DRUGS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 193 



study under more favorable conditions has brought human 

 medicine. 



As the treatment of the dog falls not to the prac- 

 titioner of human medicine, but to the veterinarian or prac- 

 titioner of comparative medicine, it is all the more neces- 

 sary that a special study should be made of the dog, tak- 

 ing human rather than equine medicine as the standard of 

 comparison. 



More and more must canine medicine become a spe- 

 cialty ; and in time it will no doubt develop its own pecul- 

 iar doctrines, treatment, etc. In the mean time, the closer 

 human practice is imitated the better will it be for the 

 dog, always observing those exceptions that experience 

 shows must be made. Hence in treating the dog we have 

 to use similar food stuffs for the sick, similar medicines in 

 like doses, and the same external and internal treatment 

 generally as with man. 



DRUGS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATION. 



A very few drugs are known to he required in larger 

 doses for the dog than for man — e. g., aloes ; but this 

 medicine alone is not a good remedy for either dogs or 

 human beings. Dogs are peculiarly liable to be salivated, 

 or even fatally poisoned, by a comparatively small dose of 

 calomel, or mercury m other form, so that great care must 

 be taken to see that it is administered in very small doses 

 (one fourth of a grain to three grains), and speedily removed 

 from the system by a saline or other aperient ; nor is it 

 safe to use, in most cases, mercurial ointments. Turpentine 

 has been instanced as another drug dangerous for the dog ; 

 but the same applies to man, except it be used in very 



