GO THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



the vicissitudes of cold and heat, and to keep him in an atmos- 

 phere as pure as that of which we have just deprived him. . . 

 Horses of any age, but above all young horses, should never 

 be exposed to a heated air ; they may be warmly clothed, and 

 even with advantage be kept in moderately warm stables, but 

 they ought never to respire a hot and stimulating atmosphere. 



" The next circumstance to be attended to, in order to preserve 

 the health of a horse recently domesticated, is exercise. Com- 

 pelling the animal at once to perform such exercise as comes 

 under the denomination of work, is merely subjecting him to the 

 invasion of disease, and of disease most probably of the organs of 

 respiration ; hence the old observation, ' A young horse ought 

 never to be sweated in his exercise.' Numberless horses, not only 

 young ones, b'ut of all ages, are, from want of consideration on the 

 part of their owners, killed in this way in the course of a year. 

 A person purchases a young horse of a dealer, who, most likely, 

 has had him for some weeks, during which time the animal has been 

 getting fresh, as the dealers call it ; i. e., he has been pampered 

 with all possible care, fed as if he were put up to be fattened for 

 the butcher, and little or not at all exercised : suddenly, the 

 horse, by way of trial, is made to perform by his new master 

 what he calls, and to another would have been, but moderate 

 work, but what in this case is excessive exertion ; and the con- 

 sequence is, that the animal is attacked with pneumonia, and dies 

 in the course of forty-eight hours. It is of the utmost conse- 

 quence, therefore, to attend to this circumstance; if the horse be 

 young, we cannot be too gentle with him in regard to his exer- 

 cise, for at this period he is totally unfit for work. 



"... Though a horse newly purchased of a dealer is 

 one whose age indicates that he is able to work, still, in conse- 

 quence of his having, probably, been kept in a state of inactivi- 

 ty, a proper regimen will be required to put him even in actual 

 condition for hard work. Hunting a horse with others, under 

 such circumstances, is like matching a man nursed in the lap of 

 indolence, to contend with a pugilist in hard and continual 

 training." 



Inflammation of the lungs is generally ushered in with a shiv- 

 ering fit, succeeded by superficial heat of the body and cold ex- 



