PART III.
Medicines and their Administration. Formulæ.
CHAPTER I.
PREPARATION AND MODE OF ADMINISTRATION.
As already pointed out, Veterinary Surgeons rarely have an oppor-
tunity of treating elephants, and as owners usually do not know
much about their ailments, the treatment is invariably left to the
mahouts. These men employ a multiplicity of drugs to make
up their formulae or mussauls ; they are purchased in the bazaar
and I have frequently seen them ; excepting the curry-stuffs, the
vegetable drugs are usually old, mildewed and inert, and the minerals
impure.
The expense incurred by the purchase of reliable drugs from a
chemist, where purity, freshness and uniformity in strength are guar-
anteed, would at the end of a year be far less than the cost of the
ordinary expensive mussauls so frequently indented for. A good
many of the curry-stuffs supposed to enter into them often find their
way to the mahout's quarters. Domestic elephants must carry a
special heat-generating apparatus in their interiors, as gurmi or heat
seems to be the most prevalent ailment amongst them and the
amount of cooling mussauls required is truly surprising.
No drug is known to have an emetic action on this animal.
Gilchrist mentions that " tartar emetic has been given in 2-oz.
doses morning and evening till half a pound was taken but no-
emetic or other obvious medicinal effect followed."
Mahouts are strongly averse to the administration of purgatives ;
in fact they never intentionally purge an animal, though such drugs
as croton seeds, aloes, enter into the composition of many of their
mussauls.
Doses.—The question of the amount of a drug to be given is a
matter of some difficulty, seeing how very rare it is that opportunities
offer for trying experiments on these valuable creatures. There can
be little doubt however that, misled by the size of the animal, drugs
have been administered in what appear as excessively large doses
and not always free from risks; perhaps bazaar drugs were used,