16 VETERINAKY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



Fig. 4, and, avoiding unnecessary bustle and hurry, it is carried up the 

 middle of the mouth and dropped on the back of the tongue; at the 

 same instant the tongue is quietly let loose, and as the horse draws it 

 back, the ball is engaged in the pharynx, whence it cannot return unless 

 by a fit of coughing; as soon as the hands are withdrawn, the mouth is 

 kept closed, and the left side of the neck watched to see the ball pass 

 down the oesophagus; this may occur before looking round to the neck, 

 so that, after waiting a little, if the ball be not seen, the horse should be 

 caiised to drink a little water. The practice of giving a little water to 

 drink after giving a ball should always be adhered to, as it is disagreeable 

 to leave an animal, and when the operator's back is turned, the ball be 

 coughed into the manger; moreover, in morbid conditions of the system, 

 and in the unnatural manner in which the bolus is swallowed, the pas- 

 sages are not well lubricated, and the ball may be some time before it 

 penetrates the cardiac orifice. 



With vicious horses, horses with narrow mouths, and in cases of tris- 

 mus, when balls are to be given, instruments should be used. Balling 

 irons, to prevent the closure of the mouth, have been constructed of 

 various kinds; the simplest, represented by Fig. 5, is made of malleable 



Fig. 5. 

 Usual form of balling iron. 



iron, and is adapted to the average size of a horse's mouth. Other and 

 more perfect forms are represented by Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. Perhaps the 

 most useful is Mr. Varnell's improved balling iron, which may prove 

 serviceable in cases where with difficulty a horse is made to open his 

 mouth as wide as it is desirable, and if, instead of giving balls, the teeth 

 and other parts of the mouth have to be examined and operated on. 

 These can be had of a surgical instrument-maker in any large city. 



The usual and old-time method of making a ball i? to mix up the 



