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TREATISE
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
             PART I.



      COMPRISING THE CONSIDERATION Ol-




POISONS AND  ASPHYXIA.




        By  HENRY £,OLEY,

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDO#; OF THE p^lORK
            MEDICAL SOCIETY, &C.      *






           " SI .M'lHCAS, COUlVOSCE.
             NEW-YORK:


PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STODART, 6, CORTLANDT-SRTEET



                1H32. 
   (fOO
CU5t
I
H
z
Entered according to Act of Congresa, In the year 1832, by Henry Colky,
       at the Clerk's Office of tho Southern District of New-York.
      new-york :
printed by james kelly,
   60, willliam-st. 
PREFACE.
  It Avill be in the recollection of the medical public, that a smalj
work issued  from the press some months ago, under  the title,
" Toxicologia, or A Treatise on Internal Poisons, in their relation
to Medical Jurisprudence, Physiology, and the Practice of Phy-
sic,"  by W. F. Lowrie, M. D.   This publication was sanctioned
by the recommendation of some of the most eminent physicians in
the country,  who were pleased  to approve  of  its arrangement
and  subject matter.   Its sale was,  however,  stopped,  and under
the following circumstances :
  Towards the close of the year 1830,1 had prepared two Toxico-
logical Charts for  publication ;  one containing the description of
the poisonous substances yielded from the mineral kingdom, either
in a native condition or in a state  of combination, and the other
comprising the list of deleterious plants, and likeAvise the poisonous
varieties of fish and insects that are apt to be mistaken for whole-
some aliment.  These charts were intended as the first of a series
embracing the whole subject of Medical Jurisprudence ; but their
publication was delayed, from an excess of literary engagements,
many months after their completion.  In the June  or  July  fol-
lowing,  an individual  of the name  of Lowrie, a travelling map-
seller, waited  upon me for the  purpose of disposing of a Gram-
matical  Chart : his  attention was attracted to the Toxicological
Charts then suspended in my office, and he expressed  some anx-
iety to learn their meaning and my  designs respecting their publi-
cation :  in several  subsequent visits, made on the express subject
of these charts, he demanded  the price  of  their copy-right, or 
  iv                        PREFACI'].
  upon what terms I would furnish  him with a certain  number of
  impressions,  and eventually induced me to lend them for a few
  days, in order that  he might ascertain the price of printing and
  paper  in their publication.   I was persuaded to this  confidence
  by a hasty belief in his integrity, upon his solemn promise that no
  extracts should be made from the charts, and that they  should not
  be shown to any party but his printer, and from his mention of
  several respectable individuals in New-York,  whom  he named
 as his friends  and patrons.  The charts were conveyed to his resi-
 dence, 157 Washington-street,  in this  city, returned in  about
 six or seven days' time, and with a refusal to purchase  their right
 of publication.
   From that time until January, 1832, when the work,  " Toxico-
 logia," appeared, no  circumstances had transpired to  render me
 aware  that any improper use had  been made  of the  charts  in
 question ; but, in examining that publication, and to which the
 name of Lowrie is attached,  I immediately discovered that the
 whole of my materials had been pirated, my very language, even
 to some slight inaccuracies, copied, and, in fact, that the result of
 much labour and research was made serviceable in the perpetra-
 tion of  a fraud, by which I was deprived  both of credit and emolu-
 ment.   The distinction of M. D. attached to the name of Lowrie,
 gave  it a degree of  respectability undeserved by the owner, and
 would, doubtless, have greatly contributed to the sale of  his work,
 especially as he had  obtained certificates of the  most favourable
 nature from a number of Professors in  the different colleges of
 the United States, approving of the general  arrangement and plan
of his undertaking.
  It is due to the respectable publisher to state, that, upon a repre-
sentation of the foregoing facts, he immediately stopped the sale of
the book, refused any further connexion with the individual who
had so grossly deceived the public through his instrumentality, and
finally expressed his willingness to aid  me  in the publication of
my own work, wherein r might have an opportunity of explaining
the imposition. 
                           PREFACE.                         v
  The following pages form only the first part of a work intended
as an outline of the whole science of Medical Jurisprudence ;  in
fact, they refer, in particular, to the materials surreptitiously made
use of by the individual whose conduct has been described.  The
reason  for  this publication, in  its present form, will be  readily
comprehended, as affording me the only chance of redeeming my
literary property from invasion ; and the alteration in the arrange-
ment,  from a  chart  to a book, was in consequence  necessarily
forced upon me.
  The subject  of Asphyxia has been added to that of Poisons, from
the connexion established, in some instances, between them, and
from the wish  to include, in one work, that portion of the whole
subject more immediately falling within the province of the Che-
mist and the Pathologist,
  Under the circumstances  detailed,  is this book submitted to the
medical public, in the nature rather of an elementary treatise to a
difficult although important science, than an elaborate  disquisition
on its subtleties.  It may, perhaps, be regarded as a guide to, or a
text book of Forensic Medicine, in which attention is directed to
its  prominent objects, and the mind of the  youthful student  in
particular, attracted to its first principles.
  The treatment of cases of poisoning,  or asphyxia, demands the
utmost promptness and decision;  life rapidly ebbs  under the
destructive influence of the one, or the controuling  oppression  of
the other, and the delay of a few minutes too frequently renders
the action of the most powerful agent  inert.  It is therefore  of
essential  importance, that  the skill  of the physician should  be
immediately manifested in the application of suitable remedies,
and that his mind should be  prepared for the detection of the
poisonous  material, in order to oppose  it  by its  proper and  if
possible, by its specific antidote.
  A  reference  to the ensuing pages  Avill impart this necessary
information, and likewise teach the  practitioner to discriminate
between the various symptoms occasioned by different poisons.
  The directions on the subject of Tests, are sufficiently minute 
Yi                         PREFACE
to  assist the practitioner in discovering the nature of the poison,
particularly  when  confirmed by the morbid appearance  of the
viscera.
  The second part of this  work, treating of Infanticide,  Murder
by Weapons, Rape,  Gestation, and Insanity, will appear in the
course of a few months.
                                         HENRY  COLEY,
                                     152 Greenwich-street, New-York.
  November 1, 1832. 
INTRODUCTION.
   Tmk science of Medical Jurisprudence is  closely allied to the
 legitimate and successful practice of medicine, and, in its applica-
 tion, it is not less related to the interests of mankind at large.
   Embracing a variety of considerations affecting life as  well as
 property, this science demands of the Medical Faculty, to whom its
 exercise is entrusted, the closest habits of attention, investigation,
 and comparison. The great gift of life bestowed by the Creator, is
 too often suddenly terminated by the stroke of disease, the hand
 of violence, or  the  subtle poison ; circumstances may arise suffi-
 cient to point suspicion, and the physician is summoned to deter-
 mine by what event death  has been occasioned.  One unit is lost
 to society, and the  public voice demands a strict account of the
 forfeiture ; another life may be at stake upon a charge of murder,
 and the same authority claims  its acquittal or condemnation.  The
 fiat rests with the physician,  to whom the task is committed of
 unravelling the evidence so far as it relates to the examination of
 the deceased,  and his words may restore the accused to his accus-
 tomed place in society, or  consign him to the scaffold.
   The various  agencies by which  crime affects its  purpose  in
 destruction, are often of difficult detection : a fall, for  instance,
 in a state of intemperance, may occasion a wound  on  the head
 somewhat similar to one inflicted by a weapon ; and, on the other
 hand, the mark  from a  weapon, although fatal under peculiar cir-
 cumstances, may be  too indistinct to render  decisive evidence.
 The pathological characters may be equally  undecisive ;  for the
blush of inflammation can be traced to a slight as well to as a severe
injury, and the orobability of apoplexy in some individuals,  from a
constitutional  cause, assists in throwing a doubt over  the investi- 
 vii;                    INTRODUCTION.
 gation exceedingly difficult to  relieve.   This is one of the many
 instances in which the judgment may be arrested, if not confused,
 as  far  as injury, or the  suspicion of an injury,  is  concerned.
 the same uncertainty prevails in other enquiries,  particularly in
 that of Infanticide ; the  readiness with which life can be destroyed,
 at its earliest period, renders the commission of this act a ready
 means for hiding the crime of incontinence,  and of avoiding the
 censure attached to one  fault, by the perpetration of another of a
 deeper dye.  Not unfrequently, however, has  it happened, that
the unfortunate one who has been lured to error, incurs suspicion
 from- the circumstance of having concealed her shame, when in the
 solftary hour of  trial  its object  expired from want of necessary
 care.  Here is the physician's opinion anxiously demanded, and not
 only on the question whether life  had a commencement, but on
 the more difficult subject, whether violence, in any form, had been
 attempted, by which existence was prevented or destroyed.
  Asphyxia is a  condition under which  life departs its tenement,
 imposing an anxious duty upon the physician  in pronouncing how
 far accident or design may have operated in an exposure of the
 sufferer  to situations or circumstances inducing it.  There  may
 be no  direct evidence  to prove the intention of the suicide—no
 testimony to warrant the belief  that violence has been commit-
ted—and the opinion may  incline to accident as the cause of the
misfortune ; when an apparently unimportant circumstance relative
to the habits of the deceased,  or to the past conduct  of  another
individual, may attach a new character to the  investigation, and
eventually detect the criminal.
  Death by  Poison has too frcequently occurcd in every country,
not to have received its share  of  observation in  the study  of
Forensic Medicine.  The  subject is so extensive—it  admits  of
such a variety of considerations in a moral, anatomical, chemical,
and pathological  point of view, that the exertions of science are
almost irresistibly devoted to its elucidation, and the  attention even
of the young mind is attracted by the enticing  display of experi-
ment wherewith  its  study  is accompanied.   When we consider 
                       INTRODUC'IION.                      ix
how fertile, the animal and vegetable kingdoms are in deleterious
substances ;  how  suddenly the  life of man is terminated  by the
administration of  some, and how slowly others are  fatal; when
we reflect upon their various modes of action upon  the  animal
economy, (some applied directly to the mucous surfaces of the
intestines,  others  through  the  medium of the circulation to the
vital  powers, a third class interfering with the nervous system,
and a fourth attacking  a portion of  the  respiratory apparatus  by
spastic  contractions) and when we regard the several  appearances
presented by different tissues under the action of poison, and the
diversity of symptoms  occasioned, we may  well admit that the
utmost care and ingenuity are  required  in adequately performing
the office  of examiner  and reporter  upon  circumstances of so
varied a character.
   The questions  implicated in a charge of  Rape, are often ex-
tremely intricate,  requiring an abundant caution in their solution
by the medical  jurist ;  when  the crime is  perpetrated upon  an
individual  of tender  years, a decision  is readily  made ;  but, in
after life, there are doubts which can only be relieved by concur-
rent evidence  and the  testimony of the injured party,  whose
general manners  and  recital of the events as they occurred, will
confirm or stagger his belief in her statement.
   Insanity is a subject of important reference, both as respects
the condition of the individual, and the interest of society. Liberty
of person,  as the birthright of man, may, in no instance, be inter-
fered  with  upon  slight  pretences ;  nor may  an  individual  be
deprived of the  controul of  his property without an obvious
necessity, arising  from  mental imbecility, inconsistency, or vio-
lence, which incapacitates him from its  rational use,  and, in fact,
enables him  to outrage  the feelings  and institutions of the com-
munity.  But there are  a number of grades in Insanity,  from  the
merest weakness  of intellect to  the  most savage  madness; the
former may hardly justify the transfer of rights or the restriction
of person, whilst  the latter demands  exclusion from the world,
and frequently the exercise of force  and severity. The physician
                              A 
 x                     INTRODUCTION.
 is here summoned to mark  the  mental character—to judge of its
 fitness or inability to correspond with the circumstances of society,
 and frequently to detect  the  lunatic under the mask of cunning,
 or in the disguise of eccentricity :  the freedom of a fellow crea-
 ture rests upon his decision !
   Gestation is another subject bearing strongly upon the rights of
 the individual, and the welfare of society  at  large.   The natural
 term of pregnancy is subject  to some varieties, which have occa-
 sionally been rendered more  remarkable, and in consequence the
 fair fame of woman has been tarnished by unmerited  suspicion,
 and the inheritance of a child wrested from his grasp.  It is the
 duty of the physician to separate the truth or the probability from
 the fiction in such cases,  to  bring the weight of his experience
 and knowledge into  the scale, and determine according to the
 laws of Nature and by the rules of Science, how far the assump-
 tion, sought to be established, is correct.
   Such are  the principal subjects comprised in the study of Medi-
 cal Jurisprudence, and to which the attention of the physician is
 called  in determining the doubts wherewith their consideration is
 enveloped.  Placed in the jury-box, he is frequently the most im-
 portant witness, and directs the verdict by the nature  of  his evi-
 dence, whether it be applied in  a question of life or death, or to one
 simply affecting the custody or inheritance of property.   We are
 aware how often the medical testimony  is attempted to be shaken in
 cross-examination, and we have unfortunately been witnesses of
 the want of sufficient skill and tact displayed by some practitioners
 in their replies to an opposing counsel.  Unless the mind  be well
 made up by repeated study  and investigation upon  the abstruse
 points  connected  with Forensic Medicine,  the ingenuity of the
lawyer will involve the physician in a mass of contradictory state-
ments ;  he will be betrayed  into an inconsistency  of reply to the
most simple  query, and defeat  the very end for which he has been
summoned to appear.
  The physician  therefore needs  all the aid that the  collateral
sciences can afford to medicine, before he can become an adept in 
                       INTRODUCTION.                     xi
Medical Jurisprudence.  From Anatomy, he derives a knowledge
of the relative situation of parts, and how far and in what manner
they  are likely  to be injured by direct or indirect  violence; from
Physiology, he is enabled to decide how far the functions of respi-
ration, circulation, and secretion, have been affected, or whether
their  arrest was occasioned through the instrumentality of disease
or by the hand of man; by Pathology, he is instructed how to dis-
criminate between the  healthy and morbid conditions of each por-
tion of the animal economy, and to judge of what the distinctive
characters  to which his attention may be directed,  are  the result;
and by Chemistry, he is taught how to analyze the  contents of the
cavities, to remove the disguise from poisonous substances, and test
their  exact qualities. Fortified with the necessary degree of know-
ledge from such sources, the physician multiplies  his  usefulness,
and ranks not only as the preserver of health, but as a moral agent
to society in the detection of crime, and in the rescue of innocence
from  suspicion and unmerited punishment.
   The following pages are devoted to the consideration of two im-
portant branches of the science of Medical Jurisprudence—Poisons
and Asphyxia.   These subjects  have been  chosen,  both  for the
reason stated in the preface, and for their intrinsic importance, as
an appropriate commencement for this work; the  study of each is
beset with  difficulties,  which a close attention  can alone  remove,
and which can scarcely be denied where their consequences both in
a medical and public light are remembered.

                          POISONS.

   "The action of Poisons," says Dr. Christison, in his invaluable
Treatise on Poisons, "may be considered as  Local and Remote."
   The effects of the first are of three kinds ;  some decompose che-
mically, or corrode the  part to which they are applied; others, with-
out immediately injuring its organization, inflame or irritate it; and
a third variety neither corrode  nor irritate,  but make a  peculiar
impression on the sentient extremities of the nerves,  unaccompanied 
 xii                    INTRODUCTION.
 by any visible change of structure.  The two first of these species
 of poisons may take place in any tissue or organ, on the skin, the
 mucous membrane of the stomach, intestines, windpipe, air-tubes,
 bladder, and vagina, in the cellular tissue, in the serous membranes
 of the chest and  abdomen, and in the nervous fibre.  As to the
 third variety, we are not well acquainted with the nature  of local
 nervous impressions on different tissues, and in some textures they
 are probably very indistinct.
   The remote  action of poisons  displays peculiar phenomena ;
 the affected part sometimes recovers without any visible change;
 sometimes undergoes the  usual process consequent on inflamma-
 tion ; sometimes  perishes at once, and is thrown of; and if the
 organ be one, the function  of  which is  necessary  to  life, death
 may gradually ensue in consequence of that function being irrevo-
 cably injured.
   The influence of a poison is conveyed from one organ to another
 in two ways ; either the local impression passes along the nerves
 to the organ secondarily affected, or the poison enters the bibulous
 vessels, mingles with the blood, and passes through the medium
 of  the circulation.  In the former way poisons are said to act
 through Sympathy, and the latter through Absorption.
   Notwithstanding the discoveries and the theory of Majendie, in
 venous absorption, it is probable that some poisons act by sympa-
 thy without entering the blood,  their  operation  consisting of an
 impression made  on the sentient  extremities of the nerves, and
 conveyed thence along their filaments to the brain or  other organs.
  That poisons act by absorption, is  still more evident ;  first,  '
 they disappear during life  from  the shut cavities into which they
have been introduced ; secondly, many poisons will, act with unim-
 paired rapidity, when  the  nerves  supplying th^'part have  been
 divided, or even when the part is attached to the body by arteries and
 veins only, as proved by the experiments of Muniio in regard to
 opium, Majendie  to nux vomica,  Coullon to hydrocyanic acid,
 and Coindel and  Cristison to oxalic acid ; thirdly, some poisons
 act with a force proportional to  the absorbing power of the tex- 
                        INTRODUCTION.                     xiii
Hire with which they are placed in contact: thus, the most rapid
channel of absorption is by a wound, or by express injection into
a vein ; the surface of the serous is a less rapid medium, and the
mucous membrane of the  alimentary canal is still less so.  Poi-
sons have  been detected not only in the blood, but  in the secre-
tions  and exeretions,  as proved  by the reports of a number of
writers upon  this subject; it must,  however, be a  rare circum-
stance to find any  deleterious material in that fluid or  in  the
animal solids, and for the following reasons : The quantity admi-
nistered of a subtle poison, and the still less quantity entering the
blood-vessels, will nearly always  be^ot^&rrNill after being  distri-
buted throughout the  body ;  the poison may be partly or wholly
removed before death beyond the  reach of analysis, from having
passed off with the excretions ; many poisons are probably decom-
posed in the blood without that fluid undergoing any important
change, and oxalic acid in particular presents an instance of  such
decomposition  being  affected.   We may  not, therefore, under
these circumstances, feel surprised at the frequent failure  of che-
mical analysis to detect in the blood or secretions the presence of
poisons that have undoubtedly been swallowed.
   We may now examine the numerous bodies which rank as Poi-
sons, taken from  the  animal, vegetable, and  mineral kingdoms.
The following list exhibits them arranged under the heads of their
respective  qualities, as  developed in their operation  upon the
animal economy :

   CLASSIFICATION OF  POISONS  BY FODERE AND
                           ORFILA.
CLASS I.              Arseniates of potash, soda, and am-
                        monia.
                      Yellow and red sulphurets of arsenic.
Corrosive or Escharotic Poisons.
Arsenical Preparations.
Arsenious  acid, or white  oxide  of
  arsenic.
The arsenites.
Black oxide of arsenic, fly-powder.
Arsenic acid.
Mercurial Preparations.
Corrosive sublimate.
Nil rate of mercury.
Rod precipitate.
Red oxide of mercury, (precipitate
  per se.) 
XIV
INTRODUCTION.
  Sulphate of mercury, (turbith mine-
    ral.)
  White precipitate.
  Mercurial vapours.
  Antimonial preparations.
  Oxide of antimony.
  Tartar emetic.
  Antimonial  wine.
  Muriate of antimony.
  Kerines mineral beyond medical doses.
  Golden sulphur of antimony do.
  Cinnabar of antimony, &c.
  Antimonial  vapours.
  Copper.
  Oxide of copper.
 Sulphate of  copper.
 Nitrate of copper.
 Muriate of copper.
 Acetate of copper.
 Ammoniacal copper.
 Coppery soaps.
 Coppery wine.
 Silver.
 Nitrate of silver.
 Gold.
 Muriate of gold.
 Fulminating  gold.
 Zinc.
 Oxide of zinc.
 Sulphate of zinc.
 Bismuth.
 Nitrate of bismuth.
 Sub-nitrate of bigrmtt.li.
 Tin.
 Muriate of tin.
 Oxides of tin.

 Acids, concentrated and in particular.
 Sulphuric acid.
 Nitric acid.
 Muriatic acid.
 Phosphoric acid.
 Fluid nitrous acid.
Sulphureous acid.
 Fluoric acid.
 Phosphorous  acid.
Oxalic acid.
    Tartaric acid.
    Alkalies, caustic.
    Potash.
    Soda.
    Ammonia.
    Alkaline carbonates in large doses.
    Caustic Alkaline earths.
    Barytes, snd its salts.
    Quick-lime.
   Phosphorous.
   Glass and enamel in powder.
   Oantharides.
   Iodine.
   Hydrogenated sulphate of potash.

               CLASS II.
            Astringent Poisons.
   Lead-
   Acetate of  lead.
   Carbonate of lead, cerusse.
   Litharge.
   Wines  and water  impregnated  with
     lead.
   Food cooked in leaden vessels.
   Syrups and spirits  clarified with ace-
     tate of lead.
   Saturnine emanations.
               CLASS  III.
              Acrid Poisons.
   Chlorine.
   Fluid Chlorine,
   Nitrous acid gas.
   Sulphureous acid gas.
   Nitrate of potash.
   Veratrum album,  white hellebore.
               Acid Poisons.
   Helleborus niger, black hellebore.
   Bryonia  Dioica.
   Elaterium.
  Colocynth.
  Gamboge.
  Daphne gnidium, spurge flax.
  Daphne mezereum, &c.
  Ricinus communis.
  Euphorbia officinarum, and  ieveral
    other species.
'  Savine. 
INTRO
)UCTION.
Rhus radicans.
Rhus toxicodendron.
Rhus vermix.
Anemone pulsatilla, &c.
Aconitum napellus, &c.
Chelidonium inajus.
Delphinium staphysagria.
Narcissus pseudo.narcissus.
CEnanthe crocata.
Gratiola officinalis.
Jatropha curcas.
Scilla maratima.
Sedum acre.
Ranunculus  flammula,  and  several
   other species.
Rhododendron chrysanthum.
Fritillaria, imperialis.
Pedicularis palustris.
Cyclamen Europaeum
Plumbaga Europoea.
Colchicum autumnale.
Scammony.
Cynanchum erectum.
Lobelia syphilitica.
Apocynum   androscemifolium,   and
   other species.
Asclepias gigantea.
 Hydrocotyle vulgaris.
 Clematis vitalba, &c.
 Pastinaca sativa annosa.
 Saelanthus  quadrogonus, and  other
   species.
 Phytolacca decandra.
Croton tiglium.
Arum maculatum, and other species.
Calla palustris.

          CLASS IV.

        Narcotic Poisons.

Opium.
Hyoscyamus niger.
Hyoscyamus albus, &c.
Prussic acid.
Prunus lara cerasus.
Oil of laurel.
Bitter almonds.
Lnctuca virosa.
The solana.
Taxus baccata.
ActcEa spicata.
Physalis somnifera.
Azalea pontica.
Ervum ervilia.
Lathyrus cicera.
Paris quadrifolia.
Nitrogen gas.
Nitrous oxide.

            CLASS V.

         Narootico-acrid.

Atropa bella-donna.
Datura stramonium, &c.
Tobacco.
Digitalis purpurea.
Anagallis arvensis.
Aristolochia clematitis.
Conium maculatum.
Cicuta virosa.
iEthusa cynapium.
Ruta  graveolens.
Nerium oleander.
Upas tiente.
Nux vomica.
Bean of St. Ignatius.
Angustura psuedo-ferruginea.
Upas antiar.
Ticunas.
Woorara.
Camphor.
Cocculus indicus.
Poisonous mushrooms.
Alcohol.
Sulphuric aether.
Carbonic acid gas.
Gaseous oxide of carbon.
Ergot, spurred rye.
Lolium temulentum.
Hippomane mancinella.
Mercurialis perennis.
Chajrophyllum sylvestre.
Sium latifolium.
Coriaria myrtifolia.
Odours of  the above plants. 
XVI
INTRODUCTION
          CLASS VI.
  Septic or Putrifyino Poiso.ns.
Sulphuretted Jiydrogen gas.
Putrefied substances.
Viper.
Venomous snakes.
Scorpion.
Tarantula.
Sting of bees, wasps, &c.
Poisonous fishes.
Muscles.
Malignant pustule.
Rabies.
   The arrangement proposed by Orfila,* divides Poisons into
 four classes ; the Irritants, Narcotics, Narcotico-Acrids, and Sep-
 tics or Putrefiants.
   The Irritants include  all poisons whose sole or predominating
 symptoms are those of irritation or inflammation ;  the Narcotics
 those  which produce stupor, delirium, and other affections of the
 brain  and nervous system ;   the  Narcotico-Acrids  those which
 cause  sometimes irritation, sometimes stupor, and sometimes both
 together ;  whilst the Septics  are those which give rise to putre-
 faction in the living body.  Dr. Christison  reasonably objects
 to the  retention of such a class of poisons  as  Putrefiants, in this
 arrangement, as no substance,  however  deleterious,  can  cause
 putrefaction  in the living body ; and  therefore he discards the
 class from his  admirable work, including  all poisons  under the
 three heads of Irritants, Narcotics, and Narcotico-Acrids.
   Dr.  Paris has proposed the following  arrangement of poison-
 ous substances :
   Class I. Poisons which  act primarily  through the medium of
 the nerves, without being  absorbed, or  exciting  local inflamma-
 tion.
   Order 1st. By which the function of the nervous system is sus-
pended or destroyed.
    (DEATH BY SUFFOCATIONFROM PARALYSIS OF THE RESPIRATORY MUSCLES.)
         Alcohol           Essential oil of    Opiumf
         Aconite             almondst        Salts of lead
         Oil of Tobacco      Camphor*         Croton Tigliuint
   * See the « Outlines of his Course of Legal Medicine," published in 1821,
 ficaUon  of IT7 "    ^T'* *' P°iB°ning "* Ab^^'' beinS a modi!
 ficat on  of the  arrangement proposed by Fodere m the second edition  of his
 great work on Medical Jurisprudence. 
                         INTRODUCTION.                     xvii

  Order M-l.   By which the heart is rendered insensible to the
stimulus of blood.

                         (DEATH BY SYNCOPE.)
              Infusion of tobacco,         Upas antiar.

  Class  II.   Poisons, which,  by  entering the  circulation, act
through that medium, with different degrees  of energy,  on the
heart, brain, and alimentary canal.
                     (death in many forms.)

Arsenic,          Hellebore,        Squill,
Emetic tartar     Savine,           Opium,t
Muriate of barytes, Meadow saffron,   Lettuce,
                                  Henbane,
'Prussic acid.
Deadly nightshade,!
Hemlock,
Coculus Indicus.
  Class III.  Poisons, which, through  the medium of circulation,
expend their energies  upon the spinal marrow, without directly
involving the functions of the brain.

                     (death by tetanic convulsions.)
             Nux vomica, and the whole tribe of strychnus.
  Class IV.  Poisons which produce a direct local action on the
mucous membrane of the alimentary canal.

                        (death by gangrene.)
Corrosive sublimate,f
Verdigrease,
Muriatic acid,
Oxide of tin,
Sulphate of zinc,
Nitrate of silver,
Concentrated acids,
Caustic alkalies,
Cantharides,
Bryony,
Elaterium,
Euphorbium,
Colocynth,
Hedge hyssop,
Ranunculi,
Nitre.
t This substance may also act by being absorbed.
t This article has also a local action.
                    B 
  *vi"                    INTRODUCTION.
    The organs not immediately necessary to life, may also be acted
  upon in a greater or less degree by poisons ; thus, arsenic inflames
  the  alimentary  mucous membrane; mercury, the salivary glands
  and  mouth ; cantharides, the urinary organs ; chromate of potass,
  the conjunction  of the eye ;  and maganese, the liver ; iodine acts
  on the lymphatic glands,  and ergot of rye causes gangrene of the
  extremities.
    Although it may occasionally  happen, that one organ is alone
  affected by a particular poison, the rest of the economy remaining
  undisturbed,  it more  frequently occurs, that, in addition  to  the
  direct influence upon  one function,  other organs are indirectly
  affected.  " Oxalic acid,  for instance, irritates  and inflames  the
  stomach directly, and acts indirectly on the brain, the spine, and
  the heart.  A large dose  causes sudden death by paralyzing  the
  heart ; if the dose be somewhat less, the leading symptom is vio-
 lent tetanic spasm, indicating an action upon the spine, and death
 takes place during  a paroxysm, the heart continuing to contract
 for some time ; if the dose  be still less, the spasms, at  first distinct,
 become by degrees, fainter and fainter, while the sensibility  in
 the intervals, at first unimpaired, becomes gradually  clouded, till
 at length pure coma is formed without convulsions, thus indicating
 an action on the brain.  Arsenic has the power of acting on the
 brain, heart, and  lungs ;  the lining membrane of  the  nostrils and
eyelids ;  and the kidney, bladder, and vagina. "
   In the treatment of cases of poisoning! the physician may have
one of three object, in view ; firstly, its sudden removal either from
the stomach or through  the  bowels;  secondly, the alteration  of
its chemical nature before it comes within the sphere of its action •
and thirdly, the controul  of its poisonous  action after it has corn-
iced, by the excitement  of a contrary action in the  system
  The first indication ia easily accomplished, when it is possible
to exote either emesis or catharsis,  by the ready  administration
of ,ppi-opn..c n,edi,i„es ; ,1,„ Mcoml is a(i,cle(, ,„ severa| ^
aecoKhng ,„ ,he „,ode of ,clion of llle „„,„„ f()i. ^      ^
«>««= .h„s,  if. I1D™ f0rr03ivc,  SIK.h as a mincrai      y 
                        INTRODUCTION.                      xix
   been swallowed, the exhibition of an alkali or earth will neutralize
   it, and destroy, or at least materially lessen its poisonous proper-
   ties ;  but, should  the poison,  independent of its local effect, act
   remotely by an impression on  the inner coat of the vessels, mere
*  neutralization of its chemical  properties  is not sufficient;  it is
   necessary that the antidote should render the poison insoluble, or
   nearly so, and that not only in water, but  likewise  in the animal
   fluids, more particularly the juices of the stomach.
     The third  description of antidote  operates by  exciting a con-
   trary  action  to  that  established by the poison ; but, ai it is diffi-
   cult to say what is the essence  of a contrary action, and as we are
   unacquainted  with  any mode of inducing any action counter to
   nearly the whole of the irritant class of poisons, we  can seldom
   apply this mode in treatment with any great prospect of  success.
   The remote operation of lead may certainly be corrected  by mer-
   cury given to salivation, and  again  the  sialogogue property of
   mercury may be relieved by nauseating doses of antimony.   Am-
   monia is, to a certain  extent,  an antidote for  prussic acid, by
   its stimulating effects as opposed to the sedative  ones of  the poi-
   son ;  but the whole of this  reasoning is  too vague to place  any
   reliance upon.  It is, in fact, among the changes induced by che-
   mical affinities, that we  must look for counter-poisons ; thus, mag-
   nesia  or chalk is a complete  antidote for  the mineral and oxalic
   acids, albumen for corrosive sublimate, barytes for tartar emetic,
   common salt  for  lunar caustic, sulphate of soda or magnesia for
   sugar  of lead, and muriate of barytes, vinegar or oil, for the fixed
   alkalies ;  and these substances all act, either by neutralizing the
   corrosive power of the poison, or by forming with  it an insoluble
   compound.
     Poisons act with various degrees of intensity,  some  proving
   fatal  instantaneously, and others being slow, or rather impercep-
   tible,  in their effects.  The  more violent may, however, be so
   administered as to to require a considerable time in their perfect
   development upon the system ; thus, arsenic in small doses will
   occasion but slight nausea and  general weakness ; corrosive subli- 
 xx                      INTRODUCTION.
 mate  only  occasion salivation ; and digitalis and mix vomica pro-
 duce but a  moderately sedative effect : if the doses be increased,
 the consequences are proportionably rapid and violent; and in all
 these  substances, such a quantity may be administered, as to induce
 a fatal result in a very short space of  time.
   The peculiar sympathy, both primary and secondary, following
 the exhibition of each poison, will be found under the proper heads
 in the ensuing  pages, as well as the morbid appearances presented
 upon a post mortem examination ;  and these  added to  the  tests
 and chemical analyses of the substances found in the cavities, are
 the  evidences  submitted to the  medical jurist, Avhereon he is to
 found  his opinion upon the  nature  of  the  case in all its bearings,
 submitted to his decision.
   It was thought proper to describe each article  under its chemi-
 cal  property and  its medical value, with  a short  description of
 the general  mode of its preparation, and its most obvious charac-
 ters, in order,that its use might be contrasted with its abuse, and
 that its appearance might become familiar to- the eye of the prac-
 titioner.
   The Remedies and  the Rationale for their employment,  are
 founded partly  from the best authorities who have written on the
 subject, and partly from observation, and it has been the aim of
 the Author to render them as clear and as explicit as possible.
  The  notice of Asphyxia includes the consideration of Submer-
sion, Suspension,  Inhalation of  Unrespirable Gases, Cold,  and
Electricity,  and describes the mode in  which the functions of life
are arrested, and the peculiarity  of the  agency,  as well as the
necessary treatment to be adopted for the recal of the sufferer to
consciousness. 
METALLIC   POISONS.
                           SILVER.


  This metal affords but one preparation for the service of medicine,
or that can with any degree of probability be converted into a poison,
—The Nitrate of Silver, (Nitras Argenii)  or  Lunar Caustic, a salt
formed by the action of nitric acid upon the metal.
  Preparation.   Pure nitric acid, diluted with an equal  weight of dis-
tilled water, is poured upon metallic silver;  the solution, when satu-
rated, deposits its crystals  as  it cools,  and likewise upon its eva-
poration.  This method of  procuring  the salt is unnecessary, when
the  lunar caustic of medicine is simply required ;  the solution of
silver may at once be evaporated to dryness, gently fused, and run
into cylindrical moulds.
   Chemical Composition, Character, fyc.   In its crystallized state, it
consists  of 64 parts of the  oxide of silver, 22 of nitric acid, and 14
of water ; when fused, of 70 parts of oxide of silver, and 30 of nitric
acid.
   The crystals are transparent and colourless ; primary form, a right
rhombic prism.  The fused nitrate presents the appearance of a dark
grey cylinder, of an irradiated structure when fractured.
   Soluble in an equal weight of water at 60.  Alcohol is also its ready
solvent.
   Taste, intensely bitter and metallic :  odour, none.
   Medical Use and Dose.  Internally,  tonic and antispasmodic, in the
quantity of one eighth of a grain to a grain, gradually increased to gr.
iij or iv, in pill;  administered in obstinate cases of chorea and epi-
lepsy, and  occasionally in dyspeptic complaints.  Externally it is
applied as an escharotic, both in  substance and solution, to cancerous
and other sores, and as a stimulant to venereal and indolent ulcers.
                               1 
0»
     Symptoms when taken in excess.   Primary—Corrosive  and acrid
   taste in the mouth and throat, with sensation of fulness and choking ;
   great  anxiety,  and severe  pain in  the  region of the  stomach.
   Secondary—Vomiting ; diarrhcea ; pulse quick and small;  syncope;
   cramps;  small  quantities of blood  mixed  with  frothy mucus dis-
   charged from the stomach ; tenesmus ; convulsions ; death.
     Cause of Death.   Inflammation and gangrene of the mucous mem-
   brane of the stomach  and intestines from  the direct local action of
   the poison.*
    Morbid Appearances.   The larynx is usually discovered  in  a
  state of extreme vascularity :  the  mucous coat of the stomach and
  intestines  studded  with inflammatory patches, with some portions
  eroded, or covered with dark and gangrenous spots.
    Remedies.  Copious  draughts of salt  and water;  and in a  few
  minutes afterwards, 30 or 40 grains  of Ipecacuanha, or from 10 to
  20 grains of sulphate of zinc as an emetic.
    When the vomiting has  ceased, but the pain and the  cramps  con-
  tinue,  and  in particular,  when  there is a tendency  to convulsions,
  venesection must be promptly resorted  to, fomentations applied to
  the abdomen, an emollient  injection administered, and, if practicable,
  the tepid bath employed.
    Rationale in the Employment of  Remedies.  Muriate of  soda is
  the true antidote to the nitrate of silver, so completely decomposing
 it, that if its saturated solution be  filtered through common salt, it
 may afterwards be drank with  impunity.   The use of the emetic is
 obvious, and the subsequent treatment will tend to subdue the inflam-
 matory symptoms not previously relieved.
    Tests.  Collect and strain  the  contents of the  stomach.   If the
 poison have been swallowed in an aqueous solution, the addition of a
 small quantity of the oxide of arsenic will  throw down a yellow
 precipitate, which is an  arseniate  of  silver.  The fixed  alkalies,
 potass and soda, effect an immediate precipitation of the salt, which
 remains undisturbed in  its  solution by the  addition of ammonia.
 The muriates of alkalies, earths, and metals,  decompose the nitrate
 of silver,  precipitating  a white powder,  which turns  black  very
 shortly after exposure to the light.
   A stick of phosphorus, dipped into a mixture containing the  poi-
 son, will separate and precipitate the silver in a metallic state.
   The sulphuric and tartaric acids,  with their salts, the hydro-sul-
 phurets generally, and astringent vegetable infusions, will likewise
 decompose this poison ; but the tests already enumerated are sufficient
 tor its detection.


  * The basis of this salt is occasionally absorbed, for there are several cases

Kri.?   ^^ * PUn5le hU6 °f a Ver* sineukr  appearance  to the  paTient. 
3
                             MERCURY.

    This metal, so essentially serviceable in its preparations, yields a salt
 of the most destructive power when taken in excess—The Bi-chlo-
 ride of Mercury, commonly known by the name of Corrosive Sublimate,
 and formerly designated by Chemists,  as the Oxy.muriate of Mercury.
    Preparation.  Two pounds of mercury are boiled  with two and
 a  half pounds  of sulphuric acid  to dryness in a glass  vessel, heated
 by a sand-bath.   When the mass is cold, it is mixed with four pounds
 of common salt (well dried) and exposed in an  earthen vessel to  a
 heat gradually raised.   The bi-chloride is sublimed, and condenses
 in very small prismatic crystals.
    Chem.  Comp.  Character, Sfc.  The salt consists of one proportional
 of mercury, to two proportionals of chlorine ; or, according to Sir
 Humphrey Davy, who regarded  it as a  per-chloride, of 74 parts of
 mercury and  26 of chlorine.  When pulverized and thrown upon
 coals, it is immediately volatized, giving  out a thick  white smoke of
 a pungent odour, and  exceedingly irritable to the mucous membrane
 of the nose  and fauces if inhaled.  *The crystals  become  opaque on
 exposure  to the air.
    Specific gravity, 5.1398.
    Soluble in eleven parts of cold, and  in three of boiling  water;
 likewise soluble in ether, the muriatic, sulphuric,  and nitric acids.
    Taste, very acrid and astringent: odour, none.*
    Med. Use and Dose.   Internally, stimulant, and anti-syphilitic in
 doses of from \ to '- a grain, principally administered in secondary
 syphilis, and obstinate cutaneous  eruptions ; externally, it is employ-
 ed for the same purposes, in the proportion of two to  four grains to a
 pint  of water.
   Primary Symptoms.  Burning and metallic taste in the mouth; great
 oppression in  the throat, with  difficulty  of swallowing ;  anxiety ;
 acute pain in the stomach  and bowels.   Secondary—Frequent and


  * The similarity of the terms in general use for the  bi-chloride {corrosive
 sublimate,) and the pro-chloride of mercury {calomel,) renders it necessary to
 point out their distinguishing character.  Calomel is mild and insipid to the
 taste, insoluble in water,  and affording a black precipitate on being  added to
 lime-water.  Corrosive sublimate has a very styptic and metallic taste, is
 soluble in water,  and yields a yellow precipitate with lime-water.
  Brugnatelli  (see Annales de Chimie el Physique, t. iv. p. 334,) proposes the
 following method of distinguishing corrosive sublimate from arsenic :—Take a
 quantity of fresh wheat starch, mix it with water, and add a sufficient quantity
 of iodine to give the liquid a blue colour; if corrosive sublimate or arsenic be
 added to this liquor, the colour is alike destroyed, and  it becomes reddish ; when
 if the change have been effected by the latter substance, a few drops of sulphu.
 ric  acid will restore the blue colour ; but if by the former, the acid will occft.
*ion no alteration. 
4
violent vomiting ; quick and hard pulse; diarrhoea ;  copious saliva-
tion ;  great debility and difficult respiration ;  tremors ; convulsions;
death.
  Cause of Death.   Inflammation  and  gangrene  of the mucous
membrane  of the stomach and intestines.   Corrosive sublimate is also
capable of being received into the system, and thus destroying life ;
but its primary effect is usually too quickly destructive to permit  its
absorption.
  Morbid Appearances.   The mucous membrane of the stomach and
intestines are in a state  of gangrene, with  frequent  perforation of
their coats : the oesophagus and the first portion of the duodenum con-
stricted, the pylorus  highly inflamed, and the whole of the intestinal
canal in a  condition  of extreme vascularity.
   Remedies.  Give  large quantities of white of egg with water, and
copious draughts of  warm water afterwards, or  where the first can-
not be procured, repeated draughts of wheat flour and water may be
administered.  When the more acute symptoms are subdued, fomen-
tations may be applied  to the  abdomen,  and venesection practised,
especially if the pulse continue quick  and hard.
   Rationale.  The albumen of the egg decomposes the bi-chloride,
reducing it to the state of a pro-cKloride, or calomel, which may either
pass off by the  bowels, or be evacuated from the stomach.  Recent
experiments have proved that  vegetable  gluten, as existing in wheat
flour, decomposes this poison in the  same  manner as albumen.—
 (Paris.)
   Tests.  Collect and dry the white sediment that may be  found in
the stomach or intestines, mix it with  three times its weight of black
 flux, and introduce it into a dry thin  glass tube, stopping the open
 mouth of the tube, loosely, with paper ;  expose the closed end to the
 heat of a spirit lamp, and, if present, the sublimate will rise to the top,
 lining the inside of the lube with a shining metallic crust.  Add  to a
 watery solution of the  powder, found as above, a small quantity of
 lime-water, and an  orange-coloured precipitate  will be the immediate
 result.  One drop of a solution of the carbonate of  potass will  oc-
 casion a white precipitate, and a farther  addition, one of an orange-
 colour.  A  stream of sulphuretted hydrogen  gas  will  give a dark
 coloured precipitate.*   Place a small quantity of the  suspected solu-
 tion on a  plate of glass,  and near it a similar quantity of sulphuric
 acid (diluted with five  times its weight of distilled water,) bend a
 piece of zinc or iron wire in the form  of the Greek letter II, tying the
 ends to a  gold ring  ; then bring the wire into contact with the acid,
 and the ring with the solution, and  if the  smallest  quantity of the
 corrosive sublimate be present, the ring will be immediately covered,
 at that part touching the solution, with mercury.  If a solution of the
 salt be placed on a  small sheet of gold, with a drop of muriatic acid,

   *  Sulphuretted hydrogen gas is readily  procured for this purpose, by treat-
 ing the sulphuret of antimony with dilute muriatic acid. 
5
and a piece of tin, the mercurial compound will be decomposed, and
the mercury will amalgamate with the gold.   If the sublimate have
been taken in wine, coffee, or any coloured fluid, shake it slowly in a
phial for ten minutes  with 3 drachms of sulphuric ether;  pour off
the ether after the fluid is separated by rest, and evaporate  the resi-
due, when the sublimate  will remain in a solid form, which may be
exposed  to the above  tests.  Where no powder can be obtained, only
a  small quantity of water should be used in washing the contents of
the stomach, as the sublimate would be readily dissolved by an excess.


                           COPPER.

   This metal is incapable of exercising any deleterious effects upon
the animal system in  an uncombined state ; its preparations, how-
ever, are highly poisonous,  although valuable agents in the practice
of medicine.  Three  salts  may be named ; the Sulphate of Copper
(Sulphas Cupri) or Blue Vitriol; Ammoniated Copper  (Cuprum Am-
moniatum;) and  the  Sub-Acetate of Copper (Sub-Acetas Cupri) or
 Verdigrease.
   Preparation.   The native  sulphuret  of  copper is  exposed to air
and moisture, by which oxygen is absorbed, the copper oxidated, and
the sulphur converted into sulphuric acid.
   Chem. Comp.  Character, Sfc.  1st.  The Sulphate  of Copper is,
properly speaking, an oxy-sulphate, consisting of one proportional of
peroxide, two proportionals of sulphuric acid, and, when crystallized,
ten of water, from which  last ingredient its beautiful colour is de-
 rived.*  The crystals are rhomboidal prisms, of a deep blue colour.
 Specific gravity, 2.23 (Kirwan), or 1.150 at 42? (Watson).
   Soluble in four parts of water at 60Q, and in less than two at 212°.
 Insoluble in alcohol.  Taste, harsh,  acrid, and  astringent: odour,
 none.
   Medical Use, Sfc.   Internally, tonic  and emetic;  to answer  the
 former indication, in doses of \ of a grain, and the latter from ij to xv ;
 its use in epilepsy, hysteria, intermittent fever, &c, has gradually de-
 clined, and it is now  seldom employed except as an immediate emetic
 in cases of poisoning from  other substances.   Externally, it is used
 as an escharotic, both in substance and solution, to foul and indolent
 ulcers,  and to repress  granulations.  A weak solution is likewise
 sometimes  recommended as a collyrium, and also as an injection in
 obstinate gleets.

   *  According to Proust, this salt is composed of

         Oxygen,           26".4 } forminSblack oxide      32
         Sulphuric Acid,                                32
         Water,                                       36
100 
6
     2d.  Atnmoniated Copper.  Preparation—Obtained  by  rubbing
   two parts of the sulphate of copper with three of the  carbonate  of
   ammonia ;  the  carbonic  acid of the latter being disengaged, while
   the ammonia combines with the sulphate.
     Chem. Comp. Character, <Sfc.   This is a triple salt, a sub-sulphate
   of oxide of copper and ammonia,  in the form of a violet-coloured
   mass,  which becomes green on exposure to the air.  Soluble in 24
   times its weight of water :  taste, acrid  and metallic  : odour, ammo.
   niacal.
     Medical Use, <Sfc.  Internally, tonic and antipasmodic, in doses of
   \  of a grain cautiously increased to grains v, twice a day : adminis-
   tered with advantage in epilepsy, and occasionally in chorea, hyste-
   ria, and  intermittent fever.   Externally,  it is employed in the form
   of solution,  as a stimulant to foul ulcers, &c.
     3d.  Sub-Acetate of Copper.  Preparation.  The verdigris of com-
  merce  is formed by exposing  sheets of copper  to the  continued
  influence of the fumes of acetic acid.
     Chem. Comp. Character, <Scc.   This salt consists  of  43 parts of
  acetate of copper, 27 of black oxide of copper, and 30 of water  ;
  (Proust) and presents the appearance of minute crystals of a bluish
  green hue.  Taste, styptic and metallic : odour, none.
    Medical Use, <$cc.—Not employed internally.  Externally,  it is
  applied  in solution to the callous edges of ulcers, &c.
    Symptoms.  Primary—Of the above salts of  copper when taken
  in excess.  The tongue is dry and parched ; a sense of strangula-
  tion is experienced, with great  nausea, continued discharge of the
  saliva, vomiting,  and coppery eructations.   Secondary—Continued
  vomiting, or  violent  attempts to vomit; severe colic and tenesmus ;
  great  thirst;  black and bloody discharges from the bowels ; difficul'
  ty of breathing ;  pulse small, quick, and  irregular ; copious perspi-
  ration ;  cramps ; gradual  prostration of  strength ;   convulsions ■
 death.
   Cause of Death.   All these preparations of copper  exert a direct
 effect upon the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels, pro-
 ducing inflammation and gangrene.
   Morbid Appearances.  The mucous coat of the  stomach is thicken-
 ed, and sometimes tinged of a green colour;  the pyloric orifice  is
 nearly obliterated and sometimes surrounded with gangrenous patches,
 whilst perforations of the entire coats are not uncommon,  permitting
 the escape of the contents of this organ into the cavity of the abdomen.
   The whole  intestinal chain, but particularly the colon, the ccecumj
 and the rectum, are in a state of intense vascularity, and present fre-
quent ulcerations.
   Remedies.  Administer large quantities of sugar and water, or of
syrup, until the stomach has been well excited to copious vomiting con-
turning the draughts more moderately for some time afterwards.  Permit
the sufferer to drink freely of coffee well sweetened, when the stomach 
7
is cleared, and afterwards give one or two doses of castor oil like-
wise in coffee, combined with thirty or forty drops of laudanum, should
the pain in the abdomen continue.   The filings of iron  may also be
proposed as an antidote.   The use of the lancet will probably be re-
quired in combatting the  secondary symptoms, together with fomen-
tations, injections, and  the tepid bath.
  Rationale. Sugar and coffee are both said to decompose the salts of
copper ; the mucilaginous properties of the former may likewise tend in
some degree to protect  the stomach from the corrosive nature of the
poison;  and the subsequent treatment is directed in  order to check
the inflammation that will probably supervene.   Iron filings added to
a solution  of these salts,  precipitate the copper in a metallic form.
  Tests.   A  small  quantity of the solution of pure  ammonia af-
fords  a  beautiful  blue colour to  a  liquid  containing  the  salts of
copper, adding more of the alkali when the poison has  been received
through the medium of  any dishes containing vinegar.   The ad-
dition of Potass throws down a blue precipitate,  which  is  a sub-sul-
phate of copper.  A  few  drops of recently prepared Guiaicum wood,
added to a solution of the salts of copper, will occasion a blue colour,
and if the quantity of the poison be very minute  in the  collected con-
tents of the stomach, a  few drops of prussic acid will instantly afford
the same result; the blue colour gradually changing to a green, and
at length disappearing : this is the most  delicate test known of the
presence of these poisonous salts.*  If wine or  any coloured fluid
have been  the vehicle for the administration of  the  poison, a small
quantity of the solution of chlorine will discharge the colour, and the
addition of prussiate of potass throw down a brown  precipitate.   A
clean  piece of steel, or  a stick of phosphorus  will become coated
with the metal, if immersed in a solution of any of these three salt*.
                              LEAD.


   Two salts of this metal are employed in medicine, and are subject to
improper administration— The acetate of lead (acetas plumbi,) com-
monly called sugar of lead ;  and the sub-carbonate, (plumbi sub.carbo-
nas,) or cerusse, or white lead.
   1st.  The Acetate of Lead.
   Preparation.  The carbonate  of lead is boiled in acetic acid, con-
tinuing the addition of the latter until it ceases to  acquire a sweet
taste, and afterwards evaporating the solution.

  * If the vehicle be coffee, and a salt of copper be present,  the addition of
a few drops of the spirituous solution of guiaic will instantly produce a deep
irreenish blue precipitate.  If port wine, the  precipitate will be nearly ot an
indigo-blue colour, with a slight tinge of green. If beer, the precipitate will
be of the colour of verditer. (Thomson.) 
8
  Chem. Comp. Cliaracter,  <$«c.—According to Berzelius,  this salt
consists of

             Acid,            2G.97           100
             Yellow Oxide,    58.71           217.662
             Water,          14.32

                             100

  It presents the form of irregular masses, being an aggregation of
acicular four-sided  prisms terminated by dihedral summits,  which
are slightly efflorescent; by careful crystillization, it may be  obtained
in quadrangular prisms.
  Soluble in about 25 parts  of hot or cold  water.   Alcohol is like-
wise its ready solvent.  Taste, sweet and astringent: odour, none.
Specific gravity, 2.345.
  Medical  Use, tyc.  Internally, astringent, and a valuable remedy
in the restraint of pulmonary and uterine hemorrhages, either singly,
or combined with opium.  Dose, i a grain to 1£ gr. in pill.   Exter-
nally, cooling and sedative in weak, and stimulant in strong solutions;
employed in  phlegmonous  inflammation,  &c,  as  an  injection in
gonorrhoea, and a collyrium.
  2d.  The Sub-carbonate of Lead.
  Preparation.  Spiral rolls or plates of metallic lead, are partially
immersed in  vinegar, by which they are oxidated and  carbonated,
and converted into  cerusse,  or white lead,  which is dissolved by im-
mersing them completely in the  fluid; they are then withdrawn, and
the same operation is repeated, until the acid is neutralized.
   Chem. Comp. Character,  fyc.   The sub-carbonate of lead consists
of  83.5 parts of yellow oxide,  and  16.5 of carbonic  acid ; in the
form of a very white powder, friable, and of a minute scaly texture.
   Insoluble in water, but soluble in a solution of pure potass.  Taste,
sweet  and astringent: odour, none.
   Medical Use, fyc.  Not internally employed.  Its external applica-
tion to excoriated parts is of questionable safety, and rarely resorted to.
   Symptoms.  When either salt is taken in excess.  Primary—Violent
colic,  and general  pains in the  abdominal  region ;  vomiting ; small
 and hard  pulse ;  anxiety and tremor.  Secondary—Continued and
 excessive vomiting ;  laborious respiration, and great increase of pain
 in  the abdomen ; loss of muscular power, and paralysis of extremi-
 ties.  An obstinate costiveness  prevails from  an early period after
 the administration of the poison.   When  death ensues, it  is usually
 preceded by great prostration of strength, delirium, and insensibility.
    Cause of Death.  The salts  of lead act on the  system  by a sus-
 pension, or destruction of the nervous power, and occasion death by
 suffocation from paralysis of the respiratory muscles. (Paris.)
    Morbid Appearances.  In those cases, when death has rapidly fol-
 lowed the exhibition of the poison,  the abdominal viscera will be 
9
  found in a state of inflammation, with occasional patches of extrava-
  sated blood ;  but in no instance are  the  appearances so remarkable
  as those occasioned by the salts of copper.  When death is not sud-
  den, the mesenteric and lymphatic glands are increased in size, and
  in a state of great vascularity, and the lungs are gorged with blood.
    Remedies.   Administer  large  draughts of a solution  of the sul-
  phate  of soda  or  magnesia ;  when  the bowels have been freely
  evacuated, opium may  be given  in  two or  three grain doses every
  two or three hours, and venesection practised.   The patient  may be
  immersed in a  warm bath, or where that  cannot  be conveniently
  prepared,  warm  fomentations should be applied to  the abdomen.
  Frequent injections of mutton broth, gruel, or any bland fluid, will
  complete the treatment.*
   Rationale.   The recent experiments of Orfila prove that  the sul-
  phates of soda and magnesia decompose the acetate of lead, convert.
  ing that salt into an insoluble and inert sulphate.  The opium is intend-
  ed to allay the  irritation existing, and it perhaps acts in some degree
  also as a counter-irritant, whilst the use  of the lancet is required to
  check  the progress of inflammation, and relieve the oppression under
  which the respiratory function is labouring.
   Tests.   To a solution of the acetate  of lead, the addition of sul-
 phuric acid occasions a white precipitate (the sulphate of lead.)  A
 stream of sulphuretted hydrogen  gas, passed  through  it, occasions
 first a dark tinge of the fluid, and then a black precipitate, which is
 a sulphuret of the metal.   The  addition of  the sub-carbonate of
 soda will afford a very  minute  white precipitate (the carbonate of
 lead.)   The sulphates of soda or magnesia, as described under the
 Remedies, will  yield  a precipitate of sulphate  of lead, insoluble in
 acetic  Acid.   The chromic acid, and the chromates, give a yellow
 precipitate, which is the chromate  of lead or  king's yellow.   Muria-
 tic acid and the muriate of soda will  occasion an instant white  pre-
 cipitate.   The   sulphurets of ammonia and potass will precipitate a
 dark-coloured powder.  The infusion  of galls will occasion a yellow-
 ish white precipitate,  which is a gallate of lead.f

  * The preparations of antimony are said to be incompatible with  the salta
 of lead ; and  the  successful treatment of saturnine colic,  by tartarized anti-
 mony, would appear to favour the supposition.
  t It has lately  been discovered  that gallic  acid and tannin are capable of
 combining with lead in solution,  and of forming a perfectly insoluble subs-
 stance, which falls to the bottom of the vessel; hence all vegetable astringents
 may be regarded as incompatible with the use of the salts of lead in medicine,
 and as antidotes to their administration as  poisons.  On this account, liquors
 which have been kept in oak casks for a length of time, must  be freed  from
 lead, and this explains a fact of some importance with respect to the effect of
 new rum in the West Indies. This spirit, when newly distilled, is found  to con-
tain traces of lead, derived from the rims of the copper and the worm of the
still; but, by being kept about twelve months in oaken casks, it loses its dele-
terious properties,  and no longer exhibits any traces of the metal.  (Paris.)
                                 2 
10
  Any of  the precipitates, melted  with black flux,* will yield a
small button of metallic lead.
  Most of these agents may be employed in the detection of the sub-
carbonate, or  indeed of any of the salts of lead.
                             ZINC.

  The only preparation of this metal that can be probably adminis-
tered as a poison, is the Sulphate (Sulphas Zinci) or While Vitriol.
  Preparation.  It is procured from the sulphuret of zinc in the same
manner as the sulphate of iron is obtained from its sulphuret.
  Chem. Comp.  Character, fyc.   This salt  consists of  20  parts of
oxide of zinc, sulphuric  acid 40, and water of crystallization 40 ; in
the form of white simi-transparent, and efflorescent four-sided pris-
matic crystals.
  Soluble in three parts of water at 60° ; in less than its own weight,
at 212°,  and  insoluble in alcohol.  Taste, styptic and metallic : odour,
none.  Specific  gravity,  1.9120,  or,  according to Watson, 1.534
at 42°
  Medical Use,  fyc.   Internally, emetic, tonic, and astringent;  for
the  first purpose 3j to 3iss may be administered in cases of poison.
ing from other substances ; for the second  and third  indications, it
may be given in doses of from one to two grains, in spasmodic coughs,
pulmonary affections when  attended  with  excessive  secretion, in
leucorrhcea, and in the protracted stages of dysentery.   Externally,
it is employed in solution  as a lotion, an injection in gonorrhoea, and
as a collyrium.f
   Symptoms when taken in Excess.   Primary—A  sour  taste is  ex-
perienced ; excessive nausea precedes violent vomiting; and severe
pains  in the stomach and  bowels  ensue.   Secondary—Diarrhoea
soon succeeds;  the  respiration   becomes  affected,  and  the pain
in the abdomen  increased ; the countenance is pallid and anxious.
and the features shrunken ;  and  the  extremities  become  cold  and
trembling.
   Cause of Death.   In the few cases in which fatal results have fol.
lowed the administration of this salt, there has been a  want of  power
to discharge the whole mass from the stomach, and the remaining
quantity has been sufficient to occasion inflammation and gangrene
of its mucous coat.   The emetic properties of  the salt will generally


  *  Black flux is  prepared by mixing one part of nitrate of potass with two
of crystals of tartar, and melting them in a crucible
.lit iThG °?d- °f.™S iS Very rarely emPloyed in medicine ; it has occasion-
Thl a^nlof   '^ ^ a!rC' and aPPUed ^ernally as a mild astringent.
^ctTonin gt orrncTa.'^^ '^ «**•» ™> P"**** i an 
11
effect its rapid expulsion,  when the symptoms detailed are the conse-
quences of its prompt and violent action.
  Morbid Appearances.  Patches  of inflammation  in  the  mucous
membrane of the stomach and intestines ;  black extravasated blood
on the muscular coats of these  viscera, and  general and increased
vascularity throughout  the whole intestinal canal.
  Remedies.   Supply the patient with frequent and copious draughts
of milk;  administer  emollient injections, particularly if the pain in
the abdomen continue after the vomiting has ceased, and bleed freely
when the respiration is  much oppressed.
  Rationale.   Orfila has directed the use  of milk on account of its
partially decomposing the poison, and from its emollient properties,
in order to guard the mucous coat as much as possible from the cor-
rosive action of the salt.  The injections also answer the latter pur-
pose, in some degree, should any portion of it have passed the pylorus.
  Tests.  If oxalic acid  be dropped into  a fluid containing the sul-
phate of zinc, a white  precipitate  ensues,  which is  the oxalate  of
that  metal.  The  arseniates of potass or  soda will  likewise throw
down a white precipitate, which  is  an arseniate of zinc.  The chro-
mate of potass will precipitate from a solution of this salt, an orange.
yellow powder, which is a chromate of zinc.
                          ANTIMONY.

   The Tartrate of Antimony (Tartras Antimonii,) or Tartar  Emetic,
is perhaps the only preparation of this metal that is likely to be  ad-
ministered as a poison.*
   Preparation.   The  protoxide of antimony,  reduced to very fine
powder, is boiled with the bi-tartrate of potass, when the oxide, com-
bining with  the bi-tartrate, forms a soluble compound, which crystal-
lizes on cooling.
   Chem. Comp. Character,  <SfC.  This has been frequently described
as a triple salt, consisting  of tartaric acid, oxide of antimony, and
potass.   Gay Lussac, however,  regards this salt as a compound of
bi-tartrate (super-tartrate) of potass, which acts the part of  an acid,
and protoxide of antimony ; and, from the experiments of Phillips, it
appears that 100 parts of bi-tartrate will dissolve 70 of the protoxide.
   The primitive form  of its crystal is the regular tetrahedon, though
it will assume a variety of secondary forms, and crystallize sometimes
in trihedral  pyramids. It is soluble in three times its weight of water
at 212°, and in  15 parts at  60°. (Duncan.)  Taste, styptic and me-
tallic : odour, none.  Specific gravity, 2.100.

  * This metal yields several preparations.  The sulphate of antimony,  and
also the precipitated sulphuret;  the muriate, the oxide,  and the glass of an-
ljmony. 
V2
    Medical Use, <Sfc.  Internally, emetic in doses of from 1 to 3 grains ;
  diaphoretic and expectorant: dose, }to| of a grain.  An invaluable
  agent in the early stages of  fever,  and pneumonic inflammation.
  Externally,  a very  powerful rubefacient,  occasioning  a  pustular
  eruption in the skin ;  prepared  by trituration of the salt with lard,
  in the proportion of 3j to 3ij to §i of  the latter.
    Symptoms when taken in excess.  Primary—Nausea   and severe
  sickness ; hiccough ; acute pain, and  sense of heat in the stomach •
  small, frequent and hard pulse.  Secondary—The pain in the abdomen
  becomes excruciating; the respiration  oppressed ; cramps and syn-
  cope succeed ; the system becomes insensible to the strongest stimuli •
  vertigo ; convulsions ;  death.
    Cause of Death.   The action of this poison is usually experienced
  through the circulation.   In a great number  of  cases,  it  acts upon
  the heart, and occasions  death by syncope ;  sometimes the  brain is
  principally effected, and death ensues from inflammatory excitement
  and rapid effusion, whilst in some  instances it may affect  the  intesti-
  nal canal, producing excessive inflammation,  not so much from its
  corrosive properties, as from an excitement of the circulation, deter-
  mined to the abdominal viscera.
   Morbid Appearances.  The stomach and small intestines are found
 inflated with gas ;  their mucous membranes inflamed ; the peritoneum
 of a dark and dirty red colour ;  and the membranes of the brain in
 a state of extreme vascularity, and generally effusion into the ven-
 tricles of that organ.
   Remedies.  Administer, in the first instance, plentiful draughts of
 any bland fluid, in order  to promote the evacuation  of the whole of
 the poison ; the vomiting, when excessive, may be allayed by two or
 three grains of opium, and repeated until  their effect is evident.  Large
 doses of a decoction of yellow cinchona  bark, in which alum has
 been dissolved, should be  given.   It seldom occurs  that  a sufficient
 quantity of this decoction can be procured within a very short period
 after the poison has been swallowed ;  and  therefore no time must be
 lost m exhibiting the previous remedies ; if it were at hand, it would
 effectually answer the purpose of a diluent and an antidote.   An in-
 fusion of rhubarb may likewise  be recommended, if the  cinchona
 bark cannot be quickly procured.
   Rationale.   When it is  asserted that an ounce of a strong  decoc
 tion of yellow bark is capable of decomposing and  rendering inert
 a scruple  of  this  salt, its  merits,  as an antidote, may be readily
 conceived ; the addition of alum to the  decoction assists the decom.
 position of the p01son in the formation of an insoluble and harmless
sulphate of antimony.   The infusion of  rhubarb likewise  possesses
the property, in a  minor degree, of rendering- the tartrate of anti-
mony inert.
  The opium tends to calm the irritation of the system, and may be
recommended both in the primary and subsequent stages. 
13
    Tests.   Reduce any  of the  poison that may  be  collected after
 carefully washing the stomach and intestines, in a small portion of dis-
 tilled water, and heat it in a closed tube (as directed in the tests  for
 the detection of corrosive sublimate,) when the odour of burnt vege-
 table matter will be perceived, and the powder, after blackening the
 tube, will soon  deposit the metallic antimony on its sides.  If no
 powder can be collected, the  fluid  collected in  the stomach should
 be carefully strained, and exposed to the following tests :—Add to it
 a few drops of the tincture of galls, when, if tartrate of antimony be
 present, a precipitate of  a dirty  white, inclining to a  yellow colour,
 and  curdled, will be thrown  down.  Should the poison  have been
 swallowed in the form of its vinous solution, the same test will give
 to the precipitate a bright violet colour.   If the  solvent have  been
 tea,  the addition of a small  quantity of the hydro-sulphuret of am-
 monia will afford a red precipitate.   A small quantity of  the solution
 of alum will occasion a precipitate  of a white colour.


                            ARSENIC.

   This  metal,  so frequently  rendered the instrument of crime, is
 rarely employed in medicine,  except in  the form of solution, when
 its doses may be better regulated,  and its effects more  easily con-
 trolled,  than if administered in substance.
   The most common preparation of arsenic,  is the white oxide,  or
 arsenious acid, usually  termed in the shops white arsenic.
   Preparation.   It is obtained in large quantities during the roasting
 of metallic ores containing arsenic, particularly those of cobalt, con-
 densing  in flues connected with the furnace where the process is con-
 ducted,  and being  purified by  a  second sublimation.   It likewise
 occurs native.
   Chem. Comp. Character, 6pc.  According  to the calculations of
 Davy, it appears that the arsenious  acid consists of about 25 parts of
 oxygen, and 75 of the  metal.   It is procured  in the form of shining
 semi-vitreous lumps, breaking with a conchoidal fracture ;  if reduced
 to powder, it bears some resemblance to white sugar, for which sub-
 stance it has sometimes been mistaken, especially by children.  It
 volatizes at the  temperature of 415°,  and by  a very strong  heat is
 vitrified  into a transparent glass capable of crystallizing in tetrahedra
 with  truncated angles.  (Paris.)
   Solubility.   The estimate of Klaproth has generally been received
 as the correct one ;  he  has shewn that it requires 400 parts of water
 at 60°, and only 13 at 212°, for  its  solution;  and moreover, that if
 100 parts of water be boiled on the  arsenious  acid, and suffered  to
 cool,  it will retain three grains in solution,  and deposit the remainder
in tetrahedral crystals.   This fact shows the importance of employ.
ing boiling water in every chemical  examination  of substances sup. 
1J
 posed to contain this poison.   It is likewise soluble  in  alcohol  and
 oils, the  former taking  up two  per cent.  Specific gravity, 3.7.
 Taste, acrid and corrosive, leaving a slight impression of sweetness:
 odour, none.*
   Medical Use, Sfc.  The extreme power of the preparations of ar-
 senic renders their exhibition an object of great care to the physician.
 It will  not suffice that small doses only are administered  ; the system
 must be closely watched, as its facility of accumulation may even-
 tually place the patient in the same situation with one who has swal-
 lowed an over-dose of the poison.  The custom of  prescribing arse-
 nic in substance made up into pills, is nearly discontinued, and  the
 solution, known as Fowler's solution,f generally preferred, of which
 from four to twenty minims, very gradually  increased, may be given
 twice a day.   The operation of arsenic in medicine, is tonic, and, in
 some cases, of obstinate intermittent, chronic rheumatism,  and diseases
 of the skin, its use has been followed by the best results.   Externally,
 it is occasionally employed as an escharotic, particularly in the form
 of Justamond's caustic^ to cancerous  sores ; but it must be distinctly
 remembered that " arsenic kills more readily when applied externally
 to an abraded part, than when internally administered ;" the greatest
 eaution is therefore necessary in its employment.
  Symptoms when taken in excess.   Primary—An acrid metallic taste
 and  constant discharge of saliva; difficulty of swallowing  from a
 sense of constriction; nausea, and  vomiting of a brown matter
 sometimes mixed with blood ;  excessive thirst;  great pain and heat
 in the epigastric region.   Secondary—All the above symptoms are
 greatly aggravated; fainting occurs; diarrhoea sets  in, with extreme
 tenesmus ; the discharges from the  bowels become of  green or black
 colour,  and very offensive ; the pulse is small,  frequent, and inter-
 mittent ; the surface of the body covered  with cold perspiration, and
 annoyed by excessive itching; livid spots appear on the abdomen,
 which becomes distended; the strength  is prostrated ; the feet and
 hands paralized; and delirium and convulsions announce  the ap.
 proach  of  death.


  * In the state of vapour it is quite inodorous, although it is asserted in many
chemical works to yield a smell like that of garlic ; the fact  is,  that  this al
haceous  smell is wholly confined to metallic arsenic in  a state of vapour, and
whenever the arsenious acid seems to yield this odour, we  may infer  that its
decomposition has taken place ;  this happens when it is projected  upon ignited
eharcoal, or when heated in contact with those metallic bodies which readily
unite with oxygen. (Paris.)                                          J
  t This preparation is thus formed:  Arsenious acid,  and sub-carbonate of
potass, of each 64 grains ; distilled water, 1 pint; alcohol, 4 drachms ; boiled
together until the  arsenic be dissolved.
  X This celebrated caustic, so frequently recommended in Continental Europe
consists of two parts of antimony, and one of arsenious acid, fluxed together
in a crucible, afterwards levigated,  and  reduced to the necessary degree of
maldness by the addition of powdered opium. 
15
   Cause of Death   Arsenic acts through  the  circulation  upon the
vital organs, as the heart, brain, or intestinal canal.  In general
tl\ aTTM?° ^f lyc ^ the administration of "this poison to be
regarded as the result of inflammation.
   It is capable of acting either as an external or internal agent, and
is equally fata  whether received through the medium of the stomach!
or introduced into the system by a wound.
   Morbid Appearances.  In the majority of instances  of poisoning
 rom arsenic, the absorption has been too rapid  to permit its effects to
be exercised on the mucous membrane  of the  intestinal canal,  and
hence  the inexperienced observer is apt to form erroneous conclu-
sions as to the  injury sustained by  the system.  Where,  however,
the quantity of arsenic swallowed has not been  very considerable, or
where from constitutional debility  the absorbents have not acted
with their accustomed  vigour, the  morbid changes  in the mucous
membrane of the stomach, duodenum, jejunum, and ilium,  are more
perceptible ; we may observe an increase of vascularity along the
whole  chain, sometimes a partial erosion of the villous coat of the
stomach, .or even  patches of gangrene.   The lungs  are usually
gorged with blood, and of  a  darkened hue; the membranes of the
brain intensely vascular and thickened, their vessels  turgid, and the
ventricles occupied by effused fluid.
   Thus it appears that, although arsenic may be considered  as the
most virulent  of the  metallic poisons, its  effects are not  the  most
visible ;  in fact, such is the violence of its action, that death follows
the blow inflicted upon the circulatory  system at large too speedily
to allow its determination to any particular organ.
   Remedies.  Administer copious draughts of chalk  and water su-
gar and water, or lime-water.  Meet any inflammatory symptoms by
the use of fomentations, emollient enemas, and the tepid bath.  When
the poison  has been evacuated  from  the stomach, and the  pain and
tenderness of the abdomen still continue, venesection must be prac-
tised.  It would, however, be an unwise proceeding  to  bleed at  an
earlier stage, as absorption would thereby be accelerated.
   When the first danger is overcome, the diet of the  patient  should
be limited for a considerable period  to farinaceous or  other b>ht and
nourishing food.
   Rationale. Any mucilaginous fluids will  assist in the evacuation of
the poison, and also protect, in  some degree, the mucous coat from its
corrosive action.   The  solution of  chalk  (the carbonate  of lime,)
and lime water, decompose the arsenious acid, forming an arsenite of
lime, which is insoluble and inert.*
   Tests.   Tie a ligature around the cardiac and pyloric orifices of
the stomach, and remove this  organ from  the body.  Collect and

    All Alkaline solutions, and magnesia, lend additional virulence to arsenic,
as tending to promote its absorption : the commonly proposed remedy of soap
and water is therefore improper. 
1(5
   strain its contents, when the arsenic, in the form of a white powder,
   lv.-iy probably be deposited ; which should be  boiled in an ounce or
   two of distilled water.   The fluid must, however, be preserved if no
   sediment be obtained ;  and, as a further means of detection, the sto-
   mach may  be cut into small pieces,  and boiled in distilled water with
   two or three drachms of caustic  potass, afterwards  carefully  filter-
   ing the fluid, and adding small portions of nitric acid, until the solu-
   tion assumes a yellowish white colour,  when it may be  neutralized
   with potass.
    A small portion of the powder thus obtained, should be mixed with
  three times  its weight of black flux, and  exposed to  heat in a  glass
  tube, as  directed in the tests for corrosive sublimate; when, if arse-
  nic  be present, the inside of the tube will be coated with a shining
  metallic crust; a portion of this reduced metal may be  scraped off,
  and laid on  heated iron  or charcoal, when  it will  exhale in  dense
  fumes with a strong alliaceous odour.*
    When the arsenious acid exists in solution, it may be detected  by
  the following tests :
    1st. Heat the solution to boiling ;  then add two or three grains of
  the sub-carbonate of potass, agitating the mixture ; present to the
  surface of the fluid a stick  of lunar  caustic, when a yellow precipi-
  tate  will instantly proceed from the point of contact, and settle towards
  the bottom of the vessel as a flocculent and copious powder. This is a
 most delicate test, capable of detecting the 60th part of a grain  of
 arsenic in two ounces of water. (Hume.)
   2d.  Lime, Baryta, or Strontia water, added to a solution of  arse-
 nious acid, produces a white flocky precipitate, forming the arsenide
 of lime, Barytes,  or Strontites, each of which is soluble in acids and
 alkalies.  (Feuchtwanger.)f

   * There  is another mode  of detecting arsenic by metallization.  Mix the
 suspected powder with black flux, and place it between two polished plates  o f
 copper; bind them together by iron wire, and expose them to a low red  heat,
 when, if the included powder contain arsenic, a silver-white stain will be left
 on the surface  of the copper, which is an alloy of the two metals.
   Neither of these metallic tests are, however, entitled to much confidence,
 except when confirmatory of others.
   t As indicative of the presence of arsenic, the following test has been em-
 ployed : The arsenide of lime, when dried, may be mixed with boracic  acid
 and charcoal, placed in a glass tube, and heated over a strong  flame ; in this
 process, the boracic acid forms a borate of lime with the lime of the arsenide
 of that earth; the oxygen of the arsenious acid (and the same may be said of
 the arsenic acid) combines with the charcoal to form carbonic oxide, and carbo-
 nic acid, and the arsenic combines in a metallic state and lines the walls of the
 tube.  The  arsenide of lime,  according to Dr. Hare, may be treated with the
prussiate of mercury (the cyanuret  of that metal,) in which case  cyanogen,
mercury, and arsenic, are sublimed in gas and vapour;  the first goes off in the
form of gas, the second is condensed in brilliant globular forms on the  sides
 of the  tube, and the third is perceived by its  peculiar metallic  lustre  and
characteristic odour.
  See  Remarks on Arsenic in the American Journal  of Science and Arts, ipl.
XIX. No. 2.  By Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, of New-York. 
17
  3d.  Add a few grains of the sub-carbonate of potass, as before, to
the  boiling solution,  and then a  few drops of the  solution of the
ammoniacal sulphate  of copper, when a grass green precipitate will
ensue, which is an arsenide of copper, well known  as the pigment,
called Scheele's green.*   If  arsenious acid be not present,  the pre-
cipitate will be of a delicate sky-blue colour.f
  4th.  If  a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas  be brought  into
contact with the solution, a deep yellow precipitate  is afforded—the
sulphuret of arsenic or orpiment, which is readily soluble in caustic
potass or ammonia.:}:
   5th.  The muriate of cobalt, when added to a neutrallized solution
of arsenious acid, throws down a  pink-red precipitate.
   6th.  The muriate of nickel affords an apple-green precipitate, when
added to a neutrallized solution.
   7th.  Arsenious acid,  when acidulated  with some sulphuric acid,
and brought into contact with a plate of zinc, presents the arsenic in
its metallic state, at the  negative pole.
   8th. The perchloride of  mercury (corrosive sublimate,) mixed
with arsenious acid, and then with some lime-water, produces a white
flocky precipitate, and not the  orange-yellow  powder, which we ob-
tain  by the combination of corrosive sublimate  with lime  water,
known as the aqua phagedenica, or yellow wash. (Feuchtwanger.)
   9th. Drop some of the suspected solution on a piece of white paper,
making a broad line,  along which draw a stick of lunar caustic, when
a streak is produced of a light yellow colour, which remains perma-
nent for some time, and then assumes a brown hue; this test, which
should be practised in the shade, is confirmed  by touching the streak
 lightly over with liquid ammonia, when the colour  becomes remark-
 ably brightened, and more permanent.§
    Brugnatelli  has proposed  the following tests of arsenic and corro-
 sive sublimate :  " Boil the  starch  of wheat, recently prepared, in a
 small quantity of water ; to this add a sufficient quantity  of iodine
 to make it of a blue colour,  and dilute it  afterwards with pure water,

   *  An appearance similar to Scheele's Green  is produced by the carbonate
 of potass,  when added to a solution of copper containing coffee, but without
 arsenic, more striking than if a weak solution of arsenic be used. (Silliman's
 Journal, iii. 365.
   + If the fluid  contain too much acid, no precipitate is obtained;  and if the
 powder  dissolve in ammonia, the  solution contained  no arsenious acid, but
 either a carbonate or a chromate of copper.  (Feuchtwanger.)
   t The sulphuret of arsenic thus formed, may be dried, mixed with equal
 parts of carbonate of potass, or caustic potass and charcoal, and heated over
 the flame of a spirit-lamp,  when the  sulphuret of arsenic is decomposed, and
 sulphuret of potassium formed : the oxygen of the  potass combines with the
 carbon to form carbonic oxide,  and carbonic acid, and the arsenic,  in the me-
 tallic state, is sublimed in the tube. (Feuchtwanger.)
   & It is necessary to observe that  the alkaline phosphates yield a yellow
 colour when dropped on paper and touched with the nitrate of silver; but the
 colour in fading becomes of a dull green.
                                 3 
18
 until it becomes of  a beautiful azure ; if to  this some drops of a
 watery solution of arsenic be added, the colour changes to a reddish
 hue, and finally vanishes.   A solution of corrosive sublimate, poured
 into the above mixture, produces almost the same change as arsenic ;
 but if to the fluid,  acted upon by the latter, we add a few drops of
 sulphuric acid, the original blue colour is restored with more than its
 original brilliancy, while it prodtaces no effect upon the mixture treat-
 ed with the corrosive sublimate."
   We have hitherto  treated of the arsenious  acid, or the common
 arsenic of commerce, which is the usual agent  in medicine, as well
 as in crime, when this poison is selected as the means of destruction.
 There are, however, other preparations  of the metal which have
 been, and  may again be, improperly employed  ; such as the arsenic 9
 acid, the sulphuret of arsenic, or orpimenl, and the arsenide of (arsenic, if
 or Scheele's green.
   The arsenic acid is prepared by  pouring six parts of nitric  acid
 on arsenious acid, and  exposing it to heat.  It is not easily crystal-
 lized, but  by very slow evaporation will form irregular  crystals.
 According to Proust^ it consists of 65.4 parts of arsenic, and 34.6 of
 oxygen.   Berzelius renders it as composed of 58.366 of arsenic, and
 41.634 of oxygen. It  is soluble in two parts of boiling, and six of cold
 water, has a sour  and metallic taste, and is inodorous.   This  pre-
 paration is not used in medicine ; but its  properties, as a poison, are
 even more deleterious than those of arsenious acid. The symptoms,
 both primary and secondary, the cause of death, morbid appearances,
 and remedies, are  precisely the  same as those  described under the
 last head, to which the reader is referred.  The tests, however, ad-
 mit of some variation. A colourless solution of arsenic acid, brought
 into contact with  lime, baryta or strontia  water, produces  a flocky
 white precipitate, which is soluble in an abundance of acid.  (Feucht-
 wanger.)
   The addition of the ammoniacal sulphate of  copper yields a sky-
 blue precipitate. (Ibid.)
   A stream of sulphuretted hydrogen, after some time, forms the
 yellow precipitate  of sulphuret of arsenic.  (Ibid.)
   The nitrate of silver, added to a solution of arsenic acid, neutral-
lized either with potass or ammonia, throws down a brick-colour pre-
 cipitate.
   Arsenic  acid, added to a  solution of corrosive sublimate,  and then
mixed with lime-water, has not the least effect.  (Feuchtwanger.)
   The muriates of cobalt and nickel  are  alike indifferent to arsenic
acid. (Ibid.)
   The sulphuret of arsenic, or orpiment, contains 3 parts of sulphur,
and 4 of arsenic ;  is found  native in yellow brilliant masses, or pro-
cured by distillation of the oxide with sulphur.   It holds no place  in
the pharmacopeia, and is not likely to be administered  as a poison.  If
it have been swallowed in error or by design, it may be tested by a col- 
19
lection of the contents of the stomach as before directed, which must
then  be boiled  with nitrous  acid, so as to form the arsenious acid ;
when the mode  already detailed may be pursued for its detection.
   The arsenide of  copper, or Scheele's green, is  prepared by  the
mixture of the arsenide of potass, and the sulphate of \*A#m, simply
boiling their solutions,  by which a double decomposition is effected,
and the pigment formed.
   It has no use in medicine ; the symptoms, &c, would be precisely
the same as those occasioned by arsenious acid.   In detecting this
preparation, it will be necessary to boil any collected portions, or a
suspected solution, with aqua  regia, filtering it while  hot, and neu-
trallizing it with ammonia, when it may be exposed to the same tests
as directed under the head of arsenious acid.
EARTHS.
BARYTES.
   The muriate of this earth (Marias Barytas) is the only preparation
 employed in medicine.   It is scarcely probable that this salt can be
 administered as a poison, and hence  its deleterious effects are only
 experienced when given unadvisedly or in improper doses.
   Preparation.  The sulphate of barytes,* mixed with  charcoal, is
 exposed to a strong heat, in a crucible ;  the oxygen, both of the acid
 and the barytes, is disengaged in combination with the carbon in the
 form of carbonic acid, and a sulphuret of barium remains; this is
 then thrown into water, a portion of which is decomposed ; its oxygen
 combines with the barium, whilst its hydrogen unites  with the sul-
 phur, a hydro-sulphuret of barytes being formed,  which is dissolved
 by the  rest of  the water ;  and on adding muriatic acid to it, the sul-
 phuretted hydrogen is disengaged, while the acid combines with the
 barytes, forming a muriate, which remains in solution, and is obtain-
 ed in crystals by evaporation.

  * The sulphate of barytes, or heavy spar, as it is sometimes termed from its
weight, exists in considerable  quantity in nature,  and  is always  formed in
chemical operations, where barytes and sulphuric acid come into contact, from
the great attraction they have for each  other. (Reid.) 
20
  Chem. Comp. Character, g-c.  This salt, according to Berzelius,
consists of
              Muriatic acid,               23.35 parts.
              Barytes,                    61.85
              Water of crystallization,      14.80
100
  Sir H. Davy considered the dry salt as a compound of one atom
of barium, weighing 65, and one atom of chlorine, 33.5 ;  hence  100
parts should consist of 34 parts of chlorine, and 66 of barium.  The
crystals are regular, having commonly the shape of tables, bevelled
at the edges, or of eight-sided pyramids, applied base to base.  Soluble
in three parts of water at 60° ;  in a less quantity at 212°, but scarce-
ly at all in alcohol.   Taste, bitter and styptic : odour, none.
  Medical  Use, #c. The solution of this suit is medicinally employed
in the proportion of one  part to three  parts of distilled water, as a
stimulant, deobstruent, and diuretic, in scrophulous maladies, glandu-
lar affeotions, worms, and cutaneous diseases.   Dose, from five to ten
minims twice a day, gradually increased, until  nausea is produced.
Externally, it is applied to indolent  and fungous ulcers.
  It  is incompatible with the sulphate of soda and alumine, and the
nitrates of  potash and silver.
  Symptoms when  taken  in  excess.   Primary—Excessive vomiting
and diarrhoea, with excruciating pains in the stomach and bowels.
Secondary—Vertigo ; stupor ; paralysis of extremities ; convulsions ;
death.
  Cause of Death.   This poison acts rapidly through the circulation
upon vital organs; thus, upon the heart it produces a fatal syncope,
or upon the brain, when  it occasions convulsions.   The corrosive
properties of the salt would be sufficient  to destroy life by gangrene
of the intestinal canal,  were  the circulatory system  not primarily
affected.
  Morbid Appearances.   In general, the mucous  membrane of the
stomach will be found in a state of great vascularity,  notwithstand-
mg the determination of the poison to the circulation;  the membranes
of the brain inflamed, the ventricles filled with effused fluid, and the
vessels turgid.
  Remedies.   Every effort should be made to excite vomiting,  both
by an irritation of the fauces with a feather, and by  the administra-
tion  of the sulphate of zinc or copper  as an emetic,  promoting their
effects by plentiful and repeated draughts of any bland fluid.  The
solutions of soda or magnesia may also be freely administered.
  Rationale.  The use of an emetic is obvious ; the  bland fluids will
protect in some degree the tender mucous coat of  the  stomach from
the corrosive properties  of  the  salt, and the sulphates of soda  and
magnesia will decompose the muriate, and  convert it into  an insolu-
Die and inert sulphate of barytes. 
21
  Tests.  Drop into the suspected solution a  little sulphuric acid,
when if the muriate of barytes be present, a white precipitate will
be occasioned, which is a sulphate of the earth,  and insoluble  in
nitric  acid.   Add a few grains of  the  nitrate of silver to another
portion of the solution, and a curdled, white precipitate, insoluble  in
water and nitric  acid, will betray the  existence of the poison.  If
wine, coffee, &c, have been the medium by which this salt has been
administered, a solution of chlorine will destroy the colour ; but care
must be afterwards taken to  dissipate the chlorine by heat, before
the nitrate of silver is employed as a test.
                             LIME.


  This earth is  employed  in medicine  to a very  trifling  extent,
except in the formation of the lime-water (liquor calcis) of the phar-
macopeia.   One  or two instances are  recorded where it  has  been
administered as a poison.
  Preparation.   Limestone, chalk or marble, being all varieties of
the carbonate of  lime,  are  exposed to a strong heat, when the car-
bonic acid  is disengaged in the gaseous state, while the lime remains.
   Chem. Comp.  Character,  dec.  Lime is a compound of calcium
and oxygen, in which, according to Sir H. Davy, the oxygen is to the
metal as 7.5  to  20.   It is  of a white colour, moderately hard, and
requires an  intense  heat  for its  fusion.  Specific gravity,  2.3.
   Solubility.  Water dissolves only about its 1-450th part.*   Taste,
acrid and alkaline :  odour,  none.
   Medical Use, dfc.   The  employment of lime, as  an  escharotic,
has long ceased, and  internally it has never been employed in sub.
stance.  Its  solution,  commonly  called  lime-water, is  astringent,
tonic,  antacid, and anthelmintic, and is a valuable remedy in dyspep.
sia, when much acid prevails in the stomach, in diabetes, diarrhoea,
and worms.   Dose, §ij to gvj  with milk.
   Lime-water is used in preparing the black wash  (Lotio Hydrar-
gyri nigra,) and  the yellow wash (Lotio Hydrargyri flava,) some-
times called the  aqua phagedenica, both so extensively  used in^he
treatment of venereal ulcers.
   The solution of the muriate  of lime is sometimes recommended as
a tonic and stimulant  in  scrophulous  and debilitated habits, in doses
of  from 30 minims to  3j twice a day.
   Symptoms when Lime has been swallowed.  Primary—Great nausea
and vomiting ; heat of the  fauces and  tonsils ;  and constriction of

   « It is a curious fact, that lime dissolves more plentifully in cold than in
hot water ;  at the freezing point, or nearly so, it is probable that water would
take up nearly twice as much lime as is dissolved by boiling water. (Dalton.) 
22
  the oesophagus.   Secondary—Excruciating pains in the stomach and
  bowels, followed by the usual circumstances attendant upon abdomi-
  nal inflammation.
    Cause of Death.  The corrosive properties of the lime acts upon
  the mucous  membrane of  the  stomach  and intestines, producing
  inflammation and gangrene.
    Morbid Appearances.  Intense inflammation of the stomach and
  bowels is observed, with patches of gangrene and perforations of the
  mucous membrane.
    Remedies.   Administer, in large quantities, lemon-juice, vinegar,
 or any vegetable acid that can be procured, and afterwards repeated
 draughts of mild or mucilaginous fluids, continuing their exhibition
 for some time after  the vomiting has ceased.  Bleeding, fomentations,
 and emollient injections,  must be had  recourse to, as inflammatory
 symptoms supervene.
   Rationale.   The vegetable acids tend to decompose the lime in the
 stomach, depriving it of its corrosive properties.   The necessity of
 the ulterior measures is sufficiently obvious.
   Tests.   Collect  what portion  of a suspected substance may be
 found  in  the  stomach or bowels, and  pour over it distilled water;
 stop the  vessel  closely, and, after a short time, filter ;  add a little
 oxalic acid, and if lime be present, a precipitate, which is  the oxalate
 of lime, will immediately ensue ;  by submitting this powder to heat,
 the oxalic acid is easily destroyed, and the  lime left in a  pure  state.
 The taste of the above solution will also assist the detection of this
 earth,  as its strong and styptic flavour is readily recognised.   The
 vegetable blues will be changed to a green  colour by the same solu-
 tion.   A small pellicle  will arise on the surface of the liquid on its
 exposure to the air, which is  soluble with effervescence in a.vegeta-
 ble acid.  There are other tests  of the presence of this  earth ;  but
 the improbability of its being swallowed  as a poison, and the  efficacy
of the  oxalic acid in its detection, render further detail unnecessary.
% 
23
ALKALIES.
                            POTASS.

   The Nitrate of Potash (Nitras Polassce,) or Saltpetre, has occasion-
 ally been mistaken for Epsom or Glauber salts ; and a few examples
 are  on record, of its having been administered with a criminal
 intention.
   Preparation.  Mixtures of animal and vegetable  substances, to
 which  carbonate of lime is added, are exposed to the action of the
 air,  and at the same time protected from rain.   The  nitric  acid is
 formed by the re-action of the lime on the animal substances and the
 air, and the potash which is afforded by the vegetable  substances,
 decomposes it, and forms nitrate of potash.  If there be not sufficient
 potash to decompose all the  nitrate of lime,  some wood-ashes are
 added to complete the decomposition.  The salt is then purified by
 repeated solution and crystallization.  It is obtained in large quanti-
 ties in India, where it exists in an efflorescent state  at  the surface
 of the earth.
   Chem. Comp. Character,  dec   It consists of 51.8  of potass, 44
 of nitric acid, and 4.2 of water.   The crystals are six-sided prisms,
 terminated  by dihedral  summits.  Soluble in  seven parts of water at
 60°, and in its own weight at 212°.   Taste, sharpe and bitter : odour,
 none.   Specific Gravity, 2.00.
   Medical Use, <Sfc.   Diuretic, refrigerant, and in large doses pur-
 gative ; administered in fevers,  dropsies, active haemorrhages, and
 gonorrhoea.   Dose, gr. x to  gss in  any  bland  fluid.
   Incompatible with alum, sulphate of magnesia, sulphuric acid, and
 the sulphates of iron, zinc, and copper.  .
   Symptoms when taken in excess.   Primary—Immediate  nausea and
 vomiting ;   and  excruciating pain in   the  stomach  and bowels.
 Secondary—Continued sickness  and  diarrhcea,  with  discharges  of
 blood ;  the  pain  becomes still more agonizing; the respiration is
impeded ;  syncope  takes place ;  and paralysis of the extremities
and convulsions are the precursors of death. 
24
  Cause of Death.  A direct influence is produced upon the mucous
coats of the stomach  and intestines by the corrosive nature of the
poison, occasioning inflammation and gangrene.
  Morbid Appearances.   General  signs  of inflammation and  gan-
grenous patches throughout the whole intestinal canal ; the stomach
in particular is affected, and in some  cases perforations of its coats
may be observed.
  Remedies.   Give the patient copious draughts of any  bland fluid,
such as milk, barley-water,  &c. ;  and afterwards administer  emol-
lient enemas.   One or  two grains of opium, in  conjunction  with
aromatics,  may then be  supplied, and repeated every two or three
hours.   Venesection  and leeches  to the abdomen will generally lite
necessary,  together with fomentations.
  The Rationale of these measures is  sufficiently obvious.
  Tests.   Evaporate the contents of the stomach to dryness ;  collect
the residue, and pour  upon it hot sulphuric acid, when, if the nitrate
of potass be present in excess, nitrous acid fumes will be given out.
Throw a portion of the dried mass upon hot coals, when the nitrate of
potass will immediately deflagrate. Platina and its muriate are deli-
cate tests of all the salts of potass.   The latter may be applied to the
detection of the nitrate, by adding a small quantity to the contents
of the stomach,  when  an orange-coloured  precipitate will ensue.*
  There is a second preparation of potass, of extreme  power as an
external medical  agent, which by possibility might be made use of
as a poison—The Caustic Potass (Kali Causticum vel Potassa Fusa,)
or Lapis Infernalis.   This substance is, in fact, an  hydrated pro-
toxide of potassium, although when it is cast into moulds, it generally
contains a  little peroxide, and therefore evolves oxygen when  dis-
solved in water.
  Preparation.   The water of potass, formed from the pearl-ash, is
evaporated in an  iron  basin, until it acquires the consistence of  oil,
which is run into cylindrical moulds, becoming solid as it cools.
   Chem. Comp. Character,  tyc.  It consists  of 82.3  parts of potas-
sium and 17.7 of  oxygen ;  but it  is not unfrequently accompanied
with small portions of silex, lime, and oxide of iron ; is of a grey
brittle  substance, and  extremely  deliquescent.   Taste, acrid  and
caustic; inodorous.
   Solubility.   One ounce of water will  dissolve  seven drachms  ; it
is also soluble in alcohol.
   Medical Use, Sfc.   Only externally applied as a caustic in esta-
blishing an ulcer or issue, or-instead of the knife in opening a tumour.
   The symptoms, cause of death, morbid appearances, and remedies,
are the same as those described under the former head.

  ,* T!"S t6nf is'however' applicable to ammonia, and therefore becomes less
valuable.  1 he  evaporation and examination of the residue is the most cer-
tain mode of proceeding. 
25
    Tests.   A solution of this substance will feel soapy to the touch,
  turn the  vegetable  red and blue colours to green, and occasion an
  immediate precipitate from a solution of nitrate of silver, in the form
  of a dark-coloured oxide, soluble in nitric acid.   A portion of the
  liquor vomited, or collected after death  from  the  stomach, may be
  evaporated to dryness ; upon  exposure of the  mass to the air, the
  presence of potass will be ascertained by its deliquescence.*


                           AMMONIA.

    This alkali exists as an invisible gas, which, when largely absorbed
  by water (one measure of this fluid condensing 460 times its  weight
  of aminoniacal gas,) forms the  liquid ammonia used in medicine,
  and  also capable of being employed as a poison.
    Preparation. Four parts of the muriate of ammonia, or sal am-
  moniac, are mixed with three parts of well  burnt lime, and the whole
  exposed to heat in a retort.   The muriatic acid of the sal ammoniac
  combines with  the lime, and the  ammonia  is expelled in the gaseous
  state ; this  is  received over mercury, as  it  would be immediately
  condensed  by water.
    The watery  solution of ammonia is obtained by introducing  a tube,
  connected with the end of the retort, into a bottle  containing  water,
  which must be  surrounded with ice, snow, or a frigorific mixture.
    Chem. Comp. Character, fyc.   Ammonia is a compound  of nitro-
  gen  and hydrogen, consisting of three volumes of the latter and one
  volume of  the former, condensed into  two volumes ;  these three
  volumes of  hydrogen represent three atoms equal to 3.75,  and one
  volume of nitrogen is equal to one atom of this substance or 17.5 ; the
  prime equivalent therefore being 21.25.  (Reid.)  According to Gay
  Lussac  its specific gravity is Tb that of common air, as 0.5967 to  1.
  The solution has generally the  specific  gravity  of 0.954,  and  it
" cannot conveniently be kept stronger.
    Medical  Use, $c.   The liquid ammonia  (liquor ammoniae)  inter-
 nally is a powerful stimulant and antacid in doses  of from  10 to 30
 minims.  Externally, a rubefacient.
    The principal preparations of this  alkali, employed  in medicine,
 are the acetate,  the  sub-carbonate, and  the  muriate of ammonia
 (or sal ammoniac.)
    Symptoms when taken in excess.  Should  a large quantity be swal-
 lowed, an immediate  sense of suffocation  is  experienced,  which is
 quickly followed by convulsions and death.  In milder cases the mouth
 and  fauces  are excoriated by the caustic action of the fluid,  great
 heat  prevailing  in those situations and in the throat.  Secondarily—
 The  bowels  are violently effected with griping pains ; severe vomit-

   * This is not the case with caustic soda, or any of the salts of that alkali.
                              4 
26
ing ensues, with discharges of blood  both from  the stomach  and
bowels ;  delirium supervenes ;  and finally, convulsions precede dis-
solution.
   The Cause of Death and the Morbid Appearances  are nearly the
same as those described under the head of nitrate of potass, although
this poison will  act  with  greater quickness,  and produce stronger
evidence of inflammation.   The Remedies are likewise the same.
   Tests.   Liquid ammonia is easily recognised in the evacuations
before, and in the contents of the stomach after death, by its pungent
odour, and its alteration of the vegetable  blues and reds to a green
colour.
   If a piece  of bright copper be immersed in a fluid containing
ammonia in excess, a blue colour is immediately produced ; and a
similar result is effected by adding a diluted solution of the acetate
or sulphate of copper, or, in fact, by any of the salts of that metal.*
MINERAL  ACIDS.
                         SULPHURIC.


             (Acidum Sulphuricum,) or Oil of Vitriol.

  Preparation.  One part of sulphur is  mixed with one-ninth of its
weight of nitre, and placed in a vessel which is enclosed in a leaden
chamber filled with water to the depth of several'inches, and having
an aperture at the top for'the  admission of the air.  The mixture is
then kindled, when  the  sulphur unites with the oxygen of the air,
and  forms sulphurous acid,f which, acting upon the nitre, causes it
to give out nitric  oxide gas, and which also, coming in contact with
the air,  imbibes  a portion of its  oxygen, and forms nitrous  acid.
These sulphurous and nitrous acid gases combine, and would assume
a solid form if water were not present;  but the moment they  come
in contact with that fluid, the nitrous  acid gas is decomposed, gives
oxygen to the sulphurous acid gas, and forms, by uniting with it, sul-

  * A solution of the nitrate of silver produces no result  either in colour or
by precipitate, when added to liquid ammonia.
  t Sulphurous acid is formed during the  combustion  of  sulphur in atmos-
pheric air or oxygen gas, or by the' decomposition of sulphuric acid. 
27
phuric acid. (Brande.)  When the water in the chamber has imbibed
a sufficient quantity of acid, it is conveyed into a leaden vessel, where
it is evaporated until it has acquired the specific  gravity of 1600  or
1700 (water being 1000,) and for general use, it is afterwards placed
in glass or platina retorts, for the purpose  of driving off a.larger por-
tion of the water,  when sulphuric  acid  of the specific gravity of
1.850 is finally obtained.
   Chem. Comp.  Character,  Sec.  This acid, when pure, is a colour-
less fluid, and, in its strongest state, may be said (according to Davy)
to consist of 30  parts of sulphur, 45 of oxygen, and 17 of water.
It has a powerful  affinity  for water, producing, when mixed with
 it, a considerable degree of heat.  Taste, excessively acid  and cor-
 rosive, and on exposure to the air, it emits white fumes of  an oppres-
 sive and suffocating odour.
   Medical Use,  <$rc.   In a diluted form,  prepared by the addition of
 §iss of  acid to gxivss of distilled water, this acid is employed inter-
 nally, as  a tonic, astringent  and  refrigerant,  in  the treatment of
 dyspepsia, diabetes,  haemorrhages,  hectic  fever, and  cutaneous
 eruptions.   Dose, from ten to thirty minims largely diluted.  In de-
 tergent gargles, it is  used in the proportion of 3i to 3iij, to ^viij
 of fluid.   Externally, the  strong acid is occasionally applied to the
 edges of callous ulcers, or made up into an ointment, 3i of the acid
 to  §i of lard, for the cure  of scabies.
    Symptoms when taken in excess.   Primary—Sharp and  corrosive
 taste about  the lips and mouth ;  a sense of burning in the fauces
  and throat  continued along the  oesophagus  to the stomach, with
  excruciating pains ;  vomiting and intolerable foetor  of  breath.
  Secondary—Continued sickness, and discharges of  frothy matter and
  blood from  the stomach ; difficulty of respiration,  and  a  croupy
  cough  ;  intense symptoms of abdominal inflammation; small and
  irregular  pulse ; great anxiety and restlessness ; convulsions ; death.
     Cause of Death.  The rapid effects of this caustic acid upon the
  coats of the stomach and  intestines, produce inflammation and gan-
  grene.
     Morbid Appearances.   The coats of the stomach are  ulcerated,
  black, and corroded ;  the organ itself distended with gas and a quan-
  tity of dark bloody matter.
     The lips, mouth,  oesophagus, and every part of the alimentary
   canal to which the acid has extended, present unequivocal marks of
   its destructive  properties.
     Remedies.   Instant and copious draughts  of milk, containing
  . powdered chalk  or magnesia, should  be administered; or  where
   these cannot be readily obtained at an early period, soap may be dis-
   solved in warm water, and given until excessive vomiting be occa-
   sioned.  The solutions of the carbonate of potass or soda are likewise
   of infinite  value, if promptly  taken.   The inflammatory symptoms
   must, of course, be met  by the lancet, fomentations, and injections. 
28
    Rationale.  The solutions of the carbonate of lime (chalk,) mag-
  nesia, or those of the fixed alkalies,  are directed with the view of
  decomposing the acid, and rendering it inert.   The  other remedies
  merely apply to the evacuation of the poison from the stomach, and
  the protection of the system from its effects.
    Tests.  If any quantity  of the acid can  be collected,- it may be
  recognised by its caustic taste, specific weight, and by its evolving
  heat, when mixed  with water.
    Add a small quantity of chalk to the suspected fluid, and a copious
  precipitate will ensue, which, after washing, should be boiled in dis-
  tilled water ; to  the clear solution some barytic water may be added,
  when, if sulphuric acid be present, a sulphate of barytes, in the form
  of a white powder, will fall down, which is insoluble in nitric acid.
   Boil the contents  of the stomach with crude mercury, and sul-
 phuric acid  will be  detected by the rapid  production of sulphurous
 acid gas, which is readily recognised by its peculiar odour.


                         NITRIC ACID.


               (Acidum Nitricum,) or Aqua Fortis.

   Preparation.   Three parts of the nitrate of potash are coarsely
 pounded, and put into a glass retort; two  parts of sulphuric acid are
 then added, and the whole exposed to moderate heat in a sand-bath.
 The sulphuric acid combines with  the  potash, and  the nitric acid is
 disengaged ;  being volatized by the heat,  it passes through the neck
 of the retort into a  receiver which is  connected with it,  and kept
 very cold where  it is condensed.
   Chem. Comp. Character, <$pc.   Nitric acid, when pure,  is colour-
 less, and consists of 25.97 parts of nitrogen, and 74.33 of oygen. Sir
 H. Davy considered it as a compound of one  atom of nitrogen with
 one atom of hydrogen, and six atoms of oxygen. Its specific gravity,
 at its utmost  density, is about 1.42, and it requires a temperature of
 250° to make it boil, when it distils over without  change.  It has
 been frozen at 40° below zero.   Taste, exceedingly acrid and caus-
 tic, and emits white fumes of a pungent and suffocating odour.
   Medical Use, Sec.   It is employed, when  diluted in the proportion
 of gi to gix of water, as a tonic,  antiseptic, and anti-syphiltic, and
 has been much extolled in the treatment of diseases of the liver, and
 the sequelae  of venereal attacks.   Dose,  from ten  to thirty minims
 in ghj  of water.   Externally, it is sometimes used as an escharotic
 where an immediate destruction of diseased parts is required.
   Symptoms when  taken in excess.  Primary—Should the quantity
swallowed have been considerable, almost immediate  death is the
result; in other instances, a sensation of heat and pain in the mouth, 
21)
oesophagus,  and stomach,  is complained of;  the breath becomes
foetid ; vomiting takes place ; and all the symptoms of violent abdomi-
nal inflammation are apparent.  Secondary—The vomiting increases
to an extreme degree ; and shreds of membrane, mixed with mucus
and blood, are evacuated from the stomach : should life be prolonged
for a few days, obstinate constipation prevails ;  and if a dejection
be obtained, it is at the expense of great agony.   The symptoms of
inflammation gradually increase until within a few hours of death.
   The Cause of Death is the same as that produced by the action of
sulphuric acid.
  Morbid Appearances. The lips, tongue, and fauces are covered with
orange-coloured spots, and the mucous membrane of oesophagus and
stomach  coated with a layer of yellow matter, and perforated in
many places, whilst  the whole  of the alimentary canal exposed to
the action of this corrosive acid, exhibits its destructive qualities.
  Remedies.   Copious and frequent  draughts of alkaline solutions,
as directed under the head of  sulphuric acid.  The stomach  may
afterwards be avacuated by  administering large quantities of any
bland fluid,  the imflammatory symptoms  requiring bleeding, the
tepid bath, injections, &c.
  The Rationale of  this  treatment is similar  to that described in a
case of poisoning from sulphuric acid.
   Tests.  The appearances after death, in  the orange-coloured spots
on the tongue and fauces,  and the yellow coating of the stomach,
afford the strongest  proof that  this acid has been swallowed.  In
addition to these signs, any fluid collected may be boiled over copper
filings, when orange-coloured fumes will be evolved, if nitric acid be
present.


                      MURIATIC  ACID.

      (Acidum Muriaticum,) commonly called Spirits of Salt.

  Preparation.  A given weight of the muriate of soda, or common
salt, is placed in a glass retort,  and  with  an  equal quantity of sul-
phuric acid, exposed to heat in a sand-bath.   Muriatic acid gas is
then freely disengaged, which must be received in jars  over  mer-
cury as water instantly  absorbs it.   The water of the sulphuric
acid is decomposed in this  process, the sodium attracts the oxygen,
and soda is produced, with which the sulphuric acid combines to form
a sulphate of soda,  while  the  hydrogen of the water?  ™^£
the  disengaged chlorine, forms muriatic acid, which is expelled by

theCh?m. Comp. Character, fc.  Muriatic gas having been discovered
to consist of a compound of chlorine and hydrogen in equal volumes, 
30
this acid has received a name more expressive of its composition—
the Hydro-chloric Acid.  It is colourless when quite pure ; but from
the presence of a small quantity of the muriate of iron, generally of
an  amber colour, and has a great affinity for water.   Sir H. Davy
states, that water at 40° can absorb 480 times its volume  of muriatic
acid gas,, and that  the specific gravity of this solution  is 1.2109;
this is the state in which the acid is generally employed, and is formed
by  simply passing the gas through water,  until it will absorb no
more.  If the vessel containing the water be kept very cold, a large
portion  of acid may thus be obtained, ranging 'in  specific  gravity
from 1.150 to 1.400.   Taste, intensely sour  and caustic: odour,
pungent and oppressive.
   Medical Use, <Src.   This acid is also tonic, antiseptic, and  diuretic
in operation.  Internally, it is administered  in  some bland fluid, as
barley-water, gruel, &c.  in cases of malignant typhus or scarlet
fever ;  as a gargle in  inflammatory sore throat,  and when  largely
diluted,  as an injection  in gonorrhoea.  Dose, from ten to twenty
minims in an  abundance of fluid,  3ss to 3i  in gargle, and, as injec-
tion, eight  minims to giv  of water.   Externally, it  has been em-
ployed  in union with the nitric acid in the formation of a bath, which,
thus acidulated,  has been frequently  recommended  as  a powerful
remedy for diseases of the liver in particular, and as a general sub-
stitute for the use of mercury.
   Symptoms when taken in excess.  Primary—A sensation of heat
 and pain in the mouth and throat, with great thirst  and vomiting.
 Secondary—The eyes become  red and inflamed ;  the lips of a brown
 or blackened hue ; the skin hot  and dry ;  the pulse  hard and fre-
 quent; bloody mucus is voided from the stomach ;  the pain extends
 to  the  bowels, and increases  to  an  agonizing extent; a cold and
 clammy perspiration ensues, until the approach of delirium, coma,
 and death.*
    Cause of Death.   The same as described under the heads  of the
 two former mineral acids.
   Morbid Appearances.  The mouth,  oesophagus, and stomach, are
 found of a deep red colour, and bearing marks of excessive inflam-
 mation ; patches of extravasated  blood and perforations through the
 mucous coats occur, sometimes penetrating the entire tissues of these
 viscera.
    Remedies.  Administer promptly the alkaline or magnesian draughts
 recommended in cases  of poisoning  from  the  other mineral acids,
 employing subsequently  the  same means in guarding against  or
 restraining inflammation.
    The Rationale is sufficiently obvious.
    Tests.   Collect any fluid that may  be found in  the stomach, and

    * Orfila describes a fume of a sharp penetrating odour, as issuing from the
 mouth, when a considerable quantity of this acid has been swallowed. 
31
after straining it, dip into it a  glass  rod moistened with  ammonia,
when, if muriatic acid be present, dense white fumes of muriate of
ammonia will immediately be observed.   If mixed in any coloured
menstruum,  the acid will be detected by distilling the fluid from a
small retort into a vessel containing nitrate of silver, when a muriate
of that metal is precipitated, recognisable by its solubility in ammo-
nia, and its insolubility in nitric acid.  The contents of the stomach,
either as vomited or collected after death, may be boiled for an hour
with a diluted solution of potass ; the fluid should be filtered, and a
nitrate of silver  added, when  a precipitate, likewise  a  muriate of
 silver, is the result, provided muriatic acid be present.
VEGETABLE   ACIDS.
                        OXALIC ACID.

  This destructive poison holds no place in the pharmacopeia ;  but,
from its slight  resemblance  to the sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom
salts, it has frequently been  mistaken for that aperient.*
  Preparation.   Oxalic acid exists in considerable quantity in wood-
sorrel (the oxalis acetosella,) in combination with a small  portion of
potass, forming  the bin-oxalate  of potass.   The acid is readily
obtained  from this compound by saturating it with ammonia, adding
nitrate of barytes to the solution,  and decomposing the  insoluble
oxalate of barytes, which is formed by sulphuric  acid.   An easier
mode  of obtaining the  acid for  the  purposes of the arts is now
adopted.   One ounce of sugar is coarsely pounded, and introduced
into a retort with six ounces of nitric  acid ; a gentle heat is  then
applied, when a  large quantity of  nitric  oxide is  disengaged ; the
sugar is entirely dissolved, and on continuing the distillation of the
nitric acid for a short time, a fluid  is obtained of the consistence of
syrup, which, on cooling,  affords  crystals of oxalic acid, equal in
weight to rather more than half the quantity of sugar employed.

   * The purgative salt may be thus distinguished from the deleterious acid.
The latter has a very sour taste, even when diluted with a large portion of
 water, while the sulphate of magnesia has a pure bitter taste.  The acid red-
 dens the vegetable blues, while the salt  has no effect upon them ; the  former
 also causes an effervescence when added to  alkaline carbonates; the latter
 gives an insoluble carbonate with such compounds. (Reid.) 
32
     Chem. Comp. Character, Sfc.  According to Berzelius, it consists
  of 66.211  parts of oxygen,  33.021  parts of carbon, and 0.728 of
  hydrogen.*  The crystals are generally  four-sided prisms,  unless
  the solution  has  been strong and  quickly cooled, when they  will
  appear  in  a  small acicular form.   Soluble  in one part of boiling
  water and in two parts of cold water ; also soluble in between two
  and three times its weight of cold and in less than twice its weight
  of boiling alcohol.  Taste, very sour ; inodorous.
    Symptoms.   Primary—An  intensely  acid  taste  prevails  in  the
  mouth,  with  great nausea,  and  constant,  although  ineffectual,
  attempts to vomit  Secondary—A  dry and  burning taste is com.
  plained  of in the mouth  and fauces,  and  great  pain,  heat, and
  oppression, in the epigastric region  ; the pulse  is hard  and con-
  tracted ; the forehead bedewed with perspiration ;  small quantities of
  mucus, slightly tinged with blood, are occasionally evacuated from
  the stomach ;  the pupils become dilated ;  the  intellect wanders until
  violent delirium occurs, which is soon followed by convulsions  and
  death.
    Cause of Death.  Oxalic acid acts as a corrosive poison, causing
 inflammation and gangrene of the stomach and intestines.
   Morbid Appearances.  These are similar, although less in degree to
 the appearances  produced  by the action of the mineral acids.  A
 viscid light-coloured mucus is usually visible on the tongue and
 fauces, and in  some instances a portion of the stomach is altered in
 its consistence, and converted into a  pulpy mass.   The brain, when
 sliced, frequently presents more bloody points than natural, and tur-
 bid serum is not uncommon in the lateral ventricles ;  these  appear-
 ances may readily be accounted  for  in  the excitement  that has
 prevailed in the system from the intense action of the poison.
   Remedies.   Administer, as quickly as possible, large quantities of
 alkaline or magnesian solutions ; when these cannot be readily pro.
 cured, whitning may be mixed with  warm water,  and given in as
 copious draughts as the sufferer can bear.   The common remedy of
 soap and water, in  the absence of other materials, has frequently
 been  afforded  with the best effect.   In addition  to  the  alkaline
 draughts,  an emetic of two scruples of the sulphate of zinc may be
 administered.  Venesection,  fomentations, and injections, and after-
 wards cathartics  (of which the  croton oil  from its power may be
 preferred,) will be demanded upon the approach of the inflammatory
 symptoms.
  Rationale.   The alkaline solutions have a similar effect in neutral-
izing this poison, as described under former heads, forming oxalates
of magnesia, potass or soda, by the  combination of the acids with

  * From Dobereiner's experiments, it appears that oxalic acid does not essen-
tially contain any hydrogen, and that it differs from carbonic acid merely in
the  proportion of its elements : its ultimate  analysis  shews  that it consists
of two atoms of carbon equal to 15, and three atoms of oxygen equal to 30. 
33
 their bases, the solution of whitning converting the acid into an inert
 oxalate of lime ;  and the alkali,  in the solution of soap, rendering
 the acid innoxious, while  the mixture  acts  at the  same time as an
 emetic.   The reasons for the subsequent measures are sufficiently
 obvious.
   Tests.   The most delicate test of oxalic acid, is lime-water, which
 throws down a copious white precipitate, which is  an oxalate of
 lime.  Alumina may be dissolved in a suspected solution ; when, if
 oxalic acid be present, it will give, upon  evaporation, a yellowish
 transparent mass, sweet, slightly astringent, and deliquescent; red-
 dening tincture of litmus  paper, but not the syrup of  violets.   This
 test must, however,  yield to the former  b6th in certainty and deli-
 cacy.  The alkaline and magnesian solutions will occasion precipi-
 tates, which are the oxalates of those bodies.

            PRUSSIC OR  HYDRO-CYANIC ACID.*

   This poison, which  possesses  greater activity  than any  other
 derived from the vegetable kingdom, exists in the kernels of various
 fruits, such  as the peach,  apricot, plum, cherry, almond, &c, im-
 parting the peculiar flavour  by which they are distinguished.!   The
 leaves of the lauro-cerasus also  contain this acid.   The quantity
 that can be thus procured, is, however, very  small;  and therefore
 we resort to the Prussiate or Ferro-cyanate of iron, or  Prussian blue,
 for its production.                                    ,
   Preparation.  There are  various modes by which this acid is pro-
 cured ; that of Scheele's, which is, perhaps, the most extensively
 used in medicine, is prepared by digesting one ounce of the red oxide
 of mercury with two ounces of Prussian blue in six ounces of water,
 and boiling it for a few minutes, carefully agitating it the whole time.
 It is then filtered,  and to the  clear solution three  drachms of sul-
 phuric acid and an ounce and a half of iron filings are  added. When
 all action has  ceased, the clear liquor is exposed to heat in a retort,
 and afterwards the hydro-cyanic acid separated by distillation.;
   Chem.  Comp. Character, Sec.  Until  the year  1815, the precise

  * This acid was formerly ranked among  those which are peculiar to the
 animal kingdom, as  it  was procured  by the decomposition of animal sub-
 stances • Roloff and Bucholz were the first who distinctly proved its existence
 s a proximate principle in the vegetable kingdom, which had long been sus-
 oected from the peculiar smell of several vegetable products.  (Reid.)
PrThePmssicPacid would appear to  be most abundant m the thin pellicle
that envelopes the kernel; the  fleshy parts of these fruits do not contain it,
and even Se berries of the lauro-cerasus may be eaten with  impunity, while
SedTstmed water and oil of this plant are the most destructive of all narcoUc

 P°tiSGav Lussac, in  the preparation of this acid, exposes  the bi-cyanide of
mercury with two thirds^f its  weight of muriatic acid to a moderate heat
rr^ss retort. Corrosive sublimate  is formed, and  the hydrogen of the
                                 5 
34
nature of this acid was not ascertaincil ;  at that  period Cay Lussac
discovered its  real chemical constitution  to  consist of a peculiar
gaseous  and highly inflamed  compound of carbon  and nitrogen, to
which the name of cyanogen was applied, and hydrogen, the latter
acting as the acidifying principle, whence  the term  Hydro-cyanic
Acid.*  It is thus composed of 44.39 parts of carbon, 51.71 of nitro-
gen,  and 3.90 of hydrogen.  It is  a colourless transparent liquid,
sometimes presenting a yellow tinge, with a bitter and peculiar taste,
and an odour resembling that of bitter almonds. The specific gravity
at 45° is .7058 ; but it cannot be kept for any length of time, as  it
rapidly  undergoes decomposition.   When employed  in medicine,
according to Scheele's preparation,  under the term of Acidum Hy-
dro-cyanicum dilutum, it is of the specific gravity of about 0.996.
   Medical Use, <^c.f  The medicinal acid (according  to Majendie)
contains one  part of the  acid of Gay Lussac, and eight parts  and
a half of water by weight, or one  part of the acid, and six parts of
water in volume.  In  this form it is an invaluable agent as a seda-
 tive  and antispasmodic in  cases of pulmonary  and other inflamma-
 tions, in doses of three  or  four drops  twice  a day ;  it may also be
 be administered  in  cases of spasmodic  cough, and in  dyspeptic
 affections in the same quantity.  As a local remedy, the hydro-cyanic
 acid has been used with success in the cure  of cutaneous  diseases,
 especially those of an impetiginous nature, in  the proportion of 3i
 of the diluted acid to giss of  rose-water.
    Symptoms when taken in excess.   If taken in a considerable quan-
 tity, life is instantly destroyed  by  its overpowering  effect upon the
 nervous system ;  should  less than eight or ten minims be swallowed,
 the primary symptoms are stupor and vertigo, accompanied by nausea
 and fainting ; the vision  is obscured, and slight difficulty of respira-
 tion is experienced.  Secondary—Violent vomiting of a dark-coloured

 decomposed muriatic acid combines with and converts the cyanogen of the
 cyanide  into hydro-cyanic  acid ; it is disengaged in  the gaseous form, and
  condensed in a receiver kept cold by snow or pounded ice, the vapour of the
  acid being transmitted through a  tube containing fragments  of marble and
  well dried chloride of lime, in order to retain the small  portions of muriatic
  acid  and watery vapour that  pass along with it, the marble attracting the
  former  and the chloride the latter.
    In Vauquelin'sS»process, the bi-cyanide of mercury is introduced into a glass
  tube, and exposed to a gentle heat, one  end of which is connected with a
  tubulated retort containing diluted sulphuric acid and sulphuret of iron.  In
  this manner sulphuretted hydrogen is slowly disengaged and brought in con-
  tact with the bi-cyanide ; both these compounds are decomposed, the hydro-
  gen of  the  former combining with the cyanogen of the  latter,  forming
  hydro-cyanic acid, which must be collected in a receiver kept very cold ;  the
  sulphur remains in combination with the mercury.
    * See the Journal of the Royal Institute of France for 1815.
    t The use of this acid in medicine  is ably considered by Dr. Granville in
  a work entitled "An Historical and Practical Treatise on the use of Prussic
  Acid.  London, 1820." 
35
and bloody matter ; dilated pupils ; the  respiration  rendered more
difficult; cold clammy sweats ; small and irregular  pulse ; gradual
prostration of strength ; insensibility ;  death.
   Cause of Death.  This acid exerts its  powerful  and deadly influ-
ence  by its action upon the  nervous system, and when taken in a
large dose, acts too rapidly to permit any effeets to be extended to
the respiratory or circulatory organs.
   Morbid Appearances.  If an examination of the body take place
very  soon after death, a  strong  odour, similar  to that of bitter
almonds, is perceptible, especially  upon opening the cavities ;  but in
other cases there are  no appearances to be recognised  throughout
the course of the intestinal canal, in the lungs,  or the brain,  by
which we  can detect  the action of this  poison.  In a case reported
by Hufeland, the pia-mater and vessels of the brain  were filled with
blood ; the stomach was highly inflamed, and presented gangrenous
spots of the  size of a sixpence ;  the villous coat  separated  on the
slightest pressure of the nails; all the  blood  was collected  in the
veins, whilst the arteries  were empty,  and it was generally of a
black-blue colour, fluid, yet thick like oil, and had a most penetrating
smell of bitter almonds.*  These, however, must not be regarded as
 usual circumstances in cases  of poisoning by prussic acid ; the mani-
 festations  are in general feeble, and not  to be relied upon.
   Remedies.  If the concentrated acid have been swallowed, all at-
 tempts at relief will prove in vain.  In those instances where the weak
 acid, or any of the plants, &c. that contain the principle of this poi-
 son,  have been administered by carelessness or design, the first steps
 must tend to restore the nervous  energy that has  been so severely
 depressed ;  for this purpose  the  liquid ammonia,  camphorated mix-
 ture, oil of turpentine or spirits and water, may be given as each can
 be the  most readily  procured, continuing the  doses until the system
 betray  some  signs of returning vigour. It is questionable  how far
 the  practice of diluting the poison, or exciting vomiting by copious
 draughts  of fluid, is  justifiable ;  the  creation of nausea stimulates
 the  absorbents, and  as it freequently  happens that the  vital power
 is too much subdued  to permit the evacuation of  the contents of the
 stomach,  the  absorption of the  acid is rendered still more  certain.
 Solutions of chalk and magnesia, in as  little water  as possible, have
 been recommended ;  but the operation of stimulants appears to pro-
 mise the  most  reasonable prospects of success in counteracting the
 influence of this deadly sedative poison.

    *  M. Robert, in examining a dog that had been  poisoned by prussic  acid,
  found  that the  brain was healthy in appearance, but exhaled the odour of
  prussic acid.  The tongue was  soft, bluish, and hung out of the mouth ; the
  mucous membrane of the trachea was preternaturally red; the lungs were of
  a bright-red hue, and the heart was filled with very dirty deep-red blood; the
  veins contained thick and dark-coloured blood ; the lungs and heart exhaled
  the odour  of prussic acid. 
36
    Rationale.  It is only necessary, under this head, to observe that
  the solutions of chalk and magnesia are supposed to act in conjunc-
  tion with the prussic acid, in the formation of the  prussiates of lime
  or magnesia, either of which is insoluble and inert.
    Tests.  Difficult as it may be to recognise the effects of this poi-
  son on the system, we are yet  enabled to detect the  most minute
  portion of it by chemical means.   One ten thousandth part of prussic
  acid in water, may be discovered by the  addition of a few drops of
  a solution of the  sulphate of iron, a dark brown  precipitate occur-
  ring ; if a few drops of sulphuric acid be poured on this precipitate, it
  instantly turns to a bluish green, which  gradually deepens to a full
  blue colour.   Lassaigne, however, adopts a still more delicate test,
  capable,  as  he asserts,  of  tracing asiss  Part  of prussic acid in
  Miflter.   Into the liquid  containing the  acid, which he first renders
  slightly alkaline  by the  addition of a small quantity of potass,  he
  introduces a few drops of a solution of the sulpate of copper, and after-
  wards sufficient muriatic acid to re-dissolve the excess of oxide of cop-
  per. A cloud-like appearance is then occasioned, which is more or less
  turbid or milky, according to the  quantity of prussic acid present.
  It has  been  recommended, in  examining  the bodies of those sus-
 pected of being destroyed by prussic acid, to collect the blood  con-
 tained in  the ventricles of the heart, a portion of the contents of the
 stomach and of the duodenum, together with any fluid that may be
 found in the head, chest, or abdomen, agitating them for some time in
 distilled water, and  then filtering the fluid before  it is submitted to
 the above tests.*
    A white precipitate  will be afforded from the nitrates of silver and
 mercury, if a small portion of the contents of the stomach contain-
 ing prussic acid be mixed with them ; but these tests are too uncer-
 tain in their operation  to be relied upon, and especially when we can
 command superior agents in the detection of the poison.
   It  is necessary to observe,  with reference to prussic acid, that con.
 siderable stress has lately been laid on a preparation of chlorine  as
 an antidote, and it has repeatedly been asserted, that Monsieur Cha-
 bert, usually  denominated the Fire King, employs  that preparation
 in  his experiments upon dogs, and after self-administration of the
 poison.   Whatever the remedy used by Monsieur Chabert may be,

  * Lassaigne  injected into the  oesophagus  of a cat twelve drops of pure
 hydrocyanic acid, diluted  with sixty drops of distilled water; the animal im-
 mediately appeared  weak, the respiration became  slow,  there were slight
 convulsions of the limbs, and it died one minute after the injection of the poison.
 At the moment of its death, a vapour came from the throat, smelling strongly
 of prussic acid ; and a paper moistened with alkali, when held to it, was after-
 wards rendered blue by persulpate  of iron.  The stomach was  cut into pieces
 under water, and both the stomach and water were put into a retort, and sub-
jected to heat; when about one-eighth of the liquid was distilled, it was sub-
mined to  chemical examination, and by using the copper test described in the
text, prussic acid was readily detected.—London Lancet, Aug. 16th, 1828. 
37
 it is certainly  efficacious, as  many animals to whom he has  given
 the acid, have speedily recovered from its  effects under his care.
 M. Labarraque has of late years prepared a solution of the chloride
 of sodium,  which has met with a ready sale both in Europe and this
 country as  an antiseptic and disinfector.   In the event of poisoning
 by prussic acid, this solution may be tried in repeated doses, and its
 qualities as an antidote fairly proved.


                        PHOSPHORUS.

   Some doubt is entertained how far this inflammable substance can
 be considered a poison.  Administered as a medicinal agent, we are
 aware that  it possesses extraordinary stimulant powers, and it has in
 consequence been presumed more from analogy, perhaps, than expe-
 riment, that an overdose would be  attended with a fatal result; but
 from the exhibitions of Monsieur Chabert and others, it would appear
 that the system will permit the introduction of a veiy considerable
 quantity without  injurious  excitement,  and consequently that our
 fears,  in the employment of phosphorus as a stimulant,  have been
 greatly magnified.
   It is, however, not improbable that in some  habits the administra-
 tion of this  substance might  produce  some of the effects attributed
 to it, and which have been described as violent pains in the stomach
 and bowels, with a hot and alliaceous taste in the mouth, great ex-
 citement of the arterial system, and convulsions.
   Under such circumstances, it would be proper to dilute the stomach
 with fluid in order to induce vomiting ; and if a magnesian solution
 were employed, it might tend to neutralize the phosphorus and phos-
 phoric acid, which would be rapidly formed in the stomach by oxy-
 genation.
   If death occur from an overdose of this substance, we  shall in all
 probability discover an inflammatory appearance of the stomach and
 intestines, with sphacelated spots in  various parts.
   The only  tests that we can propose for the detection of phosphorus,
 are the peculiar  alliaceous  smell  of the contents of the stomach
evacuated before or collected after death, and the inflammable nature
of any particles of  the substance that may be discovered.
                   THE STOMACH  PUMP.


   For the purpose of avoiding repetition in an elementary work, all
allusion to this invaluable instrument in the treatment  of cases of
poisoning, has  been hitherto refrained  from ; its  use is,  however,
applicable to  each instance, whether of a mineral or alkaline salt, of 
38
mineral or vegetable acid ; nor is it less valuable in those examples
where poisonous plants or animal  substances  have been swallowed,
or, in fact, whenever the  system is suffering from the  presence of
deleterious matter in the stomach.   There are four indications to be
answered in the employment of this instrument:  1st.  The  evacua-
tion of the contents of the stomach, either  by the passage  of an
emetic, or such a quantity of liquid as will ensure vomiting :  2d. The
dilution of poisonous fluids to such an extent as to  render them com-
paratively harmless : 3d. The introduction of  antidotes that shall
neutralize the poison : and 4th. The administration of cordials  and
stimulants, particularly in cases where narcotic poisons have been
swallowed, when the stomach is in a state of torpor, and  with difficulty
acted upon by the most potent  emetics.
  It may  always be advisable in those instances where excessive
vomiting has not already taken place, to  arouse  the  stomach  into
vigorous action by such emetics as are directed under the appropri-
ate heads, and to continue their effects until the evacuated  contents
present no suspicious appearances ; where the sufferer has been much
weakened by the sickness  induced by the poison, such  means should
be adopted as will tend to the decomposition of the remaining por-
tion ; and in those cases, where  from convulsions it is impossible to
pass the tube into the stomach by the mouth, it  may be safely intro-
duced into the oesophagus through the nostril.
  Perhaps in no instance is the use of the stomach pump so clearly
recognised as when opium or other narcotic poisons have been swal-
lowed ; all fluid preparations may be immediately diluted, and their
effects greatly checked, even should the stomach refuse to part with
ks  contents ; and  the nervous energy re-animated  by stimulants,
 until the torpor of the system  be  relieved.
   The admirable effects of the stomach pump therefore must recom-
 mend it to general  adoption:  since its invention many individuals
 have been rescued from the guilt of suicide and the base attempts of
 others, and  by a process so easy  of execution,  and so expeditious in
 its usefulness,  as to bring it within the  ability of every intelligent
 individual, and almost at a moment's warning. 
311
VEGETABLE   POISONS.
                            OPIUM ;

  The concreted  milky juice of the capsule of the white  poppy
(Papaverum somniferum,) an annual plant of the class Polyandria, and
order Monogynia, which attains  the highest perfection in Turkey
and the southern parts of Europe, although a large supply of inferior
quality is annually obtained from the East Indies.
  The Turkey opium is procured in the form of flat pieces of a solid
compact texture,  plastic, and of a  reddish-brown colour, having a
nauseous and bitter taste, and a peculiar heavy and narcotic  odour.
   Chem. Composition.  Resin, gum, bitter  extractive matter, sulphate
of lime, gluten, narcotine,*  and  a peculiar  alkaline principle, to which
the soporific virtues of opium are owing, termed Morphia.  It more-
over appears, that this new alkaline body exists in combination with
an  unknown  acid, which  has  been denominated  the  Meconic
Acid ; so that  the narcotic principle of  opium is morphia, in  the
state  of a  meconiate, or perhaps of a super-meconiate.  (Paris.)
Opium is partially soluble in  water, alcohol, aether, wine, vinegar,
 and lemon-juice ; when triturated with hot water, five parts in twelve
 are dissolved, six suspended, and one part remains perfectly insolu-
 ble, and resembles  gluten.   For medical  purposes, spirit, rather be-
 low proof, is its best menstruum.  Specific  gravity of the drug, 1.336.
   Medical Use, <SfC.   When administered  in small  quantities,  its
 operation is stimulant; but in its usual  doses,  from gr. i to grs. hi,
 it becomes sedative and narcotic.  In all cases  of pain  and  restless-
 ness, where acute inflammation does not  prevail, the use of  opium is
 admissible,  and  in diarrhcea,  dysentery, or cholera, and all convul-
 sive and spasmodic diseases nearly indispensable.  The most usual
 preparation of the drug,  is its spirituous tincture  or laudanum ; a
 watery  infusion, made by pouring  boiling water upon powdered
 opium, is also  frequently  employed, and with this advantage, that it
 does not create  that peculiar  nausea and distress resulting  from the
 use of  opium in  substance or laudanum.  The celebrated black drop,

   * Derosne first obtained a crystalline substance from opium in 1803, which
 was carefully analyzed  by Robiquet in 1818, who pointed  out the error of
 considering it as one of the salts of morphia. Narcotine is, in fact, an azotized
 substance, crystallizing in pearly  prisms or tables ; soluble in fixed oil,  and
 still more so in sether and the acids; insoluble in water, and but slightly solu-
 ble in alcohol; destitute of action on the vegetable colours, and incapable of
  neutralizing acids. 
40
   or the Lancaster or Quaker's black drop,* is sometimes  preferred to
   all other preparations, as operating with more certainty in procuring
   sleep without any unpleasant after-effects.
     The  sulphate  and  acetate  of morphia  have  of  late  years
   heen extensively  employed, particularly  in the French hospitals ;
   when properly prepared, they exert  an active influence in allaying
   pain  and irritation, and are never followed by sickness  and stupor.
   Their proportion,  in respect to crude  opium, is a quarter of a grain
   for a grain.   As a local application, the watery infusion  of opium is
   sometimes recommended as an injection in gonorrhoea and spasmo-
   dic stricture, as an adjunct to clysters in diarrhoea, and mixed with
   oil for friction to the spine in tetanus.
    Symptoms when taken in excess.   When a very considerable quan-
  tity of opium, or any of  its preparations, have been swallowed, the
  primary symptoms are scarcely  discernible, so instantly depressed
  are the powers of life ;  the sufferer is overcome with drowsiness and
  stupor, from which the most violent stimulants fail in arousing him ;
  low muttering delirium and stertorous  breathing succeed  ; and cold
  sweats and  convulsions  announce  the approach  of  an  apoplectic
  death.   Where the dose has not been so great, the symptoms are, of
  course, of a milder character;  the countenance is pale and  con-
  tracted ; the pulse  feeble  and irregular ; a stupor prevails, in which
  the frequent sighing of the patient is remarkable, and appearances
 gradually become more alarming, if remedies be not promptly admi-
 nistered.
   Cause of Death.  The exact mode by which opium exerts its fatal
 influence on the system, is  still a  matter of dispute.   It probably
 acts in  two ways; through the medium of the nerves by rapidly
 diminishing the sensorial energy, or  by  absorption through the  me-
 dium of the circulation; in the first instance, it would destroy by
 suffocation, from a paralysis of the respiratory  muscles ; in the
 second,  by inducing  apoplexy when determined to the  brain, or
 paralysis and syncope when extended to the  heart.
   Morbid Appearances.  The pathological evidence of poisoning by
 opium is exceedingly weak ; in numerous instances not the slightest
 lesion can be detected  in the viscera of the thorax or abdomen ; and
 in others, when the poison  has entered the circulation by absorption,
 having failed of its direct effect upon the nervous energy, the slight
 inflammation observed of the stomach and intestines, supplies us with

  * The black drop is  thus prepared : " Take half a pound of opium sliced,
three pints of verjuice (or juice of the wild crab,) one and half ounce of nut
megs, and half an ounce of saffron; boil them to  a proper thickness • then
add a quarter of a pound of sugar and two spoonsful of yeast: set the 'whole
in a warm place near a fire  for six or eight weeks;  then place it in the open
air until it becomes a syrup ; lastly, decant, filter,  and bottle it up addine
a little sugar to each bottle.  An acetate of morphia is thus formed  one drop
of which is equal to three drops of the common tincture of opium." 
41
 but slender testimony in accounting for death.   The brain will some-
 times present a blush of inflammation on the arachnoid membrane,
 and there may be more bloody spots distributed through its substance
 than usual, or a slight effusion into the lateral  ventricles;  but, in the
 majority of  cases,  even this  organ is  free  from  any morbid ap-
 pearances.
    Remedies.   Administer,  instantly, a powerful  emetic,  consist-
 ing of  20 grains of the  sulphate  of zinc,  or 6 grains of the
 sulphate of  copper,  dissolved in an  ounce of  water;  the fauces
 should also  be irritated, and  the  stomach  afterwards excited to
 vomiting by copious  and repeated  draughts  of warm  water.  In
 those cases, where excessive stupor prevails, and the stomach  obsti-
 nately resists the action of the most potent emetic, from  the depres-
 sion into which the whole system is thrown, the  use of the stomach
 pump affords the only chance  for the preservation of life.  When,
 by any  means, the stomach has  been evacuated  of its contents,
 water, acidulated with  vinegar or lemon-juice, may be supplied,
 and strong coffee, or  a solution of  the carbonate  of ammonia,  as
 stimulants.   The most active measures  must likewise be adopted to
 arouse the  sufferer into consciousness ;  such as walking him up and
 down the apartment; the application of mustard plasters, or the oil
 of turpentine, to the surface as irritants ;  the  use of the tepid bath,
 and continued friction ; to all of which some practitioners have added
 severe flagellation.
   Rationale.   The exhibition  of the acids, when the stomach has
 been cleansed, tends to lessen or remove the stupor occasioned by the
 opium ;  but, if administered previously, they are improper, as favour-
 ing its rapid solution, and, consequently,  its readier absorption.
   Tests.   Liquid ammonia is,  perhaps,  the only test that can be
 relied upon in  the  detection of opium ;  upon  adding  it to any fluid
 containing this drug, or its preparations, a small precipitate is thrown
 down, consisting of morphia or the active principle of opium ; should
 the poison have  been administered in porter or beer, this precipitate
 will be accompanied  by a greyish-brown powder of considerable
 bulk, insoluble  in water  and alcohol,  but  readily soluble in nitric
 acid, and which  is probably  some form  of Hordein ;* this may be
 separated from the alkaline principle of the opium by boiling alcohol,
 and upon evaporation of such alcoholic solution to dryness, a minute
 pellicle of morphia will be the residue, which, if touched with a drop
 of nitric acid of the specific gravity of 1.3, will assume the charac

  * Hordein  is a principle existing in barley, and is obtained from its flour, by
treating it first with cold and then with boiling water. The former abstracts
all the mucilaginous matter ; the latter dissolves the starch,  and leaves the
hordein.  It is insipid, insoluble, and of a yellowish colour.  Nitric acid con-
verts it into oxalic and acetic acids ; and during the process of melting, it is
in a groat mcasuro decomposed, being converted into starch and sugar.
                                6 
42
teristic blood-red tint, and acquire the peculiarly bitter taste of mor-
phia.  (Ure.)
  The most convincing test, perhaps, of the presence of opium, is
the strong narcotic odour of the stomach, if an early examination of
the body be procured.

                NIGHTSHADE,  OR DWALE.

    (Atropa Belladonna, or the Belladonna Folice of Medicine.)

  A perennial plant of the class Pentandria, and order Monogynia,
every part of which is an acrid-narcotic poison, the leaves, however,
being the most powerful.  The berries are large, round, and of a deep
purple colour, and the flower small, and likewise of a purple hue.
  Chem. Composition.   The leaves in particular contain a substance
analogous to albumen, salts with a base of potass, and a bitter prin-
ciple on which its narcotic properties depend. Vauquelin likewise dis-
covered  the presence  of an  alkaline element in the leaves of this
plant, which has been  termed Atrophia,  and in which its essential
qualities reside.  From this element a sulphate is prepared,  which
crystallizes very beautifully.  Water is the most powerful solvent of
the active matter of this plant; and its infusion, as well as its watery
extract, are accordingly employed in medicine.   The leaves and
berries  have a nauseous,  sweet,  and slightly  acid taste,  and  are
inodorous.
  Medical Use, Spc.  Sedative, narcotic, and diaphoretic in operation,
and occasionally employed in the treatment of obstinate intermittents,
tic-doloureux, palsy, epilepsy, pertussis, and amaurosis, in doses  of
half a grain gradually increased to three grains of the powdered
leaves; to 3ij of the infusion prepared from 3j of the leaves  to gx of
hot water.  Of the extract, half a grain increased to five grains may
be given in similar cases.  Externally, the  powder  of the leaves is
sometimes sprinkled over cancerous sores, or applied as a poultice 5
and the extract is smeared over  the eyebrow in cases  of neuralgia,
or in iritis,  and previously to an operation for cataract, for  the pur-
pose of dilating the pupil.
  Symptoms when  taken  in excess.   Primary—A sense of dryness
and difficulty of dilating the  oesophagus in  the act of swallowing ;
sickness and vertigo ; violent  headache, especially over the orbits ;
and a redness of the eyes, with dilatation of the pupils.  Secondary—
Each particular circumstance increased;  violent pain and heat in
the throat;  delirium and convulsions, and,  in some cases, an intense
uniform redness over the whole surface ;  to these symptoms may be
added a very painful irritation of the urinary passages, especially of
the neck of the bladder, with a constant  but fruitless desire of mic-
turition ; coma  at length supervenes, under which the sufferer  sinks. 
43
  Cause of Death.   This poison may be said to have a threefold
action ;  it is evidently absorbed and carried into the circulation from
the effects produced upon the sensorium ; is capable of exerting some
slight local  action  on  the  bowels, and is likewise determined to the
nervous system, as proved by its influence upon the pupils of the eyes.
  Morbid Appearances.  The  body is usually swelled,  and rapid
putrefaction follows death ; the vessels of the brain are turgid with
blood, and the  membranes  highly vascular ;  the stomach and intes-
tines present some slight appearances of inflammation, and the fauces
and oesophagus are intensely red, and sometimes thickened.
   Remedies.  Administer the powerful emetics recommended under
the head of opium, although the stomach is so early and so  severely
affected by this narcotic as to render thorn useless, when the stomach
pump presents the only means of treatment.   Large doses of vine-
gar and water, lemon-juice, or other vegetable acid, may be given;
and in  those cases where the system  is but  partially subdued,  the
emetics, that were previously inert, will  act vigorously after their
 administration.  The patient may  be exposed to the shock of a
 shower-bath, or cold water may be plentifully poured over him ;  the
 abdomen should be fomented, and  the bowels stimulated by active
 cathartics and enemata ; and, after vomiting  has been freely excited,
 venesection may be practised, and leeches  applied to the  hypogas-
 trium.   It would be unwise to abstract blood so long as the stomach
 refused to part with its contents, as absorption would thereby be ren-
 dered more certain.
    The Rationale of this treatment  is the  same as that described in
 cases of poisoning from opium.

                         NUX  VOMICA.

    The seed of the Strychnus Nux Vomica, a tree of the class Pen-
  tandria, and  order Monogynia, is an acrid-narcotic poison of the
  utmost virulence.   The whole tribe of plants, to which this variety
  belongs, including the Upas of Java, St.  Ignatius' Beans (Faba
  Sancti Ignatii,)  and the Snake-wood (Strychnos Colubrinum,) possess
  the active principle so remarkable in Nux Vomica.
     Chem. Composition, Character, <$fc.  The seed of the fruit or the
  berry of this tree, is flat, round, about an inch  broad, and nearly a
  quarter of an inch thick,  with a prominence in the middle on both
  sides, of a grey colour, covered with a woolly substance. Internally,
  it is hard and very tough.   Its essential constituents are gum, bitter
  principle,  resin, and a peculiar alkaline substance, discovered by Pel-
  letier, to which the name of Strichnine has been applied ; a second
  alkaline principle was also detected, termed Brucine, which had been
  previously found in the  spurious  Angustura bark.  The readiest
  mode of preparing strychnine, is by boiling Nux Vomica in water, 
44
 and  evaporating  the  decoction until  it  acquires  the  consistence
 of syrup ;  lime  is  then added, which unites with the acid, and
 liberates  the  strichnine, which may  be separated by means  of
 alcohol, and obtained therefrom by crystallization.   (Paris.)  The
 mode by which the principle was  obtained by  Pelletier, differed
 in the use of the sub-acetate of lead  instead of the  lime, and  being
 somewhat more complicated in the process.   Strichnine thus formed,
 consists of  very small  four-sided prisms, terminated  by four-sided
 pyramids ; its taste is extremely bitter, with a slight metallic flavour,
 and is inodorous.  It is  readily soluble in alcohol, but requires  6667
 parts of water at 50° and  2500 at  212° to  dissolve it.   Majendie
 states that \ of a grain is sufficient to kill a large dog, and that \ of
 a grain has a very sensible effect upon a healthy man.
   Medical  Use, Sfc.  The Strichnine has been chiefly employed in
 Germany, in the treatment of cases  of mania, epilepsy, paraplegia,
 scrophula, prepared in pills (dose TV of a grain) in alcoholic tincture,
 (formed by  adding three grains of Strichnine to an ounce of alcohol,
 of which, from 6 to 15  drops  may  be given) or in  mixture, (made
 by the addition of two grains to six ounces of fluid, taking one drachm
 night and morning.)
   Symptoms when taken in excess, either of the Nux Vomica or Strich-
 nine.   Primary—Dizziness and stupor ; wandering of the intellect;
 and  a violent twitching of the muscles of the extremities. Secondary—
 Continued spasms of the extremities, which  arc  soon extended to
 the muscles of the chest, occasioning hurried  and laborious respira-
 tion; trismus or locked  jaw ensues, with a  rigidity of the limbs,
 ushering in  the approach of confirmed tetanus, ending in asphyxia
 and  death.
   Cause of Death.  This poison exerts its influence upon the spinal
 marrow without any direct interference with the functions of the brain
 occasioning dissolution by as well-marked a tetanus as in a traumatic
 case.
   Morbid Appearances cannot be detected  in  the stomach  or intes-
 tines, and the lungs and the  brain are perfectly unaltered ; in some
 cases, the left ventricle of the heart has been found gorged with blood,
 but even this is an unusual circumstance, and it may be said that no
 light is thrown  upon an  instance of poisoning by this substance,  in
 pathological  examination.   In  common, with  cases  of traumatic"
 tetanus,  the medulla spinalis presents no  traces of extraordinary
 action, nor indeed any morbid indications.
  Remedies.   All that can be done  after an  evacuation of the con-
 tents of the  stomach by emetics or the stomach-pump, is to adminis-
 ter strong acidulous drinks.  When the tetanic symptoms are fairly
 set in, they  may be treated as in a case of tetanus, by calomel and
opium in addition to the  other measures required in such disease  ; but
the records of medicine unhappily supply but few instances of success- 
45
ful practice.   The rationale for this limited treatment is sufficiently
plain.   There are no Tests by which the presence of this poison can
be ascertained.

                DIGITALIS, OR FOX-GLOVE.

   The name applied to the leaves of the Digitalis Purpurea, a biennial
plant of the class Didynamia,  and order Angiosperma.  The peculiar
properties of this plant reside  principally in the leaves, which are of
a  lively green  colour ;  the  flowers are long  and pendant, and of
a  beautiful reddish-purple hue.
   Chem. Comp. Character, Sfc.  The constituent parts of the leaves
of Digitalis may be said to consist of extractive  matter,  a green resin,
and a peculiar active principle, termed digitaline, discovered by M.
Leroyer, by digesting the plant in sether, and adding to the solution
the hydrated oxide of lead ; this precipitates the alkaline base, which
crystallizes after very careful evaporation.    The  qualities of the
leaves are readily parted with, both to water and alcohol;  they have
a  bitter, nauseous, and slightly acrimonious taste, and yield  rather a
heavy and acrid-narcotic odour.
   Medical Use, <SfC.  In operation, sedative, diuretic, and narcotic,
and of the utmost value in many inflammatory  diseases ; in dropsies,
unattended by visceral disorder, and in  those cases where excessive
action of the heart prevails.   It may be administered  in  substance,
(or.  j in pill,  twice a day) in tincture,  (ten minims) or in infusion,
made by macerating3j of the leaves in half a pint of  boiling  water
for four hours, (3i every eight or twelve hours.)  These doses may
respectively be increased, at the rate of one fourth every second day,
until the effects become apparent, either in  the increased secretion
of urine or the production of slight nausea, when its use  must be
more cautiously regulated.  The  employment  of digitalis is incom-
patible with the sulphate of iron, the acetate of  lead, and the infusion
of yellow cinchona bark.
   Symptoms when taken in excess.  Primary—-Extreme nausea; ver-
tio-o ; and indistinct vision ;   tremors ; chilliness ; and stupor.   Se-
condary—Violent sickness ; continued hiccough  ; cold sweats, accom-
panied by excessive debility ; syncope ; delirium; convulsions ; death.
   Cause of Death.  Digitalis acts as a powerful and direct sedative,
diminishing the arterial action, and thereby operating through the
medium of the circulation upon the heart and lungs.
   Morbid Appearances.   The stomach  and intestines are seldom
observed in a  state of extraordinary vascularity, proving the  slight
local action of this poison. It  has been observed, that the blood found
in the ventricles of the heart  is generally in a fluid state,  and the
luno-s more than usually crepitant; but in common with other cases
of poisoning by vegetable substances, the appearances are deceptive,
and not  entitled to great attention. 
46
   Remedies.  Every effort should be made to arouse the vital energy,
 and for this purpose, spirits  and water, the aromatic confection, the
 liquid ammonia, strong coffee, &c. may be freely supplied, applying
 at the  same time a blister to  the pit of the  stomach, and mustard
 cataplasms to the soles of the feet.   The use of opium, in moderate
 doses,  has likewise been recommended.
   Rationale.  It is sufficiently evident that the cordial plan of treat-
 ment tends to  counteract the debilitating nature of the poison, and to
 restore a tone to the languid circulation.   If opium be of any service,
 it is probably  in small doses, when it will act as a stimulus ; but great
 care is necessary in its employment, or it may increase rather  than
 arrest  the evil.  There  are no  Tests by which the presence  of
 digitalis can be ascertained.

                         TOBACCO.

                     (Nicotiana Tabacum.)

  An annual plant of the class  Pentandria,  and  order Monogynia
 the  leaves of which, although  possessing poisonous qualities  ex-
 tracted  by infusion, or by distillation when a  powerful essential  oil is
 procured, are  freely made use of nearly in every  country, by taking
 snuff, and chewing or smoking the leaves.
  Chem.  Comp. $c.  This  consists of mucilage, albumen,  gluten
 extractive matter, a bitter principle, an essential oil, nitrate of potass'
 which  occasions its  deflagration, muriate of potass,  and a peculiar
 proximate principle, upon which its properties  are supposed to depend
 termed Nicotin, which Vauquelin considers as approaching the  volatile
 oils in its properties ;  it is colourless, has an acrid taste, the peculiar
 smell of tobacco, and occasions violent sneezing;  with alcohol and
 water,  it produces colourless solutions,  from which it is thrown down
 by tincture of galls.   (Paris.)   Tobacco is soluble both in water and
 spirits, but particularly in the latter ; an oil of a most powerful na
 ture may be  procured by distilling the infusion of the leaves and
 separating it from the water on which it will float.   The leaves  have
 an acrid and bitter taste, and a strong and narcotic odour.
  Medical Use, &c.   Powerfully sedative in  operation;  emetic and
 subsequently cathartic, and diuretic.  It is, however, buTseldom
employed from its uncertain and violent  effects, except when  itTs
 desirable to relax the system suddenly, for the purposeP 0^1*
 a strangulated hernia, or returning  a dislocated bone, when anTnfif
sion of the leaves (in proportion of 3i to a pint of boiling water) mav be

 2vedt n°  hf ^V Tobaccoh^notwithstandTng!beTn^m
ployed as an external application by some practitioners, iA the  form
fn th^  fmt° the,?lt °f the St0mach ^ inflammatory aVackZ
 m that of mfuston m tinea capitis and cutaneous disease i; butt* ad 
47
ministration, cither externally or internally, is nearly always followed
by alarming symptoms of prostration.
  Symptoms when taken in excess.  Primary—Nausea ; severe vomit-
ing and headache. Secondary—The whole appearance of the sufferer
resembles that of a man violently affected by spirituous liquors;  the
nervous  and muscular energy  become more  depressed;  cold and
clammy sweats ensue ;  and convulsions precede dissolution.
  Cause of Death.  The oil of tobacco differs essentially in its physio-
logical action from the infusion, the former affecting the brain only,
and the latter when taken into the stomach, and received through that
medium into  the  circulation, suspending the action of the heart,  and
causing death from syncope. (Brodie.)
  Morbid Appearances.  In general, these  are  very obscure;  the
stomach and intestines appear but slightly or not at all affected ; nor
does the brain present any signs of  vascularity.   In some instances
the lungs are found gorged with blood.
  Remedies.  Administer promptly two or three grains of tartar emetic,
assisting  its operation  by repeated draughts of warm water;  if
some time have elapsed since the tobacco have been swallowed, a brisk
cathartic may be preferred, and perhaps the croton oil, from its rapid
action, is the best; lemon-juice or vinegar and water should afterwards
be supplied,  and if the sedative effects continue, spirits and water, the
 camphorated mixture, or the solution of the carbonate of ammonia.
   The Rationale of this treatment,  after the tobacco has been ex-
 pelled from the stomach,  is in  meeting its narcotic  effects by the
 vegetable acids, and in directly opposing its sedative qualities by the
 administration of cordials.

                           HENBANE.

                          (Hyoscyamus.)

   A biennial plant of the class  Pentandria, and order Monogynia, the
 leaves and seeds of which are used  in medicine.
   Chem. Composition,  Sfc. Resin, mucilage, extractive matter, gallic
 acid,  some  salts, and  an alkaline element, termed  Hyoscyama, in
 which the virtues of the plant principally reside.  Solubility—Water
 readily extracts the narcotic properties of this plant by infusion, but
 totally dissipates them by decoction.   Alcohol, however, is the rea-
 diest  solvent.    When freshly  gathered,  the  flowers and  leaves of
 henbane have a strong and foetid odour, and an insipid and  glutinous-
 taste ; the qualities are greatly lost by exposure to the air.
   Medical Use, Sec.  Narcotic and antispasmodic, when  internally
 employed, in the treatment of epilepsy, hysteria, palsy, and schirrhus—
 of the powder of leaves, from three  to ten grains may be given ; but
 the usual form of its  administration,  is the extract or inspissated 
48
 juice, of which five grains, gradually increased to one scruple, may
 be administered.   Externally, the powder of the  leaves  are some-
 times sprinkled on cancerous sores, or a cataplasm is prepared from
 the recent leaves themselves, in order to allay pain.   The principal
 design in the medical use of this plant or its  extract, is to afford a
 powerful narcotic when  the employment  of opium  is  prohibited ;
 and it has this  advantage over the drug—that it usually relaxes the
 bowels.  The  use of henbane  is incompatible with the  administra-
 tion of the acetate of lead ; the nitrate of silver, the sulphate of iron,
 and the vegetable acids likewise, have  some effect in weakening
 its qualities.
   Symptoms when taken in excess. Primary—Extreme sickness; las-
situde, and  stupor;  dimness of sight, and a  hard and quick pulse.
Secondary—Dilatation  of the  pupils;  the  pulse  loses its  previous
character, and  becomes weak  and irregular; delirium  sets in, fol-
lowed by coma, and in  many cases petechia; appear  before death.*
                           HEMLOCK.

                       (Cicuta vel Conium.)

    An annual  plant of the class Pentandria, and order Dygynia; of
  which the leaves and seeds are employed in medicine.
    Chem. Composition, <Sfc.   Gum, mucilage, a bitter principle, and a
  resinous element, in which the virtues of the plant consist,  termed
  Conein ; this may be obtained by the evaporation of an etherial tinc-
 ture made with the leaves ; it has a rich dark colour, and imparts the
 peculiar taste  and smell of hemlock.   A  dose of half a grain will
 occasion vertigo.  The qualities of hemlock are readily  extracted by
 alcohol and aether ;  but its watery extract possesses but little activity.
   Medical Use fc   Narcotic, sedative, and antispasmodic in opera-
 tion ; administered internally incases of pulmonary irritation, and as
 a palliative  in cancerous  and scrophulous  sores, in  doses of the
 powder of the leaves, (which should be of a lively green colour ) three
 grains gradually increased to  one scruple.  The extract orinsni,
 sated juice is, however,  usually prescribed, grv   to 9i Zee"
 or thrice a day, continuing its use until a  slight nausea and Z7
 dmess is  produced,   together  with a  relaxation  oT the  Wis
 Externally  the leaves are used in the form of cataplasm or  fomen
   ZZ U'rit\We Ul?GrS' and With  c°™derable advantage
  Symptoms when taken  in excess.   Primary—Nausea •  vinl*»f •  i
ness; difficulty of respiration; and exceS an^ty.* ' sTcoTd^-


tho^otaToned^anrrequTed t^LToT' ^ "T^' *"* simil" to
colchium, and savine, ^l^S^^ 
49
  Vertigo ; delirium ; sometimes great dilatation of the pupils ; stupor ;
  convulsions and death.

                          HELLEBORE.

    There arc  two species of Hellebore employed in medicine ; the
  root of the White Hellebore (Veratri AHA Radix,) and  that  of the
  Black Hellebore (Hellebori Nigri Radix;) each of which we shall
  consider;  and first  of the White Hellebore.   This is a shrub  of the
  class Polygamia, and order Monoecia, the properties of which  reside
  in the root.   It is of a greyish-brown colour  when powdered ;  has
  a  bitter and acrid taste, and a strong and offensive odour.
    Chem.  Composition, <Sfc  It consists of wax, fecula, a  bitter prin-
  ciple,  and a peculiar alkaline element,  termed, by its  discoverers,
  IYUetier and  Caventou, Veratrinc, and which is met with in all  the
  plants of the veratrum tribe.  This peculiar substance is, at first, of
  a yellowish colour ; but, by repeated solutions in  alcohol, and pre-
  cipitating it afterwards by  the addition of water, it is obtained as a
  white  crystalline  powder, of an  acrid taste, and inodorous.   It
  is  very slightly soluble in cold water.   Boiling water dissolves T^
  part of  its weight, acquiring a  sensible sharpness.  By several
  experiments made  on animals with this substance,  it appears that
 unless it be administered in very large  doses, or applied to  parts
  where  it would be readily absorbed, its effects are local, occasioning
  violent irritation and subsequent inflammation.  The mucous mem-
 brane of the stomach  and intestines, in every case displayed the
 active nature of the irritant.  When  administered in a considerable
 quantity, the respiration was greatly accelerated, and tetanic symp-
 toms quickly supervened.
   Medical Use, c^-c.   The root of this plant is extremely  violent in
 its  effects on the animal economy ; it was well known to the ancients,
 but never resorted  to  unless in a case where a violent emetic and
 cathartic were necessary, and when other remedies had failed in pro-
 ducing  any effect.  It is now scarcely ever employed, except in cases
 of  mania, when it is desirable to occasion a sudden and violent deter-
 mination to the stomach and bowels ; with this object in  view, two
 grains may be  administered.   As an errhine, which is its most  ordi-
 nary use, from three to five  grains  may  be mixed  up with twelve
 times its weight of starch,  and a pinch taken for several  successive
 evenings;  great caution is, however, required in such a use of the
 powdered hellebore,  as  fatal haemorrhages from the nose, and  from
 tho uterus of pregnant women, have sometimes followed its exhibition.
 An  ointment is  occasionally prepared, by mixing two ounces of the
powder  with eight ounces of lard, or an infusion of the root employed,
in the cure of scabies and herpetic eruptions.   M. Majcndie reports
a ease in which he administered the very  considerable dose of two
                                7 
50
 grains of veratrine in the course of twenty-four hours to an old man
 labouring under apoplexy ; under the depressed state of the nervous
 system, this quantity did not  occasion  very considerable purging,
 although, in other instances, a quarter of a grain produced  violent
 catharsis.   Upon a review of  the reports furnished by M.  Majendie,
 relative to the use of veratrine, it appears that it may be advanta-
 geously employed, in carefully regulated doses, in relieving old people
 from the costiveness  that so frequently prevails ;  it may be adminis-
 tered in pills, making half a grain suffice for six,  and of which three
 may be given in the  day ; in tincture, formed by the addition  of four
 grains of veratrine  to an ounce of alcohol, taking from 10  to 25
 drops in a draught of any bland fluid,  or  in a solution of one grain
 to two ounces of distilled water.   An ointment prepared  by the addi-
 tion of four grains to an ounce of lard, may be applied in cases of
 chronic rheumatism, gout, and anasacca.
  Symptoms when the root of the White  Hellebore is taken in excess
 Primary—Vomiting, and excessive and  bloody dejections;  great
 anxiety ; tremors ; vertigo ; and a low and  feeble pulse. Secondary—
 Cold and clammy perspiration ; acute pain in the abdomen ; the vomit-
 mg and purging increased ; syncope ; convulsions ; death.
   I he effects of veratrine, in an over dose, merely differ from these
 symptoms in their greater severity.

                 THE  BLACK  HELLEBORE.

                        (Mclampodium.)

  This is a shrub of  the  class Polyandria, and order Polygnia  the
 fibres of the roots of which are  employed  in medicine ;  these' are
 about the thickness  of a straw, of a black colour externally  but
 white or yellowish within.
  Chem  Comp.  <Src.   A  volatile oil, fatty  matter, resin, wax, a vola-
 de acid, a bitter principle, mucus, alumina,  gallate of potass, acidu-
lous gallate of lime, and  a salt with  an ammoniacal base.  Its active
principle, unlike that of the white hellebore, is not an alkali. (Paris )

to thflatter ItS qUaHti°S  b°th t0 Water and alcohol> but  particularly
  Me.Ucal Use, «frc.  This is one of the oldest roots known in medi-
cine, and ,s frequently alluded to  by the ancient writers as a valua-
 ble  remedy in mama.  At present, it is  very seldom employed -its
action, when administered of from gr. x to 9i, is .sironglyVthar'tic
when employed in the quantity of two or three grains twice or thrice
a day  it has been considered  as  an active  emmenagogue and 1 as
 accordingly  beeng,ven m suppression of the  catamcn£.&Tl e'off,'ia
 preparations are a tincture  of the  root (dose, gss to 3i  and an
 extract, the evaporated decoction, (dose, gr. x  o 9i )     ° 
51
  Symptoms when taken in excess.   Primary—Nausea and vomiting ;
severe pain in the  stomach and bowels ; vertigo.   Secondary—The
vomiting  increased tb an excessive  degree ; so much  so, indeed, as
generally to insure an evacuation of the  poison ;  where this is not
the case,  extreme debility and prostration of strength ensue ;  deli-
rium sets in, and death shortly succeeds.


                         COLCHICUM.

            Meadow  Saffron.  (Colchicum Autumnale.)

  A perennial plant  of the  class Hexandria, and order Trigynia,
bulbous, and bearing  a rich purple flower; the essential qualities re-
siding in the bulb and  seeds, particularly in the  first;  an  acrid-
narcotic poison.
   Chem. Composition <$rc. Gum, starch, inulin,* extractive matter, an
essential oil, and a milky juice containing an alkaline element similar
to  that  of the  hellebore, in  which  the  active  properties of  the
plant consist. It is readily soluble in wine or vinegar ;  but water fails
in .extracting its qualities.   Taste, bitter, hot, and acrid.   Inodorous,
except if very recent, when a faint  perfume is yielded.
   Medical Use,  fyc.   The wine of the seeds, and the vinegar of the
bulb of colchicum, are the most usual preparations ; in operation they
are diuretic, sedative,  narcotic,  and cathartic, and have long been
deservedly extolled as a remedy in gout, rheumatism, and dropsy, par-
ticularly in that variety of the last, termed hydrothorax.  Dose of
either preparation, from half a drachm to one drachm  and a half, or,
if the recent powder of the bulb be preferred,  from  one to  five
grains may be administered.
   The celebrated Eau Medicinale, so frequently  employed by the
French  practitioners, is nothing more than a saturated vinous infusion
of the bulb of this plant.
   Symptoms when  taken in  excess.  Primary—Nausea ; vomiting;
 violent pain in the bowels, and diarrhcea.   Secondary—The arterial
system becomes evidently acted upon ; the pulse is feeble, irregular,
and sometimes intermittent; cold clammy sweats ensue, and a state
of coma, more or less complete according to the quantity swallowed,
 occurs before death.

   * Inulin, or the active principle of the Inula ITelenium, or Elecampane, was
defected  in the Colchicum Autumnale, by Pelletier and Caventou. 
52
                      S A VINE LKAVES.

                         (Sabincc police.)

   From the Juniperus Sabinoe, a shrub of the class Dioecia, and order
 Monadelphia ; an acrid-narcotic poison.
   Chem. Composition.  An essential oil, a fixed  oil, bitter extractive
 matter and resin ; the active qualities reside in the leaves, from which
 they may be separated both by water and alcohol.
   Medical Use,  fyc.  In operation, diaphoretic  and emmenagogue,
 exercising an immediate effect on the uterine  system, and therefore
 administered in cases of amenorrhcea, and when  the uterus is languid
 or torpid in its action. Its acknowledged effects as a violent emmena-
 gogue, has frequently supplied unprincipled individuals with the ready
 means of concealing one crime by the perpetration of another ;  but
 in some instances, and  they are  by no means unfrequent, the  dose
 employed has been too large, and life has been destroyed by the vio-
 lent action of the poison.
   Its use has been  recommended by the German writers,  both in
 chronic rheumatism and for the  expulsion of worms ; but in no in-
 stance should it be resorted to when much vascular action prevails, as
 it invariably acts as a potent stimulant, and occasionally induces a vio-
 lent discharge of blood from the bowels.  It is administered in the form
 of a powder of the leaves, in that of tincture, and as a decoction. Of
 these, the two latter may be  preferred, as the essential oil on which
 its activity depends, is greatly dissipated by the drying, which is ne-
 cessary before it can be pulverized.  Dose, of the powder, gr. v to x ;
 of the tincture,  3i;  of  the decoction, jfss to 3i.  Externally, the
 dried leaves are applied to indolent ulcers, gangrenous sores, and in
 the cure of tinea capititis ; or made up in an ointment for the same
purposes, and for dressing a blistered  surface when it is desirable to
keep up a discharge.
  Symptoms when taken in excess.  Primary—Excessive nausea and
vomiting;  great heat and pain in the stomach and bowels.   Second-
ary—Vomiting and pain increased ; frequent and bloody stools; great
prostration of strength;  intolerable anxiety,  occasionally merging
into delirium; convulsions ; coma ; death.
  Henbane, Hemlock, Hellebore, Colchicum,  and Savine, may be
classed together in accounting  for their destructive effects upon the
animal economy, and in describing the morbid appearances occasioned
by their administration in excess, and the remedies that should be
employed in an endeavour to counteract their virulent properties.
  Cause of Death.  These substances  act upon the vital  organs,
through the medium of the circulation, and their effects would prob-
bably be the same were they  introduced into  the system by means 
53
 of a wound ; proving, as admitted by M. Brodie in  his examination
 of their qualities, that they are conveyed to the organs of life by the
 the blood, and not through the instrumentality of the lymphatic sys-
 tem.   Savine may, perhaps, be partially excepted from this charac-
 ter, as the recent experiments of Oriila appear to show that it exerts
 somewhat of a local action, but that  its mischievous  effects depend
 principally upon its absorption, through which medium it  acts on the
 nervous system, the rectum, and the stomach.
   In the majority of cases of poisoning from these plants,  the precise
 determination is to the brain, which, upon  examination, is  found in
 the highest state of vascularity ; in every instance the stomach and
 intestines are inflamed, but rarely in so extensive a degree as to justify
 the supposition that the local action of the  poison upon their mem-
 branes has been  sufficient to destroy life.   Thus the primary effect
 of these  vegetable  poisons is upon the circulatory system, and the
 consequences only are recognised in the viscera.
   Morbid Appearances.  These are nearly  the same whenever death
 has been occasioned by any of these poisons, although there may be
 some slight variations in their effects, as well as in the symptoms arising
 from their employment.  In general the stomach and intestines are
 found inflamed, but seldom ulcerated.   When hellebore, hemlock,
 savine, or colchicum, has been swallowed, the inflammation is usually
 the most intense in the large viscera, particularly in the rectum, while
 henbane, on  the  contrary, seems to exert  its influence principally
 upon the stomach and  small intestines.  The vessels  of the brain are
 gorged with blood ;  the membranes highly  vascular  ; and numerous
 bloody spots are observed in the substance of the  organ.   The lungs
 are occasionally affected, and  discovered in  a state of engorgement.
   Remedies. Hellebore will frequently prove its own antidote by the
 vomiting  it occasions; but whenever  this effect  fails, and in cases
 where poisoning occurs from hemlock, henbane, colchicum, or savine,
 an early evacuation of the contents of the stomach must be attempted
 by administering plentiful draughts of oily or mucilaginous fluids, or by
 the use of the stomach-pump.   The acidulous drinks recommended
 in cases of poisoning from other vegetable  substances, will then be
 required,  together  with strong coffee, cordial  mixtures,  and  small
 doses of opium.
   If the use of the lancet be demanded, it must be under  the  same
 restrictions as before alluded to; that is, when the poisonous matter
 has been discharged from the  stomach, in order that its absorption
 may not be promoted.
   The particular actions of some of these substances upon the rectum,
 may be partially allayed by the continued use of oily and emollient
 injections.
   The Rationale of this treatment  is too obvious to require explana-
tion.   There are no tests by which the presence of these substances
can be detected. 
54
AGARICS,  OR MUSHROOMS.

    Class,      Cryptogamia.
    Order,      Fungi.
  Among the varieties of this tribe are several of a highly dele-
terious nature; some sufficiently obvious in their characters to be
avoided by all; and others approaching so nearly in appearance and
flavour to the genuine and edible  mushroom, as to render their iden-
tity doubtful.   There are, perhaps, no  positive marks  by which
mushrooms,  of a harmless or poisonous nature, may be distinguished
from each other ;  but, as  a general rule, those plants should be sus-
pected that are  found in  damp and shady situations, having a dirty
looking surface,  " with soft and moist gills,  a  faint, fcetid  smell,  and
covered with a calyptre or veil."   The  wholesome  varieties may
in general be recognised by  their firmness and clean  appearance,
their  growth in open pastures,  but in particular by the fresh  and
red colour of their  gills (the under surface of the plant disposed
in perpendicular lamina?, somewhat resembling the gills of a fish,)
and their peculiar, but not unpleasant, earthy odour.   The usual
varieties  of  the poisonous Agarics, are the Agaricus  Muscarius
or Bug Agaric, so called  from  its  property of destroying buo-s •
Agaricus Piperatus, or Pepper Mushroom ; Agaricus Bulbosus •  and
those known under the names of the Medusa's Head and the Raven's
Eye, besides numerous others.
  The Chemical Composition of these plants would indicate that they
make a nearer approach to animal matter than any other veo-etables
as they contain, in addition  to hydrogen, oxygen, and  carbon (the
usual components  of vegetable matter,) a  considerable  portion of
nitrogen, and yield ammonia by distillation.
  The Symptoms occasioned by these vegetable poisons are sometimes
modified or exasperated according to the varieties of the plants • but
in general the patient suffers from nausea and vomiting   the bowels
are violently acted upon, each dejection occasioning extreme pain  and
sometimes a discharge of blood ;  an ardent  thirst prevails ^cramps
of the extremities  ensue, together with vertigo and  delirium  The
hel  T* ^™^ ghastly and anxious; I copious pe Zr'at on
bedews the whole surface ; and a succession of chills and convuIs on"
announce the approach of death.                       convulsion*
  Upon an  examination of the body,  every  orfran innMro i„ i
been more or less affectedly  the action o7 the^oison';  t  e suZl

t%^^S^thht0^h evicts; th^upL. of
me eyes  are contracted; the cavity of the abdomen inflated with
gas  and the mucous membrane  of the stomach and  irSines in a
highly inflamed and  gangrenous  state;  the  lungs  are  gorged with 
55
blood;  the  liver and  spleen similarly  circumstanced, whilst  the
membranes of the brain present  appearances of increased  vascu-
lanty.  One extraordinary circumstance remains to be mentioned ;
the limbs usually retain their flexibility.
   The Cause of Death, in these cases, may be attributed to both a
local action  on the mucous membrane of  the stomach and intestines,
and as acting primarily through the medium of the circulation upon
the vital organs.
   The Remedies proposed must be administered promptly, or they
will be of no avail in cases where the living power becomes so rapidly
exhausted ;  the first step  taken should be an  attempt to evacuate
both the stomach and bowels ; for which purpose, three or four grains
of tartar  emetic, or thirty grains of Ipecacuhana, may be mixed in
a solution of two ounces  of sulphate of soda; the cordial plan of
treatment may  then come into full  operation by  the exhibition of
doses of sulphuric or nitric ether  in mucilage, in small and frequent
doses, the carbonate of ammonia, camphor, the tincture of capsicum,
or, where these cannot be procured, spirits and water ; strongly acidu-
lated drinks may also be given.  Where the symptoms of inflam-
mation arc  acute, the lancet must be employed, but with caution, as
the Rationale of these remedies  consists in supporting the system,
and in enabling it to withstand the narcotic and sedative influence of
the poison ;  and, evident as  the inflammatory symptoms may  be, the
 primary and deadening effects upon the circulation must be first sub-
 dued ;  the  tepid bath,  fomentations, and emollient injections,  are
 valuable auxiliaries.   No Tests  have been  proposed for the detec-
 tion of these poisons beyond their botanical characters and the effects
 they produce upon the system.

                      ERGOT OF  RYE.

               (Secale Cornutum) or Spurred Rye.

    A morbid excrescence, like the spur  of a  fowl, in the spike of
 the common rye, or secale cereale of Linnaeus.
    The poisonous nature of this substance  had long been suspected from
 its deleterious effects upon the poor, who were accustomed to the use of
  rye-corn as a daily diet, and who frequently made use of the spurred
  corn without being aware of its qualities.   In 1H()7, Dr.  Stearns, of
  Mew-York, discovered and reported the peculiar properties of the
  diseased corn, and it shortly afterwards  came into frequent use, both
  as an emmenagogue in cases where the catamenia were interrupted
  from a want of uterine action,  and  as  a  ready means of expelling
  the fn-tus or placenta in lingering labours.   The specific action of
  ergot upon the gravid uterus has  occasionally rendered it the instru-
  ment of crime by procuring abortion ; and an extreme dose  has not
  only effected this purpose, but resulted in the death of the mother. 
     Medical Use, «rc.  Ergot readily  parts with its active principle
   to water; and it  may  therefore be given in the form of infusion, in
   the proportion of half  a drachm to a drachm in two ounces of boil-
   ing water,  allowing it  to soak  for half an  hour ; of this  half  the
   quantity may be given, and the  remainder an hour afterwards if no
   extraordinary action of the uterus  take place.  Should the ergot be
   preferred in substance,  it may be finely pulverised, and administered
  in doses of ten grains, every ten minutes, until its effects are appa-
  rent.
    When prescribed as an  emmenagogue, the  doses may be varied
  according  to the age and condition of the patient; from a drachm
  every day, the quantity has been gradually increased to an ounce of
  the powdered  ergot; and we have  the  testimony  of several physi-
  cians,  that, in  affording  relief to the most obstinate  cases of amenor-
  rhoea,  which had  resisted all other remedies, no ill effects resulted
  from the powerful action of this medicine when gradually increased
  to the  ounce dose.
   Symptoms when taken in excess. In those districts  of country where
  this diseased grain has been  employed  as  food, two very singular
  maladies appear to have been occasioned, both accurately described
  by Sauvages, the one as  " necrosis ustilaginea,"  and  the other  as
 " erysipelas pestilens."  The first of these diseases is a  gangrene,
 " which commences without  fever in the hands and  feet, with a sense
 of numbness and external coldness; a dusky or livid cuticle ; great
 debility of mind and body ; often violent spasmodic contractions ;
 and spreads rapidly over  the  system,  till the fingers, arms, nose,
 legs or thighs, are affected, and some  of them drop off spontaneously."
 (Morgagni.)  The second disease is a  typhus  fever of malignant
 type, which quickly proves  fatal.   Where the  ergot is taken in a
 sufficient quantity  to prove directly poisonous, it occasions the follow-
 ing symptoms -.—Primary—A sense of creeping or tingling over the
 whole surface, and  excessive heat in the extremities ;  heart-burn
 and pain in the stomach and bowels.  Secondary—The pain increased
 to an excessive degree ;  vertigo;  cramps in the  limbs, and spasms
 in the regions of the heart  and stomach ; delirium soon sets in, fol-
 lowed by stupor ; and^n the worst cases, violent convulsions precede
 dissolution.   When the dose has  not been sufficient to destroy life
 the result is scarcely less lamentable, as a low and miserable mania
 succeeds to the more active demonstrations of the poison.
   Cause of Death    Ergot operates  upon the system in the same
 he heart'^ m&J°r^  VegetaWe Poisons>  by  a determination™
 the heart, brain  or alimentary canal, through the circulation.
   1 he Morbid Appearances are extremely uncertain ; the  positive
marks of inflammation may be observed  in the  stomichand^!

^S^S^T^^  „rain PrGSent an appearance ofm.
creased  vascularity; but  we shall  rarely  discover sufficient signs of 
57
a  morbid action, to account for the intensity of the previous symp-
toms.
   Treatment.   The stomach should be immediately evacuated by a
potent emetic, or by the use of the stomach-pump.   If the symptoms
of inflammation be  intense, either in the intestinal canal or the brain,
the lancet must be  unsparingly  employed, together  with the use of
fomentations and injections.  In cases where appearances are not so
alarming, the liberal use of opium is said to have been attended with
the best effect  in subduing  the  irritation into which the system  has
been thrown.
   There is no Test  capable of detecting the presence of this poison.
            POISONOUS   FISH.


           Clupea Thryssa,      or Yellow-billed Sprat.
           Conger Muraana,     " Conger Eel.
           Coracinus Fuscus,    " Grey Snapper.
           Corophoena Splendens, " Dolphin.
           Cyprinus Barbus,     " Barbel, (of Europe.)
           Opah,              " King Fish.
           Ostracion Glabellum,  «* Smooth Bottle Fish.
           Perca Major,        " Barracuta.
           Perca Marina,       " Rock Fish.
           Scomber Thynnus,   " Bonetta.
           Tetrodon Scleratus,  " Tunny.


   The cancer msenas, or common crab, and the  cancer gammarius,
or lobster, are the  principal varieties in the insect tribe employed as
food, and capable of exercising deleterious effects. The mytilus edulis,
or muscle, is, perhaps, the only edible species of vermes, or worms.
The ill effects sometimes attributed to the muscle  of Europe, are
generally supposed  to be occasioned, when a small tuft of moss,  at.
tached to the body of the worm, is swallowed through carelessness;
and the symptoms produced,  may rather be referred  to those of op-
pression in consequence of the indigestible nature of the substance,
than to any  poisonous qualities  it possesses ; there  are, however,
some muscles, particularly in the  East and West Indies, that, in com-
mon with some other marine animals, exercise an  unfavourable  in-
fluence  upon the animal economy, produce the same symptoms, and
terminate in the same result  as the most poisonous of the fish tribe.
   This list, then, comprises the common varieties of poisonous animals,
                            8 
58
  but many could probably be added to the number: the exact nature
  of their qualities is but little understood; whether they reside in the
  whole carcase, or in some particular part of it, are introduced into
  the animal in the form of food, or are constantly retained, are occa-
  sioned by the spawning season, by any peculiar habits of the animal,
  or by its sickness ; and whether they depend upon the idiosyncrasy of
  the individual eating them for their operation, are all circumstances
  of remark, and of uncertainty in determination.
    Fish and muscles of the most poisonous description appear to the
  eye as healthy and agreeable  as the most wholesome varieties:
  chemistry will not lend any assistance in discovering their noxious
  properties, and out of a number of persons who may occasionally
  have eaten of the same dish, a few are found violently, some slightly,
  and others not at all affected.  The process of carefully cleaning and
  salting, appears to abate  the danger of eating some of the  varieties
  above mentioned ;  but even  this precaution will not  always ensure
 escape : it is then certain,  that whatever poisonous qualities exist, they
 are greatly increased or diminished by the peculiar condition of the
 system generally, and of the  digestive organs in particular, of those
 who partake of them.  Crabs and lobsters, especially, will affect some
 persons at one  time, and  prove innocuous at another, even in  the
 same season, and under similar circumstances in every respect. The
 immediate  symptoms of disorder occasioned, are, great nausea, con-
 stnction of the  throat,  thirst, a sense of  suffocation, and a  burning
 heat on the whole surface of the body;  to these succeed diarrhea,
 cold sweats, faintness,  and  spasmodic  affections of the muscles;
 efflorescence of the skin,  and sometimes a miliary eruption ; in the
 worst cases the eyes become inflamed ;  the  wrist, ancle,  and knee
 joints are visited with acute pains; tenesmus and strangury ensue ; and
 the sufferer is almost beyond  the  power of art:  these symptoms, of
 course  apply to the worst cases;  to such as are  recorded in the an-
 nals of West Indian practice, in general the milder symptoms alone
 prevai ,  and are under the control of medicine.   When death en-
 sues, it would appear to be occasioned by an absorption of the poison
 through the emulation, and how actively it exerts itself through that

 ^thThocl^t"? ^V11? Sympt°mS °CCasi0ned * an examination
 flni   t 7 afteyudeath dlsPlays ^e stomach and intestines in an in-
 flamed state, with occasional patches  of ulceration of the mucous
 whde Z ? geTrallJ a qUantky 0f dark' fetid fl"id in the stomach
 while the vessels and membranes of the brain present appearances

IT^^abut grrally °/ ^SK *c  as:
and bowel™and    ft?^ ,re'-firSt' evac™nts of the stomach
Sli  /      ? rdla,S and stl™lants; the use of ether  in
^^^^yP^in-oine simple fluid,may, perhap^e

  The Rationale of this treatment is apparent.
  i here are no Tests bv whirh tb;* mn/  e   ■    ■
                   Dy wmch this mode of poisoning can be detected 
59
ASPHYXIA.
   Asphyxia is that condition of the system, when the action of the
 heart is suspended, and the arteries and brain have in consequence
 ceased  to act.  This state is occasioned by the operation of various
 causes, the  principal of which are the following :

                 1. Submersion, or  Drowning.
                 2. Suspension,   or Hanging.
                 3. Inhalation of unrespirable Gases.
                 4. Cold.
                 5. Electricity.

   1.  Asphyxia from Submersion  arises immediately from suffoca-
 tion, or a complete obstruction to the respiration,  not as  formerly
 supposed by an admission of water to the lungs, but from a spasm of
 the muscles of the glottis upon the  approach of the fluid, and which
 closes its rima as completely against  the entrance of air, as though
 a cord  were tightened  around the throat.   The appearances  of a
 person  in a state of asphyxia from this cause, are extremely deci-
 sive ; the face is livid,  and  the  superficial vessels turgid, and  the
 limbs in a state of flaccidity ; f death succeed, the lungs are found
 gorged  with blood,  while the vessels of the brain are  free from dis-
 tention.
  From the records of the London Humane Society, by whose assist.
 ance, and through whose agency, hundreds of individuals have been
 rescued from death, it appears, that if the body be recovered  within
 five minutes after submersion, re-animation is comparatively easy ;
 after a quarter of an hour, extemely difficult, and when more than
 twenty  minutes have elapsed, nearly hopeless.
  Treatment.   Under the impression that a considerable  quantity
 of water had  reached the lungs, the ancient practice consisted  in
 subjecting the patient to  a degree of roughness in his usage, that, rather
 hastened his departure from the world, instead of  recalling the faint
 spark of existence that remained.  The unfortunate was rolled in a bar-
 rel, held up by the legs, and treated with violence totally unjustifiable.
 The spasm of the muscles of the glottis was not taken into considera-
 tion, which must not only  prevent the entrance of fluid into the tra-
chea,  but also  into the stomach by means of the oesophagus.
  The  sufferer should  be conveyed, carefully and speedily, to the
nearest  house, and placed in a strong light, near a fire if the weather
be cold, with the head and shoulders somewhat elevated ;  the room 
60
being cleared of all but the necessary assistants, five or  six in num-
ber, the body should first be wiped  dry, and then  submitted  to the
following treatment:
  Apply warm cloths, bladders or bottles filled with hot  water, bags
of heated sand, or hot bricks wrapped up in flannel, whichever may
be the most convenient, to the  stomach, soles of the feet, thighs, and
axilla? ;  rub the surface of the  body with stimulants, such as the vola.
tile ammonia, or spirits of turpentine, and bestow  frequent friction
with the hand upon the legs, thighs, and arms.  Artificial respiration,
however,  presents  the most valuable means  of assistance ; if the
proper apparatus for inflating the lungs be not at hand, a  pair of com-
mon bellows, adroitly managed, will tolerably supply the deficiency,
but from the difficulty of forcing the air down the larynx, by a tube
introduced into the mouth,  and the liability of its  passage into the
oesophagus,  although pressure is  made on the thyroid  cartilage  to
close that cavity as much as possible, it is always advisable to intro.
djce a silver tube (a catheter will answer the purpose) into the
larynx, and attach it to the bellows ; a regular supply of air can thus
be furnished to the lungs, closing the mouth  and nostrils with the
fingers, until the chest becomes inflated, when they may be removed,
and  the thorax pressed down as in the act of expiration ; this must
be several times repeated, some of  the assistants continuing the ap.
plication of warmth to various parts of the body.  An extraordinary
difficulty may sometimes arise in the practice of artificial respiration,
from fixity of the teeth, or strong contraction of the muscles of the
jaw, rendering the introduction of a tube impossible, and  in such case,
the propriety of the operation of Bronchotomy must be  immediately
taken into consideration.  The fauces and nostrils may  be occasion.
ally irritated  by  a feather, stimulating  injections  thrown  up the
rectum, and as soon as the patient can swallow, small  quantities of
warm wine or cordial administered  ; if an electrifying machine can
be quickly brought into action, a few shocks may be sent through the
chest, and the warmbath may also prove a valuable auxiliary. With
the first symptoms of returning animation, such as sighing, gasping,
or a slight quivering of the limbs, every previous effort should be re-
doubled.  Attempts at resuscitation must not be too hastily aban.
doned ; if four or six hours devotion to the cause of  humanity be
insufficient, employ ten, and you may be successful.   When these
exertions  have been favourable, and animation is fairly re-established,
the most perfect quiet is necessary; a few hours afterwards a laxative
enema may be given, and a slight  quantity of light nourishing food
supplied;  and should, as it is frequently the case, symptoms of counter-
action appear, with slight fever and headache, it will be prudent to
withdraw a few ounces of blood  by the  lancet or cupping, and to
enforce the  antiphlogistic regimen for a short time afterwards.
   2. Asphyxia from Suspension.   The immediate cause  is also 
61
•uffocation, from  obstruction to the respiratory apparatus ;  the face
ib  hvid  and gorged with blood, the eyes protruded, and the  nostrils
•wollen and  spread :  these appearances  are especially remarkable,
when the cord has been fixed in such a manner as only  to close
the larynx partially ;  the agony of the sufferer being thereby greatly
increased,  and symptoms of apoplexy taking the place of those of
asphyxia.   In those instances where death has been instantaneous,
from obstruction to inspiration solely, the appearances  are  not  so
evident, and from the  simple circumstance,  that the vessels of the
brain, instead of being, as in the former case, overloaded, are propor-
tionally free from  sanguineous increase, while those of the lungs
are greatly engorged.
   Treatment.  When the person of the sufferer corresponds with the
condition firstly described, it may be proper, with an intent to his reco-
very, to abstract a small quantity of blood from the jugular vein or tem-
poral artery ; but the greatest judgment  is required both in a know-
ledge of the state demanding this loss, and in the quantity required,
which  should  seldom,  in the first instance, exceed eight or twelve
ounces.  It is sufficient to  relieve the immediate  oppression under
which the vessels of  the brain are labouring,  and to reserve more
copious evacuations  for the stage of re-action, which  is certain to
succeed.  When it may be  presumed from  the expression of the
the countenance, that the state of the lungs opposes the chief obsta-
cle to returning  animation, the mode directed in aspyxia from sub-
 mersion may be adopted, and every possible exertion  employed in
again forcing respiration into action.
   In the event of death after submersion or suspension,  the attention
 of the medical jurist  may  be drawn to  the circumstances under
 which  either occured ;  whether occasioned by accident, self-deter-
 mination, or through the criminal agency  of others.  The means of
 discrimination are, however, too frequently uncertain, and the closest
 investigation ends in doubt or unsatisfactory conclusion.   When a
 body has  been rescued from the water, the first duty of the physi-
 cian is carefully to examine the surface ; if any wounds be observed,
 their nature, whether inflicted by a sharp or blunt weapon, by falling
 upon  any  interposing substance,  such as a  plank  or boat, or by
 striking against stones, &c. on the bottom, will be all topics of con-
 sideration ;  should the injury evidently have been occasioned by a
 weapon, the position of the sufferer, at  the moment of  its reception,
 may in a great measure be ascertained ; whilst the description of the
 deadly instrument can probably be learnt from the shape and extent
 of the wound.
    Such are the principal circumstances to which the attention  may
 be directed,; and, as there are some instances on record (the body
 not being  too  much disfigured by the process of decomposition,)
 where they have led to the detection of the murderer, they  are, not- 
62
   withstanding  the  doubt attendant on  such  examinations,  highly
   deserving of notice.
     With regard to the examination of individuals who have perished
   by suspension, there are few examples that can be traced to any other
   design but that of suicide, of course excepting the fate of malefac-
   tors.  A recent  trial in France has  exhibited  some  remarkable
   details relative to the death of the Duke of Bourbon, in which  a mass
   of evidence was produced to prove that he had fallen a victim to the
   designs of others,  rather than to his own fears upon the occurence of
   the  Revolution, and which, as  generally  asserted, had operated
   upon him so far as to prompt his self-destruction.   From the infirm.
   ity of the Prince, and  more especially from a disabled hand, from
   the situation of the  furniture in the apartment, and the disposal  of
  his dress,, it was not only assumed that he was incapable of accom-
  plishing the object attributed to him, but that considerable violence had
  been exerted in suspending him from the post of the bed.  The trial,
  however, terminated by  the Court declaring the  charges unproved,
  and by confirming the testamentary disposition of the Duke in favour
  of his supposed murderers.  The same enquiries made under the cir-
  cumstances narrated, may be legitimately repeated on future  occa-
  sions, when any suspicion is directed towards a second party, although
  from the necessary vagueness of the charge, it will ever be difficult
  to elicit sufficient data, from which a  correct chain of evidence may
  be extended.
    The mental condition of the individual, for some time previous to
  his disease, should  always be accurately investigated ; it may supply
  us with  a  cause for the commission of a desperate act, however
  irrational  the mind  that could prompt it,  and relieve the innocent
  from  suspicion.  The  circumstances of the deceased, his domestic
  relations, and, in fact, every  thing concerning his habits and asso-
 ciates should likewise be ascertained, as well with the view of detect.
 ing guilt as of warding off reproach from those who may have  been
 unjustly accused of  his murder.
   3.  Asphyxia from  unrespirable  Gases.  A  great number  of
 the gases are destructive to life ; some when breathed in a very small
 proportion,  and others only when inhaled to excess.  The following
 are the varieties to  which man is principally exposed :

   1.  Carbonic Acid  Gas, (called, by the miners,  Choke-damp.)
   1. Sulphureted Hydrogen Gas.
   3. Carbureted Hydrogen Gas (or the Fire-damp of Miners.)

   1. Carbonic Acid Gas forms nearly one  half the weight of mar-
ble, limestone, chalk, and the calcareous  earths;  it is likewise the
principal product of the combustion of coals, wood, oils, and all
kinds of carbonaceous matter;  is formed during respiration from the 
63
combination of oxygen of the  air with the carbon of the blood, and
is  contained in many  mineral waters.  During fermentation, it is
liberated  in large quantities, and also prevails at the bottom of coal
mines, pits, old wells, caverns,* and the large vats used in brewing
or dying.  Its specific gravity is 1.5230, which accounts for its pre.
sence  at  the  bottom of  these situations.  When it  is intended to
examine any  places where it is supposed this  gas exists, a burning
candle should be  attached to a cord and allowed to descend ; if the
light be extinguished, it is unsafe, as the same air that cannot support
combustion,  is  incapable of supporting  respiration.   The readiest
means of clearing a well or vat from  this deleterious vapour, is by
throwing down a considerable quantity  of water, by which the gas
is displaced, and gradually  dispersed in the atmosphere above.
   Injurious as carbonic acid gas is to  animal  life, when breathed, it
yet retards  the  putrefaction  of animal substances : this may  be
proved by  suspending two  pieces  of  flesh, the one in common air,
the other in carbonic acid gas; the latter will be preserved untainted
some time after the other has yielded to the putrefactive process.
   2.  Sulphureted Hydrogen Gas is liberated from stagnant  pools,
ditches, privies, sewers, and other places filled with  decayed animal
or vegetable matter.  Its s.nell is extremely fcetid, somewhat resem-
bling that of  stale eggs, and it exerts a most  deleterious effect upon
animal life.   Thenard,  in a  series of experiments, discovered that
a horse could not exist in an atmosphere containing ?}-g part of this
gas  while  dogs and other small animals expired in air which con-
tained from gi°r to Tfa of its  volume of it.   Chaussier, in pursuing
this  subject,  ascertained that animals were killed by this gas even
when  it was kept in contact with their bodies for some time, although
they were permitted  to breathe in a pure atmosphere.
   Sulphureted hydrogen is  inflammable, burning either silently or
with an explosion, according to its union with oxygen or atmospheric
air   According to Sir Humphrey Davy, it consists of 93.8 parts of
sulphur, and  6.2 of hydrogen, and is of the specific gravity of 1.124.
   3.  Carbureted  Hydrogen Gas, or Fire-damp, is  disengaged from
stagnant pools or depositories  of filth, and also yielded from the dis-
filiation of coal.   The fire-damp of coal mines, by which  such  a
 waste of life  has been occasioned, is nearly identical with the light
carbureted  hydrogen (so called from its inferior  specific gravity)
liberated from stagnant water.  It is not productive of asphyxia, as

   « In the celebrated Grotto del Cane, a cavern near Naples, the carbonic
 acid eas rises only one or two feet above the floor,  and, in consequence, the
visiters are not affected; upon the introduction, however, of a dog  into he
  X«rn the activity of the poisonous atmosphere is at once manifested; the
^irnal is thrown into a state of insensibility, from which it is recovered by
teimr Plunged  into the neighbouring lake d'Agnano, in order to  exhibit the
same experiments to succeeding travellers. 
64
it is readily explosive  upon admixture with the atmosphere, in tha
proportion of one part of the gas with seven or eight of com-
mon air.  When pure, it has neither smell  nor taste,* and is of the
specific gravity 0.55.   According  to  Dr.  Thomsom, it consists of
85  parts of carbon and 15 of hydrogen.
  The  frequent calamities that had occurred  in the coal mines of
England,  by the explosion of this  gas,  from its contact  with the
candles of the workmen, led the late philosophic and benevolent Sir
H.  Davy, to institute a series of experiments  for the discovery of
some mode by which they might be  prevented.  This was at length
accomplished  by the use of  air-tight lanterns, supplied  with air
through tubes  or canals of small diameter, or through apertures
covered with wire-gauze  below the flame, and having a chimney at
the upper part  for carrying off the foul air.  The apparatus was
afterwards simplified by surrounding the flame of a lamp or a candle
with a cylindrical wire sieve, having  at least 625 apertures in a
square inch.   Within this cylinder, when the fire-damp encompass-
ing it, is to air as 1 to 12, the  flame of the wick is seen surrounded
by  the feeble blue flame of the gas.   When the proportion is as 1 to
5, 6, or 7, the cylinder is filled with the flame of the fire-damp ; but,
though  the  wire-gauze becomes red  hot,  the exterior air, even
when explosive, is not kindled.  The  lamp is therefore safe in the
most dangerous atmospheres,  and has  been used most extensively
in the coal districts of England without the  occurrence of an acci-
dent.   The effect of  this safety-lamp  depends upon the  cooling
agency of the fire-gauze, exerted on the  portion of gas burning within
the  cylinder.   Hence a lamp may be secure when  there is no cur-
rent of  an explosive mixture to occasion its being strono-ly heated •
and yet not safe when the  current  passes through it°with great
rapidity ;  but any atmosphere, however explosive, may be rendered
harmless by increasing the cooling surface, either by diminishing the
size of the apparatus, or by increasing their  depth, both of which
are  perfectly within the  power of the manufacturer of the wire-
gauze.  (Henry.)
  Treatment, $0.  In cases of asphyxia from  the effects of any of
these gases, the immediate attack is made  upon the sensibility of the
nervous system, the circulatory and respiratory powers being second-
arily influenced.  A degree of pallor is generally  remarked in the
countenance,  un ess where  the respiratory  function has only been
partially arrested, m which instance  the effects upon the circulation
are  v^n a tendency to apoplexy, and  the  usual symptoms  of
that affection are manifested    The sufferer should immediately be
exposed to a free  current of air, and cold water may be  repeatedly


of'JptrTef hyd^n0" "^^ *°m °°* «"■ » M°"* * «» P-enc* 
65
 dashed over the spinal and lumbar regions ;  strong vinegar or liquid
 ammonia be applied to the nostrils, grateful acids and small portions
 of wine or cordial introduced into the stomach, employing the stomach-
 pump if necessary ; stimulating enemas administered, and the whole
 plan for re-establishing respiration, as recommended under the head
 of asphyxia from submersion, be brought into play.  If an electric
 apparatus can be brought into immediate operation, shocks of mode-
 rate force may, with great propriety, be transmitted from the side of
 the neck, in the situation of the phrenic nerve, to the seat of the dia-
 phragm, repeating them at intervals of a quarter of an hour.
   Unless the signs of apoplexy be unequivocal, the use of the lancet
 is scarcely justifiable.   Life hangs upon a slender thread, which  the
 slightest violence or error in treatment will snap, as in asphyxia from
 other  causes, the exertions  for recovery  must  not be  too quickly
 abandoned ;  an extra hour devoted to the patient has often succeeded,
 when all probability of success appeared at an end.
   In an accident from fire-damp, life is generally terminated at  the
 moment of its occurrence by  the force of the explosion, or by  the
 injury received  by fragments of coal  broken from the mass ; when
 life is not extinct, the necessary treatment is sufficiently obvious ;  as
 an addition to the  means already recommended, surgical aid will in
 all probability be required.
   Asphyxia from Cold, is occasioned by torpor, and an exhaustion
 of the physical power, by the sudden abstraction of heat; the counte-
 nance is pale and contracted ; the limbs rigid and unyielding ; the  pa-
 tient insensible, and apparently under the influence of deep sleep.  In
 the employment of remedies, great care is necessary : where partial
 asphyxia has taken place, and the extremities are the chief sufferers,
 as in  the  common  instance of frost-bitten limbs, the body should be
 plunged into cold water (sea-water is, perhaps, preferable if it can be
 procured,) or rubbed with snow, and then well dried, and gentle fric-
 tion, gradually increased, exercised upon its surface, at the same time
 introducing small quantities of warm wine into the stomach, and sti-
 mulating the rectum by an enema; the same plan may be pursued in
 more severe cases, where the effects of cold have not been confined
 to the extremities, carefully avoiding  any sudden  measures by which
 warmth  would  be too quickly restored; too much  care, indeed,
 cannot be exercised in this particular;  the injudicious kindness of
 friends has too frequently led to a fatal  error, and gangrene and loss
 of life succeeded to their well-meant, but ill-employed, exertions.
   Electrical Asphyxia, is produced  by an instantaneous shock to
 the nervous  system,  sufficiently  strong  to overcome its energy;
the countenance is pale, the limbs flexible, and, if life be extinct, the
muscles will  be found flabby and of a bloodless hue, and the blood
uncoagulated; the  appearance of the  passage of the lightning is
 sometimes visible in the form  of dark blotches  or  streaks, or pre-
                              9 
66
senting an appearance somewhat similar to the marks occasioned by
a charge of small shot.   Stimulants of  an active  nature must at
once be resorted to, where any  appearance of life remains, in the
form of cordials, camphor, ammonia, &c.  to the stomach, and spirits
of turpentine as an enema.  It  is  necessary  to notice the strange
opinion, that electricity is an agent of wonderful power in this variety
of asphyxia,  as a counter-irritant, passing the shocks in the  same
manner as directed in asphyxia from unrespirable gases : if this
opinion be  correct,  it  affords a singular  instance of the destructive
and saving ability of this mighty force.
  The cases of asphyxia from the irrespirable gases, from cold, and
the effects of  electric power,  do not afford  much opportunity of
investigation to the medical jurist.  It  is scarcely possible to con.
ceive that life can be destroyed by a designed exposure of an indivi.
dual to these agents, although a question may occasionally arise as
to the course of death upon the discovery of a body  at the bottom of
mines, pits, &c.  An example  may be given of this probability, by
recording a circumstance  that  took place  in  Upper Saxony many
years ago.  The body of a workman was found in  an old well near
Dresden, in which the water had nearly disappeared for a considera-
ble period ; three or  four men, who descended for the  purpose of
bringing up  the body, were successively affected by  a  mephitic
vapour, and were with difficulty drawn up in time to save their lives.
After purifying the atmsopherc, the body was at length brought to
the surface,  and, upon an attentive examination, not the slightest
injury, beyond  a few  insignificant bruises, was apparent: circum-
stances, however, occurred to attach suspicion to a fellow-workman
of the deceased, who underwent many examinations, and was pre-
sumed by the public to be guilty of the  murder of his friend.  During
the investigation, it was at length ascertained that the deceased had
partaken very freely of liquor on the evening of his disappearance,
and this, in a addition to an alibi proven on the  part of the accused,
led to the final conclusion, that he had  accidentally fallen into the
well where the foul air, or the carbonic acid  gas, had sufficed for
his destruction.
   This narration may, perhaps,  lead  to the beneficial exercise of
caution in pronouncing upon the cause of death, where an individual
is discovered in a situation where he would be exposed to the action
of a deleterious atmosphere.  The body must be carefully examined,
and the slightest wound accounted for,  in the mind of the phy.
T£U'-a  I  uV;eU °r °ther excav*tion be deep, injuries may be of
a.formidable character from blows received on the sides or at the bot.
ShJ a,ndthef maygenerally be distinguished from violence inflicted
either by a sharp or a  blunt instrument, with sufficient readiness.
   With respect to cold and  electric asphyxia, there can be no rea-
Sons for supposing that death  has occurred through the inSt?umen. 
73
tality of others, except in the case of exposure of children ;  here
the evidence is tolerably conclusive, as will  appear in the second
part of this work, when the subject of Infanticide is considered.
   These considerations conclude that portion of the study of Medi-
cal Jurisprudence, comprising " Poisons and Asphyxia."  The former
of these subjects has unquestionably a closer  reference to enquiries
into the causes of death than the latter, and hence a larger space
has been afforded : but the  propriety of including Asphyxia in a
work of this character will be admitted by all, when it is understood
how many topics of serious reflection it presents.  If the life of man
 be of value to his fellow-beings, either in a moral or social point of
 view, every question relating to its disposal claims the closest investi-
 gation ; and it is on this account that deaths by Asphyxia have been
 placed within  the province of the medical jurist for examination, as
 well as those which are rendered more evident from the direct action
 of Poison. 
 
INDEX.
A
Acetate of Lead
Acids, Mineral
-------------Sulphuric
-------------Nitric
------------• Muriate
■------------Arsenious
■------------Arsenic
----Vegetable
-------------Oxalic
-------------Prussic
Agarics
Alkalies
Ammonia
Ammoniated Copper
Antimony
Aqua-Fortis
Arsenic
Arsenide of Copper
Asphyxia
Barytes
Belladonna
Bi-chloride of Mercury
Carbonic Acid Gas
Carbureted Hydrogen Gas
Caustic Potass
Cerusse
Colchicum
Cold, Asphyxia from
Conium or Cicuta
Copper
Corrosive Sublimate
Crab
B
C 
Digitalis
Earths
Electrical Asphyxia
Fire-damp
Fish, Poisonous varieties of
Fowler's Solution
Fox-Glove
Hellebore, White
■--------Black
Hemlock
Hydro-Cyanic Acid
Hyoscyamus, or Henbane
Justamond's Caustic
Lead
Lime
Lobster
Lunar Caustic
Meadow Saffron
Melampodium   ,
Mercury
Morphia
Muriate of Barytes
Muriatic Acid
Muscles
Mushrooms
Nightshade 
71
Nitrate of Potass
Nitrate of Silver
Nitric Acid     ....
Nux Vomica


                             0

Opium   .
Orpiment   ....
Oxalic Acid     .       .       .       .
Oxide of Arsenic
Oxy-muriate of Mercury


                             P

Phosphorus
Potass   .       .       .       .       .
Potassa Fusa
Prussic Acid    .       .       .      .


                              s

Safety Lamp
Savine          .       .       .      .
Scheele's Green
Secale Cornutuni, or Spurred Rye
Silver      ....
 Spirits of Salts
 Stomach Pump
 Strychnus      .       .       .      .
 Sub-Acetate of Copper      .       .   .
 Sub-Carbonate of Lead
 Submersion, Asphyxia from
 Sugar of Lead
 Sulphate of Copper
 Sulphate of Zinc
 Sulphuret of Arsenic
 Sulphureted Hydrogen Gas, effects of
 Suspension, Asphyxia from

                             T

 Tartar-Emetic, or Tartrate of Antimony
 Tobacco        ... 
                              72


                             v               .       .       «
Vegetable Acids        •                                    39
Vegetable Poisons          •                                   5
Verdigrease     •                                             5
Vitriol, Blue        •       •                                 10
_----- White    .                                           26
_____- Oil of


White Lead
w

 z
Zinc
10 
ERRATA.
Page 18, line 14—for " arsenide of arsenic," read " arsenide
                 of copper."
Page 19, line 5—for " sulphate of potass,"  read " sulphate
                 of copper." 
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