548 MATERIA MEDICA 



■what tliat debility depends ; if it be simply on want of tone, as 

 it is termed, in the stomach, and consequently in the system in 

 general, the use of tonics is clearly indicated; but if it arise 

 from unwholesome, or an insufficient quantity of food, hard 

 labour and exposure to the inclemencies of the weather, or the 

 exhalations of a damp, close, filthy stable, tonics will avail 

 nothing until the situation, treatment, and food are materially 

 improved; that such cruel and abominable treatment is fre- 

 quently, if not always, the cause of debility in horses is well 

 known ; therefore, no further comment upon the folly and cruelty 

 of such treatment is necessary in this place. Before tonics are 

 given, it is generally necessary to give some warm purgative 

 medicine. While the horse is taking tonics, great attention 

 should be paid to his diet ; and it would not be going too far, I 

 believe, were I to assert that, by judicious management with 

 regard to food, grooming, and exercise, and the occasional use of 

 mild physic, horses would seldom require tonic medicine. 



Tonics may be divided into minerals and vegetables; the 

 former are generally considered the most powerful, and, I 

 believe, are at this time generally preferred, not only on account 

 of their supposed superior efficacy, but likewise, pi'obably, from 

 their being less expensive, and the dose less bulky and incon- 

 venient. 



In the former editions of this work, I have generally given 

 them a preference, but subsequent experience and reflection 

 have led me to employ them with more caution, and with less 

 confidence in their reputed innoxious qualities; for, notwith- 

 standing the immense doses of arsenic and blue vitriol (sulphate 

 of copper) that have been given without producing any imme- 

 diate ill effect, it is highly probable that the stomach suffers ma- 

 terially, especially when the use of such medicines is persisted in. 

 I have examined a horse's stomach that had been taking these 

 mineral tonics, and thought they had not diminished the animal's 

 appetite or altered his appearace ; on the contrary, he was in 

 high condition, and did his work well, yet, being glandered, was 

 destroyed. The stomach, however, had been greatly injured, 

 and would, no doubt, had the animal lived much longer, have 

 produced some serious disorder. 



This question naturally arises: — In what respects are those 

 mineral tonics, so well known as powerful poisons in the human 

 body, preferable to those obtained from the vegetable kingdom ? 

 In the first place they are considered as the only medicines 

 capable of curing the glanders and farcy, and are therefore pre- 

 scribed for those diseases. I have never seen a single case of 

 glanders permanently cured, either by arsenic or blue vitriol, 

 notwithstanding the numerous trials I have witnessed during a 

 period of more than twenty years. Farcy has certainly disap- 



