454 
ON CUHBS—BTSTKMPKR IN DOGS. 
and it is “ the pace” that lays the foundation of much chronic dis¬ 
ease. Amongst other subjects, I discussed that of the seton with 
Mr. Rowland, and found that he had no faith in it in sinew cases, 
although he admitted its value as a counter-irritant, and in hock 
lameness. Touching curbs, he said that, notwithstanding the ex¬ 
treme wetness, and, consequently, the extreme depth of the country, 
as it is called, during the last season, he had had fewer cases of 
curbs than in any previous season. I ventured the suggestion that 
the circumstance might arise from the ground being loose, for it has 
more than once occurred to me to be aware of the occasion of a 
curb being produced by a horse getting into a half-dried, clayey 
slough, when, on his hinder legs being drawn out of it, a sort of 
sucking noise was heard, or rather a pop like a cork out of a bottle. 
Jumping from a half-dried clayey bank will also act as the cause 
of curb, as well as sudden turning in half-dried deep ground. 
During my visit to Mr. Hodgson, at Quorn, Mr. Rowland paid 
me the compliment of bringing a horse of his for my inspection 
previous to his sending him to Lincoln fair. He was all over a 
London horse, and at a good price; but a little too much of the 
peacock order for forty minutes’, best pace, over the Belvoir vale. 
The length of an inch taken from his legs and added to his body, 
with a little more bone, would qualify him for any thing; but, un¬ 
fortunately, we have not the plastic power to mould animal matter 
as the potter has over the clay. 
From the horse to the dog is no great jump. My dear Sir, is it 
beyond the reach of your profession to find a remedy for the dis¬ 
ease called Distemper in Dogs 1 Do any of your members visit 
kennels in the spring of the year, when the young hounds come in 
from their walks, and, almost as sure as they do come in, are at¬ 
tacked with the complaint in question 1 It has raged violently in 
some kennels this year, in Mr. Folgambe’s especially; and it went 
to one’s heart to see the suffering occasioned by it in the Quorn ken¬ 
nels. The incessant coughing and husking, the discharge from 
the eyes and nose, the convulsive twitchings of the body, toge¬ 
ther with the general debility of the frame, render it one of the 
severest afflictions to which the animal creation is subject: and it 
is only necessary to read Mr. Blaine’s description of it to be satis¬ 
fied on this point*, inasmuch as he has even added other painful 
symptoms, such as tumours, colic, &c. to my list of miseries. Both 
masters of hounds and their huntsmen appear to be in the dark as 
to the nature and treatment of this disease; and it is, therefore, 
very unlikely that I should be able to throw any light upon it; 
still I will state two facts that have come within my observation :— 
* Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports, part iv, chap. 4. 
