Spaying is performed by making an opening in the flank on one side, when the ovaria, being enlarged by pregnancy, are readily distinguishable, and may be drawn out and cut off, first one and then the other; securing the ends by a ligature lightly applied to each surface, but leaving the threads without the wound, which is to be closed by stitches and bandaging. Farriers often apply no ligature, but content themselves with simply sewing up the wound, and no ill consequence seems to ensue. Bitches, after they have been spayed, become fat, bloated, and spiritless, and commonly prove short-lived.—Blaine.
Spear, s. A long weapon with a sharp point, used in thrusting or throwing; a lance; a lance generally with prongs to kill fish.
Spear, v. To kill or pierce with a spear.
Species, s. A sort, a subdivision of a general term; class of nature, single order of beings.
Specific, s. A specific medicine.
Speed, s. Quickness, celerity, haste, hurry, despatch; the course or pace of a horse.
Speed of the Horse.—Common report says that Flying Childers could run a mile in a minute, but there is no authentic record of this. He ran over the Round Course of Newmarket (three miles, six furlongs, and ninety-three yards) in six minutes and forty seconds; and the Beacon Course (four miles, one furlong, and one hundred and thirty-eight yards), in seven minutes and thirty seconds. In 1772, a mile was run by Firetail, in one minute and four seconds. In October 1741, at the Curragh meeting in Ireland, Mr. Wilde engaged to ride 127 miles in nine hours. He performed it in six hours and twenty-one minutes. He employed ten horses, and allowing for mounting and dismounting, and a moment for refreshment, he rode for six hours at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Mr. Thornhill, in 1745, exceeded this, for he rode from Stilton to London and back, and again to Stilton, being 213 miles, in eleven hours and thirty-four minutes, which is, after allowing the least possible time for changing horses, twenty miles an hour for eleven hours, and on the turnpike road and uneven ground. Mr. Shaftoe, in 1762, with ten horses, and five of them ridden twice, accomplished fifty miles and a quarter in one hour and forty-nine minutes. In 1763, Mr. Shaftoe won a more extraordinary match. He was to procure a person to ride one hundred miles a day, on any one horse each day, for twenty-nine days together, and to have any number of horses not exceeding twenty-nine: he accomplished it on fourteen horses, and one day he rode 160 miles, on account of the tiring of his first horse. Mr. Hull’s Quibbler, however, afforded the most extraordinary instance on record of the stoutness as well as speed of the race-horse. In December, 1786, he ran twenty-three miles round the flat at Newmarket, in fifty-seven minutes and ten seconds.
Speed is sportingly applicable to horse, hound, or greyhound. There are two modes of trial for speed, according to the present reformed mode of English racing; the one is to run a mile, which is termed running for speed; the other, of going off at score, and absolutely racing the whole four miles, which is called running for speed and bottom. Flying Childers, whose speed was almost proverbial, went one third of a mile in twenty seconds. Firetail and Pumpkin ran a mile in a few seconds more than a minute and a half. Childers ran the distance of four miles in six minutes and forty-eight seconds, carrying nine stone, two pounds; he made a leap of thirty feet upon level ground; and he covered a space of twenty-five feet at every stroke when racing. It was formerly known that any horse who could run four miles in eight minutes, would prove a winner of plates: this is, however, very materially refined, by judicious crosses in blood, or improvements in training; as Bay Malton ran four miles over York in seven minutes, forty-three seconds and a half. Eclipse ran the same distance over York in eight minutes, with twelve stone, though going only at his rate, without any inducement to speed.—Sporting Directory.
Speediness, s. The quality of being speedy.
Speedy, a. Quick, swift, fast.