ADMINISTERING NARCOTICS TO HORSES. 
67 
Veterinarian/ Here alone lies the difficulty : practically 
I know there is none in going at once for the glandered 
horse, if it is made law. It is the only effectual way of 
preventing contagion. What is the use of only interfering 
when it becomes a money affair ? leaving owners of glandered 
horses to work them. If, as the Times says it is, “ impossible” 
there is an end of the matter ; but the arbitrary preventive 
measure is not against persons, but only shortening the 
misery of unfortunate horses that must die of the disease. 
Investing one or more members of the Royal Veterinary 
College, in each county, with power to seize and slaughter 
glandered horses wherever found, is all that is requisite to 
bring in a Bill for, and leave the rest to Parliament. 
A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON 
ADMINISTERING NARCOTICS TO HORSES. 
By J. T. Hodgson. 
It must be understood, that the nations of India do not 
give boluses to horses ; they either administer medicines in 
food, or by means of a drench bamboo. The first is done by 
boiling pulse (usually moot gram) to pulp ; a portion is put 
into a wooden bowl, into which is stirred the masaulahs 
cordials, or narcotics. The native groom stands with the 
horse’s head, as if resting on his shoulder, and with his hands 
on each side the horse’s mouth, into which he crams a por- 
tion of this prepared medicated food ; the animal being a 
long time swallowing the narcotic substances, (whether bang 
or opium alone, or combined with other ingredients,) are 
acting on the brain through the medium of the nerves of the 
mouth, fauces, & c. as well as on the stomach by that portion 
which enters it ; and this, I believe, to have more effect than 
a drench. As to a bolus of such substances, it passes down 
into the stomach, where it remains undissolved for hours ; 
and then the nervous surface to which it is applied is limited 
as far as regards immediate action on the brain. I could only 
account in this way for the apparent stupefaction occasionally 
seen in dealers’ horses in India. Horses pampered and fed 
by them in this manner are like so many prize-fed animals, 
the appearance of which are familiar to most readers of ‘The 
Veterinarian.’ These horses all dung like oxen or pigs; 
and, to counteract this tendency from the high feeding on 
