VETERINARY SCHOOL AT ALFORT. 
165 
action. On tlie surface of the buccal mucous membrane an erup- 
tion of reddish pustules, of about the size of a two-franc piece, was 
observed. The animal was destroyed on the day after this admi- 
nistration. The post-mortem examination shewed that inflammatory 
lesions had taken place throughout the whole extent of the mucous 
membrane of the intestinal apparatus, and upon the left section of 
the stomach were patches of erosion. 
A decrease in the number of respirations is a very common 
phenomenon, resulting from the influence of antimony ; but it is 
sometimes wanting, from the effect of certain causes which have yet 
to be understood. And it even occasionally happens that ' the 
effects produced on the respiratory rhythm by this drug are exactly 
the reverse ; that is to say, the respiration becomes accelerated 
under the influence of the absorption of tartarised antimony. 
The sensible influence of the antimonial salt manifests itself in 
a less evident manner on the circulation than on the preceding 
functions. Nevertheless, its action, when absorbed, becomes evi- 
dent by a slowness and attenuation of the arterial pulsations : of 
these two phenomena the latter is generally more evident than the 
former. The number of pulsations may remain the same, or even 
may increase; but in general the pulse becomes smaller, more 
thready and softer, while the influence of the medicine lasts. We 
must, however, hasten to add that these results are by no means 
invariable, and that it frequently happens that the pulse hardens, 
and becomes more rapid under the influence of antimony, especially 
when the local action which it produces upon the digestive mucous 
membranes causes an outbreak of intestinal inflammation. The 
effects of the medicine on the small circulation depend on the modi- 
fications undergone by the mucous membrane of the intestine in 
contact with it. The visible mucous membranes betray their mo- 
difications by their alteration of colour, without there being any 
thing in this fact worthy of specific remark. The material signs 
left by emetic tartar upon the respiratory and circulatory organs do 
not belong specifically to this antimonial preparation, but are 
equally produced by the exhibition of all antimonial poisons. 
The whole of the blood in both veins and arteries is black, fluid, 
and diffluent : in the ventricular cavities of the heart the serous 
membrane is raised up by large thick ecchymoses, which gives it 
the appearance of being irregularly marbled, especially on the right 
side ; so sanguineous coagulum exists in either cavity. 
The internal membrane of the vessels rapidly takes on a reddish 
hue in bodies which have been dead but a very short time. 
The substance of the lungs is perforated by numerous blackish 
spots, a species of ecchymosis arising from the filtration of the 
