90 GENERAL THERAPEUTICS FOR VETERINARIANS 



drugs, it is true, is in most instances only indirect and symp- 

 tomatic, and is either sedative or stimulant. If, for example, the 

 psychic excitement in the course of inflanmiation of the brain is 

 relieved by morphine, the disease process itself, i.e., the inflam- 

 mation of the cerebral membranes, remains unaffected. There 

 are, however, also cases in which there is a direct influence exerted 

 by the drug upon diseases of the nervous system (morphine in 

 eclampsia, potassium bromide in epilepsy, strychnine in amaurosis, 

 physiological antidotes). 



2. The derivative method is also partly medical. It consists 

 in the employment of the cathartics, sialagogues and diaphoretics, 

 blisters and phlebotomy (indicated in cerebral congestion). 



3. Electrotherapy is also of value in veterinary medicine, espe- 

 cially in canine practice, for the treatment of peripheral and spinal 

 paralyses. The faradic current stimulates the spinal cord reflexly 

 in the same manner as cutaneous irritation; the constant current 

 acts directly, like the drugs acting upon the central nervous 

 system. 



4. Massage is an important mechanical method, especially for 

 peripheral paralyses (tapotement). 



5. Hydrotherapy is practicable only to a limited extent in 

 veterinary medicine (cold douche, ice poultice, Priessnitz dressing). 



6. Operative treatment is undertaken in sturdy or gid and 

 fractures of the skull (trepanation) ; also in the form of neurotomy. 



Finally, there is the rest treatment (protection from external 

 stimuli, quiet and dark stall), and the dietetic (green food in cere- 

 bral inflammation in the horse), the expective (cerebral hemor- 

 rhage) and the prophylactic methods. The hypnotic and sug- 

 gestive treatment, very important in human medicine, cannot be 

 used on the domestic animals. 



Drugs Acting on the Nerves. Neurotics. Nervines 



Classification. — The drugs used in the treatment of diseases 



of the nervous system may be classified according to the part upon 



which they act as well as according to the character of the action. 



Grouped according to the part acted upon, there are drugs acting 



