476 MATERIA 3IEDICA 



Embrocations are often improperly employed, as in recent 

 strains, or inflamed tmnours, and other cases where emollient or 

 cooling applications are required. Both strains and bruises are 

 at first attended with a degree of inflammation proportionate to 

 the violence of the injury, and the susceptibility of the injured 

 part ; therefore they require, at first, such treatment as is cal- 

 culated to sulidue inflammation, that is, bleeding and purging, 

 Avith a suitable diet, and, in strains, rest. The local or to])Ical 

 remedies in the inflammatory stage are poultices ; but in these 

 cases bleeding and purging, immediately after their occurrence, 

 are an essential part of the treatment. 



EMETICS. JNIedlcInes that excite vomiting. It is very 

 generally believed that horses are incapable of vomiting : I have 

 met with one instance, however, where it occurred spontane- 

 ously, and was soon after succeeded by purging. 



Medicines that are considered as the most violent emetics in 

 the human system are generally inert in the horse. A remark- 

 able example of this may be noticed in white vitriol (^sulphate of 

 zinc), of which a horse has taken twelve ounces, at a dose, with- 

 out much effect being apparently produced. This experiment 

 has not, I believe, been repeated, and it Is desirable that It never 

 should be ; nor should any experiments of a similar kind be made, 

 as no advantage can possibly result from them, while much pain 

 may be endured by the unfortunate animal who is subjected to 

 them, unpercelved by the practitioner or his assistants. It was 

 asserted at one time, that vomiting may be produced by inserting 

 hellebore under the skin. This experiment was said to have 

 been made at the Veterinary College of Copenhagen, but it does 

 not aj>pear to have succeeded with other practitioners. See 

 Hellebore. 



In a work on hydrophobia, by Dr. R. Pearson, of Coldfield, 

 near Birmingham, in which he suggests the proi)rIety of inject- 

 ing medicinal substances into a vein, when exhibition by the 

 mouth or fundament is impracticable, it Is asserted that " this 

 is frequently practised upon diseased horses at the Veterinary 

 College of Copeifliagen." This, pei'haps, is the new method of 

 treating locked-jaw, hinted at by Mx'. Sewell, and is worth a 

 trial, when medicine cannot be given by the mouth, and opiate 

 clystei's have proved ineffectual ; and if, as they state, hellebore, 

 when applied under the skin, is absorbed, and causes sickness, 

 Avhy may not a solution of opium be also absorbed when applied 

 in a similar manner ? It is surely worth a trial In locked-jaw. 

 It must be remembered that, when a solution of any medicine, 

 or any liquid whatever (except when blood is transfused from 

 the veins of one animal into those of another), is thrown Into tlie 

 veins, it Is first necessary to take away a quantity of blood equal 

 to the medicine to be injected, otherwise too great a pressure of 



