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.

    222/248 page 194
    STRONG SCENTED LETTUCE. (Lactncce Virosa? Herba.) A narcotic vegetable poison. Symptoms. Inebriety, followed by the other symptoms that characterise poisoning by opium. Test. None. Morbid Appearances and Treatment. The same as in cases of poisoning bv opium. SUGAR OF LEAD. See under Carbonate of Lead. SULPHATE OF COPPER. See under Verdigris. SULPHATE OF ZINC. See White Vitriol. SULPHURIC ACID. {Acidum Sulphuricum.) A corrosive mineral poison. Symptoms. Austere styptic taste in the mouth; a sensation of burning, pain in the throat, gullet, and stomach; nausea, vomiting, and a horrible foetor of the breath. The matter vomited is tinged both by arterial and by venous blood, and air-bubbles form upon the spot if it fall either upon chalk or upon marble. Symptoms of general inflam- mation of the abdominal viscera soon supervene, with difficult respi- ration, and a cough resembling croup ; a frequent, small, concentrated irregular pulse; constant horripilatio ; extreme anxiety and restless- ness ; convulsions of the face and lips; and sometimes a papulous eruption precedes death. The intellect remains entire until the last. Morbid Appearances. The stom ich contains a large quantity of dark grumous matter, and is much distended with foetid gas; its coats are ulcerated, black, and covered with deep corroded spots, an appearance that extends almost through the whole of the alimentary canal, which, in many places, also is, as it were, dissolved, and in many instances perforations take place, and the contents of the stomach are found in the abdominal sac. The mouth and oesophagus present evidences of the highly corrosive properties of the poison. Test. If any of the poison remain, it can be readily recognised by its saponaceous feeling when rubbed between the fingers ; its great specific weight, its property of evolving heat when mixed with water, and by its decomposition and the evolution of sulphurous acid gas on boiling it over mercury. If it be combined with wine or with vinegar, add a solution of nitrate of baryta, when a sulphate of baryta, insoluble in nitric acid, will be formed ; the existence of which, however, must be demonstrated by adding to it an equal weight of charcoal, exposing the mixture, wrapped up in platinum foil, to the heat of a spirit-lamp for ten minutes, then introducing it into a glass tube, and adding a few drops of diluted hydrochloric acid. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas will be evolved, and easily recognised both by the odour of the vapour, and by introducing into the tube a slip of paper rubbed over with carbonate of lead. The contents of the stomach may be tested by boiling them with metallic mercury, which will produce sulphurous acid gas, if sulphuric acid have been the poison. Treatment. Having ascertained the nature of the poison, dilute in- stantly and largely with milk mixed with calcined magnesia, or with soap, or the fixed alkalies ; and treat the secondary symptoms by the means usually employed in inflammation of the intestines. TARTARIC ACID, {Acidum Tartaricum.) A corrosive poison. Symptoms. Nearly the same as those from poisoning by the oxalic acid, but less severe. Morbid Appearances. Very similar to those produced by the oxalic acid. Tests. When heated in a phial, instead of subliming like oxalic acid, it is decomposed, blackens, swells, smokes, and exhales an acrid vapour. It burns with a blue flame, and leaves a spongy charcoal. When its solution is treated with lime-water, the white precipitate is soluble in an excess of the acid: with potash, the precipitated crystals are bi- tartrate of potassa. Treatment. Solutions of the alkalies, or chalk and water, should be
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