156 



until the full term. I have known other similar in 

 stances. Feeding hogs by the place where mares, 

 not grain-fed, are kept, is ultimately dangerous. 



If a mare once slinks her colt, she will be very 

 likely to do so at the same period of her pregnancy 

 the next year, and continue the habit, especially if 

 anything like the same provocation occurs. But if she 

 slinks, or aborts, from a hurt, a strain, or some dis- 

 ease, she will not be so liable to contract it as a 

 habit. The best remedy I have ever found, when a 

 mare shows symptoms of abortion, is to take the 

 feathers of wild birds, (pigeon feathers are the best,) 

 and burn them on a pan, or iron, 'holding them so 

 that she can inhale or breathe the smoke. 



If a mare is in the habit of slinking her foal, she 

 should not be kept in the same lot with other breed- 

 ing mares ; for, though it may seem strange, the act 

 of one mare slinking will be almost certain to cause' 

 the others to do the same. This is the result of sym- 

 pathy — some writers say of imagination. But I 

 rely for its explanation on that great sympathy 

 whose delicate and mysterious chain binds not only 

 the different organs of the same animal, but reaches 

 out even to others of the same species, and even of 

 different species, particularly if in close contact ; so 

 that an impression made on one does not stop with 

 itself, bat finds a response in the others. The ner- 

 vous system is the medium through which this sym 

 pathy acts, and as this is always exalted in its sensi- 



