BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
257 
In the form of lotion or liniment, narcotics we have found 
to be available in irritation of skin. Such agents as opium, 
belladonna, and digitalis, in combination with various pro¬ 
portions of water, are often very efficient in allaying local 
excitement. 
Thus, from their valuable properties, the ease with which 
their effects may be regulated, and the variety of methods 
by which they may be exhibited in the numerous derange¬ 
ments which call for their use, narcotics assume an im¬ 
portant position among therapeutic agents, nor is their value 
lessened by the circumstance of their being little appreciated 
by the empiric; on the contrary, their want of popularity 
exempts them from the abuses we have had to deplore when 
remarking upon some of the divisions of the first group. 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from p. 147.) 
Before resuming the consideration of plants which yield 
food for our domestic animals, allow me brieflv to correct a 
slight error into which Mr. Strangwavs has fallen, when he 
“ calls in question our toxicological opinions,” in his obser¬ 
vations in your last montIPs Journal, on the cases recorded by 
myself and Mr. Howell of the injurious effects produced on 
cows from eating a large quantity of th z Althaea rosea . From 
a perusal of the case recorded by me it will be found that 
I carefully avoided giving any toxicological opinion whatever. 
Havi g fully satisfied myself that the injurious effects had 
been caused by the animal partaking of a large quantity 
of the Althaea rosea , I thought it of sufficient interest to the 
profession to relate the case, and thus bring it under the 
notice of more able toxicologists than myself to determine the 
nature of these effects. My chief object, however, was to avail 
myself of the opportunity of bringing under consideration the 
botanical characters of the plant, and the natural order to 
which it belongs. These cases, 1 am inclined to think, do not 
unfrequently occur; they are of much interest, and well 
worthy the attention of the profession, and I am assured, from 
my own experience in this as in other cases, that the 
veterinary surgeon will feel himself much better able to give 
