4 THE DISEASES OF HORSES, 



ignorant dealer in mystification, and the infallible trumpery of the einpirio 

 is preferred to modes of treatment and preparations the outcome of the 

 united wisdom and research of the whole of our veterinary colleges. Such 

 charges as these do not apply to the higher agricultural associations, 

 nor generally to their individual members, but that they are true of 

 the average English farmer, and the great majority of lesser owners, there 

 are unfortunately too many proofs. This does not, I am sure, arise from 

 a want of love for the horse, for nowhere is he held in such esteem or 

 seen in such perfection. Our tight little island has always been famous 

 for its horses ; even the Romans, when they occupied England, found our 

 native breed so superior as to be worth exporting to Eome, and since 

 then, and especially since the time of King James I., what has not English 

 skill and care done in improving this noble animal, that "gives profit to 

 the poor and pleasure to the rich ?" We have, indeed, produced an animal 

 the acme of perfection, the envy of the world, an animal, in the words 

 of an old writer, "with the courage of the lion, the fleetness of the deer, 

 the strength of the ox, and the docility of the spaniel." 



On our equine favourite we often lavish a vast expenditure, and spare 

 no pains in bringing him to the highest condition, and to display his splen- 

 did form and noble qualities to the best advantage, and, in doing this, we 

 are guided by the accumulated wisdom of an experience gained by a close 

 and careful study of his nature and habits, and it is only when disease 

 attacks him that common sense is put aside for faith in mystery. No 

 doubt a vast deal of the injurious physicking to which the horse is 

 subjected is undertaken with the best of intentions, but we all know which 

 road is paved with these, and if the horse could speak, how often would he 

 say " You may mean well, my master, but if you only knew the suffering 

 you cause me, you would try and understand me better." Even poor 

 Hodge, the waggoner, who stints himself of his beer and saves from his 

 own spare pocket money to buy " vitriol" or some almost equally in- 

 jurious " coating powders," to be given to his team on the sly, is prompted 

 by the most laudable motives, and acts in pure but mistaken kindness 

 to the animals under his charge, whom he wishes in his honest pride to 

 excel his neighbours' ; and in thus ignorantly drugging his horses he 

 but follows the example set by his superiors. I do not expect by the 

 little knowledge I can communicate on the subject to make any palpable 

 difference in this respect, but as the weakest efforts when rightly directed 

 do some good, I hope, if only by directing the attention of horse owners 

 to a subject of such importance, to effect some alleviation in the unneces- 

 sary suffering of their animals, and that at a saving of cost to themselves. 



It is not my intention to attempt to grapple with the more abstruse 

 questions connected with the subject— which would indeed be valueless to 

 the general reader— but to endeavour, as plainly as possibly, to enable 

 those who wish to recognise the existence of disease to avoid the causes, 

 and to select such remedies as may with safety and advantage be used in 

 the hands of any intelligent man, and to point out such measures of homo 



