The parfait mareschal, or Compleat farrier. Which teacheth, I. To know the shapes and goodness, as well as faults and imperfections of horses. II. The signs and causes of their diseases, the means to prevent them, their cure, and the good or bad use of purging and bleeding. III. The way to order and preserve them, when upon travel, to feed, and to dress them. IV. The art of shoeing, according to a new design of shoes, which will recover bad feet, and preserve the good. Together with a treatise, how to raise and bring up a true and beautiful race of horses: as also instructions, whereby to fit all kinds of horses with proper bits, whereof the chief draughts are represented in copper-plates. / Written originally in French by the Sieur de Solleysel Escuyer, sometime one of the overseers of the French Kings Royal Academy of Riding, near to the Hostel de Conde in Paris. And translated from the last Paris impression, by Sir William Hope of Kirkliston Kt. Lieutenat Governour of the Castle of Edinburgh. By whom is also added as a supplement to the first part, a most compendious and excellent collection of horsemanship, taken from the best and most modern writers upon that subject, such as Mr. De la Brow, Pluvinel, and the Great Duke of Newcastle. Part I.

Another.

Oil of yellow Amber is one of the most effectual Remedies to make a Horse Stale. The Dose is a Spoonful in a Pint of White-Wine, and you must walk him after it.

This Medicine is easily procur'd, since almost all Apothecaries have it, or at least ought to have it. It must be made without Addition, and not rectifi'd: Its excellent Vertues make amends for its noisome Smell. 'Tis so powerful a Diuretic, that the Steams or subtil Spirits that are evaporated from it, during its Preparation make the Artist Piss excessively.

Those who are desirous to know how 'tis made, may consult Crollius's Basilica Chy∣mica, or Hartman's Praxis Chymiatrica, Glazer's Treatise of Chymistry, and several other Authors who treat of that Art. I preferr this Remedy before all the rest I have de∣scrib'd, for it seldom or never fails.

Another easie Remedy for stoppage of Urine, is to wash the Horse's Yard with luke-warm Water, then Powder it all over with Salt, and suffer him to draw it in; if it be a Mare, put the quantity of a Walnut of Salt into her Privity.

Another good Remedy is to make him drink a Quart of Verjuice in half a Pail∣full of Water; and if he refuse to drink it, (which few Horses do) mix a Quart of Water with a like quantity of Verjuice, and pour it into his Throat with a Horn: Then walk him, and he will Stale.

If it be objected, that I ought rather to have propos'd one sure Remedy, than such a multitude of different Medicines, among which few know how to make a good choice: I shall only answer, that I have try'd 'em all, and leave the Reader to chuse such Medicines as are most proper for his Horse, and may be most conveniently pro∣cur'd.

For some of those Remedies are less Compound than others, and the Disease is more or less obstinate in several Cases: Besides, one Horse may receive no benefit by the use of a Remedy that has cur'd several others of the same Distemper, by rea∣son of the variety of Causes. Some Horses are also frequently troubl'd with this Di∣stemper, and sometimes die of it: And from all these Considerations laid together, it will appear, that I had reason to prescribe so many different Remedies. I have seen a great number of Horses lost by the Ignorance of those who undertook to Cure 'em: For those pretended Artists endeavour'd only to make 'em Stale, tho' the Disease was truly a Wind-Colic. On the other side, most Farriers and Grooms imagine, that a Horse is troubl'd with the Gripes, when his Urine is supprest, and that Mistake is so strongly rooted in 'em, that 'tis impossible to convince 'em of their Error. So that when a Horse is troubl'd with a Stoppage of Urine, and the Farriers pretend that the Distemper proceeds from the Gripes, you may certainly conclude that they are mistaken, and that the Disease is an effect of another Cause.

When the stoppage of Urine is occasion'd by a confirm'd Obstruction, or by an Inflammation of the Neck of the Bladder, you must not persist in the use of Internal Medicines to provoke Urine, which would only serve to encrease the Pain and In∣flammation, and stifle the natural Heat, by driving vast quantities of serous and flegmatic Humours into the Bladder. But instead of these, you may safely apply the external Remedies describ'd in this Chapter.

It was never observ'd hitherto, that Horses were subject to the Stone or Gravel, or that the stoppage of Urine that occasions this kind of Colic, was ever occasion'd by Sand or Gravel. Nevertheless, in the Year 1668. an old Spanish Horse died in our Academy, after a Sickness of some Hours, during which he Sweat all over the Body. To discover the Cause of so cruel a Distemper, I order'd his Body to be open'd by our Farrier, who found in his Kidneys a Stone that weigh'd four Pounds and two Ounces, brown and shining like polish'd Marble, resembling a little Dutch Cheese, and of a very regular Figure, for it was not the breadth of a Line thicker on one side than on the other. Both its Figure and Weight have remain'd entire ever since, and it has been seen by almost all the People of Paris with admiration. I presented it to my good Friend Count Bertholin, who made all those who saw it taken out of the Horse's Body, attest the truth of the matter of Fact, before a Notary. He preserves it still, and shows it to all those who desire a sight of it; nor could I forbear relating so unusual an Accident.