434 
POISONING BY COLCHICUM. 
proof were needed, how necessary it is that a greater amount 
of consideration than has yet been given to it is due to a sub¬ 
ject involving, even in a pecuniary point of view, so much of 
interest to the science whose prosperity is so intimately woven 
with that of our own profession. 
Curious enough, shortly after the foregoing remarks had 
been written, a case occurred in my practice illustrating very 
strikingly some of the points in question. My patient was 
the property of a gentleman in Shrewsbury, and was a small 
pony, of the Welsh mountain breed, four years old, a great 
favorite and a great pet. His symptoms were those of acute 
tympanitis, an unusual complaint for such an animal; and I 
was led, therefore, to inquire somewhat closely into the pro¬ 
bable cause. I found that, for the most part, the pony was 
kept up in the stable; but on the previous evening he had 
been turned out for an hour or two into a little patch of land 
near the house. The pasture was described to me as exceed¬ 
ingly bare of grass, but quite yellow with buttercups , and to my 
great surprise, an examination showed that he had eaten very 
freely of these, for there were very few remaining. On the 
morning following he was discovered to be suffering severely, 
and the appearance of his stable seemed to indicate that he 
had been in violent pain during a great part of the night. 
The symptoms did not much differ from those of ordinary 
enteritis, excepting that the belly was more than usually 
tympanitic, and 1 perceived that his month and throat were much 
inflamed and lender when I came to give him his medicine. 
For the first twenty-four hours it seemed doubtful whether or 
not he would die ; for notwithstanding that the most active 
treatment was had recourse to—bleeding, and counter-irrita¬ 
tion to the belly, opiates, aperients, and frequent enemas—he 
obtained very little relief. After a time, however, the more 
serious symptoms began to abate, the bowels were freely acted 
upon, and the pony rapidly recovered, although for several 
days he appeared to have some difficulty in swallowing. He 
is now quite well. 
If we admit this to have been a case of poisoning with what 
I have already spoken of as one of the least acrid of the 
ranunculacese—and I have not the slightest doubt on the 
matter—it illustrates with some clearness manv of those ex- 
ceptional circumstances under which the protective instinct 
of animals is often found to fail them. The pony in question 
was young, unaccustomed to be turned out, led a peculiarly 
artificial life, and was greatly petted and fed much from the 
hand—circumstances which tended, all of them, more or less, 
to vitiate his tastes and destroy his natural instincts. This is 
