Aloes is also extensively used in veterinary practice. It is the most valuable and reliable purgative for the horse of the whole materia medica; but is less to be depended on for cattle, sheep, and hogs. Barbadoes aloes is the best for this purpose. Cape aloes are, however, often employed, when 1-4th more must be given.--_Dose_ (of the former), for a HORSE, 4 to 8 dr.;[32]--CATTLE, 3 to 6 dr. (followed by a purging drench);--HOGS, 5 to 15 gr.;--SHEEP, 15 to 30 gr.;[33]--DOGS (small ones), 10 to 30 gr., (middle-sized) 20 to 44, or even 60 gr., (large) 3/4 to 1 dr., or even 2 dr.
[Footnote 32: Aloes takes from 18 to 30, or even 36 hours, to operate on a horse.]
[Footnote 33: Aloes, however large the dose, often fails to purge sheep. In very large quantities it is poisonous to them.]
Aloes is also used in dyeing; and as a colouring matter in stains, lacquers, and varnishes. Aloes, and several of its preparations, are likewise extensively employed to adulterate porter.
_Var._ These, arranged in the order of their reputed medicinal value, are--Socotrine, Hepatic, Barbadoes, Cape, &c.; and alphabetically, as given below:--
=Aloes, Barba'does.= _Syn._ ALOES IN GOURDS; AL'OË BARBADEN'SIS, L., Ph. L. & E. Imported from Barbadoes and Jamaica, usually in gourds; sometimes in boxes. The best is the inspissated juice of the cut leaf of _aloë vulga''ris_; an inferior quality is prepared from the decoction.--_Char., &c._ Opaque, lustreless, of a liver colour, a little tending to black, with a bitter nauseous taste, and a very disagreeable odour, especially when breathed on; powder a dull olive-yellow. It is the 'hepatic' aloes of most continental writers, and said to be the [Greek: Aloê] of Dioscorides. It is more active than the other varieties of aloes; but is also more apt to occasion hæmorrhoids, and to gripe, than any of them.
=Aloes, Cab'alline= (-l[=i]ne.) _Syn._ F[OE]T'ID ALOES, HORSE A.; ALOË CABALLI'NA, A. GUINIEN'SIS, L.; ALOÈS CABALLIN, Fr. From _aloë In'dica_ (O'Shaughnessy); or from _aloë spica'ta_ by long and careful boiling. (Lindley.) Used only by farriers. Scarcely known in English commerce.
=Aloes, Cape.= _Syn._ ALOË CAPEN'SIS, A. LU'CIDA (_Geiger_), L. Imported from the Cape of Good Hope, and obtained from _aloë spica'ta_, and other Cape species. Odour stronger and even more disagreeable than that of Barbadoes aloes; colour deep greenish-brown; appearance shining and resinous; fracture generally glassy; powder a lively greenish-yellow; almost completely soluble in boiling water, decoction paler than that of other kinds. It is weaker than Barbadoes or even hepatic aloes, and is more apt to gripe, &c., than the latter. A finer kind, known as '_Bethelsdorp aloes_,' imported from Algoa Bay, is more of a liver colour, and softer than the preceding, and hence often called CAPE HEPATIC-ALOES.