THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 
261 
small, and gradually increased ; as a sudden change to heat, or 
hot land winds, in this state very rapidly consumes the excita- 
bility, and proves very destructive. The properties of these 
winds may be also rendered still more stimulant in their passage 
over putrid marshes, or over mountains containing mineral, me- 
tallic, or other exciting particles. This is mere conjecture, but, 
I conceive, by no means improbable. We have, however, no 
occasion to call such malignant agents to our aid, as our positive 
knowledge of these winds, independent of the above, informs us 
that they are sufficiently destructive to the animal*. 
Section II. 
OF THE OPERATION OF MEDICINE ON THE HORSE. 
The operation of medicine on the horse forms, perhaps, the 
greatest mark of distinction between the study of physic in the 
human subject and the veterinary science. Medicine on the 
human subject can act in many ways, as sudorific, emetic, pur- 
gative, diuretic, salivary, sedative, tonic, and many others ; 
while in the horse we find scarcely more than two forms of me- 
dicine on which we can place much dependence, namely, purga- 
tives and diuretics. 
It is fortunate that the diseases of horses are fewer in number 
and less complex than in the human subject, as we have so little 
scope for the action of medicine. The cause of this distinction 
obviously arises from the very different structure of the horse’s 
stomach, which in the human subject is the chief seat of the 
operation of medicine. This cannot exist in the horse, whose 
stomach is so small as not even to admit of digestion taking 
place there ; it is, beside, partly covered with a thick insensible 
membrane. Thus we find that the most powerful medicines 
scarcely affect the horse, unless they are of a diuretic quality. 
Bluestone and verdigris, in cases of farcy and glanders, I have 
seen given at the Veterinary College in doses of two drachms 
two or three times a-day, without any material visible effect. 
I believe the intention of giving these medicines was to act as 
tonics, and they may sometimes in this light succeed. 
1 once attended at the opening of a horse that died of farcy 
and glanders. For some weeks previous to his death, verdigris 
* A military gentleman informed me he had ahorse at Pallamcottah seized 
with a total deprivation of the use of his limbs, which was cured by exten- 
sive mercurial frictions, to which I would recommend, internally, mercury 
and opium combined. 
