Giving Iledicines by the Mouth, 41 



Vapors, Sprays, and Fumes are forms of medicines drawn 

 in with the breath. They are easy of administration, and of 

 much wider use than most veterinarians take advantage of. 

 Among them, the ancesthetics, chloroform and ether, take the 

 first rank. A sponge in a loose net may be fastened over the 

 head of the animal, the mouth having previously been muz- 

 zled, and the anaesthetic poured on the spoLge ; or it may be 

 simply held to the nose. 



In many diseases of the throat and windpipe, as catarrh, 

 sore throat and strangles, steam, either pure, or from water 

 containing vinegar, laudanum, belladonna, sulphurous acid, 

 and the like, will give great and prompt relief. The steam 

 is readily evolved from a well made hot bran mash placed in 

 a roomy nose bag ; or the head of the animal may be held 

 over a bucket of hot water, plain or medicated, from which 

 the steam is driven off by plunging a hot iron into it at short 

 intervals. 



Vapors can readily be produced in any liquid substance by 

 pLcing it in what is called an atomizer. The most conven- 

 ient of these is the form worked by the hand called the 

 " hand ball atomizer.^' For diseases of the nostrils, mouth 

 and throat this is a valuable instrument. 



For disinfecting purposes and for treating the lining 

 membrane of the breathing organs, inhalations of smokes 

 and gases are of service. J^lowers of sulphur on hot coals 

 will soon fill a closed stable with sulphurous acid, a medical 

 and disinfecting agent of great power ; burning tar is asserted 

 by many to give off fumes very beneficial in chronic cough ; 

 chloride of lime evolves an odorous gas of value in contagious 

 diseases, and which keeps away flies and mosquitoes. 



Snuffs are used to bring on violent expulsion of the secre- 

 tions of the nostrils, thus clearing the air passages, or as a 

 local application to diseases of the inner surface of the nose. 

 There is a small apparatus used to throw them up, consisting 



