VETERINARY MATERIA MEDICA. 631 



uniformly occasion determination to the skin. The prin- 

 cipal diaphoretic action is, however, gained from nau- 

 seants, as aloes, white hellebore, &c. 



Digestives are stimulant applications that produce or in- 

 crease the tendency to suppuration : they are mostly of 

 the warm terebinthinated kind, or the gum resins. Of 

 the former, are turpentine, resin, pitch, and tar : of the 

 latter, are myrrh, aloes, balsams, &c. 



Digitalis. — Foxglove, or, as the Germans have it, Jinger- 

 hut. Mr. Morton very justly forbids its use after it is 

 a twelvemonth old; and when it is considered how 

 universally it is diffused, the use of it is unpardonable 

 when its virtue has evaporated. It has been most erro- 

 neously stated to be inert in veterinary practice, except 

 in very large doses ; and even then its salutary action 

 was denied : but this opinion is losing ground. In mode- 

 rate and repeated doses it seldom fails to lessen arterial 

 action, and excite mild diaphoresis. It is, however, 

 somewhat irregular in its action, and appears to act best 

 when the constitution is already excited. In some cases 

 it commences its operations by increasing the pulse ; but 

 it almost invariably, when sufficiently continued (in 

 drachm doses every four hours), reduces the heart's 

 action, and that in a particular manner : not altogether 

 by diminishing the number of pulsations regularly, but 

 by intermissions or lapses of pulsation between the beats. 

 Thus a momentary pause is detected, and then the 

 systole and diastole follow each other in uniform tenses 

 until a new interruption. The tyro is apt to be alarmed 

 at this ; but it is the effect the established practitioner 

 expects and even wishes to produce : he has arrested the 

 impetuosity of the circulation, and in general cases has 

 cut short the disease. In all great visceral inflammations 

 this happens with the use of digitalis ; but it is in pneu- 

 monia more distinctly visible : it is, therefore, a most 

 valuable agent, but, like all active agents, requires 

 much watching : without care it may be pushed too far, 

 if, after the alteration of pulse just described, it is con- 

 tinued to be given in equal doses. To prevent this, it 

 should be diminished in strength and frequency ; in- 

 stead of emetic tartar and nitre as accompaniments, it 



