MEDICINES—PREPARATION AND ADMINISTRATION.      111

Liquid medicines are often soaked up in bread and rolled in a
chuppatee or leaf and given. Tasteless drugs may be given in
drinking water, especially if water has been withheld for some little
time. Good mahouts are wonderfully clever in getting their animals
to take medicines.

For a troublesome animal the following plan may be adopted. He
should first of all be well fettered and have a rope tied round the
neck. A wooden gag is then inserted into the mouth and secured
by the ropes at the ends to the neck rope. The gag should be
about 2½ ft. long, 6 ins. broad and 2 ins. thick, the hole in the
centre should be at least 4 ins. in diameter, that is large enough
to permit the hand to pass through (Fig. 34); the tongue offers some
resistance and care must be taken that the hand is not pushed to
one side between the grinders ; once the pill is pushed to the back of
the mouth the animal is forced to swallow. Liquids should be
carried into the mouth in a plantain leaf or in a small joint of bamboo
the edges of which must be rounded off.

[NLS note: a graphic appears here - see image of page]

FIG. 34.—Wooden gag for administration of medicine.

Steel recommends that liquid medicines be pumped into the mouth
by means of an enema syringe such as Read's patent. The ordinary
nozzle-piece might be used for this purpose.

Castor and linseed oil are sometimes given in the following
manner. The oil is placed in a tin and some spice such as
cardamom or cinnamon mixed with it. The mahout then puts his
hand into the mixture and rubs the medicine into the animal's mouth
till the whole is finished.

Hypodermic injection.—By means of a special syringe, of which
there are many patterns capable of being rendered aseptic by boil-
ing, drugs may be introduced beneath the skin; when so injected
they are quickly absorbed and their action rapidly manifested. The
skin is not difficult to penetrate with a good needle. If necessary,
a small incision through the skin may be made and the needle
introduced. For hypodermic injections in human and veterinary
practice, solutions of the active principles of drugs are generally
used, such as, when opium is indicated, a small quantity of solution