8 REMARKS ON THE USE OF CLYSTERS IN THE HORSE.' 
many mares put to them, and that at the end of the season 
they evince very little desire for copulation. I have often 
heard of its being necessary to give them very stimulating 
food, and use means to excite them before the act. There- 
fore, want of energy in the horse may be one of the causes 
to produce “ weeds . 55 
Mr. Gibbon says, “ animals called weeds, generally inherit 
their peculiarity of constitution from their parents. But if a 
foal or yearling is kept with an insufficient supply of food, 
either in quantity or quality, it will become a weed. I also 
think they are sometimes produced from sound stock when 
the generative organs of the dam, having been in a state of 
inactivity until advanced in life, do not possess sufficient 
nervous influence to supply the embryo with nutrition.” 
Mr. Stanley says, “ animals termed weeds are solely refera- 
ble to the bad and injudicious crossing of sires and dams, 
and not from the quality or quantity of the food of the colt, 
which has little to do with it.” 
PRACTICAL REMARKS ON THE USE OF 
CLYSTERS IN THE HORSE. 
By Joseph Gamgee, M.R.C.Y.S., London. 
It is an express desire to record my sense of the indis- 
pensable worth of a therapeutic agent, positively valuable and 
at the same time simple and easy at command, that urges me 
to commit a few reflections to the pages of the Veterinarian . 
The simplest daily operations are those likely at times to be 
less considered and empirically performed ; they are those 
which are perhaps more likely to be dealt lightly with by the 
systematic writer, who may chance to speak more at length 
of what he believes less understood and more intricate. 
Respecting clysters, not only is all that is written and often 
spoken on the subject very incomplete and incorrect, but 
simple enemata have not been fully appreciated in general 
veterinary practice. They are indicated in many more cases 
than those in which they have been and are usually recom- 
mended, and their effects are more important than is gene- 
rally believed. 
My object to-day is to convey my opinions on practices the 
result of thirty years’ trial, and it may be said, I need not 
invoke theory in my support ; I however own allegiance to 
