ON PHYSIC. 131 



alluding to, could not boast much of their education, 

 nor had I much to speak of in this way myself. I 

 could read and write, and knew some little of figures. 

 The groom, poor man, was so unfortunate as not to 

 know any thing of either the one or the other, so that, 

 to prevent mistakes, it was a rule with him whenever 

 he was going to physic any of his horses, to bring his 

 recipes to me to read, which I did. As well as reading 

 his recipes, I kept his accounts and wrote his letters, 

 and read those he received ; in short, I may be said to 

 have been the groom's private secretary, and in that 

 capacity, I had the good fortune to enjoy his most 

 unrestricted confidence. But to return. The dose of 

 physic which was made up for the colt just alluded to, 

 contained twelve drachms of aloes ; and, at that time, 

 it was an invariable custom with grooms to add a 

 variety of other ingredients in the making up of their 

 physic. By these additions, a ball became so large, 

 that it could not be given at once ; the mass was there- 

 fore divided into two, and sometimes three balls. The 

 three-year-old which had this dose of physic given 

 him, I remember was purged to great excess, and he 

 was several days before he recovered from the effects of 

 it. I was not very capable of judging of the constitu- 

 tions of horses at the time, but I expect he must have 

 had a pretty strong constitution, or such a dose of 

 physic would have killed him. 



By way of caution to grooms, and with a view to 

 prevent them in future from falling into similar errors, 

 I will here state different causes from which I have 



K 2 



