THE HORSE IN SICKNESS AND DISEASE 333 

 Or, 



Powdered nux vomica ... 1 scruple. 

 Carbonate of potash .... 1 drachm. 

 Extract of belladonna ... J drachm. 

 Extract of gentian and powdered quassia, of each a 

 sufficiency. Give morning and night. 



One of the above balls may be given daily. When their 

 benefits seem exhausted, give, instead of a ball, half an 

 ounce each of liquor arsenicalis, the same of tincture of 

 ipecacuanha, with one ounce of muriated tincture of iron 

 and of laudanum, in a pint of water. Also damp the food 

 and sprinkle magnesia freely upon it. Then, as the strength 

 improves, introduce sulphuric ether, one ounce ; water, one 

 pint, daily ; and ultimately change this last for a quart of 

 good ale or stout. 



INDIGESTION. 



Indigestion^ in a medical sense, is a phrase of much com- 

 prehensiveness. In man, whose digestive organs are in 

 some respects differently constructed from those of horses, 

 there is much reason for regarding the stomach as the 

 grand agent of digestion ; but in the horse, who is a grami- 

 nivorous animal, one that is almost always feeding, and 

 whose food is for the most part of a nature that occupies a 

 large volume, notwithstanding his stomach is in itself 

 but small, that organ appears to do less towards the com- 

 pletion of the process, leaving much to be done after the 

 alimentary matters have passed into the intestines. To 

 say, therefore, that indigestion is owing to some fault in 

 the stomach alone is taking too confined a view. Equally 

 in error should we stand were we to hold the stomach 

 altogether without fault. 



The comparatively short time the aliment continues 

 within the stomach, and what remains to be performed 

 to complete its digestion in the intestines, accounts for the 

 latter being oftener the seat of indigestion than the former; 

 though the stomach, as we have already seen, may, by being 

 over-crammed with food, or over-distended with air, become 

 the seat of what may be regarded as the most dangerous 

 kind of indigestion. 



