Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/88

 blows in his teeth. He is believed also to have a strong objection to cinders, particularly fresh ones; and if he is kept long standing he will get ulcers in his legs. When he rolls in the dust and does not get up again, that is a sign that his bones ache; if on rising he does not shake off the dust, there is something the matter with his skin; if he shakes it off, but fails to snort through his nostrils, his chest is out of order. The maladies to which the horse is most subject are those of the heart, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, and the kidneys. When his heart is wrong the tongue becomes bright red; when his stomach is wrong his lips become discoloured, and have an appearance of laughing; while the other diseases manifest their existence in a variety of ways, all equally relevant and unmistakable. It is, therefore, highly desirable that in the treatment of horses no violence should be done to their natural constitution. That this excellent rule is, however, but seldom observed in its integrity is sufficiently proved by the fact that many horses die before the age of thirty-one, such being the average age of the quadruped as intended by nature. The longer the period of gestation, say the Chinese, the longer the life of the animal; and horses, who have a period of twelve months, live half the life of a man, and twice that of an ox. In order, therefore, to prolong the life of a horse to its full extent three things are necessary. The first is, that a horse should never be transported from the country where he is indigenous to any other. The Tartar horses, it is said, languish and die when carried into the warm, humid provinces of the South; the enervating climate and more generous food work great mischiefs in an animal accustomed to the bracing air and