THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 453 
dose of physic was first given, with a full proportion of calomel, 
which operated, and removed the yellow tinge : it did not, how- 
ever, succeed in restoring his appetite, spirits, or condition. Calo- 
mel was then given every night, in doses of fifteen grains, for six 
or eight days, after which the physic was repeated to carry off the 
mercury ; the horse, however, still continued the same. Cordial 
medicines were next had recourse to, as there were evident symp- 
toms of debility, though we were entirely unacquainted with 
the immediate seat of the disease : this was, however, not more 
successful. The horse was then sent to Arcot, conceiving it pos- 
sible that he might receive benefit from care and rest, as he had 
been through two very active campaigns. After a few weeks, 
without any other visible symptoms but gradual decay, he died. 
From what I could learn from an officer who was present when the 
animal was opened, the liver was an entire mass of ulcers and 
putrefaction. 
This disease may very possibly commence or succeed slight ob- 
structions ; for the vessels which produce the bile in the liver may 
become deranged, by which the quantity and quality of the bile are 
altered, which I think evident, from the animal being generally 
lax, though not proceeding from healthy bile. Whatever the cause 
may be, I will not presume to decide, as, from the little attention 
which has yet been paid to this disease, it can be only surmise. 
We are, however, authorised to conclude that it is a chronic dis- 
ease in the first instance, for such a state of the liver could never 
take place in a few days ; there must, therefore, be a state of 
pre-indisposition, which, if detected, I think the cure would by no 
means be difficult, as mercury is as much a specific in liver cases 
in the horse as it is in the human subject. 
The knowledge of this disease is at present so deficient, that we 
can urge but little in the form of relief. In respect to the know- 
ledge of it which the natives possess, it is very trifling, and pro- 
ductive of no advantage. They are entirely unacquainted with any 
symptoms attending it — they only know that it sometimes exists, 
from observations which they have made in opening the animal after 
death, where they have sometimes found worms in the ulcers of 
the liver. From every inquiry I have made on the subject of and con- 
cerning them, they only know that it does sometimes exist, without 
possessing any one single proof or symptom by which it can be 
detected in the living state. If a horse has a tedious illness and 
decay for which they cannot account, they frequently assume a 
kind of logical knowledge of its existence : if it is no other dis- 
ease, it must from necessity be the one in question ; and from the 
frequency of this destructive disease, they may be sometimes 
right; but even their conclusions of its existence, though most 
