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.

    224/248 page 196
    catharsis, embarrassed respiration, tetanic spasms, which generally terminate in death. Morbid Appearances. Indications of severe inflammation of the mucous membrane, ulcerations of the stomach and duodenum. Tests. A white, inodorous, uncrystallizable powder, which excites violent sneezing when applied to the nostrils; it is scarcely soluble in water, very soluble in alcohol and aether; sulphuric acid first colours it yellow, then red, and lastly violet. Treatment. Copious dilution with demulcents; bleeding, and other antiphlogistic means. VERDIGRIS, (JErugo, subacetas Cupri.) A corrosive metallic poison. Symptoms. Dry, parched tongue, accompanied with a sensation of strangulation in the throat; nausea, and constant spitting, with cop- pery eructations; vomiting, or fruitless effort to vomit, with a feeling of dragging at the stomach ; dreadful colic, and tenesmus ; black, and, occasionally, bloody stools; the pulse small, hard, quick, and irregular; ardent thirst, difficult respiration, precordial anxiety, cold sweats, vertigo, great prostration of strength, cramps, convulsions, and death. The more prominent and most frequent symptoms are the spitting, colic, and vomitings. Morbid Appearances. Stomach inflamed, and its coats much thickened, so as almost to obliterate the pyloric orifice, and tinged green ; intes- tines inflamed, and in many places gangrenous, and even pierced so as to allow the poison to escape into the abdominal cavity. The rectum is generally found ulcerated. Tests. It is readily recognised when any of the poison remains un- swallowed. If in solution in wine or any coloured fluid, discharge the colour by chlorine, and precipitate the filtered fluid by ferro- cyanate of potassa, which throws down a chestnut-brown precipitation, if any salt of copper be present; or decompose the verdigris in the solution by placing in it a clean knife, or a stick of phosphorus, which will appear after some minutes coated with metallic copper. Treatment. Administer large doses of syrup, or copious draughts of sugar, albumen ovi, and water, until the stomach is evacuated by the bulk of the liquid; and, afterwards, continue the exhibition of albumen in more moderate doses, combating any inflammatory symptoms that may supervene, by bleeding, and other antiphlogistic measures. VIPER POISON. Symptoms. Lancinating pain in the bitten part, increased on pressure, and extending to the whole limb ; the part swells, is at first pale, then red, livid, gangrenous, and excessively hard. Vomiting, convulsions, jaundice; pulse small, frequent, concentrated, irregular, embarrassed breathing, cold sweats, delirium. Treatment. Apply a ligature above the wounded part; cauterize the wound with a hot iron, or any active caustic : administer eau de luce, ammonia, olive oil. WHITE LEAD. See under Carbonate of Lead. WHITE VITRIOL, (Sulphas Zinci.) A corrosive metallic poison. Symptoms. An acerb taste in the mouth, with a sensation of choking; nausea and severe vomiting, frequent stools, pains of the epigastrium and lower belly, difficult respiration, quickened pulse, paleness and shrinking of the features, and coldness of the extremities. Death but rarely follows, owing to the vomiting excited in the first instance by the poison. Morbid Appearances. Evidences of intense inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels, and occasionally patches of black extravasated blood on the muscular coats of these viscera. Test. Chromate of potassa, which throws down in the solution an orange-yellow chromate of zinc. Treatment. Let the patient drink freely of milk, which, besides acting as an emollient, partially decomposes the poison, rendering it more inert. Exhibit emollient clysters, if the poison be not ejected from
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image