The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

94 The Management and Treatment of the Borse,
action again establishes the inflammation
By combining depletion with depressing remedies, we
save blood and avert chronic disease. The great
principle to be observed in acute inflammation is to
subdue it at once, so as not to allow reaction, and give
the small blood-vessels time to contract to their proper
size. Aconite, given in ten-grain doses in half-a-pint
of cold water every hour, diminishes the vascular and
nervous excitement after two or three doses ; the
patient seems inclined to lie down and sleep, which
seems to be the desideratum so strongly urged by Mr.
Greaves—viz., get the weight off the feet. Large doses
of aconite produces alarming symptoms and considerable
excitement, but in small doses I have often seen its
sedative effects almost instantaneous. Aconite being a
most powerful medicine, should be always used with
great caution ; Fleming's tincture is by far the safest, if
it is thought advisable to give large doses. The largest
should be given first, and this must not exceed twenty
minims, in one ounce of liq. ammonia acet. and a pint of
water ; in four hours half the quantity, and in five hours
after one quarter. Over-doses of aconite are known by
a great depression, anxious countenance, accelerated
breathing, increased rapidity, and diminished volume
of the pulse, and contracted pupils. I well recollect
Professor Spooner saying that belladonna was unequalled
as a sedative, for you to have two objects in view in
administering it, it being the best sedative, and also
a laxative, which power no other sedative possesses.
Mr. Brown says of aconite that, given with caution
in small doses and well diluted, it has proved in his