ACTIONS AT LAW. 235 



ears, and the head groom said they were tied up with 

 elastic. The eyes were defective, the pupils dilated ; 

 this was the effect of nervous exhaustion, consequent 

 on indigestion and digestive derangement from the wind- 

 sucking. The diseased condition must have been of some 

 standing — certainly not of a week, but at least a year. 

 In reply to his lordship, he said he considered wind- 

 sucking a symptom of disease, and not a vice, as was 

 erroneously supposed. His theory was that, previous to 

 the habit, there existed a depraved condition of the digestive 

 functions ; the animal experienced a continual feeling of 

 hunger or desire to swallow something ; the sympathetic 

 and pneumogastric nerves became implicated to such an 

 extent that the act, which should be voluntary, became 

 involuntary. The habit was quite incurable ; he had never 

 heard of an instance of cure ; the disease increased ; a 

 horse, however sHghtly affected, would gradually get 

 worse. It was, in his opinion, decided unsoundness. He 

 quite agreed with Professor Williams, in his " Text-book 

 of Veterinary Surgery," page 503, on crib-biters and wind- 

 suckers. He was submitted to a rigid cross-examination 

 by Mr. Charles Russell, Q.C., but the learned counsel 

 failed to shake his opinion. 



Mr. Ward produced a specimen of dentition from a 

 subject seven years off this year, which should correspond 

 with the horse's lower jaw if it was six off last year, as 

 stated, and he handed the specimen to the jury for them 

 to compare with the mouth of the horse which was out- 

 side the court for their inspection. 



Mr. Ward said the animal was undoubtedly suffering 

 from the effects of wind-sucking on the 23rd of September. 

 The animal was in a tympanitic condition and in great pain ; 

 the tympanitis was due to the wind-sucking ; the pain 

 was much increased by the chronic inflammatory condition 

 of the digestive canal, especially the colon. Mr. Dollar 



