PHYSICKING. 237' 



PHYSICKING. 



This would seem to be the proper place to speak of physicking horses — a mode of 

 treatment necessary under various diseases, often useful for the augmentation of health, 

 and yet which has often injured the constitution and absolutely destroyed thousands 

 of animals. When a horse comes from grass to hard meat, or from the cool, open 

 air to a heated stable, a dose or even two doses of physic may be useful to prevent 

 the tendency to inflammation which is the necessary consequence of so sudden and 

 great a change. To a horse that is becoming too fat, or has surfeit, or grease, or 

 mange, or tliat is out of contlition from inactivity of the digestive organs, a dose of 

 physic is often most serviceable ; but the reflecting man will enter his protest against 

 the periodical physicking of all horses in the spring and the autumn, and more par- 

 ticularly against that severe system which is thought to be necessary in order to train 

 them for work, and also the absurd method of treating the animal when under the 

 operation of physic. 



A horse should be carefully prepared for the action of physic. Two or three bran 

 mashes given on that or the preceding day are far from sufficient when a horse is 

 about to be physicked whether to promote his condition or in obedience to custom. 

 Mashes should he given until the dung becomes softened. A less quantity of physic 

 will then suffice, and it will more quickly pass through the intestines, and be more 

 readily diff'used over them. Five drachms of aloes, given when the dung has thus 

 been softened, will act much more eff'ectually and much more safely than seven 

 drachms, when the lower intestines, are obstructed by hardened fajces. 



On the day on which the physic is given, the horse should have walking exercise, 

 or may be gently trotted for a quarter of an hour twice in the day ; but after the physic 

 begins to work, he should not be moved from his stall. Exercise would then pro- 

 duce gripes, irritation, and, possibly, dangerous inflammation. The common and 

 absurd practice is to give the horse most exercise after the physic has begun to ope- 

 rate. 



A little hay may be put into the rack. As much mash should be given as the horse 

 ■will eat, and as much water, with the coldness of it taken off, as he will drink. If, 

 however, he obstinately refuses to drink warm water, it is better that he should have 

 it cold, than to continue without taking any fluid ; but in such case he should not be 

 suffered to take more than a quart at a time, with an interval of at least an hour be- 

 tween each draught. 



When the purging has ceased, or the physic is set, a mash should be given once or 

 twice every day until the next dose is taken, between which and the setting of the first 

 there should be an interval of a week. The horse should recover from the languor 

 and debility occasioned by the first dose, before he is harassed by a second. 



Eight or ten tolerably copious motions will be perfectly sufficient to answer every 

 good purpose, although the groom or the carter may not be satisfied unless double the 

 quantity are procured. The consequence of too strong purgation will be, that weak- 

 ness will hang about the animal for several days or weeks, and inflammation will 

 often ensue from the over-irritation of the intestinal canal. 



Long-continued custom has made aloes the almost invariable purgative of the horse, 

 and very properly so ; for there is no other at once so sure and so safe. The Bar- 

 badoes aloes, although sometimes very dear, should alone be used. The dose, with 

 a horse properly prepared, will vary from four to seven drachms. The preposterous 

 doses of nine, ten, or even twelve drachms, are now, happily for the horse, gener- 

 ally abandoned. Custom has assigned the form of a ball to physic, but good sense 

 will in due time introduce the solution of aloes, as acting more speedily, effectually, 

 and safely. 



The only other purgative on which dependence can be placed is the croton. ^The 

 farina or meal of the nut is generally used ; but from its acrimony it should be given 

 in the form of ball, with linseed meal. The dose varies from a scruple to half a 

 drachm. It acts more speedily than the aloes, and without the nausea which they 

 produce; but it causes more watery stools, and. consequentlv. more debility. 



Linseed-oil is an uncertain but safe purgative, in doses from a pound to a pound 

 and a half. Omve-oil is more uncertain, but safe ; but castor-oil, that mild aperient 

 in the human being, is both uncertain and unsafe. Epsom-salts are inefficacious, 

 except in the immense dose of a pound and a half, and then they are not always safe. 



