632 VETERINARY MATERIA MEDICA. 



should now be given with some tonic ; when, in turn, it 

 may give place to laudanum and sether. In this way 

 digitalis will bear an equal palm with the white hellebore, 

 and leave a horse convalescent sooner : they are, how- 

 ever, both valuable medicines in judicious hands ; but 

 we think the foxglove the safest. The infusion is made 

 by pouring a quart of boiling water on an ounce of the 

 powder. The tincture, by digesting three ounces of it 

 in a quart of spirit. Foxglove should be gathered about 

 its flowering time, and dried in the dark, which greatly 

 increases its strength. A French apothecary is said to 

 have been able to condense the active principle of digi- 

 talis, which he names digitaline. For cattle and sheep 

 also, Mr. Morton tells us, digitalis appears an excellent 

 febrifuge in combination with nitrate of potash, and the 

 potassio-tartrate of antimony. 



DiscuTiENTs are remedies which dissolve impacted matter, 

 as old enlargements formed by vascular deposits or ex- 

 travasations. 



Disinfectants have until lately been little more than a 

 name ; or the process of the decomposition of effluvium 

 has been expensive, troublesome, and offensive in the 

 extreme ; out we have now a means, not only of com- 

 pletely disinfecting our houses and stables, but of instan- 

 taneously removing the foetor of the most putrid 

 substances. The chloride of lime does this by the use of 

 a concentrated powder ; this is cheap, and when it is 

 mixed with ten times its quantity of water, and sprinkled 

 around objects known to carry about them, or to 

 throw off, unwholesome odours, as in malignant epi- 

 demics, glanders, &c., completely removes all the offence 

 to smell. By washing the walls, standings, racks, man- 

 gers, head-stalls, brushes, curry-combs, &c., with this 

 liquor, all risk is avoided, even where the most tainted 

 horse has been placed. The chloride of zinc, however, 

 accomplishes all this much more rapidly and more effec- 

 tively. When an unpleasant smell exists, hang cloths 

 saturated with the solution about the room. An ounce 

 of chloride of zinc is sufficient to medicate two gallons 

 of water. 



Diuretics are such articles as stimulate the kidneys to a 



