VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE—EMPIRICISM. 565 
himself to this nonsense; but, taking advantage of his absence at 
Paris, Sebille and his wife set out one fine morning, and arrived 
at the residence of the cure. 
"Well,” said Lantier, " your cows slink their calves? We 
will set all that right. Have you brought me some of their hair?” 
“ Here it is.”—" How many cows have you?” "Thirteen.”— 
"Oh! Oh! Have you any horses?” " Yes.”—" How many ?” 
“ Six .”—“ How are they ?’” " Quite well: they eat and drink 
and work well. ISo animals can be better.”—"So much the 
worse : they will very likely soon be ill. Go home, and come 
back to me two or three days hence: don’t fail to bring me some 
of the hair of the horses, and in the mean time I will prepare that 
which is necessary.” 
Sebille obeyed these directions to the letter, and returned at 
the appointed time. " There is some of my horses’ hair; but 
they continue to be well.”—"Bah! there is evil hanging over 
you that you are not aware of. I am just come from a stable 
where there would have been sad mischief if I had not gone. 
Here are nineteen bottles of a wonderful medicine compounded 
by me ; take them home, and give one to each of your stock : 
but remember, give the medicine to the cows by the mouth, and 
to the horses by the nose : don’t fail to do this. Perhaps after 
the administration of the medicine to the horses they will appear 
very uneasy; if that be the case, give them the powder that you 
will find in this packet, having first dissolved it in maid's water , 
and all will be well; but—you owe me sixty francs.” 
Sebille gave him twenty francs on account, returned home 
with his precious bottles, and took especial care on the morrow 
punctually to obey the commands of the magician. What 
followed? That is very easily imagined. The cows, who took 
the medicine by the mouth, were little affected; but with the 
horses, into whose nostrils it was poured, it was a very different 
thing. A considerable part of the infernal potion, which was a 
strong decoction of the gratiola (the hedge hyssop) entered the 
windpipe, descended into the bronchi, and God knows what ra¬ 
vages it made in the pulmonary tissue. 
An intensely acute pneumonia very soon displayed itself—the 
flanks beat violently—blood flowed from the nostrils, and the 
most fearful symptoms rapidly succeeded. 
Sebille, frightened, roused himself from his apathy, and sent 
for M. Jacquemard, a veterinary surgeon residing at Nangis. 
He adopted a very proper mode of treatment, but he despaired 
of much success : in fact, one of the horses died on the second 
day, in torture distressing to see and difficult to describe; a 
second soon experienced the same fate; and when the cure, 
VOL. VII. 4 D 
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