In another the symptoms are at first the same as in the former, but subsequently become united with salivation and inflammation of the mouth, or some of the other disorders incident to mercurial erethysm, as it is called. In a third variety the preliminary stage of irritation in the alimentary canal is wanting, and the symptoms are from beginning to end those of mercurial erethysm in one or another of its multifarious forms.
The first variety of poisoning with mercury is remarked only in those who have taken considerable doses of its soluble salts, particularly corrosive sublimate. The second is produced by the same preparations. The third may be caused by any mercurial compound.
1. The symptoms in the first variety are very like what occur in the ordinary cases of poisoning with arsenic,—namely, vomiting, especially when any thing is swallowed, violent pain in the pit of the stomach, as well as over the whole belly, and profuse diarrhœa. But there exist between the effects of the two poisons some shades of difference which it is necessary to attend to.
In the first place,—taking corrosive sublimate as the best example of the preparations which cause this variety of poisoning with mercury,—the symptoms generally begin much sooner than those caused by arsenic. The symptoms of irritation in the throat may begin immediately, nay, even during the very act of swallowing;[1] and those in the stomach may appear either immediately,[2] or within five minutes.[3]
Secondly, the taste is much more unequivocal and strong. Even a small quantity of corrosive sublimate, either in the solid or fluid state, and considerably diluted, has so strong and so horrible a taste, that no one could swallow it in a form capable of causing much irritation in the stomach, without being at once made sensible by the taste that he had taken something unusual and injurious. Occasionally, indeed, persons thus warned of their danger while in the act of swallowing the poison, have stopped in time to escape fatal consequences.[4]
Thirdly, the sense of acridity which it excites in the gullet during the act of deglutition, and throughout the whole course of the subsequent inflammation of the alimentary canal, is usually much stronger. If the dose be not small, or largely diluted, or in the solid form, the sense of tightness, acridity, or burning in the throat and gullet during deglutition is often far greater than ever occurs at any stage in the instance of arsenic; and sometimes it is very severe even when corrosive sublimate is taken in the solid form.[5] The tightness and
- ↑ Hodgson's Trial, Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, xxii. 439, also a case by Mr. Blacklock, Ibid. xxxvi. 92.
- ↑ Case by Ollivier in Archives Gén. de Méd. ix. 100; also one by Mr. Valentine, Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, xiv. 471.
- ↑ Case by Fontenelle, Arch. Gén de Méd v. 345; also Hodgson's Trial.
- ↑ Hodgson's Trial; also Orfila, Tox. Gén. i. 263: and Mr. Valentine's 5th case, the only survivor.
- ↑ Hodgson's Trial; also Mr. Buchanan's case in Lond. Med. Repos. xix. 374.
