126 THEORY OF FEEDING. 



stop feeding, will become restless, will look about him, and 

 will often neigh for water. If he is outside, he will make 

 strenuous efforts to get water. We all know how a thirsty 

 horse plunges his muzzle into water, and how he will try to 

 resist any attempt made by his ignorant or cruel master or 

 groom to prevent him from satisfying his longing for that 

 fluid. If his thirst continues to remain unappeased, his un- 

 easiness will increase, his mouth will become dry from want 

 of saliva, his tongue hot, his blood thick, fever will set in, 

 digestion will become checked, and constipation will ensue 

 from the dry and balled condition of the food in the intestines. 

 We may take for granted that severe thirst is a very painful 

 feeling in horses, and that it can cause much more distress 

 than hunger. 



When a horse suffers from hunger alone, or from hunger 

 and thirst, he at first becomes excited and ravenous ; but later 

 on, he becomes affected with increasing depression, which soon 

 deprives him of all desire for food, even if it is offered to him ; 

 and his temperature becomes lower and lower. The torpor 

 appears to be largely due to the great increase, in his system, 

 of poisonous products, caused by the breaking up of nitro- 

 genous tissue, after the other sources of heat production have 

 become more or less exhausted. The fall in temperature 

 naturally results from the small supply of energy available 

 in the body. 



Death seems to be produced principally by an insufficient 

 supply of energy ; by disintegration of the tissues ; and by 

 poisonous effects of an excess of nitrogenous waste. Towards 

 the end, the horse remains lying on his side, and death is 

 preceded by cold sweats and a few brief convulsions (Colin). 



A bility to bear abstinence from food depends mostly on age ; 

 percentage of fat in the system ; and general health. As the 

 needs of the system are more pressing, and the process of 

 waste is more active in young horses than in mature ones ; 



