NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS OF GROOM 95 



The following are what I take to be the chief points 

 on which the judgment of a groom is to be exercised : 

 — To know when a horse becomes foul in his body ; 

 when he is up to his mark, and when he is below it ; 

 how to check incipient disease ; how to treat horses 

 that are not quite sound, so as to keep them on in 

 their work ; how to preserve their feet, and how to 

 feed them. He should also know how to treat thorns, 

 strains, common wounds and blows, which are per- 

 petually happening to hunters' legs ; but when any 

 mischief of a more serious nature may occur, he ought, 

 if he has his master's interest at heart, immediately 

 to send off for the best veterinary surgeon in his 

 neighbourhood ; for when disease lies beyond the 

 reach of manual detection, a groom (however clever 

 he may be as a groom), if he attempts a cure, is travel- 

 ling in a wilderness of error ; and the expedients he 

 may resort to may be worse than the original evil. 

 I will here offer a few remarks on each of the above 

 heads. 



With respect to feeding — one of the first considera- 

 tions — I believe I have said all that I conceived to be 

 necessary on this subject at p. 18, to which I have 

 nothing to add, but to remind my brother sportsmen 

 of what I have before so strongly enforced, viz., that 

 food should he proportioned to work, or plethora, the 

 root of all evils, will be produced. " Plethora," says 

 Boerhaave, " is created by everything that maketh 

 a great quantity of good chyle and blood, and at the 

 same time hindereth their attenuation, corruption, 

 and perspiration, through the pores of the skin." 



