The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-31 00:00:00

THE NARCOTIC INFLUENCE OF

RAILWAY TRAVELLING.

The _Lancet says :—" There is something peculiarly
striking in the somnolence which the movement
Of a • railway carriage induces in a large number
of travellers. It is not felt by all ; some persons,
;indeed, ;are quite unable to sleep in a train; but
the sedative effect on a great many is quite
irresistible. In these days of railway catastrophes,
the timid traveller, possessing a strong imagination—
an essential element in great timidity—might weave a
curious ,fanCy of a syren lulling to sleep the victims
whom she lures to destruction, or of grimy-handed Art
imitating the redder touch of N ature in the unoonscious-
ness to pain into which, as Livingstone has taught us,
the victims of the carnivora pass before their death.
But to the physiologist the phenomenon has a scientific
interest as another illustration of the strange effect of
reiterated sound upon the brain-cells; gently loosening,
by its vibrations, the links which bind together the
centres of consciousness and of sensation. We know of
many instances of a similar effect on the nerve-centres
of repeated sensory impressions. How they act
we do not know yet, but we have gained some
insight in the discovery of the part which
' inhibition ' plays in nervous action. We see
it, for instance, in many effects of peculiar auditory
sensations. Take the influence of the ploughboy's
whistle on his resting team, or the idiosyncrasy to
• the sound of the bagpipe, with which Shakespeare
has made us familiar. We know still less of the mode
of the action of sound upon the brain to which we
have referred; whether on the nerve-cells directly or
through the vessels, whether through the auditory
path or through many sensory nerves, or whether in
part by the motion of the brain itself upon its
hydrostatic bed,' is still uncertain. In any case it
is a rough reproduction of the 'lullaby' which is the
instinctive sedative of nature, and doubtless may be
allowed to exercise its full effect with much advan-
tage in lessening the wearying effects on the nerve-
centres of a railway journey."

BITS AND BEARING REINS.
(From the Pictorial World).
"I never allow a bearing-rein to he used in my es-
tablishment, nor did my father before me; I am sure
they are both useless and cruel;" so wrote Lord
Portsmouth a little time age, and so in effect, have
written Sir Arthur Helps and other high authorities.
We ourselves have more than once deprecated their
use, and, if anything, are more convinced than ever
that the only effect they have on horses is to pain and
irritate them. Who can doubt that this is the case
after reading Mr. E. F. Flower's pamphlet on the sub-
ject? Mr. Flower has had a large experience of horses.
As he says himself, he does nor remember the time
when he could not ride. He is well known as a cross-
country rider. When he was just thirteen he drove a
pair sf horses- in an American carriage all the way—
three hundred miles-from Philadelphia to Pittsburg.
A veritable Jehu, truly I Well, Mr. Flower declares
that his greatest ambition is to have "He was one of
those men who caused the bearing-rein to be abolished"
written on his tombstone. He has ever found,
he assures us, that "this barbarous custom "
only made vicious horses more vicious, and•
restive horses more restive. " A 'few years ago,"
writes he, "I bought a fine horse with a bad character;
he was a roarer, a jibber, a bolter—and the late coach-
man told me I should never be able to drive him ; but
I liked his looks, and the result confirmed my good
opinion. The roaring soon ceased after the tight gag
bearing-rein was taken away ; an easy bit was put in
his mouth instead of a severe one, which had caused
him to be restive through sheer pain ; he became per-
fectly tractable, and I have driven him for years both
in double and single harness With great comfort and
safety." This is only one case in point; he adduces
many others, and not a few of the best "whips" in
England back him up. The fact is bearing-reins—
especially what are called gag bearing-reins—would
never have come into such common use if it hadn't
been for ignorant grooms and coachmen. These,
as is well known, take as a rule more pride in their
masters' and mistresses' horses than the masters and
mistresses themselves. They like them to paw and
rear before starting; and so, for that matter, do the
nursery maids. Oh, la!" exclaim these latter,
'isn't that a beauty?" Above; all, they like them to
keep their heads well in the air. Now, the Bedouin
or gag-hearing rein is just the thing to make them do
that. For the benefit of the uninitiated, let us de-
scribe how it effects this object. First, it Is fastened
to the head of the bridle against the horse's ears, and
then a small round piece of leather comes down and
passes through a ring in the horse's bit; next it is
passel over the collar to the saddle. The result is
that, instead of the groom, when he reins up the horse,
exerting the power of a pound weight, he exerts,
through the pulicy nature of the apparatus, the power
of two pounds, so that the horse's mouth; if .not
actually cot and lacerated, suffers acutely—more
especially as the bit is often not of the ordinary kind,
but one fitted with a hoop, iu which the tongue is held
straight, the bar of the club passing under the tongue.
To sum up, there is not one argument in favour of the
tight bearing rein. It does not keep the horse from
stumbling—rather does it cause him to stumble anti:,
prevent his recovering himself; then, again, as Mr.,
Flower remarks, a horse with its head stuck up in the
air does not, after all, look half so graceful as a well-
fed, not overworked horse, in its free and natural
attitudes." Thanks mainly to that gentleman, this
inhuman apparatus would seem to be doomed. •TAe-
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Alaikle
has taken up the matter. There was a meeting, last
week at the rooms of that institution "to discounten-
ance the use" of these reins, when the Right Hon.
Cowper Temple, M.P., presided, and when many
influential gentlemen; as well as some coachmen,. sho wed
the cruelty that their use entails. In the name of
humanity, let us do away with them.

,wed.f,

MATRIMONIAL MEM. —A young gentleman
who has recently contracted a matrimonial alliance
with a stout elderly party who has a thousand or so in
the Funds, says it was not his wife's face Which at-
tracted him so much as her figure. There is something
In this,— Judy .