200 SODIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTION 



Dissolved in ten to twenty parts of water, it proves a 

 serviceable antiseptic and stimulant gargle in relaxed and 

 ulcerated sore- throat of horses and other patients. Salt- 

 water baths exert curative effects on animals as well as on 

 man. For stuping or cleansing wounds, a one per cent, 

 warm watery solution, in virtue of its stimulant and anti- 

 septic properties, is preferable to plain water, and less apt to 

 sodden the parts or weaken their vitality. Salt solutions are 

 applied cold as stimulants and refrigerants for strains and 

 chronic inflammation of the joints and feet, particularly 

 amongst cattle and sheep. For a cooling mixture, one part 

 each of salt, nitre, and sal ammoniac is dissolved in thirty 

 to forty parts of water ; or one part of salt is mixed with two 

 of pounded ice. Such freezing mixtures require, however, 

 to be used warily, for their prolonged application dangerously 

 lowers vitality. 



For preventing and arresting putrefaction, salt is cheap 

 and effectual. For antiseptic purposes it is advantageously 

 conjoined with carbolic acid. To disinfect skins, a pound of 

 salt and two ounces of carbolic acid are used, dissolved in a 

 gallon of water. Waste chlorides are used to preserve for 

 manure the meat seized at markets as unfit for human food. 

 Salt alone or mixed with soot, or gaslime, and loam forms an 

 excellent top dressing for pastures infested with parasites. 



DOSES, etc. As a purgative the ox or cow takes Ib. f to 

 Ib. j. ; sheep, j. to iij. A prompt and effectual purgative 

 consists of half doses of common and Epsom salts, dissolved 

 in about two quarts of warm water, with two ounces of 

 powdered ginger, anise, or other aromatic, and a pound of 

 treacle. Some cattle readily drink the mixture thus 

 sweetened, and the trouble of drenching may be saved. To 

 hasten and increase the effects of salines other purgatives 

 are sometimes added. Along with half a pound each of 

 common and Epsom salts, dissolved in water with aromatics 

 and treacle, may be given ten or twenty croton beans in 

 powder ; or gamboge, ss. to i. Where such a dose fails 

 to act in twenty or twenty-four hours, it may be repeated, or 

 a pint or two of linseed oil may be substituted for the salts. 

 But large doses of drastic physic are, however, to be avoided, 

 for they induce nausea and depression, which prevent purga- 



