LIST OF MEDICINES. 389 



Linseed Oil — In doses of two ounces is a safe purgative 

 "where the intestines are irritated. Ordinarily it is not so 

 efficient as Epsom salts. 



Magnesia (Sulphate of) — See Epsom salts. 



Mbkcukt. — Mercurial ointment is used as an application 

 for scab, and also to kill ticks. For the mode of compound- 

 ing, see pages 189, 342. 



Mercury (Proto-Chloride of, or Calomel) — It is not much 

 used in diseases of sheep. (See pages 322, 323, 3V8.) 



Mercury (Bi-Chloride of. ) -^ See Corrosive Sublimate. 



Muriatic Acid (Spirit of Salt) — Next to chloride of 

 antimony, the best caustic in the worst stages of hoof- rot. 



Myrrh. — A stimulant tonic, used in applications to 

 wounds. (See under Aloes.) 



Nitrate of Silver, (Lunar Caustic) — Is the best super- 

 ficial caustic, but is far too expensive to be used on ordinary 

 occasions. In one place, however, it is indispensable — ^in the 

 bites of rabid animals, or where their saliva is brought in 

 contact with surfaces denuded of skin. It has not yet been 

 shown that the saliva of the rabid sheep will communicate 

 that dreadful disease, but the opposite fact is not positively 

 established. Some of the sheep, an account of which is given 

 at pages 283-290, had been handled by laborers, after becoming 

 rabid, and the saliva might have come in contact with their 

 hands ; and one of the Messrs. Freer, whose sheep were bitten 

 at the same time, not suspecting the nature of the malady, 

 sponged out the mouth of an. animal in the last stages of 

 rabies ! On examining his hands the, skin was found slightly 

 fractured in several places. Whatever might have been the 

 result, it relieved some painful anxieties to see his hands, and 

 those of my son's laborers, well and thoroughly cauterized 

 with lunar caustic, so as to form a thick black eschar or scab 

 wherever there was the least break in the skin. Mr. Youatt, 

 who probably had more experience with rabies than any man 

 who ever lived, considered immediate and thorough cauteri- 

 zation, by nitrate of silver, of the wounded or exposed parts 

 — to the very bottom of the the tooth holes in case of bites — 

 a perfect protection against the virus of rabies. 



Nitre, or Salt-Petre, (Nitrate of Potash) — In doses of 

 a drachm or two, enters into every fever medicine. It is 

 cooling, diuretic, and diaphoretic. Externally it is a powerful 

 antiseptic. 



