PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 453 
the ganglionic system first affects the splanchnic nerves, 
probably beginning with the posterior mesenteric plexus, the 
spermatic and hypogastric, and extends itself rapidly to the 
pulmonary and cardiac plexuses, shortly to the whole sympa- 
thetic system. This is the primary stage when there is an 
arrest of the secretions of the body ; secondarily, the spinal 
cord and brain become involved, and death necessarily ensues. 
The treatment adopted by Kohne mainly consists in the 
administration of croton oil as a purgative and the nux vomica 
as a nervine tonic. His formula for the administration of the 
latter drug is : 
1^> Nucis Vomic., — %jss ;* 
Antim. Pot. Tart., §ss ; 
Sodse Sulpliatis, ^xvi ; 
Sodii Chlor., §iv. 
The whole to be dissolved in a gallon of water, made to 
simmer on the fire for a quarter of an hour, and half a pint 
to be administered every one or two hours. There are 
secondary injunctions laid down which would occur to a 
practitioner according to the state of the patient. — Mag, fur 
die ges. Thierheil ., Jan., 1855. 
(Kohne’s memoir is a most valuable one, though it leaves 
open the question as to whether he has completely proved 
his doctrinal explanation of the morbid phenomena. Friend, 
in 1838, said, “ I consider the cause is disease of the nervous 
system, the effect loss of power in the muscular system.” 
. . . The practice which I recommend is to 
employ very strong counter-irritants, in order to combat 
with the cause, and to administer powerful stimulants and 
purgatives to counteract the effects.” Thus far, Kohne and 
Friend are agreed, though they express themselves very dif- 
* The dose of nux vomica recommended here is from half a drachm to 
two scruples. It may be expedient to vary the doses ; but authorities are 
at variance respecting how much nux vomica can safely be administered. 
Dun recommends drachm doses for horse or cattle. The general impression 
is that ruminants are not very susceptible to its action. Hertwig gives a 
wide margin as the dose for cattle, — from 5 s s to ^ ss - Tabourin goes as 
far as six drachms ; but both he and Hertwig are agreed that the decoction — 
Kohne’ s mode of administering it — is far more active than the drug in 
powder. 
There is a strange fact connected with the action of the nux vomica that 
we may mention here. Tabourin says that in the reports of the Lyons 
Veterinary College for 1812, at pages 12 and 13, he finds that about an 
ounce of nux vomica suffices to destroy a sheep in half an hour, whilst eight 
ounces are required to produce marked symptoms of poisoning in the goat. 
Hertwig offers us convincing proof of the verity of this assertion by having 
administered to a goat in successive doses, augmenting daily, 440 grains of 
the vomica nut in eleven days, without the manifestation of poisonous 
symptoms. 
xxviii, 58 
