406 
MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 
style of going. These wily servants take care always to bring 
horses to a stand, with his fore-quarters on rising ground, 
which makes him advance his fore-legs, so as to conceal any 
knuckling of the knees, or pasterns, and will give a groggy 
animal all the appearance of soundness. Therefore let the 
horse that is intended to be purchased, be examined tho¬ 
roughly on level ground, with his head at liberty. 
The first point to be attended to is the crown of the 
head; to ascertain if he has the disease called poll-evil , (see 
page 48,) examine his nostrils, and if there is a fetid dis¬ 
charge, he will be glandered (18) or have nasal gleet (30.) 
To ascertain this, the nostrils should be pinched together for 
about a minute, to prevent him from breathing ; and on 
removing the hand he is sure to snort, which will blow out 
any matter if he is diseased. The tongue should also be 
particularly looked at. Examine the eye for gutta-serena 
and blindness, (45 and 46) ; see that the withers are not 
fistulous, (86) ; carefully scrutinize the knees, (110,) be¬ 
cause a horse that has had broken knees must be suspected 
of stumbling ; what he has once done, he may do again ; 
see that there is no appearance of splent below the knee, 
(114) ; nor grogginess in the region of the fetlock, (122) ; 
nor ringbone of the pasterns, (126) ; nor thorough-pin of 
the hock-joints, (130) ; attend particularly to the hocks, 
in case they are capped, (131) ; and notice that there is 
curb a little way below these points ; examine narrowly the 
inside of the hock-joint, in case bone-spavin or enlargement 
of the bony substance exist there, (136) ; descend to the 
feet, and examine if there are symptoms of grease, (144) ; 
see that there does not exist sand-crack in the horny sub¬ 
stance of the hoof, (162) ; nor canker separating the horny 
substance from the sensible and fleshy part of the foot, 
(180.) These are a few of the external maladies which the 
