Part 21

EXTERNALLY.--Arsenic is a very painful escharotic, exciting violent inflammation. It is a caustic, antiseptic, and parasiticide, and is frequently used as a sheep dip. It is eliminated chiefly by the kidneys, skin and saliva and milk of nursing animals.

USES.--It should not be given in acute diseases. It is given as a general tonic after debilitating diseases especially when the lungs are involved, as in pneumonia, bronchitis and pleurisy. Arsenic combined with bran mashes is beneficial in stocking or swelling of the legs. As for its use in chronic indigestion, other medicines had better be resorted to. It assists in the expulsion of worms. Useful in chronic diseases of the air passage. Arsenic relieves irritable chronic coughs, and roaring in early stages, as well as thick and broken wind and heaves. As an alterative modifying tissue change it is prescribed in early stages of tuberculosis, chronic rheumatism, chorea and epilepsy. It prevents periodically returning fevers. In anaemia it increases both red and white blood corpuscles. For chorea in dogs, commence with a small dose, three times daily and increase a minimum per dose every third or fourth day until the physiological limit is reached as described under (Toxicology of Arsenic).

ACTIONS ON THE SKIN.--Administered internally it stimulates the dermis and hastens the removal of epidermal cells; hence it is useful in all chronic skin diseases, as chronic eczema, scab, mange and warts. To remove warts that occur in the mouth and on the muzzle of animals, give internally and apply locally Fowler’s solution. In chronic skin diseases use Donovan’s or Fowler’s solution or acidum arsenosum and sulphur mixed in the feed. Useful internally in successive eruptions of the skin boils and in chronic urticaria.

EXTERNAL USES.--The white arsenic or arcenous acid is used to slough out tumors, fistulae, quittors, etc. But I would not recommend it as it is too painful. It is valuable in the treatment of foot-rot. The affected animals should be slowly driven through a trough containing a solution of arsenic. It is used extensively for sheep and cattle to destroy ticks. In this way, animals are sometimes poisoned, as it drips on the grass and other animals eat it.

TOXICOLOGY OF ARSENIC.--Full medical doses if long continued, cause edema and itching of the eyelids, increased flow of saliva nausea, diarrhoea or dysentery, weak heart, soreness to the touch over the region of the stomach, itchy skin with small eruptions, jaundice and albuminuria. In long continued doses it diminishes exudation, decomposes albuminoid tissues and produces fatty degeneration; also lessens the glycogenic functions of the liver.

CHRONIC ARSENICAL POISONING.--Is common in the vicinity of either tin or copper smelting plants. The symptoms are as follows: indigestion, thirst, wasting, chronic diseases of joints and bones, the knee joints swell, the animal becomes lame and hide-bound, hair falls off, skin gets rough and scurfy, teeth get black and fall out and necrosis of the bones follow.

ANTAGONISTS AND INCOMPATIBLES.--The salts of iron, magnesia, lime, and astringents, are chemically incompatible. The hydroxide of iron, or as it is also known, hydrate sesquioxide of iron, freshly made and in soft magma is the antidote to arsenic. To dogs give from half to one tablespoonful every five or ten minutes. From eight to twenty grains of the antidote are required to each grain of arsenic swallowed (when it can be determined). The stomach should first be emptied by the use of cathartics or stomach pump and then give the antidote, and follow with demulcents as oil, milk and mucilaginous drinks. Also administer diluents, as weak alkaline water. Iodide of potassium is valuable as a antidote of arsenical poisoning and should be administered to promote elimination of the poison. In the absence of the antidote, chalk, magnesia and lime water may be freely given. These agents act mechanically by developing the poison and preventing absorption. Dialysed iron is recommended as efficacious as an antidote in doses of five to fifteen minimums for dogs.

ASPIDIUM--MALE FERN

DERIVATION.--The rhizome of Aspidium Filix-mas. Collected late in the autumn, divested of its roots, leaves and dead portions, and carefully dried. Male fern should not be kept more than a year.

HABITAT.--The male fern grows wild throughout most temperate regions, on the sides of roads and in open woods, especially where the soil is light.

PROPERTIES.--Its root stock is perennial, about a foot long and two inches thick; is scaly, tufted, greenish-brown, and firmly fixed in the ground by numerous black root fibers. The dried root has a disagreeable odor, and a sweet, astringent, nauseous taste. Powdered male fern should be freshly prepared and have a bright green color.

DOSE.--The powdered male fern is given to horses and cattle in doses of 4 to 6 ozs.; sheep and pigs, 1 to 4 ozs.; dogs and cats, ¹⁄₂ to 2 ozs. The powder is bulky, and less certain than the oleoresin of aspidium.

PREPARATIONS

OLEORESINA ASPIDII--OLEORESIN ASPIDIUM--OLEORESIN MALE FERN

Made by percolation with ether, distillation and evaporation of the ether.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 3 to 6 drs.; sheep and pigs, 1 to 2 drs.; dogs and cats, 15 ms. to 1 dr.

ACTION AND USES.--Male fern is irritant, vermicide laxative, large doses of the drug cause hemorrhagic gastro-enteritis, tremors, weakness, stupor, coma, acute nephritis and cystitis. Oleoresin of male fern is one of the most effectual remedies for tapeworm, particularly those inhabiting dogs.

BELLADONNAE FOLIA--BELLADONNA LEAVES

ORIGIN.--Belladonna is the leaves of a plant known as deadly nightshade. It grows wild in some parts of Great Britain, and is also cultivated to a great extent. The dried leaves of atropa belladonna yield, when assayed by the U. S. P. process, not less than 0.35 per cent of mydriatic alkaloids. Usually of a dull brownish-green color, the leaves much wrinkled and matted together, frequently with the flowering tops intermixed; odor distinctly narcotic, especially on moistening; taste somewhat bitter and acrid. Contains not less than 0.5 per cent atropine. The powdered leaves are characterized by few hairs and numerous small arrow-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate.

DOSE.--Of the powdered leaves, horses and cattle, ¹⁄₂ to 1 oz.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 2 dr.; dogs, 1 to 5 grs.

PREPARATIONS

EXTRACTUM BELLADONNAE FOLIORUM--EXTRACT OF BELLADONNA LEAVES

Made by percolation with dilute alcohol and evaporation to pilular consistence. Used in preparing the unguentum belladonnae. Contains 1.4 per cent of mydriatic alkaloids.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 10 to 20 grs.; sheep and pigs, 2 to 4 grs.; dogs, ¹⁄₈ to ¹⁄₂ gr.

TINCTURA BELLADONNAE FOLIORUM--TINCTURE OF BELLADONNA LEAVES

Belladonna leaves 100, dilute alcohol to make 1,000, made by maceration and percolation. (Strength 10%.)

DOSE.--Dogs, 3 to 30 ms.

UNGUENTUM BELLADONNAE--BELLADONNA OINTMENT