PART III. 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH SIGNS OF HEALTH OR DISEASE. 



To judge of a horse's health, inspect his dung, urine, look in- 

 side his nostrils, feel the pulse, ears, legs, and skin, besides any 

 local inspection specially necessary, and use a clinical thermo- 

 meter. 



DUNG when loose and sticky, with mucus on it, shows diges- 

 tion is deranged, probably from too much heating food, such as 

 gram. If yellow and clay-like, the liver is slightly deranged. If 

 hard, small, dark reddish colour, and often surrounded with 

 mucus, the liver is inflamed. If dark and stinking, probably 

 diabetes is the cause. If green, instead of natural colour, it 

 shows grass unduly predominates in food. If dry and hard, it 

 denotes costiveness and want of green or soft food. If it con- 

 tain undigested oats, barley, &c., it shows that the grain should 

 be bruised before feeding to assist mastication, or the food should 

 be changed. 



URINE is sometimes bloody from inflammation of the kidneys'- 

 but often is only apparently so from feeding on soft boiled food, 

 such as mutikalai ; by leaving the urine for an hour in a recep- 

 tacle undisturbed, the difference can be perceived, as real blood 

 will separate from the urine. Profuse flow of watery urine indi- 

 cates diabetes ; suppression shows strangury, whilst constant 

 painful dribbling accompanies inflammation of the bladder. Al 

 these diseases and treatment are separately mentioned under 

 the heading of Internal Diseases. 



NOSTRILS in health have the membrane a uniform pale 

 pink colour. Increased redness shows some internal excitement 

 of system. Streaked appearance means inflammation, and florid 

 red denotes acute inflammation internally. Pale pink with 

 patches of red shows fever. Paleness accompanies debility. 

 Dark livid or purple is very bad, being significant of stagnation 

 of vital current (as in congestion of lungs). Yellow tint denotes 

 that liver is out of order. 



NASAL DISCHARGE (which every horse naturally has) in 

 health is ropy, floats if put in water, and when mixed with it is 



