64 
ON THERAPEUTICS; 
similar additions to the ordinary secretion are found under 
the action of diuretics, unless when they have caused ex¬ 
cessive irritation and discharge of blood. 
The notion, therefore, that any particular purification 
results, is entirely hypothetical; we are not in a position to 
claim more for the agents Used than the property of exciting 
the secretion of an excess of water. Any benefit derived in 
skin affections can only therefore result from their influence 
on the general secretions, coupled probably with an improve¬ 
ment in the condition of the blood, due to the action of the 
salines administered. 
Thus, diuretics are to be given under the same restrictions 
that we have imposed Upon other therapeutics, restrictions 
that ordinarily oppose the full development of medicinal 
properties. 
In defective secretion from fever, we have already advocated 
Salines, not only on account of their effects upon the blood, 
but also for their beneficial action upon the general secretions. 
Diuretics, in like manner, are useful remedies in febrile 
diseases. They are further desirable when the urine is acrid, 
or when thickened by a large quantity of sabulous matter. 
An excess of water is then necessary, and a mild diuretic 
will be at once effective. When diuretics are indicated in 
cases of effusion into the areolar membrane, either from 
injury, or during the disease of (i grease/’ or in inflammatory 
chapped heels, or serous deposits in any portion of the body, 
nitrate of potash is a useful agent, and may be given con¬ 
veniently in the drink water. T\Vo drachms daily for horse 
or ox is a sufficient quantity, if continued for a few days 
consecutively. 
In cases where dropsy is associated with debility, as it 
most commonly is, tonics and diuretics may be effectually 
and consistently combined. Hvdrothorax, ascites, and 
hydrops pericardii, are diseases that require stich a mixed 
treatment. Nitrate of potash, with iodide of potassium or 
iodide of iron, are valuable formulae. A milder medicine may 
be formed by mixing extracts of taraxacum with gentian in 
equal proportions; this mixture is specially adapted for the 
sheep; the dose may be from two drachms to half an ounce 
of the compound given in Water. 
The various balsams, turpentines, and soaps, are not found 
to possess any properties that render them superior to the 
common diuretic, nitre ; hence they are not much Used in 
veterinary practice ; nor does it seem desirable, while we have 
an agent capable of producing all the effects we require, to 
multiply the means of attaining the end. The kidneys, of 
