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ON A NEW SECRET POWDER FOR HORSES.

AT this present time there is a strenuous effort being made for the sale and administration of
certain Secret Powders, for helping the food and condition of Horses; and very true it is, that
by well arranged tonics and stimulants, considerable relief can be afforded to subjects defective
by over and oppressive work, and worn out by age, for most unreasonable tasks, are but too
often imposed upon them, by unfeeling men of no mercy, who care not what they do, if they
can by any measures, however cruel, obtain work from them. Such a state of things is revolt-
ing, and ought not in any, especially any Christian Country, to be suffered. At length, these
poor defenceless creatures, no longer even by the severest usage being able to work, are obliged
to be destroyed.

We can, however, ourselves testify, from actual experience, that debilitated Horses, can
be much assisted by tonics and spices, opportunely applied, such as bitters, spices, and certain
metallic salts, and forty years ago we gave in our PJiarmacopoiea equina, a formula, contain-
ing a small quantity of cantharides among other things, see p. 35, however, after many trials,
and considerable use, we found that the dose of this powerful article, cantharides, was too
strong for a continued use; and in a supplement, published some years after, we reduced the
cantharides. These powders so constituted, were rapturously extolled by my Nephew Charles
Clark, and his associate Isaac Brightwin, of Moorfields, who used them extensively, with
Horses under their care.

Succeeding to the above prescription in the same Pharmacopoiea, at p. 35, is a presrip-
tion of Tonic Powders with sulphat of zinc, without the cantharides, and with bitters and
spices, which we found very useful, and on the same page, below the above, is a formula still
more simple, and which we designated the Pulvis Utilis, consisting principally of inert, or
merely frumentous articles or of meal, with a small dash of bitters, which formula was intended
for use where rest and remission from labour and patience was more required than medicine, and
this mixture has a considerable resemblance to the said secret powders, above alluded
to.

The chief objection we have to any secret administration of this kind, is, the door it opens
for the introduction of unknown drugs, and perhaps filthy powders obtained cheaply from the
druggists, and dosing the poor Horses with them, so very easily will the use be abused in the
hands of boys and ignorant stablemen, and the druggist taking advantage of the said secret, will
not be long in supplying them with a cheap article, against which they will have no resource, perhaps
the refuse of their warehouses and shops, till these hard working inoffensive animals, would
refuse their food so adulterated, with disgust, thus disabling them from performing their often hard
tasks. Immoderate use of these animals also, sooner or later, brings on decrepitude or downright
disease and inability, and thus a kind providence has made it also to be the most profitable an in-
dulgent or reasonable employ. Men however, buy up these debilitated and worn out subjects, and by
flogging and ill treatment, draw from them their small remains of service, and this often by the
most abominable cruelties, beating them at last on parts revolting and indecent, as on the head

and eyes, and on the very tender thin skin inside the thighs, or on their sheath, which, as the
animals, when well, are ever ready and willing to work and do their best, ought not to be per-
mitted, and often are these things carried on in the dark, in order to avoid notice and remark
from the public, in the open day.

We may also remark that by the noble invention of Railways, and gliding or rolling on
the impenetrable surface of iron bars, urged by steam pressure, four-fifths of all these cruelties
are removed, and an incalculable amount of suffering is done away. But if we mean to remove
from these meritorious inoffensive animals the remaining fifth, it appears to us to be neccessary
that a fund should be raised, perhaps out of the millions raised by government, or by the rich cor-
porate bodies of large towns, or by a benevolent association of humane individuals, to buy up at
the cheapest possible rate, debilitated, weak, infirm, and lame subjects, and have them mercifully
slaughtered. It would be at once objected, the cost of doing this, but we believe such would
not be so very heavily felt. For many horses exposed in the market, of this description, canbe had
for two pounds, and the carcase as food for dogs, at two-pence the pound, the present price,
the skin for boots and shoes, the bones for the Chemists, the Jioofs for the workers in steel, the
intestines for parchment, the liver as food for dogs, the lights as food for cats, the ligaments can
be sold to the glue makers, and the long elastic hair of the mane and tail, to the Upholsterers,
for stuffing cushions; the short hair of the slcin to the Bricklayers, for lime and hair, or pargettin
as they call it, for lining chimneys, would altogether pretty well realize and bring back the sum
afforded.

Much commendation is due to the Royal Society for repressing cruelty to animals, but the
carrying before a magistrate once a fortnight or three weeks, a hardened sinner of this sort,
will not do much in removing such a vast amount of dreadful suffering as we daily have to
witness.

And though much is said about the cruelty of flogging horses, and it is truly revolting to
see an animal exerting his utmost, flogged because he cannot do more, yet but little is said about
another grievance of not less amount, if not greater, and that is overloading them. The
quantum of work that a horse of given size should fairly afford, has never been laid down, or any
rouo-h approximation towards it, and left in this incertitude, avaricious, unfeeling men, often treat
them most unmercifnlly, it is not at all impossible, however, that such a table of weightsof horses and
their loads and work, should not be found, and some sort of compliance insisted on, but we see daily
and hourly loads of most preposterous bulk and weight imposed upon these poor inoffensive creatures,
perhaps already injured and disabled by previous ill usage, nor can we conceive anything more abom-
inable and painful than to move with a weight, we have not the power properly to wield. Something
therefore, in this respect ought to be done for them, where at present there is nothing. All we
wish in writing this is to call up some sort of attention to the misery and ills of these most worthy
suffering creatures.

Finally, we again revert to the powders, in expressing our belief that kept a secret they
will not long benefit these worthy obedient slaves, who well deserve for their inestimable aid,
clean unsophisticated relishing food.