LECTURES ON CHEMISTRY. 767 
to be brought into operation — it is this which constitutes the 
nicety of treatment, and shews the man of education. 
The multitude once thought that the physician “ cured’’ a 
fever, and the surgeon “ set” a broken leg ; but each is now 
known to be only an aid to the efforts of nature ; in the great 
majority of cases accomplishing their objects by passive or nega- 
tive treatment, and employing such medicines as may be neces- 
sary, these being few, and of the best kind. 
These remarks will particularly apply to veterinary medicine. 
But what shall I say of the aid of chemistry, as applied in 
counteracting the effects of poisons ? It is true the poisoning of 
animals is not of so frequent occurrence, nor its consequences so 
awful as that of our fellow-creatures ; nevertheless, from time to 
time, it does occur, and you should be enabled at once to exhibit 
an antidote, for delay is too often fatal. In .the horse vomition 
cannot be excited, therefore you ought to be familiar with an 
agent that will at once arrest the effects of the poison, or, by 
decomposing it, render it innocuous, and prevent those tor- 
turing pangs which always accompany death by poisoning. For 
instance, the fatal effects of corrosive sublimate may be coun- 
teracted by the exhibition of albumen or the whites of eggs; 
the preparations of lead and copper, by sugar ; tartar emetic, by 
astringent vegetables ; and the antidote for arsenic is the trit- 
oxide of iron, which decomposes it, forming an insoluble arsenite 
of iron ; or the solution of lime may be tried, accompanied with a 
free use of diluents and oleaginous purgatives, in order to expel the 
agent. Perhaps this is more markedly seen in those cases where 
the death of the animal has taken place, and the agent that has 
been employed is unknown. It may be, that revenge has stimu- 
lated some malignant spirit to the perpetration of an act so vile. 
The wretch, burning with resentment for some real or imaginary 
offence given by his employer, has retaliated on an unoffending 
animal; or it may be that, in the fondness of “quackery,” so 
prevalent amongst grooms and stablemen, a noxious agent has 
been incautiously administered. In either case, it is very desir- 
able to ascertain what this agent is. Here our science is of para- 
mount importance ; in fact, it cannot be done without. The 
effects produced upon the tissues may inform us that some poi- 
sonous substance has been given, but what that substance is 
chemical tests or re-agents can alone discover. Thus, the acids 
may be readily distinguished from each other, or it may be easily 
discovered whether arsenic, or corrosive sublimate, or any other 
potent drug, has been used. This subject will, of course, receive 
more of our attention hereafter. 
Will chemistry afford us no assistance in tracing disease to its 
