234 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



cretive processes morbidly and duggishly performed. How 

 greatly digestion is impaired is shown by the appearance of 

 the excrement, which is dry, hard, and black. 



It is not so much itself a disease as it is the fearful eftects 

 of some other disorder raging in the animal's system. It is 

 an invariable accompaniment of big head. Glanders will 

 produce it, and so will farcy, founder, and distemper. Bad 

 cases of swinney, big shoulder, and lock-jaw, have this among 

 their final developments. The fever which attends these 

 dreadful complaints dries up the watery secretions of the 

 system, and the hide shrinks and shrivels closely to the 

 body. 



, , TREATMENT. 



The treatment will be prolonged and tedious, and will be 

 productive of results but slowly. Especial attention must be 

 paid to the disease which has brought on such a condition 

 of the skin, and not until that has been cured can we hope 

 for a favorable change in respect to the latter. The predis- 

 posing disease, whatever it may be, must be treated directly, 

 as prescribed elsewhere, in its proper place. 



Bleed three times, at intervals of ten days. The first time, 

 take four quarts of blood ; afterward, two. Give the "jim- 

 son" seed- every third day, until the stiffness has been en- 

 tirely removed. Of this a table-spoonful is the proper dose. 

 Let the horse have plenty of sulphur and resin, in the usual 

 proportions. Especial attention must be bestowed upon the 

 horse's diet and to stable regulations. Instructions have been 

 so fully given in regard to these points in the preceding sec- 

 tions of this chapter, that there can be no necessity for re- 

 peating them here. Pasturing will do more than medica- 

 tion to cure hide-bound. 



STIFF COMPLAINT. 



This seems to be a disease almost peculiar to the Southern 

 States. It is another and aggravated development of the 

 symptoms of hide-bound. The skin is dreadfully dry and 



