182 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



give numbers of instances to prove the pro- 

 pensity of its being catching, if I had space to 

 enumerate them, having had more than one 

 hundred and fifty of my own hack horses at 

 one time, and four or five of them rank crib- 

 bers ; but 1 was obliged to keep them to 

 themselves, having put them in company with 

 others, and saw their direful effects. There 

 have been persons who have attempted to in- 

 troduce a cure for crib-biting, but it has not 

 always proved infallible ; one is to buckle a 

 strap round the Horse's neck tight, this will 

 prevent it for the time being ; another is to 

 liave a number of sharp pointed sLuds, driven 

 into the strap to prick the neck and throat 

 every time the Horse swallows ; (if this be the 

 case, which it is,) how can pressure on the 

 neck affect the stomach ? Now, if this be the 

 truth, dyspepsia may be easily cured by tying 

 vour neckerchief a little tighter than common, 

 which I should say ought to be taken as a 

 specific for the disease in the human subject ; 

 but not so with the Horse, remove your straps 

 from his throat, and he is as bad as ever. 



Professor Coleman says it arises princi- 

 pally from a Horse's long fasting, and the 

 noise which arises from the air that he 

 swallows. Now, here I differ from the worthy 

 professor ; for 1 would ask how spasms of the 

 stomach arise when a man has been without 

 food or drink the whole of the day? does not 

 the stomach secrete wind of itself? or Avhy 

 take a glass of gin or brandy to remove the 

 wind off the stomach ? you may feel blown 

 up, as it is said, without food ; how is it that 

 in the dead subject gas is generated ? but so 

 it is, and in the living subject too ; for debility 

 alone will generate gas, and is equally appli- 

 rable to the Horse as to man, only with this 

 diH'erence, a man can indulge, and the Horse } 



[ cannot i shewing clearly in my opinion the 

 stomach has nothing at all to do with the 

 affection. Some say giving Horses bad keep 

 will produce the affection, but it is ridiculous ; 

 because look at farmers' Horses, which are 

 kept on the refuse of the farm, why do you 

 not find more crib-biters in the farmers' stock 

 than elsewhere? No; you find them princi- 

 pally amongst high-fed Horses, and the reason 

 we shall endeavour to explain : — High-fed 

 Horses are rarely subjected to have much hay 

 given them ; consequently, the stomach never 

 becomes so full as if distended with the 

 Horse's natural food, such as hay or grass 

 only ; for 1 never heard of a crib-biting Horse 

 at grass or on hay only. The cause is, in my 

 opinion, from a spasmodic affection of the 

 diaphragm, generally produced by the error of 

 diet ; for if you feed on a considerable quan- 

 tity of corn, and little hay, you produce crib- 

 biting, and vice versa. 



To obviate this affection, I believe the 

 whole of the veterinarians have been equally 

 puzzled ; but a few years ago, Mr. Yare in- 

 vented a kind of muzzle, that the Horse could 

 eat through, but was not enabled to seize the 

 manger, in consequence of two iron bars 

 being fixed longitudinally to the mouth part ; 

 but this, like all others, entirely failed, for 

 when removed the Horse would take to his 

 old habit again. I have also tried prepared 

 chalk in two-ounce doses, but with no better 

 success ; but the only thing 1 ever found was 

 in the shape of a palliative : remove the 

 Horse thus affected into a stable by himself, 

 without manger, stall sides, or any thing he 

 can take liold of, but the bare walls, aud 

 2)ve all his food on the ground, both hay 

 and corn. I have by this means been able 

 lo remove, in a great degree, this trouble- 



