Books and charts are published, explaining the various antidotes and tests to be employed for the detection and counteraction of the different poisons. Such authorities are of little service in the stable; the tests require care and time for their application; the symptoms are mostly so urgent as to permit no leisure for scientific inquiry. In an acute case, dependence must be placed on general principles, and fortune must be relied on to guide the result.
Certain poisons act instantaneously and without any warning sufficiently energetic to be interpreted, as the twigs or leaves of the yew-tree.
Other agents immediately establish the lesson which sometimes speedily kills, but more often produces consequences which will ultimately destroy life, though death may be some time before it occurs, as the mineral acids, etc.
The presence of particular kinds is announced only by violent disorder, as powerful diuretics and potent purgatives.
The symptoms, therefore, are not decided; the carter has his motives for silence, and the inability of the horse to vomit forbids the earliest announcement of deranged stomach. The time for antidotes has generally passed before attention is excited; to support the life, in the hope that it may survive the destroyer, is evidently the best thing which can, under such circumstance, be adopted. Chloroform, ether, and opium render the body insensible, and, by sparing the nervous system, certainly existence will be prolonged. Purgatives had better be withheld they may already have been administered in enormous doses; fearful amounts of aloes destroy life without purgation being exhibited.
Against alkalies there does not exist the same objection; carbonate of magnesia, carbonate of soda or of potash may, in quantity, be mixed with gruel and horned down; both opium and ether may be blended with the drink. Should the pulse be low, a drachm of carbonate of ammonia may be added to each dose of the other ingredients. Should corrosive sublimate be in any degree suspected to be the agent employed, mix one dozen eggs with the other components; these will in no way detract from the operation of the drench.
The mixture should be given in as large quantities as the animal can be induced to swallow. The gruel should be quite cold, and one quart should constitute a dose. No bleeding should be permitted the abstraction of blood promotes absorption; to prevent the absorption of the poison is the present endeavor. The following draught contains all that can be recommended, so long as ignorance of the actual poison it is desired to counteract, exists. When the information is positive, of course Morton's Toxological Chart will be a far better guide than any observations the author has ability to offer.
| Sulphuric ether and tincture of opium | Of each three ounces. |
| Carbonate of magnesia, of soda or potash | Four ounces. |
| Gruel (quite cold) | One quart. |
To these may be added, should the pulse be of a sinking character:—
Carbonate of ammonia One drachm.