544 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
likely to die yet.’ He farther said, that ‘he was good for nothing, or of little 
value dead or alive.’ 
“ On Wednesday, the 18th, about nine o’clock in the morning, Mr. Fisher’s 
coachman came to my house, saying that the horse was very ill. I immedi¬ 
ately went down to him, and found it to be the case; the cause of which I 
was quite at a loss for. I minutely examined him, and found the pulse 
scarcely perceptible—his head hanging very low, and the hair very much 
rubbed off from his hind quarters, which gave me every reason to believe 
then that he had been cast in the night with his halter. Although it was my 
wish that the horse should be at liberty, and not have a halter on at all, I twice 
found, him tied the full length of his halter, and set him at liberty myself. 
“ I considered it impossible for him to live long, notwithstanding which 
I thought it proper to let blood, which I did to a very small extent, faintness 
making its appearance. 
“Mr. Fisher, and Mr. R. Fisher, jun. came to the stable, and directly 
accused me of having poisoned the horse. He died in less than two hours 
from the time I first saw him in the morning. 
“I had a great wish to open the horse, but Mr. F. objected, saying, he 
did not think he would have him opened, but if he did, he would send for 
Mr. Robinson, V.S. of Sheffield. 
“On the following day, the 19th, he accordingly did, but wished to do it 
without my knowledge. Mr. Robinson came, and objected to open him, in 
consequence of Mr. Fisher refusing my being present at the time he ex¬ 
amined the body; and Mr. Robinson returned without making any post¬ 
mortem examination. Mr. Hickman, V.S. of Shrewsbury, was then called 
in, and owing to Mr. Fisher’s refusing my being present, he also refused to 
open the horse. At length Mr. Hickman called upon me, and I went with 
him. 
“ On this dav Mr. Fisher, sen. accused me in the street, and before many 
of mv friends, of having poisoned his horse. 
“When the horse’s body was examined, the whole of the abdominal 
viscera were in a perfectly healthy state, except that adhesion to a large ex¬ 
tent had taken place between the colon and the diaphragm. In the thorax, 
the left lobe of the lungs was found to be in a very collapsed state—in the 
right lobe was found a degree of inflammation, but not to any great extent. 
The bronchi and its tubes were highly inflamed, and in some parts of them 
were quantities of coagulated blood. The membrane lining the trachea was 
inflamed, and that of the larynx and epiglottis slightly so. This might have 
occurred from oppressed breathing the night previous to his death. The 
left lobe of the lungs, I would say, had been in a disorganized state for some 
time. It was remarked by the bystanders, that he must have been a broken- 
winded horse previously. 
“ When the skin or integument was removed from the front part of the 
shoulder and neck, the muscles and bloodvessels exhibited great extravasa¬ 
tion of blood, such as I have repeatedly seen when a horse has suflfered from 
strangulation, or death occasioned by his being cast, as we generally term it, 
with his halter; and the hair was rubbed much from his hind quarters, as 
though a halter or rope had been round them. 
“The stomach and its contents were taken to Mr. Huxley, chemist, &c., 
and examined by Messrs. Huxley, Hickman, Duncalf, R. Fisher, and J. 
Smallwood, when it was pronounced, by all the parties present, to be in a 
perfect and very healthy state, and its contents free from poison of any kind. 
This was four days after he had taken the medicine. 
“ On the same evening, Mr. Palin made every inquiry of Mr. Hickman 
and Mr. Duncalf, at the Crown Inn, as to the nature of the case ,• when he was 
