SWELLED LEGS. 419 



SWELLED LEGS. 



Partial wdema of the extremities, more often of the hinder, 

 is too well known to need much description. What has 

 been said already will apply here : debility, partial or general, 

 is the cause. At the close of long continued diseases, which 

 are weakening, the legs always swell ; and it is reasonable to 

 expect they should do so, when we consider how far they 

 are removed from the centre of circulation. The absorbents 

 may also be themselves affected ; but it is more than proba- 

 ble they are the least part of the cause, for we find them, in 

 these cases, fully equal to taking up the fluids ; as a little 

 exercise often removes the whole swelling. Sudden changes 

 in the temperature of the atmosphere that horses are used 

 to, or in the degree of clothing they wear, or hasty altera- 

 tions in the nature of their food, may any of them occasion 

 swelled legs. Thus it is, that when horses removed from 

 grass, or from a straw yard, are brought at once into a hot 

 stable, and fed highly, their extremities swell immediately ; 

 for the powers of life are unduly pushed before the tran- 

 sporting vessels are able to act on the increased secre- 

 tion : therefore arises a necessity for the administration of 

 tonics, or medicines, to strengthen the system, which, how- 

 ever, will be found less necessary when the changes are 

 gi*adually induced. Standing in the stable acts in the same 

 way, by weakening the constitution ; and hence exercise is 

 doubly useful; first, by assisting the circulation, secondly, 

 by the increased action it excites in the absorbents, and 

 in reviving the drooping health. On the contrary, turning 

 horses out to a straw yard from full feeding, warm clothing, 

 and a hot stable, may likewise bring on swelled legs, by 

 occasioning a general debility : and when they do sufter 

 from this cause, it is, in general, very acutely. It is thus 

 that standing in snow% or in long-continued wet, produces 

 sw^elled legs, by weakening the parts, and by being un- 

 favourable to absorption. It is very usual also for horses 

 to have oedematous extremities in autumn, at which period 

 the powers of life are unequal ; there being an increased 

 action in the skin to produce new hair rapidly, and those 

 parts most remote from the centre of circulation are conse- 

 quently unequally supplied with vital energy. 



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