HORSE—CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



79 



his breathing, accompanied by a kind of 

 "gluck," proceeding from a spasmodic 

 flapping of the velum palati ; but on gal- 

 loping him all this goes off, and he may 

 probably exhibit excellent wind. Such 

 cases we have many times known, and they 

 would be condemned as unsound by 

 those who have had little experience, or 

 are content with a careless and inefficient 

 trial. Stallions are particularly prone to 

 make this kind of noise, and it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to ascertain their sound- 

 ness in this respect by any means which 

 •can be safely resorted to. The causes of 

 roaring are of three kinds : ist, Inflamma- 

 tion, which has left a thickening or ulcer- 

 ation of the mucous membrane, or a fun- 

 gous growth from it; 2d, Paralysis of the 

 muscles; and 3d, An alteration of the 

 shape of the cartilages of the larynx, pro- 

 duced by tight reining. 



In roaring produced by an ulcerated or 

 thickened condition of the mucous mem- 

 brane, or by a fungous growth, the sound 

 elicited is always the same in proportion 

 to the rapidity of respiration. None of 

 the ordinary expedients by which the 

 breath is introduced in a modified stream 

 (such as a full meal, or pressure on the 

 nostrils or windpipe), will be of much 

 avail, and the horse roars sturdily when- 

 ever his pace is sufficiently accelerated. 

 If a horse so affected can be made to 

 grunt by the blow on the side, the sound 

 will always indicate the disease, for it will 

 be harsh and rough, and not the natural 

 grunt of the animal. It is usually sup- 

 posed that no treatment can be of the 

 slightest avail here ; but wl believe that 

 sometimes the continued application of ni- 

 trate of silver would be followed by a cer- 

 tain amount of amelioration, the extent of 

 which it is impossible to guess at without 

 a trial. In any case, when the animal is 

 rendered almost worthless by disease, it is 

 fair to try experiments which are neither 

 expensive nor cruel ; and from the effect 

 of the remedy in those cases in which it 

 has been used, we are led to expect that it 

 may prove beneficial in those of longer 

 standing. Setons, blisters and embroca- 

 tions are all useless, as has been proven in 

 numberless cases; and beyond the pallia- 

 tion which can be afforded by employing 

 the horse only at such a pace as his state 

 will allow, nothing else can be suggested. 

 In some cases the roarer will be able to 



do ordinary harness work, which, howev- 

 er, in hot weather, will try him severely; 

 in others he may be so slightly affected as 

 to be fit to hunt in a country where, from 

 its nature, the pace is not very severe ; but 

 by confirmed roarers the slow work of the 

 cart is all that can be performed without 

 cruelty. 



Where paralysis of the muscles that 

 open the rima glottidis is the seat of the 

 roaring, no plan has yet been suggested 

 which is of the slightest avail. In the 

 first place, it is extremely difficult, and in- 

 deed almost impossible, to diagnose the 

 affection, and we know of no means by 

 which paralysis can be ascertained to exist 

 during life. Hence, although it is barely 

 possible that by the use of strychnine the 

 nerve might be stimulated into a restora- 

 tion of its functions, yet as the case can- 

 not be ascertained, it is scarcely wise to 

 give this powerful drug in the hope that it 

 may by chance hit the right nail on the 

 head. This paralytic condition seems 

 chiefly to attack carriage horses, and prob- 

 ably arises from the pressure made by the 

 over-curved larynx upon the laryngeal 

 nerve as it passes through the opening in 

 the thyroid cartilage. Many veterinary 

 writers have looked to the recurrent 

 branch of the par vagum to explain the 

 loss of power, but we believe it is rather 

 to the laryngeal nerve that the mischief is 

 due. It must be remembered that carriage- 

 horses are not only reined up for hours 

 while doing their daily work out of doors, 

 but they are also often placed in the same 

 position, or even a more constrained one, 

 by the coachman in the stable, in order to 

 improve their necks. One horse of his 

 pair perhaps has naturally a head better 

 set on than the other, and he wishes to 

 make nature bend to his wishes by com- 

 pelling the other to do that which the 

 shape of his jaw forbids without a sacri- 

 fice. The mouthing tackle is put on in 

 the stable with this view, and the poor 

 horse is " kept on the bit " for three or 

 four hours early in the morning, during 

 which time his larynx is pressed between 

 his narrow jaws into a most unnatural 

 shape. The consequence is, either that 

 the nerve is pressed upon, and the mus- 

 cles to which it is supplied are paralyzed, 

 as in the condition which we are now 

 considering, or the cartilages are perma- 

 nently disfigured, which is the subject of 



