XXXIX. 



is a grievous popular error to believe in quack mixtures, which are said to be 

 universal specifics for all diseases. Let us turn to another fallacy. Our readers 

 may have read Mr. Mayhew's just denunciation of the absurd system of slanting 

 pavements ; but, for the sake of those who do not happen to have seen his 

 remarks on this subject, we may quote a few paragraphs from his work on 

 " Horse Management." 



" Some sad and patient animal on a slanting pavement, may have been 

 silently watching, longing for the absence of the groom during a considerable 

 period. No sooner does the creature hear the door slam, than he begins to 

 take small steps backward. The horse thus feels its way, till the sudden fall 

 on the pavement announces that the posterior hoofs have reached the gutter, 

 within the hollow of which the toes are immediately depressed. Such an 

 attitude being attained, all stress upon the flexor tendons is removed from 

 the hind legs. The bones, while the toes can be depressed, sustain the 

 weight of the haunches. Partial ease is thereby received, and with the new 

 sensation, a numbing torpor creeps over the animal. Its feelings are soothed 

 by present pleasure, and the nerves thrown off their guard, grow dead 

 to all outward impressions. The victim of former ages, when taken from 

 the rack, must still have endured agony ; but the lull occasioned by the 

 cessation of acute torture, threw the sufferer into a lethargy, which is 

 reported to have resembled the luxury of a sleep. So it is with the horse. 

 The fore feet are still undergoing torment ; but, under partial relief, the 

 animal seems to doze, or become unconscious to external agencies. The 

 horse, however, has not only to stand, during the day-time, upon a slanting 

 pavement, but it must throughout the night be in this position. Did the 

 reader ever attempt to repose upon a bed slightly out of the horizontal ? The 

 sensation communicated is an incessant fear of slipping off. The sleeper is 

 constantly wakened up with a vivid impression that he is falling, or has fallen 

 on to the floor. The night is passed in discomfort. What is the excitability 

 of a human being, when compared with the fear which haunts the most 

 timid of all timid lives ? Assuredly he should have possessed an enlarged 

 capacity for evil, who first conceived the notion of making a living creature, 

 conspicuous for its strength, its activity, and its timidity, exist in a niche, have 

 its head tied up by day and by night, and be subsequently doomed to rest on 

 a floor, sloping in a painful and unnatural direction," 



Rest is of the greatest importance to all living things, and especially in 

 disease, is of the highest utihty. Hence, anything which interferes with a 

 horse's, or any other animal's repose, is most strongly to be reprehended. 

 During rest, the waste undergone by the various tissues and organs of the 

 body is repaired. The products of work are removed, their place is taken by 

 fresh material, ready to do work, and the various parts of the body are 

 thereby restored to a condition suitable for the performance of their functions. 

 Diminution of rest, like overwork, will gradually bring on disease. The loss 

 of a night's rest will unfit an animal for the next day's work. The horse sleeps 

 but little, probably not more than five or six hours in the twenty-four, does 

 not always sleep, nor even invariably lie down when taking rest. Some 



