No. 9. 



Insanity in the Horse. 



291 



shell soft and exciting tlie embryo plant into 

 growth. The seeds are on this account pro- 

 videntially furnished with a fleshy pericarp 

 (hip) to prevent their becoming too dry for 

 germination, while nearly all other seeds do 

 not germinate well unless dried before sow- 

 intr. — BuisVs Rose Manual. 



Insanity in the Horse. 



There is no doubt that the animals which 

 we have subjugated possess many of the 

 same mental faculties as the human being — 

 volition, memory, attachment, gratitude, re- 

 sentment, fear, and hatred. Who has not 

 witnessed the plain and manifest display of 

 these principles and feelings in our quadru- 

 ped dependants? The simple possession of 

 these faculties implies that they may be 

 used for purposes good or bad, and that, as 

 in the human being, they may be deranged 

 or destroyed by a multitude of causes which 

 it is not necessary to particularise. In the 

 quadruped as in the biped, the lesion or de- 

 struction of a certain part of the brain may 

 draw after it the derangement, or disturb- 

 ance, or perversion of a certain faculty of 

 the mind. It is only because the mental 

 faculties, and good as well as bad properties 

 of the inferior beings, have been so lately 

 observed and acknowledged, that any doubt 

 on this point can for a moment be enter- 

 tained. The disordered actions, the fury, 

 the caprices, the vices, and more particu- 

 larly the frenzy and total abandonment of 

 reason, which are occasionally shown by the 

 brute, are in the highest degree analogous 

 to certain acts of insanity in man. It is 

 merely to complete our subject that they are 

 here introduced. 



The rea-ier is indebted to Professor Rodet, 

 of Toulouse, for the anecdotes which follow: 

 A horse, seven years old, was remarkable 

 for an habitual air of stupidity, and a pecu- 

 liar wandering expression of countenance. 

 When he saw anything that he had not 

 been accustomed to, or heard any sudden or 

 unusual noise, whether it was near or at a 

 distance, or sometimes when his corn was 

 thrown into the manger without the precau 

 tion of speaking to him or patting him, he 

 was frightened to an almost incredible de 

 gree; he recoiled precipitately, every limb 

 trembled, and he struggled violently to es 

 cape. After several useless efforts to get 

 away, he would work himself into the high 

 est degree of rage, so that it was dangerous 

 to approach him. This state of excitement 

 was followed by dreadful convulsions, which 

 did not cease until he had broken his halter, 

 or otherwise detached himself from his tram- 

 mels. He would then become calm, and 



suffer himself to be led back to his stall: 

 nor would anything more be seen but an 

 almost continual inquietude, and a wander- 

 ing and stupid expression of countenance. 

 He had belonged to a brutal soldier, who 

 had beaten him shnmefully, and before vi-hich 

 time he had been perfectly quiet and tract- 

 able. 



A Piedrnonteee officer possessed a beauti- 

 ful and in other respects serviceable mare, 

 but which one peculiarity rendered exceed- 

 ingly dangerous — that was a decided aver- 

 sion to paper, which she recognised the mo- 

 ment she saw it, and even in the dark if two 

 leaves were rubbed together. The effect 

 produced by the sight or sound of it was so 

 prompt and violent, that she several times 

 unhorsed her rider. She had not the sliglit- 

 est fear of objects that would terrify mo.-t 

 horses. She regarded not the music of the 

 band, the whistling of the balls, the roaring 

 of the cannon, the fire of the bivouncs, or 

 the glittering of arms. The confusion and 

 noise of an engagement made no impressiou 

 upon her; the sight of no other white object 

 affected her. No other sound was regarded ; 

 but the view or the rustling of paper roused 

 her to madness. 



A mare was perfectly manageable and 

 betrayetl no antipathy to the human being, 

 nor to other animals, nor to horses, except 

 they were of a light-grey colour; btit the 

 moment she saw a grey horse, she rushed 

 towards it, and attacked it with the greatest 

 fury. It was the same at all times, and 

 everywhere. She was all that could be 

 wished on the parade, on the route, in the 

 ranks, in action, and in the stable; but if 

 she once caught a ghmpse of a grey or 

 white horse, she rested not until she h;id 

 thrown iier rider or broken her halter, and 

 then she rushed on her imagined foe with 

 the greatest fury. She generally contrived 

 to seize the animal by the head or throat, 

 and held .him so fast that she would suffo- 

 cate liim, if he were not promptly released 

 from her bite. 



Another mare exhibited no terror except 

 of white inanimate objects, as white man- 

 tles or coats, and particularly white plumes. 

 She would fly from then) if she could ; but 

 if she was unable to accomplish this, she 

 would rush furiously upon them, strike at 

 them with her fore feet, and tear them with 

 her teeth. 



These instances are selected from various 

 others, because they approach so nearly to 

 what would be termed insanity in the human 

 being. It is confined to one object, — it is a 

 species of nifmomania, and as decided insan- 

 ity as ever the biped discovered. One of 

 these horses, the second, was by long and 



