The safest purge, in the first stage, is about a quart of castor oil. If that does not remove the faces, give calomel four drachms, gum arabic two drachms, with honey enough to form a bolus. On all occasions ample clysters of gruel, lin seed water, &c. should be frequently in jected. In obstinate cases administer the following : take ten poppy-heads, boil them in six quarts of water till only a gal lon be left, add starch enough to soften into a thin mucilage, throw up three or four times daily. Internally the following may answer. Opium two drachms, ipe cacuanha four drachms, nux vomica, in powder, one drachm, port wine one quart. Mix, and repeat morning and evening. Let the horse be well clothed, so as to keep his skin moist; the stable should not be hot. If the dung smells offensive ly, the stable must be fumigated and kept extremely clean.
Farcy is easily removed in its first stage, when it consists of merely a super ficial inflammation, but if suffered to pro ceed, it quickly taints the circulation, and often induces the glanders. It is highly infectious ; in the first instance each bud or swelling should be burnt with a hot iron, or by caustic; but when the blood is infected, (which is known by the buds being ulcerated, and a discharge at the nose,) the strongest medicines must be used. Let a scruple of corrosive subli mate, levigated, be mixt with butter, or in gruel, and given in two doses ; i. e. night and morning. If the bowels should be affected, the dose must be less ; but if no uneasiness be produced, it may be in creased to half a drachm, or even to two scruples. If the sublimate should prove too powerful, substitute a drachm of calo mel, night and morning. Green food is peculiarly serviceable. Destroy the cloth ing after a cure; or the disease will be regenerated.
Fever must always be traced to its cause, and its particular species must be ascertained, before medicine is given. If the common inflammatory symptoms are indicated by the pulse, the eyes, and the general action of the horse, bleeding, to the extent of three or four quarts, ac cording to the size and condition, ought to be immediately practised : after this, rake and throw up the following clyster gruel, or broth, 3 quarts ; common salt (or Epsom 'salt, if at hand) 4 ounces ; brown sugar, 4 ounces, and sweet oil, or melted butter, or lard, 4 ounces ; admi nister blood warm, in a gentle manner. Give the following twice, daily ; emetic tartar, 2 drachms ; nitre, 1 ounce ; mix in a pint of gruel, or form into a bolus with honey. Avoid whatever is heating ; let
the animal be kept in a cool stable (not windy or damp) and clothe moderately. Let him have plenty of warm drink of a diluent kind ; such as bran-water, hay-tea, scalded malt, or warm ale ; which last ought, however, to be very mild. Leave a little very sweet hay for him to pick at ; if at a proper season, green tares, or other young artificial grass, may be given in small quantities. Avoid tight girthing, and allow plenty of bedding. Sprinkle the stall occasionally with hot vinegar, and remove the dung as soon as it falls. If cold fits intervene, use warmer cloth ing, and let friction, with a soft brush, be persisted in, until warmth is restored. Above all things keep the body open, and avoid every thing that frightens or irritates : if the horse will lay down, it will favour the cure.
When a fever is symptomatic, the cause must first be removed ; in the meanwhile soothing treatment should be resorted to, and palliatives be principally used. In this we allude to diet, 4c. as detailed in the foregoing paragraph. When the fever runs very high, and that bleeding cannot be attempted (either at first, or in repetition) clysters must be frequently given, and rowels may be made in the breast and thighs.
When the fever is equivocal, or when it is decidedly of a malignant species, such as the typhus, or epidemic, which in some countries is by no means rare, though uncommon with us, if the horse be in a robust state, bleed copiously ; but if emaciated, or of a weak frame, avoid that evacuation. Wash the body with warm vinegar, in which aromatic herbs have been boiled ; sprinkle frequently with the same ; remove the dung instant ly, and change the bedding twice or thrice within the day. Burn nitre every half hour, so as to occasion a thick smoke, and let a piece of touch-paper be always smothering in a corner of the stable, which ought to be very cool. Keep the body open with antiseptic purges, and use little clothing. If a critical purging should come on, by no means ,check it ; encourage every sore which may appear, and open rowels in various parts. This complaint being highly infectious, no other horse should be allowed to stand within the same area; in fact, horses labouring under the typhus fever should be removed to some distance from other animals, whether horses, horned cattle, &c. ; the infection being very apt to reach them.