APPENDIX B. 



Medicines : Their Terms, Actions, Formulas 

 AND Doses. 



ggS. On account of the large number of diseases that are now found to arise from 

 the presence of pathogenic, cr disease producing germs in the fluids and tissues 

 of the body, the administration of medical agents has during the last twenty years 

 undergone a great change. Medical agents act both locally and generally, and are 

 much influenced in their action by climate, temperature, habit, surroundings, 

 susceptibility of the patient, and the nature of the disease. Some medicines 

 again have special actions on certain structures and organs of the body, but 

 their influence varies considerably in different classes of animals. To meet 

 these conditions, medicines are, therefore, compounded and used in a variety of 

 forms. 



ggg. The Allopathic form is the oldest and most general in use, and in it drugs are 

 employed in certain definite proportions in accordance with their action, and 

 they are given by the mouth. The Hcmaopath ic form, or Homcropatliy — '• like cures 

 like," — is seldom used in veterinary practice; drugs, however, under this system 

 are administered in the form of globules and in infinitesimal doses. 



looo. Medical preparations are, as a rule, given by the mouth in the form of Balls, 

 Boluses. Pills, and Draughts, or they are injected into the bowels by an enema. 

 Hypodermic Injections, that is, injections of certain medicines under the skin, are 

 now extensively practised with good results ; medical and various other 

 preparations are also frequently directly injected into the blood, and into the 

 windpipe. 



looi. The peculiar actions of some of the drugs on the living body are known under 

 special terms, such as Alteratives, Anesthetics, Anodynes, Antiseptics, Aperients, &c. 



I002. Altek.^tives have an extensi\'e range, and include the various preparations of 

 the bromides, chlorides, iodides, sulphides, and the alkaline carbonates, and also 

 the mercurial, arsenical, and vegetable extracts. It is not exactly known in what 

 manner a number of them establish their action on the tissues of the body, but it 

 is thought that thev displace and remove effete debris from the system, and at the 



