536 



On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



matter is thus retained in the blood, exciting irritation in the 

 congested parts, and especially in the fibrous tissues. The 

 symptoms of rheumatism vary with the parts involved. When 

 the inflammation is principally confined to the fascia of the 

 muscles of the neck and back, it constitutes what is termed the 

 chords. This affection is attended with stiffness and tenderness 

 of the neck and back, inability to elevate or depress the head, and 

 great difficulty and pain in moving. The febrile symptoms are 

 often violent, and there is a full, strong, incompressible pulse 

 — a very characteristic symptom of all rheumatic affections. Such 

 cases are often troublesome, generally lasting some weeks, but 

 they are not in general very dangerous. The joints, and especially 

 the larger ones, are sometimes the seat of rheumatic inflammation ; 

 but this form of the disease is less frequent in horses than in 

 cattle. It is attended by stiffness and inability to move, pain on 

 pressure, and more or less fever. The inflammation attacks one or 

 two of the joints, and then, leaving them, involves others, and, in 

 bad cases, the pleura and pericardium are often affected. This ten- 

 dency of the disease to shift from one part to another is, we think, 

 an unanswerable argument in favour of its being a disease depend- 

 ing upon some change in the blood, and not a mere local affection. 



Insufficient shelter, besides being a potent exciting cause of 

 disease, is also a predisposing cause of many and various maladies. 

 It produces depression of the vital energies, and hence renders 

 animals subject to its influence especially liable to epizootic dis- 

 eases. From its debilitating and deteriorating influence, it leads 

 to phthisis pulmonalis, and glanders and farcy. Further, it pro- 

 duces a habit of body which aggravates the character of many 

 diseases, renders them unusually intractable, and apt to assume 

 untoward complications. Animals reared in such unfavourable 

 circumstances are long in coming to maturity ; they have in 

 general a miserable and unthriving appearance, their skins are 

 thick and hard, and their hair long and coarse. 



But to conclude, we may remark, b}^ way of recapitulation, 

 that the insufficient sheltering of farm-horses is productive of 

 many and various evils. It causes an unusually great consump- 

 tion of food, and even with the most liberal diet good condition is 

 rarely attainable. It produces disease, sometimes by causing 

 sudden and great derangements of the circulation, and sometimes 

 by depressing the vital energies. By the former mode of action 

 it generally induces phlegmonous or acute inflammation ; by 

 the latter pulmonary consumption, glanders, and farcy. In short, 

 insufficient shelter may be considered as the special exciting 

 cause of all aflections of the respiratory organs and of all rheu- 

 matic inflammations, and a powerfully predisposing cause of 

 almost everv disease. 



