HIDE-BOUND. 231 
box; if the pulse suddenly sink, two pots of stout may be given at dif- 
ferent times during the day. If the appetite is bad, good gruel instead 
of water must be constantly in the manger; cut carrots, if presented a 
few at a time, will generally be accepted. However, with all such care, 
a very speedy termination is not to be expected; nature is casting forth 
something imbibed during a winter of neglect, and no art can quicken 
the process. The shortest cases of this kind mostly last a fortnight, 
during which time the treatment, and the entire treatment, merely con- 
sists in good nursing and in liberally supporting the body. 
HIDE-BOUND. 
Strictly speaking, the condition signified by the above term is not so 
much a disease as the consequence of exposure, of poor provender, and 
of neglect. Thrust a horse which has been accustomed to wholesome 
food and a warm stable, thrust such an animal into a straw yard and 
leave it there through the long and severe winter of this climate. Let 
ONE OF THE CAUSES OF HIDE-BOUND IN HORSES. 
the creature which has been used to have its wants attended to and its 
desires watched—let it for months exist upon a stinted quantity of such 
hay as the farmer cannot sell—let it go for days without liquid, and at 
night be driven by the horns of bullocks to lie among the snow or to 
shiver in the rain—let an animal so nurtured be forced to brave such 
vicissitudes, and in the spring the belly will be down, and the harsh, 
unyielding skin will everywhere adhere close to the substance which it 
covers. 
