THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 
379 
Mr. Taplin points out the exact situation of this non-existing 
bladder. He then says, “ whose immediate purpose it is to assist 
in secreting the bile from the blood, or convey it to the intestines.” 
In animals that have a gall-bladder, its function is to receive part 
of the bile from the liver, which, the more watery particles being 
absorbed, renders the residue much more acrid, for the purpose of 
being a stronger stimulus to the intestines. 
To expose more of the mass of error and imposition of this 
writer on the public, he informs us, that the gall-bladder lies be- 
tween the two lobes of the liver. This description certainly ar- 
gues the animal to have but two lobes. Thus Mr. Taplin has ren- 
dered more complicate the organs of bile by giving the animal a 
gall-bladder, which nature never gave; and the liver he has divided 
into two lobes instead of four. He ought to have known from an 
ordinary acquaintance with comparative anatomy, that the action 
and shape of the animal required its being divided into a number 
of lobes, as it is in most quadrupeds ; and, to render them yet more 
supple, each lobe has a number of fissures. It is thus confirmed, 
that Mr. Taplin could never have examined the internal parts of a 
horse, or that he took not the least advantage of it to make the 
most common observations. It is probable that the human sub- 
ject was entirely his source of knowledge, as he could not other- 
wise have so contrasted the natural economy of the animal. 
Mr. Taplin has not only created a gall-bladder, to which he 
gives locality, qualities, and diseases similar to those in the human 
subject, but he has also prescribed from the same analogy. His 
prescriptions are loaded with articles that are found to have lit- 
tle or no effect on the horse, and positively none in the quantities 
he recommends ; as figs, tamarinds, split raisins, stick liquorice, 
saffron, elecampane, cream of tartar, and many other such ingre- 
dients, which he must have inserted either to decorate his recipes, 
or from an unpardonable want of knowledge in the operation of 
medicines on the horse, most of them being articles on which the 
animal might almost feed without any perceptible effects, and 
which he recommends in doses of a few drachms. This want of 
consideration can be only compared to the superstitious and pre- 
judiced regimental salistry, who in cold wet weather gives to 
each of the horses half a date, as a stimulus to prevent the effects 
of cold. Mr. Taplin is also defective in what he recommends as 
the more active medicine. In his purgatives he orders salts in 
doses of an ounce or two, while I have given two or three pounds 
frequently, without even rendering the body lax. Jalap, which 
he recommends in doses of one or two drachms, Mr. Coleman has, 
I believe, administered in doses of half a pound, or more, without 
