OBSERVATIONS ON SOUNDNESS. 
71 
once a difference of opinion—nay, the very opposite. He goes 
on to pay, the crib-biting horse is notoriously more subject to 
colic than other horses.’^ A case was tried before Lord 
Tciiterden, and thus decided:—horse with crib-biting is 
unsound.^^ 
In vol. i of the Veterinary Record^ p. 263, the President of the 
Veterinary Medical Association, whom I believe to have been 
Professor Spooner, says, now proceed to notice another 
peculiarity which the case presents (it was one of obstruction 
at the base of the caecum, caused by a large carcinomatous 
growth), and which is w^orthy of even more than a passing re¬ 
mark. The horse was a crib-biter. I have opened (he continues 
to say) the bodies of hundreds of horses which during life mani¬ 
fested this habit, but I never met with a case that did not show 
some lesion in some part of the alimentary canal, and this 
has generally been in the stomach. My respected colleague, 
Mr. Sewell, is, I believe, of opinion that crib-biting alw^ays 
arises from ulceration of the stomach. I am rather inclined 
to regard it as arising from functional derangement of the 
digestive organs in the first instance, proceeding to struc¬ 
tural disease as the habit becomes more confirmed. 
‘Mn this case the stomach presented an unhealthy appear¬ 
ance, and its parietes were irregularly developed, being more 
dense in some parts than in others. The oesophagus, likewise, 
was dilated in places ; and where dilated, much attenuated in 
its coats. This atrophy of the oesophagus is the cause wLich 
renders crib-biters so liable to be choked, from the food 
becoming lodged there. And since crib-biting is thus found 
to be associated with disease, and, moreover, exposes the 
animal addicted to it to danger, I cannot view it otherwise 
than unsoundness.^^ 
Mr. Percivall writes, in his ^ Hippopathology,Wol. ii, p. 
198, ^^In the stable tympany is of rare occurrence, unless it 
be in crib-biters, wdio are suffered to pass their time in sucking 
in aii-.’^ This author seems especially quiet upon the subject. 
Mayhew, in writing upon it, says, In submission to general 
opinion, it has been alluded to as a habit learnt within the 
stable. The air is much more than inhaled. A large quan¬ 
tity is swallow’ed wdth the saliva. No slight amount is deglu- 
tated with the masticated food.'’^ 
In the Veterinarian for 1853, p. 443,Ve quote as follows:— 
^^Considerations on Crib-biting, with Eructation. By M. E. 
Fischer.— Although the abnormal action wdth horses known 
under the appellation of crib-biting is so often observed, it 
is still one far from being sufficiently understood. 
Many of our best veterinary authors have furnished dis- 
