throughout the day afterwards. He was in consequence attacked with incessant vomiting, frequent purging, and other signs of irritation in the alimentary canal. He died on the third day; and the stomach and bowels were found much inflamed.[1]
Even common salt has been known to act as a poison when taken in large quantity. A striking instance of the kind occurred in London in September, 1828. A man, who had been in the custom of exhibiting various feats of gluttony, proposed to some of his comrades one afternoon to sup a pound of common salt in a pint of ale, and actually finished his nauseous dish, but not without being warned of his imprudence by an attack of vomiting in the middle of it. He was soon after seized with all the symptoms of irritant poisoning, and died within twenty-four hours. The stomach and intestines were found after death excessively inflamed.[2] This remarkable case is not without its parallel. In 1839, a girl in the North of England died in consequence of taking upwards of half a pound of salt as a vermifuge.[3] Not long ago I met with an instance of somewhat similar, but less violent effects. A student having taken upwards of two ounces of salt as an emetic, dissolved in a small quantity of water, was seized with acute burning pain in the stomach, tenderness in the epigastrium and great anxiety, without any vomiting until he drank a large quantity of warm water as a remedy. Before I saw him he had vomited freely, but still suffered severe, intermitting pain, which was removed by a large dose of muriate of morphia.
In France, though not hitherto, so far as I know, in Britain, several instances have occurred of extensive sickness in particular districts, which have been traced to the accidental adulteration of common salt with certain deleterious articles. In an investigation conducted by M. Guibourt, in consequence of several severe accidents having been produced apparently by salt in Paris and at Meaux, oxide of arsenic was detected;[4] and this discovery was subsequently confirmed by MM. Latour and Lefrançois, who ascertained that the proportion of arsenic was sometimes a quarter of a grain per ounce.[5] Another singular adulteration which appears fully more frequent is with hydriodate of soda. At a meeting of the Parisian Academy of Medicine in December, 1829, a report was read by MM. Boullay and Delens, subsequent to an inquiry by M. Sérullas, into the nature of a sample of salt which appears to have occasioned very extensive ravages. In 1829, various epidemic sicknesses in certain parishes were suspected to have arisen from salt of bad quality. In the month of July no less than 150 persons in two parishes were attacked, some with pain in the stomach, nausea, slimy and even bloody purging, others with tension of the belly, puffiness of the face, inflammation of the eyes and swelling of the legs; and in several parishes in the Department of the Marne a sixth part of the population was similarly affected. The salt being suspected to be the source of the mischief,
