Part 36

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 2 drs. to 1 oz.; sheep and pigs, 1 to 2 drs.; dogs, 5 m. to 1 dr.

HYDRASTINNAE HYDROCHLORIDUM--HYDRASTINE HYDROCHLORIDE

The hydrochloride of an artificial alkaloid derived from hydrastine.

PROPERTIES.--Light, yellow, amorphous granules, or a pale yellow crystalline powder; odorless and having a bitter, saline taste; deliquescent on exposure to damp air. Very soluble in cold and hot water and in alcohol.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 2 to 6 grs.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1¹⁄₂ grs.; dogs, ¹⁄₁₂ to ¹⁄₄ gr.

ACTION AND USES.--It acts like the simple bitters, promotes appetite and aids digestion, increases nutrition and stimulates secretion, especially of the intestines and liver. It is a stomach tonic, laxative, slightly diuretic and hepatic stimulant. It is also said to promote uterine constructions, and has some power as an antispasmodic. Externally it is an antiseptic and astringent. Useful in conjunctivitis, nasal gleet and leucorrhoea; one to two drachms of the fluid extract or glycerite to the ounce of distilled water. One to two drachms of the fluidextract of hydrastis to one ounce of water is useful as a gargle for sore throat. Equal parts of fluidextract of ergot and fluidextract of hydrastis is useful in ulceration of the uterus, vagina and in eversion of the rectum. Useful internally during convalescence after debilitating diseases, as in influenza and distemper, or whenever a bitter tonic is indicated, as in dyspepsia, chronic gastric catarrh, catarrhal jaundice, constipation from chronic nephritis and chronic cystitis. The glycerite applied locally for fissure of teats, cracked heels. Where there is a tendency to constipation it should be used as a bitter in preference to gentian, etc.

IODUM--IODINE

DERIVATION.--Iodine exists in certain marine vegetables, particularly the fuci or common sea weeds, which have long been its most abundant natural source. Iodine is also found in the animal kingdom, as in the sponge, oysters, cod liver oil and eggs, and in the mineral kingdom, in sea water in small quantities, in certain salt springs. It is obtained commercially from one of these sources.

PROPERTIES.--Iodine is heavy, bluish-black color, dry and friable, rhombic plates, having a metallic luster, a distinctive odor, and a sharp and acrid taste. Iodine imparts a deep brown, evanescent stain to the skin, and slowly destroys vegetable colors. Soluble in about 5000 parts of water and in 10 parts of alcohol at 77° F., freely soluble in ether, chloroform or carbon disulphide; its solution in alcohol or in an aqueous solution of potassium iodide has a reddish color; its solution in chloroform or carbon disulphide has a violet color.

ACTIONS.--Iodine internally is an antiseptic, alterative, resolvent and irritant. Full doses persisted will produce a state of debility and emaciation termed iodism. Externally it is applied as an antiseptic, disinfectant, parasiticide, deodorant, stimulant, desquamatic, absorbent and counter-irritant. Iodine is one of the best antiseptics for surgical purposes. The tincture iodine especially kills all disease producing bacteria in one minute, whereas it takes a one in one thousandth solution of bichloride of mercury more than half an hour to destroy the same micro-organisms. The tincture of iodine also possesses unusual penetrating power on the dry skin, finding its way into the hair follicles and cutaneous glands. Iodine must not be applied to the wetted skin because the wetting causes the skin cells to swell and thus prevent the iodine from penetrating into the sebaceous and sudoriparous glands, the very action upon which the special germicidal action depends.

USES.--Iodine is of most value applied externally, or locally. In sterilizing the skin for an emergency operation the hair should be clipped and shaved dry and the tincture of iodine applied without washing the skin. For other operations the skin may be scrubbed with soap and shaved and dried before applying the tincture. The tincture should always dry on the skin before the operation is begun.

The method used in human surgery for sterilizing the skin, and recommended by leading surgeons, consists in first of cleansing the skin with gasoline to remove the grease and then applying the tincture of iodine in full or half strength.

Tincture of iodine applied is of some value in the treatment of periostitis with osseous deposits, as splints, bone-spavin, ringbone, sidebones, etc. It is used for enlargements of glands as goiter in dog.

LINUM--LINSEED--FLAXSEED

Ground linseed (linseed meal or flaxseed meal) should be recently prepared and free from unpleasant or rancid odor. It is a grayish-yellow powder containing brownish fragments.

ACTION AND USES.--It is nutrient, tonic, laxative, emollient and demulcent. Linseed meal and the cake are valuable foodstuffs in small quantities. It is two and one-half times as fattening as starch or sugar. It causes the hair of an animal to become slick and glossy and induces shedding in the spring, but is very heating in summer. Linseed gruel is a food, being palatable and easily digested, for horses, cattle and sheep, not only good in health, but in debilitating diseases, also in chronic skin diseases. It acts in such cases both as food and medicine. In febrile diseases horses will often sip or drink cold linseed tea (linseed meal two ounces to one pint of water) when they will not touch anything else. When a patient is exhausted the linseed tea is given with milk, eggs and whisky. Horses that are poor feeders, having harsh scurvy skins, or being affected with roaring, thick wind or heaves, are usually much benefited with linseed in some form. A mucilaginous demulcent in the proportion of about one to two ounces to a pint of warm water, is useful in irritable conditions of the throat, alimentary canal, kidneys and bladder.

For linseed poultices, take the best grade of linseed meal, pour hot water over it until it becomes pasty. Charcoal and antiseptics are often mixed with it. When used as a poultice on the foot in nail pricks, always put on a poultice that will cover the whole foot.

OLEUM LINI--LINSEED OIL--OIL OF FLAXSEED

A fixed oil expressed from flaxseed without the use of heat.

PROPERTIES.--A yellowish or yellow, oily liquid, having a slight, peculiar odor and bland taste. Soluble in about ten parts of absolute alcohol and in all proportions in ether, chloroform, benzine or oil of turpentine.

Linseed oil for medicine should always be used raw.

DOSE.--Horses, 1 to 2 pints; cattle, 2 to 4 pints; sheep and pigs, 5 to 10 ozs.; dogs, ¹⁄₂ to 3 ozs.; cats, ¹⁄₂ to 1 dr.

ACTION AND USES.--Linseed oil cannot be used as a diet on account of its being too laxative; it is laxative in small doses, but in large doses produces copious discharges of faeces, having a distinct linseed oil smell. The oil is also emollient, soothing and softening to inflamed and indurated surfaces. As a laxative it usually produces tolerably full and softened evacuations, without nausea, griping or superpurgation and with decided odor of oil. It is the best physic to administer to pregnant animals and in irritable conditions of the bowels; also in cases of influenza, purpura and other debilitating diseases, where the usual purgatives would be too severe, irritating and exhausting. It is also used as an enema; two to four ounces of the oil or meal given daily in mash often suffices to maintain the bowels in a relaxed condition throughout febrile attacks, where there is a tendency to constipation. An ounce or two of oil given daily often relieves broken wind in horses. For burns and scalds the well known carron oil, composed of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water, cannot be surpassed. This oil is also used as a vehicle for acrid medicines and to act as a protective to the alimentary tract in poisoning of corrosive medicines, also to sweep them out. Carron oil in two to four ounce doses two to three times daily will often relieve “heaves” in horses.

Linseed oil is frequently given to ruminants, although Epsom salts is generally the best purge for them. It is indicated for these animals when a milder operation than that obtained by a full dose of salts is required, and for its demulcent action in irritable states of the digestive organs.

MAGNESII SULPHAS--MAGNESIUM SULPHATE--EPSOM SALTS

DERIVATION.--Magnesium sulphate is a constituent of sea water and of some saline springs. It also occurs native, either crystallized in slender, prismatic, adhering crystals, or as an efflorescence on certain rocks and soils which contain magnesia and a sulphate or sulphide. In the United States it is found in the great caves so numerous to the west of the Alleghany Mountains.

PROPERTIES.--Small, colorless, rhombic prisms, or acicular crystals, without color and having a cooling, saline and bitter taste; slowly efflorescent in dry air; .85 part of water; insoluble in alcohol.

ACTIONS.--Magnesium sulphate is a hydragogue and cholagogue cathartic; alterative and febrifuge and is also feebly diuretic and diaphoretic. As a cathartic it resembles common and glauber salts, and is more active than potassium bitartrate or sodium phosphate. When magnesium sulphate is administered it causes outpouring of secretion from the walls of the small intestines, most quickly and abundantly when the bowels have been partially emptied by several hours’ fasting. Neither pancreatic fluid nor bile is materially increased. But magnesium sulphate has a low diffusing power. It is slowly absorbed, and moreover, retards diffusion and absorption of fluid present in the bowels. In this twofold action by increased secretion and retarded absorption the fluid contents of the bowels are increased, producing more or less mechanical distension and provoking, like other salines, slight peristalsis. The retarded removal of accumulating liquid is apt to produce the formation of gases in the bowels, which is relieved by conjoining carminatives, as ginger or capsicum, while effectual removal of the intestinal fluids is attained by using with magnesium sulphate aloes, calomel or oil. It acts in from twelve to sixteen hours; in small doses it stimulates the secretions of the kidneys and skin. In febrile diseases it is used in small repeated doses. It is valuable in treating animals suffering from reflex skin irritation, combined with large doses of bicarbonate of sodium, generally gives relief, especially in urticaria of the horse. It is quite commonly used as a cathartic for horses, but most often for cattle and sheep.