136 Veterinary Medicine. 



same results, restoring appetite, opening the closed eye, imparting 

 new life, lowering temperature, and checking congestions. The 

 results were best in all cases when it was employed early, but 

 they were almost equally good when later congestions set in, or 

 when the ordinary inflammatory localisations were advancing, and 

 he found the measure hurtful only when, in the advanced stages, the 

 animal was worn oUt, and destitute of all power of recuperation. 



Antipyretics have been lauded and decried, and it is doubtless 

 best to use them with due discrimination and caution. Acetanilid, 

 the agent in most common use, is a powerful cardiac depressant, 

 and in this disease the heart is often already dangerously weak. 

 Yet in cases with very high temperature, seriously threatening 

 life, acetanilid in doses of 2 drams, repeated every second or 

 third hour until the temperature falls, and thereafter twice or 

 thrice daily, for a day or two, may save the patient. Similarly, 

 where there are indications of violent headache (drooping head, 

 eyelids and ears, congested and watery conjunctiva, stupor or ir- 

 responsiveness) a dose or two of acetanilid with the same amount 

 of sodium bromide will often give material relief. The general suf- 

 fering and disorder attendant on the cephalalgia, if allowed to con- 

 tinue, prove a direct bar to improvement, and endanger complica- 

 tions that might otherwise be escaped. On the other hand, 

 there is constant danger from too large doses, or a too long con- 

 tinued use of acetanilid in influenza. Phenacetin may be sub- 

 stituted in 2 dram doses, the action being somewhat more prompt 

 and transient. As less dangerous than the coal tar antipyretics, 

 we may fall back on such agents as sodium salicylate, )^ to i oz., 

 or sulphate of quinia, 20 grs. 



Elimination of toxins and waste products is to be secured and 

 this is more safely conducted by the kidneys or skin than by the 

 irritable alimentary canal. Plenty of pure cold water is one of 

 the best and simplest resorts. Aside from this, where there is 

 much hyperthermia, bicarbonate of potash or soda will serve the 

 various purposes of an antidote to the acid blood, an eliminant 

 and an antithermic. Under the same circumstances saltpeter may 

 be resorted to in yi, oz. doses twice daily. When, however, the 

 heart is weak it is better to employ ammoniacal or etherial diu- 

 retics : — spirits of nitrous ether, i oz. or liquor of acetate of am- 

 monia, 2 to 4 ozs. By combining these with extract of belladonna 

 and camphor a fairly standard prescription may be prepared. 



