254 ROARING. 



The disorganizations produced in the trachea are similar to some which have 

 been described in the larynx. The same formation of organised bands of coagu- 

 lated lymph, the same thickening of membrane, diminution of calibre, and 

 foundation for roaring. 



ROARING. 



The present will be the proper place to speak of that singular impairment 

 of the respiratory function recognised by this name. It is an unnatural, loud 

 grunting sound made by the animal in the act of breathing when in quick action 

 or on any sudden exertion. On carefully listening to the sound, it will appear 

 that the roaring is produced in the act of inspiration and not in that of expira- 

 tion. If the horse is briskly trotted on a level surface, and more particularly 

 if he is hurried up hill, or if he is suddenly threatened with a stick, this pecu- 

 liar sound will be heard and cannot be mistaken. When dishonest dealers are 

 showing a horse that roars, but not to any great degree, they trot away gently, and 

 as soon as they are too far for the sound to be heard, show off the best paces of 

 the animal : on returning, they gradually slacken their speed when they come 

 within a suspicious distance. This is sometimes technically called " the dealers' 

 long trot." 



Roaring is exceedingly unpleasant to the rider, and it is manifest unsound- 

 ness. It is the sudden and violent rushing of the air through a tube of dimi- 

 nished calibre ; and if the impediment, whatever it is, renders it so difficult for 

 the air to pass in somewhat increased action, sufficient cannot be admitted to 

 give an adequate supply of arterialized blood in extraordinary or long-continued 

 exertion. Therefore, as impairing the function of respiration, although, some- 

 times, only on extraordinary occasions, it is unsoundness. In as many cases as 

 otherwise, it is a very serious cause of unsoundness. The roarer, when hardly 

 pressed, is often blown even to the hazard of suffocation, and there are cases 

 on record of his suddenly dropping and dying when urged to the top of his 



It must not, however, be taken for granted that the roarer is always worth- 

 less. There are few hunts in which there is not one of these horses, who acquits 

 himself very fairly in the field ; and it has occasionally so happened that the 

 roarer has been the very crack horse of the hunt ; yet he must be ridden with 

 judgment, and spared a little when going up-hill. There is a village in the 

 West Riding of Yorkshire, through which a band of smugglers used frequently 

 to pass hi the dead of night ; the horse of the leader, and the best horse of the 

 troop, and on which his owner w r ould bid defiance to all pursuit, was so rank a 

 roarer, that he could be heard at a considerable distance. The clattering of all 

 the rest scarcely made so much noise as the roaring of the captain's horse 

 When this became a little too bad, and he did not fear immediate pursuit, the 

 smuggler used to halt the troop at some convenient hayrick on the roadside, and, 

 having suffered the animal to distend his stomach with this dry food, as he was 

 always ready enough to do, he would remount and gallop on, and, for a while, 

 the roaring was scarcely heard. It is somewhat difficult to account for this. Per- 

 haps the loaded stomach now pressing against the diaphragm, that muscle had 

 harder work to displace this viscns in the act of enlarging the chest and produc- 

 ing an act of inspiration, and accomplished it more slowly, and therefore, the 

 air passing more slowly by, the roaring was diminished. We do not dare to cal- 

 culate what must have been the increased labour of the diaphragm in moving 

 the loaded stomach, nor how much sooner the horse must have been exhausted. 

 This did not enter into the owner's reckoning, and probably the application of 

 whip and spur would deprive him of the means of forming a proper calcula- 

 tion of it. 



Eclipse was a " high-blower." He drew his breath hard, and with apparent 



