1 72 GENERAL TREATMENT OF HORSES. 



wholesome. It is never had recourse to with the 

 race-horse during his period of inactivity, and why 

 should it be with the hunter I We would ask the 

 owner of a horse so treated, how he thinks it would 

 agree with his own constitution and his digestion, 

 to be suddenly taken from beef and port-wine to a 

 purely vegetable diet ; and the analogy holds good.* 

 Thirdly, a great mistake has prevailed on this 

 point, the preservation of the feet. A certain de- 

 gree of moisture is beneficial to the foot of the 

 horse, a continued exposure to wet most injurious 

 to it, as the certain cause of thrushes, and in time 

 total destruction of the frogs. Thus, history in- 

 forms us that the horses in HannibaFs army were 

 rendered unserviceable by travelling many days in 

 succession in very wet ground. But we have bet- 

 ter authority here than that of Livy, because it 

 applies to horses which wore shoes, whereas Han- 

 nibaFs wore none. Mr. Goodwin, senior, late vete- 

 rinary surgeon to his Majesty George IV., in his 



" In the Veterinarian, No. 59, vol. v., p. 645, we find the Editor 

 coinciding vath the present writer on this point, in his second re- 

 view of his Letters on Condition " These pithy and valuable ex- 

 tracts," says he, " at the same time that they serve to expose our 

 author's views in regard to summering the hunter, demonstrate a 

 sagacity and experience on the subject, no less worthy of the admira- 

 tion of the professional man, than of the sportsman himself. The 

 leading consideration in summering the hunter is to maintain his con- 

 dition, or rather, we should say, to guard against his losing that 

 which we know, both by education as medical men. and experience 

 as sportsmen, once lost, will require much time and pains to be re- 

 acquired. Change of food is necessarily productive, in the animal 

 constitution, of alteration of structure ; though parts cannot be said 

 to change their nature under their influence, yet they do become 

 HTeatlv altered, both in texture and in tone." 



