There is one test for melanosis which does not invariably meet with a response, but which, when successful, seldom deceives. This is a pimple near to the root of the dock; it is very rarely of magnitude; there may only be one or there may be several, and the largest may not exceed the dimensions of half a pea. When, however, such an indication can be detected upon a gray horse which is turning white, the evidence is almost conclusive. The author does not know an instance, where it has suggested the presence of melanosis, that the post-mortem examination has contradicted the indication.
With regard to the ultimate termination of this disorder, the author has no experience. Horses thus affected are always slaughtered when the second stage interferes with their utility; but, judging from the similarity of the disease in man and in the animal, it is conjectured the last stage in each would be alike.
WATER FARCY.
Water farcy, like so many equine disorders, is the offspring of weakness. Man, having a servant willing to work and incapable of complaining, too often proportions the toil only to the master's desire or the master's convenience. Many horses—which perform slow labor—are in harness eighteen hours out of the four and twenty; their rest is while the carter drinks, eats, and sleeps. No, not even can they enjoy such brief respite as is afforded by avarice to the laboring fellow-being; often is one of the drivers seen soundly sleeping on the top of the load which the stiff and jaded animals are compelled to draw. Thus the horse's toil is almost constant; wagoners are well aware that many horses sleep while in the shafts or in the chains. Overcome by fatigue, the animals doze, but continue to walk and to pull the burden onward. Who, knowing such a fact, can wonder that a living frame thus abused should often bow beneath its yoke, and, through death, set torture at defiance?
Water farcy is a warning which nature gives to human selfishness; it is, when rightly viewed, an intimation that, if the owner does not use the life intrusted to him more gently, the common parent will speedily take the sufferer to its rest. The complaint proceeds from debility; should the cause of exhaustion be continued, the affection soon changes its character. Water farcy is dropsy of one hind leg; very rarely does the malady involve two members. Such is the form of the admonition; but the labor undiminished, or the dropsy removed by means of coarse and drastic medicines, the local affection speedily becomes a constitutional disorder; and true farcy releases an ill-used slave from custody of the tyrant who has abused his power.
Horses that are liable to water farcy are mostly of the heavy breed, or are animals which perform slow work. It is usual, on a Saturday night, for the driver to throw much provender before such creatures, and then to lock the stable door, satisfied he has discharged his duty.
THE CARTER'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE STABLE
ON A MONDAY MORNING.
Often he does not visit them on the Sunday; the creatures pass "the best of all the seven" confined in a close atmosphere, and eating food which they have contaminated by breathing upon. The man observes the day of rest himself, and takes his ease; for the "brutes" he has heaped up rack and manger—so they have to eat; what more can dumb animals require? Upon opening the door on Monday morning, he may see one horse with a swollen leg. The drudge generally, not invariably, is lame, and holds the enlarged member in the air; the coat stares; the aspect is dull; and much of the abundance which was placed before the animal remains untouched. The poor creature was too tired and in too much pain to eat; but agony has created a consuming thirst, and it will drink the foulest water.
The horse doctor is sent for. In the opinions of veterinary surgeons there are two kinds of water farcy—one springs from debility, the other is accompanied with irritable symptoms. It, however, requires no vast knowledge of physiology to recognize debility and irritability as the children of one parent; indeed, most veterinarians admit the sameness in practice, however much they may dispute it in theory. They bleed, purge, and send in half a dozen diuretic balls, when, the swelling having been removed by such coarse measures, the horse, still further weakened, is once more put to its work.