MEDICINES. 391 



close black bottle, form one of the most valuable medicines in veterinary 

 practice. It is a direct and powerful sedative, diminishing the frequency 

 of the pulse, and the general irritability of the system, and acting also as 

 a mild diuretic ; it is therefore useful in every inflammatory and febrile 

 complaint, and particularly in inflammation of the chest. It is usually 

 given in combination with emetic tartar and nitre. The average dose 

 would be one drachm of digitalis, one and a half of emetic tartar, and 

 three of nitre, and repeated twice or thrice in the day. Digitalis seems to 

 have an immediate effect on the heart, lessening the number of its pulsa- 

 tions ; but lessening them in a singular manner, not by causing it to beat 

 more slowly, but by producing certain intermissions or pauses in its 

 action. When these become marked ; when at every sixth or seventh beat, 

 the pulsations are suspended, while two or three could be slowly counted, 

 this is precisely the effect which is intended to be produced ; and however 

 ill the horse may appear to be, or however alarming this intermittent pulse 

 may seem to the staiiders-by, from that moment the animal will begin to 

 amend. The dose must then be diminished one-half, and in a few days it 

 may be omitted altogether; but the emetic tartar and the nitre should be 

 continued, even for some days after the practitioner deems it prudent to try 

 the effect of mild vegetable tonics. There is no danger in the intermit- 

 tent pulse thus produced ; but there is much danger when the digitalis 

 fails to produce any effect on the circulation. The disease is then too 

 powerful to be arrested by medicine. Digitalis requires watching; but 

 the only consequence to be apprehended from an over-dose, is, that the 

 patient may be reduced a little too low, and his convalescence retarded for 

 a day or two. 



In the form of infusion or tincture, digitalis is very useful in inflamma- 

 tion of the eyes. It is almost equal in power to opium, and it may with 

 great advantage be alternated with it, when opium begins to lose its 

 power. Tlie infusion is made by pouring a quart of boiling water on an 

 ounce of the powder. A portion of the liquid should be introduced into 

 the eye. Of the tincture one or two drops should be introduced. To 

 form the tincture, three ounces of the digitalis should be added to a quart 

 of spirit. 



The infusion has been serviceable in mange ; but there are better 

 applications. 



Diuretics constitute a useful, but much abused class of medicines. 

 They stimulate the kidneys to secrete more than the usual quantity of 

 urine, or to separate a greater than ordinary proportion of the watery parts 

 of the blood; but the deficiency of water in the blood thus occasioned 

 must be speedily supplied, or the healthy circulation could not be carried 

 on, and it is generally supplied by the absorbents taking up the watery 

 fluid in some part of the frame, and carrying it into circulation. Hence 

 the evident use of diuretics in every dropsical affection, in swelled legs, 

 and also in inflammation and fever, by lessening the quantity of the cir- 

 culating fluid, and therefore the quantity which is sent to inflamed parts. 



All this, however, is produced by the kidneys being stimulated to in- 

 creased action, and if this stimulus is too often or too violently applied, 

 the energy of the kidney may be impaired, or inflammation may be pro- 

 duced. That inflammation may be of an acute character, and destroy the 

 patient ; or, although not intense in its nature, it may by frequent repeti- 

 tion assume a chronic character, and more slowly, but as surely, do irrepa- 

 rable mischief. Hence the necessity of attention to that portion of the 

 food which may have a diuretic power. Mow-burnt hay and foxy oats 

 are the unsuspected causes of many a disease in the horse, at first 



