280 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



the horse has sickened, and should die from such treatment, 

 it is you who have killed him, and that just as surely as 

 though you had broken his neck, or taken an ax and split 

 open his skull." We are of the deliberate opinion that two- 

 thirds of the cases of lung and throat diseases in the horse 

 are the offspring of bad treatment, of unnecessary exposure, 

 and of colds contracted by neglect and unkindness. 



It will not be difficult to trace the connection between 

 cause and effect, so as to get, at least, some proximate idea 

 of how these exposures ajid colds form the beginnings of so 

 many serious attacks of disease. The powerful efforts which 

 Nature makes to throw oft* the consequences of the bad treat- 

 ment inflicted on the dumb sufferer, only serve to lull sus- 

 picion to rest. ^Nevertheless, these very efforts are often the 

 sure means of producing local or specific disease. Their ef- 

 fects are extremely likely to concentrate upon some particu- 

 lar part or member of the body — the nose, head, brain, throat, 

 lungs, stomach, bowels, feet, the glands, skin, tissues, mem- 

 branes, tendons, joints, bones — we know not what pprtion 

 may suffer; but rarely will the horse escape without some 

 of them becoming involved. It "v^ould be impossible, in most 

 instances, to assign ai positive reason why any particular 

 organ sufters more than another. Possibly it has been weak- 

 ened by some strain or lesion of the parts ; but of this we 

 can seldom speak with certainty. 



All the vessels and passages of the body are liable to be 

 more or less deranged in action for the time being, if not 

 permanently injured, from the effects of the circumstances 

 we are considering; the pores of the skin are closed; the 

 capillaries are congested; the secretions cease to flow; the 

 bk)od is thickened, and circulates unequally in different parts 

 of the body; the glands become swollen, and the walls of the 

 air-passages and ducts are enlarged and sore. INow comes 

 on a struggle with the powers of ITature, to see in which part 

 this fiery ordeal of heat and inflammation shall reach its 

 greatest height. Some weaker organ is the one that first 

 succumbs. Here the fever rises higher and higher, and the 



