that we could not, by means of ether, separate a particle of sulphuric acid from an ounce of rice soup and mucilage to which ten drops of the acid had been added. The process of Orfila for establishing the absence of bases in a simple watery solution is applicable to organic mixtures also, after incineration. But if bases be present in material quantity, all the difficulties now in question remain in full force.
b. When the mixture is neutral, sulphuric acid may be detected in it by the first steps of the preceding process. But the inference, that it once existed free can only be drawn when the subject of examination is not in a state of decay, when the quantity of sulphate of baryta obtained is considerable, when the administration of an antidote is proved, and when the ashes after incineration contain the antacid base which is said to have been administered. Even then the inference is only presumptive. Section II.—Of the Mode of Action of Sulphuric Acid, and the Symptoms caused by it in Man.
It was formerly observed that the action of the strong mineral acids is independent of the function of absorption. They act by the conveyance along the nerves of an impression produced by the irritation or destruction of the part to which they are applied. There is very little difference between the three acids in the symptoms they excite or the action they exert.
When sulphuric acid is introduced directly into a vein it causes death by coagulating the blood. Thus, when Professor Orfila injected in the jugular vein of a dog half a drachm diluted with an equal weight of water, he observed that the animal at once struggled violently, stretched out its limbs, and expired; and on opening the chest immediately, he found the heart and great vessels filled with coagulated blood.[1]—Nitric acid and hydrochloric acid act in the same way.
If, on the other hand, they are introduced into the stomach, the blood as usual remains fluid for some time after death; the symptoms are referrible almost solely to the abdomen; and in the dead body the stomach is found extensively disorganised, and the other abdominal viscera sometimes inflamed. If the dose be large, and the animal fasting, death may take place in so short a time as three hours: but in general it lives much longer.[2]
When the strong mineral acids are applied outwardly, they irritate, inflame, or corrode the skin. The most rapid in producing these effects is the nitric, or rather the nitrous acid. The strong, fuming nitrous acid even causes effervescence when dropped on the skin.
Orfila has proved that sulphuric acid, as well as the two other mineral acids, is absorbed; for they may be detected in the urine, when they are introduced either into the stomach or through a
