other liquor, should likewise be given every second day, when the clysters may be omitted; the nitre-balls, or the drink above mentioned, being continued every day as usual, unless the clysters be administered. In the course of four or five days, the horse will begin to pick his food, if he be not beyond the power of medicine; and, though his flanks will continue to heave for a fortnight, yet this may be effectually removed by walking him in the fresh air, and allowing him plenty of clean litter in the stable.
FEVERFEW, or Matricaria, L. a genus of plants consisting of six species, three of which are indigenous. The principal of these are:
1. The parthenium, or Common Feverfew, which grows in waste grounds, hedges, and walls, and flowers in June or July. This plant is refused by horses; the whole has a strong, disagreeable smell, a bitter taste, and yields an essential oil by distillation.—It was formerly celebrated for its efficacy in hysteric, and other affections of the nerves; as well as for its tonic, stomachic, and resolvent properties. Dr. Lewis, however, thinks it much inferior to chamomile, with which it agrees in all its sensible qualities, excepting that the common feverfew is much weaker. But its odour, taste, and other constituents, prove that it is a medicine of considerable activity.—In Germany, it has been usefully employed in tanning and currying leather.
2. The chamomilla, or Chamomile Feverfew, which grows in corn-fields, dung-hills, as well as on road-sides, and is in flower from May to August. Its properties are similar to those of the common chamomile: it is eaten by cows, goats, and sheep, but not relished by horses; and hogs totally refuse it.—According to Pörner, the flowers of this species of feverfew afford a fine yellow pigment, which may be rendered more permanent by the addition of alum, cream of tartar, and gypsum.—Scheffer, another German chemist, informs us, that a decoction of these flowers imparts a beautiful yellow colour to silk, if a solution of tin, saturated with cream of tartar, be gradually dropped into the liquor, till it acquires a deep yellow tinge. Berthollet, however, on this occasion remarks, that pure water must be employed, which does not precipitate the solution of tin, and that the dyeing bath should be kept in a hot, though not boiling state.
FEVER-POWDERS are generally understood to be those originally prepared by the late Dr. Robert James, and by many still believed to be a certain remedy for fevers of every description. According to the recipe deposited in the records of Chancery (when Dr. James took out a patent for the sale of his powders), they consist of antimony calcined with a continued protracted heat, in a flat, unglazed earthen vessel, adding to it from time to time a sufficient quantity of any animal oil and salt, well dephlegmated; then boiling it in melted nitre for a considerable time, and separating the powder from the nitre, by dissolving it in water.—The chief intention in this process, is to divest the antimony of its sulphur, by mixing it with some animal substance, to prevent its running into glass during the calcination.
When this once celebrated em-
