S74 COSTIVENKSS. 
by a consequent stoppage of the process of rumi-| proper to give such horses, at all convenient 
nation, and is not a little dangerous. The cure 
in this instance, as in the former—when any cure 
can be effected—is to administer solutions of 
Epsom salts by means of the stomach-pump,—the 
first dose to consist of four ounces of the salts in 
a gallon of warm water. 
Constipation not unfrequently occurs among 
lambs and young sheep; and as it either impels 
them into fever or indicates them to be already 
fevered, it ought to be promptly and energetically 
attacked. Yet mere ineffectual straining of the 
animals to effect evacuation may indicate the 
very opposite disorder, or at least may be occa- 
sioned by such a clotting and adherence of the 
tail about the orifice of the rectum as to consti- 
tute mere external and mechanical obstruction. 
But when real constipation exists, and is shown, 
by the heaving of the flanks, the heat of the 
mouth, and the general restlessness of the sys- 
tem, to be accompanied with fever, blood should 
be let, purging should be induced, and the patient 
should be removed to green, tender, young, and 
succulent pasture. The means of inducing purg- 
ing are similar to those for cows and calves; and 
each dose may consist of two ounces of Epsom 
salts, either a little ginger or two drachms of 
powdered caraway, and a sufficient quantity of 
warm water for perfectly free solution. 
Habitual costiveness characterizes some horses, 
and is caused either by a defective secretion of 
the intestinal fluid, or by an excessive absorption 
of the liquid ingredients of the fsecal mass, by 
morbid action upon either quantity or quality in 
the secretion of the bile, or by the excessive or 
constant use of beans or of any other dry and 
heating food. Whatever be the cause, any at- 
tempt to reduce or mitigate habitual costiveness 
by means of purgatives would only increase the 
evil; when morbid action in the secretion of the 
bile is the cause, the treatment must be the 
same as for jaundice; when the excessive use of 
dry food is the cause, occasional bran mashes may 
be given; and when the cause is wrong action 
in the bowels themselves, or is general or not re- 
cognizable, carrots may be given in winter, and 
green food in summer. But habitual costiveness 
may frequently exist in horses without detriment 
to their health, or at least may be of such a na- 
ture as to require only occasional and very par- 
tial correction. “ This disorder,” says Gibson, 
“is not easily removed ; nor is it often necessary 
to bring such horses into a contrary habit; for 
where this is natural, it may proceed from a more 
than ordinary strength and rigidity in the small 
fibres of the stomach and guts, which makes 
them digest their aliment well, and retain their 
excrements longer; and when such a habit can 
be kept within very proper medium, the horse 
will continue in strength and vigour, without 
any inconvenience ; and it is observable that 
| these horses are, for the most part, able to en- 
dure great fatigue and labour. However, it is 
COTONEASTER. 
times, an opening diet.” 
COSTMARY,—botanically Balsamita. A genus 
of balsamically fragrant plants, of the chamomile 
division of the composite order. The common 
species, Balsamita vulgaris, is a native of Italy 
and the south of France, and was introduced to 
Britain soon after the middle of the 16th century. 
It is a hardy, perennial-rooted herb, and was 
formerly much cultivated, in kitchen gardens, 
for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Its 
roots are hard, fleshy, and creeping; its stems 
are branchy and about a yard high; its radical 
leaves are oval, greyish, serrated, about 3 inches 
long and 14 inch broad, and grow on long foot- 
stalks; its stem leaves are similarly shaped to 
the radical leaves, but are smaller and sessile; 
and its flowers have a deep yellow colour, and 
are produced in loose corymbs at the top of the 
stems, and appear in August and September. 
The whole plant is softly and agreeably fragrant. 
Four other species, but all of far less interest 
than the common sort, may occasionally be seen 
in British gardens. The whole genus is very 
nearly allied to the tansies. 
COSTUS. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
evergreen, herbaceous plants, of the ginger tribe. 
The Arabian species, C. arabicus, is a native of 
both Indies, and was introduced to Britain about 
the middle of last century. Its root is fleshy, 
jointed, and medicinal, like that of ginger; its 
stems are numerous, round, tapering, herbaceous, 
and about two feet high; its leaves are smooth 
and oblong, and embrace the stems like those of 
reeds; its club or bract of flowers rises from 
among the stems, is two inches long, about as 
thick as a man’s finger, and blunt at the top, and 
consists of leafy scales, out of which the flowers 
are produced ; and each flower consists of one 
thin white petal, and seldom continues unwith- 
ered for a longer period than oneday. This plant, 
as cultivated in our hothouses, has a wide and 
uncertain range of time of bloom, extending from 
summer, through autumn, to a late period in 
winter. Its root is pleasantly fragrant and 
somewhat pungent; and is used, in India, as a 
valuable remedy in certain stages of typhus fever, 
and combinedly with other medicines as a sto- 
machic. About a dozen other species have been 
introduced from the tropical regions of Asia, 
Africa, and South America; and several more 
dre known to botanists. 
COTONEASTER. A genus of ornamental 
shrubs, of the rosaceous-flowered tribe. The 
common species, Cotoneaster vulgaris, formerly 
called Mespilus cotoneaster, may be found wild on 
some of the chalky cliffs of Wales, and is a na- 
tive of Ararat, of the Pyrenees, and of many of 
the cold parts of continental Europe. It is closely 
allied to the medlar and the hawthorn genera, 
and has often been popularly termed the dwarf 
quince. Its stem attains a height of about 4 or 
5 feet; its branches are few, smooth, and of a 
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