VETKKINAHY JUllISPKUDENCE. 
455 
the mouth, upper and lower lips, and under the chin, were all swollen and 
scabby, as if the skin would peel off; it appeared all excoriated. I said, 
“You must have been giving him something of a burning oil, and it will 
kill him, for he can neither eat nor drink.” Defendant said, “ Well, I 
admit what I have given him must have done it; but I cannot tell how it is.” 
The effect appeared to me as if oil of vitriol or aquafortis had been given to 
the horse; he did not appear capable of eating. The horse had'rubbed his 
hind legs and thighs as if in great pain; I saw him dead within two hours 
after. 
Cross-examined. —Mr. Matthews had considerable practice; I bad great 
confidence in his skill, and so had my son. 
Mr. Edward Hickman, of Shrewsbury, veterinary surgeon.—I examined 
the horse on the 19th of April; found the external parts of the lips a good 
deal excoriated, and of the mouth also in some measure; examined the 
windpipe; found the larynx in a state of inflammation; the bronchial 
tubes were much inflamed, particularly at the lower part of the windpipe. 
I have never given croton oil in my practice; I consider it a dangerous me¬ 
dicine, unless very cautiously administered; it must have required some 
acrid or burning substance to have produced the effect visible upon the 
horse in question. If croton oil and aloes had been administered, and had 
passed into the stomach, I think it could not have produced the effect seen 
in this case; the whole of the abdominal viscera appeared healthy. Mr. 
Matthews was present when I made the examination. 
Cross-examined. —Croton-oil is given as a purgative; it is used by some 
eminent men in the profession ; I have seen ]Mr. PercivalPs book on the treat¬ 
ment of horses,—it is a standard work in the profession . in ordinary cases, 
inflammation of the larynx vvould not have produced death in two days, but 
in extraordinary cases it might do so; from the entrance of the oesophagus 
down to the bowels all was in a healthy state. I found an adhesion of the 
colon, which must have been produced by some degree of acute inflamma¬ 
tion at a former period. There was no appearance of an unhealthy kind 
from the lips to the glottis. 
Mr. Charles Spooner. —I am a veterinary surgeon in London, and have a 
private school, adjacent to the Veterinary College, where I teach anatomy 
and physiology; have heard the evidence given in this cause; if any portion 
of the draught had “gone the wrong way” when administered, it must have 
produced coughing, and other symptoms of distress, that could not have 
escaped the notice of those present. 1 am acquainted with croton-oil; in 
its action it is highly purgative; if it had been administered in a properly 
diluted form, I think that it could not have produced the effects that base 
been described. I think, from what I have heard in evidence, that the death 
of the horse must be attributed to the medicine which was administered. 
Cross-examined. —The effect of croton is that of a severe drastic purge; 
I do not give it in my practice; Mr. Field, who is one of the first prac- ’ 
tilioner*) in London, does administer it; in my judgnmnt, the immedinte 
