276 TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS 



which end I lack time, space, and ability. I will there- 

 fore content myself with saying that that most useful 

 remedy, the ball for reducing corpulency, is of a rather 

 purgative character, requiring careful watching, owing to 

 the necessity of repeating the dose at frequent intervals, 

 and the placing of the animals entirely in the hands of 

 the veterinary surgeon. The condition-ball is the last I 

 shall mention. It is more simple, and may be given at 

 any time, and is, I think, the most desirable of all. Its 

 powerful effects are shown in the muscular development 

 of the whole frame, and the splendidly glossy appearance 

 of the horse's coat, always the recognised indications of 

 the standard of health and acme of condition. The 

 use of balls was not unknown to our forefathers, for I 

 remember to have heard Mr. L. 0. Weeks, a celebrated 

 practitioner, say, when attending the Danebury stables, 

 that ' a dozen or two of his cayenne-balls would make 

 the horse eat the rack and manger if his craving for food 

 were not quickly allayed.' But old-fashioned trainers 

 were properly restrained from experimentally treating 

 the animals they had to train, or what would have 

 become of the whole equine race ? And it has been left 

 for later professors to prove beyond possibility of doubt 

 that things are changing, and changing for the better, 

 and that a complete victory over all disease has been 

 achieved by the free use of the medicine-chest, and the 

 initiation of the head-lad into the mysteries of the 

 medical art. Indeed, a few months ago a very clever 

 country practitioner was heard to say ' that the head-lad 

 knew as much of veterinary practice as he did himself ' 

 an avowal that of itself speaks volumes. It is true that 

 now, as in old days, disease will make its unwelcome 

 appearance, and that horses will and do get incurably 

 lame. But it has not been proved, or even recorded, in 



