The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjectedMayhew, Edward
Science
The illustrated horse doctor : $b being an accurate and detailed account of the various diseases to which the equine race are subjected
Mayhew, Edward
Horses -- Diseases
Sometimes, however, repeated irritation starts up a new action; the
secretion becomes turbid, displays enormous floating threads of cartilage
and occasional sanguineous infiltration; the sac enlarges; the walls begin
to thicken; the tumor feels less pulpy and more firm; it grows harder.
First becomes cartilage, and ultimately may be converted into bone. Mr.
Gowing, of Camden Town, has a fine specimen of this species of disease.
During these changes the animal is very lame; yet wind-galls are so
lightly esteemed by horsemen as scarcely to lessen the price of a steed;
they are, in general, accounted hardly worth mentioning, although men have
been known to be strangely anxious to have them removed. This, however, is
not easy to bring about; all the common methods are worse than useless;
the only treatment which promises any benefit is the application of
pressure. Fold a piece of soft rag several times; saturate the rag with
water; lay upon the wetted rag one drachm each of opium and of camphor;
put these upon the enlargement. Upon the moistened rag place a piece of
cork big enough to cover the wind-gall, and of such a thickness as may
be necessary; above the cork lace on a vulcanized India-rubber bandage.
Constant and equal pressure will by these means be kept up; however, mind
the groom be strictly ordered to take the bandage off the leg the last
thing when the horse leaves the stable, and to put it on again immediately
on the animal's return; otherwise, the proprietor may chance to enter
the building and find his steed without an application, which, to be
beneficial, should be perpetually worn.
Such is the history and the occasional termination of wind-galls. What
kind of man is he who, when purchasing a horse, can confidently assert
the animal will not exhibit the worst stage of the affection? A horse
displaying wind-galls is prepared for the advent of the more serious form
of disease; still, horsemen will persist in deeming synovial enlargements
a trivial affair, when seen in the body of a creature whose utility
resides in its power to move the limbs with agility.
BOG SPAVIN.
=Bog spavin= is a mark which man makes to signalize his authority over
breathing flesh; man, in his stupidity, will form notions of what animals
should be; he will not learn from nature. Thus the horse, which is made
up of timidity and affection, he loves to chronicle as fierce, fiery,
noble, and courageous; he talks largely of having mastered such or such
a creature; he boasts highly of having laid whip and spur to a "brute"
which, had he courted with gentleness, and wooed with sympathy, might not
have been subdued so quickly, but assuredly would have been attached to
him for life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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