567 
REVIEW— ON THE VICES OF HORSES. # 
digestion, after a time, becomes impaired, and it is generally con- 
ceived that he draws air into his stomach, which is the cause of 
this; his temper becomes soured, and more or less weakness and 
unfitness for service ensue, according to his natural strength, for 
some do not appear to be materially in this respect injured by it, 
while others are obviously rendered much weaker by it, and more 
incapable of a proper day’s work ; it appears, indeed, that horses 
of a fiery, hot, and unkind temper get the most easily into this vice. 
How this extraordinary propensity becomes first created, has not 
been, we believe, much attended to, and with some it appears to 
arise naturally, as though the sucking of the air gave them plea- 
sure, or a relief from some sort of suffering ; and at first we imagined 
that pains in the stomach from acidity or other causes might create 
it, as we see horses eat dirt or knaw the walls to alleviate unplea- 
sant feelings of this organ. But bad digestion and foul feeding are 
probably more often a consequence than a cause of this malady, 
and we observed that horses at all disposed to it may easily be led 
into it by the practices of the groom in cleaning them, of which 
we can have no doubt; for if they clean them before the manger, 
and irritate them with too severe a comb, and in parts where they 
cannot endure it, they seize upon the manger for a counter-action 
to their sufferings, and in doing this they first get a habit of it, and 
which may afterwards extend to the removing of other pains or 
distressful feelings. By this means, and especially if the grooms, 
and some have a happy knack of this after every bite, put in a 
blow or stroke of the comb, when following each other in regular 
succession, they thus create a vice which may or may not continue 
afterwards, according to the situation or circumstances of the indi- 
vidual. Some are said to get it by imitation of other horses : 
whether or not the same practices of the groom, applied to several 
horses in the same stable, should not be rather apprehended to be 
the true cause, we are not assured ; but, in one instance, we think, 
we observed this satisfactorily enough to be the cause, though it 
passed for imitation. 
“ To prevent the habit, it appears but reasonable, with regard 1 o 
such horses as are inclined to it, always to turn them from the man- 
ger before they are cleaned with their heads to the heel-posts, or 
indeed to clean them in the open air, and above all, to avoid as much 
as possible irritating those that have preternaturally thin and irrita- 
ble skins, by too rough an iron comb, and also to break through any 
regular habit already induced of biting after each stroke of the 
comb, for they learn to do this at first only in the most sensible 
parts, as with the flanks, the inside of the thighs, the belly, &c. ; but 
afterwards in every part on the slightest touch of the comb, or even 
at the sight of it. Some horses, it must be admitted, are truly 
difficult to clean, and many also are rendered more so than they 
