90 
ON THE BLAIN. 
enough to reach into the great bag or stomach of the animal; 
then take a piece of soft woollen cloth or linen, but flannel is 
the best; put into it some tow, soft hay, cotton or wool, to the 
size of an egg or a little larger, and tie it on the end of the 
stick. This done, dip it in tar, and open the mouth of the 
animal: with one hand take hold of the tongue, while with the 
other hand you gently thrust the stick with the tar upon it down 
the throat into the stomach. There let it remain for about half 
a minute, for the tar to dissolve and disperse: then draw it 
very gently up, the slower the better, as wind will follow, 
which in some cases gives great ease. Repeat this three times, 
and the animal will be immediately relieved.” He adds, in the 
next page, “ The immediate efficacy of the medicine, I appre¬ 
hend, arises from thrusting the stick or cane down the throat, 
which breaks the bladders, and it is for that reason I prefer 
flannel to linen, as more likely, in passing the root of the tongue, 
to have that effect.” Of his account of the tar, however, the 
reader must form what opinion he pleases: “ while the tar being 
nauseous, causes the animal to throw up a large quantity of 
thick saliva, coughing and sneezing violently, and in conse¬ 
quence to break wind behind.” 
It will be prudent, however, to give a purging drink to the 
ox (not, perhaps, the purgative of Mr. Parkinson, a pound of 
salt well shaken in a quart of chamber-lie), and to administer 
some slight aperient to the horse or the dog. 
If the practitioner is consulted, somewhat too late in the day, 
when the constitution has become affected and typhoid fever has 
ensued, he will still lance the tumours, and apply the chloride of 
lime and the tincture of myrrh, and give a gentle aperient. 
He will endeavour to rouse and support the system by tonic 
medicines, as gentian and calumbo with ginger, adding to two 
drachms of the two first, and one drachm of the last, half an 
ounce of nitre; but he will place more dependence on nourish¬ 
ing food. Until the mouth gets tolerably sound, the animal 
cannot be induced to eat; but it w ill occasionally sip a little fluid, 
and therefore gruel should be always within its reach. More 
should be given with the horn, as thick as it will flow ; but a 
better instrument here is the stomach-pump, introduced not too 
far down the throat, and by which any desirable quantity may¬ 
be readily conveyed to the true stomach without entering the 
rumen, if it be not forced down too violently, so as to break 
through the floor of the oesophagean canal. 
