STRINGHALT. 35 
condition of the nerve alluded to by Professor Spooner could in no way 
influence the motions of the limb. Messrs. Percivall and Goodwin both 
appeal to instances, where, in animals affected with stringhalt, pressure 
existed upon the posterior portion of the spinal column. The last ob- 
servation accords much more with the writer’s notions of cause and 
effect. 
Nevertheless, the inexperienced reader may ask, how can the posterior 
portion of the horse’s spinal column become affected? Of all the ver- 
tebra, those of the lumbar region are endowed with the greatest motion, 
and consequently are the most exposed to injury. The uses to which 
man puts the animal are not so very gentle but a delicate structure, 
however deeply seated, might be hurt. However, grant all these are 
harmless, which is indeed to allow a great deal to pass, the stables are 
enough to provoke stringhalt in half the horses now resident in London. 
Has the intelligent reader visited these places? He knows the holes in 
which poor humanity is obliged to stive. Well, any place not good 
enough for a man to live in is esteemed luxurious lodging for a horse. 
Many of the places are undrained ; frequently have light or air admitted 
only by the doorway, and the stalls are seldom more than four feet wide. 
The wretched captives cannot turn their bodies round in the allotted 
space. A horse being in, when wanted abroad, must be backed into the 
gangway, and thus made to ‘face about.” It is not creditable to human 
nature when we perceive its most valuable and willing servant is be- 
grudged the space in which its useful body rests. The labor of the day 
should at least earn for the horse a sufficient bed. 
The exhaustion of the toil—for man has nicely calculated the work a 
horse can perform, and generally exacts the quotum to the full—has 
merited the night’s repose, which shall fit for the morrow’s fatigue ; but 
man is most particular in all that concerns the quadruped. He has 
reckoned up the food it may eat, the water it may drink, the space it 
may occupy; the keep, the keeper, the lodging, and the very harness 
that fastens it to the load,—all are precisely calculated. There is no 
law to interpose between man and horse, even should the estimate be run 
“too fine.” Against sore shoulders there is some enactment, which is 
only enforced through a constable specially retained by a private associ- 
ation. No clause teaches man his duty toward his inferiors. The lower 
animals have no protection against the exhausting labor and inadequate 
provision that maims a body or wastes a life. 
The servant, observing the master to be without feeling, apes his 
better. A bad example always finds plenty of imitators. The horse 
may be wanted in a hurry; the groom commands it to ‘come round.” 
It is too much trouble to back the animal as usual; the master is in 
