LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 265 



inventor or discoverer, but base my practice on the experiments and experience 

 of others, together ^vith my own experience. 



The one great essential point in the treatment of domestic animals is to 

 keep the animal well when it is well. Perhaps yon will say, What has that 

 to do with the medical treatment of animals; when the animal is well it 

 needs no physician? Being somewhat of a Yankee, I will answer this ques- 

 tion by asking one of you : How many are there in this congregation of people 

 who own horses or other animals, that do not keep a bunch of condition 

 powders, or bottle of nitre, or nitre and buchu, constantly on hand in the 

 stable, or somewhere near, so that it can be got at very readily, and must 

 needs give the horse or other animal an occasional dose, say twice or three times 

 a week, "for he's a little off, you know?" Now how many are there present 

 that don't practice this very thing? If any, please make it manifest. This 

 remark, "he's a little off, you know," was made to me a few years ago by a 

 farmer, while I was helping my brother in his store for a short time. We 

 kept condition powders for sale. 



This farmer came into the store one day and accosted me something like 

 this : Aaron, they tell me you are quite a horse doctor ; I want some condition 

 .powders; Which are the best? There were several kinds on the shelf, done 

 •up in an attractive manner, most of which had the picture of a poor, broken 

 down looking horse on one corner, and on the other corner, one with his head 

 •elevated, neck arched, nostrils expanded, etc. The one was the horse before 

 taking, and the other, the horse after taking. I told him I didn't know 

 which were the best, as I never used them. 



I then asked him if his horse was sick, and the answer was: ** Oh, no; but 

 a little off, you know, and I want some condition powders to bring him around, 

 you know." I sold him the powders, and then advised him not to use them 

 if his horse was not sick ; and told him I thought the most his animal needed 

 was exercise, and a little dieting. To take the grain away from him for a few 

 days, lessen his feed, give him bran mash, and let him get hungry; for he was 

 a good feeder, and liked to see his horses sleek and fat. Some three months 

 after, he called me to see his horse. There was no doubt about the sickness 

 this time. I found the animal suffering from indigestion, constipation of the 

 bowels, urinary difficulties, auasarcial swellings of the legs and other parts of 

 the body. A state of things evidently, to me, due in a great measure to the 

 indiscreet use of powerful medical remedies. 



I believe, ladies and gentlemen, there exists a natural law to guide us in the 

 administration of medicines to all animated beings; and that law is this: 

 Like cures like. If the hair off the dog will not cure the bite, the hair off 

 from a similar dog will, if you please. That is, a remedy will cure symptoms 

 when they arise from some other cause, similar to those which it will itself 

 produce, if taken during health. And my practice in the medical treatment 

 of animals has been based upon this principle for the last ten years. Whether 

 successful or not, I will leave for my patrons to say. I have never solicited 

 patronage, but rather avoided it; but I believe, ladies and gentlemen, this to 

 be the true principle on which to base our practice in the medical treatment 

 of animals: "Like cures like ;" and I think science demonstrates this, which 

 I shall endeavor to show before I leave the subject. 



It is very essential then, that medicine administered on this principle should 

 be given in very small, or minute doses, for if given in material doses it 

 would most certainly aggravate the symptoms; but in small doses it simply 

 excites a reaction, which overcomes the diseased action. Experience has 



