THE NOSTRILS AND LIPS. 15 



called a 'high blower.' This is always a fault, and 

 sometimes renders a horse worthless for violent 

 effort, such as hunting, racing, and drawing extra 

 heavy loads. 



The nerve which supplies the muscles of the 

 nostrils with the power of movement must not be 

 overlooked. It comes from the brain and leaves 

 the interior of the skull through a canal formed of 

 bone, and close to the roots of the ears. You see 

 it in the living horse on either side as it passes over 

 the cheek near the root of the ear as three or four 

 stripes as of thick wtiip-chord running along under 

 the skin towards the nostrils. This nerve, after 

 leaving the bony canal at the bottom of the skull 

 near the root of the ears, has to pass through a 

 gland, which produces the saliva or spattle. It is 

 this gland which swells at the side of the face when 

 he is said to have got the ' vives.' In the horse, 

 should this gland swell, it presses upon the nerve 

 we are speaking of, and stops its current, and (as 

 this nerve supplies the lips, the muscle which closes 

 the eye, also the principal muscle of the cheek,) 

 when its current is quite stopped these muscles be- 

 come paralysed and cannot move the parts, so that 

 the lips hang down and swing about like pendu- 

 lums; the eye always remains open with a fixed 

 stare, and the cheek bags out and the nostrils cannot 

 become expanded. All this can be brought about 

 by a draught blowing on to the side of the head and 

 giving a ' cold' to the gland and causing it to swell 



