132 " ON PHYSIC, 



known horses occasionally die in physic. I have 

 already observed that there are some horses much more 

 easily purged than others ; but the horse which now 

 and then leads the groom astray, is the one of a craving 

 constitution. A groom generally judges of the con- 

 stitution of a horse, from the size of his carcass, 

 and width of his loins, as also from the manner in 

 which he feeds, and from tlie work he takes in train- 

 ing. From these points, he will be able to form a 

 tolerably just idea. When a groom was about phy- 

 sicking a strong, craving, large carcassed horse, his 

 practice was thence to regulate the quantity of aloes 

 the dose was to contain, which, on such occasions, 

 would most likely be from nine to ten drachms of 

 Barbadoes aloes ; and it has frequently happened, that 

 a dose of physic of this strength, has had no effect 

 whatever in purging a horse of a strong constitution, 

 when in training. If such a dose of physic had been 

 given to a horse in common use, it would have more 

 than purged him sufficiently ; it would, in all proba- 

 bility, have purged him to death. It also occurs at 

 times, that a horse in training is purged for too long a 

 period, or perhaps till he dies, and from the following 

 cause. The groom having given him a dose of physic, 

 such as I have described, and finding it to have pro- 

 duced little or no effect on the horse after a proper 

 interval of time, considers it necessary to give the horse 

 another dose ; and in making up this second dose, he 

 concludes it will be necessary to add a larger portion 

 of aloes, perhaps two or thiee drachms more than was 



