TREATMENT OF DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 495 



viously existed in aneigliboaringbut deeper- seated part, they are decidedly 

 inferior to blisters, for they do not act so quickly or so extensively ; tlieru- 

 fore they should not be used in acute inflammation of the lungs or bowels, 

 or any vital part. When the inflammation, however, although not intense, 

 has long continued, rowels will be serviceable by producing an irritation 

 and discharge that can be better kept up than by a bhster. As promoting 

 a permanent, although not very considerable discharge, and some inflamma- 

 tion, rowels in the thighs are useful in swelled legs and obstinate grease. 

 If fluid is thrown out under the skin in any other part, the rowel acts as a 

 permanent drain. When sprain of the joint or the muscles of the shoulders 

 is suspected, a rowel in the chest will be serviceable. The wound caused 

 by a rowel will readily heal, and with little blemish, unless the useless 

 leather of the farrier has been inserted. 



Secale corndtum, the Ergot of Bye. — This is well known to be an 

 excitant in assisting parturition in cattle, sheep, and dogs. It has been 

 used with success in the mare by Mr. Richardson, of Lincoln. It should 

 only be applied in difiicult cases, and the dose should be two drachms, 

 combined with some carminative, and given every hour. 



Sedatives are medicines that subdue irritation, repress spasmodic 

 action, or deaden pain. We will not enquire whether they act first as 

 stimiilants : if they do, their effect is exceedingly transient, and is quickly 

 followed by depression and diminished action. DigitaHs, aconite, hellebore, 

 opium, hydrocyanic acid, are medicines of this kind. They constitute a 

 class of remedies that should be used with great caution and unremitting 

 watchfulness. Digitahs, and more especially hellebore, often produce 

 efiects extremely prejudicial to the operations of nature, and too often 

 produce unfavourable results in the cases in which they have been em- 

 ployed. Their effect in different diseases or stages of disease, and the 

 cii'cumstances which indicate the use of any one of them in preference to 

 the rest, are considered under their respective titles. The most important 

 sedative which has ever been introduced into the veterinary pharmacopoeia 

 is chloroform, important, not as a medicinal agent in the cure of disease, 

 but from its power of rendering the horse partially or totally insensible to 

 the infliction of pain, A piece of sponge, saturated with one or two 

 ounces of chlorofoi*m, two-thirds enveloped in a piece of bladder or gutta- 

 percha, held near one nostril, while the other is partially closed by the 

 hand, will, as it becomes inhaled, render the animal quickly and effectually 

 insensible, — held near the nostril, be it remembered, not close to it, as the 

 fumes of the chloroform require dilutation, from mixing with a proportion 

 of atmospheric air, or its inhalation woiald be fatal. It was at first hoped 

 that this important discovery would supersede the necessity of casting or 

 throwing the horse ; experience, however, has shown that this is not the 

 case, for so great is his repugnance to inhale it, and so violent are his 

 struggles while its effect is being produced, added to which the uncertainty 

 of the direction and spot in which he might fall, that it is now only had 

 recourse to after the animal has been secured by the hobbles ; then, indeed, 

 its effects are most extraordinary ; the severest operations, the greatest 

 pain and the most acute suffering, are endured with a passive unconscious- 

 ness, equally desirable for the operator and the patient. Its effect may 

 be continued or renewed as long and often as the occasion may require, 

 and no perceptible ill eflfects folloAV the application. 



Soda. — The Carhonate of Soda is a useful antacid, but it is not much 

 used in veterinary practice. The Chloride of Soda is not so efficacioiis 

 for the removal of unpleasant smells and all infection as the chloride of 

 lime ; but it is exceedingly useful in changing malignant and coi'roding and 

 destructive sores into the state of simple ulcers, and in ulcers that are not 



