PHYSIOLOGY OF FEEDING. 37 



character than that mixture would constitute, rnmixed seed 

 or corn always injures him, and injures him more or less just in 

 proportion as it contains less or more of rough woudy tibre in 

 itself. 



Thus coarse seeds such as prairie, kangaroo, Maori, cock's- 

 foot, or rye grass seed, or oats, surrounded as they are with a 

 rough fibrous husk, may with some difficulty be passed through 

 his digestive organs ; but such seeds as wheat, which are 

 surrounded with no fibrous liusk, are absolutely poison to him, 

 and if allowed or compelled to eat them, in an unmixed state, 

 they will kill him with great pain. 



68. — Inattention to these simple, plain, but most important 

 teachings of nature, has led to much suftering to the horse, and 

 much loss to his owner. The poor animal has often been killed 

 with kindness by those who intended to be his best friends. 

 How often have we seen a heavy feed of unmixed oats given to a 

 horse in the morning, as a preparation for the longest or hardest 

 day's work ever expected from him, and the same food put before 

 him at every stage of the journey. It is true that it does not 

 often kill him as unmixed wheat would do, but it makes him 

 uncomfortable from the first, and the discomfort increases with 

 every feed, until he refuses corn altogether, and suffers more 

 through the day with the pain and weakness inseparable from 

 indigestion and disordered bowels, than he would have done 

 with twice the work on a mixture of food fitted for his stomach. 



69. — Xor does the mischief always end with the day. There 

 is a constant remarkable sympathy between the digestive organs 

 of the horse and the extremely sensitive laminoe of his feet, so 

 that inflammation will fly from the one to the other in the most 

 sudden and unaccountable manner. Anything that is liable to 

 inflame the bowels is thus liable to inflame the feet, and a great 

 deal of the lameness we see in the horses of those who Avish to 

 treat them most kindly is the result, not of overwork, but of 

 injudicious feeding. When a horse is constantly kept upon 

 food as concentrated as he can bear, there is necessarily a tendency 

 to inflammation and consequent lameness, but lameness is more 

 certainly produced with sudden changes from bulky to concentrated 



