DISEASES OF THE THROAT. ' 279 



" Mj horse had a dreadful attack of colic last night, and 

 came near dying. He has not been subject to colic. I won- 

 der what could have caused it?" Or, "I have noticed, for a 

 few days, that he has been running at the nose. What. can 

 be the matter?" Or, '* One of his eyes is terribly inflamed 

 this morning, and. is running water. I begin to fear his 

 gight is not so sound as I thought it was." And so one 

 might go on enumerating a dozen ailments that, at such a time, 

 are liable to excite the surprise and anxiety of the master. 



My dear, and now deeply-interested friend, just set your 

 wits to work, and see if you can not discover a cause for all 

 this. If you fail in this, come with me, and let us counsel 

 together ; for, " in the multitude of counsel, there is safety." 



Together, Ave may perhaps be enabled to connect eftect 

 with cause, and thus arrive at the origin of the whole 

 trouble. Let us go backward, in memory, for a- few weeks, 

 to that hard drive, that bitter cold night, and that over- 

 heated, steaming horse, exposed to all its severities, and then 

 to the next morning, when you found him in the fence cor- 

 ner, or behind the straw-stack,, quaking with the cold. Look 

 at him again, my honest friend, as he stands there, with such 

 a pitiful, beseeching look, drawn and doubled up, and that 

 pleading, imploring whicker for better treatment, as you 

 come out to his mud-lot to give him a feed of corn in a 

 trough half filled with snow, and in the full sweep of the 

 wind, at the highest part of the lot. I^eed you wonder that 

 your horse is sick? Would not such exposure be a sufficient 

 explanation of an attack of illness, or perhaps a death-bed, 

 in your own case? But you say, "I am not a horse, and 

 that is the difference." True ; but a horse is flesh and blood, 

 and his physical being is governed by the same laws as is 

 yours ; and, after all, a horse is capable of bearing but lit- 

 tle more exposure than a man. 



And now, for your own good, and for the improvement 

 of your future practice, let me say, kindly, yet firmly, what 

 is patent to every discriminating veterinarian : " This is work 

 of your own doing. You are the responsible party; and, if 



