- plained of pain in the stomach, then of a tendency to faint, and at
last he was seized with violent bilious vomiting. Soon after that he felt colic pains extending throughout the whole bowels, and accompanied ere long with profuse and unceasing diarrhœa. The pulse at the same time was small and contracted, and his strength failed completely; but the symptom which distressed him most was frequent rending cramp in the legs. He remained in this state for about six hours, and then recovered gradually under the use of cinchona and opium; but for some time afterwards he was liable to weakness of digestion.[1]
The next case to be mentioned, where the dose was forty grains, proved fatal, although the person vomited soon after taking it. The symptoms illustrate well the compound narcotico-acrid action often observed in animals. The poison was taken voluntarily. Before the person was seen by M. Récamier, who relates the case, he had been nearly two days ill with vomiting, excessive purging, and convulsions. On the third day he had great pain and tension in the region of the stomach, and appeared like a man in a state of intoxication. In the course of the day the whole belly became swelled, and at night delirium supervened. Next day all the symptoms were aggravated; towards evening the delirium became furious; convulsions followed; and he died during the night, not quite five days after taking the poison.[2]
Severe effects have also been caused by so small a dose as six grains. A woman, who swallowed this quantity, wrapped in paper, was seized in half an hour with violent vomiting, which soon became bloody. In two hours the decoction of cinchona was administered with much relief. But she had severe colic, diarrhœa, pain in the stomach, and some fever; of which symptoms she was not completely cured for five days.[3] A case has been published, where a dose of only four grains caused pain in the belly, vomiting, and purging, followed by convulsions, failure of the pulse, and loss of speech; and recovery took place very slowly.[4] Under the head of the treatment another case will be noticed where half a drachm excited severe symptoms, and was probably prevented from proving fatal only by the timely use of antidotes.
While these examples prove that tartar-emetic is occasionally an active irritant in the dose of a scruple or less, it must at the same time be admitted to be uncertain in its action as a poison. This appears from the late employment of it in large doses as a remedy for inflammation of the lungs. The administration of tartar-emetic in large doses was a common enough practice so early as the seventeenth century, and was also occasionally resorted to by physicians between that and the present time. But it is only in late years that, by the recommendations of Professor Rasori of Milan,[5] and M.
