192 



that ordinary farriers ever suggest to a customer— 

 whether the horse is of sufRcient value to be worth 

 the expense of a cure. I have myself before now 

 paid fifteen pounds for the cure of a horse that 

 never was worth ten ; but I never committed the 

 fault a second time. I offered the man the horse 

 in discharge of his bill, but he laughed in my face 

 at my simplicity. 



It often happens, however, that no farrier is a1 

 hand, at least none that knows more of his busi- 

 ness than the horse itself. In such cases, all thai 

 can be done is to observe some obvious principles 

 which at all events can do but little harm. If th( 

 horse betrays great pain, and especially a difficult} 

 of breathing, copious bleeding should be resortec 

 to without delay, and it is far better to bleed onct 

 very freely, than several times at intervals. In 

 flammatory action is often arrested by bleedinj 

 largely in the first instance ; and when once ar 

 rested, all the distressing symptoms are speedil; 

 relieved ; but so rapid is the secretion of the blood 

 especially in inflammatory disease, that four or fiv 

 times the quantity abstracted, if taken away h 

 several successive operations, will produce little o 

 no effect compared with the loss of four or fiv 

 quarts at one time. It may safely be assumed 

 that wherever acute pain is indicated, inflamma 



