REVIEWS. 
225 
susceptible of its various actions than horses or cattle, which resist entirely 
its emetic action, and are brought under its irritant and cathartic effects 
only by the administration of doses of three or four ounces given in solution. 
Quantities of from one to eight drachms seldom have much effect on horses, 
even when given repeatedly. They do not, at least for a considerable time, 
induce nausea ; they improve rather than injure the appetite ; they neither 
augment nor diminish the evacuations, and disturb neither the circulation 
nor the respiration. These statements, though somewhat at variance with 
the generally received opinion, and with the results of various experiments 
made at Alfort, and reported in the Veterinarian for 1847, pp. 152-166, are 
fully borne out by a number of experiments lately made at the Edinburgh 
Veterinary College, by Mr. Barlow and myself. As these experiments are 
as yet unpublished, it may be as well to notice one or two of them somewhat 
in detail. 5 ’ 
For the ee cases” here narrated we have not room ; we 
therefore proceed at once to the conclusions drawn from 
them : 
“ These cases, with several others of a similar kind which might also have 
been adduced, clearly show that single doses of tartar emetic sufficient, if 
retained in the stomach, to destroy from thirty to forty men or as many 
dogs, may be given to horses with impunity ; that doses of from one to eight 
drachms may be administered to them in the solid form for days, or even 
weeks, without producing any very obvious physiological effects ; and that 
doses of several drachms, even when given in the form of solution, in which 
the medicine is certainly far more active, fail to produce any marked 
depression of the action of the heart, or any diminution in the force and 
frequency of the respirations. 
“ Cattle, like horses, can take very large doses of tartar emetic without 
suffering from any of the physiological actions of the drug. Hertwig and 
Viborg gave quantities varying from two to ten drachms, and Gilbert gave 
ten drachms in solution — all without effect. — (Hertwig’s Arzneimittellehre.) 
We have repeatedly administered an ounce twice a day to cattle affected by 
pleuro-pneumonia, and, except in a few cases where purgation occurred, 
have watched in vain for any evidence of its action. Mr. Balfour, V.S., 
Kirkcaldy, informs me, that he has given half a pound in solution without 
any very obvious effects. By doses proportionate to their size, sheep are 
acted on much in the same way as cattle. Viborg gave one drachm, and 
Gibert three drachms in solution, and four in the solid state, without effect. 
(Hertwig.) But the latter found that four drachms destroyed a one-year- 
old sheep. 
“The effects of tartar emetic on dogs are much the same as on man. 
Doses varying from six grains to half an ounce are speedily expelled by 
vomiting, if the animals be left to themselves; but if the gullet be tied so 
as to prevent vomiting, such doses cause nausea, accelerated and difficult 
respiration, fluid dejections, intestinal irritation, and death in a few hours. 
Hertwig mentions that it is not so active in pigs as is generally believed ; 
that from ten to twenty grains cause nausea and vomiting, but act neither 
very rapidly nor very certainly ; that one drachm in solution given to a boar 
nine months old, caused vomiting, dulness, and uneasiness, which continued 
for three days ; and that two drachms given to a similar animal, killed it 
within twenty- four hours. 
“ Tartar emetic has much the same effect when placed in the cellular 
xxvn. 30 
