EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HORSES. 
G23 
prove susceptible of the operation of aloes, on the 2d of September 
following — his bowels having, in the interim, quite recovered from 
the effects of the gamboge — he took half an ounce of Cape aloes. 
Next morning he purged briskly, and continued purging on the 
following morning : shewing that his bowels were, at all events, 
at this time, more than ordinarily susceptible of the operation of 
cathartic medicine. 
On the 29th August of the same year, to a horse under treat- 
ment for a sore heel, a drachm and a half of gamboge was given, 
in ball, with meal and treacle. In the evening he loathed his food; 
but experienced no purgation, neither on the following day nor 
afterwards ; and yet his appetite did not for several days after- 
wards appear quite restored. 
On the 30th of August, two drachms of gamboge, in solution, 
were administered to three horses, one having a cold, another 
ophthalmia, and a third being lame. Next morning, twenty-four 
hours afterwards, not one of them shewed any signs of purgation ; 
and in consequence of its being Sunday morning they were not 
taken out to exercise. At one o’clock, P.M., twenty-seven hours 
after the administration of the medicine, one horse out of the 
three purged sparingly, and did not feed with his wonted appetite. 
The other two remained unaffected by the medicine. 
September 1 st, 1823. — One horse having a mangy affection, 
another suspected of being glandered, and a third having a contu- 
sion of the spine, took, each of them, a ball composed of three 
drachms of gamboge, meal, treacle, and oil of caraway. At ten 
o’clock the same night it was observed that two of them had 
loathed their evening feed. Next day, no other effect was appa- 
rent than impairment of appetite, and unusual dulness about these 
two horses, with evident tucking-up of their flanks. Tn fine, the 
medicine, though it had not purged, had evidently annoyed two of 
them a good deal. 
By my father, three drachms of gamboge were administered, in 
ball, to a horse having farcy-glanders, on two days in succession. 
On the third day the animal was seized with great prostration of 
strength, had great difficulty in rising out of the recumbent posture, 
and had no pulse perceptible. From these alarming symptoms, 
however, in the course of a few days the horse recovered ; and 
being then in the worst stages of farcy and glanders, was destroyed. 
His stomach presented marks of intense inflammation, and upon its 
surface were found streaks of blood. 
I have heard it said that gamboge, combined in certain propor- 
tions with aloes, add to their cathartic efficacy, and that druggists 
who compound horse medicines are in the habit of making such ad- 
ditions. It is not, however, a practice for the veterinarian to 
pursue, being one hardly exempt from danger. 
