164 HOW TO PHYSIC A HORSE. 



administer brandy and cayenne to a man with a brain 

 fever. 



It should, therefore, be a positive rule in every stable, 

 whether for pleasure or farm purposes, that not a drachm of 

 medicine is ever to be administered without the express 

 orders of the master. Even if a horse-keeper be so fortu- 

 nate as to possess a really intelligent, superior servant, who 

 has served his apprenticeship in a good stable, and has 

 learned a good deal about horses, he should still insist on 

 being invariably consulted before medicine is administered. 

 He should acquaint himself with the man's reasons for 

 wishing to administer medicine at all; his idea of the 

 ailment which he supposes to exist ; of the symptoms from 

 which he diagnoses it, anrf of the nature and action of the 

 drug which it is proposed to exhibit. If he see that the 

 symptoms do exist, and learn that the nature of the medi- 

 cine is such as would be expected to counteract such an 

 ailment — which a very small share of common sense will 

 enable him to discover — he will do well to sanction the 

 proceeding. But if there be the least doubt about the 

 s3anptoms, and still more, unless the man have a clear 

 conception why he should give this dose for that disease, 

 and what is its effect on the constitution, he should put an 

 absolute veto on all proceedings until the advice of a 

 regular practitioner can be obtained. Even these — ^^unless 

 they chance to be men of superior ability, and, what is 

 very rare in America, even in the large cities, and almost 

 unknown in the country, men of real education also — will 

 be very likely to overdo the matter. "In the first place, 

 w^hen called in, they judge it necessary to order something 

 in order to show that they know what is the matter and 

 wdiat is wanting. In the second place, they almost always 

 have I'ecourse to violent, drastic, aloetic purges, and to 

 extreme measures generally, when, half the time, no modi- 



