392 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



a liberal supply of common salt.* A quantity should be placed 

 in a situation were the animal can help himself; in addition to 

 which the food should be salted. 



Medicines. — '■ These must possess the following properties : — 



1. Antiseptic. — To preserve the system from putrescence. 

 The principal one is pyroligneous acid ; dose, one ounce, twice a 

 day, in a pint of sage tea. 



2. Alterative. — To change morbid action, the following is an 



example : — 



Phosphate of lime, 1 ounce, 



Powdered sarsaparilla, } - M . «. . „„ M 



« sassafras, \ of each " ' ° ounccs ' 



" assafcotida, 1 ounce. 



* Saline matters are essential constituents of the blood, of the organized 

 tissues, and of the secretions. They are, therefore, necessary components of 

 our food ; for without them health and vitality cannot be maintained. 



The alimentary salts, which, on account of their occurring more frequently and 

 largely in the system, may be regarded as of the most importance in a dietetical 

 point of view, are common salt and the earthy phosphates. Ferruginous 

 compounds (salts ?) and probably salts of potash, are also indispensable ingre- 

 dients of our food. 



1. Common Salt, (Chloride of Sodium.) — Though salt is a constituent of 

 most of our foods and drinks, we do not, in this way, obtain a sufficient supply 

 of it to satisfy the wants of the system ; and nature has accordingly furnished 

 us with an appetite for it. The salt, therefore, which we consume at our table 

 as a condiment, in reality serves other and far more important purposes in the 

 animal economy than that of merely gratifying the palate. It is a necessary 

 article of food, being essential for the preservation of health and the mainte- 

 nance of life. 



It forms an essential constituent of blood, which fluid doubtless owes many 

 of its important qualities to it. Thus it probably contributes to keep the blood 

 corpuscles unchanged ; for when these are put into water, a powerful and rapid 

 endosmose takes place, in consequence of which they swell up and assume a 

 globular form ; whereas in a weak solution of salt they remain unchanged. In 

 malignant cholera, and some other diseases in which there is a deficiency of 

 the saline ingredients of the blood, this fluid has a very dark, or even black 

 appearance ; whence it has been assumed by some writers that the red color of 

 the blood is dependent on the presence of its saline ingredients. From the salt 

 of the blood, aided by water, the gastric juice derives its hydrochloric acid, and 

 the blood and the bile their soda. The soda which exists in the blood, in com- 

 bination with albumen, passes out of the system in union with organic matter, 

 (C 70 H G6 N 2 O 22 ) represented by choleic acid : in other words, bile contains the 

 elements of choleate of soda, thoxigh not necessarily arranged as such. Last- 

 ly, " the soda, which has been used in the vital processes, and any excess of 

 soda, must be expelled in the form of salt, after being separated from the blood 

 by the kidney." — Liebig. 



