508 MATERIA MEDICA 



water should be below the boiling point ; otherwise, the malt will 

 clot and be spoiled. These are given for the purpose of recruit- 

 ing strength, when a horse is debilitated from fever, or any other 

 catase. (§ee Malt and Restoratives.) When a horse has been 

 fed hio-h for some time with oats and beans, a change to a diet 

 of bran mashes for two or three days will often do a great deal 

 of good. The bran should be fresh, and perfectly free from any 

 unpleasant or musty smell. There is a finer kind of bran, named 

 gurglings or pollard, which, though much more nutritious, is not 

 so fit for medicinal purposes. 



MEADOW '^AFYRO^.— Cokhicum Aiitumnale. This is 

 an indigenous perennial plant, generally found growing in rich 

 meadows, and flowering in September. The root is a powerful 

 diuretic in the human system, but its effect on the horse is 

 not known. An account was published in the New Monthly 

 Magazine, some time since, of seven yearling cattle having been 

 poisoned by eating meadow saffron.* 



MERCURIALS. Preparations of quicksilver or mercury. 



Mercurial Oixtment. — Unguentum Hydrargyri. This is 

 made by rubbing together, in a mortar, quicksilver and hog's 

 lard, in various proportions, according to the strength required, 

 until the former disappear, and the mixture assume a dark blue 

 or lead colour. 



In the strongest mercurial ointment of the shops, there are 

 equ cd parts of quicksilver and lard : these are the best propor- 

 tions in which it can be made, as it is easily rendered weaker 

 afterwards, by the addition of lard. In medical practice, this 

 ointment is employed chiefly for the purpose of introducing the 

 quicksilver into the system, which is done by rubbing it for 

 some time on the skin ; but in the horse considerable difficulty 

 and inconvenience attend this operation, though it may be 

 made to affect the system. Thus, if we wish to introduce mer- 

 cury into the circulation, it is better to give some preparation 

 internally. 



Mercui'ial ointment, however, is often employed in veterinary 

 jjractice, as an application to callous swellings or enlarged joints; 

 it is often mixed Avith camphor in those cases, and is certainly 

 much more efficacious when converted into a blister by the ad- 

 dition of cantharides or Spanish flies, or euphorbium. In this 



* Ml-. Morton, in the last edition of his PharniacopcEla, observes that 

 Dr. Lemann has directed attention to this agent as a remedy for consti- 

 tutional opthalmia, and relates a case in which he gave the pulverized corin, 

 in doses of two drachms at first, morning and evening, combining it with the 

 nitrate of potassa. After lour doses had been given, the bowels became 

 much relaxed, but a decided improvement in the eye was perceived, and the 

 colchicum was then exhibited in drachm doses for several days ; after wliicli 

 all unfavourable symptoms disappeared : other cases were equally successful. 

 it has also been administered for rheumatism. — Ed. 



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