DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 181 
{f a man employs a physician, (quacks are not here considered,) 
he should have unbounded confidence in the ability of the former 
to treat the case. If any thing occur to lessen that confidence, let 
the attendant be discharged immediately. The employer has no 
right to dictate how or in what way his horse shall be treated when 
he abandons him to scientific men. The science of medicine is 
sever a “ Goid-send.” No man is thus favored. It is the result 
of dil.gent application and study, in and out of the dissecting-room, 
and the legitimate student of medicine is a person entitled to the 
full confidence of reasonable men for its legitimate practice. 
Therefore, we contend that the qualifications of a veterinary sur- 
geon shonid never be estimated in ratio to the quantity of drugs 
administered, nor the length of his newly-invented syringe, nor 
oy the number of instruments contained in his pocket-case; but 
oy his works let him be judged. 
There is one practice, prevalent among some horsemen, which 
we very much deplore; that is, the drenching of sick animals with 
gin, pepper, and molasses. This is a universal stable panacea in 
certain quarters, and is often the cause of much pain and annoy- 
ance to the animal, and more frequently of an aggravated form 
of disease. Gir, or the fire-water sold under that name, is not 
always to be procured pure. A great deal of it appears to us to 
be composed of spirits of turpentine, new rum, and spirits of juniper, 
which, of course, in certain cases, excites inflammatory action. We 
have seen a horse’s mouth in a most shocking condition—the in- 
terior surfaces almost completely denuded—after a drench of the 
same; consequently, in cases of inflammation of the stomach cr 
Lowels, (which the stable oracles are apt to mistake for colic, or 
“ bots,” as they term it,) the remedy (poison) is certainly objection- 
avle, because it not only operates unfavorably on the horse by ag- 
gravating the disease, and sometimes changing a simple into a grave 
one, but much valuable time is lost, in not sending for a competent 
person to treat the case. Besides, if a medical man be called on 
after the animal has been improperly treated, he then has two 
things to contend against: a medicinal disease and the original 
vue; and the former is sometimes more difficult to control than 
the latter; and this is the reason why some medical men, ourselves 
included, refuse to take charge of what we term a second-hand 
pase. 
The above case illustrates our argument The remedies wers 
