92 
M. OH. MARTIN 
crib takes first an inspiration, respiration is stopped at the mo¬ 
ment where the belch is heard, and then the ingurgitated air is 
forced outward in the subsequent expirations. 
If the air is swallowed, it follows the oesophagus, penetrates into 
the stomach and the intestines, and if the animal keeps on for fif¬ 
teen minutes or more, meteorism, tympanitis and colics make 
their appearance. 
Y. 
Some 175 years ago, Solleysel wrote that cribbing was a habit 
in which the horse swallows air: but he had not proved it. 
For perhaps half a century, the most errroneous ideas have been 
published on the nature and the causes of this affection. Sev¬ 
eral authors have written: 
ls£. That cribbing was the noisy expulsion by the mouth of 
odoriferous gases coming froyn the stomach and the intestines. 
Refutation. During the many hours when I have watched 
eribbers, I have never found the herbous odor, given to the re¬ 
turned gases. When the horse ejects gases or liquid matters 
from the stomach (as is seen in some colics), the vomiting takes 
place through the nasal passages, not through the mouth ; the 
soft palate explains this phenomenon by its conformation. 
I have seen horses suffering with colics, return gases without 
being mixed with any other matters; in these cases the noise 
made was not short and clear as in cribbing, but was a weak and 
long noise, composed of successive sounds; a kind of borborygmus. 
2d. That cribbing was the result of an old organic lesion of 
the stomach or of the intestine. 
Refutation. Veterinarians know that to make a horse cease 
from cribbing it is often only necessary to approach him. We all 
know that change of place in the stable or change of manger, will 
often cause the animal stop, if not forever, often for several days. 
Would these changes have the effect of curing an organic 
lesion of the stomach or intestine ? Many horses which by crib¬ 
bing excessively, had become thin and emaciated, had ceased crib¬ 
bing when the objects upon which they took their point d'appid, 
were removed, and had then recovered their strength and their 
