Bttle trouble, and require no confinement nor pre- 

 caution. 



BALLS, REMARKS ON. 



Balls are a very common form of putting horse 

 iBiedicines into, and they are also the most conve- 

 nient form to give medicines to dogs : many sub- 

 stances, hkewise, will not readily compound into any 

 other form. When persons are expert at it, delivering 

 (as it is called) a horse ball is much easier than the 

 giving a liquid or drench. The mode of giving bails 

 to dogs may be seen in the Preliminary Remarks on 

 Dogs, at the end of the book. 



A horse ball should be less than a pullet's egg, 

 but longer : it should be firm in consistence, and not 

 liable to crumble ; nor yet should it be too hard, or 

 it may choke. This is a fault that most ready pre- 

 pared horse balls have : some are so hard, that, even 

 if they do get down, all the powers of the stomach 

 can hardly dissolve them, and ^ they may pass away 

 unacted upon. This defect arises from making use of 

 an improper substance to mix them with: it will, 

 however, be found, that the ready prepared balls I 

 recommend never harden by age. There is an in- 

 strument called a balling iron, often used by persons 

 not very expert at delivering bails : it is best to give 

 them without it ; but, when it is used, it should al- 

 ways be guarded with cloth, to prevent the bars of the 

 mouth from being wounded. The most convenient mode 

 of delivering a ball is, to back tne horse in his stall, 

 when the operator, raising himself on a stool (the 

 bottom of the bucket is a very usual convenience, 

 but it sometimes fails in, and alarms the horse), 



