The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-11-28
DATTLE0 NERVES in
IN ANIMALS and MEN.

few days ago curious episode to
which he can recall no parallel Our
host had been breaking in a young
horse, and one morning the animal
was sent out with an older and
steadier horse harnessed TO heavy
omnibus. All went extremely web
during drive of about ten miles.
until the party, consisting of the
coachman, the man who had broken
in the horse, and a daughter OF the
house, were almost home again. Oas
host was waiting on the road few
hundred yards from the stables TO
see how the young one shaped. lie
happened to have with him more
than dozen fox terriers which are
accustomed to be taken out together.
frequently get run after a rabbit
and are generally known as "the
pack"
Our host jumped on the boxsteD
of the omnibus as It went past. the
better to judge of the young horses
appearance, and as luck would have
1t one of the young pack began leap
ing up at the step and barking. The
barking dog started the young horse
kicking. The first kick was a skier
as the writer can testify, having ex-
amined the mark made by the horses
hoof high up on the omnibus, and ii
brought the horse over the trace.
After that he was beyond control,
and his plunges made the other ami
NAL respond. The latter got one leg
over the pole and soon the yo,.ng
one was 1ounderlng on the ground.
and the elder. a powerful animal OF
over sixteen hands, was trampiing on
him, and kicking furlously. All this,
though "A serious mess, was nothing
extraordinary in the experiences OF
a fearless household which breaxs
in its own horses.
But then an entirely new anl II
expected trouble began. The ra.k
were yelping and skirmishing round
the kicking horses. and the horses
(whether only in pain, or whether
partly in anger and terror at the
pack 1t is difficult to say) began to
scream. All the four persons Gu
gagged in the turmoil--there were by
this time on the road trying to holi
and pacify the horses--are agreed
that the screaming of tho horses was
what appeared to make the pack go
mad. Mad, at all events. for the
time they went. They attacked the
horses and they attacked the mcn,
particularly the men. -
1t ought to be explained that the
dogs knew the men perfectly wcll.
and had been accustomed to 20 out
often enough with our host to re-
gard him as their master in the ab-
sence of one or two other members
of the family. They were not, ii ~
attacking strangers. Our host hang.
ing on valiantly to the head OF the
older horse, which was still kicking
diabollcally and screaming, kept say
eral of them of by taking a lesson
from the horse. To his great satis-
faction, he lifted" one of them sey-
eral yards by lucky kick. but for
all that he was bitten on both legs.
The coachman suffered worse; both
his legs were bleeding, and his tat
tered trousers were q sufficient testi-
mony of the way in which he had
been worried" Once during the
struggle the horse stopped screaming
Tor few seconds, and then it seems
that If the pack did not actually come
under control, they were at all
events not seriously aggressive.
The pack are a set of terriers "a
good-tempered in their relations with
human beings as one could want to
find. This was not a case Of a few
vicious dogs turning when a suit
able opportunity came on persons
whom they had obeyed sullenly. or
. course, the fact that the terriers were
accustomed to hunt anything which
came in their way may explain some
thing. Conceivably the spectacle of
a horse on the ground may have
aroused in them the same instincts
as they have at the end of run.
though even so the horse would sure
ly seem very large and unfamiliar
quarry. But this does not explain
the attack upon the men. Hounds
at the death do not turn on the
huntsmen, and, so far as one knows,
would not do so even II they were
less well under control.
The writer is forced to the con-
clusion that the screaming of the
horses produced in the dogs a kind
OF frenzy which may perhaps be best
though loosely described as panic
The subject is very interesting
but unhappily very vague one in
the human sphere; it would be as
interesting, though probably even
more difficult to investigate, in the
animal world. History records un.
controllable ranics among soldiers.
Tor which no immediate reason copld
be shown. In recent times there wa,
the panic OF the Greek soldiers out
side Larissa in Thessaly when no
turks were near them. The write.
has heard a young officer tell how
in the South African War his CON.
pany, who had been merc.lessly
shelled all day. suddenly rose II,
from their biyouac, following the e.
ample OF one man. and rushed across
the empty veldt yelling ike ths
Ephesian crowd, without knowing
why, At the moment there was M
oanger; and when the danger h-i
existed they had endured Il vnfa;ts--
lngly. These are extreme cases os
panic in lis strict sense.
M. Gustave lie bon has written