16 



HEALTH AND DISEASE 



perature and steady the heart's action in the first instance, and for this 

 purpose alternate doses of aconite and belladonna are in repute. Salines, 

 as the salicylates of soda, and glauber salts, sulphate of magnesia, nitrate of 

 potash, and acetate of ammonia, are recommended as for pneumonia and 

 other inflammatory disorders of the respiratory apparatus. To allay the 

 acute pain which marks the majority of cases at the onset, such anodynes 

 as opium and cannabis indicus may be employed. The latter is perhaps 

 the greatest of pain-killers for horses, nor does it leave the depression 



which has been noted 

 in the human subject. 

 Subcutaneous injec- 

 tions of morphia may 

 be employed for the 

 same purpose, when 

 objections exist to 

 balls or draughts. 

 The cases that most 

 often end unfavour- 

 ably are those which 

 are said to " hang 

 fire ". They make 

 very good progress 

 up to a certain point, 

 the temperature falls 

 two or three degrees 

 and then obsti- 

 nately remains, and 

 the 

 back; 



patient goes 



Fig. 208. Tapping the Chest 



it is then 



good treatment to repeat the application of mustard to the chest as recom- 

 mended at first, or a liniment of cantharides may be used, or poultices of 

 linseed -meal, in which a little mustard is mixed, may be applied for a 

 day and a night or until improvement is noted. Where the disease takes 

 the course last indicated, good nourishment with stimulants and tonics 

 will be more likely to do good than those agents recommended for such 

 as follow the more common course. 



In convalescence alcoholic stimulants, as gin or whisky, with quinine, 

 gentian, and iodide of iron may prove helpful. Notwithstanding general 

 improvement, a large amount of fluid will sometimes persistently remain in 

 the chest and refuse for a length of time to undergo absorption. Iodide of 

 iron, and those drugs commonly known as diuretics, are best calculated to 



