294 HOW TO MAKE THE FARM PAY. 



composed of fibrine and albumen, the latter slieathing eacb 

 muscle, preventing friction, loosens and lubricates the fibres, 

 assists their growth, and renders them elastic and flexible ; and 

 the food should be such as to give the largest amount of muscle. 



The horse is lined with membranes. They form a fine coat- 

 ing over the bones, the brains, bowels, kidneys, heart, lungs, 

 and line all the cavities of the body. 



The constr.uction of the skin, and the purposes it serves, are 

 the sjmie as in other domestic animals, and will be treated of, 

 as will other portions of the system, in the specific chapters 

 ' relating to diseases. 



Diseases of the Bones. Big head and big jaw, are the 

 result mainly of bad food and bad treatment, although water 

 and climate favor its development. It is mostly confined to 

 Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, 

 where the horse is fed through many months, often on corn and 

 corn stalks, dirty, rotten, and mouldy, from standing too long 

 in the field. Says Stewart, in the '■'•American Farmer's JSorse 

 Booh,'' (the best authority on the horse in this country,) " On 

 such food, two thirds of the horses at the South are compelled 

 to live, and as a consequence, more than one half of them suffer 

 continually from fever. No wonder they have Big head, and 

 every other disease that horse flesh is heir to ; the only marvel 

 is, that they are ever well, or indeed that they live at all. Tc 

 feed them corn exclusively is bad enough, but when that corn 

 i.s rotten, and eked out by mouldy fodder, the condition of the 

 poor animals is deplorable." 



To Dr. Stewart belongs the credit of discovering the causes 

 and applying the remedies to this disease. In its first stages, it 

 may be detected by running the thumb up under the lip, beside 

 the under jaw bone. The symj toms are, an enlargement of nasal 

 bone, the skin and muscles of the head harden, and pulling the 



