MEDICINES.] 



PIGS, AND THEIE VAUIOUS BEEEDS. 



[medicines. 



j;-j.pRE. In febrile cases this is used as a cooling 



medicine. The dose is from one to two drachms, 

 dissolved in the water the animal drinks. 



Palm Oil. — This is esteemed the most valuable 

 emollient for forming the basis of all ointments 

 for cutaneous eruptions. Under the name of 

 Palmce, Linnaeus arranged several genera, which 

 he placed apart in an appendix to his work. The 

 same plants constitute one of the seven families 

 or tribes into which all vegetables are distri- 

 buted by Liniiffius, in his Philosophia Botaimica. 

 They are defined to be plants with simple stems, 

 which, at their summit, bear leaves resembling 

 those of the ferns, being a composition of a leaf 

 and a branch ; and whose flowers and fruit are 

 produced on that particular receptacle, or seat, 

 called a spadix, protruded from a common calyx, 

 in form of a sheath or scabbard, termed by 

 Linnaeus "spalha." 



Salt. — Valuable for purifying the blood. A little 

 of it should regularly be mixed with the food of 

 the animal. 



Sulphur. — An excellent cooling medicine, and one 

 of the best, if not the best, gentle aperient for 



common use. In mange-ointment it forms the 

 principal ingredient. 



Tartar Emktic. — Used as an emetic. 



Tobacco. — A decoction of this plant, when mingled 

 with equal parts of digitalis, is efficacious in 

 cases of mange and other cutaneous diseases. 



Turpentine. — Useful in cases of worms, which it 

 destroys. There is no danger in administering 

 it to swine. 



Vinegar. — Used in cooling fomentations. Its spe- 

 cific gravity varies from 1-0135 to 1-0251; and 

 it differs also in its other properties, according to 

 the liquid form in whicb it has been procured. 

 It is very subject to decomposition ; but Scheele 

 discovered, that if it is made to boil for a few mo- 

 ments, it may be kept afterwards for a long time 

 without alteration. Besides acetic acid and water-, 

 vinegar contains several other ingredients, such 

 as mucilage, tartar, a colouring matter, and often, 

 also, two or more vegetable acids. When dis- 

 tilled at a temperature not exceeding that of 

 boiling water, till about two-thirds of it have 

 passed over, all these impurities are left behind, 

 and the product is pure acid diluted with water. 



