162 
INQUIRY INTO A DISEASE OF THE HORSE 
plethora, becomes the cause of intestinal inflammation—com¬ 
plicated with the alteration of the blood I have described. 
In a word, the result of my inquiries up to the time I am 
writing shew,— 
1st.—That artificial fodder, in the best cultivated parts of the 
country, is becoming more and more grown. 
2dly.—That such provender is in many parts becoming the 
principal food for horses and cattle. 
3dly. —That the nutritive and blood-furnishing value of 
grain and fodder, the produce of artificial leguminous plants, 
well harvested, is greater than that of meadow hays. 
4thly.—That such properties vary much, according to climate 
and soil. 
5thly.—That, cceteris paribus , artificial grasses from a cal¬ 
careous, argilo-calcareous and ferruginous soil, possess these 
(nutritive and blood-furnishing) properties in a more remarkable 
degree than that grown upon clayey, wooded, and especially 
wet soils. 
6thly.—That such artificial, highly nutritive, and highly 
blood-producing aliment given to horses, although combined with 
feeding with oats, by augmenting the volume and without 
doubt the quality of the blood, determine not only fatal 
hemorrhagic congestions of the sanguineous viscera, but also 
inflammations more or less acute of the intestines, complicated 
with alteration in the blood. 
But to what are we to ascribe the modifications in the blood, 
and the importance of the disease in question I 
Animals in a state of nature seek such food as is most proper 
for them. Carnivora seek flesh; insectivora, insects; granivora, 
grain; herbivora, plants and various succulent grains; and 
with such, their natural food, they never ail but through acci¬ 
dent. With the domestic animal, however, it is different. He 
can get no other food but what man supplies him with, and 
whether it be good or bad, nocuous or innocuous, he must eat 
it; and hence it becomes a question to what extent his diseases 
are the product of feeding. The following is 
The Composition of the Blood. 
s 1. Fibrine or animal gluten. 
A. Assimilative organic \ 2. Albumen. 
principles. < 3. Globules formed of fibrine, albu- 
/ men, iron in a particular state, 
v 4. Fat. 
B. Inorganic substances . 5. Lime, potash, soda, magnesia, &c. 
C. Vehicle.6. Water. 
The horse ought to find such in his aliment, the globules ex- 
