CASE OF POISONING FROM STRYCHNIA. 
281 
stable ; this was darkened as much as possible; he was warmly 
clothed, and ordered that perfect quietness might prevail. I 
ordered belladonna and alcohol in his water, with a bucket of 
gruel containing chloral hydrate and gentian, but he never took 
any of either. I allowed but one person to go near him to attend 
his wants. 
The next morning I found him worse, every symptom seem¬ 
ing to be aggravated in character, with no appearance of any new 
ones. I then made a diagnosis of strychnia poisoning, and was 
informed that they had lost another horse, about a year before, 
with similar symptoms, but no post-mortem was held. On my 
first visit I made an examination of his food, watering trough, 
<fcc., but found no traces of any poison. On the morning of the 
6th he was found dead, and I was telegraphed for to hold a post¬ 
mortem. I examined again, as I had done before death, for some 
wound or mark of violence, but failed to find any. Almost as 
soon as death took place rigor mortis set in, and this remaiued 
for a number of hours after. I removed the limb on the off for 
ward side, he having fallen on the near side ; finding the blood 
vessels of the skin and bronchial region very much congested, the 
blood being very dark and thick in character ; the same condition 
in the right lung of a more marked type, while the left lung was 
thoroughly engorged, partly from gravitation. Upon entering the 
abdominal cavity I found the immediate cause of deatli to have 
been from rupture of the colon at the supra sternal flexure, which 
probably occurred during one of the spasms. The stomach 
proved to be empty, with the exception of a few dead hots, the 
lining membrane showing but one or two ulcerated patches. The 
first eight or ten feet of the small intestine was a deep red color 
from inflammation, and its mucous membrane showed many large 
patches of ulceration. I did not go into the brain or spinal cord, 
feeling that it was unnecessary, where the lesions corresponded 
so well with my diagnosis of poisoning by strychnia. 
