382 THE HORSE. 



Tlie BuoaJoes aloes are black, with a shade of brown, of an unctuous 

 feeling, wiii a stronger smell, broken with difficulty, and the fracture dull. 

 The Cape are darker coloured, stronger smelling, very brittle, and the 

 fracture pei'feclly glossy. Every person who uses much aloes should buy 

 them in the mass, and powder them himself, and then, by attending to 

 this account of the diflerence of the three, he can scarcely be imposed 

 upon. Aloes purchased in powder are too often sadly adulterated. The 

 Cape may be powdered at all times, and the Barbadoes in frosty weathei 

 when enough may be prepared, to be kept in closed bottles, for the year's 

 consumption. They may also be powdered when they have been taken 

 from tlie gourd, and exposed to a gentle heat for two or three hours before 

 they are put into the mortar. Fifteen ounces of the powder, mixed with 

 one ounce of powdered ginger, and beaten up with eight ounces of palm 

 oil, and afterwards divided into the proper doses, will form a purging mass 

 more effectual, and much less likely to gripe, than any that can be procured 

 by melting the drug. If the physic is given in the shape of ball, it more 

 readily dissolves in the stomach, and more certainly and safely acts on the 

 bowels when made up with some oily matter, like that just recommended, 

 than when combined with syrup or honey, which are apt to ferment, and be 

 themselves the cause of gripes. It is also worse than useless to add any 

 diuretic to the mass, as soap, or carbonate of soda. The action of these 

 on one set of organs will weaken the action of the aloes on another. A 

 physic mass should never be kept more than two or three months, for after 

 that time it rapidly loses its purgative property. 



Directions for physicking will be found at p. 210. We will only add 

 that, as a promoter of condition, the dose should always be mild. A few 

 fluid stools will be sufficient for every good purpose. Violent disease will 

 alone justify violent purging. 



Three drachms of Barbadoes aloes will have as much purgative power 

 as four of the Cape, exclusive of griping less and being safer. If the 

 horse is well mashed, and carefully exercised, and will drink plenty of warm 

 water, the Cape may be ventured on, or at least mixed with equal quantities 

 of the Barbadoes; but if there be any neglect of preparation for physic, or 

 during the usual operation of the physic, the Cape are not to be depended 

 upon, and may be dangerous. 



Some persons are fond of what are called half-doses of physic. Three 

 or four drachms -are given in one day, and three or four on the following, 

 and perhaps, if the medicine has operated, as in this divided state it will 

 not always, two or three additional drachms are given on the third day 

 The consequence is*, that the bowels having been rendered irritable by the 

 former doses, the horse is over-purged, and inflammation, and death no' 

 unfrequently ensue, when the effect of the three becomes combined. In 

 physicking a horse, whatever is to be done, should be done at once. What- 

 ever quantity is intended to be given, should be given in one dose. 



The system of giving small doses of alo(;s as alteratives is not good 

 These repeated small doses lodging in some of the folds of the intestines. 

 and at length uniting, often produce more effect than is desirable; and il 

 is never safe to ride a horse far or fast, with even a small dose of aloes 

 within him. 



Most of all objectionable is the custom of giving small dosps of aloes a.^^ 

 a nauseant, in inflammation of the lungs. There is so much sympathy 

 between the contents of the chest and the belly of the horse, and inflam- 

 mation of one part is so likely to be transferred to another, that it is tread- 

 ing on very dangerous ground, when, with much inflammation of the lun^s, 

 that is given which will stimulate and may inflar^e the intestines. 



