The following abstract of a case by M. Biett of Paris gives a rational and unexaggerated account of the symptoms as they commonly appear. A young man, in consequence of a trick of his companions, took a drachm of the powder. Soon afterwards he was seized with a sense of burning in the throat and stomach; and in about an hour with violent pain in the lower belly. When M. Biett saw him, his voice was feeble, breathing laborious, and pulse contracted; and he had excessive thirst, but could not swallow any liquid without unutterable anguish. He was likewise affected with priapism. The pain then became more extensive and severe, tenesmus and strangury were added to the symptoms, and after violent efforts he succeeded in passing by the anus and urethra only a few drops of blood. By the use of oily injections into the anus and bladder, together with a variety of other remedies intended to allay the general irritation of the mucous membranes, he was considerably relieved before the second day; but even then he continued to complain of great heat along the whole course of the alimentary canal, occasionally priapism, and difficult micturition. For some months he laboured under difculty of swallowing.[1]—Another case very similar in its circumstances has been related by M. Rouquayrol. In addition to the symptoms observed in Biett's patient there was much salivation, and towards the close of the second day a large cylindrical mass, apparently the inner membrane of the gullet, was discharged by vomiting.[2]—A case of the same kind, but less severe, is related in the Medical Gazette. A woman, who had taken an ounce of the tincture, was observed throughout the day to be apparently intoxicated. Next morning, when she for the first time told what she had done, she had excruciating pain, great tenderness and distension of the belly, a flushed anxious countenance, a dry, pale tongue, a natural pulse, and urine loaded with sediment and fibrinous matter. In the evening there was extreme weakness, cold extremities, a scarcely perceptible pulse, and retention of urine; and at night she was delirious. After this she recovered progressively, the chief symptoms then being pain in the kidneys and inability to pass urine.[3]
Among the symptoms the affection of the throat, causing difficult deglutition and even an aversion to liquids, appears to be pretty constant. The sense of irritation along the gullet and in the stomach is also generally considerable. Sometimes it is attended with bloody vomiting, as in four cases related by Dr. Graaf of Langenburg;[4] and at other times, as in the instance of poisoning with the acids, there is vomiting of membranous flakes. These have been mistaken for the lining membrane of the alimentary canal, but are really in general a morbid secretion.[5] At the same time there is reason to believe that a portion of the membrane of the gullet was discharged
- ↑ Orfila, Toxicol. Gén. ii. 28.
- ↑ Annales de la Med. Physiologique, Octobre, 1829—extracted in Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, xxxiv. 214.
- ↑ London Medical Gazette, 1841-42, i. 63.
- ↑ Hufeland's Journal der Praktischen Heilkunde, lii. 2, 112.
- ↑ See an interesting case in Memorie della Soc. Med. di Genova, ii. 1, p. 29.
