178 ACITES. 
innutritious diet are the causes. Each of these causes increases as the 
age advances. 
Prior to its domestication, the horse might not have found on every 
spot an abundance of excellent fodder; but then it was at liberty to seek 
a better fare in another place. Man has taken away all power of choice; 
he forces the creature to toil, and obliges it to eat only that which par- 
simony may afford to place before it. When so vast and so absolute a 
power is claimed, it becomes a positive duty to see the mere animal 
necessities are satisfied: it is cruel folly to tax the powers and to stint 
the body. It is a crime to undertake a trust and then confide the fulfill- 
ment of its responsibility to an ignorant inferior. It is a sin to seize on 
life and to neglect the prisoner you hold in captivity. Where existence 
is claimed as a property, and animation is forced to wear out being in 
labor for the master’s profit, surely the least obligation the superior could 
own should be the provision of ample lodging and fitting sustenance! 
Both are withheld from the aged horse. 
ACITES, OR DROPSY OF THE ABDOMEN. 
In the horse, acute peritonitis is unknown, save as the result of oper- 
ation; then its fury takes possession of the cavity and generally refuses 
to yield to medicine. It is different, however, with chronic peritonitis, 
which, though not a common disorder, is too often encountered to be 
esteemed a rare disease. It is, when early noticed, tractable; but the 
earlier symptoms are generally not understood. The first sign is a rag- 
ged coat and a tender state of the abdomen; the horse, which was pas- 
sive previously, now shrinks from the curry-comb; snaps and kicks at him 
who dresses it. Such actions are viewed as denoting a return of spirit. 
Intending to encourage the favorite quality of the stable, the flank is 
violently struck or slapped by the servant; and the indication forced 
from a dumb animal by agony, is by grooms regarded as the proof of 
reviving animation. 
Masters should, in justice to themselves if from no higher motive, visit 
the stable more frequently than is their custom. The horse is all gentle- 
ness and simplicity; a groom only knows less about the animal than a 
child, for he has acquired notions which induce him to misinterpret plain 
actions. Every owner of a stable should learn to feel and count the 
horse’s pulse; he should be acquainted with the normal standard and its 
healthy character; chronic peritonitis might then early be discovered. 
The pulse under this disease is hard and small, it vibrates about sixty 
times in a minute. The head is pendulous; the food is oftener spoiled, 
rather scattered about than eaten; the membranes are pale and the 
