ds, such as vinegar,
lemon juice, etc., alkalines in the form of salts, sweet spirits of
niter, etc., which are household remedies, are always useful, because
they act on the excreting organs and ameliorate the effects of fever.
Other remedies, which are to be used to influence the cause of fever,
must be selected with judgment and from a thorough knowledge of the
nature of the disease.

METHODS OF ADMINISTERING MEDICINES.

By CH. B. MICHENER, V. S.

[Revised by Leonard Pearson, B. S., V. M. D.]

Medicine may enter the body through any of the following designated
channels: First, by the mouth; second, by the air passages; third, by
the skin; fourth, by the tissue beneath the skin (hypodermic methods);
fifth, by the rectum; sixth, by the genito-urinary passages; and,
seventh, by the blood (intravenous injections).

BY THE MOUTH.--Medicines can be given by the mouth in the form of
solids, as powders or pills; liquids, and pastes, or electuaries.

_Powders._--Solids administered as powders should be as finely
pulverized as possible, in order to obtain rapid solution and
absorption. Their action is in this way facilitated and intensified.
Powders must be free from any irritant or caustic action upon the mouth.
Those that are without any disagreeable taste or smell are readily eaten
with the feed or taken in the drinking water. When placed with the feed
they should first be dissolved or suspended in water and thus sprinkled
on the feed. If mixed dry the horse will often leave the medicine in the
bottom of his manger. Nonirritant powders may be given in capsules, as
balls are given.

_Pills, or "balls"_ when properly made, are cylindrical in shape, 2
inches in length and about three-fourths of an inch in diameter. They
should be fresh, but if necessary to keep them some time they should be
made up with glycerin, or some such agent, to prevent their becoming too
hard. Very old, hard balls are sometimes passed whole with the manure
without being acted upon at all. Paper is sometimes wrapped around balls
when given, if they are so sticky as to adhere to the fingers or the
balling gun. Paper used for this purpose should be thin but firm, as the
tougher tissue papers. Balls are preferred to drenches when the medicine
is extremely disagreeable or nauseating; when the dose is not too large;
when the horse is difficult to drench; or when the medicine is intended
to act slowly. Certain medicines can not or should not b