VETERINARY MATERIA MEDIC A. 
43 
the heat and sensibility, and inordinate action of the parts sub¬ 
mitted to their action, and by regulating the course of the fluids, 
diminish the excitability of the solids. They do not, like the 
excitants, manifest their influence by any re-action more or less 
apparent, but, on the contrary, they prevent re-action, or mo¬ 
derate that which exists. They either withdraw the affected 
parts from the influence of certain agents which may too pow¬ 
erfully excite them, or render them less sensible to that ex¬ 
citation. 
T1 iese debilitants are divided into classes: those which tend 
to soften and relax the tissue of the organs, or which moderate 
the flow of blood, and the undue action of different organs, and 
the morbid production of animal heat. 
He begins with the first, which he terms emollients and re- 
laxants. Being placed in contact with the skin, they penetrate 
through its pores, and render it softer and more supple; they 
penetrate through the cellular texture, under the form of vapour, 
by a species of absorption, and diminish the redness and 
pain and heat;—introduced into the digestive canal, they re¬ 
lieve thirst and febrile heat, and cough ; and their influence is 
not confined to the parts with which they come into contact, but 
by continuity of membrane and contiguity of organs, and by 
absorption, they gradually affect the whole system. 
The principal part, however, of their effect, is to be attributed 
to the water w hich serves as their vehicle. 
At the head of the emollients and relaxants are placed 
the gums : we had imagined that, so far as veterinary practice is 
concerned, they had been sent to the tomb of all the Capulets, 
but M. Moiroud attributes to them much efficacy. 
First is the gum arabic —eminently emollient, and used in all 
acute inflammations of the respiratory and digestive canals, and 
particularly in red colic, superpurgation, and poisoning with cor¬ 
rosive substances:—dissolved in warm water, or made into 
drinks w ith other emollients, or made into a ball with honey:— 
dose from one to four ounces for large animals, and from two 
drachms to eight for small ones. 
Ginn tragacantk —used principally from the great viscidity 
which it communicates to water, and therefore employed to hold 
in suspension, or to render miscible, other insoluble or oleagin¬ 
ous substances. 
Starch— useful in acute inflammation of the respiratory and 
particularly of the digestive canal, and in the dysentery of car¬ 
nivorous and the enteritis of herbivorous animals. Easy of di¬ 
gestion, and therefore proper for the food of our convalescent 
patients, and useful when suspended in water in small quanti- 
