ON THERAPEUTICS. 
699 
cases where at the best they are not productive of the least 
good. 
First, in case of an animal in ordinary health we object to 
the use of violent purgatives as a method of improving the 
condition of the system previous to a surgical operation 
being performed. We cannot divine what is the intention of 
such a procedure, and certainly unless time be given for 
recovery from the medicinal disease, we can imagine very 
unfavorable consequences to result. The common opinion 
we believe to be, that such treatment diminishes the chances 
of inflammation. This argument would only be worth notice 
when the subject is in very high condition, in which case 
moderate diet and exercise will effect more than purgatives, 
and without any disturbance of the organism. In a healthy 
animal inflammation may of course occur after an operation, 
nor is it probable that a previous purging will lessen the 
tendency or moderate the attack. Undoubtedly too much 
care cannot be taken to ensure a perfectly healthy condition 
before operating, nor have we found any difficulty in doing 
so without medicinal aid. The occurrence of fever after the 
operation should be met at its commencement by diluents, a 
mash diet, and the never-failing aconite, the action of which 
we have found almost magical in all cases of constitutional 
excitement following operations. 
Our objections to the use of purgatives take a more 
decided form in cases of animals that are undergoing the 
process known among the initiated as “ conditioning.” Of 
course we anticipate an outcry,—The plan of physicking is 
sacred in its antiquity. No conscientious groom would 
dream of relinquishing his right to administer the proper 
three doses; at least, some years ago, he would have enter¬ 
tained the idea with horror; but somehow, in our present 
railroad times, innovations dash through an old and rotten 
system so easily, that no opportunity is left for remonstrance, 
and we really believe that in many establishments there are 
found men now sufficiently heretical in their views as to train 
a horse upon two or even one dose of physic, instead of the 
orthodox three. Nor do we despair of being permitted by 
and by to suggest that none at all might answe r the purpose 
equally well. Seriously, we cannot, as scientific practi¬ 
tioners, tolerate the notion of submitting an animal, in a per¬ 
fectly healthy state, to the action of a powerful medicine 
simply because he may be too fat, or his coat be too long, or 
he may have been kept on soft food, or he wants reducing, 
or for some other enlightened reason so invariably urged in 
excuse. With the use of purgatives in training men down to 
