884 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



owner will entirely ignore in his veterinary practice, and upon 

 no consideration whatever will he be induced to have any 

 thing to do with them. There is no need to resort to the 

 use of such poisons in any case, for there is an abundance of 

 other medicines to select from which are equally or nearly 

 eflS-cient, and attended with no dangerous consequences. 



It is not often that the horse is poisoned internally, except 

 as before adverted to — by the careless or ignorant use of 

 certain articles administered as medicines. Natural instinct 

 teaches him to avoid most of the poisonous herbs that com- 

 monly grow in the pasture-fields, where he seldom receives 

 any injury of this kind, unless it be occasionally from the 

 poisonous weeds and vines with which his nose may come 

 in contact during grazing. Perhaps the chief danger of in- 

 ternal poisoning to which the horse is exposed proceeds from 

 the mean, dastardly mode which some cowards adopt to take 

 revenge upon an enemy — ^that of destroying or ruining his 

 horse. 



In 1866, we treated an aggravated case of this kind in 

 Petersburg, Boone County, Kentucky. A young horse, 

 from motives of revenge which some miscreant entertained 

 toward his owner, was poisoned by applying some villainous 

 compound to the animal's nose, causing it to swell to three 

 times its natural size, while great blisters came out all over 

 the surface. The treatment was alternate washings with hot 

 salt and water, and a strong decoction of golden seal, every 

 four hours. This gave relief in a short time, and in a few 

 days the horse was quite well. 



In many districts of the South and South-west, however, 

 the stock-raiser has much more reason to dread the bites 

 of venomous serpents, insects, etc., than any of the other 

 sources of poisoning. 



The subjects of which we propose to treat in this chapter 

 may be grouped under three different heads ; namely, inter- 

 nal poisons, poisons of the skin, and animal poisons. The 

 latter includes the bite of venomous snakes, and the sting 

 of scorpions, poisonous insects, hornets, wasps, etc. 



