■368 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



40 the stable in early winter, when he noticed that her legs began to stock 

 again, and if left in the stable for several days without exercise, would swell 

 very much, and become stiff and sore; that this state of things existed until 

 about the first of February, when the eruption appeared, and he had exhausted 

 his skill and got discouraged, and though he had no faith, he thought he 

 •would try the little-dose doctor. Well, I said to him, Dan., what has been 

 your treatment? The answer was: I have given her condition powders, 

 washed her legs with salamoniac and vinegar, cleansed them with castile soap 

 and water, and applied litherage to the sores to dry them off, and I've goc 

 •completely discouraged. My answer was : You ought to have succeeded, cer- 

 tainly. I then asked him how many condition powders he had given his mare. 

 Well, the answer was, he didn't know exactly, but some three or four pounds 

 in all, and to use his own expression, "they had got so they didn't do a 

 bit of good." When I didn't wonder. Now, as we have seen that sulphur 

 is a principal ingredient in all condition powders, it would be worse 

 'than useless to prescribe sulphur, although in accordance with our rule of 

 prescribing, sulphur was plainly indicated. I confess I -was at a loss what to 

 do; other remedies were indicated, but not so plainly as sulphur. I told him 

 I would prescribe for his mare, but at the same time that I thought he had a 

 pretty big elephant on his hands, and that he would have to be patient, for I 

 thought that improvement would be slow, if we got any at all. I gave him 

 directions as to diet, ordering him to stop feeding grain of any kind ; to 

 feed hot bran mash and good hay ; to cease all outward applications, except to 

 wash the legs clean every day with warm water and castile soap, and dry them 

 thoroughly with soft cloths ; and left my prescription, with the promise that I 

 would see her again in a week, unless she got worse ; in which case he was to 

 let me know. Not hearing from him in the meantime, at the end of the week 

 J called again, and, in response to my question as to the condition of the 

 -patient, the answer was, in his own words : That medicine acts like the very 

 devil; if the mare continues to improve as she has done for the week past, she 

 ■will be able to go to work by the time the ground is ready for the plough. 

 And, gentlemen, I was a good deal surprised at the improvement that had 

 taken place, for I did not expect it, and the mare ultimately made a good 

 .recovery, with the exception of a little stiffness in her fore legs. 



Now what was the prescription used? Arsenic and cantharides, prepared 

 thus : One grain of arsenic in one-half ounce of alcohol. I used the white 

 arsenic because I did not have at hand at the time a solution of arsenic. 

 ■Cantharides tincture first, or one of cantharides to ten of alcohol, to be given 

 in alternation, in ten-drop doses, four hours between each dose, and as 

 improvement took place, to put them further apart. I directed him to shake 

 the vial containing the arsenic, for it does not readily dissolve in alcohol. 

 What do you think of it? Perhaps you may say bosh ! humbug! But, gentle- 

 men, facts are stubborn things, and hard to get over. 



Gentlemen, I introduce this case, not so much to show the success of my 

 practice, but to show the fallacy and absurdity of drugging animals with 

 powerful medicines when slightly indisposed, the effects of which on the sys- 

 tem of the animal you do not understand, for I believe that many of the 

 symptoms developed in the case we have had under consideration, were caused 

 by the drugs that had been given her. It is not to be expected in an article 

 prepared for an occasion like this, that one can enter largely into detail, give 

 you a description, and prescription, for every disease, ache, and pain, that 

 domestic animals are subject to, for the time is too limited ; but rather give 



