'230 Litter, 



we call very warm articles^ be exposed to a frosty atmosphere^ and 

 their heat be afterwards measured by the Thermometer, they will be 

 found to be as cold as marble or stone, that has been exposed to the 

 same temperature, although, if we feel the former, we say they are 

 warm and comfortable, because they carry off the heat of our skin 

 slowly, and if we touch the latter, we prouounce them extremely 

 cold, because they conduct it very rapidly, from the surface of our 

 bodies. The use of Litter, therefore, must be prejudicial to the 

 feiet by confining their heat ; and by rendering the hoofs harder, 

 drier and less elastic, it must inevitably exasperate the evils which the 

 practice of shoeing brings along with it. The use of oil too, (as has 

 been fully explained under the head of the General Treatment of 

 the Feet) must undoubtedly aggravate the pernicious effects which 

 Litter has upon the hoofs, by rendering them incapable of being acted 

 upon, and softened by water. In that disease of the frog called a 

 running thrush, which proceeds from inflammation and ulceration of 

 the sensitive frog, wet Litter must inevitably increase the complaint, 

 in consequence of the acrimony of the putrid urine, which sometimes 

 occasions an extensive thrush to end in canker. 



Further, the use of Litter is highly inimical to the limbs, and 

 the chief cause of the great winter disease of Horses, called Grease, 

 which has already been proved to proceed, not from vitiated blood, or 

 foul humours, but, merely from inflammation of the skin of the fet- 

 locks, in consequence of the rapid vicissitudes of temperature, to 

 which this part of the animal, is frequently exposed. For, even if 

 Litter be thoroughly dry, by enveloping the fetlocks, it will confine 

 the heat of the skin, and thus render it very ill calculated to bear the 

 effects of a frosty atmosphere ; and if it be wet, it will prove a sort 



