260 VETEEINAEY TOXICOLOGY 



perature 103'2° F., bowels normal. On the following day 

 there was excessive purgation, pulse 120, temperature 

 104'2° F., and death occurred at midday. 



On Post-Mortera the stomach and intestines are in- 

 flamed and all the ingesta fluid, and Sparrow also found 

 the colon very much inflamed, the walls 1^ inches thick, 

 and contents loose, blood-stained, and of a peculiar odour. 

 There was no tympanites until after death. 



The Treatment consists in elimination of the cause as 

 with irritants in general, and treatment of the particular 

 symptoms as indicated. 



The detection of poisoning by analysis is very uncertain 

 in the present state of our knowledge. The finding and 

 identification of plant fragments offers the most certain 

 means. When the bark of the plant is chewed there is 

 produced after some minutes a very intense burning sensa- 

 tion, which lasts several hours. Extraction in the ordinary 

 systematic routine yields an acid, which has no burning 

 taste. It gives a smoky colour with ferric chloride, and a 

 pink colour on prolonged warming with strong sulphuric 

 acid. These observations are got both with the plant and 

 with ingesta, but are scarcely characteristic. It is curious 

 to note that after extraction of the acid, even in the cold, 

 the toxicity, as tested on mice, so far as present observations 

 go, disappears. 



EUPHORBIACE.ffi. 



There are three genera of this family found in Britain, 

 and from which poisoning may occur — namely. Euphorbia, 

 or spurge, Mercurialis, and Buxus, or box. 



Of exotic Euphorbiaceee, Ricinus communis, or castor oil ; 

 Crotoii tiglium, or croton ; and Jatropha curcas, or purging 

 nut, are important species. 



Euphorbia. 



Botanical Characters.— The chief species which may 

 give rise to poisoning is the Euphorbia lathyris, but no 



