DISEASES AND TIIEIK CUKE. 117 



over-heating, or something improper or indigestible in the food. 

 Grain, and especially Indian meal, fed to a horse while in a 

 state of great heat or great fatigue from violent exertion, is fre- 

 quently the immediate cause of colic and spasms. In these cases 

 the animal should have his abdomen fomented with wet cloths 

 applied as warm as can be borne ; warm water should be given 

 the animal to drink, or poured down his throat from a bottle, 

 and copious enemas of warm water should be administered. 



Fluxes as diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, influenza, catarrh, 

 etc. are the indications of a general obstruction of the system 

 or impurity of the fluids, with an effort at depuration in a par- 

 ticular direction. The usual practice of checking the discharge 

 suddenly by purigents, stimulants, and astringents is always 

 injurious and generally dangerous. On the contrary, the action 

 of the surface should be restored by bathing, with friction or 

 the dripping-sheet, and all irritating matters removed from the 

 stomach and bowels by means of warm and tepid water, as in 

 the case of colics. There will be no danger from the discharges 

 if the cause is removed, and if it is not removed, the sudden 

 suppression of the evacuations may terminate in a worse in- 

 flammation or speedy death. 



Affections of the skin and glands are only to be cured by 

 purifying the whole mass of blood. To repel an eruption from 

 the surface, or rather a glandular tumor, is not curing the ani- 

 mal ; indeed, it is only changing an external disease to an inter- 

 nal one. Thus attention to a pure diet, to fresh air, and to 

 clean apartments, each and all are essential to recovery. Many 

 of these cachexies, as they are called in medical books, originate 

 from the effluvia of their own excretions, as in cases where 

 the urine and feces are permitted to accumulate in the stalls, 

 or under the floors of the stables. 



