Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/744

 deal of the oil, some water, and likewise some extravasated blood. Its villous coat was thick, covered with red points, corrugated into prominent rugæ, but not eroded. The intestines also presented signs of irritation, but in an inferior degree. Dr. Kurtze, a German author, mentions that the impure oil [Oleum Animale Fœtidum] was given with malicious intention in repeated doses to an infant eighteen days old, whom he attended, and that it caused crying and vomiting; and he quotes Froriep's Notizen, for the case of a woman of thirty, who swallowed nearly two ounces, and, after repeated attacks of vomiting, threw herself into a well and was drowned.

These facts seem to establish sufficiently the propriety of arranging the empyreumatic oils among the narcotico-acrids.

Oil of turpentine possesses somewhat similar properties; but is much less active. It was found by Professor Schubarth, that two drachms of this oil administered to a dog produced immediate staggering, cries, tetanus, failure of the pulse and breathing, and death in three minutes; and in the dead body he remarked flaccidity of the heart, gorging of the lungs, and redness of the stomach. It is likewise well known to be a powerful poison for vermin, such as lice, fleas, and worms.—On man its effects are capricious. It is frequently used along with other laxatives against obstinate constipation of the bowels, and either in the same manner or alone as a remedy for intestinal worms. For these purposes it has been at times administered in very large doses, for example in the quantity of two, three, or four ounces, without any other effect than brisk purging. But on the other hand it has sometimes, in much inferior doses, induced violent hypercatharsis, or acted severely on the urinary organs, producing strangury and bloody micturition, or affected the brain, producing a state like intoxication, followed by trance for many hours. I am not aware that it has ever proved fatal.

Oil of tar, a composite substance obtained by the distillation of wood-tar, is another pyrogenous fluid of poisonous properties. Messrs. Slight of Portsmouth have related the case of a seaman, who, after taking nearly four ounces by mistake for spirits, was attacked with frequent vomiting of a matter having a strong odour of tar, attended with excessive pain in the bowels and loins. Nothing was done for his relief till about seven hours afterwards, when he was freely bled and purged, with immediate relief; and next morning he was so better as to be able to resume his work. The urine had a strong tarry odour, and for some time he suffered from heat in passing it. A case occurred in the London Hospital, in which the symptoms were very different. A lad of eighteen, while intoxicated, took two or three draughts of oil of tar, although aware of its being poisonous. Not long afterwards he became insensible, and had laborious, rattling re-*