19 * 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
of emergency ; but the administration of the more potent drugs ought 
to be intrusted to the veterinary surgeon, by whom alone all important 
operations ought to be performed. Read’s enema and stomach-pump 
adapted to sheep, should be in every breeder’s hands, and kept con- 
stantly ready for use. In the treatment of many of the diseases of 
sheep, the advantages of purgative or of sedative injections are too much 
overlooked. Aperient injections may consist of a handful of common 
salt, or an ounce or two ounces of Epsom salts, with a wineglassful of 
linseed oil, mixed in a pint of water or thin gruel. Sedative injections, 
in cases of diarrhoea and dysentery, may consist of a pint of gruel or 
starch, with three or four grains of powdered opium, or fifty drops of 
laudanum. 
Aperients. — In administering medicines to the sheep, the fluid should 
be allowed to trickle slowly and gently down the gullet or oesophagus, 
as we have already urged in the case of the ox, and for the same rea- 
sons — the structure of the stomach being in both animals on the same 
plan. To give medicine in a hurried manner, so as to force the animal 
to gulp it, is to defeat the very object intended; it will force the pillars 
of the oesophagean canal, enter the insensible paunch, and there con- 
tinue inert. It may here be as well to observe, that the doses of medi- 
cine for sheep, in general are about one-sixth in quantity of what are 
usually given to cattle. Young lambs require only. a third, or half the 
quantity of medicine constituting a dose for an adult sheep. 
The following medicines are the most valuable aperients : 
Common Salt (Chloride of Sodium or Muriate of Soda).— Salt is a tonic 
in moderate doses, and of great benefit in the rot. It should always 
be accessible to the flock. In doses of one or two ounces, dissolved in 
four or six ounces of gruel, it forms an excellent aperient. 
Epsom Salts (Sulphate of Magnesia).— An excellent purgative, and that 
which is most commonly employed. Its dose ranges from half an ounce 
to two or three ounces. The repetition of small closes at intervals of six 
hours will keep up the action of the first full dose when desirable; or 
sulphur may be employed for this purpose. 
Sulphur. — Sulphur, besides its value in cutaneous affections, is very 
useful as an aperient, especially for keeping up the action of the bowels 
after the operation of salts. Dose, from one to two ounces. Sulphur is 
the base of every ointment for the cure of mange. 
Aloes. — This drug is not only very uncertain in its operation in sheep, 
but has often proved fatal, by inducing direct inflammation. It is in- 
valuable as a horse medicine, but should never be administered to the 
sheep. 
Linseed Oil. — Linseed oil is occasionally used as a purgative; it is 
given in doses of two or three ounces. 
ALTERATIVES AND SPECIFIC MEDICINES.— These are medicines which 
exert a peculiar influence on certain organs, altering their diseased action, 
or stimulating their respective secretions. Some act more especially on 
the liver, others on the glandular system, and some on the skin ; while 
one exerts a peculiar action on the muscular fibers of the uterus. A 
knowledge of the effects of these medicines has been gained by experi- 
ence ; but we know nothing of their modus operamdi. 
