56 HOUSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



we eat with undue rapidity, we may continue swallow- 

 ing food long after we have taken as much as will really 

 be required for the wants of the system ; and every 

 superfluous particle is not merely useless, but injurious." 

 These observations apply equally well to horses as they 

 do to ourselves. (2) Appetite guides the animal in its 

 selection of food suitable for the repair of the waste 

 that is going on at the time. As a general rule, when 

 a horse's powers are fully taxed, he should be allowed as 

 much corn and hay as he chooses to eat, provided 

 always they are both of a suitable nature. The instinc- 

 tive selection of food is well seen in the case of men 

 who have to work hard, such as navvies and sailors, for 

 they will eat, with benefit, a quantity of animal food 

 and fat, from which a sedentary person would turn with 

 loathing. 



Influence of an artificial state of Life. The horse is 

 intended by nature to travel considerable distances 

 when grazing ; while his natural food is one of large 

 bulk, containing a comparatively small amount of nourish- 

 ment, his digestive organs being specially adapted for its 

 consumption. The requirements of civilization, how- 

 ever, interfere most materially with these conditions. 

 At times, long protracted rest deprives the animal of 

 the exercise which is so essential to his health, and 

 which he, in a state of nature, would be obliged to take 

 in the pursuit of food. On the other hand, in order to 

 develop his physicial system to its utmost extent, he 

 is supplied with food of a far more concentrated form 

 than he was naturally intended to consume. Hence we 

 are unable to trust to the animal's appetite alone as a 



