502 THE PROGRESS OF THE TURF IN FRANCE. 
The races, which have the additional advantage of making 
good riders, have shewn the inutility, and even the evil, of em- 
ploying the oriental horse in our studs. 
The number of these contests increasing every year, proof has 
also been given that the continental states were not so unfit and 
unprepared for them as many persons thought ; for private 
individuals have found means to create and to continue these 
exhibitions, with very little assistance from the government 
studs. 
We have more than once had occasion to express our opinion 
of the operation of nicking the horse. That the action of the 
erector muscles of the tail gives him a character of energy and 
spirit, when he is roused to exertion, cannot be denied ; and that 
the nicking — the division of the depressor muscles, and thus the re- 
moval of their power of action — perpetuates this appearance of 
life and vigour, is plain enough ; but against the horrible bar- 
barity of the pulley, by which the tail is kept curved until 
the incisions are healed, we have again and again entered our 
decided protest; and we have seen with pleasure that, although 
too many horse-owners would continue to have recourse to it, it 
was, comparatively speaking, getting out of fashion. Still it was 
occasionally practised, and would be as long as the horse was 
our slave. 
We chanced the other day to see an apparatus, very simple in 
its construction, yet perfectly answering the intended purpose, 
by means of which a truss is adapted to the under surface of the 
tail for the purpose of raising it to the necessary height after 
the incision, without the old and cruel method of pulleying, by 
which the horse is kept so long in horrible torture, and also — an 
inferior consideration, yet not without its weight so far as the 
after appearance of the horse is concerned — without the possibility 
of destroying, or injuring, or twisting the hair. 
The tail is securely fixed in the truss, and the horse may be 
safely turned loose into a stable or yard, without the least danger of 
friction or inconvenience. 
