260 PURGATION. 



and that we were entirely ignorant of their re- 

 lation to the organization of the horfe ! 



In declaiming againft the violent and inordi- 

 nate purgatives, made ufe of by farriers and 

 grooms, our beft writers, nowife inimical to 

 purging in general, have overfliot their mark, 

 by adopting the following fophiftry ; the lim- 

 " plicity of the horfe's food, confifting chiefly 

 " of grain and herbage, fecures him from thofe 

 " complicated diforders fuffered, and the ne- 

 " cefTity of thofe artificial evacuations required 

 " by man." St. Bel has unwarily echoed thefe 

 fentiments, not recolle6ling that long bead-roll 

 of acute and chronic difeafes, which he had in 

 another part of his work afcribed to the horfe. 

 In faft, thofe obfervations apply folely to the 

 animal in his natural (late ; domefticated with 

 man, the horfe becomes an unfortunate partici- 

 pator in nearly all the difeafes incident to his 

 mafler, and with refpeft to cathartic aid, the 

 moft rational and folid experience has proved 

 its peculiar need, and vaft benefit to this animal, 

 whilft breathing the impure air, drooping under 

 the confinement, and fattening upon the lux- 

 uries of the liable. 



I hold, that neither man nor horfe, living in 

 a ftate of luxury (and fuch is the ufual flate of 

 the upper claffes of both) can fubfift, without 

 imminent danger of the mofl fatal difeafes, un- 

 lefs occafionally and frequently aflilled by arti- 

 ficial 



