DENTITION AND DIET. 137 



mechanical form and condition of the former; their chemical com- 

 position remain about the same." 



The effects of various kinds of Food. 



It ie customary, in some stables, to feed horses, nearly all the 

 year round, with what is known as " cut feed," which is composed 

 of cut hay, meal, shorts, salt, and considerable water ; the whole 

 is mixed together, and served out, sometimes, without regard to 

 quantity. This kind of food might, and sometimes does, agree 

 with horses, but it is not right to feed them, year after year, on 

 the same, for the reason just set forth. Another reason for ob- 

 jecting to this food is, that, in the stables alluded to, we hear 

 of a great many cases of tympanitis and flatulent colic (diseases 

 somewhat identical), arising, no doubt, from the presence of so 

 large a quantity of water as some persons are in the habit of 

 using. It saturates the food, and retards digestion. Not only 

 this, but when dry food, highly charged with water, enters the 

 stomach, the temperature of the latter causes the food to swell — 

 increase in bulk — and distends that organ, and also favors fer- 

 mentation instead of digestion ; hence arises flatulency. We do 

 not, however, mean to contend that such food is at all times the 

 direct cause of indigestion, colic, etc., because many stablers are 

 ready to testify that they have fed the same for many years with- 

 out any apparent inconvenience to their horses; but we contend 

 that it acts indirectly in the manner alluded to; and, although 

 some horses may "get used to it," and others, having wonderful 

 digestive organs, assimilate it, yet the day of reckoning may not 

 be far off. We contend that water taken with food always retards 

 digestion. The proper solvents of the food are the gastric fluids, 

 and the horse has abundant facilities for supplying the requisite 

 quantity. An ordinary horse is said to secrete, while feeding, 

 fluid, of salivial and gastric characters, at the rate of one gallon 

 per hour — enough, we should judge, to saturate a common meal; 

 therefore the water is not needed. We urge no objection against 

 *he more rational custom of merely sprinkling the food with salted 

 water, in view of absorbing dust, which often abounds in inferior 

 hay, but do seriously object to the practice of using a large quan- 

 tity of cold water in the preparation of food for horses. 



From experiments made by scientific men. it has been ascer- 



