CASTOR OIL AS A PURGATIVE AGENT. 
557 
give double the quantity to an ox that you would to a horse. 
I often give to an ordinary-sized cow or ox six or eight 
drachms of aloes with a pound of sulphate of magnesia. 
Castor oil also must be given in much larger doses to cattle 
than to horses — half as much more at the least. 
I do not know that I have ever administered castor oil to 
the sheep, but I think it would have the same effect on that 
animal. I should only use it in cases of real constipation. 
In the pig I have employed it once or twice, and a good 
result has followed. In the dog, it is very uncertain in its ac- 
tion. The fatty nature of it induces vomiting in that animal, 
thereby deteriorating its value as a purgative. I prefer for 
the dog the compound rhubarb pill, as for the human sub- 
ject, with a very small dose of oil two or three hours after- 
wards, when requisite. 
Linseed oil I consider to be a very objectionable agent for 
the purposes I am writing about. Without multiplication 
of words, I may say that I have used castor oil with the 
greatest benefit ; and I hope I may be able to persuade some 
unprejudiced practitioner to give it an impartial trial, and 
report the result of his experience of its use. It is now my 
first remedy in cases of colic. I do not care even if there be 
a slight tendency to inflammation in these cases, for I feel 
assured it will not aggravate it, even if the seat of the 
inflammatory action is in the mucous membrane of the 
alimentary canal, and I would much rather have to deal with 
a mechanical case, so to speak, of enteritis, than with a con- 
stitutional one involving the peritoneum. 
As a common purgative I have not the slightest fear of 
the consequence of an over-dose of the oil producing 
superpurgation. I have had one or two cases of this 
kind, but there were no signs of inflammation attending 
them. They were left to nature, but of course were care- 
fully watched. In one case the purgation continued for three 
days, when it ended perfectly satisfactory. Castor oil does 
not cause the same nausea that aloes does, and the animal, 
when suffering from the effects of it as a purgative, does 
not lose his appetite as from aloes. I do not, however, 
by these remarks wish it to be inferred that the oil is the 
best agent for common use. In fact I may state that, in 
the common way of physicking, I consider it is often an 
advantage to produce nausea, as thereby the action of the 
agent affects the nervous system generally through the me- 
dium of the stomach. My dose of castor oil is, for a full- 
grown cob, fourteen hands high, one pint, and for a large 
cart-horse from two to three pints. I often give it in cases 
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