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Another (Oil of turpentine ounce)

Oil of turpentine, 1 ounce, and water-gruel, 1½ pints (English). Mixed for a dose.

Another. Take of opium, 1 ounce; cloves, bruised, 2 ounces; ginger, 3 ounces; brandy, rum, or gin, 1 quart. Digest these in a corked bottle, shaking it every day, for 3 weeks; then strain through blotting paper. Dose, 2 ounces.

These and the like preparations may be given either out of a bottle or drench-horn, one or two persons raising and keeping properly up the horse's head; while another, who administers the medicine, pulls out and a little aside the tongue, with his left hand, and with the other pours in the draught.

Further Treatment.

Cordial drenches of the kinds recommended, with the clyster, will have the effect in ordinary cases to relieve the disorder; but should this not be the case, after waiting an hour or two (longer or shorter, according to the severity of the ailment or the period since its commencement), then the medicine should be repeated, but in a less dose than at first-perhaps one-half or two-thirds of the former quantity. The horse should be occasionally walked out, properly covered with clothes, lest the chill air bring on shivering and give rise to feverishness; and his belly should be now and then rubbed a considerable time at once-five or ten minutes-but with intervals of rest, so that he may have time to stale or dung. If the disorder does not yield to these remedies, then others must be employed of a more active nature. Some persons recommend castor oil, in the proportion of half a pint to a pint, with an ounce or two of laudanum, or tincture of opium, mixed with watergruel, in the quantity of a pint or rather less. In case the horse has lain down, and continued so for some time, and is covered with sweat when he rises, two or more persons should be employed to rub him dry, and he should also be kept well clothed. The stable should be airy, moderately cool, and his place in it roomy and well littered, to keep him from hurting himself should he roll about.

White's Ball for Gripes.

Draughts of liquid medicine operate more speedily than any other form; but as the disorder may attack a horse during a journey, where such cannot readily be procured, Mr. White has given a receipt for a ball for the convenience of those who travel; and if it be wrapped up closely in a piece of bladder it may be kept a considerable time without losing its power. The ball is composed of the following ingredients, viz., Castile soap, 3 drachms; camphor 2 drachms; ginger, 1 drachm and a half; and Venice turpentine, 6 drachms. To be made into a ball for one dose.

Laudanum Draught.

Laudanum may be used in cases of urgency, especially in the wet or lax gripes. Take a quart of beer, and make it a very little warmer than blood heat; then put a tablespoonful of powdered ginger into it, and a small wineglassful of laudanum, just before it is given to the horse. This, in most cases, will give ease in a short time; but if the complaint is exceedingly violent, give about half the above quantity in fifteen or twenty minutes. As soon as the pain seems to be abated, if the belly is costive, give the horse a purgative.

In case of looseness no purgative must be given; the laudanum, which is of a binding nature, will correct it.

When pain is occasioned by inflammation, it is seldom proper to employ opium or any medicine of that kind; but when it depends upon spasm or irritation, no medicines are so beneficial. In inflammation of the bowels, for example, opium might do injury, but in flatulent or spasmodic colic, or gripes, it seldom fails of success.

Another Anodyne Medicine.

When horses are affected with colic, or where the use of anodynes is requisite, the following preparation may be given, namely: opium, 1 drachm, or 60 grains; Castile soap, 2 drachms; and powdered aniseed, ounce, or 4 drachms. To be made into a ball with syrup, for one dose.

In speaking of the medicines for gripes, or the flatulent colic, sometimes termed fret, Mr. White mentions, domestic remedies may be employed when proper medicines cannot be procured in time. For this purpose a draught may be readily made up of a pint of strong peppermint water, with about four ounces of gin, and any kind of spice.