178 
ON EPIDEMIC PNEUMONIA. 
solution, acidulated with sulphuric acid. Aperient medicines were 
not forgotten, as olive oil, and even saline purgatives, as cream of 
tartar, when the pulmonary inflammation seemed to be complicated 
with gastritis. This mode of treatment was exceedingly service- 
able when the disease was in its first stage. By the bleeding, the 
pulse was reduced in frequency— by the nitrated drinks and open- 
ing medicine, copious motions, and sedamentous urine, and general 
perspiration, were procured. The ears and extremities became 
warm — the pulse was developed, yet soft — the cough and difficulty 
of breathing were relieved — the animal became more lively — it 
could walk a little without apparent pain, and it ate a small portion 
of food. 
It, however, not seldom happened that the attack was most 
sudden and intense, and from the age and temperament of the 
animal, or other circumstances, it had most fearfully progressed 
before it was noticed. Then emetic tartar was given dissolved in 
water, and which operated more quickly and decidedly as a seda- 
tive than did the nitre ; it also had more speedy and powerful 
effect on the urinary organs and the skin. From two to four 
drachms of it were dissolved in a small pail of water, and placed 
within the reach of the animal. Olive oil and cream of tartar were 
also given as aperients, and, if they were not sufficiently powerful, 
recourse was had to aloes. 
We often had to contend with cases that bade defiance to all these 
remedies. Then the digitalis was had recourse to, in doses of from 
3iito3x* morning and night, with one ounce of pure nitre. Every 
one is acquainted with the sedative effect of the foxglove, and 
especially on the arterial system, and the pulse usually diminished 
by degrees, both in frequency and in strength. 
The extract of the common henbane was also given in doses of 
half an ounce, when the difficulty of respiration seemed attribut- 
able either to pain or spasm. 
On the decline of the inflammation it is almost impossible to ex- 
press the benefit derived from the kermes mineralst. Whatever 
be the composition of this drug, it is certain that it operates speci- 
fically on the lungs, promoting the evacuation of the mucus and 
other matters collected in the bronchial tubes and parenchyma of 
this viscus, and which would not fail, by their quantity or quality, 
to produce new inconvenience or disease, and impede the resolu- 
tion of the primitive one. 
By this mode of treatment many horses were cured ; but in ge- 
* Of the tincture most assuredly, but not of the powder or the extract. — Y. 
f A hydro- sulphuretted oxide of antimony, now almost discarded from our 
pharmacopoeia, but once in as high repute in England as it is now in Naples, 
