There were some dark red patches on the villous coat of the stomach, and a general blush pervaded the whole alimentary canal, which was empty of every thing but a reddish-brown mucus. The intestines were in several places irregularly contracted and hard. The stomach, small intestines, and rectum contained iron in large quantity, dissolved either by sulphuric or hydrochloric acid. Sulphate of iron was found in the house.—No trial took place in this instance either, because there was a want of evidence to attach guilt to any particular individual, although it was highly improbable that the woman had taken the poison herself.[1]
A short notice may here be added of the toxicological effects of the rarer metals, which have been examined chiefly by Professor Gmelin of Tübingen.[2]—Oxide of osmium is nearly as active as arsenic, for a grain and a half will kill a dog in a few hours by the stomach, and in one hour through a vein. Twelve grains of hydrochlorate of platinum will kill a dog within a day through the stomach, with symptoms of pure irritation; and so will half that quantity through a vein.—The hydrochlorates of iridium and rhodium are rather less active.—The hydrochlorate of palladium is equally powerful when introduced into the stomach, and much more so through a vein, for two-thirds of a grain will kill dogs in a minute.
The salts of other metals appear less active.—Molybdenum, in the form of molybdate of ammonia, seems a feeble poison; thirty grains killed a rabbit in two hours, but produced in dogs merely some vomiting and purging; and ten grains injected into the jugular vein did not prove fatal.—Manganese, according to Gmelin, is likewise a feeble poison, but has peculiar effects. A drachm of the sulphate killed a rabbit in an hour. Thirty grains swallowed by a dog had no effect. Two drachms thrust into the cellular tissue had no effect. Twelve grains injected into a vein occasioned death in five days: and in the dead body, the stomach, duodenum, and liver were found much inflamed. Manganesic acid, according to Professor Hünefeld, appears also to act on the liver, but is a feeble poison. A rabbit received two drachms in three days in doses of ten or fifteen grains, without presenting any symptom except increased flow of urine. Being then killed, the liver was found soft, at one part bright-red, elsewhere dark-brownish-red, and it yielded manganese by incineration.[3] Some singular observations have been lately published by Dr. Couper of Glasgow, the purport of which is, that manganese belongs to the class of insidious, cumulative poisons, and that it has the property of slowly bringing on, in those who breathe or handle the oxide, a paraplegic affection which is incurable unless taken under treatment early. Five cases of the kind occurred subsequently to 1828, in the great chemical manufactory of Tennant and Company, among the workmen employed in grinding the black oxide of man-*
