144 THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OF 



highly carbonized blood ; and this is proof positive that the 

 same have been overfed. The racer, before he can perform a 

 feat of speed, must be prepared, as the saying is ; this implies 

 bleeding and physicing. Some works on farriery lay down 

 regular rules for putting a horse in racing condition, and the 

 remedies are fleam, physic, and bran, proof positive that such 

 animals have had too bounteous a supply of nutriment. 



Some horses, and the same is true of man, grow poor in con- 

 sequence of having to carry about a juvenile restaurant, within 

 their digestive organs, they probably become exhausted, or 

 plethoric, as the case may be, in consequence of an over-bur- 

 dened stomach. A stomach over-burdened, reacts on the ner- 

 vous system, deranges the physiological condition of the sub- 

 ject, and lays the foundation for hypertrophy (which is an 

 abnormal increase of fat or tissue), or the opposite, which 

 condition is known as atrophy — a wasting of the same. But 

 most frequently an over-burdened stomach induces diseases 

 known as staggers, cerebral congestion, softening of brain, etc., 

 etc. 



Many persons are continually devising means to excite the 

 appetite of their animals, in order to get as much food as 

 possible into their stomachs ; they seem to think that an error 

 in this direction can never occur, and should the same refuse to 

 consume the abundance placed before them, the liberal 

 individual complains that his cow has a poor appetite, and does 

 not eat " worth a centr Now it were far better for both man 

 and cow, if the former would only experiment in the oppo- 

 site direction, and ascertain how small a quantity both may 

 subsist on. A small quantity of good food, well digested, 

 answers the purpose of nutrition much better than a large 

 quantity, imperfectly so. It is very interesting to contemplate 

 how efficient a little food proves, for the promotion of health 

 and longevity. For example, a little barley and coarse fodder, 

 will suffice for the " Courser of the Desert." Shetland and 

 Welch ponies will live and grow fat on the mere vestiges of 

 vegetation. The hest cow in the world, the property of J. H. 

 Kelly, of Cleveland, Ohio, weighing 1,350 pounds is fed 



