Part 10 (1/2)

Then the question arises, What are the indications to be fulfilled?

_First._ Restore the lost function.

_Secondly._ Equalize the circulation, and maintain an equilibrium between nervous and arterial action.

_Thirdly._ Support the powers of life.

_Fourthly._ If locked-jaw arise from a wound, then apply suitable remedial agents to the part, and rescue the nervous system from a pathological state.

To fulfil the fourth indication, we commence the treatment as follows:--

Suppose the foot to have been p.r.i.c.ked or wounded. We make an examination of the part, and remove all extraneous matter. The following poultice must then be applied:

Powdered skunk cabbage, } ” lobelia, } equal parts.

” poplar bark, } Indian meal, 1 pint.

Make it of the proper consistence with boiling water. When sufficiently cool, put it into a flannel bag, and secure it above the pastern. To be renewed every twelve hours. After the second application, examine the foot, and if suppuration has commenced, and matter can be felt, or seen, a small puncture may be made, taking care not to let the knife penetrate beyond the bony part of the hoof.

In the mean time, prepare the following drink:--

Indian hemp or milkweed, (herb,) 1 ounce.

Powdered mandrake, 1 table-spoonful.

Powdered lobelia seeds, 1 tea-spoonful.

” poplar bark, (very fine,) 1 ounce.

Make a tea, in the usual manner--about one gallon. After straining it through a cloth, add the other ingredients, and give a quart every two hours.

A long-necked bottle is the most suitable vehicle in which to administer; but it must be poured down in the most gradual manner. The head should not be elevated too high.

A liberal allowance of camomile tea may be resorted to, during the whole stage of the disease.

Next stimulate the external surface, by warmth and moisture, in the following manner: Take about two quarts of vinegar, into which stir a handful of lobelia; have a hot brick ready, (_the animal having a large cloth, or blanket, thrown around him_;) pour the mixture gradually on the brick, which is held over a bucket to prevent waste; the steam arising will relax the surface. After repeating the operation, apply the following mixture around the jaws, back, and extremities: take of cayenne, skunk cabbage, and cypripedium, (lady's slipper,) powdered, each two ounces, boiling vinegar two quarts; stir the mixture until sufficiently cool, rub it well in with a coa.r.s.e sponge; this will relax the jaws a trifle, so that the animal can manage to suck up thin gruel, which may be given warm, in any quant.i.ty. This process must be persevered in; although it may not succeed in every case, yet it will be more satisfactory than the blood-letting and poisoning system. No medicine is necessary; the gruel will soften the faeces sufficiently; if the r.e.c.t.u.m is loaded with faeces, give injections of an infusion of lobelia.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] This is a narcotic vegetable poison; and although large quant.i.ties have been occasionally given to the horse without apparent injury, experience teaches us that poisons in general--notwithstanding the various modes of their action, and the difference in their symptoms--all agree in the abstraction of vitality from the system. Dr. Eberle says, ”Opiates never fail to operate perniciously on the whole organization.”

Dr. Gallup says, ”The practice of using opiates to mitigate pain is greatly to be deprecated. It is probable that opium and its preparations have done seven times the injury that they have rendered benefit on the great scale of the civilized world. Opium is the most destructive of all narcotics.”

[9] This is a perfect seesaw between efforts to kill and efforts to cure.

[10] Then it ought not to be used.

INFLAMMATORY DISEASES.

INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH, (GASTRITIS.)

Such a complicated piece of mechanism is the stomach of the ox, that organ is particularly liable to disease. Inflammation, being the same as local fever, (or a high grade of vital power, concentrated within a small s.p.a.ce,) may be produced by over-feeding, irritating and indigestible food, or acrid, poisonous, and offensive medicines. The farmer must remember that a small quant.i.ty of good, nutritious food, capable of being easily penetrated by the gastric fluids, will repair the waste that is going on, and improve the condition with more certainty than an abundance of indifferent provender.