INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 11 



proper dose and kind and form of medicine administered, the 

 sought-for effect, without running the hazard of creating a 

 necessity for a second dose, considering how long each dose 

 requires to pass through the alimentary canal. Although 

 this remark applies with more force to purgatives than to 

 other medicaments, still it is one that ought not to be lost 

 sight of in the prescribing of any medicine in cases of disease 

 at all urgent. In cases of pressing necessity, there are 

 medicines, such as aether, ammonia, opium, &c., which will 

 speedily, and at once, afford relief, or do so on repetition. 

 Internal remedies are more or less aided by — 



External remedies of various denominations ; though 

 these turn out of little or no use in acute or painful maladies, 

 unless they exert greater action than, or make an impression 

 superior to, the morbid one which is going on. The inser- 

 tion of a rowel or seton, in a case where inflammation is raging 

 with a rapidity which, if not checked, in the course of a 

 few hours, must prove fatal, is as futile in practice as piercing 

 the ears of children for ophthalmia, or slitting dogs^ ears for 

 congested brain : the counter-irritant must be energetic, 

 promptly and violently operative, to insure the working of 

 any benefit in such cases. We must not forget that there 

 are likewise various bland and soothing means, which, in 

 certain cases and at certain times, prove of the greatest 

 service. They may, some of them, appear but trifling; never- 

 theless, they have on occasions a most salutary influence. 



Decision in practice is a faculty most desirable in any 

 medical man : to the veterinarian it is often absolutely indis- 

 pensable. A man who has a sick or lame horse desires to be 

 informed by the practitioner he employs to administer to him, 

 not only whether there be any probability of his dying, but, 

 should his recovery appear probable, in what space of time 

 the cure is likely to be effected, in order that he (the owner) 

 may make a calculation in his own mind as to what the cost 

 of keep, &c., is likely to amount during his servant's indispo- 

 sition. Nay, he is not satisfied even with this information. 

 He must know, further, if the animal be capable of being 

 restored to his pristine condition and powers ; and if not com- 



