IMMODERATE THIRST. 475 



About the beginning of October, 1830, 1 was requested to visit a black 

 gelding, the property of Mr. Banks, of Deptford. This gentleman, who 

 had possessed the horse but a few weeks, informed me that the animal had 

 knocked up in two or three journeys, and that of late he had refused his 

 food, though he appeared to have a vehement desire for water, which, I 

 understood, had been allowed but in sparing quantities. The animal 

 shewed some general signs of ill health : his coat was long, rough, and 

 staring ; his belly tucked up ; and he perspired freely from moderate exer- 

 cise. His principal malady, however, seemed to be of a pneumonic na- 

 ture ; to relieve which, the common remedies, such as bleeding, blisters, 

 &c., were resorted to : at the same time, I recommended his having water- 

 gruel to drink instead of plain water. On my next visit, the servant com- 

 plained to me of the horses's extreme thirst, which he said was such " that 

 his whole time was taken up in making water-gruel ;" and his master 

 (probably at his instigation) wished me to take the animal under my im- 

 mediate care (to Shooter's Hill), which I accordingly did on the Sd of 

 November, by placing him at livery at the inn opposite my house. In 

 the course of a day or two, the ostler discovered his appetite for drink, 

 and represented to me that he consumed " all the gruel he could make for 

 him." At this time, I must acknowledge my hopes of recovering my 

 patient (from a malady of the nature of which I was confessedly ignorant) 

 were declining ; when, on visiting him as usual on the 5th, and finding 

 that his inordinate desire for liquids had not, by very large potations of 

 gruel been appeased, I resolved to ascertained, whether it was the gruel 

 after which he craved, or whether he had really a preternatural thirst. 

 Now, it was about eight o'clock, a.m., and he had already taken his usual 

 allowance of gruel, when I ordered the man to fetch him a pail of water; 

 this he ravenously drank, another as greedily, a third was swallowed with 

 equal avidity, a fourth quickly disappeared, and a fifth followed. About 

 a quarter before one o'clock I repeated my visit ; and having found my 

 patient by no means uneasy from the twenty gallons of water (the pail 

 having been measured) he had already ingurgitated, I was willing to see 

 if he had any inclination to renew his potations. Accordingly, another 

 pail of water was ofiered to him ; having drank which, apparently with 

 undiminished avidity, he looked round in my face with eagerness for a 

 second ; this was followed by a third, a fourth, and a fifth : in fact, be- 

 tween eight A.M. and one p.m. he swallowed the prodigious quantity of 

 thirty-eight gallons and one quart ! Having, at length, quenched a thirst 

 which I, at one time, almost began to despair of doing, no more water was 

 given to him during that day, and medicine was altogether discontinued. 

 This enormous ingurgitation, as was anticipated, was speedily followed by 

 profuse discharges of urine ; and in this way the bulk of the fluid appeared 

 to have been disposed of; for no diarrhoea ensued, nor was there any con- 

 sequent sensible perspiration. 



