CHAPTEE XL 

 SIMPLE FARM MEDICINES. 



The up-to-date stockman will have his chest of medi- 

 cines for his stock, not with the idea of treating anything 

 or everything, but for the purpose of meeting unexpected 

 conditions and for the treatment of simple diseases. 

 Before any person can use or prescribe medicines intelli- 

 gently it is essential that they understand the actions 

 and doses of those medicines; not only is it essential that 

 the stockman know something about medicines, and that 

 something well, he must also know the best methods of 

 giving such medicines. The kernel of the matter is that 

 the stockman must be an animal nurse to render efficient 

 service when his stock are sick. Medicines are often 

 classified according to their actions, each class being 

 given a distinctive name. The utility of such a classifi- 

 cation is at once seen, e. g., an animal is sick, the owner 

 instead of being told to use a specific drug such as iron, 

 is advised to use a tonic. Eunning over the list of drugs 

 in his farm medicine chest he remembers that he has a 

 drug there with a tonic action, and uses it, whereas had 

 he not understood the term tonic the animal would 

 have had to go untreated. 



Seven classes of drugs will be considered and examples 

 of each given, the first five are generally given internally, 

 the last two being intended for external use only. 



