631 
TO 11 THE VETERINARIAN,” &c. 
Reubens, who was very slack in performing his duty to all mares 
not grey. When he stood at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, the seat of the 
Marquis of Westminster, I had a mare with him, but he would not 
serve her until a grey pony was brought in his sight. Mr. Stewart 
also speaks of the danger of giving eggs to stallions unbroken. 
Master Betty, or Young Roscius as he was called, was killed by 
one, within a mile of my house, when I resided in Shropshire. 
Horses are said to get fat upon milk only ; Mr. Stewart states 
the fact on the authority of Denham’s Travels in Africa. These 
“ travellers” are much given to “ bounce*.” 
I should like to hear that the stethescope has been found to an- 
swer the end of ascertaining pregnancy in the mare ; and at what 
period of her gestation it can be made available to discover the 
beating of the foetal heart. Much credit is due to Mr. Baker for 
making the attempt, although it appears to be one of no little diffi- 
culty, by reason of the mode in which the instrument must be ap- 
plied. It would be a great point gained to breeders, could they as- 
certain, at an early period after copulation , whether or not a mare 
was with foal, as, if not, she might be teazed till she took another 
stallion, to which she might stand, although she did not stand to the 
first. With racing mares, it would be of no avail — any further 
than to satisfy the hopes of their owners, and to increase the care 
taken of them in their paddocks when ascertained to be preg- 
nant, because it is essential that they should foal early; but 
with half-bred and cart-stock the proof of the stethescope 
would be of the highest importance. A short time before I left 
England, I ordered a mare of mine to be shot, supposing her not to 
be with foal, and thinking her not worth keeping on, another year, 
on account of her age. A neighbouring farmer volunteering to 
keep her on barley-straw at Is. 6d. per week, I gave her a reprieve, 
and, in six weeks, she produced a colt that sold at my sale for 
seventeen guineas, at a year old. To the eye she had not the least 
appearance of being pregnant. She was a half-bred mare, but a 
noted trotter ; and, when in her prime, would have been purchased 
by George the Fourth, when Prince Regent, for his own riding, but 
for the fault of being difficult to mount. I sincerely wish success 
may have attended this experiment, which created much interest 
in the minds of such of our sporting men as heard or read of it. 
I always turn with pleasure to any thing from the pen of Mr. 
Spooner. In the December Number, 1837, he has a short paper 
on the poisonous effect of the yew tree ; but of which, it appears, 
doubts had been expressed by some members of the profession. 
1 can give you an instance in corroboration of its deadly effects, 
* In your notice of the Professor’s book, the name of Hoare is given for 
Warde, the late father of the field. 
