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EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HORSES. 
but, taking into consideration the state in which the animal was, 
I could think of no other plan. I feel glad that it answered the 
purpose so well. 
In another case of the sort I assure you I shall not scruple one 
moment, but put in force the pump at once. 
EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HORSES. 
By Mr. Percivall. 
Aconite, Monk’s Hood, or Wolf’s Bane. 
(Aconitum Napellus.) 
This exotic plant, a native of the northern parts of continental 
Europe, common enough now-a-days in our own gardens, where it 
has become quite an ornamental flower, has a reputation of very 
ancient date for being highly poisonous to man ; a character fully 
sustained by it in modern times, by the extraction from the roots 
and leaves of it, of an alkaloid essence, by the name of aconitina, of 
so deleterious a nature that, according to an account contained in 
Mr. Phillips’ Translation of the London Pharmacopeia — into which 
ACONITINA is now introduced — “ the 50th part of a grain dissolved 
in spirits of wine killed a sparrow in a few minutes, and the 20th 
part instantly. Applied to the eye, it occasions a temporary dila- 
tation of the pupil.” 
In the year 1803, a horse having a chronic (glanderous) affection 
was subjected to the influence of aconite. In the first instance two 
drachms of the plant were given*, and the same dose was daily, for 
four days, repeated. On the fifth, half an ounce was given. On the 
sixth, the half-ounce was given morning and evening. On the 
seventh and eighth days the same dose was exhibited thrice, with 
the effect, as it was thought, of some augmentation in the urinary 
discharges. On the ninth day the aconite was given in the dose 
of an ounce thrice a-day ; and these large doses were continued 
morning, noon, and night, for the four successive days, without any 
perceptible effects. 
Mountain Arnica or Leopard’s Bane. 
{Arnica Montana.) 
In October 1812, to a chestnut horse, having ulceration in the 
near side of his nose, with discharge from the corresponding nostril, 
* I imagine the leaves were the part of the plant used. 
