142 LADN’S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
amount of fodder over and above what they actually require, 
and much more than they really need. The surplus is often stored 
up in the form of fat, and this induces acute diseases, and they die 
of too much food and care. It is very rare that we have uccasion 
recommend a man to feed his horse more liberally, but almost 
always the reverse. Starvation is said to be the cause for many 
equine diseases ; but, so far as our experience goes, such cases are, 
n this country, very rare. We conceive the term starvation to pa 
a libel upon civilization ; and so unfrequent is its application among 
4 nation of husbandmen, that it is omitted in our dictionaries. A 
man on a barren rock, or a horse in the deserts uf Arabia, might 
probably starve; but the idea of the latter starving in the vicinity 
of a well-stocked barn or stable, within striking distance of a land 
of plenty, seems to us a very absurd conclusion. There are enoug}: 
horses to be found dressed up in the garb of starvation, having 
tight skins, prominent ribs, and a cadaveruns countenance, living, 
vet half dead. But they know nothing of the “‘ famine in Egypt ;” 
they get not only enough, but too much of the same kind. They 
probably require a change in diet, or else they are confirmed dys- 
peptics, laboring under a chronic form of indigestion ; and if such 
should be the case, quantity is objectionable, and good quality more 
desirable. The stomach, however, is not at fault, its function being 
deranged. Or they probably get enough, and perhaps too much, 
for a weak stomach; hence loss of flesh, ete. 
Some men are in the habit of bleeding their horses eve. spring. 
This is done in view of reducing fat and flesh, th~ subjects being 
humory (plethoric), their systems abounding 24 highly carbonized 
blood, which is proof positive that the .ame have been overfed. 
The racer, before he can perform a feat of speed, must be prepared. 
as the saying is. This implics bleeding and physicking. Sore 
works on farriery lay dow regular rules for putting a horse in 
racing condition, an@ ‘ae remedies are fleam, physic, and bran, 
proof positive thet such animals have had too bounteous a supply 
of nutriment 
Some herses—and the same is true of man—grow poor in con- 
sequence of having to carry about a juvenile restaurant within their 
digesave organs. They probably become exhausted, or plethorie, 
~, the case may be, in consequence of an overburdened stomach, 
A stomach overburdened reacts on the nervous system, deranges 
the phvsinlogica] condition of the subject, and lays the foundetion 
