INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 127 



contagious. 1 have been in the habit of owning from 

 one to eight horses at a tinne, for fifteen years, and in 

 all that time never lost a horse. I cannot help believ- 

 ing my success, in this respect, has been much in- 

 debted to the constant use of the asafcetida, which 1 

 consider one of the most valuable and innocent medi- 

 cines ever used amongst horses. It not only drives off 

 diseases of almost every kind, but it keeps up the 

 appetite, produces a remarkable fineness in the coat ol 

 hair, and gives such life and spirits as to induce even 

 an old horse to attempt the attitudes and movements 

 of the gay and mettled racer. 



The value of the asafcetida is at present but little 

 known for the use of horses; but whenever it shall have 

 been used or brought into notice, its remarkable effects, 

 no doubt, will prove what I now say. Its virtues are 

 acknowledged and remembered with pleasure, by all 

 those who have used it in their stables. 



The asafcetida is produced from a plant called 

 perennial, and is a native of Persia: it has, however, 

 borne fertile seeds, in the open air, in the botanical 

 garden of Edinburgh. The gum resin is produced 

 from the roots of plants which are at least four years 

 old. When the leaves begin to decay, the stalk i ; 

 twisted off and the earth removed from about thei^ 

 large tapering roots. The top of the root is some time 

 afterwards cut off transversely, and forty-eight hours 

 afterwards the juice which has exuded, is scraped ofi', 

 and a second transverse incision is made : this opera- 

 tion is repeated until the root is entirely exhausted o 

 )uice: after being scraped off, the juice is exposed to the 

 sun to harden. It is brought to us in large irregular 

 masses, composed of various little shining 'umps oi 

 grains, which are pnrtly of a whitish colour, partly led- 

 12* 



