MEDICINES. 449 



it constitutes the farriers' Egyptiacum, certainly of benefit in 

 cankered or ulcerated mouth, and no bad application for thrushes ; 

 but yielding, as it regards both, to better remedies, that ar*? 

 mentioned under the proper heads. Some practitioners use 

 alum and oil of vitriol in making their Egyptiacum, forgetting 

 the strange decomposition which is produced. 



Blue Vitriol or Sulpliate of Cojiper is the union of sulphuric 

 acid and copper. It is a favorite tonic with many practitioners, 

 and has been vaunted as a specific for glanders ; while others, 

 and we think properly, have no very good opinion of it in either 

 respect. As a cure for glanders, its reputation has nearly passed 

 away. As a tonic, when the horse is slowly recovering from se- 

 vere illness, it is dangerous, and its internal use should be con- 

 fined to cases of long-continued discharge from the nostril, when 

 catarrh or fever has ceased. It may then be given with benefit 

 in doses of from one to two drachms twice in the day, and always 

 combined with gentian and ginger. It is principally valuable 

 as an external application, dissolved in water in the proportion 

 of two drachms to a pint, and acting as a gentle stimulant. If 

 an ounce is dissolved in the same quantity of water, it becomes a 

 mild caustic. In the former proportion, it rouses old ulcers to a 

 healthy action, and disposes even recent wounds to heal more 

 quickly than they otherwise would do ; and in the latter it re- 

 moves fungous granulations or proud flesh. The blue vitriol is 

 sometimes reduced to powder and sprinkled upon the wound for 

 this purpose : it is also a good application for canker in the foot. 



Copperas, — See under Ferrum. 



Cordials, — are useful or injurious according to the judgment 

 with which they are given. When a horse comes home 

 thoroughly exhausted, and refuses his food, a cordial may be bene- 

 ficial. It may rouse the stomach and the system generally, and 

 may prevent cold and fever ; but it is poison to the animal when 

 administered after the cold is actually caught and fever begins to 

 appear. More to be reprobated is the practice of gWm^ frequent 

 cordials, that by their stimulus on the stomach, (the skin sympa- 

 thising so much with that viscus,) a fine coat may be produced. 

 The artificial excitement of the cordial soon becomes as necessary 

 to enable the horse to do even common work, as is the excite- 

 ment of the dram to sustain the animal spirits of the drunkard. 



In order to recall the appetite of the horse slowly recovering 



from illness, a cordial may sometimes be allowed ; or to old horses 



that have been worked hard and used to these excitements when 



young ; or to draught horses, that have exhibited slight symptoms 



of sta| gers when their labor has been unusually protracted and 



their stomachs left too long empty ; or mixed with diuretic med 



icine, to fine the lejjs of the over- worked and debilitated animal , 

 ^ 29 



