ASCARIDES
—are a species of worms, to which horses are frequently subject, from two to three inches long: they are not larger in circumference than a common knitting needle, have a flat head, and in some degree not unlike the millepedes, at least in respect to their number of legs. They are in general voided with the dung, where they may be seen twirling and twisting about with wonderful rapidity, not unlike a grig, or small eel, when thrown out of his own element upon the grass. Horses persecuted with these painful and troublesome companions, are generally relaxed in the intestines, and throw off their dung in a loose state, affording, by that circumstance alone, sufficient proof how much they irritate internally, as well as why horses affected with worms, are not only low in flesh, but rough in coat, and almost every way out of condition.
ASTHMATIC
.—Horses are considered asthmatic, or thick-winded, who have acquired a difficulty of respiration, and a short husky cough, from blood originally dense and sizey having been permitted to become proportionally viscid, from a want of evacuants and attenuants in time to have prevented the obstructions which lay the foundation of this troublesome defect. The viscidity of the blood constituting obstructions in the finer vessels, produce tubercles in the lungs, which, rendering their action partial and imperfect, occasions the difficulty of breathing, and repetition of cough, so constantly observed during the increased circulation of the blood, when the horse is brought into use. Frequent bleedings, and a course of the Author's Pectoral Detergent Balls, are the best means of alleviation and cure.
ASTRINGENTS
—is rather a medical than either a general or sporting term, and implies any article in food or medicine, possessing the property of restraining a too great flux of excrement after physic, or a too lax state of body, (denominated looseness,) proceeding from a previous fulness, or from intestinal acrimony, where the discharges have been a mere effort of Nature to relieve herself from the load, and not in consequence of any purgative whatever. In such flaccidity of the intestines, proceeding from whatever cause, a cordial ball occasionally, small quantities of liquid laudanum in gruel, and an ounce of gum arabic dissolved, and given night and morning in the water, will soon restore them to their proper state.
ATTACHMENTS
—Court of, a ceremony or court peculiar to the laws of a forest, and necessary to be known only by those who reside therein. The officers of this court do no more than receive the attachments of the foresters, and enrol them in the VERDERERS' rolls, that they may be ready for the court of swainmote when held. This court of attachments having no power to determine upon cases of offence or trespass beyond the value of fourpence, all above that sum must appear in the verderers' rolls, and be sent by them to the court of swainmote, there to be tried according to the forest laws, which are replete with peculiar privileges, immunities, and what are termed royalties, appertaining to the Crown itself.
ATTAINT
—has been used, by members of the old school in farriery, for blows, bruises, cuts, and wounds, sustained in any one leg by injuries from the other. As it is, however, nearly obsolete, and may probably never be heard again, farther exposition becomes unnecessary.