On Mismanagement of Fai'm- Horses. 



513 



from hunger, overwork, or exposure to wet or cold ; and again, 

 overwork and want of shelter are much more severely felt by ill- 

 fed than by well-fed animals. Farther, the evil effects of mis- 

 management are modified by conditions inherent in the animals 

 themselves. Those of strong and vigorous constitution, of hardy 

 breed, or mature years, are less affected by errors in manage- 

 ment than those of delicate frame, of highly artificial breed, or of 

 tender years. 



But although in favourable circumstances, and in certain 

 animals^ some sorts of mismanagement may appear, for a time, 

 to be without effect, still they sooner or later produce evident 

 injury, disease, and loss, and thus afford the strongest possible 

 evidence of both the sanitary and pecuniary advantages of good 

 management. Indeed, there is probably no micthod by which the 

 advantages of good management can be so clearly shown as by 

 noting the evils of mismanagement. Causes of disease, previously 

 unnoticed or disregarded, are thus exposed to view, and their 

 injurious influences ascertained ; attention is also directed to the 

 preventwe treatment of disease, which is always more certain and 

 satisfactory than the remedial treatment, besides being of higher 

 practical value, since it affects numbers rather than individuals, 

 and, when properly studied, leads to the adoption of extensive 

 sanitary improvements. 



But without further preface we proceed to the consideration 

 of the first head of the present Report. 



i. Insufficient or improper Food. — The subject of dietetics is 

 so extensive, and the topics it embraces so closely connected with 

 each other, that it is somewhat difficult to consider the questions 

 of insufficient and improper food in a detailed and distinct man- 

 ner, without making some preliminary observations on food in 

 general. We shall, therefore, consider the subject of insuffi- 

 cient and improper food under the following heads: — (a) The 

 uses of food and the general effects of starvation ; {b) the quantity 

 of food requisite for farm-horses ; (c) the division of food into tw o 

 great classes, and the proportion in which these should exist in 

 the diet of the horse ; (d) the injurious effects of insufficient food 

 (that is, food defective either in quantity or nutritiveness), and its 

 influence in developing disease ; (e) the evds of too long inter- 

 vals between the times of feeding ; and {f) the diseases induced 

 by improper food, by excessive quantity and unsuitable quality of 

 food. 



(a) Every tissue of every animal is constantly undergoing change 

 and decay. Every action, physical or mental, occasions a waste 

 of the structure immediately concerned in the production of that 

 action. Every act of the mind causes a consumption of the tissues 

 of the brain, and every contraction of a muscle renders useless and 



VOL. XIT. 2 L 



