On many horses, hot weather has a singular effect; and, therefore, it often happens that a good winter horse is an indifferent summer one. Coach-horses are subject to many accidents, of which one is peculiar to them--namely, fracture of the legs in trotting on level ground.[77] Fractures of the foot in draught-horses and others are common; but fractures of the leg in coach-horses when trotting over level ground, are probably caused by over-tension of the limb in the act of drawing. It is said that a coach-horse’s leg is more frequently broken, when, with a heavy load behind him, he snatches at his collar in a turn of the road. [77] When driving one of the Birmingham fast coaches, just entering the town of Dunstable, my near leader fell with her off hind-leg snapped clean in two, held together merely by the skin. On pulling up to clear her from the coach, I found the cause of the accident; a piece of flint, shaped like a hatchet, and with a blade as keen as a razor, still adhering to the bone, against which it had either been whirled by a kick from one of the other three, or had flown upwards from the tread of the mare herself,--ED. Fifth Edition. They are also subject to an affection known by the appellation of the lick, which greatly injures their condition. In this state they lick each other’s skins, and gnaw their halters to pieces. This probably proceeds from the state of the stomach, caused by the excitement of high feeding and work. It may be removed by opening or alterative medicines. They are likewise subject to a kind of vertigo, which on the road is called megrims. This, of which the immediate cause is temporary pressure on the brain, is often brought on by running in the face of a hot sun; and, therefore, horses subject to megrims ought to work at night. The attack appears to come on suddenly, though a snatching motion of the head is sometimes observed to precede it. If not immediately pulled up, the horse thus affected drops. Such horses should have attention paid to the state of their bowels, and have frequent antimonial alteratives. What is called “a megrim horse” is always dangerous, especially near a precipice or ditch, as, when seized, he rolls away from his partner, and, of course, takes him with him. ACCIDENTS TO COACHES, &c. A necessary precaution in a gig is--never to sit with the feet under the body, but always to have one, if not both, out before it. “I had a passenger by the side of me,” says the driver who gives this caution, “who was sitting with his feet under his belly, and who was consequently thrown with much violence into the road. I had five miles further to drive him, during which he took care to have his feet before him.”