The circumstances having been investigated judicially, it appeared that the substance taken was pure Epsom salt; that the father, who was doatingly fond of the child, gave the laxative on account of a trifling illness which he supposed might arise from worms; and that on the most careful inspection of the body, no morbid appearance whatever could be found in any part of it. For the particulars of this singular case, I am indebted to Dr. Dewar of Dunfermline, the medical inspector under the sheriff's warrant. It shows that in certain circumstances even the laxative neutral salts may be irritating enough to cause speedy death.
Of the same nature probably are the cases which have lately led some to ascribe poisonous properties to sulphate of patash , a purgative salt at one time in common use. About three years ago several instances of apparent poisoning with this substance occurred in Paris; and one of them proved fatal. This was the case of a woman, recently delivered, who got 100 grains every fifteen minutes till she had taken six doses. Immediately after the first dose she was seized with severe pain in the stomach, nausea, vomiting, numbness, and cramps in the arms and legs, then with dyspnœa and severe purging, and in two hours she expired. The stomach and intestines were emphysematous, but otherwise healthy; and the stomach contained sulphate of potash, but not a trace of any of the common poisons. The stock of this salt in the shop where it had been purchased was found to be perfectly pure.[1]—A remarkable case of the same kind lately led to a criminal trial in London. A man Haynes was charged with attempting to procure abortion by giving his wife sulphate of potash. It was proved that on two successive evenings he gave her a dose of two ounces of the salt; that she was seized after the first dose with excessive and alarming sickness, from which, however, she soon recovered without apparent harm; but that after the second dose she had violent vomiting and profuse purging, of which she died in five hours, without any alteration in the symptoms, except that she became insensible for five minutes before death. The whole gastro-intestinal mucous membrane was bright red, the vessels of the brain were much congested, and between two and three ounces of blood had escaped from the neighbourhood of the occipital sinus. The salt had been swallowed in a single tumbler of water, so that part of it was undissolved. Mr. Brande, who analyzed the sample which had been used, found it free of all the ordinary irritant poisons. Mr. Coward of Hoxton, to whom I owe the particulars of this singular case, was of opinion, along with other medical gentlemen concerned in it, that death arose from apoplexy brought on by the violent and unceasing vomiting.
Another cathartic, undoubtedly in general very mild in its action, the bitartrate of potash, has also proved fatal, when taken in immoderate quantity. Thus, a man, endeavouring to quench his thirst and cool his stomach the morning after he had been drunk, ate a quarter of a pound of this salt in lumps at once, and a good deal more
- ↑ Annales de Hygiène Publique, 1842, xxvii. 397.
