88 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



quency of pulse and respirations with other symptoms common to 

 many febrile disorders which profoundly influence the general 

 constitution. In the absence of an acquaintance with the general 

 phj^siological processes associated with digestion and the assimila- 

 tion of food as it undergoes digestion for the purpose of restoring 

 wasted tissues, it is a somewhat difhcult undertaking to attempt an 

 efficient explanation of the relation which exists between these 

 processes and the somewhat remarkable development in the legs of 

 a horse, and therefore we shall have to ask our readers to take a 

 great deal on trust. We may perhaps venture to assume that most 

 men who have enjoyed the advantages of a moderate education are 

 acquainted with the fact that the blood is carried from the heart 

 to the outermost limits of the body by means of tubes or vessels 

 known as arteries; these arteries gradually become smaller and 

 smaller and increase in number, as they approach the limits of 

 the body and are then described as capillaries; these again turn 

 round the corner after arriving at the skin and begin to enlarge 

 gradually until they become veins which again further enlarge 

 until the blood passes into one vessel that empties itself into the 

 heart; in this manner the blood performs a circuit, so to say, of the 

 whole body, and ultimately comes back again to its starting point 

 the heart, which has to act as an engine for pumping the blood 

 through the system of tubes called arteries, capillaries and veins; 

 in conjunction and side by side in many parts of the body, with the 

 blood vesselsis another system of tubes called lymphatics whose 

 function is closely connected with the distribution of material that 

 serves to build up and renew the body and also to convey same to 

 the blood with which it is connected by means of the vessels already 

 referred to; in structure the larger lymph vessels are like veins; the 

 material these vessels contain is collected by absorption from the 

 tissues through which they pass, and is in the first instance the 

 watery constituents of the blood, but these vessels pass through 

 various callijig stations, if we may so describe them, called glands 

 where it is considered reorganization of the material goes on and 

 as the circulation of the material progresses in its course along 

 these channels changes are affected in its composition, certain 

 matters being left behind and others taken up for conveyance to 

 the blood stream, some of which are probably intended to be con- 

 veyed out of the system while others undergo changes which. 



