BLANK
—was a horse in high form, beating almost every horse of his time, and his blood was held in the utmost estimation: he was bred by Lord Godolphin; foaled 1740; got by the Godolphin Arabian, dam by Bartlett's Childers, out of the dam of the Large Hartley Mare. The various performances of Blank will not admit of being brought within the compass of so concise a description; therefore, suffice it to say, that, after his performances upon the turf, he became a stallion of the first celebrity, and was sire of Ghost, Tripod, Chatsworth, Hengist, Croney, Yeoman, Porsenna, Lottery, Young Blank, Lustre, Lumber, Whipster, Amazon, Britannicus, Charlotte, Prussia, Helen, Lycurgus, and a very long list of excellent runners, too numerous for insertion under this head.
BLEEDING
—of horses is a simple and easy operation, hitherto performed with an instrument called a fleam, which being steadily supported over the neck vein (about five inches below the superior process of the jaw-bone) is forcibly struck with what is professionally termed a bloodstick, turned out of the wood called lignum vitæ, as being sufficiently heavy to insure weight and certainty to the blow: the blade of the fleam is supported by a shoulder, to prevent the incision's being made beyond the depth of safety: the use of the line round the lower part of the neck, previous to the operation, is now greatly out of use; although it is certainly a means of keeping the vein firm from fluctuation, and of course a very proper guide, particularly for young practitioners. Of late years this mode of operating has greatly declined, particularly with veterinarians of the new school, the most expert of whom adopt the use of the lancet, and are introducing it to general practice; and, although the neatness of the operation must be candidly admitted, yet, with high spirited, shy, unruly horses, (where there is a chance of the point of the lancet's being broken in the orifice,) a doubt naturally arises, whether, in such cases, the former method is not both the least troublesome and least dangerous of the two.
The consistency and propriety of BLEEDING upon slight or moderate occasions, has always been matter of cavil and capricious controversy with those whose cynical rigidity, and restless spirit, ever prompts them to take even the wrong side of any argument, (however absurd and ridiculous,) rather than want a cause to carp at; but with those possessing the power of scientific disquisition, and practical professional knowledge, such fallacious and ill-founded reasoning must fall to the ground. Its utility, upon the attack of almost every disease to which the animal is subject, is now so generally admitted, that it stands in need of no additional corroboration from the more refined rays of constantly increasing improvement.
The quantity proper to be taken away at one time, in any case, may be from three to five pints; the latter only in such disorders as require plentiful depletion: in all cases of inflammation (particularly the lungs) frequent repetitions are to be justified, provided they follow not too fast upon each other; the lives of many horses have been preserved (particularly in those influenzas of late years called "the distemper") by four or five plentiful bleedings in so many days; and, vice versa, as great a number lost by a want of the same means. As blood is generated, and the unloaded vessels replenished, by the constant supply of aliment in health, or nutriment in disease, so little, or, in fact, no permanent injury can be sustained by leaning to the safe side, and taking away even too much, provided it be at different times, particularly when it is remembered, that the life of a valuable horse is very frequently lost by a too great pusillanimity and forbearance in the operation.
BLEMISHES
—are so called which constitute disfiguration and eyesore, without impediment to sight or action; it is therefore readily conceived, a horse may be very materially blemished without being unsound. Blemishes are various, and many of them not to be immediately perceived, in a superficial survey of the subject: broken knees are a very material and conspicuous blemish: splents, if large, are unpleasing to the eye of the good judge and nice investigator: warts are easily observed, and as easily cured: thrushes, and a carious state of the frogs, not to be known but by an examination of the feet: sandcracks, previously cured, sometimes remain unseen, but are always liable to a renewal of the original defect: the marks of former blistering is, in general, to be plainly perceived by a variation in colour, or an unnatural roughness in the hair of those parts: the marks of firing-irons may be easily traced (however neatly performed) upon the hocks for spavins and curbs, or upon the back of the shank-bones for strains in the back sinews. A horse may be blemished by a speck in the eye, arising from a blow with the lash of a whip or switch; this is frequently no more than a partial thickening of a small part of the outer humour of the eye, not obstructing those rays of light which constitute vision.
If a horse is warranted "perfectly sound, without blemish, free from vice, steady to ride, and quiet in harness," it is a full and general warranty speaking for itself; leaving very little for the intentional purchaser to do (in respect to inspection) if he has previously tried and approved the paces of the horse. But where a warranty seemingly guarded, or cautiously partial, is offered, a proper degree of circumspection will be necessary to prevent a chance of early repentance; a prevention of litigation will prove less expensive than the cure of a lawsuit.