708 
PANICS AMONG HORSES. 
nated. Had the panic occurred during the night, when our 
troops were in presence of an enemy, the tumult might have 
been mistaken for a sudden attack, and the sound of the 
horses’ hoofs galloping over the ground believed to be a 
charge of the enemy’s cavalry ; sentries would have fired 
upon the advancing mass, and a whole army might have 
been thrown into confusion, regiment firing into regiment, 
and unutterable destruction wrought before the mistake or 
its cause were discovered. 
Some of the public papers were particularly severe and 
unjust towards the regiment in which this accident occurred, 
attributing it to carelessness on the part of officers and men, 
and exaggerating the attendant circumstances to a most 
ludicrous degree. Had more been known of the horse’s 
nature, or of the history of horse panics, it is possible this 
injustice would not have been perpetrated, nor the exaggera- 
tion attempted ; nor would the consequent disgrace heaped 
upon the troops engaged have now to be explained away. 
As we have said, horses are particularly liable to panics, 
especially when collected in large numbers, as in troops 
and regiments, and at fairs ; and no matter how securely 
they may be fixed or guarded, serious results generally fol- 
low. One nervous animal will excite a commotion among a 
thousand ; fear with them is instantaneously contagious, and 
they make the most desperate efforts to fly, regardless of the 
damage they may inflict on themselves or others. Usually, 
when under the influence of some trifling degree of inquie- 
tude, horses have the tendency to assemble in a body, but 
when subjected to a panic they start away in every direction, 
regardless of their gregarious instincts. 
A panic of this description was observed during the Penin- 
sular war in a regiment of cavalry ; in India they have not 
been infrequent ; in this country also, when horses have been 
encamped in numbers, or collected in lots, as at markets, a 
fit of unreasonable fury has sometimes seized them, and, 
strangest of all, more than once without any assignable 
cause. M. Decroix gives three very striking examples, 
which may be interesting to the readers of the Veterinarian , 
especially those of the army. 
During the expedition against the Beni-Raten, Kabyla, in 
1857, a large number of requisitioned horses and mules, 
driven by Arabs, were employed to carry the provisions and 
material for the campaign. The labour imposed upon these 
animals was very heavy, owing to the absence of roads and 
the difficult nature of the country ; all were more or 
less injured from their equipment, and footsore in con- 
