- bonate of soda, and consequently impregnated with an appreciable
proportion of hydriodate of potass.[1]
It is difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusions from these statements as to the nature and energy of the action of this salt as a poison. But on the whole it appears to be not in general very active; and the few instances of unusual activity which have occurred may probably be put to the account of idiosyncrasy. The most remarkable of its idiosyncratic effects from medicinal doses are salivation, and a series of symptoms which imitate sometimes catarrh, and sometimes a cold in the head. I do not know any facts to warrant the general statement of M. Devergie that 18 or 30 grains may constitute a fatal dose.[2] The present question is far from being unimportant in a medico-legal point of view. Mr. A. Taylor mentions the heads of a case, very dubious however in its nature, where it was suspected that a single dose of six grains of iodide of potassium had been the occasion of death.[3]
It is important to remember in medico-legal researches, that iodide of potassium may be detected in the blood, liver, spleen, muscles, urine, and other textures and secretions; and especially that it may be found in the urine, when it may no longer exist in the alimentary canal or in vomited matters. These interesting facts have been clearly proved by the researches of Wöhler,[4] Stehberger,[5] O'Shaughnessey,[6] and Dr. Cogswell.[7]
Of Poisoning with Bromine.—This singular substance is not an object of much interest in relation to medical jurisprudence, because it is rare, and only to be met with in the laboratory of the chemist. Hence, although it appears to be a poison of some activity, it scarcely requires to be dwelt on particularly.
It is easily known from all other substances by its fluidity, its great density, which is thrice as great as that of water, its reddish-brown colour by reflected, and blood-red colour by transmitted light, the orange fumes which occupy the upper part of a bottle partly filled with it, and its intensely acrid suffocating vapour, which is so irritating that an incautious inhalation is followed by all the phenomena of severe coryza and catarrh. Its odour, however, apart from its acridity, is very far from being so disagreeable as its discoverer in naming it seems to have imagined. In its properties it bears a close resemblance to chlorine and iodine.
The toxicological effects and medico-legal relations of bromine have
- ↑ This adulteration and its effects have been indicated by various chemists. For the best account, see Chevallier, sur les falsifications qu'on fait subir au sel marin, Annales d'Hyg. Publ. et de Méd. Lég. viii. 250. At one time he found about a third of the salt in Paris thus sophisticated.
- ↑ Cours de Médecine-Légale, 1840, iii. 183.
- ↑ Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, p. 38.
- ↑ Zeitschrift für Physiologie, ii.
- ↑ Ibidem.
- ↑ Lancet, 1830-31, i. 613.
- ↑ Experimental Essay on Iodine, &c. 1837, p. 91.
