182 THE BROOD MARE. 



inflammation, which sometimes assails well- 

 bred foals. It was contracted, we thought, 

 in this case by the foal being caught in a 

 heavy thunder shower the first time he went 

 out into the paddock from the box in which 

 he was born. Anxious to secure her next 

 foal from any similar mishap, the utmost 

 precaution was observed, and he was ap- 

 parently doing well ; but about the fovirth 

 day he suddenly began to " scour " and in 

 an hour or so was dead ; cause unknown ; 

 possibly something noxiovis in the grass sup- 

 plied to the dam. Next year she produced 

 a fine filly foal to the same horse, which 

 was dropped at a distance from home, in 

 an open run sheltered only by a coppice, 

 into which the animals could not actually 

 enter, amid drenching rain, which, with 

 cold nights, continued for days after its 

 birth. I was away at the time, and when 

 I heard that the foal had been born a day 

 or two before it was observed (for it was a 



