14G THE SUMMERING OF HUNTERS. 



by the middle of April, which all seasons ought to 

 do. If an hypertrophy is seen to diminish a good 

 deal, under the favourable conditions we have 

 named, we may conclude that it has been caused 

 by the want of these conditions — an uneven bearing 

 surface of the foot — and that it is an hypertrophy and, 

 being so, will 7iot be removed by firing and blistering 

 or any medicinal means whatever. Some enlarge- 

 ment may and possibly will remain after the pre- 

 scribed period; but we must remember that in laying 

 by a hunter for the summer the conditions of rest, 

 &c., are continued. 



We now come to the habitation and surroundings 

 of the animal during the first half of the period, 

 however spent, of summer. There can be no doubt 

 that a large well-lighted loose-box is, if not essential, 

 very desirable. Light is extremely desirable. It 

 would be taking the reader further out of the way 

 than we have taken him, to explain in a satisfactory 

 manner the vast bearing sunlight — direct or reflected 

 — has on those countless processes which are ever 

 going on in the animal mechanism. If one visits 

 the out-patient department of a hospital in a poor, 

 densely-populated neighbourhood, the terrible results 

 of too little sunlight are most striking. The pale face, 

 the wasted form, the enlarged joints, and festering 

 sores about the neck, indicating a state of things 

 which vaguely goes under the name of scrofula or the 

 *• king's evil " is seen sitting on the waiting benches 

 or languidly lying on the sickly mother's knee, wait- 



