Stomach Staggers ; its Cause. 169 



food, the stomach becomes gorged and the natural 

 juices are inadequate to the performance of their 

 office. It is no uncommon occurrence for farmers 

 and others keeping a number of horses to lose 

 several of them within a very short period of each 

 other with this malady, from which an opinion 

 prevails that this staggers is contagious. Nothing 

 can be more erroneous than this belief, as it is 

 quite certain it is the result of bad stable manage- 

 ment or by overfeeding the horse with unwhole- 

 some food, or by the horse feeding too voraciously 

 as already mentioned. This disease is much more 

 common with old horses than young ones, owing 

 to the want of vital energy in the digestive organs. 

 Prevention in this complaint is again better than 

 cure, and therefore I would strongly recommend 

 owners of horses to look to them, and give some 

 attention to the following : — Too much food given 

 at one time after long fasting or hard work, or 

 neglecting to give the animal water, is certain 

 to produce staggers. 



The hours of labour should be for limited 

 spaces of time, with proper intervals of rest 

 allowed, and the horse regularly fed during these 

 intervals. Every man must have felt the effects of 

 going without his dinner for three or four hours 

 beyond the accustomed time. Exhaustion is sure 

 to follow, which is produced by the juices acting 

 upon the coating of an empty stomach. From 

 five to six hours is the usual time between the 

 meals of a labouring man, and with a horse that 

 is worked no longer interval should elapse with- 

 out feeding and watering. When persons are 



