21G THE HORSE 



days before being required, and the safest plan undoubtedly 

 is to boil it after arrival, and thus destroy the power to do 

 harm which any germs lurking in it may possess. My 

 attention to the possible deleterious qualities of water was 

 aroused very early in boyhood, for when my father moved 

 his establishment to the moors for grouse-shooting, the 

 carriage-horses which went with us were much upset. 

 Being of an inquiring turn of mind, I wanted to know 

 what was the matter with them, and though this occurred 

 more than fifty years ago, I well remember the very capable 

 groom in charge telling me it was the hard water they had 

 to drink which was temporarily affecting the health of the 

 horses. Since those far-off days there have been very many 

 opportunities of noticing similar little outbreaks. 



A much more serious illness used to attack horses when 

 they first arrived on the Eock of Gibraltar, when I was 

 quartered there with the Rifle Brigade during the 

 " seventies," and some animals took many months before 

 they became inured to the evil. The symptoms consisted 

 of violent attacks of colic, with a very quick pulse and a 

 high temperature, and an utter inability to pass any urine, 

 though constantly straining to thus relieve themselves. At 

 first I used local remedies, of which the most popular was 

 the administration of a strong decoction of camomile 

 flowers ; but before long it occurred to me to test the efticacy 

 of aconite, and this proved so successful that it soon came to 

 be my sole remedy, and never had I cause to repent of my 

 reliance upon it. Frequently within twenty minutes of the 

 first administration a horse would get relief, and the moment 

 Nature was relieved the animal recovered so fast it could 

 resume its ordinary routine of work almost immediately. I 

 do not think any animal continued to suffer more than two 

 hours after the first dose of aconite, whilst under the usual 

 treatment it was no uncommon occurrence for the spasms 

 to last for one or two days. Other remedies may have been 

 found since those distant days even better than this, but as 

 it certainly had an excellent effect, it is well worthy to have 

 its merits recorded here. There was then no veterinary 

 surgeon at Gibraltar, so we all had to rely upon ourselves, 



