^Mr. 



WO AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



dorsal vertebra) crumbled away, and the skin sunk to the 

 main bone of the back, leaving a hollow from four to six 

 inches deep. As far as the poison spread, its ravages went 

 on. At length its force was spent, the abscess closed, and 

 the horse, with all his unsightly deformities, and often with 

 much impaired vigor, was returned to service. If any ani- 

 mal outlived the months or years of torture which this process 

 occupied, it was because his vital energies were equal to 

 almost any task which the heedless ignorance of man could 

 impose upon them. 



Yet this picture, horrible as it is, fails to present in full 

 the awful consequences of this murderous system in many 

 instances. The author has seen the whole line known as 

 " tlie comb of the back-bone " so much eaten away that 

 the vertebra points were exposed to full view, the sickening 

 discharge of pus and blood, meanwhile, completing a spec- 

 tacle almost incredible. Sometimes even the top of the 

 blade and of the shoulder-bone became visible, and not un- 

 frequently the fly- worm concluded the barbarous tragedy in 

 the most revolting manner. 



Among other common methods of treating fistula were 

 such as burning with a hot iron, scalding with the horn 

 and hot mush of ashes, and running a small sharp-pointed 

 iron, red-hot, entirely through the tumor ; also, p'utting polk- 

 root or corrosive sublimate into the swelling, with results 

 nearly similar to those following the use of arsenic. 



It is impossible to recall these recollections without emo- 

 tions of inexpressible horror and detestation; while, upon the 

 other hand, humanity must rejoice that a dispensation of such 

 ignorance and cruelty has given place to an age of more 

 enlightened and generous views concerning the needs and 

 proper care of that noblest servant of man, the horse. 



POLL-EVIL. 



This is a tumor, that comes on the head, or, more properly, 

 upon the extreme forward part of the neck, just back of the 



k 



