EXERCISE. 243 



insure its credibility. Nitre is the general 

 arcanum for every ill, while one-half of 

 those who prescribe, and the other half who 

 give it, may be equally strangers to its ef- 

 fects or mode of operation. If a horse is- 

 attacked with cold from an obstruction of 

 the pores, that has thrown the perspirable 

 matter upon the eyes, lungs, or glandular 

 parts, what is the established remedy ? Nitre/ 

 Inflammatory fever ensues : what follows ? 

 Nitre/ Swelled legs, cracked heels, or 

 gve2ise } Nitre / Bad eyes (from whatever 

 cause) ? Nitre/ In fact, such is the predomi- 

 nant rage of fashionable plirenzy, that should 

 any case arise, bearing in experience no pa- 

 thognomonic symptoms to ascertain the cer- 

 tainty or probable affinity of disease, its 

 origin or termination, Nitre, with sag^acious 

 grooms and cotidescending farriers, must be- 

 come the grand specific ; to which infatu- 

 ation, I am much inclined to believe Bart- 

 let's unbounded partiality, and its echo from 

 one conjurer to another, has very much con- 

 tributed. 



A chain of attentive observations, collected 

 in the course of long experience, has fully 



R 2 



