104 TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION. 



Therefore the reader will perceive no book can be written 

 which shall meet every exception. 



Foreign horses, especially with long legs or huge bodies, 

 will of all others bear purging the worst. They fall and 

 die often from an ordinary dose of aloes, and frequently 

 will not bear the amount which a pony would take and 

 scarcely be moved by. 



Laxative denotes an eflPect short of actual purgation. In 

 a state of health, the duug is voided in balls ; under purga- 

 tion the excrement is discharged in a liquid state ; while the 

 effect of a laxative is to render it intermediate between these 

 two conditions. To produce such an effect, we commonly 

 give three drachms of aloes, having kept the animal the 

 previous day upon bran mashed, and allowing it as mucK 

 tepid water as it will drink. 



Preparation for a Purge. — When it is intended to 

 give a dose of purgative medicine, we " prepare'^ the animal, 

 or rather its bowels, for the operation of the physic. The 

 object of this is, that there should be sufficient alimentary 

 matter in the bowels to receive and blend with the purgative, 

 thereby mitigating its acridity, and that what food may be 

 present should be of a character to aid the effect. The sub- 

 stitution of bran for oats answers this purpose, and the 

 directions I give are as follow : — The horse to be deprived 

 of hay the evening before the physic, and to have a double 

 or treble feed of bran-mash. The physic to be given the 

 next morning after the animal has been watered, but prior 

 to his being fed again with bran-mash; no hay being 

 allowed hira until mid-day : after which he may be fed in 

 the usual manner with bran-raash and hay. The next 

 morning, early, he should be allowed to drink his fill of 

 tepid water, and be gently exercised for an hour ; during 

 which time he may be watered a second or even a third 

 time. On his return to the stable, he may have a bran- 

 mash ; of which his food should principally consist. After 

 having rested for a couple of hours, the exercise must be 

 repeated ; and this time, having walked for half an hour, he 

 must, if necessary, be slowly trotted for some time, tepid 



