This red oxide of lead is easily distinguished by its colour, weight, and the facility with which it yields metallic lead, when heated with carbonaceous matter. Common red wafers, which derive their colour from this oxide, afford a striking illustration of this fact, for if burnt in a candle, globules of metallic lead will be observed to flow from them. It is poisonous; and we have already alluded to a case where Gloucester cheese[377] occasioned deleterious effects, in consequence of its adulteration with _red lead_. (p. 277) It is destructive also to inferior animals, apparently in very small quantities; red wafers prove poisonous to birds who may pick them up; and the same paste is sold for the purpose of destroying beetles, in which it succeeds very effectually. Since it is employed as a pigment, it may on many occasions prove an accidental cause of poisoning; there is indeed one very common and dangerous source, mentioned by _Sir George Baker_,[378] which deserves to be particularized in this place, viz. the practice of painting toys with _red lead_, and other poisonous substances; children, observes this distinguished physician, are apt to carry every object which gives them delight to their mouths, the painting of toys, therefore, with poisonous colours, is a practice which ought to be abolished, and is the more open to censure, as it is of no real utility. _Symptoms of poisoning by the different preparations of Lead._ The effects of this poison will vary considerably according to the quantity swallowed, and the circumstances under which it is taken. We shall, therefore, first consider its operation, in doses sufficiently large to occasion at once violent effects; and then describe its agency as an _accumulative_ poison, where it is introduced into the system gradually, and in small quantities, so as to act slowly and imperceptibly, and to lay the foundation of irreparable mischief, before any alarm is occasioned. 1. _Symptoms which follow a large dose._ Where a salt of lead has been taken in a considerable dose, the patient soon experiences excruciating pains in the abdomen, accompanied with sickness and vomiting; the colic increases to a violent degree, but admits of temporary alleviation by pressure, a circumstance which at once distinguishes it from the effects of corrosive poison. Although it is necessary to observe, that inflammatory symptoms may afterwards occur, where the dose has been very considerable, and the consequences direct and speedy.