&50 
CURSORY REMARKS ON 
physicking was at an end, under the modern system of manag- 
ing hunters, and surely Lord Delamere cannot pursue the old 
one ! Bad drugs will, we know, cause the death of horses : Lord 
Delamere’s brother-in-law, indeed. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 
lost three valuable hunters from the effects of bad aloes all at 
the same time ; but the respectability of the druggist here 
alluded to seems to remove suspicion from that cause ; still, that 
this mare was rather overdosed, the candid admission of her 
groom proves. 
I must now take leave to offer a word or two on the commen- 
tary to the detail of this case, signed P. (I conclude my friend 
Mr. Percivall, the Vesalius of the present day.) The writer, 
however, whoever he may be, doubts the propriety of giving 
physic to hunters in the middle of the season (this, however, 
does not apply to the mare in question, because fox-hunting does 
not begin with such men as Lord Delamere so early as the 10th 
of October, when she had the fatal dose, if such was the cause 
of her death) ; and so do 1, if it can be avoided : but the expe- 
rience of sportsmen is very much in favour of it. With many 
horses, indeed, it is indispensable to the well-doing of their legs, 
leaving their bodies out of the question # . I certainly would 
not, except in cases of urgent peril, give physic to a horse with 
“ a colon stuffed with the best hay and corn and beans/’ although 
I should imagine that, after a hunter has been ten or twelve 
hours from his stable, ora much less time than that, with hounds, 
even the contents of the colon must be well-nigh expelled. At 
all events, I would, in every common case, wait until the state 
of the bowels appeared to be sufficiently relaxed by bran-mashes, 
as a preventive of danger from irritation. In fact, I have been 
what may be called a severe physicker of horses as to periods, 
but never had a horse anything like ill from physic. 
Two curious circumstances occurred, which I have already de- 
tailed. To one horse my groom gave two doses, one after ano- 
ther, by mistake. The purging, of course, was violent, and con- 
tinued three days, being at last stopped by starch and laudanum. 
Another horse twice brought back the ball through his left nos- 
tril, followed, the last time, by a small quantity of blood. The 
first was given by my own groom, but, on repeating the attempt, 
I employed Mr. Collier, of Ludlow (father to one of your profes- 
sion), who was particularly expert at the act of balling ; but his 
skill was of no avail, and I afterwards gave physic to this horse 
in solution. 
* The writer of this comment must be aware that all race-horses are phy- 
sicked several times in the course of the year, and often when in the strongest 
work, and living on the highest food. 
