MEDICINES ^ 441 



has come to the ground, and the horseman should learn to control an 

 animal in this position, and know the quickest way in which to release 

 a fallen horse, whether in single or double harness. It should be borne in 

 mind that, in any kind of trace-harness, both traces are set at liberty by 

 undoing the Lame-strap. A horse fallen in ordinary single harness should 

 have first the breeching-strap undone and passed through the back-band 

 (he will most likely be lying on the buckle of the other side). It is not 

 essential that the belly-band should be released, though better to do so if 

 time permits, but with the hames and breeching undone he can get up 

 readily. 



First aid to the sick among horses generally consists in obtaining for 

 them a suitable environment, removal from the field, or from the com- 

 panionship of others, the provision of an airy loose-box, the preparation of 

 an abundant supply of hot water, bandages, gruel, poultices, &c., which 

 will be found fully dealt with in the chapter on nursing. 



Sick or injured horses incapable of travelling on their own feet are 

 usually conveyed in "floats" or bullock carts, the floors being near the 

 ground, and thus facilitating ingress and egress. 



23. MEDICINES 



INTRODUCTORY 



The medical treatment of man and beast has for so many centuries been 

 associated in the mind of the public with the administration of drugs, that 

 any attempt to combat disorders without them is regarded with suspicion 

 by the less-educated portion, and of the majority it may be said there is 

 a sense of dissatisfaction where the human or animal physician neither 

 writes a prescription nor supplies a bottle of medicine. The advice to the 

 average horse owner to apply cold water or change the diet is received in 

 the spirit of Naaman when told to dip seven times in the river Jordan for 

 the cure of his leprosy. Nor is this all the fault of the public; the medical 

 art when no longer confined to the priests, who doctored souls and bodies 

 indiscriminately, soon drifted into the hands of persons who sold mysterious 

 medicaments for the cure of various diseases, their remuneration consisting 

 in the profits on such sales, just as the prescribing chemist continues to do 

 to this day despite all medical laws forbidding him to " act as an apothe- 

 cary ". 



