^ HIPPOPATHOLOGY. 



as to be no more like the same rough and ragged animal he 

 was when first taken up than one species of animal is like 

 another : he is, in fact, perfectly metamorphosed. Such 

 a change, however, I repeat, is not brought about with- 

 out peril. By the means employed to accomplish all this, 

 excited circulation is aroused in his constitution, under 

 the operation of which the probability — nay, all but cer- 

 tainty — is, that some part or other of the complex animal 

 organism will give way. As we render the hardy plant a 

 tender one, although we augment its growth and beauty, by 

 transplanting it from the open air into the greenhouse, so 

 we transmute the cool, sturdy temperament of the animal 

 into a habit of excitability, under which there is great reason 

 to apprehend, from Avhat we should consider slight causes, 

 that it take on febrile or inflammatory action. 



The diseases to which a young animal so situated is most 

 of all liable, are those on the consideration of which I am 

 about to enter; and for this liability are they, or ought 

 they to be, paramount to all other classes in engaging the 

 study and observation of the Veterinarian : indeed, not only 

 for this, but for another reason too, which is, that more 

 horses die of these complaints than of any or all others. 

 Should the veterinarian happen to be located in a part of the 

 country where horses are bred, and where they are taken 

 up from their native fields and placed in stables, to be sold 

 or brought into use, he will find himself, among such animals, 

 almost exclusively engaged in treating cases of catarrh, sore 

 throat, strangles, bronchitis, pneumonia, and pleurisy: it 

 being in the fourth and fifth years of their age — sometimes 

 the third — that horses, in general, experience these com- 

 plaints. It is, therefore, of the utmost consequence that 

 the veterinary surgeon should be well informed on these 

 matters; and it is with the view of communicating such infor- 

 mation that I submit to him what will be found in the follow- 

 ing pages. At the same time, it is proper for the young prac- 

 titioner to know, that the conservation of the domesticated 

 young horse will greatly depend upon the discipline and 

 management he is subjected to when once he comes to be 



