Grooms directory, 1830

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All knowledge belongs to all men.

-' The Grooms' Oracle ! " was an epithet be- stowed, about twenty years ago, in derision, upon one of the best books that had hitherto appeared, in this or any other country, on the Veterinary Art.* Allowed, from the first, to be the best book, because the easiest to be comprehended by

* The scandal was repeated by a Mr. W. Percivall, in 1823, with still more angry feelings, though that book had already reached its tenth edition. In sooth, because of that very success, probably ; for hereby would the doctors' half-guinea- fee trade receive a salutary check, and wary people keep their cash from waste. "With the like sort of venal feeling, regarding this volume of Conversations, did the same partizans candidly avow - " We really wish Mr. Hinds would write no more books ;" a wish that we readily admit was as sincere and heartfelt, on the part of Mr. P. and his coadjutor, as it was cheering and consolatory to us two grooms. For we really entertain vast reverence for Mr. Percivall's excessive learning, and deeply lament that he does not make himself understood.

the generality of persons engaged in that pursuit ; and therefore did it become more extensively useful than any of its cotemporaries, notwith- standing its extra-learned detractors hoped to abash its author by that puny, ill-applied imputa- tion ; for Mr. White, the person alluded to, so far from temporising with grooms, frequently lashed their well-known negligence and want of foresight, until he has wrought a happy reformation in both respects. Generally speaking, they benefitted by this and other means, and, at this day, they READ, we are pleased to observe, and this is sufficient guarantee that they will STUDY, more than the old grooms could do : may they digest and put in practice the intellectual treat to which we know so many of them are invited by their employers ! They may rest assured that no pains shall be spared to afford them the means of ac- quiring knowledge from books that are adapted to their capacity, notwithstanding the array of writers and doctors just adverted to would nip their pursuits in the bud.

One of these, alluded to by name in the margin, and calling himself ** the Veterinarian," after some vapouring, becomes serious, thus: - " Now, ** is it far from our desire to be considered hypercri- *' tical by any author, and more particularly by *' Mr. Hinds, lest he should think fit to rank us

*' among those who, in his estimation, compose '* * the quidnunc part of the press:' but really we '* cannot proceed, and leave our readers, or even " Mr. Hinds' readers, to conceive for a moment ** that a groom, admitting even that he can ascer- ** tain a horse's actual state of health, is equal to ** * find out the seat of ailment, and the cause " ' thereof! ' If the groom can do all this, what ** need is there for the Veter-inary Surgeon? " qualify the readers of them to take the medical as ** well as the hygienal charge of studs, what further " occasion can there be for the Veterinary Col-

As regards the latter question, let the writer turn to the Preface prefixed to the new Edition of Osmer's Treatise on the Horse, page viii. and he will perceive that his fellows of the College have been wofully deficient in their researches during the first forty years of their infancy - unless those which have been made in the pages of WilHam Osmer ; and an answer to the first question will be found on page XX. of the same Preface - thus, '* By the way, we are very much mistaken (says the Critic) if the grooms' employers may not derive as much pleasure and profit from the perusal of these Con- versations, as tJie class of persons for whose use

the Volume appears to have been ostensibly de-

Yes ; let it be avowed, that the present title was adopted, and is preserved, for the purpose of cast- ing a triumphant rebuke in the teeth of those who would willingly smug the curative art within a circumscribed space, misrepresentations (false facts) being one of the worthy means employed. Will it be believed, without asseveration, that one of those hippological critics (as they assume to be) should attempt to decry my volume of Veterinary Surgery, by making alleged quotations from it, twenty-two in number, seventeen of which do not so appear in the original ? Hence I was led to ob- serve, that inapplicable criticisms which are ground- ed on their own Laiider-like garbled quotations can do no service to the falsifying parties, only in the same manner as the rod which truants at school are compelled to gather for their own backs. Every one will allow that those are the weak subterfuges of paltry gain, if notwicked attempts to withstand the instruction of the lower classes, to darken the light of science which casts its influence over the un- initiated, and indeed to deny what is quite palpable as regards the horse - that ** the Schoolmaster is abroad," and will be heard.

Grooms of to-day, then, are not the grooms of

tliirty to twenty years ago ! They possess as much Intellect as other persons of the same standing in society, it is presumed, and some do acquire book- learning ; whence we are emboldened to ask, with- out fear of giving offence to a large class of meri- torious persons, how it comes to pass that so many horses died under their hands whilst training for the course or the chase? For, the solution of this tjuestion is the foundation of all the inquiries set a foot, and resolved in the present volume. This also constitutes our apology, if any be necessary, and is the reason for printing another volume on HorsemansJiij), so soon after having given to the world a somewhat elaborate treatise on the physio- logy and pathology of the Horse, which might seem to have exhausted the subject of his ailments.^ But, there are other and more remote causes of disease than the immediate and recent ones there- in described, which are brought on by neglect or the inadvertence that constitutes mismanagement of man ; whilst he who thinks he can never do enough, in anxious mood, will for ever be doing something, until he commits the mistake of over management. Among the latter (incredible as it may appear) must be reckoned overfeeding, warm clothing, and

* Alluding to '' Hinds'sVeterinary Surgery," the first Edition much enlarged.

hot stabling; whilst the contraries, poor feed, or irregular, exposure, and uncomfortable stables, belong to the first series of blunders. Both errors fall, chiefly, on the hest description ofhorses, (see page 124,) upon the welfare and fitness whereof immense fortunes are annually staked, 1st. in the prime cost, or breeding ; 2nd. in bringing up pro- perly to go through their work ; 3rd. at the post, in performance, &c. &c. Whence results an aggre- gate sum, equalling, almost, the capital employed in the staple manufacture of the kingdom.

On the second, or intermediate point, what care do we not bestow, what expenses lavish, in training our first-rate cattle to win ! How we sometimes fail, after all our care, is worth all the pains we may bestow in the inquiry. We may even save time, and trouble, and expense, and immense anxiety, by investigating in the parlour, what ought to be done in the stable, according to the test of experience of others ; for this is really the age of improvement in the arts of life, and of veterinary knowledge as much as any ; though the communicativeness that marks the spirit of libe- rality in almost every other, hath not extended itself to the art of training. So truly is this the case, and so great the dissonance of opinion as to what is right or what wrong in the process, that every horse which dies in training (and they have

been lately estimated at three in eleven) may safely be said to die of training ; and as purgatives and cordials are the most active materials by which the people employed in this business hope to accom- plish their object, and they use both unreasonably, such horses may be considered as being " purged to death," or morbifically cordialled, until phrensy or visceral inflammation relieves the sufferer of existence ; or else, haply falling short of this acute species of attack, a comparatively short time re- duces a valuable animal in the scale of beings to which it belongs.

That these Conversations were maintained as here set down would be too much to say ; but, that a good many points were elicited in argument is evident - though we claim no merit on that account. Each is supposed to occupy a day or single meet- ing, and the whole aims rather at establishing general principles from particular practices than to enter into all the minor details of the stable.

Our endeavours have been directed towards at- taining a more rational mode of treatment, one that is somewhat conformable to the laws of nature, such as shall turn aside the prejudices that have too long infested the stable. That we have succeeded completely cannot be said at present, neither are our own wishes satisfied ; but we, nevertheless, find great gratification in the intelligence that so much

good has been achieved by the first and less deli- berated Edition. In the present, however, much care has been bestowed in pruning redundancies, in making additions, and such alterations as a year of experience, nearly, might seem to have pressed itself into our service. In doing this, - and indeed in producing this volume, or any other on the Art, we knew, beforehand, the mighty offence it would inflict on those who live by giving advice ; but a lingering hope, that they who have abused and be- lied us - as before noticed, would have the common prudence to desist when they found their acrimony served but to recoil on themselves with increased force - is yet unrealized ; - a kindly wish, that we might be spared the trouble of castigation, is yet to be fulfilled.

Bridport-PlacCj

Conversation I. - Introductory : Groom's first duties : Prognostics of Disease: general Health ; the Pulse, how available. Inbred Disorders; Young animals and fresh

Conversation II. - ^The Foot : Lameness in general ; how produced ; and of particular Accidents. Racers ; con- tracted Hoof; internal Causes ; Founder ; Foot-Fever ; bleeding Hunters ; run at Grass ; stopping 16

Conversation III. - Condition : Cordials, use and abuse of; Effects; Indigestion, Colic, Worms: Recovery from severe Work ; natural Cordials 47

Conversation IV. - Condition soiling, necessity of: Advantages and Disadvantages ; physicking ; turning- out ; and taking up ; the Humours ; in-door Mistreat-

Conversation V. - General Health - Feeding and Exer- cise ; in-door Treatment. Wind. Costiveness ; Speed, Physic. Of blank Days, Rest. Distress. Watering ; qualities. Stone. Temper, ravenous Horses and tender ones. Gross Food. Stretch and Length. Foreign

Conversation VI. - Gross Habit. Grooming, its Be- nefits : Litter ; Blear Eyes 87

Conversation VII. - The Stable : Ventilation - draining.

Properties of Air, Gas 91

Conversation VIII. - Of preserving health : Work, Tonics. Legs. Misusage. Powers of going - Phy- sicking, its use and abuse ; Preparatives ; mode of giving Balls 104

Conversation IX. - Of Appetite. The Stomach; how affected, by bad Mouth, and how affecting Condition. Of Lampas ; Paps ; Quidders ; Bad Provender ; Crib-

Conversation X. - Inflammatory Complaints. First. Of the Stomach and Bowels : influence the Kidneys and Liver. Colic and inflammatory Complaints ; Adhesion ; Jaundice, retention of Urine, Bladder 146

Conversation XI. - Internal Inflammation, continued : Diseases of the Urinary Organs; the Kidneys and Liver. - the Bladder, incontinence of Urine and Suppression thereof ; Stone 160

Conversation XII. - The Lungs ; - Wind-Pipe and Mid- riff: a Cold, Catarrhal Inflammation ; Broken Wind, Roaring ; Law-Suits 176

Conversation XIII. - Cough 183

Conversation XIV. - Inflammation of the Lungs, how incurred. Pulmonary Consumption. Adhesion of the

Conversation XV. - The Liver, its Complaints. Func- tion impeded, and the same over-excited. Adhesion . . 212

Conversation XVI. - Of some necessary Operations ; and chiefly on Shoeing refractory Horses 2_21

Appendix. - Hinds's Book of Receipts; tests for detecting adulterated Medicines ; and observations on various

Introductory; Grooins first Duties: Prognostics of Disease ; general Health ; the Pulse, how available. Inbred Disorders; Young Animals and fresh ones.

" It is better to prevent than to cure ; to reclaim than to punish."

A FEW cursory remarks, only: No apolo- gies, I apprehend, will be required ?

A. None are necessary : proceed, freely ; and with as much order as you can conveniently.

Q. What is the first duty of every good groom?

A . To ascertain the state of health the horses, at any time placed under his care, may be in ; to pre- serve them in that state, at least, and to find out the seat of any ailment that may occur, and the cause thereof, so that it may be removed as soon as possible, or, at any rate, alleviated ; for you cannot reasonably hope to keep a horse in working condi- tion whilst he suffers pain.

2 FATNESS deprecated: OF FEEDING. [CONV.

Q. Or inconvenience, we may add?

A. Yes; when speaking of high-bred cattle.

Q. Be he never so fat, the least pain of long continuance throws him out of condition, I observe?

A. Fatness! fatness is not necessary to condi- tion, though 'tis proof of it, unless for slow draught-horses, for your London merchants, who love to make a show of their teams. Hunters, stagers, and roadsters, that require the powers of going to be combined with strength, should not be fat - racers least of all. Do we not hand-rub and otherwise dress them, till our arms ache, for the very purpose of circulating the blood, and thereby reduc- ing the size of the muscles, by promoting absorption, and of the fat above all. Never talk of fat again for fast animals, as 'tis an impediment to their speed.

Q. I know, I know ; strong exercise and regular physic will alone keep your running-horse up to his paces. But how do you proceed with a fresh horse, now, generally speaking ?

A. By watching his mode of feeding, by ascer- taining whether he be craving for water, a rave- nous eater, fretful, or otherwise ; judging by the quality of his dungings, as to colour, consistence, and frequency, whether he has been made up ; and, by his urine and perspiration at exercise and in the stable; also, whether he suffers any obstruc- tion internally, to say nothing here of his appear- ance upon the view, which may have previously deceived the purchaser himself, or 'tis to be pre- sumed it would not have been bought at all.

Q. Made up on purpose for sale, possibly, by such treatment as will assuredly prove the ruin of the animal in a short time after he comes to the

A. Its whole system excited, and its health undermined to such a degree by cordials, and fig- ging-, and *' things for his wind," and those '* good for his eyes," that it never fully recovers the effects of so much excitement.

Q. But looking fine, brisk and sleek, neverthe-

A. Yet being actually very tender, in conse- quence of the means employed to make him look so. Such new purchases usually acquire diseases of the lungs, or of the skin, the first day of taking tliem home, or 'tis much else.

Q. Unless you continue the same treatment ; the decoction of linseed, for example, can do no harm for a little while.

A. Nor any good, except with a view to re-sale ; an event the real gentleman does not look to, you know. But some stand in immediate need of physic, their bellies being so drawn up at the flanks by the fiery things given them by the dealers, to inspire a short-lived vigour, that inflammation of the intestines is to be apprehended.

Q. Or the solids so much afl^ected from a con- tinuance of the same excitement, that, upon pres- sing your finger upon any fleshy part of the carcase, the indentation remains awhile.

A. Whereas, the flesh of horses, in full health,

and young ones, obliterates such a pressure instant- ly. Yes, yes, at all events, give to newly-pur- chased horses plenty of bran-mashes or dilute oat- meal-gruel in the first instance, to neutralize the offensive contents of the stomach, &c. and then pro- cure the three evacuations. Should these not come on regularly, or the urine and dunging be of a bad kind, hide-bound and other diseases of the skin follow ; as they do the disuse of habitual diaphore- tics, as sweating powders and the linseed decoction you just now mentioned. We should study the de- fects of our nevf acquaintance, however ungracious the task, especially if it be one we would make free use of, as we do of the horse.

Q. He may have been originally ill-formed, and so the inheritor and possessor of some family disease, as narrow-chested (bad lungs), hollow- backed (injured kidneys), and the like.

A. True ; but I would also desire to discover his acquired disorders, that lie concealed from the sight and the touch, those which are brought on by accident, or by the misapplication of his powers.

Q. Of what nature is the principal of the less evident disorders of horses ?

A. Heat.^ Inordinate heat, occasioned by the

* A very grave gentleman suggested, that physic was the principal ailment of the horse, not so much on account of ignorance in the compounders, as of the motives to prescribing; which would superinduce giving too soon, and continuing too long, the very best remedies, - or what the interested party would call " regular treatment."

great exertions the animal is compelled to make ; and, when excessive, the bad effects thereof de- scending to the feet and legs, we invariably find these affected with some defect or other, which every act of progression does but exacerbate, especially if the pace be quick : the pain then endured at the extremities re-acts upon the carcase, or some vital part within it, and though it may produce no marked disease, irritates the stomach and intestines when behind, and prevents the food from doing good, or 'tis rejected altogether, where- by the horse goes out of condition ; or, if the pain be in the fore limbs, the lungs soon suffer from its effects, and that invariably after every long-con- tinned exertion, and more in hot than in mild sea-

Q. But you would not extend this observation to mere accidents, and the wear and waste of

A. Yes, I would, in great measure ; the aggra- vation we sometimes find to attend the most trivial prick of the foot, or slight touch of one leg by the foot of another in training, being wholly attributable to the bad or the heated state of his blood at the time of its occurring ; for, do we not know that such injuries sometimes happen and go away again without any medical treatment whatever, or any imaginable reason than comparative rest and good bodily health prevailing at the time ?

Q. How would you come at a knowledge of this bodily health, as you call it ?

A. By the practice o^ feeling the pulse frequent- ly, whereby we ascertain the degree of heat, and other interesting- intelligence as to what is passing withinside. I can go through this part of my duty with our stables full of horses, in half an hour daily, including the time necessary for making my remarks upon such as require it. Owing to the thickness of the skin, however, in the minor breeds of horses, I find you must regulate the pressure of your finger point, so as neither to stop the pulsation entirely, by pressing too hard, nor by the direct contrary practice allow yourself to be deceived on the score of indistinctness in the beats.

Q. On what artery is the thinnest skin found I

A. Near the eye, at about an inch and a half from its corner ; but a larger artery may be consulted more instructively, underneath the edge of the jaw- bone. By applying this test of health to those par- ticular parts we are enabled to ascertain two or three facts of paramount importance at one and the same time, - namely^ the number of beats in a minute, and the regularity thereof, as also the force of the stroke, or its imbecility ; whereas, by placing the hand, as is usual, against the left side, under the elbow, the first point of information only is obtained. The heat and dryness of the mouth is also a sure indication of that heat and irritation of the whole system, denominated fever.

Q. Well ; and if the pulse beat quicker than or- dinary, what opinion should you form upon it? What if slower than common ?

A. In the first case, I should conclude the patient had an access of fever, which is always the case, tem- porarily, when the animal has been put on his mettle, and the more so, when he goes in jjain ! so, on the contrary, if he feed badly, or has some languishing disorder of the liver, as obstruction thereof, jaun- dice, or low fever, his pulse would be slower than usual and languid.

Q. What, then, do you consider the common medium of pulsation, or healthy state ?

A. It varies a little, according to circumstances and the breed of the animal, from thirty-six to forty beats in a minute ; the pulsation of large heavy horses being slower than that of the smaller breeds, and that of young horses quicker than old ones of their own kinds respectively.*

Q. Are there no other indications given by the pulse of the animal's health?

A. Undoubtedly : irregularity of beating is a sure sign of something being amiss with the nervous part of the system : fluctuation in the beating of the pulse tells us, as plainly as words can, when the animal has been flurried in any manner; if by ill- usage, the beats increase in quickness, a few strokes hard, followed by a fewer still indistinct; if the

* So is the blood of all young ones thinner, paler, and quicker in the circulation than that of old animals ; age increas- ing its colour, its thickness, or viscidity ; and its resistance to the contraction of the containing vessels is consequently greater, therefore is it slower in motion.

agitation has been caused by pleasurable sensations, as the sound of horn or hounds, or the near ap- proach to home, then the number of low indistinct beats exceed the hard ones. Animals of bad tem- per, those with defective eyes, or skittish ones, that are apt to shy, and mares in heat, all evince this irregularity of pulsation ; whereby I first learned to come at a knowledge of each individual's temper, and I take care to treat him accordingly.

Q. That is an excellent distinction of yours; I have an idea it may be pushed much farther, to the benefit of the noble animal, whose merits we are now discussing.

A. Undoubtedly, the jo/acitZAorse which is kindly and docile in his nature, will be found with an equal moderate pulse ; whilst that of the voracious, tear- away, craving horse, which is never still, never satis- fied even when foremost, and \ns pulse shall be from four to six beats a minute quicker than the first- mentioned, and not regular either.

Q. We will enter more fully into the distinctive attributes of the several classes of prime horses at some future opportunity. [Conversation ix.] Meantime, have you aught further to say concern- ing the pulse?

A. Not at present. I shall reserve somewhat I have further to observe, until we come to talk of inflammatory fever and of bleeding ; in both which respects, my plan of daily ascertaining the state of my horses' pulse in health has been found of critical

benefit by the actual doctor, when he is called in, as sometimes happens, to consult over a patient. [See Appendix, Pulse.~\

Q. Do you, then, keep a register of the state of your horses' pulse ?

A. Yes ; of valuable ones, regularly, throughout the year, along with my Stud-book, Racing Calendar, Trial-book, and Account-book. You form a library of the same materials, do you mind me, with a cou- ple of books on Farriery, and read them with atten- tion; you'll ride none the heavier for it. As to ordinary or working cattle, they are not so readily affected, nor so dangerously, as horses with some breeding in them, and require less care.

Q. Neither do they require vowWne physicking, like the thorough-bred horse, flesh being no incum- brance to them ; and nature, with the casual relish of green food, doing for such animals all that is

A. Yet, notwithstanding I can recollect tolerably well what state of health every horse is in by a hasty touch, I like to put down my remarks on the hook, when any alteration takes place, to look it over at my leisure, that 1 may compare one season with an- other, and the state of one animal with that of another, and all with any change of circumstances. I once had an employer who called the pulse " the index of health ;" and at one time he observed that it ** resembled the thermometer,'' or weather-glass, which hangs up in the stable.

Q. Very like, indeed. By these means, I per-

ceive how persons may also obtain a good insight of each animal's temper; for every one has its peculiar disposition, like mankind, and each requires a different treatment.

A. To be sure they have ; all different, according to the breed, the gestation and rearing, * the manner in which the mounting and breaking, the shoeing, grooming and exercising, have been con- ducted, with other misusage; to say nothing of some inward disorders with which horses are occa- sionally afflicted at the time of foaling, or shortly after - as, when distemper prevails ; f the which, if ever they get over, shews itself in a vicious dispo- sition that nought can cure, though we may alle- viate such, by gentle means, - and by these only, in our approaches to the afflicted creature.

Q. Stop. Misusage is a very undefined expres-

- Inconsiderate persons about every farm, almost, who ad- mire tlie gambolling of foals, too frequently set them off^ for their amusement: and when they are taken in, the boys will often play tricks with the younkers, and teach them pranks the animals never forget : the habit of shying is thus engendered, and leaves us in doubt whether defective vision may not have been caused by this evil habit, as well as causing it. The optic nerve, by being constantly employed and excessively strained at every bugaboo sight, is thus disposed to occasion an access of humours at the part, more than is required naturally to supply the (Bquous humours thereof.

t Some very judicious and extended instructions for the re- covery of mares and foals in seasons of the Distemper ^ may be found (by those who require them) in " Osmer's Treatise on the Horse," a new edition whereof, being the 5th, re-written by John Hinds, was published in January, this year.

sion. What one person would consider so, another might look upon as quite necessary ; - chastisement, for example, of a hard-mouthed, country-bred, headstrong horse ; - it must be rendered tractable, you know, cost what pain it may.

A. And never fails to become so under mild management, nor when employed in its proper work from the beginning ; and not pushed onwards, flogged and constrained to exertions beyond its powers, particularly whilst young ; nor at any age, indeed, while suffering under some well-suspected

Q. Shoeing particularly disobliges some horses, every fresh shoe being the signal for a fresh battle between smith and horse, the man attacking the animal, as 'twere, in the determination of perform- ing that operation by force of arms^ which a little coaxing would have effected equally well - if not

A. Horses so treated must, I think, be consi- dered as misused creatures, without taking into account the capricious tempers of certain proprie- tors, and keeping quite out of view those occasions when some of them get into jolly company, and thereupon become as careless of their own health as of the valuable animals committed to their charge. You may have observed that an ill-tempered breed- ing farmer generally rears vicious horses ; the evil, in such cases, usually beginning with the mares in foal, whom he scares, or keeps uncomfortably, or works the mother up to the eleventh month.

Q. This she communicates to her offspring. I'll give you a case in point, as to this fact, of a half- bred mare, belonging to a Cambridgeshire farmer, which produced five or six times, and every foal grew up as fretful and ill-tempered as it was finely shaped and full of fire ; and all sold at high prices, too, though all committed some mischief or other. One three- year old colt nearly killed the farmer himself; and, being sold to a neighbour, Gazzam by name, his new master reclaimed him by gentle treatment and steady usage, taking especial care, however, not to over-feed him at any one time, nor too much upon the whole : this he did on the princi- ple that distension of the stomach of young animals always engenders evil disposition, and fills them full of humours - which appear in the form of tumours, of strangles, lampas, and similar luxuriances.

A. That is to say, the stomach governs the dispo- sition. In this lies the secret of all animal manage- mentf and that of the temper as much as any thing, since you thereby act upon their hopes and expec- tations of gratifying the appetite as much as on their fears of the lash ; in lieu of which the groom can substitute his voice in the correction of any vice he may discover, whereas hasty, petulant cor- rection does but confirm it the more. With this end in view, I always attend to the feeding and rubbing down every new purchase, of whatever kind, my employer sends into the stables, the better to ascertain its temper, to notice its manner jaf feeding, to watch the state of its blood, which

marks the distinctive character of most horses, as much as its quantity ^ and to make such other close observations as may enable me to perform my duty as I ought, and which points of intelligence are only to be acquired by those means.

Q. Still I must insist, that some vicious horses of robust constitution, are only to be reclaimed by rough usage! an absolute conquest over their un- toward temper, is necessary to render such animals at all tractable - they must tremble at the voice of the rough rider ^ (as in cases of cavalry remounts,) ere they become fit for service.

A. Instead of turning out, like a couple of bul- lies to fight it out, as I have seen many soldiers enact with such evil disposed brutes, I have dealt successfully with two of those untractables, by dint of voice, and mode of feeding, with very little use of the whip, and less of spur. Both cases were those of half-bred horses. The exercises were conducted on the usual plan, and at first with the usual kick up between horse and rider. The feeding was not spare, but divided into smaller portions and oftener ; and accompanied with rebukes or caresses, as the individual might behave himself; but the main part of the victory was obtained by iiight work, as I was resolved not to be beaten. I took to the boys' bed, slept in my clothes, and every two or three hours summoned my restive customer from his sleep, got him up, pulled his head a little, spoke according to circumstances, and occasionally put on the saddle.

Q. He would be tame next morning, and still

14 groom's stable-management, [conv.

more so on a repetition, I apprehend ; you suc- ceeded by those means 1

A. Perfectly so ; but I am now past the endur- ance of so much privation of rest, as such an un-

Q. You are a man of acute perception, I see, and well deserve the confidence placed in you ; may you meet your reward.

A. I have that already, in the health that pre- vails in our stables, one and all, and the commen- dations bestowed upon my management by the noble and distinguished visiters to them. As to money-rewards, they come as matter of course ; I am made quite easy on that score, as we scarcely win a race but I find myself remembered in some shape or other; not so much (I observe) in pro- portion to the amount of the stakes, but, as ap- pears to me, according to the exertions made, and the goodness of the cattle we may have been op- posed to. I like that vastly.

Q. Then, a " walk-over" is not to your taste?

A. Not a bit of it : give me a neck-and-neck win against the best bred cattle in Christendom ! I don't care where they come from. How the thoughts of such a race make my old heart to

But your inquiries do not so much tend to inves- tigate the particular economy of a racing stud, I perceive ; unless in that general way wherein this agrees with the management of half-hreds (as we call the main class of horses) and labouring cattle,

not forgetting your well-formed hunter, which, if it be not three-quarter bred, should at least be strong built, well upon the haunches, and of robust constitution. Come, come, I begin to discover that you desire to worm out of me not only all I knoiv, but whatever I may think upon the subject ; but, in saying this, I mean not to object, for I am no undelightful churl, and shall answer freely all your questions. Let us confine or talk to the pre- liminaty at first, or that mistaken course of treat- ment with superinduceth disorders, as well as the means of avoidance : it is better to prevent than to cure, - more humane to reclaim than to punish. This sentiment is not new : our countrymen have long learnt that the necessary operations - as dress- ing, shoeing, and exercising, are as well accom- plished, if not better, by coaxing and watching the temper of horses, as by that constant coercion, force, and brutal language, which formerly dis- figured our stable-management.

The Foot : Lameness in general ; Jioiv produced : and of particular Accidents. Racers ; contracted Hoof; internal Causes ; Founder ; Foot-Fever; bleeding Hunters ; run at Grass ; stopping.

A. True ; lameness may proceed from several causes that may not reside in the foot at all, or, at any rate, not originate there. The inquiry as to which of these exists at any time, and how it has been brought about, is of primary importance towards its removal.

Q. With what anxiety every one examines the feet of his horse, or one he is about to purchase ! And not without reason ; however good in every other respect, if he fail in this he is good for nothing.

A. Less than nothing ; he is an encumbrance. Lameness frequently comes on in the fore legs without other cause than brisk work; it goes off after having puzzled us in searching for the seat of pain, and returns again on a repetition of the same fast-going - until, at length, 'tis found incurable.

Q. Therefore is it extremely desirable to pro- vide an early remedy, when we have discovered whereabout to apply it : but sometimes 'tis a long while invisible. Strain of the shoulder, probably ; by some persons termed *' shoulder shook ?"

A. Never, from such a cause ; nor unless the

horse has sustained an accidental blow there, or has been thrown down, or he has sustained a twisted tread upon uneven ground, which the rider must have noticed at the time of its happening ; in all which cases the person in charge of the sufferer should be invited to declare the fact, and if uncom- plying, should be compelled to acknowledge it, by dint of threats, o^ ground ashy or of tongue. Similar accidents happen behind, at the stifle, or the whirl- hone, but are seldom acknowledged by ordinary drivers, with whom they mostly occur, in driving carelessly through the crowded road, or upon en- tering the narrow stable-doors with which an ill- judged parsimony has unblest a certain description of proprietors.

Q. When a better description of horse falls lame under the like circumstances, we are no better oflF.

A. We try every art to find out the place af- fected ; so, to make sure of the shoulder first, lift up the head of your patient high, compare the size of his two shoulders, let go his head abruptly, and he will drop it towards the side his pain lies, when the shoulder will be found swollen either towards the breast or near the withers, and he evinces pain upon its being rubbed down hard.

Q. With us, they rattle some corn in a sieve behind the horse, now on this side, now on that, and you shall discover whether he flinches when turning his neck this way or that, as he will do if the ail- ment be in the shoulder, and not in \\\e foot.

A. According to the extent of the injury, and the state of the patient's bodily health, will be the amount of inflammation and swelling, although both are absent on some occasions, and no other symptom remain in common but lameness, and the flinching you speak of: "when heat and swelHng supervene, rub the part well with camphoretted spirits, No. 2 ; when no swelling is perceivable, employ the cold lotion, with the roller-binding. [See Appendix, Lotions.']

Q. Well, and suppose the lame horse does not flinch, nor drag his toe on the ground, nor any of those other symptoms you speak of?

A. Then does the lameness lie in ihefoot, or in the leg, just above it, but seldom in the latter when the lameness is before; except, indeed, with blood horses in training, which are very liable to '^ fall lame," as the people about them falsely say, un-

Q. But can you tell me how this falling lame occurs so often with racers in training, and the young ones principally, notwithstanding the inde- scribable care that is taken to bring forward this description of horse in the very best possible state to the post?

A. This may be, and often is, occasioned by the weights put up being too great for their strength ; the younkers then bringing their fore legs close to- gether, the better to sustain the burthen, and when they move onward the legs interfere with each other.

Q. Repetition of the hlow enhances the harm thus inflicted, and continuance of the exercise sends the sufferer home lame.

A. Frequently. Boys should be allowed the dis- cretion of walking home from the downs when they discover that such an accident has occurred ; and the immediate brisk application of a spoonfull of vinegar to the part removes the effect of the blow.

Q. Aye, better carry up with them a pewter phial charged with vinegar rather than brandy, which then does harm.

A. As it does in all recent cases of strained sinews. After the heat and tension is gone down, then indeed ardent spirits may do good. Too much anxiety often defeats its own purpose : the very best things may be overdone ; so is hand-rubbing, car- ried to an extreme, upon the legs of those horses until they become susceptible of the least injury, as may be inferred from the lowering of the pastern bone, its inclination downwards increasing as this operation is more assiduously performed. This ap- pears to me to be one of those things in stable management which, being good and beneficial up to a certain point, when pushed to excess becomes prejudicial, to any description of horse and to none more than the hunter, jaded with a long chase, par- ticularly when the rubbing commences before the tired animal has been suffered to cool.

Q. The humours being stirred up by strong work, are attracted, by the friction, to the legs - in the nature of a blister, and they thicken.

A. And if they do not swell, rapid absorption of muscle goes on, and produces legs too fine for going over a rough country ; so you had best wait awhile ere the rubbing begins, or first wash the legs in warm water, wipe and scrub them quite dry, ban- dage them spirally (See Appendix) with long woollen roller binding. This doctrine I have always maintained, and acted upon it. The part having lost its defence in consequence of the muscle being absorbed by the friction - the bared sinews are exposed to blows - the which, however trivial, are felt in their degree ; and as they occur (I believe) about the time of going to exercise, i.e. at clothing, putting up the boy in the stall, and partly turning, instead of backing quite out - the gallop renders a most insignificant touch matter of importance ; for the horse comes home lame.

Q. We frequently notice that high-bred cattle, young ones in particular, are given to cross the fore- legs in turning ; this is one of their habits, which is more observable when in training, and tells us plainly, they should not he turned round too sharp at any time. In the actual race, I have noticed several instances of falling lame while running, and of breaking down, that these occurred at, or soon after passing some turn in the land.

A. 'Twere better, if the accident could be dis- covered before going out to exercise, when a walk for an hour might probably restore the leg ; but it is the pace that has brought the accident to maturity, which is only to be got over by comparative rest ;

II.] hunters' knock-up, lame. 21

nay of absolute rest, if the walk has increased the lameness aught. [See Camplioretted Sjnrits, in

Q. Ah! J^e^Hs incompatible with training; it puts on JlesJi, that enemy of pace.

A. Which must then be got rid of by physic ; purging-balls and sweating-powders must take place of sweating over the hills and downs, and the na-

Q. Sweating-powders! Surely you do not

A. Not upon trivial occasions, truly ; but I will insist upon reducing the animal's fat, and I find no more inoffensive aid than the all-efficacious evacua- tion by the skin. We apply the cold lotion or camphoretted spirits, according to the nature of the accident, and restore the limb to its former state by those means ; but much valuable training time is thus lost in the process, whilst we still look upon the leg with suspicion, and the proprietor acts under a doubt with his engagements.

Q. What further happens, even in the slightest cases, but that every day the work is suspended, the animal loses temper, much to the disadvantage of his form of going.

A. He becomes choleric in consequence of his blood thickening, and must be bled, to the amount of two quarts at the least. Indeed, if the accident has been greater than what I have hitherto contem- plated, the cure would be advanced by bleeding in the first instance, to the amount of four quarts, or rather more, if the subject be one of the strong,

hearty kind, and consequently full of blood, and of irritable disposition. When lameness is inflicted on such an one, bleeding is no longer optional, nor should its quantity be trifling.

Q. Walking exercise (gently does it) on a pad- dock completes the cure ; I have worked at it my- self, as it requires much care.

A. And 1, too, ofttimes ; but 'tis generally under- taken too early. Whilst dressing, the last-mention- ed description of horses will strike a foot against its corresponding leg, unless you take the precau- tion to guard against this accident by putting on the boots.

Q. I also remember a fine horse being kicked by a lad, in the act of dressing him, as he said, " in his own defence," the horse having rammed him against the wall in its agony at the curry-comb.

A. This is an off'ence seldom happening in the present day ; but whoever put that barbarous in- strument into the poor fellow's hands was the pri- mary offender, though only to use it for cleansing the brush, which is itself too generally coarse and unfit to apply to the coat of a thorough-bred horse.

Q. They make brushes of whalebone hair, now- a-day, which should be rejected for thin-skinned horses, as a few hairs always retain the original hardness of the whalebone.

Huntet's likewise fall lame through the same causes ; and also by hard work over an uneven country, as they do by leaping, without exactly clearing the object they go at.

A. Then it is that a little strain, or rather sprain^ of the back sinews and ligaments, which, although they be lai^ge in the hunter, contract lameness after a hard day's work is over, when the whole of the shank-bone loses its shape, and becomes round, large, and hot. This more certainly happens, if the horse is neglected, or " left behind," perhaps, at some stray farm-house, near where he may have knocked up, and no opportunity offers of bandaging the legs, as ought to be done after every day's sport - provided there has been sport.

Q. At our stables, when the hunters come in, previously to bandaging, we bathe the fetlocks with warm water, and the knees too, giving the flannels a twist round each joint, and supplying every one with three or four turns of the water, a little warmer each time, but no lotion or embroca- tion is employed.

A. Of course, you take care to wipe quite dry, and that before the application is suffered to cool. You will find that horses with legs too fleshy have the most tendency to contract inflammation of the parts, as may be easily felt on grasping the leg be- fore applying the water; which also dries up sooner the more heat you may find on either foot respec- tively, as it also is an indication of that heat, if not otherwise noticed by tlie touch.

Q. If the hardness remains, whether of the bone or its coverings, next day, and subsequently, we wash the legs in strong salt water, in the same manner, after walking out the horse, and give him

the same exercise immediately after the cold salt- water bathing."^

A. The virtues of salt applications to the legs have lain hidden, neglected, and despised, for the last half-century; its only advocate, William Osmer, having been placed himself in the same predica- ment. A charge or cataplasm of salt applied to any affection of the legs, when pursued assiduously, is a fine discutient.

Q. Descending to the foot; - have you not ob- served that the majority of horses leave the shoeing smith with a different gait from the one with which they entered Ms sliop, for 'tis ill advised to shoe the best description of horses in sight of their own

A. It is so. Better lead such in company of a pad-horse or hackney, along the stable front, to a shed or shop at the further end ; where, let us sup- pose in fairness, he is shod in the best manner; yet, if the smith pare the sole in large slivers, though altogether no more than is needful and proper, the horse will go away in a crippling gait ; a proceeding that is ill-advised, even as regards the cart-horse.

* The whole subject of strains has received enlarged notice elsewhere - " Veterinary Surgery," i)age 481. A deposite of lymph underneath the skin is the consequence of a blow, the which forms the groundwork of disease, either immediate or remote ; whilst the strain causes exhaustion of the same means of lubricating the tendons, and they become arid and lose their flexibility. AVarm bathing, however, corrects the tendency to either extreme, and moderate walking exercise completes the

Then, if the work of either description of horse be carried on to its utmost powers, the lameness increases, or goes and returns, until it fixes itself somewhere, and the disorder receives in due time one or other of those pretty sounding names which tickle the ears, but which T am assured from good authority have no foundation in fact, in reason, or in analogy.

Q. Here they are, two of them - '^ navicular disease,*' " strain of the coffin joint" - both those bones lie concealed in the internal of the hoof.

A. So nobody can know when either the one or the other afflicts the animal, until after death*

Q. Much too late to do any good, I think. Pray, who gave them those names?

A. I profess not to know ; but apprehend that they mean nothing else but the founder , when the horse, from his manner of walking, is also termed groggy. Many other causes of lameness are much better defined; contraction for example.

* No one has yet shown, upon paper, what symptoms of dis- order have subsequently turned out to be " aflfections of the navicula," or shuttle-bone. In another place, I have given a minute and, I hope, a clear anatomical description of the inter- nal parts of the horse's foot ; whereby we arrive at the certainty that no one can pronounce the drying up of the juices by heat or disease, a " navicular disorder," nor *' disease of the lamina ;" for these juices pervade the whole internal foot, interposing between the coffin-bone and the wall, where the lamina is situated ; but previously the juice lubricates the navicula, and ascends to the coi'onet. Enlargement of the cartilages at the coffin joint may be tolerably ascertained by the finger touch ; but is in- curable. - Vide Hinds's " Veterinary Surgery," page 443

Q. Not allowed, I understand ; one of the mis- taken notions.

A. No ; not wholly so. The advocates for the doctrine of contracted lioof asked for too much credence ; their opponents deny that contraction causes lameness, because they could adduce marked cases of contraction without lameness existing^. Q. Were they not then satisfied with this closer i A. I was not, for one, nor ought you. The dis- pute is thus solved : - when contraction comes on slowlijy as it does with ordinary draught cattle, no lameness afflicts them, even though the pommiced sole be as convex as a bowl; but when the higher contraction, it makes rapid strides in proportion to the quick pace at which the sufferers may be ridden or driven. Comparative rest alleviates the pain and heat, and the contracted hoofs that can be so laid up awhile, never become absolutely lame.

Q. Our modern stage-proprietors seem to have found this out by experience, for many of their sets consist of five horses, leaving one idle at the tail of the journey ; or, at least, they keep a spare wheeler and leader to three or four sets. Besides this, they are become wise enough to run short stages, forward and backward daily : there's the rub.

A. The consequence of both sorts of arrangement is, that we scarcely ever see lame horses in a stage- coach now, as formerly. But the sudden contraction, arising from a harsh, compulsory, unrelenting, un- relaxing, performance of its duties, is that which

brings on lameness of both fore-feet, if it does not extend to the whole set, and the horse is rendered useless awhile, or ruined for the remainder of its days, by quickness of the pace.

Q. This, then, is lameness from contraction; the former is contraction without the immediate production of lameness.

A. But still very liable to become so, if the horse so affected be pushed in his work, in pace or length, beyond his usual performance. Both degrees are affected alike ; that is to say, the hoof contracts upon its contents, the coffin and shuttle bones, and the vessels around them that secrete the horny material. When the contraction is gra- dual, these contents adapt themselves to the new state of things hy degrees ; the secretion then going on with increased feverish activity, throws out horn superabundantly, and what the wall is deficient in shape it acquires in substance. Most horsemen like a strong foot, and this circumstance blinds them as to defective shape; for such, most un- doubtedly it is, when the heels become low and the front of the hoof sinks or becomes more and more inclined.

Q. But many thousand horses - carriage and cur- ricle - have those flat feet you allude to, yet never fall lame of a sudden.

A. Don't say never, for when they do, they no longer go out as such; they are allowed rest and recover ; rest, physic, and walking exercise is the

panacea for all recent, unaccountable lameness, whether of leg or foot. The feet of this descrip- tion of horses are soft ; they are naostly high-goers, and instead of contracting (growing less), in the manner that your hard feet do, these spread out, expand, flatten; by which species of distortion un- natural heat is engendered, as in the preceding in- stance, much horn is furnished to the wall, so as to give it the appearance of strength, and, perhaps, the reality. But then the heels contract, the frog loses its shape, and requires frequent paring off of its rotten surface, as does the sole, little though it be, every ten days or a fortnight, when in full work on hard roads.

Q. These large-footed horses seem inspirited by every fresh shoeing, as if conscious of the benefits derived from a moderate use of the butteris and drawing knife; but their soles are seldom flakey.

A. Never, I should think, owing to the softness of the hoof, which seems to direct that such soles as these should be used tenderly, whilst the rotton frog of the same demands reduction, and the bars require opening a little.

Q. We have been all along thinking of the fore- leg only.

A. With its foot.

Lameness frequently depends upon some internal disorder - that is to say, is caused by it, and may be removed by restoring the body to good order. So do original defects of the organs of life affect

the limbs. Unfavourable growth of the lungs, for instance, affect the fore-feet; disorders of the liver, kidneys, stomach, the hind legs.

Q. Of these internal parts let us talk more here- after. [Conv, xii. and xv.] At present the legs, the feet, demand our care. Is it not strange mat- ter for reflection, that so many disorders, all well marked and distinct, should be inherent to the fore- feet of our horseSy which are wholly unknown he- hind, whilst the only two that afflict the hind-feet very seldom appear on the fore-feet? Ringbone and grease are the pair of posterior diseases I now advert to.

A. *' Entirely owing to the act of progression!" I concluded lately, after contemplating over the same subject, and taking into account the balance which the fore limb and the hind one strike in reckoning up the greater number of disorders that belong to the hiud-/e^, which are unknown to the {ore-leg. Leaving out of our estimate inflicted disorders, or accidents, (as broken knees, cutting, &c.) the fore-leg, I believe, is subject to but two disorders, the hind-leg to a dozen.

Q. All which must be attributed to the superior severity of the beating or battering the fore-foot undergoes in its smart contact with the hard ground, from which the hind-foot is comparatively free.

A. The office of this latter limb, being evidently to propel the body along, that of the fore-limb to sustain the weight, which falls the more heavily as

the pace is accelerated, and the concussion becomes greater the faster the animal goes.

Q. 'Tis the pace that finds them out; but con- cussion as a word descriptive of this kind of inflic- tion on the fore-feet has been sneered at by the mere controversialists.

A. Let them ; 'tis, nevertheless, a just terra, and the thing is as much a disorder as a wound, or other infliction. This new custom of ridiculing the Professor may be reckoned among the excesses of the times ; though he may not be always right, none ought to charge another wrongfully, even with the venial offence of surpassing in wisdom.

Q. We have settled our question, however, that accelerated speed causes increased concussion of the fore-feet against the stones ; hence, the disorders that attach to the fore-feet ; the hind ones, being simply employed in propulsion, suffer less concus- sion - hence less disease of the feet behind.

A. So far you fill up my idea justly ; but our question will only be ** settled," by bringing into estimate how much the rapid acf of progression puts a tax upon the lungs to the utmost of their powers to discharge ; nay, beyond their power, at a quick pace and extra lengths, whereby an inflam- matory disorder is engendered there, at the mo- ment a correspondent one is inflicted upon the fore-feet, and a fellow-feeling or companionship is kept up between them, which is renewed, pro and con, upon every future occasion of inflammation,

of broken wind, of founder, of cough, or extra hard work. Hence the confusion of people who speak o{ foot-founder and chest -founder, mixedly, as begetting each other : nor were they altogether wrong, as we shall see upon further examination.

Q. What a source of ingenious inquiry have you here opened up ! We must postpone closer in- vestigation of the premises to a future day. [^Con- versations xii. and xiv.] Meantime, let us turn to '* the posterior limb," as the hospitallers of St. Pancras would say.

A. Lameness of the hind-leg is almost invariably charged upon strain of the stijie, of the hip-joint, or whirl-bone; but generally with as little justice as we lately discoursed regarding shoulder-strain. When either of those large projecting bones are anywise affected, we may safely ascribe it to acci- dent, inflicted upon the animal at going into the narrow stable-door-way, or by the driver's running against posts, walls, and carriages in the streets. When the seat of the disorder is ascertained, fo- mentations of bran-poultices, of marsh-mallows, and of the camphoretted spirits [set down in the Appendix], may be applied with good effect; but if the stifle swell in consequence of the injury in- flicted, it will also feel tender, i. e. the animal will shrink from the touch ; you must then bleed and purge to an amount commensurate with that of the accident; the tenderness of the constitution being taken into consideration, and actual state of

the animal's bodily health, his fleshiness, dungings,

Q. Very similar to the treatment for shoulder- lameness we were talking of this morning, except as to bleeding the patient.

A. In like manner, if you do not discover the cause of lameness to reside in the upper part of the limb, 'tis occasioned by bone-spavin, by ring-bone, or some other of the many disorders of the hind- leg ; for, I presume, you will have ascertained be- forehand that your horse is not afflicted with that beggarly disorder of a filthy stable, a i^unning frush, or its equally disgusting, but more extended, suc- cessor, canker, which are in fact but one disease ; although some affect to confine one of these terms to the fore-foot, the other to the hind one.

Canker and Thrush, - by the way, 1 may ob- serve, are brought on by want of pressure on the frog, and attack the better description of horses occasionally ; but these are invariably of the heavy, fleshy variety, whence I am led to conclude that this is 07ie of the disorders that is engendered in the system, probably at the liver or kidneys. Our best London dray and town-cart horses, for example, fall martyrs to this disorder, on account of the high calkens the smiths give to their shoes, whilst those with lower heels, and in poorer keep, escape with impunity. In proof that it is want of pressure on the frog which brings on this disease, I may adduce the fact, that procuring pressure to the parts is

the chief means of cure, and which never fails to

Q. Pressure of the frog is thus proven beneficial, its absence harmful, to the well being of the sole, if not of the whole foot.

A. It promotes secretion of the horny juices ; and although these might and do go on secreting, whilst the frog is suspended from the ground, yet no one will pretend to say that secretion proceeds healthfully, when they see such an infernal product of the smith's labours as a running frush, as we now call it. Turn the question how we may, frog- pressure has an effect, and that effect is desirable, notwithstanding the opponents may adduce a hun- dred instances of horses going well without it.

Q. The dispute seems settled on its proper bases; one party asked for too much belief, the other de- nied them any credence ; both were wrong in the extent of their views.

You were speaking just now (p. 26) of the great heat of his body affecting the horse's feet, causing brittle hoof, and contraction ; pray how is this evil brought about ; and this again leads me to ask, what is the remedy?

A. You are perfectly correct there, in . asking about the remedy, there being but one, and that one comprised in a single sentence, namely, - 'Re- duce the heat, and that of the body first ; ^ supply

* The heat here spoken of would be better understood by many as stimuiation, of which the horse possesses a good deal naturally, and much more is cast upon him by forced exercise,

the moisture which your arts have denied him : work less, or give full rest.

^^* This is the principle upon which the cure of all diseases, of whatsoever kind, must be under- taken, if you mean to succeed, viz. ** Take away the cause and the effect ceases;" unless, indeed, the cause has been neglected so long, or persevered in so ruinously, or the remedy so ignorantly applied, that part of the effect of either error becomes per- mament, and then acquires a different name - (de- manding a different treatment) besides the indis- criminate ones of mere " lameness," for example, or ** out of condition," or " touched in the lungs" - neither of which means any thing that we can apply a remedy to with precision.

Q. Thank ye, my good friend. Must I, then, cool his feet and legs after a hard run, by walk- ing my horse into cold water, or should I stop his foot with cow-dung and soft clay, or any of the other cold things so strongly recommended?

by the stimulation of oats, beans, malt, cordials, instead of the natural green food : besides the constant irritation upon his memory (mind?) of visible objects of desire or aversion, which at the highest pitch we term fretfulness, and the disorder to Avhich it gives rise is the fret, a precursor of umbilical inflam- mation. Thus, the pain which succeeds the pleasurable sensa- tions derived from the use of stimulants, is spasm ; and as the tirst acted primarily on the bowels, so do these sustain the con- vulsive contraction we call spasmodic colic, gripes, or fret ; which, by continuance, reproduces inflammation of the parts we previously stimulated, and its adjacencies. Sedatives allay pain ; stimulant medicines restore the tone ; and both prevent that re-action which is so dangerous in all such cases.

A. By no means ; at least, not abruptly, whilst he is yet reeking hot, nor keep him standingin the water, least of all in winter; for such practices are more likely to bring on and confirm lasting diseases of the feet, if they do not cost many a horse his life at once. Sudden death from inflammation of the blood (and its vessels), by its determining to the brain, being- most imminent, though similar attacks on the bowels and the lungs, after such chills, are of more common recurrence, and in hot weather more than in cokL We will talk more of those internal parts hereafter.

Q. But you yourself practise stopping on brit- tle hoof, I see ; pray do you ever use horse-dung for that purpose?

A. The last thing before bedding up, I often do ; but horse-dung is oftoohota nature, even though you allay its heating qualities with strong 5o/w^io7iq/'«i^re, as recommended. If ever horse-dung be preferable for stopping, it would be after a hard chase in winter, when the extremities have been suffered to cool below natural heat, as happens to soft hoofs, ere they get flattened: to ascertain which fact, you feel the pulse at the pastern, and by grasping the foot with both hands, compare the general warmth thereof with the quickness of the pulse - or rather say slowness, on the present occasion. Although most of those applications, as well as the sponge- boot, are undoubtedly useful in the sequel of attacks on the feet, yet are they no less improper whilst the horse is yet jaded, the feet feverish, and susceptible of every variation of temperature. Let the pulse

subside and the sweating cease, ere you wet the feet or the legs, though this best be done with warm water.

Q. Am I to understand that neither extreme is good ? For the old practice of applying hot remedies to the feet has been long exploded, I hear, as being detrimental to the growth of horn, and causing the hoof to assume a wry shape : even the admixture of vinegar must corrode and destroy, whilst its cooling properties are fully acknowledged.

A. Yes, most assuredly; hot tar, hot oils, and all heating things, are proveably destructive of animal substances, dead or alive, and therefore to be avoided in every shape; unless it be a styptic ap-- plied to a puncture or sharp wound, and then instead of all other prescription of the oils, &c. of which we once heard so much and so stupidly said, a drop of brandy, or Dutch drops, is as good as any for stanch- ing the blood. On the other hand, colds, fevers, and inflammatory complaints of several kinds, are caused by such sudden checks as those just alluded to, being given to the circulation of the blood, and is then termed ** chill." More particularly when this takes place at the time the blood flows most determinedly towards the feet, as it does a long time after hard work, or a hard run, it would be evidently danger- ous to walk your horse into cold water, to apply chilling mixtures to his feet, or do any other act that is likely so to produce a revulsion of the animal's system ; whereby the blood is compelled to rush back to its sources (the heart and the liver), or to the head, the skin, or wherever it may expend

its malignant force the readiest ; the weaker part of the system being most liable to receive the severest shock, and the disease is then very significantly said to Jix itself there. Tender horses suffer most in the *' lungs y^' at the windpipe^ and its lining ; irritable ones - those of them which feed heartily, craving for water, and fretful, suff*er in the stomach and kid- neys ; whence the efi'ect descends to their hind- legs, whilst the fore-feet of those tender ones are mainly affected on such occasions.

Q. If the same sort of chill were to attack the carcase, the effect there would be the same, I

A. Very nearly ; but does not happen so often as that by the feet, which necessarily suffer more hardships than any part of the frame. In fine, no other treatment seems necessary on such occasions, than permitting the jaded beast to cool gradually, sheltered from a current of air, after scraping off the sweat, loosening the saddle, harness, &c. Walk- ing does all that is necessary in this state of his body, and bringing him to his food restores his spirits ; with these, a just circulation of the blood ensues, with renovation of strength : then only it is that washing the feet and stopping the heels can be re- sorted to with advantage, as the system of bodily health is now such as to absorb or take up any hu- mours that his former languid dejection may have permitted to subside there.*

* So true are these observations, that we may notice a horse

Q. Aye, aye ; the want of sufficient vigour failing to keep up the due circulation of the blood, the animal functions droop. Good. Thus have I found the work has been so severe at times, that the horse can neither walk or feed : and at other times so excessive that bleeding the bars was found insufficient to make him take his corn - what then I

A. In that case, bleed him in the neck-vein at once, a quart or three pints, from a large orifice ; for, when he is in that state, you will find his pulse quickened and full, though occasionally indistinct, as if its power of flowing were obstructed at inter- vals. The black state of the blood at the bottom of the receiving vessel will tell how necessary the operation has been :* give a mild purgative after-

which at any time has sustained a bodily disorder, always proves it afterwards by the ailing state of his feet and legs, though when illness affects only one limb, this is no proof of snch bodily disorder having been the cause of it. So will the inordinate use of cordials produce in time brittle hoof, contracted heels, and one or other of the train of diseases arising from an imperfect secre- tion of horn, in which the heat prevails over the necessary moisture ; hereupon we endeavour to amend the defect by apply- ing artificial exterior moisture, by means of the sponge-boot, stopping, &c. In like manner, but inversely, do accidents at the feet affect the carcase, as the stomach and lungs, the liver and kidneys falling into disease by a kind of sympathy with these, or communicating it to the two first, on suffering greatly from anguish of the feet. The treatment for this apparently complex attack is, however, very simple : the disorder at the feet being reduced (according to its nature), restoring the stomach to its proper tone usually effects all the rest. [Consult for this purpose Tonics, in the Appendix.]

* The muscle or fleshy parts of all over-driven or hunted ani-

pendix), and plenty of water-gruel or bran-mashes next day. Give the cordial ball No. 1, i?i the first instance ; unless it be an old horse which has been inured to cordials, when No. 2 will be found not over strong-.

Q. ''A stitch in time saves nine," according to the old adage.

A. But neglect your horse awhile under those circumstances, and low feverish symptoms ensue, as certain as does the more acute attack, whose origin T touched upon in the last page. In this event it consists of increasing excitement of the whole system, in the preceding the animal droops, and the disorder falls into his feet; for, you will re- member, there is always a subsidence of the blood to the feet going on, which tendency is further ac- celerated by the great exertions the animal is com- pelled to make, generally over hot roads. Unusual heat of the feet is then prevalent, and is kept up after that of the body has resumed the natural, which may well be considered, ** fever of the feet," and as the harbinger of a more defined disorder, with twenty names, but having only one origin, - viz.

mals approach towards mortification, by the finer blood vessels being driven full, and detaining their contents until putrescence comes on ; at the head atrophy and sudden death ensues. Meat of the chased stag is purple, so is that of hunted hares : if shot dead it is red ; but if after being stricken the fallow deer runs (as he is wont) to a ditch and lingers, the meat is paler than

drying up of the moisture that should have supplied new healthy horn, after lubricating the internal parts of the foot.

Q. Seeing the benefit of promptness, better carry a fleam about one, then ? or a lancet, perhaps ? I once saw a sporting doctor, in the north, pull out a lancet and bleed his hunter, and that of another gentleman, in the middle of a ploughed field, where they had knocked up after a severe chase ; where- upon both went away much recovered ; and a cordial, which he carried in his pocket, did the rest. The lancet is the best instrument, is it not ?

A. Not for every purpose, nor in every one's hands : use does a good deal, as in the case you mention; but 'tis an uncertain instrument, when large quantities of blood are required to be drawn off, not making an orifice sufficiently large, besides being liable to abuse in the hands of ignorant per- sons. On those occasions, when bleeding in the mouth, the feet, or at the temple, may be deemed requisite, however, it may be employed with

Q. The employment of the corn or sharpened stag's horn, is generally decried I believe, as too rude for the present improved state of knowledge ; although I have seen it used in bleeding the bars of the mouth, for which it seems particularly well adapted. Pray, would you bleed at the foot for an undefined lameness ?

A. Not always. If fever of the part continued, whilst that of the body was nearly natural, I should

think the cause defined enough for my purpose, and be inclined to bleed at the pastern, more especially if I had already bled at the neck-vein, and the lameness were no better for it. It is thus de- fined to be perfectly local, and has been occasioned by the rider or driver constantly making this the leading foot at setting out.

Q. But stopping f if persisted in, effects amend-

A. If you also change the leading foot in going, the cure may be completed ; 'tis long continued work and the infliction of the beating on the in- jured foot that fixes the lameness.

Q. Ill-built horses, those with the legs badly set on their bodies have always a leading foot; what is to be done at them.

A. Reject them in toto.

Q. Few stable people are adroit at stopping heels, so as it may remain secure during the night.

A. Nor at bandaging either, for fistula, wounds, quitter, &c. Splents of wood, resembling matches, inserted under the inner rim of the shoe, retains the mass tolerably well, or a tin slider, entering at the heel. Then there is the boot, and a patent sponge-boot, forsooth, which any of our harness- makers can contrive and adjust to circumstances, according to order ; these are well adapted for re- taining moisture or any application deemed neces- sary to the foot ; the only objection I can see being in cases of fever of the foot, when we so much desire coolness for the patient, which the boot

counteracts after beino^ on the foot three or four

Q. For which purpose some persons wash fre- quently the stable-floor, or contrive to give the aH- ing horse a standing on sodden or clayey ground, when they cannot turn it out to the homestead, un- paved yard, or loose in a linhay, or shed.

A. For working horses that are wanted in turn, either is a good substitute, but nothing like so eflB- cacious as sending such horses to field by night in summer, and during the brightest hours of the day in colder seasons : with these we find no lasting complaints of the feet, besides accidents. All hunters are too tenderly kept ; to my mind none but hearty, robust horses, half-bred and three-quarter bred, should take the field after fox or stag.

Q. The advantage of turning out to such cattle is inestimable.

A. Lungs and Iwofs admirable ! Though coats roughish and legs a little fleshy to be sure, requiring occasional physic, and much manual labour : it has been practised on a large scale with regard to hunters, also, in mild countries. At Chumleigh, as fine a stud as ever followed fox, lived in the open air during the hunting season ; what their coats suf- fered in appearance was fully compensated by the super-excellent manner in which they finished the day's sport. No piping, nor any distress that a slight cordial or warm ale could not banish.

Q. They could never be in condition, according to the present accepted phrase, with a sleek and

fat exterior. Gentlemen now-a-day, require some- thing handsome to look at ; you know as well as I do, that a queer-looking set-out would excite jeers in a crack hunt, any where about 3Ielton, for

A. Gentlemen must follow their own fancies, but the constitution of a horse 'tis impossible to control by fashion : every one is aware, that 'tis very sel- dom the sleekest or most spirited horse at the covert-side in the morning, returns in the best state to the stable at night : never, if he owe his sipparent condition to cordials, and woollen clothing in a hot stable.

Q. Better to reserve these until the return home, you say. Pray did they cordial the hunters at Chumleigh any 't

A. Only on emergencies - they would be too ten- coughs, no foot-fever, no affections of the stomach, always ready for their corn, nor any blear eyes as some might expect ; nor, indeed, any days of rest, they took as much exercise on blank days as they chose and went the better for it. " Grass !" I do not think they took any. What made you think so I You dispute like a Nimrod.

Q. You agreed with me, that he was right in keeping up his cattle always in condition.

A. Always fit for sale, you mean; and herein lies the germ of the dispute between that jjeriodical writer and his opponents, who maintain the lasting benefits of soihng the hunter, unless like him they

can attend throughout the summer to a scrupulous regulation of the animal's digestive organs, which must otherwise suffer by the constant stimulation dry food keeps up. Look at His Majesty's hunters, for example, which are annually sent to the neigh- bourhood of Maidenhead to disport in the natural soil ; then look at them when they return to Wink- field again. The thing speaks for itself. Give me good feet and good wind, the back-sinews large and well-covered, before all the fine coats and full- fed carcases in the world ; health, and vigour, and lastingness, to the end of the chase are sure to follow a summer run at grass, if well-conducted, and the feet looked after, so that little accidents be repaired at once. Such animals return home, laughing, as 'twere, at the fatigues of the day. Then turn up their heels and thumb their soles ; - no flinching there.

Q. Very fond oi thumbing y I perceive.

A. To be sure I am : at coming home and going out, and whenever danger is to be apprehended, that is my habit. You may not have observed, that after stopping his heels a few days, the sole will feel soft, or the application would fail in its effect ; but clean it out, give your horse a few hours stand- ing, and the hardness returns naturally. Observe always to renew the stopping afresh at each re- moval ; and also that, although coolness be benefi- cial to ihafrog and bars, yet constant wet is not so, therefore, previous to stopping, let these parts be payed with tarj to defend them from soaking too

much : whenever the sole bends to the the pressure, discontinue the stopping.

Q. Of which fresh cow-dung is the basis, with an admixture of soft clay? -

A. With the addition of a strong solution of nitre, when greater coolness is required ; but this is not necessary for the sound foot or feet, nor do these want renewal so often as the lame

Q. What! Stop three sound feet when one only is affected ?

A. Yes, after much fatigue ; and the corre- sponding foot in every case. For this reason - the lameness owing its origin to the previous general ill state of the body, might as readily attack one foot as another, if the same immediate cause exist- ed ; but as the lameness we have now under consi- deration is not denoted by any other symptom ex- cept greater heat, has been brought on simply by the horse beating with it, or making it the leading foot in going, we should probably, by stopping one foot only perform a care as regards that one, leaving the others open to the same influence of his bodily ill-health, to say nothing of the sympathy that exists through the medium of the lungs between one foot and another before, as it does in a less degree behind, through the medium of the kidneys and stomach. I can account for it in no other way.

Q. Nor I, I am sure. The sole of each foot would differ in the degree of hardness, if treated differently, that is evident.

A. And then, by affording more moisture inter- nally to one foot only we might bring on another kind of lameness, akin to founder. So we should also a disposition to incur others, if the stopping be continued long after the cure has been effected, as would be known by the pulse shewing reduction of heat for awhile. So much for counteracting incipient lameness, and its train of evils.

Q. Concerning the more marked and distinct disorders of the feet arising from the same cause, we will say a few words hereafter. \^Conv. xii.]

A. Next to these, the whole class of strains are most frequently recurring; some being original disorders of misconstruction of the limbs, or of these being badly placed on the body, but the far greater number is attributable to the crime (let me say) of mounting too early, and the vanity of running horses too young.

Q. That is a point in horse economy beyond our control, how much soever we may lament the degeneracy, we sometimes witness in the perfor- mances of our best-bred race-horses.

A. Reject all such as are so misconstructed, or worked too early in life, ye who would make a living by the animal, or receive pleasure by its

Q. Good, again.

A. Bad enough, I should think, for those who get hold of such things.

Condition : Cordials, use and abuse of. Effects : Indigestion, Colic ^ Worms: Recovery from severe Work. Natural Cordials.

Q. Your plan of reducing the quantity of blood when the animal is knocked up by his exertions, seems to me at total variance with the general practice of giving cordials on such occasions, and your own admissions.

A. Not at all irreconcilable are those means of restoration : bleeding has the effect of relieving the rigidity of the blood vessels, and with it that of the whole frame, whereby the blood finds free circula- tion, whilst the cordials stimulate to the same end - namely, acceleration of the pulse.

Q. The adoption of the latter means of restoring the animal powers in the first instance, appears to be putting the cart before the horse ; though many persons have recourse to stimulants upon every little occasion, and some sportsmen carry with them cordial-balls for the purpose, administering these in ahy ivine, ^c. [Appendix, Cordials.]

A. So they may, very properly, upon small oc- casions of knock up, and these only, provided the pulse beat regularhj, though low ; but not when quick and slow alternately, as if the animal already laboured under too much excitement. Another

means of judging when stimulants would not be improper, is found in the circumstance of the now jaded horse having been recently bled and purged at home, whence we may reasonably conclude that his system is not then overcharged with ill-humours, and therefore that exhausted nature may now re- ceive a fillip advantageously; in this case, also, his pulse will be regular^ however low. Under such circumstances I have known a cordial remove lame- ness that had been brought on by excessively severe work, and the consequent want of vigour in the cir- culation of the blood ; but your hunters, to which my attention has been mostly directed for this half- hour past, are bled too frequently, without other cause assigned than custom, or fashion - this is one of the mistakes of superfine management.

Q. This practice of bleeding at stated intervals, you have shewn is -

A. A mereJo6, you know, of certain parties; so is the boasted " regular physicking" of hunters ; and then the heavy doses usually administered is really destructive of the passages : aloes lose their effi- cacy, and do harm by frequent use.

Q. Is there no mode of alleviating the ill-effects of this very prevalent error ? Horses in quick work and on high feed require physic, you know ?

A. Less might serve. We will recur to the subject of " physicking" at some future day. [Conv. viii. and see Appendix.]

Q. But the bare mention of physic brings us back to the pulse again : when this " index of health'* is

low, and the horse dejected, and heavy in hand, should we always give cordials, whether or no ?

A. Perhaps I might say yes with propriety, but you, I fear, would be apt to carry the admission to extremes, and give them upon trifling occasions. But, remember always, that cordials given to horses operate like drams taken by mankind ; the short- quently to flag below par, until the fresh dram and another cordial bring the taker up to his former pitch, and both ultimately become as necessary as food, especially in advanced age.

Q. Thorough dram-drinkers are not long-lived.

A. So do cordials wear out the horse. For the tendency of all stimulants is to destroy the digestive powers, on which all the other functions of life mainly depend ; so that the desire for food daily lessens, the stomach loses its proper tone, and what the horse does eat is taken capriciously ; that is to say, either without a relish, or voraciously swallowed, without due mastication.

Q. What a train oi' ills is hereby engendered !

A. Flatulency, colic, affections of the ivind, worms,* inflammation, of the intestines, staggers.

* No doubt but that the substances taken for food, if detain- ed for want of the power to expulse them from the bowels, oc- casioned by torpor or inactivity, will engender insects ; although the larvcB (eggs) of the gadfly which produce that particular worm, which has acquired the name of bott, should not be pre- sent. But in tliis case, the worm that is so engendered is with- out the hooks that characterize botts. This ordinary worm is an effect of full feeding on ill selected hay and corn, neglect of

Q. I conclude that the hahit of giving cordials is a bad one : at intervals, then I

A.. Whenever sufficient occasion demands it, no better restorative can be employed than cordials ; wantonly used, nothing is so replete with mischief. The drunkard's ** short life and a merry one" is strictly applicable to the cordialled horse ; the cor- dials used by him are well said to '* wear out the constitution of a horse," as if the speaker had our present topic in view.

Q. We might safely administer cordials at the lowest pitch at which they would do good, I take it ; never give more or stronger than will just restore the animal to his wonted vigour, nor that oftener than is absolutely necessary.

A. Then return to the usual mode of feeding

the evacuations and the stubborn costiveness that attends weak intestines, further weakened by the stimulant nature of cordials. It may be reckoned the disorder of towns and crowded places ; whilst the bott is acquired by the country cattle mostly, the eggs of the breeze or gadfly being taken into the mouths of the ani- mals, and would certainly pass through, as probably multitudes do pass, inoffensively, but for the detension alluded to in the text, and the facilities afforded the bott-worm to fasten its hook in the thickened soft coats of the stomach and intestines. Inso- much is this the case, that we frequently find the two kinds of bott that are known to enter the mouth in the form of eggs, thickly inhabiting f/ie rectum, or straight gut ; the third sort of bott-fly, they term Oestris equi, is proved, in " Osmer's Treatise on Horses," to have deposited its eggs at the anus, whence we conclude they are the proper inhabitants of the rectum, or straight gut, though sometimes ascending as high as the

gradually, whenever the cordial-giving has been

A. Good oats, barley, beans - all broken ; a little malt, as a mash ; these are gradations by which we resume the healthy aliment after the animal has been pampered too much with cordials. Those substances have themselves the effect of cordials, in various degrees - oats being the lowest, though giving to the horse which masticates them well, an invigoration that is truly surprising; sodden barley being next in order, and in this state well adapted for agricultural horses ,* heans are the strongest ; and all the class, when given to excess, predisposing the animal to contract inflammatory disorders of parti- cular organs, or fever of the whole system, which ul- timately fall into the feet, if the complaint do not commence there ; of these latter, grease is the most speedy in its appearance, if the other, or immediate cause, a chill, also conduce thereto.

Q. Unless counteracted by physic^ as the urine-

A. Or green food : a turn-out is the best physic, provided we can spare our faithful servant to take a hoHday, and ruralize a little '* among the green fields." Many of the grasses partake of some medicinal vir- tue or other, the cooling principle most evidently.

Q. How many accidents happen to the lower description of horses by the imitative cordialling of their horses by some carmen, who desire to see their teams with sleek coats !

A. And some coachmen, too, who would please their employers by the appearance of their teams ; but this is a practice to be reprobated in them, at any rate, as they cannot possess the requisite judge- ment for employing such ingredients properly ; nor does discretion as to adapting the use of diaphore- tics to the animal's work and actual state of body, ever accompany the sycophancy that would purchase approbation at so great a risk.

Q. Eggs can do no harm, I should think - A. Nor any good, but to put on a factitious show o^ fine condition -

Q. Where the reality is wanting, eh? this description which was choked by an e^^ admi- nistered by a driver y and it died before the booby's face, without exciting, by its throes, sufficient can- dour to avow the act he had committed !

Q. In another case, that T also read of, the sur- geon who was called in, broke an e^^ which in like manner stuck in the gullet, and thus relieved the

A. But the preparations of antimony, which are now so well known, effects this desirable appearance when the owner desires it, better than any device of such servants - however cunning they may be. [See Fever Powders, in the Appendix.]

Condition: soiling, necessity of; Advantages and Disadvantages ; Physicking ; turning-out, and taking up. The Humours; in-door Mis-

Q. What an immense variety of opinion has been recently broached on this subject alone, that is described in one word, and that one mis- understood as to what is meant by it - *' condition." Each party seems to have the best of the argument, for both refer to facts and to experience for their assertions ; but how vast the dissonance that

A. Yet is no contrariety sooner reconciled, if we place ourselves in a situation for forming a right judgement on the point in dispute. If horses re- mained in a state of nature, they would require natural food only, but they could not thrive during the inclement months for want of proper nourishment; and man provides for them dried provender and shelter, which improves their breed in every other respect than wind : he likewise de- mands their services to the utmost extent, and would keep them in a condition to perform those services all the year round, by stable management. He fails, however, in accomplishing this to the extent of his wishes.

Q. How he fails is worth knowing.

A. Dry food, as oats and hay, forms their main support in-doors, keeps up their strength, and with it the fullness of the juices ; irregularity in the three evacuations, and a thickening or stagnation of the several secretions from the blood, which we then call " the humours" follow, whereby disease is quickly engendered.

Q. Which man endeavours to amend by me-

A. Instead of preventing, by assimilating the natu7^al mode of living with the forced or domestic manner of feeding. An abundance of /my, for instance, impedes the action of the lungs of a well bred horse, if he is permitted to stand to his hag all his leisure time ; whilst oats given lavishly dispose the intestines to costiveness and consequent inflam- mation, with a tendency to several other tedious affections spoken of yesterday [page 49 note']. And notwithstanding both those evil consequences may be assuaged by frequent waterings, yet man has the arrogance to deny his animals this cheap and simple boon, because it aff'ects their external appearance, forsooth.

Q. He covers them up in hot clothing, with the same end in view.

A. Which frequently puts an end to their services by obstinate catarrh, or to their lives, by incurable inflammation of the lungs.

Q. Close and crowded stabling augments the long catalogue of evils that surround the mere do- mestic horse ; -

A. By raising an eflfluvia that becomes more and more noxious as the food may be heating, gross, and tending to thicken the blood, and in time pro- ducing similar diseases to those enumerated by me at our last talk, [page 49.] As the heat and acrid stench augments itself, it soon affects the eyesight, inflames the lungs, and causes diseases of the skin, through excessive perspiration. Only see how a healthful horse will sometimes refuse to enter the door of an already crowded stable, as if prescient of the danger to be encountered within ! 'Tis scan- dalous man does not condescend to receive lessons from his horse !

Q. Don't be warm about it; but let me hear your sentiments *' on condition," as I have seen it titled up half a hundred times lately : is there any mystery in the process of training a horse into con-

A. None whatever, with me; though some training grooms do make a mighty secret of their mode of treatment.

Q. Quit controversy, then, with its subtle doubts and flat contradictions, and favour me with a few words of good common sense on the subject.

A. Common sense never entered into the consi- deration of what condition really meant, or it would have marked the great difference that exists between bringing ahorse from grass into condition, and keeping him in that state after being once trained up to the right pitch for doing his work.

Q. A hunter cannot go through a hard day's

work with green food in him ; I believe that is

A. No ; nor a dray-horse either, unless it be a casual mouthful, or an armful of vetches in the spring ; certainly, not these or any others after a ru7i at grass, the better bred ones being most easily affected in the bowels by green food.

Q. In this case they give three doses of strong physic, and then -

A. In nine cases out of ten, horses from grass do not stand in need of any such triple physicking.

fright! Why, every body gives physic after a run at grass ; ahvai/s, I may say.

A. I don't care for that ; though that practice is not now so generally followed as formerly. Has he not for months been taking the physic of nature, in the shape of succulent herbs and grasses of twenty different flavours, some oi' v^hich are positively pur- gative ? [See Hay.'] And is he not thereby reduced in strength sufficiently, though puff in the flesh, without the farther aid of the doctor ? Hearken a bit : after your horse has been taken in and put on full allowance of dry food, say 121bs. of hay and three feeds of oats per day, stinted in his allow- ance of water, and his exercises scandalously ne- glected, to be sure his blood-vessels fill rapidly with a superabundance of the humours -* his perspira-

* Humours. Taking for granted that this word is vulgar, and often wrongly applied, as represented by the doctors, yet I think it an allowable one in the mouths of much higher edu-

tion is trivial and clammy, though incessant, his urine scanty and tur'oid, and even his dunging is impeded and hard - and all this within the first week - then, indeed, brisk physic becomes neces- sary ; I might say indispensable.

Q. Oh, I thought you'd allow it right.

A. Not I, upon my word : your party give phy- sic without observing any such cause for it as T have just now mentioned ; they also give iJtree closes when one might serve, and those so very strong as to shake the animal's constitution to the foundation. Never give physic or bleed without cause ascertained before-hand ; but sure I am, that these condition-halls do not effect a benefit by *' getting rid of the grass," which rids itself fast enough, but by carrying off the load of dung which begins to accumulate and to harden from the very first hour of his return to full feed ; 'tis the oats that have effected this change in his body.

Q. But they always return from grass full of fogg, with thick legs and loose flesh all over, which the medicine sends away.

A. True, so far, and the reason I'll tell you pre- sently ; but with it there goes also a good deal of the

cated persons than grooms pretend to be, if for humotirs these learned persons will understand secretions as meant to be im- plied; that is to say, a depravation of the usual secretions having occasioned these to disperse over the body, Avhere they do not belong, and commit harm, instead of coming off in the usual manner, as they ought and do when health prevails, by the three excretions, viz. the alvine, the cutaneous, and the urinary evacuations.

animals' fine bracing vigorous health they had ac- quired at grass. Perhaps you don't know, that 'tis a point gained in favour of longevity and sound stamina when we can do that without employing medicine which others only accomplish with it - if they do succeed.

Q. Really ! Why, most people employ physic upon every occasion, and some upon no occasion at all, as if it were a fashion ; what is the effect of all this management ?

A. Effect ! Why, of many kinds : it wears out the animals' organic functions, and prepares them to receive other disorders than those it cures, like the tinker and his holey kettle : the stomach is compelled to a feverish secretion of its gastric juices, the bowels exhaust their mucous lining, whereby the former lies open to inflammation, the latter to molten grease or to scouring ; whilst the livery although stimulated by some medicines, yet retains its bile as supernecessary by the action of others ; and the kidneys being under the direct influence of the stomach , secrete urine by hasty instalments, until they cease to act at all.

Q. I perceive that no other function goes on regularly while the main canal is thrown into a rude commotion.

A. How difficult is it after a fever, for example, to bring back the bowels to their former regular state, in consequence of the strong physic employed to " kill the fever," as we say, having thrown them into disorder? So much are they then affect-

ed, that the old farriers in our grandfathers' time called it " excoriation of the guts ;" and they were not so far from the fact as they were from elegance of expression ; for, upon noticing the intestines of several such dead subjects that were cut up at our kennel, I remarked that the bowels were quite of a livid red, as was the lower part of the stomach, also, when turned inside out.

Q. Ecod ! that is the way to examine into the truth of the matter, in its recesses !

A. Who, then, in their senses would think of giving three doses of terrible strong physic, or three of any thing that art should devise, so soon after the animal's system had been similarly exhausted by the natural 7neans. Probably, as often happens, he may have had a scouring whilst he was out.

Q. In consequence of cold wet weather, or wet lying, perhaps?

A. That is a different case altogether, and seldom occurs, unless through carelessness in the first turning out; when spirited horses that enjoy their freedom overmuch usually contract slight affections of the lungs, by wallowing in damp spots to cool the overheated carcase : I contemplated only the consequence of taking too much grass for the weak bowels to bear of such harshly-physicked horses as I before alluded to.

Q. When the scouring so brought on has ceased, such animals get fat and puffy on grass.

A. This proves the beneficial effects of a run at

grass, even for horses with tender insides : the jaded and relaxed bowels require the cooling re- gimen ; an effort of nature to relieve itself of something offensive takes place, and the old cru- dities, or indigested particles, being thus thrown off, improvement takes place immediately after.

Q. A process of nature that tells us plainly what estimable advantages would accrue from giving green food partially in the stable, or in a barn, to horses slowly recovering from illnesses that are ascribable to the harsh remedies which have been given to subdue inflammatory complaints. \See Conversations xi. xii.]

A. Just so. They ought rather to be emptied previous to turning out, as well as the more hardy horses, or at least their dunging should be brought into regular order, lest they acquire a cough , and at taking uj) from grass those tender ones which have thrived upon grass to fat and puffiness also require a 7nild purgative after a few days of dry feeding. [No. 1 of that class in the Appendix.] This constitutes the single case out of ten I had in my mind's eye when 1 allowed lately that that pro- portion might stand in need of physic upon coming from grass; whilst a single dose is now sufficient, and an alterative laxative is preferable to a purgative in every such case. Horses so afflicted with weak lungs and disordered bowels, which is known by the irregularity of their dungings and a disposition to habitual costiveness, should neither be put out

to grass nor brought in abruptly, but both changes be effected by degrees. They also require light body clothing for the first few days of being out.

Q. Subtract from their allowance of corn pre- vious to the turning out, and give small feeds upon first coming in, with a continuance of grass, cut and put in a prickle.

A. So, of all other horses, however hardy: nei- ther bring them into close stables at once, but confine them under a shed or outhouse, with at least one side closed by a pole only. Give a small quantity of green food in-doors, or new hay, and, in a few days, if there is a necessity for bringing them into good-looking condition out of hand, clothe them, but not too warm : a coat that resumes its smooth- ness gradually being worth twenty that are forced by diaphoretics; for these do not stand adversities of weather, nor long exposure at the covert side, the horse being rendered very tender by the medicine, as well as by the clothing.

Q. Still harping upon the hunter , I observe.

A. Or any other valuable horse that is worth the trouble, the hunter being the medium : thus, the condition that would be considered very fair for a road horse would not pass muster for a hunter^ whilst the racer requires to be brought out in a much finer state than either. This latter is termed " training," because of the additional care we bestow in bringing up the animal to exert its best strength and powers of performing his courses, which he cannot accomplish unless the lungs have

been trained to their full inflation by gradual means - weight, distance, and speed well regulated, of which more anon. As to the quantity and kind of clothing proper to be put on, the state of his skin will best direct how these should be regulated, as this will be hotter in comparison with the pulse than was usual with the same animal before he was turned out, and for this good reason among others - namely, one effect of lying out being to close the pores of the skin by the constant refrigeration thereof by the air, and this ceasing altogether in the stable, the heat causes the skin to relax, the pores to open, the perspiration issues, and the loose redundant fat being thus reduced, he partly loses the fogg he had ac- quired at grass; hereupon, the flowing of the per- spiration freely, in conjunction with the dressing he receives from rubbing and brushing, from the hair- cloth and towelling, and hand-rubbing the heels, brings him to that condition which enables the horse to perform his work satisfactorily. But here lies the point for your consideration : as the pores do not always open readily, with aged animals in particular, they must be induced to do so by the use of a mild diaphoretic [as No. 1, in Appendix], but not rudely forced ; in the mean time, an excessive heat of the skin takes place that is truly disagreeable to the touch, whilst the pulse increases. At this period, carefully exclude a current of air, defer the use of woollen clothing, adopt the linen or hempen atjirst, and remember, now and for ever, to reject the use of cotton cloth for any purpose.

Q. Why is this ? They make some that is very stout and of hard fabric in my country.

A. Not to its texture, but to its physical pro- perties, is raised the objection to the use of cotton : it is found detrimental to the growth of hair, and is consequently harmful to the appearance of the coat, besides having the effect of enervating the wearer.

Q. Many horses cannot bear turning out at all, whilst those large bodied hunters, which benefit most in constitutional strength by getting rid of their staleness, generally come up with a cough ; and, although stronger, are ever found slower and heavy in hand after soiling.

A. Part of the duty of conditioning the hunter is to bring him to his paces again by daily strong work, opposed to others of his own class ; by im- proving his stretch, and, with it, his wind, by increasing the lengths he is expected to go ; all which is only to be accomplished by regulating his body and adapting the hours of his exercise to its

Q. Very few sweatings do for the hunter, I

A. He need no extra clothing beyond a hood and quarter-piece, but if he be not sweated by strong exercise, and the loose fat kept down that always accrues after he is taken up from grass, he steps short, as if tied at the legs, and is disposed to tire and shut up with any little extra work.

Q. Which will not answer : it is essential to his future services that he should be brought out of those evil ways by the means you prescribe.

A. Gently does it best: the time is past when violence and coarseness would endeavour to manage the most docile of animals : if his instructors do but once study his attributes aright, and govern him by dint of his appetite and his emulative dis- position, they will find how wofuUy their laboured force has been hitherto thrown away.

Q. We shall have to return to the discussion of the various appetites of horses at some future opportunity, [Conv. ix.] as we have more than once touched upon that topic without entering into it so fully as it deserves.

A. ** Deserves V why 'tis the all-in-all of animal management ; there is nothing but his animal pro- pensities that we can govern a horse by ; you and I have nothing else to talk about but keeping these in the right trim, all the rest of our investigations tend to, and depend upon, this one thing.

General Health - Feeding and Exercise ; in- door Treatment. Wind. Costiveness ; Speed, Physic. Of blank Days, Rest. Distress. Wa- tering : qualities. Stone. Temper, ravenous Horses and tender ones. Gross Food. Stretch and Length. Foreign Horses.

Q. Besides those persons who keep their horses up all the summer long, from principle, there are

many who are precluded from sending them to grass by imperious circumstances ; would you then recommend soiling-, or bringing the green fodder to them in-doors ?

A. This, although doing something by way of alterative, will not effect all the benefits to be de- rived from a complete turning out ; the feet, more than any other part of the horse, require the cooling so necessary for promoting the renovation of fresh healthy horn, and the bracing which is only to be attained by running bare-foot on the green sod. Indeed, the whole frame of the horse is refreshed by it: all his sinews, ligaments, and joints, acquire the springiness of youth, - old age seems forgotten, and a wanton coltishness returns the while.

Q. The relaxation of the back sinews, which we call " low in the pastern," increases with horses that are kept up all summer long, for want of this general bracing of the nerves.

A. Let a substitute be found, then, as near as may be, in exercising the horse upon some undres- sed slip of land, and turn him loose or tether him while taking his green food, for a few hours daily, on a soft spot, patch, or straw-yard, which almost every establishment offers ; if not, let him run loose about the stable, out-house, or linhay, and receive any other indulgence in his natural habits that is similarly calculated to renovate his powers. Give green food of various sorts - but very little oats, if any - as clover, grass, saintfoin, lucerne, vetches, &c. fresh cut; let them be served out

alternately or together, until the body is relaxed, and he produces what may be considered a natural stool - better still if it amount to a complete purga- tion. Chopped carrots are also a very useful addi- tion to those greens ; besides which, they have the additional recommendation of being available when nought else of the kind can be obtained. [See also, in Appendix, Mangel-wurzel, Lettuce, Hay,'] Country people give their ailing horses potatoes that have been boiled, for food, and where these can be procured while summering your saddle-horse at home, may be profitably adopted in moderate quan- tities for another of those changes in diet which are found so desirable on the alterative plan,

Q. For stagers and post-Jiorses, also, potatoes would prove a very acceptable provender, instead of 7iag, I should think, during a busy time of it, but never saw it tried on a large scale.

A. Nearly half an hour is consumed in eating each pound of hay, that is to say, three hours for a stomach full of hay, whereas the same animal may devour a suflScient meal of potatoes in a quarter the time ; he would, of course, gain five hours a day for lying down, as such horses are wont to do, in the intervals of their ten or twelve mile stages forward and backward daily. When their labour is much required, more time would also be saved by giving their oats broken^ or oatmeal along with the pota-

Q. You have said very little about exercise, nought concerning dressing or water.

A. While your horse is upon green food the craving for water exists no longer. It may be allowed him at will ; to which end a shallow vessel may be placed in a come-at-able situation, and be oft replenished, upon the sly, so that we may ascer- tain what is going forward in this respect. If he now require as much water as ever, 'tis the effect of his exercise, which is thus proved too strong for his present mode of living, and must be abridged ; or 'tis the effect of a feverish habit, and it must be re- strained. As to dressing down your horse, he will require very little whilst on green food, especially if he can be accommodated with being out-doors, as I before suggested ; whilst your pJiysicked horse in-doors does better for dressing.

Q. You would adapt every part of his treatment as near as might be to the out-door system : the open air, I understand from you, is refrigerant of the skin, and serves instead of rubbing down ?

A. As far as health is concerned, it is so.

Q. But the supply of green food sometimes falls short, not to be had through some devilry or other ; would you in that case return to hay and oats awhile for the hunter?

A. If you do, you must increase the amount of exercise, or you will soon have good occasion for physic-giving - which is always to be avoided, and strong doses ever. But better diet him at such intervals on less nutritious substances, though as much in hidk ; as oats and chopped hay, or bran with the oatS; which some also give on the same

days with green food; whilst others sprinkle these with water, which secures the certainty of mastica- tion - a very important feature in horse-keeping, whether as regards health, economy, or work, which would not, of course, be very hard under those circumstances.

Q. Must we then withhold the horse's food when he lies idle, and increase it when he is worked : that is to say, in strong exercise, and so *' the more work the more food ? "

A. Not exactly so ; you go too fast for me : 'tis the reproach of youth that they always run into ex- tremes ; though I really don't know, my fine fellow, whether an over-fed horse would not derive as much benefit as man does, from being compelled to observe a maigre day, occasionally - only this must not be tried on whilst he is training into con- dition, and is wanted. My objection is to the excess of either food or exercise ; the constipation pro- duced in this way upon racers in strong exercise is ever extremely obstinate ; and the quantity of aloes must be then increased to a harmful amount, or grossness appears on the skin - like farcy. When the hunter is brought back from grass to oats and hay, the willing exercise he recently took while at large should not be relaxed in the least, but aug- mented by little and Httle, as you increase his daily quantity of oats, until these are given to the full allowance; his exercises should then amount nearly to a sweat, on alternate days, in the morning, and a short gallop every afternoon - if he be cut out for

speed ; but if calculated for a lasting one over a deep country, to go after heavy hounds, two long breathings a day does better. In the case of a thorough-bred in training for the race, which has not been at soil, the effect of dry feeding and strong exercise is to cause constipation ; this begets the necessity of purging this class of horses whilst so training, as the costiveness is daily becom- ing more obstinate when neglected, and he de- clines in the extent of his stretch. But, whatever }our horse is designed for, let him begin at short exercises, and do each day a little more than the preceding, until you have *' brought him to his wind," or the best length he can do without distress, (which includes also a trial or two of his greatest strength and best speed united,) doing at last nearly as much as he will have to perform in the actual chase, race, or journey, according to what he may be cut out for.

Q. Aye, thus it is you find out the bottom of your hunter, and improve his wind, if the horse be not taken out for strong work too soon after feeding, nor absolutely empty of a morning.

A. No hay on his stomach, at any rate, though you do not feed ; and if the going out be very early, no occasion {ov feeding ; i{ not early, then a small feed betimes will be proper - a double hand- ful ; he will perform his day's work the more easily with it than without it, and this fact ought to possess sufficient recommendation of the practice.

Q. Speed will be impeded by its adoption, be

assured ; moreover, after the corn the horse would crave for drink, which would ruin all.

A. Not after so small a quantity as a quart or less of corn, or a handful of crushed beans to an old hunter. But neither on this or any other occa- sion give your horse to drink immediately after feeding, nor just before it; for by the latter method you fill the large gut, and by the former distend the already large stomach. And as to speed, I have yet to learn in what way that of a hearty, ravenous horse, full-grown, let us suppose, which is entered to run heats, or over a Craven or King's plate course, can be retarded, when the main tug of the race - its termination, rather tries its strength than its fleetness, which is then pretty well taken out of the whole lot.

Q. For three-year olds, I perceive, you think the case is different.

A. Much depends upon the ground itself; if heavy, and strength is requisite to bring the younger ones over a long mile-and-three-quarters course, racing all the way, a lasting quality is indispensable to winning, rather than mere speed. On such occa- sions the best trainers give something more than bread and butter for breakfast - seven or eight hours before running. The old plan of running horses quite " empty," is not worth a straw.

Q. Your mode of gradually increasing the exer- cise of the unconditioned horse, inures the lungs by degrees to fill to their utmost capacity, which promotes his lasting qualities.

A. It promotes the expansion of his ribs, and of the muscle that joins them together, braces the membranous lining of his windpipe, (which in aged horses is liable to collapse,) and promotes the due action of the diaphragm, or rather the skirt thereof. Be sure you go on gradually, step by step ; for if you distress your cattle, or cause a cough to come on at the end of a gallop, as v* ould be the case if you proceed abruptly, or if you have previously given dry hay, or the stomach is near full of corn, you must then desist and abridge the length of your gallops, beginning again on a future day at the lowest length. Avast heaving ! ere you rupture the cells of your horse's lungs, and cause a minor description of broken windy that time and a repetition of the same speed confirms.

Q. Your six-mile gallops are too much for three- years-old, and such -

A. At any time ; the strongest cattle tire at it, more than is desirable under any circumstances. Indeed, our training, in all its departments, is carried to extremes that often destroy the purpose intended. Partial lameness follows the distress that is so occasioned.

Q. Distress is known by great facility of perspi- ration, by a certain uneasiness of manner, by fal- tering in his paces, by -

A. It may further be known by the pulse conti- nuing irregular, as well as quick, long after the gal- lop, and by a kind of catch in the breathing, wherein the inspirations are tardy and defective.

though each expiration be as right as a trivet: chronic cough is superinduced by repeatedly over- marking your horse thus, in pace and length.

Q. Though many horses also become broken- winded by being worked on a full stomach, I apprehend that moderate work of any sort, espe- cially if that be slow, upon a middling feed of corn, never affects the lungs.

A. Though, if much dry hay occupy the stomach, with a denial of water, the lining of the throat is affected, which occasions a wheezing cough in his endeavours to get rid of the particles that tickle and irritate the passage. Oh, never fear working a hunter well with a moderate feed in him, pro- vided he have taken it early - say at six o'clock, when the appointment is ten or later, according to the fashion of " these degenerate days." If *' little work less corn" be worth aught as a maxim to keep down flesh, then the reverse, " much corn much work" must be a wiser, - and a still better than either is ** the more work the more corn," to keep up the strength.

The opinion of our forefathers on these points ap- pears, from some old sayings, to have tallied pretty

Take care of me a mile out and a mile in; Up the hill, spur me not, Down the hill, push me not, On the plain, spare me not, In the stable, forget me not.

Q. But you would not withhold his reg-ular feed on the days of rest, I think you said ?

A. There are no days of rest m nature: when man domesticated the horse with high keep, he had no right to deny it the exercise that was designed by the great Author of all for digesting his food - it was a cruel proceeding.

Q. It might be given to him prepared, partly digested, i. e. cooked. - See Barley, in Appendix.

A. So be it ; but being carried to its extreme, this course would alter the power of digestion in a horse so treated ; bad blood would accumulate, or it would become too rich, lose its fluidity, cease to flow naturally, and disease would spring out of the

Q. Unless the use of salt with such provender is freely adopted, the humours would become visible on the skin : I now perceive that I did not examine the afl'air close enough to form a safe opinion.

A. No! You looked no further than your nose; as usual with all those of your age and standing in

Q. I'll owe you one for that. But I have seen horses on board ship take so much rest, that when set on shore they have staggered as if groggy. I doubt much whether some of them ever recovered the perfect use of -their limbs.

A. I have the like doubt. This must have hap- pened during one of your sea-voyages, I guess ; but why did you not prevent this stiff*ness of the joint by artificial action? Though the horses be

slung up, the means of giving motion and a tem- porary resting place to the hoof, seems to me easily contrived. Do you know, that the Arab horses recently brought to this country by the Mediterra- nean sea, never turned out so good as those which formerly came to us through France ? And this I take to be one reason why, - but we begin to deviate.

Q. Would you take out a hunter on the blank days ? Would you not at least give him complete rest the day before an appointment?

A.' No ! Nor the day after, either; I would give him a hreatliing rather, though not amounting to a sweat, to prepare him for the coming day ; and the day following a hard run he should also go out, at any rate a little further than to water. The fresh air revives the spirits. I would carry the principle to every gradation of cattle; and were I in charge of such, even the dray-horse should be walked forth on Sundays.

Q. A pretty sight, truly; Messrs. Whitbreads' thirty greys, for example, taking an airing on the Sabbath-day, would sound well over the stones !

A. They would be the better for it, notwith- standing, and then be less disposed at any time to stand and sleep, as is usual with old ones of that breed, which I have seen fall whilst stopping in the streets. One of their teams did not lie down for several years, I find; and Mr. Shore, the miller, of Nottington (Somerset), had a horse which did not fairly lie down for sixteen years, to 1828, when he fell and broke a leg.

Q. A log hung at his tail would have prevented this accident,! should think?

A. So should I ; as I have observed such horses ever tumble forward ; the log would act as a coun- terpoise, and has been tried, I hear.

Q. Well then, out every day, am I to under-

A. Every horse of the better sort every day ex- ercised, from eight to twelve miles. Meantime, all the litter out, the stables emptied and well cleansed ; racks cleared out and re-filled, gutters washed and drain-holes opened, - in warm weather, employ a profusion of water. All which operations, if per- formed while the cattle are in-doors, afford cause of much discomfort, especially to the high bred and the irritable. Then, also, all windows and doors open, at all seasons, except only during sharp frosts and fogs. The practice of watering horses at a distant stream is a good one, inasmuch as it insures a two or three mile airing each time ; it pos- sesses no other advantage, however, the same water being commonly found nearer home, ex- cept cantering home, and the pleasure the animal derives from going to take it, being more natural to him than swallowing half a pail full all at once, and standing still with it cold in his inside.

Q. Which makes him sweat unnaturally, I have observed, by the hair becoming roughish, in a short time, if it do not turn and begin to stare imme-

A. By checking the action of the stomach and

intestines, I believe, and causing those spasmodic aifections thereof, which we next day detect and term colic or gripes, and give the cordials ; though when the cold water has done its utmost mischief, colic is not then the disorder the animal has in- curred, but another much more virulent, namely, inflammation of the intestines - when the exhibi- tion of those same cordials would kill the patient

Q. I have known colic which consists of twisting of the guts, caused by giving cold water in the sta- ble to a fine horse in full stay-at-home condition.

A. Ha! none other incur it, than your high fed cattle, out of work. Here again, the exhibition of Glauber s salts is a good preventive, 1 have lately found, as is the common house salt, given to such gross feeders to the amount of four ounces a day ; though the disorder is not properly a twisting, this appearance being an effect, only, of the disorder. The strangulation of the gut, so termed, is occasion- ed by an encysted tumefied gland, detaching itself from the mesentery, and hanging down by a corded pendulum thereof, ties a knot of the gut, and de- stroys the animal in a few hours, by mortification. You see, how dangerous is the giving such an attack that term, or indeed, merely inflammation, or colic, which admit of cure, the other not so.

Q. Concerning which two disorders I mean to tax your patience a little more in the sequel. [Cow- versations x. xiv.] At present, food, air, and ex- ercise claim our undivided attention. I am now

aware how much the continuance of health depends on regularity, in the hours and quantity of feeding- and watering, likewise on airing and grooming, as affording the horse pleasurable sensations ; all which, combined, conduce as much to his condition almost as the meat he takes.

A. Much also depends upon the manner of doing the same thing by two differently tempered men - one being of an indifferent turn in that respect.* His treatment, likewise, should not be capricious as to hours of feeding and watering; the same amount of corn at three times doing more good than if given at twice ; and whatever the al- lowance of water per day, it should he divided into four services at least.

Q. At our first interview (p. 2) you observed that some horses were characterised by a craving for water ; now, I have met with many that care little about water, and refuse it, or but just dip their noses in the pail or the stream.

A. The first are, also, ravenous eaters, have large stomachs, and a craving appetite that is never satisfied, but of strong constitution notwithstand-

Well bred horses are cognizant of kind words and mellow voice : the Arab and Tartar nations, from whom we derive the stock, are even said to converse with their steeds. When a horse is kept alone, he appears to congratulate the return of his keeper ; as an antidote to loneliness, some persons keep a goat in the stable - in other respects such a guest is unserviceable.

Q. Their manner of going is likewise anxious, impatient of control, and irritable; when runners, they perform this pace with the head down.

A. Because wide-made at the haunches : and, although deep-chested, are usually narrow before, yet not coming up to my notion of mal-confor- mation of the parts. We should carefully avoid distending the stomach of such horses by giving large drinks of water at any one time, but rather divide them into five, six, or seven services a-day, provided the value of the animals so addicted war- rant as much care. Neither should these drink soon after feeding, as this swells the corn.

Q. The example operates beneficially upon the fourth description of horses, those that care little about water, which are also, invariably, poor feed- ers, and tender of constitution. These require coaxing to drink, which commonly begets an appe- tite for their meat. [See Conv. ix.]

A. Always ; as it cools the blood and supplies with aqueous particles the several secretions, on which health and vigour so much depend. After you have extended the capacity of the stomach of such a horse, with augmented services of water on his corn, you may inspire him to increased exer- tions by means of a handful of split beans occa- sionally, an hour or two previous to his gallop, and then work into him better pace and greater lengths in consequence.

Q. Two grand points these. Why, the manage- ment of the watering is of equal moment, in a train- ing point of view, to the regulation of his feeds ?

A. Every bit. And should the horse's appetite outstrip the intentions of his trainer, in his endea- vours to keep down flesh by strong exercise, then he has recourse to physic for his auxiliary.

Q. Horses training for speed evidently improve their s^re^cA after physic, and, of course, their pace.

A. Those kinds I have been speaking of parti- cularly so ; in truth, horses we would train to strong and rapid exertion perspire so much, that they de- mand a greater quantity of fluid to keep up the supply. Your long-hodiedy reedy horses, do not form an exception ; but they are the most uncertain animals going, in this respect, some of them being light-built, fast-goers over short courses, and mode- rate in appetite ; others, again, are strong-consti- tutioned, robust, and hearty feeders ; they live to the end of the chase or race, be it never so long, and do the thing respectably, if not toppingly. These last are also disposed to crave for water, but eat still more voraciously, and should be stinted in their appetites, and watered often, in small quan- tities, while in training.

Q. Then, again, there is the great bulk of horses that belong to neither extreme, they do not crave overmuch, nor refuse food or water ; qualities these that reside in the square-built horse : one, I mean, that you can see the light forming a square under

him - that is to say, neither high-mounted or long-

A. Such horses are ever good goers, always playful at exercise, and seem to enjoy the race ; - thus closely connected is our best breed of horses with the disposition to crave for water inordinately, or, on the other hand, to put up with a moderate quantity of this indispensable lubricator of their parched animal system.

Q. The admixture of oatmeal, bran, or sugar^ is found to entice those delicate horses to drink, of which we were first talking. Salt, given in com or hay, to horses ** suspected of small stomach," [^Conv. ix.] induces them to take more water, so £is to distend the stomach to a desirable capacity -^ besides superinducing a better state of the blood and creating appetite. [See Appendix, SaltJ]

A. These articles are likewise goodly corrective of water, to which we may have well-founded ob-

Q. The qualities of water vary much, and ought to undergo examination : it carries off horses of great value - if very cold at the spring or draw-

A. As it does if impregnated with minerals ; or with rotting vegetable substances, as the falling leaves, &c. of autumn.

Q. Thorough-breds in training have very suscep- tible insides, which such waters either irritate or relax, according to circumstances*

A. We may divide all water into the hard and the soft kinds; the first mentioned, rising from a stone or gravel substrata, is commonly drawn from the well and drank upon the spot; it is the prolific harbinger of internal inflammatory complaints and of tubercles on the lungs, the liver, &c. ; and of encysted tumours on the mesentery of fat and idle horses, causing strangulation of the gut.

Q. We can detect this water by making a lather with soap in it, which curdles if the water is hard, I. e. is impregnated with stone, whereas, if not so, the soap dissolves equably, and impregnates alike the whole of the water. Indeed, all water is thus impregnated with some foreign substance or other.

A. As a corrective, let it be procured a long time before required for use, and kept in a tank or cistern, exposed to the sun. Give less at a time and oftener, when the obnoxious kinds cannot be avoided. I am convinced that many a horse has lost his race in a distant part of the country, through not being inured to a certain kind of water that is inoffensive enough in itself. The chalky water of Kent, in parts of Gloucestershire, below Bath, and along by Basingstoke to Winchester, is that which most com- pletely belies its first disgusting appearance. I am not certain, but it may possess a salutary eff"ect on the constitution of some horses, upon the same prin- ciple as that ascribed to lime-water, of the nature whereof it partakes: solvent of stone, destructive of worms, absorbent of bile, I apprehend a better

corrector of hard water than chalk or whitening cannot be employed, artificially, when required.

Q. The experiment would be worth trying in that part of the country ; but more appalling is the turbid water of stagnant brooks, and those outlets from factories and house-drains that, under a glassy surface, leave a foul residuum below; as may be observed upon taking up and examining the bottom.

A. The latter are positively deleterious in sum- mer time, and the harbingers of fever, tumours, and those other indications of depravation in the secre- tions, which we will term -' the humours," let the doctors say what they like.

Q. Charcoal, pounded in water, and stirred up with such putrid waters, is said to carry down the obnoxious animal matter, and leave a good whole- some and drinkable water above,

A. 'Tis good to know, though we desire not to put in practice, the means of discovering and amending this all-important beverage.

Q. Boiling does it, I believe, in all cases, except that of iron-5/9ri«^ water, which maybe detected by the rusty colour of the stones, &c. over which it runs ; as well as by soaking a linen rag well in the water, and, after drying it, pour a little tea on the same, and it will assume a huff colour on being again dried.

A. From unsettled field-waters, and those flowing from the hills after rains, we may expect a more latent enemy : the earthy particles of these subside

in the (ccecum, or) blind gut, and there form concre- tions, that the heat of the body converts into stone; as happens more facilely with water from a cold spring, which contains the principle of stone in abundance. Passing from that gut into the kidneys, generally, such a stone will there stick fast, and assume the most hideous cell-like shapes, displacing one of these glands nearly, so that the whole func- tion of separating the urine from the blood is thence-forward performed by one kidney only.

Q. How provident are the ways of Nature ! I observe, by some stones I have seen severed in two, that a little pebble which must have been taken with the food, formed the nucleus or central begin- ning of such a stone in the bladder, whilst others are found in the passages leading to it.*

A. An accident that happens most frequently to the gross feeders and ravenous ones just alluded to ; but whenever high-bred horses incur this disorder, their sufferings are more acute in consequence of the superior irritation of which they are susceptible. Oatmeal and beans bruised for horses are thus charged with stone-dust occasionally, by millers reserving their coarser mill-stones to be employed in such services, as happen also when their stones have been newly chipped or roughed.

Q. Your iron-mill is preferable, all to nothing.

* Though sharp pebbles miss their way, occasionally. A peculiar case of one such making its appearance at the point of the yard, is detailed in Veterinarij Surgerxj,yA%Ql5A. I could not reckon this among the calculi spoken of above.

A. Always sweet and clean ; never clogs like the old hand-mill. Ours was made by Yearsley, in High Holborn> I observe; but his charge is much too high for general use.

Q. Such particles of stone as we have been speaking of, often subside in the hinn, I find, by rowing about the meal, and will then be found at the bottom.

A. Or, more certainly, on mixing oatmeal gruel, when the rough bottoms or sediment may be pro- fitably thrown away; indeed, you may feel it grit between the pestle and mortar, when gruel is made according to my directions. [See Appendix,

Q. You order water-gruel to be given frequently, I observe, and in large quantities.

A. Always to the ailing animal, as well as to any that may have performed a hard day's work, young or old, with the addition of crushed beans to the latter. Indeed, I would give no beans unless crushed : young horses do not stand in need of them, and the teeth of old ones are past grinding them as they ought, so bruise them by all means ; bruise all beans, or give sodden barley.

Q. In Flanders they give their working horses all kinds of sloppy food, as grains, wash, &c., and every green thing that grows, nearly.

A. Which gives them those washy carcases we so little admire. I never saw them at such work ; but all we get from thence have large flat hoofs, and are of the heavy kind.

Q. Owing to the humidity of the climate, princi- pally which bears close analogy to our Lincolnshire country. They bring the best from the county of MunsteVy and other parts of Lower Germany, which more resembles our Craven country : all the Netherlands are swampy, save a few spots, as I may call them. In some parts they give their stage-horses a food of - what do you think ?

A. 'Don't know any thing about them. Not milky surely, as the Arabs do their horses : when grass is not to be found, they give nothing else. 'Tis said, they drink the mares' milk themselves, and give camels' milk to their colts ; whilst their filly foals are allowed to suck their mothers, - at least so a late French traveller tells us, after living among them two or three years. In Bulgaria, a Turko-Russian principality, where the people are equesiriati to a Yorkshire excess, they, too, drink mares' milk, and eat horse-flesh - so I hear, and believe. Well, as to the Germans ?

Q. The driver carries a bag of dark hread, made of buck-wheat, which he slices off and gives on the road, much after the fashion our stage-waggoners manage with a whisp of hay; and this food they call humpernike: whilst, near Caen, in Normandy, they grow a plant, with a yellow flower, (like rape) in abundance, for their horses of every description.

A. No heart in either, as oats have. Let them contrive whatsoever they may, nothing gives to horses vigour and strength like unto all-congenial oats. Fed on these, an ass may be brought into

condition fit to drag a load at ten miles an hour. Even the training-bread, formerly made in race- horse studs, and composed of oatmeal, wheat-flour, and bean-flour, equal quantities, mixed up with ale and eggs, and baked in cakes, is now gene- rally disused, though good for old horses. I wonder, in my heart, what our old ancestors did before oats were brought over?

Q. Much the same as the Germans, I suppose; as well as they could. But they had no racers in those days ; though they bred many tolerable good horses, and exported them and all other kinds of cattle to those very parts.

A. But now we import their heavy, unwieldy, draught-horses, that are known by the immense crest, great head, thick shoulder, and large flat hoof; with some coach-horses, too, but few for the saddle, I believe. But I never saw one that I should call a tight, well-built, firm horse ; none to be compared to the Cleveland-bred ones, not in a day's march.

Q. You bear a little prejudice, I observe, against the foreigners. We do get a few good chariot- horses from them, occasionally, that are worthy any one's looking at.

Gross Habit of Body. Grooming, its Benefits: Litter ; Blear Eyes,

Q. Those large foreign horses we were speaking about yesterday, do not seem to carry themselves well, with their bellies full of our hard meat, with which they are stuffed to repletion by the emulative pride of their London owners.

A. Everlastingly uneasy, snorting, and casting off the superabundant secretion from the throat - both windpipe and gullet, I should think.

Q. They seem like pampered christians, bursting with choler.

A. Whether narrow or flat chested, these, nor any other breed, are difficult to keep in condition, if that be your fat condition. We often hear it said that such a horse " never thrives unless he have plenty of corn ;" of another that it is always " found at the rack," to denote its ravenous dispo- sition ; this is as much as to say, that his circum- scribed chest, and consequently bad respiration, prevents his coming up to ivorking condition, but that much gormandizing always covers that defect with fatness, though it evidently hinders the due action of the lungs. Hence the uneasy, burly manner of those Flemish and German horses, whose gullets are looser than is common to other

They always appear to me as if their skins were too large for their bones, and these not tightly strung together; and then their new mode of living fills up all the intervals with fat ; an incommodious, enervating, and gross habit of body, alike opposed to exertion and to health, unassisted by purgatives. I once saw the carcase of one of those heavy ones, which had been slain in full health, in London- streets. When the skin was removed, the whole external surface, down to the hocks and knees, was completely covered with faty utterly obnoxious fat ! What service could all this fattening answer? For labouring cattle I abhor the thought; whilst for pigs, indeed, for bean-fed deer, and oil- caked oxen, the thing may be suffered, nay, is delightful!

Q. Cart horses in town are always feeding; the nose-bag goes on at every i-est, though I believe *tis mostly chaff, of the worst description.

A. Who's to blame? Fill them with gross hu- mours first, and then physic off the ills you your- selves have created ; or prepare to expect disor- dered intestines, staggers, molten grease, inflam- matory complaints, tumours, and so forth. This species of mistake is not confined to the owners of the lower description of horses.

Q. Many of those evils are augmented by the practice of standing this class of cattle upon their litter of several days' accumulation. The feet in- variably suffer ; and although not every species of disease, yet enough to cripple the gait. What horrors do not such feet present, augmented by the

heavy pulls they are compelled to perform, with the hoof brittle, thin, lovv-criistedj and pommiced soles, often with great fissures too.

Q. The London art of shoeing such horses, the filling up cracks, and adapting their shoes to awk^ ward tread, you must allow is very ingenious. Those horses seldom lie down, I presume, because they always stale on getting into their stalls.

A. So do some other kinds; they wait for the straw, as it prevents splashing against their greasy heels, &c. which tolls how necessary 'tis to leave some of the old litter for them outside, as an enticement to stale. No, they have less occasion to renew their strength by lying down, than your stagers, post-horses, mail-horses, and those others which are constrained to quick action ; for, being once down, the former find a difficulty in regaining their legs, whereas, the quick goers no sooner feel their fatigue gone off, than up they get, fresh as the daisy, ready to feed, and fit to start.

Q. At our coach-horse stables, we do not clear out the best of the litter in winter, but shake it out and get it up, after allowing the siall to dry, against the partition. If there be a disposition to lie down after work or exercise, we encourage it by making up again,

A. The additional trouble is well repaid, even for ordinary cattle. You may observe horses that have been unused to the practice, when suffered to stand on their foul litter during the day, do so in a shifting uneasy posture, long previous to the

swelling of the heels, that inevitably takes place, if persisted in ; also, that on the days when they are not taken out, as on Sundays, the best eyes of healthy horses close partly up, owing to the vapour and heat of urine and dung, and of rotten straw, that is incessantly ascending. But if those animals are at any such time removed to a clean stable, those symptoms pass away, the eyes invariably ex- pand to their natural size, whilst the manner of standing is restored to the healthy and vigorous style of an animal quite at his ease.

Q. I will try the experiment on Sunday. Ct'ib- biters, filled with wind, and those suffering under internal galling pains, as the worms, or long- standing affections of the lungs, are also induced to eat their litter, under the circumstances de- scribed, and thus increase the evil.

A. Physic then again becomes necessary, to restore the depraved appetite, instead of that ne- cessity being obviated by proper precautions, and ventilation is among the chiefest of these.

Q. This and some other topics (and, among the rest, physic itself) I reserve to a future opportunity. Neither have we said aught of actual grooming, va- riously termed dressing, rubbing down and clean- ing, of its beneficial effects, and how restorative a strict application of the brush, and, perhaps, the curry-comb in some cases of ordinary cattle, is to the preservation of that health which is so deser- vedly matter of boast with you ;

A. By exciting the nervous system, exhilarating

the spirits, by increasing the action of the blood- vessels, and thus compelling the heart to quicker vibration, and affording to the animals pleasurable sensations : these are the immediate effects of rub- bing down the animal in any way whatever, to say nought of the fat and humours which are thereby dispersed and finally absorbed and sent off by the proper evacuations.

Q. This duty is too well known, however, to need my troubling you with further questions ; and, as to the stable itself, its construction and fitness for the inhabitants thereof, these are topics quite beyond the groom's situation in life.

The Stable : Ventilation - draining. Properties of

By no means ; I crave your mercy awhile : nothing that pertains to a horse lies beyond his ken. I say beyondy too ! No subject whatsoever is above the reach of a man of common sense, espe- cially when so closely connected with his avoca- tions in life as a stable is with a horse, and a horse with a groom. Neither should the head man of a stud hesitate to bend himself to the meaner

offices, when the welfare of his horses demands manual assistance that is not otherwise at hand effi- ciently. For example, he should know how to put on a thrown shoe, though that be with a stone on the road, he will then know when this service is properly done ; give all physic with his own hands ; fasten bandages expertly; and, though he have plenty of helpers, lads, and junior grooms about him, never flinch from administering a clyster, or back-raking, or any other of the less agreeable ope- rations; because his cheerful acquiescence in such offices tends to infuse into those about him an active sense of their duty, and to inspire the young and inexperienced, who look up to him as a practical monitor, with a due respect for his assiduity, if they do not reverence his talents.

Q. Your remarks are very just. I did not re- flect, that your experience and constant anxiety to discharge the duties of your situation with credit to yourself and to the advantage of your employer, must have furnished you with much sound practical knowledge on this as well as every other topic con- nected with the horse. As to the construction of stables - you must have put up with some that were very unfit for their intended purposes, and others that were built with every convenience - expressly to your taste, perhaps.

A. People do not rebuild premises simply to adopt some new invention, however demonstrably beneficial ; so I will not occupy time in describing how stables should be constructed for this or that

particular purpose, further than by observing, they should lie at a tolerable distance from the farm or dwelling-house, by reason of the constant disturb- ance the better bred cattle are annoyed with ; also, the unseemly stench arising from various offices; and the danger of incurring worms from the second order of bott-fly, that is often bred in exposed or- dure.* The object should be for us to render such ancient buildings as healthful as possible, by con- trivances adapted to remedy the defects we may find at them.

Q. The principle being, to admit atmospheric air equal to the quantity consumed, but not a cun^ent of it, in order to expel the vapours, saline exhala- tions, and gas, that constantly arise from the four seve- ral evacuations, and consequent heat of the inmates.

A. Rather say, " to permit those gassy vapours to escape ;" for the tendency of all such bodies is to ascend upon the atmospheric or healthy air, un- less, being confined together in a given space, (a room or stable,) the two airs mix, and pervade the whole area so circumscribed, whereupon by further duces itself over and over again.

Q. Aye ; it has the same buoyancy, or disposition to ascend, as the gas that impels our balloons up- ward ; having the like quality of being ignited too, as the same gas that is burnt in our street- lamps. It must, therefore, contain some quality

* This fly has the name of Oestrus hcemorhoidalisy and is said to deposit its eggs on the skin of horses.

that is totally different from the pure air, and inso- much unfit for mortal man or beast to breathe and live healthfully. Whoever advised the lighting a stable with gas was not a good judge then, unless a shareholder in some gas- company : a mephitic odour always issues from the burner, the light greatly destroys the pure air, and the gas is fre- quently found to escape from the pipes, and even to rise up through the pavement, occasionally.

A. The action of the horse's lungs being twice that of man, besides the multiple of these with his greater bulk and heat of carcase, accounts for the superior destructiveness of stable air, or rather gas; a fact any one can put to the test if he will con- descend to rest a whole night with his horses, as I have done, and, partially, several times in full stables, to say nothing of my boyhood, when I literally slept with my horses.

Q. You found the air oppressive, no doubt, in the full stable.

A. After the first hour and a half excessively so,

for it was during the races, formerly, where

I suspected a fellow of some foul intentions towards my horses in the adjoining stables, as then hap- pened too frequently ; so I did not sleep, nor in- tended it. After the second and third hours had passed away, during which I suffered great op- pression at the chest, not to mention the stench, the pain wore away, and I felt comparatively restored, but still perspiring copiously, with a slight discharge at the eyes and nose.

Q. Some change had taken place, I conclude, in the state of the

prehend, having" been saturated throughout with the noxious gas, the ceils at length lost part of their resistance and elasticity, when the feeling of oppression ceased and the gaseous poison had complete possession of the pulmonary function. What a very pretty state I should shortly have been in, if the full glare of morning had not relieved me from my watch.

Q. The remedy is evident: a ventilator would cure this ; or ventilation of some kind or other.

A. A very lofty stable, say twelve or fourteen feet high, would contain as much of this noxious gas above the animals' heads as they would produce in one night, probably ; a benefit incalculable in severe weather, when we might safely close all the aper- tures, those at the doors being ever the most detri- mental. A less elevated stable would effect the same salutary end, partially ; but we most frequently find those of middling proprietors constructed in a corner, narrow and confined, and very few that you may not reach the ceiling of with your whip. What is then to be done, where the means of. im- provement, or the disposition to undertake it are equally beyond control !

Q. Aye ; in the midst of a town, or populous neighbourhood, for example.

A. If you find not that the first piece of parsi- mony, or of ill-design, has been partially corrected

by another, whereby the gas is permitted to ascend as it is formed through certain improvident open- ings, to the hay loft above, or by way of the racks, &c. whence it escapes by some crazy lattice or im- perfect boarded work, then a rustic contrivance, that shall effect the same service, may be applied to the windows of such a building as admits of no aperture in the roof.

Q. Or, a more finished piece of carpentry to the stables of the wealthy. What is the nature of your contrivance ?

A. A cell, or box, placed at the highest window of the stable inside, having a door, or doors, that open outwards only, and always stand open, unless blown fast by the wind, or fastened purposely. If you have the opening to make, avoid a north- eastern aspect, as you should also for the entrance of your stable. Its depth inward should be one- half the breadth of the aperture, which its frame should fit exactly, the lower part slanting outwards, to carry off" the rain. On the inner side, two fold- ing doors, of slight materials, are to be hung on hinges, with a pulley and cord that descend to the ground, whereby the doors may be kept open, or closed at will. At night, this cord being cast loose, it is apparent that the springing up of a blast of wind would close the doors, and, upon this ceasing, the weight of the cord, or of something fastened to it, equal to the resistance of the doors, would again open them.

Q. A very simple contrivance, truly, and which

may be applied to a more elaborate aperture in the ceiling, if deemed necessary, like the top of a malt-house.

A. And if the ventilation be considered at any time too much for the season, or for the inhabitant animals, one of the doors may be closed, or both re- tained by pegs ; in like manner, by passing over another pulley a contrary pull of cord, and making all fast, the same object may be attained more

Q. As, in cases of sickness, the higher state of internal inflammations, or in fevers.

A. In the latter series of disorders, the air would refresh and conduce to the cure, after the patient has been reduced by bleeding and purgatives. In affections of the lungs, sharp gusts of wind can be prevented from entering rudely, by stretching a few yards of canvass, or an old sack unsewed, across the window, within a foot or two of it, inside.

Q. Since the time I first became a convert to your doctrine respecting the healthfulness of venti- lation, in general, and proved its efficacy in fe- brile disorders, T have noticed several very faithful fellows, hesitating about executing my orders on that head, and others complying partially, or with reluctance, as if -

A. They thought you insane, no doubt. If any one among them venture to give proofs of the sion of air, his experience has been drawn from some ordinary stables, be assured ; the race-horse,

more than any other standing in need of pure air ; which is mainly ascertained by its temperature - coolness and purity being the same thing.

Q. The flooring has also divided the opinions of the knowing ones, both as to shape and material; those of hrick had many advocates, who since abandoned their prejudice.

A. As being liable to get out of repair, being generally too soft burnt, and so likely to retain the urine and to form small channels. No ; good hard large pebbles are your only material for the body of the stable and gutters, however they may choose to lay the inner standing of the stalls with ** fire- brick, laid edgewise ;" having a slight fall towards the middle, but no other visible slope in the stall.

Q. In the Netherlands they lay the inner part of the stall with Dutch tiles, as they do the bottom and sides of the manger.

A. Dry, cool, and cleanly ; and worthy of imi- tation here.

Q. A gutter or channel to carry off the urine is indispensable, I apprehend ?

A. But the slope this form of floor occasions is evidently calculated to strain the back sinews of the hind legs, besides being further objectionable on account of the constant wet state of these channels, by the flowing streams of the urine from the adja- cent stalls, in large crowded stables, which occa- sions to the horses in the lower part much discom- fort at all times, and a proneness to acquire grease, especially when further aided by a chilly night

VII.] grease: urine, useful. 99

coming on, which nips the heels whilst in this

Q. Most channels, however, in stables of any consideration, are so constructed that the urine of one horse cannot incommode another, either as to dampness or smell.

A. By means of an under- drain, into which gratings, or perforated iron sinks, permit the urine to drop as soon as 'tis passed. Some persons lay these gratings within the stalls, on a small scale, the whole communicating with the main sewer, which terminates outside the building."^

Q. Objectionable, on account of the cold and damp of winter, thus liable to be admitted - to say nothing of rats coming up, and so forth.

A. Both which may be prevented by making a retmn, or sharp bend at the outlet ; by fitting on a trap-door grating, making the end of the kennel take a dip in the water outside. Much water and filth always descend the stable-kennel, and this kind of drain is easily laid open by lifting up the gratings. I have heard of some nobleman, in Germany, whose stables were supplied with a constant stream of water running through them : how grateful in summer!

Q . Everybody, almost, now understands tolerably

* And the urine afterwards profitably employed, where the stables have been erected on a convenient eminence, in irriga- ting the land, by being pumped from the receiving pit. At Stean, near Brackley, I have seen this contrivance applied to bullock-houses, upon a large scale, with much success.

well the great importance of keeping down the stench necessarily arising from so many huge hard- working animals being crowded together, and using up the fresh air as fast as it enters.

A. But how few, among those who do know, adopt the commonest precautions to admit the re- quisite supply of fresh wholesome air ; and fewer still those who employ that sure guide the thermo- meter, whereby the temperature of the stable may be ascertained and regulated to a nicety at any time - say a due mean of 60 degrees ; and if the attendant found the quicksilver approaching to 70 degrees, or a still more deleterious heat, he might be taught to throw open every door and window; still excluding the sun, by means of long canvass curtains, with a make-fast or weight fasten- ed at the bottom, capable of being hitched to a nail or staple, or sufficiently heavy to detain them to the ground.

Q. Since our first conversation, in which some allusion was made to the instrument, I bought a thermometer for our stable, at very little less than a sovereign in price ; but, for the convenience of your pocket, I now inform you the same thing may be bought for half the price at Taroni and Lourighi's, next the City-road turnpike-gate ; of Copini, 217, High-street, Shoreditch ; of Tournerelli, Greville- street, Hatton-garden ; and a dozen other makers.

are content to put up with a glass mounted on plain box, you may get three or four for a guinea.

VII.] GROUND current: FIRED STABLE. 101

equally good for use in every respect, at the same

Q. All horses like warm lodging in winter, though long usage inures them to bear much cold: thorough-breds require more warmth than working cattle all the year round ; 'tis the nature of the countries whence we derive the breed.

A. They do not thrive else ; but you may over- do the most desirable service : and, do you mind me, be the stable never so warm, there is always a current of air running along the ground from 10 to 15 inches high. The warmer the stable is, the more severe is this current of air, and the keener its rush ; which is usually supplied, in the common run of stables, from a faulty door-way, a worn-out step, or some rotten board, time-worn window- shutter, or disused key-holes.

Q. All which appear to me like illegitimate means of admission to aid the ventilation. By the way, I once saw an exemplification of this truth in the case of a stable being on fire in London. None could look in at the door for smoke, though all were eager to withdraw the horses; when a fireman went down on his knees, crept to a stall, and having fastened his jacket over the eyes of one of them, led him forth safe ; whilst two others that remained immovably fixed to the spot were dreadfully burnt, and one so much so, that it went to the slaughterer's next morning.

A. Greasy heels is the consequence of cold air

making its way along the ground. Indeed, all disorders of the hind legs that arise from chill or other functional derangement, are thus originated : whilst the body is warm, tired, relaxed with heat, and the blood circulating fast, cold seizes the heels and prevents the finer blood vessels of the foot from returning their contents into the system, agreeably to the dictates of nature. The blood thus detained loses its quality, is diseased already with fever, and only waits to show its acrimonious nature by the in- flammatory destruction of the juices which supply new horny matter; whence rigidity of the coffin- joint ensues, that some mistake for strain thereof; but the lameness oftener proceeds from enlarge- ment of the cartilages, and a subsequent ossification of the same, that is incurable. However slight, ring-hone is induced, as well as hrittle-hoof, the wall of which is ever thin and unretentive of the iron defence ; generally, it produces grease; any or either of which evils are further promoted by the prevalence of diseases of the urinary organs that usually concur to afflict the large fleshy animals I have now mostly in view.

Q. In this latter case you give diuretics; what in others ?

A. Do nothing bat keep the evacuations steady : for those disorders do not soon show their precise nature, farther than increased heat comes to, when, perhaps, \o\xm'dy bleed ; but as to grease, though always to be alleviated by superinducing more

urine, it is not always that the kidneys, which form the urine, are capable of carrying on their secretory function to a sufficient extent.

Q. Stimulated to rottenness, perhaps? How this is effected I will take a more leisurable opportunity of inquiring".

A. Better prevent those evils altogether, I should think, by making the stalls deep enough to contain the whole animal, say ten feet, so that he can neither kick his next neighbour, nor catch a chill that is replete with such bad consequences. Try the experiment of giving a good horse the loose stall ; and, if he be not an old one, swayed by habit, he will not lie with his legs outwards, but the contrary.

Q. The value of a loose stall, or single horse stable, is very great, for the ailing animal, on his recovery from sickness, or after much physicking, its benefit is incalculable. In some parts of Ger- many, they heat the stables, during seasons of great inclemency, by means of stoves, constructed out- side the wall.

A. Very good, but not a little dangerous ; and, furthermore, is liable to make the hearty animals artificially tender. Horses in strong work and corn-fed, of whatever description, stand in no need of such an auxiliary in this country - unless, indeed, they be Arabs recently arrived ; which shiver as they stand, though clothed, and the stable at sixty- five degrees heat.

Of preserving Health : Work, Tonics. Legs. Misusage. Powers of going - Physicking, its use and abuse ; Preparatives ; mode of giving

Q. The obstacles to keeping a horse in a healthy state are numerous : besides feeding and exercise, grooming and ventilation, and soiling, many im- portant points remain for discussion ; the principal of which is, arresting the progress of disease upon lis first appearance.

A. If watching its progress, and enabling our- selves to distinguish between any two or more dis- orders which may be somewhat similar, be not equally important.

Q. How shall we proceed with this inquiry, think you ?

A. Any how suits me, so that you observe a little order in arranging the topics, and stick to one at a time, as nearly as you can. Thus, follow up what has been said as to bringing a horse from green food into condition, with an investigation of the means of preserving him in that state without physic, if possible; but in cases where "regular physic" is rendered indispensable, as with horses training for the race-course, we must apply our- selves to the means of achieving our object of

cleansing out the animals, by using the lowest quantity of drastic medicine capable of performing that service ; thus, by combining it with milder substances, palliatives and preparatives may be found in abundance.

Q. This, I take it, is the true art of preserving health, or keeping your cattle in proper working condition; which, you justly observed, does not always imply ^b^ condition.

A. Most assuredly not - unless for waggon horses. The due consideration of this subject in- cludes sober and liberal reflections regarding the keep, or manner and amount of feeding and sta- bling, airing and exercising, the qualities of food and water - on all which topics we were recently talking, together with other subordinate matters worthy of being known to all ; though many grooms, however adroit in the details of training, are pre- cluded from carrying into practice, owing to supe- rior orders. Every proprietor will have his own way in such matters.

Q. None will be deaf to reason, whose interest is so materially concerned.

A. Provided it be reason and not twattle. Every groom, within the years of maturity, should think twice before he speaks once ; he should study his subject a few years at least before he presumes to give advice, as is often done, upon the information of others.

Q. Very material to him is the knowledge - 1. As to what quantity of food and water is need-

ful for each individual horse. 2. As to what course of feeding engenders disease.

A. They termed it *' Glut " formerly ; no doubt, from the word '* gluttony," or indulgence of the appetite, which occasioned it. No less worthy his attention are the symptoms that precede any and every disease, that he may take preventive mea- sures in time, or call in the aid of the well-bred veterinary surgeon.

Q. The groom, I think, is pla:ced in a much better situation for curing, or alleviating a first attack than the doctor himself, according to your maxim at the beginning of our third conversa- tion, - (p. 47) ; as he must necessarily know the cause of the disorder. Hereupon, he has but to surcease the course of proceeding which brought it on, and the cure effects itself, without the aid of medicine, or very little of it.

A. A cause that is so readily ascertained, ought never in common prudence to have existed at all ; and I may add, of that which mostly escapes your notice, that the cause of diseases generally, with you young fellows of the hunt, is mostly referable to gross feeding with irregular exercise. The mistaken notion of *' giving much rest" to horses in health (whereby you rest yourselves) coupled with neglect of the proper evacuations - which none of ye watch after as you ought, is the prolific harbinger of all disorders of the horse, that are not fairly ascribable to hard work, a cold, and pure ac- cidents : the pest of a rich man's stable is high feed-

ing, idle days, warm clothing", and closed windows. In these latter respects the poor man's cattle have the advantage of yours ; whilst he is wofully cir- cumstanced in all others ; the diseases of his team are consequently of a totally different Dature to the rich man's.

Q. Look at our butchers' nags, in which their owners invariably discover some latent power of going, mostly the trot: their exercise is brisk and unflinching; the keep full, but not redundant: their stabling scarcely second best.

A. Their usage, too, as regards temper, is firm and bland towards their horses, however it may diff'er regarding other animals.

Q. Accounted for; inasmuch, as no intention can exist of *' going to scale," with the one as with the other. Would you draw a distinction between the ailments of the needy proprietor's cattle and those of the rich man's stables ?

A. I would go farther, and divide all acquit ed diseases of horses into, 1st. Those of the rich, and 2d. those of the poor, as to cause; - thus, those of one entire class I would attribute to repletion, those of the other to starvation ; the one kind being brought on by comparative inactivity and pamper- ing, the other by hard work and hard usage ; whilst neglect, proceeding from motives equally opposite, fosters both until some confirmed disorder ensues, and fastens on the animal till death, in one descrip- tion of property; and in the other, until physic and cordials have rendered death desirable.

Q. Like unto many other affairs in life, the wisest course, I perceive, lies in the middle.

A. As you rightly observed at our first conversa- tion, there are diseases in-hoim with some horses, being the defect of parentage, of race, or of certain obnoxious breeding countries ; besides these and the acquired before spoken of, let us reckon up diseases of accident, as broken knees, bad shoeing, excessive labour, bad roads, the owner's cudgel, and above all, his physic, his cordials, and his oyls.

Q. Why, some of these latter proceed out of, and as it seems to me, are occasioned by the former. By mentioning a '* cudgel," I perceive you have an eye to the lower order of these created beings, and presume you allude to a hit upon the

A. Or any other very sensible part, as the head, legs, and most dependent part of the belly ; but a simple kick of the toe on the latter, or a trivial slap of the hand upon the kidney, when the receiver is in a state of excitement, are replete with mischiefs of very serious import.

Q. No man can expect a horse to keep in con- dition under any of those several circumstances, unless he attend to each peculiarity of formation, adapt himself to every departure from nature, and as to any harm so inflicted, he must first eff'ect a cure thereof, and then recommence his conditioning afresh : of the ailments so produced, I will seize a future opportunity to take your opinion.

A. So be it. The preservation of health is so

closely connected with the restoration of strength, after the animal has been brought out of an illness by dint of physic, that you had better consider both at the same time.

Q. Great weakness and lassitude always remain after a fever has been cured; especially with ani- mals originally of tender constitution, and those of every degree which may have been abused at racing, hunting, staging, or otherwise. Old horses of the first mentioned description suffer more from misusage than ordinary cattle ; one season of over- work degrades them from their caste - one day of mal-treatment may consign such to the errand-cart or hackney-coach.

A. The unfavourable symptoms all reduced, let us suppose, yet the horse still unfit for work. The same drooping debility attends the removal of in- jlammation in all cases, whether of the lungs, the stomach, the intestines, or the kidneys ; but only when much inedicine has been required to subdue the disorder, - though, when a small quantity achieves the same end, those symptoms of weak- ness do not last long, especially with robust animals of high breed, having youth on their side.

Q. The appetite bad in every case of much physic taking: it must be restored, and that by tonics, I apprehend.

A. Else, no good can be expected for a long period ; though nature does a great deal - nay all.

Q. Our proper office is but to aid her.

A. Gently as we can ; though she sometimes throws down the ill-calculated efforts of the veteri- nary art, and performs cures in her own way, spite of its professors and their boasted skilL

Tonics y the species of remedy just recommended for the convalescent horse, are of tioo sorts, if not three; though the writers on veterinary matters teach us to rely too securely on the use of the medical class alone. The proper to?ie or tension of the stomach, for example, may be restored, as much by relaxation, or by stimulating that ore/an, as by the bracing tonics, according to the circum- stances that attend the particular case. If the stomach has been disordered through inflammation of the kidneys, as always happens, the tone is already too high, and the exhibition of Peruvian bark, arsenical preparations, cinchona, and other medical tonics, would but increase this species of derangement. If the disorder has originated in the stomach, then indeed will the bark prove itself a valuable bracing tonic, after the disease has been

Q. Ha! I perceive how it happens that in human ailments, also, hark is so uncertain in effect- ing any good, - and often the contrary; always causing to the patient great dismay at its failure.

A. When the heart also may be said to lose its tone, and the reasoning patient droops. But to return : the stomach, in the first case I have sug- gested, would be best restored to its proper tone

by the cooling regimen - i.e. green food, carrots, and mashes ; for this it is which corrects the long excited kidneys. [See Appendix, Tonics.']

Q. This regimen I take to be the second class of

A. As it is the most natural one, and best; un- less the third class be its equal - I memu fresh air, taken with exercise - that is to say, walking exer- cise, and a good deal of it, when at length the convalescent animal recovers strength sufficient. Whenever the horse's appetite fails, without any assignable cause is discoverable, no febrile heat, no inflammation of any organ, pulse not high, the stomach must be considered as having lost its tone, by the presence of some ill-digested food, or it is simply relaxed, and aloes, exhibited as an altera- tive laxative to the amount of a drachm and a half a day, for a week, or until purging takes place ; this purgative restores the right tone thereof, and it then becomes really a tonic, though a purgative.

Q. Great reliance is placed on regular physic, in preserving the health of our horses, by Mr.

B ; principally, I think, because it imposes on

us the necessity of further regulations.

A. Regular physic, or " routine physic," as he calls it, can never be requisite or desirable " upon a large scale." I would have you recollect, that the more physic any animal takes, the more it must take to produce similar effects; and then, see to what dangerous extremes this leads, in the frequent use of strong purgative medicines ! If

physic bring about any change whatever, is not this indiscriminate purging of a whole stable of horses, or an entire stud, at certain intervials, very liable to find some of the inmates in good health? Then, what is the alteration thus brought about, but a retrocession from sound health to that which is at least a step below it, besides begetting the neces- sity of following it up with repetition, and im- posing upon us the destructive alternative of in- creasing the quantity to a frightful amount, or of seeing our expectations baffled ?

Q. But, when the dunging is hard as pellets, as you will see in many hunting establishments, ac- cording to your own axiom, the horse must be emptied; as he must, also, if putting on fleshy or faty so much despised by you.

A. You sadly disorder all the points at issue between us : I do not dislike fat for the mouth, but 1 am not a going to eat my horses, in whom I would as soon see a thick head, or large hoof, as a large belly and fleshy shoulders. Again, as to horses dunging, doubtless you quote me aright; but what 1 object to is, the indiscriminate use of physic upon a number of horses at once, at given periods, whether in that state or not which war- rants a purgative. '* Regular bleeding," upon which we passed sentence awhile ago, (page 48,) is of a piece with ** regular physic;" both in my opinion are exceedingly irregular, and contrary to the nature of things animate, which cannot pos- sibly stand in need of this subtraction of the vital

fluid, or '* draining," of its material^ as yoa seem to advocate, and Osmer observed formerly.

Q. I stand corrected ;

A. Or you lie open to the reproach of being an indiscriminate purgator ; which you will find a poor recommendation to any rational sporting gentleman now-a-days; they know better, in general.

Q. When hunters get thick about the legs, in consequence of a hard run and neglect, you cannot recover the original shape of them without the use of aloes?

A. That depends on what cause they owe the mis- shapen legs to ; and we inquire, 1st. Whether it be owing to straining every sinew in going? when the warm bathing and bandaging, the hand-rubbing and rest (i. e. walking, and a loose stall) will restore a slight attack in a day or two ; but, if not, we must blister. 2d. Whether this is accompanied by swelling of the fleshy particles, and the skin, oc- casioned by the animal's languor of system, debi- lity, or being spirit-broken.

Q. When you allow that cordials may be given with profit.

A. Yes; but you must also procure healthy dungings, or the mildest cordial may do harm, if repeated beyond the day of such a run.

Q. Both objects may be accomplished by giving the scouring -water the morning after a hard chase ; although you were pleased to designate it as ** a mere cordial," it never failed to cheer up the horse, and to procure a good dunging on such occasions -

owing to the fatigue, perhaps, that yet remained in the animal, and the stimulant nature of the cordial. Here is the receipt for making it. [See Appen-

A. This '* receipt," as you very properly term it, might prove a receipt in full, like many other cordials, if given to a horse with inflammation of any internal organ, or fever of the whole system.

Q. I do not perceive the difference.

A. Nor is there any - so far as your famous ** receipt" is concerned; since it would be equally dangerous either in inflammation of kidneys, sto- mach, intestines, or lungs ; as such an affection at any of these ^ar^*, occasions an accession of un- natural heat of the skin, without perspiration; this is fever, though fever of the whole system may supervene without any of those internal parts being particularly affected, which fever any cordial would but increase.

Q. Some horses become so difficult to purge at times, that our best grooms cannot get the fat out of them by this means alone, without sweating first and galloping immediately after giving physic.

A. Those are your strong-constitutioned horses, required for hard-and-fast work, but which put up flesh when lying idle, or the ** getting into going order" is relaxed, even for a day; the racer, for example, which is wanted by a certain day, and cannot be waited for, nor can another supply his place, like the mail-horse. My objection to strong exercise for horses in physic is valid, nevertheless :

because, when the spiral contraction of the in- testines, which the aloes accelerates, is at its greatest pitch, galloping adds to the action of the physic and may be said to inflict further friction on the bowels and stomach alike. Hence, if we do not exactly say " the horse is worn out" by these means, 'tis very much like it.

Q. I never saw any harm arising from the prac- tice, however.

A. Possibly you may not ; the visible effects are slow, I allow, but not less certainly injurious.

Q. And is very commonly resorted to in all the stables I have seen. The method with us was to clothe and sweat at his usual paces the horse in- tended to be physicked that morning, and whilst sweating in the stable, after dressing and clothing afresh, his physic is given, and he is taken out for his ordinary afternoon gallop, so that no time is lost,

A. This last measure is what I object to entirely ; all horses show debility after the physic is worked off; and although the strong-constitutioned animals soon recover its effects, the more tender ones suffer longer ; and, after all, much time is not saved by the method you advocate so warmly.

Q. ** Warmly !" Not I; I merely described what I believe is the prevailing practice in all our racing-studs when the horse is wanted for an early engagement; and by some persons generally so. What plan of proceeding would you recommend?

A, Give two or three warm mashes of while

water [Appendix, No. 2,] the day preceding the physic ; at night keep the horse short of hay, and in the morning give a small mash early, fol- lowed by tolerably strong exercise, according to his nature, so that he bring down the contents of his stomach, perspire, and evacuate. Being re- turned home, rub him down, and quickly give the physic. You will then find five or six drachms of the aloes in general do as much service as seven, eight, or nine. [Prescribed in Appendix and else- where.] I say this, who am not an advocate for strong 7nedicine, even to such horses as absolutely stand in need of purging physic, and cannot from circumstances be taken out for the strong exercise

Q. I understand you ; we were conversing now of the better sort, that by their value deserve superior care, and require reduction of superfluous

A. The brisk purge, that is accompanied hy pers^nration effects this reduction excellently well, by reason of the heat of his body dissolving the aloes. Not only is the general health bettered, but the mis-shapen legs become fine and strong immediately ; therefore, do not neglect to promote this discharge by the skin, which further mashes, hand-rubbing the legs, and assiduous rubbing down, effects completely.

Q. Most people keep their physicked horses clothed all the day after it begins to work.

A. To be sure ; the tender ones in particular.

But I should remove each piece of the clothing, and having scraped, dressed, and dry-rubbed the part uncovered, replace dry clothing, piece by piece - that is, if the horse required this sort of reduction, and is of tender constitution.

Q. The legs, of course, would come in for their share of attention.

A. Of course ; the whole of the muscular system feels the effect of the absorption thus superinduced ; the animal comes out of its physic stronger also, and can stride greater stretches in all his paces in consequence, even his walk is bettered, and the stroke in galloping remarkably so.

Q. By brisk physic and much physic I perceive you mean two different modes of giving it, or, rather, prejKiring the animal that is to receive it.

A. This is the more necessary, as these better sort of horses in strong exercise are more difficult to purge than your ordinary cattle ; whilst country working Jiorses never require it, they having fre- quent opportunities of taking nature's purgative - the grasses, require little or no physic.

Q. We should, then, purge all our high-bred horses, I presume, before we commence the con- ditioning of hunters or training the race-horse?

A. Psha ! As to those terms I see no distinc- tion. But even your thorough-breds, if delicate- constitutioned horses, with tender insides, do not stand in need of this " regular physicking," unless good cause is evident, and, when necessary, small doses effect their object best ; and even then the

mildest, and therefore preferable, mode of ad- ministering any prescribed quantity of aloes is to divide it into two, or three, or four doses, giving one daily until the desired effect is produced.

Q. When one can spare the time it requires, this method of proceeding by alteratives, I have heard you say, agrees better with animal nature than harsh physic - -

A. That sometimes makes great ravages, by violent and long purgation ; which, however, may be stopped, or much alleviated, by coaxing the animal to take large quantities of thick water-gruel, or stout wheat-flour gruel. [See Appendix, White Water, Nos. 4 and 6.] Take this excep- tion with you, however : when you adopt the system of purging by this alterative plan, there needs no preparation by mashes, nor cessation from exercise, nearly, until the physic operates ; on the contrary, exercise promotes the action of physic so given in a mild and therefore not injurious manner.

Q. But why should we keep the horse to be physicked short of hay the night preceding ? surely not for the saving it eff'ects ?

A. Surely not. If you do not prepare the bowels with mashes, no occasion for stopping the allowance of hay ; but if, after the horse has been mashed in the day, you suffer him to blow out his stomach and intestines with hay, the ordinary dose of seven or eight drachms of aloes will defeat your hopes : you stare, and wonder how this comes to pass, increase the dose, and thus add to the evils strong purgatives

produce in the course of time - if they do not come on immediately. Inflammation of those parts is the disorder most frequently recurring-, though it also affects the kidneys or the liver , if either be previously

Q. True; and how often do we hear it said of an ailing horse, that " he has not been well ever since physicking!" and "caught a cold upon his physic !" When, perhaps, no more than the ordi- nary dose has been given. Sometimes the physic fails entirely, though a full dose ; -

A. A failure very common in aloetic purges ; of which we may say, generally, that the more fre- quently these are given, the greater is the quantity required to effect the desired end ; the coats of the stomach and intestines, having become paralyzed, refuse to be agitated,

Q. Until several days have passed away, or we give a second dose upon the first ;

A. And thereby commit ruin by excessive pur- gation. Mind what you are about : under my ma- nagement, with all the care possible, near a week has elapsed with a regular dose of aloes, before it came off.

Q. Besides the preparation by bran-mashes, I have known calomel, a moderate dose, soften the dung. [See Appendix, Physic, Aloes, Mercury.']

A. The hlue-jnll effects the same beneficial pur- pose of solving the indurated foeces ; and, in either case, a smaller dose of aloes operates as much as a large one without the preparations of mercury.

As to the employment of ** Epsom Salts," of which you always seem so fond, I must tell you, I once witnessed its failure as a purgative, in the amount of ten or twelve ounces ; therefore it is, that I have never used this saline mixture since ; but apprehend it would do well to be given the day after either of the foregoing prepartions of mercury ; yet would, even in that case, require to be exhibited to the amount of from six to eight ounces - an immensely inconvenient drench!

Q. Purging salts do not agree with aloes: I once saw a violent purgation, from an over-dose of aloes, stopped by giving salts in gruel made of

A. The cure might be indebted to the wheat-Jlour probably, as much as to the salts, which is not an eligible purgative alone, as the case you have just adduced seems to prove.

Q. There lies your mistake respecting the exhi- bition of the salts to horses. I'll be shot if ever I once thought of giving salts of either kind as " pur- gative physic :" but, as a most excellent preventive of internal disorders, in all quadrupeds, nothing has ever been prescribed, or given, that is at all to be compared to what they call the neutral salts.

A. That is to say, common house-salt, bay-salt, nitre or salt-petre, Glauber's or Epsom salts.

Q. You are right. All or either of these, admi- nistered constantly in small quantities, operate im- perceptibly on the blood, changing its state, correct- ing any disposition to putridity, or decomposition,

and removing the obstructions that arise from high feeding or otherwise.

Q. Yes, by my truly : I have been giving the common house-salt, not only as a corrective of had hay, as recommended by you, \Conv, ix.] but as conducing to health generally.

A. Why, you seem suddenly enlightened on this topic, all at once -

Q, I am not the only one, by a good many, who have obtained Hghts from the same source. - To the '* Treatise on Diseases and Lameness, by William Osmer," I am indebted for much sterHng infor- mation on the virtues of salt, internally and exter- nally given, as well as on many other important topics. The book should be read by every body.

A. Ecod ! he is correct in his practice with the neutral salts ; I can see that, at the first blush of the affair. Besides, yon will do me the justice to recollect, that some reference is had to this topic in the " Receipt Book." [Appendix.] Moreover, I now remember that, when living in the south of Devon, many agricultural horses employed in fetching sea-sand from low-water mark, to dress their clayey soil, lost several kinds of affections of the limbs after labouring at it a week or two. The grease, eschars, &c., all disappeared.

Q. Hence it is that Osmer recommends a charge, or cataplasm of dry salt in such cases.

A. But we deviate egregiously - we were talking of the most eligible purgatives, and how to work

them off with the least distress to the horse we have occasion to physic. We cannot always wait for the operation of alterative laxatives.

Q. No, Sir; nothing- like whipping into your horse in training every eight or ten days, one of your casted balls of aloes. [AloeSy section 7.] Leastwise, if you find he does not dung tolerably regular, and his carcase is distended.

A. Really, this is very odd *' stable talk" of yours ! This whipping in, I am decidedly of opi- nion, deserves a whipping out of you. Flippant -

Q. Spare me, I pray you ! 'Tis but the language they use -

A. Which, by its flippancy, shews how little they reflect on the importance of the act, who employ such a phrase to denote pA?/5ic-^it7*w^. Besides this, you accompany it with pointing a finger at one, as they do, to denote your supposed cleverness on the occasion, but which really proclaims great vulgarity : know better.

Q. I see my error, and acknowledge it. Yet you will allow, that the most expert mode of hailing is to let go the tongue at three or four moments after delivering the ball : more, if he be an old and crafty horse, who would detain the ball in his mouth, and afterwards cough it up again.

A. To be sure he would : but no less expertness is shewn in the manner of taking hold of the tongue, which many of you practise, like sailors catching hold of a cable, whereby many a good horse gets its tongue lacerated, or torn out by the

roots, should he throw up his head.* If neither accident happens, the least harm we expect is, that the animal will prove confoundedly shy the next time we find occasion to give a ball.

Q. The strong", fractious horse is always shy, and you cannot succeed without employing the halling- iron ; else how are we to avoid pulling hard at the tongue, unless we submit to have the hand bitten ?

A. Take hold of the tongue with the three first fingers of the left hand, pressing the little finger on the lower jaw, inside ; whereby you have good hold of the jaw, and as the horse moves its head, your hand and arm move after it, without any chance of pulling the tongue amiss. Deliver the ball from the thumb and first two fingers of the right hand, and then quit hold of the tongue, without which the horse cannot possibly get down the ball by in- gulphing it, but is nearly choked by the passage being stopped up. If you have light sufficient, you may perceive the ball at its going down the throat.

Brighton, was so served by his drayman, who detained the tongue so long and so forcibly, that the tortured animal literally bit off four inches of its tongue, and it was killed.

Of Appetite. The Stomach; how affected, hy had Mouthy and how affecting Condition. Of Lampas ; Paps ; Quidders ; Bad Provender ; Crib-biting; Wor7?is ; the Straw-Yard,

A. Conditioning never can proceed a single step unless the stomach be in good order. If the appetite fail we must restore it. You would do well to study closely the function of digestion.

Q. Appetite y as was remarked by you at our very first conversation (page 12), governs the animal dis- position generally;* in like manner as you had already allowed (page 2) that his mode of gratifying the first calls of nature, shows the temper of every individual horse, in the performance of his work, whether that be fast or slow. Animals with deep chests, i. e. capacious lungs, are always hearty ones, by reason of the great pulmonary action of which they are susceptible.

A. I would now go further, and say, that each description of horse - as, 1st. Racer; 2d. Hunter; 3tl. Stager or Coach-horse; 4th. Saddle-horse or Hack ; 5th. Waggon-horse, - may be divided into classes, according to temper : and that this may be

* A remarkable case of large stomach being accompanied by vicious disposition in man was adduced in Veterinary Surgery,

ascertained by the mode of feeding, and craving for water observable in each individual. In fact, l would test every horse by his appetite or stomach, and the size of it ; one kind having an over-large stomach, requiring to be filled with food or water ; another kind having a stomack too small for sup- plying the other organs and muscles with invigo- rating juices sufficient ; whilst the medium, or duly proportioned stomach, is blest with fair appetite and good digestion, being that kind of horse wherein resides the best disposition and means of going - shape and make answering thereto, as ge- nerally happens. Now, considering that the sto- mach is the central organ of the body, having many and varied functions to perform, receiving and imparting sympathies with every other organ and function, from the head to the posteriors ; that those functions are cherished or disordered by the substances sent into it, as food or as medicine, or taken through vice or depravation thus occasioned ; I do not expect too much when I desire you to believe, that not only the powers, but the temper, feeling, disposition, mind, manner, call it what we may, is also influenced by the stomach.

Hence, I should be led to say, that each of my five descriptions of horse included the following classes, viz. - 1st, The ravenous eater (always craving for food, impatient, robust, speedy). 2d. The hot constitutioned horse (craving for water, long-bodied, fretful, brittle hoof, anxious manner). 3d. Moderate horse (of fair appetite, goodly car-

case and constitution, lasting). 4th. The tender horse (suspected of small stomach, a poor eater, or capricious one, incapable of great exertion, goo4 only at short distances or slow work, given to vice). Whilst the first two classes are known to have large stomachs, and, although making way admirably at the commencement of a race, are not to be trusted at the long pull, wherein strength requires the support of bottom.

Of those several classes, the first two owe much of their evil disposition to disparity of size between the stomach and the lower intestines ; inasmuch as the latter, being small in comparison, (the second class particularly so,) occasions a constant tendency to heat, which influences the temper, and is readily raised to inflammatory symptoms. This happens when the body at any time becomes cos- tive, and physic is neglected, or fails to come off ; thereupon the disorder ascends to the stomach, and thence to the head, causing defirium, staggers, megrim, in ordinary horses ; in the higher bred, apoplexy and sudden death, of which more anon.

The fourth class, on the contrary, do not take food enough to satisfy the strong digestive powers of their guts (i. e. ileum and colon). This kind of disparity, however, is mostly observable in the lower order of horses, whose owners fill such bellies with large quantities of hay ; for higher bred cattle, we take some trouble to distend the stomach and blind gut mechanically, by coaxing such horses to take liquids

often, and in large quantities ; sugar, cordials, salts, and the examjyle of others, are the means of doing

Q. By this mode of reckoning, I should con- clude that, independent of individual powers, shape, or make, there must be at least twenty differently disposed kinds of horse, all requiring separate and distinct consideration, to keep them in health, by means of regimen or appetite, and each demanding peculiar treatment when indisposed ; for, take whatever precautions we may, disorder will creep in, in spite of our teeth.

A. Staring coat being the earliest indication, if depraved appetite do not precede it, though not previously observable ; for the stomach always feels the effect of every ailment, and soon shews its evil state on the skin, between which two there exists great intimacy.

Q. Our governor calls it '' sympathy :" and says that this same sympathy or fellow feeHng, exists between the stomach and kidneys, as it does also between the kidneys and the bladder.

A. Of course these latter organs being so near together, and both closely engaged in the same office of creating urine, the design of the Creator would not be complete without it.

exact word, I think?

A. To be sure not. Secreting is the properest term, though, I perceive, you knew what I meant :

io secrete, to separate or divide from the other parts of the animal's system (from the blood chiefly) this urine or any other liquid or solid, being- the means of continuing life ; and when performed aright, that is to say without obstruction,* health prevails : but if the secretions do not go on properly, illness ensues :f the stomach supplies the means of all the

Q. Then it is we say a horse has ** the humours." A. The humours, ** diverted to a wrong course," you might add ; or call it ** depravation of the hu- mours." \Yhen the urine or the perspiration, for instance, do not come off by the proper outlets, what ought we to expect but grease, farcy, fistula, hide- bound, those most evident effects of all misdirected humours ? Some of the secretions hear the name of '* humours," even before they are so depraved, and

* jSa/f prevents this species of obstruction, by removing tbe constant disposition, in dry fed cattle, to too great viscidity of the blood. See the next note, and consult Index, and Appen- dix, under the word Salt.

t When the membranous part of the animal system, which performs the office of secreting liquid particles for its defence, is affected with a febrile thickening of its substance, its office or function is then performed amiss, and the secretion is now fit only to supply the matter of tumour or abscess ; but, failing to appear thus critically, it ranges through the circulation, infects llie mass, and fever or heat of the whole system rages to its ut- most ; this terminates favourably in critical tumour, or else in death; unless, indeed, we arrest its progress by reducing the heat, fever, or inflammatory symptoms in time, by means of what Mr. Osmer aptly terms " the drains ;" that is to say, bleed- ing, purging, rowelling, blistering, the salts, &e.

occasion disease. Thus we have the vitreous hu- mour, in the chamber of the eye, the humour that moistens the nose, throat, &c., an aiquous humour which is secreted to lubricate the coats of the intestines, as the mucous is to defend them, &c. But I will refrain from further remarks on those disorders until a future day ; meantime the sto- mach and bowels require our attention ;

Q. And the principle by which diseases act upon this main organ of the digestive powers.

A. When the perspiration (which is the secretion of sweat J is suddenly checked by cold, it is then thrown back in upon the stomach, the blind cjuf , and other intestines. Loss of appetite ensues, speedily with old w^orn out^ or enervated horses, but more slowly with those of every age, when their lungs being at any time heated by extra exertion first attract the injury, and its baleful influence is shown by a staring coat at the chest ; afterwards extending itself to the hinder part of the carcase, Hbout the region of the stomach and blind gut, thence to the flanks, neck, and limbs, as the bowels and other organs may receive the aff^ection.

Q. Drinking cold water produces the same efl'ect, and immediately thereupon the rough belly proves how improvidenlly the horse has been permitted to drink whilst he is warm ; in default thereof, tumours arise at a period somewhat more distant - the remote consequence of a disordered, though full, circulation of blood.

A. Quite as often, the chill at the stomach, no mat-

ter how produced, communicates itself to the lungs also ; but whichever of these two organs is then in the highest state of excitement is also most affected by it ; the first-mentioned by the injudicious exhi- bition of needless and strong physic or cordials, the latter by over work, either in pace or too long continuance. Remember what was said in our second conversation, of this same chill arriving by the feet, either before or behind, or by all four, on

Q. Cold washing the feet and legs at home, of horses just come off hard work, is nearly as dange- rous, if not assiduously dry-wiped.

A. As one proof, by the contrary, see how resto- rative is the bathing of the legs of hunters in warm water ; then rubbing and bandaging for the night !

Q. Nothing can be more refreshing or restora- tive : but as for the appUcation of cold ivater! 'Tis horrid to think of; whilst the horse is hot, too !

A. Then it is that the blood, being driven back upon the liver, this organ is thus the first affected ; whence the inflammation, thus lighted up, com- municates to the stomach and lunys, by means of the blood which has passed repeatedly through the liver to be refined of its bitter principle, and finally fixes on the weakest of those three organs, if not upon that which is most excited - eithev state being generally described as its susceptibility . When it happens that all three organs may be in a weak state, and the bowels excited or tender, then these become the seat of the disorder, as I will shew

at some future opportunity ; but, when the whole system is debilitated extremely, then low fever ensues, with low pulse and drooping manner ; whilst the direct contrary, or high fever, follows a considerable state of excitement upon a full habit of body. Mark the variations that exist in the whole series of abdominal inflammation !

Q. I do ; and am greatly amazed at the various functions the stomach, with its ccecum, has to perform, besides that of receiving food ; as well as the number of ways by which these together may be influenced, and the positive appeal that must be made to the stomach for the cure of all consti- tutional diseases, and most of the local ones. The digestive powers of which you were speaking ere now, effect this, I presume, and must be set

A. They cannot be relied upon ; as in such cases the stomach too frequently is found to lose its functions at the first attack, already predisposed thereto by the abuse of aloetic purges. [See Aloes, § 6,] This may be either torpor (or inacti- vity), or else excitability.

Q. The process of digestion must be exceedingly curious : exercise, I suppose, keeps the stomach and C(ECiU7i (of which latter we will speak anon) at work upon the food taken into them, until both press forward their contents to the large gut.

A. Ah, like a mill, you would have folks believe, to grind the meat ; but the stomach is not like that machine ; nor is it a fermenting- vat, as some do

suppose, in which the food is reduced by fermen- tation ; nor is it a stew-pan^ for stewing down its contents, according to others. But it is no other than a stomach after all ; a thing of its own pecu- liar kind, that may partake of all three qualities, and I believe does so.

Q. Neither triturated by exercise, nor exactly fermented by the gastric juice, nor quite stewed by bodily heat, but digested by a junction of all three I I like your definition, vastly.

A. *Tis only mine as applied to our present subject : I had it from a doctor, remarkable for his familiar manner of explaining the functions of animal life.

Q. Looking over what you have written down concerning this point, under the head of *^ Aloes,'' [in Appendix,] I apprehend that when fever prevails, the appetite fails, because the function of digestion by this fermenting-stew-mill process has ceased ; then, let me inquire, does not the blood get thinner from want of a yre^/i supply, which it could only receive by means of the digestion I

A. Certainly it does, after awhile, which shall be longer or shorter, according to the previous state of the animal's corporeal system; but take this with you -the fever would never have accrued but for the previous thickness of the same blood, its viscidity, its consequent unfitness for circulation, its heat, then its tardiness, and incapacity for re- turning out of the finer vessels (capillaries) where the riot first began, into the general circulation.

Q. We must, then, look narrowly after the sto- mach and its affections, and meet the first symp- toms of derangement therein by correctives; say a purging-ball ; or at least alterative laxatives, (as the salts,) and subsequently, when all is set to rights, your tonic medicines and tonic regimen.

A. Not quite so soon. Let us see whether we cannot do without medicine, according to my maxim, of " taking away the cause, and the effect will cease," (page 34). Our endeavours to bring the horse into condition are sometimes procras- tinated by trivial causes, producing sinister effects, that ought to be removed in time.

Sore mouth, arising from various causes, often leads to disordered stomach, as it impedes due mastication of its food, by the horse swallowing its corn imperfectly broken, and quidding its hay, which occasions indigestion ; the effect v/hereof is costiveness, flatulency, worms, and undue secre- tion of the juices of the stomach. When this is taking place, the unbroken corn may be detected among the dung; and the mnne also comes off turbid, by reason of the lighter particles of food having been absorbed half digested, by certain entrances to the veins, some part thereof entering into the circulation wholly so.

Q. I perceive now how indigestion, so brought on, may cause the stomach to imbibe heat, receive back the contents of the intestines by the counter- action of the spiral njotion these are known to pos- sess, and thus throw up its fumes to the head^

causing vertigo, megrims, and so on, which are diseases not exactly confined to the ravenous eaters and foul feeders.

A. Nor to old horses, having defective teeth. But most of the evils may be prevented in time, by detecting any defect in the mouth itself, the most frequent of which, in young horses, is lampas, which have been occasioned by full feeding, and the consequent grossness of the blood - we call ** the humours," for want of a better term.

Q. We burn the lampers with a hot iron, and invariably effect a cure by washing the gum with a lotion made of honey dissolved in rose-water, with a little tincture of myrrh in it.

A. Cutting with the fleam, or knife, or scari- fying the gum with a lancet, is preferable to the hot iron, which we should avoid applying to the horse on any occasion - with a single exception,

Q. In France, the military farriers (marechal" lerie) receive pointed commands from the mare- chaUen-chefy ** never to apply fire to the horse on any pretence whatever."

A. Your chief must have forgot, I presume, that firing is of great service in strains of the tendons, and in most enlargements of the legs after hard riding, though resorted to much oftener than is absolutely necessary in this country. He must have been thinking of the barbarous custom of singeing off the hair in the ears ! or of the equally disserviceable practice of applying the shoe quite

hot to brittle hoof and large ones - I should think, both of which ruin the animals subjected to them.

At any rate, both those methods of reducing the luxuriance of the mouth may be dispensed with, by substituting a solution of alum in twelve times its weight of the honey and rose-water, before recom- mended, (page 134,) and washing the mouth gene- rally, by means of a small syringe. If the mouth be otherwise sore than from Icunpas, in conse- quence of the heat and inflammation so occasioned having stopped the secretion of saliva, which ought to be always going on there, the alum opens the glands and restores the flow of this secretion ; whereby the increasing humours its suppression had caused to stagnate, soon flow by their natural chan- nels into the stomach.

Q. Where they are required, as you say, to as- sist in the work of digestion, and subsequently pass off* by the three evacuations.

AH that was amiss being thus set right, peace and order succeed ; the functions go on regularly, and the animal improves in condition.

A. Why, yes ; after giving soft food to soothe the irritated stomach, as bran-mashes, oatmeal-gruel, and such like ; whereupon healthy dungings suc- ceed ; but, if not, then compel them, by j^ur- gatives or laxatives, and then tonic medicines, which may be requisite if the mouth has been a long time sore, and the stomach and intestines pro-

Washes, bags, and other soreness at the corners

of the lips, which also impede mastication, may be removed by the same treatment, as may also