46 THE HORSE AND ITS DISEASES. 



contraction of the eye in search of light, the heat of 

 the body, etc., etc., all tending to constitute a frame 

 directly opposite in health, vigour, and appearance, to 

 those whose condition is regulated by a very different 

 system of stabularian management. 



The evils arising from this mistaken treatment are 

 only yet enumerated in part, being those that evidently 

 appear upon a superficial survey of the stables, and their 

 contents ; others become discernable upon being brought 

 into action. They are certainly less enabled to encounter 

 fatigue than any horse in Ireland, from so constant an 

 existence in the absolute fumes of a hot bath. They 

 never can be exposed to the external air in a cold, wet, 

 or winter season, without danger to every part of the 

 frame. By such contrast, they are instantly liable to a 

 sudden collapsion of the porous system, which locking 

 up the perspirative matter, so violently propelled to the 

 surface, throws it back upon the circulation with 

 redoubled force, where nature being too much overloaded 

 to admit its absorption, it becomes immediately fixed 

 upon the eyes, or lungs, laying a very substantial foun- 

 dation of disease and disquietude. If such horse is put 

 into strong exercise, he soon proves himself inadequate 

 to either a long, or an expeditious journey ; for whether 

 the body is overburthened with weak and flatulent food 

 and water at setting out, jaded with early fatigue, to 

 which he has not been accustomed, or debilitated with 

 the stable discipline we have so minutely described, the 

 effects are nearly the same. If his journey is of any 

 duration, or his exertions of any great magnitude, it is 

 no common thing to find he has fallen sick, lamed or 

 tilled upon the road ; he is next sold to the first bidder, 

 under whose systematic care and rational mode of 

 management, a few months perhaps makes him one of 

 the best and most valuabe horses in the kingdom. 



This is a cii'cumstance that happens so very constantly 

 in the equestrian fluctuation of fortune, and the assertion 

 so repeatedly justified by occular demonstration, and 



