PECULIAK TO HORSES. 42 



CRIBBING OR CRIB-BITING. 



"Is Cribbing a Disease?" — I answer that it is not. It is not 



injurious to the horse that practices it, and the Court of Appeals 

 have px'onounced in favor of its innocuousness. CriVjbing comes 

 under the denomination of a bad habit or vice, which, hke other bad 

 habits or vices, is both inherited and acquired : it prevails mostly 

 among horses of a windy or coUcky pre<lisposition. Yet any horse 

 with a bad example near him, in the form of a confirmed cribber, 

 and having but little to do except to devour hay and grain, may 

 finally become a cribber; hence, horses like men, are not benefited 

 by keeping bad company. 



I am willing to admit that cribbers are not always in the best con- 

 dition, although some of them have but little to. do and plenty to eat ; 

 in fact many such animals aj^pear lank and lean, yet it will be no- 

 ticed that they almost always have a bulky abdomen, which is gen- 

 erally occupied by gas; this gas is not swallowed in the act of crib- 

 bing, as many persons suppose, but is generated within the stomach 

 and intestines, in consequence of functionalderangement of the diges- 

 tive organs ; hence, in plain language, most cribbers may be coh' 

 sidered as the subjects of a most prevalent and fashionable malady, 

 known to prevail among the members of the human species, called 

 indigestion or dyspt psia. 



The following paragraph I select from Mr. Percival's writings, 

 which is more authoritative than anything I may possibly offer: 



" In general, crib-biting ought rather to be regarded as a vice oi 

 habit than a disease; the latter I have never been able to regard it. 

 Horses that are old crib-biters present the inconvenience of being 

 faulty feeders — they require a great deal to satisfy them, and those 

 which generate air in their stomachs are very subject to attacks ol 

 windy colic." 



Finally, a crib-biter often grows poor, not because he is a cribber, 

 but for the simple reason that in his dyspeptic condition the diges- 

 tive organs fail to elaborate from the food the requisite amount oJ 

 chyme, chyle and blood, for the renovation and growth of the ani- 

 mal fabric. 



CEREBRAL APOPLEXY. 



The following case will illustrate the pathology of the disease: 

 I was requested a short time ago to visit an animal the subject oi 

 cerebral apoplexy. 



Position op the Animal. — The position very clearly indicated 

 disease of the brain, for he stood as if in the act of forging forwards, 

 with his head against the sides of the crib, and it was with con- 

 siderable difficulty that he could be made to "back," and when 

 once out of the z'.Jl he manifested unsteadiness as when attacked 

 with staggers. 



Noticeable Symptoms. — The pulse at the angle of the jaw could 

 scarcely be felt, showing a feeble action of the heart ; limbs and 

 ears rather chilly ; the nasal membranes of a leaden or bluish cast. 



