The
laboratory report compiled for Colonel
O'Callaghan in February 1895 by Walter
Thorp attributes the cause of death in
the case of the particular bullock under
examination to be due to arsenic poisoning.
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Analysis of a sample of bullocks entrails
sent by E. C. Winder Esq for Col O'Callaghan
received 11 November 1895.
The viscera when delivered to me were in a sealed sack.
I found the seals intact and the contained viscera
exhibited no signs of disease.
On examination of the rumen I found the mucous
membrane intensely inflamed, so much that
large patches had been detached during life and
were mixed up in masses of the food.
Parts of the food exhibited the bleaching action
of a mineral caustic.
I searched carefully for strange plants in the
food but found nothing except innocuous forage
plants.
The symptoms exhibited by the rumen were such
as could only be caused by an irritant
mineral poison with caustic properties
+ this poison must have been administered in
solution or in some form suitable for rapid
solution in the fluids of the stomach.