CRIB-BITING. 
477 
science would be made to assume or to approach to the character of 
an advertisement — (we speak without authority from any one or 
communication with a single individual) — it would not have been 
discussed in the theatre of the Veterinary College, nor would it have 
found a place in the records of the Veterinary Medical Association. 
We speak not this in anger ; but we say that Mr. Holmes forgot, 
for a moment, the regulations of every respectable periodical. A 
communication transmitted to a journal is thankfully received. It 
is valued as tending to the promotion of the object to which that 
periodical is devoted, and as a compliment to that particular journal; 
but could the intention have been suspected, that it was — and by 
the very agency of the author — designed to run the round of the 
press, it would be rejected with something like contempt. 
We are assuming no high or false ground, but we are speaking 
of the invariable practice of the press, the laws of which are like 
those of the Medes and Persians, so far as the Editor is concerned, 
although they ‘may be inadvertently and pardonably transgressed 
by the correspondent. 
This Essay was sent to the Yorkshireman provincial paper, 
as well as to the Veterinary Medical Association. Mr. Wheatley, 
of Staindrop, happened to see it, and was not satisfied with the 
account which was given in it of a certain “ Horse Cause,” in 
which he was a witness. We reluctantly insert his observations. 
To Mr. Holmes will remain the right of reply; and, then, this 
subject must be considered as dropped for ever. 
Letter from Mr. Wheatley. 
Staindrop, May 13, 1839. 
Sir, — I n this month’s Journal, I see that an Essay on Crib- 
biting was read at the Vet. Med. Association on February 19th, 
and the same Essay also appeared in the Yorkshireman news- 
paper last April, which I had the opportunity of reading a few 
days ago, wherein I find that Mr. Holmes, V.S. of Thirsk, has 
thought proper to introduce the following language : — I think 
it a very rare case, indeed, that an old horse becomes a crib- 
biter, let him be placed where he may ; notwithstanding there 
is against me the evidence of three veterinary surgeons in a case 
tried at York in 1838 (Freer v. Hodgson,) and which was, that 
old horses are as liable to become crib-biters as young ones. 
One of them said, that when a horse was perfectly free from crib- 
bing, or the symptoms of cribbing, on one day, he was liable to, 
and even had, become a cribber on the next. This was the case 
in a horse nine or ten years old. How far this evidence was cor - 
VOL. Nil. 3 R 
