PREPARATION FOR FAST WORK. 323 



Diuretics are those medicines which increase the flow of 

 urine. They are not of much avail in training. They are 

 useful, however, when there is reason to fear plethora, or 

 when the leo^s swell, either from rest or from excess of food 

 or excess of work. Nitre, resin, turpentine, soap, and oil of 

 juniper, are all diuretics. For a horse of fifteen or sixteen 

 hands high a diuretic ball may be composed of — nitre, four 

 drachms ; resin, three drachms ; and oil of juniper, twenty 

 drops ; with soft soap sufficient to make a ball of the proper 

 size. From four to eight drachms of nitre, given in a mash, 

 may be sufficient to prevent the plethora which idleness on a 

 working-day might produce, and it is useful when work has 

 excited a little fever, or swelled the legs. No diuretic is to 

 be given within forty-eight hours after, nor before profuse 

 sweating. 



Alteratives. — In the stables this term is not applied to 

 any particular drug or prescription. Almost every groom has 

 a recipe of his own, and the effect, when any is produced, 

 must vary according to the articles employed. Taken as a 

 class, the alteratives used in training may be regarded as 

 gentle evacuants, acting upon the secretions of the skin, the 

 bowels, and the kidneys. Nitre, resin, sulphur, balsam of 

 sulphur, Ethiop's mineral, cream of tartar, black antimony, 

 tartar-emetic, calomel, cinnabar, with a host of gums, spices, 

 and herbs, are used individually, or in various combinations. 

 Many inert articles are employed. Very often so little is 

 given, that neither ill nor good follows, and sometimes a 

 dangerous and fatal dose is given through ignorance of its 

 powers. 



In former times it seemed to be a rule that the horse 

 should swallow a certain quantity of medicine every year, 

 whether well or ill, poor or fat ; and among grooms who pre- 

 tend to much knowledge, and have a great deal of igno- 

 rance, it is still a custom to force drugs upon him, not so 

 much to cure as to prevent. If any evil be threatened, or in 

 existence, it is very right to take measures to prevent or to 

 cure it ; but the people I speak of give drugs without seeing 

 any sign that they are wanted. The horse may be as well 

 as they desire him to be, and not exposed to any change of 

 circumstances or treatment that can make him worse, and yet 

 they give some stuffs which they call alteratives. 



In training, good grooms do not employ means of this kind 

 without a»>me reason. The horse may not be altogether right, 

 his bowels or his skin may be out of order, liis legs liable to 



