pin and twisted tow, and treated in the usual vvay. A shoe with a long piece projecting at the toe should be worn for a few weeks, till the leg is welk FiKixa.
There is not in the records of blacksmith brutality-""
though for that matter our older professors of the veterinary art were fully their equals, if not their masters,—a more humiliating record than that of the application of red-hot iron to the uncomplaining and tortured horse. They seared his palate for lampas; the end of his tail after docking; the under vertebrae of the same appendage in nicking; his legs (with more reason) in the special operation of " firing; and frizzled and fried his skin for wounds, cuts, ulcers, anti farcy buds; in short, for anything—when the red-hot ir°n was handy. Professor Coleman, an eloquent and plausible teacher in his day, was a very apostle of the actual cautery- |
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, &c.—FIRING.
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367
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He viewed a scorching or sudden roasting of the skin as a
permanent bandage, and of the flesh, as the readiest of styptics. It was declared excellent to promote absorption °f the callus; it was inconsistently asserted to promote granulation in broken knees, and to check granulations when too luxuriant. In glanders, they slit the nostril, scraped the hone, and then fired the swelled gland with a hot iron ; and one writer says, by the use of the searing !ron " ulcers, and ahscesses generally, may be reduced to common scalds." (See " Ilinds' Veterinary Surgery," 1829). Finally, it is related by Lafosse, the eminent French veterina- rian, that in 1801, several regiments in Alsace and Lorraine ernployed the actual cautery as a cure for glandered horses. Some " applied fire to the jugular gland in three lines; others cauterised the bones of the forehead and nose ; " but the most ridiculous affair of all was, to see " forty horses together which had fire applied round the eyelids to cure the running," common to all glandular affections in the head ! In short, there was no cruelty or folly which hot iron was not guilty of, through the ignorance of its manipulators. Firing may now be confined to its legitimate use ; that of eonstricting those parts of the leg which consist of tendon and ligament, enclosed with a skin and lined with the hardest bone; and its application to farcy-buds {ante, pp. "70, 271); though in botli it may often be advantageously substituted by caustics, blistering, fomenting, and detersive lotions. The iron for firing is represented in Plate XVI. (E.), and
there are various modes of its application. Old books contain s°me grim drawings of attempts at fancy patterns scored with red-hot iron on the integuments of the prostrate beast, hearing a remote resemblance to the tattooing of South Sea savages. The Veterinary College, erewhile the head-quarters °f the firing iron, recommends that the legs should always °e scored in perpendicular lines. White recommends the ' feather " pattern ; others, horizontal, vertical, and oblique hnes. Some veterinarians cast the horse, others fire him standing. We prefer the foriner. Some recommend the nring to be very light and superficial, others declare that there is no virtue in hot iron unless you go deep. Messrs. lurners, good and intelligent surgeons, say they find firing 9uite through the skin most effectual; and, if the iron is resolved on, we agree with them. The theory of the benefit °f firing is, by creating a superficial infiammation, to draw, Dy counter irritation, the infiammation from a deeper-seated Part; also, by the thickening and constriction of the skin, to Create a permanent bandage, or compress, on parts inclined t° "filL" Firing leaves a blemish ; which should also be a reason for avoiding its application, unless deemed indis- Pensable. The horse being thrown, and the legs secured in the man-
ner already directed, the hair is cut off close from the part to be operated upon. The firing iron should have a smooth r°und edge, the thickness of a worn shilling. For ourselves, ^e would never penetrate the skin while running the vertical |
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lines. This direction, in the upright line of the leg, produces
the most efficiënt contraction, while the cross way, or horizon- tal, leaves less blemish. A combination may be adopted by which the horizontal lines are combined with lighter lateral scorings in a sort of herring-bone pattern : these should not be close. Mr. Spooner proposes, where deep cauterization is thought advisable, that small punctures with a pointed iron may be made in various places, when a glutinous exudation will be seen after the operation. These punctures must not be too close, or there is danger of the skinsloughing between them and making an extensive blemish. We have said thus much of firing, once so prevalent. The absence of the hot iron from the hands of the veterinary surgeon,—though we would not squeamishly rejcct a remedy of the "heroic" sovt—is a proof of his judgment and skill, as well as of Lis hümanity. NICXING AND DOCKINd.
These once prevalent, dangerous, and barbarous disfigure-
ments having passed away—except in some dark parts of the sister island, where animals thus mutilated and deformed are still to be seen—we shall merely record our satisfaction that they are obsolete. The first-named consisted of tying the hair at the point of the tail in a bunch, and attaching to it thereafter a heavy weight passed over a pulley, to keep it drawn up. The tail being lifted, the torturer sought for the middle of one of the vertebrse (not its point of articulation), and fiercely slashed through the depressor muscles from one side to the other with a curved sweep óf a sharp knife. With a thoroughbred, we are told, one "nick" was sufficiënt, with a hunter, two ; while a hackney had three gashes under his tail, as he was thought to look handsomer for an extra cock-up of the caudal appendage. With a pair of scissors the " fibres," if any appear across the incisions, must be cut off, and pledgets of tow inserted deeply in the wounds. We are also cautioned to see that " the muscles are divided equally on each side the tail;" for, risum teneatis, "you would not like to see him carry his tail sideways." It is confessed that intense infiammation, swelling, and death, frequently foliowed these painful barbarities, when the weight dragging up the tail was too heavy, or long continued. Yet " the tail must be kept back for some weeks, until after the wounds are healed; for, if allowed to hang down, the edges of the cuts would unite, and the object be defeated!" Credit is taken for a doublé line carried to a pulley on each side of the stall, by which the suffering wretch's caudal appendage can be regulated " when growing awry." Lastly, we are told, if " severe infiammation corne on, take the weight off the tail-ropes and foment the part with warm water; but if locked-jaw comes on, take off the tail at the first joint above the highest nick." And we read this, and more, in "The Complete Modern Farrier," by Thomas Brown, published by a highly respectable firm in 18G1 ; from which work also, as we shall never consent to be a party to such mutilation, we extract this curious rather than useful account of docking. |
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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3G8
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removed, the serum may be re-absorbed, and the surface
restored by a slight effort of adhesive inflammation. If the irritant act in a still minor degree, it simply stimulates thö vessels of the skin to an infiltration of Huid through the sensible pores, but produces no destruction of cuticle: sneb has been called a sweating blister. But when by continued irritation the cutis is exposed, suppuration succeeds, and the part is fully blistered. The salutary action of blisters is exerted in several ways; in promoting absorption ; in com- bating deep-seated inflammations, and in aiding others. As a stimulus to the absorbents, they act beneficialiy in the removalof injurious deposits; as the coagula remaining after inflammatory lesions. Blisters are very important aids in inflammatory affections, as counter-irritants, derived from a law in the animal economy, that two inflammations scldom exist in the vicinity of each other. Therefore, when such an affection has taken place in any part, and we wish to remove it, we attempt to raise an artificial inflammation in the neighbourhood by means of blisters ; which, if persevered in, destroy, or at least lessen, the original one. Occasionally, also, we blister the immediate inflamed part, with an intention to basten the suppurative process by increasing the activity of the vessels-—as in deep-seated abscesses, and also in those which attack glandular parts. "We, therefore, cmploy blisters to basten the maturation of the tumours in strangles. In applying a blister, cut the hair as close as possible
from the part; then hand-rub in the blistering compound from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour. In blistering the legs, take care the hinder part of the heel, under the fetlock joint, is rubbed with lard or melted suet, to prevent the action of any of the blister that may run down the leg ; this will often prevent some troublesome sores forming, from the blistering ointment falling on these sensitive parts. While a blister is acting, the litter should be removed from under the feet, or it will tickle the legs, and irritate; the head ought to be carefully secured for two days and nights, to oppose lying down, more especially to prevent the horse biting the blistered part. On the third evening he may be permitted to repose ; but a prevention should even then be continued, by means of what is called a cradle. (This apparatus may be bougbt at every turnery shop ; or may be made of eight or ten pieces of round wood, an inch and a half in diameter, and two feet long : these are strung at each end on a rope, and fastened around the neck.) When it is intended to blister repeatedly, the effects of the first blister should have subsided before the second is applied ; the scurf and scabs also be cleared away, and the part well washed with soap and water. In all cases, the third or fourth day after the application, the part should be thoroughty painted over by means of a long-haired brush (such as are in use with pastry-cooks to glaze their crusts) with lead liniment, which should be repeated every day; and when it is proposed to turn a horse out, it should nevcr be done until the whole blistered surface is quite hcaled; otherwise |
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Docking.—" It has been a long-established custom to doek
the tails of horses. Convenience justifies it, and fashion guides it(?) The length of the stump varies with the taste of the times, or the fancy of the owner. A medium length is undoubtedly the best, and a very short one is not only un- seemly, but also a very great injury to the animal, as he is thus deprived of that which nature intended as a switch, and as a substitute for hands to drive off insects. " The operation of docking is performed at different ages
of the animal; some consider it best to do it at two years, while others think the earlier the better. From what we have ourselves noticed, we coincide with the latter opinion. At a fortnight it may be done with perfect safety, and even sooner; and it unquestionably affects the foal less at this period than at the age of two years. c- The manner of performing the operation is, to fix upon
a part of the tail, and having determined on that, take the one next joint to it; let the hair be turned up and fastened with tape for an inch or two above the joint, while that which grows upon the vertebra itself must be cut off. The horse is then restrained by the side line, and the surgeon now applies his docking machine, and cuts it through at the division between the vertebrae, at one stroke. It is not uncommon for farmers and other breeders to perform the operation with a sharp knife, resting the tail on a board, and striking the back of the knife with a mallet or hammer. Although considerable bleeding is caused by this operation, there is no danger to be apprehended from it. To stop this, the speediest manner is, to sere the stump with a red-hot iron, with a hole in its centre to prevent it from touching the bone, which would cause exfoliation ; or, if severely injured, it would fall off at the joint above, and thus shorten the desired length of the tail. The bleeding vessels are all on the outside of the bone. The iron must not be too hot, nor inuch pressure applied to it, neither should it be long continued. No kind of dressing is required after this operation. In some cases slight bleeding occurs after the use of the cautery; but when this occurs, it is better to allow it to stop of its own accord, as a repetition of the burning might cause locked-jaw, or constitutional irri- tation."* BLISTEEINO.
The preparation and ingredients of Blisters will be found in
List of Medicines, ante, p. 227. When a " vesicatory " be- comes absorbed through the pores of the skin, it inflames the sensible cutis underneath ; the consequence of which is an effusion of serum through the part, which, in man, elevates the cuticle into a bladder of the same extent as the surface in- flamed ; but in the horse, from the greater tenacity of the cellular connections, it becomes separated in the form of small distinct vesicles only. If the irritating cause be quickly * The Complete Modern Farrier, by Thomas Erowu, M.P.S., London ;
Virtue, & Co, 1SC1, pp. 328, 329. |
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OPERATIONS, INSTRUMENTS, &c—POÜLTICING AND BANDAGING. 369
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dirt, flies, &c, may prove hurtful. Some practitioners blister
mildly one day, and on the next wash off the blistering matter, thereby saving loss of hair. But there is more of apparent than real good in this plan. If a blister be necessary, it requires all its activity. Ammoniacal Blister.—Mr. Mayhew strongly recommends
this in spasmodic colic and enteritis. Spanish flies are only efficacious when the animal can afford to wait their action, which is rather slow. In most of the acute diseases, the horse would perish before the blister began to rise, where- fore resort has been had to boiling water and red-hot iron. The action of these last coarse and brutal measures was alone controlled by the violence of the internal inflam- ttiation. We have in the liquor ammonia an agent quite as formidable as boiling water or heated iron, but it is rather longer in displaying its force ; wherefore it allows time for watching its action, and for checking it the instant it has sufiiciently blistered the skin. It is true the liquor ammonia upon the skin cannot be removed, neither need it be counteracted. The ordinary soap liniment, if covered over, would, because of the ammonia it contains, produce a lasting hlemish ; but every veterinary surgeon knows how very harmless a preparation that is Avhen simply rubbed upon the surface. So, when we desire the active eflects of liquor ammonia, we doublé a blanket or rug four or five times, and hold it over the liquid. It takes from ten to twenty minutes to raise a blister, and it consequently can from time to time be observed ; and when its action has reached the wished-for point, all we have to do effectually to stop it is, to take away the rug or blanket. That removed, the free surface and the heat of the body occasion the am- moniacal vapour to be dispersed, and the animal is safe. POULTICINC» AND BANDACIINa.
There is much comfort and relief to the animal in the
öeat-handed application of poultices and bandages. With this object we have devote 1 Plate XVI. to delineating some of the more generally useful bandages. Fig. 1, is adapted for poulticing for sore throat, &c. The oloth to be employed A A A |
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should be of stout but supple linen; Russia duck, or fine
sailcloth, or if you have it at hand, a piece of sheepskin or a chamois leather will do. You need not steep the cloth in any solution to make it water-tight. When spread out, the cloth will be of an irregular octagon
shape, at each corner whereof is to be strongly sewed on a piece of broad tape for the purpose of fastening to the girth, or round the neck, and to a breasting of broad web, which is supported by another piece, that passes over the withers, and which two should be previously fastened together by stitching the cross-piece ends upon the breasting. The two extremes of the bandage will be the fiïlet across the forehead and the fastening at the girth; therefore, measure should be previously taken of the whole length proper for the indi- vidual patiënt, lest the tie, which would otherwise be necessary at the ears, might discommode the animal and occasion uneasiness ; on the other hand, the application would not be kept in its place properly. A glance, however, at the figure will instruct a tolerably expert workman (or workwoman) how to manufacture such a bandage as would answer every purpose. In Bandaging for Strangles (the steaming apparatus is
shown Plate XVI., A, a), another form of cloth and straps is required. The explanation above, and the drawing on Plate XVI., Fig. 4, are sufiiciently explanatory. The Bandage for Poll-evil is represented on Fig. U The
poultice (see Poll-evil) should be of sufficiënt quantity to cover the whole swelling two inches thick at least, having a small quantity of sweet oil, hog's lard, or oil of tur- pentine mixed therewith. Fix it on by means of a contri- vance sufiiciently explained by the figure, in which it will be seen that the girth is to have a web breasting, to which the lateral corners of the cloth are to be attached by broad tapes, as was explained above. The bandage in the drawing is longer than requisite for poll-evil, so that it may not be liable to shift, and be serviceable for other diseases lower down the neck. Fig. 2, Plate XVI.,—the bandage for "critical abscess"—
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37U THE PRACT1CE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
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CHAPTER XXXV.
ON SHOEINd.—PREPARING THE FOOT.—MAKINQ THE SIIOE.—FORM OF THE SHOE.—NAILINO.—CLIPS AND CALKINS.
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The history of horsé-shoes may be read in Beckmann's
"History of Inventions," Bracy Clark's works, and other compilations. We may presume that the cavalry in ancient Greece were not shod, as Alexander the Great and Mithri- dates were stopped in military expeditions by their horses requiring time to restore the horn of their hoofs. There is little doubt that at an early period the Tartars of central Asia, and probably the Chinese,—though the latter are no horsemen, except in imitation of their conquerors,—shod their horses. Numerous barrows and tumuli about Tomsk, on the Amoor, the Yenissai, and the Sener, have of late years been opened, where, with the bones of ancient Tartar and Mongolië warriors, have been found rude carved idols and the remains of horses with their shoes on, of a circular form, and (alas for modern invention) nailed on the outer side only, as in the " unilateral" shoe. In the western world, Cardanus, Beckmann, and Mr. Bracy Clark refer the introduction of horse-shoes to a period even later than the age of Augustus; the latter in their comments endeavouring to prove that golden, silver, and even iron shoes were not what we understand by them, but mere plates, more or less thin, according to the metal, fastened to leather, and this secured by ligamenta (straps or shackles) to the hoof or fet- lock. Suetonius, in his " Life of the Emperor Vespasian," tells
an anecdote in wliich the fact of the Emperor's mules being shod, is incidentally mentioned ; though the manner of shoe- ing is by no means indicated. The historian says, that the Emperor was wont to travel eighty miles to his Castilian villa. On an occasion of this kind, a petitioner (Litigator) having bribed the driver of the imperial carriage to contrive to loosen a shoe of one of the mules, that worthy found himself under the necessity of alighting to fasten it; thus giving the petitioner the opportunity of access to the Empe- ror at a leisure moment. Vespasian, we are told, suspccting the trick, facetiously put off the supplicant by addressing his driver, and inquiring how much was to be his reward for this well-timed shoeing ; intimating that he, the Empe- ror, "meant to go shares with him."* Our inference from * The words of Suetonius immediately relating to tlie shoeing,
are : Mulionera in itinere quodam suspicatus ad calciandus mulus desilisse, ut adeuute litigatori spatinra moraraque pneberet: interro- gavit, quanti caleiasset: paetusque est lucri partem.—Suetonius, Vit. Smp. Vespasian. de Facetis p. 120. |
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this, would be in favour of metal shoes with ligamenta—
horse sandals, in fact—rather than nailed shoes; though Schceffer, in his learned work " De Re Vehiculari," juinps the conclusion, that the muleteer got down to nail on a loose shoe, " soleam ferreum pede unius ex mulis." A proof of this mode of fastening, extending high up the shank of the leg, will be found in a drawing from a Roman tablet of terra cotta, in the British Museum,-f wherein the bands of these boot-like defences of the feet are shown on the legs of four chariot-horses engaged in a race. These boots, being intended only for a special occasion and a brief exertion, may have been no more than leather : indeed, in cases of tender hoofs, Columella, writing in the time of Augustus, speaks of soleci spartea (shoes made of the spartum or broom twigs); Vege- tius and Clusius also mention shoes made from this tough material. % Leather, with iron " acorn-shaped" (glantes ferrei), is advised for healthy feet, to be exclianged for the spartum (broom shoe) detritls pedibus; and here, perhaps, lies the whole question. It is, however, obvious, where once iron or other plates
were applied, the form of the shoe was necessarily adapted to the animal's foot; and the internal surface was of very secondary interest, the whole difficulty in question being in the mode of fastening them on. In some cases this was clearly by nails driven, as now, through the corneous sub- stance, as is evident from poetical notices, such as that of Catullus:— " Ferream ut soleam tenaci in voraginc mula derelinquit."
We know that Nero had his horses shod with silver; and
Poppea, his wife, had her mules similarly protectcd with gold. The exact form of these shoes, it is sufficiently probable, was the same, or nearly the same, as the modern shoe of France and Italy ; for on the battle-piece discovered at Pompeii, the horse standing before the chariot wheels °' Darius, about to be mounted by a Persian satrap, is shod as here stated. This remarkable work of art cannot be °' later date than 79 of the Christian era, when Pompeii was destroyed; and, it being to all appearance the copy of some f It forms the frontispiece of Bracy Clark's Essay o» the Knoirfedg*
of the Ancients respecting Shoeing the Horse, <bc. J They were probably no more than boots for inflamed feet. AtunJ
rate they conld not have been used on modern roads, if they even weï on the flat stone causeways of the Romans. |
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SHOEING, AND THE VARIÜÜS FORMS OF SIIOES.
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371
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celebrated picture of the Greek school, the original may be
■ddcr than the Roman supremacy among the Ilellenic na- tions. If, therefore, the mosaic really represents horse-shoes °n the feet of the Persian steeds, the antiquity of the inven- twn is carried up to a date coeval with, and most likely to °ne anterior to, the Christian era by more than a century. Upon the whole, there is no real objection to the existcnce of horse-shoes—not during the wars of Alcxandcr, for we have already noticed his cavalry being detained in con- sequence of their worn hoofs—but a century at least before the Augustan era. The date affords time for the appearance °f thcm in the mosaic, and the use of them at Rome for the Use of the imperial family, and for horse-shoes in the tombs °i Tartar chiefs. This also makes the tradition not im- possible, that the iron work about the banncr of Hossein, at Ardebil, is made from a horse-shoe belonging to Abbas, uncle of Mahomet, by order of his daughter Fatima. It Was brought from Arabia by Sheik Bedreddeen, son of the holy Sheik Sefi, who was son of another holy villager, after the manner of the Moslem. It is most likely that the story of the horse-shoe is true;
but that it was one of a horse belonging to the Beni Coreish —a camel-riding tribe, without horses till the Prophet had begun his successful military career—may be doubted. Horse-shoes, from the foregoing observations, are sufficiently proved to be of more ancient date than Beckmann will adrnit; he refcrring them to the ninth century, notwith- standing his thorough acquaintance with the passages in Roman authors on the subject. The fact is one more in illus tration of the inconceivable tenacity there is in man to defend an opinion once adopted. Whether the iron shoe is nxed by means of three nails clampcd round a hoof, or by eight or ten driven in, as now, through a plate more or less different in form, or allcged to be used for mules, are one a»d all so many amusing quibbles to escape from a self- evident fact. Althougb the practice was long opposed, and ages passcd
before shoeing was general, yet when it was once under- stood, the presumed difficulty vanished, and Tartars and ^ossacks at this day very generally understand the shoeing °f their own horses. In England it is pretended that it was William the Norman who introduced it; but the assumption ls like that which, some years ago, maintained that there Were no stone churches in England before the Conquest, a*ïd none in Ireland before Ilenry II.—they are mere lnstances of the audacity of ignorance. Saxon England c°ntained a number of Northmen adventurers, Danes and °thers, who had served, and who continued to serve after the conquest, among the Varangi—life-guards of Greek em- perors ; it had monks that went regularly for education abroad, and travelled to Rome. England was infatuated Wlth female saintship, then most fashionably exemplified by a PÜgrimage to the Papal throne, and that in such numbers lat tne 11,000 virgins of Cologne, martyrs, &c., were held 0 ke, in general, Englishwomen ; besides more authentic |
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records describe the crowds passing up and down the Rliine
on their route, with rather equivocal characters. It is impossible, therefore, that horse-shoes should not have been known and used; though, as the Anglo Saxon is not shown to have been essentially a horseman, it is likely that the practice was confined to the nobility, as indeed it was till a late period in parts of France. Horse-shoes have varied little in Europe, retaining now
very nearly the form even of that figured in the wall-pictures before-mentioned; But the most ancient Circassian horse- shoe appears to have been round; and if the figurc of it remaining in a brand be correct, it had only three nails or clamps secured on the outside of the hoof. Another round horse-shoe is in use among the modern Egyptians, and partly the Syrians ; it is a round plate with a hole in the middle; the common shoe, also used, has the heels turned against the heel. In other parts of Turkey, the plate is square behind, and rounded at the toe. On the continent of Europe, the ends, particularly in winter, are always turned up; and when there is ice on the ground, both are fre- quently pointed. The forms of modern shoes, many of them adapted to special purposes, will be found engraved in Plates XVIII. and XIX., and described hereafter. Considering the apparent simplicity of the process to an
ordinary observer, the method of fastening a piece of iron to the horse's foot has been the occasion of more disser- tations, essays, guidcs, manuals, " practical" instructions, theories, disputes, and—we sorrow to write it—hard words and abuse, than any subject we are acquainted with. It will be our aim here rather to simplify the matter than to overload it; and instead of wearying the reader with the investigations of something like a hundred (many of them ingenious) writers on the mode of defending the horse's foot, endeavour to combine the proven facts of all with the results of our own experience in a plain and succinct com- pendium. A reference to Plate XL, Figs 2, 3, 4, where the sole, frog, &c, are delineated in its natural and its con- tracted states, will help to elucidate the subject. Shoeing, then, is a necessary evil. Among the evils
inseparable from every kind of metal shoe, is the severe bat- tering upon hard roads, rendered yet more severe by the interposition of an unyielding substance, such as iron. Every step the horse now takes, is made upon iron ; and the wonder should be, not that a foot occasionally gives way, but that any part of a living frame should be able to with- stand such treatment. Then, not only are the roads hard, and the pace at which the horse is driven along killing, but we have also to weigh properly the treatment the horse receives within the stable. Here he stands often fór days together, cramped in a stall where he can only stand, fre- quently he cannot turn round, and very seldom can he lie upon his side, and stretch out his limbs. He stands here generally for twenty hours out of the four-and-twenty, with iron upon his feet, resting upon wet stones or damp bricks. No wonder if the feet should become cold ; and those whe
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THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE.
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372
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" buffer"* properly, and does not cut pieces out of the hoof
in raising each clench separately. The clenches of the naüs should be raised, which few do; but, after turning one or two of them, he seizes first one heel and then the other, and wrenches them loose, then, seizing the toe with his pincers, tears off the iron. Ey this the hold of the new shoe is weakened, the nail-holes enlarged, and sometimes a portion of the hoof splintered or torn off. The horse often shows that he suffers, by a sudden shrinking or trembling, when the pincers are thus used. Stubs, too, are sometimes left in the crust of the foot by this off-handed violence, and prove the seeds of future lameness or exfoliation, to say nothing of the animal being rendered timid and difficult to shoe. The general principle of healthy shoeing is, to support the
foot off the ground by means of the "wall," and by this only; so that the frog shall not come in contact with the hard plain road, whilst it may be allowed to receive pressure upon going over soft ground. The first prevents inju- ries and resists wear and tear, the latter promotes the se- cretion of healthy horn, by a proper degree of pressure—that is to prevent this being received by the heel, frog, and bars. Whatever is here said, the fore foot is still kept in view, un- less the hinder foot is particularly mentioned; and occasion will present itself for the distinction, as there is great dif- ference in the wall and pther external shape between the two, especially as regards heavy draught cattle. The shoe removed, the crust is to be rasped down at the edges ; and although a little roughness may be exercised in this, yet there is little danger of injury to the hoof, only that too much must not be removed, so as to render it too thin. The hoof requires considerable labour to pare, and this is of great importance to the comfort of the animal, as well as his safety on the road. It is a part of the operation of shoeing which is too often done in a hurried and slovenly manner. We would advise the owner of the animal, when he employs a new or strange farrier, to see that paring is thoroughly performed ; because, if the sole is not well pared, its elasti- city will be destroyed, and the internal portion be prevented from descending. This will impair the functions of the foot, and induce many of the maladies to which it is liable— navicular disease, contraction, corns, inflammation, and the diseases of which we have already treated. Xothing is of more consequence than to prevent an accumulation of the horny substance of the sole, which, it is easy to see, must increase, because, being protected by the shoe, it cannot get worn down as it would in a natural condition. Sufficiënt thickness should be left, so as to protect the internal parts of the foot from injury, and enough taken away to allow the external sole to descend. This can easily be determined by the pressure of the thumb on the sole, which should yield slightly in all its breadth. This operation is performed by the drawing-knife, figured in Plate XVII. It will happen that the horn of the sole becomes so hard
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are accustomed to bleed horses from the foot can teil how
cold the first drop or two of blood flows from the part, owing to muscular action being suspended, which is neces- sary to circulation and to vital warmth. With regard to shoeing itself, and the share of the farrier
in producing lameness, Mr. Youatt says, sensibly, " We must protest against the opinion that contraction is the necessary consequence of shoeing. There can be no doubt that an inflexible iron ring being nailed to the foot, prevents, to a very considerable degree, the descent of the sole and the expansion of the heel before; and it is likewise possible, that when the expansion of the heels is prevented, they will often begin to contract. Eut here again, nature, cut off from one resource, finds others. If the coffin-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 there 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 farmer's horse lame ? and it might even be further asked, how seldom is bis foot much contracted ? Some gentlemen who are care- ful of their horses, have driven them twenty years, and principally over the rough pavement of towns, without a day's lameness. Shoeing 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 shew itself, the foot lasts a great deal longer than the leg; nay, horsemen will teil us that one pair of good feet is worth two pairs of legs." A.s we address ourselves specially to those who love the
horse, it will not be too much to ask the horse-owner to spare an hour a month to see his horse or horses shod. Mary a valuable horse may thus be saved some suffering, if not injury. Do not have your horses shod at an ill-lighted place, but one with side-lights as well as skylights. Cast your eyes about for signs of drinking, and see that there is no screaming or bawling at the horses, rough tossing of the hammers and tools, and a prevalence of cant and self-suf- ficiency—all these we have seen, but never in conjunction with good shoeing and trustworthiness. See, too, that in tying up, the halter or rope does not annoy the horse's ears or fore top, rub his eye, or constrict his throat, as a "vicious" resistance, as it is called, is often thus estab- lished. With these preliminary remarks we shall proceed to the
Practice of Shoeing. Preparation of the Foot.—The horse is standing in
the forge with his old shoes on, and these have to be taken off. We have gathered much of the character of the smith, by watching the way he has gone about this eeemingly trivial preliminary See that he handles his j |
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* The buffel is a square, short iron knife. See Tlate XVIL
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SIIOEIXG, AND THE VARIOUS FOllMS OF SIIOES. 373
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that it is removed vvith very great difficulty, in which case
it becomes necessary to soften it by heat. This is effected by means of a flat heated iron, drawn over the sole, and even kept close to it for a little time. If the sole is thick, no in- jury will be sustained from it, and, on the contrary, it will render the paring more easy and less disagrceable to the horse; but if the sole has been regularly pared out during slioeing, this must not be permitted. The quantity of par- ing necessarily varies much, according to the formation and condition of the foot. The foot which is pumiced sliould only have the ragged parts cut away; when the foot is flat, little paring is needed; from that which is concave, the crust must be pared until it yields slightly to strong pressure from the thumb; if the foot is strong, a great deal of paring is requisite. Care must always be taken that the crust is not reduced to a level with the sole, as this would permit the sole to press upon the edge of the seating, and thereby be bruised and injured. The entire circumference of the crust should be perfectly level, but projecting a little beyond the sole. We must now direct attention to the heels. More stress
is thrown on the inner heel than on the outer, and, from natural weakness of the quarter there, it generally wears quicker than the outer one. This being the case, less horn must be pared from it than from the outer, as taking the same quantity of horn from it would leave it lower than the other, whereas they should be perfectly on a level. Almost all smitlis have a fancy for opening the heels, from the idea that it does good by rendering the foot neater, which is a fallacy, as they ouglit seldom or never to be touched ; uothing sliould be removed but the ragged portions. It is intended that the heel of the shoe should rest partly
on the heel of the foot; consequently the bars should be allowed to remain nearly in their natural condition from the first inward bend, and down the side of the frog. When the frog becomes level with the crust, liowever, paring of the frog beco.aes necessary. The quantity to be taken from the frog depends on its greater or less prominence, and the shape of the foot. It should project so much as to be just within and above the inner surface of the shoe, that is, upon a level with the hoof when no shoe is on the foot. This will givo it room to descend with the sole. If it is much higher. the bars will contract; if lower, it will be bruised on hard roads. Blaine, one of the best of veterinary writers, places
" neglect and insufficiency of paring " at the head of the causes of missliapen feet. 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 the foot is protected by a shoe, and none °f the horn can be worn away by coming in contact with the ground, the growth of horn continues; the hoof gets 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 contraction is the result. The smith might |
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lessen, if not prevent the evil, by carefully thinning the sole
and lowering the heels at each slioeing; 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 many owners of horses assists in increasing the evil. They imagïne 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 hom impairing the elastic and expansive principle of the foot. If gentlemen would stand by, and see that the sole is properly thinned and the heels lowered—and occasionally, perhaps, give the workman a trilling gratuity for his increased labour—they would be repaid in the comfort and usefulness of the horse. When the foot is fitted to receive the shoe, the bottom
somewhat resembles the hollow rim of an oval dish. Being placed on a plane surface, the frog and heels should bear equally, leaving the thickness of the shoe, as above ex- plained, to save the frog. At the heels, for an inch of its length, the rim of the shoe is to project a trifle outside the hoof, lest the growing horn should cause the shoe to imbed itself at thi3 part, where the substance is soft and the wear little. Having completed our directions for the preparation of
the foot, we will here interpose a few paragraphs on the fbrming of the shoe, and its material, as a more fitting opportunity will not present itself. Making the Shoe.—The forge of the modern smith, in
addition to bars of iron of various thicknesses, from which to select such as may come nearest to the size and weight of shoe required, is supplied with a large assortment of slioes ready made, hanging on the walls or disposed on bars. These being placed horizontally, with the shoes ranged on them, are much more handy to select from than when piled one upon another, as is common, with a perpendicular bar of iron to keep them from slipping down. The modern malleable cast-iron shoes are very durable and economical. In working up old shoes, one and the half of another will be found an average quantity for a new one. This half should be laid on one .side of the old shoe, then the half of the entire one lapped over it; thus, when welded into a mass, the middle of the quarter of the old shoe will form the toe of the new one. The hind shoes are thus made of old shoes, the work not being in general so regular and neat as that of the fore shoes. In forging the shoe from the bar, a piece is to be cut off
somewhat shorter than the intended shoe, to allow for ex- tension under the hammer, and that there may be as little waste as possible by cuttings from the heels when the shoe is fmislied. Two or three of these pieces may be placed in the flre at one time, to save fuei. With saddle-horses, liow- ever, it is an expeditious, as well as more correct method, to divide or cut the bar into pieces or lengths forming |
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374 THE PRACTIOE OF VETEPJNARY MEDIC1NE.
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the shoe. The fullering gives the "doorman" more latitude
in inserting or pitching, as also in driving his nails; and with us in England they are brouglit out higher up the hoof than in France and Spain, where they drive their nails more obliquely and suddenly outward. The outer limb being finished, the inner limb is next
formed, somewhat narrower and finer than the other,—that is, straighter, and less projecting in the middle exteriorly; the nail-holes, also, are more carefully brought nearer to the exterior edge, and are made smaller, especially the last, and not so far back, or near to the inflexures, as in the outer limb ; and generally with four holes only instead of five, the number usually given to the outer limb. The inside quai'ter of the horse's hoof is very often bent and curved inwarda about its middle height; whereas the outer is quite straight, or frequently somewhat bulging exteriorly at this part, and requiring less care in driving the nails, and distinguishing easily the feet, whether off or near. In forming the nail-holes, attention must be paid to the
direction or sloping of the hoof, as those nearest the toe oï front of the shoe should be made strongly sloping back- wards, agrccably to the figure of the hoof at this part, whilst those on the sides or quarters of the hoof should be more upright, otherwise it must be obvious the nail cannot be inserted in the hoof without bending in the hole to accommodate this differencc of direction. In the next place, the "pritchel bumps" and "burs"J i'1
the iron about the holes are to be knocked down: these arise from the distension of the metal by the entrance of the pritchel, and are seen upon the outside of the rim of the shoe, and also on its upper surface. This is done upon the anvil-bick by chasing the shoe round with the hammer. The burs, also, should be forced down, as they endangeï coming in contact with the sole, or " vein" as the smithi call it, which is running round it. Lameness may result from this cause, when, on the removal of these roughnesses, the horses have gone well again. Form of the Shoe.—The surfaces, also, of the web of the
shoe will admit of great variety of form; which do not at aü constitute a change of principle, as has been vulgarl/ apprehended. It is the mode only of figuring the ring that is changed, the principle remaining the same. On the whole, those made concave next the foot or opposite the sole, and flat below, to the ground, are with good reason preferred by the soundest and most experienced writers on this subject. However, a shoe such as is commonly made, with the web and whole upper surface with a gentle incli- nation inwards, is as good and useful a shoe as any, and has this great recommendation belonging to it, that it is tho most readily made. The former, or seated shoe, can be made rather lighter perhaps; but its flat lcvel upper surface, where it receives the hoof, is not so good, we believe, as a very gentle inclination or slope of this part, as by its flatness % " Burs " are splinters about the edges of the holes.
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pairs, according to the sizes required. The iron for these
shoes not being very stout, there is no difficulty in turning it in the tongs over "the bick" with the hand-hammer;* but with the heavier cart-horse shoes, it is usual not to cut it from the bar till a circular figure is given it, for which the bar itself serves as a powerful and convenient handle. Some, however, prefer cutting the cart-horse iron into equal lengths first, as we have just described, and tlien bending these pieces, by placing one end upon the anvil, and resting the other against the head of the sledge-hammer, bending it by a few blows of the hand-hammer, which tiras gives to all the shoes an equal weiglit and size. The iron, having received the requisite curve, is tlien cut off, and is termed " a mould." It is usual for the workman to finish the outer limb of the
shoe first, which being roughly formed, and the web thinned and hollowed out, is commonly reversed by the smith, that is, the hammered side is brought to the anvil; that which was before next the anvil being more smooth and uniform in its surface, and of better appearance. The shoe, or rather the outer limb of it, is tlien fullered;
that is, a deep groove or channel is driven round it, at a small distance from the outer edge, indenting it more than half fhrough the thickness of the iron. The tooi for " fuller- ing " is a soit of chisel, about four inches long and two wide, flat and almost concave on one side and very convex and rounded on the other, and circular below on its cutting edge. It is generally used in a rod of hazel, the flat side to the in- terior of the shoe, and the convex side to the exterior: it is hastily driven along the limb, deeply indenting it, and form- ing a channel at a suitable distance from its exterior edge. (See Plate of Implements.) The fullering is useful on several accounts; as, preparing it for the nails, as the pritchelf can then pass through the iron without much difficulty: it also renders the shoe somewhat wider with- out adding to its weight, and gives it a much more agree- able and lighter appearance. The bind shoes, even for saddle-horses, are often not fullered; at least only on the sides and for a short distance: nor are the cart-horse shoes, either fore or hind. In France and Spain they do not fuller any of fheir shoes,
even for nag-horses, but a stout square stamp is driven deep into the web of the shoe, and the perforation is then com- pleted by the finer point of the pritchel. The fullering lias this advantage also; that the holes for the nails can be made nearer to the outer rim of the shoe, rendering the work finer,—to use a phrase of art opposed to coarse, as they say of a shoe whose perforations are far within the rim. The French shoes, therefore, are stamped very coarse by necessity, as there would be danger of bursting the iron out with their coarse tooi, if applied near to the outer margin of |
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* The tools of the shoeing smith, given in Plate XVII., ivill explain these imple-
ments without repetition of references where mentioncd. f The " pritchel" is a shaft of iron, steeled at the end, and drawn out to a fine
square point. To " pritch " the shoe, in farrier's language, i» to perforate it. |
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SHOEING, AND THE VARIOUS FORMS OF SIIOES.
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375
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Jt is more liable to split the hoof, and to carry oppressive
waring towards the vein and sole. The concavity is useful in admitting the play of the sole, and in permitting the free use °' the pieker, and letting out again all dirt or stones that may Set in. Tlie Varieties of Shoes for special purposes, defects, °r disorders, delineated on Plates XVIII. and XIX., will be explained in the letterpress accompanying those engravings. Putting on the Shoe.—The first thing in ordinary shoeing
*s the selection of the shoe; and in this, experience and a JUdicious eye is worth all the leaming of a college. The Judgment of a shoeing smith is shown in the adaptation in °uantity and quality of the ironto the horse. Thethick-walled ioot will require a good bearing ; the thin hoof cannot carry a heavy shoe, though it stands most in need of defence. The hoof, too, should guide the farrier in the number of nails. The shoe is the work of the " fireman," as he is called in the torge ; the preparation, of the " doorman," who also nails on and clenches the shoe made by the " fireman." The " door- man " takes the task of preparing the foot, as already described, to receive the shoe, by removing the superfluous horn of the sole. For hunting, the shoe must be narrower than for the road,
and an additional nail may be placed on the inside ; no evil ^'dl result from this, because in the field the pressure on the enist is, in a great degree, relieved by the sole and frog. ihere must be space for a pieker to pass between the foot and inner rim of the shoe, but no more, as the foot can then "Q withdrawn from heavy soil with less difficulty than when *he usual space is permitted. To avoid overreaching, the heels of the fore shoes should scarcely project beyond the heels of the crust, and they should be rounded off, instead °f being left square, as is usually the case. The hind shoes should also, where there is any disposition to overreach, be s^«are at the toe, set a little Avithin the crust; and the inner rilfi at the toe should have a piece cut out, so that, instead °' a sharp edge, there should be a rounded surface, which, °' course, is not so likely to catch the heels of the fore feet. "Mailing," a very important operation, requires much Pfevious study of the formation and functions of the inter- val sensible parts of the foot, many injuries being inflictedby Penetrating those parts to the quick. A good aphorism has U thus—"If it were possible to keep the shoe in position ^'thout nailing, we should then have arrived at perfection ln the art of shoeing; it follows that the least number of nads that are driven, consistent with safety, is the most ^°rnrnendable practice." Mr. Bracy Clark, among his many |nventions, once proposed to fasten on the shoe by envelop- lng the whole hoof in an " iron defence," and fastening it by 0utside screws; but the scheme failed for obvious reasons. ■•■he nails for shoeing horses, are received from the hands the manufacturer soft, without point, variously bent, and ünfit for use till they have passed through a process, requir- ng some dexterity, called " pointing the nail;" they receive or this purpose a smart hammering from the hand of the doorman," on an upright steel-headed shaft, termed " the |
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stake," beginning at the head of the nail and continuing it
along the shank on both sides and edges to its extremity, which is then drawn out to a clear point. By this means, the nail is rendered hard and stiff, and its surface smootb and polished. But of as much or more consequence than this, is the figure which the point of the nail is made to receive ; for after it has been drawn to a clear good point, the workman gives it a final stoke, obliquely directed over or upon the very extremity of the nail, so as to impart to it the figure of an inclined plane on one side, leaving it per- fectly flat on the other. This bevelling of the point of the nail is of the greatest use in driving it, giving it alvvays a tendency to pass out of the hoof, from the bevel being placed next the interior of the hoof, which facilitates the process of shoeing very much, and greatly diminishes the risk of pricking the horse ; for the, foot being softer within than it is externally, would naturally draw the nail in that direction. The nail mostly used at present has a long conical square
head, with a view of fixing it tight in the shoe; and the pritchel point is directed to be made of the same figure, that it may be the more firmly fixed. This conical nail, when made too long in the head, or
neck, is apt to enter the hoof and distend it unduly, rend- ing or splitting the horn ; a short shoulder or neck is there- fore to be preferred. The first nail usually driven is one near the toe, on the
side of the foot next the right hand of the workman, as more convenient to the hammer. This may draw the shoe out of its place, which is again adjusted by a Moav or two of the hammer on the projecting side, bending the nail or forcing the hoof, or both; the second nail is then passed through the hoof on the opposite side, which renders it in a degree fixed; the rest are then driven indiscriminately, smaller nails are however used near the heels or inflexions, on account of the horn being thinner. The presentation or planting the point of the nail first in the hoof, in order to give it a proper direction for driving, is called by the smiths " pitching the nail;" this is done with the finger and thumb, and on its being judiciously chosen, the success of driving the nail, it is obvious, will much depend. In giving the first strokes of the hammer, they strike, not on the flat part of the head of the nail, but on its exterior edge; and when safe in the hoof, or nearly home, upon the flat head. The smith is led to judge by the sound, as also by the resistance the nail makes to the hammer, whether it be in its right course or not, and he aims to bring out the nails as nearly at equal distances round the hoof as may be, and at equal heights up the hoof, the accuracy of which exhibits the skill of the workman. On the first entering of the nail, he pro- ceeds with caution ; but when the point is feit by the finger, or makes its actual appearance, he strikes more boldly till the head is driven home to the shoe. The nail having passed through the hoof, the shank or extremity of it is turned down and bent against the side of the hoof, so that |
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376 THE PRACTICE OF VETEMNARY MEDICINE.
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Calkins.—It is scarcely possible that a shoe thinner at
the heel than at the toe, can ever be serviceable; on the contrary, it will generally, occasion lameness, by throwing undue stress on the flexor tendon. It will be a fruitful source of sprain of the back sinews, also of navicular disease. On the other hand, a shoe a little elevated at the heel may favour a leg weak in the back sinews. In the hinder foot, and particularly in draught horses, custow has sanctioned the use of a shoe raised at the heel by calkins. This certainly gives the horse a better purchase ; enables him to descend a hill more securely, as well as to draw a heavier load. A draught-horse always digs h«3 toe into the ground when he has a heavy weight to move; and he can do this more effectually when the heel is raised. But this practice is carried to an absurd and ruinous length. In many horses of heavy draught, the only bearing points—the only parts of the shoe which touch the ground— are the tip of the toe, and the end of the calkin. There must be ineqtiality of pressure here ; and by it the ossi- fication of the cartilages; enlargement of the ppsterns ; and other diseases with which the draught-horse is often afiTicted, are too well accounted for by shoes too high in the heeL Clips are portions of the upper edge of the shoe, ham-
mered out and turned up in such a way as to lap over the outer surface of the crust, which is also pared away a little, to bed the clip. Their use is to give greater security in attaching the shoe to the foot, and lessening the stress upon the nails, which might prove injurious. In horses subjected to heavy draught, clips are indispensable, and are useful to all employed in draught of any kind. They will be found a useful preventive in securing the shoes from being torn off, when the strain is great on the feet while drawing. Clips are also beneficial when horses are given to stamping and pawing, as either of these tricks are likely to loosen the sknple shoe. But clips should only be used in such horses as we have named, because they press upon the crust as it grows down, and are therefore unsuited to animals employed in light draught or hackneys. We trust we have given a simple and clear account
of the practice of an art obscured by much mystery and pretence, but without a difficulty in the mastering of its main principles and practical details which need deter, or can perplex an inquhïng and a well-instructed mind. I1 would have been easy to extend even the present chapter by compiled accounts of the merits and demerits of a large number of varieties of shoes, but we have preferred ap- pealing to the eye, aided by a brief description of their differences in the letter-press accompanying the Plate en- gravings. |
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the horse, in struggling or suddenly withdrawing his foot,
should not tear the clothes or wound the thigh of the work- man. In England, it is usual to see the doorman perform the
nailing on of the shoe by himself, unless with very heavy draft horses, when he gets assistance. In France, two men are generally employed, one to hold the foot, the pther, how- ever, standing behind the foot. In France and Holland, also, the travis, described in the last chapter, is used, and a hind foot lashed to a post. The nails being driven and turned down, the smith next
proceeds to give them allrounda smart hammeringupon the head, to fix them more firmly; and, by holding the pincers to the shank of the nail, he draws the shoe tighter against the hoof. This done, he wrings off the shank or point of the nail, and files the clenches with a rasp to a uniform length, filing away, also, a little of the hoof, that they may lie the more closely. Ile should not use too much force, as that may draw the sole too strongly against the coffm-bone, and dis- tress, stun, and benumb the sensitive sole. Now, by reversing the situation of his pincers and hammer, and holding the former against the head of the nail, which prevents its return, he beats down the clenches with his hammer, and forces them into the hoof. The clench is in part imbedded in the hoof; but if any part projects, or if there should be any irregularities, they are removed with the rasp, and the process is completed. The various forms of nails are shown on Plate XVII., and
described in its accompanying letter-press. Of the manner of attaching the shoe to the foot, the owner
can scarcely be a competent 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. The Hinder Shoe.—As the hinder limbs are the chief
instruments of progression in the animal, except while walking, the whole stress of the frame rests upon them. In consequence of this, the shoes of the hind feet are always made broader than those of the fore feet, and the toe is widened still more by rasping. When there is the slightest tendency to over-reaching, the toes of the hind feet should be shortened by sloping in the surface, and rendering the shoe somewhat less projecting than the toe. The lnnder dilfers a little from the iore foot, in being straighter in the quarters. The nails in the hinder shoe should be situated nearer to the heel than in the fore shoe. |
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BREEDING THE RACE HORSE. 377
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CIjc ^m-J^xst ró fjmtier*
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BREEDING, BREAKINO, AND TRAINING THE RACEHORSE----TRAINING GROUNDS.—EXERCISE.----SWEATS.—THE TTTRKISH
BATH.----TRIALS.
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The two great objects in brecding domestic animals may be
summarily stated. The first, purely profitable, or commercial, aims at multiplying their numbers; the second, of a higher order, has the object of improving their forms and raising their qualities. To the latter, the sportsman and the brecder °f the superior class of animals directs his judgment and his attention. So much has been written on the subject of breeding for the
turf, that it would be absurd in a work intended for general perusal to overlay its pages with scientifie questions of phy- siology or psychology; such as what share each parent takes in irnpressing the sex, the temper, the form and qualities of the future progeny, and the like.* It wilt suffice if we speak generally of the main admittcd facts in breeding as they relate to the race-horse, the hunter, and the saddle-horse. BREEDINO THE RACE-TTORSE.
The requisites necessary to render breeding the race-horse
profitable as a "business," are, judgment in selocting, and plenty of money at command to secure mares and stallions of the first blood; paddocks and necessary buildings on a suitable soil; and intelligent and trustworthy grooms to look after the establishment. With these essentials in proper order, breed- ing, distinct from racing, cannot fail to pay, on the average, Whether the foals are sold off at weaning time, or as yearlings. The present race of stud-grooms and trainers are a very
different class of men from their predecessors, whom they far excel in point of respectability and intelligcnce, the result of education and the general diffusion of knowledge. Books written by those who have taken practical experience and nature for their guides, have been published for the service of oreeders and trainers, who have both read and reflected on their contents. The breeder, taught by practical knowledge the bad effects of a humid atmosphere, and rank and succulent ft>od, now provides warm sheds, small paddocks on a dry upland soil, and, as we shall presently show, plenty of corn wr his young racing stock. Having fixed on a dry, healthy situation, such as, for in-
stance, the ncighbourhood of Downs, and provided every convenience and accommodation for the mares and young |
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stock, together with loose boxes, and a small exercise ground,
well secured with a high and impervious fence for the stallions, the breeder's next care is to purchase brood mares and entire horses, particularly the latter, as experience has long confirmed the truth of the supposition, that in breeding a racer in his highest form and excellence, the stallion is of more importance than the mare. On Consulting the racing calendar for the last seventy years, it will be seen that the produce of the highest bred and most successful mares by inferior stallions, has turned out comparatively worthless, while all our most celebrated win- ners have been got by the best entire horses. The judicious breeder from this sees that it is the worst possible economy to purchase cheap stallions, and never grudges paying the differ- ence between the price of a first-rate and an inferior one. Above all things, it is essential that both mares and stallions should be free from " constitutional infirmity;" by which term is understood a tendency to defects in the wind, and of their logs and feet to give way in training. The most eminent authorities on human pathology have
agreed as to hereditary transmission of certain diseases and defects, such as scrofula, gout, insanity, &c, and guided by their discoveries, able veterinarians, both foreign and British, have shown that the horse is subject to the same law of nature. This opinion, which is founded on reason, common sense, and experience, existed in the days of the Cassars, and is heautifully expressed by Horace in the following lines:— Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis.
Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus; neque imbellem ferocea Frogenerant aquilse columbam. Inattention to this important law of nature has occasioned
many an owner of race-horses large sacrifices of money, by breeding from favourite stallions and mares a weedy progeny incapable of standing the severity of training, or which " goes amiss," before making the slightest return. On the other hand, the knowledge of this defect has frequently prevented breeders sending mares to stallions of otherwise good repute ; instances of which it would be invidious to quote. To the defects above mentioned, we must add badnesss of
temper, which is a great drawback to a full and safe exercise of the powers of the racer, and which is often found to be hereditary. In the choice of the brood mare, after the soundness of her
constitution, and freedom from the above disqualifications have been ascertained, the breeder should direct his attention to shape and substance, selecting an animal with a good |
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The reader desiroua of becoming thoroughly au fait in the minutiae of
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trai
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mirig, niay consult the Philosophical Transaclions, vol. lxxxix. p. 173,
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(paper by Sir Everard Home), Dal. Trans, for 1809, p. 357, (paper by
tor. Knight). The Feterinarian, vols. for 1832 to 1810, artieles by Mr. Ca*tley, and Mr. Karkeek, of Truro. Percivall's Leetures, part iii. p. 112. breeding f0r the Turf, by Mr. N. II. Smith. Blaine's Cyclo., art. Breeding, P' 277. Professor Morton'a Works. Darvill on the Sace-horse. The Stud Farm, by Cecil, &c., &c. |
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378 BREAKING AND TRAINING THE RACER.
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As they are required to display at the " starting-post" at two
years old, in a form and with power as nearly as possibie approaching to maturity, their constitution must be forced with the most generous nourishmont; consequently, we fi»d that corn, in large quantities, is given to the young animal, in addition to the milk of the highly fed dam; and, as occa- sion may require, physic is administered under the direction of the careful stud-groom. BREAKING AND TRAINING THE RACER.
Young blood stock cannot be handled too soon, too carefully.
or too gently; as their tempers, good or bad, in after life are alinost invariably the result of their treatment at this period. "We are, however, happy to say that the present sys- tem of breaking colts is conducted with loss severity, and therefore with less danger to the animal than formerly. To command obedience and insure confidence are the first
points aimed at; and, as such, the importance of the early handling we have recommended must be evident, as greatly simplifying this part of the process. Colts are now taken " in hand " much earlier than formerly; raeing colts at a twelve- month, and saddle colts of promise are now bitted and supplcd at two. Tliey are finally and fully broken and trained, some at three, and few later than four years old. "When a colt has had early "handling," and at two years old is subjected to some initiatory discipline, his full breaking being protracted to bis fourth or even fifi-h year, much may be expected from him, for the usual wear and tear will hardly make an impression on a constitution that has had all its powers developed. The breaking of raeing colts and fillies commences at twclve
months old. Nor would this be so injurious as is supposed, were the exercising less severe. On the other hand, what is done is perhaps actually necessary to bring about that early extension and suppling of their limbs and joints, so essential to the future speed of the animal; at least, it certainly is so, to.. bring such young horses out for two-year-old stakes. Rope dancers, stage dancers, posture masters, &c, never acquire celebrity unless their initiatory exercises are begun at an early period of life ; and to insure high form in the racer, and first- rate speed, mild training, but mild training only, cannot be commenced too soon. To such an extent, however, is this early engagement of the race-horse now carried in large raeing establishrnents, that it is not uncommon to nuiEe severe trials of the speed and bottom of colts and fillies at very early pcriods, that time and keep may not be thrown away on such as give no promise of future excellence ; but that, if necessaryi they may be at once disposed of for inferior purposes. Ity three years old, the breaking of the young racers of the present day is completed ; about which time the breaking of the better sort of saddle-horscs of all descriptions commences ; unless an early initiatory handling, lounging, and partial backing at two years old have preceded, which is a very prudent practice. The details of the application and use of the cavcsson, and 01
saddling, bitting, and backing the colt, have already been treated of under " Breaking the IIorse for genebAI- |
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roomy frame; what is termed a " fashionable" pedigree is
also requisite, in case her produce is to be brought to market previous to performing in public. The raeing capabilities of both mare and stallion form an
important consideration with the breeder in matching them ; bis object being to combine the good qualities of both sire and dam in the produce; as, fbr example, should the forte of the mare lay in speed, then a stallion remarkable for the stoutness of his running should be selected. The system of breeding in-and-in with race-horses, has
occasioned much difference of opinion, and given rise to much discussion among those most interested and best capable of forming a judginent on the subject. The advocates in its favour certainly appear to have the best of the argument, as they adduce many instances of its success, against the theory of its opponents. Among these instances are Flying Childers, and very many of our bost racers from his time up to the present; the case also of George IV.'s favourite mare, Maria, has been particularly dwelt on, her produce by Rubens and Soothsayer being worthless, while that by Waterloo and Rainbow, both closely allied to her, proved winners. In a former part of this volume, under " Turf Celebrities,"
many confirmations of this will be found. Mr. Ilankey Smith, who resided a considerable period among the Arabs, remarks in his " Observations on Breeding for the Turf," that " colts bred in-and-in, show more blood in their heads, are of botter form, are fit to start with fewer sweats than others; but when the breed is continued incestuous for three or four crosses, the animal degenerates." It must be understood, however, that by breeding in-and-in,
this writer does not mean breeding from brother and sister, or from a mare with her own sire, but " after the first cross, to return to original blood." Contrary to the practice pursued with other sorts, blood
mares are put to the horse very early in the year, the object being that their produce may be dropped as soon as possible in the commencement of a new year ; colts dating their age from the first of January. This is a great point, as the modern racer is called upon to show his quality before he is two years old. The careful stud-groom will make it a point to pay the
utmost personal attention to the comfort and safoty of the sires and dams under his charge, leaving no important duty to the mercy of underlings. Aecording to the conditions of the most important racing-
stakes now annually the subject of competition, thorough-bred stock must be considered in training from the moment they first see the light. Too much care cannot be taken in shelter- ing the foals from the rain and weather, in warm sheds, constructed with rollers on the side of the entrances, so as to prevent injury to the timid little animals as they rush in and out by the sides of their dams. These entrances, as well as the walls or hedges of the paddocks, should be freo from any projection against which they might hurt themselves in their quick and giddy movements. |
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TRAINING THE RACER.—TRAINING GROUNDS.
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379
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Pukposes," we sliall, tlierefore, pass them over here. The same
ïemark will apply to food and physic. We have already observed that training-stables should be
w the vicinity of open downs, as well for the benefit of the air as for suitable exercise. Their extent also presents greater Variety, and avoids the necessity of eonstantly using the same track or course, a practice which much injures the surface for galloping. When, however, tliis cannot be avoided, rolling at a proper time may be resorted to with advantage. Mr. Darvill is of opinion, that it is not so much the hardness
of the ground as the uneven surface that occasions horses to break down; and that smal! molehills and cart-ruts are the principal causes of this injury. Tliis is reasonable enough; but, at the same time, the bad effects of galloping horses over the hard soil which the principal training-grounds of the south of England present in summer and a dry autumn, are too well known to require further explanation. A remedy, however, has been found which, to a great extent, if not completely, remedies this evil, and. it bas the advantage of being both cheaply and easily obtained. The material is common tan, Which may be obtained from the tanner's yard, sometimes for the trouble of carting, but always for a few shillings a load; this, having been exposed to the sun and air, should be spread over the turf, which should be afterwards rolled. Training Grounds.—At Newmarket, as may be supposed,
there is great variety of ground to gallop over, and in spring and autumn it is gcnerally in good order—that is, if a mode- ste portion of rain should feil, without which it is mostly very hard; it is, tlierefore, not good for summer work; but, as that is a season when there is not so much going on at tl'at place, it does not operate so importantiy, except with horses which are in preparation for country meetings. In order to obviate this evil, Marson had a ploughed gallop contiguous to where he usually excrcised. This has been much resorted t°," it presents a yielding surface at all seasons, and a similar practice has been adoptcd at other places where there are ttiany horses in training. The very fact of a number of horses being eonstantly exer-
c'sed over certain places, must in time have the effect of ren- dering the land very solid; and it is astonishing how some gi'ound appears to have a tendency to shaking horses—that is, °t making them gallop sore and short. Although a considerable portion of the downs in the vicinity
°f Newmarket has been incloscd for many years, enough remains to afford both racecourses and training-ground of Sreat extent and variety. The horses standing at the west e»d of the town, are generally galloped and sweated on that Part of the Heath where the courses are situated; for which there is ample space along the Flat by the side of the Ditch, and home up Cambridge Hill, or over the Flat coming home round the Turn of the Lands on the lower side of the Beacon Course, without touching the running ground. The principal t>'aming-ground for the horses that stand at the east end of the town is the Warren Hill, on the road leading to Bury. The Downs of Epsom and of Ascot are the principal training-
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grounds of the south. In the neighbourhood of Epsom various
places are resorted to on the approach of those races; and there are several training-stables in the vicinity, where horses are kept at work throughout the year. The first that may be noticed is the exercise on Epsom Downs, which has not much to recommend it: in dry weather it is sufficiently hard, and the natural solidity of the surface is enhanced by the numerous race meetings which have been held, and which have attracted such multitudes of persons, who, with their carriages and horses, have trampled more or less Over every inch of it; in wet weather it is slippery. The surface is a light chalky clay, with a substratum of chalk and flint, upon which tan has an admirable effect. Leatherhead Downs demand a preference over all others
in this locality, especially so far as the nature of the soil is concerned; the only objection to them is, that they are not quite so extensive as miglit be wislied, tlierefore it is necessary to make several turns in order to get a gallop of sufficiënt distance. Mickleham Downs, which are only on the other side of the
hill, are very good, and it is almost impossible to conceive a more picturesque or interesting spot; the upper part, parallel to which the termination of the gallop extends, is protected by a narrow belt or plantation, and the Downs are studded over with hawthorn and juniper bushes, which, though wildly arranged, produce a very pretty contrast, as the hawthorn is, at the season of the year, in full blossom. lts appearance is that of a gentleman's domain, ratlier than the uncultivated rudeness of a common. The gallops pass between the clumps of haw- thorn and juniper, which serve to define the track. Many horses are trained for the Midland Countics' Meetings
at Hednesford, between Cannock and Rugeley, in Staffordshire. A portion of Delamere Forest, in Cheshire, is used for train-
ing racers. It is a light sandy soil, which never becomes hard but in dry weather. It is liable to work into holes, the land not being good enough to carry a sound turf. There is a training-ground arranged at Aintree, near Liver-
pool, connected with the racecourse, comprising a circle, or ratlier an oval, within that upon which the races are held. The intention is giving gallops to those horses which are sent to run there, although it has been occasionally used for regular train- ing at other seasons. The nature of the soil is good, but it wants that important auxiliary to the establishment of con- dition, a hill—without which horses cannot be brought to the highest state of perfection. Cleeve Hill, near Prestbury, Wilts, is the site on which
Cheltenham races are held. The nature of the land, taken altogether, is good; there is, however, one disadvantage—the horses have a long hill to ascend in going to their work, and, of course, the same to descend afterwards. The situation—two miles from Cheltenham—is central for many country meetings worthy of notice. The ground over which John Scott trained at Malton is highly
spoken of; indeed, nothing could more truly demonstrate the fact of its being well calculated for the purpose than the excellent |
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TRAINING THE RACER.—EXERCISE.
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380
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down the footmarks and tread them in their proper places
whenever the surface is so soft as to be cut up. This should be done when they have not got their horses to attend to. The employment keeps them out of mischief and does good 1B another way. Exercise.—The exercise necessary to get a racer into proper
condition varics of course with constitution, the forward or backward state of the colt, and other ineidental circumstanccs; and in no one thing is the talent of the trainer more evinccd than in regulating the work according to the time for prepara- tion, the " sluggish " or " free " disposition of the animal, and the nature of his coming engagements. Exercise is of thrce degrees—walking, galloping, and sweating. After getting the horses into form by walking exercise every morning and evening, for from half an liour to two hours, as may appear requisite, the training-groom commences giving them short gallops, increasing their length gradually, as his horses' con- dition and wind improve; taking care, however, to observe from day to day the manner in which they stand the work; and relaxing or adding to it accordingly. These gallops not only have the effect of preventing a liorse from getting on too much fiesh and of improving his wind, but at the same time they teach him to stride and to be aetive on his legs. At exercise the horses are divided into classes, the arranging
of which depends principally on their age, but sometimes on their qualities—such as stoutness or speed ; each class having a liorse to lead the gallops or sweats. When the pace is slow, a common hack is good enough for this sort of work; but should it bc severe, or should the trainer wish to form soine idea of the rate of goirig of any of his untried horses, then a horse of superior powers, and of known public running, is generally selected. The length of gallops for different horses varies from half a
mile to a mile and a half; but distanecs of thrce quarters of a mile and a mile and a quarter are most frequent. The horses being at length in proper condition to undergo
sweating, this severe exercise is to be given them from time to time. While some horses are so extremely delicate, and have to run such short lengths, that they may be brought to the post without sweating, others require this severe soit of exercise as often as three times a fortnight. In addition to the important task of regulating the quantily
of work according to agc, constitution, &c, the trainer must observe the length of ground necessary to make them sweat well; and bear in mind that in the commencement of their training, his principal object is to get the fiesh off them- But as they are getting forward in their work, and approach the day of public trial on the racecourse, it will bccome necessary to increase the rate of going sufficiently to bring them stout to pacc. The trainer, or in his absence a groom he eau trust, having
mounted a hack, accompanies the horses about to be sweated. The horses are clothed in their sweaters, and, on the way, the trainer gives such directions and advice to the boys who have to ride as they may require, more especially to the head lad, |
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condition in wliich his horses always appeared when brought
to the post, especially the remarkable freshness which they invariably exhibited in their legs. He had stables at Nevv- market, as also at Pigburn, near Doncaster, at wliich place most of his horses underwent the latter part of their pre- paration for the Great Northern Meeting. Yorkshire contains the four best training-grounds in the
north of Ehgland. Of these, the most extensive is Black Hamilton, on the high road leading from Thirsk to Helmsley. Notwitlistanding that the soil is a strong stiff clay, this ground gallops well—the turf being very much intermixed with moss, which prevents it from becoming hard, and preserves it elastic even in the driest weather. Langton Wolds, the next ground, is extensive, contains
every variety of surface, and is principally covered with a short heathcr, intermixed with moss, affording a fine springy turf for galloping. These wolds, or d.owns, are dividcd into the traitiing-ground and the racecourse, by the high road leading from the town to Malton, the latter lying on the right of it; and the only drawback on them is their difficulty of access from the training-stables. The Middleham Moors, dividcd into the upper and lower
moor, is the third training-ground, and is open to the same objection as the Whiteclift Moors, on the score of not cou- taining sufficiënt space; the upper moor contains the best galloping ground. The Whiteclift Moors, about two miles from the town of Richmond, are likewise divided into highcr and lower moor. The latter is the racecourse, and is within a mile from the town. Perhaps the best training-ground in Britain is that of the
Curragh of Kildare in Ireland. It is a fine open heath of nearly five thousand acres of elastic turf. In Scotland, Gullane Links, to the east of Edinburgh, and
close to the sea, is the most celebrated training-ground. It is a large tract of sandy soil, never hard, hut apt to work into holes. Whether training-ground be public or private some atten-
tion is requisite to keep it in order; and if it be a very poor, weak, hungry soil, occasional dressings of manure will be found the greatest auxiliary possible. The description of manure must depend upon the nature of the land; on some, stable manure will have ah admirable effect, but upon almost all tan will be found to be the best. Rolling during wet weather is, in many instances, indispen-
sable to press in the tracks and holes which have been made by the horses' feet; but the less this practice is resorted to the better, as it must tend to render the land more solid; there- fore, the lighter the roller which is used for the purpose, the more advantageous, so that it is sufficiently ponderous to press in the turf which has been misplaced. If, previously to roll- ing in the spring, some seeds of the finer grasses, which are natural to the land and productive of a firm, tough, and elastic sward, be sown, it will add greatly to the verdure and improve the closeness of the turf. In order to avoid the use of the roller as much as may be, the boys should be sent on to turn |
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TKAINING ÏIIE RACER.—TUE TURKISII BAT1I. 381
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who has to lead the gallop and regulate the pace. While the
horses are taking their gallop the trainer is occupied in watehing their action and rate of going, making the lads increase or diminish the latter as may be neeessary, and taking care to be where the horses are pulled up, so as to perceive the effect of the sweat on each horse. The ground selected for tliis purpose should be at least two
miles, and, if possiblc, considerably more in circumference; and a place having in some parts one or more gradual ascents and dcsccnts is preferable to a perfect level. According to Darvill, the proper length for a yearling to go a sweat is two miles; for a two-year-old, two miles and a half; a three- year-old, three miles or threo miles and a half; a four-year- old, four miles or four and a half; while a five or six-year-old niay, at times, sweat five miles. But, as we have before observed, these lengths are frequently altcred from circum- stances as the trainer may deem requisite. We consider these prescribcd distances purely empirical. After the horses are pulled up, they should bc allowed to
stand a minute or two to recover their wind a little, and as it is plirased in stable vernacular " blow their noses." They should thcn bc ridden gently to the rubbing-house, or should there not be one on the training-ground, to the stable, where the lads having turned them about in their stalls, dismount and proceed to loosen their horses' girths and unbucklc their boots. The ncxt proceeding is to hcap on the horses a quantity of additional clothing, which has the effect of immediately and considerably increasing their perspiration,and causing them to break out into a violent sweat. This operation occupies from live miuutcs to a quartcr of an hour, during which time the horses may be refreshed by having their heads wiped and their legs rubbed. When they are considercd to liave perspircd sufficicntly
the cloths are removed, and the boys proceed immediately to scrape the sweat off them with a wooden scraper and well i'ub them down; after which they should be refreshed with a few moulhi'i'ls of lukewawn water, be warmly and drily .clothed, and then again walkcd out until sufïiei.ently cool to ke dressed. During their absence from the stable, the stable- doors and windows may be thrown open, the beds set fair, &e. The length of sweating gallops, and weight of clothing, are matters of much variauce in modern and former training. The Turkish Bath, or more properly speaking, the Roman
bath—for the world's masters bequeathed the hot-air bath to the Grceks of the Lower Empire, and from them it was inherited by the Turks, Moors, and Saracens—is by no means a .novelty in horse-training. Professor Gamgce, of the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, speaks of having been con- sulted by öir Hedworth Williamson on the substitution of tlie hot-air bath for the ordinary process of sweating horses tl'en in vogue. This took place at Florence, wkere Lord Normanby, with some English noblemen and gentlemen, had established races. AVe must confess that from a study of the physiology of
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the horse, and of the phenomena of absorption and excretion
in the animal economy, we cannot view this with the fervour of its advocates, by whom it is elevated, as we think with indiscreet zeal, into a panacea for all the ills which horse- "flesh is heir to." We sliall, however, place before the reader points of Admiral Rous' essay, appending thereto such observations as may tend to elucidate, confirm, or controvert its theories and propositions. After some laudatory remarks on that very eccentric
individual, Mr. David Uiquhart, as the introducer of the said Turkish or Roman bath, Admiral Rous proceeds to say:—" There was always a difficult problem to be solved. IIow is a trainer to prepare a horse to race ? alias to get his inside clean and kis museles in full vigour, without tlie assistance of strong purgativcs, and galloping dis- tances under a weight of heavy woollen clothing. I do not deny the necessity of giving horses the strongest exer- cise, wisely adapted to their age and condition. It is proved that you can lighten a horse's frame as well by the operation of a hot-air bath as by a four-mile sweat; and the queslion arises, which is the best practice to get them into condition? My belief is that a smart two-mile or a three-mile gallop with the horse stripped, carrying a light weight, and a hot-air bath afterwards, is more beneficial to a horse's lungs, and, no doubt, to his legs and sinews, than a four-mile gallop under heavy clothes. Try it on a jockey; let kim take his usual walk of nine miles under sweaters; and the next time walk half the distance, and then take a hot-air bath; I fancy he will find himself a lighter, a stronger, and a wiser man after the second process. Owing to the exhaustion of a four or five mile sweat, a horse is only fit to walk the following day, and many horses are annually disabled by this scverity; but after a hot-air bath a horse is fit and ready for any task. 1 thereforc pronounce the hot-air bath a most powerful and valuable auxiliary : with this assistance you may bring au infirm horse to the post which wouid break down in two orthodox four-mile sweats. With respect to the sound horses, wliy should not we try to keep them sound ?—is not prevention better than cure ? " The Roman bath invigorates a horse's frame, gives in-
creased action to his liver, improves his appetite, cleanses the pores of suppressed perspiration, and fortifies the skin from extreme heat and cold; the joints become more supple, the sinews more elastic, and the heart, lungs, and kidneys being freed from fat, horses are able to take the strongest exercise without suffering from internal fever. Rheumatism, sore shins, and cutaneous eruptions are speedily subdued by hot air. Under this system no horse ought to be exercised in heavy clothes; in my opinion it is always objectionable to give a horse a sharp or a very long gallop when he is clothed; and looking to hot air as an agent, we may keep our horses sound for thrice the estimated period of their present efficacy; the vcterinary surgeon and the saddler will send in diminished bills: this will balance the expenses of the bath, and will save large sums of money to the proprietors of racehorses." The next important physiological question noticed, is the
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TRAINING TIIE RACER.—THE TURKISH BATII.
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382
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the disease of roaring, and made a great many horses blind,
there was one redeeming point, they took out their horses twice a day to exercise for eight months in the year, which gave two opportunities for reventilating a putrid stable. Tlus practice was in vogue for many years after I went to NeW- market and higldy approved; it is now changed because i* disturbs the domestic felicity of the trainer. "Youwould imagine that during the height of summer the
horses would be out at daybreak, when the devv makes the grass pleasant to their feet, and that the work would be over and the stables made up and the horses fed by seven o'clock. Not at all. Instead of exercising their horses in the cool of the morning, and taking them out a second time at 6.30 p.m. to walk them for an hour when the stables might be thoroughly cooled, the trainers consider it a more judicious plan to com- mence work at seven in the morning, and to keep the horses out till ten o'clock, frequently the hottest time in the day, before the breeze springs up. By this policy they evade the trouble of saddling their horses a second time. " When oxygen is a scarce article in the stable, and am-
monia gets the ascendency, horses suffer from lassitude, loss of appetite, and a dull coat significant of disease. This is ex- pected as a matter of course, and parried with calomel and aloes. " When a horse's coat breaks in Octobcr, and racehorses
are deejdy engaged, a cough is heard, and coughing runs like wildfiie through the stable. What is this owing to'? The stable temperature charged with ammonia, the warm clothes, flannel bandages, hoods, and deleterious physie have won the battle; every horse's skin impregnated with suppressed per- spiration was susceptible of disease, and they have caught what the trainers have so studioüsly engendered. I have known more horses coughing in a stable at Newmarket than in all the cabs from Hyde Park Corner to Somerset House, simply because the cab-horses stand for fourteen hours in the open air, and racehorses are sfaut up for twenty-one hours in a hot stable. The laws of Nature cannot be defied with im- punity. "The trainer now has a lucid interval. He turns the horses
into open boxes from a temperature of 65° to 40°; the cold air invigorates them, the fever is checked, the cough ceases, and the horse gets well in a week. Woe to the invalids if they are still confined to the warm stable. They may be on the sick list for months. But the racing season is over, and the money is lost. Again the trainers fall back to the ancient systcm, and all experience is lost upon them." Four-tiiths of Admiral Rous' essay are devoted to an eulogy
of pure oxygen, and a fierce denunciation of ammonia and an exhausted atmosphere. On these points no one will joiu issue; but their merits seem to beconl'used inextricably with those of low or high temperature : and " pure air " is almost converted into a synonym for " cold." Of clothing the Admiral says :—
"My training theory is that no racehorse should be clothed
beyond a linen or a cotton sheet, either in the stable or a' |
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use of the bath for absorbing the fat and superfluous flesh of
the yearling colt. A healthy well-managed colt, which has been allowed space for voluntary exercise, will not, at the age of eighteen or nineteen months, have accumulated deposits of fat that require other means to diminish than the necessary break- ing and training process. As to the superfluous flesh spoken of, we had always believed that trainers, in conformity with physiological lavvs, tried to increase flesh, it being the very element of power and speed; any process, including starvation, that causes the flesh to be absorbed, would prove as destructive to the racehorse as to any other aniraal. " Whilst I ara no adherent to old errors," observes Professor Gamgee, " I con- sider it equally important that we should not run from one extreme to another. The old errors were of slow growth and have had their sharp errors taken off. New projects, plausible in themselves and warmly advocated, may mislead; and if so, the retracing of our steps may be very difficult and very costly. If the tender yearling could, by being submitted to the hot-air bath, be prepared for trial as to speed and power, what will not art be able to accomplish ? Such doctrine con- templates a reversal of some of Nature's fundamental laws; physical power in all animals, as well as mental power in man, increases by exercise." We omit the Admiral's remarks on the allowance of water
to horses in training, as irrelevant to the questions uuder con- sideration. The writer procceds:— " Thus the raw material, in the shape of a healthy, well-
grown colt, eighteen or nineteen months old, is introduced to the care and tender mercies of the groom. After the usual process of leading him about, lunging him, backing him, lus proud spirit bends to the yoke; from gentle exercises he is abruptly called upon to mend fa is paces, and within fourteen weeks he is tried with older horses, from six hundred yards to half a mile. A trainer may justly complain and object to these early prcparations. He generally quietly acquiesces, owing to a natural curiosity to find out a trump, or to be able to select the wheat from the chafF. As far as these early trials are concerned, the experiment can now be made at half the risk of destroying the colt, or, in other words, laying the seed for future unsoundness, by using the hot-air bath for absorb- ing his internal fat and superfluous flesh, without liaving recourse to strong medicine or long preparatory gallops. "At two years old the trainer considers it necessary to clothe
the uufortunate colt more warmly, on the principle that he becomes more tender as he ad vances in age (a novel doctrine), and he is not satisfied until he makes the horse uncomfortable by a flannel or a woollen hood when he goes out to exercise. A showman thinks it right to dress up his dancing dogs or his monkey at a fair; that is quite admissible: but a hood makes a horse susceptible of cold; it is laying a trap for a sore throat. A hood is excusable in a railway van: for all other purposes it is only good for trade. Ask a trainer why he uses it, you will receive an unmeaning answer. " If their predecessors quarrelled with fresh air, and stopped
Up the holes for the pure love of ammonia, which propagated |
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THE TUEKISII BATII.—TRIALS. 3S3
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exercise, excepting during a cold winter, when a simple rug
may be allowed botli indoors and wlien his work is confined to a straw bed during a frost. It is an outrage on common sense to say that an old horse is more tender than a sucking foal, The hot-air bath, by cleansing and opening the pores of the skin, restores its tone and reinstates the animal in his original purity to despise the changes of the weather, the trainer liaving exerted all his ingenuity to make him tender, helpless, and susceptible. As the hot air stimulates the action cf the. liver, physic will seldom be required, and then in very small doses. When a yearling comes into the stable fat and fleshy, insteacl of giving him extra slow work and keeping him out four hours, it saves a great deal of trouble to physic him well. Extra physic is less troublesome than extra work, and it is supposed to be all the same thing in the end. " From the 15th of March to the end of the racing season
the horses should be exercised twice a day, and be kept out altogether four hours, instead of the present system, from two hours and a half to three hours at one interval. They should always have access to water, or, according to the American system, it should be offered to them in small quantity six or seven times in the course of the day. Most horses you cannot feed too higlily wlien they are in strong work; and my belief is that no three horses require exactly the same food and the same exercise. "A stable should be built on brick arches, unless the
foundation is chalk or limestone. Rooms about seventeen feet in height, with large windows, ventilated near the ceiling by hollow or perforated bricks; no mangers to the stalls or boxes; large white wooden basins hooked on to staples in the wall for corn—the said basins to be taken away and washed when the horses have fed; and in every stall a fixture for a water-pail. rhere are three appendages necessary to a perfect establish- ment: a dormitory for the lads, who should not be allowed to sleep in the stable, because, when the night air is cool, they will shut the windows ; a Roman bath ; thirdly, a weighing- machine, to register every hcrse's weight after each operation of the hot air, and after every public race or trial. A wooden grating over the floors of the stalls, fitted with iron hinges to trice up to the sides, in order to be washed and purified, would be a great improvement, and there would be no necessity for straw litter." Dr. F. Page, an eminent physiologist, thus gives his decision
on the "last new adjunct" to training:—"I fear tlie plausible reasoning upon tliis subject may have a mischievous influence °n the minds of persons to whom it is more particularly addiessed, and thus propagate the humbug. Everybody who Understands the structure and functions of an animal must be quite aware that it is not only having the machine in a favour- able condition—that is, sound, with the muscles fully developed, ar>d the system free from superfluous flesh, &c.—but that the force or power by which the machine is propelled, and by which the animal undergoes its great exertion, shall be at its maximum ; without tliis the machine, however perfect, is use- kss. I maintain that the nerve force or vital power in an |
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animal subjected to tliis parboiling system will be so depressed
or exhausted, so enervated, that he will be good for nothing for racing purposes; and therefore the idea of training race^orses by such a system is perfectly absurd. " What authority lias any person for say ing that the fat of
the animal is the only tissue removed by sweating under a high temperature ? Why may not the muscular, the iendinous, and the nerve fihre be reduced, and thus rob the animal at once of his mechanical powers, instead of increasing them ? Is the Turk famous for his great muscular development? his great powers of endurance ? Or is he not emasculated both in body and mind by the use of thia great depressing agent? Let an advocate for the Turkish bath subject himself to one every day for a week, and sce what he will be fit for. He will prefer his quiet cigar on the sofa to a gallop round the Bury Hill, I imagine. The feeling of the racehorse will be the same, for all animals are governed by the same physical laws. " Tliis bath may be of use in some cases of disease, and,
under judicious advice, higlily beneficial; but as to its applica- tion to animals in health for training purposes, it is a 'delusion, a mockery, and a sham.'" Having thus placed the leading pros and cons of tliis moot
point before our readers, we leave the subject to the criterion of "Time," which "tries all things;" coupled with the opinion that the hot-air bath will be found in practice rather a remedial application for abnormal states of the horse's condition, or a direct agent for the removal of disease, than a systematic adjunct to ordinary training processes. TRIALS.
Among the divisions of practical training which especially
require the attention of the trainer, the trials of raceliorses require particuiar notice ; for unless the greatest care be taken in selecting a horse of known public running, and in proper condition at the time, the nicest skill in regulating the weights, according to age, fixing the distance, &c, and putting up the best jockeys, will not prevent the trainer and his employer from being misled by the result. The necessity of ascertaining a horse's powers before he is
brought out to run in public, must be obvious to every one, and it is a subject of no niean importance; by the opinion which is formed of him in his trials, the propriety of paying forfeit, or starting him for such stakes as he may be engaged in will depend; and, furthermore, the propriety of backing him for a still greater sum must be determined. It is a very common thing to find that old horses, as they
improve in stoutness, diminish in speed ; thus, single-handed, they are not honest test3 of the merits of young ones. To have a trial which is really to be depended on, it is requisite to start two or three young ones, with a horse four years old or upwards, who has not lost his speed, to make the running; at the same time, also, it is necessary that the latter lias recently been running in public—they are found to vary so much at different times of the year. Before it is possible to form an |
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3S4
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TRAINING THE RACER.—TRIALS.
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accurate estimate of the powers of a horse, three or four trials
must be obtained, and the important fact established whether bis spoed or stoutness be his specialty. The weights at which the horse is tried must depend upon the goodness of the trial horse and the time of ycar, which latter circumstance may easily be determined by reference to the Calendar. The nature of the course, whether hilly or flat, on which a horse can run to the greatest advantage should be ascertained; some little judgment of this may be formed in the common course of exercise; but it may be taken as an established fact that, previously to running, no true opinion can be formed of any horse, except after two or three well directed and unbiassed trials; favour and affection to any animal, pedigree, or owner, being completely set aside in the dcductions made from the experiment. If trials are to be looked upon as affording real information,
each horse must be prepared with as much scrupulous attention as if he were going to run in public; unequivocal proof should be sought for, and nothing deemed satisfactory until it is established. In order to ascertaiu a horse's power, it is obvious that he must be beaten; because, however often he may be tried, either in private or in public, it is impossible, so long as he be a winner, to say how much farther he could have won had there been a horse superior to his second to have urged greater efforts of the victor. The rock upon which so many persons founder in trials is having a slow old horse in the capacity of schoolmaster—one whose speed is so much reduced that, at the distance which young ones are tried, he cannot go fast enough to get them out; in conse- quence of which they win their trials, and are immediately supposed to be flyers. The best horse to try young ones with is a speedy animal who can run but a mile ; if his rider have orders to make the pace as good as he can, he will stretch the tyros, and give some measure that may be relied upon. It frequently happens that a boy is put up to ride the trial
horse, and jockeys are employed to ride the juvcniles. This is just reversing the order of propriety, because the boy is required to perform the most difficult and important duty, that of making the running, and the experienced jockeys being upon the young ones, their performances are made to appear more flattering than they really ought to be. There are many persons who place but little faith in pri-
vate trials. That they should not be held cheap in many instances is neither to be wondercd at or condemned; inde- pendently of the mistakes which are made, the misrepresenta- tions of the results are frequently so great that little reliance can be placed on them. There is no contrivance by which more money can be
thrown away, than in so-called trials. The trial horse is often stalo with hardly a leg to stand on, at high weights, and perhaps on a course which does not suit him; and thus is brought out against a young one in the highest possible train, lreah, and ready to fly out of his skin, and a light weight on his back. The old one, whether it be his forte or not, must make the play; and, as naturally may be expected, |
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the young one runs up to the old like a shot, as the trainers
say. He is accordingly backed heavily, and on the day gets a comfortable beating, to the great surprise of those who are not in the secret. The solemn secrecy which, on many occasions, is employed to keep the result of a trial from the knowledge oi a vulgar public is oftentimes exceedingly unnccessary, as welt as marvellously troublesome to those who are concerned. Indeed, if a trainer knows his business, he need not care
who
witnesses the trial; because, if properly managed, no man can
be wiser from what he sees—indeed, he is certain to be misled. Here, however, to avoid inculcating a principle of deception, we must explain the difference bet ween misinforming a friend, and using those precautions which the peculiarity of the transaction requires for the purpose of maintaining secrecy into that which the intruding eye of a bystander bas no right to penetrate. Any man who would be guilty of misinforming an acquain-
tance, and thereby inducing him to back a bad horse, does so for the purpose, directly or indirectly, of robbing him. It matters little whether he actually win from the person so de- ceived, by directing an agent to bet with that individual. His friend is caused to lose his money; others follow his example in backing the horse; and the treacherous knave wins his stake from some one. Such deception cannot be too severely con- demned, or too conspicuously exposed to public contempt. But against other persons, who will not scruple to resort to any measures to gain information for their own pcomiary profit, to the exclusion of all who are first entitled to that profit, on a subject which they have clearly no right to be permitted to discover—all stratagems are warrantable for defeating their object. Every man who acquires fair and honest information has an
undoubted right to turn it to his own advantage. A merchant learning from certain sources that a rise or fall in the markets is likely to take place, buys or sells any commodity in which he deals : so has any one who bets a right to avail himself of the knowledge of a horse's powers, an equal right to back him or to lay against him; but the owner of the horse is clearly justified in keeping that secret to himsclf, or submitting it only to his intimate friends. In order, thereforo, to defeat the ends of those who may be
desirous of watching trials, one ruse is readily managed—for the horses to gallop on some distance beyond the place wherfl the trial actually terminated, and, in so doing, to change places; when it is very easy to have the horse which won the trial last at the point where a spectator imagincs it is finished. Another thing—the weights never ought to be suffered to transpire. Thus, by having saddlcs and saddle-cloths, the weight of which none of the boys or other persons about the establishment have any knowledge of, the secret cannot transpire through their agency. That the reader may have a thorough understanding as to
the regulations concerning trials, he should become acquaintcu with the laws of the Jockey Club; we would also recommc.nd to the trainer the carcful perusal of that part of Mr. Darvill s |
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TRIALS.—CLOTHING THE RACER,
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excellent work on racing which treats on this subject, and in
Which he will find proper directions for trying horses of every &ge, and of erery description of temper and constitution. In no calling of life are shrewdness and caution more re-
quired than in the trainer; in fact, without these qualifica- tions a man might as well attempt to scale the moon as to do any good on the turf. In addition to these indispensables, he should be of the strictest integrity; which, sooner or later, amply repays its possessor, by obtaining for him the confi- dence of his employer and the public. He must also be sober, that he may always have a clear head to study and attend to the various tempers and constitutions of the horses placed under his management, so as to do the best with them in train- uig, and afterwards run them to the best advantage. Finally, he must be close to all the world, except his employer, con- cerning the secrets of the stable. As the trainer is expected to know everything relating to a
racehorse and to the turf, his apprenticeship to his calling cannot begin too early in life. The knowledge we speak of öiay be briefly defined under the following heads, which are uot unworthy the attention of thosc noblemen and gentlemen on the turf, who may not be ashamed of learning. In the first place, the trainer should acquire a competent
knowledge of the Stud-book, so as to be able to advise and guide his master in the purchase of brood mares, the selection °f stallions, or even the purchase of young horses to run. This has reference to their selection with regard to pedigree, or what is commonly called fashionable or running blood. Prom actual observation, in preference to theory, he should
endeavour to make himself a good judge of the formation and action of a racehorse, The very nature of his calling, of course, gives him abundant opportunity of doing this. The Racing Calendar should be his constant study and com-
panion; the laws, rules, and regulations of racing, he should have at his fingers' ends, and he should know with accuracy the running of all the horses of the day, the length of the courses they run over, the weights they carried, and the op- ponents they defeated. In addition to mere works of reference on racing, and the
best works on the training and management of racehorses, 'be trainer should furnish himself with the works of our best veterinarians, and make himself thoroughly cmversant with 'he different symptoms, modes of treatment, remedies, &c, ^hich they explain and recommend. A catalogue of such ^orks can be readily obtained at booksellers who deal in sPorting works. A visit involving a short stay at a veterinary college will be of immense service in his practice. In conclusion we must mention, as not the least impor-
ant of a trainer's duties, that, in a moral point of view, he is D°und to make the lads under his control as happy as circum- stances will permit, to instruct them in knowledge fitted for tüeir station, and to keep them from the temptations of bad exaruples which so much surround them. John and Isaac Day, n°- several of our most eminent trainers, were and are •"emarkable in these creditable particulars. |
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CLOTHING THE RACER.
In the article on the Turkish Bath, we have given inei-
dentally the opinions of Admiral Rous on clothing, which we look upon as rather heterodox. Hpon this point, and the routine of stable physic, we shall here say a few words. Clothing forms an important article in the economy of the
training stable, and is of the greatest utility to the trainer, as by its use in sweating his horses, he is enabled to reduce them to the necessary lightness of body, without running the risk of injuring their legs by extra strong gallops, or their constitutions by physic; these latter, and the hot-air bath, being the means of effecting his object. The clothing in general use in the racing stable is made of
a sort of kersey check, of much finer and lighter quality than that which is used for hunters or other horses. It may be of whatever colour the owner may fancy ; and the initials of his name are commonly embroidered on it. The clothing may be divided into the following parts,
viz.:—the sheet, breast-cloth, quarter-cloth, pad-cloth and hood ; the latter piece being generally used to throw over the horse's loins after he has been dressed, instead of what was formerly called the fillet cloth. These different pieces are secured with proper rollers and
strings; but as these and other details are perfectly understood by saddlers, it is not necessary to proceed with further particulars; a few general explanations and remarks are, therefore, all we propose to offer. The clothes commonly called sweaters are made of swan's
skin, a sort of woollen stuff. They consist of nearly the same pieces as those mentioned, and care should be taken that the sheet is of sufficiënt size to cover the whole body, shoulders and quarters of the horse, and to lap well over beneath his belly; for which purpose Mr. Darvill observes, that the centre part of it should be nearly two yards and a half long. According to the same authority, the breast-cloth or sweater should be made full three yards in length, and three quarters of a yard in breadth. Judging from the prints of horses sweating, dated the middle
of the last century, the hood was not then in use ; nor are we aware when this article of clothing was introduced. Of those used in sweating, when only one hood is required, it should have ears to it; but in the case of more than one being required, the last only should have them, to enable the groom to put them on with greater facility. When the trainer deerns it necessary to put additional clothing over the above, he should use old cloths for the purpose, having, of course, first seen that they are in proper repair, and that any necessary alterations have been made. Admiral Rous's condemnation of the hood, we have already noticed. In the hottest part of summer, lighter clothing, made of
serge, linen, or calico, may be used both in the stable and at exercise. A proper supply of rollers, straps, boots, knee-caps, fetters,
&c, should always be kept in the stable, in such order and |
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38G MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE RACER.
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place as to be serviceable at a moment's notice. A list of
these, and of all the other articles of saddlery used in the racing-stable, can be at all times obtained from the principal saddlers at Newmarket, York, Doncaster, Epsom, &c. The trainer should make it his business to inquire, from time to time, at these places, as to any inventions and improvements in these matters which may have been made, so as to avail himself of them if really serviceable. It is not our purpose, in offering these details and remarks
to the reader, to have it for a moment supposed that we are laying down a complete system of training racehorses. We are perfectly aware that it would require a reasonably-sized volume to do this fully and efficiently. Feeling, however, that a work of this nature might be considered incomplete were we to pass this subject entirely, we flatter ourselves that, to the general reader at least, these remarks may not be found altogether barren of interest, as yielding him some little insight into the training and management of the horse in his highest form. Should fuller information be desirable, we would recommend the works of Messrs. Nicholas Hankey Smith, and Darvill, and a series of papers by " Cotherstone," in the Sporting Review ; these gentlemen having written after much practical acquaintance and study of their subject. Physic.—The next point to which we would direct the
attention of our reader, is the use of physic in the training- stable; not as administered to horses labouring under serious diseases, and which require the services of the veterinary surgeon, but in those cases which come directly within the province of the trainer. The occasions we refer to are, when at the end of the
autumn, and in the spring, the animal has to undergo a regular course of physic, or, when in training, the state of his lcgs or any minor ailment may require the use of medicine. On the conclusion of the racing season, after being kept for some months on dry and highly nourishing and stimulating food, and constantly in work on the hard soils of the different race-courses and exercising-grounds, three or four doses of physic, administered with an interval of about ten days or a fortnight between each dose, will be found necessary to get rid of that worn and feverish state commonly known under the name of staleness, and will at the same time bring the horse's legs, which will almost always then be found swollen and inflamed, to their proper size. In the spring, too, before the animal is again put in
training, a repetition of the same treatment is desirable, in order to carry off the grossness of humour he contracts when " soiled." At these periods, it is not necessary that the physic should be of the same strength as that given in training; the preparation for it, however, is the same, that is to say, mashes of bran and oats for two or three days. The precautions and general treatment in use with horses of other descriptions |
when in physic, should be of course adopted with the racer,
and are too well known to require mention in this place. Horses in training are very liable to suffer from injurics in
the legs, from blows while exercising, and other causes, and these cases require the utmost attention and skill on the part of the trainer. He must necessarily stop the horse from his work, as rest is indispensable to his cure. But this remedy is sometimes productive of, if possible, worse evils; for should the accident occur not long before the horse has to race, he may put up more flesh while idle than can bc trained off again in sufficiënt time to bring him in proper condition to the post. It is now that the trainer calls in the aid of physic, and by its judicious use, keeps his horse from getting fat in his inside until his leg shall be sufficiently recovered to stand work. This of course should be gradual; in fact, too much caution cannot be exercised in this respect, and to prevent any risk from the thoughtlessness or trickiness of boys, the trainer shovdd himself watch his first gallops and sweats, taking care to put one of his best and most steady riders on the horse. Every training stable should be provided with a medicine
ehest, in which the following drugs, &c, should be kept; and to prevent accidents, as some of them are deadly poisons, the key should never be out of the possession of the trainer. |
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also apothecary's weights, a measure for fiuids, an apparatus
for compounding medicines, &c. In addition to these, the following instruments and articles should be kept, viz.:—fleani and blood-stick; tooth-rasp, with a guard; seaton and curved necdles; abscess lancet; firing, searing, and budding irons, casting hobbles, improved balling-iron; drenching horn, flannei for fomentations and poultices, woollen and linen bandages» tow, &c. |
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THE HUNTER.
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;-J87
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THE HUNTER.
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THE HUNTEE OF THE OLD AND THE NEW SCHOOL—GLENGAEEY—FOEM AND CHOICE OF A HUNTEE—PÜECHASING AND
HIKING—TKEATMENT IN THE FIELD—OVEE-MAEKING.
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The modern hunter, to "live the pace," must be a blood-horse,
or one of those very best of stout cocktails, who, with four- fifths of " blood " in them, pass dealer's muster as thorough- breds. His height should be not under fifteen nor over sixteen hands ; over the latter he will scarcely be handy through dirt and at his jumps, under the former Standard he cannot so well measure the height of the object before him. True, some exceptional and wonderful, if not quite credible, cases are in tradition of the jumping of cobs and galloways, but these are so very exceptional that they do not invalidate the general rule, that under fifteen hands is too small, and over sixteen is too big for a hunter. In a former chapter, pages 81 to 86, will be found some general remarks on the conformation of the race- horse, many of which will apply, with little modification, to the modern hunter. In a work like the present, which aims at giving the best thoughts of the best thinkers, and the expe- riences of the most practised upon the varied and numerous subjects of which it treats, it would be unpardonable to omit the neatest sketch of what a modern hunter is or should be, as depicted by that facile princeps of hunting writers, "Nimrod," ui his celebrated Quarterly Review article, " The Chase." " The half-bred horse of the last century was, when highly
broken to his work, a delightful animal to ride; in many respeets more accomplished, as a hunter, than the generality of those of the present day. When in his best form, he was a truly-shaped and poverful animal, possessing prodigious strength, with a fine commanding frame, considerable length of neck, a slight curve in his crest, which was always high and firm, and the head beautifully put on. Possessing these ad- vantages, in addition to the very great pains taken with his öiouth in the bitting, and an excellent educ^tion in the school or at the bar, he was what is termed a complete snafEe-bridle horse, and a standing as well as a flying leaper. Held well in hand—his rider standing up in the stirrups, holding him fast Dy the head, making the best of, and being able, from the com- paratively slow rate at which hounds then travelled, to piek or ohoose his ground—such a horse would continue a chace of some uours' duration at the pace he was called upon to go, taking his lences well and safely to the last; and he would frequently command the then large sum of one hundred guineas. But all these accomplishments would never have enabled a horse of is description to carry the modern sportsman, who rides well
P to hounds, on a good scenting day, over one of our best
r^mg countries. His strength would be exhausted before he
gone ten minutes, by the increased pace at which he would
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now be called upon to travel, but to which his breeding would
be quite unequal; and his true symmetry, his perfect fencing, his fine mouth, and all his other points, would prove of very little avail. If ridden close to the hounds, he would be power- less and dangerous before he had gone across half-a-dozen Leicestershire enclosures. " The increased pace of hounds, and that of the J.orses that
follow them, have an intimate connection with each other, if not with the march of intellect. "Were not the hounds of our day to go so fast as they do, they would not be able to keep clear of the crowd of riders who are now mounted on horses nearly equal to the racing pace. On the other hand, as the speed of hounds has so much increased, unless their fbllowers ride speedy, and, for the most part, thorough-bred horses, they cannot see out a run of any continuance if the scent lies well. True it is that, at the present time, every Leicestershire hunter is not thorough-bred; but what is termed the cock- tail, or half-bred horse of this day, is a very different animal from that of a hundred years back. In those days, a cross between the thorough-bred, or perhaps not quite thorough-bred, horse, and the common draught-mare, was considered good enough to produce hunters 3qual to the speed of the hounds then used. There was not such an abundance of what may be termed the intermediate variety of the horse in the country —' pretty well bred on each side of the head'—which has of late years been in demand for the fast coaches of England, in which low-bred horses have no chance to live.* Mares of this variety, put to thorough-bred stallions, and their produce crossed with pure blood, create the sort of animal that comes now under the denomination of the half-bred English hunter, or cocktail. These are also the horses which contend for our several valuable stakes, made for horses not thorough-bred, though, when brought to the post, they are sometimes so much like race-horses in their appearance and their pace, that it would be düficult to detect the blot in their pedigree. A prejudice long existed against thorough-bred horses for the field, particularly such as had once been trained to the course; and in some quarters it stül lingers. It is argued by their opponents that the thinness of their skins make them afraid * The reader must bear in mind that thongh this was written before the loco-
motive had thrown the "fast coaches" off the road, the fact of the improved racing blood of the modem hunter is vet more general. The park hack of the present day would have been a cocktail racer, if not a so-called "blood-horse," of the last generation. The popular prejudice against the thorough-bred is now extinct. |
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THE HUNTER.
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388
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vote for a wel'tei weight: all but his head, which we cannot
admire—but " handsome is that handsome does." In the selection of a hunter a primary consideration is the
nature of the country to be hunted over. In stony and thicklv enclosed countries, the heavier and lower-bred horse may get along creditably; but in the best countries where " racing " 13 required, such an animal is "out of the hunt" in no time. "Where a heavy deep soil predominates, presenting also a large portion of plougbed ground, intersected by wide and strong fences, like those of Essex and some of the midland counties, such localities will require a horse of sufficiënt height with much substance; while one with lighter build, and in height not exceeding fifteen hands and a half, is best adapted to a hilly country, as the Surrey Hills, the Sussex and Wiltshire Downs, the Cheviots, &c, &c. The sportsman who rides a welter weight should always
be " over-horsed." It is imperative on him that he be mounted on one presenting a combination of power, activity, and dura- bility. These are essential requisites to him, and when such a form is united with higb-breeding, the rider, spite of his weight, may hope to be in the right place. Some Irish horses are well adapted for the purpose of carrying heavy weights ; and if they do not always go at a racing pace, their admirable fencing will tend to make up the deficiency. Neither are the Irish hunters at the present time defective in their breeding, as their local races and steeple-chases testify. As to the choice of a hunter a condensed enumeration of
his "points " will serve to form an ideal of his best form. The first property of a good hunter is, that he should be
light in hand. His head must be moderately small, the neck thin beneath, the crest firm, the jaws wide; it will then form that angle with the neck which gives a light and pleasant mouth. The forehand should be loftier than that of the racer. A
turf horse may be forgiven if his hind quarters rise an inch or even two above his fore ones. His principal power is wanted from behind, and the very lowness of the forehand may throw more weight in front, and cause the whole machine to be more easily and speedily moved. A lofty forehand, however, is indispensable in tbe hunter; a shoulder a3 |
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of rougb blaek-thorn fences, and that tbey lose tbeir speed in
soft, or what, in sporting language, is termed deep ground; also, tbat baving been accustomed from tbeir infancy to tbe jockey's band, tbey lean upon tbeir bits, as when in a race, and are tberefore unpleasant to ride. Such of tbem as have been long in training may undoubtedly be subject to these objections, and never become good and pleasant hunters; but when purchased young, and possessing strength and bone, they must have many counterbalancing advantages over the infe- rior-bred horse. So far from not making good leapers, the firmness of bone and muscle peculiar to this variety of the breed is prodigiously in favour of that desirable qualification. Indeed, it has been truly said of them, that they can often leap large fences when lower bred horses cannot leap smaller ones,—the result of their superior wind when put to a quick pace. " Whoever wishes to see two distinet species of the horse in
the most perfect state, should go to Newmarket and Melton- Mowbray—to the former for the race-horse, to the latter for the hunter. In no place upon the earth is condition attended to witb so much care, or managed with such skill, as in this renowned metropolis of the fox hunting world. Indeed, we conceive it would be useless to expect horses to live with bounds in such a country as Leicestershire, unless they were in condition to enable them to contend for a plate." Colonel Cook, in his Observations on Hunting, fully indorses
this view. " Many fox hunters," he says, " prefer thorough- bred horses, others cocktails; I always gave the preference to the former, if it was possible to get them. It is the general opinion tbat thorough-bred horses cannot leap so well as cock- tails : I think otherwise ; and if you will try tbe experiment, by taking ten young horses of the former, and ten of tbe latter sort, I am convinced you will find the thorough-bred ones to have the advantage, and naturally to clear their fences with more ease to themselves. Horses that have been in training for years cannot be expected to make hunters; but, neverthe- less, what superiority bas a thorough-bred one in every respect —above all, in speed, bottom, and wind ? It often happens, when a cocktail is at the height of his speed, a thorough-bred horse is only at three-quarters, and the latter will always go through dirt (as the term is) best." This absolute opinion requires some qualifications. A cocktail, with a well-placed head, a good bridle neck, high withers, deep and oblique shoulders, broad and low-placed knee, muscular arms, deep girthing-place, good loins, muscular and blood-like haunch and thigh, and low-placed deep hoeks, such as Harry Hall has drawn in the opposite plate of Glengarry,* should have our |
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hunted him through every aeason for the last eight years with the Bedale
hounds; and the horse has done the work of any two animals throughout each season—sometimes going twenty-five miles to cover on the morning °' hunting, distinguishing himself afterwards in a severe run ofanhourorso, and having perhaps twenty or thirty miles to get home on bad roads. Q-lengarry has never been known ' off his feed' after such exertions; and could come again in three or four days as fresh as ever. Keed I add, he is one of the soundest horses possible in every way—is very speedy, and a most extraor- dinary careful fencer, and has never been down in his life at any jump; »nd> at his present age, thirteen years, he can still keep his own with the very best of horses, and would be hard to beat. To prove his good qualities, his owner ran him for the Hunters' Stakes at Calleuch this spring (vide the Calcndar, 1860) j and, carrying the heavy weight of 12st. 71b., he beat the field of thirteen horses (all of a superior class), with the exception of a 5-yr. oldmare, and los his race of two miles by a head only, with the difference of lst. 21b. in * mare's favour. He is considered one of the best, if not the very best, nor* that has been known in the county for these twenty-five years at least. |
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* The following note from the artist accompanied the portrait of GtaEN-
aABBY :—" He is a dark-bay horse, with hlaek points, clear of white, standing 15 hands 3i inches, rather long on the legs, with magnificent shaped shoulders —neck rather thin and straight; is very deep in the girth, round in the barrel, and well ribhed home ; has great power in his thighs, loins, and hind- quarters. He has been in the possession of his present owner, Mr. Sadleir Bruere, for eight years, and has been hunted now for nine years, and is a molt extraordinary animal for endurance and bottom. Mr. Bruere has regularly |
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THE HUNTER.
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389
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extensive as m Ihe racer and as oblique, and somewhat thicker.
The saddle will then be in its proper place, and will continue so, however long may be the run. The barrel should be rounder, in order to give greater room
tor the heart and lungs to play, and to send more and purer blood to the larger frame of this horse, especially when the run continues unchecked for a time that begins to be distres- sing. A broad chest is always an excellence in a hunter. In the violent and long-continued exertion of the chase the respiration is much quickened, and hence more blood is hur- ried through the lungs in a given time than when the animal is at rest. There must be sufficiënt room for this. or he will not only be distressed, but possibly destroyed. The majority of the horses that perish in the field are narrow-chested. The arm should be as muscular as that of the racer, or even
more so, for both strength and endurance are wanted. The leg should be deeper than that of the race-horse—
broader as we stand at the side of the horse—and especially beneath the knee. In proportion to the distance of the tendon trom the cannon or the shank-bone, and more particularly a uttle below the knee, is the mechanical advantage with which it acts. The leg should be shorter. Higher action is required than
m the racer, in order that the legs may be clearly and safely ufted over many an obstacle, and, particularly, that they may be well doubled up in the leap. The pastern should be shorter, and less slanting, yet retaining
considerable obliquity. The long pastern is useful, by the yielding resistance which its elasticity affords to break the con- cussion with which the race-horse from his immense stride and speed must come on ,the ground : and the oblique direction of the different bones beautifully contributes to eifect the same Purpose. With this elasticity, however, a considerable degree °f weakness is connected, and the race-horse occasionally breaks down in the middle of his course. The hunter, from his different action, takes not this length of stride, and there- fore wants -iot all this eiastic mechanism. He more needs strength to support his own heavier carcass, and the greater ^eight of his rider, and to undergo the fatigue of a long day. The foot of the hunter is a most material point. The narrow
and contracted foot is the plague-spot of most of our racing olood. The work of the racer is, however, all done on the ™rf: but the hoof 0f the hunter is battered over the hard r°ad and the stony field, and if not particularly good must soon be ruined. The position of the feet in the hunter requires some atten-
fron. They should if possible stand straight. If they turn a httle outward there is no serious objection; but if they turn inward his action cannot be safe, particularly when he is fatigued or over-weighted. The body should be short and compact, compared with that
toe race-horse, that he may not in his gallop take too extended
a stride. This would be a serious disadvantage in a long day
mth a heavy rider, from the stress on the pasterns ; and
ore serious when going over clayey poached ground during
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the winter months. The compact short-strided horse will
almost skim the surface, while the feet of the long-reached animal will sink deep, and he will wear hirnself out by efforts to disengage hirnself. Every sporting man knows hosv much more enduring is a
short-bodied horse in climbing huls, although perhaps not quite so much in descending them. This is the secret of suiting the race-horse to his course; and unfolds the apparent mystery of a horse decidedly superior on a flat and straight course, being often beaten by a little horse with far shorter stride, on uneven ground and with several turnings. The loins should be broad; the quarters long; the thighs
muscular; the hoeks well-bent, and well under the horse. The reader needs not to be told how essential temper and
courage are. A hot irritable brute is a perfect nuisance, and the coward that will scarcely face the slightest fence exposes his owner to ridicule. The methods of procuring hunters are of course various.
Many are passed from one gentleman to another in the different hunts, while more are purchased from the London and country horsedealers. The inexperienced hand will most readily suit hirn- self at once in purchasing from among those horses he may see performing in any celebrated hunt. There is a pleasure in horse-dealing, that makes almost every horse comeatable ; and it is better for a novice to give a good price at once for a known good horse, than to be taken in two or three times with cheaper but indifferent ones. The enormous prices now given for hunters of character would almost call the grandfathers of some of the buyers out of the grave to stop the bargain. 500 guineas have been frequently paid, and in some instances even a larger sum has been given for a hunter; 200 and 300 guineas are every day prices. The London horsedealers of respectability furnish their
stables with hunters of some pretensions, and occasionally of no small ones either; such, if young, are usually horses bred by sporting farmers, which, having been a little fielded, are then warranted as steady hunters, and many of them turn out so. The west end dealers have high-bred and seasoned hunters of known repute on sale; and, at all times, we believe, they have well-bred young horses, that a little good fielding, under a judicious rider, will make good hunters. Colonel Ccok is favourable to purchasing at Tattersall's, and
says, " If you wish to give a large price for what is called a well known made hunter, from one cause or other, there are, every spring, some such valuable horses to be purchased at Tattersall's. It is a lounge three times a week, where you are sure to meet your friends, and can listen with pleasure to their reports of the achievements of the different packs of hounds the season past, and the arrangements for the future. Suppose you purchase half-a-dozen young horses, at a hundred guineas each, to carry fourteen stone; if two out of the six turn out well, you ought to be satisfied, as there is every probability of your selling the remaining four for 50 each, barring accidents." We are acquainted with several sporting characters, some of them owners of hounds, who make a point, towards the autumn, |
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THE HUNTEH.
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390
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selling, will furnish him with horses that can go the pace, and
do the trick." Of the love of the chase inherent in the old hunter so many
anecdotes are told, that a small volume might be filled with them. In the chase, in the days of his activity and strength, he shares the enthusiasm of his rider. No one who has seen an old hunter turned into a park for life, but must have marked his animation when the distant cry of the hounds or the hom of the huntsman meets his car. If power and chance is left him, he will join the chase, and come in at the death. It is recorded by an unimpeachable authority, that a hunter, who had shortly previous been flred in both hind legs, and placed in a loose box, with a hatch-door four feet high, and an aperture of three feet square above it, hearing the cheering of the huntsmen and the cry of the dogs, sprang through the opening, and joined the hunt. The horse was nearly sixteen hands, and master of fifteen stone. It is, then, easily credible that, entering as fully as his
master into the sport of the day, the horse disdains to yield to fatigue, and voluntarily presses on, until nature is exhausted, and he falls and dies; but, much oftener, the poor animal intelligibly enough speaks his distress—unwüling to give in, yet painfully and falteringly holding on. The true sportsman, though unwüling to relinquish the chase—he who " is mer- ciful to his beast"—soon recognises the symptoms of c-xcessive and dangerous distress. To the drooping pace and staggering gait, and heaving flank, and heavy bearing on hand, will be added a very peculiar noise. The inexperienced may fancy it to be the beating of the heart; but that has almost ceased to beat, and the lungs are becoming gorged with blood. It is the convulsive motion of the muscles of the belly, called into violent action to assist in the now laborious office of breathing. Over-working the hunter is a too frequent occurrence, and
often requires very judicious and prompt treatment to save life. It unfortunately also happens, that when death does not immediately ensue, from the congestion which has taken place in the lungs, either broken wind or founder follows, and thus the horse is equally ruined for active service. We will, how- ever, premise, that there appear to be two dangers to be apprehended from inordinate exertion; one from a cessation of the powers of life, the other from the tendency which such inordinate excitement has to produce congestion of the lungs, or active inflammation of some of the vital organs : sometimes spasm of the midriff occurs, and rupture of it has taken place. When the vital powers have been brought almost to a stand-
stül, the horse with great difficulty reaches home, and often scours, and stales bloody urine on his journey there. Ha breathes with irregularity and difficulty; becomes hot and cold by turns: or a clammy sweat breaks out, at first partially, but if he cannot rally, it becomes universal. His skin has a peculiar feel and loses its elasticity; the haw* is drawn forward; the nose, at first fiery, now becomes pale; the breath- S * See in GHdossaby, post.
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of buying suchblood-like nags as are likely to snit their purpose
from among those parted with by the Londoners and others, to avoid the expense and trouble of keeping through the winter. These are taken to the country, and, having been tried, the buyers select perhaps three out of five that will suit either themselves or others. The remainder they sell, probably by the same hammer, at £5 or £10 loss, still leaving the others decided bargains; and, if so inclined, "obliging a friend" with one of the remaining three, at a " good figure," serves to pay for the whole lot. Masters of hounds, who have sufficiënt and extensive range
both of paddock and stable, have many better opportunities of obtaining horses than by breeding them. Horse breeding, except on fancy occasions, or when it is done from some par- ticular strain, where all the progeny turn up trumps, is a losing speculation to most gentlemen. If such an one should be a thorough judge of colts—a judgment by the bye that requires half a life and close attention into the bargain to gain—we repeat, if he be possessed of this judgment, he can use it to great advantage in selecting from the colts of the neighbouring breeders such as promise well. These being picked up as occasion offers, at three or four years old, having been already early handled, bitted, and backed, but not worked, are now to be trained, and gradually conditioned, and worked in turn by the under-attendants in the field, which soon enables the eye of the master to judge what will suit and what will not. The 40 or 50 guinea horse thus soon grows into a 200 guinea hunter; and others, rejected from the hunting-stable, fetch 80, 90, or 100, for the saddle, cabriolet, brougham, &c. Many country horse-dealers, who reside in the breeding
districts, have opportunities of furnishing their customers with horses of high hunting qualities: but the best of these are generally collected and brought to the great metropolitan or provincial emporiums. The hiring of hunters is a modern custom, and much
favoured by the facilities for human and equine locomotion afforded by the development of railroads.* The hiring may be by week, month, or season — and in some cases includes groom and appointments of every description. To foreigners, who come to this country for a few months; to mercantile and professional men, who can spare only a few weeks in the hunting season ; this mode is most convenient, and, we think, economical also. Speaking of Leamington—and it is the same in many other parts of the country—Lord William Lennox says:—" If a gentleman distrust his own judgment, or does not like the trouble and expense of getting such a stud together, he has nothing to do but to hire them in the county (Warwick). In tbs town and neighbourhood of Leamington he will find plenty of sporting liverymen, farmers, and horse- dealers, who, for a fair consideration, and with the chance of |
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* The reader will find thia point dilated upon amusingly in a eouple of
light paperfs by Lord William Lennox, called " Chaunting for the Million," and " Sporting Life from London," in the collection published by his lord- ghip entitled Merrie England: London, Newby, 1859, |
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391
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THE HUNTER.
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lng is hurried, and the pulse is found to be tremuloas, and
almost invariably intermitting. Some cases are marked with a settled determination in the horse not to lie down; while others not only lie down, but are with difficulty made to rise agam. Bleeding as a remedy is commonly resorted to; but Blaine advises, if no active symptoms of inflammation are present, not to do so. Place the hand on the chest; does the heart vibrate quickly rather than beat lustily, by no means Weed. Press any one of the larger veins, and, unless it swells UP at once, let bleeding alone, at least until the medical adviser arrivés. Should it, however, happen that no veteri- nary surgeon is near, if the breathing becomes hurried, the nostrils dilated, and the horse reaches out his neck as though reaching for more rein liberty, if the linings of the nose, although at first pale, now begin to look flushed and red, and the mouth becomes hot, proceed to bleed. If the vein rises ^ell, make a large orifice, so that it may discharge the blood quickly, watching the effects of the flow. If it rushes out, and the horse does not falter, take three quarts, or even more, aWay. Let his head be turnecl to the door, and rub and "andage his legs up. As soon as the first symptoms go off, 0r his legs and ears become cold, briskly hand-rub thcm, clothe the body also, and throw up a gruel clyster; and, unless the weather be very cold, allow a free current of air, but clothe the body and give the foliowing:— Sweet spirit of nitre, half an ounce; mix with a pint and a half of gruel. Should active symptoms of weakness come on, horn down equal parts °t gruel and sound ale; and, should the debility increase, horn these down every half hour, with occasional full doses of °pium also, to allay irritability in the system, and to arrest the looseness that is usually present. When active inflammation follows the over-exertions of a
aaïd day, the over-marking does not immediately show itself. -the horse probably appears at first only moderately fatigued, but he soon gets a strong shivering fit, accompanied with an °Ppressed pulse. The linmg of the nose become3 highly in- Jected, and the breathing much disturbed. The symptoms Wnich follow vary according to the organ which is the principal °hject of attack' and the treatment also must vary with that. *> hile proper medical assistance is procuring, the groom, Ullder these symptoms, with propriety may bleed, back-rake, and bandage up the legs if cold; but he should avoid giving any heating, i.e. stimulating, drinks, under the name of coi'uialsj indeed, he should not give anything supposed to be "lechcinal until the horse has been seen by a veterinary surgeon. In the article "Fox-Hunting," in our companion volume,
u^ritish Field Sports," will be found some Remarks on Riding to Hounds." When treating of "Breaking and
i'aining the Horse," we shall avoid useless repetition by
uoticing the several peculiarities of "Education" required y norses, according to the purpose for which the animal
^nder consideration is intended. The article on " The es ot the Horse," will also furnish numerous incidental suggestions. |
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TRAINING THE HUNTEK.
Training the hunter is a simple process, all that is required
being to bring him into good wind, without, at the same time, reducing him too lowin flesh or injuring his sinews; since, on a long chase, more especially over a heavy country, a horse needs the aid of his full bodily strength and of his un- impaired tendinous and muscular powers. It is extremely dangerous to ride a horse over the country which is weak in its joints, or has the common hurt on the back sinews; but the danger is tenfold in taking a flying leap upon such a horse where the opposite descent is considerable, and the stress upon his lower limbs in his landing, with a heavy weight upon his back, must be excessive. Training must commence with two or three doses of physic, should the horse be gross and not have been previously trained. A young horse in his first training will require most work; but it is an error of the surest side rather to underdo this business than exceed, because, if a horse come into the field rather under-worked, being full of good meat and heart, the easy remedy is to favour and ride him carefully the first week or two; but should your traiuing- groom set you upon a horse harassed and weakened by too much exercise, he will get worse as the season advances, and ■ perhaps be totally ruined by the end—exclusive of the probable disgrace of failing you in a long and important day. Old hunters from spring grass can scarcely be trained too lightly; the true test is, that their wind in its course be free and un- embarrassed; to that point, however, their exercise must at any rate extend. The lighter the horse's clothing the better, in view of the heats and colds he must necessarily undergo in the chase. An early morning's gallop at a good steady stride, but not speedy, of a mile or two, with a canter after water in the afternoon, is sufficiënt for the hunter, and two months ought to bring him into good condition. A young horse may have once a week a tolerably sharp rally for one or two miles, a method which should never be practised with a seasoned hunter; with which, indeed, walking exercise may be substituted for the gallop. Some years since a wordy Avarfare broke out with respect to
" summering the hunter," in which the disputants bespattered each other with much animosity. Fiery zealots arose on either side: the one maintaining the "old" or "natural" system—to wit, the turning out the hunter after his winter's work to a summer holiday in the grass. The other party, at the head of whom was the celebrated writer " Nimrod " (Mr. Charles Apperley), contended that if we wished really to be- friend and preserve the animal that has carried us gallantly through many a long day, we must keep him near us, -ïonfine him within doors, and feed him upon "hard meat.'' Mr. William Selby Loundes, M.F.H., turns all his horses out during the summer months, and insists on its being most conducive to the strength, health, and endurance of his hunters during the hunting season,—a system, of course, like every other about which there is a difference of opinion, to be tested by experience; but for ourselves, while con- |
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TRAINING THE HUNTER.
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392
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as would enable me to see what injury had been doue to them
in his work—whether there were any ligamentary enlarge- ments—any injury to the joints or sinews—any callous sub- stances produced by blows—or, in short, anything going wrong. The clear state of his legs which this treatment will produce, would prevent the possibility of working in the dark, as they will become finer, to use the language of grooms, in three weeks than they would at the expiration of a three months run at grass in the summer." {Letters on Condition, p. 104.) We must not, however, do this ingenious wiïter the injustice to suppose, that he is so wedded to this system as never to relax from it when occasion requires; on the contrary, we find him observing, <[so far from béng averse to it (i. e. to turning out), I would strongly recommend it under favourable circumstances. In case pf having recourse to blistering it is most serviceable; and, after firing, almost necessary ; but then they (the hunters) should be turned out only at night, and into a place where there is but little grass, and have two, if not three feeds of corn a day, but nothing else to eat till they g° out, unless it be a few vetches, for four or five days at a time, when they are young and tender, in the months of May or June; but these should not be repeated more than three or four times, as they tend to make horses very foul, and when in pod are most injurious to them." |
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sidering " turning out" as both humane and advisable in
cases of blistering, ill-health, fever, firing, &c, we must give our vote, from an extensive observation of cavalry and hunting stables, in favour of the in-door system. Count Veltheim's opinion is strongly in favour of stable-
summering the hunter: and he assures us that the cavalry of all Continental countries, except Turkey, are no longer turned out in the summer. " 1 hope," he says, " I may be permitted to adduce something from my own experience, having for nearly thirty years constantly had at my country seat from seventy to eighty horses—partly saddle, partly coach, draught, and breeding horses and colts; and that, from predilection to horses, I have always bestowed particular attention upon them. For a long time it has not been customary on well-managed estates in this part of the country, to turn horses to grass in summer, or to give them green food in the stable, with the exception of brood mares and their foals." Mr. Apperley's method of summering the hunter is thus
stated:—" The first step I should take, would be to put the horse into a loose box, if convenient, and by degrees diminish his corn, giving him an hour's walking exercise as usual. I should then give him two doses of physic, which would not only cool his habit of body so as to prevent the danger of inflammatory attacks, but would have that effect on his legs |
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WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
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393
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WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
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THE DERBY—Continmd.
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THE DERBY.—(Epsom, May or June.)—1 mlle 4 furlongs.
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Year.
1780
1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 179» 1800 1801 |
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Sir C. Bunbury
Mr. O'Kelly l.ord Egremont Mr. Parker . Mr. O'Kelly Lord Claremont. Mr. Panton. l.ord Derby Prince of "Wales. Duke of Bedford Lord Grosvenor . Duke of Bedford Lord Grosvenor. Sir P. Poole Lord Grosvenor Sir F. Standish Mr F. Standish . Duke of Bedford. Mr. Cookson Sir F. Standish Mr. Wilson. Sir C. Bunbury . Duke of Grafton Sir H. Williamson Lord Egremont . Lord Egremont Lord Foley . Lord Egremont . Sir H. Williamson Duke of Grafton. Duke of Grafton. Sir J. Shelley Mr. Ladbroke Sii C. Bunbury Lord Stawell Duke of Grafton Duke of York Mr. Tayne . Mr. Thornhill . Duke of Portland Mi-. Thornhill Mr. Hunter Duke of York Mr. Udny . Sir J. Shelley Lord Jersey Lord Egremont Lord Jersey Duke ofKutland Mr. Gratwicke Mr. Cl.ifney Lord Loivther Mr. Kidsdale Mr Sadler . Mr. Batson. Mr. Bowes . Lord Jei jy Lord Berners Sir G. Heathcote Mr. "W. Kidsdale Mr. ltobertson Mr. llawlinson Colonel Anson Kr. Bowes . Colonel Peel Mr. Gratwicke Mr. Gully Mr. Pedley . Lord Clifden Lord Eglinton Lord Zetland Sir J. Hawley Mr. Bowes . Mr. Bowes . Mr. Gully . Mr. Pophain Admiral Harconrt Mr- W. I' Anson gjrj. Hawley . Sn- J. Hawley . Mr. Merry Colonel Towneley Mr. Snewing . Mr. R. c. Naylor *-Wr Anson. MrFsuM„ï;asranse
Mr- Chaplin .'
$"*■ Hawley . f-r- J. Johnstone Lord Palmouth . |
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Diomed, by Florizel .
Y. Eclipse. by Eclipse
Assassin, by Sweetbriar .
Saltram, by Eclipse .
Serjeant, by Eclipse .
Aimwell, by Mare Antony
Noble, by Highflyer .
Sir P. Teazle, by Highflyer
Sir Thomas, by Pontac
Skyscraper, by Highflyer
Rhadamanthus, by Justice
Eager, by Florizel .
John Buil, by Fortitude .
Waxy, by Pot8os
Dffidalus, by Justice .
Spread Eagle, by Volunteer
Didelot, by Trumpeter
c. s. to Pharamond, by Fidget
Sir Harry, by Sir Peter .
Archduke, by Sir Peter .
èChampion, by PotSos c Eleanor, by Whiskey Tyrant, by PotSos .
Ditto, by Sir Peter .
Hannibal, by Driver.
Gard. Beaufort, by Gohanna
Paris, by Sir Peter .
Election, by Gohanna
Fan, by St. George .
Pope, by Waxy .
Whalebone, by "Waxy
Phantom, by Walton
Octavius, by Orville.
aSmolensko, hy Sorcerer . Blucher, by Waxy
Whisker, by Waxy .
Prince Leopold, by Hedley
Azor. by Selim .
Sam, by Scud
Tiresias, by Soothsayer .
Sailor, by Scud •
Gustavus, by Election
Al oses, by Seym. or Wh'lebn
Emilius, by Orvüle .
Cedric, by Phantom .
Middleton, by Phantom .
Lapdog, by Whalebone
Mameluke, by Partisan .
ttCadland, by Andrew . Frederick, by Little John
Priam, by Emilius
Spaniel, by Whalebone
St. Giles, by Tramp .
Dangerous, by Tramp
Plenipotentiary, by Emilius
Mundi'ï, by Catton .
aBay Middleton, by Sultan Phosphorus, by Lamplighter
Amato, by Velocipede
Bloomsbury, by Mulatto .
Little Wonder, by Muley.
Coronation, by Sir Hercules
Attila, by (Jolwick
aCoiherstone, by Touehstone Orlando, by Touehstone .
Merry Monarch, by Slane .
Pyrrhus the First, by Epirus
Cossack, by H. Platoff
c Surplice, by Touehstone . cF. Dutchman, by Middleton cVoltigeur, by Voltaire Teddington, by Orlando .
D. O'Kourke, by Birdcatcher
acAustralian, by Melbourne Andover, by Bay Middleton
Wild Dayrell, by Ion
Ellington, by F. Dutchman
b Blink Bonny, by Melbourne Beadsman, by Weatherbit
Musjid, by Newminster
Thormanby, by Melbourne
Kettledrum, by Hataplan.
Caractacus, by Kingston .
aMacaroni, by Sweetmeat . c Blair Athol, by Stockwell cGladiateur, by Monarque . acLord Lyon, by Stockwell Hermit, by Newminster .
Blue Gown, by Beadsman
aPretender, by Adventurer Kingcraft, by King Tom .
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1805
1806 1807 l.SIIH 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 '817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1821 25 26 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 |
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Those horses marked (a) also won the Two Thousand, (b) the Oaks, and (c) the
St. Leger. |
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THE OAKS.—(Epsom, May or June.)—1 mile 4 furlongs.
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Winner.
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Jockey.
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Ld. Derby .
Mr. Douglas Ld. Grosvenor Ld. Grosvenor Ld. Grosvenor Mr. Burton Ld. Clermont Sir F. Standish Mr. Vernon Ld. Egremont Ld. Egremont D. of Bedford D. of Bedford Ld. Clermont D. of Bedford Ld. Derby . Ld. Egremont Sir F Standish Ld. Grosvenor Mr. Durand Ld. Gi'osvenor Ld. Egremont Sir C. Bunbury Mr. Wastell Sir T. Gascoigne D. of Grafton Ld. Grosvenor Mr. Craven Gen. Grosvenor D. of Grafton Gen. Gower Sir W. Gerard D. ofKutland Mr. Hewett D. of Grafton D. of Kutland D. of Grafton Gen. Go wei' Mr. Watson Mr. Undy . Mr. Thornhill Ld. Egremont Ld. F.xeter . D. of Grafton D. of Grafton Ld. Jersey . Gen. Grosvenor Mr. Forth D. of Richmond |
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Bridget, by Herod .
Teetotum, by Match 'em Faith, by Herod. Ceres, by Sweet William Md. of the Oaks, by Herod Stella, by Plunder . Trifle, by Justice Perdita filly, by Tandem Annette, by Eclipse . Nïghtshade, by Pot8os, Tag, by Trentham, . Hyppolita, by Mercury Portia, by Volunteer . Violante, by Highflyer Ccelia, by Volunteer . Hermione, by Sir Peter Platina, by Mercury . Parasote, by Sir Peter Niké, by Alexander . Bellissima, by Phenomenon Bellina, by Rockingham . Ephemera, by Woodpecker c Eleanor, by Whiskey
Scotia. by Delpini Theophania, by Delpini Pelisse, by Whiskey Meteora, by Meteor . Bronze, by Muzzard . Briseis, by Beningbrough Morel, by Sorcerer, . Md. of Orleans, by Sorcer Oriana, by Beningbrough Sorcery, by Sorcerer . Hanuella, by Dick Andrew Music, by Waxy Medora, by Selim Minuet, by Waxy Landscape, by Rubens &Neva, by Cervantes .
öCorinne, by Waxy ,
Shoveller, by Scud . Caroline, by AVhalebone Augusta, by Woful . ^Pastille, by Rubens .
èZinc, by Woful .
öCobweb, by Phantom
Wings, by The Flyer Lüias, by Interpreter Gulnare, by Smolensko |
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|
1779
1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 178S 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 |
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Goodison.
|
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|
Chifney, sen.
Chifney, sen.
C. Hindley.
J. Bird.
J. Edwards.
Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick.
Chifney, sen.
Chifney, sen.
J- Singleton.
C. Hindley.
J. Singleton.
S. Arnull.
Fitzpatrick.
J. Arnull.
Buckle.
Buckle.
Buckle.
Fitzpatrick.
Saunders.
Buckle.
Buckle.
Clift.
Buckle.
Edwjirds.
S. Chifney.
Clift.
J. Moss.
W. Peirse.
Chifney.
W. Peirse.
Goodison.
Barna rd.
T. Goodison.
S. Chifney.
Buckle.
Buckle.
S. Chifney.
H. Edwards.
J. Robinson.
H. Edwards
Buckle.
J. Robinson.
S. Chifney.
Lye.
F. Boyce.
|
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|
1841
1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1861 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 |
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1863
1864 |
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|
1867
1868 1869 1870 |
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|
WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
|
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|
394
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
THE ST. LEGER—Continued.
|
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|
THE OAKS—Continwd.
|
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|
15
12 14 12 17 11 15 23 21 27 39 41 28 51 40 63 57 50 53 59 46 52 51 60 72 49 73 84 77 88 95 90 80 97 68 86 73 75 71 67 75 60 66 107 112 135 133 127 103 101 149 145 132 140 95 119 116 92 159 117 133 158 138 167 168 177 180 204 217 243 238 222 238 226 232 205 191 189 197 178 206 214 243 275 254 231 193 202 185 205 191 182 192 204 227 190 |
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|
Jackson.
Shepherd.
Jackson.
Field.
Buckle.
Shepherd.
Singleton, jan.
B. Smith.
Buckle.
Jackson.
Carr.
Clift.
B. Smith.
B. Smith.
Clift.
B. Smith.
Johnson.
Jackson.
Shepherd.
Jackson.
B. Smith.
Johnson.
Johnson.
Nicholson.
J. Johnson.
VV. Scott.
Jackson.
Goodison.
B. Smith.
W. Scott.
Nelson.
J. Robinson.
W. Scott.
W. Scott.
P. Conolly.
J. B. Day.
J. Robinson.
Darling.
Calloway. Lye. J. Day. S Day,jun.
W. Scott
W. Scott
W. Scott
W. Scott
Lye.
J. M*rson.
II. Bell.
F. Butler.
W. Scott.
J. Marson.
Flatmau.
Marlow.
J. Marson.
Templeman.
Norman.
F. Butler.
Basham.
Wells.
Flatman.
Flatmau.
L. Snowden.
Aldcroft.
L. Snowden.
T. Chaloner.
T. Chaloner.
J. Osborne.
J. Snowden.
Grimshaw.
Custance.
T. Chaloner.
T. Chaloner.
Wells.
J. Grimshaw.
Maidment
Maidment
T. Osborne.
J. Osborne.
T. Chaloner.
J. Goater.
F. Archer.
F. Archer.
J. Goater.
T. Cannon.
F. Archer.
F. Archer.
J. Watts.
J. Watts.
F. Archer.
F. Archer.
Robinson.
Robinson.
F. Barrett
J. Watts. G. Bariett.
J. Watts. |
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|
Ambrosio, by Sir Peter .
Lounger, by Drone . Symmetry, by Delpini Cockfighter, by Overton . Champion, by Pot8os Quiz, by Buzzard Orville, by Beningbrough Remembrancer, by Pipator Sancho, by Don Quixote . Staveley, by Shuttle. Fyldener. by Sir Peter Paulina, by Sir Peter Petronius, by Sir Peter . Ashton, by Walnut . Octavian, by Stripling Soothsayer, by Sorcerer . Ottrington, by Golumpus. Altisidora, by Dick Andrews W illiam. by Governor Filho da Puta, by Haphazard Duchess, by Cardinal York Ebor, by Orville Revelier, by Comus . Antonio, by Octavian St. Patrick, by Walton . Jack Spigot by Ardrossan Theodore, by Woful . Barefoot. by Tramp . . . Jerry, by Smolensko. . . Memnon, by Whisker Tarrare, by Catton . . . Matilda, by Comus . The Colonel, by Whisker. Rowton, by Oiseau Birmingham, by Filho da Puta Chorister, by Lottery Margrave, by Muley . Rockingham, by H. Clinker Touchstone, by Camel Trumps, by Velocipede Elis, by Langar .... Mango, by Emilius D. Jon, by Tramp (Waverley) . Charles XII., by Voltaire . Launcelot, by Camel . . . Satirist, by Pantaloon Blue Bonnet, by Touchstone . Nutwith, by Tomboy. Faugh-a-Ballagh, by Hercules . The Baron, by Birdeatcher Sir Sa. Sykes, by Melbourne Van Tromp, by Lanercost. Surplice, by Touchstone F. Dutchman, by B. Middleton . Voltigeur, by Voltaire Newminster, by Touchstone Stockwell. by The Baron . W. Australian, by Melbourne . K. of St. George, by Birdeatcher Saucebox, by St. Lawrenee Warlock, by Birdeatcher . Imperieuse, by Orlando Suubeam, by Chanticleer . Gramester, by The Cossack St. Albans, by Stockwell . Caller Ou, by Stockwell . The Marquis, by Stockwell Lord Clifden, by Newminster .
Blair Athol, by Stockwell
Gladiateur, by Monarque .
Lord Lyon, by Stockwell .
Achievement, by Stockwell
Formosa, by Buccaneer .
Pero Gomez, by Beadsman
Hawthornden, by L. Clifden .
Hannah, by King Tom
Wenlock, by L. Clifden .
Marie Stuart, by S. Chief
Apology, by Adventurer .
Craigmillar, by Blair Athol
Petrarch, by Lord Clifden
Silvio. by Blair Athol
Jannette. by Lord Clifden
c Rayon D'Or. by Flageolet Robert the Devil, by Bertram .
ftlroquois, by Leamington . Dutch Oven, by Dutch Skater .
Ossian, by Salvalor .
The Lambkin, by Camballe
Melton, by Master Kildare
acOrmonde, by Bend Or Kilwarlin, by Arbitrator .
Seafcreeze, by Isonomy
Donovan, by Galopin
Memoir, by St. Simon
;dcCommon, by Isonomy 6La Fleche, by St. Simon . |
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|
Mr. Cookson
Mr. G. Crompton Sir T. Gascoigne Sir H. T. Vane . Mr. Wilson Mr. G. Crompton Lord Fitzwilliam Lord Stratbmore Mr. Mellish Mr. Mellish Mr. Olifton . Lord Fitzwilliam Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton Duke of Leeds Mr. Gascoigne Mr. Rob Mr. Watt . Duke of Hamilton Sir W. Maxwell Sir B. R. Graham Mr Peirse . Mr. Peirse . Mr. Ferguson Sir E. Smith Mr. T. O. Powlett Mr. Petre . Mr. Watt . Mr. Gascoigne Mr. Watt . Lord Scarborough Mr. Petre . Mr. Petre . Mr. Petre . Mr. Beardsworth Lord Cleveland Mr. Gully . Mr. Wntt . Lord Westminster Mr. Mostyn. Lord Lichfield Mr. Greville Lord Chesterfield Major Yarburgh. Lord Westminster Lord Westminster Lord Eglinton . Mr. S. Wrather . Mr. E. J. Irwin . Mr. Watt . Mr. W. Scott Lord Eglinton . Lord Clifden Lord Eglinton .
Lord Zetlaud Mr. A. Nichol Lord Exeter Mr. Bowes .
Mr. Morris .
Mr. T. Parr.
Mr. Nichol .
Mr. J. Scott
Mr. Merry .
Sir C. Monck .
Lord Ailesbury .
Mr. W. 1'Anson
Mr. S. Hawke .
Lord St. Vincenl
Mr. 1'Anson
Count de Lagrange
Mr. Sutton .
Colonel Pearson .
Mr. Graham
Sir J. Hawley
Mr. T. V. Morgan
Baron Rothschild
Lord Wilton
Mr. Merry .
Mr. Launde .
Mr. W. Crawfurd
Lord Dupplin
Lord Falmouth .
Lord Falmouth .
Count Lagrange .
Mr. C. Brewer .
Mr. Lorillard
Lord Falmouth .
Duke of Hamilton
Mr. R. C. Vyner .
Lord Hastings .
Duke of Westminster
Lord Rodney
Lord Calthorpe .
Duke of Portland
Duke of Portland
Sir F. Johnstone
Baron de Hirsoh
|
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|
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1&37
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
|
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|
'•4 ] J. B. Day.
J* j Dockeray, G. Edwards.
J. B. Day.
Conolly.
Chapple.
J. B. Day,
Lye.
Scott
J. Holmes.
Scott
J. B. Day.
J. B. Day.
Scott.
Lye.
F. Butler.
F. Butler.
H. Bell.
S Day.
Templeman.
Templeman.
F. Butler.
F. Butler.
F. Butler.
F. Butler.
Marlow. Charlton. Templeman. A. Day. Charlten. Ashmall. G. Fordham.
J. Snowden. L. Snowden. T. Chaloner. Aldcroft. A. Edwards. Norman. J. Mann. J. Daley. Fordham. T. Cannon. Fordham. Maidmeut. Fordham. T. Cannon. J. Osborne. F. Archer. Hudson. H. Jeffrey. F. Archer. F. Archer. J. Snowden. Fordham. T. Cannon. Watts. T. Cannon. F. Archer.
Watts. C. Wood. Robinson. J. Woodburn. 3. Watts. Rickaby. G. Barrett
|
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|
Turquoise, by Selim.
Green Mantle, by Sultan . Variation, by Bustard Oxygen, by Emilius . |&Galata, by Sultan Vespa, by Muley I Pussy, by Pollio . • WQ. of Trumps, by Velocipede Cyprian, by Partisan Miss Letty, by Priam Industry, by Priam . I Deception, by Defence aiCrucifix. by Priam . Ghuznee, by Pantaloon * Our Nell, by Bran Poison, by Plenipotentiary The Princess, by Slane Refraction, by Glaucus é.Mendicant, by Touchstone Miami, by Venison . Cymba, by Melbourne Lady Evelyn, by Don John Rhedycina, by Wintonian Iris, by Ithuriel Songstress, by Birdeatcher Cath. Hayes, by Lanercost Mincemeat, by Sweatmeat Marchioness, by Melbourne I Mincepie, by Sweatmeat . \c Blink Bonny, by Melbourne ftGoverness, by Chatham . Summerside, by W. Australian Butterfly, by Turnus. B. Duchess, by F. Dutchman Feu de Joie, by Longbow . Queen Bertha, by Kingston Fille de 1'Air, by F. a Ballagh Regalia, by Stockwell Tormentor, by King Tom.
Hippia, by King Tom
SFormosa, by Buccaneer . Brigantine, by Buccaneer.
Gamos, by Saunterer
MHannah, by King Tom . iReine, by Monarque . ödMarie Stuart, by S. Chief MApology, by Adventurer. JSpinaway, by Macaroni . Enguerrande, by Vermont
. Placidn, by Lord Lyon WJannette, by Lord Clifden Wl. of Fort., by Adyenturer
Jenny Howlet, by The Palmer
JThebais, by Hermit . Geheimniss, by Rosicrucian
Bonny Jean, by Macaroni .
Busybody, by Petrarch
Lonely, by Hermit .
iMiss Junimy, by Petrarch Mteve d'Or, by Hampton . rfSeabreeze, by Isonomy . L'Abbesse de Jouarre
iMemoir, by St. Simon Mimi, by Barcaldine
6<2La Fleche, by St. Simon |
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|
D. of Grafton
Ld. Exeter .
Mr. Stonehewer
D. of Grafton
Ld. Exeter .
Sir M. Wood
Mr. Cosby .
Mr. Mostyn
Mr. Scott .
M. Powlett .
Ld. Chesterfield
Mr. F. Craven
Ld. G. Bentinck
Ld Westminster
Mr. G Dawson
Mr. Ford
Col. Ansou .
D. of Richmond
Mr. Gully .
Sir J. Hawley
Mr. H. HUI
Ld. Chesterfield
Mr. Hobson
Ld. Stanley
Mr. J. Scott
Mr. Wauchope
Mr. W. Cookson
Mr. R.Read
Mr. H. HUI
Mr. W. 1'Anson Mr. Gratwicke Ld Londesboro*
Mr. Eastwood
Mr. J. Saxon
Mr. Naylor.
Ld. Falmonth Ct. Lagrange Mr. W. Graham Mr. Duubar
Baron Rothschild Mr. W. Graham Sir F. Johnstone Mr. W. Graham Baron Rothschild Mr. Lefevre Mr. Merry . Mr. Launde Ld. Falmouth M. Lupin Mr. Pulteney Ld. Falmouth Ld. Falmouth Mr. Perkin . Mr. Crawfurd Ld. Stamford Ld. Rosebery Mr. Abington Ld. Cadogan D. of Hamilton D. of Beaufort Ld. Calthorpe Ld. R. Churchill D. of Portland Sir T. SykeB Baron de Ilirsch |
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|
1828
1829
1830
1831
1*32
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1846
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1878
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1S87
18S8
1889
1890
1891
1892
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
10
7
10 8
7
8
11 10 15 16 12 14 8
24 24 17
12
15 13
18
21
14
27
13
23
12
23
150
27
26
19
19
28
24
17
20
11
tl
14
13
7 14
11
11
17
9 9 15
12
8 9 10
8 IS
6 10 18
12 9 11 18 11 15 18 15 19 10 14 11 12 12 11 19 10 17 8 13 13 9 14 14 17 12 15 14 9 13 10 7 9 16 12 15 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
103
118 151 91 117 128 140 152 152 172 128 131 123 141 156 162 136 130 152 168 158 174 154 187 1S8 lil? 175 206 215 181 187 175 170 138 182 128 104 177 212 18!) 1S7 182 150 145 14S 148 188 143 136 141 172 132 153 |
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|
(a) also won the Two Thousand, (J) One Thousand, (e) Derby, (d) St. Leger.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ST. LEGER—(Doncaster, September.)
1 mile 6 furlongs 132 yards. |
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|
THE
|
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|
Singleton.
J. Cade.
G. Hearon.
G. Lowry.
Mangle.
Fors ter.
Searle.
Hall.
Kirkton.
Searle.
Mangle.
Mangle.
Mangle.
Mangle.
Searle.
Jackson.
Man;le.
1'eirs;.
JacKson.
Boyes.
|
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|
Allabaculia, by Sampson
Bourbon, by Le Sang Hollandaise, by Match'em Tommy by Wildair Ruler, by Young Marske Serlna, by Goldfinder Imperatrix, by Alfred Phenomenon. bv Herod Omphale, by Highflyer Cowslip, by Highflyer Paragon. by Paymaster Spadille, by Highflyer Young Flora, by Highflyer Pewet, by Tandem . Ambidexter, by Phenomenon Yg. Traveller, by K. Fergus Tartar, by Florizel . Ninety-three, by Florizel. Beningbroueh, by K. Fergus Hambletonian, by K. Fergus |
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|
Ld. Rockingham
Mr. Sotheron Sir T. Gascoigne Mr. Stapleton Mr. Bethell. Col. Radcliffe Mr. Pratt . Sir J. L. Kaye Mr. Coates . Mr. Hill Lord A. Hamilton Lord A. Hamilton Lord A. Hamilton Lord Fitzwilliam Mr. Dealtry Mr. Hutchinson . Lord A. Hamilton Mr. Clifton . Mr. Hutchinson . Sir C. Turner |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1776
1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 17S9 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 |
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|
(a also won the Two Thousand, (i) One Thousand, (c) Derby.
|
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|
WINNERS OF THE GHREAT RACES. 395
|
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|
MIDDLE PARK PLATE- (Newmarket,
October)—2 year old—6 furlongs. |
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|
DONCASTER CHAMPAGNE STAKES—(Sept.)
2 year old—5 furlongs 152 yards. |
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|
ASCOT GOLD CUP-(June.)
2 miles i furlongs. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
Weight.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jockey.
|
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|
Jockey.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
et. lb.
8 9 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Rake
Green Sleeve gPero Gomez Frivolity. Albert Victor Prince Charlie i Surinam . Newry Plebeian . || Petrarch . Chamant. Beauclerc Peter Beaudesert St. Louis . Kermesse Macheath Busybody Melton Minting . Florentine Friar's Balsam Donovan . Signorina Gouverneur Orme Isinglass |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
W. Scott.
W. Scott. J. Jackson. G. Edwards. W. Scott. T. Lye. Owner. S. Darling W. Scott. T. Lye. W. Scott. P. Conolly. Cartwright. W. Scott. W. Scott. T. Lye. W. Scott. J. Holmes. W. Scott. S. Templeman. Hesseltine. Flatman. W. Abdale J. Marson. Edwards. Marlow Templeman. J. Marson. J. Marson. J. Marson. S. Rogers. J. Marson. Aldcroft. Holmes. Aldcroft. J. Osborne. Fordham. A. Edwards. Fordham. Fordham. Aldcroft. H. Covey. J. Grimshaw. Custance. J. Snowden. J.Adams. Fordham J. Snowden. Maidment. Maidment. F. Webb. J. Osborne. F. Archer. F. Archer. Goater. F. Archer. Snowden. F. Archer. Cannon. Fordham. F. Archer. F. Archer. F. Archer.
Watts. G. Barrett.
C. Wood. Fagan. T. Loates.
F. Barrett.
G. Barrett.
J. Watts. |
Loates.
Kenyon.
J. Adams.
T. Chaloner.
Morris.
Hunt.
J. Osborne.
F. Webb.
Mordau.
J. Goater.
J. Goater.
Snowden.
C. Wood.
Fordham.
Fordham.
Cannon.
C. Wood.
F. Archer.
F. Archer.
F- Archer. Watts. G. Barrett.
F. Barrett.
G. Barrett.
J. Woodburn. G. Barrett. G. Chaloner. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1823
1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 18S3 1881 1885 |
Swiss
JMemnon King Catton
Moonshine
JThe Colonel Cant
Bud
Frederica
Francesca
Muley Moloch
Cotillon .
Coriolanus
Beeswing
Jereed .
JDon John Eliza
|j:Launcelot Kedge .
Attila .
British Yeoman
The Cure
Lancs. Witch
Princess Alice
{Van Tromp . Assault .
*{F. Dutchman The Italian .
gAphrodité Augur .
Vindex .
Champagne .
Bonnie Mom
'Ellington
Tasmania
Gildermire
Prelude .
King of Diamonds
Walloon
tThe Marquis JLord Clifden . Ely
Zambesi.
ftRedan . iJAchievement Virtue .
Moma .
Sunshine
K. of the Forest
Cremorne
Kaiser .
Napoleon III.
Camhallo
Farnese .
Lady Golightly
Clementine .
Charibert
Evasion .
Bal Gal.
Kermesse
Hauteur
Superha .
Langwell
Minting.
f Panzerschiff) dead
) Grandison J heat Ayrshire
Chitabob
Riviera .
Haute Saone
La Fleche
Prize
|
1866
1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 187S 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
8 10
8 6 8 6 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
8 13
8 9
9 0
8 10 8 10
9 0
9 3 8 7
9 3
9 3 9 0 9 3 9 3 9 0 9 0 9 3 9 3 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
37
42 40 35 32 17 34 26 31 34 33 33 29 31 33 32 33 38 45 43 46 49 49 51 57 51 43 40 37 41 34 44 34 48 32 92 55 48 32 91 94 107 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
NORTHUMBERLAND PLATE
(Newcastle, June).
2 miles. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jockey.
|
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|
[The Empbror's Plate,]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1833
1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1810 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 |
K. Johnson.
Wintringham.
T. Lye.
J. Gray.
T. Lye.
T. Lye.
T. Lye.
Flatman.
Templeman.
J. Joy.
Francis.
T. Lye.
T. Lye.
J. Prince.
J. Prince.
Bumby.
Charlton.
Cartwright.
Haxby.
Aldcroft.
Basham.
Ashmall.
J. Walters.
T. Chaloner.
Flumb.
Basham.
Aldcroft.
Page.
J. Dovle.
J. Grimshaw.
T. Chaloner.
T. Cualoner.
Carrol.
Cameron.
D. Butler.
J. Snowden.
Morris.
Hunt.
Gradwell.
W. Gray.
T. Osborne.
W. Chaloner.
H. Morgan.
Morbey.
F. Webb.
Carlile.
Luke.
Morgan.
Kellet.
W. Platt.
F. Archer.
J. Fagan.
A. Giles.
Goodway.
Watts.
Chandley.
Blake.
Morgan.
J. Watts.
Muilen.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
The Emperor
Alarm . The Hero The Hero Van Tromp . Flying Dutchman Woolwich Joe Miller Teddiugton . |
Whitehouse.
Flatman. A. Day. A. Day. Marl ow. Marlow. J. Mar sou. G. Mann. J. Marson. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
[Ascot Gold Cup—Eenewed.]
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
West Australian
Fandango Winkfield . Skirmisher . Fisherman . Fisherman . Rupee . Thormanby . Asteroid 1863 /Buckstone .
1864 j Scottïsh Chïef
1865 |^EIy
Gladiateur Lecturer Blue Gown . Brigantine . Sabimis. Mortimer Henry . Cremorne Boiard . Doncaster Apology Petrarch Verneuil Isonomy Isonomy Robert the Devil
Foxhall . Tristan . St. Simou St. Gatien Althorp. Bird of Freedom Timothy Trayles . Gold Morion . Buccaneer . |
A. Day.
Ashmall.
Bartholoniew.
Charlton.
Wells.
Cresswell.
H. Grimshaw.
Custance.
Wells.
A. Edwards.
H. Covey.
Custance.
H. Grimshaw.
Fordham.
Cameron.
D. Butler.
Rowell.
Fordham.
Fordham.
Maidment.
Carver.
Fordham.
J. Osborne.
Cannon.
Goater.
Cannon.
Cannon.
Cannon.
Cannon.
Fordham.
C. Wood.
C. Wood.
Cannon.
Wam e.
Robinson.
Robinson.
F. Webb.
J. Watts. G. Barrett.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1887
1888 1889 1890 1891 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1867
1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
c Mr. J. Dilly's Netherfield, 4 yrs., came in first, but was
disqualified on the ground of a cross. d After a dead heat with Mr. W. Chifney's Rowton, 6 yrs.,
9st. Slb. (S. Chifney). e Carried 31b. over-weight.
ƒ After a dead heat with Lord W. Poulett's Tim Whiffler,
4 yrs., 8st. 71b. (S. Rogers). g After a dead heat with Lord Glasgow's Gen. Peel,
4 yrs. 8st. 101b. (Fordham). h Redan walked over, after a dead heat with Lord Lyon
(J. Osborne). i Stakes divided, and Surinam w.o.
(*) Subsequently won the Derby; (f) the Two Thousand;
(ft the St. Leger; (§) the One Thousand. |
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|
1890
1891 |
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a After a dead heat with Butler's Epsom, 4 yrs. 8st. 21b.
o Ashmole's Smallhopes, 5yrs., came in first, but was dlsqualified, Iris owner having omitted to make stakes. |
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|
WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
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397
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|
NEWMARKET HANDICAP-
1 mile 2 furlongs. |
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(May).
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|
CESAREWITCH STAKES—(Newmarket,
October). — 2 miles 2 furlongs 35 yards. |
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|
CAMBRIDGESHIRE STAKES (Newmarket,
October).—! mile 240 yards. |
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|
THE GREAT METROPOLITAN STAKES—
(Epsom, April.)—2 miles 2 furlongs. |
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|
ROYAL HUNT CUP—(Aseot, June).
1 mile. |
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|
PRINCE OF WALES STAKES—(Ascot,
Jnne.)—1 mlle 5 furlongs. |
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|
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|
« Bred in America. After a dead heat with El Hakim
T,I,'s-\e st 9 lb''> and Q"een Bess (3 y1'^, 4 st. 10 lb.
ankesley rode Prioress in the dead heat. * After a demi heat with Gaspard (3 yrs., 6 st. 9 lb ) |
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|
Including 7 lb. extra. d Brecï in France.
e C'arried 5 st. 8 Ib.
|
Ö st. 8 lb.
|
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|
a After a dead heat with Wolsey, ■£ yrs.
(Kenyon). |
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WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
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|
398
|
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GOODWOOD STAKES—C (»«'/-«./.
|
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|
NORTHAMFTONSHÏRE STAKES—
(Maren).—1 mile 6 furlongs. |
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|
GREAT EBOK HANDICAP—(York,
August).—! mile 4 furlongs. |
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|
Vitellius
Discord .
Morpeth
Wolfdog
Wildair .
Fernhill
Priestess
Valentine
Poodle .
Defiance
Jacqueline
Hungerford
Siding .
St. Giles
Borderer
Bevis
Simple Simon
Danae
Stampedo
Fairwater
Dollar .
Scamander
John Davis
Havelock
Mariner .
Marquis of Oarabas
Midsunimer
Jester
Messager
Flurry -
Gleneagle
Peeping Tom
Prodigal
Queen of Cyprus
Prince George
Rochampton .
Dresden China
Commandant
Sun of York
Glenluce
Loch Ranza
Marmora
Str Kenneth
Middlethorpe
Oliver Twist
Claymore
Padua .
Lusignan
Colorado
|
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|
1844
1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 |
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|
MANCHESTER CUP— (June).
1 mile 6 furlongs. |
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|
Weight.
|
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Winner.
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Age.
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|
st. lb.
8 12 7 12
8 0
7 9
|
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1834
1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 11-82 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 |
Giovanni
Red Rover Vestment The Carpenter Catherina Gasparoni Colchicum Galaor . The Young-un A ristotle Trueboy Best of Three Slayer's Daughter Sheraton Swiss Boy Sylvan . Legerdemain Paquetta The Black Doctor Chief Justice Rataplan Saucebox Pretty Boy Underhand Herne Little Agnes
Ben Webster Ivanhoff Ivanhoff Isoline Trust Cathedral Ketrousse oDunsany Buttercup Ploughboy Muster Monseigneur Sir Bertram Indian Oceau Cambuslaug Innishowen Conseil . Umpire . Attalus Lartington Isonomy Valour Wallenstein Primrose II. Florence Borneo Riversdale Carlton . Merry Andrew Cotillon . L' Abbesse de J ouarre Lily of Lumley Balmoral. |
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7 4
6 1
7 0
7 7 7 10
8 2
7 12 5 0 7 2 5 5
6 12
7 6
4 0
8 3
7 10 9 3
5 10
5 4
7 10 6 10
5 5
7 1
6 0
8 12
6 4
7 6
8 12
5 10 8 12 5 7
7 3 7 9 7 3
6 12
8 12
7 5
6 7
7 3
8 12
6 4 6 1 9 12
8 9 |
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GOODWOOD STAKES - (July).
2 miles 4 furlongs. |
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|
LINCOLNSHIRE HANDICAP—(Lincoln,
Maren.)—! mile. |
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7 0
7 6 |
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a The Goodwood Stakes became void in consequeuce
there not being 10 acceptances for it, and the Goc W° |
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|
* Walked over, atter a dead heat with Veranda, "i years
5 stone 8 lbs. |
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Plate was substituted.
|
6St-
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|
b Divided, after a dead heat with Deceit. 3 yrs..
10 lbs. |
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WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
|
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399
|
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|
OCTOBER HANDICAP—(Newmarket,
October.)—1 mlle 2 furlongs. |
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|
THE TWO THOÜSAND GUINEAS
STAKES—(Newmarket, May).
3 year old—1 mile 11 yards. |
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|
THE ONE THOÜSAND GUINEAS
STAKES—(Newmarket, May).
1 mile 11 yards.
|
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Wïzard
Hephestion
Trophonius
Cwrw
Smolensko
Olive
ïigris
Nectar
Manfred .
Interpreter
Antar
Pindarrie .
Reginald .
1'astille .
Nicolo
Schahriar
Enamel .
Dervise
Turcoman
Cudland .
Patron
Augustus .
Riddlesworth .
Archibald.
Clearwell .
Glencoe .
Ibrahim .
*Bay Middleton Achmet .
Grey Momus .
. The Corsair kCrucifix . Ralph
Meteor
Cotherstone
The Ugly Buck
Idas .
|+Sir T. Sykes . Conyngham
Flatcatcher
Nunnykirk
Pitsford .
Hermandez
tStockwell. |fw. Australian Hermit .
Lord of Isles .
Fazzoletto
Vedette .
Fitz-Roland
Promised Land
The Wïzard
, Diophantus IjThe Marquis . Macaroni .
General Peel .
tGladiateur
jLord Lyon
Van ban .
|cMoslem Pretender
Macgregor
Bothwell .
Prince Charlie,
Gang Forward
Atlantic .
Camhalio .
Petrarch .
Chamant .
| Pil grim age Charibert.
Petronel .
Peregrine.
Shotover .
Galliard .
Scot Free .
Paradox .
*+Ormonde Enterprise
Ayrshïre .
Enthusiast
Snrefoot.
'JCommon
Bonavista
|
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|
Charlotte .
Selim Rhoda Neva. Corinne Catgut Rowena . Zeal . Whizgig . Zinc . jjCobweb . Tontine . Problem . Arab. Orville Mouse Charlotte West Galantine. ||GaIata Tarantella May-day . Preserve • Destiny . Chapeau . Bacarolle . Cara . §||Crucifix . Potentia . Firebrand Extempore Sorella Pic-nic
|]Mendicant Clementina Canezou .
Flea . Slane
Aphrodïté
Kate.
Mentmore Lass
Virago
II abena
Manganese
^[Impèrieuse ||Governess Mayonaise
Sagitta
Nemesis
Hurricane
Lady Augusta
Tomato
Siberïa
Rep ui se .
^Achievement |j*l[Formosa Scottish Queen
Hester
|I^[Hannah . Keine
Cecilia
Apology .
Spinaway .
«!Camelia . Belphcebe .
HJilgrimage Wheel of Fort.
Elizabeth
Thebais .
St Marguerite
Hauteu .
|| Rusybodj . Farewell .
||Miss Jummy Reve d'Or.
Briar-root
Min the
Semolina .
]| Mimi iLa Fleche |
Mr. Wilson .
L. Grosvenor Mr. Andrew . L. Darlington C Bunbury , Mr. Wyndham Lord Rous L. Cavendish Stonebewer . Lord Foley . Sir J. Shelley Duke of Grafton . Duke of Grafton . Duke of Grafton . Mr. Rogers . Mr. Haffenden Lord Exeter . Duke of Grafton . Duke of Grafton . Duke of Rutland . Lord Exeter. Lord Exeter .
Lord Jersey .
Colonel Peel .
Lord Oxford .
Lord Jersey .
Lord Jersey .
Lord Jersey .
Jord Jersey .
Lord Bentinck
Lord Lichfield
Lord Bentinck
Lord Albermarle ■
Mr. Bowes
Mr. Bowes
Mr. J. Day .
Lord Stradbroke .
Mr. W. Scott
Sir li. Pigot .
Mr. B. Green
Mr. A. Nichol
Mr. H.Hill .
Lord Enfield .
Lord Exeter .
Mr. Bowes
Mr. Gully
Mr. Merry
Lord Derby .
Lord Zetland
Sir J. Hawley
Mr. W. Day .
Mr. Nichol ..
Lord Stamford
Mr. Hawke .
Mr. Naylor .
Lord Glasgow
Ct Lagrange.
Mr. Sutton .
Duke of Beaufort .
Mr. Crawfurd
Mr. Johnstone
Mr. Merry
Mr. Johnstone
Mr. Dawson .
Mr. Crawfurd
Lord Falmouth
Mr. H. Vyner
Lord Dupplin
Ct. Lagrange
Lord Lonsdale
Lord Falmouth
Duke of Beaufort .
Mr. Norman .
D. of Westminster
Lord Falmouth
Mr. Foy
Mr. Bro.-Cleote .
D. of Westminster
Mr. D. Baird .
Duke of Portland
Mr. D. Baird.
A. W. Merry,
Lord Alïngton
Mr. Rosé
|
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|
Mr. Wilson .
Lord Foley . Duke of Rutland Mr. Watson . Mr. Udny Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Lord Jersey . Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton Mr. Molony . Lord Cavendish Lord Jersey . Sir M. Wood . Lord Exeter . Mr. Cooke Lord Berner . Mr. Greville . Honldsworth. Lord Bentinck Lord Albemarie Mr. Watt Lord Bentinck Mr. Batson Lord Bentinck Mr. Thornhill Osbaldiston . D. of Richmond Mr. Gully . Mr. Payne Lord Stanley
Mr. F. Clarke Lord Oxford .
Sir J. Hawley
Mr. Sargent .
Baron Rothschild .
Mr. Howard .
Duke of Bedford .
W. H. Brook
Mr. J. Scott .
Mr. Gratwicke
Mr. Crawfurd
Loa'd Derby .
Mr. Fleming .
Lord Falmouth
Lord Stamford
Baron Rothschild .
Duke of Beaufort .
M. ofHastings
Col. Peargon .
Mr. Graham .
Duke of Beaufort .
Mr. Dawson .
Baron Rothschild .
M. Lefevre .
Lord Falmouth
Mr. Launde .
Lord Falmouth
Ct. Lagrange
Lord Hartington .
Lord Lonsdale
Lord Falmouth
Mr. Walker .
Mr. Crawfurd
Mr. Crawfurd
C. J. Lefevre.
Mr. Abington D. of Westminster
Duke ot Hamilton Duke of Beaufort . Mr. D. Baird . Mr. Vyner Duke of Portland .
Sir T. Sykes . Baron de Hirsch . |
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1«61
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
|
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1814
1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 isso
1851
1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1S71 1872 1873 1874 ]875 1876 i877 1878 1879 1880 1S81 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
F. Buckle.
F. Buckle. J. Robinson- J. Day. F. Buckle.
J. Robinson. Arnull. J. Robinson.
Conolly. Arnull. Wright. J. Day. Flatman. J. Day. J. Day. E. Edwards.
G. Edwards.
J. Day. J. Robinson
Rogers. S. Chifney. J. Robinson. W. Abdale. S. Day Flatman. F. Butler
A. Day. F. Butler. J. Marson. A. Day. Charlton. Wells. S. Rogers.
J. Osborne.
Flatman.
Ashmall.
Fordham.
Aldcroft.
Fordham
A si i m all.
A. Edwards.
Wells.
Fordham.
T. 0 au non.
Custance.
Fordham.
Fordham.
Grïmshaw.
Maidment.
Parry.
Morris.
J. Osborne.
F. Archer.
Glover.
H. Jeffery.
Cannon.
F. Archer.
C. Wood. Fordham. C. Wood. Fordham. T. Cannon G. Barrett.
Watts. C. Wood.
Warne.
J. Woodburn
J. Watts.
Rickahy.
G. Barrett
|
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|
STEWARDS' CUP—(Goodwood, July)-
6 furlongs. |
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|
GRAND NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE
(Liverpool.)—i miles 856 yards. |
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1890
1891 1892 |
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1890
1891 1892 |
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c After a dead heat with Mr. W. Graham's Formosa (Fordham), who afterwards divided the stakes
d Ran a dead heat with Enguerrande for the Oaks.
Those marked (§) also won the Two Thoiisand, (H) the Oaks, {%) the St. Leger.
Horses marked (*) also won the Derby, (f) the Oaks, and ($) the St. Leger.
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WINNERS OF THE GREAT RACES.
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400
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CHESTER CUP—(May).
About 2 miles 2 furlongs. |
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GOODWOOD CUP—(July).
2 miles 4 furlongs. |
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DONCASTEK CUP—(September).
About 2 miles 5 furlongs. |
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b Bred in Hungary. e Bred in France.
d Bred in America.
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Horses marked (*) won the St. Leger the sanie year.
a Walked over and divided after a dead heat with Mr. Saxon's Brown Duchess (Midgley). |
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INDEX.
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divwiom of tfie worh itself: a syslem which will
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Note. — This Index 7ias been arranged in sections, each named in accordance with the various
greatly faciUtate reference to any particnhr subject. |
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VARIETIES AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE,
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Page
African Horses,.......27
Age of the Horse from his Mouth, . .104
Indications of Age,.....104
Struoture of the Teeth, .... 105
The Teeth at Birth to extreme Old Age, . 106 Tricks of Dealers, . . . 104, et seq. What is " Age " in the Horse, . . .111 Anatomical Distinction between the Horse and the Ass...... . . .10
Arab Horse, The.......19
Arab Horse, Anecdotes of,.....21
Arab Horses sent as Royal Presents, Description of
Two, ........24
Arabia, Adventure in,......22
Augustenborg's (Duke of) Stud, . . . .45
Australian Horse, The,.....35
Austrian Horses,......46
Barb, The,.......27
Bavarian Horses,......46
i Horses,.......46
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Page
Early Subjugation of the Horse: the Bit, the Bridle,
the Saddle, the Stirrup,.....64
Egyptian Horse, The.......32
English Pony, The,......58
Enropean Horses,.....42-50
Exmoor Ponies,.......67
Finland Horses,.......46
French Horses,...... . 47
Galloways and Ponies,.....56
Godolphin Barb, The......28
Grecian Horses,. . . . . . .43
Guacho, Skill of the.......37
Hackney, The,.......61
Harness, Parts of, . . . . . . 171
Henry VIII. and the Breeding of Horses, . . 54
Hides of Wild Horses of Pampas of South America, Large Quantity imported yearly to England . 11 Highland Pony, The,......58
Holland, Horses of,......47
Holstein Horses,......45
Horse, Age of. See Age of the Horse from
his Mouth.
Horse, Ancient History of. See Origin And Ancient History of the Horse. Horse Breaking,......66
Breaking the Horse for Saddle and Harness, . 66
Principles ot Horse-breaking, . . .69 Earey's System, ...... 74 Sullivan, the Whisperer, . . . .67
Horse, Bnying a,......89
Horse, Distinotive Characters of the, . . .10
"Horse Frightened by the Lion," Stubbs's Pic- ture of,......-. 30 Horse Law,.......113
Delivery and Acceptance, .... 113
Earnest,.......113
French Law, ...... 120
Lien,........121
Sale.........113
Sales by Auction......H6
Signed Note or Memorandum, , , . 113
Uncertainty of the Law, .... 123 Unsoundness,......118
Verterinary Certificates, .... 120
Wsrranty,.......114
Horse, Natural History of the, .... 9
Horse, Paces of the,......77
Horse, Varieties of the, , , . .11
African Horses, ...... 27 Arab Horse.......19
Australian Horse, ..... 35
Central Asia, Horse of, .... 12 Circassian Horse, » , . , .17
European Horses, .... 42-50 Indian Horses, . , . . . .17 |
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Page
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Horse, Varieties of the—Continued.
North American Horses,
Persian Horses,.....
Pseudo Wild Horses.....
South American Horses, . . ,
Toorkman Horse, ....
Turkish Horse,.....
Wild Horse, The, ....
Horses of Britain, History and Varieties of, Horses, Vices of, and their Remedies, Hungarian Horses, «. . • . . Hunter, The,...... Training the Hunter, ....
Iceland Horses,......
Indiau Horses,......
Intelligence of the Arab Horse
Italian Horses.......
Kiang, The (Wild Horse).....
Kozakee, The (Indian Horse) ...
Ladijs' Horsemanship, .... Lapland Horses, .....
Lasso, Description of the.....
Leaps, Immense,.....
Leave-taking of a Horse, curious Arabian Custom,
Master of the Horse......
Mezöhogyes, near Carlsburg, Great Breeding Estab
lishment at,......
Mungo Park, Touching Incident which occurred to,
Napoleon's Charger, " White Arabian," , . Natnral History of the Horse, . . ,
North American Horses, .... North American Indians, singular Custom prevail ing amongst,......
Norwegian Horses,.....
Onager, The (Wild Horse),....
Origin and Ancient Histort of the Horse, African Horse, Introduction into England,
Ancient Price of the Horse, .
Barbs, Progenitors of, . . . .
Battle, Horse trained to,
Bible, Proofs from, to show that Arabia has
no Claim to number the Horse among the native Animals, Breed of Horses, systematic Attention paid to,
in Egypt, and adjacent Conntries, Bucephalns, the Charger of Alexander the
Great,..... Bnffon's assertion that Arabia is the Cradle of
the Race, proved by more recent Inquirers to be mere Assnmption, . . Charioteering of the Celts, remarkable Dis-
oovery in Scotland, throwing Light on, Chariots or Riding, Questions as to which was
the earlier Service of the Horse, . , Dongola Horses, ..,..=.
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40
13 11 36 15 16 11 52 148
44 387
391
46 17 21 50 11 17 166
46 38 87 21 8 47
30 31 9
40 41
46 11 3 9 5 5 5 |
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Bit, Bridle, Saddle, and Stirrup,
Breaking the Horse for Saddle and Harness, . . Breeding for general Purposes, .... Breeding Establishment at Mezöhogyes, near Carls- bnrg,........
Brewers' Horses, . • .
Butihc a Horse.—Choicö of a " General Pur-
I pose" Horse, &c, ..... Camanchee Wild Breed; interesting Account of " Charley," a noble Animal of that Breed,
Canadian Horse, The, Cape of Good Hope Horse, The, Carriage Horse, The, . Central Asia, Horse of, . Circassian Horse, The, Cleveland Bay, The, . Clydesdale Draught Horse, The, Coach Horse, The, Combat between two Tribes, Conestogo Horse, The, |
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64
66 62 47
53 89
41
40 83 60 12 1/ 60 59 60 29 40 18
45
24
57
31
58
168
172
172
168
171
171
U
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Confidence of a Horse in a firm Rider,
|
remarkable
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instance of, ...
Danish Horses, .
Darley Arabian, The, Dartmoor Ponies, Dongola, Nubian, and Abyssinian Horses,
Draught Horses, Driving, .... Driving a Pair, . ,
Driving a Single Horse,
Harness Horses, .
Harness, Parts of,
Harnessing and Putting-to,
See also Riding. Dziggtai, or Tartary Horse,. |
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INDEX.
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11
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Page
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Page
Equestrian Warfare in Britain, Mode of, as practised in the century before Christ, . 8
Grecian Horses.......7
Hastings, Victory of, in great measnre to be
ascribed to Cavalry, .... 8
Horse, Mare, and Colt, Fixed Standards of
Valae witli many of the Asiatic Nations, . 5
Horsemen of the Anoient World, The most celebrated, ...... 5
HorseB made Prizes of in the Field, Practice to
hamstring them......4
Julius Csesar the first to ordain Horses as a
Spectacle to fight with Wild Bulls, and to
kill them,......7
Koran, Kindness and Forbearanee towards
Animale inculcated by the, ... 9
Master of the Horse, ..... 8
Mythologie Fables of the Ancients, prominent Feature formed by the Horse in, . .6
Nations in which, at the earliest Periods, the Horse was used in War and in the Arts of
Peace, ....... 4
Number and Value of Horses now in Great
Britain, ....... 8
Original Country of the Horse, ... 3
Ostrich, Horse employed in the Chase of, . 5 Ploughing, First Üse of the Horse in, by the Anglo-Saxons,.....8
Ponies of Great Britain, .... 8
Price paid by Seutbis the Tbraeian for the Steed which he rode during the Retreat of
the Ten Tbonsand, ..... 5
Sonroe from which Solomon derived his Supplies,......4
Subjugation of the Horse.....6
Superstitions Veneration entertained by the
Saxons for the Horse, .... 8
" Thunder," The true rendering of the Term in Job's poetical Picture of the War Horse, . 8
Trade for Horses established with Africa by Solomon, ...... 4
|
Page
Value of the Horse in the Time of Alfred the Great,.......8
Face at which the imported Anstralian Race-horse
can travel, ....... 36 Paces of the Horse, ...... 77
Perilous Feat performed at the Cape of Good
Hope, . . . . . . .34
Persian Horse, The,......13
Petroffski (Baron'), and his Stud, . . . .43
Polish Horses,.......45
Ponies of Great Britain, . . ... 8
Portnguese Horses,......60
Prussian Horses, ...... 45
Race House, The,......377
Breaking and Training, .... 378
Breeding,.......377
Races, Winners of the Great, . . . 393-400
Riding,........158
Mounting and Dismounting, . . . .158
Reins, Management of, .... 159 Riding to Hounds, ..... 162
Saddle, Bridle, and Stirrups, Proper Position of, 156 Seat on Horseback, . . . . . 160 Ladies' Horsemanship, and Choosing a Lady's
Horse...... . .164
See also Deivinq.
Russian Horses,... .... 43 Sale of the Royal Stud at Death of William IV., . 25
Sbetland Pony, The......67
South American Horses,.....36
Spanish Horses, ....... 50
Stable, The,.......124
Construction,......124
Draining, ....... 129
Lighting........129
Temperature,......125
Ventilation,......126
Harness Room,......132
Hunting Stables, and the Loose Box, . . 130
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Modern Stable Fitting»,
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. . . 131
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Stable Managehknt,.....134
Cleaning,.......143
Clipping and Singeing, .... 137
Clothing, . '......144
Conditioning,......145
Exercise,.......141
Feeding,.......137
Groom, The, . .... 134
" Helper," The,......134
"Litter,".......136
Racking and Dressing,... . < .135
"Stable Boys,"......134
" Strapper," The......134
Stables of the King of Denmark.....45
Swedish Horses,....... 46
Swimming of Horses in South America, . . 39
Tattoo, or Native Indian Pony, . . .17
Tazee, The (Indian Horse),.....17
Teeth, Age of the Horse from. See Aoe of the
Horse from his Mouth.
Toorkee, The (Indian Horse), . . . .17
Toorkman Horse, The, . . . . .15
Treatment of a Horse on a Journet, . . 173
Care of the Legs and Feet, .... 176
Cutting,.......175
General Medical Hints, . . . .176
Stumbling,.......174
Trotting Matches.......79
Turkish Horses,......16, 42
Varieties of the Horse. See Horse, Varieties
of the.
Varieties of Horses of Britain, . . . .52 Welsh Ponies,.......66
Wild Horses,.......11
Wild Horse of the Pampas of South America, . 11
Wild Horses of the Steppes near the banks of the Don and Wolga,......11
Zebra, The,.......11
Zetland, or Sheltie Pony, ..... 67
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|
THE STRUCTURE AND ANATOMY OF THE HORSE.
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|
Page
Abdominal Viscera, The,.....210
Absorbente, The,......213
Arteries, The........204
Bladder, The,.......216
Blood, The, and its Circulation, .... 206
Bone, Appendages of—Periosteum, Mednlla (mar- row); Synovia (joint-oil), Cartilage, Ligament, . 185 Bone, Components of,.....181
Bone, Growth of,......181
Bony Strncture of the Horse, Description of the, . 181
Brain and Nerves, Description of the (See also Sense, Organs of)......194
Capillary Vessels, .....205
Cartilages,.......186
Caudal Bones,.......183
Chest, Bones of the,......183
Chest, Viscera of, their MnscleB, Membranes, and
Vessels,........204
Chyme and Chyle,......213
Circulation and Respiration, Organs of, 204-209
Coat, Shedding of the,.....193
Digestion, Assimilatiok, and Excretton, Or-
gans of,......210-215 Kar, The, and its Construction, .... 200
Ear, Muscles of,.......200
Eye, The, and Vision,.....196
Eye. Muscles of,......197
Face, Bones of,.......182
Foaling,........219
Fore Leg and Foot, Bones of the, . . .184
Fore Limbs, Muscles of,.....190
Gestation and Foaling,.....218
Hair, Description of the......193
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Page
Pulse, The,.......205
Renal Capsules, The.......216
Reproduction, Organs of (Male and Female), . 217
Respiration, Chemical and Mechanica!, . . . 208
Ribs, The.........183
Sacrum, Bones of the, . . . . .183
Sense, Organs of,......19G
Ear, The, and its Construction:—Hearing, . 200
Eye, The, and Vision,. . . . .196 Nose, The, its Membranes and Sinnses: — Smell........199
Tongue, The, and its Organization:—
Taste........202
Skeleton, The........181
Skin and Hair, Description of, . . . . 192
Skull, Bones of,.......181
Smell, The Sense of, . . . . . .199
Spinal Nerves, The,......195
Spinal VertebraB, The,......183
Spleen, The,.......214
Sternnm, The........183
Stomach, TJie,.......210
Synovia (Joint-oil),......186
Tail and Anus, Muscles of,.....192
Taste, high Sensibility of the Tongue of the Horse
with respect to,......202
Tongue, The, and its Organization, . . . 202
Trunk, Muscles of the,.....190
Urinary Oroans, The......216
Veins and Capillaries,......205
Vision, how it is effected,.....199
Vomiting, Structural Peculiarity in the Stomach oi'
the Horse, which in all Ordinary Cases prevents, 214 |
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|
Page
Head, Bones of the,......181
Head and Neck, Mnscles of, .... 188
Hearing, How the Sense of, is excited,. . . 201
Heart, The,.......204
Hinder Leg, Bones of the,.....183
Hinder Limbs, Mnscles of,.....191
Jaw, Bones of, ....;. . 182
" Knuckering,".......208
Kidneys, The, . . . . . . .216
Ligaments, . . . . . . .186
Lips, The,.......303
Liver, The,.......214
Loins, Bones of the,......183
Lungs, Larynx, Trachea, and Bronchial Tubes, . 207
Mastication and Swallowing; the Physiology of Digestion,.......211
Medulla (Marrow),......185
Muscles, Description of the, .... 187
Muscnlar Motion, Voluntary and Involuntary, . 187
Nasal Organs, Physiology of, ... . 200 Neck, Bones of the,......183
Neighing, how produced,.....207
Nerves and Brain, Description of the (See also
Sense, Organs of),.....194
Nerves, Spinal,.......195
Nose, The, its Membranes and Sinuses, . . 199
Palate, the,.......203
Pancreas, The, ......214
Parturition,.......219
Pelvis, The,.......183
Perception, Explanation of, .... 196
Periosteum (Bone-surrounder), The, . . . 185
Puberty, Time at which the Horse and Mare arrive at, 220 |
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|
INDEX.
|
ïii
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
THE PRACTIGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE.
|
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|
Page
Abscess, Appearance of,.....255
Absoess in the Brain, . . . . . . 274
Abscess, Purulent, and its Treatment, . . . 332
Abscess, Serous, and its Treatment, . . . 333 Adhesion, Explanation of,.....256
Air Passages, Diseases of the, . . 283-291
Amaurosis (Gutta Serena), . . . . • 278 Anaeinia,........295
Anasarca, ........ 305
Anchylosis (Stiff and Bent Joint), . . .351
Ascites, ........ 305 Back-sinew, Rupture of the, .... 356
Bandaging and Poulticing,
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Page
Galls, Sitfasts, and Warbles.....331
Gastritis, and Chronic Gastritis, .... 299
Glanders and Farcy, and their Treatment, 261-272 Glanders, Communication of, to the Human Sub- ject.........266 Glands, Disorders of the,.....317
Granulation, Explanation of, ... 256
Grease, and its Treatment,.....354
Grogginess, Knuckling, &o.,.....342
Gutta Serena (Glaas Eye),.....278
Halter-cast, .......356
Harness Galls,.......331
Heart, Pekicardidm, and Blood Vessels,
Diseases of the,.....292-296
Haematuria (Bloody Urine), and its Treatment, . 320
Hepatitis (Inflammation of the Liver), and its Treatment,.......315
Hernia.........312
Hidebound,.......330
Hobbles for Casting the Horse, .... 358
Hock, Hind Legs and Feet, Lamenesses, Dis- eases, and Injuries of the, . . . 350 Anchylosis (Stiff and Bent Joint), . . 851 Dislocation of the Patella, .... 350
Fracture of the Patella, . . . .350 Haunch and Stifle, Description of, . . 350 .Strain of the " Round-bone," . . .350
Strain or Injury of the Ligaments of the Stifle, or Patella, and its Treatment, . . . 350 The Hind Feet,......356
The Hind Legs, Pasterns, and Fetlock-joint, . 353
The Hock........351
Horse, Casting the. See Operations, Instru-
ments, ÓCC, Horse Medicines and Remedies, Doses, For- mule, and Preparaïtons, . . . 221-248 Horse, Slinging the,......359
Hydrocephalus (Water on the Brain), . . . 275
Hydrophobia, or Rabies,.....277
Hydrothorax (Water on the Chest), . . . 287
Indigestion, its ordinary Seat, Symptoms, and Treatment,.......300
Induration, Scirrhus, Hepatization, Ossification,
Explanation of the Terms, .... 256
Inflammation, its Causes, Terminations, and Treat- ment....... 253-257 Influenza, its Symptoms and Treatment, . • 259
Instruments, Operations, &c. See Operations, Instruments, &c Intestines, Calculi, &c, in,.....314
Itch, &c,........328
Jaundice, or "Yellows," its Symptoms and Treat-
ment..... . . . . 316 Kidneys, Abscess, Softening, Induration, and En-
largement of the,......319
Kidneys, Inflammation of the (Nephritis), its Causes,
Symptoms, and Treatment, .... 318 Knee, Injuries, &c., of the,.....338
Laminitis......... 342
Lampas,........281
Larvse in the Skin,......330
Legs, Diseases, &c, of the. See Fore Legs and
Feet ; also Hock, Hind Legs and Feet. Leucorrhaea (Whites),......824
Lice,.........330
Lithotomy, Case illustrating the Operation of . 321
Liver, Diseases and Injuries of the, . 315-317 Locked Jaw (Tetanus), its Symptoms and Treat- ment, . .......275 Malignant Epidemie, and its Treatment, . . 263
Mallenders and Sallenders, .... 331, 353 Mange, &c,.......328
Medicines for HoRses, and Remedies, Doses,
Formule, and Prepabations, . . 221-248
Megrims, and its Treatment, .... 274 Melanosis,...... . . 331
Metastasis, or sudden Shifting of Inflammation, . 255
" Moon-blindness,"......278
Mortification, Explanation of, ... 257
Mouth and Teeth, Injuries to, 281
Nasal Gleet, .......282
Nasal Polypus,.......282
Navicular-joint Disease,.....845
|
Page
Nephritis,.....• • • 318 Nerves, Diseases of,......272
Neurotomy, and the Mode of performing the
Operation,.......365
Nicking and Docking,...... 367
Nosology, Systems of rejected, .... 249
Obstetrics, Observations on, .... 324 (Esophagotomy, How it should be performed, . 298 (Esophagus, Diseases and Injuries of the (Stricture,
Choking),.......297
Opeeations, Instruments, &c:
Barnacles, The.......360
Bleeding, and Instruments used therein, . 860
Blistering,.......368
Bronchotomy,......364
Casting the Horse, . . . . 358
Chloroform, . . . . . 860
Firing,.......366
Flexor Tendon, Division of the, . . . 366
Hobbles, The,......358
Lithotomy,......321
Neurotomy, and the Mode of performing the
Operation,......365
Nicking and Docking,.....367
(Esophagotomy.......298
Periosteotomy.......364
Poulticing and Bandaging, .... 389
Rowels and Setons,.....863
Side Lines, Single and Doublé, . . . 359
Slinging the Horse,.....859
Tracheotomy.......364
Travis, The,......359
Twitch, The,......360
Ophthalmia, Simple and Specific, and the Treatment
thereof,........278
Palate, &c., Diseases of the, . . 280
Paralysis, and its Treatment, .... 275
Pasterns and Fetlocks, Diseases, &c, of the. iee Fobe Legs and Feet ; also Hock, Hind Legs and Feet. Patella, Dislocation and Fracture of the, . . 350 Pericardium, Diseases of the, .... 293 Periosteotomy, for the Reduetion of Splints and Ringbone........364
Pebitoneum and Intestines, Diseases and
Injuries of the.....310-314
Pharynx, Disorders of the,.....282
Phlebitis, its Symptoms and Treatment, . . 294
Phrenitis (Inflammation of the Brain), Staggers, . 273 Phymosis and Paraphymosis, .... 323 Plethora and Anaemia, ..... 295 Pleuritis (Pleurisy), and its Treatment, . . 284 Pneumonia, (Inflammation of the Lungs), its Symp- toms and Treatment,.....284 Poulticing and Bandaging,.....369
Prurigo, &c.........328
Putrid Fever, and its Treatment, . * . 253
Quittor, and its Treatment, .... 345
Rabies, or Hydrophobia,.....277
"Red Colic,".......310
Reproductive Organs, Diseases and Injuries
OF the.......323-328
Rcsolution, Signification of, .... 255
Ringbone,........841
Ringworm, and its Treatment.....329
Roaring, and its Treatment, .... 288
Rowels and Setons,......863
Sand-crack, &c.......344
Shoeing, and the Vabious Fobms of
Shoes........370-376
Shoulder, Lamenesses, &c, of the, . . . 336
Side Lines, Single and Doublé.....359
Sitfasts, Warbles, and Galls.....331
Skin, Diseases and Injuries of the, . 328-335
Skull, Fracture of,......272
Slinging the Horse,......359
Sore Throat........287
Spasms...... . . . 278
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||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
360
317 321 |
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Barnacles, The, .
Biliary Calcnli, .
Bladder, Diseases of, .
|
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|
Bleeding, and the Instruments used therein
|
See
|
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|
Operations, Instruments, &c.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Blistering, ....
Blood Vessels, Diseases of the,
Bots, Worms, and Parasitic Animals, Symptoms and Treatment thereof,.....
Bowels, Inflammation, Intus-susception, &o., of, .
|
368
295 306
310
|
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|
Brain, Skull, and Nerves, Diseases and
Injuries of,.....272-278
Breaking-down (Rupture of Suspensory Ligament), 341
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Broken Wind, and its Treatment,
Bronchitis, and its Treatment, . . . Bronchocele, and its Treatment, . Bronchotomy; the Operation described, |
288
283 290 310 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Casting the Horse. See Operations, Instru-
ments, &c. Castration, best Penod for, and Description of the Operation........325
Cataract, and its Treatment, .... 280
Catarrh, Cough, Common Cold, Sore Throat, and |
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|
the Treatment thereof, .....
Chloroform, Advantage of, in severe Operations, .
Choking, ........ Cicatrization, Explanation of, ...
Colio, Flatulent, ......
Colic, Spasmodic, its Symptoms and Treatment, .
Congestion, Sangnineons and Serons, .
Corns, and their Treatment, ....
Costiveness, .......
Crib-biting and Wind-sucking, ....
Crown Scab and Rat Tails, ....
Curb,........
Cystitis (Inflammation of the Bladder),
Deposition, what it includes, .... Diabetes, and its Treatment, .... Diaphragm, Spasm and Rupture of, Diarrhoea, its Causes and Treatment, . Diseases ->r.d their Treatment, Arrangement of, |
287
360 297 256 304 302 296 347 302 308 331 351 322 256 319 291 301 249 |
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|
Diseases, Specifio. See Sfeoifio Diseases of
the Horse.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Docking and Nicking,
Dropsy, .... Dysentery (Molten Grease), Embryotomy, Observations on, Enteritis, and its Treatment, Eye, Diseases of, . Farcy, and its Treatment, . Farcy, Water, and its Treatment, |
. 367
. 305 . 311 . 324 . 310 278-28C . 268 . 332 |
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|
Feet, Lamenesses, &c., of the. See Fobe Legs
and Feet, also Hock, Hind Legs and Feet.
Fetlocks and Pasterns, Injuries, &c, of the. See Fobe Legs and Feet ; also Hock, Hind Legs
and Feet.
Fevcr, its Causes and Treatment. See Specifio Diseases of the Hobse.
Firing, |
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366
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Fistulae,........333
. 366
. 340 |
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F
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Fore Legs and Feet, Lamenesses, Diseases,
and Injuries of the, .... 336 The Arm and Elbow,.....338
The Feet, ......342
The Knee, . .....338
The Leg,.......339
The Pasterns and Fetlocks, .... 341
The Shoulder,......886 |
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Spavii
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362
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,
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Specifio Diseases of the Horse :
Fever, its Causes and Treatment, . . 251
Glanders and Farcy,.....261
Inflammation, Causes and varions Results of. °58
|
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INDEX,
|
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IV
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Page
Vaginitis and Lettcorrhoes (Whites), . . . 424 Vertigo (Megrims), and its Treatment, . . 274 Veterinary Art, Revival of,.....249
Warbles, Sitfasts, and Galls.....331
Warts.........331
Warts on the Eyelids.......280
Water Farcy, and its Treatment.....332
Water on the Chest (Hydrothorax), . . .287
"WateryEye,".......280
Weed,........355
Weights and Measnres, with their Abbreviations, . 248
Windgalls.......296, 35G
Worms, Bots, and Parasitic Animals, Symptoms
and Treatment thereof,.....306
" Yellows" or Janndice, its Symptoms and Treat-
ment. i ....... 310 |
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Page
Tbeth, Palate, Tonque, Nostrils, And
Pharynx, Diseases and Injuries of the, 280-283 Tetanns (Locked Jaw), its Symptoms and Treat-
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Page
Specifio Diseases of the Horse—Coniinued. Influenza, Epizootic or Catarrhal Fever, its
Symptoms and ïreatment, . . . 259 Speedy-cut, Overreach,.....341
Spieën and Glands, Diseases, and Injuries
of the,.......317
Splints, and their Treatment, .... 339
Staggers (Sleepy and Mad) and its Treatment, . 273 Staggers, Stomach.......299
Stomach, Diseases and Injuries of the, 299-310
Strangles, and its Symptoms and Treatment, . 290 Stringhalt, . ._.....277
Snppuration, Explanation of, . . • .255
Surfeit, and its Treatment, . 327 Symptomatio Fever, and its Treatment, . . 253
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275
288 353 281 364 359 357 360 312 253 333 323 318 |
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|
ment, ....
Thick Wind, and its Treatment,
Thorough-pin, .
Tongue, Injuries to,
|
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Traoheotomy, Mode of performing
|
the operation,
|
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Travis, The,
Tread,
Twitch, The, .
Tympany, ....
Typhns Fever, and its Treatment,
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253,
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Ulceration, ....
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Urethritis (Inflammation of the Urethra),
Urinary Oroans, Diseases and Injuries of,
|
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MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE, SHEEP, ETC.
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INDEX.
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VI
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Page
. 608 . 538 . 515 . 530 . 531 . 531 . 532 , 531 |
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Page
Table of Composition of Foods, .... 537
" Digestive Powers of Sheep, . . . 537 " Food Equivalents of 10 lbs. of Hay, . 538 " Proportions of Ingredients djgested by Sheep or Cattle, .... 537
" Weight of Fat Sheep, . . . -838 Washing Sheep, ......516
Pool,.......517
Tab.........517
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THE COLLIE.
Page
Originof.........634
Performance of,......535
Points in a Good,......535
Symmetry,.......534
Training the Pup,......536
Trae Type of,.......534
Well-trained, ....... 636
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Weaning, . . .
Weight of Fat Sheep,
Winter feeding Hill Sheep,
Wool Growing, ....
" Differences in Quality " Food for promoting,
" " Kempy," .
" Soil best for,
« Table of Clip of, .
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DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGS.
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Page
Eye, Treatment,......41
Fly, The, on Sheep,......38
Foot Halt, The,......39
Foot Rot,........39
Treatment,......40
Giddy,........40
Goggles,........40
Lambing Season, The, ..... 33
Larnbs, Diseases of Young, . . • .34 Treatment,......34
Licc and Ticks,......38
Maggots on Sheep, ...... 38
Ovina variola,.......41
Red Water,.......34
Treatment,......34
Rot, The,........35
Treatment, ...... 36
Scab, The,.......36
Treatment,......36
Scour, The,.......40
Sheep-dipping Mixtures,.....37
Directions for using, ..... 37
Small Pox in Sheep,......41
History of its Extension, . . . .46
History of the Treatment, . . . .49
Inoculation, . . . . . .51
Mode of Inoculating, ..... 51
Origin of, . . . . . . .43
Report of the Wiltshire Mutual Association, 56
Selectionand Preservation of VariolonsLymph, 62
Vaccination, a preventative of Small-pox, . 50
Sore Head, ....... 38
Sturdy in Sheep,......40
Ticks.........38
Turnsick,.......40
Udder of Ewes, Inflammation in the, . . .89
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Page
Milk Fever,.......16
Treatment,......16
Milk, to dry a Cow of her, . . . .20
Mouth, The........59
Opisthotonos,.......23
Pad, the Dental,......59
Phrenitis, ....... 10
Placenta, Eetention of the, . . . .18
Plethora,........3
Pleuro-pneumonia,......6
Post-mortem Appearances, .... 7
Preventive Measures, ..... 7
Symptoms, ...... 6
Treatment, ... . . • '
Pleurosthotonos, ...... 23
Pneumonia, ....... 5
Poisons,........25
Prolapsus uteri, ...... 18
Puerperal Fever.......16
Qnarter Evil........10
Red Water,.......9
Rheumatism,.......19
Symptoms,......19
Treatment,......20
Rinderpest,.......26
Post-mortem Appearances, . . . .28
Treatment,......29
" in Odessa, . . . .31
" in Ragusa, . . . .31
Rapidity of Repair in Diseased Tissues, . 33
Slinking,........16
Splenic Fever,....., . 13
Staggers,........14
Treatment,......15
Stomachical Calculi,......95
Teats, Sore,.......20
Treatment, . .... 20
Teeth, The,.......60
" Development of the, „ • . . .61
" Ernption of Temporary, . . .64 " Formation of the Hard Tissues, . . 62
11 Permanent, . . .... 64
Tooth Structure,......60
Trismns,........22
Udder, Inflammation of the, . . . .18
Treatment,......19
Ureters, Calculi in the,.....96
Urinary Calculi,......96
Vertigo,........14
Warbles,........20
Wounds,........21
Treatment,......22
YeUows, The........6
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DISEASES OF CATTLE.
Page
Abortion,........16
Treatment,......16
After-birth, The,......18
Age of the Ox as indicated by his Teetli, . 59, 64
Ansemia, ........ 3 Angle-berries,.......20
Anthrax,........13
Bite of Vcnomous Eeptiles, ... 25
Black Leg,...... 10
" Qnarter,...... 10
Treatment, ... . . . .11
Black Water,.......9
Blown, . . . . . . . .14
Brain, Inflammation of the, . . . .10
Bull-burnt,.......21
Calculi, Casual,......96
" Intestinal, . . . . .96
" in the Ureters, . ... . .96
" Stomachical,...... 95
Calves, Costiveness of,.....24
Diarrhoea or Dysentery, . . . .24
Diseases incidental to Young, . . .23 Hoose,.......24
How to extract when the Calf presents
itself in a Wrong Position, . . .17
Method of Treating the Naval String af ter extraction of,......23
Cattle Plague, The,......26
Colic, ........ 15
Concretions, Calcnlous,.....95
Cow-pox,.......20
Diarrhoea, ....... 11
Epizootic Cold, ...... 4
Eprosthotonos,.......23
Fellon,........4
" Joint........19
Fever, Milk,.......16
" Puerperal,......16
" Splenic,,......13
Fog Sickness,.......14
Treatment,......14
Food, Prehension of.......59
Foot and Mouth Diseast',.....8
Treatment,......9
Foot, The Foul in the,.....23
Fordel, Bound,.......14
Gripes,........15
Hove.........14
Inflammation,.......1
Influenza,.......4
Intestinal Calculi,......96
Jaundice,........6
Joint Fellon,.......19
Joints, Strains of the,.....22
" Wounds of the,.....22
Kidneys, Inflammation of the, . . , .12
Liver, Inflammation of the, . . . .12 Locked Jaw........ 22
Lungs, Inflammation of the, .... 6
Mange,........21 |
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DISEASES OF PIGS.
Age of the Pig as indicated by his Teeth,
Apoplexy,
Breeding, ....
Diseases incident to, .
Fattening, Time for, .
Feeding and Fattening,
Food for Pigs, .
Dairy Refuse,
from Staren Manufactories,
Grain,
Roots and Vegetables,
Measles, .... Parents, Choice of, . Parturition, Piggeries, Construction of, Single and Doublé,
Triughs, .
Yards,
Quinsy, . Rearing, ....
Sore Throat, Malignant, Sows and their Sucklings, Treatment of, Strangles,..... |
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71
89
81 89 79 78 76 76 76 77 77 89 85 87 73 75 74 74 95 84 96 88 96 |
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DISEASES OF SHEEP.
Age of the Sheep as indicated by her Teeth,
Blindness,......
Cleavage in the Upper Lip,
Diarrhoea,......
Eye, Diseases of the,
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68
41 54 40 41 |
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FlUNÏEH BV WfLIJAH MACKENZIE, HOWAED 8TRBBT, OLASIWW.
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