314 Mr. Brodie’s Observations and Experiments 
brain, and on examining the thorax, immediately after death, 
this organ was found to have ceased acting, and in a distended 
state. In the rabbit, the affection of the brain appeared to 
predominate over that of the heart, and the latter was usually 
found acting slowly and feebly, after the functions of the 
brain had entirely ceased. In the rabbit, the effects of the 
arsenic on the stomach and intestines were usually less than 
in carnivorous animals. 
The action of arsenic on the system is less simple than that 
of the majority of vegetable poisons. As it acts on different 
organs, it occasions different orders of symptoms, and as the 
affection of one or another organ predominates, so there is some 
variety in the symptoms produced even in individual animals 
of the same species. 
In animals killed by arsenic the blood is usually found fluid 
in the heart and vessels after death ; but otherwise all the 
morbid appearances met with on dissection are confined to the 
stomach and intestines. As this is the case, and as the affec- 
tion of these organs occasions remarkable symptoms, it may 
be right to mention the result of my observations on this 
subject. 
In many cases where death takes place, there is only a very 
slight degree of inflammation of the alimentary canal : in 
other cases the inflammation is considerable. It generally 
begins very soon after the poison is administered, and appears 
greater or less according to the time which elapses before the 
animal dies. Under the same circumstances, it is less in gra- 
minivorous than in carnivorous animals. The inflammation is 
greatest in the stomach and intestines ; but it usually extends 
also over the whole intestine. I have never observed inflam- 
