374
FARRIERY.
ht' obtained, and they preler the common lancet used in humanphlebotomy. The horse, from pa t experience of perhaps repeatedstroke-,, is ever shy of the farrier and the blood-stick. .Sorely eventhe prick of the lancet must occasion le-s alarm; and were thehorse moderately twitched, or even his head made fast, he mightbe held sufficiently steady. Mr. Clark (see Ins hook,) shews thedanger in making the ligature round the horse’s neck, previouslyto sticking and culling the orifice; but in the use of the lancet,this is not so material, and the ligature may he slackened, opon thecompletion otthe or.lice. Should it be necessary to pin tiie woundas usual, care should be taken not to raise the skin troin the vein,whence the blow may llow into the cellular substance between thevein ami the skin, and form a lump or tumour, commonly calleda swelled neck. Animals should never he hied at random, as istoo olten the case at this das , but by measure ; nor is the practicelately introduced of draw mg such targe quantities, amounting toupwards of a gallon ot blood, from a horse at one time, eitherrational or ultima'elv beneficial, in any rase. The most properplace for mak.ng me opening in the jugular veins, is where theteguments are thinnest, winch is about a hand-breadth from thehead, and about one inch below the branching, or joining of thevein which come, from ti,e lower jaw, and which may be distinctlyseen when any pressure is made on the main branch of the vein’.In general, blood-letting should be reserved for inllammatory andcreical cases, and nothing can he more absurd than the custom ofregular periodical bleeding, whether in man or horse; neitherbleeding nor diuretics can be the sufficient substitute for purgatives,when the plain intent is to remove obstruction and inflammationby unlading the bowels.
Of Purging.
In gross full bores purging is often necessary, in some disordersof the stomach, 1 ver, &c. but should be directed with caution.Before a purge is given to any horse, it is necessary some prepa-ration should he made for it, to render the operation more safe andefficacious: thus a horse that is lull of flesh should first be bled,an;! at the same time have his diet lowered for a week, especiallythose that have been pampered tor sale; several mashes of scaldedbran should also previously be giVen, to open the bowels, and un-load them of any indurated excrements, which sometimes prove anobstacle to the working of the physic, by creating great sicknessair! griping. It should be remembered, that a horse is purged withdifficulty ; that the physic generally lies C4 hours in the guts be-fore it works; and that the track ol bowels it has to passthrough isabove 30 yards, all Wing horizontally : consequently resinous andother improper drugs may, and often do, by their violent irritation,occasion extensive gripings and cold sweats, shave off the very mu-cus or lining of tiie guts, and bring on inflammations, which oltenterminate in mortification and death. The stomach and guts ofa horse are but thin, compared to those of some other aninials.otthe same bulk, and therefore must be more liable to inliammalionand irritation. The first purge given to a horse should be m.ld, toknow his con dilution. It is a mistaken notion, that if a properprep red purge rices not work to expectation, the horse will he in-jured by il ; tor though it does not pass by stool, its operation maybe more efficacious as an alterative to purify the blood, and it maypiss by urine or other secretions. 1’urging medicines are verysuccessfully given in small quantities, mixed with others; and actthen as alteratives. If mercurial physic be given, care should betaken that it he well prepared; and warmer cloathmg and greatercircumspection are then required. A purge should be given earlyin the morning upon an < mptv -tonrach: about three or tour hoursatter the horse has taken it, he should have a teed of scalded bran ;and a lock or two ol hav mav then be pul into his rack. The sameday give him two more mashes; but should l:e refuse warm meat,lie may be allowed raw bran. All his water should be milk-warm,and have a hand, til of bran squeezed in it; but if lie refu-e to drinkwh te water, give it him w lhout bran. Eaily the next morninggive him aiio'iier mash ; but if he relusc to eat it, give him as muchwarm water as he v ill drink : let him be properly doathed, androde gently about. This should be done two or three times a-day,unle-s he purge violentiv ; once or twice will then he sufficient: •at night give him a feed of oats mixed with bran. During theworking, a horse should drink plentifully ; but if he will not drinkwarm water he must be indulged with cold, rather than not drink
at all. It is a very pernicious custom to purge horses often; forit weakens their constitutions, depraves the blopcl and humours,and hinders dige.-tion. Every purge abrades in some degr. p ihcmucus of the intestines, and procuios at) extraordinary secretionof the bile and pancreatic juice. The constitutiovi therefore lan-guishes under this loss, when the drains of these salutary fluids aretoo frequent; for unless they exist in a sufficient quantity (o mixwith aliments, the digestion must he weakened, as they are abso-lutely necessary for the elaboration of flic chyle.
Mr. Clark observe-, that cly sters are of greater importance inrelieving horses from many acute complaint* than it i, generallyimagined; and it were to be wished, that, in place of (lie moreextensive cordial drenches, &:c. which are but too frequentlygiven in most of these cases, a simple clyster of warin'water, orthin water-gruel, were substituted; the latter proving of great be-nefit, whilst the former loo frequently prove hurtlul. They notonly serve to evacuate (he contents of tiie intestines, but also toconvey very powerful medicims into the system, when it is notpracticable to do it by the month: for although they are only con-veyed into the larger intestines, and perhaps hardly penetrateinto the smaller ; still thev are extremely u.-tful, by fomenting thelatter, and softening the hardened excrement accumulated in theformer, and rendering it so^soft as to he expelled out of the body,by which wind and all offending mntteis pent up in them are like-wise expelled. Besides, by their wamme-s and relaxing powerthey- act as a fomentation to the bowels: hence they may he ofconsiderable service in removing spasmodic constrn lions in thebowels, currying off flatuicncie-, and preventing inflammation inthe intestines, &c. or, by conveying opiates to the parts affected,give speedy relief in colics, &r. Arc. The u e of i mollicnt clys-ters in fevers is considerable. They act by revulsion, and relievethe head when much affected. Besides, by throwing in a quan-tity <-f diluting liquor into the intestines, it not only relaxes andcleanses them, hut cools the body in general; at the same time, aconsiderable portion of the liquid is absorbed and/Conveyed intothe mass of blood, by which means it is diluted; and, in particularcomplaints in the bowels, clysters give almost immediate relief, asthe remedies, when judiciously prescribed, pass immediately tothe parts affected, with little or no alteration from the powers ofthe body. In administering clysters, it ought always to he ob-served, that the contents of tiie clyster he neither too hot nor toocold, as either of these extremes w ill surprise the horse, and causehim to eject it, before it has had any effect. The composition ofclysters should be extremely simple: on that account they will beeasily prepared, and as easily administered, provided the operatoris furnished with suitable instruments for the purpose. '1 he gene-rality of clyster-pipes that are used, are by far too small, and tooshort. It mav appear a kind of paradox, yet it is a tart, that a clyster-pipe which is of a laiger size than the ordinary ones, and of a pro-per thickness, is much easier introduced into the anus, than oneconsiderably smaller. It is likewise obvious, that when the pipe istoo short, it renders clysters of no use, because it cannot conveythe clysters so far up into the intestines as is necessary ior them tohe retained; a small short pipe of six or eight inches long, is notcapable of conveying the injection to the end of tiie rectum,which, in a horse of a middling size, is about 16 or 18 indies long.The smallness of the bag, which is generally proportioned to thatof the pipe, is another very material objection to these instruments,as il seldom contains one quart of liquid; irom which circum-stance, very little benefit can he derived from the use of them insuch large inte-tines as those of a horse. Dr. Bracken very judi-ciously observes, that “ the colon of a lior-c seems to be threeguts, bv reason of the two necks of about half a yard each; isdrawn up into many cells or purses by means ot two ligaments,one of which runs’along tiie upper, and the i thrr on the underside of it, which, with the assistance of a valve or flap at its begin-ning, hinder the excrements either from returning bu< k into thesmall gut-, or tailing too soon downwards, before the chyle ormilky substance prepared from the food he sent into its propervessels. And, indeed, the creciim seems to be so contrived in themanner of a valve, to hinder the aliment and chyle trom passingtoo soon into the colon ; for, it is rv dent, 1 hat if the aliment andchyle were not in some measure hindered in their passage thiough
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