408 MEDICINE. 



its pulsations; but effecting this in a singular manner — not by causing the heart to 

 beat more slowly, but producing certain intermissions or pauses in its action. When 

 these become marked — when at every sixth or seventh beat, the pulsations are sus- 

 pended while two or three can be slowly counted, this is precisely the effect tliat is 

 intended to be produced, and, however ill the horse may appear to be, or however 

 alarming this intermittent pulse may seem to the standers-by, from that moment the 

 animal will frequently begin to amend. The dose must then be diminished one-half, 

 and, in a few days, it may be omitted altogether: but the emetic tartar and the nitre 

 should be continued during some days after the practitioner has deemed it prudent to 

 try the effect of mild vegetable tonics. 



There is no danger in the intermittent pulse thus produced ; but there is much when 

 the digitalis fails to produce any effect on the circulation. The disease is then too 

 powerful to be arrested by medicine. Digitalis requires watching; but the only con- 

 sequence to be apprehended from an over-dose is, that the patient may be reduced a 

 little too low, and his convalescence retarded for a day or two. 



In the form of infusion or tincture, digitalis is very useful in inflammation of the 

 eyes. It is almost equal in its sedative influence to opium, and it may with great 

 advantage be alternated with it, when opium begins to lose its power. The infusion 

 is made by pouring a quart of boiling water on an ounce of the powder. When it is 

 become cold, a portion of the liquid may be introduced into the eye. One or two 

 drops of the tincture may be introduced with good effect. This may be obtained by 

 macerating three ounces of the digitalis in a quart of spirit. 



The infusion has been serviceable in mange ; but there are better applications. 



Diuretics constitute a useful but much abused class of medicines. They stimu- 

 late the kidneys to secrete more than the usual quantity of urine, or to separate a 

 greater than ordinary proportion of the watery parts of the blood. The deficiency of 

 water in the blood, thus occasioned, must be speedily supplied or the healthy circula- 

 tion cannot be carried on, and it is generally supplied by the absorbents taking up the 

 watery fluid in some part of the frame, and carrying it into the circulation. Hence 

 the evident use of diuretics in dropsical affections, in swelled legs, and also in inflam- 

 mation and fever, by lessening the quantity of the circulating fluid, and, consequently, 

 that which is sent to the inflamed parts. 



All this is effected by the kidneys being stimulated to increased action; but if this 

 stimulus is too often or too violently applied, the energy of the kidney may be im- 

 paired, or inflammation may be produced. That inflammation may be of an aciite 

 character, and destroy the patient; or, although not intense in its nature, it may by 

 frequent repetition assume a chronic form, and more slowly, but as surely, do irre- 

 parable mischief. Hence the necessity of attention to that portion of the food which 

 may have a diuretic power. Mow-burnt hay and foxy oats are the unsuspected causes 

 of many a disease in the horse, at first obscure, but ultimately referable to injury or 

 inflammation of the urinary organs. Hence, too, the impropriety of suffering medi- 

 cines of a diuretic nature to be at the command of the ignorant carter or groom. In 

 swelled legs, cracks, grease, or accumulation of fluid in any part, and in those super- 

 ficial eruptions and inflammations which are said to be produced by humours floating 

 in the blood, diuretics are evidently beneficial ; but they should be as mild as possible, 

 and not oftener given or continued longer than the case requires. For some cautions 

 as to the administration of diuretics, and a list of the safest and best, the reader is 

 referred to page 245. The expensive Castile soap, and camphor, so often resorted to, 

 are not needed, for the common liquid turpentine is quite suflicient in all ordinary 

 cases, and nitre and digitalis may be added if fever is suspected. 



Drinks. — Many practitioners and horse-proprietors have a great objection to the 

 administration of medicines in the form of drinks. A drink is not so portable as a 

 ball, it is more troublesome to give, and a portion of it is usually wasted. If the 

 drink contains any acid substance, it is apt to excoriate the mouth, or to irritate the 

 throat already sore from disease, or the unpleasant taste of the drug may unnecessa- 

 rily nauseate the horse. There are some medicines, however, which must be given 

 in the form of drink, as in colic; and the time, perhaps, is not distant when purga- 

 tives will be thus administered, as more speedy, and safer in their operation. In 

 cases of much debility and entire loss of appetite, all medicine should be given in 

 solution, for the stomach may not have sufficient power to dissolve the paper in which 

 the hall is wrapped, or the substance of the ball. 



