V. 



VETERINARY HYGIENE AND DIETETICS. 



WATEE^QUANTITY, QUALITY. 



Water (H:.0) forms about TO per cent of the whole body. It is 

 one of the chief constituents of the juices and tissues, and is a 

 general solvent, "by means of which various materials may be 

 taken in as food, or excreted from the body. The various organs 

 or liquids contain valuable quantities; thus, enamel contains 2 

 per cent; saliva, 99 5-10 per cent. The water should be pure, 

 and is best when obtained from the clear brook. If soft water 

 cannot be had, draw the hard v.^^ter from the well and allow it to 

 stand two hours before using. Be careful that there is no drain- 

 age of putrid matter into the well or cistern. Many diseases are 

 contracted by allowing the refuse from the barn yards to drain 

 into the cistern, or by watering the animals in the stream below 

 where the drainage enters. During very cold weather the water 

 should be warmed so as not to chill the animal. As a rule, the 

 horse should have one gallon of water in the morning, the same 

 at noon, and two gallons at night. Water should be given fre- 

 quently while on the road, but only a small quantity at a time, 

 merely cooling his mouth and tongue. Giving a great amount 

 of water diseases the blood and deadens the hair. The water 

 must in some way pass out; it cannot all pass through the kid- 

 neys, and it passes off through the pores of the skin, causing the 

 hair to become gummy and making the horse very hard to clean. 

 So great a quantity of water passing off through the pores of the 

 skin causes the hair to look dull and faded. Large draughts of 

 cold water often derange the digestive organs and retard diges- 

 tion for some time; one gallon of cold ice water will retard 

 digestion two hours, destroy the juices, and disable digestion. 



(75) 



