MATERIA MEDICA. 
651 
Administered, however, in a moderate dose, its influence is 
directed to the urinary passages, whose functions it increases to 
a remarkable degree; it also has a stimulating effect on the 
mucous membranes, and principally on those that line the air 
passages. It is on account of this double influence that squills 
are often employed in dropsy exhibiting no symptoms of irrita¬ 
tion, and also in chronic pulmonary catarrh. In the form of 
powder it is given, in doses of about an ounce to large animals, 
and of half a drachm to smaller ones. It is administered most 
advantageously in those preparations in which the principle of 
the squill is dissolved and fixed, as the vinegar, the oxymel, and 
the wine of squills. Sometimes it is applied in the way of 
friction. 
CoLCHicuM. —Every part of the colchicum is acrid and poi¬ 
sonous. It is recorded in the Joimial Pratique for 1826, that 
twelve cows to which the leaves and the bulbs of the colchicum 
had been given as food, and each of which had eaten about four 
or five pounds, became all at once dull and uneasy; rumination 
ceased; the milk diminished; there was dryness of the muzzle 
and of the skin; foaming at the mouth; the eyes dull, sunken, 
and full of tears; the conjunctiva pale, the respiration short and 
painful, with a plaintive sound; local pains, inducing the animals 
to look often at their flanks and sigh; violent diarrhoea, foetid, 
and mingled with streaks of blood; tenesmus; the ears and the 
base of the horn cold. This state continued during many days, 
and three of the animals died. 
On examination after death there were traces of violent inflam¬ 
mation in the fourth stomach, and in the intestines ; the perito¬ 
neum and mesentery partook of this inflammation; and the 
neck of the bladder was red and enlarged. 
The Recueil de Medtcine Veterinaire makes mention of the 
poisoning of some pigs which ate of this plant. 
Employed as a medicine, it produces both purgation and diu¬ 
resis, and is indicated in anasarca and dropsy accompanied by 
debility. It should be administered to animals in the form of 
infusion in wine, vinegar, or oxymel. It may be given in doses 
of from one to two drachms for large animals, and from six to eight 
grains for small ones. 
Turpentine. —The turpentines act on the animal economy 
as stimulants. Applied externally they produce slight irritation 
of the skin, and thus favour the resolution of chronic swellings. 
Introduced into the digestive canal, they sometimes excite the 
mucous membrane, and produce purging; but, once taken by 
the absorbents into the circulation, they escape with the urine, 
and modify the secretion of that fluid. They produce a decided 
