GOO OF PURGATIVES, AND PHYSICKING OF HORSES. 



mentitious parts of the aliments. A farther stimulus will 

 not only so hasten them, that the fluid contents of the 

 bowels cease to be absorbed, but the secreting surface of 

 the intestines themselves will furnish fluid matter. Stimu- 

 late them still more, the biliary and pancreatic fluids are 

 poured forth in greater quantities. This being the simple 

 operation of purging, it is evident how many erroneous 

 notions are entertained relative to it. 



The abuse and dangers of purgatives.- — In most inflamma- 

 tory affections of the stomach and bowels, cathartics require 

 to be judiciously administered. They are almost equal to 

 poison in inflammation of the lungs ; and in all great 

 visceral inflammations active purges should be admitted 

 with caution. In farcy and glanders, purgatives never do 

 other than harm ; and in no chronic affections attended 

 with great debility are they admissible. Physic is rendered 

 yet more hurtful, from the frequency of its administration, 

 and quantities which are sometimes given. Grooms suppose 

 that every ordinary case requires three doses of physic, the 

 reasons for which Mr. Peall has humorously given, ' The 

 first being intended to stir up the humours,' ' the second to 

 set them afloat,' and ' the third to carry them off.' To very 

 young horses, and to delicate feeders, the exhibition of three 

 strong doses of physic must be attended with most inju- 

 rious consequences, and such as they cannot recover from for 

 months. It is an unfortunate prejudice, engendered by 

 ignorance and kept alive by obstinacy, that to do much good 

 with physic it should be very strong. We were once told 

 by a groom, that the dose dispensed was not strong enough, 

 for it had not purged the horse more than fourteen or fifteen 

 times ; and we have also heard that two ounces of aloes was 

 but a moderate dose. In many cases, however, these sapient 

 grooms are not satisfied unless a horse have twenty or thirty 

 evacuations. Super-purgation has destroyed hundreds of 

 horses, and it has irreparably injured thousands : it certainly 

 very much debilitates the horse. It is hardly possible to 

 conceive a more deplorable object than a horse under the 

 action of an enormous purgative : the liquid aliments escap- 

 ing almost involuntarily, the adjacent parts being excoriated, 

 with the violence and frequency of the dejections ; the belly 

 is drawn to the flank ; cold sweats bedew the frame ; appetite 



