I 
564 THE COLLEGE VETERINARY PHARMACOPOEIA. 
If the mineral tar, or naphtha, be used, the decomposition is 
striking enough, but not carried to such an outrageous extent. 
The day of veterinary science has too much advanced to be longer 
dimmed by follies like these. The blackness of the mixture is 
a fit emblem only of that state of obscurity and error to which we 
will never more return. 
w 
Scalding Mixture for Poll Evil . 
Oxymuriate of mercury - - - - -.one drachm 
Muriatic acid - -- -- -- -.... two drachms 
Olive oil, boiling.-.one pint 
Dissolve the oxymuriate in the acid, add it to the boiling* oil, and 
inject as soon as possible. 
I have hitherto spoken of the ignorance displayed in the Col¬ 
lege Pharmacopoeia; and sorry am I now to denounce the appear¬ 
ance at least of its too frequent accompaniment, brutality, abso¬ 
lute brutality. “ Boiling-oil f —not an aqueous solution, although 
that would be torturing enough at the boiling heat—not even oil 
of turpentine, although that would exceed the heat of boiling 
water by 100 degrees; but—I write it with disgust and loathing— 
boiling oil, 390 degrees above the temperature of boiling water. 
This admixture, worthy only of demons, is selected to be poured into 
the deep and morbidly sensible and irritable sinuses of the neck 
or the withers. I read in other books of resin, and lard, mixed 
with certain caustics, being “ melted and poured into the ulcer 
hot” Hinds composes one of his scalding mixtures with spirit 
of turpentine, which boils at the same temperature with alcohol, 
176 degrees ; the other he mixes with alcohol; Bracken, with oil 
of turpentine; Blunt, spirit of wine and oil of turpentine; Bart¬ 
lett, the same ; Blaine, oil of turpentine ; Lawrence, oil of turpen¬ 
tine ; even Ephraim Blaine, spirit of wine. Two of these writers 
recommend that the mixture should be applied hot , one very hot , 
and the others scalding ; but in the pharmacopoeia of the college 
alone do we read of boiling oil being used, three or four hundred 
degrees above the most horrible admixtures of the village farrier, 
and a menstruum most tenacious of the high temperature it is 
capable of acquiring; and, as if this were not enough, corrosive 
sublimate and muriatic acid are added, to continue the torture 
after the oil has cooled # . 
* Solleysel recommends an operation almost as cruel: after having di¬ 
rected that every portion of fungus should be cut away, and “ the corrupt 
flesh carefully separated from the sinew,and, above all, care being taken 
“ to give the matter a vent to keep it from stagnating/’ he proceeds: 
“ Having thus freed the sore from impurities, and cut off the corrupt and 
putrify’d flesh, strew the place with red-hot ashes, taken out of a burning 
fire, continuing to cast on the ashes till the blood be stopt. Let the 
sore remain untouch’d till the next day, and then wash it with the water of 
