This variety of poisoning has been hitherto observed only under the three following circumstances,—when the dose of poison was large,—when it was in little masses,—or when it was in a state of solution. The mode in which the first and last circumstances operate is evident; they facilitate the absorption of a large quantity of arsenic in a short space of time, so that its remote action begins before local inflammation is fully developed. But it is not easy to see how any such effect can flow from the arsenic being in little masses. It is also to be observed that none of the circumstances here mentioned is invariable in its operation. An instance is related in Rust's Magazine, of the customary signs of irritation having been produced even by the solution.[1]
On the whole, the present variety of poisoning is rather uncommon, and indeed, although the attention of the profession was pointedly called to it even in the first edition of the present work, its existence does not seem to be so generally known as it ought to be.[2] It may be right therefore to specify the cases which have been published.
In the Medical and Philosophical Journal of New York,[3] is related the case of a druggist, who swallowed an ounce of powdered arsenic at once, and died in eight hours, after two or three fits of vomiting, with slight pain and heat in the stomach.—A similar case has been related by Metzger. A young woman died in a few hours, after suffering from trivial diarrhœa, pain in the stomach and strangury; her death was immediately preceded by slight convulsions and fits of suffocation; and on dissection the stomach and intestines were found quite healthy. Half an ounce of arsenic was found in the stomach.[4]—A third case similar in its particulars to the two preceding was submitted to me for investigation by the sheriff of this county in 1825. The subject, a girl fourteen years of age, took about ninety grains, and died in five hours, having vomited once or twice, complained of some little pain in the belly, and been affected towards the close with great faintness and weakness. The stomach and intestines were healthy.[5]—A fourth case allied to these is succinctly told in the Medical and Physical Journal. The person expired in five hours; and vomiting never occurred, even though emetics were given.[6]—A fifth has been related by M. Gérard of Beauvais. The subject was a man so addicted to drinking, that his daily allowance was a pint of brandy. When first seen, there was so much tranquillity, that doubts were entertained whether arsenic had really been swallowed; but at length he was discovered actually chewing it. This state continued
- ↑ Magazin für die gesammte Heilkunde, xxii. 483.
- ↑ This statement might be excellently illustrated by the particulars of an English trial in 1842, where the prisoner escaped, though arsenic was found in the stomach of the deceased, because the judge, resting on the medical evidence, urged that arsenic caused so much pain in the stomach as generally to make the person shriek with agony, while in this case there was no uneasiness except pain in the head. As the case, however, was by no means creditable to the parties concerned in it, I shall rest satisfied with the present allusion.
- ↑ Vol. iii. quoted in Kopp's Jahrbuch, vii. 401.
- ↑ Materialien für die Staatsarzneikunde, ii. 95.
- ↑ Edin. Med. Chir. Transactions, ii. 298.
- ↑ Lond. Med. Phys. Journal, xxxiv.
