388 G. A. Rowell on the 



which is natural to all wild animals. The only criterion to 

 decide the question is to consider what is the effect of muti- 

 lations on the health of animals, and how far such injuries 

 interfere with their usual habits and appetites. 



I will now state a few cases, to shew that injuries, appa- 

 rently the most dreadful, have but little effect on many of the 

 brute creation. 



The first case which forcibly took my attention, was see- 

 ing a horse that was feeding by the side of the road between 

 St Clement's and Headington hill, have its leg broken by a 

 coach-wheel passing over it just above the fetlock joint ; the 

 poor beast shewed evident signs of pain at the moment, the 

 bone being dreadfully crushed, and protruding in parts 

 through the skin. A number of persons collected around, but 

 no one liked to despatch it, and on their standing aside, so 

 that it might get out of the way of things passing, the mo- 

 ment the horse got to the side of the road it began grazing, 

 shewing no other sign of pain than holding up the injured leg. 



Another case is that of a post-horse, which was going along 

 the road between Botley and En sham, about twelve years 

 since, when it came down with such violence that the skin 

 and sinews of both the fore fetlock joints were so cut that 

 on it getting up again the bones came through the skin, and 

 the two feet turned up at the back of the legs, the horse 

 walking upon the ends of the leg bones. The man who was 

 with it would not consent to its being killed till he had in- 

 formed his master (who, I believe, was Mr Masters of Staple 

 Hall Inn, Witney) ; the horse was therefore put into a field 

 by the road side, and was found the next morning quietly 

 feeding about the field with the feet and skin forced n earl 3^ 

 half-way up the leg bones, and where it had been walking 

 about, the holes made in the ground by the leg bones were 

 3 or 4 inches deep. 



A similar accident once happened to a coach-horse, the pro- 

 perty of the late Mr Costar of Oxford ; it was found, when 

 the coach stopped to change horses, to have dislocated the 

 fetlock joints, and from the worn appearance of the ends of 

 the leg bones, must have run a considerable distance along 

 the road in that state. 



