INDIGESTION OF THE FOOD. 223 



another undergoes fermentation. Perhaps it depends a good 

 deal upon the quantity of water that happens to be present 

 with the food. [This is all idle speculation and not to be de- 

 pended on ; founder never springs from this cause.] 



An overloaded stomach is one of the causes of indigestion. 

 If a horse reach the grain -chest, or in any other way obtain 

 a large meal of grain, he will be very likely to take colic in 

 an hour or more after he gets water. If water be withheld, 

 he may founder ; but colic will not occur, unless there be much 

 water previously in the stomach or bowels. Those who are 

 experienced in these matters know how to manage a horse 

 after he has been gorged with food. They give him no water 

 all that day, and none on the next till evening. Then they 

 give only a little at a time, and often, till thirst be quenched. 

 If he be a slow horse he goes to work, but if his work be fast 

 he must remain at home, having, however, a good deal of 

 walking exercise. In this way the stablemen prevents what 

 he calls the gripes, colic, or batts. He is ignorant of the 

 mode in which water operates, but experience h^s taught him 

 that it has something to do with the disease. Founder, it is 

 true, may happen, but that is usually regarded as a more 

 curable malady than the other. It is not so deadly, but I shall 

 presently show that colic can be cured sooner, and with more 

 certainty, than founder. 



Staggers. — A kind of apoplexy is sometimes produced by 

 the presence of undigested food in the stomach. In this 

 country the disease is not common, and there is nothing like 

 it when the food ferments. Obstinate constipation, and some- 

 times complete obstruction of the bowels, are the occasional 

 results of indigestion. 



The Process of Fermentation must be familiar to almost 

 everybody. Grain, or other vegetable matter, when thrown 

 into a heap, moistened, and heated to a certain point, soon 

 undergoes a change. The principal phenomenon attending 

 which is the evolution of air in great abundance, more per- 

 haps than twenty or thirty times the bulk of the articles from 

 which it is extricated. When this process takes place in the 

 stomach, the horse's life is in danger, for he has no power 

 like some other animals to belch up the air. Distension 

 of the stomach and bowels rapidly succeeds, and runs so far 

 as to rupture them. If the stomach or bowels do not give 

 way, life may be destroyed by inflammation or strangulation 

 of the bowels, or the mere pain of distension may produce 

 death before there is time either for rupture, inflammation, or 



