TOXIC DOSES 273 



temperature, cramps, delirium, coma, and death. Its power 

 to produce fatty degeneration is not so great as that of 

 phosphorus, but fatty degeneration is often observed in the 

 epithelial lining of the stomach and of the alveoli of the 

 lungs of animals poisoned by arsenic. The glycogenic 

 function of the liver is impaired by continued doses, and in 

 pigs, fowls, and rabbits fatty degeneration in three or four 

 weeks invades most of the soft textures and attacks the 

 bones. It is eliminated by the kidneys, and to a less extent 

 by the liver, skin, and glands generally. Five to six hours 

 after administration it may be found in the urine and milk. 

 It is longest retained by the bones. 



All arsenical compounds are poisonous, and the most 

 soluble are the most active. Deadliest of all is arseniuretted 

 hydrogen, which has occasioned the death of three chemists, 

 who unfortunately inhaled it. Orfila found that the sul- 

 phides, in doses of forty to seventy grains, destroyed dogs in 

 two to six days, and had much the same effect whether 

 they were swallowed or applied to a wound. Metallic 

 arsenic, although itself innocuous, unites so readily with 

 hydrogen and oxygen that it speedily acquires poisonous 

 activity. 



The toxic dose for the horse is liable to considerable 

 variation. Kaufmann's estimate is 240 to 720 grains. 

 Berthe gave a mare affected with inveterate mange two, and 

 afterwards three, drachms without injury. Beissenhirz 

 gave one, four, three, two, and eight drachms, on successive 

 days ; and death occurred twenty-four hours after the last 

 dose. Hertwig gave eight horses doses, beginning with 

 20 grains and gradually increasing to a drachm ; continued 

 the administration in some cases for thirty days, in others 

 for forty days, but observed no bad effects, either during 

 the use of the poison or afterwards ; the pulse became a little 

 stronger and harder, and some of the animals improved in 

 condition. Percivall gave a horse affected with glanders 

 one drachm in bolus with linseed and treacle, and increased 

 the dose by 20 grains daily for seventeen days, when the 

 animal received 380 grains in one dose. By the eighteenth 

 day the animal had taken upwards of seven ounces of 

 arsenic. Yet no physiological effect was obvious, no loss 



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