DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 181 



If a man employs a physician, (quacks arc not here considered,) 

 he should have unbounded confidence in the ability of the former 

 to treat the case. If any thing occur to lessen that confidence, let 

 the attendant be discharged immediately. The employer has no 

 right to dictate how or in what way his horse shall be treated when 

 he abandons him to scientific men. The science of medicine is 

 never a " God-send." No man is thus favored. It is the result 

 of diligent application and study, in and out of the dissecting-room, 

 and the legitimate student of medicine is a person entitled to the 

 full confidence of reasonable men for its legitimate practice. 

 Therefore, we contend that the qualifications of a veterinary sur- 

 geon should never be estimated in ratio to the quantity of drugs 

 administered, nor the length of his newly-invented syringe, nor 

 by the number of instruments contained in his pocket-case; but 

 by ins works let him be judged. 



There is one practice, prevalent among some horsemen, which 

 we very much deplore ; that is, the drenching of sick animals with 

 gin, pepper, and molasses. This is a universal stable panacea in 

 certain quarters, and is often the cause of much pain and annoy- 

 ance to the animal, and more frequently of an aggravated form 

 of disease. Gin, or the fire-water sold under that name, is not 

 always to be procured pure. A great deal of it appears to us to 

 be composed of spirits of turpentine, new rum, and spirits of juniper, 

 which, of course, in certain cases, excites inflammatory action. We 

 have seen a horse's mouth in a most shocking condition — the in- 

 terior surfaces almost completely denuded — after a drench of the 

 same; consequently, in cases of inflammation of the stomach or 

 bowels, (which the stable oracles are apt to mistake for colic, or 

 " bots," as they term it,) the remedy (poison) is certainly objection- 

 able, because it not only operates unfavorably on the horse by ag- 

 gravating the disease, and sometimes changing a simple into a grave 

 one, but much valuable time is lost, in not sending for a competent 

 person to treat the case. Besides, if a medical man be called on 

 after the animal has been improperly treated, he then has two 

 things to contend against: a medicinal disease and the original 

 one; and the former is sometimes more difficult to control than 

 the latter ; and this is the reason why some medical men, ourselves 

 included, refuse to take charge of what we term a second-hand 

 <*ase. 



The above case illustrates our argument The remedies were 



