224 COMPENDIUM OF THE VETEBTNATIY ART. 



2. Of Physic, 



In pu]*ging horses, great care and attention 

 are necessary, their bowels being particularly 

 irritable, and liable to inflanimation. The 

 physic commonly given is certainly too strong, 

 and I am convinced that many horses have 

 been destroyed by the immoderate doses that 

 have been recommended by writers on far- 

 riery. M'hen this happens, the mischief is 

 generally attributed to the coarseness or im- 

 purity of the medicine, and the druggist 

 is undeservedly censured. A modern author 

 has ingeniousl}' availed himself of this preju- 

 dice, to explain the violent effects which his 

 cathartic prescriptions have sometimes pro- 

 duced. I must presume, liowever, to suggest, 

 that these elfects were more probably occa- 

 sioned by the excessive quantitjj than by the 

 impurity of the purgative ingredients. 



The only certain and safe purgative for 

 horses is aloes ; and of the different kinds of 

 aloes, the Barbadocs is undoubtedly the best. 

 The succotrinc, which is generally considered 

 the mildest, as well as the most certain 

 in its effect, is too weak, and so very un- 

 certain and variable in its operation, that 



