648 VETERINARY MATERIA MEDICA. 



Palm Oil.- — See Oils. 



Peppers. — The various kinds of peppers are sometimes 

 used, particularly in colic. Mr. B. Clark has written a 

 treatise expressly on the virtue of the pimento berry. 

 As a domestic remedy, any of them may be very 

 properly given in doses of three drachms to six ; except 

 the Cayenne, which, as being very strong, admits of only 

 a drachm as a dose : the peppers are sometimes used as 

 stomachics, or to w-arm other more permanent tonics, 

 like steel, bitters, &c. 



Physic. — See Cathartics, 



Pitch is used to give a consistence and adhesiveness to 

 plaisters and ointments, and is also the basis of charges. 

 It has a strong medicinal quality as its relationship 

 with terebinthinated substances convinces. 



Potash {Potassa) has been commonly called the vegetable 

 alkali, to distinguish it from soda, or the mineral alkali. 

 Potash in its pure state is a potent caustic, and enters as 

 a base into the composition of salts. The nitrate and the 

 supertartrate have potash as their foundation : the former 

 has been noticed as nitre ; the other is popularly called, 

 cream of tartar. 



Supertartrate of Potash (Potassse supertartras, cream 

 of tartar). — This is not a very active medicament in horse 

 practice, but is however slightly febrifuge, and mildly 

 diuretic : it has some alterative powers, and unites with 

 those medicines wdiich are generally employed when 

 horses are labouring under cutaneous affections. 



Poultices. — In veterinary practice, bread would be too ex- 

 pensive an article to make poultices of in common cases. 

 Bran, therefore, is very commonly used ; and, to give it 

 a proper consistence, some linseed meal, if thought ne- 

 cessary, may be mixed with it ; or, in default of this, a 

 little of any other meal. A poultice should be made of 

 a sufficient consistence, that it may not run through the 

 cloth it is put in ; and yet it should not be so thick as to 

 dry too quickly, for a poultice acts principally by its 

 moisture ; therefore it should be frequently wetted through 

 the cloth. In applying poultices to the legs, care should 

 be taken not to tie them too tight, as is frequently done, 

 and thereby the mischief is aggravated instead of reHeved : 

 a piece of broad list is, for this reason, very proper to 



