Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/351

 of ten minutes was sufficient to render it of no use. It is difficult' however, to perceive why in this respect it should differ from white of egg or any other chemical antidote.

As to the old antidotes for poisoning with corrosive sublimate, such as the alkaline carbonates, the alkaline hydrosulphates, cinchona, mercury, charcoal,—Orfila has given them all a fair trial, and found them all inefficacious. It would appear, however, from a case related in a late American journal, that frequent doses of charcoal powder have much effect in soothing the bowels and allaying the inflammation after the poison is evacuated.

The treatment of mercurial salivation consists in exposure to a cool pure air, nourishing diet, and purgatives, if the intestinal canal is not already irritated. In some of the inflammatory affections it induces, venesection is required; in others it is hurtful. In some complaints induced by mercury, as in iritis, the poison appears to be its own antidote; for nothing checks the inflammation so soon and so certainly as mercurial salivation.

Dr. Finlay of the United States proposed to check mercurial salivation by small doses of tartar emetic frequently repeated, so as to act on the skin; and Mr. Daniell has recommended large doses of the acetate of lead as an effectual antidote for the same purpose. I have tried both of these plans several times with apparant success. In one instance particularly, where a severe salivation was threatened by the administration of six grains of calomel in three doses, and where profuse salivation, ulceration of the tongue and swelling of the face actually did commence with violence, the mercurial affection after a few days rapidly receded under the use of large doses of acetate of lead.—Dr. Klose, a German physician, says he has found iodine to possess the property of arresting the effects of mercury on the mouth. The iodide of potassium is generally acknowledged to be one of the best remedies for eradicating the constitutional infirmities left in many by severe courses of mercury.

A great deal might be said on the treatment of the secondary effects of poisoning with mercury. But a thorough investigation of the subject would lead to such details as would be inconsistent with the other objects of this work.

CHAPTER XV.

OF POISONING WITH COPPER

Poisoning with the salts of copper was not long ago a common accident, in consequence of the metal being much used in the fabrica-*