TKEATMENT OF DISEASES OF HORSE. 479 



effect intended to be produced. It should never be bought in powder, 

 whatever trouble there may be in levigating it, for it is often grossly 

 adulterated with lead, manganese, forge dust, and arsenic. The adultera- 

 tion may be detected by placing a little of the powder on a red-hot iron 

 plate. The pure sulphuret will evaporate -without the slightest residue — 

 so will the arsenic : but there will be an evident smell of garhc. A por- 

 tion of the lead and the manganese will be left behind. 



Antimonii Potassio Taetras, Emetic Tartar. — -The tartrate of potash 

 and antimony, or a combination of super-tartrate of potash and oxide of 

 antimony, is a very useful nauseant, and has considerable effect on the skin. 

 It is particulaily valuable in inflammation of the lungs, and in every ca- 

 tarrhal affection. It is given in doses of from one drachm to a drachm and 

 •I half, and combined with nitre and digitaHs. It has also been externally 

 appHed in chest affections, in combination with lard, and in quantities of 

 from one drachm to two drachms of the antimony to an ounce of the lard; 

 but except in extreme cases, recourse should not be had to it, on account 

 of the extensive sloughing which it sometimes produces. 



Pdlvis Antimonii Compositds, The Compound Powder of Antimony, 

 — commonly known by the name of James's Poivder. It is employed as a 

 sudorific in fever, either alone or in combination with, mercurials. The 

 dose is from one to two drachms. The late Mr. Bloxam used to trust to 

 it alone in the treatment of Epidemic Catarrh in the horse. It is, how- 

 ever, decidedly inferior to Emetic Tartar. It is often adulterated wdth 

 chalk and burnt bones, and other white powders, and that to so shameful 

 a degree, that Httle dependence can be placed on the antimonial powder 

 usually sold by druggists. The mm-iatic or sulphuric acids will detect 

 most of these adulterations. 



Anti-spasmodics. — Of these our list is scanty, for the horse is subject 

 only to a few spasmodic diseases, and there are fewer medicines which 

 have an anti- spasmodic effect. Opium stands first for its general power. 

 Oil of turpentine and spirit of nitric ether are also valuable anti-spas- 

 modics. Camphor, assafoetida, and various other medicines, used on the 

 human subject, have a very doubtful effect on the horse, or may be con- 

 sidered as almost inert. 



Argentum, Silver. — One combination only of this metal is used, and 

 that as a manageable and excellent caustic, viz. the nitrate of silver, or 

 Lunar Caustic. It is far preferable to the hot iron, or to any acid, for the 

 destniction of the part if a horse should have been bitten by a rabid 

 dog ; and it stands next to the mineral acids for the removal of fungus 

 generally. It has not yet been administered internally to the horse. 



Balls. — The usual and the most convenient mode of administering 

 veterinary medicines is in the form of balls, compounded with glycerine, 

 syrup, or treacle, the former being the best on account of their longer 

 keeping soft and more easily dissolving in the stomach. Balls should 

 never weigh more than an ounce and a half, otherwise they will be so large 

 as not to pass vd.thout difficulty down the gullet. They should not be 

 more than an inch in diameter and thi'ee inches in length. The mode of 

 delivering balls is not difficult to acquire ; but the balling-iron, while it 

 often wounds and permanently injures the bars, occasions the horse to 

 struggle more than he otherwise would against the administration of the 

 medicine. The horse should be backed in the stall ; — the tongue should 

 be dra^vn gently out with the left hand on the offside of the luouth, and 

 there fixed, not by continuing to pull at it, but by pressing the fingers 

 against the side of the lower jaw. The ball, being now taken between the 

 tips of the fingers of the right hand, is passed rapidly up the mouth, as 

 near to the palate as possible, until it reaches the root of the tongue. It 



