230 LEAD-POISONING 



which bullet spray from the Rugby rifle butts had fallen. 

 Fragments of the lead were found adhering to the coats of 

 the stomach, and the poison was also detected in the in- 

 testines, liver, and kidneys (Veterinarian, 1864). Broad 

 also records cases of cattle poisoned by picking up bullet 

 spray. The animals were described as dull and tucked-up, 

 the eyes staring, the gait unsteady, the appetite good, but 

 the bowels constipated ; emaciation, with oedema under the 

 jaw, made rapid progress. Portions of bullet spray were 

 found in the second and third stomachs ; both large and 

 small intestines were pale-blue and bloodless (Veterinarian, 

 1865). Tuson reported similar symptoms from licking red 

 paint, which he found retained for twenty-eight weeks in a 

 cow's stomach. Cox, of Hendon, had several sheep which 

 became emaciated and paralysed from eating*the splashes of 

 lead bullets, which were found in the stomachs in thin flakes, 

 readily soluble in the gastric fluids (Taylor). Birds are 

 occasionally poisoned by eating berries contaminated by the 

 smoke of lead smelters. 



Herapath reported interesting cases of lead-poisoning 

 which followed the erection of smelting furnaces on the 

 Mendip hills in 1853. Lead oxides, carbonate, and sulphate 

 were found on the herbage, hedges, and hay. On the live 

 stock ' the effects of the metal were, stunted growth, lean- 

 ness, shortness of breathing, paralysis of the extremities, 

 particularly the hinder ones ; the flexor muscles of the fore- 

 legs affected, so that they stood upon their toes ; swelling 

 of the knees ; but no constipation or colic, as in the human 

 species ; in a few months death followed. In the young the 

 symptoms were more conspicuous and the mortality greater. 

 Lambs were yeaned paralytic ; when three weeks old they 

 could not stand, although they made great efforts to do so ; 

 in attempting to feed them from a bottle they were nearly 

 suffocated from paralysis of the glottis ; twenty-one died 

 early out of twenty- three. /Colts also died, and those that 

 lived could not be trotted 150 yards without distressed 

 breathing. ) Pigs confined to the stye were not injured, but 

 if allowed to roam were soon affected. The milk of cows 

 and sheep was reduced in quality and quantity, and cheese 

 made from the former had less fat in it. In the milk of both 



