Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/241

 irritation or inflammation along the course of the alimentary canal. Such cases are the most frequent of all. The person commonly survives twenty-four hours, seldom more than three days; but instances of the kind have sometimes proved fatal in a few hours, and others have lasted for weeks. On the whole, however, if the case is much shorter than twenty-four hours, or longer than three days, its complexion is apt to be altered. In the mildest examples of the present variety recovery takes place after a few attacks of vomiting, and slight general indisposition for a day or two.

In regard to the ordinary progress of the symptoms, the first of a decisive character are sickness and faintness. It is generally thought indeed that the first symptom is an acrid taste; but this notion has been already shown to be erroneous. For some account of the sensations felt in the act of swallowing the poison, the reader may refer to what has been stated in p. 200. There is no doubt, that in the way in which arsenic is usually given with a criminal intent, namely, mixed with articles of food, it seldom makes any impression at all upon the senses during the act of swallowing.

In some instances the sickness and faintness, particularly when the poison was taken in solution, have begun a few minutes after it was swallowed. Thus in a case mentioned by Bernt, in which a solution of arseniate of potass was taken, the symptoms began violently in fifteen minutes; in one related by Wildberg, where the oxide was given in coffee, the person was affected immediately on taking the second cup; in one related by Mr. Edwards, the patient was taken ill in eight minutes, in one mentioned by M. Lachèse of Angers, violent symptoms commenced within ten minutes after the poison was swallowed with prunes; in a case communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Stallard of Leicester, the symptoms set in with violence ten minutes after it was taken dissolved in tea; nay, in a case of poisoning with orpiment in soup, mentioned by Valentini, the man felt unwell before he had finished his soup, and set it aside as disagreeable. It is a mistake therefore to suppose, as I have known some do, that arsenic never begins to operate for at least half an hour. Nevertheless it must be admitted, that in general arsenic does not act for half an hour after it is swallowed.—On the other hand, its operation is seldom delayed beyond an hour. The following, however, are exceptions to this rule. Lachèse in the paper quoted above mentions an instance where the interval was two hours, and where the issue was eventually fatal. The arsenic had been in very coarse powder. Mr. Macaulay of Leicester has communicated to me a case where the individual took the poison at eight in the evening, went to bed at half-past nine, and slept till eleven, when he awoke with slight pain in the stomach, vomiting, and cold sweats. In this instance the dose was seven drachms, and death took place in nine hours. M. Dever-*