42 Roaring in Horses. 



In France, Dnpuy, early in this century, insisted, from his 

 observations, upon Roaring being hereditary ; and Girard, 

 jun., cited the case of the stallion Misanthrope, in the plain 

 of Caen, whose produce were superb, but one-half, and often 

 even two-thirds of them, became affected with Roaring. 

 Reynal refers to many instances of a similar kind, and par- 

 ticularly alludes to that of a great horse-breeder of Livonia, 

 who had a fine English stallion which, when about ten years 

 of age, became a Roarer without any appreciable cause. 

 From this time nearly all his produce were affected, more 

 or less, with Roaring, and among them eight mares which, 

 he kept for breeding purposes. The curious feature in this 

 instance was that the descendants showed the defect when 

 ten years old, the age at which the sire was discovered to 

 be unsound from this cause. 



And the evidence obtained in the French Government 

 studs is further confirmation of this hereditary predisposi- 

 tion. Charon, from inquiry and observation, states that 60 

 per cent, of the produce of horses affected with Roaring 

 become Roarers when exposed to exciting causes, and he 

 gives a long list of stallions which, themselves undoubtedly 

 unsound in this way, were the sires of generations of simi- 

 larly unsound stock. He refers especially to a thorough- 

 bred stallion, which by his name — Eastham — should be 

 English ; this animal was a Roarer when comparatively 

 young, but, owing to his fine appearance, he was a great 

 favourite in Normandy, and much sought after. He unfor- 

 tunately left a long line of half-bred Roaring descendants, 

 and Charon declares that there is not a breeder in the 

 Valley of the Auge who does not retain an unpleasant 

 reminiscence of the animal's presence in the country, 

 through the serious respiratory defect in the stallions and 

 mares he produced. To this day these breeders, in referring 

 to this horse, say "II a du Beranger dans le gosier," a 

 phrase as significant as imaginative. Charon gives a list 

 of the stallions descended from Eastham which were 



