XXXIX, 
is a grievous popular error to believe in quack mixtures, which are said to be 
universal specifics for all diseases. Let us turn to another fallacy. Our readers 
may have read My. Mayhew’s just denunciation of the absurd system of slanting 
pavements ; but, for the sake of those who do not happen to have seen his 
remarks on this subject, we may quote a few paragraphs from his work on 
“Horse Management.” 
“Some sad and patient animal on a slanting pavement, may have been 
silently watching, longing for the absence of the groom during a considerable 
period. No sooner does the creature hear the door slam, than he begins to 
take small steps backward. The horse thus feels its way, till the sudden fall 
on the pavement announces that the posterior hoofs have reached the gutter, 
within the hollow of which the toes are immediately depressed. Such an 
attitude being attained, all stress upon the flexor tendons is removed from 
the hind legs. The bones, while the toes can be depressed, sustain the 
weight of the haunches. Partial ease is thereby received, and with the new 
sensation, a numbing torpor creeps over the animal. Its feelings are soothed 
by present pleasure, and the nerves thrown off their guard, grow dead 
to all outward impressions. The victim of former ages, when taken from 
the rack, must still have endured agony; but the lull occasioned by the 
cessation of acute torture, threw the sufferer into a lethargy, which is 
reported to have resembled the luxury of a sleep. So it is with the horse. 
The fore feet are still undergoing torment; but, under partial relief, the 
animal seems to doze, or become unconscious to external agencies. The 
horse,’however, has not only to stand, during the day-time, upon a slanting 
pavement, but it must throughout the night be in this position. Did the 
reader ever attempt to repose upon a bed slightly out of the horizontal? The 
sensation communicated is an incessant fear of slipping off. The sleeper is 
constantly wakened up with a vivid impression that he is falling, or has fallen 
on to the floor. The night is passed in discomfort. What is the excitability 
of a human being, when compared with the fear which haunts the most 
timid of all timid lives? Assuredly he should have possessed an enlarged 
capacity for evil, who first conceived the notion of making a living creature, 
conspicuous for its strength, its activity, and its timidity, exist in a niche, have 
its head tied up by day and by night, and be subsequently doomed to rest on 
a floor, sloping in a painful and unnatural direction.” 
Rest is of the greatest importance to all living things, and especially in 
disease, is of the highest utility. Hence, anything which interferes with a 
horse’s, or any other animal’s repose, is most strongly to be reprehended. 
During rest, the waste undergone by the various tissues and organs of the 
body is repaired. The products of work are removed, their place is taken by 
fresh material, ready to do work, and the various parts of the body are 
thereby restored to a condition suitable for the performance of their functions. 
Diminution of rest, like overwork, will gradually bring on disease. The loss 
of a night’s rest will unfit an animal for the next day’s work. The horse sleeps 
but little, probably not more than five or six hours in the twenty-four, does- 
not always sleep, nor even invariably lie down when taking rest. Some 
