94 THE DISEASES OP HORSES. 



telligent horse owners, who on other points are not only sane but shrewd 

 enough. Most of the nostrums referred to are designated by the colour as 

 black oils, white oils, green oils, red oils, &c. 



Oil of Amber is an empyreumatic oil, which often enters into the 

 compounds referred to. 



Oil of Bay was another favourite with old practitioners, and, indeed, it 

 once held a place in the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia under the came of 

 oleum fixum lami nobilis. It is obtained from the berries of the Lamus 

 nobilis, by first saturating them with steam to soften them, and afterwards 

 subjecting them to pressure, when an oil is obtained of about the consis- 

 tence of melted butter, green in colour, and strongly aromatic both in taste 

 and smell ; it is a stimulant, although a mild one, and as such useful, in 

 combination with more active agents, for sprains and bruises. 



Oil of Bricks was the name given to oil that had been first used to 

 saturate a porous brick, and afterwards got from it by subjecting the brick 

 to heat ; of course it was not improved by the process. 



Oil of Elder is simply rape or oliro oil coloured by boiling or macer- 

 ating elder leaves in it — or, what is often the case, with cabbage leaves. 

 It is only kept by chemists, on account of its colour, to meet the prejudices 

 of the vulgar. 



Oil of Origanum, or Oil of Thyme.— This is an essential oil, distilled 

 from the common marjoram (Origanum vulgare), and probably also from 

 the wild thyme, or, as it is called in some localities, mother of thyme 

 (Thymus seplujllum). It is much used because of its powerful and, to some 

 people, agreeable odour to disguise mixtures, and to cover the disagreeable 

 smell of other drugs. 



Oil of Spikes is the vulgar name for Oil of Lavender, an essential or 

 volatile oil, distilled from the flowering spikes of the lavender plant ; it 

 figures frequently in the nostrums of the stable as an ingredient in 

 liniments, but as it is very expensive, rape oil slightly scented with the com- 

 monest foreign oil of lavender has to do duty for it. 



Oil of Sulphur, or Balsam of Sulphur.— This is made by boiling one 

 part of flower of sulphur in eight parts of olive oil, and is perhaps the most 

 filthy compound ever invented by a quack ; it has been extolled as a specific 

 for coughs of every kind, an expellant of worms, and a certain cure for 

 mange, but it can very well be dispensed with. 



Oil of Tar, or Spirit of Tar.— A villainous smell'ng liquid, worse 

 than tar water ; is a residuum in the distillation of impure pyroligneous 

 acid, and has been vaunted as a cure for mmge and other skin affections, 

 but there are cleaner and better remedies. 



Oil of Turpentine, or Spirit of Turpentine, is too familiar to need 

 description. It is valuable as an ingredient in stimulating liniments. 

 Internally, it acts as a diuretic when given in repeated doses of 2 drachms 

 to 4 drachms ; and as an anti-spasmodic and a vermifuge it is given in doses 

 of 2oz. to 4oz. It should always be administered in a demulcent, snch as 

 linseed oil, with which it readily mixes. 



