Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
22/968 (page 8)
![idiosyncrasy is of importance in a medico-legal view when symptoms resembling those of poisoning follow a meal con- sisting of a particular kind of food. In such a case, -without a knowledge of this peculiar condition, we might hastily at- tribute to poison, effects which were really due to another cause. It would appear that in some instances idiosyncrasy may be acquired—!. e , a person who, at one period of his life, had been in the habit of partaking of a particular kind of food without injury, may find at another period that it will disagree witli him. When pork has been disused as an article of diet for many years, it cannot always be resumed with impunit_v. Tn cases in which the powers of life have become enfeebled by age, the susceptibility of the system to poisons is increased; thus aged persons may be killed by comparatively small doses of arsenic and opium. Cases of acquired idios\Ticrasy are very rare : it appears to be, if we may so apply the term, a con- genital condition. There are, however, certain diseases which appear to confer a power of supporting large and even poison- ous doses of some substances. Verv' large doses of opium have been taken without producing dangerous symptoms by persons labouring under tetanus and hydrophobia. This condition is called tolciance. It has been witnessed in diseases of the lungs in reference to the use of antimonial medicines. Classificatio.v of Poisons. — Poisons have been divided into three classes, according to their mode of action on the system : namely, Iriutants, Narcotics, and Xakcotico-Ihuit.xnts. This classification is a modification of that oriirinallv proposed by Orfila. The Narcotics and Narcotico-irritants may, however, be regarded as constituting one large class, the Xevrotics, as their special action is to affect directly one or more parts of the ner- vous system. The neurotic iioisons admit of a subdivision into Cerebral, S|)iual, and Cerebro-spinal, acconling to whether the poisonous substance atfeots directly the brain, the spinal marrow, or both of these organs. Ikri tants.—The irritants are po,ssessed of these common characters. AVheu taken in ordinary doses, they occasion speedily violent vomiting and |iurging. These symptoms are either accompanied or followed by pain in tlie stomach and bowels. 'J'he i)eculiar cflecis of the poison arc manifested chiefly on these organs, which, as their name implies, they irritate and intlame. Many substances belonging to this class of poisons possess corrosive ])roperties: s\ich as the stixing mineral acids, caustic alkalies, bromine, corrosive sublimate, and others. These, in the act of swallowing, are commonly accom])anied by an acrid or burning taste, extending from the luoulh down the gullet to the stomach. Some irritants do not possess anv corrosive action,—of which we have examples in](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21935221_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
