PHYSIC. 69 



pacted -within the gullet. Evil can, therefore, be caused by physh in 

 either form, if given without the necessary caution ; and the balance of 

 fact can incline the judgment to neither one side nor the other. 



A BALL PASSING DOWN THE HORSE'S GULLET. 



But it is curious to read of serious dislike being entertained against 

 drinks, and at the same time know^ that several practitioners are accus- 

 tomed to administer this kind of medicine after a particular method, 

 which evinces a desire to illustrate the very circumstance which consti- 

 tutes the objection to every solid. Many country veterinarians are 

 accustomed to pour all the liquids which they exhibit down the nostril 

 of the animal. Now, the nostrils terminate immediately over the larynx 

 — the direct channel is from one chamber into the other cavity — thus, 

 any fluid administered after so unnatural a method will probably find its 

 way on to the lungs. 



Such an abuse of nature's designs being largely practiced upon a 

 powerful quadruped, is proof of the perfect submission with which the 

 creature has accepted its appointed master. Such an absolute negation 

 of self, deserved considerate recognition from the reasoning and superior 

 being. Veterinary medicines are too generally composed of pungent 

 and of caustic materials, while the nostrils are lined with a highly sen- 

 sitive and delicately moist mucous membrane. It was created to come 

 in contact with the air, to which the nostrils in the horse afford the only 

 legitimate passage. The notion of disregarding the mouth and selecting 

 BO tender a channel, down which to pour acrid and burning solutions, 



