THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 40 



pathetically'* and by continuity of tissue. The 

 muscles of the chest and shoulders, as well as the 

 entire bony structure — from the diaphragm to the 

 shoulder-blades and ribs — are made sore and lame by 

 means of the congested stomach, whether this organ 

 be acutely affected from some special cause, or chron- 

 ically diseased from habitual excess in diet. The 

 more frequently the horse is fed the more danger 

 there is of this chronic disease of the stomach. Long 

 intervals between meals afford time for the subsidence 

 of the congested condition which is the normal result 

 of the digestive process. If this process is too often 

 repeated there is always a liability to cause it to be- 

 come chronic ; or, in other words, the normal digest- 

 ive congestion is transformed into a disease. No 

 doubt many of my readers have themselves experi- 

 enced the very same kind of lameness, following a ball 

 or party, and have attributed it to having " caught 

 cold." A draught from some window was supposed 

 to be the cause of the mischief, instead of the fourth 

 meal, eaten, perhaps, when the person was hot and 

 tired from dancing, and when he or she had already 

 eaten one meal too much. Upon all such occasions, 

 except for the mere sensual gratification derived from 

 tickling the palate, there is no more need of another 

 supper than of a fourth suit of clothes to dance in at 

 a Fourth-of-July ball, when a single suit of mosquito- 

 netting would, so far as comfort is concerned, be su- 

 perfluous. The stomach lies close under and in con- 

 tact with the diaphragm, — the great concavo-convex 

 muscle which alone separates the stomach from the 

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