17 



CHAPTEE III. 



NOSTRUMS — ARSENIC AND ANTIMONY — HOOF-OINTMENTB — 



^ STOPPINGS.' 



It is well known that all stablemen keep by them 

 * nostrums ' and ' receipts ' of their own. First 

 amongst these are generally to be found arsenic and 

 antimony — two active poisons — but they are great 

 favourites with the men ; they administer them in 

 secret. These drugs are cheap, and they can afford 

 (or will afford) to buy and pay for them themselves. 

 It is true that occasionally they administer an over- 

 dose all round, generally on a Saturday night, and 

 the next morning a stableful of dead horses is 

 found ; post-mortems are held, and the poison is 

 discovered, and the horsekeeper finds himself before 

 a magistrate. He sometimes gets imprisonment, it 

 is also true ; but this neither brings compensation 

 to the owner, nor seems to act as a warning to 

 others, for cases of drugging are constantly reciu'ring 

 at intervals. But, even if he does not kill the 

 horses at a single dose, he is doing so by degrees. 

 These very active remedies are but seldom employed 

 even by veterinaries, and then only in extreme cases, 

 and in small doses. Nitre is also cheap, and is 



c 



