100 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



7 drachms, and I can confidently assert that in no single 

 case have I observed anything of a similar nature. 



{d) Turpentine. — It will be seen, on referring to the 

 section on Posology, that in every case I advocate the use 

 of turpentine combined with linseed-oil. I have chosen 

 that drug on account of its antiseptic and stimulant 

 actions. I have given it mainly to satisfy local prejudice, 

 which thinks that no medicine can be a medicine unless 

 in the form of a drench, and have selected it particularly 

 as conforming closely to the lines on which my treatment 

 is based — viz., stimulative. 



(«) Eserine or Physostigmine. — Regarding the use 

 of this preparation, I have nothing to say that is not in 

 its favour. I regard it as the most valuable of all recent 

 additions to veterinary medicines. Should we give it to 

 pregnant animals ? In vol. ii. of the Veterinary Record 

 Horner describes two cases of mares in advanced preg- 

 nancy receiving one-tenth of a gramme of eserine and 

 aborting soon afterwards. That should be sufficient to 

 point out that its use must be tempered with caution. 

 Only after all other means have failed, and it becomes 

 not only a question of the life of the foal, but of that of 

 the mother, should it be given. For my own part, I 

 have given it to in-foal mares repeatedly, and have not 

 met with an untoward result yet. With this one excep- 

 tion, I firmly believe that it may be administered 

 advantageously in every case of subacute obstructive 

 colic. 



To those who complain of its action being uncertain 

 and unreliable, I would reply in the words of one of our 

 greatest veterinary writers : ' Give a dose sufficiently 

 large, and you will not be disappointed.' It will, when 

 all our other efforts have proved futile, restart that 

 peristalsis, which means life to our patient, and whose 

 cessation means death. I do not, however, believe a full 



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