296 VETERLNABY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



If the burn is slight, and the structure of the part merely inflamed, the 

 white lotion is a good application : 



Sulphate of zinc, 



Acetate of lead aa 3 ij. 



Water 1 pi^t. 



POISONED WOUNDS. 



The bites or stings of insects cause a good deal of irritation and pain 

 to animals, but are not of much importance, and seldom come under 

 notice. They should be treated by dilute ammonia, or the following is 

 recommended to allay the itching: 



Sulphate of zinc gr. x. 



Water § ij. 



Sometimes the eyes become inflamed, and the eyelids swollen and pain- 

 ful from this cause. The best preventive is laurel water, applied to the 

 i:)arts twice a week. 



The poison of snakes appears to cause death in two ways; when very 

 strong, by directly destroying the irritability of the nervous system, like 

 some of the most powerful narcotic poisons; when less powerful, by dif- 

 fuse inflammation of the areolar tissue, abscesses, and gangrene. In the 

 first-named instances the symptoms are extreme dej)ression, and a sink- 

 ing, feeble, flickering, intermittent pulse, coldness of the extremities, 

 dilated pupils, speedy insensibility, stupor, and death. In the second 

 form, the symptoms are of the most alarming asthenic character, from 

 the moment of the infliction of the bite, and are succeeded, if the patient 

 live sufficiently long, by diffuse suppuration and gangrene. The post- 

 mortem examinations of such cases reveal a dark, alkaline, and fluid state 

 of the blood, which emits a peculiarly sickly odor, intense congestion of 

 the lungs and spleen, with other appearances indicative of ' * death of the 

 blood " (necrasmia). 



The local treatment consists in preventing absorption into the circu- 

 lation by tying a ligature round the bitten limb upon the cardiac side of 

 the wound; the immediate excision of the part, followed by the applica- 



