STUDY ON CRIBBING-CAUSES-PREVENTION AND CURE. 93 
fat condition in a few weeks. . . . Where was the chronic 
disease of the stomach and of the intestine ? 
3d. That cribbing was the symptom of a stomach or intestinal 
pneumatose produced by difficult digestion, that it was a mean 
to get rid of the gases which would otherwise produce meteorism. 
Refutation. The collar, that true carcan, with which the 
throat of the poor cribber is compressed and by which the act 
of cribbing is often prevented; would it be a specific against the 
stomach or intestinal pneumatose ? That collar, which prevents 
so completely eructation , if it prevented the expulsion of gases , 
would it not become the immediate cause of a fatal tympanitis? 
Fortunately it only prevents the ingurgitation of air. 
Many horses, who do not crib in eating oats or hay, do it in 
eating straw only. Is it because the presence of straw in their 
mouth gives rise to gastric or intestinal pneumatose ? Some ani¬ 
mals crib when the straw is tied up in a bundle, but not when it 
is untied and loose. Would the fact of the straw being tied ren¬ 
der the digestion difficult, and would untying it cure the trouble ? 
The proof of the aspiration of air in the act of cribbing can 
also be found in the fact that in the animal who swallows it, the 
tympanitis increases with the length of time during which the 
habit continues. 
Conclusion. Clubbing is a direct cause of the digestive trou¬ 
bles, of difficult digestion, of the gastric and intestinal pneuma¬ 
toses and is not an effect of chronic gastritis and enteritis. And 
then when the autopsy of a cribber shows its gastric and in¬ 
testinal mucous membrane modified, this condition must be at¬ 
tributed to the abnormal irritating and long-continued contact of 
the air swallowed, with organs which were not made to be exposed 
to atmospheric impressions. 
Experiments have been made to determine whether in cribbing, 
there was aspiration of the air or regurgitation of gases. To this 
purpose, pulverized substances, very light, were placed near the 
mouth of the cribber and these powders were seen inspired by the 
mouth at the moment of eructation. This experiment did not 
satisfy me. I have placed flour on the spot where the animal rested 
his mouth to crib, and have seen this substance inspired at the time 
