508 
HORSES POISONED BY ARSENIOUS ACID. 
be so far interesting as showing under what different forms 
important parts are affected, and to what an extent disease may 
sometimes exist without any outward signs being manifested. 
AN ACCOUNT OF FOUR HORSES POISONED BY 
ARSENIOUS ACID. 
By Edwin Taylor, M.R.C.V.S., Bury St. Edmunds. 
Friday, April 25th, 1856. — I was requested to attend 
two horses, reported to be very ill, at Mrs. Mitchell’s, of 
Culford. When I arrived, I was informed that a brown horse, 
which was taken ill on the Thursday night, with symptoms 
exactly the same as the two I went to see were, and which 
had been attended by a farrier from Thetford, had died on 
the Friday morning at 3 o’clock. My patients were a 
brown mare and a chestnut horse. Symptoms . — Great pros- 
tration ; violent twitching of the muscles all over the frame; 
constant abdominal pain ; sometimes lying down and rolling 
about ; purging violently, about every ten minutes, the 
dejections being dark-coloured and very offensive; the mucous 
membrane of the eyes and nose was of a bright scarlet 
colour ; the pulse in each horse ranged from ninety-four to 
ninety-six beats in the minute. The owner having asked me 
my opinion of the cases, I at once gave no hope of recovery 
in either case ; and told young Mr. Mitchell that, from 
cases I had before seen, I believed both the horses to be poi- 
soned with arsenic. 
The man that attended the other horse said that he died 
from a severe cold and superpurgation. I then proceeded 
to make a post-mortem examination of the dead horse. I 
found the stomach was highly inflamed, the mucous mem- 
brane had peeled off in places, and formed a coating to 
the contents. The coecum and colon were also highly in- 
flamed, and black in places. The lungs were much congested. 
I took the stomach and contents home for analysis. From 
these appearances I felt more than ever convinced of the 
cause of death. I therefore proceeded to administer the 
requisite medicines to the other two horses that were still 
suffering. To each I gave a quantity of whiting, scraped 
from the lump, as that happened to be at hand, the whites 
of four eggs, and one ounce each of Tinct. Opii et Sp. Ether. 
Nit. This was repeated every four hours. I stayed there nearly 
all the day, until the other horses came home from work, as 
