Manual of veterinary homeopathy

I—Humphreys’ Veterinary Remedies, are not an experiment. They have been in use among Farmers, Breeders, Livery Stable and Turfmen, Horse Railroad, Express, Mining and Manufacturing Companies, Menageries and Hippodromes, and others handling large numbers of horses and other stock, with complete success for over sixty years.

II—You have a remedy for any particular Disease or Complaint. For Colic, or Cough, or Founder, or Heaves, or Pneumonia, or Indigestion, or Disease of the Kidneys, or Urinary Passages, Strains, or Lameness. You have it in compact, portable form. You know just what to do, and how to do it.

III—Their use is free from danger to the Animal. In the usual treatment, the medicines are either rank poisons or the most violent alteratives. It is a common experience, that, if the horse finally lives through the treatment he is worthless from the effects of the medicines. Thousands of good horses are every year killed by drugs. In Humphreys’ Remedy system you are absolutely free from all such danger.

IV—They are simple. Being Remedies for particular diseases you know at once what to give. You can scarcely make a mistake. Even if you do, you have only lost your time, and have not killed the animal. When using the common veterinary drugs, a mistake is often fatal.

V—They are readily and easily given. You need not lose a moment. The Remedy is ready just as you want it. With the Medicator you take the dose from the bottle and place it upon the tongue of the animal, without loss of time or danger. No bottling, balling, choking, or strangling—irritating the animal and endangering the owner or his help.

VI—They act more quickly than any other Medicine. Humphreys’ Remedies act through the medium of the nerves and the blood, rather than through the digestive organs. They begin to act before other medicines even reach the stomach.

VII—Every Ten Dollars invested in Humphreys’ Veterinary Remedies will save you $100.00 and every HUNDRED will save a THOUSAND IN PROPERTY, besides an equal amount in time, trouble and care.

VIII—The saving in loss of stock is from one-half to three-fourths. This is the testimony of hundreds of horsemen.

IX—The Treatment is humane, and if we may be humane as well as skillful, surely we should prefer it.

X—Diagnosing the disease and giving of medicine is such, as any sensible, faithful man of ordinary intelligence can master without difficulty.

We could annex Ten Thousand Testimonials of their efficacy.

CAUTION

☞Take care not to confound Dr. F. Humphreys’ Veterinary Remedies with the spawn of imitations which the wonderful success of his Remedies has warmed into existence. Imitators have taken his labels, his doses and directions, and even his name, under which to impose their Imitations upon the public. Care should be exercised to avoid impositions. Several parties have reported the loss of valuable stock through the use of these imitations.

It is an error to suppose that animals require very large doses of Humphreys’ Homeopathic Medicines, for experience has shown sick animals to be very impressible, and easily influenced by appropriate medicine, and in general, not to require as frequent repetitions as the human subject. Those who are accustomed to give large and powerful doses of poisonous medicines in order to produce some revulsive action, such as a cathartic or sudorific, or even as an alterative, can not from hence infer the proper quantity required when only a curative result is desired.

Only experience, hence, can answer the question, How much? And experience has amply shown that for horses ten to fifteen drops is the range of doses best adapted in ordinary cases, and that while cattle and hogs require rather more, sheep and dogs require less than the doses mentioned. We have indicated in each disease the dose supposed to be best for that particular case, yet to give two or five drops more in any given case would probably not be hurtful, while to give a few drops less would not endanger the curative action for want of the requisite quantity. The truth is that precision in quantity is not indispensable to a cure. The doses indicated we think are best, but a deviation from them is by no means fatal. One physician gives much more and another many times less, and both are successful. Medicine gives a curative impulse often as well or better with five or ten drops as with more. Besides, in giving medicines to animals, from their restlessness, dodging the head, and other similar disturbing circumstances we can not, and happily need not, be very positive. Give doses as near directions, as you may be able, and the result will be satisfactory. The best and safest rule is always to follow directions given in book, chart, and on bottles. It is unsafe for you to assume that you know more than the man who made the medicine and has had many years experience and observation in using them. Young animals require but half as much as grown ones.

The effects of Humphreys’ Homeopathic Remedies are very prompt and positive. Often immediate, in cases of colic or other forms of neuralgia, as the medicine acts at once through the medium of the nervous system. In other acute cases, such as inflammations, the effect is equally as prompt but not so openly manifest. The medicine placed in contact with the nervous papilla of the tongue is at once by means of this connection conveyed over the entire system, while the stomach being a secreting rather than an absorbing surface, repels rather than absorbs a medicinal influence, so that medicines act better for being placed on the tongue than when they are introduced into the stomach.

The time to repeat is when the good effect has terminated. All rules of repetition are based upon this axiom. Thus, in colic and inflammation of the bowels, we repeat every fifteen, thirty or sixty minutes. In inflammation of the lungs, or chest, head, or other noble organ, or in pneumonia or similar acute diseases, we repeat once in two, three or four hours. In the yet less severe forms of disease, such as Fevers, Founder, Strangles, Distemper, Lameness, or similar diseases, a dose once in four hours, or four times per day, is quite sufficient. While in Coughs, Heaves, Ulcers, Eruptions, and similar affections, if recent, a dose morning and night is ample. In old chronic affections, a dose every day, is better than more frequent repetitions. In most cases these Remedies continue to act for weeks after having been given if undisturbed by the use of other medicines.

Alternation of Remedies

In general but one medicine is required for a disease, and it may be repeated from time to time. But cases are often met with where two Remedies are indicated at the same time, one to meet one phase of the disease, and a different Remedy to meet another. In all such cases the two medicines are given alternately. Thus give a dose of one Remedy and then, after the proper interval give the other Remedy, and thus continue the two alternately, at such intervals as the directions demand. Nor should we be deterred from the use of a remedy in a particular case, because the name given it indicates a different use, for a medicine may be curative for a particular disease, and equally so for a different or even seemingly opposite one.

How to Choose the Remedy

In the use of my Homeopathic Remedies nothing can be more simple than the choice of the Remedy, while in attempting to use the ordinary Homeopathic preparations, the choice of the remedy is very difficult and intricate. From an examination of the animal you will have some idea of the nature of its disease, and will at once turn to the Index and page in the Manual describing that and similar diseases. Continue the search until the true description is found, and the proper treatment pointed out. If in doubt as to the particular remedy always give A.A. It rarely fails to help, and prepares the way for other remedies when they are required and gives you time to think and observe. Many good practitioners always give A.A. first. It is not necessary that all the symptoms given should be present, as the Remedy in all cases has a wider range of action than the disease.

If a sufficient length of time has passed to clearly show that no good has resulted, the case should be looked over again, and a more appropriate Remedy selected.

How to give the Remedy

Not among the least recommendations for the use of my Homeopathic Remedies, is the ease and facility with which they may be administered. No tying, struggling, or choking are necessary. The animal should be approached quietly, usually on the OFF SIDE if the Medicator is to be used, and medicine placed, if possible, upon the tongue, well back—thence it is absorbed, and acts at once through the medium of the nervous system. The simplest medium of doing this is best. For this purpose the use of the Medicator is best—a small glass instrument invented by me. It is about five inches in length, made of firm, heavy glass tubing (see 4th cover page), the lower third bent so as to readily enter the lips. The upper end is funnel-shaped the size of the end of the finger, and covered with an air-tight rubber cap, so as to form an air receiver. The Medicator, taken in the right hand, with the forefinger upon the top or rubber valve, is introduced into the proper vial, and pressing slightly upon the valve the air is exhausted, and on removing the finger the fluid is forced up into the tube sufficient for a dose. A little experience will enable one to take up five, ten or more drops as may be required. The Medicator thus charged with the dose, can, at the convenient moment, be inserted just within the lips of the animal’s mouth, the farther back upon the tongue the better, when a slight pressure upon the top of tube injects contents, and medicine is given.

The Medicator should be held upright; never turned down or held horizontally; as the air is thus introduced and the medicine may drop out. Held upright until it is quietly inserted between the lips of the animal, no such difficulty occurs. Nor is it necessary to push the tube far enough into the mouth to expose it to the danger of being broken or crushed between the teeth. The moment fluid from tube comes upon the tongue the animal will open its mouth, and in an instant the medicine is injected upon the tongue or in the mouth, and the operation is finished.

In other cases the tongue may be gently hooked out of the mouth with the finger, and the medicine may be dropped or turned upon it. Horses are fond of sugar, and the medicine may be dropped upon a small lump, and fed from hand. After a few times they will call for their sugar when the owner comes into the stable, at the proper time. With cattle or sheep, raise the head a little and inject the medicine with the medicator, or pull the tongue out on one side, and drop or eject the medicine upon it.

Hogs usually, when sick, lie quietly upon the side, and medicine may hence be injected into the mouth with Medicator, or be given in a spoonful of sweet milk, poured in between the jaws, or given them to drink. Care must be taken in giving fluid to hogs, not to forcibly raise the head, as they are easily strangled—even to death. Dogs may have the medicine in a little sweet milk, or it may be even turned in through the nose. Yet the Medicator is an improvement upon all these plans, as it takes up and discharges the proper dose at once.

N. B.—Take off the rubber cap, and cleanse the Medicator when using it for different medicines.

Housing and Care of Sick Animals

When an animal shows signs of illness, it should be immediately cared for. The horse, unless in cases of very slight Colic, or other ailment, when the medicine be given at once, and his work continued, should be placed in a roomy, convenient and warm stall, well littered, with plenty of dry bedding, and well blanketed, unless in very warm weather. Cattle, Sheep and Hogs, as soon as it is noticed that they are sick, should be separated from the herd or flock, and placed in comfortable, well littered and especially dry apartments. This is necessary not only to prevent disease spreading to other stock on the farm, but for the convenience of nursing them, giving them medicines, and also to place them in the very best position for a cure. Often a little timely care and nursing will save and restore an animal, which, if permitted to run with the stock, and take its chance, would unquestionably be lost. A sick animal as truly needs attention as a sick child. Not always will mere nursing restore a sick animal, but it always places it in the best possible condition to effect a cure, and without it the best medical treatment will often be fruitless.

Diet of Sick Animals

In general, when animals are seriously ill, they are without appetite, and will take little or no food—nature thus indicating the propriety of abstinence. But in all cases the food given or allowed should be quite limited in quantity—one-half, one-third or fourth of the usual quantity, and only that which is nourishing, easily digested, and generally relaxing. With these general restrictions, the usual kinds of food may be permitted, except in the case of dogs, where only stale bread and milk should be allowed in urgent cases, and but little or no meat, and no salted or spiced food in any case. After the more urgent symptoms of disease have passed over, and the animal is recovering, we should be careful and not give full feed, as a relapse may thus easily be provoked, and prove very stubborn and dangerous.

At least half an hour or an hour should intervene after taking a dose of medicine before the animal should be fed as the system is more susceptible then than at any other time.

To evacuate the bowels—injections of water, soap and water, or salt and water are always allowable, and may often be used with great benefit. They are usually administered without difficulty, in no case injurious, and should one fail to produce an evacuation, another or more may be repeated, until the result is accomplished.

How to Feel the Pulse

In the horse, this is best done by placing the finger on the artery, where it passes over the lower jaw, about four inches below its angle. Place the forefinger on the side of the lower jaw at its angle, and trace the jaw along gently towards the mouth. Some four inches below the angle a notch will be found, in which the artery passes over the jaw, and the throbbing of the pulse will be readily felt. Some attention may be required as the pulse beats in health slowly, and often apparently indistinctly.

The pulse makes in the healthy horse from thirty-six to forty-two beats per minute; in spirited lighter horses the latter, and in heavy older horses the former. When the pulse reaches fifty to fifty-five, there is some degree of fever. Seventy-five will indicate a dangerous condition, and few horses will long survive a pulse of one hundred. Care should be taken not to excite an animal before or while examining the pulse, as it may thus readily be increased ten or fifteen beats to the minute, and mislead as to the true condition.

In cattle the temple is the best place to feel the pulse and usually runs forty-five to fifty beats per minute.

In sheep and hogs the femoral artery which extends across the inside of the thigh is most easily felt. This should run seventy to eighty for both sheep and hogs.

In dogs the pulse may be felt by placing two fingers on the inner side of the knee. Dogs run from 90 to 100 per minute.

The heart usually beats four or five times to each breath the animal takes (when in condition of rest). There is also a variation in normal temperature according to the animal as follows:

As this Veterinary Manual may fall into the hands of some who are not acquainted with its use, a few practical hints may be of service.

1st. Follow the directions.—Read and learn what the disease or condition is.—Then give the remedy in the doses, and at the intervals directed, as near as may be. Don’t think you know more about the doses or how much to give, or how often to give it, than the man who originated the system and wrote the book, and whose rules and observations are the result of very large experience.

2d. Don’t mix the Remedies with other medicines. They won’t act if you mix them up with other things; or bring the patient under the influence of other drugs, however harmless you may suppose them to be. The sure way of safety and success, is to trust to the Remedies alone. You will not improve the case by resorting to other medicines or other measures. If the patient does not improve as rapidly as you desire, a little rest will do no harm, and the kindly reaction may come on later.

3d. Don’t be in to great haste.—Medicines must have time to act and time to cure. In some cases, such as colics, neuralgias or nervous pains, the evidence of good action is prompt—almost immediately. In other slower, less pronounced, not so decided.

When you see the patient relieved.—less pain,—more quiet,—more natural,—easier, then you know that the remedy is acting curatively, and don’t interfere with it, by giving new doses or other remedies or medicines. Simply let the remedy act. Hurrying does not hurry the cure. When a good action has begun it will continue faster when quietly permitted to expend its action, than if doses are multiplied upon it. The time to repeat the dose is when the action of the former has ceased or begun to decline. The patient is in more danger from your doing too much, than too little, after a good action has been set up.

4th. Disease of the bones, joints and ligaments, only get well slowly. So of old chronic affections—such as “Spavin,” “Founder,” “Ringbone,” “Wind galls,” “Warts,” or other blemishes. A new action has to be set up in the implicated part, often a process of absorption and of reformation of tissue, and time must be allowed for these changes, through which only a cure can be made. Sometimes a good reaction is only produced after some days or even weeks use of the remedy. Such is nature’s way of cure and you cannot hasten it. So your true interest and true philosophy is, act patiently, perseveringly, if you would act successfully.

5th. The action of Humphreys’ Remedies continues a long time.