The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

ONION

—is an article which would not have found its way here, but in consequence of its great utility upon a certain emergency, which entitles its property to be more universally known. No trifling occurrence can possibly occasion more temporary mortification to a SPORTSMAN, than to see his horse labouring under the STRANGURY (or suppression of urine) after the long stage of a journey, or the severity of a chase. In such cases, the first FARRIER is generally called in, who proceeding upon the "KILL or CURE" system of former times, prepares a potion of the most powerful urinary stimulants, plentifully besprinkled with SPIRITS of TURPENTINE, oil of juniper, and other equally mild and efficacious ingredients, frequently laying the foundation of inflammation; when an onion being peeled, and a small clove or two of the inside properly insinuated within the SHEATH, may nineteen times out of twenty be expected to produce the desired effect, without the interposition of any medicine whatever.