18 HORSES AND ROADS. 



secretly administered to an alarming extent — not 

 sufficiently to kill the horses right off, but sufficiently 

 to undermine their constitutions. 



If veterinary authorities should be read, the fol- 

 lowing dicta will be found having reference to the 

 foregoing remarks : — ' Acute gastritis : cause — 

 poison ; ' ' inflamed bladder : cause — abuse of medi- 

 cine ; ' ' diabetes : cause — diuretic drugs ; ' ' inflamed 

 kidneys : cause — nitre.' The innocent (?) and 

 phlegmatic owners either are ignorant that their 

 men are making use of these agents, or else in- 

 dolently satisfy themselves by remarking that their 

 ' man ' understands horses very well and that ' if he 

 does not bring them round, no one else can ; ' until 

 things get serious and the vet. has to be called in. 

 When this gentleman is sent for, he has gener- 

 ally a serious case to deal with, and one that usually 

 lasts a long time, and, consequently, entails a severe 

 loss. 



Besides this, many owners knowingly allow their 

 men to order powerful medicines in the shape of 

 ' balls ' called ' physic,' ' condition,' ' diuretic,' &c., 

 and allow their men to give them to the horses, 

 having, at the same time, very little or no control 

 as to when or why they should be given. Now 

 these cost more than arsenic, &c., and could be more 

 easily accounted for, because the men rarely go so 

 far as to lay out their own money on them, and 

 the owner thinks soTne medicine must be necessary 

 in a stable ; yet even then he is generally guilty of 

 allowing or even asking his man an unmerited 



