46 



HORSE— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



water or elixir of vitriol four times a day 

 until well. When the hair grows, it will be 

 white. 



To MAKE AN OLD HORSE APPEAR YOUNG. 



— This you can do by filing down the 

 teeth, the dark markings of which are 

 done by hot irons, filling up the cavities 

 over the eyes by puncturing the skin over 

 the depressions, and filling with air 

 /through a tube, after which close the ap- 

 erture, when the brow will become smooth 

 — but only for a time, but long enough to 

 dupe some poor victim. The white hairs 

 are painted out, and the animal will 

 present a very youthful appearance, but 

 again only for a time. 



To PUT BLACK SPOTS ON A WHITE HORSE. 



—Lime (quick), powdered, half a pound ; 

 litharge, four ounces. Well beaten, and 

 mix the litharge with the lime. The 

 above to be put into a vessel and a sharp 

 ley is to be poured over it. Boil and 

 skim off the substance which rises to the 

 surface. This is the coloring matter, 

 which must be applied to such parts of 

 the animal as you wish to have dyed 

 black. Red hair may be dyed black with 

 a very similar composition. Thus, boil 

 four ounces of lime with four ounces of 

 fresh water ; the scum that rises will have 

 the same effect. If the hair be entirely 

 free from grease, one night will be suffi- 

 cient to stain it black. 



HORSE, ORGANS, Classificatisn of the 

 Various. — The body of the horse, like all 

 the vertebrate animals, may be considered 

 as made up of several distinct appara- 

 tuses or systems. Of these, the first is 

 a machine composed of the bony skele- 

 ton, or framework, the various parts of 

 which are united by joints and moved by 

 muscles. Secondly, there are contained 

 within the thorax the organs which supply 

 the whole body with the means of nutri- 

 tion in the form of blood, and purify this 

 fluid. Thirdly, in the abdomen are pre- 

 sented to view the important organs which 

 assimilate the food to the condition of the 

 blood ; while in the adjoining cavity, the 

 pelvis, are the urinary and generative ap- 

 paratuses. Fourthly, the nervous system 

 may be considered as comprising the 

 grand centre of the mental faculties, and, 

 also, as presiding over and controlling the 

 whole of the functions performed by the 

 several organs ; and fifthly, certain special 

 organs, as, for example, those of sense, 



and, likewise, the foot will complete the 

 whole circle of systems to be reviewed. 

 Each of these groups will, therefore, be 

 described in a separate chapter. 



HORSE, BONE, Structure of the.— 

 The bones are composed of a tissue pe- 

 culiar to them, enveloped by a membrane, 

 the periosteum. They contain a semi-fluid 

 of a fatty nature, the marrow, and are 

 pierced in various directions by blood- 

 vessels and nerves. 



The proper tissue of the bones is made 

 up of two distinct substances, either of 

 which may be removed by artificial 

 means, leaving the other entire. If, for 

 instance, a bone is submitted to the heat 

 of a furnace, it retains its shape and rigid- 

 ity, but becomes much whiter in color, 

 and is rendered extremely brittle. In 

 fact, the mineral salts entering into its 

 composition are left, but the animal mat- 

 ter binding them together is completely 

 decomposed and carried off in a gaseous 

 form. On the other hand, by immers- 

 ing a bone for two or three weeks in di- 

 luted hydrochloric acid, the earthy salts 

 are dissolved, while the animal matter is 

 untouched. Here the bone retains its 

 original shape, but it is soft and flexible ; 

 and instead of presenting its usual opaque, 

 yellowish-white color, it is semi-transpa- 

 rent, and resembles the ordinary gelatine 

 of the shops. According to Berzilius, 

 bone is chemically composed of the fol- 

 lowing constituents — namely, cartilage, 

 reducible to gelatine by boiling; blood- 

 vessels ; phosphate of lime ; carbonate of 

 lime; fluate of lime; phosphate of mag- 

 nesia; soda, and chloride of sodium. 



Considered mechanically, the bones 

 form the framework of the animal ma- 

 chine. In the limbs they are hollow cyl- 

 inders, admirably fitted by their shape 

 and texture to resist violence and support 

 weight. In the trunk and head they are 

 flattened and arched, to protect the con- 

 tents of the cavities they form, and to 

 provide an extensive surface for the at- 

 tachment of. muscles. In certain situa-' 

 tions their exterior is raised into projec- 

 tions called processes, which serve as levers 

 for the muscles to act upon ; in others 

 they are grooved into smooth surfaces for 

 the easy gliding of tendons, when these 

 are stretched between the fleshy part of a 

 •muscle and one of its attachments. Last- 

 ly, they sometimes present a large hollow 



