PHYSIC 121 



weakens and exhausts by its too powerful impression. 

 I confess I was once rather surprised to see some 

 thorough-bred colts belonging to a friend of mine 

 exposed to heavy rain with a dose of mercurial physic 

 then in operation ; but it was under the direction of 

 a very eminent veterinary surgeon, who ordered it, and 

 who said he would bear the responsibility. The only 

 way of guarding against cold is to be superior to its 

 influence, which I conclude was the case with these 

 colts running in a state of nature. 



One of the advantages of the hard-meat system in 

 the summer is the forward state in which we find a 

 horse on the first day of August ; and I name that day, 

 because on or about that time hunters which have 

 been altogether out for the summer are generally 

 taken up. Instead of being that dropsical-looking 

 animal, out of all form and shape, that a horse from 

 grass is, he wants nothing but a sweat or two to put 

 him, to all appearance, in place. His flesh, in which 

 I include his muscles, is firm and elastic, and he has 

 not that superfluous load of it, with a redundancy 

 of blood, that good pastures create, and is therefore 

 not so liable to those inflammatory complaints which 

 so frequently attend a sudden change of diet. To a 

 horse in this state I would never give more than two 

 doses of physic before hunting commences, and those 

 as mild as his constitution will admit. Circumstances 

 must direct us when to administer another, which I shall 

 allude to hereafter when writing on the duties and 

 qualifications of a groom. Generally speaking, a 

 hunter thus prepared will go on in his work until the 



