88 NAYIX OX THE HORSE. 



Causes. — An eminent writer says : " This disease never occurs 

 except by the fault of those who have the management of the 

 horse." However true this may be, it certainly ought to be a 

 warning to all owners of this interesting animal to consider 

 well the importance of attention to the subject of his manage- 

 ment. That the stomach is the original scat of trouble, can 

 not be doubted; but the injury is reflected, or transferred, as it 

 were, from the stomach to the brain ; and hence the s^anptoms 

 are of a cerebral (relating to the brain) character, instead of 

 indicating disorder of the stomach. This takes place through 

 the great sympathetic nerve, which originates in the brain, 

 and, by one of its branches and its divisions, is spread all 

 over the stomach. The way in w^hich the disease is generally 

 brought on is by allowing the stomach to become debilitated, 

 or weakened, and irritable by long fasting, excessive labor, 

 and, perhaps, without water, and then allowing the horse to 

 eat of dry feed until the stomach becomes crammed or dis- 

 tended; and, from the debility present, the stomach fails 

 to act on the food taken, and no digestion takes place ; the 

 food swells, the free circulation of the blood is obstructed, 

 the brain becomes irritated, and the blood flows to it in too 

 great quantity, and the train of symptoms described is the 

 result. When the stomach is weakened or debilitated, it does 

 not contract on the food taken, and hence the animal has 

 no monitor to tell him when enough has been taken, and he 

 continues to swallow as long as the stomach will stretch enough 

 to admit any thing more. This condition of the stomach is 

 often brought on by allowing the horse to go from morning till 

 night without feeding or watering. No horse should be worked 

 more than four or five hours without feeding. 



The only diseases with which stomach staggei's is very likely 

 to be confounded, are mad staggers and flatulent colic. It may 

 best be distinguished from the former by careful attention to 

 the symptoms of the case generally, and especially to the his 



