222 STABLE ECONOMY. 



INDIGESTION OF THE FOOD. 



Men, particularly household men, who do not work for 

 what they eat, often have indigestion for several successive 

 years. They are said to have a weak stomach, or to be 

 troubled with bile. They are always complaining, never 

 quite well, yet never very ill. The stomach is truly weak. 

 It wants energy, it acts slowly, often imperfectly ; yet it is 

 not wholly inactive. It rarely loses all control over the food. 

 The horse seldom suffers under a similar complaint ; when 

 indigestion does occur in him, it is a serious affair, soon cured, 

 or soon producing death. In men the disease usually termed 

 indigestion, ought perhaps to have another name, for all or 

 most of the food does undergo the process of digestion al- 

 though it may be performed very slowly. The indigestion I 

 am about to speak of in the horse, has been termed acute. It 

 ought to be called complete ; or rather, that in man should 

 be termed difficult. After this explanation, the reader need 

 not confound indigestion in man with indigestion in the horse. 

 They are totally different. The structure of the horse's 

 stomach, and the nature of his food, account to a certain ex- 

 tent for the difference. But in men the digestion is difficult, 

 in the horse it is not performed. 



It is very obvious that the stomach in health must exercise 

 a peculiar control over the food, which does not putrefy, or 

 ferment, as it would, were it kept equally warm and moist in 

 any place but the stomach. So long as the stomach is able 

 to digest, the food suffers neither putrefaction nor fermenta- 

 tion. But it sometimes happens that the stomach loses its 

 power. It becomes unable to digest the food, or to exercise 

 any control over its changes. 



Now, when the horse's stomach ceases to digest, one of 

 two things usually takes place. Either the food remains in 

 the stomach without undergoing any change, or it runs into 

 fermentation. In the one case the horse is often foundered ; 

 in the other he is griped, he takes what I shall here call colic. 



Founder is an inflammation of the feet, generally of the fore- 

 feet, but sometimes of them all. It is not apparent why a load 

 of undigested food in the stomach should produce a disease 

 in the feet ; yet it is well known that it does so. There 

 seems to be some untraced connexion between the feet and 

 the stomach, and some theories have been made on the sub- 

 ject, but I have heard none worth notice ; we do not even 

 know why in one case the food remains unchanged, and in 



