172 irow TO PHYSIC a horse. 



he should be slightly cleaned; warmly and dryly lit- 

 tered down, if possible, in a loose box, and should be 

 fed, for two or three days, on warm bran mashes, and suf- 

 fered to drink warm water only. It is evident that the 

 above treatment, which is stimulating, would be probably 

 fatal, as it would aggravate all the worst features, in a case 

 of inflammation, which must be treated, as nearly as pos- 

 sible, on the opposite plan — that is, antiphlogistically. 



Inflammation of the Bowels. — The first step, in 

 decided cases where the extremities are cold and the pulse 

 very quick and very feeble — observe, here, that fifty-five is 

 very quick, indicating considerable fever, and seventy-five 

 perilously quick — is to take eight or ten quarts of blood as 

 soon as the malady appears, — for there is no other malady 

 that so quickly runs its course. If this do not relieve the 

 pain, and render the pulse more moderate, and fuller, and 

 rounder, four or five quarts more may be taken, without 

 any regard to the weakness of the animal. That weak- 

 ness is a part of the disease, and, when the inflammation is 

 subdued by the loss of blood, the weakness will disappear. 

 We have said that most of the acute diseases of the horse 

 and the man are closely similar, and their treatment analo- 

 gous. In acute inflammation of the bowels there is an 

 exception. The human practitioner properly uses strong 

 purgatives, in cases of acute inflammation of the bowels. 

 The irritablility of the horse's bowels will not allow their 

 exhibition. The most that can be done is, to throw up 

 copious injections — they can hardly be too copious — of 

 thin gruel, in which half a pound of Epsom salts, or half 

 an ounce of Barbadoes aloes, has been dissolved. The 

 horse should be encouraged to drink freely of warm, thin 

 gruel; and he should have a draught, every six hours, of 

 warm water, with from one to two drachms, — never more, — 

 of aloes dissolved in it. Above all, the whole belly should 



