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this conclusion, however, some will oppose their 

 opinions. The animal, they will argue, has been 

 stimulated to exhibit an unnatural maturity, and the 

 seeds of future disease have thereby been planted 

 in the system ; therefore, it will be urged, the worth 

 is depreciated. The statement looks well, but it is of 

 no value, for a little inquiry will prove it to be based 

 on false principles. Excessive stimulus checks the 

 growth, or causes early disease, sacrificing either the 

 health or life of the being. The feeder knows, from 

 experience, that the quantity of nutriment must be 

 measured by the powers of the creature that con- 

 sumes it; and that over-feeding, by impairing the 

 digestion, destroys or weakens rather than nurtures 

 the body. The stimulus, pushed beyond a certain 

 point, would keep the horse in the infirmary, and 

 never fit it for the market. Every dealer knows this, 

 and though such persons are, by the prejudice of the 

 public, obliged to keep their animals loaded with fat, 

 or in what is called " bloomy condition," they never- 

 theless fear to maintain this state of body for too 

 long a period ; and while it lasts, constantly resort to 

 drugs, to counteract that tendency to disease which 

 it engenders. They treat their stock, almost as a 



