favourites. A horse first weakened by a drastic purge, and then tortured by one of these infernal inventions, is more injured than if he had continued at hard work instead of having his ‘rest.’ A modern professor of veterinary science says: ‘Let all gentlemen discharge the veterinary surgeon who proposes to blister the legs of their horses. The author has beheld hundreds of blisters applied to the legs, but he cannot remember one instance in which such applications were productive of the slightest good.’ Youatt said: ‘Agriculturists should bring to their stables the common sense which directs them in the usual concerns of life.’ Youatt wrote half a century ago, and for farmers; yet it is doubtful whether things have not got worse since then, in spite of his advice. Mayhew says that the administration of three or four bran mashes is in general a sufficient purge; and he further says that, ‘during the years he was in active practice, he does not remember to have given a dose of aloes’ (presumably only then on an emergency) ‘that the symptoms did not afterwards cause him to regret the administration. They are at present chiefly employed in accordance with the dictates of routine.’
Routine seems to be having a long innings in most respects as regards the horse. After long and energetic representations and arguments on the part of Mr. Flower, some of the horse proprietors in London finally discovered, upon trial, that their horses could actually do more work without bearing reins—this was a severe blow to routine—and now
