Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/198

 system. He remarked that three ounces of the solution, commonly sold in Paris under the name of Labarraque's disinfecting liquid, caused immediate death by coagulating the blood in the heart, when injected into a vein in a dog. Two ounces introduced into the peritonæum excited palpitation, oppressed breathing, constant restlessness, and death in ten minutes; and three drachms did not prove fatal for some hours, tetanic spasms being produced in the first instance, and peritonæal inflammation being found after death. One ounce introduced into the stomach of a dog excited immediate vomiting, and no farther inconvenience; and two ounces retained by a ligature on the gullet brought on violent efforts to vomit, from which the animal was gradually recovering, when it was killed in twenty*-four hours for the sake of observing the appearances. The stomach was found generally inflamed and interspersed with dark, gangrenous-like spots.

I am not acquainted with any case of poisoning with these substances in the human subject. But it is probable that symptoms of pure irritation and inflammation will occur, and that moderate doses may prove fatal.

CHAPTER X.

OF POISONING WITH LIME.

Lime, the last poison of the present group, is a substance of little interest to the toxicologist, as its activity is not great.

Its physical and chemical properties need not be minutely described. It is soluble, though sparingly, in water; and the solution turns the vegetable blues green, restores the purple of reddened litmus, gives a white precipitate with a stream of carbonic acid gas, and with oxalic acid a very insoluble precipitate, which is not redissolved by an excess of the test.

Its action is purely irritant. Orfila has found that a drachm and a half of unslaked lime, given to a little dog, caused vomiting and slight suffering for a day only, but that three drachms killed the same animal in five days, vomiting, languor, and whining being the only symptoms, and redness of the throat, gullet, and stomach, the only morbid appearances.

Though a feeble poison, it has nevertheless proved fatal in the human subject. Gmelin takes notice of the case of a boy who swallowed some lime in an apple-pie, and died in nine days, affected with thirst, burning in the mouth, burning pain in the belly, and obstinate constipation. A short account of a case of this kind of poisoning is also given by Balthazar Timæus. A young woman, afflicted with pica or depraved appetite, took to the eating of quicklime; and in consequence she was attacked with pain and gnawing in the