APPETITE AND DIGESTIVE POWER. 105 



feeling, seeing, and even hearing, which excites the cavalry 

 trooper to neigh and paw the ground when the trumpet sounds 

 " feed ! " In such cases, the stimulus is not confined only to 

 the appetite, but also extends to the entire digestive apparatus ; 

 hence the value of flavour by odour and taste. 



In order to avoid excess under the promptings of appetite, we 

 should try to make our horses eat slowly. Carpenter remarks : 

 " To eat when we are hungry, is an evidently natural disposi- 

 tion ; but to eat as long as we are hungry, may not always be 

 prudent. Since the feeling of hunger does not depend so much 

 upon the state of fulness or emptiness of the stomach, as upon 

 the condition of the general system, it appears that the inges- 

 tion of food cannot at once produce the effect of dissipating it, 

 though it will do so after a short time ; so that, if we eat with 

 undue rapidity, we may continue swallowing food long after we 

 have taken as much as will really be required for the wants of 

 the system ; and every superfluous particle is not merely 

 useless, but injurious." These observations apply with greater 

 force to horses than to ourselves ; for the size of the stomach 

 as compared to that of the intestines is much smaller in them 

 than in us, and besides, they are unable to relieve by 

 vomiting, an overcharged condition of the stomach. 



Appetite guides ourselves as well as horses, not only as 

 regards the amount, but also in the selection of food suitable 

 to the requirements of the body. Thus, men who habitually 

 work hard, such as navvies, miners, and sailors, can eat with 

 benefit a quantity of fatty food, from which a person leading a 

 sedentary life would turn with loathing. We here see the good 

 effect of healthy exercise in promoting the power of digestion, 

 and in increasing the appetite, the activity of both of which 

 functions is lowered by severe work, as we may judge from 

 the fact that the appetite of racehorses in training generally 

 becomes capricious when they are kept at <c concert pitch " for 

 too long a period. 



