270 EFFECTS DIFFER IN DIFFERENT ANIMALS 



injection of five to six grains produces, however, lassitude, 

 small, frequent pulse, difficult breathing, and purgation 

 (Fuohner). 



No very satisfactory explanation has been given of this 

 insusceptibility of horses, ruminants, and also of rabbits. 

 It is evidently due in part to imperfect development of 

 the vomiting centre ; but the gastric functions have also, 

 doubtless, some connection with it, and also difficulty of 

 absorption, as is shown by the drug being about ten times 

 more active when administered intravenously than when 

 given by the mouth. 



Antidotal treatment consists hi the removal of any un- 

 absorbed poison by promoting vomiting or using the 

 stomach pump, and subsequently giving large quantities of 

 tannic acid, or of tannin-containing solutions, which form an 

 insoluble compound, and thus delay absorption. Demulcents 

 abate gastric irritation, which, with irritation of the vomit- 

 ing centre, may also be relieved by morphine and chloral, 

 while tendency to collapse is treated by stimulants. 



MEDICINAL USES. As tartar emetic in safe doses produces 

 no very marked physiological actions in horses and cattle, it 

 can scarcely exert any marked curative effects on these 

 animals. The febrifuge and sedative virtues formerly 

 ascribed to it were doubtless the result of other medicinal 

 or hygienic remedies with which it was used. As a vermi- 

 fuge it is still occasionally given with aloes to horses, and 

 with Epsom salt to cattle ; but although increasing the 

 activity of purgatives, it has no special anthelmintic action. 



When the stomach of the dog, cat, or pig is to be emptied 

 of undigested food, irritants, or poisons, ipecacuanha, mus- 

 tard, or zinc sulphate, being more prompt and less nauseating, 

 is preferred. But tartarised antimony is occasionally used 

 as a nauseating emetic for robust subjects at the outset of 

 febrile and inflammatory complaints. It promotes bron- 

 chial and gastric secretion, and relieves engorgement of the 

 stomach, liver, throat, and chest. It hence mitigates the 

 early acute catarrhal symptoms of distemper, and relieves 

 bilious attacks in pampered, overfed dogs. 



As a counter-irritant, unless employed with much caution, 

 it is apt to induce painful, deep-seated inflammation, slough- 



