[Reprinted from The Medical News, August 3, 1895.] 
A CASE OF OPIUM-POISONING TREATED WITH 
POTASSIUM PERMANGANATE. 
Service of GEORGE BYRD HARRISONLM.D., Emergency 
Hospital, Washington, D. C. 
[Reported by James R. Church, A.M., M.D., 
of Washington, D. C.] 
The following case was the last of a series of fourteen 
which came under my observation while an interne at 
the Emergency Hospital, and, I think, presents features 
to make it of interest to the profession. It is the only 
case in which a recovery was entirely attributable to the 
permanganate-treatment, and was to me a most satis- 
factory test of the efficacy of this antidote. 
M. S., a mulatto girl, nineteen years of age, was brought 
into the hospital at 11.30 p. m., with the history of having 
taken twenty-cents’ worth of laudanum (probably 25 
or 30 c.cm.) about two hours previously. She had several 
epileptiform seizures while in the ambulance and one 
after admission to the hospital, but was easily roused 
from her stupor by pressure on the supraorbital nerves. 
She could not, or would not, talk, but was not in a con- 
dition of absolute coma. The pupils were pin-head in 
size, respiration was slightly accelerated, and the tem- 
perature was normal. 
The girl was treated with the usual line of opium- 
antidotes and antagonists, and, as coma was absent, she 
was given apomorphin hydrochlorate 0.005 hypodermi- 
cally, which had been preceded by 300 c.cm. of a solu- 
tion of potassium permanganate (0.30 to 500 c.cm. of 
water). Two more injections of the apomorphin were 2 
given at intervals of about seven minutes, but none of 
them was effective. To be certain that the lack of 
action was not due to the defective qualities of the drug 
the second and third doses were each taken from a 
freshly opened bottle of tablets. Shortly after the last 
dose the girl’s condition became rapidly worse. She 
lapsed into coma and the pulse went up to 134 and the 
respiration to 26, and became stertorous. The faradic 
current now had little effect, and I decided to rely en- 
tirely on the permanganate, as other treatment was un- 
satisfactory. 
The stomach-tube was passed, and, after the removal 
of the gastric contents and lavage with hot coffee, 
500 c.cm. of the permanganate-solution were thrown 
into the stomach and allowed to remain about five min- 
utes, being then withdrawn and replaced by a fresh 
solution. This was repeated until 2500 c.cm. of the 
solution had been used, when 250 c.cm., containing 0.30 
of the salt, were introduced and allowed to remain. 
After the second washing out the girl’s condition began 
to improve, and after the last she was aroused by the 
battery with comparative ease. Her pulse dropped to 
104 and respiration became less frequent and fuller, 
and within three-quarters of an hour from the ingestion 
of the last 250 c.cm. of solution she was sent to the ward 
to bed, being then perfectly conscious and easily roused. 
She made an uninterrupted recovery and was discharged 
the next day, complaining only of slight pharyngeal irri- 
tation and general lameness, the latter due to efforts to 
rouse her. 
The points of interest in the case are, I think, the 
convulsions, which I do not understand ; the bad effect 
of the apomorphin, which had about the influence of an 
equivalent of morphin, and, lastly, the entirely prompt 
and satisfactory rally after the permanganate was re- 
sorted to, at a time when the condition was extremely 
critical. 3 
I think my treatment open to criticism in deferring 
the use of the stomach-pump and in not immediately 
using the permanganate in larger dose than the first 
300 c.cm. I can unhesitatingly assert that the patient’s 
recovery was due to the permanganate-treatment, and 
should not hesitate to use it in other cases in preference 
to other drugs. 
1706 Oregon Avenue.