HORSE MEDICINES AND REMEDIES 227 



(B) Another. 



Antimonial powder ... .2 drachms. 

 Ginger ...... 2 drachms. 



Caraway seeds 1 ounce. 



Oil of aniseed 20 drops. 



Mix with linseed meal and boiling water for a ball. 



Digestives, in veterinary practice, are stimulant applica- 

 tions, producing a tendency to suppuration. The gum 

 resins are at the head of this class, and the turpentines, 

 myrrh, aloes, resin, tar, etc., are digestive. 



(A) COMMON DIGESTIVE OINTMENT. 



Red precipitate. .... 3 ounces. 



Venice turpentine .... 8 ounces. 



Bees' wax 1 ounce. 



Hog's lard . . . . .4 ounces. 



Melt the three last ingredients over a slow fire, and when 

 nearly cold stir in the powder. 



Disinfectants. — These have, of late years, come pro- 

 minently into notice. The foremost of these are the 

 chloride of lime and the chloride of zinc. They are most 

 important in cases of glanders in stables. An ounce of 

 the chloride of zinc in two gallons of w^ater is a sufficient 

 strength, and of the chloride of Jime one-tenth of powder 

 to nine times its bulk of water is a fair solution. 



Diuretics. — Medicines which increase the secretion of 

 urine from the blood, thus depriving it of a large proportion 

 of its watery particles, and enabling the absorbents to take 

 up more water from the system. Some diuretics act directly 

 upon the kidneys by sympathy with the stomach, while 

 others are taken up by the blood-vessels, and in their 

 elimination from the blood cause an extra secretion of the 

 urine. In either case their effect is to diminish the watery 

 part of the blood, and thus promote the absorption of fluid 

 eflused into any of the cavities, or into the cellular membrane, 

 in the various forms of dropsy. They are a much-abused 

 class of medicines, from their indiscriminate administration 

 by the groom and farrier. Turpentine and nitre, which see, 

 are the leadiner diuretics in horse medicine. 



