SAVIN CAUSING THE DEATH OF A HORSE. 445 
was found in the evening to be in very great pain, for a short 
time only, not more than about twenty minutes or so ; he 
then became, as he said, like a mad horse, jumping about 
everywhere, until at last he jumped off the ground with all 
four legs, and fell down quite dead. The owner at once said 
he believed that he had had something given to him, in 
short, that he had been poisoned, an opinion with which I 
concurred, and suggested that arsenic was the agent that 
might have caused his death. 
He then wished me immediately to make an examination 
of the stomach, &c., upon cutting open which, the mucous 
coat I found was covered all over with an intensely red, in- 
flammatory blush, and it was also much thickened, but quite 
whole, no ulceration having taken place. The caecum and 
part of the colon were even more inflamed than the stomach. 
This viscus was about three parts full of a greenish-yellow 
fluid, not a particle of food being found in it. Upon empty- 
ing the contents into a pail, the odour was very powerful, 
and on the mucous coat of the stomach there was adherent a 
little greenish-yellow powder. Upon Mr. Chickall smelling 
the stomach and its contents, he said he thought it was savin, 
as he knew the smell thereof well, and also that he suspected 
one of his men had been in the habit of giving it to his 
horses for some time, for he had had as many as five or six 
different horses taken lately with violent abdominal pains, 
which, however, passed off again at the expiration of a short 
period, the horses having afterwards done their day*s work 
tolerably well. One was thus attacked not longer than a 
fortnight ago ; he was in great pain for a short time, threw 
himself down, and laid as if he were dead for five or ten 
minutes, then got up, and afterwards did his day’s work. 
After this case, Mr. Chickall told the man that looked after 
the horses in that stable, that he would prosecute him if he 
could find out anything about the cause of his horses being 
thus taken, as the horses in the other stables were not simi- 
larly affected. 
I took the stomach and its contents home for analysation, 
and obtained the assistance of Mr. Image, one of our sur- 
geons here, who has had a great deal to do with cases of 
poisoning. We filtered the fluid from the stomach, and the 
residue was a powder, which, upon being compared with 
savin, and rubbed on the hand, emitted the same odour, and 
bore a great resemblance to this vegetable ; although, from its 
having been exposed to the action of the stomach, it was 
much altered. The fluid was then tested for arsenic, but we 
could discover no metallic substance in it at all. We there- 
57 
XXVIII. 
