HARDIIACK. 
317 
power to use his eyes is diminished, and he cannot 
pick his ground as he would if free. The result of 
this is that he goes high with his fore feet, or stum¬ 
bles. It is true, that a stumbling horse may be kept 
from falling by a check, if the check does not break. 
But a stumbling horse stumbles, checked or not; 
worse with the check, than without it. In many in¬ 
stances it might be advisable to have a check-rein on 
the horse, not bearing on his mouth, but in such a 
position that it might prevent his falling in case he 
should stumble. That it will prevent falling in case 
of a stumble, will be seen, when it is observed that 
the horse projects his head forward in falling. The 
check in such a case throws the weight of the head 
upon the back near the haunches, which are the 
power by which the horse recovers himself from 
falling. 
In many sections of the country, among teamsters, 
and everywhere among stage proprietors, a short rein 
passing over the top of the harness, is used. But 
team and stage horses are employed merely for utility, 
not show. Their task is draught; but this short 
check-rein prevents the horse from lowering his head 
and taking advantage of his weight as well as his 
muscles, to drag his load. The vain attempt of the 
horse to overcome its evils is shown in the disfigured 
appearance of the horse’s mouth, which is always 
enlarged at the angles or corners, and not unfrequently 
excoriated and injured. The bearing of the driving- 
rein, with the team and stage horse, would never 
produce this. Youatt, in his book on the horse, in 
his own words, and by quoting Nimrod, a distin¬ 
guished writer, defends the check-rein (in England 
called a bearing-rein). The substance of this defence 
is that there would be no safety in driving without it, 
for the horse would stumble and run away; and that 
it keeps the horse’s mouth fresh. 
Now, neither of these positions is true. The 
horse does not stumble because of his head being free. 
Do saddle horses stumble more than coach horses ? 
Indeed, do they not stumble less ? The same horse 
will stumble more harnessed and in a check-rein, 
than he will with a rider on his back and uncheck¬ 
ed ; and yet the weight on his back tends to make 
him stumble. Under the saddle his head is free ; in 
harness and checked, it is not. Nature did not give 
the horse freedom of motion to make him stumble, 
but the contrary; and man by the removal of his 
freedom brings about the result which nature had 
obviated. Horses stumble on account of bad feet or 
legs, or bad sight, or accident. Now a check-rein 
will prevent the action of neither of these causes. 
Indeed, it increases their power, by depriving the 
horse of that freedom of motion which would allow 
him to so command himself as to repover. As to 
running away, it is not prevented by a check-rein. 
The check bears upon the horse’s mouth so much, 
that the power of the driving-rein is lost; and if the 
horse determine to run away, he cannot be restrained, 
for you can hardly apply more force than he under¬ 
goes from the check. When a horse is unchecked, 
the driving-rein is at right angles to his mouth, and 
♦he pressure is on the tongue, which is sensitive in 
the extreme; when he is checked the pressure is at 
an oblique angle to the mouth, and is almost wholly 
at the angles or corners of the mouth, which are less 
sensitive‘than the tongue. Now here the check 
places the driver in a mechanical disadvantage when 
attempting to restrain a runaway horse ; and when at 
length the mouth is deadened by the check, he can¬ 
not be held at all, unless he be unchecked, in order 
that the driving-rein may bear at right angles on his 
sensitive tongue. We have for years driven run away 
horses without check, and were never runaway with 
yet; and still our friends driving the same horses 
checked, have been. 
Any one who wishes to see the cruelty of the 
check-rein, has but to look at a horse reined up 
while standing. He tosses his head and twists it 
from side to side in agony. Free his head, and he 
is at once at ease, and quiet. 
We rejoice to see that in all natty turn-outs, which 
gentlemen themselves drive, the check as well as 
the blinder is disused. Here fashion has taken the 
lead in utility, and will in the end do a most humane 
service to all horses, whether of the coach, the stage, 
the waggon, or the cart. A. S. 
New York , Sept., 1845. 
HARD HACK 
Your correspondent Tyro has a communication in 
your August number, respecting a shrub which he 
called hardhack ( Spirea Tomentosa'). Eaton, in his 
Botany, describes a shrub to which I have no doubt 
Tyro alludes, as follows: Class xii., Order 5: 
Genus Spirea ; species Tomentosa (steeple bush, 
purple hardhack). Flowers of a beautiful red, or 
purple color, flowering in July ; stem woody, leaves 
lanceolate, unequally serrate, downy beneath, ra¬ 
cemes in a crowded subgranicled spike. 
It is an indigenous shrub, two or three feet high ; 
grows most naturally in low, moist ground, and 
where such land has been cultivated for some time, 
and then turned out for pasture, flourishes with such 
luxuriance as to prevent any other vegetation growing 
to advantage. The best mode of eradicating it is 
with the plow, and manure, although I have no 
doubt that sowing the ground with salt, say four or 
five bushes to the acre, in the spring, and pasturing 
with sheep, will destroy the greater part of it, as 
well as other noxious shrubs. 
All parts of the hardhack are highly medicinal, 
although the root is least valuable. The taste of the 
plant is bitter and astringent. Water extracts its 
sensible properties and medicinal virtues. 
This species of Spirea, according to the American 
Dispensatory, is tonic and astringent, and may be 
used in diarrhoea, cholera infantum, and other com¬ 
plaints, in which astringents are indicated. In con¬ 
sequence of its tonic powers it is peculiarly adapted to 
cases of debility, and from the same cause should not 
be given during the existence of inflammatory action 
or febrile excitement, it is said to have been em¬ 
ployed by the aborigines of our country, but was first 
brought before the notice of the medical profession 
by Dr. Cogswell, formerly of Hartford, Ct. It is said 
to be less apt to disagree with the stomach than most 
other astringents. The form in which it is best ad¬ 
ministered is that of an extract, prepared by boiling 
the leaves, stem, or root, and evaporating the decoc¬ 
tion. The dose is from five to fifteen grains, repeated 
several times a day. A decoction prepared by boil¬ 
ing an ounce of the plant in a pint of water, may be 
given in the dose of one or two fluid ounces. 
Saml. D. Carver, M. D. 
Farmington , Ct ., Sent . 1 , 1845. 
