2S0 THE IMhilOVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



adviseable in general debility ; because, in these cases, 

 particularly by mild diuretics, the watery parts of the 

 blood are, as it were, simply separated ; whereas purg- 

 ing appears to be more the increase of a secretion that 

 answers some necessary purpose in the system ; and, 

 as such, the operation calls more of the powers of the 

 constitution forth without any additional advantage. 



This appears the proper mode of considering this 

 circumstance generally ; but I must not forbear to 

 mention, that I have now and then, even in cases of 

 emaciation, witnessed the good effects of one or two 

 doses of physic, by which the discharge has mended, 

 the horse's carcass has become let down, and other 

 signs of improved condition have appeared. It was be- 

 fore hinted that cases occur of discharge from the 

 heels, where astringents, immediately applied, only ir- 

 ritate : every practitioner must have met with such in- 

 stances, as they are sufficiently common ; the cause 

 of which is attributed by farriers to humours. Without 

 cavilling about the term, we know that in this form 

 of the complaint, such an irritative state of the parts 

 is not an unfrequent attendant, and that it must be 

 soothed and allayed before the parts will suffer them- 

 selves to be even gently stimulated by the mildest as- 

 tringent applications. In these cases, the heels, in 

 addition to the tumefaction, and the pouring out of 

 ichorous or semi- purulent discharge in considerable 

 quantities, are stiff, tender, and painful in the extreme; 

 the horse evinces the greatest reluctance to have any 

 thing done to them ; and when he is moved snatches 

 up his leg convulsively, while the extent of vascular 

 action is such that the heels smoke when exposed. 



This highly irritable state of the vessels can only be 

 reduced by poultices. Sometimes it requires those 

 of linseed, at others, it more readily yields to those 



