Dixon’s Pills probably contain the following in each pill:—
| Grains. | Grms. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compound Extract of Colocynth, | 2 | ·0 | = | ·1296 |
| Rhubarb, | 1 | ·0 | = | ·0648 |
| Tartar Emetic, | ·06 | = | ·0038 | |
| 3 | ·06 | = | ·1982 | |
(3) Antimonial Medicines, chiefly Veterinary:[802]—
[802] There has long prevailed an idea (the truth of which is doubtful) that antimony given to animals improves their condition; thus, the Encyclop. Brit., 5th ed., art. “Antimony”:—“A horse that is lean and scrubby, and not to be fatted by any means, will become fat on taking a dose of antimony every morning for two months together. A boar fed for brawn, and having an ounce of antimony given him every morning, will become fat a fortnight sooner than others put into the stye at the same time, and fed in the same manner, but without the antimony.” Probably the writer means by the term antimony the impure sulphide. To this may be added the undoubted fact, that in Brunswick the breeders of fat geese add a small quantity of antimonious oxide to the food, as a traditional custom.
Liver of Antimony is a preparation formerly much used by farriers. It is a mixture of antimonious oxide, sulphide of potassium, carbonate of potassium, and undecomposed trisulphide of antimony (and may also contain sulphate of potassium), all in very undetermined proportions. When deprived of the soluble potash salts, it becomes the washed saffron of antimony of the old pharmacists. A receipt for a grease-ball, in a modern veterinary work, gives, with liver of antimony, cream of tartar and guaiacum as ingredients.
Hind’s Sweating-ball is composed of 60 grains (3·888 grms.) of tartar emetic and an equal portion of assafœtida, made up into a ball with liquorice-powder and syrup. The assafœtida will be readily detected by the odour, and the antimony by the methods already recommended.
Ethiops of Antimony, very rarely used now, is the mechanical mixture of the sulphides of antimony and mercury—proportions, 3 of the former to 2 of the latter.
The Flowers of Antimony is an impure oxysulphide of antimony, with variable proportions of trioxide and undecomposed trisulphide.