DIURETICS.-The uncertainty which characterizes the operation of these medicines when administered to the horse, renders their exhibition at all times a matter of perplexity. The variations of constitution distinguishable in different horses, and indeed the difference of condition of the same horses at distinct periods, render the effects of diuretic medicines very doubtful; the temperature of the stable, or of the weather, is also a material agent in influencing the action of these medicines. If the animal system be in a state of excitement, or the atmosphere be warmer than usual, diuretic medicines have a tendency to act upon the cutaneous vessels, and thereby pass off by perspiration. In such cases it is very evident that by relaxing the pores hey have the effect of rendering the subject exceedingly susceptible of the cold, as well as debilitating the system. Thus, in administering diuretics, it will be observed how very important it is to watch their action. A dose too small in quantity, or the horse being kept in a stable at too high a temperature, by causing the medicine to act upon the skin instead of the urinary vessels, will cause much deception. When horses are observed to break out in the the stable, it very commonly arises from the use of mild diuretics, and the agency of too much warmth. This applies more particularly to hunters, whose grooms are usually so fond of giving them these drugs: they are perfectly unconscious that the balls which they are giving are the cause of the cold-sweats; at the same time, from not being acquainted with their properties, they not unfrequently expect to remedy the evil by the use of the very medicines which produce it. In cases wherein the use of this medicine is necessary to act upon the urinary secretions, if they are found to produce sudorific effects, and perspiration ensues, it will be necessary to increase the dose, and moderate the warmth of the stable; these measures, however, demand caution, or much danger will ensue. The use of nitre, given in ordinary occasions, cannot be too seriously condemned. Its action upon the stomach is exceedingly powerful, producing coldness and a sensation that can only be known to those who have tried the experiment of taking it; at least, such is the effect with the human subject, and there is every reason to conceive that a similar result is produced with the horse-indeed, if it be not thoroughly dissolved previously to its being administered, it is still more injurious than when given in a state of solution, as it will form an incrustation on the coats of the stomach, tending to create more or less of inflammation, and even ulceration, according to the quantity given, and the consequent deposit. For this reason it should never be a component part of a ball, but, being previously dissolved in some boiling water, either given in a mash, a small quantity of linseed gruel, or other fluid. It must be remembered that whatever injures the stomach, must, of necessity, impair the digestion in the same ratio as the injury is produced; it will, therefore, be easy to prove how very much an improper quantity of this medicine will tend to reduce a horse's flesh, more particularly if any labour is required during the time it is being given. Referring to the principles of animal economy, it must be remarked that muscle, one of the greatest essentials to condition, is F formed of certain portions of the blood, which being received by vessels appointed for that purpose, are stimulated to their utmost vigour by active exertion; this may be laid down as one grand reason for the imperative necessity of maintaining the blood in a healthy condition, at the same time it declares the absurdity of giving such a medicine to excess which destroys those fluids that are designed to create the very substance which we seek for. The excessive use of nitre may easily he detected in the appearance of the coat; in cases of exposure to the slightest degree of cold, it will stare in a peculiar manner, having the appearance of velvet. And as the sympathy which exists between the coats of the stomach and the external coat is well known, it cannot require much argument to establish the fact how powerful the effect of this medicine must be. It would not be admissible in these pages to introduce remarks upon the treatment of actual disease, such being the province of the veterinary surgeon; therefore the sooner professional aid is called in on the occurrence of such misfortunes, the better; moreover I could not presume to enter into such subjects with a prospect of success. Nevertheless, there are some cases which do not amount to actual disease, which are so common that every person who is daily in the way of horses has some knowledge of the treatment of; and there are some which require attention before the professional attendant can be procured; for instance, trifling cases of fever may be greatly arrested in their progress, or perhaps entirely subdued, by the judicious exhibition of proper remedies; for such purposes diuretics will be serviceable, and are usually combined with medicines which act upon the skin. It is when horses are at work that I offer caution against their use, not when illness demands their services. When the existence of fever calls forth the use of diuretics, nitre is one of the most common ingredients, and may be given to the quantity of from 1 to 2 ounces during the day, in gruel or mashes; tartarized antimony from 1 to 2 drachms, and 1 scruple of camphor, made into a ball, with any kind of meal to increase the bulk, will generally be effective in allaying fever; if this, with a reduction of the horse's corn, and a substitution of bean mashes for a portion of hay, does not cause an abatement, the sooner the veterinary surgeon's assistance is obtained the better. Some may be induced to bleed, but in all cases of fever which are not accompanied by actual local inflammation the practice is not always safe, unless inflammation of the lungs or bowels point out the necessity. Venice turpentine in moderate doses, from 4 to 6 drachms, is a diuretic that may be occasionally resorted to, if the legs fill from an imperfect state of the circulation. It may be given as a ball, by adding some meal, or the same quantity of powdered resin, made up with 2 drachms of soap. Some horses have an unusual degree of acrimony in the urinary discharges, evidently affecting the neck of the bladder, proceeding frequently from an improper use of diuretics. Strange to state, many persons will continue to give the very medicines which produce, or, at all events, increase the disorder; in such cases linseed-gruel will be found to be the best remedy that can be suggested. It is a common practice with many trainers to give nitre in some form to the horse after sweating; the consequence of which is, that it very fre quently causes them to break out in cold chilly sweats, which are also promoted by the exhaustion of hydrogen, consequent upon the exertion and reduction of the system; this is likewise augmented by the closing, or partial closing, of the accustomed ventilation, which excluding a portion of fresh atmospheric air, the animal is deprived of the means of inhaling a renewal of hydrogen, which he is in need of to replace that which has escaped. They are astonished at their horses breaking out, although they have inadvertently been the principal promoters of it. A REVERIE OF "THE ROAD." BY CRAVEN. With spirits gay I mount the bench; my tits all fresh and well are; FRAGMENT OF AN OLYMPIC ODE. A few days ago I had occasion to run down into Hampshire, and the morning being cold-as my custom is of a forenoon (and, indeed, of an afternoon, for the matter of that)-I lit a cigar, and stood inhaling it at the door of my club in Waterloo Place, waiting the arrival of the 'bus which should convey me to the South Western rail. The leathern inconvenience presently arrived, and, "consequently," as my logic acknowledges, I got upon the exterior thereof. It's vulgar, I believe, to ride outside" busses," more particularly with a weed at work; but, under such circumstances, they won't let you in, and under all and any circumstances its pleasanter to keep out; so, as aforesaid, I climbed up to the slates. The "Jarvey" politely lifted up his apron, which signifies an invitation to a moiety of the box, so I sat me beside him, and drawing an extra whiff-the effort of a sigh given to other days and reminiscences-took my way towards the Milbank Penitentiary. As we pulled up at "the Cross," "coachee" looked at me stedfastly over the left, and then touched his hat, as who should say "that's a glimpse of auld lang syne." "D'ye know me?" I asked for there was no mistaking his manner. "Right well, sir," he answered, "on the Birmingham Patent Tele, and scores of drags." It was now my turn to look, but "there was nothing in it," as Charles Matthews the younger says. I could not read him. "Who are you?" I inquired. "Jem -," said the sad shade of him who once blew the key bugle at the door of the " Chickens" in a fashion that ought to have ensured him paradise. But nothing in Ovid's Metamorphoses or Miss Martineau's Mesmeriphoses, ever came near the change that the road and rein had effected in Jem. I shuddered all the way to Woking with the thought, and as I began to recover during the re mainder of my run to Southampton, the following reverie rose to my fancy-the Birmingham road being indebted most probably to the coleur de rose in which it appears to my frame of mind at the moment. I called to mind my exultation, when a school-boy, that Wednesday was a half holiday, as it enabled me to stand on the steps of the Cross Keys, at Oswestry, and see the Honourable Tom Kenyon pull up at the door. He was in those days one of the most ardent disciples of the whip in England. He made it a practice, no matter what the condition of the weather might be, to visit Shrewsbury and Oswestry, between which towns his seat, Pradoe, is situated, on every Wednesday and Saturday, their respective market days, as regularly as the mail; and all persons proceeding to either were entitled to a lift, if there was room, in or about his drag. His style of "set out" was simple, but complete-a plain yellow carriage, a stagecoach in all its arrangements, but lighter, of course, than the build of such conveyances at that period, and cattle such as only a professor like himself could put together; he had, I think, three regular teams -two I well recollect, the greys and browns-and they were worthy of the artist who drove them-their best eulogium. Man is an imitative animal; so I soon began to itch for the ribbons. The first time I ever caught a hold of four horses was on the "Ancient Briton," then tooled by "old Wells," known for half a century on the Holyhead road. This worthy was a legitimate of the school of charioteers of that day; his face was of the hue of the piony-like Boniface, he " ate his ale, drank his ale, aud slept on his ale;" in manner, no one could accuse him of being a gentlemanperhaps he had read Johnson, and thought "who drives rough horses should himself be rough," for he was as unpolished as his cattle; to crown all, he was so excessively "protuberant"—to speak it gracefully-that when you saw him on the box, "you wondered how the devil he got there." The rate of travelling by this patriarchal convenience was about five miles an hour, which, considering the roads and loads of those times, was by no means contemptible work. Among the many into whose hands this volume falls, it will not be without some who can remember that road before, within the last twenty years, its splendid re-modelling, under the skilful direction of Mr. Telford combined with the Menai Suspension Bridge, also the production of that gentleman's genius; it may be pronounced the most stupendous modern evidence of human ingenuity and perseverance. At the period of which I speak, that which is now decidedly the finest road in Europe (it's days, alas! are numbered), was little more than a narrow lane, rudely constructed, and running, almost without a fence, along the brink of precipices, to look on which made the blood freeze. Still, wild and dangerous as was this mountain pass, even it had been formed within a very few years after a resolution had been passed in the House of Commons declaring it impossible to construct a road through those regions, and, even if made, that it would be utterly useless during the winter season, as the snow and the torrents from the mountains would then render it impassable. : Fifty years ago the lovely scenery of North Wales was almost as little known as the valley of Chamouni at the same period; and to shew that all the wisdom in the world was not monopolized by our ancestors, I have heard that the late Lord Penrhyn, whose property has been so incalculably benefi ted by the improvements in those districts, was one of the strongest opponents of the till; yet he was a fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time!" 66 Many a "right merrie conceit" had I, during my career on that heavy drag. The passengers by her were, for the most part, Irish -then the transit from Holyhead to Dublin had not been made little more than a ferry, by the aid of steam: at present a genuine unsophisticated Patlander in England is a treat; in those days, when you saw one, you were sure of him. I remember one broiling hot day, as my four great rumbling cart horses were crawling up "Chirk hill" (at that time a real mountain) with four tons of lumber behind them, a choice specimen of the finest population alive, under the idea that he was doing a bit of English superbly, thrusting a great red whiskered face out of the coach window, and calling to me, in pure Tipperary, "droiver, stop! here's a leedy in a feenting steete in the intarior!" From this slow work I was, after a little while, promoted to the "Chester Highflyer," not that of the renowned "Chester Billy" of Quarterly Review celebrity, but the Welch coach of that denomination, the workman on it being Jack Williams, who afterwards met a melancholy "wind up," poor follow, losing his life on that road. Thus was I tolerably entered for all I was so soon to witness; and if any of my readers remember, as doubtless they do, the scene which "the Star," at Oxford, offered daily, at two o'clock, to an elève of the craft, they will know what I mean. I now became a constant workman on "the Veteran," London and Gloucester; and to those who recollect George Flowers, and Dan Gilbert, the latter horsing it splendidly from Oxford down, they will not say my education was trusted to inefficient hands. Gilbert was just the character to make an Oxford drag popular: a monstrous good-looking fellow, with excellent manners, and lots of dash. There was scarce a room appertaining to a man of any pretension as a dragsman, where he was not a welcome guest. Methinks I see him now, eyeing his ruby glass, sipping it with the demonstrative smack of an amateur, and blowing his cloud with the air of a bashaw of three tails. A taste thus acquired and cherished, was one not likely soon to lose its attraction. Though, as the world opened to me, other sporting matters claimed much of my time, still did I ever acknowledge allegiance to my first attachment. My well remembered and well esteemed connexion on the Birmingham line was by means of those celebrated coaches the Eclipse, Independent, and Patent Tallyhos-I should think, in every sense of the word, the most superior public carriages that ever ran in England. Established for a number of years, doing their work as well as it could be done, keeping at all seasons their time to a minute, their opposition consisted only in a generous rivalry as to which should be the best conducted. Even I, prejudiced as I confess myself to have been in favour of one concern, were I called on for an opinion, should find it impossible to give that preference, by pointing out any defect in the other. Were I asked the man in England for a fast stage coach, I should name " Robert Flack." I |