84 ON THE DISTEMPER. 



commencement and the close of spring, they are going 

 out upon the open downs to exercise. At this season 

 of the year it is that horses are most Kable to be amiss 

 from such complaints, and if not immediately attended 

 to, such complaints become worse, and terminate in 

 the distemper, or what is often more difficult of cure, 

 inflammation of the lungs. 



Training grooms are very watchful over their horses, 

 and the moment they find them coughing, they have 

 recourse to bleeding ; and in slight cases of colds and 

 fevers, they were much in the habit of giving their 

 horses morning and evening an ounce or two of the 

 sweet spirits of nitre in some warm gruel or beer. 

 By the early application of the above medicine, (which 

 in such cases is a very good one) they often put a 

 stop to the further progress of the disease, and thereby 

 got their horses well, so as in a short time to have them 

 at their work again, which to the groom is an object of 

 great importance. 



But when the distemper comes on, attended with 

 the usual symptoms — as the horse being taken with 

 a shivering; being off his food; having a slight cough; 

 the glands of his throat enlarged, his mouth hot, and 

 his legs swollen : if a groom takes upon himself the 

 treatment of a horse labouring under the above slight 

 symptoms, he generally has recourse to the constitu- 

 tional remedies already mentioned, and his local 

 applications are poultices, or a mild embrocation to 

 the throat, with warm clothing about the head. Nor 

 in slight cases of the distemper are those external 



