SECUKING SOLIPEDS. 15 



of direct restraint. The instruments mostly employed in the first 

 method consist of the twitch, the old fashioned barnacle, and 

 the gag. 



Pig. 1.— The Twitch. 



The twitch is the instrument most commonly used and, un- 

 fortunately, too commonly abused. In horses, it is sometimes 

 apphed on one of the ears, and sometimes on one of the hps ; and 

 is very severe in its action, wherever applied. 



In applying it, the operator, passing his right hand through 

 the loop of cord of the instrument, grasps the tip of the upper or 

 the mass of the lower lip, leaving the loop to slip over his fingers 

 close to the skin which it then encloses, and with his left hand 

 turns the handle of the instrument until the cord is sufficiently 

 shortened to form a true ligation of the tissues which it cu'cum- 

 scribes. The j)ain caused by this constriction may be graduated 

 by the rotation of the handle of the instrument. "When in place 

 it is either held by an assistant or tied on the halter. If the 

 animal proves to be especially refractory under the infliction, the 

 assistant should be cautioned against aggravating the trouble by 

 forcibly dragging upon or jerking the instrument, violence of 

 that nature becoming in some instances the cause of severe injuries 

 to the muscular or nervous structures of the lips. We have 

 ourselves met with several cases of labial paralysis resulting from 

 such an improper and repeated application of the twitch. Some- 

 times the length of the wooden portion of the instrument is con- 

 siderably reduced, varying in its apj)lication in such a way that 

 when the open loop is placed on the lip the wooden part which 

 takes the place of the handle is placed on the lips through it, and 

 the cord is twisted by turning it. 



The barnacles are formed of two articulating branches, made 

 of either wood or iron, with sundi-y notches at one end and a ring 

 at the other to fit into the notches. The degree of pressure re- 

 q^uired is regiilated by shifting the ring until the proper notch is 



