268 
R. MIDDLETON. 
EDIBILITY OF THE FLESH OF POISONED ANIMALS. 
Translated by Richard Middleton, A.B., D.V.S., Philadelphia, Pa. 
The question respecting the edibility of the flesh of 
poisoned animals is of great signification. Our literature is 
wanting in scientific investigations in this direction, and it 
cannot be wondered at, therefore, that opinions upon the 
subject vary so diametrically. For a long period the now 
edible nature was considered as a veterinary axiom; we er¬ 
roneously supposed that the meat of a poisoned animal, in 
which the presence of the deadly agent could be chemically 
proved, had a poisonous effect when eaten by the human be¬ 
ing. The presence of only the smallest traces of poisons, as¬ 
certained by the most delicate chemical reactions, go to prove 
that the meat is not necessarily poisonous—for every poison 
is, in doses small enough, uninjurious. By a short process of 
reckoning we quickly perceive that such flesh is not as fatal 
as it at first sight seems. The fatal dose of strychnine for a 
iocwt. ox is 0.5 grms., and for a icwt. man 0.05 grnis.; 
1 kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of the flesh of an ox killed with this 
quantity contained 0.01 grms., a quantity which is for man 
not harmful. 
The same results are deducible from the fact that the wild 
races of Africa subsist upon the flesh of animals which are 
never killed in any other manner than by the poisoned arrow ; 
in the eastern and western portions of this continent the 
seeds of strophanthus, the modern celebrated heart tonic, are 
especially applied to this purpose. The strophanthus seeds 
are a thousand times more poisonous than the leaves of 
digitalis purpurea. 
A dangerously poisoned meat is only imaginable, under 
peculiar circumstances, as when the poison does not emanate 
from the stomach, but from a wound of the skin directly into 
the muscles themselves, and- so is given opportunity to con¬ 
centrate at one point. Upon this ground we may explain 
why the above mentioned African natives excise the flesh in 
the immediate vicinity of the wound. After a subcutaneous 
