THE SO-CALLED "INCAPACITATING VICES." 2T5 



Upon the earliest indication being perceived of the spine having been 

 badly injured, the horse should be instantly throvs^n up for at least six 

 months. The animal ought not to have a layer of pitch, rosin, etc. 

 smeared thickly over the back, and be turned out to take its chance upon 

 a green diet. But it should be placed in a roomy, loose box : it should 

 have the hair cut off close over the seat of injury, and the place should 

 be constantly moistened by means of cloths dipped in a lotion, composed 

 of tincture of arnica, two ounces, and water, one pint. This remedy, 

 with softened food of the most supporting kind, should constitute the 

 treatment for the first month of recovery. 



At the end of that period, we may assume that inflammation has been 

 subdued; thereupon the measures adopted may be changed. Some 

 compound soap liniment should be rubbed on the surface every morning. 

 Should the application blister the skin, the liniment must be withheld 

 for a time ; but so soon as friction can be quietly endured, the stimulant 

 must be renewed. All this while, the quadruped should be well fed ; but 

 medicine should be strictly withheld, grass and bran mashes being solely 

 employed to regulate the bowels if their action be sluggish. 



When morbid sensibility no longer exists in the spine, and moderate 

 pressure with the fingers can be borne upon the back, the liniment may 

 be discontinued ; but the restoration is to finish with the repeated use 

 of liquid blisters. One side of the spine, near to the seat of injury, is 

 first to be acted upon ; when the action of the vesicatory appears to be 

 subsiding, the other half of the back should be attacked. This plan 

 must be pursued till the fifth month has expired, the horse being sus- 

 tained upon the best and most nutritive food. After this period has 

 elapsed, a handful of ground oak bark should be mingled with each 

 allowance of provender. The animal, during all this time, never being 

 flurried, or allowed to leave its ample stable. 



Upon recovery, the quadruped ought never to be employed for that 

 same kind of service in which the injury was received. No weight 

 should, subsequently, be placed upon the back ; for the spine which has 

 been once injured, can never, by human art, be restored to its pris- 

 tine soundness. However greatly the animal may have been prized, 

 even as a hunter, it is safer and much more profitable to doom the steed 

 to the collar, in which last employment old hunters particularly delight 

 in exhibiting their highly-prized excellences of action. Many a horse 

 that appears in the London streets running before some brougham, and 

 which, by the gayety of its spirit, excites the admiration of the foot 

 passengers, will, after death, be found to have one or more bones of the 

 spine joined by osseous deposit, proving that the back, during life, must 

 have suffered serious injury. 



