STUDY ON ORIBB1NG-CAUSES-PREVENTION AND CURE. 
91 
ynx resultiny from it , and the dilatation of this organ , constitute 
then , all the anatomical mechanism of cribbing. 
In examining the eribber, nothing is more evident than the de¬ 
pression of the larynx carrying on the pharynx, and it is very 
easy to notice that the eructation follows immediately this dicta¬ 
ting depression of the pharynx, and that these two phenomena are 
almost simultaneous; one may say of eructation on account of its 
relation with the depressions: post hoc , ergo propter hoc. 
III 
To have an exact idea of the effects of cribbing and of its 
mechanism, I tried myself to crib and I succeeded perfectly. To 
do it, I sat down, rested my elbows on a table, and, to keep my 
head steady and immobile and my month partly open, I rested 
my upper teeth on my thumbs. In this attitude I suddenly low¬ 
ered my pharynx. Immediately I felt air passing through my 
mouth, raising my soft palate and rushing upon the walls of my 
pharynx, producing a well-marked noise of eructation. I kept 
on for several minutes and I ingurgitated and swalloived air at will. 
I then cribbed easily without appui , by keeping my head steady, 
my mouth open and lowering my pharynx suddenly. Then 1 
closed my mouth and kept up the same depression of the pharynx. 
Air then rushed into my fauces through the nose, and the same 
eructation was plainly heard. Is it not in that manner that the 
horse cribs when, with his mouth closed, he rests his chin on the 
feed box or manger ? 
What in cribbing is called eructation is then the effect of an 
aspiration of air and not a regurgitation , a return of gas ; it 
is an eructation in an inverse direction . 
IV 
When air, by the act of cribbing, is introduced into the phar¬ 
ynx, if it does not go beyond that canal so far as to penetrate the 
oesophagus, in other words, if it is only ingurgitated, it will be 
thrown back or returned outside by the nasal cavities in the ex¬ 
piration following the eructations; as the horse which is about to 
