82 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



est the reader. Some of these were barbarous in the extreme, 

 and none had any aim beyond simply checking the swelling 

 of the head and jaws. Of the condition of the general system, 

 or of any remedy for ridding it of the dreadful effects of the 

 disease, absolutely nothing was known with certainty. One 

 of the common, cruel modes of treatment occasionally proved 

 partially successful, but generally they all alike failed. The 

 process was called "putting back the big head;" that is, 

 when any thing was accomplished, which was possible only 

 in the first stages of the disease. Few cases would remain 

 " put back," and, most frequently, the animals fell victims to 

 a subsequent attack. ^ 



First in the horrible list of savageries may be mentioned 

 the practice of burning or scalding with a horn filled with a 

 hot mush, made of ashes and boiling water. A common cow's 

 horn, filled with this mush, scalding hot, was applied to the 

 parts immediately over the seat of the disease. The horse's 

 head first being fastened so that he could not move it, the horn 

 was held against it, until the skin and flesh were literally 

 cooked, or sufficiently so to cause them to slough oft' quite 

 to the bone in a few days. This treatment was sometimes 

 efficacious in the incipient stages of the disorder, but always 

 very much disfigured the poor animals subjected to it; often 

 it killed them. 



An equally inhuman practice was to run a sharp, red-hot 

 iron into the jaw, and entirely through the b'^ne. This would 

 likewise check the disease in certain cases, but it produced 

 a dreadfully offensive, running sore, which never healed. The 

 writer has seen many examples of this treatment, and once 

 had two of its victims placed in his charge to experiment 

 with, and, if possible, to cure, but nothing could be done 

 for them. One was shot, as an act of mercy, and the other 

 was given away. 



Another singular practice much in vogue was the extrac- 

 tion of one or two of the large molars, or double-teeth, by 

 means of a large pair of tongs, called " tooth-pullers," about 

 three feet long, and in shape like a pair of blacksmith's 



