212 THE ADVENTURES OP A GENTLEMAN 



ever suggest to a customer — whether the horse is of 

 sufficient value to be worth the expense of a cure. 

 I have myself before now paid fifteen pounds for the 

 cure of a horse that never was worth ten ; but I never 

 committed the fault a second time. I offered the 

 man the horse in discharge of his bill, but he laughed 

 in my face at my simplicity. 



It often happens, however, that no farrier is at 

 hand, at least none that knows more of his business 

 than the horse itself. In such cases, all that can be 

 done is to observe some obvious principles, which at 

 all events can do but little harm. If the horse be- 

 trays great pain, and especially a difficulty of breath- 

 ing, copious bleeding should be resorted to without 

 delay, and it is far better to bleed once very freely, 

 than several times at intervals. Inflammatory action 

 is often arrested by bleeding largely in the first in- 

 stance ; and when once arrested, all the distressing 

 symptoms are speedily relieved ; but so rapid is the 

 secretion of the blood, especially in inflammatory 

 disease, that four or five times the quantity ab- 

 stracted, if taken away in several successive opera- 

 tions, will produce little or no effect compared with 

 the loss of four or five quarts at one time. It may 



