MOO RCRO FT’S LETTERS. 
451 
I shall always feel happy in contributing in any way, to shew the 
sentiments I have of the numerous obligations I have received at 
your hands, and with which 
I have the honour to be, 
Dear Sir, 
Respectfully and obediently yours, 
W ILL1AM MOORCROFT. 
Capt. Codring ton. 
* # * My letter has grown to such a length as to put you to a 
double expense, and unless I wait till to-morrow I cannot get a 
frank. 
Letter IV. 
From Mr. Moorcroft to Edward Morant Gale , Esq. 
Oxford Street, June 24th. 
Dear Sir, — Brilliant’s head shall be treated in the way you wish, 
but this trial is not a fair one, as the inflammation is now leaving 
the left eye. Many years ago, I tried the plan of reduced tem- 
perature to a considerable extent. In the case of a horse * * * * 
belonging to Sir H. Fetherston, it produced a very speedy 
and permanent cure of a most violent sprain of the fetlock joint 
(occasioned) by the leg being entangled in a rabbit hole. The 
means employed were pounded ice, continually renewed as it melted. 
This, I conceive, is twelve years ago, and I then bathed the head 
frequently, both as means of cure and as prevention of relapse, in 
eye cases, and also in inflammations of the brain. In 1795, 1 was 
thrown from my horse to a great distance upon a road almost as 
hard as stone, and fell upon the projecting part of the thigh. It 
was not known whether there was fracture of the hip-joint. 
Many of my medical friends were so kind as to call in, but, not 
having been eased from excruciating pain, I had recourse to an 
extraordinary application of camphor, which relieved me in a 
few hours. I reduced the excessive swelling of the thigh very 
speedily, by covering it with spirits of wine, and causing a man 
to blow upon it with a pair of bellows. My plan was much repro- 
