526 
ON DRENCHING. 
have the greatest influence in the secretion of an acid gastric juice 
after the ingestion of the food. It is exceedingly difficult, or 
perhaps impossible, to divide, in a living animal, all the nerves 
which accompany the arteries of the stomach, and to ascertain the 
varying influence, at each section, on the nature of the gastric 
juice. 
ON DRENCHING. 
By Mr. James Horsburgh, V.S., Dalkeith. 
[We had considerable doubt of the policy of re-opening a question 
that had been fully, and a little too acrimoniously, discussed : 
but Mr. Horsburgh states his case candidly, and he gives an 
interesting account of his own experience. — Y.] 
I HAVE until now been a silent spectator of the dispute respect- 
ing the propriety of administering medicine in a liquid form, 
although I must acknowledge that I was not a little surprised to 
find some, high, and deservedly high, in the profession, affirming so 
decidedly that there is no danger in a custom which has, again and 
again, in my experience, been attended with unpleasant and fatal 
results. I have had the opportunity of often seeing bronchitis fol- 
lowing the administration of a drench, and I regret to say that it 
has happened in my own practice. 
It is sometimes difficult to give even a ball ; how, then, is it possi- 
ble to force two or three pints of fluid, and that of a nauseous de- 
scription, without resistance, and considerable force being required ? 
The thing is an impossibility, even with all the cunning, coaxing, 
and soothing of the most accomplished drencher. He must put 
the animal in an unnatural position. He pours a fluid into his 
mouth, nauseous to his taste, and, in four cases out of five, he will 
and he does resist, and force must be employed. 
I have no hesitation in saying that I can give a drench as well as 
any of my neighbours, but I have never been in the habit of giving 
them when I could possibly avoid it. Drenches are oftener given 
in flatulent and spasmodic colic than in any other disease, and if 
they could be safely conveyed into the stomach, perhaps they would 
act more quickly than when given in a solid form ; but when we 
are likely to produce a disease more dangerous than the one we 
are endeavouring to cure, we are certainly justified in trying other 
means. A ball newly made will, in a few minutes, dissolve in the 
stomach of a horse, and colic is not a disease so very suddenly 
fatal that five or ten minutes is of such consequence. 
