AND PHARMACOPCEIA. 489 



The cloves arc separated and pounded in a mortar until tliey 

 form a sort of paste, which is formed into balls with liquorice 

 powder; sometimes they ai'c boiled in milk, and given in the 

 form of a drench. Gibson speaks highly of garlic. 



GENTIAN; the Root. — Gentiana lutea. A perennial 

 plant, found in Switzerland, Austria, the Pyrenees, and North 

 America. It possesses no particular odour, and its taste is ex- 

 tremely bitter, on which'account it is very generally employed, 

 in the same manner as bark and other bitters, to give vigour to 

 the stomach and improve digestion. It generally requires to be 

 joined with stimulants ; such as ginger, cassia, myrrh, cascarilla, 

 &c. ; and when any acidity is suspected to exist in the stomach, 

 a small quantity of soda is an useful addition. Gentian is the 

 basis of that famous horse powder termed dia-pente. Gentian 

 root sometimes becomes rotten and useless : the purchaser should 

 therefore examine before he buys, and choose such parts as are 

 sound, rather tough, and extremely bitter. It is to be feared 

 that the powdered gentian of the shops is not so good as it 

 should be ; and it is to be lamented that druggists in general 

 think any tiling good enough for horses. 



The dose of pure gentian is from two to four drachms. See 

 Tonics and Stomachics. 



GEUM URBANUM ; Radix. The root of Avens. This 

 is an indigenous perennial plant, flowering from May to August. 

 Its odour is fragrant and spicy, and its taste bitterish and 

 astringent. Its properties are astringent, tonic, and anti- 

 septic, and it may be advantageously employed in those diseases 

 which depend on a relaxed state of the system, or of any par- 

 ticular part ; as in diarrhoea, red-water (where no fever exists), 

 &c. This medicine has been much more extensively used on 

 the Continent than in this country ; and I am not aware that it 

 has yet been introduced here into veterinary practice ; but it 

 certainly deserves a trial, especially as it is an indigenous plant, 

 and should therefore be sold at a low price. 



GINGER; the Root. — Zingiber officinalis. This plant is 

 originally a native of the East Indies, but is now very exten- 

 sively grown in the West Indies also. The root only is used in 

 medicine, and this is prepared in two ways, producing two sorts 

 of ginger, the white and the black. The former is generally 

 employed for culinary purposes, and the latter, being the 

 cheapest, is most frequently used as a horse medicine. 



I consider ginger as the most useful stimulant in the veteri- 

 nary materia medica; when joined with aromatics, such as allspice, 

 caraway-seed, anise-seed, cummin-seed, &c., or their essential 

 oils, it forms an efficacious cordial ; and with emetic tartar and 

 opium an excellent diaphoretic, for giving gloss to the coat, and 

 relaxing the skin. 



