668 
A. ROUIF. 
THE USE OF VEGETABLE TAR IN VETERINARY PRACTICE, 
By De. A. Rouif, V.S., Deputy State Veterinarian, St. Louis, Mo. 
There is perhaps not a single medical agent so universally 
employed for local treatment in animal diseases as vegetable 
tar, and probably there is not one used with so little judg¬ 
ment. It is prescribed right and left, crude and in the forms 
of ointment with wax, turpentine, etc., according to the oldest 
empiric formulas of old time farmers, who used tar on all oc¬ 
casions, particularly in diseases of the feet. We all know of 
the numerous formulas of the French and English in which 
beeswax, mutton tallow and turpentine enter in various 
quantities and are mixed with tar more or less imperfectly. 
Now tar has real therapeutic value. It is undoubtedly an 
agent possessed of healing properties, particularly in skin dis¬ 
eases, and it is recognized also internallv for lung affections. 
Ot the internal use of the drug I will not speak here. Where¬ 
in does its curative value lie in external application ? In my 
judgment, it is because vegetable tar is an ingredient in con¬ 
tact with which microbes will not grow. It keeps a wound, 
a diseased skin free from the irritation of growing germs, 
which constitute serious complications of all exposed diseased 
surfaces, whether primarily due themselves to germs or not. 
Beneath the application of tar, in a proper strength and a pro¬ 
per preparation, the diseased parts granulate by the efforts of 
nature and heal more or less rapidly, uninterrupted by the 
vegetation of various bacteria and their toxic, irritative pro¬ 
ducts. 
But tar is itself an irritant, and in its natural state is unfit 
for use, and if injudiciously employed, retards the repairs of 
nature instead of aiding in their accomplishment. Pure veg¬ 
etable tar, for instance, aside of its being unsuitable because 
of its stickiness, is decidedly irritant and unfit for a diseased 
surface of any kind. If employed too strong even in oint¬ 
ment form the same objection in a degree arises. If employed 
in combination with lard, cosmoline, etc., it usually presents a 
very objectionable appearance and besides it is very often 
