CONDITION OF HUNTERS RESUMED 287 



the violent and indiscriminate use of diuretic balls, 

 and particularly so when given during the time of 

 their being liable to be put to strong work. Too 

 great an increase of the urinary secretions very much 

 impoverishes the blood, and subjects horses to 

 numerous and often fatal diseases. 



On this subject the reader had better hear what 

 Mr Percivall says in his 55th Lecture. " The general 

 use of diuretic medicines, coupled with the known 

 susceptibility of the organ itself, renders the kidney 

 the seat of frequent disordered function, and now 

 and then of violent and destructive disease. The 

 disordered function is probably the result of increased 

 action, which may or may not amount to inflamma- 

 tion : if it do not in the first instance, the frequent 

 repetition of the stimulus does not fail to give rise 

 to it, most likely in the chronic form ; and this languid 

 inflammation, which within certain Umits would die 

 away on a total discontinuance of the existing cause, 

 aggravated from time to time by the same injurious 

 diuretic influence, becomes at last established." 



In the purchase of hay, and in the management 

 of my own, I have always avoided having it too much 

 fermented, or mow-burnt, as it is called ; for, from 

 its great excitation of the kidneys, it greatly debili- 

 tates, and produces, in coach-horses, the complaint 

 termed " the lick," a certain sign of a disordered 

 stomach, and impoverished habit. Ship oats, or 

 indeed any that have been heated and become stale, 

 will have an injurious effect on the kidneys, and for 

 that reason ought to be carefully avoided. 



