156 ON ANIMAL AND 



But when we take into consideration the various 

 frauds which are practised by mercenary men 

 for lucrative purposes, by introducing deleterious 

 substances into all the articles of life, and the 

 slow but certain destruction of health which is 

 thereby produced, we may perhaps have but 

 little reason to rejoice at the exchange ; more 

 especially as the delinquents are placed less 

 within the reach of detection, than when more 

 decided violence has been committed, and the 

 operation of these, their detestable practices, 

 are more extensive and general, than where active 

 poison has been administered from motives of 

 personal gratification. 



With respect to the mode of operation on the 

 animal frame of the several poisons, each species 

 produces effects peculiar to itself, and therefore 

 requires a separate treatment. 



The poison, from a venomous animal, operates 

 only when introduced directly into the blood ves- 

 sels; becoming, when received into the stomach, 

 inert and no longer deleterious. ltseffects,however, 

 when once it reaches the system, are of a much 

 more general nature than those of other poisons, 

 and when derived from particular animals, are 

 most frequently beyond the reach of medicine. 



The other two poisons, the vegetable and the 

 mineral, act with the greatest force upon being 

 taken into the stomach ; the vegetable poisons, 



