J 54 CLYSTERS. 



CLYSTER OR GLYSTER. 



As clysters very often are the means of saving 

 horses' lives, I shall here recommend the best and sim- 

 plest mode of administering them. Take a large 

 bladder, cut off the neck and soften it in warm w^ater, 

 take a pew^ter pipe, common reed, or any other smooth 

 tube, nine or ten inches long and not more than an inch 

 in diameter ; the clyster must then be poured through 

 a funnel into the bag, and securely tied around one end 

 of the tube ; the other must be made perfectly smooth 

 and rounding, well oiled, and introduced into the anus 

 several inches ; the liquid in the bladder must be 

 forced through the tube by pressure with the hand. — 

 When a clyster is given, a horse should be placed with 

 his head down hill, and if he refuses to stand, a twitch 

 should be put upon his nose. 



Glysters are of three kinds — opening, anodyne, and 

 nourishing. For the first purpose take a gallon of 

 warm water, with from half a pound to a pound of 

 common salt dissolved in it ; to which add four or 

 five ounces of olive or linseed oil. For the second, 

 take two drachms of solid opium, dissolve them, or 

 rather mix them well with about half a pint of warm 

 water, and add from a quart to three pints of Indian 

 meal or wheat flour gruel. For the third purpose, 

 rich broths, wheat flour gruel, and other nourishing 

 fluids are recommended. With respect to the first 

 kind of glysters, it may be observed that gruel is com- 

 monly preferred to warm water ; but according to my 

 experience, the latter does just as well as the former 

 As to the second, tincture of opium may be substitu- 



