C 258 ] 



CHAP. VII. 



ON PURGATION AND ALTER ANTS, BLEEDING, 

 ROWELLING, SETONS, CLYSTERS, &C. 



ON the fubjeft of cathartics, and the 

 rationale of their exhibition, I (hall differ 

 in a confiderable degree from all authority, an- 

 cient or modern, without however being fo un- 

 reafonable or prefumptuous, as to expeft acqui- 

 efcence in my opinions any farther than I can 

 fupport them by juft and fatisfa6lory reafoning; 

 but I may premife with the utmofl: truth, that 

 no part of the art veterinary has had a greater 

 fhare of my attention and praQice. 



The Ancients purged their cattle very fel- 

 dom, although the cathartic virtues of thofe 

 drugs, now in common ufe, were then well 

 known. Their favourite purge for horfes, was 

 the pulp of the bitter apple, or the roots of the 

 wild cucumber. The early modern Italian and 

 French winters w^ere bewitched by the old con- 

 ceit of elementary humours, and eleftive purga- 

 tion ; but they were ignorant of the ufe of ca- 

 thartics, as a mean of promoting the condition 

 of the horfe, which feems to have been a dif- 

 covery appertaining to the fyftem of horfe- 



courfing^ 



