PHYSICKING. 221) 



carter may not be satisfied unless double the quantity are pro- 

 cured. The consequence of too strong purgation will be, that 

 weakness will hang about the animal for several days or weeks 

 and inflammation will often ensue from the over-irritation of the 

 intestinal canal. 



Long-continued custom has made aloes the almost invariable 

 purgative of the horse, and very properly so ; for there is no 

 other at once so sure and so safe. The Barbadoes aloes, although 

 sometimes very dear, should alone be used. The dose, with a 

 horse properly prepared, will vary from four to seven draelims 

 The preposterous doses of nine, ten, or even twelve drachms, are 

 now, happily for the horse, generally abandoned. Custom has 

 assigned the form of a ball to physic, but good sense will in due 

 time introduce the solution of aloes, as acting more speedily, ef- 

 fectually and safely. 



The only other purgative on which dependence can be placed 

 IS the CROTON. The farina or meal of the nut is generally used ; 

 but from its acrimony it should be given in the form of baU, with 

 linseed meal. The dose varies from a scruple to half a drachm. 

 It acts more speedily than the aloes, and without the nausea 

 which they produce ; but it causes more watery stools, and, con- 

 sequently, more debility. 



TjInsebd-oil is an uncertain but safe purgative, in doses from 

 a pound to a pound and a half. Olive-oil is more uncertain, but 

 safe ; but castor-oil, that mild aperient in the human being, is 

 both uncertain and unsafe. Epsom-salts are inefficacious, except 

 in the immense dose of a pound and a half, and then they are not 

 always safe.* 



* Jfote by Mr. Spooner. — "We have little to add under this head. We con- 

 demn, Tvith the author, the reckless administration of violent doses, by which 

 very many horses have been kUled. The mucous coat of the intestines of 

 the horse appears to be more irritable than that of man ; besides which it 

 relatively occupies a larger extent of surface. 



Barbadoes aloes is certainly the best purgative with which we are ao- 

 quaiated. A drachm of ginger may be advantageously combined with it to 

 prevent griping. A baU is certainly the best and safest mode of giving 

 ordinary physic to a horse. It is necessary to give a much stronger dose in 

 the form of a draught than that of a ball, which is probably owing to the 

 fact, that with a ball a considerable amount of action is produced at one 

 spot where the ball is dissolved, and the irritation there produced spreads 

 by sympathy to the adjacent parts, whilst the liquid being spread at once 

 over a large surface, a less amount of irritation is produced at any one par- 

 ticular spot. The exercise on the day following the administration of the 

 physic should depend on the effect produced. If the purging is copious, no 

 exercise should be given ; but, if otherwise, it will much assist our opera- 

 tions by giving a greater or lesser amount of exercise, as may be required. 



U 



