SITFAST. 941 
the cure; and, during this space, the proprietor sees his horse in high 
health and spirits, but is forbidden to mount it because of a petty 
blemish which, in his eyes, is perfectly contemptible. 
Sitfasts, though all said to be caused by the fric- 
tion of the saddle, have several distinct excitants. 
The saddle is without life, and cannot of itself injure 
the quadruped. It is common to account for a sit- 
fast by saying the saddle does not fit. Sueh may 
occasionally be the case; for a saddle, if badly 
made, will chafe the skin and produce a sitfast. But 
this cause is in operation less often than is imagined. 
A retired surgeon, whom the author had the honor 
of visiting at Reigate, wore a cork leg. That 4 srrrast, as 17 appzars 
gentleman stated that, whenever the leg used to Dero tat ; 
chafe the stump to which it was attached, he always considered his body 
was out of order. Medicine then was taken, and the symptom disap- 
peared. We mortals refuse to think the horse ails anything unless the 
animal is alarmingly prostrated. All smaller ills ate disregarded; yet 
that derangement of the stomach which caused the stump of a man’s lee 
to become painful from pressure may, if not attended to, also cause the 
skin of a horse to exhibit a sitfast. 
An awkward horseman is the more frequent source of the complaint. 
There are gentlemen so very energetic as riders that the best of saddles 
may be readily moved under them. The saddle must be well made 
indeed which can, under no circumstances, be stirred upon the back to 
that extent which is required to generate a sitfast. Loose girths will 
likewise establish the nuisance, and so also may the saddle-cloth when- 
ever it is hastily put on so as to become thrown into a fold when the 
horse is mounted. 
The speediest cure for a sitfast is the knife. The excrescence is 
quickly removed; and the wound, if treated with the solution of chloride 
of zine, one grain to an ounce of water, soon heals. A more tedious 
plan of removal, and one not recommended by any proper feeling, is to 
rub into the sitfast, every night and morning, a small quantity of blis- 
tering ointment. Such is the usual direction; but the ointment may be 
applied, for some time, to a layer of compact horn, before the true skin 
or flesh beneath is affected. The unguent must therefore cover the per- 
haps ulcerated margin of the sitfast; and even then it is a tedious and 
a painful operation, not likely to improve the disposition of an animal 
which it is so desirable to keep free from every excitement. 
While the sitfast is being operated upon, the bowels should be ren- 
dered pultaceous by bran mashes. Four of these per diem will usually 
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