PHYSIC. 37 



situated on the internal coat of the intestines, and thus, by producing 

 watery stools, lessen the quiintity of fluid circulating through the 

 system They divert the increased flow of the blood from the atfected 

 organ, and determine it to the bowels, which is well elucidated in 

 red water; and they have a peculiar influence on the nervous system, 

 augmenting the energy of the nerves distributed to the intestines, but 

 diiiiinishing it in otlier parts of the system. 



The chief purgatives in use for neat cattle are Glauber's salts, 

 Epsom salts, Barbadoes aloes. Linseed oil, and Sulphur. In obsti- 

 nate constipation of the bowels, ten or fifteen grains of the farina of 

 the Croton nut, freshly prepared, may be added with good eflect. 

 One pound of Glauber's, or Epsom salts, will purge a full-sized 

 beast. Aloes are very properly getting into disuse : they are uncertain 

 in their eflfect, they require very considerable doses of them to be given 

 in order to act alone, and if they should be received into the rumen 

 they are apt to disgust and nauseate the animal. Half an ounce, or 

 six drachms of them, however, may be added to the salts in particular 

 diseases. Where there is considerable fever, or the attack of fever is 

 apprehended, there is no purgative so beneficial as the Epsom salts. 

 In bad cases, twenty -four ounces may be given at a dose, and eight 

 ounces of sulphur every six hours afterwards, until the full purgative 

 effect is produced. Linseed oil is rapidly superseding; the more ex- 

 pensive and the more uncertain castor oil : the dose is from a pint 

 to a pint and a half. As a mild aperient, and in cases where there 

 is no great degree of fever, and a violent purse is not required, 

 there are few better things than Sulphur. Where nothing else is 

 at hand, and the case is urgent, Common Salt is no contemptible 

 medicine : a round of it dissolved in water will produce a very fair 

 purgative effect, but it should not be given if the animal labours 

 under fever. The following are the cases in which purgative me- 

 dicines are found useful : — 



1. I have known some graziers who, when feeding old cows (dur- 

 ing summer), have given them a purging drink about every siy 

 weeks, by way of keeping off the downfall, which in general has had 

 the desired effect, and has even caused them to fatten more rapidly. 



2. A purging drink is very properly given to cows soon after 

 •ralvinn-, in order to prevent the milk fever. 



3. Neat cattle are naturally of a greedy and ravenous disposition, 

 and their appetite is hardly ever satisfied. Milch cows in particular, 

 if feeding on herbage, or other food agreeable to their palate, will 

 often continue to graze until they are in danger of suffocation. Thus 

 the powers of digestion become over-burdened, and the animal appears 

 dull and heavy, and feverish symptoms are induced. Purgatives will 

 give the most effectual relief in these cases, and if the appetite does 

 not return soon after the physic, a cordial ball will be useful in re- 

 storing it. 



4. Cows that are turned into fresh pastures sometimes become 

 oound in their bodv, in which case a purging drink must be imme- 



4 



