VETERINARY SCHOOL AT A L FORT. 
161 
quently observed from the administration of antimony than is a 
simple state of congestion, because the mortal effects of the 
poison generally come into action before inflammation has had 
time to develop itself. Where inflammation does succeed to 
simple congestion of the mucous membrane, it manifests itself with 
all the characteristics peculiar to such pathological action when 
established in the digestive mucous canals ; viz. by intense red- 
ness — by thickening — by serous infiltration of the subjacent 
tissues ; and to these characters are united those of suppuration at 
the points exposed by the elimination of the eschars. Sucfy is a 
brief account of the lesions most commonly produced by the direct 
contact of antimony with the digestive mucous membranes. These 
lesions have in themselves nothing that specifically appertains to 
the action of antimonial salt : in their mode of formation and phy- 
sical aspect they resemble alterations such as are produced by 
irritative caustics. 
However, in some few exceptional and ill-understood cases, a 
concentrated solution of tartarized antimony will, by its contact 
with the intestinal mucous membranes, create a specific eruption 
of pustules, of a vivid red colour, large at the basis, and conical 
at the summit, which, from their form, and the general aspect they 
communicate to the intestine, recall to mind the pustules of the rot. 
This effect, which is produced occasionally on the digestive mucous 
membrane when under the influence of the antimony, is the ordi- 
nary consequence of the action of this same salt on the external 
tegument, where friction with the antimonial solution creates a 
confluent eruption of small, reddish, acuminated, dense pustules, 
which, when touched by the fingers, feel like tuberculous granu- 
lations, and are covered on the top at the latter stage of their 
development with an adhesive crust. 
We have spoken of the alterations which arise immediately from 
the action of tartar emetic. The ruptures of the walls of the re- 
servoirs into which the solutions of this salt are poured, are, in our 
opinion, the more complex effects of this powerful modificator : it 
is probable that the energetic contraction which precedes these 
ruptures, and is a sufficient cause for them, is less the consequence 
of direct contact with the antimony than a result of the general 
influence which it exercises over the whole of the digestive appa- 
ratus when absorbed and carried into the circulation. What 
chiefly leads us to the formation of this opinion is an observation of 
those phenomena which are so specifically manifested at the side of 
the digestive canal when a solution of emetic tartar is injected 
directly into the veins. 
All the lesions which we have enumerated, to whatever class 
they belong, may become apparent throughout the whole extent of 
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