FROM BULLET-SPRAY AND SMELTER SMOKE 231 



minute traces of lead were found. The dead subjects showed 

 the mucous surfaces to be paler than natural ; a blue line 

 appeared in the gum of the lower jaw, which Dr. Taylor said 

 in court was not caused by lead poison, as it did not occur 

 as in the human subject, on the upper edge of the gum, but 

 where the gums first come into contact with the teeth, about 

 three-sixteenths of an inch below the top edge. Herapath 

 dissected out this line, which was about three-quarters of an 

 inch in length, and the thickness of sewing cotton, and, by 

 aid of carbonate of soda and the blow-pipe, reduced a spangle 

 of lead from it, quite visible to the jury without the aid of a 

 microscope.' 



Lead is readily found in the bodies of animals thus 

 poisoned. It has been detected in the blood, the contents 

 of the stomach and intestines, the brain and spinal cord, the 

 muscles, lungs, spleen, and liver. Lead enters the bodies of 

 animals in their food or water, portions of metal are picked 

 up, or paint is licked. The poison is sometimes brought 

 to the farm in street manure. Water, especially soft water, 

 is liable to contamination by conveyance through leaden 

 pipes or storage in leaden cisterns. The hounds at the royal 

 kennels at Ascot some years since suffered from paralysis 

 from drinking water contaminated by passing through new 

 lead pipes. At Claremont the late Louis Philippe and his 

 suite had symptoms of lead-poisoning, although the amount 

 of lead did not reach half a grain to the gallon. But in 

 some of the Yorkshire towns where lead-poisoning occurred 

 from new pipes, the contamination did not exceed one 

 twenty-fifth of a grain per gallon. On lead pipes or vessels 

 the conjoined action of air and soft water is liable to produce 

 a crust of carbonate (PbC0 3 ), with variable proportions of 

 hydrate Pb (OH) 2 . This crust crumbles away as a crystal- 

 line powder, partly dissolved and partly suspended in the 

 fluid. Leaden vessels, or vessels soldered with lead, must 

 therefore be used with caution for storage, especially for any 

 length of time, of water, saccharine or acetic solutions, or 

 other fluids likely to dissolve the metal. This caution is 

 especially applicable to soft waters and to those rich in 

 chlorides, nitrites, nitrates, and nitrogenous matters yield- 

 ing ammonia. Hard waters, abounding in carbonates, sul- 



