- ganese.[1] On the other hand, Dr. Thomson of Glasgow has recently
stated that an ounce of sulphate of manganese is an effectual and safe laxative.[2] Uranium is an active poison when injected into a vein, for three grains of the muriate proves fatal instantly; but dogs may swallow fifteen, or from that to sixty grains without any other effect except slight vomiting [Gmelin]. Cobalt is more active. Thirty grains of the oxide occasion death in a few hours through the stomach. Twenty-four grains of the muriate applied to the cellular tissue excite vomiting. Three grains of sulphate injected into a vein prove fatal in four days.—Tungsten, cerium, cadmium, nickel, and titanium can scarcely be considered poisons. Tungstate of ammonia in the dose of a drachm had no effect when swallowed by a dog; forty grains of tungstate of soda, which is more soluble, operated as an emetic; but this dose will prove fatal to rabbits in a few hours. A drachm of the muriate of cerium had little or no effect on a dog, and half that dose had no effect on a rabbit. The oxide of cadmium in the dose of twenty grains, made a dog vomit; and ten grains had no effect at all.[3] Twenty grains of sulphate of nickel made a dog vomit; forty grains applied to the cellular tissue had no effect at all on the general constitution; but ten grains injected into the jugular vein occasioned immediate death [Gmelin]. A drachm of titanic acid had no effect on a dog. CHAPTER XVIII. OF POISONING WITH LEAD. Poisoning with lead is a subject of great consequence in Medical Police, as well as Medical Jurisprudence. Its preparations have been used for the purpose of intentional poisoning. At the Taunton Assizes in March, 1827, a servant-girl was tried for attempting to administer sugar of lead to her mistress in an arrow-root pudding: and although the charge was not made out, it appeared from the prisoner's confession that she really had made the attempt. Sugar of lead has also been often taken by accident. In relation to medical police lead is a subject of great importance. This metal is used in so many forms, and in so many of the arts, and its effects when gradually introduced into the body are so slow and insidious, that instances of its deleterious operation are frequently met with. Such accidents, indeed, are less common now, than they used to be before the late improvements in chemistry. But they are still sufficiently frequent to render it necessary for the toxicologist to investigate the properties of lead attentively. Section I.—Of the Chemical History and Tests for the Preparations of Lead.
The physical characters of lead in its metallic state are familiar to
