148 ACUTE GASTRITIS. 
such keeping; upon the men who for gain sell poisonous drugs to the 
obviously uninformed. 
Books and charts are published, explaining the various antidotes and 
tests to be employed for the detection and counteraction of the different 
poisons. Such authorities are of little service in the stable; the tests 
require care and time for their application; the symptoms are mostly so 
urgent as to permit no leisure for scientific inquiry. In an acute case, 
dependence must be placed on general principles, and fortune must be 
relied on to guide the result. 
Certain poisons act instantaneously and without any warning suffi- 
ciently energetic to be interpreted, as the twigs or leaves of the yew- 
tree. 
Other agents immediately establish the lesson which sometimes speedily 
kills, but more often produces consequences which will ultimately destroy 
life, though death may be some time before it occurs, as the mineral 
acids, ete. 
The presence of particular kinds is announced only by violent disorder, 
as powerful diuretics and potent purgatives. 
The symptoms, therefore, are not decided; the carter has his motives 
for silence, and the inability of the horse to vomit forbids the earliest 
announcement of deranged stomach. The time for antidotes has gen- 
erally passed before attention is excited ; to support the life, in the hope 
that it may survive the destroyer, is evidently the best thing which can, 
under such circumstance, be adopted. Chloroform, ether, and opium 
render the body insensible, and, by sparing the nervous system, certainly 
existence will be prolonged. Purgatives had better be withheld; they 
may already have been administered in enormous doses; fearful amounts 
of aloes destroy life without purgation being exhibited. 
Against alkalies there does not exist the same objection; carbonate 
of magnesia, carbonate of soda or of potash may, in quantity, be mixed 
with gruel and horned down; both opium and ether may be blended 
with the drink. Should the pulse be low, a drachm of carbonate of 
ammonia may be added to each dose of the other ingredients. Should 
corrosive sublimate be in any degree suspected to be the agent em- 
ployed, mix one dozen eggs with the other components; these will in 
no way detract from the operation of the drench. 
The mixture should be given in as large quantities as the animal can 
be induced to swallow. The gruel should be quite cold, and one quart 
should constitute a dose. No bleeding should be permitted; the abstrac- 
tion of blood promotes absorption; to prevent the absorption of the 
poison is the present endeavor. The following draught contains all that 
can be recommended, so long as ignorance of the actual poison it is 
