INTESTINAL ASTRINGENTS 115 



occurs after eating, drinking, or the excitement of quick 

 work, as in some nervous horses and dogs, liquor arsenicalis 

 is useful, or strychnine may be prescribed. Undue relaxa- 

 tion of the bowels, occurring in irritable horses during active 

 work, is mitigated by careful attention to diet, by using the 

 best food in digestible form, allowing water in small quantity 

 at a time but frequently, and withholding water for several 

 hours previous to putting the animal to quick work. 



Intestinal antiseptics or disinfectants are sometimes pre- 

 scribed in the treatment of disorders of the bowels, and of 

 diseases which are believed to depend on the presence of 

 pathogenic bacteria or their toxins in the intestine. Naph- 

 thol, salol, iodol, dermatol, lysol, creolin, creosote, carbolic 

 acid, salicylates, iodine, iodides, tannoform, thymol, tannal- 

 bin, tannic acid, and terebene are the disinfectants generally 

 employed. Experiments show that repeated small doses of 

 beta-naphthol, salol, or creolin, rapidly diminish the number 

 of micro-organisms expelled with the faeces ; and the ad- 

 ministration of these or other intestinal antiseptics in 

 hsemoglobinuria, diarrhoea, dysentery, and ulcerative enter- 

 itis, some cases of tetanus, and in distemper and other 

 infectious diseases, deserves further trial. To ensure full 

 effects within the bowel, the agent selected should be given 

 encased in keratin, which is unaffected by the gastric secre- 

 tion. 



ACTION OP MEDICINES ON THE LIVER 

 CHOLAGOGUES 



The liver is the largest gland in the body. It not only 

 secretes and excretes bile, but part of the bile, mingled with 

 the food materials, is again taken up from the intestine and 

 again excreted. The liver, moreover, forms glycogen, and is 

 concerned with the general metabolism of the body, the 

 breaking up of the red corpuscles, and the formation of urea. 

 Medicines taken up by the vessels of the small intestine 

 enter the liver, where they may be retained, destroyed, or 

 neutralised. Some are excreted in the bile. Arsenic, 

 copper, and mercury are retained, and morphine, atropine, 



