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THEORY AND PRACTICE 



Place one hand over the nose of the horse, holding his nose 

 down toward his breast. Stand in front of him and shoot 

 straight through the medulla. It is not necessary to place the 

 muzzle of the gun against the forehead. If the animal is ner- 

 vous, it may be necessary to blindfold him. 



Do not attempt to shoot through the ear; the petrous por- 

 tion of the temporal bone is the hardest bone in the body. But 

 shoot high up toward the poll and you will hit the right spot 

 every time. The horse should drop instantaneously. He dies 

 from coma. The bullet causes shock ; shock produces coma ; 

 and coma, paralysis of the brain. 



The main objection to shooting a horse is the noise. There 

 are other means of killing but they take longer and are more 

 painful. Strychnine is the most active poison but it is very 

 painful. Dissolve a large dose in water and inject into the 

 jugular vein. When giving it by mouth, give at least 10 grains. 

 Hydrocyanic acid is all right for killing dogs but it is too weak 

 for the horse. The commercial acid does not keep its strength 

 and the anhydrous is rare, we never get it. One-hundredth of a 

 drop of the anhydrous acid on the tongue of a horse would kill 

 him instantly. 



Chloroform kills by paralyzing the brain and the animal dies 

 from coma. Strychnine kills by syncope, tonic spasm^ of the 

 heart. Hydrocyanic acid kills by paralyzing the heart. The 

 chief objection to using chloroform is that the animal struggles 

 severely during its administration. The feeling of suffocation 

 caused by the chloroform produces violent struggling and in such 

 cases the animal must be restrained the same as for an operation. 



All poisons considered, probably strychnine is the best to use 

 in killing an animal if you do not wish to shoot him. 



Death through poisoning of the blood is called necrsemia. 

 The blood dies, or in other words is killed by some specific mi- 

 cro-organism, such as the bacillus anthracis. In this disease 

 the blood is so disorganized by the germ that the corpuscles are 

 wholly broken up and killed. This kind of death can be re- 

 ferred to the nervous system and we can say that the animal 

 dies from coma, yet at the same time the dead blood is the cause 

 of death. 



