ADVERTISEMENT. THIS new SPORTING DICTIONARY has been compiled with more than ordinary care, and by a gentleman whose experience and facilities of acquiring information rendered him peculiarly fitted for the task. The Publishers feel confident that, although their volume is inferior in bulk to the ponderous tomes that encumber the shelves of many a country gentleman's library, it yields to none of its predecessors in fulness, accuracy, or perspicuity, and, that as a Sporting Manual it must long continue foremost in the field. The term Dictionary is doubtless applicable to the alphabetical arrangement, which the Author thought it expedient to adopt, but it by no means conveys an adequate idea of the value or real character of the work; this may be described as a series of condensed Essays upon Shooting, Hunting, Fishing, Hawking, Archery, and every species of manly British sport, or interesting game practised or patronised in the Sporting World; interspersed with explanations of every term found in sporting nomenclature; and accompanied by a most valuable collection of Rules, Recipes, Remedies, &c. for the purchase and training of animals, and choice and care of objects connected with the sports here treated of. These are amongst the reasons that induce the Publishers to recommend their Sporting Dictionary as a convenient vade mecum to every one who knows the value of a good horse, and a multum parvo to every votary of the rod and line. in 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON, 1835. THE PUBLISHERS. A DICTIONARY OF SPORTS, ETC. ETC. AARON. A bay colt, foaled in 1747, the first produce of his dam, was got by Lord Portmore's Whitenose (a son of the Godolphin Arabian) out of Diana, by Whitefoot. This extraordinary horse generally measured under fourteen hands. See LITTLE DRIVER. ABATE. A horse is said to abate, or take down, his curvets, when working upon curvets he puts both hind legs to the ground at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times. ABATIS, or ABBATIS, from batum, a corn measure. An obsolete term for an officer of the stables who had the charge of the provender. ABATURES. The foiling of the sprigs of grass thrown down by a stag in passing, or the sprigs themselves. ABDOMEN. A cavity, vulgarly called the belly, containing the guts, bladder, liver, spleen, and stomach; when opened the first thing that presents itself is the peritonæum, a thin though firm membrane, capable of considerable extension, and of returning to its former state. ABDOMINALES. An order of fishes having ventral fins placed behind the pectoral in the abdomen, A ABLET, or ALBLEN. See BLEAK. ABORTION. The produce of an untimely birth. This accident seldom happens to brutes. In mares the cause may be generally attributed to over-work or external violence. ABORTIVE CORN. A disease in corn, which shews itself when the stalk is about eighteen inches high, and may be known by a deformity of the ear, the leaves, the stalk, and even the grain. Corn in this state, if not directly unwholesome, may be considered as unfit for horses from its deficiency of nutriment. ABRAMIS. See BREAM. ABSCESS. A tumour or swelling containing purulent matter. It arises generally from external violence, and is relieved in horses by the application of a poultice-in sheep and poultry by opening the tumour and expressing the pus or matter. ABSORBENTS. Medicines supposed to have the power of drying up redundant humours, either internally or externally; as magnesia, &c. ABSORBENT VESSELS. Vessels which carry any fluid into the blood, and are denominated, according to the liquids they convey, lacteals, lymphatics, and inhalent arteries. ACCLOYED. Pricked. A horse's foot, when pricked in shoeing, is said to be accloyed. A word now rarely used. ACHE (in Horses). A pain in any part of the body, occasioning a numbness in the joints. It proceeds as in the CARP, herring, salmon, &c. from cold, taken upon violent exer B cise, and there are various remedies | so called at Newmarket, one mile for it. two furlongs and twenty-four yards in length: abbreviated A. F. See RACE COURSES. ACIDS. The name of a very powerful class of substances employed in veterinary practice: they are divided into animal, mineral, and vegetable acids. For some excellent remarks on the composition of acids and the principle of acidification, the reader is referred to the London Encyclopædia, articles CHEMISTRY and PHARMACY. ACOPA, ACOPUM, or ACCOPUM. An extremely hot and stimulating medicine used by the ancients both externally as an ointment or charge, and internally as an electuary. In the preparation of this extraordinary composition no less than thirty different articles were used, among which "half a pound of pigeon's dung" is ordered. The author of the Dictionarium Rusticum, edit. 1717, says, "It is both a medicine and an ointment, helping convulsions, stringhalts, colds, &c. in the muscles and sinews, draws forth all noisome humours, and being put up into the nostrils of a horse, by means of a long goose feather anointed therewith, disburdens the head of all grief. It dissolves the liver troubled with oppilations or obstructions, helps siccity and crudity in the body, banishes all weariness; and, lastly, cures all sorts of inward diseases if given by way of drench, in wine, beer, or ale." ACRIMONY. This term is applicable to some states of the humours in an animal, as acrimony of the bile, and other secretions which are, by the laws of animal economy, constantly thrown out of the machine, in order that the humours may be kept in a sound condition: for, except when in a morbid state, they are free from acrimony. When in a morbid state we have different species of acrimony, which are denominated from the effects produced on the habit. Hence, we say, complaints of this nature originate from an acrimonious humour sui generis. ACROSS THE FLAT. A course ACTION, in horsemanship, implies the motion of the various parts of a horse in doing his paces. "Action," says a modern writer, "is every thing: without it (i. e. free and graceful action) the finest form is of no avail." ACTION OF THE MOUTH. The agitation of the tongue and the jaw of a horse that, by champing upon the bit, keeps his mouth fresh. It is shown by a white ropy foam, which is a sure indication of health, mettle, and vigour. See ACTUAL CAUTERY. CAUTERY. ACULEATED. A term applied to the fins of fishes that are armed with prickles, such as the stickle-back. ACULER (in the Manége). The motion of a horse, when in working upon volts, he does not go far enough forward at every movement, so that his shoulders embrace too small a space, and his croupe comes too near the centre of the volt. Horses have a natural inclination to this fault, in making demi-volts. ACUPUNCTURATION. Some writers think it has a galvanic influence on the nerves. See Churchill's Treatise on Acupuncture. ACUPUNCTURE. The operation common among the Japanese and Chinese of pricking the diseased parts with a gold or silver needle. It has been recently introduced into European practice. "I am not aware," says a writer in The Veterinarian, "that it has been resorted to by any English veterinarian, except that I once used it with considerable effect in a case of chorea consequent on distemper in a bitch." The same gentleman adds, "I do trust that some zealous veterinarian will put the use of the needle fairly to the test in that most dreadful and untractable disease, tetanus." Some French vets have given it an extensive trial; and experience has shown |