OF FARRIERY. 



277 



stomach, mild purgatives act in the most 

 salutary manner. 



In the removal of worms also, they act most 

 beneficially, by ejecting them, and the nidus 

 in which they are lodged also. 



As preventatives, purges are extensively 

 employed ; also when Horses are taken from 

 grass, or the straw-yard, and are at once re 

 moved into a heated temperature, with cloth- 

 ing and full diet. Were it not for bleeding 

 and purging, but particularly the latter, we 

 should find all the consequences of plethora 

 shew themselves soon after ; as hide-bound, 

 surfeits, swelled legs, cracked-heels, opthal- 

 mia, and not unfrequently, inflamed lungs also. 

 Here, and in all similar cases, purgatives find 

 a vent for the superabundant blood formed. 



It is another fact, which serves to exemplify 

 the want of analogy between the action of 

 purgatives on the Horse, to those on the 

 human sul)ject ; that when an emaciated 

 Horse is removed from hard work, and harder 

 fare, at once to rest and a full diet, that so far 

 from his condition being improved, unless he 

 be prepared for the change by previous purg- 

 ing, his skin becomes fixed, his belly still more 

 and more tucked up, and his hair will often 

 actually fall off. But the same change, when 

 accompanied by a judicious use of purgatives, 

 operates so much to his advantage, that a few 

 weeks brings forth a new animal, as it were. 



Physic is also most beneficially given at 

 particular seasons, as at the spring and fall, 

 to obviate the effects of the contradictory state 

 into which Horses fall at those times ; beintr 

 then apparently weak and emaciated, yet at 

 the same time suffering from increased arte- 

 rial action, employed in working the periodical 

 change in the constitution. At these times, 

 two or three mild purges will stimulate the j 



defective digestion, remove morbid a(-cumula- 

 tions from the bowels, occasioned thereby, 

 and by a sympathetic effect between the skin 

 and alimentary canal, they will assist in the 

 change of the new hair for the old. 



Purgatives are given to promote condition. 

 — If their tardiness of action altogether shut 

 them out from any other medicinal use, yet 

 their beneficial influence in producing con- 

 dition, would of itself render the subject 

 important to all those connected with Horses, 

 if, likewise, they excited only the condition 

 we require on the young, the robust, and the 

 already lusty animal, it would excite little 

 surprise, and the method of action would be 

 clear; but when we know that they equally 

 promote if" in lean emaciated Horses, even 

 without apparent disease, it requires an inti- 

 mate acquaintance with the requisite func- 

 tions, and his animal economy, to enable us to 

 account for the fact. In such cases we give mild 

 doses only, which prove a valuable stimulant 

 and tonic to the stomach and bowels, thus pro- 

 moting their digestive powers, and consequent 

 capability of separating more organic mole- 

 culuae from the ingesta. They also stimulat^^ 

 the sluggish biliary and pancreatic secretions, 

 which are so necessary to a healthy digestion 

 and formation of chyle, fi"om which alone the 

 strength and bulk can be augmented. Luxury 

 and refinement have introduced an artificial 

 state of condition beyond that ; simply, a 

 healthy functional state. 



Such condition is not only necessary to i)ring 

 the animal up to our present ideas of beauty, 

 but also to enable him to undergo exercises, 

 which in a state of nature were not expected 

 from him, as hunting, racing, &c., &c. To 

 promote this state, purges are indispensabi\ 

 necessary, and it is from this view that thu 

 4a 



