158 
COM PTE RENDU OF THE 
filtrated with serosity, and beneath the eschars shewed patches of 
suppuration. 
Some portions of the intestinal mucous membrane were slightly 
injected. The large intestine contained a mass of hard dry matter, 
but, with the exception of some small vascular arborizations, its 
mucous membrane continued in its natural state. 
Although the facts reported in these two cases are altogether 
exceptions to the general rule, they are not on that account the less 
important ; for they demonstrate that even in a moderate dose, as 
the one given in the first instance, or in one which under common 
circumstances would have been innoxious, as in the second case, 
tartar emetic is capable of becoming the cause of serious lesions, 
if certain rules, which ought to be attended to in the administra- 
tion of it, are not scrupulously observed ; such, for example, as only 
to give it in a state of perfect solution, in a fluid, and when the 
digestive cavities are in the utmost state of emptiness. In point 
of fact, the mode and the conditions under which this drug is ad- 
ministered exercise a material influence both upon the amount 
of the dose in which it may be taken and the local and general 
effects it is liable to produce. When the emetic is in a perfect 
state of solution, in a considerable quantity of liquid, it may be 
administered to the horse in large, and what appear excessive, 
doses without producing other alteration than a slight superficial 
and temporary rubefaction of the intestinal mucous membranes, 
and chiefly of that portion of the membrane which lines the grand 
reservoir for fluids, the coecum. 
On the other hand, a comparatively small dose of the medicine 
given in a solid form is capable of producing most serious lesions ; 
from its caustic properties, destroying and scarring those portions 
of membrane upon which it lies, and not unfrequently wholly per- 
forating the canal in which it rests. Its effects on the -stomach 
and large intestines are particularly to be feared, when the ball 
containing the emetic, or the fluid which holds it in coarse and 
imperfect solution, penetrates into these cavities at a time when 
they are filled with alimentary matter ; for, by coming in contact, 
in following the course of its ingesta into the stomach, with the 
exterior of the mass then dilating the intestinal reservoirs, this an- 
timonial salt becomes applied immediately to the mucous mem- 
brane, and there retained by the contractile action of the organ, in 
which it is capable of producing disorganization to an indefinite 
depth and extent, depending on the quantity of the toxicative 
matter imbibed. 
A perfect solution of tartarised antimony given in a large quan- 
tity of fluid will not produce these effects, even when the intestines 
are full, because the liquid passes rapidly through the open spaces 
