AS YET BUT LITTLE KNOWN. 
103 
disease. These I do not, however, myself, believe to be sufficient 
to account for the symptoms. There must be some seat and 
nature of it undiscovered. The vital fluid would bear evidence 
of having undergone profound modification in its normal phy¬ 
sical properties, and as well, doubtless, in the proportions and 
qualities of its organic principles. Indeed, without the admis¬ 
sion of such changes we could not account for the serious and 
intractable nature of the disease. It has nothing in it to war¬ 
rant a resemblance between it and malignant ( charhonneuse ) 
fever in horses or typhoid fever in man. 
M. Delafond has reason to believe that the disease is not 
contagious. 
As to the causes of the disease, M. Delafond has for a very 
long time been engaged in inquiries concerning it. As yet, how¬ 
ever, he has not been able to come to any final conclusions. 
Such as I give here, he says, I wish, for the present at least, to be 
regarded as directing marks for other inquirers. I have reason 
for desiring the special attention of farmers and veterinarians 
to the feeding of horses almost exclusively upon fodder and 
grain, the product of leguminous plants, which make up the 
major part of what is called artificial food. For these fifteen 
years I have ever observed the disease raging especially in 
those localities where artificial pastures, lucerne, trefoil, sain¬ 
foin, vetches, beans, peas, and other leguminous productions 
constituted the chief rotation of crops, and served as the almost 
invariable routine of horses’ food. It was this fact which struck 
me, and set me seeking after the explanation. 
It is not for me to set myself up against the great advantages 
accruing to agriculture from the culture of artificial grasses and 
grains, or to pretend to dispute the excellent food they make 
for herbivorous domestic animals; but I feel myself quite at 
liberty in entertaining the opinion, that such aliments given in 
abundance to horses and ruminants for any length of time, are 
liable to create grievous disease in them, variable perhaps in the 
form it assumes, though in real nature of the kind I have been 
describing. Such an opinion being one of vast import, I feel I 
ought to state the grounds on which I found it. 
The seeds, stalks, and leaves of legumes, constitute that part 
of the food of animals which contains the largest proportion of 
organic matters that are soluble and digestible, and consequently 
assimilable, or, in other words, that contain the most azote. 
Analyses made of late years of these aliments set this fact 
down as certain. On the other hand, the experience of agricul¬ 
turists shews, in no less degree, the nutritive value of such 
kind of food. 
