PHYSIC 119 



working it in." After all there is no great exaggeration 

 in this. A relation of mine — a clergyman, educated 

 at Eton and Oxford — stood by and saw a country 

 farrier give three pounds of shot, and two ounces of 

 gunpowder in a pint of milk, to a mare of his labouring 

 under violent inflammation of the lungs, with great 

 difficulty of breathing. About five minutes after she 

 had taken it she staggered a few paces, and fell dead 

 on the spot. My friend being a prudent man, I re- 

 monstrated with him on the impropriety of wasting 

 so much powder and shot, as the twentieth part of 

 the dose, in a more compressed form, would have 

 produced more speedy relief. 



At the period to which I allude, when I first directed 

 my attention to the operation and effect of physic, 

 I had a horse, to which I have before alluded, and which, 

 as never having been what could be called a perfectly 

 sound horse, but having stood fifteen years in my 

 stable, with the exception of one winter's run, a model 

 of condition, has been a sort of landmark to me in 

 directing the operations of my stable. The horse was 

 in the habit of taking ten drachms of Barbadoes aloes 

 and one drachm of calomel, in his three doses, in suc- 

 cession, and which appeared barely sufficient to pro- 

 duce the desired effect. Now I have good reason to 

 believe that this horse had been in the habit of taking 

 his ten drachms of aloes and his one drachm of calomel 

 from the time he came out of training at five years old, 

 and therefore less would not do ; but for some years 

 before he died he received all the benefit that could 

 be derived from physic, by what I conceive to be not 



