214 POISONS. 



been t'ue poisonous agent*; but a practical chemist will em- 

 ploy many other tests. 



The medical treatment to be pursued in these cases con- 

 sists in either endeavouring- to envelope or to neutralize the 

 acrid matter : the former may be attempted by means of a 

 glairy fluid, for which purpose the whites of eg-g-s have proved 

 the most effectual means, beaten into a liquid, g-iven in large 

 quantities, and repeated as often as they have been ejected. 

 When these are not immediately at hand, milk may be sub- 

 stituted. Mild clysters should also be thrown up. When the 

 stomach is somewhat appeased, give an opiate and castor oil. 

 Large doses of soap, dissolved in water, have been recom- 

 mended as a counter poison to corrosive minerals, or their 

 preparations, and, in the absence of eggs, should be tried. 



Arsenic. — This powerful oxide is often given to dogs, and 

 they not unfrequently find it for themselves in a state of mix- 

 ture with other matters placed to poison rats. The effects 

 produced by it resemble those occasioned by corrosive subli- 

 mate, except that, although they prove equally fatal, they 

 are not apparently so intense. The mouth, likewise, is not 

 usually affected, in an equal degree, with this poison as with 

 the other. Dissection, also, detects similar morbid appear- 

 ances to those above detailed ; but, unless a very large dose 

 has been taken, there is not such complete lesion of the coats 

 of the stomach and intestines ; but the gangrenous spots and 

 the excess of inflammation are fully sufficient to detect the 

 disorganizing action of a mineral poison. Instead of sub- 

 jecting the liquid contents of the stomach and bowels to the 

 action of potash, as directed when corrosive sublimate is 

 looked for, it is usual to detect arsenic by applying the blue 

 ammoniacal sulphate of copper, which will produce a lively 

 green if arsenic is present. A red hot iron will also occasion 



* A ready, although not a very humane, mode of detecting the pre- 

 sence of poisonous matter, is to give to fowls, birds, or any small ani- 

 mal, some of the early ejected contents of the stomach of the dog to 

 wliioh poison has been supposed to be given. 



