216 POISONS. 



repeated until the bowels are perfectly cleared out. The 

 body should be afterwards kept soluble by castor oil ; for I 

 have always observed a costive habit from paralytic torpor of 

 the bowels remain some time after the action of lead. 



Quicksilver. — When mercurial ointment is rubbed on dogs, 

 without muzzling or covering- them, it is very common for 

 them to lick themselves, and to become, by this means, fa- 

 tally poisoned. In such cases the stomach is usually but 

 slightly affected, but a diarrhoea of great violence follows, 

 attended with bloody stools from ulceration in the bowels. 

 In these cases, commence the treatment by giving a mixture 

 of castor oil and whites of eggs, in equal parts, sufficient to 

 remove the offending matter ; proceed next to wash off all 

 the remaining ointment, and then give opiates and astrin- 

 gents. — See Looseness. 



From this detail of appearances produced by the more active 

 mineral poisons, both before and after death (which are all 

 drawn from numerous and well defined cases that too fre- 

 quently came under my notice), it will be apparent, that it 

 is not difficult to discriminate between the inflammation 

 brought on by their agency, particularly when full doses 

 have been given, from those inflammations occasioned by 

 cold or other causes. When caustic mineral salts or acids 

 have been taken, the symptoms are more urgent, the pro- 

 gress more rapid, and the pain and distress greater than 

 when inflammation has proceeded from other sources. The 

 foetor from the mouth, and the bloody vomitings and stools, 

 are also strong living characteristics of poison. The dead 

 ones may be gained from the extreme inflammation and gan- 

 grenous state of tlie alimentary canal, but more particularly 

 from the ulcerated state of the stomach * and bowels, and 



* It is not very unusual for the solvent power of the gastric juice to 

 erode through the coats of the stomach ; but, in such case, the opening 

 is one simple and determinate one only, and always situate at that part 

 where the gravity of the gastric fluid has placed it particularly in con- 

 tact with the stomach, and in no other. 



