LEAD-POISONING 229 



The breathing up to this period was tranquil, but now 

 became so difficult and laboured that the patients appeared 

 in danger of suffocation. The pulse was in no case above 

 sixty or seventy, and I ascribed the difficulty of respiration 

 to a paralysed state of the respiratory apparatus. ) The 

 animals did not live more than two or three days after these 

 symptoms appeared. The post-mortem appearances varied 

 little. The lungs and trachea were inflamed, the lungs 

 engorged with large quantities of black blood, the trachea 

 and bronchi filled with frothy spume. In all but two cases 

 the villous portion of the stomach presented isolated patches 

 of increased vascularity, and in all cases the intestines, and 

 especially the large ones, were inflamed. The blind pouch 

 of the caecum was nearly gangrenous. There was nothing 

 remarkable about the liver, spleen, or kidneys, except that 

 they were of a singularly blue appearance. The brain and 

 spinal cord were not examined. 5 ('According to Mosselman 

 and Hebrant, the effects of the poison in horses are especially 

 manifested upon the vagus nerve, inducing roaring and 

 dyspnoea. I 



In 1863, three milch cows were poisoned by eating sheet 

 lead, which had been used for lining tea-chests, and which was 

 afterwards carelessly thrown on the manure heap, and thence 

 spread on the pastures. Besides failure of milk and appetite, 

 grinding of the teeth, and dulness, several curious symptoms 

 are mentioned. The head was rested against any convenient 

 object as if the animal were asleep, while the eyes were 

 nearly closed, and were little sensitive to light or to move- 

 ments of the finger. The gait was weak and tottering, while 

 for an hour or two at a time the cows, although persistently 

 standing on their hind limbs, went down on their knees, 

 propping themselves against the wall. They survived four 

 or five days. From the fourth stomach of one cow a pound 

 of sheet lead was removed ; the lining membrane was 

 thickened, and of a brown colour. The mucous membrane 

 of the stomachs and bowels was abnormally vascular, and 

 exhibited in places patches of ecchymosis. The liver was 

 pale, clay-coloured, compact, and contained little blood. 



Watson records the poisoning of three cows, which 

 languished for several months, and died from eating grass on 



