CHAPTER III.
THE MOUTH--ITS ACCIDENTS AND ITS DISEASES.
EXCORIATED ANGLES OF THE MOUTH.
Let no man punish a horse for want of obedience; the sole use of the creature and its only delight is to obey. Let no person abuse it for having a hard mouth, or for not answering to the rein. Man had the formation of the mouth, and its condition can be no fault in the possessor; the horse's pleasure is the gratification of its master. Observe the antics of the nag thoroughly trained and perfectly up to the rider's point of jockeyship. Does not every fiber seem to quiver with excess of happiness? There is a tacit understanding between man and horse; the pretty arts and graceful prancings of the animal tell how joyful it is made by the conviction that it is sharing man's amusement. But let the equestrian dismount, and another, above or below the horse's educational point, assume the saddle, that understanding no longer exists. The harmony is destroyed; there is no intelligence between horse and man. All the playfulness disappears; the entire aspect of the animal is changed, and it sinks to a commonplace "ugly brute."
The majority of drivers are very particular about the horse's mouth; yet they all abuse the animal as though it was their desire to destroy that which each professes to admire. Every supposed error is punished with the lash, but the whip can convey no idea; the lash does not instruct the animal; beat a horse all day, and it will only be stupid at sunset. All the horse can comprehend from the smart is a desire that the pace should be quickened; that wish it endeavors to comply with. The person who guides the vehicle generally becomes fanatic at such perversity; he begins "jagging" and "sawing" the reins. The iron is violently pulled against the angles of the mouth, or rapidly passes from one side to the other. Would the owner or driver take the trouble to instruct his dumb servant in his wishes, the poor drudge would rejoice to exhibit its accomplishments. But no information is communicated by first urging and then checking; the timidity is increased by the one, the angles of the mouth are excoriated by the other.
Ladies' horses invariably have admirable mouths; ladies generally are very poor equestrians, yet they encounter few accidents. Men, who ride better, are oftener thrown and hurt. The gentleness of the woman, or the sympathy existing between two gentle beings, produces this effect The horse is never dangerous when not alarmed; the feminine hand pats the neck of the steed; the feminine voice assures the timidity; the whip never slashes; the reins are never converted into instruments of torture; the weight is light and the pace is easy. A perfect understanding is soon established between the two, and the rider, notwithstanding her weakness, her indifferent jockeyship, and her flapping dress, sits the saddle in safety, while the animal increases in value under her care.
Man certainly does not gain by the contrast; the male treatment does not improve the animal. The horse's memory, like that of most dumb creatures, is very tenacious; the quadruped is not made more steady by ill usage; the sore corners of the mouth oblige the animal to be laid up "for a time," and the expense of medical treatment increases the sacrifice consequent upon loss of services.
Trouble attends the circumstance, at which the favorite groom is sure to grumble, even if the master does not receive "notice." The food must be prepared; a few oats thrown into the manger, and a little hay forked into the rack will not now suffice; all the provender must be carefully prepared. At first, good thick gruel and hay tea must be the only support. In a few days, boiled and mashed roots may be introduced; these may be followed by cut roots boiled, but not mashed, the whole being succeeded by scalded hay with bruised and mashed oats. When all is done however, the horse's temper is not improved, and its mouth is decidedly injured. Such results will vex the temper of any good groom, and very many it will anger to the throwing up of their situations. They "will not get a horse into beautiful condition for master only to spoil."
When the horse is thus injured, ignore all filthy ointments; such things consist of verdigris, carbonate of zinc, horse turpentine, blue, green or white vitriol, mixed up with dirty tallow or rank lard. Now, to grease a horse's teeth is not much worse than to tallow its lips; if the former prevent it from feeding, the latter is not calculated to improve the appetite.
Discarding all unguents, have the following lotion prepared:--
Chloride of zinc Two scruples. Water Two pints. Essence of aniseed A sufficiency.
Pour some of this into a saucer, and, with anything soft, apply the lotion to the sore places; do not rub or scrub; do your ministering gently; so the parts are wet, no further good can be accomplished; use this wash after every feeding or watering. In a little while amendment is generally perceptible; where violence has been used, it is impossible to foretell the extent of the injury. A superficial slough may be cast off; this process is attended with fetor; that the lotion will correct, and thus add to the comfort of the horse. The cure, however, will possibly leave the horse of a lessened value; where the skin has been destroyed it is never reproduced; the wound will, therefore, probably blemish, and may lead a future purchaser to suspect "all sorts of things." The horse is certainly deteriorated; with the skin the natural sensibility of the part is lost. A cicatrix, consisting only of condensed cellular tissue, must form upon the spot; this structure is very feebly, if at all, nervous, and when compared to the smooth and soft covering of the lips, may be said to be without feeling, and is very liable to ulceration.
PARROT-MOUTH.
This, strictly speaking, is not a disease; it is a malformation; the upper incisors, from those of the lower jaw not being sufficiently developed, meet with no opposing members; they consequently grow very long, and from their form are likened to the bill of a parrot.
This formation is not unsoundness, but it cannot be a recommendation; the horse can only gather up its corn imperfectly; much falls from the mouth during mastication. The animal which requires four feeds and a half daily to support the condition another maintains upon four feeds, must be the more expensive retainer of the two. Moreover, it is a virtue in a horse to thoroughly clear out the manger; a healthy animal not only licks out corners to catch stray grains, but hunts among the straw for any corns that may have fallen. This duty the parrot-mouth disables a horse from performing; the good feeder alone is equal to the work.
Besides, a rider is always pleased, when sauntering down the green lanes during the spring of the year, to see the horse's neck stretched out to catch a twig of the shooting hedge; this can do no harm; but it is hard alike upon horse and man to always have a tight hold of the rein when the fresh scent of the budding thorn tempts the mouth to its enjoyment. And yet, in the majority of instances, it would be cruelty to yield and permit the parrot-mouth to bite; the under teeth very often rest against the palate. No more need be said to caution owners possessed of an animal thus afflicted, against a natural indulgence. The parrot-jaw is a deformity for the perpetuation of which man is responsible; dispositions and formations are hereditary. Would the owners of stock only exercise some judgment in their selections, this misfortune might speedily be eradicated.
LAMPAS.
The horse's lot is, indeed, a hard one; it is not only chastised by the master, but it also has to submit to the fancies of the groom. "=Lampas=" is an imaginary disease, but it is a vast favorite among stable attendants. Whenever an animal is "off its feed," the servant looks into the mouth, and to his own conviction discovers the "lampas." That affection is supposed to consist of inflammation, which enlarges the bars of the palate and forces them to the level of or a little below the biting edges of the upper incisor teeth.
Would the groom take the trouble to examine the mouths of other young horses which "eat all before them," the "lampas" would be ascertained to be a natural development; but the ignorant always act upon faith, and never proceed on inquiry. Young horses alone are supposed to be subject to "lampas;" young horses have not finished teething till the fifth year. Horses are "broken" during colthood; they are always placed in stables and forced to masticate dry, artificial food before all their teeth are cut; shedding the primary molars is especially painful; of course, during such a process, the animal endeavors to feed as little as possible. A refusal to eat is the groom's strongest proof that lampas is present. But, putting the teeth on one side, would it be surprising if a change of food and a total change of habit in a young creature were occasionally attended with temporary loss of appetite? Is "lampas" necessary to account for so very probable a consequence? The writer has often tried to explain this to stable servants; but the very ignorant are generally the very prejudiced. While the author has been talking, the groom has been smiling; looking most provokingly knowing, and every now and then shaking his head, as much as to say, "ah, my lad, you can't gammon me!"
Young horses are taken from the field to the stable, from juicy grass to dry fodder, from natural exercise to constrained stagnation. Is it so very astonishing if, under such a total change of life, the digestion becomes sometimes deranged before the system is altogether adapted to its new situation? Is it matter for alarm should the appetite occasionally fail? But grooms, like most of their class, regard eating as the only proof of health. They have no confidence in abstinence; they cannot comprehend any loss of appetite; they love to see the "beards wagging," and reckon the state of body by the amount of provision consumed.
The prejudices of ignorance are subjects for pity; the slothfulness of the better educated merits reprobation. The groom always gets the master's sanction before he takes a horse to be cruelly tortured for an imaginary disease. Into the hands of the proprietor has a Higher Power intrusted the life of His creature; and surely there shall be demanded a strict account of the stewardship. It can be no excuse for permitting the living sensation to be abused, that a groom asked and the master willingly left his duties to another. Man has no business to collect breathing life about him and then to neglect it. Every human being who has a servant, a beast or a bird about his homestead, has no right to rest content with the assertions of his dependents. For every benefit he is bound to confer some kindness. His liberality should testify to his superiority; but he obviously betrays his trust and abuses the blessings of Providence when he permits the welfare of the creatures, dependent on him, to be controlled by any judgment but his own.
The author will not describe the mode of firing for lampas. It is sufficient here to inform the reader that the operation consists in burning away the groom's imaginary prominences upon the palate. The living and feeling substance within a sensitive and timid animal's mouth is actually consumed by fire. He, however, who plays with such tools as red-hot irons cannot say, "thus far shalt thou go." He loses all command when the fearful instrument touches the living flesh: the palate has been burnt away, and the admirable service performed by the bars, that of retaining the food during mastication, destroyed. The bone beneath the palate has been injured; much time and much money have been wasted to remedy the consequence of a needless barbarity, and, after all, the horse has been left a confirmed "wheezer." The animal's sense being confused, and its brain agitated by the agony, the lower jaw has closed spasmodically upon the red-hot iron; and the teeth have seized with the tenacity of madness upon the heated metal.
When the lampas is reported to you, refuse to sanction so terrible a remedy; order the horse a little rest, and cooling or soft food. In short, only pursue those measures which the employment of the farrier's cure would have rendered imperative, and, in far less time than the groom's proposition would have occupied, the horse will be quite well and once more fit for service.
INJURIES TO THE JAW.
Save when needless severity urges timidity to madness, the horse is naturally obedient. This is the instinct of the race. The strong quadruped delights to labor under the command of the weaker biped. Its movements are regulated by him who sits above or behind it. It often waits for hours with its head pulled backward, its mouth pained, and its eyes blinded. All its learning is attention to the sounds of the human voice. It is guided by touches. It submits to the whip when it might easily destroy the whipper. It eats, it drinks, it rests only by man's permission. Yet there are such words as "vice" and "spite" connected with the horse; but there remains to be spoken the word which shall fitly characterize the self-sacrificing life of the noble animal.
Man could not endure such tyranny, nor does the horse, notwithstanding its submissive instinct, live under it very long. The majority perish before they are eight years old. They are worked to an early grave--often they are distorted before the body's growth is completed. Is there any other life so serviceable? Is there any other life which reads so sad a moral? For the time it is allowed to breathe and labor, the horse patiently obeys its tyrant. It aids his vanity; it conforms to his pleasure; it devotes strength, will, and life to man's service.
Let every owner of a horse treat his slave with gentleness. Above all things, let no individual employ the reins as instruments of torture. The horse will neither be wiser nor better for such a mode of punishment. Besides, the man may deteriorate his own or another's property. With the bit a jaw has been broken; and with the snaffle the bone has been injured. An animal with a good neck carries the chin near to the chest. The iron of the snaffle, therefore, cannot pull against the angles of the mouth. It rests upon the gums, and because this point is by some disputed, the following illustration of the fact is inserted.
The cruel bit is, however, in general use with carriage horses. Fashion delights in a vehicle stopped smartly at a door. The greatest noise possible then announces the new arrival. The wheels grate--the horses struggle. The coachman pulls hard--the vehicle sways to and fro. The footman jumps down and pulls at the bell as though life and death depended on a speedy answer to his summons.
All this is, doubtless, very pleasant, but how does it operate upon the poor horses? These, to be pulled up suddenly, must be thrown upon their haunches by the unscrupulous use of the bit. The pressure often wounds more than the gums; frequently the bone of the lower jaw is bruised. The gum then must slough, and a portion of bone must be cast off. The exfoliation of bone is a tedious process accompanied with an abominable stench. The surgeon must be constantly in attendance; otherwise the gum might close over the exfoliating bone and numerous sinuses might be established within the mouth. The exfoliated substance must come away. The abscess, which would announce its retention, would be more painful than the open wound, and ultimately would turn to a foul and ragged ulcer. Such an injury may occur wherever the bit rests, before or behind the tush, and a similar injury, though not to the same extent, will result from an unscrupulous use of the snaffle.
Supposing a case of this description is submitted to your notice upon the day succeeding its occurrence. No change is anticipated, such as would denote a bruise to other structures. The covering to the gums is thick and hard, and it will conceal much that may be taking place beneath it. If any spot be darker, redder, or whiter in color,--if any place be more sensitive than the adjacent parts, the knife is there inserted till it grate upon the bone. The extent of the necessary incision is decided by the efforts made in resistance. A thin fluid may issue from the orifice; but when the knife grates upon the bone, then the animal's struggles announce the extent of the bruise. Sound bone may be cut, scraped, or even burnt with impunity; but when bruised or otherwise diseased, the structure is most acutely sensitive.
When the wound emits its characteristic odor, a lotion composed of chloride of zinc, one scruple; water, one pint; ess. of aniseseed a sufficiency, should be syringed into the openings, several times during the day. The lotion, also, has a tendency to heal the sores, which must be counteracted by the employment of the knife. Occasionally, however wide the incision, it may be too small for the cast off bone to escape from. The knife again must enlarge the orifice, and the forceps be inserted to grasp the exfoliated substance. That taken away, the lotion is continued and the injury left to heal at Nature's pleasure.
The late W. Percivall, in his excellent work, entitled "Hippopathology," describes horses as sometimes injured under the tongue by the port of the bit. An engraving, representing such an injury, is given; but it is hoped no gentleman of the present day would employ the severe invention by which alone such a hurt could be produced. The consequences may be lasting. The terminations of the sublingual ducts are included in the blackness. Were these bruised and inflamed, their delicate mouths might be obliterated and hopeless fistula be established.
The bit must be sharply and strongly tugged at before it can harm the roof of the mouth. Any one who has seen horses pulled up before a fashionable mansion must have observed them open wide their mouths. They do this to escape the wound of the bit. The animals extend their jaws to prevent it striking the roof of the mouth. Notwithstanding the existing age is more civilized than those which preceded it, the bits used at the present time can, without any vast display of genius, be made to injure the obedient animal, for whose mouth such ferocious checks are forged. An injury thus inflicted is sufficiently serious. The bony roof not only supports the bars, but also forms the solid floor of the nostrils. As it is not very thick, the greater is the danger when it is injured. The wound, because of the unyielding substance on which it is inflicted, is more painful than that of the lower jaw. It is also for the same reason more severe.
The last injury demands the same treatment as has already been described, only the remedies are far more difficult to apply. Should the entire portion of bone exfoliate and a hole be left behind, the consequence is not of fatal import. Bone can reproduce itself, though it is somewhat eccentric in its growth. So after the opening is closed, the surface toward the nostrils may be uneven, and the horse be rendered an inveterate wheezer.
When the animal is once injured, never, for your own safety, afterward employ a bit. If it be ridden or driven, always use a snaffle, and use even that most tenderly. The horse has vivid recollections, and man is naturally forgetful. When power is entrusted to the oblivious, danger is apt to be close at hand.
The inferior margin of the jaw-bone is liable to harm from the curb chain, and some men _will_ have the curb chain tight. Such people are commonly very imperious. They shout, and slash, and tug when they want obedience from an animal whose delight is to be allowed to please. Their meaning is seldom comprehended, and therefore their orders are rarely obeyed; whereas, they would be humbly propitiated, were their commands only given as though the animal had no interest to rebel.
The result of such violence is, from the curb chain being ruthlessly jerked, the jaw-bone soon enlarges. A portion of the bone having been bruised, has to exfoliate; a foul abscess forms; tumor speedily succeeds to tumor; osseous structure is thrown out and a swelling is matured, before the enlargement heals.
The treatment of such a case is similar to that already directed. Keep the wound freely open, to permit the unimpeded exit of exfoliated bone. Use the lotion, previously directed, liberally and constantly. The healing process may then take place without deformity being left behind.
APHTHA.
Nothing proves the sympathy which binds nature more strongly than the sameness or similarity of the diseases that affect man and animals. Tetanus, pneumonia, enteritis, etc. are so alike as to be the same in the human being and in the horse. From the cow was derived the safe-guard from the ravages of the small-pox, and the medical profession has, by its want of feeling, more than recognized a likeness, linking humanity to the dog; in the motive which alone could prompt abuse of a most affectionate animal.
It is a sad proof of the stubbornness of pride, that a unity, thus enforced by suffering, should be ignored, as though it were an insult to the superior. No compact, founded by nature, can be dependent upon man's liking. The terms may be laughed at, scorned or denied, but these exist. Man is declared in affliction to be the companion of other life. When will this truth be acknowledged, and the entire family of nature live in one brotherhood?
=Aphtha= is a human disorder as well as an equine disease. It generally appears in spring and autumn, being produced by heat of body. May not a slight attack of aphtha sometimes explain that which the groom intends by lampas? At all events, aphtha is accompanied by dullness and a refusal to feed. Both lips commonly swell as the lethargy increases; the tongue tumefies, becomes decidedly red, and generally hangs out of the mouth, partly for the sake of coolness, partly to accommodate its enlarged size. Around the mouth little lumps break forth, which at first are stony hard, and others, though of a larger size, may be felt upon the tongue. Vesicles are soon developed from these spots, and each contains a small quantity of clear gelatinous fluid. The bladders burst; crusts form; and by the time these fall off, the complaint has disappeared.
Some good thick gruel and a few boiled roots, which should be repeatedly changed, must constitute the nourishment while the disease lasts, or during the period that the mouth is sore. No medicine; a little kindness is now worth a ship load of drugs. When the pimples are about to burst, the following may be prepared:--
Borax Five ounces. Boiling water One gallon. Honey or treacle Two pints.
When the mixture has cooled, hold up the horse's head and pour half a pint into the mouth. Half a minute afterward remove the hand; allow the head to fall and the fluid to run out of the lips. This mixture should be used several times during the day. Beyond this nothing is needed, excepting a cool, loose box, a good bed, body and head clothing, with flannel bandages, not too tight, about the legs. Work should on no account be sanctioned until the last vestige of the disorder has vanished, and its attendant weakness has entirely disappeared.
LACERATED TONGUE.
Men who become proprietors of animal life undertake a larger responsibility than the generality of horse owners are willing to admit. They are answerable for their own conduct toward the dumb existence over which they are legally invested with the right of property; they are also morally accountable for the conduct of those to whose charge they entrust their living possessions. The appearance of those men who congregate about the stable doors of the rich is not very prepossessing. Their looks express cunning far more than goodness. Their long narrow heads denote none of that wisdom which alone can comprehend and practice kindness for its own sake. Their eyes and actions have a quickness at sad variance with the affected repose of their manners. Their dress declares a vanity, that is much opposed to the humility in which a wise man loves to confide.
There is nothing about horses which should degrade men; yet it cannot be denied, that the vast majority of stable men are rogues. How can this be accounted for? Is it difficult to understand, when we see the unlimited trust put into a groom's hands, and the common abuse of confidence by the man who enjoys it? No slave proprietor possesses the power with which the groom is invested. It is true, the slave owner can lash the flesh he terms his property. However, there is in humanity a voice which puts some limit to the ill usage of the negro. The groom can beat and beat again, at any time or in any place. No voice can be raised in appeal to nature. The groom's charge lives beneath him, and day or night is exposed to his tyranny. He may chastise the body and steal the food, still, so no human eye detect, the horse will quietly look upon the wronger it never can accuse.
A good man would seek far, before he would repose so large a trust in another person. The _gentleman_ generally engages the groom after a trivial questioning. His desire is to have a servant entirely corrupt; one who asserts a knowledge how to _trick_ animals into health. No examination is made into the real character of the applicant. A vast confidence is off-hand reposed in an individual who may be without a single moral attribute. Who deserves blame for such an abuse of responsibility? He who has been educated into knowingness, and, having become thoroughly degraded, esteems himself fully qualified for the situation he demands to fill, or he who, having the benefit of education, and being blessed with leisure for self-inquiry, shirks his duty and transfers his authority to unworthy hands?
Every groom fancies he knows how to compound something he calls a condition ball,--that is, a certain mixture of drugs, which shall bring a living body suddenly into "tip-top" health. A bevy of companions are invited to see "Jim give a ball." They duly arrive, and part of the horse's tongue is speedily made to protrude from the mouth, this portion being firmly held by "Jim's" free hand. The condition ball is in "Jim's" other hand, and the exhibition consists in the marvelous adroitness with which the ball can be introduced between the animal's jaws. The horse soon sympathizes with the excitement that surrounds it. Jim, "quick as lightning," makes a thrust with the ball, whereupon the startled animal raises the head and retreats. "Stick to him, Jim!" "stick to him!" shout the visitors. Jim does stick to him until his hand is covered with blood, or, without quitting its gripe, suddenly loses the resistance, which constituted its hold. Should it be the former, the frœnum of the tongue is ruptured, and a wetted sponge soon clears the hand of the groom as well as the mouth of the horse. A general curse and a kick under the belly of the rebellious steed end the amusements for one day. Should it be the latter, Jim finds the larger portion of the quadruped's tongue left in his hand. This is an awful accident. The blood is wiped off, and the groom next morning goes to his master with, "Please, sir, see what 'Fugleman' has done in his sleep!"
A farmer engages a pretty-looking stable boy. The young scamp is sufficiently a groom to glory in nothing so much as deception. The farmer, however, takes this pretty boy to the fair, where an additional horse is purchased. With the new "dobbin" the boy is entrusted, being cautioned to lead it gently home. With numerous protestations boy and horse depart, but have barely reached the suburbs before the knowing youngster stops "dobbin," and, twisting the halter in "a chaw," leads the animal to the nearest gate, where the lad climbs upon its back.
"A chaw" is the slang short phrase for something to chew. This is made by twisting the halter into the animal's mouth so as to encircle the jaw. In this position the rope is thought by some knowing people to answer the purposes of a bridle. To this rope the boy hangs, rolling to either side; now, nearly off--and now, jerked from his seat, as "dobbin," after repeated urgings, starts off into the lazy pretense at a trot.
Anything inserted into a horse's mouth provokes the curiosity of the animal. It is felt and poked about with the tongue, till at last the lingual organ is, by the exercise of much ingenuity, inserted beneath the obstacle. In this state of affairs, "dobbin" and the pretty boy finish the latter half of the journey. The youngster laughing, as the rough action of the horse bumps him up and down, he all the time dragging at the halter. Before home is reached, night has set in; the boy dismounts, and with all the simplicity his face can assume leads "dobbin" to the homestead.
The boy is protesting about being so very tired after his long walk, when the horse's mouth is discovered to be stained with blood. The youthful expression of surprise exceeds that of the elder's. Next the halter is found to be rich with the same fluid. The horse's mouth is then opened, it is full of blood, and the tongue nearly cut through. Accusations are made against the lad; at first they are replied to with defiance; at last they are propitiated with tears, drawn forth by the idea of honesty being suspected. Youthful knowing, however, is not in the long run a match for the self-interest of age; and perseverance is rewarded by a full confession.
"The chaw" is an artifice recognized in every stable. Grooms have their tastes. It is very unpleasant to these gentry when they behold some unmannerly horse hang back in the halter. Stalls are drained into a main channel, situated at the edge of the gangway. The pavement on which the animal stands consequently slants from the manger to the footpath. This nice arrangement obliges the horse always to stand with the toes in the air and throws the weight of the body upon the back sinews. To ease its aching limbs the animal is apt to go to the extent of its rope, so as to place the hind feet upon the gangway, and even occasionally to give the toe an opposite direction by allowing it to sink into the open drain. Such presumption horrifies the groom's sense of propriety. The ignorant mind's idea of beauty is "everything to match." He thinks all is so nice when the animals dress to a line, like soldiers on parade. To have this line preserved, even in his absence, he puts "a chaw" into the refractory "brute's" mouth. This chaw is to be preserved night and day. The tongue soon gets under the rope. Timidity is rendered yet more fearful by persecution. The voice of the groom has become a terror to the quadruped. It hangs back for ease, and is surprised by the vehement exclamation of the tormentor. Back goes the neck and up goes the head. The animal runs to its manger, but something has fallen upon the floor! The horse was luxuriating in hanging back to the full extent when surprised. The sudden start jerked the halter rein, and the result is the free portion of the tongue falls from the mouth, severed by the rope.
These are lamentable instances of the general behavior of grooms to the creatures entrusted to their care. Nothing is so corruptive as misplaced authority. A little mind knows no difference between the possession of power and the indulgence of tyranny. The use and the abuse are synonyms to the ignorant; and the sins committed principally reside with him who places the life Heaven has entrusted to his care in such unworthy custody.
When a tongue is partially divided, do not insert sutures of any kind. Metallic sutures wound the fleshy palate, and silk sutures soon slough out. Neither, therefore, does good, and each serves to confine the food which enters the division. Foreign matter irritates a wound and retards its healing. Consequently, do nothing to the tongue when partially divided. Feed the patient on gruel until the healing is complete, and wash out the mouth thrice daily, with some chloride of zinc lotion, one scruple of the salt to a pint of water, after the manner described in the preceding article.
Should the tongue be separated to that extent which divides the vessels, then, with a knife remove the lacerated part, which otherwise being deprived of support, must slough off. Still do nothing to the tongue afterward. Feed on thick gruel and wash out the mouth with the lotion. A horse with half a tongue will manage to eat and drink, but some food is spilt and some left in the manger. Constant dribbling of saliva is the chief consequence of such an injury. This is unpleasant, and arises from deglutition being injured. A horse which has had the tongue lacerated only, but not divided, forever retains the evidence of the injury; and as the food is apt to accumulate at the point of union, the animal ever after demands attention subsequent to every meal.
TEETH.
No fact is more discreditable to humanity than the small attention it has wasted upon the beautiful lives entrusted to its charge. Mortal pride asserts these creatures are given man for his use. Yes. But is the full use obtained? Are not the lives sacrificed? The horse has been the partner of mankind from the earliest period. For centuries at least the animal has been watched throughout the day; yet, even at this time, equine disorders are only beginning to be understood. Does this fact denote that care which such a charge demanded?
Cutting the permanent teeth seems, in the horse, to be effected at some expense to the system; it was a favorite custom with the farriers of the last century to trace numerous affections to the teething of the animal. Further inquiries have proved our grandfathers knew positively nothing about those growths, concerning which they assumed so much. The late W. Percivall traced sickness in the horse to irritation, arising from cutting of the tushes; there, however, our knowledge ends. Veterinarians have not, as a rule, either leisure or the necessary power to observe those animals it is their province to treat; they generally are but passing visitors to the stables into which they are called. Those who have studs of horses nominally placed under their charge feel they are retained not to watch, but to physic the animals to which the groom directs their attention.
The tushes of the upper jaw may, however, be fully up, and yet not have appeared in the mouth; this fact is easily explained. The advent of the tushes provoked acute inflammation of the membrane covering the jaw. The horse was cured of the attendant constitutional symptoms, but the cause of the disorder was mistaken. The acute inflammation changed into chronic irritation. The membrane, which in the first instance should have been lanced, thickened and imprisoned the tush beneath it; an incision is even now the only remedy, and should instantly be made.
Neither tushes nor incisors are known to be exposed to other accidents; it is, however, different with the molar teeth. These teeth consist of three components; bone or ivory constitutes the chief bulk of the organ, and over that is spread a thin covering of inorganic enamel, the whole being invested with a fibrous coating of crusta petrosa. The enamel is the material on which the tooth depends for its cutting properties; the manner in which the edge is preserved deserves attention, for the brick-layer's trowel appears to have been suggested by it. A thin coat of hard but brittle enamel is held between the two other bulky and tough substances, just as a thin layer of steel is protected by coatings of yielding iron in the house-builder's instrument.
The highly organized crusta petrosa is often injured; to understand this, we must first comprehend the vast power which urges the jaw of the horse. The motion resides entirely in the lower portion of the skull, which is moved by strong, very strong muscles, going direct from their attachments to their insertions. No force is lost by the arrangement, and no less a motor power was required to comminute the hays and oats on which the horse subsists. The machinery seems to be admirably adapted to its purposes; and to be so strongly framed as to defy all chance of injury. Man, however, has a mighty talent for evil; it does not always suit the convenience of the groom to sift the pebbles from the grain; corn and stones are hastily cast into the manger, and the poor horse, having no hands to select with, must masticate all alike. The reader can imagine the wrench which will ensue, when a flint suddenly checks the movement of the molar teeth. The crusta petrosa is bruised upon the large fang of the tooth. Disease is established, and sad toothache has soon to be endured.
Then there are the effects of the powerful acids in much favor with most grooms and too many veterinary surgeons; moreover, there are the sulphates, which in every possible form enter into veterinary medicine; the nitrates, likewise, are much esteemed, and are given in enormous doses. All of these much affect the crystalline enamel of the molar tooth; a small hole is first formed; into this the food enters and there putrifies; caries and toothache are the result.
A horse with toothache upon certain days sweats and labors at its work; saliva hangs in long bands from the under lip; the countenance is utterly dejected; the head is carried on one side or pressed against some solid substance, as a wall. The food is "quidded"--that is, it is partially masticated, when, from acute agony, the jaws relax, the teeth separate, the lips part, and the morsel falls from the mouth, more or less resembling what is termed "a quid of tobacco."
Upon other days the animal is bounding with life and spirits; the movements are light, and the motions are expressive of perfect happiness. The head is carried jauntily; the lips are compressed; the saliva ceases to exude; the food is devoured with an evident relish, and the general health appears to be better than it was before the strange disease. The continuance of such bliss is, however, very doubtful; the different stages will often succeed one another with vexatious rapidity.
If nothing be done, the horse alternates between anguish and happiness for an unascertained period, when all acute symptoms apparently cease. The lips, though no longer actually wet, are not positively dry; the food is often eaten; but as time progresses a sort of gloom hangs about the animal, and deepens every day. The horse seems never free from some unaccountable torture; more time is now occupied in clearing the manger; then the hay may be consumed, but the oats remain untouched. These last are found soaked in apparent water; the fluid turns out to be saliva; the symptoms by degrees become more severe; a strangely unpleasant odor characterizes the breath; the flesh wastes, and the animal ultimately exhibits hide-bound.
This stage being attained, and the proprietor becoming much perplexed, he is one morning informed by the groom, who displays many nods and winks, of a certain mysterious receipt for a wonderful ball that never fails, but always cures. The potent bolus is sent for to the chemist, and, after sundry explanations, is compounded. The groom, stiff with pride, takes the magic morsel; it is pushed rapidly into the horse's mouth; an exclamation from the man follows the disappearance of the hand, which is retracted bathed in blood.
To afford time for the writer to explain this incident, the reader must vouchsafe some patience. The horse's molar teeth are miniature grindstones. To supply the wear and tear of so violent a service, the molar teeth, originally, have enormous fangs, and, as the eating surface is worn away, the fangs are thrust into the mouth by the contraction of the jaw-bones.
=Caries= at first pains, but at last destroys all feeling or life in the tooth; the dead organ ceases to possess any vital quality; it loses all power of self-preservation, and is a mere piece of dead matter opposed to a living agent. In consequence, it breaks away, while the opposing molar projects more forward from the absence of attrition. The healthy tooth at last bears against the unprotected gum, upon which it presses severely, and provokes the greatest agony. The animal endeavors to prevent the prominent tooth from paining the jaw by masticating entirely upon the sound side. Hunger is slowly, and perhaps never, satisfied by such imperfect comminution; the outside of the upper molars and the inside of the lower molars become slanting; the first being almost as sharp as razors, wound the membrane of the mouth and lay open the hand which is thrust into the cavity.
If the disease be still neglected and permitted to increase, the stench grows more formidable; nasal gleet appears; the discharge is copious, accompanied by a putrid odor; osseous tumors commence; the bones of the face are distorted; the eye is imprisoned, and ultimately obliterated within the socket by actual pressure; eating becomes more and more painful, until starvation wastes the body and reduces the horse to a hide-bound skeleton.
If such a case be taken early, its cure is easy and certain; the dead tooth must be extracted, and the prominent molar shortened by means of the adjusting forceps and the guarded chisel, invented by Mr. T. W. Gowing, veterinary surgeon, of Camden Town. Then the sharp edges must be lowered by the tooth-file, and if these things appear to occupy time, it is better done at two or even three operations, than unduly prolong the agony of a sick animal. This being accomplished, all is not ended; the horse's mouth must, from time to time, be again and again operated upon; nor will the creature offer much opposition to the proceeding, if only proper gentleness be observed.
Aged horses, from the contraction of the lower jaw, (which change is natural to increase of years in the equine race,) frequently have their upper molars ground to a knife-like sharpness. They wound the inside of the cheeks, cause a disinclination to eat, and provoke a dribbling of saliva. The cure is the tooth-file, which should be applied until the natural level is attained. This should be followed by the frequent use of the wash recommended for _aphtha_, or by the chloride of zinc lotion.
It may probably provoke a laugh among gentlemen and horsemen to read of toothache in the horse. Few, very few grooms may have witnessed or have noticed such a disease, but the fact exists; it is, indeed, a cruel reality to the animal which experiences it. The ignorance of stable men can establish nothing, for they are, as a class, equally presumptuous and ignorant; they have seen the horse for years, and yet are acquainted with neither the natural ailments nor the proper treatment of the animal. The toothache is to the creature a most agonizing disorder. We have only to look at the healthy horse, to observe how exquisitely it is clothed, how finely it is framed, to imagine how sensitive must be the body. The horse seems capable of a fear the most cowardly of mankind never conceived. So its face, though not made for expression, can denote an anguish which the human mind fortunately has no capacity to picture. The eye is often painful in its speaking. It embodies a desperation, a weariness of the world, and a prayer for death, such as few people comprehend; or the cry would rise, from the length and breadth of the land, demanding, as with one voice, the more Christian treatment of man's fellow-creature.
SCALD MOUTH.
This is an accident which occasionally occurs where grooms are too ignorant, or too thoughtless to read the direction labeled upon every bottle sent into the stable. Potent fluids are sometimes transmitted pure, in small bottles, though the custom is highly reprehensible; nor is the practice bettered because the label orders the contents to be mixed with water before the medicine is administered to the horse. Grooms are generally careless, and proverbially in a hurry; one of them enters the stable to give the drench, sees the bottle, seizes it in haste, calls the helper nearest the stable door, and, with such assistance, pours the liquid fire down the animal's throat.
The mouth is by the potent drug deprived of its lining membrane, and the stomach is lastingly injured; even if the dose be too small to occasion death, the interior of the mouth is rendered raw. Fortunate is the man who can be certain the evil there begins and extends no farther; but who can calculate the effect upon delicate, internal organs? The mouth may be healed, but who can ascertain the state of the deeper injury? Animals are treated as though their sensibilities were not affected by any medium pain; something must be visible before the groom sanctions the right in his charge to be restless. All signs and motions denoting a gnawing agony, but not expressive of overpowering anguish, are visited with chastisement.
The groom is not entirely to blame. The fault resides with his superiors, whom the servant apes. The sin rests with those who (unable to keep a stud-groom) think their duty is discharged by a daily scamper through the stable before they go to business; with those who by their manners corrupt the groom's simplicity, while by a strange costume they induce the ignorant fellow to regard the badge of his disgrace as the upholder of his pride. To the upper classes, the shortcomings of stable men cling; with the superiors, whose example should instruct, rests the real blame of the servant. With educated men abide the errors of the ignorant.
After a scalding drench, an unusual redness declares the state of the mouth; a quantity of saliva flows from the restless lips, which are constantly in motion; they are being moved perpetually up and down, and are always parting with a smack. The food, for a time, is rejected, but good gruel, if cold, is generally taken freely. Boiled roots should constitute the nourishment for two months afterward, the mouth being all the while washed with the application recommended for aphtha.
No immediate danger is to be apprehended from scald mouth. The stomach is more disposed to assume chronic than acute disease. Probably the temporary services of the animal might well be dispensed with, and much might be gained by an extra months' continuance of the prepared food. At all events, the experiment would be intended to ward off a possible evil; and, if we are to believe at all the motive, being based on goodness, the act would not be without its reward.