374 TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS. 



ball for reducing corpulency, is of a rather purgative 

 character, requiring careful watching, owing to the 

 necessity of repeating the close at frequent intervals, 

 and the placing of the animals entirely in the hands 

 of the veterinary surgeon. The condition-ball is the 

 last I shall mention. It is more simple, and may be 

 given at any time, and is, I think, the most desirable 

 of all. Its powerful effects are shown in the muscular 

 development of the whole frame, and the splendidly 

 glossy appearance of the horse's coat, always the 

 recognised indications of the standard of health and 

 acme of condition. The use of balls was not 

 unknown to our forefathers ; for I remember to have 

 heard Mr. L. 0. Weeks, a celebrated practitioner, 

 say, when attending the Danebury stables, that ' a 

 dozen or two of his cayenne-balls would make the 

 horse eat the rack and manger, if his craving for food 

 were not quickly allayed.' But old-fashioned trainers 

 were properly restrained from experimentally treating 

 the animals they had to train ; or what would have 

 become of the whole equine race ? And it has been 

 left for later professors to prove beyond possibility of 

 doubt that things are chan^inii", and changing for the 

 better; and that a complete victory over all disease 

 has been achieved by the free use of the medicine- 

 chest, and the initiation of the head -lad into the 

 mysteries of the medical art. Indeed, a few months 

 ago a very clever country practitioner was heard to 

 say ' that the head-lad knew as much of veterinary 



