CHAP. I.] INTESTINAL INFLAMMATION. 261 



ness for the first time since it was a foal. We have 

 known a small feed of corn or two effect relief from 

 lowness, in the case of horses which had been long 

 time previously used to hard food : if these be de- 

 voured voraciously, this will tend to prove 1st, that 

 the change is desirable, and 2dly, that the next 

 feed should consist of broken corn — or a new dis- 

 ease will be engendered. Adopt the tonic system, 

 recommended generally, at page 201. 



MOLTEN GREASE 



Is but a variety of inflammation of the intestines 

 when the subject of attack happens to be very fat, 

 and little accustomed to exercise ; when marked by 

 costiveness, it may be treated as such ; or, if at- 

 tended by a looseness, may rather be considered as 

 a spasmodic effort of nature to relieve itself of an 

 unnatural load. The vulgar name given to this 

 affection of the intestines is farther supported by 

 the popular notion that the fat, or grease, which 

 the individual possessed in a superlative degree, 

 had melted (or was molten) and passed into the 

 guts, whence it was expelled with the faeces. This, 

 however, is physiologically impossible, notwith- 

 standing the support such a notion has received 

 from some revered authors ; the appearance of 

 slimy unctuous matter along with the dung, more 

 particularly when this is much hardened, being no 

 other than the mucous secretion described at pages 

 74, 75, as designed by nature to defend the surface 

 of the intestines from the injurious action of hard 



