144 Veterinary Medicine. 



Examination by manipulation, auscultation and percussion 

 along the whole length of the air passages alike during rest-and 

 after exercise, may enable one in unusual cases to recognize the 

 structural changes that give rise to roaring. 



Treatment. This has long been considered as hopeless, yet pre- 

 servative and palliative measures are usually accessible, whilst even 

 cures can be effected in certain conditions. 



Preventive treatment. First may be noticed the rejection for 

 breeding purposes of all animals possessing those conformations 

 of head, neck and chest already referred to as conducing to di- 

 sease of the air passages or distortion of the larynx or windpipe. 

 Equally ought all roarers to be set aside unless the exciting cause 

 is accidental' such as fractures of the nasal bones, of the trachea, 

 the existence of polypi, etc. Stallions that make a harsh noise in 

 breathing from an accumulation of fat about the throat are not 

 necessarily objectionable. 



The employment of the bearing rein so as to compress and dis- 

 tort the larynx is to be avoided. If bearing reins are used in 

 horses having short thick necks and badly set on heads and 

 especially with intermaxillary narrowness they should be passed 

 through rings in the cheek piece of the bridle or between the ears 

 and over the forehead (overdraw check) so that while the head is 

 elevated the nose may be projected forward after the Russian 

 fashion of equitation. This measure has indeed appeared to cure 

 several cases of roaring. I have met with fewer roarers in the 

 same number of horses in America than in England, and this I 

 attribute to the better mode of using the bearing rein on this side 

 of the Atlantic. 



The Chick Vetch (I^athyrus Cicera) should be excluded from 

 the fodder of horses or used in small proportion only. In man it 

 is found to be injurious when it forms a twelfth part of the bread 

 used and gives rise to paralysis if it amounts to a third (Aitken). 



Paliative and Curative treatment. Medicinal treatment will 

 prove useless in the great majority of cases : as for example in 

 paralysis and degeneration of the muscles, in ossifications, frac- 

 tures, or distortions of the cartilages, etc. , etc. Nevertheless where 

 there is merely thickening of the membrane of the larynx altera- 

 tive and tonic treatment may be successful especially if associated 

 with iodine ointment or active blisters applied to the throat. A 



