14 PATHOLOGY. 



SO affected begin to die when almost fit for the butclier, and 

 the best plan, when they thus begin to fall off, is to make the 

 remainder of the flock so fed into mntton as soon as possible. 



During wet seasons, turnips, although apparently fully grown, 

 may contain but little nourishment, but are loaded with watery 

 particles. Animals then have to consume large quantities to 

 maintain life, and in consequence the digestive powers become 

 weakened ; debility, anaemia, and deatli are the results. 



Now if the stockowner bear in mind that the fodder with 

 which he is supplying his animals does not contain the essential 

 constituents of sound food, he will avoid his losses by supple- 

 menting turnips with cake, corn, and particularly with some 

 long food, as it must be borne in mind that all ruminants thrive 

 best upon food requiring to be remasticated. The horse also, 

 though not a ruminating animal, does not thrive except on food, 

 some of which at least is coarse, and requiring much mastication ; 

 and tlie bad effects of feeding the horse on a diet easily swallowed 

 are seen when it is fed on cooked food or on bran mashes 

 exclusively. I have seen cases of fatal impaction and of 

 rupture of the stomach caused by feeding on bran alone ; and 

 my experience points to numbers of instances where severe 

 indigestion, witli colicky pains, and fcetor of the breath, have been 

 induced when coarse food has been withheld from horses suffering 

 perhaps from a sore throat or other disease. 



But wdiilst hay or straw, which may be called the coarser 

 articles of diet, are necessary, alone they are insufficient to main- 

 tain an animal in robust health, as the indigestibility of the 

 quantities necessarily ingested becomes a source of disease, indi- 

 gestion, broken wind, languor and debility, or lead to such a 

 condition of the system as to predispose it to succumb to the 

 influences of epizootics. 



In addition to being insufficient or ill-proportioned, food may 

 be had in quality, as in rainy seasons, where the vegetation is 

 too watery in its nature, its nutritive constituents washed out 

 as it were ; or damaged by mould, or other causes in operation 

 and extending over districts and even countries. What is more 

 common after a bad harvest, hay or corn, than to see scores of 

 horses affected with tlie disease termed diabetes insipidis, 

 induced by some as yet unknown agent developed in the food 

 by the operation of wet, heating, and fermentation, or all of these 

 operations combined. 



