THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 385 



This is a far better, and a far more effectual plan than any 

 of the old measures once fashionable, but now we trust, on 

 account of their barbarity, discarded. Treated after the 

 above method, should the first trial not succeed, a second 

 can be made ; and this plan may be repeated an indefinite 

 number of times without inflicting suffering amounting to 

 positive torture. 



Should it be more convenient, a solution of gum-mastic in 

 spirit of wine, or a solution of india-rubber in sulphuric 

 ether, will answer the same purpose as the collodion. 



We may add that the horse should be allowed no food 

 that requires mastication, and his head should be fixed by 

 pillar-reins during the process of cure ; and make his bed of 

 tan, not straw, lest he should eat it. 



POLL-EVIL. 



This loathsome and troublesome disease consists in a 

 deep abscess, with sinuses or pipes, working outwardly to 

 an ulcerous sore, preceded by swelling and inflammation 

 in the poll, or nape, of the neck, just between the ears, 

 towards the mane. 



The causes of poll- evil mark it as discreditable to the 

 stable where it occurs. Mechanical injury from blows, 

 bruises, etc., are the ordinary origin. Farm horses and 

 cart horses are most frequently the subjects of poll-evil. 

 Their coarse, ill-made, stiff, and hard head-collars or bridles 

 chafe their polls, and cause them to be continually rubbing 

 the part. The halter or bridle, from constant friction, 

 begets a mangy affection of the skin about the nape of 

 the neck, from the itchy annoyance of which the animal 

 endeavours to relieve himself by rubbing his poll against 

 the manger, occasioning that part to inflame, swell, become 

 excoriated, and generate among the roots of the hair foul 

 ulcerations. Or it may happen that the roof or beams of 

 the stable, or the threshold of the door may be so low that 

 the horses are daily hitting their heads against it. Or, worst 

 of all, the brute who drives the team may be fond of 

 exercising the butt end of his cart-whip in perference to 

 the lash. Hanging back in the halter (to which stalls with 

 a great slope from the manger to the drain much dispose 

 the animal), by impeding the circulation, produces numb- 

 ness and itching. The horse rubs his head violentlv against 



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