44 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



to suspect some extraordinary or poisonous influence at work. Taylor, 

 Stevenson, and others, famous by their special study of poisons, warn us 

 that, though indicating a direction in which to make enquiry and search for 

 the cause, such acute illnesses are not inconsistent with certain rare, but 

 nevertheless well-known, causes for sudden and painful disease and death. 

 The rupture of some large blood-vessel or abdominal organ, as the stomach, 

 may lead to symptoms very similar to irritant poisoning. 



Suspicions of poisoning may be justly entertained, and investigation 

 pursued, although it might be unwise to express them, and at the same 

 time calculated to defeat the object in view, especially where foul play has 

 been practised. Wilful poisoning is happily infrequent in the present 

 day, and its rarity tends rather to disarm suspicion. Moreover, sudden 

 deaths among horses without previous '•complaint" are cpiite common in 

 large studs. 



What to do in Cases of Poisoning. — A comparison is again forced 



upon us, and we have to lament that as horse doctors our opportunities of 

 combating fatal doses of drugs are very much fewer than those of a medical 

 man. Our patients do not commit suicide, or drink carbolic acid by mis- 

 take, and seldom indeed do they get drenched with a poisonous liniment 

 intended for outward application. The mistake is seldom discovered in 

 time when accidental poisoning takes place in horses, and the wilful 

 poisoner has less to fear from the dying depositions of the patient, who can 

 only tell his wrongs by symptoms which may be difficult to distinguish 

 from those of disease otherwise induced. For a variety of reasons the 

 veterinarian has not the same chances of counteracting poisonous doses as 

 the medical man. The human patient can tell his attendant the mistake, 

 and the most suitable treatment may be instantly adopted, while the 

 veterinary surgeon has to wait for the effects before he can ascertain the 

 possible cause. 



In nearly all cases the poison is taken into the stomach, and thence 

 passes into the circulation. If we are fortunate enough to be early on the 

 scene we may employ a stomach-pump and evacuate the contents of the 

 organ, in the hope of removing the remaining unappropriated poison therein 

 contained. As such an instrument is not likely to be found in possession of 

 the ordinary horse-owner, it is the more necessary to seek the aid of a 

 qualified veterinary surgeon. 



Again, we are at the disadvantage in regard to this animal that we 

 cannot freely excite vomition, as in the dog or cat, so that it nearly always 

 happens in cases of poisoning that reliance must be placed upon chemical 

 or physiological antidotes, and such general measures as may be indicated 

 in order to combat particular conditions. 



