THE VETERINARIAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 866, 5 October 1888, Page 19

THE VETERINARIAN.

Roaring. A correspondent of ‘ The Field ’ writes : Sir, —The subject of roaring among horses being just now so interesting, I make no apology for sending an extract written by a man, upon whoso judgement I haVB every reason to rely confidently ; he has been owner af several racehorses, not one of which was a roarer. He says : I am not aware if any of the members of your profession have ever made any public acknowledgment to Mr Fleming, V. S. and C. 8., for originating the operation now practised on horses suffering from roaring. It has evidently been attended with success, and no doubt will afford great relief to such of our equine slaves as have become roarers. While, however, every praise is due to him who has carried out his theories so successfully, I do, with due deference, suggest that it would be equally if not more beneficial to horseowners, if they had placed before them a method by which horses that have never roared shall be prevented from roaring altogether. It has now become so easy to say that ‘ roaring is hereditary,’ that I know I should have most of the veterinary profession against me, if I affirm that it only becomes so indirectly cr in a roundabout fashion, and thus deny that ‘ roaring is hereditary.’ It is not a natural deviation from a healthy 3tate : it is entirely an artificial disaster, and is brought about by persons connected with stable management going on mechanically in a beaten track. The horse, as you are aware, iuherits a very delicate skin, which resents exposure (when sweat, however slight, ia exuding from the pores ; and he also inherits a laiynx which will probably rebel against the heroic treatment applied to it, iu the shape of blisters and embrocations ; and so external remedies applied locally go but to sow the germ 3 of that paralysis of tlie re- j current nerves which, sooner or later, weakens this part of the system and causes the animal to become a roarer. If roaring be hereditary, all our horses descended from Eclipse ought to be roarers. This we know is not the case ; and were we to alter our mode of stable treatment, which alone is responsible for this distressing malady, there would be no such thing as roaring, and no need to call in the surgical skill of the profession, any more than there would be to amputate a distorted toe of the human foot, the offending state of which had been brought

about by the dictates and vagaries of unscientific fashion. Until, however, we human beings learn to boot-and-shoe ourselves properly, and' to treat our horses on a more reasonable and scientific basis, we must rest content to call in the aid of the surgical profession to rid us of evils that should never occur, and which are of our own making- [ apologise, Sir, for the length of my extract, buc I confess I did not know where to stop, and there is, as I happen to know, so much truth in what he says : and as it ia only fair to my correspondent that he should speak for himself, I shall be happy to make known his address to all applicants for the same. J. B. S. Brown, M.R.C.S. London. Roseleigh, Snettisham, Norfolk.