THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 69 



life, and, as elsewhere remarked, the only possible 

 offset for abstinence from exercise is a corresponding 

 restriction in food, upon the same principle with 

 which we treat the steam engine ; viz., the more 

 power required, the more fuel burned. Two impor- 

 tant points of difference may be here noted between 

 the dead and the living machines: (i) the former 

 when not employed requires no fuel ; the latter is 

 7itver totally unemployed, strictly speaking; since the 

 entire organism is in a measure at work, and, therefore, 

 requires some fuel (food). (2) The dead engine may be 

 fed to its full capacity, though exerting no power be- 

 yond the more rapid revolution of its driving-wheels, 

 and if in consequence a part gives out, it may be re- 

 placed as good as new, and this replacement may go 

 on indefinitely; as with the old revolutionary gun, 

 with its '' new lock, stock, and barrel," but not so 

 with the living machine. Full rations for light work 

 is in direct contravention of Nature's law, and the 

 penalty is inevitable — a shortening of life to a great 

 degree in every instance, and its speedy stamping out 

 in a vast many cases. 



In any event a horse that eats the equivalent of 

 five pounds of hay and six quarts of oats daily, should 

 take an amount of exercise equivalent to fifteen to 

 twenty miles' roading at the rate of six to eight miles 

 an hour at least, or say 125 miles every week, even 

 if it has to be done with no more than the usual 

 regard for the rule I have laid down as to work- 

 ing on a full stomach. That is to say, of the two 

 rules, viz., (i) ample exercise to balance diet, and (2) 



