horses

If the patient is not alarmed

I just rediscovered this book, which I’ve owned for years but had forgotten about. It’s a marketing publication produced by Elliman and Sons, who manufactured the hugely popular Elliman’s Embrocation (for people) and Royal Embrocation (for animals) at Slough from 1847 onwards. The book, which has the cover title Horses, Dogs, Birds, Cattle. Accidents and […]

Centaur Liniment

As we have seen before, nostrum-vendors’ talents were more suited to salesmanship than to poetry. This ad gets off to a tolerable start, but come verse 3 it goes downhill fast, and by the bit about the sheep it’s apparent that the copy-writer just wanted to get the wretched thing out the door and go […]

Gibson's Cordial Balls

The Gentlemen, Farmers, Jockies, Stage-Coachmen and Carriers Universal Medicine in the true Cordial Horse Balls and Preparation of Antimony, adapted for the Use and Benefit of all, as well the Race as Cart Horse, THE CORDIAL BALLS at 4s. per Pound, which in above 40 Years private Experience and 12 Years Publication, are approved of and recommended by several Noblemen, Gentlemen and […]

Wainwright's Staffordshire Cordial

Image: Kavalkade vor Schloss Heiligenberg by Allbrecht Adam, 1831 . WAINWRIGHT’s STAFFORDSHIRE CORDIAL, AND ROYAL ENGLISH MEDICINE FOR HORSES, WHICH has been given with unprecedented success in the most dangerous stages of the Sleeping or Raging Staggers, Gripes, Colds, Coughs, Fevers, and all disorders originating in colds, or from grazing […]

Stevens's Ointment for Horses

Henry Rowe Stevens was a respected veterinary surgeon and farrier who spent the first 20 years of his career at Newmarket before moving to London in the 1850s. His adverts suggest that he had a humane and progressive outlook, as he condemned the traditional practice of firing (i.e. placing a red-hot iron against the leg in […]

Cupiss's Constitution Horse Balls

As a horse owner, I can make an educated guess that this medicine was no worse than a lot of the crappy potions and supplements available at extortionate prices in modern feed stores. CUPISS’s CONSTITUTION HORSE-BALLS. To Sportsmen, Agriculturalists, Postmasters, and all Pro- prietors of Horses, these Balls are particularly recommended in all […]