Asthma. Broken Wind. Heaves. Dyspnoea. 277 



from this, full of seed and dust was given without stint to the 

 farm horses, which during the rigor of the winter were often shut 

 up in stable for a length of time continously and dangerously 

 gorged themselves with this provender. In the Eastern States 

 with a steady falling off in the red clover, there is also a corres- 

 ponding reduction in the number of cases of heaves. The grain 

 allowed them, a mixture, supposed to consist of Indian corn, oats 

 and buckwheat, given as a dry coarse flour, was little calculated 

 to counteract the effects of the clover haj^ and the entire absence 

 of turnips and other succulent roots as a farm crop precluded their 

 use as a preventive of the nlalad3^ We need not forget the 

 prevalent ambition to possess a fast trotter, nor the effect of the 

 climate on the air-passages (See chronic bronchitis) in estimating 

 the causes of this malady in the Eastern states. 



The mere overloading of the stomach is a potent cause of the 

 development of heaves. The horse is above all other animals 

 compelled to undergo hard work on a full stomach. Coleman 

 cites the experience of the coaching days when each horse had 

 20 lbs. of oats daily and not more than 5 lbs. of hay with no water 

 before work. These horses were driven fast for long stages yet 

 they never contracted broken wind under this treatment. Farm- 

 ers' and millers' horses on the other hand were most subject to 

 the disease because gorged continually with hay chaff and mealy 

 food, and worked in this condition. " Nimrod" who confirms 

 Coleman's statement says " I have taken some pains to ascertain 

 this fact by my own personal inquiries. One proprietor who has 

 nearly fifty horses at work — many of which are in as fast coaches 

 as any that travel on the road — assured me lately that he had 

 not a broken-winded horse in his yard ; whereas before he stinted 

 them in their hay he generally had one to five in that state." 

 Percivall testifies to its comparative infrequency in the English 

 cavalry horses, which have their diet carefully regulated. Hay 

 musty from bad harvesting or other cause and such as is rank 

 from growing in low wet localities are caeteris paribus more in- 

 jurious than good hay. 



Every day observation shows that driving a horse upon a full 

 stomach often causes broken-wind and nothing will more surely 

 aggravate it, when it does exist. The same remark may be made 

 of the drinking of large quantities of water after feeding and just 



