POISONS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES. 
ee ae 
ARSENIC. 
‘Tus drug is very frequently, and I might also add, indiscrim:- 
nately, prescribed in the columns of certain papers for canine 
ailments. 
Actions and uses.—Administered in excess it is an irritant poison. 
Medicinally it is an alterative, tonic, and antiseptic. Externally, it 
is useful in skin diseases, and for the removal of warts and 
tumours. 
“ Quantities of from three to ten grains, mixed with water, and 
administered to dogs, caused ina few minutes nausea, vomiting, 
short moaning, difficult breathing, a wiry rapid pulse of 120 or 
upwards, and black evacuations made with considerable pain. 
These symptoms were accompanied by a look of extreme anguish ; 
blunted perception ; and death with convulsions followed in from 
six to thirty hours.”—/izlay Dun. 
- Post-mortem Appear ances.—Stomach (according to the quantity 
-of poison received) more or less inflamed, softened and thickened, 
and presenting extravasated blood-spots and erosions. In slow 
poisoning the latter are most marked, the mucous membrane 
being also universally purple. Some weeks after death, bright 
yellow spots, as observed in the human subject, have been found 
inside the stomach. The lungs are usually congested. A 
peculiarity of arsenic is its mummifying effects on the body after 
death ; instead of putretaction taking place, the carcase becomes 
dry and shrivelled. 
Antidotes.—Moist hydrated peroxide of iron ; magnesia, Certain 
smechanical antidotes, in the absence of those agents just mentioned, 
may be used with advantage, viz., insoluble powders, as charcoal 
and clay, together with oleaginous and mucilaginous matters. 
Diuretics are subsequently useful in removing the absorbed 
poison from the system. ; . 
Doses.— +s to is of a grain. 
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