On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



523 



From the superabundant quantity and rich quality of the circu- 

 lating fluidS;, irritation and inflammation of the absorbent vessels 

 and glands are often produced, constituting the disease termed 

 weed. This is especially apt to occur in plethoric subjects when 

 their work is less severe than usual ; and hence we find that tt^e 

 great majority of cases of weed follow a day of rest. In some 

 horses an excessive growth of the fatty tissues is the consequence 

 of such high feeding. In man a corresponding condition is con- 

 sidered disease, is termed polysarcia^ and often leads to serious 

 derangements of important organs. In the horse, however, it 

 rarely causes actual disease, but always unfits the animal for 

 active exertion. Horses fed for a length of time on large quantities 

 of rich and stimulating food are very liable to enlargement of the 

 liver. Such food requires for its proper digestion very large 

 quantities of bile ; and to meet this constant excessive demand 

 the liver gradually becomes increased in size ; affording a good 

 illustration of the general rule, applicable to all the organs and 

 tissues of the body, that the more a part is exercised the more 

 highly is it developed. From the stimulating nature of their 

 food, brewers' and distillers' horses in particular are very fre- 

 quently affected with enlargement of the liver ; and I have met 

 with several cases in v, hich the enlargement and softening of that 

 organ were so great as to cause rupture and death. 



Food is occasionally given to farm- horses in a state of had 

 preservation. The common error of this nature is the use of heated 

 or musty oats or hay. Such food, by irritating the intestines, 

 often gives rise to indigestion and diarrhoea; or, by stimulating 

 the kidneys, produces diuresis and diabetes. When, from bad 

 preservation or other causes, food is of a very defective quality, 

 and forms for some time the whole or a great portion of the diet, 

 it causes all those evils above noticed as resulting from insuffi- 

 cient food. Food, although of perfectly sound and good quality, 

 and capable of forming healthy chyle and blood, sometimes dis- 

 agrees with horses from its being entirely different from that to 

 which they have been accustomed. It is frequently observed, 

 for example^ that, when farm-horses are put upon winter food^ 

 the turnips cause at first colic and derangements of the digestive 

 system. And again, bean and pea straw, which is much used as 

 fodder in some districts, is exceedingly apt to cause colic, unless 

 at first given very sparingly ; and yet, after a time, most horses 

 eat large quantities of it with impunity. There are, however, 

 particular sorts of food which always disagree with some horses, 

 and to which they appear never to become habituated. I have 

 known horses which were invariably seized with violent fits of 

 colic whenever they ate a small quantity of turnips, while others 

 were similarly affected by eating either bean or pea straw. Such 



