PANICS AMONG HORSES. 
707 
recently caused our newspaper editors and correspondents to 
commit a series of blunders, and unjustly lay the blame of a 
not very uncommon accident to a gallant regiment in nowise 
guilty of the slightest inattention to equine management. 
The horse, like other gregarious and herbivorous animals, 
is, when under the influence of terror, particularly liable to 
transmit his fear to those of his species in contact with him, 
and the accumulated dread thus engendered sometimes leads to 
serious consequences. But in this the horse is in no respect 
different, so far as we can see, from his more intellectual and 
highly organised master — man. We all know what a panic 
is in our own species. Let an alarm of fire be raised in a 
crowded theatre or meeting-room, or cause a cry of danger to 
be given out even in a church during divine service, and 
what do we see? Men who, in other circumstances, would 
be perfectly calm and collected, and not likely to do anything 
rash without due inquiry, rush madly to escape from the 
danger without the least attempt to discover whether it is 
real or imaginary, and so far forget their nobler nature as 
to leave behind, or trample under foot, helpless women and 
children. 
At the commencement of this month, when it was decided 
that a very large force, composed of all branches of the 
British army, was to be assembled at Aldershot, for the pur- 
pose of manoeuvring on a more extensive and instructive 
manner than heretofore, an unusually great muster of horses 
took place, and among these the steeds of the 1st Life 
Guards. 
Shortly after these animals had been picketed, one or two 
officers’ chargers were frightened by some unusual noise ; 
their fear, manifested in the usual way, was immediately 
transmitted to the troopers, and all at once a regular panic 
was established, in nowise different from that observed on 
other occasions. In spite of all that could be done, the fast- 
enings (very improper and imperfect, it must be admitted, 
they were) were broken or torn up, and the troopers were 
dashing everywhere, in all the madness and fury inspired by 
the most exaggerated terror and dismay, committing all the 
damage and performing all the indescribable feats peculiar to 
their frenzied condition. Notwithstanding the dangers to 
which they exposed themselves during their mad course across 
miles of country, and over or against all kinds of serious ob- 
stacles, only a comparatively small number of horses were 
destroyed — some six ; but had the occurrence taken place at 
night instead of during the day, during war instead of peace ? 
there is no saying where the disasters might have termi- 
