( 512 ) 



XXI. — Or Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. By Finlay Dun, 

 jun., V. S., Lecturer on Materia Medica, &c._, at the PMinburgh 

 Veterinary College. 



Prize Report. 



There are certain conditions which must be fulfilled by man, in 

 order to preserve the domesticated animals under his charge in 

 proper health and vigour. These conditions consist chiefly in 

 furnishing them with a sufficiency of good food and pure air, and 

 with efficient shelter from the inclemency of the weather. The 

 proper fulfilment of these conditions constitutes what we under- 

 stand by good management, whilst the neglect or violation of them 

 constitutes mismanagement. 



It is obvious that our definition of mismanagement appHes to 

 every error in the management of all the domesticated animals; 

 but as the present Report is restricted, under several subdivisions, 

 to the "diseases arising from mismanagement of farm-horses," we 

 h?tve to consider the subject in regard to them alone, and under 

 the following prescribed heads : — 



1. Insufficient or improper food. 



2. Overwork. 



3. Insufficient shelter. 



4. Neglect of incipient disease. 



5. Want of medical skill in professional attendants. 



The diseases induced by bad management of farm-horses are 

 numerous and occasionally severe. They may supervene immedi- 

 ately after an error in management has been committed, but more 

 frequently spring from weakness and susceptibility to disease, 

 produced by continued neglect or error. Thus, a single instance 

 of abstinence from food, or exposure to rain or to cold, seldom 

 produces, in a healthy animal, any permanent evil ; but when such 

 instances become frequent, they soon begin to develop their inju- 

 rious consequences. It is, therefore, by no means a fair criterion 

 of any system of management to say that it must be good because 

 under its operation disease is not speedily perceptible, for among 

 the lower animals, as well as in man, mismanagement may 

 frequently be long continued before its bad effects become at all 

 apparent. Thus, insufficient food, overwork, and insufficient 

 shelter, require a considerable time before they produce even 

 their earliest effects ; but in proportion as these effects are slov/ 

 and imperceptible in their development, they are the more to be 

 dreaded, on account of the ravages they may make before being 

 detected or arrested. 



Any single cause of disease is greatly strengthened by the 

 co-operation of other causes. For example, deficient ventilation, 

 or want of cleanliness, m.aterially aggravates the evils resulting 



