The left engraving represents the larynx in a state of health. The larynx is the most sensitive organ in the body. If a crumb of bread, a particle of salt, or a drop of water "go the wrong way," or enter the larynx, everybody has felt the convulsive coughing that immediately ensues. Yet this larynx, so exquisitively sensitive, and so resentful of the lightest touch, is forced out of place and shape by the adoption of the bearing-rein. The whole weight of the head is made to press against the larynx; the action of the part is stopped; certain muscles are thrown out of use. Now, doom a part to constant rest, and paralysis soon results. This is exactly what follows the often long stoppage of that freedom which is necessary to the health of any structure. Certain of the muscles are absorbed; they lose their bulk and part with their color; their function is destroyed: the consequence is, the horse becomes a confirmed and an incurable roarer.
So fearful a result, as a life of anguish to any creature, might be thought sufficient to amend a triviality like the whim of fashion. Still, sad as that consequence is, it is not all which this folly engenders. The larynx, sensitive and delicately constructed, is formed upon different pieces of cartilage. This substance is slowly organized and very yielding. The structures of the youthful horse's frame are not confirmed. All are soft, especially a substance naturally semi-elastic. The bearing-rein forces the head upon the neck; the larynx thereby is compressed. It assumes strange forms, when it is forced from its natural position. As maturity arrives, the various structures harden. Then distortion of the larynx becomes fixed. This organ has been taken from the bodies of old animals, of the shape here depicted. The morbid specimen, from which the following was copied, is, unfortunately, too common, as the late Professor Sewell clearly demonstrated. But, what a price is this to pay for fashion—to sit for hours behind a noble creature, whose exertions are adding to our pleasure, and at the same time to be entailing deformity upon the animal! Physical soundness is of far more importance to the horse than to the human being. The value of the quadruped, its manner of life, its kind of treatment, the sufficiency of its food, and the comparative comfort of its lodging,—all are regulated by the soundness of its body.
THE TRACHEA AND LARYNX DISTORTED
THROUGH THE CONSTANT
USE OF THE BEARING-REIN.
THE CABMAN'S REMEDY FOR ROARING.
There are those who assert roaring is no injury to the powers of a horse. Certain animals, to be sure, can hunt and keep a good pace, although thus afflicted; but Nimrod (as the well-known, late sporting writer called himself) soon found out to his cost that all roarers were not fit to ride across country. The writer has seen a sailor, deprived of one leg, dance a hornpipe with wonderful agility; but it would be folly, therefore, to say sailors were not injured as dancers by the loss of a limb. That which impedes the free passage of air to the lungs must be a rather serious detriment to exertion. The cab proprietors of London, who cannot afford to purchase very sound animals, and then to let them out at so much per day to strange drivers, have discovered a way to prevent the noise generally made by roarers. This end is attained by placing a pad under a portion of the harness. In the following engraving this pad is indicated by a white mark; though in reality it is so colored as to blend with the coat of the horse. It presses upon the nostrils near to their openings, and by thus limiting the extent of their expansion, by controlling the space through which the air has to pass, it also commands the quantity of atmosphere which is inspired. Thus the bulk of air is regulated to the diminution of the respiratory organs. The horse breathes freer, and no noise is made during the act. Yet, although such a contrivance may do very well for a London cab, the pace of which is regulated by Act of Parliament, it evidently is unsuited to the field, where everything depends on the capacity of the lungs, and nothing upon the sound made during inspiration.
Other causes are mentioned by different writers as provocatives of roaring, besides tight reining. Some of these, like thickening and ulceration of the membrane lining the larynx, are the after consequences of acute disease, and, as such, are to be prevented only by judicious treatment during the existence of the primary disorder. Among other causes, bands of coagulable lymph in the trachea, and congenital deformity, are too rare to deserve the attention they have received.
There is one consolation, however, connected with the subject which breeders may accept with confidence. Roaring is not necessarily hereditary. There is, moreover, a caution, which, associated with roaring, may be given to purchasers. When trying a horse at the top of its speed, never hold in the reins tightly. By so doing, you draw the head upon the neck, compress the larynx, and may make almost any animal, however sound, "roar like a bull." Rather wait till the animal has stopped. Then dismount, place your ear against the windpipe, and, if the horse is a roarer, the deep inspirations necessary to tranquilize the system will inform you plainly enough of the fact.