308 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



cases, as in feeding swine and poultry, fatness is hastened by promoting sleep, and 

 preventing motion rather than encouraging it : but such animals cannot be considered 

 healthy- fed ; in fact, their fatness is most commonly the result of disease. 



2079. TranquUlity is an obvious requisite, for where the passions of brutes are called 

 into action, by whatever means, their influence on their bodies is often as great as in the 

 human species. Hence the use of castration, complete or partial separation, shading 

 from too much light, protection from insects, dogs, and otlier annoying animals, and 

 from the too frequent intrusion of man. 



2080. Clea?iUness is favourable to health, by promoting perspiration and circulation. 

 Animals in a wild state attend to this part of their economy themselves ; but, in pro- 

 portion as they are cultivated, or brought under the control of man, this becomes out 

 of their power ; and to insure their subserviency to his wishes, this part of culture, as 

 well as others, must be supplied by art. Combing and brushing stall-fed cattle and 

 cows are known to contribute materially to health ; though washing sheep with a view to 

 cleaning the wool often has a contrary effect, from the length of time the wool requires 

 to dry. This often brings on colds, and aggravates the liver complaint, so incident to 

 these animals. Bathing or steeping the feet of stalled animals occasionally in warm 

 water would no doubt contribute to their health. Bathing swine two or three times a 

 week in hot water, as in that used for boiling or steaming food, has been found a real 

 advantage. 



2081. Comfort. An animal may be well fed, lodged, and cleaned, without being 

 comfortable in every respect ; and in brutes, as well as men, want of comfort operates on 

 the digestive powers. If the surface of a stall, in which an ox or a horse stands, deviates 

 much from a level, he will be continually uneasy ; and he will be uneasy during night, 

 if its surface is rough, or if a proper bed of litter is not prepared every evening for him 

 to repose on. The form of racks and mangers is often less commodious than it might 

 be. A hay rack which projects forward is bad ; because the animal in drawing out the 

 hay is teased with the hay seeds falling into its eyes or ears ; and this form, it may be 

 added, is apt to cause the breath of the animal to ascend through its food, which must 

 after a time render it nauseous. For this reason hay should lie as short a time as possible 

 in lofts, but when practicable be given direct from the rick. Poultry of different kinds 

 are often crowded together, without any regard to the comfort of the particular kinds by 

 attending to their peculiarities, such as a smooth or soft floor for the web feet of the duck 

 tribe, or the proper size of roosting sticks for the grasping-toed feet of the other tribes. 

 Even the crowing of the cock must cause some degree of irritation, and consequently 

 impede health and fattening by disturbing the repose of quiet fowls, such as the turkey or 

 goose. Various other instances will occur to a reflecting mind ; and surely it must be a 

 duty as agreeable as it is conducive to our own interest, to promote as much as possible 

 the comfort of those animals whose lives are shortly to be sacrificed for ours. 



2082. Health. A good state of health will, in general, be the result of the mode of 

 feeding and treatment which we have described ; but in proportion as our treatment, 

 either of ourselves or other animals, is refined and artificial, in the same proportion 

 are the functions of nature liable to derangement or interruption from atmospherical 

 changes, and various accidental causes. When this takes place, recourse must be had to 

 art for relief. This is an obvious, natural, and reasonable practice ; though some 

 contend that as every disease is only an effort of nature to relieve the being from some 

 evil, it ought to be left to itself. To treat animals when in health artificially, and the 

 moment when they become diseased to abandon them to nature, is a proposition so incon- 

 gruous and absurd, that one would suppose it would be rejected by the common sense 

 Qf mankind. There are, however, some solitary instances of medical men having 

 adopted this opinion ; but the melancholy result of their acting on it in the human 

 species, as well as its utter rejection by all rational professors, and men in general, has 

 reduced it to its intrinsic value. There may be much of quackery in medicine ; and 

 unquestionably there is a great deal in the art, as applied to the brute creation by common 

 practitioners : but to reject the medical art altogether, becomes, on the other hand, a 

 species of quackery just as despicable as the other, and not less dangerous ; for it 

 cannot be much better for 9. patient to be left to die through neglect than to be killed by 

 overmuch care. 



2083. Farrieri/, m applied to cattle and sheep, is a department of medicine in which 

 perhaps greater ignorance prevails than in any other. The subject, as applied to horses, 

 has, since the establishment of veterinary schools in this country, and in France, become 

 better understood ; but the pupils from these establishments are so thinly scattered, that 

 as Laurence (veterinary surgeon, and author of a Treatise on Horses) observes, it were 

 desirable that country surgeons should in their different localities give instructions to the 

 empirical local practitioners in the country, and to intelligent bailiffs ; and that gentle- 

 men of property might have such a sense of their own interest as to call in a surgeon in 

 all cases of the least difficulty. All that we can here do is to repeat our advice of 



