THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 51 



realizing- the cause. Thousands upon thousands of 

 human beings are thus affected and still take their 

 three meals a day, work or play, grow worse, swallow 

 medicines (prescribed by physicians as ignorant a? 

 themselves — perhaps suffering from the same com- 

 plaint) and go on to their deaths without ever know- 

 ing what killed them. The natural cure for this dis- 

 ease, if my position is correct, lies along the line of 

 abstemiousness in diet. When the stomach is dis- 

 eased, it demands a treatment similar to that which 

 we prescribe for a sick man or horse, viz. : light work 

 and long intervals of rest. In chest founder, a much 

 restricted diet, not more than two meals a day, with 

 exercise restricted, but gradually, very gradually, in- 

 creased (with diet also increased, but always leaning 

 to the minimum) — this constitutes the general line 

 of treatment. Although this is regarded as an 

 incurable disease, still, I am satisfied that, intelli- 

 gently wrought out, this system would restore a 

 very large proportion of horses afflicted with chest 

 founder. Time, often a very long time — a full year, 

 perhaps, of the wisest management — would be neces- 

 sary ; but it is not to be expected that a disease pro- 

 duced (as this often is) by years of abuse can be erad- 

 icated in a few weeks, though sometimes it may be, 

 as in the case of an especially strongly constituted 

 animal and under especially judicious treatment. 



SOME HINTS RELATING TO FOOD AND DRINK. 



The full capacity of a horse's stomach is about fif- 

 teen or sixteen quarts, but if fully distended it would 



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