OPERATION OP ALOES ON THE HORSE. 185 
particular case. We cannot, I believe, so regulate things as to 
ensure the same result from a modified dose of the one as by 
extending our range of choice. Is the fine and more gummy 
socotrine, possessed of milder properties than the rest, to be 
recommended in the case of a young, ill-conditioned, and weak 
horse, in which an active or drastic drug wouid prove fatal, 
whereas a more bland one would prove highly beneficial? 
Trainers in Italy have had recourse to the purgative mass 
I had in my Pharmacy, and extolled its use above all others 
after long experience in the use of the Barbadoes which proved 
less manageable and not more certain to attain the desired 
end. The Cape extract produces copious purging, but less 
watery evacuations than the Barbadoes, and the action of the 
bowels is not so long kept up. These we consider decided 
advantages, for I know of no case where a protracted purging 
is desirable in the horse, whereas I see in it many causes for 
objection and fear. 
Much is said of the preparation of a horse for a purge, and 
the questions mooted are — How long is a horse to be fed on 
mashes? How much exercise during the operation of a 
purge? And when may he be put to work after its opera- 
tion? We all know there is oftentimes no chance of prepa- 
ration, and when there is, little need is there for sloppy 
mashes, which, beyond making a display, are not to be 
recommended in preference to a few hours’ abstinence. As 
to after treatment bran mashes are often loathed, and at 
most required in small quantities. A handful of hay at 
intervals and plenty of chilled water should be used. Respect- 
ing the water, the following anecdote may prove as instruc- 
tive to others as the case did to me when I first saw it ; which 
induced me ever after, in treating sick horses, to pour a little 
water into a horse’s mouth after the exhibition of a ball. 
In 1823 or 1824, when a student at the St. Pancras College, I 
was one day assisting at the post-mortem examination of a 
horse that had died in one of the open sheds — I believe of 
pulmonary disease. 
On cutting open the oesophagus, about six inches from 
the cardiac orifice, a ball was found which had been ad- 
ministered about two hours before the horse died. The 
ball, wrapped in ordinary paper, had suffered no change ; 
neither moisture nor warmth had exerted any influence. The 
incident, of little importance as regarded the fate of that horse, 
has since been to me a valuable lesson. The oesophagus was 
free from stricture or any other disease, and the stoppage of 
the ball was alone due to the atonic state of the contractile 
coat, and absence of mucous secretion necessary for deglu- 
