Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-04-03
HOT IRON IN THE MOUTH.
A Cruel Practice la which Ignorant
Husbands Indulge.
.ouisville Commercial

| = HhHpdhN- hndhise.
Louisville Commercial
Yesterday morning as DIR. Z. V.
| Purdy, a veterinary surgeon. was
walking along East Main street, near
Preston, he came to a blacksmith
shop, and was attracted to enter by
preparations which were being made
to perform some sort of surgical
operation upon a horse that stood
patiently within while one of the
blacksmiths was trying to insert a
wooden gag between its back teeth
The Doctor entered and found that
the party was making ready to burn
out poor orute's. mouth as a remedy
for an affection known among horse
men as ''the hampers. As a member
of the Humane Society of Louisville,
and an intelligent friend of the
equine race, the Doctor peremptorily
forbade the cruel operation, and
| threatened the owner and operators
with the panalties of the law to pre-
vent cruelty to animals in case they
persisted. He came off victorious.
and the owner was compelled to give
over his designs. Talking with re-
porter for the Commercial few min
utes afterward the Doctor anbosomed
himself upon the subject as follows /:
The custom eff burning away the
gums of horses as a remedy for
| hampers is, | am sorry to say, very
common practice. 1t is altogether
cruel and unnecessary, and the rem
edy is worse in its effects than the
so-called disease. In fact, there is no
such disease; it is merely a swollen
condition of the gums induced by in
digc ton and the remedies adopted
should be directed to the seat of the
disease, the stomach, and care should
1 be taken to remove the predisposilg
cause, which is either improper food
or overwork, and usually both. All
local treatment should he palliative
merely and the most heroic should
not go beyond a simple scarifying of
| the swollen gums to relieve the in
hamation. Think of burning away
the gums entirely and leaving the
deli cate and sensitive part of the
animals teeth exposed to sudden
changes of temperature or shocks in
yolved from Drinking cold water or
eating food with gritty, flinty ingred-
tents, like corn! 1t is perfectly horri-
BILE to treat a horse after such fash
ion, and | propose to use all the influ-
ence Of the Humane Society, backed
by the powers of the law, to put stop
to it in Louisville"
us not this burning recommend
ed by the medical works upon the
horse2"
mo, sir; and nobody bat brute
or an idiot, or what is next thing to
an idiot, the man who has no surgi-
cal knowledge of treating a horse s
disease, would ever think of resorting
to it. The fact that it has been prac-
ticed for years byignorant and heart
less persons is no arguQent in its be
half. 1t is wrong, UNANIMOUSLY and
radically wrong, and the general pub
lie ought to know it.
''Are you positive that this prac-
tice prevails to any great extent in
LouisvilleW
Eyes; if what horseman connected
with a First street stable told me and
others say about the matter is true.
A man at the stables laughed at me
when | told him what | did at the
blacksmith-skop. Why he said,
Il have burned over hundred horses
for the hampers, and will burn as
many more as occasion requires.
What did you sayY
~ said if he did he would be made
to suffer for il. But the only way II
stop the barbarity is to watch for
cases and make prominent examples
of them. The prejudice and ignorance
on this subject is perfectly appalling.
You would not believe me should
tell of the amount of superstition and
fool-killing idiocy practiced on this
noblest of all quadrupeds, even by
those who ought to know better from
intimate association and pecuniary
connection with him"