BREAKING AND TRAINING. 465 



usually sits upon the young beauty, while the huntsman generally be- 

 strides the aged animal. The older steed may be of little worth, and its 

 blemishes may be numerous; but it has not been exhausted under a 

 pretense of fitting it to endure; it has been hacked or ridden through 

 the months when the younger quadruped was imprisoned in absolute 

 idleness. The cheaper horse has been in constant requisition to exercise 

 the dogs, etc., and therefore its health has been better preserved than is* 

 that of the gentleman's steed, which is either new to the sport, or has 

 recently been taken from the supposed enjoyment of a summer^s rest. 



Training of hunters and of racers, as at present conducted, is neither a 

 strengthening nor a refreshing process. The animal that has recently 

 been relinquished by the trainer, instead of being able to endure extra 

 exertion, is generally debilitated by those measures which were designed 

 to produce a contrary effect. In the first place, three doses of physid, 

 which are given under a belief of their tonic efficacy, are quite sufficient 

 to disable any creature, that, like the horse, is possessed of a very large 

 and a very long digestive track, or which nature, as a protection, had 

 rendered almost safe from the purgative operation of medicinal agents. 

 Before the bowels of the horse can be loosened, the primary effects of 

 poisoning must be established. Aloes is the favorite purgative of the 

 stable ; but so nearly related are the quantity which relaxes and the 

 amount which kills, that probably aloes has poisoned more horses than 

 all other drugs in the pharmacopoeia. 



The reader, to whom such a subject is a novelty, may inquire what 

 the intestines have to do with the muscular action. Supposing such a 

 question possible, the author replies, that although the animal body is 

 made up of numerous parts, and composed of various organs, neverthe- 

 less the whole is so united that no part or structure can be diseased, but 

 the whole is affected. The intestinal track is lined with mucous mem- 

 brane. When this surface is involved, prostration or debility ensues. 

 Cold and sore throat are ready instances of this result; for both are con- 

 sequent upon small portions of inflamed mucous membrane. Imagine, 

 then, the utter prostration which must ensue upon the morbid excite- 

 ment ef so large a mucous surface as that which covers the digestive 

 canal of a horse. Yet the trainer thrice induces this consequence, under 

 an ignorant conviction that by so doing he confers upon the sufferer 

 extraordinary nervous energy ! 



Purging is, however, only slightly more weakening than sweating. 

 Perspiration acts differently on different specimens of the same species. 

 One person is nearly always bathed in moisture ; another invariably 

 presents a dry skin. This shall hardly be moved without the surface of 

 his body being loaded with copious drops of fluid exudation ; that will 



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