If, during a battle, (either by long fighting or a cut down blow,) any person offers to bet ten pounds to a crown, or throws his hat, glove, or handkerchief, into the pit, which is the same thing, and so understood, though not a word is spoken, the teller immediately begins to tell forty in a deliberate manner, which being done, he proclaims, "ten pounds to a crown is betted; will any body take it? will any body take it?" No reply being made, the battle is won by the cock upon whom the odds were offered. On the contrary, should the bet be accepted in words, or a handkerchief, hat, or glove, be thrown into the pit, during the time of so telling the forty, it is an acceptance of the ten pounds to a crown offered, and the cocks are instantly handed beak to beak in consequence. If a cock, having the law in his favour, dies before the long law is told out, his adversary wins the battle, although he did not fight within the law; for there cannot be a greater criterion of victory, than having killed his opponent.
When the cocks are first shewn in the hands of the setters-to, and either refuses to face, that is, to fight, it is deemed no battle, upon the equitable principle, that no man can lose where he has no chance to win. There are frequently disputes between the setters-to respecting which cock is in for the law in his favour, during the changes which sometimes happen by the various changes in setting-to during the long law; as well as disputes amongst the spectators concerning bets made, and misunderstandings during the heat of battle; to prevent litigation, and long-standing animosity, it is an invariable rule, that all disputes are to be decided by a majority of the pit; but in all pecuniary altercations, both parties deposit their money before the question is asked, in proof of their readiness to acquiesce in the decision when made. Persons making bets in a pit, which they were afterwards unable or unwilling to pay, were formerly drawn up in a basket by pullies, and suspended during the play; that ceremony, however, is now nearly dispensed with, the aggressor being instantly turned out of the pit, with a variety of cuffs and kicks plentifully bestowed upon him in the gauntlet of his escape.
COCK'S WALK
—is the place to which a game chick is removed, from the place where he was bred, (and where he walked under his sire,) to the spot where he is to remain till taken up to fight; this is called his walk, of which he is the master, not walking under any other cock. They are commonly sent out to walk at six or seven months old, previous to which they have their combs and gills taken off, and are marked in the eyes, norrils, and feet. At this age they are called chickens; when turned of a year old, they are termed stags; and at two years old, COCKS.
COFFIN-BONE
.—This bone is situate at the lower extremity of the foot, deposited in the membranous mass with which the box (or coffin) of the hoof is lined, and is in nearly the shape of the hoof itself: in the centre of the coffin-bone is a concavity, into which is inserted the inferior part of the coronary bone, supported by the nut bone behind: upon the superior part of the coronary bone (that is just above the line said to be "between hair and hoof") is lodged the lower part of the fetlock bone, its upper part articulating with the fetlock joint. Injuries are very frequently sustained by holes in the road, or cavities in the pavement, into which a part, or the whole, of the foot getting, ligamentary twists or distortions happen to the lower joints. Too much pains cannot be taken in accurately ascertaining the exact seat of lameness, particularly in these parts, as a great number of horses are annually blistered and fired by much too hastily, and upon parts where no lameness has ever been.
COFFIN-JOINT
,—the joint situate below the fetlock, and just above the union of hair and hoof; this is the part universally known by the term coffin-joint; but, in fact, it is not in reality so; for this being formed by the upper part of the coronet with the lower part of the fetlock-bone, leaves the whole coronary bone between the spot described and the coffin-bone. The coffin-joint is buried in the body of the hoof, and is formed by the convex junction of the coronary bone with the concave part of the coffin-bone, as explained in the article preceding.
COLD
.—A COLD is evidently occasioned by some sudden transition from heat to cold, a long exposure to chilling rains, or a confined current of external air, through some partial or particular channel: it may be defined a species of disease derived from some one peculiar cause, to which there may be many probable points of termination, according to the constitution, or pre-disposition of the subject at the time of attack.