SWELLINGS IN THE NECK. 89 



standing, he had stood work without its causing 

 any lameness in the part, I should say a man 

 would be quite justified in w^arranting him sound, 

 and a purchaser quite safe in buying. 



Being on the subject of outwardly visible 

 blemishes, I beg to be permitted to return to the 

 upper parts of the horse in order to mention 



SWELLINGS IN THE NECK, OR RATHER THE 

 SIDE OF IT. 



These puflfy swellings generally arise from 

 the horse having been bled by rude hands ; and 

 further, by the very bad practice some grooms have 

 of pulling up the skin, or rather pulling it away 

 from the neck, when preparing to pin it up, and 

 also from the equally to be reprobated habit, after 

 the neck is pinned up, of, as it w^ere, forcing the 

 pinned-up part into the neck with the sponge, 

 indeed sometimes w^ith the finger. The pulling 

 the skin away from the neck allows wind, to a 

 certain degree, to get admission ; and there it 

 remains, producing a kind of air bladder ; and 

 forcing the pin, with the tow round it, to- 

 wards the neck, bruises the part, and often 

 causes swelling also. A total loss of the vein is 

 not unfrequently an accompaniment to swelled 

 neck, produced by such rude practitioners cutting 

 through it, for they seldom take much trouble 



