ROARING. 
45 L 
bles into the open fields, both by day and by night, during tlie 
present spring, when the thermometer has often been above 100 of 
Farenheit, in the sun, by day, and within a few degrees of the 
freezing point by night 1 
In the number of The VETERINARIAN to which I have just 
alluded, 1 read with great attention (as indeed I do any thing from 
his pen) Mr. W. Percivall’s Essay on Roaring; and have a few 
remarks to make upon it. He pronounces it not to be a disease, 
but a consequence of several diseases, which he specifies—all of 
which are, for the most part, caused by atmospheric agency. But 
may I be allowed to ask, how happens it that horses do occasionally 
become roarers without exhibiting the slightest appearance of dis¬ 
ease? The Duke of Beaufort’s groom shewed me two horses that 
became roarers in the middle of the season, while in Tegular hunt¬ 
ing condition, and in the enjoyment of the best health ; and Lord 
Segrave’s groom told me of another similar instance in his lord¬ 
ship’s stud. The late Lord Forester’s Bernardo, for which he 
refused eight hundred guineas, was similarly affected during a six 
weeks’ frost when he Avas in a high state of health. Neither Mr. 
White’s horse, nor that of the Rev. Mr. Wing, was afflicted Avith 
any disease that could give a tendency to roaring, previously to the 
sound in breathing in each, which denoted the coming evil. It ap¬ 
pears to me to be but too apparent, that a thickening of the mem¬ 
brane, sufficient to produce roaring, does occasionally take place 
spontaneously, as it Avere, and not as the consequence of any pecu¬ 
liarly marked disease. The observation of Mr. Percivall, that mares 
seldom become roarers, is a startling one; but, no doubt, it is founded 
on truth. With the exception of Mr. Shafto’s mare, and a young- 
one, the property of Mr. John White, that he now uses as a cover- 
hack, the only roaring mare that I ever knew or heard of was Mr. 
Kellerman’s Mary, by Precipitate, who, as I have more than once 
stated on former occasions, produced three roarers by three dif¬ 
ferent stallions. 
I have one more remark to offer on this interesting subject. 
Mr. Percivall says, that most experienced horsemen are aAvare that 
roarers made to gallop fast become whistlers, and, pushed to their 
utmost speed, lose even their Avhistling noise. My experience does 
not enable me to corroborate this assertion. I have ridden along¬ 
side many roarers in the field, but cannot charge my recollection 
Avith ever having heard any thing approaching to a whistle, al¬ 
though I have seen them in distress. I had a hack that roared 
aloud in deep ground or against a hill, and the faster he went the 
more he roared. The season before the last I rode a roarer of 
Mr. White’s with the Belvoir hounds, but heard nothing beyond 
a lengtlnmed roar in the act of inspiration, which I considered as 
