' PHYSIC. yi 



which is sickening under aloes; since the loss of appetite shows the 

 medicine has affected the system, and the natural effects of the physic 

 may, therefore, be anticipated. 



Yery many animals, when suffering from chronic debility, may be 

 slaughtered by a moderate dose of aloes, while many never sufficiently 

 recover from purgation to do a day's work after the medicine has ceased 

 to operate. Of all the preparations the veterinarian has at his command, 

 the writer does not know one which exerts so decided an effect upon the 

 .constitution; nor does the veterinary pharmacopoeia contain an agent 

 which could be more advantageously dispensed with. During the years 

 the author was in active practice, he does not remember to have ever 

 given a dose of aloes that the symptoms did not afterward cause him to 

 regret the administration. 



There is another fact rendering the aloetic ball an unsafe agent to be 

 intrusted to the keeping of a groom. These things, as commonly com- 

 pounded, become, in a short time, as hard as stones. The author has 

 handled many which might be broken, but which could not be indented. 

 Such bodies are not in a fit condition to be thrust down a horse's throat. 

 All unyielding substances are liable to stick in the gullet, and to provoke 

 choking — the digestive passages of the horse not contemplating the de- 

 glutition of other than moist and soft pellets of thoroughly masticated 

 food. Aloes was, at one time, in spite of the objections urged, very 

 popular in the stable ; for that consequence, the late Professor Coleman 

 was mainly answerable. They are at present chiefly employed in accord- 

 ance with the dictates of routine, and usually take precedence of other 

 forms of medicine. , 



\ 



A BAIX, AS SDOH THINGS ARE SENT FROM THE VETBRINART PHARMACY. 



A horse ball represents some substance in powder mixed into a mass 

 with some moist ingredient, such as soft soap, treacle, palm oil, etc. The 

 compounds, when united, 'are usually rolled into sticks about three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter. These sticks are subsequently cut 

 into lengths of two and a half or four inches in extent,, according to the 

 amount required for a dose ; each piece is weighed, is dusted with some 

 non-adhesive powder, is securely wrapped in paper, is labeled, and is 



