Thomson's Conspectus of the British pharmacopoeias.

  • Anthony Todd Thomson
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thomson's Conspectus of the British pharmacopoeias. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    208/248 page 180
    local blood-letting on the abdomen; afterwards opiates, and copious dilution with milk and oily demulcents. CONGER. Symptoms. This fish, although it is frequently eaten with impunity, yet has, in some instances, produced all the symptoms of cholera mor- bus, succeeded by paralysis of the lower extremities. Treatment. Evacuate the contents of the stomach and bowels, after having allayed their irritability by opium. Dilute freely with saccha- rine and acidulous liquids; and bleed, if symptoms of inflammation of the lower bowels supervene. COPPER, POISONOUS SALTS OF. See Verdigris. CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. {Hydrargyri Bichloridum.) A corro- sive metallic poison. Symptoms. An acrid, styptic, metallic taste, with the sensation of ful- ness and burning in the throat; copious salivation, but not always; great anxiety; tearing pains of the stomach and intestines; nausea; frequent vomiting of a fluid occasionally mixed with blood ; diarrhoea, tenesmus ; the pulse small, quick, and hard; frequent faintings ; uni- versal debility; difficult respiration; cold sweats; cramps of all the members; convulsions; and death. Morbid Appearances. General inflammation of the first passages; swell- ing and a livid colour of the palate and fauces; epiglottis, trachea, and bronchial tubes injected ; oesophagus of a white colour. In some cases red and black spots have been found in the cavities of the heart; constriction of the intestinal canal, with marks of gangrene, sometimes with perforation of the viscus: and in general the mucous membrane of the stomach is detached. Tests. 1. If the poison be found in the solid state, its nature may be suspected by its sensible qualities; but to ascertain the truth, mix the suspected substance with an equal weight of very dry carbonate of potassa; then put the mixture into a small glass tube, and heat it gradually to redness ; if it be corrosive sublimate, mercury will be ob- tained in metallic globules. 2. If the suspected poison be a fluid and a colourless liquid, place in it a wire of clean polished copper twisted round a sovereign, and allow it to remain for a short time, when the gold will be covered with a white coating that will acquire a metallic lustre when rubbed, if corrosive sublimate be the poison ; or pour into it lime-water, or liquor potassae, which will produce an oranges-yellow precipitate, if the salt be present. The solution of iodide of potassium will precipitate scarlet biniodide of mercury. 3. Drop a little of the solution on the back of a gold watch, and whilst holding the watch in one hand, touch it with a knife or a key held in the other; an amalgam will be instantly formed on the gold if the poison be corrosive sublimate. 4. If the solvent be wine, coffee, or any coloured liquid, agitate it slowly for ten minutes in a phial, with two or three drachms of eether; then, after the fluids have separated by rest, pour off the aether, and evaporate it in a small porcelain capsule. If corrosive sublimate be present, it will remain in a crystallized form in the capsule; and that it is that salt may be proved by dissolving these crystals in water, and precipitating the solution, as already described, with lime-water, or solution of potassa, or iodide of potassium. 5. If we have only the contents of the stomach to act upon, coil a copper wire round a sovereign or a piece of gold, and, having acidulated with nitric acid, drop this pile in the fluid. If corrosive sublimate be the poison, a precipitate of metallic mercury will be formed on the gold. 6. To the suspected solution, add a solutiou of protochloride of tin; then, after a short time, add more, and leave the precipitate to sub- side. Pour off the fluid, and wash repeatedly the precipitate; a glo- bule of mercury will remain. Treatment. Give large quantities of white of egg diluted in water in
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