LEAD POISONIXG. 4/3 



with the tissues of the body, and is retained in the system as an 

 insoluble compound, and only leaves the body on the breaking 

 up or disintegration, medicinally or otherwise, of such insoluble 

 compound. 



The symptoms of slow lead poisoning in the lower animals are, 

 capriciousness of the appetite, loss of flesh, convulsive fits, a blue 

 line seen on the gums where teeth are present, the gums in the 

 interdental spaces showing no trace of this colour. Colic is some- 

 times absent, and constipation is not so constant a symptom as 

 in man ; indeed I have repeatedly seen a diarrhoeic condition of 

 the bowels with leaden-coloured and foetid stools. In the horse, 

 roaring is considered, in Wales, the first symptom of lead 

 poisoning, and every roarer in the lead districts about Holy- 

 well and Flint is said to have had lead (jjliom). Mr. Shen- 

 ton of Bakewell, in a letter to ]Mr. Fiulay Dun, thus de- 

 scribes the symptoms of lead poisoning in eleven horses 

 which came under his observation in 1852: — "There was 

 a rough, staring coat, a tucked-up appearance of the abdo- 

 men, and a slightly accelerated pulse ; in fact, symptoms of 

 febrile excitement, which usually passed away in about a week. 

 About this time large quantities of grey-coloured matter were 

 discharged from the nostrils, and saliva from the mouth ; but at 

 no time was there enlargement of the submaxillary, lymphatic, 

 or salivary glands. Neither was there constipation of the 

 bowels, which appears to be nearly always present in cases of 

 lead poisoning in man. Fits and partial paralysis came on at 

 intervals ; and when the animals got down they often struggled 

 for a long time ineffectually to get up again. The breathing up 

 till this period was pretty tranquil, but now became so difficult 

 and laboured that the patient appeared in danger of suffocation. 

 The pulse was in no case above sixty or seventy ; and I ascribed 

 the difficulty of respiration to a paralyzed 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 but little. The lungs 

 and trachea were inflamed ; the lungs engorged with large quan- 

 tities of black blood ; the trachea and bronchi filled with frothy 

 spume. In all cases but two the villous part of the stomach 

 presented isolated patches of increased vascular action ; and in 

 all cases the intestines, especially the large ones, were inflamed. 



