120 
A. H. HARTWIG. 
upon the plains in a drove ; his only acquaintance with man, 
prior to being “ rounded up ” and shipped Hast to sell, being 
the time that he was branded with a red-hot iron ; hence his 
wild, terrified condition on arriving in civilization, where scores 
of men could come and look over the enclosure in which he 
was confined. I have seen many carloads of these animals sold 
in the upper part of Manhattan Island, and the handling is ex¬ 
tremely rough. The animal to be auctioned off is driven from 
the main enclosure into a smaller one alone (or with one or two 
others that escape there with him), where he is sold under the 
hammer, and then allowed to pass out of this smaller enclosure 
into a narrow one just wide enough to receive him. Here he 
is roped about the neck and allowed to escape, but brought up 
as soon as he reaches the length of his rope. Now a “ cow¬ 
boy ” proceeds to place a halter on the frightened creature’s 
head for the purchaser, which is accomplished by approaching 
him cautiously along the rope, the further end being wrapped 
around a tree or post to prevent his pulling back. As the “cow¬ 
boy ” approaches with the halter the mustang sets himself 
against the restraining rope and throws himself violently to the 
ground in all sorts of positions ; the rope about his neck in the 
meantime tightening, until at last, “ choked down,” as they 
term it, he is approached and the halter placed upon his head. 
During this process and the subsequent removal of these ani¬ 
mals from the field, I have frequently seen them lose their bal¬ 
ance and fall upon their back violently. It was, therefore, that 
I suggested to the owner of this horse that the trouble might 
be due to an injury received at that time, or during the subse¬ 
quent breaking to harness, and this seems to be substantiated 
in Dr. Dunham’s findings and might serve as a useful guidance 
to us in making diagnoses in this class of horses. 
PARTURIENT PARESIS. 
By A. H. Hartwig, M. D. C., Watertown, Wis. 
Read before the Meeting of the Wisconsin Society of Veterinary Graduates. 
Since our last meeting, which was held at Madison, at which 
