HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 



PART I, VOL. II. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



No general fact appears better established in Hippopa- 

 thology than the one evidencing that Disease is the penalty 

 Nature has attached to the domestication of the Horse. 

 So long as the colt remains^ unbroken_, at grass or in straw 

 yard, notwithstanding he be houseless and shelterless, little 

 apprehension is entertained of any failure in his health. No 

 sooner, however, does the period arrive for his being stabled, 

 than from the day — nay, even from the hour — he becomes 

 so, do we begin to look for his '^ falling amiss :'' an event 

 we are so prepared for in our own mind that^-^should he 

 happen to escape all ailment during this probationary stage 

 of his life (of which the instances are comparatively very 

 few), we regard him as a fortunate exception to what appears 

 established as a natural consequence of domestication. In 

 translating the animal from his native air to that of the 

 stable — from a situation in which he has been exposed to 

 the " rude blast and pitiless storm^^ to one wherein the wind 

 of heaven is hardly suiBPered to visit him, and wherein he is 

 likely to be high fed and little exercised, we have so circum- 

 stanced him as to admit of his being put into " condition,^^ 

 though, soon or late, he is pretty certain to pay the penalty for 

 it. In this situation, after a time, he becomes so far altered 

 II. I 



