46 REVIEW OF MOIROUD’s VETERINARY MATERIA MEDICA. 
by copper, and it favours the healing* of some indolent ulcers. 
Treacle renders the pectoral and demulcent drinks more effectual, 
and gives form to most of the balls used in veterinary practice. 
Honey is emollient and slightly laxative. It flavours many 
pectoral drinks and renders them more effectual, enters into 
the composition of gargles and clysters, and is often used to give 
consistence to balls. The taste of honey is very pleasant to 
horses, and medicines may sometimes be administered to them 
sweetened with honey which they would otherwise obstinately 
refuse. Honey is sometimes applied to recent burns, and to 
ulcers and wounds much inflamed. 
Wax enters into the composition of ointments and plaisters, 
and is the base of all cerates. Mixed with sweet oil and the 
yolk of eggs, it has been given as a demulcent. 
Milk varies in its properties as procured from different animals. 
That of the mare and the ass has more serum, and is richer in 
sugar than the milk of the cow, but it yields less cream and con¬ 
tains less caseous matter. That of the sheep and the goat is 
thicker, and has more cream, and furnishes excellent cheese. 
Milk was evidently designed for the nourishment of all young 
mammiferous animals. It begins to be secreted in the mother as 
soon as the offspring is produced; and if it continues after the 
young animal ceases to want it, it is because man artificially 
encourages the secretion. As a medicine, milk is an excellent 
demulcent, and is indicated in all acute inflammations. It calms 
all internal irritations, and is particularly calculated to combat 
those that are occasioned by acrid food or caustic poisons. It is 
used externally to foment irritable and inflamed parts, and for 
soothing gargles and emollient and anodyne poultices. It is a 
useful vehicle for most of the medicines given to the dog or cat. 
The cream, fresh and cold, is advantageously applied to inflamed 
and tender surfaces, but it must be frequently renewed. 
Buttermilk. —This forms a cooling and nutritive drink, and 
which cannot be too strongly recommended, whether during in¬ 
flammatory diseases, or the state of convalescence which suc¬ 
ceeds. 
Spermaceti is softening and demulcent, and is given in inflam¬ 
mations of the intestines, and particularly of the bronchial tubes, 
in combination with opiates. 
Eggs are nutritive and demulcent. Both the yolk and the 
white are often given to colts and calves labouring under diar¬ 
rhoea. The calcined shell is cooling* and a resolvent. Triturated 
w ith rose-water, it forms an excellent lotion for inflamed eyes. 
United with alum, it takes the consistence of a soft paste, and is 
applied with success over articular and synovial tumours, and to 
