244 Management ajtd Treatment of the Horse. 



action. After strangles this disease frequently 

 follows, and it is a noticeable fact that the horses 

 whose sires or dams were affected with this disease 

 are predisposed to the complaint. Another great 

 cause of this complaint, in the carriage or harness 

 horse, is the cruel and absurd bearing-rein, which 

 gags the horse's head out of its natural form, and 

 the constant strain on the muscles of the neck sets 

 up inflammation in the region of the maxillary 

 gland, the larynx becomes affected, thickening 

 takes place, and for our foolish fashion, a horse 

 that would have been worth a hundred guineas 

 becomes fit only for a cab horse. By this action 

 the larynx and superior muscles of the windpipe 

 are circumscribed and ultimately become semi- 

 paralysed, with consequent loss of power and 

 action ; therefore the opening not being suffi- 

 ciently capacious during the rapid breathing 

 occasioned by yiolent exercise, the pressure of 

 air rushing through the circumscribed space, the 

 sound is produced (in much the same manner 

 that a boy makes a noise through a lark-call) 

 which has been absurdly called " roaring." The 

 practice of what is termed coughing a horse to as- 

 certain the state of his wind is apt to cause this 

 complaint; this is performed by subjecting the 

 larynx or trachea to violent pressure by squeez- 

 ing with the fingers. A horse so affected may 

 be considered as decidedly unsound. In this 

 disease there are few reliable remedies to be 

 had ; blisters have given relief, but after a horse 

 has once become a confirmed ^'roarer," nothing 

 we can do will cure him. When, as it some- 



