Breeding and Management of Horses on a Farm. 527 
of his S'luttony. When his meal is perhaps half dijjested he begins 
to feed anew, and loading his stomach at night, when he requires 
most rest, lies down when the dews of evening are falling, and the 
dank mist, particularly in low meadows, is covering the ground, 
and which in a short period completely envelopes him. During 
digestion the stomach and upper portion of the bowels receive a 
much greater proportion of blood than at other periods, and as the 
same quantity is circulating through the body generally, the skin 
at this particular time is less fully supplied than at others, and it 
is just at this moment that the damp fog of an autumnal night pro- 
duces constriction of the cutaneous vessels, and compels the greater 
portion of the blood that should circulate through them to take 
another course. Hence arise, first, congestion, and, secondly, in- 
flammation of some internal organ, either acute or chronic, accord- 
ing to the state of the system and the activity of the cause pro- 
ducing it. One horse, either from hereditary predisposition or 
some other exciting cause, may have weak bowels, and inflamma- 
tion speedily attacks them ; the organs of respiration in another 
may be weak, and sore throat, or inflammation of the lungs, or 
of the pleura, is the consequence, possibly terminating in broken 
wind, chronic cough, or roaring, the latter from constriction of 
the wind-pipe, which is the natural effect of the thickening of the 
part consequent upon inflammatory action. 
When horses, or indeed any other animals, are exposed to the 
depressing influence of cold while their stomachs are unduly dis- 
tended with food, there is likewise another cause in operation 
which, in conjunction with chilliness of the surface of the body, 
tends to induce congestion of one or more internal organs. It is 
this : — The stomach lies in contact with a large muscle, termed 
the diaphragm, or midriff, which separates the cavity of the chest 
from that of the abdomen, and consequently, when mucli dis- 
tended, not only pushes this muscle towards the thorax, but like- 
wise in a great measure impedes that natural motion by which at 
every inspiration it enlarges the cavity of the chest. The form of 
the diaphragm is that of a vault, whose upper portion is in con- 
tart with the chest, and the expansion of the ribs, on air being in- 
haled, by drawing its edges outwards, tends, to a certain extent, to 
draw down the superior part of the arch and to reduce it to a more 
plain surface. This action must necessarily increase the dimen- 
sions of the chest, and is one of the means by which a vacuum is 
formed in the lungs, which become immediately filled by atmos- 
pheric air. Now, as the chest contains the heart and lungs, it 
must be manifest that repletion of the stomach, by cramping the 
motions of the diaphragm, and thereby diminishing the area of the 
chest, must impede their natural and healthy functions, and thus 
not only is the blood, by its languid circulation through the former. 
