322 
ON EMETIN. 
he comes to a decision. As to fixed and unalterable rules in the 
practice of medicine, there can be none. 
A few years past, tartarized antimony was a favourite medicine 
for the horse affected with pulmonary disease; but, like other 
old-fashioned preparations, it fell into disrepute with the modern 
hippiatrists. I, however, having, during a long course of obser- 
vation in the wards of an hospital, remarked the beneficial effects 
of its exhibition in cases of bronchial and other pulmonary dis- 
ease, determined on testing its efficacy in similar maladies affect- 
ing the horse ; and the results of my experience have led me to 
conclude, that it is a medicine eminently calculated to combat 
pulmonary disease. Administered in small and often-repeated 
doses, it produces the most intense nausea. Its action when ex- 
hibited in solution is most rapid. When dissolved in water and 
given as a draught, on being swallowed it passes quickly through 
the stomach and small intestines into the caecum, from which 
division of the alimentary tube it is in an incredibly short time 
absorbed. Circulating with the nutrient fluid throughout the 
frame, it acts on the nervous centres, producing, when given iu 
a sufficient quantity, intense nausea. Being a most excellent 
expectorant, it exerts its influence on the respiratory mucous 
membranes, increasing their secretion, although at the same time 
diminishing the morbidly increased circulatory action of the sys- 
tem generally, consequent on, or causing the inflammation of, 
whatever part of the pulmonary apparatus is affected. Tartar- 
emetic in some instances, also, increases the capillary action of 
the skin, producing a tendency to diaphoresis. I have seen it 
act as a diuretic, and almost invariably found that its often re- 
peated and continued exhibition produces marked laxative effects. 
Yet its specific effect, when regarded as inimical to life, in a dose 
sufficiently large to produce death in a previously healthy animal, 
is most decidedly on the bronchial mucous membrane and paren- 
chymatous structure of the lungs, producing in these tissues the 
most intense inflammation, whether it be received into the system 
through the medium of the digestive organs, or brought in im- 
mediate contact with the circulating fluid by being injected into 
the veins. This fact indicates the great necessity of guarding 
against an over-dose of this drug in pulmonary inflammation. 
Having frequently observed fatal results from the continued 
use of tartarized antimony in protracted pulmonary disease, ac- 
companied by gastro-intestinal irritation, and also having found 
that in many instances the intestines being morbidly susceptible 
of impression it induced this irritability, I attributed this unplea- 
sant result, in some measure, to the irritating effects of the me- 
