VEGETABLE POISONS. 189 



in the whole body to become putrid and decomposed. The foetor 

 that comes from the diseased parts is likewise peculiar in these 

 cases, being more than usually pungent and lasting ; so much so, 

 that I have distinguished it three months afterwards from the 

 instruments, dress, and other articles used during the examination 

 of the body : fortunately this can now be immediately removed 

 by the chloride of lime. 



Vegetable Poisons. 



Opium. — In a former edition of the CANINE PATHOLOGY, I 



stated that, as far as my experience went, opium was not delete- 

 rious to dogs when received into the stomach ; for that very large 

 doses of the solid mass were invariably returned from the stomach, 

 and that smaller, though yet considerable ones, produced but 

 little derangement of the system. Orfila, however, w^hose expe- 

 rience has been purchased by the sacrifice of whole hecatombs of 

 dogs, asserts that opium will kill, although he acknowledges (and 

 which corroborates my former remarks on it) that it is so variable 

 in its effects, that he has often given very considerable doses with- 

 out at all injuring the animal. When it does prove fatally dele- 

 terious, the symptoms detailed by him are convulsive efforts of all 

 the muscular parts, succeeded by dejection and universal paralysis. 

 On dissection, little appearance of inflammation is visible in the 

 digestive organs, but there is more of it in the lungs. Orfila like- 

 wise observes (which fully agrees with my experience), that the 

 narcotic eflfect of opium is not apparent in the dog, even by a con- 

 siderable dose taken into the stomach ; but it is a curious fact, 

 that introduced either into the bloodvessels by injection, or into 

 the intestines per ano, it exerts its narcotic influence fully. 



Vomic nut) or crowfig f Sbychnos nux vomica, Linn.) — This 

 berry, or rather seed of a berry, is a native of the East Indies, 

 and is a violent narcotic poison to many animals : to others it 

 proves not equally noxious ; but it does not appear wholly inno- 

 cent to any. It possesses great power, but is very unequal in its 

 action, not onlv on different animals, but also on the same animal 



