Class I. HORSE. 13 



from some recent orders in respect to that 

 branch of the service,* it will for the future be 

 corrected. 



Thus is the horse provided against the two 

 greatest evils he is subject to from the seasons. 

 His natural diseases are few ; but our ill usage, Diseases. 

 or neglect, or, which is very frequent, our over 

 care of him, brings on a numerous train, which 

 are often fatal. Among the distempers he is 

 naturally subject to, are the worms, the bots, 

 and the stone : the species of worms that infest 

 him are the lumbrici, and ascarides ; both these 

 resemble those found in human bodies, only 

 they are larger : the bots are the eruccs, or cater- 



* The following remark of a noble writer on this subject is 

 too sensible to be omitted : — 



' I must own I am not possessed with the English rage of cut- 

 ' ting off all extremities from horses. I venture to declare I 



* should be well pleased if their tails, at least a switch or a nag 

 ' tail, (but better if the whole) was left on. It is hardly credi- 

 f ble what a difference, especially at a certain season of the year, 

 ' this single alteration would make in our cavalry, which though 

 ' naturally superior to all other I have ever seen, are however, 



* long before the end of the campaign, for want of that natural 

 'defence against the flies, inferior to all: constantly sweating 

 f- and fretting at the picquet, tormented and stung off their meat 

 ' and stomachs, miserable and helpless ; while the foreign cavalry 



* brush off the vermin, are cool and at ease, and mend daily, in- 



* stead of perishing as ours do almost visibly in the eye of the be- 



* holder.' 



Method of breaking Horses, &c. by Henry Earl of 

 Pembroke, p. 68. 



