296 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
affirmative, as over exertion will cause it as much as any thing; 
as likewise when a horse is suddenly cooled when warm, if off 
soft food. It can be cured undoubtedly by proper treatment. 
He consults Blaine as a book of authority. On being asked in 
reference to the treatment adopted, deponed that bleeding and 
blistering would make a horse look stupid, independent of 
disease! 
Next comes the deposition of Thomas Smith, of Brechin, who 
follows pretty closely the false notions of the last witness. Had 
they both sworn that they consulted Gervaise Markham, of 200 
year’s standing, instead of the practical and useful Blaine, we 
should have accused them of retaining only the lamest of that 
writer’s information. Smith deponed, he has practised for 
fourteen years : knows the disease called chords; considers the 
proper name to be strangles! A sudden transition from cold to 
heat and from heat to cold will bring it on, and that in six or 
eight hours, as he has proof every spring. It is a disease in¬ 
cident to all horses; but when occasioned by heat, the preventing 
of it might depend upon the after treatment. That the mal¬ 
treatment of one disease will bring on another, and a worse dis¬ 
ease . Knows a disease called sleepy staggers, or lethargy ; the 
latter being the term best known to him . Has never seen this 
complaint come on rapidly : it is a complicated complaint. 
Benjamin Kitching, of Perth, knows a disease called chords : 
it can be brought on in one night by a sudden transition from 
heat to cold; that it is a stiffness of the neck. 
David Smith, of Fettercairn, studied under Mr. Dick of Edin¬ 
burgh ; knows a disease called chords, but more properly tetanus; 
that it may arise from any local cause, as from contracted hoofs, 
as they generally produce pain : that this complaint is more 
likely to arise in horses with contracted hoofs than not. The 
disease can be cured if properly treated. Saw the horse in 
question after he got better, and found him have contracted 
hoofs. 
So much contradictory and inconclusive evidence had now 
been adduced, that, had it been carried farther among the same 
race of professionalists, it would have diverged into a mere farce 
of infamous quackery : recourse was, therefore, had to the opinion 
of Mr. Dick, acknowledged to be the most scientific veterinary 
surgeon in Scotland, and whose opinion on a rare disease 
will be read with interest, although, at the same time, we 
must not expect that he should have entered into any very pro¬ 
found disquisition before an interrogating court. 
On being; sworn, Mr. Dick described himself as lecturer on 
the veterinary art to the Highland Society. “ Knows a disease 
called chords, or chronic tetanus, which is a spasmodic affection 
