On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



517 



Such statistics are of great value, as showing the influence of in- 

 sufficient food on a very hirge scale. The history of the Royal 

 Navy, prior to the end of last century, also furnishes corroborative 

 facts on this subject. Until then scurvy, fevers, dysentery, and 

 sloughing ulcers produced incalculable suffering and mortality, 

 and, in the words of Captain Cook, '- tremendous calamities " and 

 " depopulation of fleets." By the introduction of a sufficient and 

 well-selected diet the crews of our navy have been almost entirely 

 freed of these destructive diseases. "In 1797/' says the ofTicial 

 report, '"'the victuallmg was changer], greatly improved, and 

 strictly regulated ; and consequent immediately to the change the 

 health of the seamen improved strikingly : scurvy, typhoid fever, 

 dysentery, and ulcer, which up to the period of the change had 

 produced great havoc, became comparatively rare in occurrence 

 and light in impression."* 



From the reports of prisons, v/orkhouses, and other public 

 institutions, we might adduce many other striking instances of 

 disease and death resulting from ill-regulated diets. What has 

 been already mentioned will, however, suffice to show that an 

 abundance of good food is essential to the health of man ; and if 

 this is true in regard to man, few will dispute that a sufficiency 

 of food is equally essential to the health and well-being of the 

 horse. Indeed, from his nature and the laborious services ex- 

 acted from him, the injurious influences of insufficient food are 

 as speedily and certainly developed in him as in man, and far 

 m^ore speedily and certainly than either in cattle or sheep. 



By iiisiifficient food we understand food insufficient either as to 

 quantity or as to nutritiveness ; and in the following pages vre 

 shall use the term in this twofold sense. It v.ill, however, be 

 obvious from the preceding remarks that these two forms of in- 

 sufficient food produce similar effects, and that both operate in- 

 juriously by reducing the strength and general vigour of the 

 system. Under either system of starvation, horses become lean 

 and miserable looking ; their bellies flat, and their quarters thin 

 and angular : their skins adherent to their ribs^ and infested with 

 lice and other vermin ; and their hair rough and coarse. Their 

 strength and spirit also fail ; they are unfit even for moderate 

 exercise, and are dull and listless. These are the consequences 

 of insutficient food with which, on account of their comparatively 

 frequent occurrence, we are most familiar. When, however, the 

 defective feeding is still more excessive^ or of longer continuation. 



Scarcities and High Prices on the Mortality of the People of England, vol. ix. p. 163 

 et seq. : Fifth Report of the Registrar-General, or an abstract of the same in Combe's 

 ' Dietetics," 9th edition, p. 104. 



* Statistical Report of the He.illh of the Navy for the years 1 S30-36 inclusive, 

 p. xiii. 



