236 THE ANATOMY AXD DISEASES OF THE A'ECK. 



strengtli of the animal, but keep the bowels gently open. In cases of 

 debility, a small quantity of tonic medicine, as chamomile, gentian, or 

 ginger may be administered. It must however be borne in mind, that in 

 a great majority of cases, Httle or no treatment is required, and in very 

 many instances, the disease in colts has run its course altogether unnoticed. 

 On the other hand, it occasionally is productive of great suffering, and this 

 IS more especially the case where the abscess bursts internally, when, to 

 use the graphic account of Mr. Percivall in the sixth volume of ' The 

 Veterinarian,' 'while purulent matter is issuing in profusion from his 

 swollen nostrils, and slaver foams out from between his tumified lips, it is 

 distressing to hear the noise that he makes in painful and laboured efforts 

 to breathe. There is imminent danger of suffocation in such a case as 

 this ; and even although some relief, so far as the breathing is concerned, 

 may he obtained from the operation of tracheotomy, yet, from the pain and 

 irritation he is suffering, added to the impossibility of getting aliment into 

 his stomach, he must speedily sink to rise no more.' — Veterinarian, vol vi 

 p. 611. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK AND 

 NEIGHBOURING PARTS. 



THEneck of the horse, and of every animal belonging to the class mavi- 

 malia, except one species, is composed of seven bones called vertebrce, 

 moveable or turning upon each other (see cut, p. 140). They are coni 

 nected together by strong ligaments, and form so many distinct joints, in 

 order to give sufficiently extensive motion to this important part of the 

 body. The bone nearest to the sknll is called the atlas, because, in the human 

 being, it supports the head. In the horse the head is suspended from it. 

 It IS a mere ring-shaped bone, with broad projections sideways ; but with- 

 out the sharp and irregular processes which are found on all the others. 



The second bone of the neck is the dentata, having a process Uke a tooth 

 by which it forms a joint with the first bone. In the formation of that 

 joint, a portion of the spinal marrow, which runs through a canal in the 

 centre of all these bones, is exposed or covered only by Hgament ; and by 

 the division of the marrow at this spot an animal is instantly destroyed. 

 The operation is called pithing, from the name {the pith) given by butchers 

 to the spinal marrow. 



The other neck or rach bones, as they are denominated by the farrier 

 (B, p 140), are of a strangely irregular shape, yet bearing considerable 

 resemblance to each other. They consist of a central bone, perforated for the 

 passage of the spinal marrow with a ridge on the top for the attachment of 

 the hgament of the neck, and four ii-regular plates or processes from the 

 sides, for the attachment of muscles ; at the base of one of which, on either 

 side, with the exception of the seventh, are holes for the passa'o-e of the 

 vertebral arteries. At the upper end of each is a round head or ball 

 and at the lower end a cavity or cup, and the head of the one being 

 received into the cup of the other, they are united together, forming so 

 many joints. They are likewise united by ligaments from these processes 

 as well as the proper ligaments of the joints, and so securely, that no dis- 

 location can take place between any of them, except the first and second 

 the consequence of which would be the immediate death of the animal. 

 The last, or seventh bone, has the elevation on the back or top of it 



