AND PHARMACOFCEIA. 519 



beneficial, when joined with bark and ginger. Sometimes it is 

 given with emetic tartar, and some cordial composition, with 

 good effect, and in this way it proves a good diaphoretic. 



I have given opium and squill, in obstinate coughs, with suc- 

 cess ; but the effect is not permanent. 



Opium is very apt to produce costiveness in horses ; but this 

 tendency may be in a great measure counteracted by exercise ; 

 when it does take place, it may be removed by clysters, bran 

 mashes, or a laxative ball. 



The medium dose of opium is half a drachm to a drachm ; but, 

 if given in the form of clysters, which it sometimes is with the 

 best effect, two drachms will not be too much. 



The diseases of the horse, in which opium is most beneficial, 

 are locked-jaw and flatulent colic ; in the former it has been 

 given in large doses, with the best effect, generally joined with 

 camphor, and sometimes with assafcetida and other antispas- 

 modics. In flatulent colic smaller doses have been found suf- 

 ficient, which have generally been joined with sweet spirit of 

 nitre, and other carminatives. The medium dose of the tinc- 

 ture, prepared according to the London Dispensatory, is one 

 ounce, and of solid opium, purified, a drachm. Half an ounce of 

 purified opium, according to Boardman, was given to a horse at 

 one dose ; he slept through the day-time for eight or nine hours, 

 and could not be easily roused. In locked-jaw, the same author 

 prescribes three drachms of purified opium every three or four 

 hours, with camphor and salt of hartshorn, of each half an ounce. 

 But Mr. Wilkinson, who has succeeded in twenty-four cases of 

 locked-jaw, gave only one drachm of common opium, with the 

 same quantity of camphor and assafcetida : but he gi'adually 

 increased the dose, and went, in some cases, so far as two or 

 three drachms.* In the human body opium is sometimes em- 

 ployed externally, and is said to be almost as efficacious as when 

 taken into the stomach, producing its narcotic effects without 

 affecting the head, or causing nausea ; but in the horse it is not 

 likely to be useful in this way. Of late years I have generally 

 used opium in the form of a spirituous tincture, as kept in the 

 shops, in preference to the watery solution or mixture f ; there 



* In inflammation of the bowels opium has been employed with great ad- 

 vantage in doses of one drachm. 



Combined with calomel it has been given In diseases of the liver, and in 

 this combination is useful in dysentery. — Ed. 



f The tincture of opium or laudanum may be thus prepared : — 



Solid opium 2^ ozs. 



Proof spirit 2 pints. 



Macerate 14 days, frequently shaking it, after which it may be strained or 

 not. Dose, one ounce. 



Spirits of nitrous ether may be substituted for the proof spirit, and this 

 combination Is very useful lu spasmodic or flatulent colic. — Ed. 



L L 4 



