J une 1, 1895.] Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist: ' 
849 
BAZAAR DRUGS IN VETERINARY PRACTICE. 
Borax. — Sodium borate. Sing. Puskara. Borax 
is found dissolved in certain mineral waters in 
Austria from which the salt is obtained by eva- 
poration. It also occurs on the edges of certain 
lakes in Thibet and Persia as incrustations; the 
main supply of the drug in the Eastern markets 
is obtained from this source. An impure borax 
is exported from Calcutta. When pure, borax 
is colourless and takes the form of six-sided 
prisms- Heated, it melts in its water of cry- 
stallization, melts, and becomes porous. A 
solution of borax treated with a mineral acid 
deposits a crystalline boracic acid. Borax is 
slightly irritant, and is a useful antiseptic. The 
powdered borax is a useful dressing for ulcers, 
and is especially good in ulcerated mouth in calves 
and dogs. 
Copper Sulphate. Sing. Palmanikkan. Bluestone 
is got by dissolving the oxide of copper in sul- 
phuric acid, and also by roasting certain ores of 
copper, notably the pyrites, but when obtained 
from the last-named material, it always contain a 
certain amount of iron, la colour the substance 
is blue, hence the name blue stone : the crystals 
are oblique rhombic prisms. It is soluble in 
water but insoluble in alcohol. It has an acid 
reaction. A solution of copper sulphate gives a 
white precipitate with Barium chloride. In large 
doses it is an irritant poison, but in medicinal doses 
an astringent and a tonic useful in debility, 
looseness of the bowels, and blood diseases. It is a 
useful emetic for dogs. Externally applied it is 
a caustic especially good in keeping down 
proud flesh and in healing sores. It is also useful 
in foot rot, and in inflammation of the eyes a 
very weak solution of the sulphate proves useful. 
Horses and cattle take one to two drams for a 
dose, and dogs could be given 1 to •'! grains. 
Sulphur, — Sing. Gendagam. Occurs in animal 
substances as sulphates, and in many plants as the 
radisli and turnip it is a marked constituent. 
Pyrites contain sulphur in combination with 
different metals. Native uneombined sulphur 
occurs in the volcanic, districts of Italy and 
Sicily. In tin- bazaar sulphur is usually obtained 
in tile form of yellow brittle rolls. 
Sulphur is a useful laxative, and animals take 
to it well, When rubbed on the skin smartly in 
the form of an ointment it stimulates the growth 
of the (.ells The simple sulphur ointment con- 
• tains one pflrt of sulphur and four of vase line or 
lard. 
Internally as a laxative horses and cattle take 
from four to five ounces and dogs four drams. 
COMMON MORTAR, 
Common mortar is a very familiar substance 
to most of us. and perhaps we all know that 
it is a mixture of three ingredients, all of which 
are common enough in the separated condition, 
\ iz. lime, sand and water. 
Mortar belongs to the class of cements, which 
are substances used to make the surfaces of solid 
bodies adhere to one another, and which are as 
a nil.', applied in a liquid or viscous condilii n, and 
harden after the surfaces are brought together. 
There ure, us may be expected, a great variety 
of cements derived from animal, vegetable and 
mineral substances, but we are at present only 
concerned with a single mineral cement, specially 
used to bind bricks and slor.es together in the 
construction of walls, buildings, Sec. 
The important property of mortar, viz., of 
hardening or "setting" after it is applied is 
traceable chiefly to the presence of the lime which 
it contains, and for that reason 1 will first 
invite your attention to a few remarks on the 
subject of lime : — The word time I would point 
out, at the outset, is very often incorrectly used. 
We have to carefully distinguish between three 
different chemical compounds to which the 
tens is ai plied, viz : — 
1. — Calcium oxide, whose chemical formula is 
Ca O, and which may also be called quick lime 
or caustic lime. 
| 2. — Calcium hydrate, formula Ca 0, H-2 0, 
slaked or slack lime. 
3. — Calcium carbonate, formula CaO, C02 , car- 
bonate of lime, seme time also called mild lime. 
The only substance to which the term lime, 
without any qualifying epithet, can be correctly 
applied is the quick lime or caustic lime, but 
seeing that some confusion may arise from the- 
use of the simple expression, it will, 1 think, 
be more satisfactory to speak of the oxide as 
quick lime, the hydrate as slaked lime, and the 
carbonate as carbonate of lime. 
Let us first enquire, then, how quick lime is 
\ obtained. It does not occur free in nature, i.e., it 
cannot be dug out of the earth, but it has to 
1 be prepared. How, then, is it prepared There 
I are two ways of preparing a compound sub- 
stance, either from its elements, synthetically, or 
| from a more complex substance which on 
j decomposing yields it. Now quick lime, which 
I consists of the metal calcium combined with 
| oxygen, is never prepared synthetically, (except, 
! perhaps, in the laboratory) because the metal 
l calcium is not found free and can only be 
isolated with great difficulty. Quick lime has 
therefore to be prepared from a more complex 
.compound which, on decomposing, yields it, and 
that complex substance is carbonate of lime. 
Carbonate of lime is found in nature in many 
forms, as chalk, marble, limestone (white or 
coloured by impurities), calc-spar, coral, and 
shells. 
I do not propose to trace the origin of the 
different forms of carbonate of lime, for in- 
teresting as the'r history would be, it would 
I carry us too far away from our subject, and we 
shall be trespassing on the domains of Geology 
and Zoology. We are, at present, concerned mainly 
with the chemistry of the subject in hand. 
In order to fully understand how lime is got 
from carbonate of lime, we must enquire further 
into the composition of carbonate of lime. 
Its chemical formula, as already given, shows that 
carbonate of lime is composed of three elements, 
viz., calcium, carbon, and oxygen in certain fixed 
' proportions. You will observe that the elements 
of quick lime are already there, namely calcium 
and oxygen, in the required proportions. Indeed, 
carbonate of lime is a compound of quick lime 
ni d a substance known as carbonic acid gas, and 
the following chemical equation shows that it 
is thus made up : — 
Ca 0 r CO- saQjjO, CO. 
