3^ ' MODERN FARRIER. 



from some derangement in the digestive organs. It 

 is sometimes occasioned by blows on the head, so as 

 to cause compression of the brain. In general, 

 however, it is extremely difficult to discover the 

 real cause of the disease. 



Horses that are voracious feeders are very subject 

 to this disease. Ignorant grooms, and waggoners 

 will often steal corn to feed their horses ; and 

 sometimes a greedy horse, in stables not sepa- 

 rated by stalls, will both eat his own allowance and 

 also his neighbour's. Thus the stomach is over- 

 charged, and corn is frequently formed in it into an 

 undigested pulp. Sometimes also the digestion is 

 hurt for want of a sufficient quantity of water to 

 drink. Horses should always be watered four times 

 in the course of a day. It is a most absurd and 

 hurtful prejudice, to suppose that water has a tend- 

 ency to make horses broken-winded. 



Mr. Gibson, an inteUigent and experienced farrier, 

 attributes this disease in many cases to a stoppage 

 in the stomach and uitestines, v/hich sometimes 

 proves fatal Vvhen not rightly understood. ' These 

 stoppages,' he says, proceed from various causes, 

 and only affect the head when they happen to be of 

 some continuance. Sometimes they are caused by 

 full feeding, with the want of air and sufficient ex- 

 ercise, especially in hot dry weather, and in consti- 

 tutions naturally hot ; but most usually from the 

 quality and nature of their food, as bad hay, or any 

 other bad provender, or rank clover, when it has 

 imbibed moisture from, the damp air, wliich renders 

 them so tough that they lie like a wad, and distend 

 the guts so as to impede their proper functions. 

 Other things have also the same effect, as soiling 

 horses with any kind of green herbage, such as 

 vetches, or clover, when it happens to be grown too 

 old and tough, and has lost its succulency, especially 

 when it has been cut too long before it is used. 

 Any of these may cause stoppages in the first pas- 



