CARBOLIC ACID. 
i05 
care a bay mare, with her tongue hanging half out of the mouth, 
and there was apparently an inability to withdraw it. The 
organ was almost black, greatly swollen, indurated, and covered 
with air-vesicles, and it was cold and almost devoid of feeling. 
The under part was sore and abraded, the membrane of the 
mouth was of a deep claret colour, and covered with pasty 
lymph, and showing more or less abrasion. The anterior 
wall of the tongue only was affected. I stabbed the tongue 
through and through with my lancet, scarifying very freely 
and deeply. This was followed by the exudation of a dark 
sanguineous fluid. The mare very readily stood with the 
protruding tongue in a pail of carbolised warm water (acid 
^vi to the pail of water), renewed when cold. In twelve 
honrs or less there was a marked improvement, and the mare 
evidently received great relief from the treatment, for she 
showed no inclination to take her nose out of the pail, which 
was before her for two days and nights. After two days the 
tongue was greatly reduced in size, of a better colour, and 
warmer, the animal could draw the tongue almost^back into 
her mouth. I now substituted cold water for the hot and 
continued the acid; she stood patiently for two more days, 
and the tongue had then almost returned to its original posi¬ 
tion. On the fifth day I had a pail of water placed in front of 
her containing Nit. Pot., but she would stand no longer with 
her head in the pail, and in a few days afterwards, left cured. 
The crystallized carbolic acid is rather an expensive drug 
for the veterinary surgeon, and a good substitute for it will 
be found in Calvert's No. 5 carbolic fluid, guaranteed to 
contain 80 per cent, of carbolic and cresylic acids, and free 
from sulphuretted hydrogen. It is of a reddish-brown colour, 
and possesses a strong odour of carbolic acid. You can 
scarcely ever purchase two samples alike from separate 
chemists. It should be bought in small quantities and kept 
in well-stoppered bottles, or it will lose its strength. Applied 
to the skin on the back of the hand, in its pure state, it will 
produce a sharp, smarting sensation, and a reddish-pink dis¬ 
coloration of the skin; the smarting will last for one or two 
hours, but it produces no actual pain or unpleasantness. The 
smarting sensation produced by No. 5 carbolic fluid on the 
skin is more perceptible than when the crystallized acid is 
applied. In three or four days the cuticle will peel off, 
leaving no sore. If you dilute the acid with an equal part of 
oil and apply to your hand it will produce a smarting, but 
slightly less than the undiluted acid, and will not cause peeling 
off of the cuticle, and so dilution may be continued until the 
acid has no effect on the skin. The No. 5 fluid has a bleach- 
