The Washington times., 1901-12-01
MEDICINE FOR CATS.
Snakes, Deer, Tonds, Foxes, and
Bugs Are Used.

TITS a good thing the general public
does not know what is meant by the
curiously written prescriptions they bring
to the druggist" said a prominent pre-
| scription druggist Three or four doctors
were lounging in the little Office OF the
prescriptionist and his remark set them
talking about the odd things in medi-
cine"
I'VE of the old school," said one of the
doctors, ''use more vegetables in our
prescriptions; the new school runs some
to animals. Yet We allopaths use ami
mails, too. For instance, there's the musk.
It's taken from a deer's gland, and is
| used as stimulant after all other means
have failed. Absolutely pure musk is hard
| TO get and is very expensive. 1t costs $50
| an ounce, and the usual dose is sixty
drops.
"Theh, too, we utilize pepsIn-which
comes from hogs stomach, and pam
creatin, which comes from the glands
of a Sleeps neck. Then we use SUI
the sheep gives US these, too. But in
the main we depend on the vegetable
world Tor our medicines"
There happened to be a homeopath
in the party. and he started to tell of
the things that the new school appro-
priated from the animal world.
He told how the common North
American toad was often used in meii-
cine. The live animal is fastened to a
slab of cork by four strong pins stuck
through the webs of the feet. Then the
poles Of an induction apparatus in ac-
tion are slowly drawn over the back of
the animal, whereupon the poison soon
issues from the dorsal glands. This is
removed with a small horn knife, and
mixed with the proportion Of / part toad
to 1,00O parts sugar of milk.
The South American toad does not have
the poison removed by electricity. 1t is
irritated with a feather and then its sa-
liva is seraped from it's mouth and used
in the preparation of certain medicines
The virus from a copperhead snake is
used with good results in throat affec-
tions, and rattlesnake venom is used for
variety of ills. The snake is chloio o.
formed and the poison gland between the
ear and the eye is pressed. The venom
drops on pulverized sugar or milk, and is
then prepared by the chemists FOR the
doctors.
The liver of foxes Is also a well-known
preparation, as is also the common pO-
tato bug. The potato bugs Latin name is
doryphoro decemlineata, and written out
1t seems like a formidable drug, indeed.
The live insect is crushed and covered
Win nVe parts OF Its weight OF alcOhOi
Then this is poured into bottle. put in a
cool place for eight days, and shaken
twice a day.
The common ant is also used in medi-
cine, and so is the much-h hated bedbug
tincture from this latter insect is used
with good effect to remove a clogged- up
condition of the ears by reason of the
natural wax which forms there. Cr.
Wahle of Germany was the first to ind
a medicinal use for the bedbug.
Animals and insects in plenty and
odd things help medicine out of many
a tight hole. a list by no means COM
plete included the black spider found in
Curacao, the Spanish fly, the roe from
the carp. ordinary spider web. crawfish
the cockroach, the morning glory plant
the oil beetle, the common skunk. some
times politely known as the poIecat, and
the stlnging wasp.
Nearly every plant that grows has its
own peculiar value to medicine. but it
has been only in recent years that the
animals have added their mites to the
help of the doctor and the chemist
Houston Chronicle