THE 
V . v 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXXIV. 
No. 397. 
JANUARY, 1861 . 
Fourth Series. 
No. 73. 
Communications and Cases. 
ON POISONING BY VEGETABLES. 
Our attention has lately been directed to the fact that 
there is much which is unsatisfactory respecting the poisoning 
of animals by vegetables. Their effects are often very variable, 
and the lesions they cause are sometimes so inconsiderable as 
altogether to escape detection. Of course, in some degree, 
this will depend upon the class to which they belong; that 
is, whether they are irritant, or narcotic, or narcotico-acrid 
poisons. Moreover, the character of the lesions will not be 
decisive, inasmuch as an irritant metallic poison will, if given 
in repeatedly small doses, produce effects similar to those that 
result from a narcotico-acrid vegetable poison ; while the im¬ 
plication or otherwise of the peritoneal tunic of the intestines 
has long since ceased to be considered a distinction between 
poisoning by minerals and vegetables. Then how very diffi¬ 
cult is it to decide upon the particular plant or vegetable 
which has been productive of the mischief, unless it should 
be that the digestive powers are weak, or the quantity given 
or partaken of is large, and some of it is found in the sto¬ 
mach or alimentary canal unacted upon. Then it is that a 
knowledge of the botanical characters of plants is indispensa¬ 
ble. It is true that the principles of chemistry may be brought 
to bear so as to develop the active principle of the more 
well-known poisonous vegetables. But what amount of labour 
does this frequently involve ? more especially when—as almost 
always is the case—the agent has undergone mastication 
and partial digestion, and is commixed with a mass of 
other ingesta; this, whether in the stomach of the horse or 
the rumen of the ox tribe, although in this latter it is not 
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