144 
POISONING BY CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. 
up to last night, was believed to be in good health. She was 
then fed in the presence of Mr. Hanbury with the same 
kind of food as all the other pigs, namely, boiled rice, milk 
and grains. Upon making the examination, I found some 
ingesta loose in the abdomen, and on exposing the stomach it 
was found to be ruptured. On removing the organ, 1 
observed also an ulcerated state of its inner coat. From its 
appearance, I came to the conclusion that the animal had 
died from <£ poisoning, and probably from a mineral poison.” 
How the sow got the poison, if any should be found, is at 
present a mystery. 
In concluding this short account I may state that the sow 
had won two or three prizes, and was in pig by a very 
valuable boar of the same breed. She was also within ten 
days of parturition. 
[The coats of the stomach were rent asunder at the upper 
cardiac portion of the organ, and this allowed of the escape 
of the ingesta. On examining the mucous coat, an ulcer, 
evidently produced by some irritating agent, was found to 
be in close apposition to the torn tissues. Besides this, the 
general aspect of the mucous coat denoted the presence of 
some foreign poisonous agent. These lesions induced us to 
hand the stomach to Mr. Tuson for his analysis, and the 
following is his report of the investigation.] 
REPORT BY PROFESSOR TUSON. 
The stomach of a pig belonging to C. A. Hanbury, Esq., 
together with a very small quantity of its contents, was 
handed to me for analysis by Assistant-Professor Varnell. 
By Reinsch's beautiful process, I was enabled to discover 
mercury in the ingesta of the stomach, and to obtain that 
metal in the form of minute characteristic globules. Subse¬ 
quently a portion of the stomach itself was warmed with 
distilled water and filtered. In the filtered liquid mercury 
was readily detected. From the results of this last experiment 
I should infer that in all probability bichloride of mercury 
—corrosive sublimate—had been administered to the pig, 
and doubtless caused its death. 
