306 PRACTICAL HINTS ON STABLE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 
connection with the earliest attempts at personal decoration 
by our forefathers, to whom it supplied, according to histo¬ 
rians and poets, all the requirements of a fashionable 
toilette.” 
This last remark points to great differences in the manners 
and customs of our island. Formerly, when the natives 
painted themselves, more sober colouring sufficed, but now 
dyes are the order of the day these require stronger pig¬ 
ments, and the fine dark blues of different articles of clothing 
are better and cheaper obtained from indigo. 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON STABLE MANAGEMENT 
IN INDIA. 
A Second Edition, revised and enlarged, of a Lecture written 
by J. B. W. Skoulding, Veterinary Surgeon First 
Class, Royal Horse Artillery, the prototype having 
been written and delivered by him when in charge of 
B. F. R. H. A. at Campbellpore, in November, 1875. 
Meerut, 1878. 
[Continued from p. 244.) 
d. Water .—The water supplied to horses should be soft, 
fresh, sweet, and free from floating particles of extraneous 
matter, and the allowance should be ample, i. e. as much as he 
will drink. To ensure this, whenever it can be arranged, it is 
advisable to have a supply constantly within reach of the animal. 
This should certainly be the case in the sick box, for the ability 
to cool his parched and fevered mouth by dabbling in a bucket 
of water will afford inestimable comfort to the patient, and assist 
very much in bringing about that which is so much to be 
desired, a speedy restoration to health. It is a well-known fact 
that horses having water at will drink less and are not so likely 
to overfill themselves as those watered at set hours. This is a 
great advantage where horses are liable to be wanted suddenly 
for fast work. If the water be given at stated intervals, these 
should never number less than three times daily, and should be 
fixed so as to precede the hours for feeding, for water taken 
directly after food will in all probability produce undesirable 
results, not, as many suppose, by causing the grain eaten 
actually to swell, but by mixing with and increasing the mass 
already in the stomach, and by carrying portions of the food 
through the stomach into the intestines in an undigested state, 
thereby causing intestinal irritation. 
