Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

MEDICINES USED IN THE TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 457
by opium, irritation is allayed, while the natural action of the bowels
is promoted.
Bichloride op Mercury. Corrosive Sublimate.—This drug
may almost be dispensed with by the practitioner on cattle. It can
never be administered internally ; it is highly dangerous used externally
in considerable or efficient quantity for the cure of mange or any
cutaneous eruption ; and as a caustic there are many as good.
Mint.—An infusion or decoction of this plant will be a useful vehi-
cle in which other medicines may be administered for the cure of
diarrhoea or colic.
Myrrh.—The tincture of myrrh is a useful application to wounds,
and is also applied to the cankered mouth ; but it contains nothing to
render it preferable to the tincture of aloes in the former case, or a
solution of alum in the latter.
Nitre—See Potash.
Nitrous Ether, Spirit of.—A favorite medicine with many practitioners
in the advanced stages of fever. It is said to rouse, to a
certain degree, the exhausted powers of the animal, while it rarely
brings back the dangerous febrile action that was subsiding. It is
not, however, a stimulant to which the author has often dared to
have recourse, except in the advanced stages of epidemic catarrh, or
the malignant epidemic. , The dose should not exceed half an ounce.
Nux Vomica.—This is not introduced from any experience which
the author has had of its efficacy, but from the favorable opinion
which some continental veterinarians have expressed of it in the cure
of palsy. The doses which they gave consisted of more than an
ounce. The author has tried the nux vomica, and its essential principle,
the strychnine, as a cure for palsy in the dog, but never with
success.
Opium.—As an anti-spasmodic, an allayer of irritation, and an
astringent because it does allay irritation, opium stands unrivalled.
It is that on which the chief, or almost the only dependence is placed
in locked-jaw. A colic drink would lose the greater part of its efficacy
without it ; and if it were left out of the medicines for diarrhoea
and dysentery, almost every other drug would be administered in
vain. It is most conveniently given in the form of powder, and held
in suspension with other medicines in thick gruel.
The tincture of opium (laudanum) is useful in inflammation of the
eyes ; and a poultice of linseed meal made with a decoction of poppyheads,
often has an admirable effect when applied to irritable ulcers,
or to parts laboring under much inflammation.
Pitch.—This is only useful as the principal ingredient in charges,
so useful in cases of palsy, or sprain, or chronic local debility.
Plasters.—See Charges.
Potash. Nitrate of Nitre.—As useful to cattle as to the horse.
It has an immediate effect in abating inflammation, and it is a mild
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