168 
ON DRENCHES. 
bottle from my pocket with my right hand, and gently raising his 
head with the left hand, I find, sometimes at the first effort, and 
certainly in a little while, no difficulty in administering the medi- 
cine with perfect safety, and with slight annoyance to my patient. 
“ A case lately occurred in which a horse, seriously ill, had been 
excited almost to madness by this phalanx of tormentors. I or- 
dered every one of them out of the stable, and went quietly up to 
the horse. Nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed before I could 
divest him of all his fears, and then he permitted me to administer 
the draught without the loss of scarcely a drop.” 
The Editor has likewise received a letter from Mr. Daws, ad- 
dressed to Professor Stewart. He was, during many years, assistant 
to Mr. Mavor, and has been during the last two years in practice for 
himself. The Editor has had the gratification and the advantage of 
perusing a diary which, with most commendable diligence, he 
kept of every important case. 
He finds fault with the title of the 4th “ Letter to a Student,” 
headed “ Beware of Drenches;” and he asks, Is it not universally 
admitted that medicines given in a fluid form possess various 
advantages over those exhibited in a solid state 1 Are they not 
diffused over a larger surface 1 and do they not more readily excite 
or allay, as circumstances may be, certain actions or states of the 
membranes with which they are brought into contact 1 
He then adverts to the supposed danger attending the act of 
drenching, and asserts what, from the character of the man, and 
the extensive practice — almost unrivalled — in which he has been 
employed, the Editor believes to be literally true, — that he has 
given no less a number than ten thousand draughts without ever 
producing serious annoyance or inconvenience, and many of these 
being of a most nauseous description. 
His mode of management was simple enough, namely, by causing 
the animal’s head to be lowered, if the slightest disposition to 
cough was produced while the draught was passing through the 
pharynx or over the glottis, and by coaxing and using gentle means, 
if the animal was in the least degree irritable. 
In the December Number, in the close of his observations in 
reply to Mr. Markham, the Professor submitted six points for the 
consideration of the experienced veterinarian. To the first and 
second he had given a complete contradiction. With the third, 
fourth, and fifth, he differed entirely, but with the sixth he cordi- 
ally agreed, — “ a bottle in the hands of an able and experienced 
person was a far better instrument for administering fluids than 
any other.” 
Mr. Daws concludes by observing, that he frankly acknowledges 
the talents of the Professor, and trusts that he shall see many use^ 
