122 THE SUMxMERING OF HUNTERS. 



as abruptl}^ or as gradually as is convenient. 



2. Maintaining and giving the most perfect rest to 

 the ivhole organism whilst in a lowered condition. — 

 Long ago hunters were turned out graduall}^ into 

 the fields, there to pick up their own living ; to be 

 irritated and lashed into fur}^ with the hot sun and 

 flies by day, and to be pierced through and through 

 In the cold, the rain, and dews during the night. 

 Some have recourse to this practice still, but provide 

 a shade to sleep in and to retire to from the sun and 

 flies, and perhaps provide once a day an armful of 

 hay and a feed of corn. We shall here stop to point 

 out this as a very risky practice. When a horse is 

 running out at grass he is very easil}^ choked with 

 oats. He gulps them down half masticated ; the 

 first mouthful passes into the stomach, but the next, 

 after passing to the farthest end of the gullet nearest 

 the stomach, sticks there, and the next mouthful is 

 lodged on the one next before it, and so forth, until 

 the gullet is crammed half way up the neck with the 

 oats, and the horse, alarmed, seeks water and shows 

 symptoms of choking. In such a case " not all the 

 king's horses nor all the king's men " will do any 

 good: probangs, drenches, sesophagotomy, all are 

 of no service — death must result. Hay, however 

 dry, has not quite such a choking tendency, yet it is 

 by no means free from danger. 



Another method of summering is to put the horse 

 into large loose boxes, and keep him there apart 

 from a field: to keep him in a box on tan, with clips 



