CHAPTER Y. 



COUGH, FOEEHUNNER OF INFLUENZA. 



How often do we hear gentlemen and grooms 

 asking each other if their horses cough. It is a 

 very rare occurrence that I have to answer '^ Yes," 

 vet there are times when both man and horse 

 take cold without any given cause, but they are 

 very rare occurrences. Then you may well ask, 

 *' How do horses catch cold ? " Some will tell 

 ns, by standing about in the cold, which in some 

 cases is true, and it is wonderful that a great 

 many more horses do not catch cold when we see 

 grooms out under the pretence of exercising, but 

 in reality going from one public-house to another 

 drinking, and when they come home they leave 

 their horses wet and dirty while they are drink- 

 ing their little sense away at a public-house bar. 

 There is another cause of the horse catching cold 

 and coughing, and this is to be seen every day at 

 Newmarket — that place where they think they 

 cannot be taught anything, and that to them 

 everything is but a tale already told. The great 

 cause of cold-catching is not, as most people sup- 

 pose, by going out of a warm stable into the cold, 

 but by coming direct from the cold into the hot 

 air of the stable, and causing a too sudden relax- 

 ing of the pores of the skin, making the skin too 

 sensitive, when the least draught causes a check 

 and chill, and the animal soon commences to 



