270 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETEIlINAllY SCIENCE. 
panietl sometimes with violent gestures and fits of laujrhter; 
pulse small, hard, and quick ; coma and convulsions, generally 
terminating in death. 
Amongst our domestic animals the dog seems the most 
susceptible of its poisonous effects. “ Christison says that 
lialf an ounce of the ordinary watery extract is fatal to dogs 
in about thirty hours when given by the mouth, half that 
quantity in twenty-four hours when introduced into a wound, 
and even smaller doses when injected into the jugular vein. 
Ortila says that forty or fifty grains of the watery extract 
injected into the jugular vein of dogs have proved fatal, 
causing dilatation of the pupil, plaintive cries, efforts to vomit, 
weakness of the posterior extremities, staggering, frequent 
pulse, a state like intoxication, and death.^^ ' 
A horse, according to ^ Miroud,^ has been known to eat 
eight pounds (troy) of the leaves without any ill-effects, and 
a pound of ripe berries have been given to an ass with like 
effect. Some authors assert that sheep and goats eat it with 
impunity, without any obvious harm. Much, however, yet 
remains, and far more extensive and careful investigations 
are required to be carried out, ere the somewhat contradic¬ 
tory effects of this and other plants upon animals is set at 
rest. We may be assured that this and many more plants 
of a like nature are very much influenced, as regards their 
active properties, by the situation and soil in which they are 
grown, a fact which I am inclined to think has not received 
sufficient attention, and in some measure accounting for the 
different results which have been obtained. 
The post-mortem appearances are generally as follows:— 
The vessels of the brain congested with dark, fluid blood ; the 
eyes sometimes partly open, and the pupils dilated, and dif¬ 
ferent parts of the mucous membrane from the throat to the 
intestines marked with peculiar red spots. The following 
tests, copied from Dr. Taylor’s work, will indicate the pre¬ 
sence of atropia :—Iodine water gives with its salts a dense, 
brown precipitate; tannic acid precipitates it of a dirty 
white; gallic acid has no effect; nitric and sulphuric acid 
dissolve it, but do not produce any change of colour; sul¬ 
phuric acid and bichromate of potash j)roduce with it green 
oxide of chromium. It is rendered turbid by chloride of 
platina, and is |)recipitated of a yellowish-white colour by 
chloride of gold.’’ 
[To he cojifhiued.) 
