PHYSIC. 59 



When such an article has been swallowed by the creature, in whose 

 welfare no living being seems to take a genuine interest, the paper or 

 outward investment is speedily removed by the action of the stomach. 

 Then, the retaining cover being destroyed, the burning mass falls out 

 upon the fine, moist, and velvet coat lining the viscus; this fact may 

 very probably explain why stomachic diseases are so general with the 

 majority of old favorites. As such substances are caustics when ap- 

 plied to the external flesh, it is only reasonable to infer that no tissue 

 within the body could long withstand the burning properties of such 

 potent destroyers. It is true that certain inhumanities, miscalled exper- 

 iments, have been practiced upon living horses. Enormous quantities 

 of the most destructive compounds have been poured down the living 

 throats of submissive quadrupeds. Some animals long survived such 

 disgusting brutality ; but others have succumbed at the very commence- 

 ment of the trial. Yeterinary therapeutics, however, take no notice of 

 such as yielded to the smaller dose. The men who conducted these cruel- 

 ties delight to dwell upon the fact that a certain horse actually took so 

 much of such a poison, and, apparently, suffered no ill effects fi'om imbi- 

 bition of the deadly potion. 



A COMPOUND BALI, AS PREPARED IN TOO MANT YETBBINABT PHARMACIES. 



However, supposing such an experiment were made on human beings. 

 Let a certain number of cripples be procured from the workhouses ; aged 

 creatures whose span of existence was almost run, and on whose coun- 

 tenances years of suffering had impressed the lines of prolonged misery. 

 Let such poor mortals be deprived of speech, and let all the signs of suf- 

 fering in them be disregarded. Then force these wretched beings to 

 swallow large quantities of the various poisons. "Would all perish simul- 

 taneously ? By no means. Affliction often acts as a defense to those 

 whom it envelops. Men in different stages of distress have endured 

 strange things, as during every hour the record of calamity makes known. 



The poor animals which served for the subjects of the so-called veteri- 

 nary experiments were procured from the knackers; they were in the 

 last stages of disease, and the poison, which would kill healthy horses, 

 acting upon frames exhausted by every possible accumulation of agony, 

 probably may have stimulated the exhaustion of excessive debilitv. 



