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EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HOUSES. 
regarding them as the products of distinct species of the aloe plant, 
others as the products of the same plant modified in their aspect, 
and somewhat in their qualities, by the presence of water. Those 
who look upon the extracts as the juices of distinct plants, inform 
us that Barbadoes aloes are obtained from the aloe vulgaris, 
cultivated extensively in the island of Barbadoes, as well as in 
Jamaica ; and that Cape aloes issue out of the aloe spicata, indi- 
genous in the Cape of Good Hope. A good deal has been said 
and written by veterinary people concerning the relative efficacy, 
as cathartics, of Cape and Barbadoes aloes : supposing, however, 
that both drugs are good of their kind, and that the subjects to 
which they are administered are as near as can be alike in respect 
to preparation and susceptibility of being acted on by medicine, 
the differences between Cape and Barbadoes aloes are more ima- 
ginary than real. By my father, who was for thirty years the Senior 
of the Veterinary Department of the Ordnance — there being at one 
period of time eleven other veterinary surgeons in the same ser- 
vice — hundreds of weights of aloes, and ALL Cape, were used and 
issued, without on any occasion, save when the drug was in itself 
of bad quality, there being any complaint made of inefficacy or in- 
sufficient action. For my own part, I have for these ten years 
past — with the view of testing their relative strengths — kept 
cathartic masses composed both of Cape and Barbadoes aloes in 
my pharmacy, prepared exactly in the same manner, in separate 
jars — one marked “ Mass. Cathartic. C. the other, “Mass. 
Cathartic. B. and the only difference in their efficacy I have 
in the course of this long period been able to detect is, that the 
Barbadoes is, about in the proportion of a drachm to the ounce, 
“ stronger” than the Cape. I can, therefore, only repeat, that 
would practitioners make allowances for ihe form in which aloes is 
given, and the circumstances under which it is given, and at the 
same time pay attention to the quality of their drugs, much, 
most, or all indeed, of such conflicting testimony would fall to the 
ground. 
A very useful form in which aloes are exhibited is the aperient. 
In the beginning of febrile disease, when the fever is increasing 
and the bowels are confined, an aperient dose of cathartic mass 
has two beneficial effects : in the first place, shortly after being 
taken, it nauseates the patient, rendering him less disposed than 
perhaps he was before to take food, and the following day it brings 
his bowels into that state — the laxative — which we consider most 
favourable to the welfare of our patient ; the effect of the aperient 
on the bowels being perfectly within our control, either on the one 
hand admitting of being promoted by enemata, or, on the other, of 
being restrained by abstinence from water and mashes, and substi- 
