healthy state of all animals is constituted by a due and vigorous circulation of the blood, and a regularity in the natural evacuations of the body. Whatever disturbs any of these functions will produce debility. In a full plethoric habit the blood-vessels become oppressed by being overloaded, and are thereby rendered incapable of performing their office. Hence debility ensues; and the legs being the part most remote from the heart, which is the centre of circulation, become swelled for want of the accustomed absorption. On the other hand the circulation of the blood may also be rendered feeble from the animal being weak and emaciated either from immoderate labour, or from a want of sufficient food.

The disposition to this disease is also greatly increased at particular seasons of the year, such as the spring and autumn, or by want of regular exercise and thorough cleaning. The pavement of the stalls of the stable being on an ascent, and obliging the horse to stand on the stretch, is another very probable cause of the grease.

In the healthy state of the animal the insensible perspiration is carried on in a regular manner, as may be ascertained by the glossy appearance of the coat, as well as by the softness and pliability of the skin. On the contrary, when the natural evacuations are suspended by disease, the coat is hard and dry, and the skin almost immoveable.

There are many circumstances which may cause a suspension of the insensible perspiration, but the principal one arises from a sudden change from heat to cold. This may be produced by the horse standing in the open air whilst in a sweat from exercise; or it may arise from washing him all over with cold water whilst in that state, or from the still more abominable cus

tom of taking him into a brook up to his belly, and riding him round for a considerable length of time, so that he has to pass through a fresh succession of cold water every time he goes round. This practice is very common among post-boys, and horse-keepers to stagecoaches, and very frequently brings on the most violent inflammatory attacks on the lungs, or on the intestines; and every coach-proprietor and inn-keeper who has been in the habit of suffering this practice, should at once abolish it.

ON TRAINING FOR THE COURSE AND THE CHASE

THERE is scarcely any part of the management of horses that requires more judgment and nice discrimination than that which relates to the present subject. Certain received opinions, and deep-rooted prejudices, have long held an arbitrary sway in matters of this nature, and whoever is bold enough to dispute the soundness of these opinions must expect nothing but ridicule for his pains. The plea of experience is constantly thrown in his teeth; and the ancient charter of tormenting and destroying horses is maintained with as much pertinacity as Magna Charta is by every true Briton and friend of his country.

But the validity of experience must in all cases depend principally on the variety of systems that have been put in practice, and on a fair and impartial comparison between them. For the experience of a set of men who have never trode but in the same beaten track cannot be worth much. It may, indeed, some

times point out to them that they are wrong, but it can never show them how to go right without a thorough knowledge of radical principles. A man may for fifty years of his life see the sun rise in the morning, and set again at night, but although he knows the certainty of this fact from experience, still he may remain till the day of his death as ignorant of the nature and course of that celestial body, as he was at the first hour of his existence. Precisely of this quality is that sort of experience which is held up as the basis of all stable knowledge, and from which it is considered a kind of heresy to dissent.

It is certain that there are some people who deem the most violent and preposterous mode of treatment as perfectly safe and harmless, merely because the poor animal that is doomed to undergo it happens to survive it. A simple perusal, however, of most of the stud-books of men upon the turf, will afford ample evidence of the danger of the practice; one instance alone, having come under the observation of the author of the present work, where in a list of the produce of a particular brood-mare, no fewer than three of eleven died in training.

Accidents of this description, however, are so far from convincing the owners of race-horses of the folly and temerity of such a system, that they appear to submit to them as mere matters of course, and are ready to attribute the fatal result to any thing but the true cause.

This may be called experience with a vengeance; and it seems to have pretty much the same effect as the spectacle of an execution has upon the fellow who is detected in picking pockets under the very gallows. If every horse's constitution was precisely the same, the whole business of training might be restricted to

the narrow compass in which it is at present comprised. But whilst there is so much, and such evident variety, the mischief which accrues from adhering to one general course must be, one would suppose, sufficient to induce a change of practice. It is admitted on all hands that no man would ask another to repair or regulate a piece of machinery except the person so employed was fully acquainted with its constituent principles. But there seems to be an extraordinary latitude allowed in every thing that relates to horses; and every stable-boy who can ride and clean a horse, is supposed to be perfectly acquainted with the animal economy and the cause and cure of diseases, without possessing one particle of knowledge on the subject of anatomy, or of the nature and effect of drugs.

He acquires a certain train of reasoning from his elders, and talks in the same profound style about humours, &c., and in due time bleeds, purges, and sweats, without mercy, every horse that happens to fall under his hands. That many a good horse has died under such an ordeal is an indisputable fact, nor is it less certain that many a good racer has been beat solely from the bad effects of the treatment before mentioned.

That such a system as the one alluded to is not absolutely necessary to qualify a horse for the business of the turf, has been proved at more periods than one. The following instance may serve as an illustration of this fact. About seventy or eighty years ago, a sporting gentleman, Sir Robert Fagg, (of the county of Sussex), was in possession of the best blood on the turf at that day, but the super-excellence of his horses was such, that he found it difficult to make any matches without giving very great odds in weight.

He therefore kept his horses in a very rough state,

without clothing, simply feeding them with the best hay and oats, and giving them strong exercise every day. In this state they were travelled to the different races, and sometimes to increase their disguise, a pair of panniers were put upon their backs. This trick of course did not last long, but it enabled him to make some advantageous matches, by which he won immense

sums.

As it may not be unentertaining to the reader to give him a specimen of the early system of training, the following extract, from a very old author on equestrian matters, has been selected :—

"The ordering a horse for a match or plate.-When you have either matched your horse, or design him to run for a plate, you should consider that you ought to reserve a month at least to draw his body perfectly clean, and to refine his wind to that degree of perfection that is capable of being attained by art.

"In the first place, take an exact view of the state of his body, both outwardly and inwardly, as whether he be low or high in flesh, or whether he be dull or heavy when abroad; and if this has been by too hard riding, give him an ounce of diapente in a pint of good old Malaga sack, which will both cleanse his body and revive his spirits. Then for the first week feed him continually with bread, oats, and split beans, giving him sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, according to what he likes best, always leaving some in his locker to eat at leisure when you are absent; and when you return at your hours of feeding, take away what is left and give him fresh, till you have made him wanton and playful. For this purpose, take notice that, though you ride him every morning and evening on airing, and every other day on hunting, yet you are not to sweat him, or put him to any violent la