THE HUNTER AT HOME. 175 



date, as even " Nimrod," that most practical of writers 

 upon stable subjects, never mentions it. So one would 

 think that it was a new thing, and theory would suggest 

 that it has arisen since clipping the hunter became 

 general. I can remember the existence of such an 

 affection for the best part of twenty years, and I am in a 

 position to say that it has nothing to do with clipping or 

 singeing, as I have had a mare attacked who was hunting 

 with her winter coat on. I ascribe it to general foulness of 

 the system, arising from hard work, stimulating food, and 

 heats and chills. New oats are said to be a predisposing 

 cause, but, although I have occasionally been obliged to 

 give hunters (after Christmas) oats of the last harvest, I 

 have never found them cause mud fever, although they 

 are otherwise objectionable. Horses who have been 

 summered at grass are especially liable to it. Washing 

 hunters on their return home with hot water is said to 

 cause it as well; but foulness of habit, or, in other 

 words, want of physic, is, I am persuaded, the true 

 cause. Since I have left off giving my horses green 

 meat in the summer I have never had a spot of mud 

 fever on any of them. But each horse has two doses of 

 physic between his beginning exercise and Christmas 

 each year, one about the middle or end of February, and 

 one on leaving off hunting. My doses are, however, 

 very mild, as I depend chiefly on the preparation, and 

 never give more than 4 drachms of aloes, often only 3 ; 

 this, of course, depending on the constitution of the 

 individual horse. Little time is lost by these mild doses 

 as the horse can hunt on the fourth day after the physic 

 has " set " sometimes even sooner. This is my mode 

 of prevention of mud fever. The cure is the physic, 

 better late than never, and a little rest. When there is 



