345 
ON THE EFFECTS OF ARSENIC ON SHEEP. 
By Messrs. Danger and Flandrin. 
MM. Danger and Flandrin, who have performed many 
experiments with the view of determining the real extent of the 
poisonous influence manifested by arsenic on wool-covered ani- 
mals, announce the following as among the latest results obtained 
by them : — A sheep, poisoned by a quantity of arsenic inserted 
under the skin, died in five days. To the last moment it had 
refused all kinds of food, and the quantity of arsenic in the urine 
had progressively increased. Another sheep, poisoned by a dose 
of an ounce of arsenic mixed with a handful of salt (the stomach 
was probably otherwise empty, although this is not stated), died, 
as the foregoing, on the fifth day afterwards. It was ill from 
the moment of having taken the poison, and, like the other 
sheep, it continued from that time to refuse all nourishment. 
This last experiment, if performed under the conditions we have 
above hinted at, would tend strongly to confirm M. Rognetta’s 
theory — that arsenious acid becomes harmless to ruminating 
animals by being involved in a great quantity of food, its ab- 
sorption being thereby hindered. One of the most important 
deductions drawn by Danger and Flandin from their late expe- 
riments is, that the public health is not endangered by the sale 
of mutton from animals to which arsenic had been some time 
before administered for the cure of disease: for the presence and 
continuance of arsenic in the system is readily detected, first, 
by reason that the animals become ill, however small the quan- 
tity of arsenic absorbed ; and, secondly, that they have never 
become well again until the last vestiges of the poison have been 
eliminated by the kidneys and other excretory organs. A sheep 
that survived after taking four drachms of arsenious acid, having 
been killed on the thirty-eighth day after, no part of the carcass 
was found, on the autopsy, to contain the least appreciable trace 
of arsenic. A dog to which the viscera were given to eat exhi- 
bited not the slightest sign of illness, nor could arsenic be de- 
tected on analysis either of its faeces or urine ; and six persons, 
who partook of the muscular fibre as food, lived on it for twelve 
days without feeling any inconvenience or symptom distinguish 
ing it from meat of other descriptions. 
The dog that ate the viscera of three poisoned sheep did not 
experience fatal results, and, when killed on the ninth day 
from the reception of this food, exhibited a healthy internal 
