STJEFEIT.— PErEieo. 199 



SURFEIT. 



The term Suefeit is usually applied to designate nearly 

 every affection of the skin to wliicli the horse is subject. If 

 the animal merely rubs himself against a post, he is said to be 

 affected with " a mild surfeit :" if violently, a " bad " one. In 

 fact, both with veterinary surgeons and with horsemen, the 

 term is used in a very wide sense. The word is derived from 

 the French verb, sw/aire — to over do ; and if the affection be 

 designated with reference to its causes, or when it exists from 

 an effect of over-feeding from too rich a diet, it is a term ia 

 every way appropriate. 



" Horses," says Mr. Percival, " standing in stables, full of 

 condition, and but iuadequately worked, are subject to heat and 

 itching of the skin, and to occasional eruptions which the groom 

 never fails to attribute to ' heat of the blood :' a notion very 

 much in accordance with the Prench appellation of ebullition, 

 for the same disorder, and one evidently derived from the sup- 

 position that the blood was in some way or other the cause of 

 it. The same notion, also, will be found to prevail in our 

 present pathology of the case. We say that the animal, from 

 high feeding and the want of due work or exercise, becomes 

 PLETHOEio ; by which we mean, he either accumulates in his 

 system a superabundance of blood, or else makes it of too rich 

 a quality for ordinary purposes ; and the consequence is, that 

 by an effort of the vital powers, the redundance comes to be 

 thrown off in the form of surfeit or eruption ; and in this man- 

 ner other and more serious evils are averted." 

 PRURIGO. 



One of the most common forms in which Surfeit is exhi- 

 bited, is that of Prurigo, or a state of general itching of the 

 skin. It is a malady common in young and in coarse-bred 

 horses ; and esoecially in round-boned, and thick-set or punchy 

 animals. 



