MISCELLANEA. 
419 
least, having a laxative operation on the bowels, and that they 
have long enough, for this and other reasons, been used by 
medical men in combination with cathartics. Nevertheless, 
this is not a fact which appears to have been acted on in 
veterinary medicine. Mr. Hurford is the first to inform us of its 
application, and we are now called on to bear testimony either to 
its truth or to its want of foundation. If three drachms of aloes, 
in combination with an equal quantity of gentian root, will 
purge a horse with the same effect as double the dose of aloes 
without the gentian, then must the latter be regarded as a truly 
valuable adjunct. For the present, until the question be further 
discussed, we have nothing further to say about it. We have 
ourselves made, and are about instituting afresh, experimental 
researches into the matter. Any results we may obtain, how¬ 
ever, we had rather withhold the publication of until such time 
as some more of our friends shall have favoured us with their 
opinions on the subject. 
MISCELLANEA. 
FIERY STEEDS. 
A MAN of the name of Murray, who lives near Creybilly, had' 
two horses, last week, which were suffering from mange, a 
dangerous disease, and one not easily to be removed. Murray 
was advised by some veterinary surgeon to wash his horses 
with spirits of turpentine, and then anoint them liberally with 
coal tar. The horses were accordingly duly washed with the 
one, and covered with the other. These substances, as many 
people are aware, generate gas, which ignites the moment it 
comes in contact with fire. Murray came to his stable with a 
lighted candle, to see in what state his horses were; which he 
had no sooner entered than the gas exploded, carrying away 
part of the floor and roof of the stable, and at the same time 
setting both horses on fire. The horses being loose, one of 
them ran out at the door and galloped across the country until 
the fire was extinguished and its strength exhausted; the other, 
in attempting to follow it, ran with such violence against the 
lintel as to dash his brains out. Murray, imagining some fiery 
spirit from another world was at work, called for help; but it 
came not until his horse had been killed, his stable destroyed, 
and himself nearly frightened to death.— Coleraine Chronicle. 
