162 CRIB-BITING. 
agony. However, something is now present which has not been wit- 
nessed before; that circumstance rather disturbs the reigning equanimity ; 
the horse is evidently much disposed to quietude, but some hidden cause 
excites it; it rolls, flings itself down, struggles up again, paws with the 
fore feet, kicks with the hind legs at the belly, and breathes with much 
more difficulty than formerly. 
Often it lies upon the back for some minutes; the result, when such 
symptoms are observed, generally is invariable. After death, the abdo- 
men is opened; the cavity is full of black blood, which, commonly, does 
not coagulate; though, should death occur upon the first attack, dark 
clots may be found among the intestines. 
With regard to the treatment, which the author approves, it consists 
of the drink previously recommended; sufficient but nutritious food, and, 
above all things, abundant exercise. The horse should also be removed 
from the heated stable and allowed a large, roomy, loose box. Purga- 
tive medicine is too debilitating for such a disease; but the bowels 
should be regulated by green meat or by bran mashes, when such agents 
are required. 
CRIB-BITING. 
Nothing more forcibly illustrates the ignorance by which the horse is 
surrounded, than the manuer any trivial but visible fact is magnified into 
vast and mysterious importance. The untutored always have active 
imaginations; thus, what is at worst, in the author’s opinion, the decla- 
ration of acidity within the stomach, is by most horsemen dreaded more 
than an actual disease. 
Cribbing is very common among horses which have been long inhahit- 
ants of the stable; the many hours of stagnation the domesticated horse 
is doomed to pass, may induce the animal readily to seize upon any soli- 
tary pastime. Or the perpetual consumption of oats and hay may dis- 
arrange the digestion, which, experience teaches, is in ourselves much 
benefited by a moderate change of diet. Or, the constant inhalation of 
close and impure air, such as will taint the clothes of the groom, who is 
much exposed to it, may disorder that part of the body which is the 
most sympathetic of the entire frame. 
Adopt which of these theories the reader may be inclined to, all of 
them can be brought to bear upon the horse so affected. That cribbing 
is a habit is seemingly proved by the young horse, stalled next to an 
old cribber, soon acquiring the custom. That cribbing is provoked by 
idleness, appears to be in some measure confirmed by the horse never 
exhibiting the peculiarity before it has been handled and become an 
occupant of the stable. That it arises from acrimony, induced by the 
