I & J.
Jardon
—is a term but little used in the present improved state of FARRIERY, and but little known, except to the few remaining practitioners of the old school, who are gradually becoming almost as obsolete as the word itself. A jardon was the name given to any callous enlargement on the outside of either hock, proceeding from blows, or by kicks from other horses; although they more frequently arise from sudden turns or twists in too short a compass, or being too violently thrown upon their haunches in the manege, or elsewhere. In slight affections, they are not always productive of pain or lameness; and if properly attended to upon their first appearance, are sometimes reduced and obliterated without any future ill effect. Powerful repellents, and strengthening embrocations, are the most efficacious applications. Blistering first, and FIRING afterwards, have been the usual practice. It is, however, certain they are, in general, too hastily adopted. Daily fomentations of hot vinegar, followed by a strong embrocation of extract of Saturn, and camphorated spirits, might probably prevent the necessity for either.
JAUNDICE
.—The jaundice is a disorder to which quadrupeds are subject as well as the human species; and notwithstanding the difference in the formation of each, it originates in a similar cause with one as with the other. When HORSES are attacked with it, they are said to have the YELLOWS; which name it also goes by with farmers and country practitioners, when it is observed to make its appearance among what they term "the cow cattle." It proceeds from a partial and imperfect secretion, or temporary obstruction of the gall through the biliary duct, which being compulsively regurgitated, diffuses a tinge of its property through every part of the system, constituting the distinguishing appearance from which the disorder derives its name. When proceeding from this cause, and a proper mode of treatment is adopted in the earliest instance, but little trouble is known to follow, and a certain cure is soon obtained; but should tubercles in, or a schirrosity of, the liver, or an induration of its collateral glandular parts, have proved the cause, more patience, time, and medical perseverance, will be required, before a perfect cure can be expected or obtained.
The leading symptoms of this disorder in a HORSE are, a dulness of the head and debility of the body, heaviness about the eyes, head hanging drowsily in the manger, loss of appetite, pulse both languid and low, a laborious respiration, and daily reduction of flesh. Soon after these symptoms successively come on, they are followed by a yellowness of the inside of the eye-lids, the lips, the tongue, and the bars of the mouth; even the urine is of a saffron colour. In this state, from an evident deficiency in the corresponding secretions, and a proportional inaction of the dependent emunctories, nature becomes universally overcharged, and labours under the sluggish debility already described. Bracken, who understood this disorder perfectly, and described it most accurately, plainly perceived, the certainty of cure depended entirely upon removing such obstructions as soon as possible after their first appearance, before the disorder had made any progress towards inveteracy or long standing: to effect which, he judiciously recommends purgatives, with a large proportion of English saffron and Turkey rhubarb. 'Tis true, the great efficacy of the different preparations of MERCURY, as DEOBSTRUENTS, was not so well known in his time, as at the present moment, or the MERCURIUS DULCIS would have been introduced as a powerful assistant upon the occasion. Proceeding in a scientific disquisition of the disorder, he recommends hepatic deobstruents, with soap, salt of tartar, turmeric, soap of tartar, and filings of iron, fully convinced, as he says, of their efficacy, after the most satisfactory and repeated trials.
Upon the subject he observes, "The soap of tartar, &c. operates powerfully upon the obstructions in the liver, which are the cause of the jaundice, and help to carry off the offending matter by urine. And as the term DIURETIC is oftener used than understood, I shall give the reader a short account of the operation of diuretics. Under the term diuretic may be comprehended all those medicines whose most remarkable properties appear in their increasing the discharge by urine, or which are supposed to have any power in removing obstructions of the urinary glands, or passages, from what cause soever, whether humours, gravel, or other offending matter. And in this view, diuretics come under these following kinds; to wit, they are either such as soften and lubricate the fibres composing the urinary glands and canals, by which they yield and relax into their due dimensions and capacities, of which kinds are all emollients already explained; or they are such as, by their attenuating and detersive properties, rarify and thin viscous or slimy humours, and adhere or carry them along the passages: or, again, they must be such as have a power of so altering the crafts or mixture of the humours, as to fit those to pass which could not get through before; and of this kind is the soap of tartar, as well as all the tribe of lixivials and fixed salts."
Gentle DEOBSTRUENTS, which additionally excite the secretion, and promote the discharge of urine, are known to act upon the motion as well as the property of the BLOOD, by stimulating the solids, and quickening their vibrations, thereby increasing the blood's velocity, and promoting its attenuation. Hence it is, those diuretics recommended by Bracken are peculiarly adapted to this, and such other disorders as originate in sluggish viscid habits, where the blood becomes too adhesive for regular circulation. He is of opinion, "That the JAUNDICE in HORSES mostly proceeds from a diminution or decay of the animal salts contained in the blood, and therefore the addition of such kind of salts must restore the creature to soundness of body." He also says, "he is fully persuaded that Castile soap, dissolved in white wine, or even in beer, will cure the disorder in its earliest stage; and that those who may be inclined to try it upon a HORSE in the yellows, may mix an ounce in two quarts of beer, and give it at four times, a pint a day, either warm or cold, letting the horse have exercise; for the jaundice occasions a sluggish laziness in either man or beast, therefore exercise is proper to hinder the fluids from forming preternatural cohesions, which lay the foundation of the distemper."
However right he may have been in his opinion and practice, in the less enlightened time in which he wrote, (two thirds of a century since,) it may be reasonably presumed, that the many great and astonishing improvements in chemistry, and discoveries in medicine, have thrown some new lights upon the cure of this, as well as of many other disorders, the causes of which are not obscured by the least mist of ambiguity. It is not only clearly ascertained, but generally known, that the jaundice in horses (if attended to upon the first appearance of bilious regurgitation, before the obstructions are become rigidly permanent, constituting an induration of the liver or glands) submits to a course of mild mercurial purging balls properly administered; followed by a few alteratives, composed of ÆTHIOPS MINERAL, incorporated with the PECTORAL CORDIAL BALL. See List of Medicines at the End of the Work.