PURGATION. 259 



couiTing, and to have received its firft general 

 fan61ion from the authority of the bed EngHfh 

 writers of the prefent century. Paracelfus, and 

 feveral of the writers of his time, affirmed all 

 catharucs to be of a poifonous nature ; nay. 

 Van Helmont fuppofed he had proved the pro- 

 pofition, by remarking that an increafed dofe 

 of them occafioned death ; by which fpecies of 

 logic the catalogue of poifons would be won- 

 derfully fwelled. The authors of the lad cen- 

 tury were very cautious in their recommenda- 

 tion of purges, particularly the Sieur de Solley- 

 fel, who fuppofed they could never be received 

 into the body of a horfe without confiderable 

 danger; and according to whofe experience, 

 they had proved fo pernicious, that he wifhed 

 their ufe entirely difcontinued for a fubftitution 

 of powerful diaphoretics. In the prefent times, 

 the praftice is very rare upon the continent. 

 In Germany, they are much attached to anti- 

 monials, and the alterative plan for horfes ; in 

 the more Northern parts of Europe, they give 

 warm aromatic powders, with a portion of 

 common fait: I do not find that in France they 

 have ever been much in the habit of purging, 

 (excepting in their racing (lables, when fubjeft 

 to the Englifh regime) and even St. Bel could 

 make the ftrange affertion, that the queflion 

 was not yet determined whether puro-atives 

 ought to be at all ufed in veterinary medicine; 



s 2 and 



