294 MODERN FARRIER. 



wholly exempt from disease; that their appetites, 

 unlike our own, may be held under a constant con- 

 trol ; that their diseases result purely from the neg- 

 ligence or erroneous treatment of their owners. 

 They are either exposed too much to the rigours 

 and changes of the weather, or they are gorged with 

 food, denied a sufficient quantity, or supplied witli 

 such as is unwholesome. Here we learn the chief 

 causes of their maladies. Learn to prevent 

 THEM, instead of undertaking the tedious, unsuita- 

 ble, and hopeless task, of learning to cure them. 

 Of all things, let the proprietors of cattle renounce 

 for ever the insane folly of offering premiums for 

 curing incurahle diseases, and the ho]:!e of providing 

 medicines which, by a sort of miraculous operation, 

 will enable men to continue in the habit of exj)osing 

 their animals to the constant risk of such diseases. 

 I have no infalhble receipts to offer ; on tlie con- 

 trary, I V. ish to impress my readers strongly with 

 the idea, that all infaUihle receipts are infaU'ihle 

 nonsense' 



In addition to these excellent remarks, Mr. J. 

 White says, ' almost all the diseases of cattle arise 

 either from exposure to wet and cold weatlier, from 

 their food being of a bad quality, or deficient in 

 quantity, or from being changed too suddenly from 

 poor unwholesome keep to richer pasture. It is 

 necessary to observe also, that tlie animal is more 

 liable to be injured by ex})osure to wet and cold, 

 when previously enfeebled by bad keep, old age, or 

 any other cause, and particularly when brouglit 

 from a milder and more sheltered situation. I have 

 scarcely met with a disease that is not attributed, 

 by those who have the care of cattle, to a chill; 

 and under this impression, the most stimulating 

 medicines are usually employed ; among which we 

 generally find grains of paradise, ginger, long pep- 

 per, and mustard, in large doses. It unfortunately 

 happens, that the disorders arising from a chill dYQ 



