CHAP. II.] INFLICTIONS ON THE POLL. 319 



formed horse in another respect also ; and it is more 

 than probable, that if the two were to fall into an 

 equally bad habit of body, whilst the latter might 

 acquire poll-evil thereby, the constitution of the 

 former would throw off any offensive matters that 

 might accrue by some other means *. The reader 

 will do well to turn back to the section referred to 

 (p. 68), as well as to the skeleton [at A 5], 



The wheelers, in a set of horses, will frequently 

 throw back the head in warm weather, or after 

 brisk work, at feeling the reins that run through 

 their head-harness to the leaders : this motion is 

 performed as the reader will have learnt, by the 

 action of the cervical ligament, (see fig. page 68), 

 the upper end whereof terminates where the ear- 

 band rests, and, perhaps, pinches the part. Horses 

 that are given to shy are likely to contract poll-evil 

 when hanging back, and throw up the head with a 

 jerk. But the most prolific cause of poll-evil is at- 

 tributable to the low stable door-way, whereby the 

 animal gets many a trivial hit at going in and com- 

 ing out ; next in point of frequency is that brutal 

 mode of attacking restive horses about the head 

 with the butt end of the whip, an evidence of fero- 

 ciousness on the part of the offending carman that 



* These might appear in shape of grease or farcy ; but it has 

 been generally observed that a disposition to farcy abates, if it do not 

 subside entirely, upon the appearance of poll-evil. Again, horses 

 that are most liable to contract " the grease" are precisely of the 

 same disposition as those which are afflicted with tumours, &c. viz. 

 of indolent habit, heavy in the hand, and slow of blood, fleshy and 

 dull. 



p 4 



