POISONS, POISONOUS SNAKES AND INSECTS. ETC. 383. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



POISONS, POISONOUS SNAKES AND INSECTS, ETC. 



The action of poisonous substances is not uniformly the 

 same upon the horse as upon the human subject, for, although 

 some of these are nearly equally destructive to both, many 

 that are deadly in their effects upon the biped are quite 

 innocent when given the horse; and still others are in the 

 highest degree injurious to the latter, but not at all harmful 

 to man. 



In this chapter the design will be to describe, not the ac- 

 tion of those poisons which are known to be universally de- 

 structive to animal life, for of these there is no need to warn 

 the reader against using, but to call the attention of all 

 classes to the dangers attending the employment of various 

 drugs which many people are ignorantly accustomed to give 

 their horses to purify the blood, and for the improvement 

 of condition generally, and to point out the best antidotes 

 that are known for the counteraction of their effects when 

 they have been given either by accident or design. We shall 

 also have occasion to treat of the various animal poisons to 

 whose operation the horse is sometimes exposed — the bite of 

 serpents, the sting of poisonous insects, and the like. 



Often nothing will avail in a case of poisoning. Poisons 

 usually act very quickly, disorganizing the blood and the 

 tissues of the body so rapidly that only the promptest possi- 

 ble measures will save the victim's life. Others, however, 

 do not kill at once, but the horse lingers along in ill-health, 

 and finally dies — it may be' even months afterward. Many 

 cases of chronic disease and permanently-impaired health 

 has the author known among horses that were referable to 

 nothing else in the world than the use of poisonous medi- 

 cines. Such remedies, every intelligent farmer and horse- 



