24 
ON THE POISONING OF SHEEP WITH ARSENIC. 
tity of serum, as also did the pericardium. The heart was of a 
bleached appearance. 
This is all I can say of the animal just now alluded to ; but two 
days after (Sunday) I got an active young lad to assist me, and 
examined the brain of another of them, and found it highly vascu- 
lar — gorged full of blood — with extravasation of blood into the 
ventricles ; at once accounting for the staggering gait, &c., shewn 
by almost the whole of them — those that lived as well as those that 
died. 
One word more. Such was the preference given by the poison, 
that it seemed not to have allowed a single secreting surface or or- 
gan to escape its baneful effects : even the bursae of the joints 
were so much affected, that when they were able to go to water 
the limbs were rigid. 
Symptoms. — Restlessness at first — dreadful excoriation of skin 
— swelling of the neck, back, &c., where the wash had been used 
- — frequent rigors — staggered when moved in the stall — complete 
loathing of food — the purging was a foetid, black, oily-looking ex- 
crement — occasional fits of abdominal pain — eyes beautifully clear 
and watchful — horns (of those that were horned) not only warm, 
but hot. 
I may say, to the very last, breathing, in some little disturbed, 
in others accelerated, as in peripneumony, or deep and heavy, as 
in pleuritis — pulse from 66 to 146. Some of them recovered after 
the pulse had stood long at 140. The scurf, skin, and hair, peeled 
off with the slightest friction ; and so alarmed were the animals lest 
they should be touched, that the lifting of the hand quickly when 
near them caused a crouching motion that was painful to look 
upon. 
As to Treatment. — I washed them with warmish water, dried 
them gently, and soaked the parts with oleum dulce. I exhibited 
diluents, thin gruel and linseed tea, and gave tinct. opii where pain 
was shewn, or where purging went to great excess. They were 
fomented with hot water for the relief of internal pain; prepared 
chalk was mixed with their drink ; and so on. 
The greater part of my duty, however, consisted in seeing that 
the animals were judiciously managed, and taking care that no- 
thing improper was done. 
I beg leave to state that, when my prepared chalk was all used 
and I could not obtain a fresh supply, I had recourse to common 
earth from the field. This I stirred up in the fluid which they 
drank, or had poured into them ; and from it I conceive I derived 
great benefit, for in an hour or two after its exhibition the colour 
and character of the faeces changed from very black and foetid to 
something approaching to what was natural ; and from the time I 
