TOWNSHIP. 386 TOXICOLOGY. chief governing authority is a township board. The township has a quasi-corporate capacity, being able to own real estate and to sue and be sued, but in performing public governmental du- ties it acts for the State and cannot be held liable for the negligence or tortious acts of its agents. The word township is also applied to the units of the Congressional survey in some of tlie Southern and Western States, these being rectangular areas (5 miles square, each of which is subdivided into 30 sections containing 640 acres. (See diagram under Surveying.) This is probably the most simple system of land division yet established. The Congressional township, as it is sometimes called, is not a public corpora- tion or juristic personality, but a geographical convenience. Consult : Ashley, "The Anglo-Sa.xon Township," in Quarterly Journal of Economics ; Brvee, American Commonwealth (London and New York, 1000). TOWNS'VILLE. A fortified seaport on the east coast of Queensland, Australia, situated on Cleveland Bay, at the mouth of Ross Creek, 748 miles northwest of Brisbane (ilap: Queensland, E 5). It has a cathedral, court bouse, technical school, barracks, etc. Its industrial establish- ments include foundries, distilleries, and meat- packing establishments. It is the terminus of the railway from Hughenden, 236 miles inland, and has an extensive shipping trade : the harbor is tidal, and has been much improved by two long breakwaters, large vessels being enabled to enter. Population, in 1901, 12,717. TOWTON. A parish in Yorkshire, England, about 11 miles southwest of York, noted as the scene of a decisive victory gained by the Y'orkist forces under Edward IV. and the Earl of War- wick over the Lancastrians, commanded by the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Northumber- land, March 29, 1461. The battle is said to have been the most sanguinary ever fought on English soil and according to a contemporary statement twenty-eight thousand men were left dead upon the field. The victory secured Edward IV. (q.v.) in possession of the throne. See Roses, Wars of THE. TOXICOLOGY (from Gk. ro^'i«6i', toxikon, poison, neu. sg. of rofiKOf, toxikos, relating to the bow, from rd^ov, toxon, bow, so called be- cause first used to poison arrow-points + -?Myia, -login, account, from /.c-ieir, leciein. to say). The branch of medical science which treats of the nature of poisons, of their morbific effects on the animal system, of their detection in the organs or tissues of the body, of their antidotes, of "the treatment of poisoning, and, finally, of the legal questions connected with poisoning. A poison may be defined as any substance which when applied to the. body or introduced into the system, in whatever manner, produces death or serious bodily harm. Poisons may enter the body in various ways. The mouth is the usual channel. Poisons may be absorbed by the skin in amounts sufficient to cause death or severe toxic symptoms, as in the case of lotions or salves containing opium, corrosive sublimate, arsenic, carbolic acid, etc. Gaseous or volatile poisons may enter the lungs through the inspired air, e.g. illuminating gas. carbon monoxide, or chlorine. Poisons may gain access to the circulation through ulcerated surfaces or wounds; by direct injection into the tissues, as by hypodermic in- jection, poisoned arrows, or snake-bites ; or they may be introduced by way of the mucous mem- brane of the rectum, vagina, urethra, nose, or eye. Most medicinal agents are poisonous if taken in suflScient quantity, and this quantity varies with the individual, the state of bodily healtli, fullness or emptiness of the stomach, habit, and other circumstances. The inliuence of habit is shown by opium habitues who take enormous doses of the drug without immediate evil effects. A special susceptibility to certain substances is noted in some individuals. This is called idiosyncrasy. Thus, five grains of quinine have nearly killed certain persons, or produced un- pleasant symptoms, as blindness or deafness, in others. Races and individuals, on the other hand, may possess or attain a high degree of im- munity to particular poisons; e.g. the Oriental is much less susceptible to opium than the Euro- pean, and the latter bears alcohol better than savage races. In certain diseases there is a diminished susceptibility to the action of particu- lar poisons, while in others there is increased sensibility. Thus in tetanus (q.v.), hydrophobia, mania, or delirium tremens, doses of various sedatives may be given with benefit which would in health prove fatal ; on the other hand, when there is a predisposition to apoplexj' an ordinary dose of opium may cause death. Some poisons are harmless when taken into the stomach, but violently toxic when injected beneath the skin. Poisons may be classified according to their chemical properties or their physiological action. The latter is the usual and most satisfactory basis, and depends upon the effects of poisons upon the system when it is in a healthy con- dition. According to the physiological classifica- tion poisons are divided into two great groups, viz. (1) the irritants and (2) the neurotics. .
irritant poison is one which when swallowed
produces an irritant effect upon the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal, resulting in nausea, vomiting, purging, pain in the abdomen, cramps in the stomach and other parts of the body. This group is subdivided into (a) cojto- sives, whose action is chiefly local, and (b) the true irritants, whose local effects may be slight, but which produce their characteristic effect after absorption. Manj' drugs act in both ways; for example, oxalic acid and carbolic acid. A neurotic poison is one which acts chiefly on the nervous system, producing drowsiness (nar- cotic), giddiness, headache, delirium (deliri- ant), stupor, coma, convulsions (tetanic), or paralysis. Before proceeding to a systematic considera- tion of poisons a few principles of the general treatment of poisoning may be given. The indi- cations are ( 1 ) to neutralize and render harm- less the poison by the administration of the proper antidote (q.v.) ; (2) to remove the poisOn from the body by inducing vomiting or washing out the stomach; (3) to combat the effects of the poison already absorbed, by giving drugs which are physiologically antagonistic to the one absorbed, and supporting life until the body rids itself of the poisonous substance through the natural excretory channels. Antidotes affect a poison either mechanically or chemically, or both, so as to remove it from the body or alter its
