THE EFFECTS OF CONDITION 57 



operation that we are to look for the effect we wish 

 to produce. Nitre has been much used by grooms as 

 a cooling diuretic, and a preventive of disease from 

 such causes ; but it must be borne in mind that 

 nitre is a strong repellent, and of a debilitating 

 nature. 



All this, however, without a good stable, and good 

 stable management, is of no avail. It is a maxim 

 as old as Hippocrates himself that food should be 

 proportioned to labour. Diet, therefore, is a most 

 essential point to be attended to in promoting and 

 preserving the condition of a horse ; for, as evacuation 

 is the cure, repletion is the cause of disease. Horses 

 in a state of nature are subject to few disorders. As 

 has been elegantly observed, " they contract no 

 disease from unseasonable indulgence or inordinate 

 revellings : the pure stream their drink, the simple 

 herb their repast ; neither care disturbs their sleep, 

 nor passion inflames their rest." The state, however, 

 in which we keep them for the different purposes to 

 which we apply them, is strangely at variance with 

 this temperate and natural state ; and it is only by 

 constant recourse to physic and exercise that we can 

 preserve their health under such trying circumstances. 



We are told that in former times, before wheat was 

 found out, oats fed the vassal and his lord, as they 

 now do many a Welch Squire and Scottish Laird. 

 Formerly wheat was given to race horses, as more 

 nourishing than oats ; but now the latter form the 

 chief food for aU descriptions of horses. Beans, how- 

 ever, have for some years been allowed to hunters. 



