314 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
astringent taste, and had a strong smell, but quite different from 
that of the distilled liquid. A portion of this decoction was 
poured down the throat of a doe rabbit almost full grown, and it 
was supposed to have swallowed about a drachm and a half or 
two drachms. When set down it seemed feeble and giddy, made 
one or two ineffectual efforts to raise itself on its hind legs against 
the side of the box in which it was placed, but fell; then sat on 
all-fours, seemed weak and unsteady, and in five minutes was 
lying on its side insensible, the respiration going on feebly, but 
neither much accelerated nor at all gasping—the pulsations of 
the heart were also feeble. It lay in this state for a few minutes; 
the action of the respiratory muscles and of the heart became 
rapidly weaker, and ceased altogether in about ten minutes from 
the administration of the poison. Except one slight retraction 
of the head there was no convulsive movement whatever; and 
there was no evacuation either of the bowels or bladder. The 
limbs became quite stiff in the course of an hour. On examining 
the stomach twenty-four hours after death, it was found full of 
food, and softened at its larger extremity, but without any 
appearance of inflammation; the lungs and other contents of the 
chest and abdomen appeared healthy. A portion of a decoction 
like that last used was given to another rabbit at twenty minutes 
before ten o’clock, a.m., on the 27th Sept., 1845 ; after which it 
seemed dull and panted violently, but did not exhibit any 
paralysis or weakness. After half an hour it appeared well, 
except that it continued somewhat dull and refused food; and 
was in much the same condition on two or three subsequent 
occasions when it was seen. At a little after three, while a 
servant was in the place in which it was kept, it suddenly sprung 
forward, screaming at the same time, and when 1 saw it shortly 
afterwards it was lying on its side, with the pupils of the eyes 
dilated, the limbs relaxed, and respiration very feeble, as in the 
last case; and it died at a quarter past three, p.m., or about five 
hours and a half after taking the poison. 
On examining it eight hours after death, the surfaces of all 
the abdominal viscera were found moist, and some serous fluid 
was in the abdomen, the liver appeared somewhat gorged and 
