ANTISEPTIC, ELIMINATIVE, AND ALTERATIVE 295 



Dogs weighing 30 Ibs. to 40 Ibs. receiving three or four 

 grains night and morning were salivated in a week, and died 

 in nine days. The most notable appearance was inflamma- 

 tion of the large intestine. Hertwig considers that dogs 

 and swine, on account of their often getting rid of the drug 

 by vomiting, are less easily affected than the other domesti- 

 cated animals, and that horses are less susceptible than 

 cattle. 



The action of calomel on the liver was investigated by a 

 Committee of the British Medical Association. They experi- 

 mented chiefly on dogs with fistulous openings into the 

 duodenum, and arrived at the conclusion that neither 

 calomel nor blue pill affects secretion of bile, unless it purges 

 or impairs health, when the quantity of bile is diminished. 

 Rohrig curarised dogs, maintained life by artificial respira- 

 tion, and placed a glass tube in the gall duct. Calomel, even 

 in twenty-grain doses, did not re-establish the secretion 

 when it had ceased, but had a marked power in increas- 

 ing and maintaining it beyond the natural time for its 

 cessation. 



W. Rutherford and Vignal, also experimenting on curar- 

 ised dogs, found that doses of ten, five, or even two grains of 

 calomel, placed in the duodenum of fasting subjects, pro- 

 duced purging ; they did not, however, increase secretion of 

 bile, but actually diminished it. These experiments justify 

 the conclusion that calomel and mercurials have no special 

 cholagogue action ; they do not stimulate secretion of bile, 

 as they notably do of saliva and pancreatic fluid. The 

 increased intestinal action sweeps out bile lodged in the 

 duodenum, as well as in the hepatic ducts, and thus prevents 

 its reabsorption, and, moreover, abates congestion of the 

 portal system. Calomel, therefore, although not increasing 

 secretion of bile, notably hastens its expulsion. 



MEDICINAL USES. Few remedies have been applied to so 

 many and diversified uses, but neither in veterinary nor in 

 human medicine is it as much used as formerly. Gastric 

 irritation, intestinal catarrh, as well as bilious diarrhoea, are 

 frequently treated with small doses, either used alone or con- 

 joined with chalk or opium. For foals and calves calomel 

 may be substituted for grey powder, when the bowels are 



