The body was given to the Royal Veterinary College for dissection. Professor Spooner relates that he found blood effused on the sheath of the sacro-sciatic nerve. This, however, must have been an accident produced by the death struggle: that nerve moves the flexor muscles. Stringhalt is the disease of the extensor muscles only; therefore, the condition of the nerve alluded to by Professor Spooner could in no way influence the motions of the limb. Messrs. Percivall and Goodwin both appeal to instances, where, in animals affected with stringhalt, pressure existed upon the posterior portion of the spinal column. The last observation accords much more with the writer's notions of cause and effect.
Nevertheless, the inexperienced reader may ask, how can the posterior portion of the horse's spinal column become affected? Of all the vertebræ, those of the lumbar region are endowed with the greatest motion, and consequently are the most exposed to injury. The uses to which man puts the animal are not so very gentle but a delicate structure, however deeply seated, might be hurt. However, grant all these are harmless, which is indeed to allow a great deal to pass, the stables are enough to provoke stringhalt in half the horses now resident in London. Has the intelligent reader visited these places? He knows the holes in which poor humanity is obliged to stive. Well, any place not good enough for a man to live in is esteemed luxurious lodging for a horse. Many of the places are undrained; frequently have light or air admitted only by the doorway, and the stalls are seldom more than four feet wide. The wretched captives cannot turn their bodies round in the allotted space. A horse being in, when wanted abroad, must be backed into the gangway, and thus made to "face about." It is not creditable to human nature when we perceive its most valuable and willing servant is begrudged the space in which its useful body rests. The labor of the day should at least earn for the horse a sufficient bed.
The exhaustion of the toil—for man has nicely calculated the work a horse can perform, and generally exacts the quotum to the full—has merited the night's repose, which shall fit for the morrow's fatigue; but man is most particular in all that concerns the quadruped. He has reckoned up the food it may eat, the water it may drink, the space it may occupy; the keep, the keeper, the lodging, and the very harness that fastens it to the load,—all are precisely calculated. There is no law to interpose between man and horse, even should the estimate be run "too fine." Against sore shoulders there is some enactment, which is only enforced through a constable specially retained by a private association. No clause teaches man his duty toward his inferiors. The lower animals have no protection against the exhausting labor and inadequate provision that maims a body or wastes a life.
The servant, observing the master to be without feeling, apes his better. A bad example always finds plenty of imitators. The horse may be wanted in a hurry; the groom commands it to "come round." It is too much trouble to back the animal as usual; the master is in haste and the servant has no time to lose. The poor animal endeavors to obey; it squeezes and twists its body: the head is seized, a blow is given, and the difficulty is vanquished. But at what a cost! One bone of the spine has been injured. Bone is slow in its developments. No immediate consequence results; but months afterward, the injured place throws out a spicula of bone, no larger than a needle's point, perhaps, but it presses upon the spinal marrow, and lasting stringhalt is the effect.
Of course no drug can reach the part affected; no cunning preparation can remove even a needle's point from the interior of the spinal canal. The stringhalt, once exhibited, is beyond cure, and never disappears but with the life. However, it mostly affects high-spirited, nervous horses, and not being generally observable during progression, some of the quadrupeds thus diseased sell for large sums.
PARTIAL PARALYSIS.
THE UNSTEADY WALK OF A HORSE WHEN SUFFERING UNDER PARTIAL PARALYSIS OF THE HIND LEGS.
Paralysis, in the horse, save when it appears toward the termination of violent disorders, is never more than partial. It locates itself in the hind limbs, and, though it does not destroy all motion, yet it destroys all strength or utility. The power to move with speed is entirely lost, nor is the ability to progress at a slower pace by any means assured. One hind foot is perpetually getting in the way of the other, and constantly threatening to throw the animal down, whose walk already is rolling or unsteady.
This affection is the property of matured animals; so rarely as to be exceptional is it to be seen attacking colts. Fast trotters, omnibus horses, hunters, and creatures subjected to extreme exertion, are most liable to it. It creeps on insidiously. At first the pace is as fast as ever; but something is suspected wrong in the manner of going. After a time the creature is brought to a veterinary surgeon as a lame horse. The suspicions are then destroyed and the real malady is announced.