ACCIDENTAL POISONING. 415 
before death. The end may come even within an hour, but very generally it 
is delayed for a day, or possibly two days, after the poison has been swallowed. 
Vomiting usually occurs quickly, otherwise an emetic might be required, 
although in most cases the whites of eggs, in a little water, given in gener- 
ous doses every two or three minutes, would be quite certain to speedily pro- 
duce it. The greater the quantities of whites of eggs administered the better. 
If eggs are not at hand, milk, flour and water, or flour and soft soap thinned 
with water, make quite efficient substitutes. Alcoholic stimulants are required 
to overcome the great depression. 
Some of the preparations of lead are occasionally used on dogs, and poison- 
ing by them is possible, but cases of the accident are very rare indeed. The 
symptoms induced are, violent vomiting and purging, with severe abdominal 
pains, followed by prostration. Death commonly occurs in from one to three 
days where the quantity of poison taken is large. 
One of the most inert forms of lead is the sulphate; hence sulphuric acid 
and its salts, as sulphate of magnesia, known as Epsom salts, are antidotes. 
The latter, dissolved in water, is promptly effectual. After it has been admin- 
istered and followed by an emetic, raw eggs in milk should be freely given. 
In kennels in which the drinking water is from the common supply, as 
in all cities and large towns, the danger of slow poisoning by lead is far 
greater than generally supposed. As a rule the water is conveyed long dis- 
tances through lead pipes, and but rarely can kennel-men be made to under- 
stand the importance of allowing pipes to completely empty every morning 
before any drinking water is drawn. Nor can they be made to accept the 
right estimate of the length of time the water must run before all the old and 
stagnant has been drawn off. Using as an illustration an ordinary house 
of three or four stories located in a city, and with only a sidewalk between it 
and the street. Now so many feet of the lead pipe have been used in plumbing 
such a house, before the first water drawn in the morning from a faucet of ordi- 
nary size in the third story could be fresh, it must run for nearly half an hour; 
and the water drawn ere that must be stagnant, stale, and more or less impreg- 
nated with lead. Kennels being usually at quite a distance from the houses, 
oftentimes the faucets must be open for an hour before water comes that is 
suitable for drinking purposes. 
Animals as a rule are very susceptible to the action of lead, and within the 
experience of the author, cases of colic have occurred where the lead taken up 
was from only fairly small freshly painted surfaces. It is therefore reasonable 
to believe that in not a few kennels the inmates of which do not thrive well, 
the fault is in the drinking water. 
The most pronounced symptoms of slow poisoning by lead are constipation, 
loss of appetite, and, in advanced cases, severe attacks of abdominal pain. Ere 
that comes, however, the hair is dry, rough and staring; the skin has lost 
