CURSORY REMARKS. 
415 
I am sorry to see (p. 244) a doubt thrown on the safety of ad- 
ministering oil of turpentine in spasmodic colic. I have always 
considered it a specific ; that is to say, I never knew it fail in 
giving almost instant relief : and, in the course of my frequent 
absence from home, during nine years’ residence in Hampshire, I 
always had a bottle of it in the care of my carters, at each of my 
farms, with written directions for use ; my cart-horses being occa- 
sionally subject to colic, from eating bean-straw. In a hoven cow, 
too, I witnessed its excellent effects, subsequent to my giving vent 
to the gas, which did not appear to relieve her. Shamrock, the 
race-horse, but, when in my possession, a hunter, was very sub- 
ject to spasmodic colic, which turpentine always cured, and in a 
very few r minutes. Indeed, only a few months back, I was told my 
gardener’s mule was dying, and dead he soon would have been, 
for lie had been long under the severest paroxysms of this com- 
plaint. In less than ten minutes after taking two ounces of the oil 
of turpentine, he was relieved by a copious discharge of urine, and 
quite free from pain. Like all other powerful stimuli, however, it 
may do harm as well as good, and the question put by Mr. Spencer 
is well worthy of notice. But, speaking of diuretic stimuli, many 
of your readers in the midland counties, at least those of about my 
standing in life, will remember “ Gibbs’ urine balls,” which were 
sold in pots, to be made up at discretion, and generally depend- 
ing, for their size, on the size of the groom’s hand. “ Does he 
flood the stable ?” was the question the old man used to ask the 
groom, to satisfy himself of their proper operation ! ! On being 
answered in the affirmative, his reply was, “ That will do ; give 
him another in two or three days, and I’ll be bound you’ll see no 
more of them swelled legs.” It now and then, however, hap- 
pened, that the horse itself was non est inventus from these over- 
doses. And yet this brings to my recollection two cases of spas- 
modic colic, reported in your number for February 1829, in which 
Mr. George Paris began with four ounces of oil of turpentine, and 
in less than twenty-four hours he gave to each patient a quart of 
oil of turpentine, and half a pint of spirit of nitrous aether and 
hartshorn, and with success. Mr. P. asserted, that this bold 
practice had been uniformly successful in obstinate cases. “ Old 
Gibbs” would chuckle if he could rise again and hear this ! 
I read with interest the conflicting opinions of Mr. Gloag 
(V. S. 10th Hussars) and the President, respecting the value of 
tartarized antimony as a medicine, and shall look anxiously for 
the results of the former gentleman’s experiments. This medicine 
has always been considered, amongst sportsmen, as a cleanser of 
afoul habit in horses, in doses of from one to three drachms, and 
also to dogs; but I know nothing of its properties in producing dia- 
