DISEASE AMONG THE MID-LOTHIAN FOXHOUNDS 45 
being about fifteen inches long. Both the inner and outer parts, and 
especially the latter, were quite gangrenous. 
III. The liver was emphysematous, no doubt partly from decomposi¬ 
tion ; Its depending borders were black, also from the same cause ; in other 
respects this organ looked healthy. 
IV. The spleen was dark in colour; but it did not present any other 
unusual appearance. 
V. The kidneys were much congested, the outer coat being easy to 
separate. The cortical portion was soft and brittle ; this latter appear¬ 
ance, however, may be accounted for by incipient putrefaction. 
The chemical examination was next proceeded with. The cause of 
death you had reason to suspect was a poisonous dose of strychnia, and 
my examination, therefore, had special reference to this poison; but after 
looking for it, I also searched for prussic acid, coniine (hemlock), and the 
poisonous metals. The water in the quart bottle was first dealt with. It 
contained abundance of a green confervoid sediment, but the tests for 
strychnine gave a negative result. 
A separate examination of the contents of the stomach itself, the intes¬ 
tine, spleen, liver, and kidneys, resulted in showing the absence of strych¬ 
nine. The process made use of was the well-known one of Stas. A 
second attempt to detect this poison was made on the stomach, liver, and 
kidneys, using this time a modification of Stas’s process, and which is 
reported to be a little more delicate. It was not, however, more success¬ 
ful in showing the presence of strychnia. It should be noted that very 
small quantities of strychnine, e. g. the eighth part of a grain, when dis¬ 
tributed through a large quantity of animal matter, cannot be detected 
by the above processes. Parts of the stomach, liver, intestine, and kidney, 
were then tested for arsenic, mercury, lead, and the other poisonous 
metals, but none of these were present. 
A search was then made on the stomach and intestine for prussic acid 
and coniine, the poison of the hemlock, but an entire negative result was 
got. 
I have also to report to you the results of my examination of the 
second dog, which you told me had died seven days after the' first one. 
Its viscera I took away from the Veterinary College on October 2nd, the 
organs which I examined being the stomach, intestine, liver, heart, and 
kidneys. The examination was conducted with the assistance of Dr. 
Peter Young. 
I. The stomach was found distended with food, which consisted of 
masses of undigested porridge. The serous coat was moderately vascular. 
The greater part of the mucous coat was healthy, but there were con¬ 
gested portions near the pyloric end. 
II. The intestine, chiefly duodenum.—Serous coat was very vascular, 
while the mucous one was only faintly congested. The contents were a 
thin grayish fluid. 
III. The liver was emphysematous and slightly congested. 
IV. The heart was moderately contracted, the left ventricles especially. 
There was about a teaspoonful of blood, dark and coagulated, in each 
ventricle. 
V. The kidney was very vascular, the serous covering easy to remove, 
the corticle substance very soft. The kidney was the organ which in this 
animal was most abnormal in appearance. 
The chemical examination was then proceeded with, precisely in the 
mode pursued with those of the first dog. Strychnine was again made 
the subject of special search, likewise the testing for the poisonous metals 
