634 THE HORSE 



favour of the defendant, unless some crude and clumsy method has been 

 adopted, but if the case comes before a town stipendiary Avith more know- 

 ledge of the laws of evidence than the laws of driving, the decision may be 

 in favour of the Society, whose officers are trained experts in giving evidence, 

 though they may be quite free from a desire to add to the annual list of 

 convictions which appeals so successfully to the pockets of subscribers. 

 Many colts are docked at the same time that they are castrated, a practice 

 which should long ago have been put a stop to by the above-named Society, 

 if the zeal of its officers had been better dii'ected.^ 



Docking is very rapidly performed by the aid of the docking knife, which 

 is made on the principle of the guillotine. As the tail is removed at one 

 sudden and forcible chop, the horse need not be confined in any way beyond 

 holding up his fore-leg, unless he is a very violent animal. The exact 

 length of the dock to be left being fixed upon, the hair is cut off close below 

 and the remainder tied back to the root of the tail. A tight ligature immedi- 

 ately above the site chosen for operation does away with the necessity for 

 searing with a hot iron, the method commonly adopted. The cut end may 

 be bound up in tow with a little perchloride of iron if the ligature becomes 

 slack or there is any disposition to bleed. It may be removed the next day. 

 AVhen the hot iron is used, resin is employed in the same way as described 

 under Castration (see page 630). 



UNNERVING 



The nerves distributed to the foot are sometimes divided for navicular 

 disease, as they lie on each side of the bone above the fetlock joint. No 

 one, however, should attempt this operation without having previously 

 seen it performed, as it requires considerable dexterity for its due execu- 

 tion. I have described such operations as can be wanted in the colonies, 

 where a veterinary surgeon cannot always be reached, but unnerving is 

 never required there, and I shall therefore omit any detailed account 

 of it. 



REDUCTION OF HERNIA 



When hernia occurs in the colt, either at the navel or scrotum, it is 

 often desired to effect a cure by returning the bowel and causing the open- 

 ing to close by adhesive inflammation. If the colt is uncut, the performance 

 of the covered operation on the French plan will generally succeed, great 

 care being of course necessary to return the intestine before the clams 

 are applied. In umbilical hernia a similar method has been tried, but 

 the adhesion is too superficial to be of much use ; and the only successful 

 one is the passage of one or two skewers through the opposite edges 

 of the opening, and then winding some waxed twine round them, with a 

 moderate degree of force. This should not be sufficient to cause mortifica- 



^ Since the above lines were penned the Royal Agricultural Society of England has 

 passed a resolution which will have the eflcct of gradually disqualifying horses Avhich 

 have had their tails docked. It may be liopcd that docking for fasluon's sake only will 

 fall into desuetude. 



