522 On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



present in such cases, rupture either of the stomach or intestines. 

 Affections of this sort frequently occur amongst farm-horses, 

 from the large quantity of food consumed after protracted absti- 

 nence, or from their getting loose during the night and gaining 

 access to the contents of the corn-chest. In such cases food is 

 consumed to an amount so unusually large that it is only very par- 

 tially digested ; in this case it soon undergoes chemical change, and 

 becomes a source of irritation, and the intestines endeavour to 

 relieve themselves of their load by those violent spasmodic con- 

 tractions which form the characteristic symptoms of colic. The 

 irritation, however, is sometimes so excessive that, unless natural 

 or artificial aid be afforded, inflammation is set up. Frequently, 

 too, the sensitive and vascular laminae of the feet become in- 

 flamed, constituting laminitis, or acute founder. The production 

 of this disease by excessive eating is generally accounted for by 

 the doctrine of metastasis, or, in other words, by supposing that 

 the irritation of the alimentary canal is transferred to the feet. 

 In this, as in many other cases in which metastasis is said to 

 occur, there is, however, no actual transference of the disease 

 from one part to another, but merely an extension of the disease 

 from its original seat to parts of similar structure, connected by 

 continuity or contiguity of surface. And hence we find that, in 

 cases of the rapid ingestion of large quantities of food, the con- 

 sequent irritation of the alimentary canal extends to the laminae 

 of the foot, on account of their being endowed with great vascu- 

 larity and sensibility. 



Amongst the lower animals the evils of continued excessive 

 quantity of food are sometimes conjoined with those of insuffi- 

 cient nutritiveness. Colts fed exclusively on straw, as is too 

 frequently the case during winter, often afford examples of the 

 combined effects of both errors. Straw contains so small a pro- 

 portion of nutritive material that exceedingly large quantities of it 

 must be consumed in order to supply the waste of the system. 

 The usual consequences of such feeding are, a gradual enlarge- 

 ment of the abdomen, and the production of what is significantly 

 termed a pot-belly. The overloaded intestines press forwards 

 upon the diaphragm, and, by thus lessening the cavity of the 

 chest and interfering with the respiratory movements, unfit the 

 animal for active exertion. From the overworked condition of 

 the digestive organs, indigestion and colic are also apt to occur. 



Excessive quantity of highly nutritive food leads especially to 

 plethora, weed, surfeit and other cutaneous eruptions, as well as 

 to obesity and enlargement of the liver. Blood is manufactured 

 in larger quantity than can be conveniently disposed of; and this 

 plethoric state of body predisposes to affections of an acutely in- 

 flammatory type, to apoplexy, and to other diseases of the brain. 



