Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/648

 *jaw, or subsultus tendinum; and occasionally much abrupt agitation of the extremities. But well-marked convulsions do not appear to be ever present.

The effects now detailed are by no means so quickly dissipated as those of opium. Almost every person who has taken a considerable dose has been ill for a day at least. The case from Sedillot's Journal lasted three days, delirium having continued twelve hours, the succeeding stupor for nearly two days, and the departure of the stupor being attended with a return of delirium for some hours longer. One of Mr. Brumwell's patients, too, was delirious for three days; and Plenck has noticed several instances where the delirium was equally tedious. . Sage has related a case in which the individual was comatose for thirty hours. Blindness is also a very obstinate symptom, which sometimes remains after the affection of the mind has disappeared. This happened in Plenck's cases. In two children whose cases have been described in a late French journal, the eyes were insensible to the brightest light for three days. In general, the dilated state of the pupils continues long after the other symptoms have departed. It further appears from an official narrative in Rust's Journal, that dilated pupil is not the only symptom which may thus continue, but that various nervous affections, such as giddiness, disordered vision, and tremors, may prevail even for three or four weeks.

Hitherto little or no mention has been made of symptoms of irritation from this poison. They are in fact uncommon, and seldom violent. In the cases related by Gaultier de Claubry and by Mr. Brumwell, dryness and soreness of the throat and difficult deglutition were remarked, and appear not unusual. These symptoms were especially noticed by Buchner, who by way of curiosity took half a drachm of seeds digested in beer. The sense of dryness and constriction of the throat were such as to prevent him swallowing even the saliva. Sage's patient passed blood by stool; and after the symptoms of narcotic poisoning ceased, he had aphthous inflammation in the throat, and swallowing was so difficult as for some time to excite convulsive struggles. Aphthæ in the throat and swelling of the belly also succeeded the delirium in Munnik's case. Mr. Wibmer alludes to the case of a man who, besides difficult deglutition at the beginning, had violent strangury towards the close. An instance of violent strangury with suppression of urine and bloody micturition is also related by M. Jolly. In the early stage, the patient had redness of the throat and burning along the whole alimentary canal, combined with the customary delirium and loss of consciousness. The symptoms were caused by forty-six grains of the extract given by mistake instead of jalap. Nausea and efforts to vomit are not infrequent at the commencement.

If the accident be taken in time, poisoning with belladonna is