MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG HOUSES. 
81 
with their dams, and subsequently, will not occasion much 
trouble in administering the ball. When they are weaned, a 
light head-collar or halter should be put upon their heads ; 
and, being accustomed to that, the ball may readily be given 
by placing it on the end of a piece of whalebone or cane. 
Those foals which have been fed upon an abundance of grass 
are very subject to be troubled with worms ; and some pas- 
tures are very liable to produce them. Many remedies have 
been adopted for their expulsion, but I have never found 
anything so effectual as calomel or emetic tartar, if properly 
administered : that not always being attended to, has led to 
the conclusion that the remedies are not infallible. Neither 
calomel nor emetic tartar should ever be given, if the expul- 
sion of worms be intended, with the medicine administered 
to work it off; nor should soap, or any other alkali, form a 
portion of the ball, as those substances counteract the effect 
by decomposing both calomel and emetic tartar. The plan 
which I have always found successful to dislodge worms from 
horses, at any age, has been as follows, apportioning the 
quantity of medicine to the age and constitution of the sub- 
ject : — Keep the patient without any kind of food for six or 
eight hours, when the appetites of the insects will become 
keen. A small quantity of bran mash is then offered to the 
animal, in which is mixed the calomel or emetic tartar : for 
a foal the proportion is from twelve to fifteen grains, and for 
a yearling from fifteen to twenty. This dose is repeated after 
an interval of ten or twelve hours, during which period no 
other kind of food must be presented; otherwise the worms, 
seizing upon the nutriment which it affords, will not be 
destroyed. Six hours after the last dose has been given, it 
must be worked off with linseed oil or aloes. The quantity 
of the former is from four to six ounces ; but if aloes be pre- 
ferred, the dose will be from one drachm to one drachm and 
a half, which should be dissolved over the fire in a small 
quantity of oil or lard, and made into a ball with ginger 
and treacle. The quantity of calomel or emetic tartar for 
horses at a more advanced age may be augmented to the 
extent of sixty grains ; but for two and three-year olds, from 
twenty to thirty grains is sufficient, with the purgative remedy 
in proportion. 
When horses are turned out to grass in the spring of the 
year, the succulent nature of the food causes them to purge, 
often to a great extent ; this is considered by many persons 
a most desirable event — a great misconception. The herb- 
age is overcharged with sap and moisture, of a crude, acri- 
monious nature, to such an extent that all cannot be taken 
up by the organs destined for the secretion of urine, or by 
xxviii. 11 
