304 PHYSICKING. 



They are often free and fleet, but destitute of continuance. They should havo 

 rather more than the usual allowance of com, with beans, when at work. A 

 cordial ball, with catechu and opium, will often be serviceable either before or 

 after a journey. 



PHYSICKING. 



This would seem to be the proper place to speak of physicking horses a 

 mode of treatment necessary under various diseases often useful for the aug- 

 mentation of health, and yet which has often injured the constitution and abso- 

 lutely destroyed thousands of animals. When a horse comes from grass to hard 

 meat, or from the cool open air to a heated stable, a dose or even two doses of 

 physic may be useful to prevent the tendency to inflammation which is the 

 necessary consequence of so sudden and great a change. To a horse that is 

 becoming too fat, or has surfeit, or grease, or mange, or that is out of con- 

 dition from inactivity of the digestive organs, a dose of physic is often most 

 serviceable ; but the reflecting man will enter his protest against the periodical 

 physicking of all horses in the spring and the autumn, and more particularly 

 against that severe system which is thought to be necessary in order to train 

 them for work, and also the absurd method of treating the animal when under 

 the operation of physic. 



A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of physic. Two or three 

 bran mashes given on that or the preceding day are far from sufficient when a 

 horse is about to be physicked whether to promote his condition or in obedience 

 to custom. Mashes should be given until the dung becomes softened. A less 

 quantity of physic will then suffice, and it will more quickly pass through the 

 intestines, and be more readily diffused over them. Five drachms of aloes, 

 given when the dung has thus been softened, will act much more effectually and 

 much more safely than seven drachms, when the lower intestines are obstructed 

 by hardened faeces. 



On the day on which the physic is given, the horse should have walking 

 exercise, or may be gently trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day ; 

 but after the physic begins to work, he should not be moved from his stall 

 Exercise would then produce gripes, irritation, and, possibly, dangerous inflam 

 mation. The common and absurd practice is to give the horse most exercise 

 after the physic has begun to operate. 



A little hay may be put into the rack. As much mash should be given as the 

 horse will eat, and as much water, with the coldness of it taken off. as he will 

 drink. If, however, he obstinately refuses to drink warm water, it is bettei 

 that he should have it cold, than to continue without taking any fluid ; but in 

 such case he should not be suffered to take more than a quart at a time, with 

 an interval of at least an hour between each draught. 



When the purging has ceased, or the physic is set, a mash should be given 

 once or twice every day until the next dose is taken, between which and the 

 setting of the first there should be an interval of a week. The horse should 

 recover from the languor and debility occasioned by the first dose, before he is 

 harassed by a second. 



Eight or ten tolerably copious motions will be perfectly sufficient to answer 

 every good purpose, although the groom or the carter may not be satisfied unless 

 double the quantity are procured. The consequence of too strong purgation 

 will be, that weakness will hang about the animal for several days or weeks, 

 and inflammation will often ensue from the over-irritation of the intestinal 

 canal. 



Long-continued custom has made ALOES the almost invariable purgative of 

 the horse, and very properly so ; for there is no other at once so sure and s<? 



