PECULIAR TO HORSES. 123 



create a medicinal disease of a very grave character ; add to this 

 the original malady, and the reader will perceive that nature — the 

 " Good Samaritan" — does not have a fair chance. If let alone, she 

 (nature) is equal to the task of curing any curable disease ; but when 

 meddlesome medication assails the citadel of life, the forces of nature 

 being overpowered, they resign the living citadel to the enemy, and 

 death is the result. 



Many medicines — so called — such as antimony, hellebore, strych- 

 nia, arsenic, &c., &c., when administered in repeated doses, accu- 

 mulate in the system, are absorbed, act as depressors of vitality, 

 and the animal dies, actually poisoned by the so-called medicine. 



After eighteen years of actual practice, I have come to the con- 

 clusion that the business of the physician is to aid nature, and 

 administer medicines of a sanative character, which are calculated 

 to preserve the integrity of the vital forces while the disease runs 

 its course. Many medicines are supposed to have a specific effect 

 on disease. I very much doubt this proposition, and believe that 

 most of the curable cases are self-limited, and only require the exhi- 

 bition of some simple form of medicine, the action of which is alter- 

 ative. 



The effect of an alterative is to change morbid action ; and it does 

 not matter what species of animal is afflicted, the laws of the animal 

 economy are uniform, and whether we prescribe for a man, horse, 

 or cow, our system of medication must, on the principles of reason 

 and past experience, be of a sanative character, calculated to pre- 

 serve the integrity of the organism ; so that, if any of the readers 

 of this work have sick animals in the barn, sheep-fold, or hog-pen, 

 I advise them to administer medicmes of an alterative, yet sanative 

 character. Messrs. Lord & Smith, of the city of Chicago, have 

 recently prepared the " best alterative''' ever known to science, con^ 

 taining no agent that can possibly have a bad eflfect on the system 

 of any living creature, yet calculated to be potent in the cure of dis- 

 ease. The American Magnetic Equine Powders can be used for 

 almost all forms of disease that do not actually need the services of 

 a veterinary surgeon. While the late Gen. O. M. Mitchell was in 

 command of the Department of the Ohio, and afterwards under 

 Buell in Kentucky, he ordered his division wagon master to use 

 these powders, in all cases of disease occurring among horses imder 

 his care, and the consequence was, that the lives of many valuable 

 horses were saved. So in reference to the Lotion and Liniment ; 

 they had the same effect. 



While in Kentucky, almost all the horses attached to General 

 Mitchell's brigade were the subjects of grease and scratches, and 

 other cutaneous affections. He was supplied with a quantity of the 

 American Magnetic Equine Lotion, which soon had the effect of 

 eradicating the disease. 



See advertisement at end of this work. 



