2B6 ROARING. 



fact, that the majority of roarers are draught-horses, and horses of quick draught. 

 They are not only subject to the usual predisposing causes of this obstruc- 

 tion, but there is something superadded,— resulting from their habits or 

 mode of work, — not indeed necessarily resulting, but that which the folly as 

 well as cruelty of man has introduced— the system of tight-reining. To a 

 certain extent, the curb-rein is necessary. Without it there would be scarcely 

 any command over a wilful horse, and it would need a strong arm occasionally 

 to guide even the most willing. Without the curb-rein the horse would carry 

 himself low; he would go carelessly along ; he would become a stumbler ; and 

 if he were disposed at any time to run away, the strongest arm would have 

 little power to stop him : but there is no necessity for the tight rein, and for 

 the long and previous discipline to which the carriage horse is subjected. There 

 is no necessity that the lower jaw, whether the channel is wide or narrow, 

 should be so forced on the neck, or that the larynx and the portion of the wind- 

 pipe immediately beneath it should be flattened, and bent, and twisted, and the 

 respiratory passage not only obstructed, but in a manner closed. The mischief 

 is usually done when the horse is young. It is effected in some measure by the 

 impatience of the animal, unused to control, and suffering pain. In the violent 

 tossing of his head he bruises the larynx, and produces inflammation. The 

 head of the riding-horse is gradually brought to its proper place by the hands 

 of the breaker, who skilfully increases or relaxes the pressure, and humours and 

 plays with the mouth ; but the poor carriage-horse is confined by a rein that 

 never slackens, and his nose is bent in at the expense of the larynx and wind- 

 pipe. The injury is materially increased if the head is not naturally well set 

 on, or the neck is thick, or the jaws narrow. 



Connected with this is the common notion that crib-biting is a cause of roar- 

 ing. That is altogether erroneous. There is no possible connexion between 

 the complaints : but one of the methods that used to be resorted to in order to 

 cure crib-biting might be a cause of roaring, namely, the strap so tightly 

 buckled round the upper part of the neck as to compress, and distort, and para- 

 lyse the larynx. 



Facts have established the hereditary predisposition to roaring, beyond the 

 possibility of doubt. 



In France it is notorious that three-fourths of the horses from Cottentin are 

 roarers, and some of them are roarers at six months old ; but about La Hague 

 and Le Bocase, not a roarer is known. There is certainly a considerable differ- 

 ence in the soil of the two districts ; the first is low and marshy, the latter 

 elevated and dry : but tradition traces it to the introduction of some foreign 

 horses into Cottentin, who bequeathed this infirmity to their progeny. 



In our own country, there is as decisive a proof. There was a valuable 

 stallion in Norfolk, belonging to Major Wilson, of Didlington. He was a great 

 favourite, and seemed to be getting some excellent stock ; but he was a roarer, 

 and some of the breeders took alarm at this. They had occasionally too painful 

 experience of the communication of the defects of the parent to his progeny ; 

 and they feared that roaring might possibly be among these hereditary evils. 

 Sir Charles Bunbury was requested to obtain Mr. Cline's opinion on the subject. 

 Mr. Cline was a deservedly eminent human surgeon : he had exerted himself 

 in the establishment of the Veterinary College : he was an examiner of veteri- 

 nary pupils, and therefore it was supposed that he must be competent to give an 

 opinion. He gave one, and at considerable length : — " The disorder in the 

 horse," said he, " which constitutes a roarer, is caused by a membranous pro- 

 jection in a part of the windpipe, and is the consequence of that part having been 

 inflamed from a cold, and injudiciously treated. A roarer, therefore, is not a 

 diseased horse, for his lungs and every other part may be perfectly sound. The 



