200 BLOOD-POISONING IN MAN AND ANTMALS. 
day (Monday) the farmer felt some pricking in the scratch, 
and was a little 66 out of sorts ;” On Tuesday he found him¬ 
self “sickening,” and had pain in the thumb, but still thought 
it would wear away. On Wednesday, however, he was in a 
state of high fever, and his arm had swollen considerably to 
even above the elbow. 
He now sent for a doctor, who, recognising the extreme 
gravity of the case, suggested a consultation, and I have been 
put in possession of the medical particulars by the surgeon 
who was then called in, and who subsequently brought me 
into personal communication with the patient. The swelling 
of the arm was very great, the axillary glands were much in¬ 
flamed, and around the wound a vesicle of reddish serum 
had formed. Two similar vesicles had risen on the left arm, 
and a third on the chest. The distress of the patient w T as 
extreme, his pulse was very quick and weak, and he was 
evidently being rapidly poisoned. Believing that all treat¬ 
ment would be unavailing, it was agreed by the surgeons to 
try the effect of large and frequent doses of quinine. Ac¬ 
cordingly, after the application of a poultice to the inflamed 
arm, quinine gr. v., with acid, hydrochlor. dil. ii[x., was 
ordered to be given every third hour. 
On the afternoon of the following day they revisited the 
patient, and were inconceivably astonished to find him sitting 
up in bed, no longer anxious, but now assured of his certain 
recovery ; the fever, and all other concomitants of blood- 
poisoning, were rapidly subsiding, and the local symptoms 
disappearing in proportion. The intervals between the doses 
of quinine were doubled, and the medicine continued. 
On the ensuing Sunday, the fourth day of the treatment, 
he was up, and was soon after at his usual occupation. 
The greyhound, the only survivor of the three animals 
that had eaten of the spleen, was found on inquiry to have 
been extremely ill, though but little cared for during the 
danger of its master; and, on being looked at, large dark 
spots like dried-up bullae were seen on the flanks and belly. 
It ultimately recovered. The disease continued still among 
the cattle, destroying in all ten cows and two calves. 
Here, then, is an instance of a poison communicable by 
infection from beast to beast, being transferred by inoculation 
to the human system, producing there the most violent 
symptoms of blood-poisoning, and yet being suddenly and 
unexpectedly neutralised by the introduction into the same 
system, of quinine. 
Dr. H. Thompson, Surgeon to the Tyrone County In¬ 
firmary, details in the Dublin Quarterly Journal the case of a 
