Potsons. 255 
developed, generally after a meal, or they may be asso- 
ciated with some special act or circumstance, as the 
giving of a tit-bit by an admiring stranger, or immediately 
after the external use or internal administration of a 
remedy. Such facts being kept in mind, precise attention 
may be directed to the probable cause with the result of 
showing whether the signs are due to malicious intent, 
poisonous agents, or mistakes in medicines. Concise 
information on these points, as far as they are elucidated, 
shouid always be sent in writing to the canine surgeon 
when summoned. 
The precise Treatment of Poisoning must always be 
left with the canine surgeon. He alone can provide the 
acknowledged antidote. The owner may alleviate to an 
extent the pangs and sufferings of the patient, for instance 
in diarrhoea or dysentery, by the giving of milk with egg 
beaten up, thick fiour or starch wit: water will be useful ; 
and when abdominal pain is acute a dose of laudanum, 
twenty-five or thirty drops, or three to five grains of the 
gum. Syrup of white poppies, one to three or four drachms, 
also proves a useful agent. If vermin powder has been 
taken, give broth or thick soup ; and when hellebore or 
colchicum is the cause, add to the milk and eggs nitrous 
ether, ammonia, or spirits, as gin, whisky or brandy, to 
obviate the extreme depression which ensues. 
Mineral Poisons.—These comprise a variety of sub- 
stances used in medicine or otherwise, the most active of 
which are preparations of arsenic, lead, mercury and zinc, 
and copper. 
The General Symptoms of Poisoning by Minerals are as 
follow : irtitation and violent pain in the stomach and 
bowels, with vomiting, diarrhoea, painful straining, the 
evacuations being mixed with blood, cramps of the limbs 
and collapse. The membrane of the bowels is sometimes 
also removed, and may be found in the evacuations, as 
in the case of arsenic, the compiunds of mercury, and even 
mercurial ointment when largely used to the skin. To 
the latter metal also is ascribed the mercurial eczema 
which arises from long continuance of its use externally 
as well zs internally. Salivation is also present, and the 
