610 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
Slow Poisoning of Animals,’* Mr. Herapath has sent the 
following communication to the editor of the 6 Chemist ? 
(< 1 have never met, in any of our toxicological works, with 
a good description of the effects of lead in the slow poisoning 
of animals ; I therefore send you the result of a most interest- 
ing trial at the Somerset Assizes, where the injury was done 
by the fumes of a lead-smelting furnace upon an estate, the 
nearest point of which was half a mile, and the most distant 
a mile from the works. 
“ In the year 1851, the furnace was erected on the Mendip 
Hills, to extract the metal left by the Romans, in the refuse 
of their mining operations ; shortly afterwards a farm, which 
had always been healthy and of high reputation, began to 
suffer from the fumes ; illness and a great mortality existed 
amongst the stock; on examining the dead animals in 1853, 
I found lead to be the cause, and I also discovered that metal 
on the hedgerows and hay on the estate. This year an action 
for damages was commenced, and the following information 
was elicited : — The blast-furnace emitted a white smoke which, 
collected when it V'as partially condensed in the shaft, gave 
me a small proportion of oxide of lead, and the remainder 
of carbonate and sulphate of lead ; these three matters were 
traced by me from the condenser of the works, to the surface 
of the vegetables growing on the plaintiffs farm, and the 
lead of the mixture was found in the lungs and air-passages 
of the dead animals. 
ei The effects of this metal were, a stunted growth, a lean- 
ness, shortness of breathing, paralysis of the extremities, par- 
ticularly the hinder ones, the flexor muscles of the fore legs 
affected so that they stood upon their toes, swelling of the 
knees, but no constipation or colic, as in the human species ; 
in a few months death followed. If the injured beasts were 
removed to another farm they never throve. In the young 
the symptoms were more conspicuous, and the mortality 
greater. Lambs were yeaned paralytic ; when three weeks 
old, they could not stand, although they made great efforts 
to do so ; in attempting to feed them from a bottle, they were 
nearly suffocated from paralysis of the glottis; 21 died 
early out of 23. Colts also died, and those that lived 
could not be trotted 150 yards without distressed breath- 
ing. Pigs confined to the stye were not injured; but if 
allowed to roam were soon affected. The milk of cows and 
sheep was reduced in quality and quantity, and cheese made 
from the former had less fat in it ; I found in the milk of 
both minute traces of lead. 
e< The dead subjects showed the mucous surfaces to be paler 
