SEDATIVES. Ill 



medicine beginning to operate ; in addition to which, when 

 sickness is approaching, the animal will become dull, hang 

 its head, and slaver more or less at the mouth. In some 

 instances this slavering is accompanied by a grinding motion 

 of the jaws; protrusion of the muzzle; eversion of the 

 upper lip ; by gulpings of the throat, and fulness about the 

 neck, as though something from the stomach became 

 ejected into the oesophagus. I have seen these effects pro- 

 duced so soon as an hour and a half after a horse has taken 

 half a drachm in a ball ; other cases require a longer time 

 or several balls to produce this effect; in others, again, no 

 such result exhibits itself. All this might seem to condemn 

 the use of hellebore : it certainly shows the imperative neces- 

 sity there is to watch its operation ; and then, though we 

 may fail in doing any demonstrative good, yet we may 

 abstain from doing harm. 



A SYMPTOM ojb^ Nausea in the horse is the curling and 

 eversion of the upper lip. It is not unfrequently seen in 

 horses under pjiysic. This is the signal for discontinuing 

 the hellebore. Should it be persisted in, it will produce 

 efforts to vomit, convulsive curving of the neck, with violent 

 straining or retching, and yet throwing nothing up but 

 mouthfuls of saliva; and, probably, will occasion irritation 

 of the bowels, now and then diarrhoea, as well as colicky 

 symptoms. This action may alarm, though we need appre- 

 hend no dangerous consequences unless the medicine has 

 been exhibited in doses far too potent. The time for its 

 administration is after impression on the system has been 

 made by the fleam. 



Sedative Medicines. — Although nauseants have the 

 action of sedatives, that effect is but a secondary one : let us 

 now inquire if we possess any medicine of a direct nature 

 — any one that acts exclusively on the nervous system — 

 that soothes irritability, without also having a weakening 

 tendency. We believe the vascular action to be much 

 under the nervous influence : consequently, if we can allay 

 or anywise diminish this influence, we shall lower the vascu- 

 lar action. 



