DOCTORING. 263 



and sickness at all events at bay, until the arrival of a 

 qualified V.S. To sit down and do nothing, or to cry and 

 moan over some injured favourite, is a very feeble and 

 ineffectual mode of action ; far better be up and doing : 

 provided always that you know ivhat to do, and do it in 

 the right way. 



Now, as I do not (as stated) pretend for a moment to be 

 a skilled doctor, I shall content myself with giving a few 

 recipes (the results of my own experience), for the treatment 

 of ordinary well-known and common equine ailments — 

 touching lightly upon other matters that seem to bear upon 

 the subject on which I have undertaken to gwQ advice. 



Firstly, then, I strongly object to physicking, and think it 

 ought to be avoided when possible. Long ago it was a 

 sort of stable craze, resorted to indiscriminately, whether 

 needed or not To subject a whole stud of horses to a 

 severe ''physic" every Saturday night was as common 

 under our forefathers' regime as to eat dinner or drink a 

 quart of sack. Happily, the practice is in great measure 

 exploded, although it is still far too general, especially in 

 country stables. To dose with aloes was formerly the 

 groom's chief delight ; nothing else satisfied him, and the 

 results were often unsatisfactory in the extreme. Even still 

 he loves physicking so very much, that to ad-opt the oft- 

 followed course of purchasing horse-balls and leaving them 

 in the stable-press, is a very unwise one indeed, for the 

 fingers of the groom positively itch to administer them, and 

 one will certainly be smuggled down the animal's throat 

 at some entirely wrong period if his care-taker be allowed to 



