128 ON PHYSIC AND DRESSING. 



mild physic and alteratives. Upon the commencement 

 of the dead months, it is the custom of most huntsmen 

 to bleed indiscriminately throughout the pack, without 

 regard to age, condition, or constitution ; as far as I 

 can judge from my own experience, I should say that 

 it is a most salutary practice, and I never knew any 

 kind of harm arising from it, but, on the contrary, 

 hounds thus treated have always thriven better after it, 

 and have been in themselves, during the whole of the 

 hot weather, in much better spirits and estate of body 

 than when they have not undergone this kind of 

 discipline. The whole pack ought to be bled, with 

 the exception of such as may be very shy feeders and 

 of an exceedingly delicate constitution ; the extremely 

 sudden change from high feeding and hard work, to a 

 state of comparative idleness, rendered still more 

 heating by the naturally encreased warmth of the 

 atmosphere at that period of the year, must, without 

 doubt, create a disposition to form too great a quantity 

 of blood, which may be plainly seen by any one who 

 is acquainted with such matters, in the fiery appearance 

 of the eye balls of hounds, in the month of May, which 

 have not undergone the operation of being blooded. 

 A dose of salts should then be given, and after a few 

 days' rest, a course of sulphur should be immediately 

 commenced, followed by a second dose of Epsom salts; 

 previous to this second dose of salts there is no occasion 

 for any exercise, further than on foot for a short time 

 in the paddocks, two or three times a day ; but 

 as soon as the effects of the second dose have sub- 

 sided, horse exercise must commence for about two 

 hours daily; in about ten days' time the sulphur 



