POISONING OP PIGS WITH BRINE. 
435 
in the event of their becoming rabid. Occasionally some of the 
animals did recover after the operation, and which they 
doubtless would have done if left alone, for I have found that 
many of these cases, particularly if the salt acts as an emetic, 
and is thereby ejected from the stomach, are spontaneously 
restored. The symptoms of the poisoning are rather peculiar, 
inasmuch as the animals show a great disposition to move in 
a backward direction ; and, as the disease progresses, and 
they become enfeebled, they place themselves in a position 
similar to a dog when sitting on his haunches, and presently, 
by dropping still lower, they rest on the abdomen and ster- 
num, with the fore legs extended forwards, and the hind ones 
under the body. The head also is unsteadily supported. 
The post-mortem appearances which I have principally ob- 
served are, an inflamed state of the muscular and mucous 
coats of the stomach, especially at its greater curvature, and 
extending thence towards the pyloric orifice. The mucous coat 
is separated with tolerable ease from the muscular, and is 
occasionally extensively covered with vibices. 
I have not unfrequently witnessed great losses from over- 
doses of salts in solution ; and I remember, in the year 1835, 
being hastily summoned to a farm about two miles distant 
from my residence, to see some cases, when I found eleven 
fine hogs dead, and fourteen or fifteen more seriously ill. 
Most of the living ones had thrown from off their stomachs 
large quantities of food, &c. ; and, with the exception of two, 
these all gradually recovered. They were not subjected 
to any treatment beyond being turned into a good pasture- 
field, the herbage of which they readily partook of as they 
got better. 
The accident in this instance was traceable to the careless- 
ness of a servant who had charge of the cooking of the food 
for the pigs, and which consisted principally of refuse rice and 
barley-meal. He had been directed to put a portion of salt 
into each boiling, but having allowed the food in the cistern 
to become so low that enough only remained to supply the 
animals with the evening meal, he put into this quantity 
sufficient salt for six or eight boilings. 
I may remark, that pigs are not the only animals which 
suffer from a large dose of salt. On the 25th of October, 
1840, I was requested to see a quantity of heifers, which 
were somewhat suddenly taken very ill. I found them stag- 
gering from side to side of the building in which they were 
placed, and in such a peculiar manner as to call forth from the 
attendant the remark, that they were all drunk. I suspected 
that they had taken some deleterious agent ; and upon in- 
