THE ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICINE. 
743 
for weeks before administration, and then wonder that 
they do not get prompt action from them when given. 
Others will give chloral hydrate in gelatine capsules aud when 
they dissolve, if indeed they do dissolve at all, will cause 
such nausea that, were it possible, the horse would vomit up 
his very hoofs, figuratively speaking. If anyone believes that 
this is not injurious to the patient, let him try the experiment 
of taking into his own stomach ten grains of chloral in cap¬ 
sule and he will be convinced. I have known two instances 
where a capsule of chloral lodged in the fauces and dissolved 
there; you can imagine for yourselves the condition of the 
nasal and buccal mucous membranes twelve hours later. In 
both cases death resulted. 1 have in mind another case where 
an ordinary chloral ball was administered, and half an hour 
later the horse showed all the symptoms of the severest 
regurgitation and continued so for hours. The nausea* was 
so severe that the horse neither ate nor drank for three days. 
Sometimes, as before hinted at, t'he stomach will be in such a 
condition that a capsule will not even dissolve in it, and they 
have been known in many instances to be passed just as they 
entered the stomach. 
The best and most satisfactory method of adminis¬ 
tering medicine too bulky for intravenous or hypoder¬ 
mic injections is in the liquid form. We can generally 
get the same action from thirty grains of quinine in liquid 
form that we can from one drachm given in the form of pow¬ 
der. Chloral should never be given in any other form than 
in solution and then highly dilutedf. Physics are best given 
simple, that is, each by itself ; combining two or more, such 
as aloes and calomel, is positively dangerous. They should, 
like vermifuges, always be given on an empty stomach. I 
have frequently seen santonine given in powder with feed or 
*Was this not oesophagitis and a sensation of choking, rather than nausea ?— 
W. L. W. 
fWe have found repeatedly that after the administration of one full dose of 
chloral, especially in solution, the fauces are so antesthetized or the muscles 
of deglutition paralyzed, that drenches are afterward very perilous, producing 
serious and even fatal, strangling.—W. L. W. 
