476 
LETTERS TO A STUDENT. 
ticularly in post-horses, who often have not time fairly to digest 
their food, on account of the rapid and unexpected work which 
they are often called on to perform. 
Journal VH, du Midi, Avril 1838. 
[It is difficult to understand the modus operandi of the tartarized 
antimony in stomach staggers, and the forbidding of venesec¬ 
tion sounds strangely to the ear of the English veterinary sur¬ 
geon ; but the cases of MM, Phillipe and Crepin, related in 
the eighth volume of The Veterinarian, deserve serious at¬ 
tention, although we must freely confess that we do not rank 
among the converts to their opinion.—Y.] 
LETTERS TO A STUDENT. 
No. IV. 
Bp Professor Stewart, Glasgow, 
Beware of Drenches. 
An article in the last Veterinarian reminds me that I owe 
you a letter upon a subject of considerable importance. 
When you are under the necessity of drenching a horse, you 
are not to put a twitch on him, nor to pull out the tongue, nor to 
raise the head any higher than is absolutely necessary. You are 
to keep the neck straight; and the mouth-strap is to be placed 
close behind the tusks, and not pressing the cheeks into the 
mouth. Make the assistant who supports the head stand fairly 
below it, and with the staff perpendicular to the ground. If 
the draught is pungent, or very disagreeable, give it in small 
quantities; and if it is so much as a quart, let the head down 
for a few seconds after you have given one half of it. A strong, 
wide-mouthed, smooth-necked bottle is better than a horn. 
Keep it away from the teeth. You are not a good operator if 
you let it be crushed between them. 
Notwithstanding every precaution, and the greatest care, ac¬ 
cidents will sometimes happen in drenching horses. By raising 
the muzzle you depress the larynx and open the glottis. In some 
short, thick-necked horses much elevation of the muzzle seems 
to render them unable to close the glottis. 
The safest way of giving a draught is to administer it when 
the horse is lying, as he mostly always is in the cases which im¬ 
periously demaqd a draught. Place your hand in the mouth, and 
take a very firm hold of the check at the labial angle; raise the 
