336 THE HORSE. 



to guess at without a trial. In any case, when the animal is ren- 

 dered almost worthless by disease, it is fair to try experiments 

 •which are neither expensive nor cruel; and from the effect of the 

 remedy in those cases in which it has been used, I am led to ex- 

 pect that it may prove beneficial in those of longer standing. 

 Setons, blisters, and embrocations are all useless, as has been proved 

 in numberless cases ; and beyond the palliation which can be 

 afforded by employing the horse only at such a pace as his state 

 will allow, nothing else can be suggested. In some cases the 

 roarer will be able to do ordinary harness work, which, however, 

 in hot weather, will try him severely ; in others he may be so 

 slightly affected as to be fit to hunt in a country where, from its 

 nature, the pace is not very severe ; but by confirmed roarers the 

 slow work of the cart is all that can be performed without cruelty. 

 Where paralysis of the muscles that open the rima glottidis is 

 the seat of the roaring, no plan has yet been suggested which is 

 of the slightest avail. In the first place, it is extremely difficult, 

 and indeed almost impossible, to diagnose the affection, and I know 

 of no means by which paralysis can be ascertained to exist during 

 life. Hence, although it is barely possible that by the use of 

 strychnine the nerve might be stimulated into a restoration of its 

 functions, yet as the case cannot be ascertained, it is scarcely wise 

 to give this powerful drug in the hope that it may by chance hit 

 the right nail on the head. This paralytic condition seems chiefly 

 to attack carriage horses, and probably arises from the pressure 

 made by the over-curved larynx upon the laryngeal nerve as it 

 passes through the opening in the thyroid cartilage. Many vete- 

 rinary writers have looked to the recurrent branch of the par 

 vagum to explain the loss of power, but I believe it is rather to 

 the laryngeal nerve that the mischief is due. It must be remem- 

 bered that carriage-horses are not only reined up for hours while 

 doing their daily work out of doors, but they are also often placed 

 in the same position, or even a more constrained one, by the coach- 

 man in the stable, in order to improve their necks. One horse of 

 his pair perhaps has naturally a head better set on than the other, 

 and he wishes to make nature bend to his wishes by compelling 

 the other to do that which the shape of his jaw forbids without a 

 sacrifice. The mouthing tackle is put on in the stable with this 

 view, and the poor horse is " kept on the bit" for three or four 

 hours early in the morning, during which time his larynx is pressed 

 between his narrow jaws into a most unnatural shape. The con- 

 sequence is either that the nerve is pressed upon, and the muscles 

 to which it is supplied are paralyzed, as in the condition which we 

 are now considering, or the cartilages are permanently disfigured, 

 which is the subject of the next paragraph. When the paralysis 



