§4 THE HORSE BOOK. 



get him just as quickly as the best horse in the 

 stable can travel. The foal should come, nor- 

 mally, first the forefeet, then the nose, and if 

 these are not all in evidence, get the practitioner 

 at once — on the dead run. It is amazing how 

 much a mare can stand during parturition for so 

 highly organized a form of life, but the fewer 

 chances one takes the better it is. I make no 

 attempt to detail didactically the various abnor- 

 mal presentations, though they are compara- 

 tively common, for the reason that when the 

 average man goes to fussing with a case of the 

 kind trouble of the most troublous variety is on 

 hand. 



During the closing period of its fetal exist- 

 ence there collects in the intestines of the foal 

 the fecal substance known as meconium. This 

 must be got rid of shortly after birth and usual- 

 ly is, the milk in the mare 's udder at parturition, 

 known as colostrum, having an aperient action. 

 There is nothing far out of the common about 

 this colostrum. Its chief peculiarity physically 

 is that its fat globules are very large. Its ape- 

 rient action is due, probably, to its long reten- 

 tion in the udder and to the mild fermentive 

 process which has been going on in it for some 

 little time prior to its withdrawal. The milk 

 which is secreted within an hour after the with- 

 drawal of the colostrum has no aperient action 

 to speak of, and hence it is believed that the ac- 

 tion so necessary to the foal is derived from 



