INTEODUCTION 21 



(c) Fixed, or non- volatile, bases and acids : Caustic 



alkalis, mineral acids, oxalic acid. 



(d) Fixed, or non-volatile, organic poisons : The alka- 



loids and glucosides. 



Farther details regarding this subject will be given in a 

 later section. 



COMMON CAUSES OF POISONING. 



It will be advantageous to refer at this point to some of 

 the more usual causes of poisoning, although further details 

 will be given for each particular poison later. 



Poison is nearly always conveyed in food or water. 

 Poisoning by subcutaneous injection, though more certain 

 and less easily proved by analysis, is unknown as a malicious 

 practice, and when it happens is the result of an accident 

 in treatment. 



Malicious poisoning is generally done by means of poisoned 

 food, and affects chiefly dogs, foxhounds, and foxes. The 

 agent is almost always an accessible poison, such as a rat 

 paste or powder, and in the majority of cases strychnine. 

 It should be remembered as regards foxes, for which a 

 common bait is a poisoned rabbit, that it is no offence to 

 kill a fox, but that the exposure of poison above ground 

 constitutes an offence. 



The malicious poisoning of the larger animals is fortu- 

 nately rare. Of accidental poisoning the ox is the most 

 frequent victim ; this no doubt on account of its feeding 

 habits. This animal is an indiscriminate feeder in com- 

 parison with the horse and sheep. All our experience tends 

 to the conviction that the greater number of cases of 

 poisoning of cattle are the result either of gross careless- 

 ness or culpable ignorance. 



* Sheep dips either in powder or solution, and weed- 

 killers, are too often left exposed where animals can get 

 them ; troughs of solution, or water-carts, are left for weeks 

 overlooked or forgotten. Very often a long and painstaking 



