ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES,

VETERINARY PHARMACY.

[Continued from p. 122.]

Cathartics (from Kabaιpw, to purge) are medicines which, taken internally, increase the number of alvine evacuations. Aloes are generally considered the best cathartic medicine for horses, and form the basis of most medicines of this kind.

The variety most in demand for horses is the Barbadoes, this being considered the most uniform and powerful in its action. In the selection of Barbadoes aloes, that kind should be preferred which has a smooth, shining, and conchoidal fracture, and a dark liver colour. When black or friable, it is not so good. The odour is peculiar, and in this respect experience must guide the purchaser in his selection. The value of Barbadoes aloes differs sometimes as much as 50 or 60 per cent., according to the degree in which it possesses the properties above alluded to, and this accounts for the difference in the price charged at different places for horse physic, which is further explained by the fact that Cape aloes are not unfrequently used instead of Barbadoes. We have heard it stated, that Cape aloes act quite as well on horses as any other kind, but this is at variance with the generally received opinion, founded on the experience of those who have practised the veterinary art for many years. The usual dose of Barbadoes aloes is from four drachms to eight drachms, according to the size of the horse, and the circumstances under which it is given. A horse which has just come up from grass requires a smaller dose than one which has been fed on hay and corn. Bran mashes are usually given with advantage before a dose of physic, and the operation is assisted by giving warm gruel, and by moderate walking exercise. When a horse is thus "prepared " for physic, five or six drachms will generally produce as much effect as a much larger quantity without this preparation. The chances of inflammation are also diminished. Violent purging is very prejudicial to horses.

The powder of the croton seed from which the oil has been expressed, is sometimes used as a purgative for horses. The dose is from 15 gr. to 3ss, and it is made into balls with a little treacle and liquorice or linseed meal. The dose of the croton seed in the natural state is from 6 gr. to 12 gr. Authorities differ in opinion respecting the advantage of the methods usually adopted to prevent griping. It is common to add ginger, caraways, or other aromatics to purgative balls, and soap is also added with the view of increasing the solubility of the aloes, and thus promoting its prompt passage through the intestines in

the fluid state. Other persons recommend oil as an adjunct to aloes, considering that this shields and lubricates the mucous membrane, and in this way prevents the griping of the purge.

Mr. Bracey Clarke denies the efficacy of these supposed palliatives, observing,―

"As far as my experience goes, it has not appeared necessary to add to the aloes any aromatic substance or spice, as is often done; for during thirty years that I have administered it simply in the formula given, I never knew a single case of its griping the horse, though I have known it to do so in other hands, where these things have been added; that I believe it is the more likely to do it from such additions, and simplicity of formula is, if nothing forbids it, ever best."

Mr. Clarke has contrived an apparatus for forming the purgative balls which he recommends, and we extract the following description of it from his Pharmacopoeia equina :

"a is a tip pot with a lid and a low handle on it, that the lid of the saucepan may go over and cover it, into which the aloes is thrown, broken into small pieces. This pot has rather a wide spout, with a valve at its extremity, suspended by a loose hinge, which dropping down falls upon the stream of flowing aloes, and serves to keep the cool air from it, which without this precaution would set and coagulate it; before the entrance

of the spout, and within the pot, is placed a wire grate about four inches square, to prevent pieces of gourd and other foreign matters from choking it up. The lid opens by a hinge, and the other side of it is fastened by a pin, t, suspended by a small chain: the flange, c, of the aloes pot resting on the edge of a common kitchen saucepan used for a water or steam-bath, and into which it is put, and then placed over the fire. Good aloes being selected, smooth and shining, with as little sand, and dirt, or gourd, as may be, or burnt to a friable state, as sometimes is the case; to any given quantity of this add one-fifth by weight of treacle, and place it over the fire; in an hour or more, by keeping the water boiling, the aloes is brought to a uid state, without any danger of its burning or boiling over, and now and then in the course of this process, but not too often, the lid may be removed, and it may be stirred with a spatula to combine more effectually the treacle with the aloes. When perfectly reduced to a fluid state, the pot is taken out of the saucepan, and it should be, as expeditiously as pos

sible, cast into the tubes of paper, and as in cooling it contracts and sinks considerably, they are again to be filled up. The consistence of these rolls when cold will be found excellent, being solid for handling, yet flexible. The balls are readily formed by simply cutting these rolls into pieces of any length with a buttered knife. An ounce weight is a full and sufficient dose for a large-sized saddle horse or coach horse, if the aloes be good; and ten drams for a cart horse, diminishing the quantity in proportion to the size of the animal. The aloes at present being less adulterated than formerly, a less dosé will be sufficient. At k, is a convenient stand for placing the paper pipes in; m, a door opening with a hinge to secure them; n, a staple and nail to fasten it; 7, a wire to support the pipes of paper, with holes to accommodate any number of them, or they may be simply stuck upright in a cylindrical gallipot or be placed in bran or meal.

"To make these paper tubes suitably, they should not be formed of hard or stiff paper on account of the throat of the horse: printer's paper, without gum, serves well for this purpose. These tubes are formed by pasting one of the edges, and then rolling them over a cylindrical stick, and to prevent embarrassment from the paste coming in contact with the stick and hindering its being drawn out, the pieces of paper should be cut wide enough, as one circumference and a half, half of the latter serving for paste, and the rest for overplus. Lay these papers tile-fashion, one over another, exposing the edges to be pasted, and one end also extending a little beyond the stick, which is afterwards folded and neatly closed by means of the stick pressed upon the table."

Among the various formulæ which have been adopted, we select the following on the authorities quoted :

CATHARTIC OR PHYSIC BALLS.

No. 1.

R Aloes bviij-Olive oil bj-Treacle biij. Melt over a water-bath. Dose from 3vj. to 3xij. [Morton.]

No. 2.

R Cape Aloes 3vj-Croton Oil, grs. v.

Mix for a ball. [Morton.]

No. 3.

R Barbadoes Aloes 3v-Oil of Caraway grs. x-Palm Oil 3iij-Ginger 3ss. Mix for a ball. [Blaine.]

No. 4.

R Barbadoes Aloes viij-Ginger 3i-Soap 3j-Treacle q.s. Melt at a moderate heat to form a mass. Dose from 3 to 3x. [J. Bell & Co.]

CAPSULES FOR COPAIBA AND OTHER NAUSEOUS MEDICINES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL.

London, 14th October, 1845.

SIR, BEING lately in Paris, I heard of a novel mode of preparing capsules for the envelopement of the nauseous class of medicines, such as balsam of capivi, turpentine, &c. This new capsule is formed of animal membrane instead of gelatine, and has the remarkable property of being pliant and soft in the

mouth, easy to swallow, and when in the stomach, of not dissolving there, but of breaking only in passing into the duodenum. The contents of the capsule are thus carried along the intestinal canal into the region where the operation of their curative effects is required. The stomach of the patient, which commonly revolts at the class of medicines referred to, is said to be not at all affected by these capsules, either on their first introduction, or by distressing eructations afterwards. Allow me to ask whether such capsules have been made in England, and whether they would not, for certain diseases, be deemed a great improvement upon those now in common use?

PHARMACIEN.

[Capsules of this kind have lately been introduced in this country, and we believe the above description of them to be very correct. They have not yet been extensively used, but we have heard a favourable report from some medical men who have tried them. We intend in our next number to give a further account of these capsules.-ED.}

ITINERANT QUACK DOCTORS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL.

SIR, I HAVE been exceedingly interested in the perusal of an article upon "Itinerant Quack Doctors," in the October number of your journal. It opens to the general gaze one of those phases of society almost unknown in fact, but most decidedly not devoid of interest and instruction. Making every allowance for the wide-spreading circuit of the " Schoolmaster abroad," and freely acknowledging how extensively the crust of ignorance has been broken up, giving the waters of knowledge thereby free access to a soil parching for the lack of irrigation, we yet feel that credulity is too deeply interwoven with our nature to be wholly eradicated. When disease and its concomitants-pain and anxiety, oppress us, we are ready to try anything. If doubting knowledge fails, ignorant and boastful charlatanry steps in and our hopes credit what our judgment ought to distrust!

"Our wish is father to that thought!"

I subjoin a short account of three characters of the genus Quack, that have come under my own observation, thinking it may interest your numerous readers.

About three years since, I had several visits from one of these persons, and a more self-satisfied gentleman I never saw. He generally came for sulphuric and nitric acid. He was a great corn-eradicator, and also removed tumours of all descriptions without the use of the knife. His practice, as far as I could make it out, being to form a circle round the part with a pre

paration containing both the above acids. This fellow was decently dressed, and used to glide about our corn-market, getting into conversation with different farmers, most probably touching more, however, upon corns than crops!

Last year another specimen kept a stall nearly opposite my house. He dabbled extensively in worm remedies, and had several bottles containing sundry trophies of his skill before him. Over these, when surrounded by a few rustic auditors, he literally gloated. The fellow had some "gift of the gab," and I doubt not made many of his listeners fancy they were troubled with the symptoms he so graphically related; he also sold pills, drops for toothache, &c. The most singular man of this description I ever saw, resides in Colchester, and has been known to me these twenty years. He is now upwards of seventy, and still carries on an extensive practice in syphilitic cases. He is a self-educated man, but many, competent to decide, have assured me they believed that had he been properly educated he would have proved a first-rate mathematician. He is a most able landmeasurer, and deeply versed in algebra, but withal a drunken atheistical scamp. He is, apparently, very successful in his pseudo-practice, which is by no means confined to the lower orders; he is constantly attending very respectable people in the neighbourhood, and boasts of curing in no time" the longstanding cases of half the surgeons in the district; he is perfectly conversant with the opinions and practice of authors of the last century in that peculiar department of medical literature, and has dipped into many of the recent writers upon the same subject, whom, however, he estimates very slightly. A main feature in his treatment is the continued use of the bichloride of mercury, in preference to the chloride.

I fear you may consider I have taken up more space than the subject deserves, but I cannot conclude without one additional observation. Characters like these are, in some measure, created by the demand

"For sure the pleasure is as great

Of being cheated as to cheat."

Ignorant simplicity gazes and stands with open mouth for impudent knowing knavery to circumvent and profit by; and whilst the sight is pitiable to witness, we must also remember it is not unnatural under such circumstances. But what palliation can be offered for those daily degradations practised by professional men for the sake of getting into notoriety? their handbills and advertisements, taken in connexion with their education and station, are more debasing than the Merry Andrew and the trumpet of the itinerant quack doctor.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

Colchester, October 6, 1845.

SAMUEL MANTHORPE, M.P.S.