EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HORSES. 
47 
Waiting another five minutes, to give time for more complete 
recovery from the effects of the first half-drachm, a drachm (by 
measure) of the acid was poured upon the same — the pointed — part of 
the tongue. The effect was equally immediate as, but more violent 
than, that of the half-drachm. The respiration was to the utmost 
degree hurried; and ere we could manage to count or conjecture 
what the accelerated state of the pulse amounted to, the ass, stag- 
gering alarmingly at the time, suddenly fell with violence against 
the table in the room. Convulsive struggles followed the fall, 
but these gradually diminished, and were ultimately succeeded by 
a state of coma. The respiration, which but now had been 
hurried and laboured, became comparatively torpid, slow, and 
deeply fetched — the pulse underwent the same change — the con- 
dition of the animal altogether reminded me much of the effects I 
had witnessed on a former occasion from the introduction of 
caustic barytes underneath the skin. Life, thus half extinguished, 
continued for the space of about three minutes longer, and then, 
imperceptibly to us, departed. 
Common Vinegar — ( Acetum ). 
In November 1823, a veterinary friend of mine, whose name 
is of no consequence in this account, assured me, on my telling 
him that I knew not, myself, of any medicine having a direct or 
positive diaphoretic effect upon horses, that common vinegar, given 
warm, would produce such an effect. 
In the February following, to a chestnut horse having chronic 
glanders — shewing no disordered health — a pint and a half of com- 
mon household vinegar, made warm, was administered as a drench, 
and, at the same time, two thick woollen sheets and a hood were 
put on him. The thermometer in his box stood at 45°. No effect 
followed. 
The next day a quart of vinegar was exhibited, under similar 
circumstances. This was given cold — still no result. 
Sulphate of Magnesia — ( Magnesia Sulphas). 
So universally used and extensively useful as Epsom salts, as 
this substance is commonly called, is in human medicine, it was 
natural for the farriers of old to have recourse to them in horse and 
cattle medicine ; and though, as far as the horse is concerned, they 
have been found, as a cathartic at least, to be powerless, they have 
turned out to be, to neat cattle, the best purgative at present known. 
To an ox or a cow, a pound of sulphate of magnesia dissolved in 
water constitutes the ordinary cathartic ; but such a dose admi- 
