48 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY 



or clover, wKen it happens to be grown too old or 

 tough, and has lost its succulency, especially whcii it 

 has been cut too long before it is used. Any of these 

 may cause stoppages in the first passages, and some- 

 times excite such disorders as by their continuance 

 affect the head in a very strong manner. When the 

 Staggers and convulsive symptoms arise from such 

 causes, the horse generally looks dull about the head, 

 with his eyes swollen ; he reels and totters as he moves ; 

 his mouth is generally contracted, but not shut up ; he 

 breathes short upon the least motion, and for the most 

 part has a short cough, and the motion of the fianks 

 becomes irregular, though seldom violent. For the 

 same reason he scarcely ever lies down till some re- 

 lief is afforded him, because the extreme fullness of the 

 abdomen causes great uneasiness whenever he offers 

 to bend his body, insomuch, that many when they see 

 a horse in this condition imagine he has received some 

 hurt in his back or loins. 



*^ Other signs are costiveness, for he is apt to strain 

 much v/hen he goes to dung, and mxakes many fruitless 

 attempts ; he stales but Uttle, and that of a dark colour, 

 which often proceeds from the obstruction which it 

 meets with in its passage from the liver into the je- 

 junum, and thence the jaundice sometimes attends this 

 complaint. In order to effect a cure, let some person 

 that has a small hand rake the horse thoroughly and 

 bring out the dung from the rectum, w^hich is generally 

 hard, and made up of little small balls of a blackish 

 colour, and quite dry. After this, let him have plenty 

 of emollient oily clysters, made of mallow^s and such 

 hke, but in places where these cannot readily be got, 

 they may be made of pot liquor, or w^ater-gruel. 



" To tw^o quarts of this liquor may be added a pint 

 of linseed oil and half a pound of treacle. 



