MEDICINES — PREPARATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 
I I I 
Liquid medicines are often soaked up in bread and rolled in a 
chuppatee or leaf and given. Tasteless drugs may be given in 
drinking water, especially if water has been withheld for some little 
time. Good mahouts are wonderfully clever in getting their animals 
to take medicines. 
For a troublesome animal the following plan may be adopted. He 
should first of all be well fettered and have a rope tied round the 
neck. A wooden gag is then inserted into the mouth and secured 
by the ropes at the ends to the neck rope. The gag should be 
about 2^ ft. long, 6 ins. broad and 2 ins. thick, the hole in the 
centre should be at least 4 ins. in diameter, that is large enough 
to permit the hand to pass through (Fig. 34) ; the tongue offers some 
resistance and care must be taken that the hand is not pushed to 
one side between the grinders ; once the pill is pushed to the back of 
the mouth the animal is forced to swallow. Liquids should be 
carried into the mouth in a plantain leaf or in a small joint of bamboo 
the edges of which must be rounded off. 
Fig. 34. — Wooden gag for administration of medicine. 
Steel recommends that liquid medicines be pumped into the mouth 
by means of an enema syringe such as Read's patent. The ordinary 
nozzle-piece might be used for this purpose. 
Castor and linseed oil are sometimes given in the following 
manner. The oil is placed in a tin and some spice such as 
cardamom or cinnamon mixed with it. The mahout then puts his 
hand into the mixture and rubs the medicine into the animal's mouth 
till the whole is finished. 
Hypodermic injection. — By means of a special syringe, of which 
there are many patterns capable of being rendered aseptic by boil- 
ing, drugs may be introduced beneath the skin ; when so injected 
they are quickly absorbed and their action rapidly manifested. The 
skin is not difficult to penetrate with a good needle. If necessary, 
a small incision through the skin may be made and the needle 
introduced. For hypodermic injections in human and veterinary 
practice, solutions of the active principles of drugs are generally 
used, such as, when opium is indicated, a small quantity of solution 
