MINOR DISEASES 149 



never seen any mud fever which was due to these 

 causes myself except perhaps once. This was in 

 the case of a mare we had which came out rather 

 lame ; and on close examination was found to 

 be very sore on the inside her thighs and especi- 

 ally where there was friction. The man who 

 attended to the mare was blamed for not cleaning 

 her properly, and I was told that I ought to have 

 seen to it that the man did his duty. I never 

 could account for that attack of mud fever. I 

 knew the mare had never been washed ; I also 

 knew that she had been properly cleaned not- 

 withstanding the presumptive evidence that she 

 could not have been. Nor indeed would any 

 quantity of mud which could have accumulated 

 there have produced mud fever or clay burn as 

 they called it in Yorkshire in those days. But 

 Col. Meysey Thompson's statement throws a 

 strong light on what I have always looked upon 

 as a mysterious circumstance ^ and I have now 

 not the least doubt that a sudden chill when in a 

 state of perspiration was the cause of the trouble. 

 And I am strengthened in this opinion by the 

 facts that it was in the spring when the mare was 

 attacked, and that it was not a very wet spring 

 but was a hot one. 



The principal predisposing cause of mud fever 

 and cracked heels however is washing the legs 

 and heels when the horses come in from hunting 

 and where this is not done there will be no trouble 



^ The mare, 1 am told was probably suffering from what is called 

 technically Erythema, not mud fever. 



