Sulphate of Zinc. White Vitriol.-Symptoms and Appearances.— The symptoms produced by an overdose of sulphate of zinc are a styptic taste, pain in the abdomen, and violent vomiting, coming on almost immediately, followed by purging. After death the stomach has been found inflamed. The sulphate appears to act as a pure irritant, and has no corrosive properties. This salt may cause death indirectly as the result of exhaustion from violent vomiting, when an ordinary dose has been given to a person already debilitated by disease. It does not appear to be a very energetic poison. In one case a lady recovered after taking sixty-seven grains. (Lancet, 1856, i. p. 540.) In another, which occurred in 1872, a man, æt. 20, recovered in a few days after taking an ounce of sulphate of zinc by mistake for Epsom salts. There was early vomiting and purging of a most violent kind, with great prostration of strength. The greater part of this large dose was no doubt thus quickly carried out of the body.

Chloride of Zinc.-Symptoms and Appearances. This, which is commonly sold under the name of "Sir W. Burnett's fluid," is a corrosive and irritant poison, and is much used as a deodorizer. The patient experiences a sense of heat and burning in the mouth and throat, in the act of swallowing the liquid, which has been frequently fatally mistaken for fluid magnesia. There is a burning and griping pain in the stomach and nausea, followed usually by violent retching and vomiting--the vomited matters being streaked with blood and mixed with much flaky mucus and shreds of mucous membrane. This has produced an appearance of frothiness about the mouth. Violent purging has been observed among the symptoms. A stage of collapse supervenes, and the skin becomes cold and livid.

A man, æt. 62, took two fluidounces of soldering fluid, made by dissolving zinc in hydrochloric acid-and hence a solution of chloride of zinc. An emetic was given without effect, and he speedily became collapsed. There was profuse purging. A little scanty urine was drawn off by a catheter. He retained his intellect until death, four hours and a half after taking the poison. Crosse found after death the tongue white and shrivelled, and the mucous membrane of the mouth as if charred. The gullet was contracted, with the mucous membrane white, silky, and easily detached. The stomach was contracted and rugose, the mucous membrane being of an ashy-gray color, with black patches. The stomach contained chloride of zinc and free hydrochloric acid. The whole of the bowels were hardened and contracted, the mucous membrane thickened and gray in color-the duodenum and upper part of the jejunum especially so. (Brit. Med. Journ., 1883, ii. p. 820.)

After death from this poison, the lining membrane of the mouth and throat has been found white and opaque-that of the stomach has sometimes been hard and leathery, at others corrugated, opaque, and of a dark leaden color. The lungs and kidneys are congested. The chloride is both a corrosive and irritant poison, exerting also a peculiar action on the nervous system. If a person survives the acute stage, he may die in the chronic stage from stricture of the gullet or pylorus, or from emaciation and exhaustion as a result of the local action of the poison on this organ.

Analysis. In these two compounds, the zinc is detected by their aqueous solutions giving white precipitates with a current of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, while the sulphuric acid or the chlorine may be recognized

PREPARATIONS OF IRON AND CHROMIUM.

165

by their respective tests. Metallic zinc may be obtained by plunging into a weak solution of the salt a slip of magnesium.

PREPARATIONS OF IRON.

Ferrous Sulphate. Sulphate of Iron. Copperas. Copperas. Green Vitriol.This compound has been administered with malicious intention. One death from it took place in 1837 or 1838. It cannot, however, be an active preparation; for a girl who swallowed an ounce of it recovered, although she suffered for some hours from violent pain, vomiting, and purging. (Christison.) Green vitriol, or copperas, is sometimes given as an abortive. A woman of the name of Riley was indicted (Nottingham Aut. Ass., 1859) for administering copperas to two children. She put the substance into gruel. It gave to the gruel a greenish color and a peculiar taste, which led to the discovery. It caused sickness, but no other serious symptoms. As there was no evidence of an intent to murder, and as it was then not unlawful to administer poison with any other intent, the prisoner was acquitted. This salt has been much used for criminal purposes in France. (See Med. Gaz., vol. 47, p. 307; also Ann. d'Hyg., 1850, vol. 1, pp. 180, 516; and 1851, vol. 1, p. 155; vol. 2, p. 337.)

The

Ferric Chloride. Muriate of Iron. Perchloride of Iron-This is usually met with as an acid solution in water or in rectified spirit. These solutions are of a red-brown color, and are much employed as medicine. They are sometimes made with wood-spirit or methylated spirit, which gives to them a peculiar odor. Christison relates an instance in which a man, by mistake, swallowed an ounce and a half of such a liquid. symptoms are somewhat like those produced by hydrochloric acid. He at first rallied, but died in about five weeks. The stomach was found partially inflamed, and thickened toward the intestinal end. The stronger solution of the British Pharmacopoeia is very potent when swallowed. A patient in Guy's Hospital swallowed in mistake a fluid drachm of the solution, and was strongly purged by it in a few minutes.

Comparatively small doses of these solutions may seriously affect pregnant women; and among the criminal uses to which they have been put may be mentioned that of procuring abortion. A druggist was convicted (Reg. v. Rumble, Lincoln Lent Assizes, 1863) of having supplied the perchloride to a woman with the intent to procure her miscarriage. The health of the woman was greatly injured by the administration of the liquid. The editor has met with several instances of the administration of ferric chloride to pregnant women with the view of procuring abortion; and for this purpose it is commonly combined with aloes.

PREPARATIONS OF CHROMIUM.

Bichromate of Potassium, or Bichromate of Potash.-Well-observed instances of poisoning by thic compound, which is now extensively used in the arts, are rare; and therefore the details of the following case (Med. Gaz., vol. 33, p. 734) are of interest. A man, æt. 64, was found dead in his bed twelve hours after he had gone to rest; he had been heard to snore loudly, but this had occasioned no alarm to his relatives. When discovered, he was lying on his left side, his lower limbs being a ltttle drawn up to his body; his countenance was pale, placid, and composed; the eyes and mouth were closed and the pupils dilated; there was no discharge from any of the outlets of the body; and there were no signs of

166

PREPARATIONS OF CHROMIUM-ANALYSIS.

vomiting or purging, nor any stain upon the hands or person, nor upon the bed-linen or furniture. The surface was moderately warm. Some dyestuff, in the form of a black powder, was found in his pocket. On inspection, the brain and its membranes were healthy and natural; there was neither congestion nor effusion in any part. The thoracic viscera were healthy, as well as those of the abdomen, with the exception of the liver, which contained several hydatids. A pint of turbid, inky-looking fluid was found in the stomach. The mucous membrane was red and vascular, particularly at the union of the greater end with the gullet; this was ascribed to the known intemperate habits of the deceased. In the absence of any obvious cause for death, poison was suspected; and on analyzing the contents of the stomach they were found to contain bichromate of potassium. The dye-powder taken from the man's pocket consisted of this salt mixed with cream of tartar and sand. The salt does not appear to have acted so much by its irritant properties, as by its effects on the nervous system. This, however, is by no means an unusual occurrence, even with irritants far more powerful than bichromate of potassium. A boy recov ered from the effects of a dose of this salt, but only after the lapse of four months. The first symptoms were pain, vomiting, dilated and fixed pupils, cramps in the legs, and insensibility. His recovery was due to early and active treatment. (Guy's Hosp. Rep., 1850, p. 216.) Another case in which, owing to timely treatment, a man, æt. 37, recovered from a large dose of the salt, was communicated to the author. It seems that with suicidal intent the man swallowed about two ounces of the bichromate in solution, mixed with pearl-ash. In about two hours he was seen by Andrews, and he was then apparently in a dying state. He was suffering chiefly from severe cramps, the pupils were dilated, the pulse was scarcely perceptible, and there was vomiting and purging, with greenish-colored evacuations. The stomach-pump was used, and olive oil and diiuents were given. In about nine hours the urgent symptoms abated, and the man complained only of great pain in the shoulders and legs. There was no gastric irritation nor tenderness of the abdomen. He was discharged, cured, at the end of a week. A woman, æt. 24, died from the effects of this poison taken for the purpose of procuring abortion. The symptoms were those of an irritant-severe pain, vomiting, and purging. (Horn's Vierteljahrsschr., 1886, 2, s. 113.)

This salt, in a state of fine powder, or in a saturated solution, has a local irritant action on the skin and on parts from which the skin has been removed. (Ann. d'Hyg., 1864, 1, 83.). It produces what are called "chronic sores," affecting the hands and exposed parts of the face. According to recent observations, workers in chrome factories of which there are only six in the world-suffer from a peculiar irritation of the septum of the nose, apparently due to the action of bichromate of potassium, which leads to a perforation of the nasal septum (Lancet, 1882, i. p. 169.) Chromic acid is a powerful corrosive poison, destroying all organic textures. (Pharm. Jour., Jan. 1872, p. 568.) Chromate of Lead (Chrome Yellow) is a powerful irritant poison. A dose of a few grains of this pigment has proved fatal. (See case of two boys. N. Syd. Soc. Bien. Retrospect, 1873-4, p. 452.)

Analysis. The bichromate may be recognized by its orange-red color, as well as by the intense yellow color which it gives to water when dissolved. Its solution gives a deep red precipitate with nitrate of silver, a pale yellow with nitrate of barium, and a bright yellow with salts of lead.

The compounds of this metal are now largely used in the arts, and cases of poisoning by it have occurred. Indeed it has recently been proposed to place it in the official list of poisons in Russia. Uranium salts cause severe inflammation of the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, and of the kidneys, and are distinguished from the metallic poisons by acting directly on the walls of the blood vessels, and rendering also the blood reducible with difficulty. In this respect they resemble prussic acid. (See an abstract of the researches of Woroschilsky in Pharm. Jour., 1890-1, p. 206.)

These are the principal metallic irritants; but the compounds of tin, silver, gold, and osmium have also an irritant action. Cases of poisoning by these substances are, however, rare. (See ON POISONS, 3d edit. 1875.)

168

VEGETABLE IRRITANTS-ALOES.

VEGETABLE AND OTHER IRRITANTS.

CHAPTER XV.

VEGETABLE

IRRITANTS.-ALOES.-GELSEMIUM.-SAVIN.-CROTON-OIL.-CASTOR OIL.-COL

CHICUM.-HELLEBORE.-VERATRINE.-CARBOLIC ACID.-RESORCIN.-PETROLEUM.—ANIMAL IRRITANTS CANTHARIDES.-NOXIOUS ANIMAL FOOD.-FISH.-MUSSELS.—Cheese.— SAUSAGE POISON.-PORK.—TRICHINOSIS.-POISONED GAME.-PTOMAÏNES.

General Remarks.-The poisonous substances of an irritant nature which belong to the vegetable kingdom are very numerous as a class; but it will here be necessary to notice only those which have either caused death or have given rise to accidental poisoning.

Aloes. Colocynth. Gamboge. Jalap. Scammony.―These different substances, which are used in small doses as medicines, are liable, when taken frequently or in large quantities, to excite severe vomiting, purging, and other symptoms of irritation. In one case a dose of colocynth (three pennyworth) proved fatal to a woman, æt. 22. She was pregnant, and had taken the drug for procuring abortion, for which purpose it is often used. It operates as a violent irritant. (Pharm. Jour., June 22, 1878, p. 1035.) Christison recorded the death of a young woman from a teaspoonful and a half of the powdered pulp. Roques states that less than sixty grains of the powder, in decoction, has proved fatal; whilst recovery has taken place after three times that amount. (Husemann, Hand. d. Toxicol., p. 625.)

Hierapicra (Holy Bitter) was formerly a popular aloetic compound, and one death is recorded to have been produced by it in 1837-8. There is reason to believe that it is occasionally used for the purpose of procuring criminal abortion. A man was tried and convicted of this offence (Reg. v. White, Aylesbury Lent Ass., 1857), and the noxious properties of this compound then became a subject of legal inquiry. The dose, and the condition of the woman to whom it is administered, will of course affect the answer to this question. At the trial above mentioned, it was properly considered to be a noxious substance within the meaning of the statute. The fact that, under the name of Pulvis Aloes cum Canellâ, it was formerly admitted into the British Pharmacopoeia, cannot justify the mischievous uses to which it may be put. Hierapicra is a snuff-colored powder, of an intensely bitter taste. It consists of four parts by weight of aloes and one part by weight of powdered Canella bark. The proper medicinal dose was formerly fixed at from five to fifteen grains. Its injurious effects on pregnant women are chiefly due to the aloes. This drug specially affects the rectum, and by contiguity, under violent irritation or purging, may affect the uterus. From the taste and color which it imparts to liquids, it is not probable that it could be taken by a woman unknowingly.