162 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



foal's wants, and the practice has been very appropriately termed 

 " working for a living." We should have no hesitation, provided 

 the mare, having passed safely through the parturient process, is 

 now doing well, in recommending that she be turned, for a few 

 hours daily, into a good wholesome pasture ; not, however, until 

 twenty-four hours after her delivery. When taken up for the 

 night, a wide stall, good bedding of clean straw, and a generous 

 supply of her usual food, should be assigned her. Mr. Youatt 

 directs that, " As soon as the mare has foaled, she should be turned 

 into some well-sheltered pasture, with a hovel or shed to run into 

 when she pleases; and if the grass is scanty, she should have a 

 couple of feeds of corn daily. The breeder may depend upon it, 

 that nothing is gained by starving the mother and stinting the foal 

 at this time ; it is the most important time in the life of an animal, 

 and if from false economy his growth be now arrested, his puny 

 form and want of endurance will ever afterwards testify the error 

 that has been committed. The food should be given in a trough 

 on the ground, that the foal may partake of it with the mother." 

 White also recommends, " that the dam should be well fed." 



Now, suppose that, in consequence of a want of attention to 

 these and other particulars, (all forming a necessary part of stable 

 economy,) the mother shall be the subject of temporary functional 

 derangement ; and if so, the foal will also suffer in like manner ; 

 for the mother cannot have any derangement of the digestive 

 function, however slight, but it will also affect the nursling.* 



* The milk of a woman (and we may add that of a horse, to a certain extent) 

 differs, — 



" 1. In Respect to Food. — The milk of a woman who suckles, living upon 

 vegeto-animal food, never acesces, nor coagulates spontaneously, although 

 exposed for many weeks to the heat of a furnace. But it evaporates gradually 

 in an open vessel, and the last drop continues thin, sweet, and bland. The 

 reason appears to be, that the caseous and cremoraceous parts cohere together 

 by means of the sugar ; hence its acescence is prevented. It does acesce, if 

 mixed or boiled with vinegar, juice of lemons, supertartrate of potassa, dilute 

 sulphuric acid, or with the human stomach. It is coagulated by the acid of salt, 

 or nitre, and by an acid gastric juice of the infant ; for infants often vomit up 

 the coagulated milk of the nurse. The milk of a, suckling woman who lives 

 upon vegetable food only, like cow's milk, easily and of its own accord acesces, 

 and is acted upon by all coagulating 6ubstances like the milk of animals. 



" 2. In Respect to the Time of Digestion. — During the first hours of digestion, 



