ON TIIE HABITS AND VICES OF HORSES. 
676 
Lancer, that has always been very difficult to shoe; but seven 
or eight years ago, when we first got him, he was downright 
vicious in that respect; and in which I believe consisted the 
secret of his having' been sold at any thing like troop price. 
When the regiment was stationed at Cork, the farrier-major 
sought out the present Sullivan, the son of the celebrated whis¬ 
perer, and brought him up to the barracks in order to try his 
hand upon Lancer, and make him more peaceable to shoe; but 
I must say this person did not appear to possess any particular 
controlling power over the animal more than any other man. 
Lancer seemed to pay no attention whatever to his charm, and 
at last fairly beat him out of the forge; he was fain to make his 
escape from so unruly a customer. Time, however, and a long- 
perseverance in kind and gentle treatment, together with the 
exercise of a little tact , have effected what force could not. The 
horse is now pretty reasonable to shoe.—Qua Leonina pellis non 
perveniet, Vulpina est assumenda. 
The lion’s skin, too short you know, 
(As Plutarch’s morals finely shew) 
Was lengthen’d by the fox’s tail, 
And art supplies where strength may fail. 
Here, for the present, I shall break off; observing that this 
communication has swelled to a greater length than I at first 
expected. On another opportunity, “ when the mag-got bites;’ 
I shall, however, resume this subject; of which indeed it may 
truly be said—“ thereto hangs many a tale.” 
ON THE DISEASES OF THE HOCK. 
By Mr. W. C. Spooner, Blandford. 
In surveying the skeletons of animals generally, and of horses 
in particular, we can scarcely discover a more beautiful specimen 
of exquisite mechanism than we find in the tarsal joint. It 
is a part interesting to the physiologist, as illustrating nature's 
admirable adaptation of structure to the function required; it is 
of material consequence to the pathologist, as being peculiarly 
liable to disease; and important to the horseman, as a joint on 
which greatly depends the speed, strength, and value of the 
animal. The true knowledge of the nature of joint diseases in 
the horse is comparatively of recent date. Mr. Turner was the 
first to point out their frequency in the fore extremity; dis¬ 
persing thereby the mists of ignorance, accumulated in the 
course of centuries; and Mr. Goodwin has since very laudably 
