23 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from vol. xxxvi, p. 671.) 
In my last communication we finished the consideration of 
those plants belonging to the natural order Solanaceae, which 
are most likely to be brought under the notice of the vete¬ 
rinary surgeon ; and before entering upon another order of 
plants, I would say a few words as to the importance of a 
thorough knowledge of those recently commented on. It 
must, I think, at the outset be admitted that plants pos¬ 
sessing such properties as the Atropa Belladonna , the Hyos - 
cyamus niger } the Nicotiana Tabacum , and the Solanum Dulca¬ 
mara, whether administered as medicinal agents or received 
into the system of animals in sufficient quantities to produce 
poisonous effects, have more than ordinary claims upon our 
attention. Found, as many of these plants are, growing in 
considerable quantities in our own immediate neighbour¬ 
hoods, and sufficient in many instances to be available for the 
manufacture of the different preparations which by concen¬ 
trating their active principles are more convenient for ad¬ 
ministration as medicinal agents, the opportunities thus 
afforded should be made use of by us for obtaining the 
different parts of the plants at those seasons when their 
active principles are most developed, thus lessening in a 
great degree the uncertainty of the action which is too apt 
to result from the exhibition of those that we obtain from the 
wholesale manufacturer. Nor is this all, for when, as not 
unfrequently happens (although nature as a rule has im¬ 
planted a peculiar instinct by which animals avoid these 
dangerous plants), an animal, from hunger, or a vitiated 
appetite, has partaken of these plants in sufficient quanti¬ 
ties to cause poisonous action, some knowledge of the phy¬ 
sical characters by which these plants can be recognised will 
be expected from those w’hose especial calling it is to point 
out the causes while we endeavour to relieve the effects. I 
allude to the qualified members of the veterinary profession. 
Surely no one at the present day will be unreasonable 
enough to assert that a science which teaches these things 
has no claims upon our consideration as a profession. Neg¬ 
lected as the science of botany at present is as a branch of 
our education, we may rest assured that its claims will con¬ 
tinue to force themselves more and nioreupon our attention $ 
