MEDICINES. 391 



close black bottle, form one of the most valuable medicines in veterinary 

 practice. It is a direct and powerful sedative, diminishing the frequency 

 of the pulse, and the general irritability of the system, and acting also as 

 a mild diuretic ; it is therefore useful in every inflammatory and febrile 

 complaint, and particularly in inflammation of the chest. It is usually 

 given in combination with emetic tartar and nitre. The average dose 

 would be one drachm of digitalis, one and a half of emetic tartar, and 

 three of nitre, and repeated twice or thrice in the day. Digitalis seems to 

 have an immediate effect on the heart, lessening the number of its pulsa- 

 tions; but lessening them in a singular manner, not by causing it to beat 

 more slowly, but by producing certain intermissions or pauses in its action. 

 When these become marked; when at every sixth or seventh beat, the 

 pulsations are suspended, while two or three could be slowly counted, this 

 is precisely the eifect which is intended to be produced; and however ill 

 the horse may appear to be, or however alarming this intermittent pulse 

 may seem to the standers-by, from that moment the animal vvill begin to 

 amend. The dose must then be diminished one-half, and in a few days it 

 may be omitted altogether; but the emetic tartar and the nitre should be 

 continued, even for some days after the practitioner deems it prudent to try 

 the effect of mild vegetable tonics. There is no danger in the intermit- 

 tent pulse thus produced ; but there is much danger when the digitalis 

 fails to produce any effect on the circulation. The disease is then too 

 powerful to be arrested by medicine. Digitalis requires watching; but 

 the only consequence to be apprehended from an over-dose, is, that the 

 patient may be reduced a little too low, and his convalescence retarded 

 for a day or two. 



In the form of infusion or tincture, digitalis is very useful in inflam- 

 mation of the eyes. It is almost equal in power to opium, and it may 

 with great advantage be alternated with it, when opium begins to lose 

 its power. The infusion is made by pouring a quart of boiling water 

 on an ounce of the powder. A portion of the liquid should be introduced 

 into the eye. Of the tincture, one or two drops should be introduced. 

 To form the tincture, three ounces of the digitalis should be added to 

 a quart of spirit. 



The infusion has been serviceable in mange; but there are better 

 applications. 



Diuretics constitute a useful, but much abused class of medicines. 

 They stimulate the kidneys to secrete more than the usual quantity of urine, 

 or to separate a greater than ordinary proportion of the watery parts of the 

 blood ; but the deficiency of water in the blood thus occasioned must be 

 speedily supplied, or the healthy circulation could not be carried on, and it is 

 generally supplied by the absorbents taking up the watery fluid in some 

 part of the frame, and carrying it into circulation. Hence the evident 

 use of diuretics in every dropsical affection, in swelled legs, and also in 

 inflammation and fever, by lessening the quantity of the circulating fluid, 

 and therefore the quantity which is sent to inflamed parts. 



All this, however, is produced by the kidneys being stimulated to 

 increased action, and if this stimulus is too often or too violently applied, 

 the energy of the kidney may be impaired, or inflammation may be pro- 

 duced. That inflammation may be of an acute character, and destroy the 

 patient ; or, although not intense in its nature, it may by frequent repeti- 

 tion assume a chronic character, and more slowly, but as surely, do irre- 

 parable mischief. Hence the necessity of attention to that portion of the 

 food which may have a diuretic power. Mowburnt hay and foxy oats 

 are the unsuspected causes of many a disease in the horse, at first 



