on the continent; and with respect to the 
danger of purging, the experience of a cen- 
tury has proved that to consist merely in the 
abuse and the use of had drugs. Purine 
composes a material branch of our celebrated 
jockev or Newmarket system, which with 
its nmkU'on 5 , have produced a perfection 
ot habit and condition in the horse, univer- 
a(i,n ' rcd b r y foreigners, and peculiar to 
• ns country, there ts yet another. opinion 
occasionally dehvered, which we trust may 
•not be unsuccessfully controverted: we ad 
FAPJVIERY, 
, , tn , t,ie pretended infant and imperfect 
state ot veterinary science, The science of< 
laiuery has long been in a respectable and i 
e\en niature s ate in this country, however; 
generally deficient the practice*; and we 
Mire.y have at this time an undoubted right • 
o expect a general and practical improve- 1 
rnent. 1 i 
Loi.-es aie particularly subject to catarrhal 1 
'm'/ h lieun:on ’ a J influenzal and epidemic 1 
olds, rheumathm, asthmatic complaints, af- 
fections ot the liver, colic, and blindness, i 
np also share in common with human na- ! 
■me the maladies of apoplexy, spasm and! 
convulsions affections of the kidneys and 
unrnu-y bladder, diabetes, dropsy, fever, and ; 
cutaneous attections. 
f lie p eculiar diseases of the horse are glan- ' 
tiers, farcy greaw*, strangles, poll evil or 1 
aoscess, and they arc particularly liable to 
injury and lameness in the lower extremi- 
ties. | 
With respect to their diseases, the glanders, I 
u js well known, has ever been the veterinary 
opprobrium, nor have we yet, after an infinity ! 
ot a. tempts at various periods, advanced one • 
step towards a probability of cure, speaking 
ot the chronic species; nor. is such an attain- ! 
ii.an peihaps an object of much consequence i 
or interest from the length of time the cure! 
nm>t. necessarily require, and the little subse- j 
queut use to be expected from the patient. I 
1 arute or incipient glanders will generally ! 
submit to proper remedies and care. The 1 
disease is atmospheric and catarrhal, and 
occasionally, but perhaps not so frequently as 
in common supposed, caught by contagion of 
other horses. Oxen and sheep are affected 
oy the glanders ; the latter particularly, on 
being early shorn in cold springs, under the 
influence ot easterly winds. Broken wind , 
in the horse, as its designation would seem to 
intimate, is irreparable ; and there is a rela- : 
five circumstance for which perhaps it is not 
f° account, namely, that it a horse of I 
tins description be turned to grass for any I 
W ?f tim e, on taking him back to the 
stable his malady shall be considerably in- ■ 
creased, although, perhaps, if continued con- 1 
stantly abroad, he might remain as at first, i 
or experience some amendment. Jn gene-’ 
ral, the diseases of horses, supposing skill in 
the practitioner, and an acquaintance with 
our best written authorities, may be treated 
very successfully, ancf upon a very near level 
in that respect with the human patient. | 
Amongst, or rather the chief of, those irre- i 
parable injuries which the horse, from his 
hard sendees, is liable to sustain, must be 
reckoned repeated strains of the tendons, 
r or a chronic case of that kind it is seldom 
possible to obtain a cure; and although the 
only remedy to be depended on is a long run 
at grass, yet, as has already been observed of 
'broken wind, a horse in a confirmed case of i 
injured tendons, frequently returns worse 
from grdss than he was whilst in the stable. 
(Lawrence on Horses.) These injuries are 
commonly seated about thh well-known back 
sinew ot the leg, and among that multitude of 
tendons (in Snapc’s language) that descend 
into the cofhn-joint. it has been said that 
our knowledge in that most important branch, 
tendinous lameness, has been on the decline 
since our late unreserved adoption c£ the 
principles of the French veterinary school, 
and accession to the hypothesis of the inelas- 
ticity and immobility of tendons, on which 
it is asserted, that there can exist no such 
malady as a strained tendon, producing mor- 
bid laxity subsequent to inflammation. The 
new opinion seems to confine the disease to 
inflammation simply, and the cure to the dis- 
persion of the inflammatory symptoms. Now 
constant experience has proved, that those 
merely attendant symptoms may be soon 
ridded, and yet the strain or lameness con- 
tinue. (See Bracken on the nature of strain.) 
This is a most material point of the veteri- 
nary art, and involves the great and neces- 
sary qualification of detecting the seats of 
lameness in horses. English horses in gene- 
ra! are extremely subject to tendinous lame- 
nesses, both from their natures, as being so 
much mixed with the delicate racing breed, 
and from their being forced to more speedy 
and severe exertions than the horses of any 
other country. Hence it is said that the 
best continental veterinarians, as defective in 
practical experience, are imperfectly skilled 
in the lamenesses in question, and their pro- 
per treatment ; and that in order to attain 
considerable knowledge in tins branch, and 
to be able to ascertain the seats of lameness, 
it is absolutely necessary for the veterinarian 
to experiment and practise with the living as 
well as the dead subject, and to advance far 
beyond the limits of the riding-school and pa- 
rade. On this disputed subject, on the turf, 
on the theory and practice of humanity to 
. animals, and on the purchase, qualifications, 
and performances of horses, Mr. Lawrence’s 
Philosophical and Practical Treatise may be 
consulted with much advantage. 
1 he greet .?c.— *•’ This discharge seems pecu- 
liar to the horse, as in the disorder properly 
so called, and in molten-grease or the body- 
founder. The grease in the legs is an extra- 
vasation, or bursting from the vessels, and 
afterwards through the skin, of serum, or sim- 
ple humour, either from defect of exercise, or 
any cause of obstructed circulation in those 
depending parts. Bound, fleshy- legged 
horses, like those, for example, of the old 
Suffolk cart breed, are constitutionally liable 
to grease; on the contrary, the flat, sinewy- 
1 egged, and in general as* horses approach 
the thorough-bred or racing-kind, they are 
the least liable to this defect. 'Want of good 
grooming, however, the legs ^remaining in 
their dirt in the stall, or the horse not lying 
down, will grease any species of horses. 
This malady never affects the horse at grass, 
which points out the readiest cure ; and with 
respect to such as are constitutionally liable, 
the only way to preserve them sound is to 
keep them abroad. A slight case in the stable 
gives way to thorough cleansing and ablution 
with soap and water, the discharge being 
afterwards dried up with astringent poultices, 
lotions, or powders. Purges or alterants 
may be exhibited according to tke nature of 
the case. A confirmed and inveterate case 
is extremely difficult of cure, requiring pow- 
erful escarotic applications. 
Odets, splents, spavins, ringbone, curb, 
thorough-pin, &c. are bony excrescences dif- 
ferently posited, originating in an extravasa- 
tion by pressure of weight or over-exertion, 
of the mucilage or oil of the joints, which 
gradually condenses and becomes ossified. 
Splents and oslets upon the shank, not affect- 
ing the joint, may not occasion lameness, and 
even admit of dispersion and cure by friction, 
blistering, and repellents, if taken early, and 
before their substance is become too* solid, 
The ringbone is an ossification or bony swell- 
ing, surrounding, as its name expresses, like 
a ring, the coronet or summit of the hoof; 
it proceeds from the contiguous small pas- 
tern bones. Being suffered to come to 
maturity, it is incurable by any possible 
remedy which caii leave the horse sound. 
r l he spavin is also a preternatural bone, situ- 
ated on the inside beneath the hock, and ex- 
tending in its course to the joint. It is gene- 
rally a hopeless case. Removing the part 
with a chisel was formerly attempted; hut 
blistering and caustics are the more usual 
modes of attempt at cure. A very powerful 
caustic method, recommended by Osmer, 
was within these few years tried upon a ce- 
lebrated trotter ; but ‘it killed the horse in 
three days. Peihaps Gibson’s cure of a con- 
firmed spavin is the most successful one on 
record. See his Farriery. The thorough* 
l>in is posited withoutsidej and between the 
bones ot the hock. An incipient case may 
admit a remedy ; and we lately witnessed a 
perfect cure of this malady in about three 
months by a perpetual blister. The curb is 
found on the back part of the hock. The 
bog-spavin with inside, in the cavity of the 
hock, is a tumour frequently of considerable 
bulk, of the nature of the windgalh It pro- 
duces lameness ; and that part of the horse, 
although generally forgotten, should be ex- 
amined in purchase. 
Windgalls are well-known distinct tumours 
on the pastern-joints, filled with extravasated 
fluid, Which either forms capsules or bags for 
itself, or such bags are an enlargement of 
the natural bursae mucosa*, or mucous cap- 
sules, which are found, wherever tendons pass 
over each other, or over any solid part, and 
serve the purpose of lubricating with their 
mucus those tendons. Horses are in o-ene- 
ral subject to this infirmity in proportion to 
the racing blood they have ; and we have 
seen common bred hacks, in which no labour 
would produce a windgalh .Work will gene- 
rally bring them more or less ; but baifdage 
and astringent lotions, with runs abroad, and 
the loose stable, are the only preventives. 
The general palliative remedies are as above, 
and blistering. When they feel tense and 
elastic, they may not be an immediate oc- 
casion of lameness ; but if flabby and in- 
elastic, and of considerable bulk, the tendons 
are debilitated, and there can be little expec- 
tation of soundness, Bracken made a suc- 
cessful experiment of opening, and discharged 
the fluid of the bog-spavin ; and after lum, 
Lawrence that of the windgalh See their 
accounts. 
Corns are bruises or compressions of the 
horny sole near the quarters ; if dry, to be 
pared out with the knife, and treated with 
spirituous and healing applications, applying 
