FISHER V. MATTHEWS. 
543 
knit still closer the ties of friendship as well as of professional con¬ 
nexion which had subsisted between ourselves and the owner of 
the horse—this was passing in our mind, and we regretted that 
Mr. Matthews could have persuaded himself that there was any 
other way of getting out of such a scrape. We therefore dis¬ 
avow any allusion to Messrs. Stanley and Heane, and regret that 
we should have used the ambiguous word that escaped our pen; 
and we are further glad that we are enabled to set these gentle¬ 
men perfectly right with the public in this affair; for we happen 
now to have in our possession a copy of the instructions, and the 
opinion under which they acted, and which, as giving them a 
clear view of the whole of this singular case, may not be unin¬ 
teresting to our readers. 
“On the 15th of April 1838,^’ says Mr. Matthews, “I received orders 
from Mr. Fisher’s coachman for Mr. R. Fisher’s horse to have a dose of 
physic on the followins^ morning’. 
“ On jMonday, the 16th, I sent my man with a draught for him, which con¬ 
sisted of ol. croton fifteen drops, Barbadoes aloes three drachms, ginger half 
a drachm, and a little linseed meal. This has been the dose and quantity 
he has had from me repeatedly, being obliged to give him such medicine in 
consequence of his bad disposition to feed or take water after aloes alone. 
The horse received the draught in the presence of Mr. Fisher jun. and his 
own servants, who assisted. The horse received it without any disturbance 
whatever. He was not heard to cough during the time of drenching, or 
after he had taken the drench, which must inevitably have been the case had 
the least portion of it, or even water alone, escaped the epiglottis and entered 
the trachea. My man, after giving the draught, gave Mr. Fisher’s servant 
every particular direction as to treatment, &c. 
“On Tuesday, the l/th, Isawthe horse early, and found him doing as well 
as he usually did when in physic. He was slightly purging. The lips were 
a little swollen, but this disappeared before night, and which I considered to 
be of no consequence, knowing it to have been the case in some of his pre¬ 
vious times of having medicine. I examined him as minutely as possible. 
The pulse was from 35 to 40. 1 then examined his manger, to see if he had 
taken the mash which he ought to have had, instead of which I found the 
remains of a feed of oats, which was quite contrary to my directions. I then 
asked the man to fetch him some water, part of which he drank in my pre¬ 
sence, that of the man, and of Mr. 11. Fisher, jun. I then directed the man 
how to treat the horse, and left him. 
I saw the horse again about six o’clock in the evening of the same day. 
The swelling which appeared about the mouth in the morning had disap- 
j)eared. The horse was doing well—the pulse was from 40 to 45, and the 
extremities warm. 
“The gardener being with me, I wished to see the coachman who had been 
looking to the horse before. He told me the coachman was waiting at din¬ 
ner, but he would tell him any thing I wished about the horse. I then asked 
him to fetch some water to put to some meal left at the bottom of a j)ail 
which he had previously taken water from. He did so, and the horse took a 
part of it freely in his and my presence. I then left orders with the man, 
and left the premises; but before I left I particularly remarked how well the 
horse was <loing, and he, the man, replied ‘ Yes ! he thought he was, and not 
