640 VETERINARY MATERIA MEDICA. 



be made up with soap ; nor should any astringent vege- 

 table enter the composition with them. 



Jalap, though so strong a human purgative, is totally 

 inactive in the horse. 



Japan Earth. — See Catechu. 



Juniper. — The essential oil is used as a warm stomachic 

 and slight diuretic ; it also can with advantage enter 

 into mange ointments. 



Kali. — See Potash. 



Lard. — Many practitioners are at a loss for a substitute 

 for lard, which forms the basis of most of their unctuous 

 matters. When, however, lard cannot be procured, or 

 is extravagantly dear, the fatty matter, called i)alm oil, 

 may be always obtained : as a medium for balls, it may, 

 as a vegetable oil, be supposed much less disgusting to 

 the stomach of the horse than an animal oil, as lard. 



Laudanum. — A liquid preparation or tincture of opium. 

 — See Opium. 



Laxatives may be denominated milder purgatives, and, as 

 acting with less irritation, are much to be preferred to 

 purgatives in inflammatory affections. In some chronic 

 cases, also, they are eligible, because they can be more 

 frequently repeated. Of this latter kind are calomel with 

 small doses of aloes. The laxatives proper in febrile 

 cases are Epsom, Glauber's, or, in default of these, 

 common salts, eight to twelve ounces, dissolved in thin 

 gruel, and repeated every six to ten hours till effect is 

 produced. In some cases, as bowel affections, from six 

 to eight or ten ounces of castor or linseed oil, w^ith a few 

 ounces of watery tincture of aloes, form the best laxative, 

 especially when guarded with half a drachm of chloro- 

 form. It must, however, be allowed, that most of these 

 articles are uncertain in their action ; hw^ their uncer- 

 tainty is by no means equal to that which it is the fashion 

 to represent. The action of laxatives is much assisted 

 by diluting drinks, bran mashes, raking, and clysters : 

 indeed, both bran mashes and clysters are of themselves 



, in many cases sufficiently laxative. Grass, particularly 

 that of the salt marshes, forms an excellent laxative out 

 of the stable ; so does soiling in it. 



