42 
. REVIEW OF MOIROUD’s 
tained. The paunch of ruminants, endowed with little sensibi¬ 
lity, almost deprived of vessels, and filled with an enormous 
mass of food, is, in a manner, unaffected by medicine, and there¬ 
fore we are compelled to administer it in such a way, that it 
shall go at once into the fourth stomach. 
The skin of the dog, from the feebleness of its perspiratory 
functions, is little sensible to the influence of diaphoretics, 
w herefore we trust so much to external applications for the cure 
of the diseases of the skin in that animal. 
Many purgatives violent in their effect on carnivorous animals, 
as jalap and colocynth, are almost inert in the horse and herbi¬ 
vorous animals. Oil of turpentine excessively irritates the skin 
of the horse, and the smallest dose of nux vomica will poison 
the dog; while the goat eats hemlock w ith impunity, and the 
pig is uninjured by henbane. It is therefore impossible to 
assign the proper comparative doses of drugs for all our patients. 
The sex of the animal should be taken into consideration. 
Females are more sensible of the power of medicine than males, 
and geldings than perfect horses. 
Experience alone will acquaint us with the effect of natural 
constitution; but it may be affirmed, that, in proportion to the 
natural strength, and endurance, and health of the animal, will 
be his w r ant of sensibility to the influence of medicine. The 
habit of taking medicine should be regarded. The organs 
which have been long or often subjected to the action of a 
certain medicine, not only gradually lose their power of being 
excited by it, but their very structure is changed ; therefore it is, 
that animals that could not without dangerous disturbance bear 
more than a few grains of a drug, in no great length of time are 
enabled to take many drachms without visible effect. This is 
more particularly evident with regard to the substances that act 
on the nervous system. 
The nature and character of disease, by changing the struc¬ 
ture and sensibility of the organs, w ill modify the effect of me¬ 
dicine. Some animals have borne, under disease, doses of 
opium, and various active medicaments, a twentieth part of 
which would have destroyed them in a state of health. When 
the medicine is not carried directly to the affected part, medi¬ 
cines can be safely administered to the sick and feeble animals 
in far greater doses than they would bear in health. 
M. Moiroud now proceeds to divide the different medicaments 
into classes. The grand division is exceedingly simple, into 
MEDICAMENS DEBILITANS, and MEDICAMENS EXCITANS. By DE- 
bilitans, he means those which weaken the vital forces, or 
moderate the undue action of certain organs. They diminish 
