186 MINERAL POISONS. 



tents of the stomach and bowels, both before and after death, 

 should be saved, and undergo a rigid chemical analysis. In ge- 

 neral cases, the addition of potash to some of these liquid contents 

 will occasion a light yellow precipitate when corrosive sublimate 

 has been the poisonous agent^^; but a practical chemist will employ 

 many other tests. 



The medical treatment to be pursued in these cases consists 

 in both endeavouring to envelope and to neutralize the acrid 

 matter : the former may be attempted by means of a glairy fluid, 

 for which purpose the whites of eggs have proved the most 

 effectual remedies, beaten into a liquid, given in large quantities, 

 and repeated as often as they have been ejected : when these are 

 not immediately at hand, milk may be substituted. Mild clysters 

 should also be thrown up. When the stomach is somewhat ap- 

 peased, give an opiate and castor oil. Large doses of soap, dissolved 

 in water, have been recommended 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 not 

 unfrequently they find it for themselves in a state of mixture with 

 other matters placed to poison rats. The eflfects produced by it 

 resemble those occasioned by corrosive sublimate, except that, 

 although they prove equally fatal, they are not apparently so in- 

 tense. The mouth, likewise, is not usually affected in an equal 

 degree by this poison as by the other. Dissection, also, detects 

 similar morbid appearances 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- 



'° A ready, although not a very humane, mode of detecting the presence of 

 poisonous matter, is to give to fowls, birds, or any small animal, some of the 

 early ejected contents of the stomach of the dog to which poison has been 

 supposed to be given; but this ought never to be attempted, unless the ends 

 of justice inipcratively demanded it, and no tests could be procured. 



