EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HOUSES. 
223 
powerless administered to horses: salts, senna, rhubarb, jalap, 
colocynth, scammony, &c., are prescribed in vain in hippiatric 
practice. It is true, if we look into works on farriery, we in 
general shall find formula for cathartic balls containing some one 
or more of the ingredients I here set down as inert. Most of these 
“ valuable recipes,” however, will be found to have, as one among 
their constituents, aloes entering into their composition, in which — 
and which alone I may in most, if not in all, instances, safely affirm 
— consists any purgative virtue they are found to possess*. To 
shew of what early date the use of aloes is in veterinary medi- 
cine, and, at the same time, how well its cathartic qualities were 
known even a couple of centuries ago, I need only quote a passage 
or two out of Solleysell : — “ Aloes,” says this profound practical 
veterinarian, “ is usually made the base of purging balls ; ” 
“ for if you can procure fine and clear aloes it will purge your 
horse certainly and safely ; and I know no better purgative than 
this, nor any so agreeable to the nature of a horse.” The same 
admirable author’s observations on purging medicines are no less in 
accordance with that knowledge which past experience has put 
those of the present day in possession of. “ The administering of 
purging medicine to a horse is one of the hardest parts of a 
farrier’s taskt ; and therefore I thought myself obliged to use the 
utmost diligence and application to find out a safe and successful 
method of purgation : but, notwithstanding all my endeavours to 
prevent the inconveniences that attend the use of these medicines, 
1 observed an extreme repugnancy in the nature of horses to yield 
to their operation, and I found by experience that 'purgative reme- 
dies are succeeded by such universal disorder in the economy of 
nature, that the horse cannot be restored to his temper for a consi- 
derable time afterwards.” “ I have seen more horses than one 
killed by purging remedies that had been successfully administered 
to others, for want of a due preparation of their bodies, &c.” 
“ I never purge a horse without fear.” Such being the danger, 
however remote, by nature inherent upon the operation of catharsis 
in horses, Solleysell expresses his hopes that “ some persons of 
greater judgment and authority will undertake the reformation of 
* Take the recipe “ No. 1,” of Taplin, as an example : — 
Take of Socotrine aloes . . . . . .an ounce 
India rhubarb ...... two drachms 
Jalap and cream of tartar, each . . . one drachm 
Ginger (in powder) . . . . .two scruples 
Essential oil of cloves and aniseed, each . twenty drops 
Syrup of buckthorn sufficient to form the ball. 
Taplin. s Slabie Directory. 
t By “ hardest” Solleysell here means that part of the farrier’s practice of 
medicine attended with the most risk. 
