INTRODUCTION. 



75 



form ; its active principle is soluble in alkaline solu- 

 tions^ such as the secretion of the rumen, and hence 

 becomes more rapidly absorbed than it would have been 

 if it had passed at once into the true digestive stomach. 

 Few other agents are better given in solid form than in a 

 drench, powders do not harmonise well with the ordinary 

 food of the ox, and would probably pass directly into the 

 huge mass of masticated matter in the torpid rumen of the 

 diseased animal. 



Enemas (injections, clysters, or glysters) may be either 

 gaseous or liquid. The former, as tobacco smoke, &c., 

 are well worthy of more frequent trial. They are easily 

 administrable, and prove local sedatives in enteritic dis- 

 orders. They are administered with an enema tube con- 

 nected by a long flexible pipe with a vessel in which 

 tobacco is burnt. Liquid enemas are administered to 

 produce either local or general effect. In the latter case 

 they form the vehicle of such agents as are most readily 

 absorbed from the large intestines such as strychnia. 

 Locally, they act as fomentations, demulcents, and laxa- 



FiG. 9. — Application of steam to the nostrils. (Armatage.) 



tive means. In the latter respect they are most useful. 



