60 
TETRAONIDiE. 
“Wet summers and cur dogs^^ are, as has been remarked, 
very injurious to game ; but I have no reason to believe that the 
latter are more numerous now when partridges are scarce, than when 
they were plentiful. From wet and cold summers the decrease 
may have originated, as about the same period common swallows 
[Hirundo rustica) became scarce apparently from that cause, and 
continued so until the year 1847, when an increase was apparent, 
and in 1848, when they appeared again (at least around Belfast) 
in their former numbers — the first time they had done so for 
about fifteen years. To the fine, dry, and warm weather in the 
early part of the summers of the last few years, this increase is, I 
conclude, attributable ; within which period, likewise, a slow but 
gradual increase of the partridge has taken place. An equal 
increase of the two species within the same time cannot be 
expected, as the partridge has many more enemies to encounter, 
in addition to natural causes, than the swallow has. Opposed to 
the poison ; that wherever this plan has been extensively earried out, pheasants and 
partridges have been poisoned by eating the seed, and the partridges have been almost 
universally found sitting in the position I have already described ; and, lastly, that 
the men employed in sowing the poisonous seed not unfrequently present the earlier 
symptoms which occur in the milder cases of poisoning by arsenic.” The question 
was then suggested, “ Might not the flesh of birds so poisoned prove injurious when 
eaten ? ” Doctor Fuller cut off the breast of a bird, and gave it to a fine healthy cat. 
“ She ate it with avidity ; hut in about half an hour she began to vomit, and vomited 
almost incessantly for nearly twelve hours, during the whole of which time she evi- 
dently suffered excessive pain. After this, nothing would induce her to eat any more 
partridge. I kept her without food for twenty-four hours, but in vain ; she reso- 
lutely refused to touch an atom more of the bird. This being the case, I gave her 
some beef and milk, which she eagerly swallowed ; proving, beyond doubt, that her 
instinct, and not her want of appetite, induced her to forego the dainty meal wdiich 
had just been offered to her.” Dr. Fuller also found, in every part of the flesh of the 
other bird, strong traces of arsenic ; the bird could not have been eaten by a man 
without very serious consequences. “ It is notorious,” says Dr. Fuller, “that many 
of the dealers in game are supplied through the agency of poachers and others, who 
have a direct pecuniary interest in supplying them with the largest possible number 
of birds. It is certain, moreover, that if men of this sort w^ere to find a covey of 
partridges in a field, dead, but fresh and in good condition, they would not hesitate to 
send them, with the remainder of their booty, to the poulterer ; wbo would as cer- 
tainly, without suspicion, sell them to his customers.” The conclusions are, that 
the practice of steeping seed in arsenical solution may become matter for restrictive 
legislative interference, both on sanitary and medico-legal grounds.” — Copied from the 
Isortliern Whig, Dec. 19, 1848. 
A distinguished chemist, questioned by me on the subject, is of opinion that one 
pickle of wheat subjected to arsenic would be as injurious as four or five steeped in a 
solution of sulphate of copper. 
