516 
THE VETERINARY MATERIA MEDIC A. 
dose to produce quite as much or even more effect than with a 
large quantity. 
The form in which we have been in the habit of administering 
arsenic, is in solution—what is called Fowler’s solution ; and 
which accords with the present Liquor arsenicalis of the pharma¬ 
copeia. It is an elegant and convenient formula for the purpose, 
providing no spirit of lavender, or any flavouring or scenting 
ingredient is added to the simple solution, and which should be, 
for veterinary purposes, a saturated one. 
At one time we promised ourselves some successful results 
from entering upon the steady and persevering exhibition of so 
potent a medicine as arsenic was known and by all acknow¬ 
ledged to be. We imagined that what had so much power in a con¬ 
centrated form to do harm, was very likely, by diffusion and dilu¬ 
tion, to become, in some way or another, very serviceable. We 
first made trial of it upon horses condemned for glanders. We 
found, when we overdosed them, that the painful symptoms it 
gave rise to much resembled what is denominated “ gripes 
that they were those, in a strangely alarming form, of ab¬ 
dominal irritation; and that, after an animal had sunk from 
the effects of the poison, his stomach exhibited patches of 
intense redness, mortification, or an approach thereto, and from 
which were hanging flocks of albuminous matter. This was 
more particularly the case from the exhibition of the powder. 
When the solution had been administered, and for a long 
while antecedent to death, the inflammation of the alimen¬ 
tary surface was less intense, but more extensive: it was not 
merely confined to the stomach ; it pervaded the duodenum, and 
left marks upon the continuation of the canal, though the princi¬ 
pal parts attacked were the caecum and colon, the mucous sur¬ 
faces of which became blackened, and rotten in texture, particu¬ 
larly that of the blind pouch, which probably arose from the 
detention of the contained matters in that part. What is re¬ 
markable in these cases, also, is, that the viscera (which are 
commonly more distended than usual) contain a gas of so foetid 
and offensive a nature, that we can hardly continue the examin¬ 
ation until it has been dispersed. 
We have exhibited arsenical solution with much steadiness and 
perseverance in cases of specific ophthalmia ; but we never could 
discover that any benefit accrued from it. There is very little 
trouble attending the administration of the mineral in this form, 
it being only necessary to keep the animal “ short of water;” 
when he will drink half a pail full, or more, into which the solu¬ 
tion has been added, and which imparts neither colour, scent, nor 
flavour to it, in the slightest degree. 
We have made some other trials with arsenic, as an internal 
