266 Exercise, 



low, (which indeed is truly, though imperfectly, describing the facts 

 of the case;) and it is presumed in consequence of this notion, that 

 the way to remove this feebleness and debility, is, to give him some- 

 thing that is considered of a cheering and nourishing kind. Thus, in 

 consequence of this erroneous idea, concerning the true cause of the 

 animal's indisposition, attempts to relieve him, are made upon a prin- 

 ciple calculated to exasperate, instead of mitigating, the evil. For, 

 either the suffering animal is crammed night and morning with a cor 

 dial ball, the sovereign and universal medicine of the ignorant, or he is 

 drenched with some vile composition, usually consisting of malt- 

 liquor, boiled up with sugar and spices, to which, not unfrequently, 

 ardent spirits are added. For, next to the name of a cordial ball, 

 there is something irresistably fascinating to the ignorant, in the term 

 of a warm comfortable drink ; one or other of which stimulants is usu- 

 ally deemed indispensably necessary to be administered, in order to re- 

 move that lassitude, and falling-offof the appetite, which are the na- 

 tural effects of excessive exertion and fatigue. But, the consequence of 

 these unwise prescriptions frequently is, that a disease slight in its ori- 

 gin, which would readily have yielded to blood-letting, a loose stall, te- 

 pid water, or thin gruel, and the voluntary abstinence which the animal's 

 instinct would naturally prompt, is soon converted into a vehement in- 

 flammatory attack of some of the vital organs, which afterwards proves 

 too formidable to be combated by any of the weapons that science(not- 

 withstanding the multitude of her resources,) can possibly furnish, 

 even to the man of extensive experience. But these great Doctors 

 who venture to prescribe for sick Horses, uniformly solace themselves 



