ambiguity still prevails as to its mode of action and the circumstances by which the action is regulated.
The attention of toxicologists in their physiological researches has been chiefly turned to the more active preparations of mercury, and especially to corrosive sublimate, when given in such quantity as to prove fatal in a few days at farthest. The more immediate and prominent properties of corrosive sublimate have consequently received some elucidation. But its qualities as a slow poison, as well as the analogous operation of the less active compounds of mercury, have not been experimentally examined with the same care: indeed it is questionable whether the phenomena of the latter description as they occur in man can be studied with much advantage by means of experiments on animals.—In treating of the mode in which the compounds of mercury act, the most convenient method will be to consider at present its action in the form of corrosive sublimate in large doses as ascertained by late experiments, and to reserve the consideration of the general action of mercurial poisons at large till their effects on man have been fully described.
The mode of action of corrosive sublimate has been examined particularly by Sir B. Brodie in 1812;[1] by Dr. Campbell in 1813.[2] by M. Smith in 1815,[3] by M. Gaspard in 1821,[4] and more lately by Professor Orfila.[5] The following is a short analysis of their experiments and results.
The leading phenomena remarked by Sir B. Brodie, on large doses being introduced into the stomach, were very rapid death, corrosion of the stomach, and paralysis of the heart. In rabbits and cats, from six to twenty grains, injected in a state of solution into the stomach, produced in a few minutes insensibility and laborious breathing, then convulsions, and death immediately afterwards,—the whole duration of the poisoning varying from five to twenty-five minutes. After death the inner membrane of the stomach was gray, brittle, and here and there pulpy,—changes precisely the same with those produced by corrosive sublimate on the dead stomach. When the chest was opened immediately after death, the heart was found either motionless or contracting feebly; and in both circumstances the blood in its left cavities was arterial.
These experiments make it evident that the brain was acted on as well as the heart, and that the immediate cause of death was stoppage of the heart's action. But they do not show whether the action takes place through absorption, or by a primary nervous impression transmitted along the nerves.
I am not acquainted with any other experiments of consequence on the operation of corrosive sublimate when introduced into the alimentary canal. But some interesting observations have been made by Campbell, Smith, Gaspard, and Orfila severally as to its effects
