OF FARRIERY 



1GB 



taisfortime happen with any other instrument, 

 you vyfould be liable to an action at law. This 

 is referable to practitioners only. 



In continuation of our treatment for indam- 

 mation, the bowels must not be forgotten, and 

 in exhibiting medicine in cases of inflamma- 

 tion, great care is necessary. The exhibition 

 of small doses of aloes is good, or Glauber's 

 salts in the shape of draught, will be found 

 very efficacious, and is a principal means of 

 diminishing inflammation. 



Direct purging, I in no wise recommend ; 

 for, if you do, it frequently ends in superpurga- 

 tion and death. Saline medicines must lessen 

 the quantity of circulating blood, inasmuch as 

 they increase the secretion from the intestinal 

 arteries. Hence they must operate bene- 

 ficially in the cure of local inflammation, 

 much upon the same principle as bleeding 

 does. A very great authority and writer, was 

 of opinion, that purging lowers action without 

 diminishing strength ; by which we are pro- 

 bably to understand, without producing a very 

 lasting or permanent loss of strength. With 

 respect to mild laxatives in inflammation, none 

 are preferable to the above ; but of the two, I 

 prefer the saline draught, which in my opinion 

 is decidedly preferable to the aloetic. We 

 may here remark, that besides the benefit 

 which the local inflammation derives from the 

 judicious administration of purgatives, the 

 costiveness and heat which usually attend the 

 symptomatic fever, are also relieved by the 

 same means. 



Nauseating medicines, which have the 

 power of producing sickness, lessen for a time 

 the action, and even the general powers of 

 life. This is in consequence of every part of 

 t'le bodv sympathizing with the stomach, and 

 ilie effect may be very quickly excited. Sick- 



ness lowers the pulse, makes the suiall vessels 

 contract, and rather dispose the skin for per- 

 spiration. But nothing more than nausea 

 should be caused. Nauseating medicines em- 

 ployed after bleeding once or twice, are often 

 productive of considerable benefit ; but there 

 are some affections in which they cannot be 

 used, such as inflammation of the stomach and 

 intestines. In all superficial inflammations, 

 however, they may be safely and advantage- 

 ously exhibited, as well as in most inflamma- 

 tory affections internally situated, especially 

 inflammation of the lungs; indeed, in every 

 instance, in which there is an urgent reason for 

 putting as sudden a check as possible to the 

 continuance of the affection ; the employment 

 of nauseating doses of white hellebore or digi- 

 talis, to the amount of J|^ to 2 drams, three or 

 four times a day, will be found most efficacious. 



Opium has been frequently recommended 

 by many veterinary surgeons, and I have ex- 

 perienced good effects from it, especially in 

 inflammation of the bowels. During its em- 

 ployment, the bowels should be kept open by 

 glisters. Care must only be taken to give it 

 in sufficient doses, for small quantities not 

 only fail in fulfilling the object, but frequently 

 produce quite an opposite effect. It likewise 

 occasions a moisture on the surface of the 

 body, which experience shews is eminently 

 serviceable in all inflammations. Opium, 

 combined with aloes, is an excellent remedy 

 in cases of inflammation of the feet; no person 

 but those who have used this drug, would be- 

 lieve the relief given to so painful a disease. 



In all cases of inflammation, corn must be 

 prohibited, and even when the inflammation 

 is abated, great care must be had in exhibit- 

 ing any thing of a highly stimulating natitr«. 

 Watery, cooling, mucilaginous drinks, taken ia 

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