PECULIAK TO HOUSES. 91 



and gingei*. The author has used the following preparation with 

 considerable success: 



Iodine (reduced to powder) 4 scruples. 



Proof Spirit 4 ounces. 



Tincture of Capsicum, or Ginger 6 " 



Dose, one ounce, twice a day, in thin gruel. 

 Another : 



Hydriodate of Potass 20 grains. 



Dissolve iu a pint of water ; then add one ounce of tincture of 

 ginger. To be repeated daily. 



Such are the remedies on which our hopes of cure are to be 

 founded. They are not to be given conjointly, but separately, as the 

 various stages of the disease indicate. 



Should the horse's hind limbs be enormously swollen, so that he 

 cannot move about without inconvenience and pain, then the follow- 

 ing drench must be administered : 



Powdered Socotrine Aloes 4 drachms. 



Tincture of Gentian 4 " 



Sweet Spirits of Nitre 3 " 



Syrup of Garlic 1 ounce. 



Flour Gruel 1 pint. 



Mix. 



It will probably not be necessary to repeat this dose. In fact, we* 

 should not recommend the aloes, were it not that the horse is now 

 unable to seek an equivalent in the pasture, and the grave nature of 

 the case calls for some agent capable of producing a change in the 

 system, diverting the fluid (which is now accumulating in the cellu- 

 lar tissues of the limbs) from the parts to the central membranes. 

 Lest we may not be understood by the reader (non-professional), we 

 remark, that aloes act as a mechanical irritant on the alimentary sur- 

 faces, and a copious secretion of fluid from those surfaces always fol- 

 lows the exhibition of drastic medicine. 



The swollen, hot, and tense state of the limb calls for some local 

 application. We therefore first wash the parts with a weak ley of 

 saleratus, and afterwards apply astringents, composed of a strong 

 infusion of one of the following articles: Bayberry, white oak, nut- 

 galls, gum catechu. Bandages moistened with equal parts of vine- 

 gar and Avater, form a good evaporating, cooling lotion, when pain 

 and inflammation are evident. Yet, after all, voluntary exercise, 

 such as the animal will take while procuring food in the pasture, 

 will generally have a better effect on a tumefied limb than all the 

 local applications we can make. 



The local treatment of farcy buds is a matter of importance; for 

 the discharge from them is sometimes so corrosive, irritating, that it 

 destroys the surrounding skin and sub-cellular parts. White, .and 

 some other writers, recommend the most destructive poisons as topi- 

 cal applications, such as corrosive sublimate, muriatic acid, lunar 

 caustic, red precipitate — in efi'ect, no doubt, setting up a worse dis- 

 ease than the one already present. In such articles we have no 

 faith. On the contrary, we consider them first-rate poisons, capable 

 of altering, and, in a great majority of cases, destroying one or 



