148 ON PHYSIC. 



This term is applied to such of them as are generally 

 hearty and playsome when out at exercise ; and as far 

 as regards their constitutions, they are horses which 

 may be considered to be in the medium between the 

 very craving horse and the light one. This ixiiddle 

 class of horses certainly require to have physic given 

 them, but they do not require it so strong, nor so re- 

 peatedly, as the first class of horses do, which have 

 been the principal subject of consideration in this 

 chapter. This second class of horses may be prepared 

 for their physic much the same as horses in common 

 use, by giving them two or three mashes the day pre- 

 vious, and at night, keeping them short of hay. 



The quantity of aloes necessary to produce the de- 

 sired effect of purging these horses will certainly never 

 require to be increased beyond five or six drachms. 

 The same directions may be followed for their treat- 

 ment during the time that their physic is working off, as 

 is recommended for such horses in the preceding chapter. 



I now proceed to the third class. These are horses 

 to which various terms are applied by grooms, to ex- 

 press the delicacy of their constitutions, dispositions, 

 or tempers. Some of them are termed " light and 

 weedy," meaning that they are lengthy and light 

 in their carcases; some of them are termed "nervous;" 

 others, " irritable ;" and some again are called "flighty." 

 These terms are certainly very applicable to many of 

 this class of horses. But it is to be supposed, that 

 our breed of race-horses has been much improved 

 within these last twenty years, as to strength of con- 

 stitution, or at least, that this ought to have been the 



