to affect the system. This is to be done with safety, by
dissolving two drachms of the salt in two ounces of water, every drop of
which will then hold in solution the eighth of a grain of the medicine.
From two to ten drops may be given at the commencement, and every day
afterwards one drop may be added to the dose, which should be regularly
administered thrice in the twenty-four hours. The physic should thus be
gradually increased until the appetite fails; or the eyes become inflamed;
or the animal is in an obvious degree dull. When that result is obtained,
the dose ought to be withheld for a time, or to be diminished three or
twelve drops, and the lessened quantity only given until the symptoms have
subsided. The spirits, or appetite, having returned, and sufficient time
having been allowed to make certain of the fact, the dose may once more be
increased; and thus by degrees be augmented, until it is worked up to from
fifty to a hundred drops three times a day, beyond which it ought not to
be pushed. Even while this is being done, it is well to give tonic and
strengthening pills; but purgatives are to be used with extreme caution.

Too frequently our assistance is not sought until the disease has assumed
its worst aspect. There is then an open cancer, and we are asked to cure
it. There is in medicine no known means of performing so desirable an
object; physic can, in such a case, only be palliative--whatever hope then
remains must rest upon the employment of the knife. The surgeon, however,
must well examine the part before he consents to operate. Entreaties will
not unfrequently be urgent; and where the life of an animal only is
involved in the result, it is hard to say "no" to supplications which may
be accompanied with tears. The professional man, however, must consult his
judgment, and by its dictates resolutely abide; for those who are most
eager in their requests are always most sanguine in their hopes. The
issue, if unsuccessful, will not do otherwise than expose the surgeon to
reproaches, perhaps more bitter than the supplications to which he yielded
were imploring. Even should the proprietor be silent, the reputation of
the operator will be injured; for, when the knife is resorted to, mankind
will not tolerate failure. Therefore it is prudent, and also humane, to
consider how far surgery can eradicate the affection ere excision is
employed to add to the immediate suffering, and perhaps hasten the
consequence it