182 OPERATION OF ALOES ON THE HORSE. 
that he is often tied up and made to stand ; at others 
he is moved about totally against his will. But it is not 
these false notions alone 1 wish to combat, which must be to 
many palpably absurd, so much as the first one referring to the 
action of aloes, evidently founded as it is on error, indicative 
also of much shortsightedness. I believe that a horse is 
radically relieved by a purgative dose of aloes much earlier 
than is generally supposed, and my belief is supported by 
evidence clear, definite, and easily obtained. 
Let us reflect on what occurs when a whole stable of 
horses, from various motives, is purged at a time ; and to 
take horses in fair condition, let us choose a stable of ten in 
the month of August or September, then going into prepara- 
tion for the hunting season. They have been prepared by a 
bran mash the previous evening, with little or no hay after it, 
an hour’s walk in the morning, and on returning from exer- 
cise at about 8 a.m., receive their dose of physic: a little 
water, and at most a handful of hay, is offered them, till noon, 
when water — tepid or not — and a little bran mash or hay is 
given to each. Some of the free feeders will eat as usual — 
most of them show a want of appetite — in a word, they are 
nauseated. At this time it will already be observed that 
there are more than an ordinary number of, and more than usually 
copious , evacuations. On entering the stable about 5 o’clock 
these signs are more apparent ; some of the horses are relaxed, 
and not long after some of them are actually purging, and next 
morning, in most or all, the bowels will be found to have 
freely responded to the medicine. 
If the last of the ten has taken twenty hours to purge, no 
such time has been required to give relief should that horse 
be labouring under disease. The purging is a sign that 
follows, and does not precede, nor is it necessarily concomi- 
tant with, the beneficial effects of the aloes. The nausea, 
the primary effect on the nervous system, is as important as 
the expulsion of feculent matter, and it is by no means to 
the degree of looseness of the bowels, to the number of 
evacuations, that we are to look in determining the effect of 
one purge, or the establishing the superiority of one kind of 
aloetic extract over another. 
In the foregoing illustration of the action of purgatives on 
several horses at once, under the same circumstances, we 
have pictured in our mind what we have many times seen 
in practice, and what may often be witnessed. There is 
a series of experiments cited in Mr. Morton’s valuable 
c Manual/ at page 89, of the last edition, which would appear 
to contrast with w^hat I have said above. The time required 
