FLUX, looseness, or scouring, now and then trou bles horses; it is much more common, however, among cattle; and especially sheep. They do say, that horses grazing long in marshy pastures in cold weather, will, like sheep, contract the disorder: the writer, however, has never happened to he so situ ated as to witness its propagation in this manner. Thirty years ago it was a very common practice, indeed the ordinary one among grooms and gentle men, (their own horse-doctors,) to exhibit an ounce and a half, or two ounces of aloes, at once, by way of " a close of physic;" and, in this manner, many and many a valuable horse has been sacrificed, in consequence of super-purgation. But even now-a days, although these murderous closes have been abridged, aloes or doses of physic continue to be quite as indiscriminately and injudiciously pre scribed by these instinctively learned gentry. There is another cause of disordered bowels, and one we meet with more frequently at the present day; and that is, After a "hard day's riding," a horse will, occasionally, express much uneasiness and irritation in his bowels, by continually voiding small portions of excrement, enveloped in slimy, viscous, mucous matter. This is what the farriers call " molten grease:" they, in their egregious ig norance, really believing it to be fat or grease molt en down.
In pretending to administer to the relief of an animal affected with the flux, even some veterinary men, but farriers especially, are apt to proceed on a principle perfectly incongruous with the nature of the complaint; viz. to put a stop to the discharges; whereas, in point of fact, they ought rather to be encouraged than suppressed: at all events, early in the disorder. The flux is to be considered as an effort of the parts themselves to East off something which is obnoxious to them; and it is our duty to render them our assistance in effecting it. It is only
when we discover that it is producing irritation in the system, or by its continuance consuming the strength of the animal, that we are warranted in using means for its suppression. Soft meat, gruel, linseed drink, hay tea, Ste. are all very suitable for its encouragement, and at the same time for sup porting the strength. Scrupulously abstain from every description of green food. Should we he able to trace the origin of the flux to green pasture, no thing will prove so good a counteraction as an al kali, and one of the best is common chalk; which also possesses an astringent quality: as much of the powder may be given, twice or thrice, or oftener, in the course of the day, as cab be made up with syrup of poppies into a full-sized ball. We know that to calves, when they scour, chalk is given with great advantage, made into balls with gin. A bet ter medicine, however, particularly when the case has been of long duration, is chalk and mercury— the hydrargyrus cum erela of the London Pharma copeia: half an ounce, or even an ounce, may be administered twice or thrice a-day. Last of all, and only when our object is to put a total stop to the discharges, we are to have recourse to opium; to give a dram of solid opium in combination with half an ounce of chalk, made into a ball with syrup of ginger: one ball will commonly prove sufficient for this purpose: should it not, or should the flux relapse again, after having been once subdued, a second and a third must be administered. It is rarely required to give inure than one ball a-day.