Mr. Brett has described a case, in which the symptoms were occasional vomiting, stupor, languid pulse, cold clamminess of the skin, afterwards severe cramps of the legs, tenderness of the abdomen, dysuria, and some purging, and on the third day ptyalism; but the patient recovered.[1] M. Devergie has given a case somewhat similar, but without any ptyalism having followed the irritant effects of the poison.[2] In 1840 I was consulted on the part of the Crown in the case of a girl, who, there was every reason to suppose, had been killed in twelve hours by red-precipitate. The symptoms towards the close were pain in the throat, inability to swallow, vomiting, and excessive prostration; extensive red patches were found on the villous coat of the stomach after death; and I detected mercury in the solid contents and likewise in the inner coat of the stomach. The case did not go to trial, because, although a man by whom she was pregnant came under some suspicion, it rather appeared that the deceased had herself swallowed the poison with the view of inducing miscarriage. Dr. Sobernheim has given the particulars of the case of a young man who died from swallowing an ounce of red-precipitate. He suffered for some hours from vomiting, diarrhœa, pain in the stomach, tenderness of the belly, and colic; next day he had no pain, but coldness, lividity, stiffness, and an imperceptible pulse; and he expired in thirty-three hours. The poison was found abundantly in the stomach and duodenum after death, and some grains of it rested upon little ulcers.[3] As to Turbith-mineral, two scruples will kill a cat in four hours and a half; and several instances of violent and even fatal poisoning with it are mentioned by the older modern authors.[4]
The white precipitate or chloride of mercury and ammonia is probably also irritant, though inferior in power to the preparations just mentioned. Two scruples given to a dog occasion vomiting, pain, and some diarrhœa; and cases are recorded of death in the human subject from less doses.[5] But there are no recent facts as to the activity of this compound, and the older cases, which would assign to it very great energy, are open to the objection that this preparation was in former times often impure.
The bichloride or corrosive sublimate is a powerful corrosive or irritant, according to the dose and state of concentration; and it also excites mercurial erethysm in a violent degree. The nitrates too are corrosive, and not inferior in activity to the bichloride, as may be inferred from Dr. Bigsby's case, noticed at page 314.
The bicyanide or prussiate of mercury, from the researches of Ollivier, and an interesting case he has published of poisoning with it in the human subject, appears to resemble corrosive sublimate closely in all its effects, except that it does not corrode chemically. Twenty-three grains and a half proved fatal in nine days.[6] M. Thibert has described a case in which ten grains caused death in the same
