34 MAX UAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



complaint are known. It appears to be in some degree analo- 

 gous to the small-pox in the human being ; and having 

 passed through it, the constitution of the animal seems to 

 have undergone purification and improvement. In some 

 instances it has affected the animal in so mild a form, that 

 it has passed through its various stages and gone off witli- 

 out much inconvenience to it, or any remedial means what- 

 ever having been employed. Contagion seems to have 

 nothing to do with the disorder. Every horse has this 

 complaint once during his life, and once only. 



Remedies. — As the principal source of the complaint con- 

 sists in the swelling between the jaws, the first thing to be 

 attended to is, to bring the tumour to a suppuration. A 

 sharp blister is the first thing to be applied. This, adminis- 

 tered in time, will facilitate the discharge a week or two 

 earlier than it would have taken place, if allowed to come to 

 a period naturally. It will also have a tendency to draw out 

 the inflammation from the mucous membrane of the throat, 

 and cojisequently greatly ameliorate the cough. The old 

 practice of applying poultices and fomentations were very 

 ineffectual ap[)liances, from the great thickness of the skin 

 of the horse. The following stimulating ointment may be 

 applied with advantage after the removal of the blister : — 

 Camphor . . .1 drachm, 



Hog's-lard . . .1 ounce. 

 Oil of origanum . . -| drachm. 



Shortly after having been anointed with the above, a large and 

 liot poultice may be applied, and both repeated twice a-day 

 until the tumour is full of matter and is quite soft. It fre- 

 quently breaks of its own accord ; but if it should not, it 

 must be laid open with a lancet, from the bottom upwards. 

 The matter must be well squeezed out, and the lips of the 

 incision kept open with a piece of lint for several days, until 



