514 



On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



effete some of the particles of that muscle. This waste produces 

 a constantly recurring demand for new material. At definite 

 intervals this demand attracts attention by exciting the sensation 

 of appetite or hunger ; and this sensation is removed and the de- 

 mand satisfied when new material or food is introduced into the 

 body in sufficient quantity .and of suitable quality to repair this 

 waste. In such circumstances the demand and the supply are 

 justly balanced. ¥/henj however, the supply exceeds the demand, 

 the animal increases in size and in weight. When, on the other 

 hand, the demand exceeds the supply, when the amount of waste 

 or effete matter is greater than that which the animal can assimi- 

 late from its food, the diet is insufficient, and loss of weight and 

 starvation of some of the structures of the body soon occur. But 

 a system of diet may vary much in the degree of its insufficiency. 

 It may be so greatly defective as speedily to cause death, or so 

 little defective that even after some weeks its effects are scarcely 

 apparent, while between these two extremes the symptoms and 

 effects of the error are of all degrees of intensity. 



When the animal is entirely deprived of food, the weight of the 

 body speedily decreases. Those tissues suffer first which are 

 least essential to life : the fat disappears ; by and by the muscles 

 shrink and waste ; then the bones lose weight ; and last of all, the 

 blood becomes so small in quantity and so impoverished in quality 

 that there is not even sufficient nutriment for the brain and other 

 parts of the nervous system, and death shortly follows. The time 

 that animals survive total abstinence from food is much modified 

 by circumstances. When in good condition and arrived at matu- 

 rity, they live longer than when lean and not fully grown. When 

 supplied with abundance of good water they also live longer than 

 when deprived of food and water. Thus man, when deprived 

 altogether both of food and water, dies in eight or nine days; but 

 with plenty of pure fresh water, life is often sustained for nearly 

 three times as long. In similar circumstances a horse will live 

 about the same time as a man. Such extreme cases of depriva- 

 tion are, however, exceedingly rare, but derive great interest from 

 exhibiting in a short space of time, and in the greatest intensity, 

 evils which a less insufficient system of diet develops only after a 

 great length of time, and in a much less aggravated form. The 

 effects, however, though differing widely in degree, are essentially 

 the same in kind ; and all the symptoms of insufficient food, and 

 the diseases to which it tends, depend upon the fact that the waste 

 exceeds the supply. 



(6) It may not be out of place to notice briefly the quantity of 

 food requisite to maintain farm-horses in good health and condi- 

 tion. This is modified by various circumstances, but especially by 

 the nature and amount of the work they perform. An allowance, 



