574 LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDiCAL ASSOCIATION. 
an alteration in its consistency, or by a change of colour, 
the poisonous substance itself simultaneously undergoing a 
change. 
Dr. Jackson, on examining the blood of a woman who had 
died from the inhalation of chloroform, found that the chlorine 
had been replaced by oxygen, and that formic acid existed in the 
blood, and this was separated from it by distillation. The chlo¬ 
rine had combined with the blood, which had lost the power of 
coagulation and of becoming red by exposure to air. 
Admitting that every poison could be chemically detected in 
the blood, it would yet remain to be explained how it operated 
when there to destroy life. At present there is no satisfactory 
theory to account for the fatal effects. All we know from ob¬ 
servation is, that the poison, when circulating through the blood- 
vassels, destroys life. 
It has been supposed that when a poison has been absorbed it 
produces its effects by destroying the vitality of the blood; but 
all poisons do not act alike—one depresses the action of the 
heart, another affects the brain, a third the motor tract of the 
spinal marrow, and a fourth annuls the sensibility of the nervous 
system generally; therefore the destruction of the vital pro¬ 
perties of the blood affords no explanation of these specific 
differences. 
In the case now under consideration, however, we find distinct 
alterations of the fibrine, if not actual decomposition of the 
blood. 
I had recourse to one other experiment on a goat, which 
was kept without food for twenty-four hours previously to the 
administration of the superphosphate. 
It was subjected to precisely the same doses and given at the 
same time as the former instance, but in form of bolus. In this 
case the general disturbance was very slight, although the animal 
was never seen to ruminate. 
After the death of the first one I administered to this large 
doses in solution, which produced death at the expiration of 
two days. The appearances on examination were exactly like 
the other. 
From this I infer that the poison when administered in a solid 
form was not absorbed from the rumen, and the local action 
there produced was due to an acid salt on the coating of 
the rumen, which was powerful enough to disturb the vital 
functions, but not to corrode the tissue; and I also infer that 
in the abomasum the monocalcic phosphate was decomposed and 
the phosphoric acid set free, which was absorbed and caused the 
death of the animal. 
A very animated discussion followed the reading of the paper. 
