268 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
acting as a powerful diuretic, eventually produces great de¬ 
bility and permanent injury to the constitution of the animal. 
And yet how frequently do we hear farmers and others, when 
speaking on this subject, say that such food is good enough 
for cart-horses ! This is a great mistake ; and in no depart¬ 
ment is more attention required than in the present system 
of management adopted towards our ordinary cart-horses. 
Who has not observed, especially in the midland counties, a 
team of five or six great heavy, coarse, sleepy-looking ani¬ 
mals, crawling along, resembling more some mechanical 
motion of a century ago, than the active, vigorous efforts of 
good horses? This, to a certain extent, may depend upon 
the breed, which I am glad to say is now being substituted 
by a lighter and more active class. But this is not all ; 
much depends upon the general treatment of these animals. 
Who can be surprised at this, when we find them worked 
hard for several hours in the dav, then brought home reeking 
with perspiration, and made to pass through a pool of water, 
partially to clean their legs ; five or six of them being crowded 
together in a close, ill-ventilated stable, given a pailful of cold 
water, taken perhaps from a neighbouring pond, and which 
is almost black with the fluid excrements from the yard or 
dunghill being allowed to drain into it, and then fed upon new, 
ill-conditioned corn, with a large quantity of coarse, innutri- 
tious hay, chaff, straw, or malt-dust, and left to feed, sleep, 
and pass the night? The result of this is, that, to supply the 
wants of nature, a very large quantity of this material has 
to be consumed, the digestive system becomes overtaxed, 
and the brain, holding so intimate a sympathy as it is known 
to do with the stomach and digestive organs, soon becomes 
affected, the whole nervous energy impaired, the dull, heavy, 
sleepy efforts of the animal produced, and the foundation 
laid for those diseases which we find so prevalent amongst 
this class of animals, viz., indigestion, broken wind, stomach 
staggers, flatulent colic, inflammation of the bowels, oedema, 
&c., &c. Surely the loss the owner sustains, if the causes 
were properly pointed out to him, would at once induce him 
to consider this matter, and attend to the better manage¬ 
ment of these animals, so as to supply them with a more 
generous diet, and give these coarser foods to his cattle and 
those animals in whom the great exertion for laborious work 
is not called forth. Who can better fulfil this duty than 
the members of our profession, called upon as we fre¬ 
quently are to attend upon these cases, when disease is 
carrying off some valuable animal ? And being fully im¬ 
pressed with the causes in operation, we can explain to the 
