IN a letter to the Editor of The Times, headed “Dosage of Animals,” Dr. G.D. Lander wrote:
“During long experience I have become aware of numerous cases of grave damage, or even of death, resulting from the inexpert and indiscriminate dosing of animals, particularly horses. Passing in review the examples of some thirty years and bearing in mind that it is only more serious cases which would come under my notice, I am painfully impressed by the wide prevalence of this practice, often dangerous, occasionally no doubt beneficial, but in the main, futile and expensive.
“As most human beings are fond of doing themselves or their dependents, very often as a matter of routine, I am not too hopeful that any counsel of mine will relieve the horse. I am prepared to allow full credit to the psychological value of a dose to oneself, but I suggest that it is a mistake to allow such credit to an animal. A horse is not a consenting party. It seems terrible that a creature should willy nilly be liable to have poured into him some more or less mysterious and more or less useless remedy, ranging from table salt to a potent alkaloid.
“The object of medicine is restoration to the normal. Prolonged empirical dosing involves continuous and cumulative disturbance of the normal physiological balance. It means derangement and impairment of the bodily function. In few words, specific disorders apart, the best physic is food, comfort and nursing.”.
We entirely agree with Dr. Lander. Unfortunately the over dosing to which he rightly objects is inflicted not only on our animals by vets., but upon ourselves by qualified doctors. Homoeopaths often find it more difficult to deal with the drug diseases inflicted upon their patients by allopaths than with the original disease for which they sought treatment in the first instance.